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

[ Minato looks down at where he'd chosen to sit. Originally, it was with his knees drawn up and politely out of the way, but he must have gotten lax over time for Clover to have noticed him. Maybe if he sits sideways...

That's not a great argument, so he rubs at the back of his head, sighing in lieu of grumbling acceptance as he shuffles forward. ]

You're right. It's a long way from bed, though... I don't think I'll make it.

Don't be lazy. Live with a little more vitality. You work with enough dogs to know what that looks like.

[ She waves towards the exit. ]

Come on. The sooner we reach the exit, the sooner you can revisit the land of slumber.

[ Minato shuffles on next to her, but he also gives her this look. ]

I work with senior dogs. Most of the day is nap time.

[ Vitality happens during meals though. He too would perk up at the mention of meals, but it's too late into the night now to think about eating anything. ]

Wish they'd allow dogs in here though... A rescue dog would be useful.

[ Don't look at her that way. That's rude. Even elderly dogs can be spry if they're excited. ]

Senior dogs would pick better places to sleep, but yeah, more dogs around would be nice. Not in here exactly, but maybe there could be a table for rescue dogs.... it could help people who are overwhelmed by any of the activities, too.

[ Dogs know how to love as much as they know how to eat, and it'd be good for everyone. Like therapy dogs but not as trained. ]

[ He was hoping she wouldn't notice in the darkness, but that might have been pushing his luck. Senior dogs, deaf as some of them are, would probably pick somewhere less crowded and noisy, yeah; there's really no place like home to get some shuteye, although he's out more often and not and sometimes doesn't even make it back home for the night. A dog would be great in that instance too, just finding some deserted alleyway with a dog on top of him, portable blanket right there. ]

Something to suggest to the shelters, I guess. Who'd help the overwhelmed rescue dogs thought? Doesn't seem very kind.

[ Solution: everybody just stay home, sleep, forever about vitality. ]

[ Minato, love yourself more than some dank alleyway. ]

If it's organized well enough, and the people helping out manage the line well, the dogs shouldn't be overwhelmed. They deserve the love, too. Dogs are too social for their own good.

[ But it's why people love dogs so much, she knows. It's enviable how open-minded dogs are, as much as it is foolish. ]

I'd help them. Wouldn't you?

[ No. ]

Dunno how much I can help aside from talking to them until they calm down.

[ Maybe that's all he needs to do; that's all he does for the senior dogs and they settle down well enough, but maybe it's just because they need to be quiet in order to hear what Minato's mumbling to them under his breath, made even harder to listen with how hard of hearing some of them are. ]

...Acepromazine?

If that helps, isn't that enough?

[ She doesn't see the problem if it's something he's willing to do and it's something dogs responds to. ]

Medication should be used only when it's necessary, or under the guidance of licensed vet. I don't feel qualified enough to make that decision. I think talking should work fine. A reassuring presence works wonders, and maybe you can surprise people you know.

[ Minato mumbles something indistinctly, looking away and towards the exit so he can push the door open instead of running face first into it like he'd done with so many of the props that jumped out at him throughout the haunted house that he failed to pull away from. He medicates himself as needed; needed doesn't mean necessary, but talking to himself doesn't work. For dogs... ]

Maybe. [ He squints his eyes in preparation for the blinding light of the festivities outside. ] But I'm more a familiar presence than reassuring. I see my dogs almost every day at work. I don't know the shelter dogs.

[ She follows him out easily enough. ]

Familiar can be reassuring, and even if they don't know you, they can probably sense you want to help.

[ She looks at him with this question in her eye: unless you don't? ]

But this is all hypothetical since no one's suggested it yet, and we don't know if it'll happen even if suggested.

[ He looks away the moment he sees that question in her eye. Of course he wants to help, but the thought is that he isn't the best suited for the job, seeing as Clover so clearly understands both people and animals better than he does and could probably make a better case to the shelter for having the service available. He's happy enough being support from the shadows. ]

That's true... Probably wouldn't be implemented until next year anyways, huh. By then, we'll probably be too busy.

[ Clover would like it if she did understand animals and people to that extent, but she's only saying words she thinks are right to say, the words that she think should be heard, the words that make her seem like a good person. She wants to be a good person, but is she a good person if that's what she wants to be?

