Test Drive Meme #3: Season of Budding

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Test Drive Meme #3: Season of Budding

TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to the Royal Decree Test Drive Meme!

If you're new here – hi, hello, welcome! This is your chance to give your potential character a little test run and see how they might fit into the world of Rosavelle. You can find all the relevant info over on our Navigation Page, so take a peek if you need to get caught up on the setting, rules, or just want to gnaw on the worldbuilding a bit.

This TDM is non-canon to the game overall, but feel free to treat individual threads or CR as canon between characters if everyone involved agrees. We've included some prompts and locations below to help spark ideas, but as always, feel free to go off-script and go ham!

Not long after Budwake ends, the shift into Budding becomes impossible to miss. The last of Fallow's frost finally retreats, though early mornings remain chilly and the first weeks still bring occasional overnight dustings of snow. From there, Rosavelle wakes quickly. Fresh shoots push through newly turned soil, vines reclaim walls and bridges and colour steadily returns as gardens, trees and canal paths grow greener by the day.

The thaw also brings with it plenty of rain, usually just in passing showers that are chilly but surprisingly refreshing. According to locals this is a prelude to the rainy season that won't be too far behind. And as the Azurite Sea warms, new fish return to Rosavelle's waters, filling Marelys' markets and drawing seabirds back to the coast - another sure sign that the cold season has finally passed. Rosavelle is finally awake again!

By now you've likely found your footing in the ebb and flow of island life and you know how things go around here: when someone needs a little warmth, a little effort, or a little magic, the people of Rosavelle come together - and that includes you!

PROMPTS

Budwake Work

The first thaw has finally broken and that can only mean one thing: Budwake has officially arrived! Across Rosavelle, everyone’s pitching in to help the island wake up in time for the warmer weather. Volunteers are needed everywhere, whether they're tilling fields or tidying the streets - hauling soil, pruning stubborn vines, reorganizing tools, or just providing moral support while someone else does the heavy lifting. Once the work is done, the After-Till Feast begins! Castle kitchens and community halls alike declare it time to eat everything that won’t last another day: soups, stews, pies, fritters and casseroles made from odds and ends and whatever happened to be left in the pantry. Enjoy the fruits of your hard labor and tuck in!
A Stormy Situation

Storm clouds are rolling in earlier than expected and the docks at Marelys are suddenly alive with urgency. Boats need to be secured, sails tied down, loose cargo hauled out of reach of rising water and ropes checked twice before the wind picks up. The fishermen are grateful for any extra hands willing to help even if you’re mostly just holding a rope and trying not to get blown sideways by the gusts. Between the rain rolling in and occasional wave splashing a little too far inland, it's a pretty soggy affair - bit once everything’s secured, there’s something oddly cozy about ducking under an awning or crowding into a dockside shelter with your fellow volunteers, watching the storm roll in together while the sea churns safely beyond the harbor.
Secondhand Spring

Budwake has everyone in Menthward in a tidying mood and the market district has transformed almost overnight. What started as a few people clearing out cupboards has turned into a full-on swap meet, with rows of temporary stalls and plain old blankets rolled out on the street, all piled high with old trinkets, forgotten keepsakes, mismatched dishes, spare tools and plenty of things nobody quite remembers buying in the first place. Everyone's browsing with enthusiasm, bartering cheerfully and swapping stories about where each item came from - and if you're in the mood to be busy there’s plenty of opportunity to get involved. Help vendors sort through clutter, hunt for hidden treasures or even set up a stall of your own if you’ve got belongings ready for a new home. Just be careful what you pick up - while most of these items are perfectly safe and ordinary, there might be some magical trinkets with with surprising effects mixed in with all the clutter...
Freshwater Overflow

next

Primavain Food Tour

very

too

Rainy Day Reading

With the weather turning unpredictable, the Amourian Library has become the refuge of choice for those in and around the castle - all that rain pitter-pattering against the windows makes for the perfect atmosphere to catch up on your to-read list. Claude, the librarian, is delighted (if just a little overwhelmed) by the sudden uptick in activity and as such, extra hands have been drafted in to assist with the day-to-day upkeep of the place. Depending on where your expertise lies, you might be found at the front desk checking books in and out, or maybe you've been tasked with reshelving returned tomes. If you've spent a lot of time in the library, you might be able to step in for Claude and point people to where they need to go. Or you could just go around aggressively shush-ing the people who are getting a bit too rowdy. Your call!
Pollen Problems

Budding has arrived a little too enthusiastically around the Castle Grounds. A burst of early blooms has coated everything in a thick layer of glittering golden pollen - statues, windows, unsuspecting passersby… nothing has been spared. It's harmless in the long term, according to the gardeners, but that hasn't stopped the sneezing fits, watery eyes and wounded pride of anyone caught walking through the worst of it. The castle attendants have organized a cleanup effort, armed with masks, brooms and enchanted cloths designed to gather the pollen without spreading it further. Unfortunately, the stuff seems determined to drift right back where it came from, reforming into lazy clouds the moment anyone turns their back. Volunteers are needed to help clear paths, keep the worst of it out of the halls and maybe figure out why the blooms are producing quite this much in the first place.

(CODE)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A riding crop? With... chalk? Does she just... Like, hit it like a baseball at people?

[She's imagining some teacher winding up and doing a home run swing at flying chalk to send a poor student across the room...]

[and the trap is set. she grins.]

No, she flung it around with her mind. I just thought the riding crop was a fun little extra thing to bring up so you could picture her better.

[Now she's thinking carefully...... Really working that fuzzy, fuzzy little brain.]

