OCTOBER TDM

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OCTOBER TDM

TEST DRIVE

OCTOBER TEST DRIVE
The city of Recollé...

When the crypt doors creak, and the tombstones quake, spooks come out for a singing wake. Happy haunts materialize and begin to vocalize...grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize...

Every year during the Halloween season, the city of Recollé comes to life with plenty of fall activities for everyone. There's something to do in every district if one were to take a look.

What will you do today?

I.
Family fun seems to be the theme today over in Tribunal Terrace. Several tables are set up and in a semi-circle near Recollé Square with stacks of pumpkins, carving tools, paint and anything else you may need to create your own jack o'lantern. Other stations are set up for face-painting and games to win mini-sized candy bars including a ring toss, bowling, and bobbing for apples. Be careful with the apples though. They like to wiggle and jiggle with their happy little faces staring up out of the water.

...so maybe apple-bobbing is for the brave at heart. Are you the artsy type to carve a beautiful pumpkin? Are you helping to run the games (or even cheating to get more candy)? It's time to relax and let your creativity flow.

II.
Pumpkin-carving not your speed? Never fear, horror is here. Over in Tisse there's plenty to do for those looking for a little more adventure. Several coffee shops have harvest specials made with pumpkin, maple, and pecan flavors. Over at Flix a monster movie marathon and costume contest are taking place (with a prize of two free passes for the best monster costumes.) But the highlight of this district is the annual haunted funhouse.

Anyone daring enough will find the usual spooks and scares in a haunted house, jump scares and fog machines galore. But...the house certainly didn't look so big from the outside. How did you possibly get shuffled straight to the center? No worries. This hall of mirrors will guide you out safely...if the walls closing in don't crush you first. It's a race against time as the halls narrow, and if you're one of the lucky ones you'll escape and exit through the main doors.

For those not quite so lucky, the walls will stop just inches from crushing you completely before the floor drops open and you find yourself on a slide, falling through the dark and tumbling into an underground room filled with plastic skeletons, rubber spiders and more. There must be a way out, right? Hopefully you aren't alone and you can navigate the lair with a friend or two.

III.

Meanwhile, the rest of the city's usual hustle and bustle continues. The shopping districts are busy, students wander the sidewalks after class, and that oddly-shaped ghost appears right in the middle of the crowd.

Wait, what? You could have sworn that ghost wasn't there before. Maybe you don't even believe in ghosts. You may blink a few times to clear your vision, but the faint outline of the ghost remains as a few more of them pop up around the city. They won't speak, but they will cause some trouble for anyone who gets too close whether it's by playing pranks on passerbys, stealing items and running away, sitting on a person and applying a gravitational force so they can't move or other crafty, sneaky tactics.

Are the ghosts messing with you? Or are you going to find a way to mess with the ghosts?

IV.
As the sun begins to set, a strange sort of fog rolls in. Several citizens of the city may not even think it's unusual and others seem to capitalize on the weather. The Churchhill Downs Stables are hosting their annual haunted hayrides through Recollé Woods as soon as the sun sets. There are plenty of carts and chocobos saddled up and ready to go.

Once passengers are seated the chocobos begin to trot forward into the woods as a pre-recorded ghost tour of the city takes place. The stories range from silly ones about two ghost children who like to play hide and seek in these woods to scarier ones about a jilted lover chasing her husband off a cliff at the edge of ocean. For the most part they're a bit cheesy and in good fun, but something about this haunted ride seems a bit...off. Peering into the fog you may see something strange that follows you, be it a monster or a shadow or an object. You may hear things whispering your name and you may see your greatest fear manifest right out of the fog and chase your cart through the woods. Even worse, it seems to follow you right out of the woods and back into the city. No matter where you run or where you hide, the fears from the fog will track you down and they change for every single person in the city.

Will you run or will you fight? You may wish to be careful since the creatures will fight back.

BONUS.
With only a few short weeks left until the end of October, Retrospec's Halloween Mode is in full swing and popping up on new users' devices. Retrospec users will find their application decked out in cheerful Halloween colors, and their userpics in a randomized (work safe) costume. However, there's always a trick to each treat and this time the seasonal mode can't be turned off for new users. Notifications chime with zombie groans, a rousing game of Candy Crush must be played and beaten before you can use your device again, and the new Trick or Treat function has a few upgrades. When a user enables this function, they will be met with the phrase "Trick or Treat?" Users who select "treat" will get one virtual candy! Yay! The catch though is that they will also find themselves in a costume representing that specific candy.