It's what she tries to tell herself. ]

If at all. I want to think, with proper time management, we should be able to find some time. We won't have all the time in the world, but helping out is only right.

[ In Minato's opinion, she's a good person. Who else would try, when Minato himself is prepared to give up from the start, and is willing to make and find the time to help instead of prioritizing other pressing plans, of which Minato's include shuffling through the city streets, sitting on the side of the road, and staring vacantly out the window.

He nods mutely for a moment, tilting his head over at Clover in lieu of clapping her on the back. ]

Yeah. If it's you, you'll find a way to make it happen.

[ !?

A mysterious voice rings in his head.

Thou art I... and I am thou...

JUST KIDDING since he doesn't have that regained yet, but just imagine if he did, in this moment Minato's social link with Clover would've went up a level.

Clover yearns for approval, for appreciation, for affection. Minato isn't a person of many words, and she thinks he wouldn't say words like that just to say them. She's not on the verge of crying, but his words invoke that kind of feeling. The smile that curves her lips is sincere, and she looks like a little girl who actually got what she wanted for Christmas. ]

Thanks, Minato. Your faith won't be misplaced. I'll do my best to make it happen. [ A beat. ] Are you planning on staying longer?

[ Or is he going to head home and get the sleep he needs? ]

[ Auditory hallucinations will come eventually, but for now, it's Clover's voice that he latches onto: a thanks that he wasn't expecting, the promise to fulfill some expectation he hadn't meant to place on Clover's shoulders, and a smile that's so rarely seen on other people's faces when they're in his presence because he gives little reason for them to do so.

He can't think of a way to respond that isn't just a repeat of what he just said, so he looks around the fairgrounds instead, yearning for bed but that's also a constant that that never really goes away and is easily ignored. ]

Maybe. Thought I'd see everything I can tonight while I have time, instead of coming back multiple nights. Anything you want to see?

I've been helping out with the games all day, so that's all I've seen. I want to see the corn maze and what level of difficulty they made it.

[ It's likely to be kid friendly, but maybe she'll be surprised. ]

Before I leave, I want to pick up a couple of pumpkins for some children I know. That's all I had planned for the rest of the day.

[ He has a feeling he would never make it out of a corn maze all by himself without some sort of navigator, but at least there's pushing through the stalks once he's stuck long enough to justify giving up. ]

I won't be any help, but if you want company for the maze, I can walk through with you. I'll carry the pumpkins later too, as thanks for waking me up.

[ She laughs because she's almost positive Minato would've preferred to be left sleeping. ]

I don't think I'll need help, but your company would be nice. Oh, and we can divide the pumpkins to be carried. I'm not helpless enough that I need you to carry all of them even if it's to show your gratitude.

[ Honestly, Clover likes that he offered to carry the pumpkins, but she absolutely doesn't want to seem like the kind of girl who has to ask a boy to help her out with anything heavy or tough. She doesn't want to be that weak. ]

[ He definitely would have preferred to be left sleeping, but with all the screaming that's been going on all night this month, the tried and true method to falling asleep immediately without being kept awake by the noise is to exhaust himself, so company through the corn maze it is. ]

To be honest, I can probably only carry two or three... They're heavier than they look. [ This, he knows by experience, so the compromise is more than welcome. ] Are you guys going to cook with them?

Minato... what do you go to the gym for?

[ She's joking, but she only half-sounds like it. ]

No, I've already bought carving tools, but I want them to have something festive to look at for Halloween. Something new.

[ Minato mumbles something about breathing room temperature air instead of the cold night air, but there's also the fact that all he does at the gym is zone out on the treadmill with his ears plugged and does zero lifting whatsoever. ]

Carving sounds fun too. It'd be like dissection lab.

[ Gutting things with knifes is always fun, y/y? ]

[ Clover doesn't catch him mumbling, so he's safe from her nagging. ]

It kind of is, isn't it? I could make it educational... point out the different parts of a pumpkin and plants, but there's something to be said about creative output. I'll leave it up to the kids if they want to learn while they cut.

[ She won't be the first one to admit it, but gutting things can be very therapeutic. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

OCTOBER TDM

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