repeter | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh gosh, thank you so much for the compliment, but I think I might have to try again! It didn't even occur to me that you could make something so detailed and beautiful! So, how's it coming along?

[Hey, she'll take the compliment. Now where can she get another pumpkin...]

[ Not very well. He turns his pumpkin over to show her: the front face has been shaved off, leaving a smooth, light orange surface to work with. Parts of it are outlined in pen, some shaded in with lines, others crosshatches, and even more others filled in completely with black ink depending on how deep he's to carve the pumpkin. ]

...Can we trade pumpkins? If you're not going to continue yours.

Are you serious? But yours looks like it's going so well! You've put a lot of work into it!

[She doesn't have much experience with carving pumpkins, but it looks like a great start!!]

Everything's sketched out, so the rest is just carving where the shading is.

[ A mechanical process, not as much fun as it could be, so he tilts his head towards her pumpkin to emphasize his point. ]

Trading is like... an art collaboration? Might be fun.

Oh, a collaboration! That could definitely be fun! Wow, what a great idea! That sounds like a lot of fun!

[Here you go, you're welcome to take her sort-of-terrifying-looking pumpkin! She'll carefully examine the tools before selecting a smaller knife. As much as she likes the large one, she's not going to be able to make precise cuts with it.]

[ They can trade knives along with pumpkins, because Minato had been hoarding all the smaller blades, shaving off bits and pieces of his gourd and carving the outlines as if using it like a scalpel.

His new pumpkin is a whole different experience, and he sits there and stares at the face of it, trying to imagine what it could be. It's like trying to see an image in an ink blot, or ceiling tiles, or stars in the sky... The first step to art is apparently lots and lots of staring, because that's what Minato does for the next several minutes unless Charlotte interrupts him, sitting and staring and barely even breathing as he looks down at the pumpkin. ]

[Wow, he looks so focused! She doesn't want to interrupt him, so she'll set to work on the pumpkin, very carefully trying to follow the outlines he's already left.

...

This isn't nearly as much fun as carving wildly, but she's surprisingly not that bad at it. Her first few cuts are a bit too thick and deep, but she'll pick up on it quickly.]

So... Do you need some help, or...?

[She's never been good at staying quiet, though.]

[ It's not very fun, yeah, and Minato doesn't really look it either, quiet contemplation leaning towards frustration as he sits and stares and looks a little relieved when Charlotte speaks up. ]

...Yeah. I'm not very good at making things up, so I was trying to think. Copying what I can see is easier.

But you made up this design! I'm sure you can come up with something wonderful!

[ 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. ]

OCTOBER TDM

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