repeter | APRIL TDM

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

[III: this prompt was specifically made to torment the fashion-conscious]
[Shuji knows, definitely, completely, without a doubt, that this shouldn't be happening.

He weighs himself regularly. His clothes all fit right, or close to right - the easiest way to look terrible in any outfit is for it to be poorly fitted. It doesn't matter how well-coordinated the pieces are, it won't look good if it isn't his size.

So there's no way that he could suddenly find that his clothes aren't fitting right. He hasn't had any large weight gain or weight loss recently. And if some of his shirts are too baggy and some of them are too tight - there's no way, right? It's impossible, right??

But, impossible or not, the fact remains that Shuji can't be seen by others in poorly-fitting clothes. He pulls together the most acceptable outfit he can and goes shopping for replacements.

At least three stores and perhaps a dozen increasingly frustrated trips to the changing rooms later, Shuji has had enough. He bursts out of the changing room with the latest of not-quite-right clothing and starts to wail.]

It's impossible! It's impossible that nothing in this city fits me! I don't even have an unusual body shape so there's no way that I can't find a single pair of pants that fit right! I'll be doomed to wear a potato sack for the rest of my life...!

[He's not being quiet and probably disturbing the shopping experience of other customers, or whatever poor employees are working today.]

[BONUS: at least it's not newts]
[Shuji's not afraid of bugs. He's bigger than them, for one thing. Spiders, okay, sure, but if it's something like an ant, he'll just let it do its thing in peace.

...That said, this is kind of a little much... Shuji expects the other app-users have been getting this deluge of messages about insects and plants, so he'll make a complaint.]

Did the Retrospec PR department binge-watch bug-themeed B-movies recently? Or is someone just really into them?

[WILDCARD: wage slave]
[Ah, spring. A time for beautiful flowers to bloom - big ones this year. Naturally, it's also a time for pollen allergies to start acting up. Which means that the pharmacy in his convenience store is much more busy. In general, when any part of Shuji's store gets more customers, Shuji suffers.]

I'm sorry, but... we really can't apply coupons that are already expired...

[Scene: a woman attempting to pay for a good number of anti-allergy medicine bottles with a pile of expired coupons, some of which Shuji thinks date back to last year. Not that he would say that out loud, because he's too busy shrinking backwards as the woman gets increasingly loud and aggressive about how he should just give her a discount since she wasted so much time gathering them all up.]

I-I really can't take any money off your purchase, the machine won't let me...

[He looks like he might cry.]

Edited 2017-04-17 04:50 (UTC)

[Silver is usually a pretty patient person, but this lady is really pushing his buttons. So what's a guy that is standing right behind her going to do?]

Hey, lady, maybe you're not understanding what's going on here. The coupons are like you. Cheap and expired.

[The lady stops and stands aghast for a moment before launching into some tirade about how this has nothing to do with him-]

Your words are like your coupons too. Big in quantity, but totally worthless. Your attitude needs a discount.

[...It's hard to tell whether she's embarrassed for herself or because those were the lamest one liners imaginable, but it gets her to shut up and pay, at least.]

[Speaking as a writer, those were not terribly impressive one-liners. Speaking as a person who was on the brink of tears before Silver spoke up, Shuji is overflowing with gratitude right now and would never critique Silver's attempt at wit.

When Silver makes it to the front of the line, after the couponer leaves, Shuji gives him a huge smile.]

You're my hero.

So I get a discount, right?

[...It's a joke. It's hard to tell with his expression- or lack thereof- but the twenty he sets down is more than enough to pay for some aleve and skittles.]

Osamu Dazai | Bungou to Alchemist

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