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.

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[ The thing is, she's talking to a kid who's perpetually starved for validation.......... she can push it so far, she doesn't even know.

Taichi actually looks??? Excited??? Despite the fact that he's going to have to be paying for all of this. It's fine... he's being paid by the theater troupe he's in, he has a bit of cash to drop. ]

Yeah?! I know a really good burger joint that's just around here— they have ice cream there too, like, the ones you dip your fries in? [ Basically a Shake Shack, tbh. ] We can do both!

[ a moment of silence for Taichi's wallet ]

[ DEAR LORD ICE CREAM AND BURGERS ALL IN ONE PLACE

Never did Mafuyu ever think getting smacked in the face with flowers would lead to a development like this, she is keeping Taichi around forever now. Which means she takes back everything she said about losers because she takes him by the wrist again and yanks him towards the no longer forgotten seven-year-old ]

Hurry up and lose so we can go! Forfeit! We forfeit!!

[ WHAT HAPPENED TO PRIDE... clearly Taichi doesn't have any, since he's peacing out of this fight without looking too upset that he got his ass handed to him by a 7 year-old. The kid in question looks at both of these older people like he can't even believe this is happening. ]

Good luck bein' the flower crown king, kiddo!

[ Taichi's day to shine will come another day... never.

With that done (and with the child turning and trotting off to find his actual parents), Taichi levels another full-faced grin at Mafuyu. ]

Guess we lost the battle but we're gonna win the war? [ ??? that's not true at all, but ok ] —I'm Taichi, by the way!

Edited 2017-04-19 22:50 (UTC)

[ Pride is conditional... They ended the battle on their own terms, so there's still a little bit of pride left to salvage, be the bigger person and all that. ]

I'm Mafuyu!

[ Taichi's grin is like sunshine and Mafuyu's just going to agree with that statement because this is fine. Taichi's flower crown had flown apart before it could smack her in the face, she had no real confidence in his weaving skills in the first place, whoops ]

And we totally won: the flower king doesn't get ice cream!

[ He falls into an easy rapport relatively quickly, with his wrist gently dislodging itself from Mafuyu's grip to stick into his wide sweatshirt pocket. It's an old nervous habit, to hide his hands when he's fidgeting with them— even if he's a performer, he's still awkward around girls. ]

Cool, cool— nice to meetcha! [ An exaggerated turn on his heels, and he motions to where he wants to go with a tip of his chin. ] It's a total win for us, since we're gonna get so much ice cream. Until we puke!

[ Tomorrow's headlines: 16 year old boy found dead with his face in a pool of ice cream. ]

—O, or not...! Maybe I shouldn't have said 'puke' in front of a girl...

[ She doesn't mind the word, so long as he doesn't actually do it? Not because it's gross, but because it's a waste of food and would be a damn shame to see. But she goes with it, like she goes with anything even if she's the one jerking things around, because there will be no puking today. ]

Oh! Let's do that, an ice cream eating contest! You'll get brain freeze before you puke, and then it's my win!

[ She's deciding this already, confident in how much she can eat and how quickly no matter who her opponent is, fistpumping in the air as she does because her hands are always out in the open, swinging at her sides, swinging at people's faces... Nervous habits have no place. ]

?! We're still competing?!

[ She's definitely the one still jerking him around, and definitely the one calling the shots, but, well. Taichi's still walking, and the burger joint is just around the corner. ]

You gotta be gentle with me, Mafuyu... I thought we were finally gonna move from shonen to shojo!

[ He doesn't want to fight for dominance, he was never born to be a super saiyan!! ]

[ Life is a competition, Taichi!! That's just how Mafuyu lives her life, rushing from one place to the next without ever stopping for tea or flowers floating in the background or whatever constitutes shojo in her mind. So she pulls a face, not really meant to be insulting or condescending but she's just baffled. ]

No... In the first place, why are you so hung up on shojo?

[ Ice cream is as gentle as she can get. She could have suggested a burger eating contest? But then they'd both be throwing up and getting kicked out of the restaurant by their third or fourth. ]

Why?

[ He also sounds baffled, because his entire life is predicated on Being Someone, and who better to be than the heroes he sees in romance dramas? It's his turn to throw his hands up in the air this time, emphatic about making this point. ]

—Cuz that's the way guys get popular! If I find out how to act like the guys you see in shojo scenarios, I'll get my big break, for sure!

[ Devastatingly low goalposts, thy name is Taichi Nanao. ]

Wrong!!

[ Mafuyu swats those hands down like she's eradicating those thoughts from existence ]

In shojo, it's just a guy and a girl— shonen guys are more popular! They're all about making friends and fighting as a team! A team is at least three people!! Three is greater than two!

[ It's simple math, Taichi, that even somebody who skips too many school days as Mafuyu does knows this. ]

[ WHAT THE HECK.... FIGHT HIM, MAFUYU ]

Huh?! Hey, that's not true...! Sometimes there's a third girl!! Sometimes the main guy's the most popular kid on campus!!

That's like.

A thousand people!!

[ Guess who gets borderline failing grades in every subject. ]

[ Failing grades... same here tbh, so Mafuyu looks momentarily stunned— are there really a thousand people in their school?? She barely knows the 30-some people in her class; Taichi could be one of them and she wouldn't even know. But the recovery, she's always been good at the recovery ]

But you can't be friends with a thousand people! You'd have to know all their names and eat lunch with everybody and no restaurant will hold a thousand people!

Yyyyeah, but you're never gonna be bored or alone, right? Someone's always gonna want to hang with you!

