Recollé Mods (
recollecters) wrote in
repeter2017-04-16 09:01 pm
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APRIL TDM
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 ![]() |
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Don't beat yourself up over it. Seeing things out of the corner of your eye is perfectly norm-- [she happens to glance over at the lady and the dog, and of course, for a split second, the lady is walking a giant beetle.] whaaaaaaat is that.
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He didn't see it that time, but he's pretty sure he knows what she saw, judging from that reaction.]
Did you see it?! That thing is huge, right!
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That was really a giant beetle! Oh my god, it was enormous!
[She looks between him and the dog, as if she's waiting for some sort of belated 'April Fools!' or something along those lines.]
You're not just messing around, right? That dog actually looked like a beetle for a second, right?
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[And unfortunately, the lady turns a corner and her and the dog vanish.]
What the heck could cause something like that to happen?
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[Shared delusion?? She doesn't really have a second suggestion, she's watching the woman disappear around the corner and take all the answers with her.]
Maybe we should try to catch up with her and ask.
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[And then his phone starts... chirping? That's a weird sound.]
Hang on for a sec.
[He puts his phone from his pocket and stares at it.]
Retrospec? I don't remember installing anything called that.
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but oh, he's digging for his phone, now probably isn't the time.]
--Oh, that's a cute ringtone. [she says cheerfully, her accent back to almost-fluent. The strange thing, though, is that the chirping noise continues even when his phone is in his hand. After a few seconds, she slowly reaches into her bag to pull out her own phone. This is... getting a little too weird; she claps one hand over the top of her screen, glancing at Zaveid to see if he is also finding this strange.]
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[Leave it to Zaveid to have traveled everywhere and be able to tell where someone is from. Or, at least, what accent they're mimicking.
He's still staring at his phone in confusion.]
It's not my ringtone, I think it's this app. What the hell is it?
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[She opens her hands to try to silence her phone.] Uh... what did you say that app was again?
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[He's still staring at his phone in confusion.]
Retrospec. It looks like some sort of new social media site.
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That's really odd timing. [she says, and then flips her phone around to show him the Retrospec start-up screen.] It just popped up on mine too. I wonder if it's a city-wide thing.
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[He really doesn't want to sign up for this. He doesn't even do social media. Except for his cats.]
Is this some kind of weird advertisement? I don't remember downloading anything like this, do you?
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[Zaveid, please.]
They sound like kind of a weird company, don't they? I wonder if what they're doing can even be considered legal. It's not like I agreed to a ToS, it just downloaded on my phone.