repeter | OCTOBER TDM

Entry tags:

! 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! still happy to brainstorm on potential cr stuff. for the record, he looks mostly the same/still bleaches parts of his hair, he just has brown eyes instead of gold. ]

i.

[ It's been something like fifteen years since he's carved a pumpkin, and two minutes into this endeavor, he remembers exactly why it's not something he ever does.

Jesus, this is disgusting. And pumpkin guts aside, as much as he prides himself on his talent for design, he's not actually that great at drawing, let alone anything like this that involves patiently carving details. So this elaborate thorny rose thing he's picturing in his mind is very much not happening, and he ends up just haphazardly and aggressively etching in a bunch of twisted trees in frustration instead.

Look, he's not a fucking quitter, so now that he's started this, he's going to see it through to the end, even if he hates every minute of it. And whatever, as long as his pumpkin still looks at least marginally better than the ones next to his, this will be fine.

He pauses and stealthily glances over at the in-progress pumpkin to his left for comparison.

WHICH HAD NOT LOOK BETTER THAN HIS. ]

bonus - a.

[ Okay, now that that's over and he's got the last of the pumpkin innards out from under his nails, it's time to sit down outside this cafe with his stylish spider face paint and his festive pumpkin latte and get a fucking selfie.

Or it would be if he could get into his phone?? UGH.

He gives in and plays the stupid game, frowning at the screen as he tries to get through it as quickly as possible before the whipped cream on his latte starts to melt into something lopsided and unattractive. ]

Oh, come on.

bonus - b.

[ Uh, well... He picked Treat, because he's not stupid enough to invite someone to play a prank on him, and he got some kind of useless virtual peppermint patty?

And now he's suddenly in this ugly outfit?

??? HE DOESN'T EVEN GET THIS REFERENCE, get him out of these shitty hippie sandals.

He's just... going to try to slink back to his apartment to change without speaking to anyone, because he is well aware of the fact that shorts are not a good look on him, tyvm. But okay, if he runs into anyone else who's inexplicably in a bad costume two weeks before Halloween, he'll assume they're in the same boat, so he'll go ahead and approach them to see if they might have any info on where the clothes he was wearing five minutes ago might be now. ]

I hope you didn't willingly put that on.

[ Always a good way to start a conversation. ]

wildcard.

[ hit me with something else or message me by pm or at

kokichi with any ideas! ]

... you having phone trouble?

[ he's innocently looking over the man's shoulder, staring at the phone and the game, and not really regarding the sad-looking latte left untouched while Rugievit works on trying not to suck at it. ]

Oh. A game? You could probably just stop playing, right?

[ he hasn't checked his own, so /shrug. ]

[ um excuse you... he looks back with the same irritated expression he was just giving his phone. ]

Yes to the first question and no to the last. [ the middle one wasn't a real question. ] This is the only thing that will come up when I turn it on.

[ he swipes some candies without paying much attention to what he's doing; then some ugly cartoon character pops up to tell him he's out of turns and failed to clear all the jellies. :( he mutters a quiet god damn it under his breath before hitting retry. ]

Probably some kind of obnoxious marketing ploy. Like those ads on streaming services that make you interact with them so you can't just walk away during the commercial break.

Huh. [ scratching an imaginary itch on the back of his neck, he tries to... avoid the look on the guy's face by looking anywhere that isn't his exasperated one. naturally, it goes to the drink, which shouldn't judge him! ]

Maybe you picked up some kind of bug from downloading something you didn't. [ wait, would he take offense to that? all of him tenses, from his shoulders down to his knees. ] I mean, not that you would! You look very serious. The most serious.

[ though he cracks a smile at the fail screen. ]

... guess you don't have a lot of game, too.

[ tensing up is a reasonable instinct, because redžo shoots him another glare as soon as those words reach his ears. (but he does somewhat appreciate how quickly he backpedals.) ]

I very much doubt that that’s what happened.

[ actually, he goes to enough trashy gossip sites that it’s pretty plausible, tbh. ]

Well, I’m sorry if my virtual candy-destruction skills don’t live up to expectations, but I’ve been doing more valuable things with my time than perfecting the movement of jellybeans from one square to another.

Or maybe it's an incredibly important skill needed to survive this digital age.

[ once again, he's not looking to correct Redžo! just politely inform him to not be so arrogant regarding the possible, necessary qualities when using such a handy cellular device. ]

So what exactly do you do? Let me guess! You... sit around and complain a lot, and then take it out on others?

[ but then he laughs. it's sincere and pleasant, a little musical. not a hearty guffaw, or a giggle, but something soft and in the back of his throat. ]

You want me to take care of it for you? Or do you think it'll know that you're cheating?

In what scenario could this specific game possibly become necessary for survival?

[ and heading off what he thinks may be a likely suggestion, he quickly and dismissively adds: ]

Yes, unless this same stupid thing comes up when you're trying to make an emergency call, but that hardly counts.

[ and okay, maybe that laugh is objectively pleasant, but it still rubs him the wrong way. ]

I'm a fashion designer, actually.

[ so... yeah, complain a lot and take it out on others, but make them look great while they suffer through it.

and you know what, fuck it. with a hard stare, he hands over his phone. ]

Don't even think about running off with this.

In the scenario where it's more fun thinking about that than paying off bills, making sure no one steals your favorite mug, and worrying a customer won't run without paying.

[ all three things are less fun to think about than a life-or-death situation. ]

A fashion designer... huh, that was probably the last thing I would've guessed! [ which is followed by a laugh, as he takes the phone and starts to play around with the familiar looking game. ]

Wait. If you're doing things with colors and clothes, shouldn't this game be easy for you? Matching is basically all you do, right?

[ time to make a bunch of assumptions. ]

[ that... sounds very specific but still doesn't come close to supporting the argument. whatever. MORE IMPORTANTLY ]

What do you mean it's the last thing you would have guessed?

[ bitch if you're insulting his style... ]

And no, matching isn't all I do. Even if all I focused on was color it would be about pairing complementary colors, not putting two green things next to each other.

rideaux (redžo rugievit) | tales of xillia 2

a bonus a is the best kind of a, tbh

boy i love noticing where i left obvious words out of sentences in my toplevels lmfao...

I COULDN'T TELL... guess my brain went 'aaaa' or something idek

I MEAN CLEARLY MINE DID TOO

quietly pats your brain, it's ok. we're in this together

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i

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i. let me live i'm about to sleep

1/2

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