Should a user pick "trick", however, they will find all sorts of harmless but unpleasant things happening to them including but not limited to pranks, being splashed by vehicles driving through puddles of water, being unable to speak in anything but rhymes and other such things. None of these effects last over ten minutes, but the game will show up periodically over and over again and even giving you the option to play the game with others.

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 current players, TDM threads will not count toward your Trick or Treat freebie! Additionally, please remember that TDM threads can only be used for bonus points, not regains.

Please note: you will need a reserve to apply, and current characters must have full AC posted at the time of their reservation.

Your October TDM directory is here, and your AU workshop is here! Our mod questions thread for this TDM is over here!

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Well, it's not as if I'm doing anything horrible! It's just behavior that's a little less proper for an heir, you know?

[ She shrugs her shoulders, but there's definitely something fond in her words. ]

I'm not as mean as to completely ruin my sister's reputation. I can take responsibility for my own actions most of the time.

[ "Most" being the key word here... why is Mio like this... ]

Let's gooo! ☆

[ In fact, she'll be following him from behind, a little protectively. ]

[Yukimi shuffles around with a bit of muttering, just the sort of gripes he's always slipping out, and a couple of minutes pass before he looks over his shoulder and sees Minato still in place. My freakin' blood pressure, he thinks, but it's impotent, and he just goes back to looking.

The keychain hasn't fallen underneath the edge of the wire-cased trash can, and it doesn't seem to have bounced off into any of the scarce city foliage. Investigating the nearby bus stop yields no results, either. It's not on the sidewalk in plain sight, and when Yukimi grudgingly skims the toe of his shoe through a section of the gutter, the keychain still doesn't show up. He lets Minato idle where he is while looking, but after a point...

He's shuffling back up to Minato, giving a lazy, uncouth sniff, rubbing at his own face with his hand.]

Hey. Hey. [Now he gestures at his own ears, because he's not quite rude enough to yank earbuds away from a stranger.] C'mon. You all set? Ready to go? Let's pack it up.

[ That's a lot of pressure, given what he has to work with, but he doesn't want to disappoint her either. He can make this work, he's sure of it, picking up one of the smaller blades and turning it idly in his hands. ]

...Alright. What's your favorite animal?

[ He can only really draw animals, so it'll have to be that. ]

You get stuck in a candy-shaped costume.

[ That's it. That's what happens. ]

No prob! And, right? Seriously, as useful as takin' on monsters is with it, too...

[ john will take a big ol' bite of the apple. sorry, mr. apple barrel overseer man, he doen't seem to have given much thought to missing the point of this setup. he folds the knife away into a pocket.

after a swallow-- ]

Anyway, did you wanna do somethin' else? I mean, if dunkin' your head into a barrel full of smiley apples just doesn't do it for ya.

Seriously? Are you sure there's nothing wrong with it?

[ The sky is empty. Nothing above the rooftops, the telephone lines, thinning branches where leaves are just starting to turn gold and fall to the ground, but not keychain when the wind comes and turns them over. In the short time Yukimi had done his share of the legwork, Minato turns his head from the sky to the gaps in between buildings, mumbling under his breath along to whatever he's listening to until Yukimi comes back and blocks his view.

Only one earbud gets pulled out, wire left to hang over his chest, but still, he doesn't move. ]

Do you know if the crows in this city migrate, or remain resident?

[Yukimi is grimacing, frustrated by this (because it's worrisome?), but he has an immediate answer:]

It's both. Parts of the population go, and parts of the population stay, depending on their roles and circumstances. It's called being "partially migratory".

[He snaps his fingers.]

Earbuds out when someone's talking to you.

[Six feet of muscle and no brains sometimes. Penelope is the one with the knife, and the magic. And the monsters. Also she's a monsterslayer don't talk down to her!]

I'm good to back you up. But uh, be careful? Don't let it bleed on you or bite you. I don't want you turning into one either.

