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

[Let's be honest, Zack doesn't check his phone all that often. He's barely good at responding to emails and texts. He'd much rather call someone if he wants to talk! And even now he has an odd flip phone rather than one of those fancy new touch screen phones...]

What's my phone got to do with it?

[Yet, he does pull it out and flips it open. Low and behold... There's that pesky Retrospec app sitting in the middle of his top screen...]

[ you need an upgrade, old man. has that motorola razr seen dinosaurs because god damn is it jurassic

and— there it is. eren doesn’t need to search that much to recognize it, and presses his finger to the screen. right on top of it. ]

Retrospec has to do with it. [ he might look a little irritable, but it’s not with zack. retrospec was a melting pot of opinions, and most of them were questionable. ]

[What's wrong with his phone, though?! It works! It flips! (that's hip!) Why buy a new one when he has a perfectly functioning- Yeah- It is a brick from the Jurassic period. Someone please upgrade him. It's embarrassing.

The app turns on as if it's a smart phone anyway and flickers and beeps. Instantly the screen is filled with various posts and "information."]

... Alright, now you have to explain to me what a phone app has to do with normal and non-normal apples.

[Because, what?]

[ alright, here’s the hard part. or well, the easy part, if you knew your way around it. eren was one of those people that flipped when he wasn’t given information, so it’s not like he’d want that for anyone else he knows, especially such a well known vet. ]

Might want to sit down for it, sir.

[ sir because— well. respect. he can’t forget that. ]

I’ll tell you everything I know.

[Sir- Hah. He'll never get tired of that. He kind of smirks a little with pride despite it all. AHEM.]

Try to give me the short version, alright?

[There's some benches over yonder so he heads that way and flops down, arm resting on the back of it.]

That’ll just make things even more confusing than they are.

[ so, no, no short version. although, he does try and think of a more simplistic way to phrase things— as long as it made sense in his head, it should be fine for anyone else to understand. after wetting his lips, he starts. ]

You didn’t notice anything until now because of Retrospec. Monsters, the fruit, “anomalies”— they’re all things that they can’t put a lid on on their own. [ which . . . brings them to, well, them. ] You’re gonna start remembering things, or getting things in the mail from them. Things from a past life.

[ he’ll pause, because this was all pretty crazy for him too. he can confirm, or keep going if zack follows and doesn’t have any questions. he’ll answer if he does, though. ]

[Oh great, he's so bad at listening to the long version of things. But he'll do his best.

... His best being-- giving Eren a very confused look, eyebrows furrowed deeply. His smile twitches.]

So you're saying a phone app makes us notice all these weird ass things? And that the same phone app is going to make us remember some timey wimey past life science fiction stuff too?

[Wow. The power of smart phones.]

Go on...? I guess?

[ zack ]

Not the app, it’s the group. Retrospec just made the app and sends it to us.

[ how? m . . . . iracles. ]

It’s just a way for everyone in this to stay in touch.

And we gotta use this app?

[He's kinda garbage at keeping up with social media.]

Ehh, that's weird. [Retrospec in general, he means.]

Edited 2017-10-30 23:25 (UTC)

[ us both, homie. eren might be a little more updated but social media is as appealing to him as a cranky 80 year old grandpa that wants those kids off his god damn yard. ]

You won’t want to, trust me. [ but . . . while he’s at it, he’ll quickly take his phone out and show him. look, zack. a touch screen. ]

I made this, [ it’s a little document with as much information as possible about what’s been going on, where, and more frequently asked questions. ] so you don’t need to scroll through mountains of bullshit like I did.

[Social media is way too many dumb posts written by teenagers and aunties posting stupid recipe videos no one cares about. ~~farmville is great tho~~

Wow-! Fancy phone! Not that Zack says that out loud...] Hey, send that to me, will ya?

[ farmville is the devil and you will not sin, zack. ]

Give it a few reads and you should get it more than actually asking the network. [ but! consider it sent! ping! ] Check back on it for updates, too.

[Zack clicks through his phone a bit, skimming the information and nods.]

Thanks, Eren. This helps a lot. I'm still lost as hell on all the weird crap, but this is a good start. I owe you.

[Consider it one free ticket to training with Zack or something, bud.]

OCTOBER TDM

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