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

Yeah? Huh... [It's drawn out, and thoughtful for it. Yukimi tips back his head, squinting toward the sky, continuing to ruffle his own hair. There's nothing urgent to it. He just scratches his head, scuffs one of his shoes against the sidewalk, and then heaves out another one of those sighs. No wonder he acts like an old man; his sighs are exhausted in the ways of the aged.]

'Kay, 'kay, okay, okay, okay. We're gonna look a little longer. If we've looked all we can look, that's that, and then it's time to move on no matter what. But if we can say we did our best, I'll be content.

[But, immediately, with a look of sharp suspicion:]

Stay on the freakin'... inside of the sidewalk. For my sake.

[He rolls his shoulders, as if steeling himself for labor, and then he's toeing around the sidewalk.]

Okay.

[ This is something he can readily agree to, doing their best under the time limit of until sundown maybe, and he doesn't waste time. Hands in his pockets, ears plugged back up with his earbuds, eyes straight up with his head tilted back, Minato searches the sky for something while he leaves the streets to Yukimi to comb through.

True to his word, he stays on the sidewalk. In fact, he doesn't leave his spot on the sidewalk at all. ]

[Yukimi shuffles around with a bit of muttering, just the sort of gripes he's always slipping out, and a couple of minutes pass before he looks over his shoulder and sees Minato still in place. My freakin' blood pressure, he thinks, but it's impotent, and he just goes back to looking.

The keychain hasn't fallen underneath the edge of the wire-cased trash can, and it doesn't seem to have bounced off into any of the scarce city foliage. Investigating the nearby bus stop yields no results, either. It's not on the sidewalk in plain sight, and when Yukimi grudgingly skims the toe of his shoe through a section of the gutter, the keychain still doesn't show up. He lets Minato idle where he is while looking, but after a point...

He's shuffling back up to Minato, giving a lazy, uncouth sniff, rubbing at his own face with his hand.]

Hey. Hey. [Now he gestures at his own ears, because he's not quite rude enough to yank earbuds away from a stranger.] C'mon. You all set? Ready to go? Let's pack it up.

[ The sky is empty. Nothing above the rooftops, the telephone lines, thinning branches where leaves are just starting to turn gold and fall to the ground, but not keychain when the wind comes and turns them over. In the short time Yukimi had done his share of the legwork, Minato turns his head from the sky to the gaps in between buildings, mumbling under his breath along to whatever he's listening to until Yukimi comes back and blocks his view.

Only one earbud gets pulled out, wire left to hang over his chest, but still, he doesn't move. ]

Do you know if the crows in this city migrate, or remain resident?

[Yukimi is grimacing, frustrated by this (because it's worrisome?), but he has an immediate answer:]

It's both. Parts of the population go, and parts of the population stay, depending on their roles and circumstances. It's called being "partially migratory".

[He snaps his fingers.]

Earbuds out when someone's talking to you.

[ He can listen through one ear though... Nevertheless, the other earbud gets pulled out and dropped over the other side of his chest, voices filtering through the speakers too soft to be discernible above a monotonous hum. The answer is pretty much what he expected, so he can't decide whether he should be troubled or content with it, maybe hoping that the city life is good enough for the birds that they choose to stay year round. It would make things easier. ]

...I moved to an apartment near here earlier in the month. I feed the crows, and sometimes they bring trinkets. [ Hence zoning out and looking at the sky for so long, although a part of him was really actually hoping to see a ghost. ] They have better eyes than me. I was hoping they'd be around to find it.

[It's a respect thing, as far as Yukimi's concerned. Earbuds out - both of them - pay attention to me. I'm talking to you. I'm right in front of you. One of the lines at his brow relaxes into approval when Minato acquiesces. So, this kid (kid!!! insists Yukimi's brain; god knows he wasn't an adult during his first few years of having his own apartment) is living on his own, or at least away from parents, and Yukimi has his suspicions about how well Minato takes care of himself.]

Look, kid, if a crow brings you that little cat, the miracle is such that you can go ahead and keep it. I'm just lettin' you know right now, it'd be classified as fate at that point.

[He shifts his shoulders again, adjusting all his posture, and pushes out a little puff of air.]

You need a coffee?

[He's asking less for the sake of the coffee itself, and more because he wants to gauge the answer to it.]

[ As long as he didn't wear them in class, that's about all the respect anybody ever needed from him, and after entering college, professors stopped caring about that either. So it feels a bit strange, too open without a murmur in his ears at all times, especially living on his own with entire days going by without needing to speak if he so chooses. Sometimes he goes to the balcony and speaks to the crows, just to hear a person's voice. He'll do that later tonight when he gets back at the apartment and see if fate is on his side this time, but he only shrugs his acceptance of Yukimi's offer, unlikely as it is to turn true.

As for coffee, he eventually mumbles his answer: ]

Perpetually.

[ It's basically his diet at this point. Minato glances at the watch strapped on his wrist, tilting his head to see instead of taking his hand out of his pocket, as if it were too heavy to lift. Two more hours until he needs to be somewhere, but coffee is in line with that too. ]

Do you like the coffee at Expressive?

[ It's not the nearest coffee place to where they are now, but Minato wouldn't know that anyways, unfamiliar with the city. ]

[Bingo. Yukimi kind of had a feeling the coffee answer would turn out like that, but it doesn't feel good to have it confirmed. He puffs out his cheeks, looking petulant for it, and then sighs. Again. He feels like he's constantly sighing, and it's going to suck the actual soul out of him, one of these days...]