[Reflexively, she actually almost calls out a yahri, but decides to hold off for the moment, see what kind of trouble Zack is going to have.]

[Pen smiles back, though just like Charlotte it doesn't come anywhere near reaching her eyes. If anything, it's a challenging smile.]

Is that a fact? You may want another pumpkin then, because you've gone and hacked that one to bits already.

[Moving around to sit opposite Charlotte, she takes out a sharpie and starts marking out a design on the side of her own pumpkin.]

And maybe start by drawing out what you were planning to do first? So it's less haphazard.

[ The traffic is absolutely cruel, if he'd known it'd be like this he would have waited until the ground dried up a little, at least for the cats sake. And the jacket shoulder Beatrice's claws are tearing holes in. But most of all for the cats. ]

Just a little...

Oh, they call me Ms. Yukiko though.

[Sssh, Angela. Don't argue with the children.]

I don't know about lovely plans, but I have some. Horror movie marathon with friends. You?

[ Hestia happily pushes her head right into the petting so she can get extra much of it. ]

It's actually healthy for them. At least the inside bit isn't raw. And probably not pumpkins used for halloween carvings.

[ Does she differentiate though? Nope. ]

[ He can listen through one ear though... Nevertheless, the other earbud gets pulled out and dropped over the other side of his chest, voices filtering through the speakers too soft to be discernible above a monotonous hum. The answer is pretty much what he expected, so he can't decide whether he should be troubled or content with it, maybe hoping that the city life is good enough for the birds that they choose to stay year round. It would make things easier. ]

...I moved to an apartment near here earlier in the month. I feed the crows, and sometimes they bring trinkets. [ Hence zoning out and looking at the sky for so long, although a part of him was really actually hoping to see a ghost. ] They have better eyes than me. I was hoping they'd be around to find it.

[ He should probably be glad that they're alive, however that miracle had happened, but he can still see the car in his mind's eye as he closes his eyes and forces himself to ignore his body's urge to hyperventilate to focus on drawing long, deep breaths instead. His hands find his pockets and clench into fists inside to keep from shaking, and he waits a few moments until he's sure of his footing before walking over to Euphemia's side and dropping to a crouch.

He reaches out as if to touch her shoulder or her hand, but decides against it at the last moment, and hugs his arms around his knees instead. ]

That... I've had dreams of something like that. Physically, it's impossible for a car to have made it to us, but even knowing that...

[ He shakes his head. Dream logic. But it's ridiculous to think that his nightmares have somehow manifested itself in his waking life, so he drops that train of thought, hanging on to vague feelings of guilt that this is somehow his fault anyways. ]

I can call a cab.

[ A cab can't run us over, or they won't get paid the fare. ]

[God's left her standing so far-- surely she must be doing something right!]

I'm fine, [Mattie said, brushing straw off of the sleeves of her jacket and her pants before looking warily at Mary. Somehow, it was starting to feel like they slipped into a horror movie...]

How're you holding up?

ii.

[ Your local hardworking barista is ready to serve up the seasonal beverage of your choice, complete with (simple) latte art and all the substitutions, subtractions, and add-ons your heart desires!

However, the proximity to the haunted house means that bloodcurdling screams reverberate through the cafe at unpredictable intervals... and Jamie's been sampling his own heavily caffeinated merchandise to the maximum degree that employee policy allows. So at this point his nerves are pretty much shot, and as a result he's having outsized reactions to the slightest unexpected stimulus. This could mean that yet another shriek from the haunted house, or an unusually exuberant swinging open or shut of the door, or a customer dropping a heavy backpack on the floor, or any number of other things... might cause him to drop your change all over the counter, upset the tip jar, anoint the drink preparation area with clouds of cinnamon, or (in the worst case) spill a bunch of shit everywhere.

Of course, he's endlessly apologetic about any inconvenience and wastes no time cleaning up or otherwise making things right! ]

iii.

[ The ghosts were super scary at first, but by now most of Jamie's distress is due to the fact that two of them have stolen his bag and a third is sitting placidly on his back, keeping him pinned to the sidewalk and unable to prevent them from rooting through his stuff. ]

Ahhh, no! That's my bus pass... No, please don't take my keys. And you can't even eat the snacks, can you? So why?? --Oh no, my license!

bonus.

