repeter | OCTOBER TDM

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! tdm

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

[ workshop comment is here.

37 year old not-cat named Leon, owner of a tea bar/cafe called The Tea Kittle. ]

---

I.) commence the jiggling

[ he's hovering above the bucket full of water and toothy-grinned, wiggling apples with a thoughtful look. one hand covers his mouth with his palm resting on his chin while the other stays fixed to his waist. honestly, he has no idea what he's looking at, and he's kind of uncomfortable with how they leer up at him. if anyone could find something sinister in fruit, it's probably him, and he looks around hoping to catch someone's attention. ]

Hou... [ a thoughtful hum in an open noise rather than something closed and pursed. ] ... is this supposed to be spooky? Scary? They're more odd than anything else, don't you think?

[ and then he adjusts the thing that looks like braided rope around his neck with a nervous smile. ]

II.) haunted house

[ mirrors. so many mirrors. it has him spinning in place, staring at each angle with wide-eyed curiosity and a slight frown. the thumping of his heart is stuck in his ears, increasing slowly in his chest, and after the third or fourth rotation, he exhales slowly before taking a few steps toward what he THINKS is a way out... ]

Ah...!

[ a surprised gasp, as he bumps into one of those reflective surfaces, and with a bright pink stain on his cheeks, he desperately hopes no one saw him being... a dumb... ]

III.) i, too, have no shame

[ clearly, there's nothing more Halloween-ish than wearing some kind of costume, right? so before leaving his shop and closing it early, he's made sure to look as festive as possible--- black plastic cat ears on a hairband and one long faux-furry tail affixed and hooked on his belt. but before he goes any further, he turns to look at his reflection in his large, windowed storefront. ]

Ha, I really look the part!

[ it's all the black he's wearing with it, but upon seeing someone or hearing someone, he immediately turns and laughs. ]

This is when I go 'meow', right?

[ he has no shame. for now, at least. ]

[ rindou takes another a look at the wiggling, jiggling apples in the water bucket, but considering the fact that retrospec made dancing lemons a Thing for a while, well... it doesn't come across as entirely unusual to him. in fact, they're kind of cute? ]

I think they're encouraging you to catch them. I mean, look — they're smiling!

I don't think smiling means 'catch me'. Wouldn't you worry if something smiled at you for the entire day? Week? Month, even?

[ clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth, he looks at Rindou with a gentle, sloping frown. not one out of anger or disappointment, but mostly contemplative. with thin lips, he bends a little lower. ]

Besides, I don't want to take a bite out of a lemon. Too sour.

I'd worry if they were people... but these are just fruits, so I'm not as worried.

[ which just goes to show how long he's been here — sometimes dancing, smiling fruits just happen, sometimes colors disappear and come back... ]

Then, what about the apples? I could stab one with my sword and bring it up.

[ a sword? well, better that than his own hands. or his face. smiling fruits, common or not, deserve this more than anything?

though with a sheepish grin, he shrugs at the other guy and rolls his shoulders. ]

Anything that has a face that shouldn't is kind of creepy to begin with, so... I guess a sword will do.

[ guess it must be part of his costume? or something??? ]

[ it's a part of his great halloween costume, called his daily look... but he unsheathes his sword, holds it over the water... and strikes at one of the fruits.

when he pulls his sword back, there's an apple impaled on the sharp end of it — which rindou holds out for him to take. ]

There! Now we can get a closer look at it.

[ ... oh my god, the last thing he ACTUALLY EXPECTS is a real sword? of course it comes out of the sheath very convincingly, and it certainly stabs convincingly too. the apple doesn't seem to care, even as he pulls it off the tip and nods. ]

You're right. It... I guess apples don't have feelings, do they?

[ which in turn would make it creepier? ]

Are you still not worried?

[ as he holds it in both hands, it feels like it's... vibrating a little more. or maybe it's a trick of the light? ]

Leaks ~ Lamento -Beyond the Void-

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