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

[rygdea]

[A shockingly goofy grin lingers upon Fynn's lips as he tries to nail the perfect photo. He turns his phone upon its side before flipping it upright again. Fynn is trying to capture the brilliance of this edible masterpiece by capturing the light and shadows at the perfect angles. He particularly enjoys how the tannish hue of the mocha cheesecake stands out against the fine china. It's wonderful contrast especially with bits of dark chocolate sprinkled along the surface and hints of chocolatey goodness drizzled upon the white saucer.]

Really pretty. [Fynn compliments as once he finally takes the picture.] But the "chef" is the real star here!

[Suddenly, he turns his cellphone's camera onto Tarr with a grin.]

Say cheese!

[lesinset]

[ He's just kinda smiling and watching, more then happy that this guy actually thinks that the simple cheesecake was worth capturing on film. Sure it looked good, but it was just easy to make. Then again, he thought a lot of foods were easy to make, especially when he got into a rhythm.

Though he was jarred from that thought as Fynn goes from taking a picture of the cheesecake to holding his phone towards Tarr. Which meant that Tarr's expression froze into this blank stare while he tried to think of a way to hide his face. ]

Cheese? [ And there was a little squeak as he said that. Please excuse him he's a lot shy here. ]

[rygdea]

[That squeak causes Fynn to crack up in laughter. Tarr sounds like a little mouse! How is a big guy like Tarr all mousy and shy like this? It's so weird but definitely adorable on multiple levels. Fynn is feeling quite at ease around this strange goth. He's terribly amused.

It takes him a moment to cease his giggling but once he manages, he snaps a quick photo of Tarr. It's not the best picture since this shy loser is trying to hide and it's a little blurry but it's decent enough to serve as a contact photo.]

Don't worry! No one is seeing this. [He says with a chuckle as he puts his phone away.] Not too fond of selfies, huh?

I can't say that I am either.

[Now tempted to try a piece of this heavenly cake, Fynn picks up the fork and digs in.]

Whoa! [He can't help but look a tad surprise. Mocha cheesecake might end up on his menu for the next few days.] This is great!

[lesinset]

[ Oh, oh no, he was laughing too. It didn't sound like a mean laugh but Tarr was still turning red, his hands waving in front of his face as if he could actually get his cheeks to stop burning, but since that trick wasn't working, he bent to press his face against the table. It took him a few moments to recover and resurface, first by tilting his head up so his eyes were seen and then raising himself a little so his chin was resting on the table. ]

I just find them embarrassing.

[ But he does look pleased at Fynn's response to the cheesecake. It worried him a little that the flavor would be off - after all, it was suppose to warm up a little before eating and it was a day old, but Fynn seemed to enjoy it. Tarr finally straighten and he too dug into his cake. ]

I'm glad you like it.

[rygdea]

[As awkward as this all happens to be, Fynn cannot help but feel grateful nonetheless for this strange little date. The cake is just as good as the company which is quite surprising. Fynn might become a familiar face here at this bakery if it means him scoring the attention of the head baker. The cop can't stop smiling once he catches Tarr blushing from ear to ear. That's really...cute.]

They're only embarrassing if you have something to be embarrassed about. Which in that case, you're completely fine there. [Fynn says with a playful wink. Yes, he's flirting.] So, I take you're into the culinary arts.

I never went to college for culinary or anything but I'm a damn good cook.

[lesinset]

[ How long has it been since he felt comfortable with a new person? True, he wasn't too bad when he was in character; on stage or cooking he had a kind of persona he uses to hide behind. Sitting here like this he couldn't hide, so all the awkwardness of being stuck in his mind was coming out, and yet Tarr didn't feel too weird about it.

And was that a flirt? Tarr looked lok he was a deer caught in some headlights before ducking his head a little. ]

No, not really.

[ A bite of cake to try to not say more - look, he knew that he had either the resting face of someone who was probably a serial killer, but a lot of times in high school people either told him that or asked him if he had a lot of plastic surgery. ]

Mm. My parents thought it would have better pay then singing about broken hearts in bars.

What do you like to cook?

[rygdea]

[The chocobo caught in headlights look fits Tarr rather well, honestly. It's truly the cutest thing Fynn in awhile and he can't stop smiling now. His unexpected date has won his affections for the evening by just being cute and generous with his desserts.]

Well, I bet being an artisan in your craft here definitely pays more than the music gig. Plus, it's probably really fun to bake all these goodies.

[Fynn loves cooking. So if Tarr is anything like him, the man must love being a chef.]

Pasta mainly. Italian dishes but I don't limit myself to just that. I also know how to barbecue and roast a nice duck.