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

ii. flower crowns

[the whole flower thing really isn't normally majima's scene, but he's here for a reason. ("it's for business!" -- a great excuse to get away with all kinds of embarrassing things, incidentally.) the flowers have kind of infected everyone's moods, and they do seem way bigger and maybe like there are way more than usual. it only seems right to get in the spirit of things. besides, the guys & gals back at work would appreciate flower crowns, right?

yeah they'll totally appreciate them.

totally.

only...flower crowns are a lot harder to make than he'd thought. and, yeah, some nice person gives him directions on how to do it but now he's sitting at a park bench with a stack of flowers (look, he's got a sizable number of employees! they aren't all for himself!) trying to make them into crowns with what could be referred to as varying success.]

Oh, shit --

[it doesn't help that the stems keep breaking in his hands instead of looping together all nice and pretty like.]

Sorry for all the flowers I keep wasting, [he says, to no one in particular but as a sign of his deep embarrassment at the failure of being able to accomplish a task he's pretty sure children have got figured out before him.]

iii. - shopping adventure.

[majima's own clothes not fitting as well doesn't bother him as much as maybe it should be he's absolutely going to take advantage of the coupon thing going around due to all the complaining. he spends....a lot more on clothes for the club than he'd readily admit to, but at least that'll help him keep costs down.

first, though, he's definitely going to have to take a look at those fashion magazines. they look normal, for a moment, and then he starts really looking.]

Eh? Is this for real?

[tarp dress....handkerchief....god, he hopes none of his girls decide this is good fashion. after a moment longer of reading (like staring at a trainwreck, not being able to look away) he finally sets the magazine down to go look through the dresses section. even if the sizes are all messed up, chances are they'll fit someone and they usually end up having to get everything tailored anyway.

saving is just very important. so don't mind him while he's trying to decide which of several splashy dresses is the one he wants to take with him today.]

bonus

I was cool with the bug updates until I got the one about the chiggers and now I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth leaving the house anymore.

You win, Retrospec, please stop haunting my nightmares with your creepy ass bug facts.

wildcard

[maybe you run into majima at his club, or out singing karaoke or maybe you want a good excuse to play out some cr we talked about on the workshop! feel free to hit me up with whatever strikes your fancy, we'll make it happen.]

It's probably not a problem.

[ Well, hey! Fancy seeing you here Majima. Kiryu's not exactly a pro at flower crown-making, but he seems to be wearing one just fine. ]

Would you like some help?

Oh! Hey, Kazzy.

[it's nice to see a familiar face, at least. he scoots over a little bit on the bench to give kiryu the space, definitely checking out that flower crown.]

Yeah, sure, I'm trying to make some for the kids at the club.

["kids" several of them are older than you but ok majima]

Thanks.

[ Kiryu sits down on the bench beside him, staring down at the... mountain of flowers Majima's got for himself. That at least explains why he has so many. ]

That's nice of you. Are you going to be able to carry that many crowns home?

[ Regardless, Kaz ~~fuck it's hard to type Kaz and not Kiryu~~ grabs a few of the flowers and starts lining them up. I mean, he's super slow and he's like, super focused, but it's working. ]

Hadn't really thought that far ahead.

[but he's sure he'll figure it out somehow. maybe in a bag? or on his arms? or...

whatever he'll figure it out.]

But they'll look pretty cute if they decide to wear them. Getting in the spirit and everything.

[ Kaz hums a response, his attention mostly focused on helping now that he's gotten started. ]

That's true. Might give your club a spring theme.

[ Of course Kiryu knows nothing about running a club, please take his words with a grain of salt. ]

Aren't you going to wear one?

goro majima | yakuza

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ii. flower crowns

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