JUNE TDM

[recollecters]

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!

Comments

[anguinous]

Is that your normal breakfast?

[ It's great bait, that's why he's smiling. Laurent turn his phone around as it finally unlocks properly and smiles. ]

Enjoy my explicit text messages.

[ There aren't any. ]

[reticence]

[ Faolan waits until the phone is in his hands before rolling his eyes in turn. It's taken an immense strength of will to last this long without the gesture, as far as he's concerned. ]

I don't drink while I'm on the job.

[ That's all the response you'll get without further prodding. Though the comment about the text messages does give him a moment's pause. It would serve Laurent right if he did read through his text messages, though it would be more invasive than he cares to be and he doubts it would help him solve this trivia problem. ]

When did the questions start? [ he asks, as he thumbs his way over the home screens and taking in an account of the applications Laurent has on his phone and how, before he navigates his way into the settings ]

[anguinous]

Today.

[ Laurent has the retrospect app, obviously! there is no record of when it was downloaded or purchased though because the app is odd like that. Other than that, every other app on his iPhone is one that came with the phone. ]

Are you ever off the job?

[reticence]

[ Wow, Laurent, not even any games? You're a young man, Faolan is surprised. Then again he supposes that you do other things for fun than dicking around on your phone all day. Even if that is the norm these days.

He makes a small grunt of a noise in reply to the question, uncertain whether to trust that it's a genuine one or whether Laurent is prodding him for further ammunition. Undoubtedly the latter, knowing him. ]

On occasion.

[ Without further explanation, he continues scrolling through the phone. He notices the Retrospec app, which is really the newest and most out of the ordinary that he can find. It installed itself on his phone too of course, but at the time he hadn't thought much of it. Now he isn't so sure. Out of curiosity, he pulls his own mobile out of his back pocket and thumbs it awake.

What animal lives in a "drey"? the screen asks. ]

Shit.

[anguinous]

[ He is not the candycrush or flappybird type, honestly. ]

Something you'd care to share?

[ Whatever motivated the cursing, he means. Or are you just suffering phone envy here? ]

[reticence]

[ Faolan turns his phone to display his screen to the younger man, rather than answer the question aloud.

No phone envy, thanks, he gets paid well enough that he can afford a perfectly decent phone all on his own. It's the message displayed across it that is unsettling him. ]

Whatever it is, it's catching.

[anguinous]

You didn't use protection?

[ Laurent you aren't helping. ]

It doesn't seem to do anything malicious but I suppose it does have access to my phone.

[ Which isn't ideal. ]

[reticence]

[ Not really helping at all, Laurent, no. ]

It doesn't have to look malicious to be so. Just because it's asking you harmless trivia questions doesn't mean it might not also be logging every stored password, text, email, and contact you have.

[ If it had only been Laurent's phone it might have been one thing. But it's on his own too, and he knows for a fact that he doesn't use this thing for anything but work. ]

It has to be the... [ Faolan trails off mid sentence as he turns back to Laurent's phone, since it is still blissfully unlocked. As he suspected, the Retrospec app is there. Theoretically all he has to do is get rid of it and it should go back to normal. Right? ]

[anguinous]

[ So serious. Fine, though, he'll stop. ]

The what?

[ Finish your sentences, please. ]

I don't mind just resetting it, if that will cure the trivia bombardment. Or just buying a new one.

[ Honestly, either works. ]

[reticence]

[ Look, he's trying to solve the problem before anyone has to go so far as that. Even if Laurent technically has the money for it. ]

The Retrospec app. I think it's what's causing all of this. [ Faolan attempts to delete the app and then like magic the damn thing starts to reinstall itself. It's certainly acting like a virus alright. ]

Do you run any backups? Have you synced to any other devices or given it any information about yourself?

[ Faolan is on the case here. Like a dog with a bone, he is. ]

[anguinous]

I sync it to my macbook every so often. I think that's just music and contacts?

[ When was the last time he did a sync anyway, he vaguely tries to remember. Probably a day or so ago? ]

There's nothing I object to losing.

[ It's just a phone. ]

[reticence]

[ What must it be like, to live in Laurent's shoes...

Faolan studies the younger man's expression for a long moment, before holding his phone back out towards him. ]

I'd suggest resetting it. You can always re-install what you need, so long as you have all of your data saved off of it. Music, photos, you know...

[ Does Laurent take pictures with his phone? Or is such a thing too undignified for someone of his status? He's never seen him do it before, but that hardly means anything. Then again, maybe he's just not the sentimental sort. ]

[anguinous]

You have a bright future working at the genius bar.

[ Honestly. ]

What about yours?

[ Faolan is partially right, Laurent doesn't take photos too often. Sometimes of small things like long stings of numbers or addresses because it's quicker than writing things down, but the most common media is pictures from home -- his brother, their animals, the house, one or two friends. They're older photos so easily sync'd, and there's not much new to worry about.

What does Faolan keep on his phone? Laurent suddenly feels curious. ]

[reticence]

[ Faolan breathes slowly in and out through his nose so that he's not sighing at the younger man to his face instead. He's giving you helpful advice, and it would do you good to heed it. The last thing he needs is to have someone tapping into Laurent's phone, it's a security nightmare. ]

What about it?

[anguinous]

[ What about it?

Laurent stares flatly for a long second before rallying to answer the question. ]

The same thing happened to yours. I assume you are going to do something about it?

[ You know, try factory resetting the thing or wiping it or whatever it is that will make the thing stop quizzing them. ]

[reticence]

[ Faolan isn't honestly certain why Laurent is asking him. What will he do about his phone? Well, obviously he will take care of it, of course. He didn't know that Laurent really cared this much about how he handled his security. At least, he had never seemed to care that much before.

He stares back at him for a moment, before he replies. ]

I'll reset it. Delete all the data. Make certain that it hasn't spread to the rest of my equipment. If a factory reset doesn't solve the problem, we might have a bigger problem on our hands.

[ Was that the answer you wanted to hear? ]

[anguinous]

If that doesn't fix it I can buy you a new one on a card.

[ Since he needs one for his job, after all, and it can count as an expense. Laurent holds out a hand for his own phone back anyway. ]

Your choice of bedazzled case for it, of course.

[reticence]

[ Faolan studies the younger man for a long moment before handing him his phone back. He doesn't necessarily like living out of Laurent's pocket, but it is a business expense, and one he'd really rather not have to pay out of his own pocket himself. ]

Just try not to use it until we get this sorted, yeah? I'll figure it out once we're back at the apartment.

[ Faolan pauses a beat, before: ] If we need to replace them, then we will cross that bridge when we get there. I'm fairly certain the virus won't have spread as far as the case, however. You can save your money as far as that is concerned.

[anguinous]

Are you sure? I was imagining something in rose gold.

[ Lancelot's expression is calm, unruffled, but there's something playful in his eyes he can't quite press down on. ]

Perhaps we could get it engraved, too.

[reticence]

[ Rose gold and engraved. Now he knows you're taking the piss. ]

Somehow I doubt that engraving a phone case for me exactly qualifies as a business expense.

[ He can only imagine what Laurent's suggestions on the phrasing might be for that matter. ]