It ain't bad. [Not really his... scene? But he's had his instances of going there with a laptop, settling in, and drafting some sort of article. He may have brought papers to grade, too, on a couple of occasions, just to unsettle local teenagers. Whatever.] You usually grab a sandwich or something to go with your coffee?

[That's the next step: how hungry is this guy, typically? There are a few mental boxes Yukimi would like to be able to tick. Sleep and food are the first of them.]

[ It's the younger crowd that usually goes to Expressive, so Minato strategically avoids the morning rush and comes in during the afternoons, sometimes evenings when he has nothing better to do, though never for meals. ]

No. I work shifts there, so coffee is the easiest to get through the hours. I sleep through the meal break.

[ So rest assured, he does get sleep sometimes! Full of caffeine that does very little for him anymore, such is how high his tolerance has grown that high over the years. The many, many years. ]

[Yukimi's instinct is to drag his hand down his face and mutter something like heaven help me, why. He restrains the urge, since he knows it does no good, and sometimes will just make things worse. The lecture brewing in the back of his mouth, about nutrition and how irresponsibility will bite you in the long run, and time management, and whatever other aggravated miscellany—none of that will help, either.

Instead:]

You bring something you can eat with a spoon, you can just pop some into your mouth whenever you go in back for something. Like, picking up a carton 'a fried rice or whatever on the way to work. Right? Hey, you like lemonade?

[ Minato knows these things in the back of his mind, but the effort required to act upon them is too much and he cares too little at this point in his life, just wanting to get settled into a routine, even if the routine ends up like this.

But he sees Yukimi trying, and he could stand to try a little too. ]

Not really, if it's sweet, but lemon in water is okay. I could probably bring soup in a thermos or something...

[ Still a liquid diet, but slightly healthier than straight coffee, so that's the best enough compromise he can muster. ]

[Yukimi stares, and it lasts for a good couple moments. His mouth puckers a bit, in that thoughtful way of someone who's cycling through considerations. When he seems to settle on a thought, he taps his own temple with his index finger, and then points that finger at Minato.]

Lemon cider. With honey. It won't make it too sweet. Manuka honey. Shit's expensive but there are a couple places you can get it for a good price, and it'll last you a while even if you just get a jar. Anyway, here— [He's gesturing with his right shoulder, his empty sleeve—] Take these a sec. [The manila envelopes, he means. If successful, he'll be reaching into the inside of his coat for a little flip notebook and a ballpoint pen.]

[ Sounds expensive and fancy, not really worth the cost if all he needs is sustenance to get through the day, maybe a multivitamin in the morning if he remembers to take it, to provide everything his body needs to keep "healthy."

He's probably using that definition loosely.

He reaches out to take the envelopes though, because he can do that without committing to a healthier diet, turning them over in his hands as he stares down at them. The temptation to open them is very real and very strong, but as long as he flips them idly, mechanically, he can head the urge off, tapping his feet restlessly instead. ]

[With the envelopes safely in Minato's hands—they're just photographs, large prints, thin sheaves of them in each envelope, that high quality photographic paper nowhere near flimsy—Yukimi gets to scribbling. His penmanship is a series of clipped strokes made like short cuts with a pocket knife. It's legible, though. When he tears out the little page, it's got the name of whatever special honey, instructions for making cider, and the address of a family-run specialty mart.]

You're not gonna start doin' this right away. I don't think you'll go check out that store today or anything, either. But keep this. Once you're ready to take a whack at it, you're ready to start thinkin' about other stuff, too.

[You can't force someone to take care of themselves. Unfortunately. Nobody was able to force him, either. But it helps, at least, to have the tools at hand.]

Edited 2017-10-20 23:27 (UTC)

[ The words are different, but the approach is similar to what Minato was learning in school, of how to encourage people towards weight loss or smoking cessation and such, letting him know that the resource is there for whenever he feels ready. He glances down the paper in silence, eyes lingering longer on the recipe than the names. ]

If I don't go today, I'll probably put it off forever.

[ He can be honest, at least, as to why some things in his life have fallen to the wayside. The paper gets folded neatly into quarters before being slipped into his pocket, and he looks back up at Yukimi. ]

Not sure what other stuff I'm supposed to be thinking about, though. I'm paying off student loans. I can't afford anything fancier than this honey.

[When Yukimi laughs, only barely, this wry sort of stutter in a warm huff, it makes sense he knows anything about honey. He's got its same sort of richness, right now. This is the compassion you find inside honeycombs.]

I can tell you, in a promise, you got plenty to think about.

[But it's the sort of thing you need to let yourself step into. That's what Yukimi thinks he's figured out. When people were trying to tell him what to think, all the stuff he was doing wrong for himself, he just wanted to shunt it further and further away.]

'Sides, it ain't about bein' fancy. Fancy honey just lets you cut corners a little until you start figurin' out the other stuff. I probably don't sound like I know anything about anything, so it's up to you if you buy this crap I'm saying or not.

[ It's not really whether or not he believes Yukimi— time will tell if Minato gets any sudden revelation about his life upon picking up a jar of honey, so he isn't pressed waiting for that to happen. It's just the matter of somebody meeting him for the first time, asking a few questions and knowing his life isn't as put together as he tries to make it out to be, so self-assured, originally, when he had first moved out on his own.

He returns his hands to his pockets, paper crinkling under his fist, lifting one shoulder in a shrug that's more a preface to speaking than anything that holds meaning. ]

You sound like you know what you're talking about. Either from experience, or maybe you're a honey salesman.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

OCTOBER TDM

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject