AUGUST TDM

[recollecters]

TEST DRIVE

AUGUST TEST DRIVE The city of Recollé. ...yeah. Yeah, it's just sort of a mess... What will you do today? I. What the hell happened here? Perhaps you're new to the city, or perhaps you've finally started to notice just how bad the damage is to the beloved city of Recollé. The convention center is still crumbled in pieces and several local shops have boarded up windows and doors to prepare for reconstruction. Vendors on the street try to urge residents to purchase monster insurance for all of their home and vehicle needs. But the moment you step outside, you'll find yourself greeted by a member of the Recollé Restoration Committee as they thrust a hardhat into your hands and eagerly chatter about your new assignment. Whether you find yourself in Tisse and assigned to haul pieces of stone around or you're placed over in Apprassage to pour cement, you'll find you aren't alone in these tasks. It's nice to meet your coworkers, isn't it? II. But really, what caused all of this? This is completely insane and while some of you may be willing to help rebuild the city, others might wish to solve the mystery. Poking around the various districts, NPCs will explain that monster attacks "sometimes just happen" which seems pretty strange in and of itself. Monsters shouldn't "just happen", should they? And where are these alleged monsters anyway? Careful what you wish for, though. Exploring too much and straying off-task will lead to finding some things you may not want. These creatures will immediately hone in on new Retrospec users and begin to chase them, though they won't outright attack. While the smaller ones may be destroyed with a bit of effort, it might be wise to either cut your losses or find someone with a bit more experience to take on the larger creatures. Don't worry; there's bound to be someone to help. III. By now, you may have heard the rumors from some of your fellow Retrospec users that several members of the network have disappeared. You may even hear the rumors that those members are lost in "unreality" and that the city itself is a bit...unstable. But they're just rumors, right? Everything seems fine as you go about your day (monsters notwithstanding.) However, any time you pass from one district to another suddenly a list of names scrolls past your line of vision . As the list comes to a halt and lands on one name, you may recognize it as a friend or a stranger. If you're lucky, you may get a holographic video connecting you to someone still in the city. If you're even luckier, you may find someone speaking up inside your head due to a telepathic connection. Go ahead and say hi. You just might get some answers from those who have been lost and those you haven't met yet. IV. As the night begins to set upon the city, a warm sleepy feeling rolls through. Whatever you're doing, it's hard to fight off the urge to curl up under a shaded tree and take a nap. After some time it's nearly impossible to ignore any longer and no matter where you are, you'll instantly fall asleep. Strangely, even The place that you wake up, however, may look very familiar to you. You've seen this place before. In fact, you've lived through this very scene before. Maybe it's the little league game you scored your first home run, or maybe it's your high school prom. These are your memories played back to you, and glancing back you may find that again you aren't alone. Any Retrospec user has the ability to pass through these pockets of time and can stumble right into your memories. The memory pockets can appear no matter where a person is, and they'll be able to view and interact with the memories they see. Take a walk through your childhood neighborhood. Sit through the nightmare of your college entrance exams. These memories are yours as you've lived them. However, try not to change anything about the past. Memories can be quite tricky if meddled with too much. BONUS. While the makers of Retrospec are a bit scattered and busy at the moment, it seems as though they have failsafes to keep their systems up and running. The latest update push operates on its own and begins to download to your device. Your profile remains the same as always (your name and your photo), but it appears you won't have access to it until you apply one of the brand new filters to your picture. Seems easy, right? Maybe you should have given this a second thought. As soon as the filter's applied to your photo, you might find that people are stopping and staring at you as you go about your day. They may or may not comment, but what's evident is that something's going on that you're unaware of. A quick glance in your phone's camera, a storefront window or a mirror will reveal all. That fun filter's now applied itself to your face with no hope of coming off for a while. Have fun! 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! For continuity's sake, for the first time we will be stating that the TDM is dated IC 8/17! This is all in one day. Potential applicants/characters on the TDM will revert back to NPC status on 8/18 and will not remember the events of the TDM until the mod-posted Retrospec post goes up 9/1. Members of Group 2, since the TDM can be considered game-canon, prompts III and IV are open for you to tag around to new players while stuck in your locations outside of the city! For Prompt III, members of Group 2 may telepathically connect to someone even if there's a video option, but their faces and surroundings will be obscured! Other members of the game + potential applicants may use video if they wish. For Prompt IV, please remember these are memories from your AU and not your canon! Should characters deviate from these "memories" too much, they will find themselves thrown back to the beginning of the memory to start over! And finally, the filters provided in the bonus are just examples and you can swap in any others you want. Your August TDM directory is here, and your AU workshop is here! Our mod questions thread for this TDM is over here!

Comments

iii

[esperimental]

[ Ritsu never got to hang out with his upperclassman but he recognizes her voice? Tentatively, he replies. ]

Senpai?

[ Minus name, because of course. ]

[kabloom]

[ she definitely recognizes the voice too. the odd part is that she... hears it in her head? mimori doesn't respond right away, confused. it isn't until she realizes that the list had stopped on ritsu's name that she realizes she might not be imagining this. ]

Kage... yama... kun?

[esperimental]

... How are you doing that?

[ Ritsu's looking around, but he's pretty sure he didn't hear her from any specific direction. And he should know, he's temporarily been gifted with sharper hearing. Was this part of the package? ]

You're not here in the swamp or mansion, are you?

[kabloom]

No... I'm in the city.

