repeter | JUNE TDM

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! tdm

JUNE TDM

TEST DRIVE

JUNE TEST DRIVE
The city of Recollé. The kids are out for the summer and the weather's just fine. The sun's shining brightly, not a cloud in the clear gray sky. Everything seems at peace and citizens are out and about, smiling to one another and enjoying each other's company.

Oh, and this thing (complete with cardboard cut-out) has currently taken the place of the founders' statues in Recollé Square. But that's probably not a big deal.

What will you do today?

I.
What is this thing? Why is this thing here? For those of you in Tribunal Terrace today you may wish to investigate the five-foot-tall spinning wheel. How did it even get here? And where did the statues of the founders go? Even if you cannot answer those questions, it's hard to ignore the urge to give it a spin.

Check out those colors go 'round and 'round. Depending on what number you land on, you will find a notification pop up on your phone with a short list of…words. Are these supposed to be qualifications? Weird. That was a waste of time.

However, the moment you walk away you will find yourself accosted by various recruiters wherever you go, congratulating you on your impressive resumé and leading you to an office in Chata. Their offices have been equipped with tabletop-sized spinning wheels much like the one in Recollé Square that will spin 'round and 'round, determining the position you qualify for. Are you ready to show how these traits make you the perfect applicant? It looks like you have time to consult with your fellow candidates before your turn comes.

Or perhaps you've managed to resist spinning that wheel. The recruiters absolutely love your willpower and determination and want you to join their team! For those who can resist, they will still find themselves whisked away by recruiters to the same office and thrown straight into training to prepare for interviewing their neighbors. Recruiters will set up pairs of interviewers and applicants, leaving them alone to ask the hard-hitting questions and pick the most qualified candidate. Do your best and beat out the rest! It's your time to shine.

II.
Just because school is out for the summer doesn't mean Apparassage is quiet. Students and faculty alike are bustling about already preparing for the next school year. Campus tours of Recollé University run every two hours, and there are open house tours of the local elementary, middle and high school. Perhaps you're a future student exploring the campus and getting to know your future classmates. Maybe you're faculty or a student guide wrangling the kids and keeping them in line. Or you just might be one of the unfortunate ones who have found yourself with six weeks of summer school.

However, no matter where you find yourself in this district things get a little tricky when you're ready to leave for the day. The sidewalks outside of the buildings have all disintegrated, revealing a large void leading to nowhere beneath your feet. Without a clear path it seems impossible to escape, but stacked at the entrances of every doorway are large tiles with the letters of the alphabet carefully printed on them. When you look across the devoid path, you may notice you have a partner in a similar position with their own stack of letters.

Get ready to expand your vocabulary. Building a bridge of connecting words may be your only chance of getting home before sunset. Strangely, as the letters are laid out they seem to suspend mid-air enough to hold your weight as you make your way carefully across this pit. Balance and precision are key in this game. The stack floats along behind you as you cross the void, letters seemingly adding to the pile to provide more materials to build.

But like all games, there can be only one winner. Those who clear their letters first will arrive outside of the district safely, free now to come and go as they please. For those who do not clear their stack in time, you might have luck jumping from word to word to cross the finish line. Try as you might, if this is the method you follow, the moment you land on the winning word to leave the district the letters will glitch out, sending you plummeting into the void and landing on a long slope down to the bottom. Upon landing, you will see a series of chutes and ladders one can use to climb back up. Some ladders lead back to Apparassage. Some lead straight into Tisse, and some even lead to unexpected places. Where will you end up? The journey is up to you now.

III.
The days are longer, the nights are shorter, the sun is shining and it's noticeably warmer. Isn't it a perfect time for a summer potluck? The citizens of Recollé seem to think so and have all gathered today in Hollingberry Field with friends and loved ones to share food and fun. Kids chase after each other in friendly games of tag and hide-and-seek while other attendants mingle with one another, piling plates of food and sharing with their neighbor.

Why, even Mayor Mayer is out today for this summer kickoff with his lovely red Chocobo, Seabiscuit.

As the evening begins to wind down, however, there's a startled cry from the Mayor as he realizes someone has kidnapped his beloved pet from right under his nose. Was it you? How about you? Everyone has become a suspect and it's up to you to solve whodunnit. The Mayor provides everyone with a pen and a pad of paper divided into three sections for a suspect, a method, and a location. Grab a friend (or even a group of strangers) and get ready to interrogate each other to crack this case.

