repeter | APRIL TDM

TEST DRIVE

APRIL TEST DRIVE
The city of Recollé. A beautiful city you've called home for quite some time. While things can be a little weird, isn't that true of all homes? It's fully spring now, and there are flowers to be found everywhere. April's showers are a familiarity as well, the occasional downpour or drizzle keeping you on your toes.

What will you do today?

I.
April showers bring May flowers, right? Well, there are already plenty of flowers to be had, but that part of the old rhyme being true doesn't save you from the first part of it. While the weather forecasters do their best, their success rate for predicting the rain seems to be about fifty-fifty. Unfortunately, sometimes when they do predict the rain happening, they misjudge how bad it's going to be. Was the sky was clear when you last looked outside? It may not be quite so clear now. Hope you remembered to bring an umbrella today.

But it's not so bad, really! Maybe if you forgot to prepare, someone will share their umbrella with you. Not in the mood to talk to anyone? You can probably find some thrifty umbrella vendors on the streets of Tisse. When in doubt, there are always some loaner umbrellas scattered around in Apprassage at the Recollé Library as well. The library asks that you return any of the mismatched loaners found at the door, but it's not like the system is that strongly enforced. Well, other than the library stamp on the umbrellas, that is.

If you find yourself in Chata today, you could always buy a magazine off the street corners to hold overhead. If you look like you may buy something, vendors don't seem to mind if you idle under their awnings. Check out the latest fashions coming this spring while you wait it out. It looks like buckles are in, but some of the high fashion clothes look a little odder than usual. The hot, new dresses range from large like a billowing tarp to appearing more like an artfully arranged handkerchief than anything else. Fashion sure is weird sometimes.

II.
Recollé Square in Tribunal Terrace boasts a huge assortment of flower gardens scattered throughout the district, though they all appear to be whatever citizens felt like planting at the time. In fact, only flowers in Apprassage seem to match, especially around the University. Today, while the rain's stopped, a large group of people seem to be taking advantage of Recollé Square's mismatching for flower picking, crown and wreath weaving, and bouquet arranging. The activities seem to be loosely led by the city's PTA and some of the other socialite groups from around town. Then again, for long-standing citizens of the city this isn't unusual either. You seem to remember that this is an annual sort of thing even though there isn't actually a name for the event.

Some booths are set up around the park to swap seeds, flowers and food for cash or gossip, the guidelines a little more loose outside of the business districts. It seems as though lot of families are picnicking this weekend. There's even some kind of contest going on for the best flower crown - though usually the city tends to collectively pick a kid for the winner, so your best artistic talents might not get you the admiration you crave.

In addition, there's the most accurately judged flower-growing contest if you've been waiting for this day for a year or more, but that event tends to have the same people involved every year and the majority of Recollé isn't too heavily invested in it. They're here for the picnics and flower crowns, and it seems about the same as it always does. This year, though, there do seem to be more flowers than ever...and for that matter, they're a lot bigger than usual, too.

III.
Despite some of the fashion fiascos the magazines are displaying, maybe you should spend some time shopping this week. It may come as a surprise to you that your clothes haven't been fitting properly as of late. Those skinny jeans are just a hair too loose, and your favorite shirt seems baggier than it used to be. The problem, however, is that every shop you go to seems to stock clothes with the same issues. You're down a size or two or three, or maybe they're just marking everything down wrong. And surely you don't have the time or money to replace your entire wardrobe...will you take your chances? Complain to the store's manager? Or maybe you're an unfortunate soul who has to try and explain the unexplainable. Maybe offering a coupon will appease shoppers today.

IV.
Apparently walking around your neighborhood isn't quite as safe as it used to be - or it isn't safe if you want to trust your eyes. One second the little old lady who lives at the corner appears to be walking her pitbull just as she has every day for the last several years. The next, the pitbull is gone and she's walking a rather angry-looking caterpillar. Blink and you'll miss it, but as time goes on you'll see more and more of these larger-than-life insects wandering around. No matter how hard you try to explain it, the only other people who seem to see this as the least bit weird are people with the Retrospec app.

Oh, do you not have the Retrospec app? Think again. The sound of chirping crickets will follow you until the next time you look at your mobile device or a public computer, prompting you to accept a profile and upload a user picture. Congratulations! It seems as though you've been selected to be a new tester!

...it's going to be one of those days.

BONUS.
While the Retrospec app only infrequently has posts from the company itself - and those have thus far proven to be universally useless - this month there is an onslaught of updates. At least once per day there's a picture of a new type of flower or insect, along with a "fun fact" about whatever the company has posted.

