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

[Marina pauses behind her, curious.]

What are you thinking?

If, for example, the stairs move down at roughly the same rate we go up once we reach high enough up the stairs, using the darkness to hide it, we could keep running up forever without actually moving.

[she straightens up again, looking up and down the stairs.]

Ohhh my god, you think they'd actually pull that? That's devious.

[Never-ending exercise, that's the real horror in this haunted house.]

What are we supposed to do about it? Run faster so it can't keep up?

I wouldn't put it past them, after putting that wall in and dropping us down below.

[but exercise is good, marina???]

That may work... Or it may be something in that monster that popped out earlier.

What do you think we should do?

[Marina wasn't sure, 'cause running was not her first priority here.]

[She thinks, looking up at the wall and the stairs.]

Let's try the monster, first. If we run up the stairs and it's the wrong answer, it will just tire us out, and we won't be able to do anything.

Alright, I can agree with that.

[She moves to head back down the stairs, unsure of which step it was again exactly, but trying to brace herself for the thing inevitably popping back out again when she reached it. Marina flinches when she does trigger it and takes a step back, but keeps one foot on the floor board in question so she wouldn't forget.]

Now what?

Well...

[She pauses, stretching, and rolling her shoulders.

Then she just, walks forward and pries open that board again. She plants one foot against the wall, and yanks, pulling the monster out of the wall entirely.]

[Marina wasn't expecting that at all, welp. She wasn't gonna complain about some light mischief, though.

Sparks fly and something seems to short out inside the wall, making the stairs rumble a little before settling. Whatever was back there, Cleo seems to have shorted it out with the damage.]

Think that did the trick?

[Cleo always believes in taking the shortest possible path.]

If it didn't, I'll just break it more until it does.

Well, now we have the busted wall as a point of reference for if we're getting any higher, I guess.

Shall we head out before they bill us for the damage?

[She laughs a little.]

I don't think they can after dropping us for a full story without warning.

[That said, she's definitely starting to walk up again.]

Hopefully, that will be the last trick before we're out of here.

I sure hope so, I'm pretty done with this haunted house at this point. I just want a pumpkin spice latte or something before it gets dark, get my face painted or something silly. Maybe go on the hayride? I'm not sure.

[She just... stares at Marina like she's speaking a strange alien language, but then turns back to the task at hand.]

There's light ahead. I think we're almost free.

[There is, indeed, natural light ahead.... but there's something else in the way. A hallway at the top of the stairs leads to an open doorway out, but with all sorts of strange spooky things in the way.]

... I am tired of this... Are you a fast runner?

[sigh...... more running]

If I have to, I can. Let's just go for it.

Would you rather I carry you?

[she's entirely serious.]

Wait like, really?? I know I'm short, but...

[are you gonna princess carry her through all the evil spooky scaries, cleo]

Yes.

[Yes.

Yes, she is in fact going to pick her up in a princess carry and sprint.

You have no idea how Done with this she is.

The girl can fucking move.]

Well I mean, fuck it, why not? Carry me to the finish, Ms. Knight.

[YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE]

As you wish, Princess.

[She's going to play along for now

and seriously, she just. full-blown sprints, blasting out through the door without even slowing down. She might have stepped on a ghost or a monster or two.]

[Marina wraps her arms around Cleo's neck and holds on tight, head whirling as they rushed out down the hallway at a pretty amazing speed compared to how fast she herself could run, especially holding someone else in the process. It was a little bit exhilarating, and she lets out a soft laugh and sticks out her tongue at the ghouls they stomped over, squinting a little as they finally reached the outside again with its bright lights.]

Whew! Well, that all was certainly something. I don't know if it was a good something, but it sure was something.

I agree...

[She sighs, letting Marina down.]

I grow ever more tired of Retrospec.

[She hops down and dusts herself off, placing her hand on her hip and looking at Cleo with curiosity.]

What's Retrospec?

[Y'know, looking at her in the light, those ears are really well attached...]

[Shit. She panics, her ears standing upright again.]

Ah... It's nothing important. You don't need to worry about it.

[Since this person isn't on Retrospec, explaining is pointless...]

[Man, those ears are ridiculously expressive. She doesn't even hear the whirring of the motors!]

Well, I'm not gonna press it if you don't wanna say.

[After all, they had only just met. Marina grabs her phone to check what time it was - god they'd been in there a while - and when she unlocks her phone completely to check for any texts, a message pops up indicating a download for an app called Retrospec, causing her to do a double take. One, she'd only just opened her phone, hadn't tried to download anything, and two, that's what Cleo had just said, right? And right after she said it?]

You said Retrospec...?

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