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

[LOOK, THIS IS FIRST HAUNTED HOUSE, OKAY?? If anyone questions him about it, he could just say he was interested in the mechanics, it's totally cool!!

Mio's answer wasn't what he was expecting (although, to anyone else not as gullible as him, it was pretty obvious), so he crosses his arms and frowns, scanning the area. So far it didn't seem that spooky-- maybe a bit dingy and gray, but nothing that explained all the screams and laughter he's heard so far.]

This is going to wind up taking forever. Do you think there's a shortcut or something?

Well, it's not like we have a map or anything, and I've heard a lot of stories all over the place...

[ That much is true, at least. Even if they're probably just all tall tales and obviously fake. But that's cool. Although the mixture of screams and laughter is a bit unsettling, it's not terrifying. Yet, anyway. ]

But I don't know if there would even be a shortcut.

There's no map? But... how are we supposed to know where to go, then? All public attractions have maps, don't they?

[... clearly someone is missing the point of a haunted house. SIGH.

Something she says doesn't sit right with him, though, and he turns his attention back to Mio.]

... wait, what stories? There's MORE about this place that you haven't told me? [He doesn't know whether to be concerned or upset about this.......]

They probably wanted it to be a surprise, or something like that.

[ She says this nonchalantly as she wears a rather cheeky smile, evidently unbothered by all of this. ]

There are a bunch of stories, but I didn't want to spook you so quickly because of it! ☆

[Oh no, that cheeky smile never meant anything good. That, plus her other comment, made him prickle, and he shoots her a sharp look.]

I'm not a little kid, Mio. [No, Xiaolang, you're thirteen, you're most certainly a child] If there's more suspicious stuff going on in here, I want to know about it!

Scary has nothing to do with age, you know.

[ Mio just is less sensitive to that sort of thing, given that she had to pretty much grow up fast. ]

But if you insist. [ She then clears her throat and goes on to start her horror story. ] So, there was a couple once. They decided to go into this very haunted house together. I mean, the guy probably thought that he could comfort his girlfriend if she got scared. The two of them kept on going and then--

[ And that certainly was a loud scream. ] What was that? You heard that, didn't you?

[So intent was he on listening to the next spooky story Mio was about to spin (even if it didn't seem as plausible as the last one), that the sudden scream causes him to jerk back in surprise, head whipping towards the direction of the source.]

I did. Is someone in trouble?!

[And... there he goes again, storming towards the source, not waiting to see if Mio will follow behind him. Xiaolang DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO HAUNTED HOUSE]

[ Why is Xiaolang like this... she doubts that the person that screamed is in danger, but it doesn't hurt to check. But especially since he's already darting off. Okay, fine, she'll run right behind him quickly, yelling: ]

You Lidiot, just wait!

[HE'S JUST.......... REALLY SERIOUS, OKAY....

... he's still running, though, and he wastes no time casting a sharp glare over his shoulder at Mio for that terrible, terrible nickname?? like REALLY??]

Don't call me that--!

[--aaaaand because he's not keeping both eyes in front of him, he's going to be running smack-dab into a set-piece and practically fumbling over it, OOPS... ~~Lidiot indeed~~]

[ Yeah, sure, that's definitely it. But she'll laugh because of him yelling like that and the fact that he fumbled. That's definitely fun. ]

That's why I called you that... [ She sighs as she runs right towards him, crouching down to his level. ] Do you need help getting up?

[He's already propping himself up by the time she arrives at his side, face crimson red and straight-up refusing to look her in the face, grumbling petulantly. Ugh, where did his dignity even go?]

I'm fine. I'm NOT an idiot, though, jeez...

[But before he can get himself back up onto his feet, there's another loud scream, closer this time, and much more terrified, and he tenses.]

C'mon, we've got to see if they're okay!

[ Was it even there in the first place? Asking the real questions here. Although she finds herself nearly snickering to the side. Almost being the key word here. But when she hears that scream she can't help but flinch a little instinctively. ]

I'm pretty sure they are, but... let's go check just in case.

[IT'S THERE... HONEST...

He nods and hoists himself to his feet, already heading towards the source of the sound, but remembers this time, at least, to wait up for Mio. (See? He learns!) Ghosts and ghouls do nothing to scare him, but it didn't mean he was entirely fearless. There were still monsters in this world, very real ones, and after Mio's story about the wax corpses, he really hoped there wasn't one lurking around this particular haunted house.

... of course, that doesn't account for jump scares, one of which happens to be waiting for them as they round a corner.]

GAH!

[His hand shoots out instinctively, clutching Mio's arm in surprise. So what was this about not clinging to people, Xiaolang...?]

[ While it's not all that scary to run all the way to where they heard the sound, and fear isn't Mio's middle name in the slightest bit, she's familiar with it in the way that she's seen it in other people before.

So when Xiaolang clings onto Mio's arm she almost proverbially jumps out of her skin. But she can't help but smile a little, having her point from earlier get proven. ]

Are you okay?

[It takes a moment or two for Xiaolang to regain his bearings, his heart still beating wildly and his breathing a little ragged. But, as his nerves cool, the more he begins to realize the thing that scared him looked... not all that scary. In fact, it was more or less your standard rubber doll, complete with googly eyes, smeared in fake blood with a cleaver sticking from it's skull. It was so fake, it was almost laughable.

Mio's question, however, causes him to start, and he quickly removes his hand before she can mention it.]

Fine! I'm fine. It just came out of nowhere, that's all. It's obvious it's a fake. [Are you convincing Mio or yourself, Xiaolang...]

OCTOBER TDM

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