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

A couple, actually. Out here in the streets, they call me Yohane. "Night wing," in Japanese, if you're wondering.

[ Who the hell "they" is, she doesn't seem to elaborate... ]

But I haven't got an introduction from you yet, especially after you were so bold as to sneak up on me. ...You're looking for trouble, aren't you?

[ From the sound of it, though, she likes it. ]

-Oh this child... Shut up, May, you're only 23.-

Depends... Y'see, I'm May Sfondi. THAT May Sfondi. -May turned to the girl with a wide grin, lifting her hand to the brim of her cap in a mock salute.-

And trouble's my middle name. -No it's not. Stop trying to be cool in front of teenagers.-

May Sfondi? You mean, the May Trouble Sfondi?

[ She gives her a little bit of a shocked look...but it fades, pretty quick. ]

...Nope, no clue who you are.

Smartass isn't a good look on a kid like you, not when you're talking with someone like me.

So do you just tag, or are you up to anything else, Miss Higan?

Haah? And who are you to judge if I can and can't give you an attitude? Just because you're older than me doesn't make you my superior. If you want my respect, you've gotta earn that shit.

[ So it goes. ]

I get into scraps, every now and again. Nothing that doesn't grab attention. It's just that sometimes it grabs the wrong people's attention, is all.

[ Thus, why she wanted to run.. ]

So you're a tough gal, huh? -May turned around fully to face the girl, looking up and down to measure her up. Given how short May was, this probably looked a bit silly...-

Hmm... Not buyin it.

...You're picking a goddamn fight, Trouble?

[ Yoshiko isn't exactly very tall herself, so it's a battle of the shrimps, here... ]

I don't like slamming people into the ground with my secret technique, Eden's Serpent Anklelock, but I don't mind tearing you a new one, if you're looking to start something.

Alright then... -May shifted her cap around on her head, the bill behind her now, and steadied herself on the ground before giving the 'come at me' motion with her fingers.-

Show me how tough you are? If you can take me down, I'll accept it, but for now, even a smalltime hood like me thinks you're just a wanna-be. -She was laying in pretty hard, but... she liked this girl's spirit. She wanted to see just how much guts she had.-

Y-you can't be serious!

[ She only just met this girl, and she's already picking a fight?! She's so surprised that, even just briefly, her voice slips into a much more undignified squeak, a far cry from the dark, put-upon voice she was using throughout their conversation. She clears her throat right after it happens... ]

E-er, excuse me, uh...you know, puberty...

[ Likely story ]

But you're saying all I gotta do is knock you over? E-easy enough. I've taken down bigger punks than you, no problem. You may be kind of fast, and good at being sneaky, but you don't look so tough.

[ Then again, neither does Yoshiko. Truth be told, while she's gotten into more than her fair share of kerfuffles, she usually comes out losing more often than she wins. Maybe if she didn't focus on her "secret techniques", she might have more of a chance--

She's at least watched enough wrestling to know to keep her body low so she doesn't get caught off balance. True to her word, she goes for May's ankles, trying to charge in and yank her legs off the ground. It's the quickest way to make someone hit the floor, in her professional opinion.

Not that she's very good, but, she at least tries her best. ]

-May had a debate with herself in the moment between the girl's hunkering down and going for the ankle grab. Honestly, with her super strength, she had pretty big doubts this girl could do anything to get May off her feet. It'd be like trying to uproot a redwood.

But another part of her liked this girl's spunk, and she didn't want to crush her confidence with a total squash match... There was potential there. And she wanted to foster it.

So, despite being able to easily take it, May put on a show of planting herself firmer, "struggling" against Yoshiko's attempt and leaning over to lock her arms around the other girl's waist, but only barely attempt to lift her.-

H-haah?! Y-you've got much better form than I thought..!

[ She's so small, but she's not even moving?! It didn't look too hard to lift her, but, May's not budging an inch, and the situation is already getting reversed. She's too stubborn to quit at it, though, so she keeps trying to pull her up off the ground, until she realizes that her feet are being lifted already...

She struggles to get out of the waist lock, but her grip is firm.. ]

What the shit...

-Shit shit shit! She'd thought she'd put enough give in her stance, but that reaction... there's no way this girl hadn't noticed something unnatural by now. She had to make a decision, and make it quick...

May released her grip, and let her leg be swept, arms out to take the back bump at least somewhat comfortably without her head bouncing on the ground. That kind of thing could still rattle her brain despite her newfound strength. But despite her opting to be taken down... would the other girl notice that May was just giving up?-

APRIL TDM

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