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

There are worse ways to spend a lifetime, I'm sure.

[Still, it gets a smile out of him — a little softer than the ones that come with his idle attempts at provoking her to wit or banter.]

Truth be told, I'm not precisely sure what I'll do after this, really. Make some sort of career for myself, I suppose, but...

[He shakes his head as he trails off, though, cutting off his own thought as though he's just thought better of finishing it, and crosses briskly to the window to peer out of it as a way of filling in the silence he leaves behind.]

— it looks as though the downpour is letting up somewhat. If you're going to make a break for your car, we may want to do it soon.

[She hesitates for half a second, but then nods.]

. . . all right.

[She gathers her papers up, her movements brisk and swift.]

Do you need a ride home?

There's no need. I've an umbrella of my own, and I'm hardly afraid of a little rain anyway. I'll manage the walk.

[Ah, good, the rustling of papers. That's his cue to go fetch their umbrellas and wraps, then.]

Nonsense. It's hardly out of my way. And anyway, I've finished going over the last section of your dissertation you sent me, we might as well use the time to discuss it.

Have you!

[Well, that perks him up a bit, but only in that way so common to students who are putting their heart and soul into big academic projects — that equal parts trepidation about receiving feedback yet eagerness for the possibility that it might be positive.]

That was the section on the possible existence of unique and personalized energy signatures, I believe?

It was.

[Oh, dear. He always looks so eager, because he really is enthused about this dissertation. She can't blame him: it really is interesting, even if she herself doesn't have much interest in legends and myths. But it means she always feels slightly bad about giving him criticism, because god, look at that face.

Oh, well. He'll never improve if she isn't honest. And she isn't nasty about it.]

You're going to have to clear up the sections a bit, I'm afraid. You start off clear and defined, but it starts to muddle a bit once you get into various legends concerning it.

[She hefts her bag as she says it, nodding towards the door: come along.]

You want want to focus on talking about the general different kinds of energies first, before you get into the more personalized bits.

I'm not precisely sure how else to incorporate discussion of those legends without risking a fair bit of muddling. It's a muddly sort of field.

[He smoothly gets in front of her on her way to the door, making sure it's open and ready for her to pass through before she makes it to the threshold before falling into step beside her.]

You don't think it calls for too much speculation, to try to categorize those energies on my own?

[She'd just thought about how she needs to stop relying on him, and yet here she is, automatically falling into step with him once more. It's just instinctive by now, letting him open the door as they stride through the halls, and yet it really isn't fair.]

So long as you don't insist you're entirely correct without any evidence. But it wouldn't be outlandish for you to propose something mildly new, and heaven only knows legends need organizing. I should think you'd be perfectly fine in doing so. Do you have any idea as to how you might organize them?

Mmm. I suppose the logical method of grouping would be by variety of supernatural creature implicated in the legend, and then reverse-engineering it back out to look for similarities in those energy patterns used — the fact that solar energy has a detrimental effect on both vampires and weres of legend, for example. Whereas energy originated within a particular organism would be...mitochondrial?

[Yeah, he's spitballing now, but if there's one thing he's learned in his time around Dr. Lutece, it's that it's far better to spitball and get shot down than to come up empty-handed with a flat and unproductive "I don't know".]

I'll give it some thought. Kitsune allegedly store their magic power in a jewel known as a hoshi no tama, did you know?

[She hums softly in approval at that attempt at grouping. It's not perfect, but certainly it's a good start.]

I didn't.

[Ah, she loves the Fox Facts power hour.]

That seems rather inconvenient for a creature with no clothes or opposable thumbs. Do legends say how they carried it?

[MORE LIKE THE "TIME FOR KIT TO BE A HUGE WEEB" POWER HOUR]

In its mouth or on its tail, traditionally. It's also possible to separate a kitsune from its hoshi no tama, though it'll die if the separation lasts too long.

Naturally, taking that jewel from a kitsune is one way of coercing it to render you a favor in exchange for its return. Though I suppose it might also incite it to burn down your house, but caveat emptor, I suppose.

It would burn down your house?

[What the hell, that's delightful. Rosalind laughs as they head out of the university proper and she sweeps the umbrella up.]

How often does that come up!

Bad things come upon those who trifle with fickle supernatural creatures. Here, let me, you've got your bag to deal with.

[He opens up his own umbrella, positioning it over his head, then automatically reaches over to take hers and handle it for her.]

Parked in the usual, I assume?

Mmhmm.

[She waits patiently until he's finished, then takes her umbrella back with a softer smile.]

Thank you, Fawkes. Ah . . . were there any other tales of what foxes might do to those who irked them?

You're that interested in them? Perhaps I should change the topic of my dissertation.

[It gets a slight laugh out of him, though, as he shakes his head as if to clear the joke away.]

It's kind of you to indulge my penchant for telling stories, Dr. Lutece.

I learn quite a bit each time you tell them.

[And it makes him happy. It's not hard to see he's got a bit of a thing for foxes; what's the harm in indulging it?]

Besides: I like hearing them. You tell them well.

Shame I can't use that as a line on my CV.

[But he pauses again, the way that he'd done before in the classroom, and eventually ventures: ]

My mother liked them, too — likes, rather. When I was around to tell them, she liked them, is what I mean.

[That past tense is no good, but at least he corrects it.]

Which is her favorite?

[Asked just before she unlocks the car (which is probably a little more expensive and Nice than it ought to be, but whatever, everyone's allowed a vice or two, she likes nice cars), so answer inside, Fawkes.]

[Oh, to be well-to-do. Maybe someday he should look into robbing a bank.

Again, he moves automatically to assist with the juggle of student papers, umbrellas, and the stowing inside the car of the same, and once those are secured he makes his way into the passenger seat, his body language politely withdrawn in that way that people tend to do when they're bid to sit on something they know is Slightly Too Nice for their comfort level.]

She's a romantic at heart. She enjoys the ones where the fox takes human form and weds a mortal, and though circumstances cause them to part, the fox's husband continues to love her all the same despite it.

[Oh. That does sound nice, and Rosalind smiles faintly as she starts up the car.]

You ought to tell me that one properly one day. I think I might enjoy it nearly as much as your mother does.

I hope you're not suggesting that you too are a closet romantic. Whatever would your students say.

[But he's laughing, under his breath.]

This really is too kind of you. I could've walked; the rain doesn't bother me.

If you tell my students any such thing, Christopher, I'll ensure you'll have twice the workload you do now.

[But she shrugs in response to his second statement. It really isn't all that kind, not when she thinks of all the things he does for her. It's quite frankly the least she could do, and really, if he ends up walking in the rain, he's liable to get sick, and god help her if she's stuck on her own for a week.]

[At the sound of his real name, he automatically sits up a little straighter, driven purely on reflex to Behave™ at the sound. Which is a little bit mortifying, frankly, but what can you do...]

Yes, ma'am.

[That, too, comes automatic — not abashed or guilty, but certainly with the haste of someone who knows it's time to be obedient and is already halfway there.]

...Right, well. I'm sure that's classified knowledge I'd sooner keep to myself, anyway.

[Hah. She doesn't laugh, at least, but her mouth twitches into a suppressed grin.]

Naturally. Heaven forbid that get out: if my desk was suddenly swarmed with red roses from students who dreamed they suddenly had a chance, it'd be on your head.

I'd hardly let a disruption like that interfere with your class business, Dr. Lutece.

[Translation: THERE WOULD BE BLOOD.]

Red roses as a vehicle for one's affections are unimaginative and frankly a bit plebeian anyway.

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