Did you know, for example, that wasps feeding on fermenting juice have been known to get "drunk' and pass out? Ancient civilizations burned aster leaves to ward off evil spirits. Ticks can grow from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a marble. Roses are related to apples, raspberries, cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, pears and almonds. Houseflies find sugar with their feet, which are 10 million times more sensitive than human tongues. Praying mantises prey on other insects, and perhaps you'd better watch your step.

Wait, what?

As usual, any attempt to get the company to reply about the increasingly disturbing information they're sending out is useless. The daily facts grow less and less useful and eventually seem to be nothing but fun facts about how flowers and bugs could kill you or one another. Kind of unfortunate for you, if this is your first time getting any messages whatsoever from the app. How do you unsubscribe? Good luck figuring it out.

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! The April 2017 TDM directory can be found here. The April 2017 Workshop can be found here. The mod questions comment is here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Nico happens to be passing by when his cousin stops him. He blinks, looks over at the dog in question, and just stares.]

Uhh...is there something in the tap water in America that I don't know about?

[A beat. Then—]

That better not happen to my dogs.

[Nico, dear Nico, she loves her cousin so dearly--and not because he's just validated that she isn't crazy! In spite of herself and her bemusement a smile crosses her face; Kath can't resist the opportunity to tease him a little bit.]

It's not the tap water, Nico; I've never seen anything like this before. But are you telling me you wouldn't want to snuggle up at night with a giant cricket? How about a centipede instead?

[Katherine. Don't push your luck...]

[Nico gives her a flat look in response.]

That depends. Do you want to go face-first into the puppy pile with three giant crickets or grasshoppers instead of dogs? 'Cause I'll pass.

[He's not a fan and never will be a fan. It's too gross and creepy that the mere thought is actually making his skin crawl.]

And I think I'll stick to bottled water forever rather than drink whatever tap water you Americans have.

[It's probably clear from her expression that she didn't think about the puppy pile when she made the joke.]

You're right. I don't think I could take it if Orthus's paws were suddenly spindly grasshopper legs.

It isn't the water, though. Besides, we have the filters on the taps for a reason! I've grown up drinking it, and I've turned out perfectly fine.

[That means he wins the round.]

Yeah, exactly.

[Nico runs a hand through his hair, scratching his head a bit as he looks at the """dogs""" nearby with a perplexed expression.]

I've got nothing, unless we're, like, having a mass hallucination? But that can't be right if we're seeing the same thing. And then there's that weird app that showed up on my phone....

[That's all right. She doesn't need to win against Nico--he's one of the few people she'll let win so easily! However, it's the mention of the app that really grabs her attention, and she turns from looking after Dr. Keller once more back to him, her full attention trained on him as she reaches out to put her hand on his forearm.]

An app? Did one install itself on your phone, too? I thought it had just infected my phone, but it turns out that it's downloaded itself to both my laptop and the tablet as well.

[Nico's attention goes back to his cousin once she touches his forearm. He frowns slightly as she talks about having the same issue he's been having.]

Yeah. I didn't download it myself, and when I went on the computer at school? It was there, too. But when I asked some classmates about it, they didn't see it there.

[He's still not entirely sure they weren't pranking him, but if Katherine's having the same thing happening to her...it seems unlikely.]

[She nods--it's all matching up with her exact experience.]

Seto has it too--the guy I text sometimes to make sure he's eaten? He'd never quit working if I didn't... anyway, we wanted to see if there was some sort of action that could be taken, since we didn't opt in to the application and it had skimmed our information to fill in the profile already. But when I tried to show it to Father so he could see what I was talking about, he couldn't find it. Even if I tried holding the phone and showing it to him, it crashed before he saw anything.

[Nico blinks owlishly at her and then sighs in some frustration.]

Well, great. So, even if you brought it to court, the fact that it'll probably crash or in some way obscure itself will probably make any lawsuit against the company pointless. I'd bet if you took a screen cap of it, it'd just turn out to be something else.

[He'll just have to refrain from telling his Mama and Papa about this app, considering there's not a whole lot they can do about it.]

Guess I'll just keep trying to change some stuff on this profile I never wanted. [Nico huffs and crosses his arms. There's just one thing....] So...have you tried using it yet?

[Another nod. That's about the size of it, from what she can tell. It's frustrating to think that somehow this app defies all expectations in being unable to be accessed in front of those that haven't already seen it, but it's a matter that she's put aside for now. After all, if she can't explain how the app works, it's just because she hasn't found the right information yet. Right?]

Seto messaged me through it the first day I had it. Why do you ask?

APRIL TDM

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