[ the last time she checked, there weren't any swamps nearby. ]

I don't know what's going on. I just saw your name appear, and now we're talking. It's kind of like magic!

[esperimental]

[ The city? ]

Are monsters still around? And... well... some people do learn things like magic or other, it's not impossible that's the situation right now.

What day is it? Date-wise.

[kabloom]

[ he doesn't know what the date is? she frowns, wondering what's going on. ]

It's the 17th of August. Um, the monsters are still here. I got chased by one earlier.

[ which is weird. before today, she didn't think twice about them, but's suddenly aware that this is weird? ]

[esperimental]

You're very casual about it... I hope that means you're alright then.

[ Then again, at the start of this mess people were regarding the monster attacks as if they happened all the time. Wait wasn't she... in a wheelchair... Ritsu is legitimately afraid to ask about these circumstances. So he doesn't, for now. ]

17th already...? We've been gone about two weeks then. [ Oh, he should explain that. ] "We" being the others with me.

[kabloom]

[ she was completely terrified, but she's good at keeping a smile on her face. or in her voice, in this particular case. ]

How many are with you? There are a lot of names on the list I saw... I think it might be of everyone who has vanished.

[esperimental]

We're eleven here.

[ It feels... so long ago now. ] We fell through the ground? In science fiction I believe you call them portals.

[kabloom]

I think there are over forty people who seem to be missing.

[ why hasn't there been more news about something like this? that's a lot of people. ]

Are you all safe?

[esperimental]

I... can't speak for people outside my group. Over forty means we probably got spread out from then too.

[ How many were individuals Ritsu personally cared about? A few names come to mind, he hates this uncertainty. ]

But among us eleven, yes. We're trying to find our way back to the city, but we only have these vague instructions.

[ This theory was as good as it was going to get with all the weird things happening: Blame Jim Retrospec™ ] I still can't tell if this was a company accident or not.

[kabloom]

What do you mean by that? What company?

[ there definitely seems to be a lot more going on here than she thought. ]

Can you explain from the beginning? I'm pretty new to all of this.

[esperimental]

Most of us involved, if not all... were selected by this enigmatic company called Retrospec.

[ If it's mid-August now, then it should be a little over half a year already for him. Huh. ]

They tend to be in control of a lot of things in this world, it's not a fun thing to think about. Do you remember the sky wasn't always gray?

[kabloom]

Now that you mention it... it was blue before.

[ mimori looks up, as if confirming this. ]

How can a company change the sky? Or... send so many people away like this?

[esperimental]

We don't know. We've never met them, but they send us messages sometimes, and sponsor things. They have an empty corporate building. Most people don't believe they exist.

[ He really hates explaining all this madness, it reminds him how little's been discovered in the half year he's been involved. ]

Senpai, be careful. If you've actually been chosen too... life is only going to get weirder from hereon.

[kabloom]

I'll be fine. I'm more worried about you. You mentioned a swamp and a mansion, but...

[ she's still trying to recall if there's anything like that nearby. admittedly, she hasn't really traveled outside of recolle after she moved to america. still. ]

Just how far away did they take you? And... if there's only eleven of you there, where did the rest of the missing people go?

[esperimental]

We have no idea... the only maps we've found are of the local area.

[ And how long they have to walk after the mansion segment? Even though he said "already" earlier in regards to how long they've been gone, the whole adventure's felt more like an entire month and then some. Just little survival things. ]

I'd like to know where they are too. Maybe... with your power, you'll be able to reach out to someone else who got stranded? Though since you just got introduced to it, nothing's for certain.

[kabloom]

Has this really been the first time you've been able to speak to someone outside of your group?

[ that must have been scary, to be completely cut off from everyone else like that. she wonders how she would have reacted in that situation.

she'd probably slow everyone down. ]

[esperimental]

[ aw togo... ]

Yes. Except for a note left by someone called "Spin..." something, they're the one who left the vague instructions. So it looks like we're going into this manor and seeing what happens next, it'd be great if it was a more solid way home.

I really want to take a bath. [ ... That wasn't supposed to come out, gdi telepathy. ]

[kabloom]

You should do your best to keep up with your hygiene, Kageyama-kun. Fight the germs!

[ she sounds entirely seriously when she says this. ]

[esperimental]

I mean, it's a manor so... I'd hope they have a bathroom. Or this really is all an artificial setup.

[ But it looks... so dusty. ]

Please somehow have working pipes, big maybe-uninhabited mansion.

[kabloom]

I will pray for your success at finding a nice bathroom, Kageyama-kun.

[ she's definitely joking. but she is hoping he does find one, because two weeks without a proper shower sounds awful. especially if you were stuck in a swamp. ]

... but if there's a house there, shouldn't there be a road leading back to civilization?

[esperimental]

Thank you.

[ And it was a gross mine before that. Team Snow White for smelliest people of the city award if this keeps up. ]

I mean this swamp had a bunch of shacks nearby down the water, there were people here before at least. Who knows where they are now?

[kabloom]

Still... they would need to get the materials to build something like a mansion from somewhere. If you're lucky, you can probably find some sort of town that'll help you find out where you are.

[ if. it's hard to say for certain, since nothing really seems certain in a situation like this. ]

[esperimental]

I don't know, the buildings looks... very old. Smells it too.

[ Reeks of abandonment, if not for the note up front. ]

There's going to at least be someone else here to talk to, I'm sure of it. They mentioned something about a game, so there's someone observing.