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

[It's the advice he can offer with the context given. Ardyn has no inkling of the true state of Noctis' waning health; he can only hope for the best, and give him encouragement that he believes to be sound. The response he receives leans on the non-committal side, but it's a fair enough answer. One day at a time. No one can ask for anything else, and even if they could, Ardyn wouldn't be so bold to do so.

Concern or no, he doesn't know Noctis quite that well.]

It is.

[Crowded, he means. But Ardyn doesn't hesitate one bit, he continues moving towards the crowd. It buzzes with energy, with the hum of people talking and buying and laughing.

He turns to look at Noctis from over his shoulder, and one hand makes a sweeping motion to gesture at their surroundings.]

Insert fanfare here. The Farmer's Market. What sounds good to you?

[ Ardyn is quite the tour-guide. His gestures do well to conduct where Noctis' gaze lands. It takes in the vast uproar of the bustling mart, full of people, life, produce and crafts. This is hardly something he'd been exposed to as a child, given that all meals were always prepared by professionals and brought to his room.

His eyes stumble upon a merchant who's table is absolutely covered in jars upon jars of preserves and fruits. Not a single one he'd try, but the colors are pleasing to the eye and they look sweet. Well, he supposes if they're sugary enough...

At the question, he takes the time to focus. That smell perks his senses again, the smell of cooking meat. Seasoned. It smells delightful, and he's sure it's... ]

Burgers?

[ Those sure smell like burgers on a grill. ]

[As a tour guide, Ardyn is much like how he is as a professor. He's willing to be the one to talk, and entertain the random one-word question or two from Noctis. The man has an air of grandiloquence about him, both poignant and malleable. It's easy to see why people find him both charming and frustrating in equal measure, and this notion is punctuated by the somewhat lopsided grin Noctis can likely see on his features.]

You smell it, don't you?

[It's hard to miss. Burgers on a grill, wafting through the air, catching in nostrils, tempting many towards the smell. Even Ardyn would admit that it kickstarts his appetite, though he's usually more inclined to gravitate towards the more eccentric, stranger things being sold here.]

Play the part of bloodhound and follow your nose, then. We'll find it soon enough.

[He chuckles a bit, obviously at ease in this environment. Ardyn comes from a rather filthy rich family, as well, but that felt like a life long detached from now. He'll always prefer the openness of the market over a stiff, formal dinner.]

[ God, the more he smells it, the hungrier he gets. His last meal was salisbury steak, smothered in a gooey, tasteless gravy while the meat had the consistency of a shoe sole. He had no choice, given that his picky eating habits wouldn't do him any favors in the hospital. This smells like heaven. ]

Yeah.

[ He sounds incredibly enthusiastic in his tone when he answers Ardyn's question, speaking not another word as he starts to take the lead in this case. It's a decent distraction from the discomfort of the crowd. His stomach takes far more priority over this.

Eventually, he finds it. A cart, smoke billowing from a rounded, charcoal-burning grill. He turns to Ardyn with a modest, yet sharp grin as he points back towards it with his thumb. ]

The nose knows. Let's chow down before I die.

[Noctis' new spark of enthusiasm amuses him. He notes that a strong motivation for the boy seems to be his stomach, and he chuckles a little to himself as the young man takes the lead. Ardyn follows easily enough behind, occasionally having to mutter an "excuse me" or two as he weaves through the crowd.

They settle next to the cart, and the smell is nothing short of amazing. He can't imagine how Noctis feels, who had actually been hungry before this trek started.]

Let's get in line, then. I wouldn't want you to go and do something as dramatic as die.

[And in line they go, as Ardyn digs around in his pocket for his wallet. When it's their turn to place their orders, the law professor will be kind enough to pay for the both of them -- it was his idea, after all, to have Noctis choose a place to familiarize himself with.

The burgers they end up with are rather impressive, towering things. They look appetizing, but also like indigestion hell. Yet that's something to be worried about late, he assumes, as they attempt to find a place to sit.]

[ He can only hope the line isn't too long. But it's only fair they want their turn like everyone else. Noctis follows closely in toe to Ardyn, and is close to getting his own wallet out first. Seeing that Ardyn is offering to foot the bill this time is certainly appreciative, and he doesn't do much to argue it. "I got it next time" he says casually while putting the wallet back in his pocket.

They can't get their plates soon enough. Noctis can feel his mouth watering when the smell of this beautiful, towering burger is placed before him. Aside from one small, adjustable flaw, he's pleased.

Noctis takes a seat quietly, setting his plate before him as he gets himself comfortable and... ]

Alright. Awesome.

[ Noctis takes the top bun off the burger, working to delicately pick away the lettuce, onions, tomato, and pickles. He very kindly stacks them on Ardyn's plate. ]

[Settled into his own seat, Ardyn is looking at his monster of a burger, wondering just how to approach this challenge presented before him. One always should go into these sort of endeavors with something resembling a strategy, you know. As he's thinking just how he wants to start, the sight of... vegetables piling up on his plate catch in his periphery.

He pauses, glancing up at Noctis who appears to be taking off all the vegetables off of his burger and neatly stacking them on Ardyn's side. The professor gives the boy a look, caught somewhere between amusement and disbelief. Isn't this what little kids do? Pick veggies off of their meals, and give them to their family pet?

What does that make him, he wonders, dryly.]

...Not a fan of vegetables?

[ Even just touching them kind of grosses him out, but he deals with it. Noctis carefully, calculatingly picks off every last bit until not a single vegetable touches the burger. And yes, it all goes on Ardyn's plate.

At the question, he doesn't make eye-contact. It's not the first time someone's asked, and it's likely not the last. His father gives him a ton of flack for it, too. So he shrugs. ]

Nope. Never have been.

[ He quietly places his bun back in place, then proceeds to take a huge bite. And god, it's the most delightful flavor to grace his tongue. Noctis allows himself to remain in silence for just a second as he enjoys his first real meal in a long, long time. ]

JUNE TDM

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