Recollé Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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repeter2017-04-16 09:01 pm
recollecters) wrote in repeter2017-04-16 09:01 pm
APRIL TDM
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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. |
no subject
I do hope you aren't being too hard on them. We all have to start somewhere.
[But there's a smile on her face, and a hint of mischief in her voice as she suggests:] But if you're really not enjoying it, surely you have graduate students you could pass the reins to?
no subject
[Indeed: a little smirk plays at her lips as they step outside.]
Next time he gets a little too smug at winning an argument, perhaps. He's clever, but even the cleverest people get insufferable at times.
no subject
You don't have to tell me that. A number of Father's interns have fallen squarely into that category. And up until recently, they wouldn't take me seriously until I'd proven I understood the basic tenets of law and wasn't just there because I'm his daughter.
[Her lips purse slightly, giving an indication of how ridiculous she finds the concept. But then she glances over toward her cousin, suddenly realizing that Rosalind might understand that frustration better than most.]
Do you ever run into things like that, Rosalind? Where people don't take you seriously because you're a woman in the sciences?
[Again, her tone makes it clear that she thinks anyone that would give her cousin trouble is an idiot, but she's also legitimately curious, too!]
no subject
Oh, yes.
[She smiles thinly, then glances over at her.]
My entire life. It was worse in the field than it is in the classroom, but even at the university, I run into it. All the subtle implications that I don't quite know what I'm doing, or worse: that I do, but that some man knows better. All the little condescending nicknames and suggestive remarks and little smiles . . . yes.
[She pauses for a moment, then adds:]
Don't ever lose your temper. And don't ever cry. They'll never let you forget it if you slip up and lose control, even once.
no subject
Yes, she knows exactly what Rosalind is talking about, and she takes the older woman's advice straight to heart.]
I'll have to work on the temper part. I get frustrated too easily when the other interns are trying to show off.
Do they... try to get you to slip up? Intentionally test you to see if you'll argue or let it slide?
[Kath's pretty sure she knows the answer to this. But there's something to be said for hearing it spoken aloud.]
no subject
[She waits until Katherine's set her files in the car and they've both climbed in before answering further.]
Of course they do. Testing you on the little things, as if a minor slip will somehow prove you truly don't know what you're talking about. And then, later, challenging you even when you're right, because they want to be the one who wins more than they want to be factually correct.
[Rosalind takes a breath, then hesitates. All of that is true, yes, and it's beyond irritating, but it's not the worst thing that's ever been said.]
. . . there's going to be a lot of ugly insinuations, as well.
no subject
It's not a surprise to hear Rosalind's response to her question, but when she gets to the point about insinuations, Kath's lips flatten into a thin line.]
I've already gotten a couple of those. Whispers that my grades are fixed only because my father will take the school to court otherwise, accusations that I only intern at the office because I'm a legacy case...
[Which admittedly she is, and she knows it, but Katherine also knows that she's worked twice as hard as any other student to ensure that even if she hadn't been a Lutece, she would have earned her place there.]
I expect it only gets worse from there, doesn't it?