. . .

Wait, are you thinking Simran should get a riding crop? Is that where this is going?

Hey, I just met her. [she puts up one hand defensively.] I barely know anything about her. I'm not suggesting anything. I just thought we were talking about hot teachers for a second.

I feel like in Tokyo, teachers wouldn't be allowed to carry a riding crop... though I'm not sure it'd stop most of them.

I think there's too much weird stuff happening in Remnant most of the time for the teachers to be concerned about rules. One of them brought a Grimm into the classroom one time and sicced it on a student as a defense lesson.

[. . . .]

Emerald, I think your teachers might suck at teaching.

Oh yeah. [calling them "her" teachers is a strong word, but that's not the point.]

That's the school I broke into, and it's the only one I've ever been to. I really don't know how it kept pumping out Huntresses the way it did when that was how they were all being taught.

I have no idea... I mean, there's something to be said for learning by doing, but still...

Yeah... well. We all got a pretty big lesson at the end of that semester anyway.

[she is very much not claiming responsibility for anything. yayoi probably won't be able to piece it together. but she's careful with her words anyway, and solemn in tone.]

You remember the school that got overrun by Grimm and demolished? That was this school. Beacon Academy. I was there when it happened.

Oh...

[She looks so worried.]

I'm sorry- Did you get out okay? Did you get hurt?

I got out fine. A lot of students got out. [sigh.] But not everyone. This was a while ago now and I still don't know who didn't make it. But every single one of them fought as hard as they could together.

[that should have been when she stopped. that should have been when she left.]

[... What can she even say there? There's nothing she can say. There's nothing that can make it better. All there is, is...]

... I'm sorry.

It's okay. Thank you.

[she says that naturally, but the words almost feel robotic in her head. what is there to say, really? why did she even bring it up in the first place?]

I'm just glad I was there, even if there wasn't a lot I could do. Kind of a messed up thing to be glad for, but... I don't know. I don't really know what I'm saying right now.

... Yeah... I understand.

[Something that huge, something that heavy... Obviously anyone's emotiosn would be a mess.]

... Wanna step outside for that fortune now? If we're both done eating...

Oh my gods, yeah. Please.

[she's eager to do anything to break up the conversation and restart it in a better place with different energy. a glance outside tells her that the rain has at least let up for now, which is better than nothing.]

[after a little bit more, she does hold open the door for yayoi as they're walking out of the restaurant. if she stayed in there much longer, em thinks, then she would probably have just ended up in a sequence of the same thoughts over and over again, so. this is better already.]

All right. Is there anywhere special you wanted to do this, or just somewhere out of the flow of traffic? And, uh, what do you need from me?

[She walks out. Thanking Emerald for holding the door, and she steps out, before looking towards a nearby alley.

... Funny that the alley feels so safe here.]

Honestly, I don't need anything. If you had a more specific question, I'd use a kokkuri board, and if it was something here, I'd use my magatama to 'dowse' or whatever they called it... But for something like this, my mirror works.

[She lifts a hand, and does the same motion she started before. Tracing a quick circle in the air, a large mirror, a bit over half the size of Yayoi, manifests, floating there.]

[she's not sure what the elves from that one video game have to do with anything, but that's not the point of it all. the point is that yayoi has just summoned a magical mirror (which by all accounts should ping emerald's "dangerous fairy tale" alarm) to do this divination, and part of her is worried by that.]

That's cool. So does it show the true reflection of whoever looks into it or something like that? That seems like the kind of thing these mirrors always do.

[She starts to shake her head, then stops.]

... Maybe if I tried? But I don't think so. I can use it to... Here, lemme show you.

[She pulls out a magatama- this one's yellow- and plugs it into the slot at the bottom.

The mirror shimmers, and instead of reflecting, it shows... an overhead map of the local area?]

It'd show me where monsters are, but there aren't any here...

Oh! So this is, like, tech. Not some kind of relic.

[she reaches behind her for a Scroll that she didn't bring with her (no point in it since there's no service), then tries not to look too sheepish when she comes back empty.]

I have something back home that does stuff like this, too, as long as it has the data. Is yours just... magically divining the surrounding area or something?

It's... divine? Or something? It might... also technically be my soul?

[A+ great explanation. she pulls the magatama back out and the mirror returns to being empty.]

Um.... Okay, let me try again. Remember how I explained the goddess turned people into monsters?

[ah. shows her right for trying to assume.]

I do, yeah. [her soul. well. it's not like em can show off her aura, but she at least is familiar with the concept.] Granting the exact words of a wish to try to end despair.

Yeah. I don't... really get how the whole thing worked? But some people... if you could withstand the power and keep hold of yourself through it, the power sort of... Solidified outside of your body? In a shape that fits you. So this is... the goddess' power, and my soul, and kind of my wish I guess?

[Pauses.]

It's really, really complicated.

[em nods along.]

I get it. The goddess tested you, you passed it, and now you have your reward. You hear about it all the time if you hang out around the right places. Trainees who get to meet the big boss and then decide whether or not they want to play along.

I know it's a way bigger deal for you specifically, but I'm just saying, I know the type. It's probably not as complicated as you think if you don't try to get deep into the magic part.

Kind of...

[She frowns.]

I'm not even sure how much of it was a 'test'. I don't... I don't know how much of anything she did was intentional? She...

[She's clearly, visibly struggling with words.]

She was... more like a machine. Which is weird, since she was actually a tree? But... It seemed like she was just a machine that followed a goal. I don't think she meant to 'test' people, so much as that just... happened.

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