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

[... sorry, tsukasa, she immediately sets the rack down.]

What are you doing, exactly?

Taking a picture.

[And he shrugs before letting his camera go to swing on its strap around his neck.]

It was pretty good setting - the light behind you and the way it glinted off the metal.

And it never occurred to you to ask for permission first?

[she is most definitely judging him right now.]

I knew I forgot a step.

[Judge him all she wants. It's not the first time that someone was judging him, though at least this one wasn't throwing things at him.]

I would say the most important step.

[why are you like this, tsukasa.]

Please erase those pictures immediately.

Are you sure about that?

[Because he is Tsukasa Kadoya?]

Erase how?

Yes.

[this shit is why your boyfriend tried to kill you with a giant cross-canon mecha.]

I... do not know. It's your camera, shouldn't you know?

How sure?

[LET'S NOT BRING HIM UP. taking his Decade card and being such a smug spoilsport.]

It's not digital for one, and for another I could just ask you if I can develop them now.

Entirely sure.

[we have to bring him up, because we all know toei isn't going to ever again]

You may not. Do not develop them.

Really, huh?

[Sob toei you evil has no bounds? So terrible to the OT4.]

That's a pity. It's a nice shot without any attempt at setting a stage as you would if I did ask right before taking it.

Yes.

[toei's rude.]

It was not intended to be a shot at all.

That's why I took it.

[So rude. So cruel. So many Riders lost in the wayside.]

But fine, I'll toss it once I finish with the roll.

[Not that he was ever going to publish any of these pictures. He only took them because he felt like it and then the best went into his files as memories.]

See that you do.

[She gives him the stinkeye.]

What is your name?

[And he just ignores the stinkeye like he ignores most anything else which means that he is going to poke at something new like the weird bright pink mess of a dress on the hanger besides him. It wasn't any close of a match to the shirt he was wearing now, but it still caught his eye.]

Tsukasa Kadoya.

[He almost expected that no one would have heard of him here which kinda stung him at first but he was now enjoying a little. No one knowing him and his reports on serial killers meant that he didn't have to explain anything.]

Who are you?

Cleo Ritter.

[She's kind of an extremely focused person. She completely ignores anything outside of what she focuses on, and what she has focused on is Law and Beating Things Up.]

I'll be coming by soon to verify you really have thrown them out.

Is that so?

[And there's a snort at that statement. Did she think that he was going to have them all laying out like some stalker?]

Legally I don't have to let you any where near my residence or place of business.

[yes, actually.]

Perhaps not, but I feel it would be wiser to allow it.

[He's not that kind of person. Not really. Don't give him that look, he may seem a creeper but it's srs not that way because that kind of creeper takes work and he is kinda lazy.]

Maybe. Who knows?

I believe we both know. And I hope you have learned a lesson to not do this again.

There's a lesson?

[Which means nope, no lesson. He doesn't seem to be paying attention too much anyways. Just kinda flicks his hand in farewell in any case.]

The lesson is, should you wish to talk legality, you should not first take pictures of teenage girls without their permission.

[she does not talk like a teenager.

but she's not gonna make any move to follow him if he's leaving.]

I'll remember that the next time I meet someone who's a teenage girl.

[Not that he was taking her picture because of her age. It was just the way the pose looked. He barely registered the age of the subject.

But yes, leaving is a good idea. He had to get some coffee.]

APRIL TDM

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