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

[Zack furrows his eyesbrows and puts a hand on her shoulder to gently assure her to step back. Who's the one who's over six feet tall, bulky in the shoulders and from the military base? Small friend doesn't need to shield him.]

Somehow- I'm not all that surprised that it's not!

[The stories he's heard already... The weird apples... Recollé is a strange city indeed.

The zombie starts lumbering towards them, as slow as they are in the movies, at least.]

How do you kill a zombie? Smash them in the head, right? I'll hold her down- You good to back me up?? [He cracks a knuckle against his palm.] Let's tango, grandma.

[Yep- It's grandma. Yikes.]

[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.]

[Hero's gotta hero!! Leave him be! Someday he'll get some of his cool spells and abilities but until that day...

Time to wrestle zombie grandma.]

You don't think that'll actually happen, do you? [He looks honestly a little worried.] Like in the movies...

[Oh well- He's sure he can handle one zombie at least it's not a herd. Zack starts towards the lumbering dead old woman.]

Alright Ma' take it easy- We're just gonna... [And when he sees his opportunity Zack grabs the old woman and tries to wrestle her into place by putting one hand on the back of her head and and the other holds the remaining arm behind her back. The zombie howls and growls, teeth clacking and snapping for anything that's human flesh.] Haaah!!

Edited 2017-10-21 16:23 (UTC)

Honestly? I don't even know. I'm so over crazy shit but it wouldn't surprise me.

[Until that day, of course, she will have to save him. When the dynamic switches, it'll be fine. But it is just a zombie. And he can handle it, probably. It's not like she can't stop it before it gets too out of hand, after all.]

Careful there, dude. She's liable to take a tumble and send you end over end.

[And that could be bad. Also gross.

For now though, she's going to start by stepping out of the way and gesturing towards a hill.]

Maybe give her a shove down that way first? I don't really think I can stab her and have it do much good without possibly stabbing you too.

I never did take my slow dancing lessons that seriously when she tried to teach me when I was little.

[A bit of a joke, but he's also still trying to keep her under his control and it's surprising how awkward and difficult that is with a dead grandma trying to snap at your fingers with rotten black teeth...

He starts waddling her over to the hill and glances down at it as he tightens his grip.]

I never thought I'd be doing this.

[Seems like all sorts of firsts are happening for him since moving to the city.

And shove--- Down she goes like a sack of potatoes... Zack has to wince at each wet or snapping noise he hears...]

[Pen keeps her hand on her knife, ready and able to make short work of the thing if it gave her a clear shot and he looked like he was in danger. But no, that didn't happen. It was just...weird.

Once the zombie was thrown down the hill, she relaxed a little, putting away the knife and watching with a kind of grim frown. She can't imagine that was easy on him, but then again what was easy anymore?

He didn't seem to be breaking down, at the very least.]

That should keep her busy. I doubt that really killed her, but it's also likely that was just another fog phantom.

[Shifting her stance to regard him, she gives him a weak smile.]

You okay?

Fog phantoms and zombie grandmas ... It really is All Hallows Eve here. What happened to it just being about candy.

[He sighs and runs a hand through his hair before he shrugs at her.]

Yeah. Like you said, it's all just fog phantoms. I'll just keep telling myself that.

I like that 'it's a fog phantom' doesn't seem to phase you any more than zombies.

[He really is a lot chiller than she was at first. But then her first real experience with the weird shit was being shrunk and having to fight a possum.]

[He pretends to shiver, rubbing his arms.]

Believe me, zombies freak me the hell out more than a bunch of fog clouds do...

You...have figured out the fog is what generates the zombies right?

[Just checkin']

Yeah! [GOSH] That's why picturing them as just hazy fog clouds is a hell of a lot better!

[Anyway, turning to walk away from the scene down the hill.]

[And following.]

Well, it's you and me and the chocobo now. Want to ride back?

[Chocobos... That's a whole other concept to wrap his head around.]

Might as well. And at least the fog is thinning out now. Let's grab drinks, I need one after all that.

Sounds good.

[Let's roll out!]

OCTOBER TDM

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