repeter | 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

[ Now, she’s back to her tried and true role of trying to impress even a portion reality into Prompto. Aranea heaves a sigh and crosses her arms across her torso, idly holding the phone in one hand. Her reprimand isn't overly formal, but it's nevertheless still there. She doesn't carry any grandiose hopes that he'll take her seriously, idle warnings from adults meant little in comparison to the actual consequence of actions. ]

If you never make mistakes, you’re never going to learn. [ The only person he has to blame for his successes and failures is himself, it goes both ways.

Aranea’s mouth twists into a grimace. ]

Yikes. Just a C? Good luck with sorting that out.

[he stills suddenly, looking over at her with a confused look on his face. he's pretty sure she's being sarcastic? but prompto... prompto doesn't want to risk it. especially since he doesn't know her that well, it's hard to tell if she's teasing or not.]

Is it really impossible to crawl out of that one?

[he gave you the correct trivia answer! throw him a bone!]

No, it’s far from impossible…

[ Though she’s still maintaining eye contact with Prompto, her gaze begins to become distant as she dwells on past memories. Her undergrad was nothing, but her flight training? Fun stuff.

So while Aranea’s approach is rooted firmly in sarcasm, her overall sentiment is sincere. ]

… Just really, really hard.

Man...

I really gotta try harder next semester.

[he can't keep eye contact, looking away as if he were feeling the shame of being in the situation in the first place.]

[prompto scratches at the back of his head, swaying in a circular motion from his shoulders]

Are you gonna be around next school year, too?

[ The tone of playful teasing seeps deeper into her voice. Whenever Prompto cares to look up from his moment of shame, Aranea’s right eyebrow quirks upward, the odd one out of her deadpan expression. ]

No more girls and booze on Monday nights for you, shortcake.

[ She inhales. Ever since her retirement from the military, her life’s been much less structured. School is the only thing binding the threads together. ]

Sure, I have a couple years to go until I’m free again. You won’t be free of seeing me around just yet.

[prompto makes a face at that, as if wanting to refute the fact that mondays are not his girls and booze nights. as it were, he doesn't really have any 'girls and booze' nights!!]

[but then he'd have to explain the stupid shit he gets into that replaces those activities. setting himself on fire? breaking into locked up warehouses? setting up fireworks? 'monster' hunting? ...these will not make him look good. and at least he knows that much as to keep quiet.]

Maybe I'll just drop by your office if I need to write another essay, yeah...

[let's keep this conversation away from his semi-delinquent activities]

Whatever closet they decide to shove me into changes every year. I’ll have to give you a heads up once they give me the assignment.

[ While the ongoing struggles that have become a rather permanent fixture in Prompto’s life are completely lost on her at the moment, she also doesn’t get the impression that he’s hiding in anything in particular from her.

She figures he's merely being… awkward. And now Aranea is feeling distinctly awkward as well, because she realizes that this conversation is veering into crap like contact info and phone numbers. Still, she doesn’t want to leave him hanging. Something tells her he’s going to need her help, sooner or later, and she hasn’t had the chance to find out the details of the magical social network that is Retrospec yet. ]

I can let you know when I receive it. [ As casually as Aranea can POSSIBLY muster— ] What’s your number?

[so much for awkward--prompto suddenly laughs, stepping back and putting his hands behind his head. is he trying to make himself more confident by making himself appear bigger? probably. he's a scrawny dude.]

Aw, man! First I help you out with trivia, and now you're asking for my number. I guess chicks do like smart guys!

[....listen, he delivered that kind of nervously.]

[(he regrets that he said that the second it came out of his mouth)]

Ah... ahah... Don't you got me on the Retrospec directory? Your phone's acting funny because of them, y'know.

[ Aranea is beginning to regret even trying to be serious in the first place. ]

Smart’s high on the list of what chicks dig. Tied with a sense of humor and below rich and handsome.

[ When she glances back at her phone, which thankfully hasn’t fallen idle yet, she stares at it. Then her eyebrows furrow. ]

I don’t know how this even managed to get on my phone in the first place. What is it, a Facebook ripoff?

[yikes, there goes any chances prompto could ever have with any girl if he were to follow aranea's words. he makes an obvious wincing expression at that, but quickly recovers.]

[he's still cute, he'd like to think?!]

Rich is high on the list for me too!

[see? cute.]

And it might as well be a ripoff. Retrospec's your new overlord in terms of always being under surveillance. You'll get to hate Jim soon enough, just like the rest of us.

[ Doesn’t Prompto recognize the crucial difference between a girl and a woman? Apparently not, and she doesn’t think this is an opportune time to elaborate upon a pretty pedantic point. Instead, Aranea regards him with a slight, sideways tilt of her face. ]

Oh? That’s too bad.

[ Aranea’s definitely not as cute as Prompto. ]

Jim? Jim’s the name of our nemesis? [ Something about the name Jim really doesn’t impress her… ] Great. Can already tell that I’m going to have loads of fun already.

[she isn't, and prompto has yet to learn how to handle this amount of woman in his life.]

He's kind of an ass.

[nodding, to agree with himself, he continues]

Isn't really very popular. So he's like Tom, from MySpace? But without the being liked part. I mean-- I'm assuming everyone liked Tom? A little before my time, I guess... Huh. [you wonder why he doesn't do well in school sometimes, what with these tangents] But, yeah! You'll automatically have everyone on the Retrospec network on your phone as your contact!

[and, just to make sure]

Name's Prompto, not shortcake.

Mm, not sure how I felt about Tom. Never seemed like a real person to me.

[ Brushing both Tom and Jim away in the form of an aside, Aranea figures it'd be better to just research the application later on. It's a little hard to take seriously without actually experiencing the truth first hand. Just like anything else, really.

She smiles at his not-so-subtle hint that Prompto dislikes her nickname for him. In that respect, he's in like-minded company. ]

Prompto, you're a couple inches too short for me not to call you shortcake. Grow a little and maybe I'll reconsider.

Ghhk--!

[prompto but makes an embarrassing sound at aranea, calling him out on his height. he's always thought he had an average height! he's not the tallest, sure, but he isn't the shortest guy in town either!]

I'm taller than you!

[and then, a defeated sigh, as if knowing that his choice of argument is not a good one]

Not that that's likely to change your mind, huh...

JUNE TDM

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