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

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...?

I did...? Although I don't think you'll find it even if you search for it on the internet.

[She turns her phone to show it to Cleo.]

It just popped up on my phone. What is it...? It wants a profile picture or something.

[well.

Her tail puffs up, practically doubling in size just from her fur standing on end. Her ears also stand straight. But most important is her eyes- The left, blue eye shrinks into a normal dot in shock, but the right, unnaturally yellow eye, instead narrows into a cat-like slit.

Also, her expression is completely alarmed and horrified.]

... No. Oh, no.

Wait, is it a virus or something, should I be concerned? - Whoa, whoa, wait, what's going on with your eye?! I thought it was a contact!

[She takes a step back in alarm, the confusion and alarm evident on her face. She's freaked out because Cleo is freaked out, and the realization now that they were in the light that Cleo didn't look entirely right was starting to freak her out, too.]

If I could handle contacts, I would wear ones to make my eyes look normal.

[She sighs, closing her eyes, letting a slight shudder escape her.]

... I'm sorry. You've now been dragged into something rather terrible.

What do you mean "terrible"...?

[Marina looks concerned, that was for sure. If not for the fact she was realizing that she was staring at what appeared to be an actual factual cat girl, she'd probably be more skeptical about whatever it was Cleo was about to say, but as it was, she was willing to listen.]

[She's pointing at her left eye. The human one.]

This eye is supposed to be blue. You should know what horses are now, and that fruit aren't supposed to dance.

[Marina slowly begins to squint, and it's like a flood of realizations start to overcome her, judging from her face. She looks at Cleo, towards the apple bobbing station, and then towards the hayrides where the Chocobo's were, and she slowly presses a hand against her cheek.]

Oohhhhh my god. What the fuck.

An apt descriptor.

[it is the absolute driest tone ever heard. her voice is so dry she could cause a drought.]

How the hell have I been living this whole time thinking apples with faces and giant chickens were normal?! Not to mention blue apparently just like, not existing.

[She presses the other hand against her other cheek, phone still clutched in it.]

What the ever loving fuck. Did I just get inducted into some sort of secret society club?

If only it were that nice.

[Her tail flicks back and forth.]

Monster attacks happen from time to time. As well as... You'll start receiving visions, you see. Strange, impossible things. Many think of these visions as a past life, though I disagree.

[Marina frowns, crossing her arms over her chest.]

Monsters? Visions?

[Thanks again for making them move here, dad. Now your daughter is inducted into a secret society full of monsters and giant chickens and it wouldn't be that way if she wasn't here, where it wasn't normal.]

This is a lot to take in. Is that why you're part cat...?

[She nods, ears drooping again.]

My visions seem to be of a woman who is... far more bestial than this. Retrospec seems intent on slowly turning me into her.

So it wants to turn us into monsters, or something...?

Ah- No, don't worry. Most do not receive any physical transformations, and those that do... Mine seem to be by far the most dramatic. You likely won't need to worry about this.

So I'll just be getting visions of the life of someone I don't even know? That's... odd.

Does your person even look like you?

Moreso now.

[Her voice is a bit dry, but she continues.]

She looks similar to myself, yes, but... In addition to the feline traits I now have, she also has furred arms and legs, and large claws. She seems rather inhuman, and she has great strength and weight to her, despite looking of a normal size.

... She also wields a sword- This sword, in fact. [She gestures to the sword she wears at her side.] And wears armor to fight monsters.

So this Retrospec thing is like... slowly trying to turn you into her.

How did you get her sword? Did Retrospec give it to you? For that matter, how in the world is it even capable of changing a person...

[She frowns, drumming her fingers against her arm.]

This is not the way I expected my day to go.

They did.

... I'm sorry. I know it's a lot to take in all at once. But if it helps, most of us who are stuck with this nonsense are good people, and there is a strong sense of community and helping each other.

It's okay, it's not your fault.

How do you find each other? Is it the app thing?

[She opens up her phone again, but it's still just asking her for a profile picture.]

Yes. Aside from its effects on the world and on us, it's essentially just a bad social media network.

[singing retrospec's praises here.]

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