[ He doesn't remember changing his unlock settings or even installing this game to begin with, but that's life. Somehow he even managed to earn a nice virtual treat! But the instant he clicks on it...

...

...

Nothing happens.

(Oh, wait, his scarf turned stripey.)

Anyway, it's not like it's a big deal or anything, but the game keeps popping up at inconvenient times (such as right now, when he's trying to use the wireless printer in the library to print out an assignment that's due very shortly). ]

Um... excuse me. Sorry to bother you, but do you think you could help me? I must've done something to mess up my settings, but I can't figure out how to turn it off. ...And I'm having sort of a hard time with this level.

wildcard.

[ Anything goes! AU workshop is here, and you can message me here or at

shadole with any questions or ideas! ]

[It's a respect thing, as far as Yukimi's concerned. Earbuds out - both of them - pay attention to me. I'm talking to you. I'm right in front of you. One of the lines at his brow relaxes into approval when Minato acquiesces. So, this kid (kid!!! insists Yukimi's brain; god knows he wasn't an adult during his first few years of having his own apartment) is living on his own, or at least away from parents, and Yukimi has his suspicions about how well Minato takes care of himself.]

Look, kid, if a crow brings you that little cat, the miracle is such that you can go ahead and keep it. I'm just lettin' you know right now, it'd be classified as fate at that point.

[He shifts his shoulders again, adjusting all his posture, and pushes out a little puff of air.]

You need a coffee?

[He's asking less for the sake of the coffee itself, and more because he wants to gauge the answer to it.]

No... you don't have that much of a widow's peak. Plus, I've seen you awake in the daytime before. [ Are those the only reasons? ]

Oh, I bet you'd be really good at being a vampire, though! Do you have a cape or a fancy medallion you could wear?

O-oh, the eyes.....!

[She can't help but let out a nervous laugh at that. It seems rather obvious it's all fake now, since seeing the googly eyes on them. She'd obviously figured the skeletons were fake, but not so quick on the uptake with the spiders, since that seems much more plausible they were real, especially in such an old house as this.

Still, she flails her hands a little in trying to reassure him, telling him she's fine, that her head doesn't even hurt anymore. She notes his flushed cheeks, unsure if he's just flustered with all of this or if he might actually be a little warm, uncomfortable or perhaps ill.]

But you're right. We should get out of here before my brother sends in a rescue party or something, knowing him.

[She then reaches, taking the offered hand in getting back up to her feet.]

Thanks.

Do you need some help?

[ she's not really sure how to help though. it's not like she can stop the cars. ]

[ holy wow

john certainly can't complain; who would complain about free food. not him. after witnessing the ease at which she UTTERLY LAYS WASTE to these games, as well as shoving all that candy into his pockets (bless, overalls), he has questions. ]

... You're pretty good. [ this is putting it mildly. ] Don't tell me you've been playin' these things all day.

I don't mind, but if you're sure...

[ she won't push it.

Have you tried any of the other activities?

...Oh.

[He doesn't know if that's better or worse, that he doesn't make a great vampire.]

I have a couple of amulets...wait, no, I don't want to dress like a vampire? I mean, trying to make a whole costume sounds like such a hassle.

[ As long as he didn't wear them in class, that's about all the respect anybody ever needed from him, and after entering college, professors stopped caring about that either. So it feels a bit strange, too open without a murmur in his ears at all times, especially living on his own with entire days going by without needing to speak if he so chooses. Sometimes he goes to the balcony and speaks to the crows, just to hear a person's voice. He'll do that later tonight when he gets back at the apartment and see if fate is on his side this time, but he only shrugs his acceptance of Yukimi's offer, unlikely as it is to turn true.

As for coffee, he eventually mumbles his answer: ]

Perpetually.

[ It's basically his diet at this point. Minato glances at the watch strapped on his wrist, tilting his head to see instead of taking his hand out of his pocket, as if it were too heavy to lift. Two more hours until he needs to be somewhere, but coffee is in line with that too. ]

Do you like the coffee at Expressive?

[ It's not the nearest coffee place to where they are now, but Minato wouldn't know that anyways, unfamiliar with the city. ]

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Page 49 of 148

OCTOBER TDM

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Hanatarou Yamada (AU: Jamie Doh) // BLEACH

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