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

I don't think the people back then had plastic bags. You'll be surprised how fast bacteria can spread, if it has the right environment. But...

[ She waves at the tub full of water and apples. ]

You can test it yourself. Or you can simply get an apple for fun. Bob for one?

There is a lot of bacteria in the mouth. Then again, the mouth is also always there on the pillow with you, too... even without an apple...

[ He should call his mom and ask her how often it is that you're supposed to wash pillows again.

But anyway. He's probably taken up enough of this young lady's time when she's trying to ... raise money? He guesses?? ]

How much is it?

That's why you wash your pillowcase often. I hope you wash yours once a week.

[ Or she'll nag him even though she doesn't know him.

Anyway, she's helping out because volunteering is what she does. This isn't a fundraiser. Probably. ]

There's no fee. [ Because I have no idea how to price these things. ] Please try your best.

...I want to, but it's more like every two weeks. The laundromat keeps raising its prices...

[ Hngh.
He doesn't actually feel that strong a desire to bob for an apple. The water looks cold, and he doesn't think his fragile heart is prepared for an indirect kiss with every single other person who's put their mouth in there today. Plus, now that he knows there's no particular benefit for her (or anyone else) whether he does or not, the mild conviction that he has a civic duty to go through with it has faded...
...But at the same time, it'd be weird to back out now. So... ]

H-here I go!!

We can't help what we can't help.

[ She understand what the poor life is like unfortunately. She's lucky she's managed enough scholarships that her undergrad isn't killing her.

She waits patiently, and her hands are poised to drag him out if it looks like he's dumb enough to run out of breath and choke on water. ]

[ He balls up his fists, squinches his eyes shut, and... ... goes for it!!!

The apple keeps escaping when he tries to grab it, as apples are wont to do when being bobbed for; the fact that it jiggles while doing so only complicates things. At last, he manages to get one by turning his face almost completely upside down, trapping the apple against the side of the basin underneath him, and giving it the requisite cronch. So he does get some water up his nose, but at least he doesn't drown.

He emerges a moment later, rivulets of cold water trailing down his face, jittering prize locked in his teeth...
He's won, and yet this doesn't feel like a triumph. ]

[ When he turns his face almost completely upside down, it's alarming and worrying. Clover is just about to pull him out when he comes out with an apple.

She smiles because that's what you do when you congratulate someone. ]

Congratulations. You did it.

[ She offers him a towel to dry himself off. ]

We don't want you to get a cold from winning.

[ He lets the apple drop into his open palm and closes his fingers around it enough to keep it from wiggling and jiggling right back into the water. Then he gratefully accepts the towel and sticks his face in it. ]

I did it...

[ His voice is muffled by the towel when he says this. ]

Thank you for the towel.

You're welcome. I hope you find your future love.

[ She's joking, but she sounds sincere. ]

Oh, thank you! You, too.
Even if apples don't work, we'll probably end up finding them in the future, right?

OCTOBER TDM

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