[ Because that's what matters!! To him, at least. He puts his hands at his hips, mock-authoritative. Chest puffed out, chin tipped back. ]

And who says there can't be a restaurant that can hold a thousand people? You gotta dream bigger, Mafuyu!

That's a fire hazard.

[ shoots down that restaurant idea at once

But at the rest of it, Mafuyu folds her arms over her chest and frowns. It'd be nice to never be bored or feel alone... but it also feels like such a pain getting to know a thousand just loosely and briefly. ]

You won't get to know anybody that way... If you want somebody to hang out with, it's the same as grabbing a stranger off the street, it doesn't have to be a friend. [ That's sort of what she does, and is never lonely as a result. ] You can call me.

[ There goes his dreams of being a restaurateur...

But, shutdown aside— he blinks, big blue eyes widening as he takes all of this in. ]

...Huh? Wait, for real? Call you?

[ Looking around furiously...! ] You're not kidding? This isn't a 'gotcha' thing, right?

Why would I kid about something like this? It's not that big a deal.

[ It really isn't. (it is) But it's not like she's hard pressed to decide who to hang out with each day, and maybe now she'll have someone to text with while all her friends her age are at school? Weekday mornings and afternoons are the worst because there's never anybody around; she should go to school to remedy that, but nah.

She holds out her hand ]

Phone.

Ha, right— one sec, here ya go—

[ It's not like Taichi doesn't have any friends, but getting a girl's number in any context is a new and exciting development. Fumbling, he takes his phone out of his pocket and unlocks his screen. ]

Uh, I've got rehearsals after school but we can still totally hang out afterwards! I usually text during class too, anyway.

[ Taichi... ]

Good! [ is a thing she shouldn't be saying, but. ] I'll text you during class!

[ She takes the phone and opens the contacts to add her name, taking some time to get used to the keyboard because she has to immortalize her name as "MA☆FU☆YU☆" no-last-name, before inputting her number and handing the phone back. ]

After school... I might be out on the field, soccer or baseball, depends on what day it is. So that's fine! What kind of rehearsal do you have?

[ He laughs when he sees what she entered her name as, and quickly sends a text to the new number to make sure she gets his contact info:

its TA★I★CHI ! (∩❛ڡ❛∩)

With that done, he stuffs his hands in his pocket again, rocking lightly on his heels. ]

So you're a sports kinda gal, Mafuyun? [ already with the nicknames... ] Back and forth between two clubs... too cool!

[ And, an embarrassed chinscratch later: ] I've got play rehearsal, so it's not athletics or anything.

[ Maguyu lets her phone buzz in her pocket without checking it, because first of all, what is that nickname... Also, Taichi is too hard to make a nickname out of? Taichin? Tai-Tai? She'll think about it later (she'll forget). ]

Ugh- No, I didn't join the clubs, I'm just playing around with them. There's no way I could get on the starting lineup because they take attendance every day...

[ She wants to be a starting player! But that requires actually going to practice and lmao nope. But that's her choice, so she shakes her head to dispel the thought ]

—Anyways, what's "play"? What do you play? [ some sort of non-athletic game, she's guessing ]

[ The nickname is here to stay... and man, Taichi is getting the feeling that Mafuyu is perhaps the delinquent-type, but that doesn't really bother him, not really. It's not like he's a particularly stellar student either, so her lack of commitment to attendance is just filed away as more information about a new friend! Nothing wrong with that.

His play thing, though: ] Huh? Come on, don't tell me you've never seen a play, Mafuyun! [ Hopping up on a ledge on the side of the street now, as if he's on a stage. ] "Romeo, oh Romeo—"

[ Complete with hands clasped to his chest, dramatic backwards tilt and all. ]

Edited 2017-04-21 02:41 (UTC)

I know that one! Romeo dies!

[ Romantic! That's the play, The End.

But the high school had put on Romeo and Juliet the previous month; she remembers because the days she does go to class, the teacher might let them out early from the last period of the day, which is always appreciated. ]

Sometimes I go to the theater club too— when they're doing sword fighting, or something fun like that!

[ She never gets speaking roles, for all the practice and attendance that will require, but play fighting she can pull off with no problem! Definitely the delinquent-type. ]

[ He straightens and starts cracking up, because— ]

—They both die, Mafuyun...! Spoilers!

[ Spoilers for a centuries-old play... how rude. The truth is that Taichi didn't do the high school production of Romeo and Juliet because he had obligations to troupes outside of school (as tiny tiny speaking part A), but he watched all of his classmates practice during lunch.

He kinda wished he could be doing that instead of his 'job', actually. ]

But, cool— you can help me practice for fighting scenes! I'm pretty good with a sword now, so watch out.

Juliet too?!

[ Centuries old, but Mafuyu still looks shocked. Everything happens so quickly at the end of the play, and by then, she's half asleep in her seat or already there... she never saw the end... It's the middle that she remembers, Mercutio and Tybalt and all that sword waving and fake armpit stabbing that went on during practice she attended because the extra credit awarded would help keep her afloat until the end of the school year. ]

We can practice after eating! I have baseball bats at home we could use; they're dented, so they're no good for hitting balls, but people are fine!

[ The fact that she looks so shocked keeps Taichi laughing at her expense— that is, up and until she talks about hitting people with bats?!?! Now it's his turn to look alarmed as heck. ]

This sounds like it's gonna get bloody?! I hope you're gonna pad these bats, Mafuyun?!

Don't kill me...!

[ Suddenly they're in a yakuza movie... he can see it, tbh.

But okay, here he goes, hopping off the ledge and turning into the burger joint. ]

(no subject)

buncho - 2017-04-21 19:06 (UTC) - Expand

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