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

[He tenses up a lot as Shou pats his shoulder, and shrugs him off as best he can. The other point nets him an eyeroll, but... Yeah, if he could solve this chocobo problem, that would be great and Lalli might consider manners.]

Pfh...

[He'd rather not have to consider manners, though, so he'll just find the dumb bird before Shou can!!

or fall flat on his face with a screechy yowl because shou dun fucked his legs up real good]

[ HAHA... PAYOFF is sweet.

okay, he was just being a dick for basically no reason, but he can't help it. he's doubling over and laughing like a jackass. ] Aha--ahahaha, I think... I think I trapped another animal instead. Whoops! [ yeah right, whoops. ]

[He lifts his head, blood starting to drip from his nose, and while he would like to be able to free himself first thing, his bullheaded nature makes him reach out to try and catch Shou's leg to get him on the ground as well.]

Mrrrh! Maybe I should exorcise you. Demon. Or call the guards!

You broke out of jail, too! They'd drag you back in with me-- [ but he's too distracted from laughing and lalli successfully yanks him down. he faceplants right over.

... but yes, it's what he deserves. ]

[Ha. Now he can huff to himself and start to work on his bonds. How the fuck did he not notice this... Luckily he's dexterous enough that he can work out the knots slowly but surely.]

I was never arrested. You were.

Yeah, but I wasn't even guilty! I didn't catch anything, not the bird anyway... [ his face hurts and he's probably going to get a nosebleed, too, but he's remarkably chill about it. he'd been the culprit here, after all.

speaking of the bird, there's a chirruping noise coming off farther near the trees. seems like the trap jackassery might have attracted a curious animal. ]

[fuck]

-- Get these stupid ropes off of me! It's close!

[ too late, shou practically forgets instantly about lalli the moment his target animal pokes its head out from the bushes. ]

There you are.

[ he picks himself off the ground, surprisingly quietly, approaching more discreetly and quietly than expected. he does actually genuinely like animals. ]

[And here Lalli thought he was the destined Disney princess here... He sees enough to go as quiet as possible, still working away at his knots and keeping an eye on the situation. Roll an animal handling check, m'man.]

[ he rolls a...

a something or another. animals are smart. the bird is a silly bird, but it might have enough intuition to know this kid is a troublemaker. the chocobo cocks its head, and then sidesteps when shou attempts to reach for it.

it stalks over, feathers bristled and ready to run, towards lalli. ]

Grab it--!

[GESTURES ANGRILY AT ALL THESE FUCKIN' KNOTS, WHY DID YOU TIE SO MANY???

okay he can...um... try to take the rest of the net trap and fling it out to try to tangle it in its legs as well?]

Stupid -- Seabiscuit! Pysäyttää!

[seabiscuit doesn't speak finnish, lalli]

[ BECAUSE HE'S A BASTARD, that's why.

the net successfully falls over the bird's legs, however, and it trips and squawks in alarm and comes crashing down on the ground.

possibly right on top of lalli, depending on how unlucky he is. ]

[it has more to do with how unlucky I am...why are my rolls so bad... this does not bode well for my other game's event where I'm actually required to roll for this kind of thing.

But speed is Lalli's thing, so even with a roll that isn't great, he can still scuttle just enough out of the way to not make this a repeat of his introduction to Shou. Just...gets his still-tangled legs trapped under it.]

Fuck --

[GIANT BIRD ON HIS STICK LEGS KINDA HURTS, but he can quiet most of his protest into a hiss. Lalli reaches over and grabs a fistful of the chocobo's feathers on reflex to try and keep it in place longer.]

Come here, you clumsy idiot!

Don't let go of it--! [ jesus... he's torn between laughing and trying to help. he scrambles to his feet to get over to help lalli while the chocobo makes alarmed warking noises and pecks at them both, trying to get back on its own two feet as well.

tangled in the net as it is, it might succeed but drag lalli with it.

shou tries to wrap his arms around its neck and--either he's trying to wrestle it somehow in some submission lock, or stroke its feathers to try to calm it. actually, it's kind of both. ]

[Great. While he's doing that, Lalli can slip off his boots to make getting his legs out of the net easier. It's tempting to take one and put it up to Shou's nose so he can suffer for his sins, but Lalli manages to resist... Instead, he's focused on tying Seabiscuit's legs in a way that will restrain them without causing him pain. He can deal with how he's bleeding in multiple places later.]

Do you think these things can fly...?

I dunno, their wings are puny and this guy is pretty heavy--ow, damn it-- [ seabiscuit gives him a particularly hard knock on his skull with its beak. he hopes he's pretty hardheaded, but it hurt. the bird just continues to struggle, feathers ruffling, but at least it can't kick quite as effectively with its legs tied.

it does still try to strike with its beak, though. shou rather awkwardly tries to pat its neck, calm it down a little. ] Shush, calm down, you idiot. I'm not gonna roast you.

Maybe.

[He can't stop the small chuff of laughter at Shou getting pecked on the noggin. Serves him right. After that, though, Lalli starts to softly hum and...takes his shirt off?????

Oh, okay, he's approaching from the bird's blind spot and draping it over its head. That's slightly less weird. Slightly. When he speaks, it's a mumble.]

I think putting them in the dark makes them calmer. Don't squish it anywhere, but try not to let it move around enough that it throws it off. And don't be so loud and rude.

What are you doing... [ oh, he's putting the shirt over the bird's head.

well, that does make more sense. he just gives lalli an odd look, but tries to pull the fabric down over the bird's eyes more. ] Yeah, I think you're right. I'm not that loud... [ no, he kind of is. he falls quiet as the bird struggles more, but slowly its feathers start to settle, too.

it still pecks and nips at shou and lalli, but luckily it's now blind and might miss more. ]

[That's fine... Lalli's free and nimble enough that he doesn't get caught, and he loves every new bite Shou has to take for the good of the team. This will be the memory he tries to treasure about today, if pressed to pick one.]

...When you ride a bird, do you put your legs in front of or behind the wings...? [Taking his phone out... Will the internet really help with this... Maybe he'll just try to look up screenshots from the mmo he plays.] Maybe once he's calmer you can use my shirt as weird-looking reigns. Cape reigns.

Yeah, yeah. I'll shred it and use it like that. [ he's... pretty sure his head is bleeding. hopefully it's not too obvious, with his hair. and there are probably scratches all over him... whatever!! he's tough! and yes, he deserves it.

the bird finally appears to be calming down. he pats its neck, considerably gentler, though the unamused look on his face suggests he wouldn't be against bird roast still. ]

How much is the prize for turning this guy in again...

Don't -- [hackles raised again] -- ruin my shirt. Just pull it over his head and hold the bottom!

[MAKE THE BIRD WEAR HIS SHIRT]

Getting to leave. Not being put in fake jail. I don't know if there's a real one.

Got it, got it! [ jeez, pushy...!! just because he wants to ruin lalli's clothes, gosh. ] This thing is more trouble than it's worth! I want to get something out of it, I'll be pissed if that mayor has some lame prize, like his lame punishment of a jail...

[stop being a rude boy!!! if you're good, maybe Lalli will buy u a slushie.]

Why'd you set the trap in the first place if you didnt know what you were getting?

I was curious? I didn't think this guy was going to be so... bitey.

[ on cue, seabiscuit bites him again. ]

I'll bite you right back, I swear...

[sighhhh]

That'll just scare him again.

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