(With a little looking, however, it's easy to see that Seabiscuit's merely wandered down the hill away from the park. But maybe it's better not to tell the Mayor. He seems very adamant about this game.)

For anyone who manages to solve the case, the Mayor will be immensely grateful and reward you with a valuable prize! Congratulations! However, for anyone who fails to solve the puzzle, or even anyone found guilty of this heinous crime, by order of the Mayor you will be subjected to jail time for a full half an hour. (The Mayor can't stay too mad at his citizens. He loves them all.)

IV.
A nice, leisurely stroll through the entertainment district of Tisse seems to be in order. Summer sales are aplenty and now's the perfect time to shop 'til you drop. On the other hand, that doesn't seem to be the only thing dropping in Tisse. Do you hear that? Perhaps it is easy to ignore the sounds of stone crashing to the ground. Construction isn't unusual in this district. You think maybe you passed an ongoing demolition on your way inside a shop. But the crash happens again, and again, and again, a loud string of booms growing closer and closer.

Are those buildings tipping into one another? Or is it your imagination? You may not have time to answer while the string of events is put into motion. A crane swings overhead, knocking into a well-placed boulder that begins to roll down the street. Cranes, pulleys and wires move in sync as the ball rolls right toward you. Will you run? Will you collide right into the next set of traps? You may recall learning about this type of experiment once upon a time, coming to realize the elaborately planned Rube Goldberg machine spans the entirety of the city.

Maybe you're one of the lucky ones and you find a safe shop to dive into to escape. Or perhaps your sole focus is to run and get as far as you can, failing to notice that the large boulder herds you right to the end of the district and into a caged-in area. Make yourself comfortable. Someone from the outside will have to free you. But hey, maybe you aren't alone in this trap. Misery loves company, doesn't it?

BONUS.
The Retrospec app is at it again, just as useless as it's always been. After downloading to your device and allowing you to upload a profile picture, the app seems to take over your phone. Any time you open your phone to use it, a splash screen appears prompting you to pick one of the brightly colored wedges (or one of the two grayed out ones.)

It's time to exercise your brain and buff your trivia stats. Answering a question from your selected category will allow you to use your phone once again, but if you get it wrong? Retrospec will encourage you not to give up and try again.

...or, you know, you could ask someone to help figure out the answer. Hey, that person looks like they're bursting with knowledge! Perhaps it's best to see if they can help you stop this madness.

As usual, any attempt to get the company to reply are futile. Once a question has been answered correctly, phones will return to their usual functionality until the next time it settles into idle mode.

Welcome to the

recolle test drive meme! All characters will be begin in-game AU'd as Recollé residents. You may use any of the above prompts for ideas or make up your own depicting your Recollé AU! Prompts do not have to be set in the districts listed above. You can review our list of locations for what's available. Please note that TDM threads can be used as samples, can be kept as game canon, and can also be used for bonus points for future item regains. Share a few minor details of your AU, tag around, and have fun!

Your June TDM directory is here, and your AU workshop is here!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Jirou has no idea how much money all of that cost either. He's got no concept of that and never has. Such is the life of being filthy rich and never having had to work for anything ever.]

Awwww. I was going to spend the night and cuddle with you the whole time!

[He pouts but doesn't say that Kenta should skip work. He knows better than that.]

You can still spend the night if you want to. I'll just have to get up int he morning.

[Sleepovers are common for both of them. In fact, it's almost like they live together in one big apartment with two doors. it probably would be easier to ask the homeowner's association for permission to just break the wall between the two flats at some point.]

I can bring breakfast back for you as well when I come home.

[Now they're back in the car and on the way to the park and one more time Kenta will help Jirou out when they get there. Without being prompted the driver goes to get the bag from the trunk and a blanket and follows them untilt hey reach a spot they both like. he'll make himself scarce afterwards, but he'll still be around, for safety.]

There's a lot of stars tonight.

Mmmm. That sounds amazing.

[He giggles and comes out to walk with Kenta, sitting down with some help then leaning against his friend once he's sat down. Head on his shoulder, he sighs as he looks up at the sky.]

Yammy said that it would be weird to see the night sky without any blue in it. But I kind of like it. It reminds me of you a lot. All dark with some light sparkling here and there.

It reminds you of me?

[Kenta looks up at well. It is strange to have the sky so dark, without even a hint of a blueish tint to it.

Is this really how Jirou sees him? Something dark with little spots of light?]

I don't really get it.

[He grabs the first bottle and opens it, pouring some sake for Jirou and some for himself.]

It looks more like your stage kimono to me.

The black one? Mm. I like that one.

[Taking his drink, he has a sip then sighs happily.]

I wonder if I could get a starry one in another color. Not blue though. We don't have that color. Hmmmm...

[No real night sky then but another color could work. Right?]

Deep purple,maybe? It would go well with your skin tone if it has undertones of red.

[He actually loves shopping for Jirou's kimono. Of course he never gets him something pre-made. They go and choose the fabric and then it's custom-made for Jirou's build. Kenta throws enough money at the tailor that they don't bat an eye when they see it's a man trying on the garment. Besides, Jirou looks great in them.]

I think we should get you a black and gold one. A formal one.

I love purple and red!

[Not surprising since that's most of his wardrobe by choice. Purple and red. Oh other colors are there but they'll never replace his favorites.]

I'm glad the colors we wear the most don't really have blue and green in them.

I wonder what would have happened then...

[Would the clothing have turned a different color? Or would it just have disappeared? Kenta is lucky since he mostly wears variants of black, white and grey with some red and yellow thrown in occasionally.]

Drink something. You didn't make me buy all this to look at it, did you?

[He looks horrified.]

Noooooo!

[Look how fast he moves to get a bottle. The fastest you'll ever see him.]

[Good. Kenta can now go back to sipping his own drink while Jirou starts imbibing. Well, he probably has already had a few drink in the show's waiting room, but they both know it wouldn't be enough for long.

He will still watch until he's sure Jirou has actually put some alcohol in himself.]

[He lets out a sigh after a long drink and goes back to snuggling up to his best friend, looking up at the stars again.]

You know, some people don't believe me when I say I remember being divine.

Then they don't have eyes and they're not worth bothering with.

[To Kenta, anything Jirou says is true. So if he says he remembers something of his past life, then it must be true. What kind of friend would he be to doubt that? And it's not like he can verify the story anyway, and it's Jirou's story, so it's true. That's it.]

You really know just what to say to spoil me.

[There's a laugh around another sip of his sake. Really he's not sure what he'd do without Kenta in his life. Everything they do these days involves each other it seems.]

I'm glad you moved to Recolle.

... I'm glad I met you and you didn't run the other way when you learned why I got sent here.

[Given their age at the time, it had been a very real risk. Kenta's family certainly wasn't very happy about it, and Jirou's family could have forbidden him to associate with him.]

You could have told me something way worse and I still would have stayed with you. You're my best friend.

[He says it like it's no big deal but he's well aware of what being Kenta's friend means. It's just not something that he lets bother him. Because Kenta is more important to him than any of his family troubles.]

[There came a moment when Kenta had refused to hide and lire to his friend anymore. he hadn't asked for permission before coming clean either, which his family hadn't liked. But Jirou's reaction had comforted him in his choice to trust him.]

Can you even think of something way worse than what I told you? What did you think I could be, a six-year-old criminal on the run?

Well, I do have that memory of killing people but I guess when I was little I just thought it sounded exciting.

[He gives a shrug. He's always been so carefree that it's hard to get him down even a little bit.]

But I don't care about all that. I just care that I have you.

[In a way, being from a mafia family, Kenta was some sort of six-year-old criminal on the run... although of course he hadn't done anything illegal himself at that time.

But still, Jirou didn't bat an eye and just took it and everything with it. And now they're here, sitting under the stars, Jirou in a beautiful kimono Kenta has had made for him, and drinking together, Kenta in his designer clothes that Jirou helped him choose.]

I'm sure you already had many friends before you met me.

Probably. I don't remember who they were though.

[Which means they weren't important his life. They weren't Kenta. Kenta is the one that he remembers and has stayed with no matter what. That alone counts for something when it comes to him.]

[That chance encounter really changed both of their lives. Kenta's hold on Jirou's waist tightens briefly and he empties his drink, putting it aside.]

Maybe you were just as lonely as I was, then.

[He's reaching for more sake when Kenta speaks. Pausing, he looks at him, considering the words. With a slow smile he gives a shrug.]

If I was it doesn't matter now. I have you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

JUNE TDM

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