Test Drive Meme #3: Season of Budding

[royaldecreemods]

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!

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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

A rain-heavy week has caused the freshwater channels near Primavain to overflow, flooding nearby vegetable plots and washing nutrient-rich water straight into the fields. The result, somehow, is explosive growth well and beyond anyone's expectations... or, really, their imaginations. Greens the size of shields, root vegetables pushing themselves halfway out of the soil and herbs so fragrant they're making people dizzy - it's a blessing, truly, but also a logistical nightmare as the sheer volume of produce is at risk of going to rot before it can be properly harvested and preserved. Calls for helping hands have gone out across the island, with promises of warm meals, a share of the harvest and enough pickled and preserved produce to last you through to next Budwake. You can either help with getting the greens out of the fields or, if you're still sore from Budwake work, assist in the processing of already-harvested goods.

Primavain Food Tour

The Season of Budding always brings with it new fruit, fresh herbs and seasonal flora and tradition calls for these tasty treats to be spun up into experimental desserts. Many cafes and kitchens up and down the district are offering free samples of brand-new seasonal treats in exchange for honest feedback. Which is all well and good, but depending on where you go, you might have to be very honest. Some of these recipes look gorgeous and taste delicious but they might be a little too experimental - enchanted pastries that change flavor mid-bite, cakes that temporarily change your hair color, jelly-filled pastries that have a surprising amount of bounce, or candies that make you talk in rhymes for a minute... or an hour. It's up to you whether the free food is worth the risk, but maybe you can take a friend along - or interrogate those who have already done their dues to find out which desserts are safest.

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)

Comments

[nightwild]

[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...

[hallucinogem]

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?

[nightwild]

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?

[hallucinogem]

[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.

[nightwild]

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.

[hallucinogem]

[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.

[nightwild]

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.

[hallucinogem]

Yeah, I'm getting that vibe from her. She wasn't even really aware of any of it and didn't really know any better. She was just doing what she was supposed to do with these kinds of things.

[it might be rude to talk about the goddess like this, but on the other hand, she is dead.]

But however she did it, she wrapped your soul up in that magatama, and now you can use it to tap into magic powers and summon that mirror to do the stuff that keeps you alive. Do I have all that about right?

[nightwild]

More or less. And, um. She burned away my last body and now my body is my soul? Or something?

I didn't, really... um, it was hard to listen to at the time. I just punch people.

[hallucinogem]

That explains it. [another one of those grins as a little connection from home forges itself.] You don't have to know the specifics, right? You're just doing what you can with what you've got.

And what you can do, among other things, is divination. With your soul gem. [this part does actually sound complicated. she didn't truly follow, but if she knows the broad strokes of what makes yayoi up, that gives her a leg up on anyone else, as far as she's aware of. and that's good enough for her.]

1/2

[nightwild]

Pretty much. It's just... mimicking some stuff I know, but if it works...

[The red magatama from before comes out! And now she plugs it into the mirror, and gazes into it.

... If Emerald looks, it's mostly just... indistinct. Hazy colors. Strange movements. Stuff that might just be distorted reflections, or might not. It's like trying to find shapes in colorful clouds. Is it real? Or is it just her imagination? Does it do anything at all, or is she just desperately searching for patterns that aren't real?

Yayoi focuses her eyes, and gazes with an intensity that seems to be looking deeper...]

[nightwild]

I see... silver. A man made of silver. A man with wings on his feet... That doesn't make sense.

[Who would put wings on their feet?]

He flies... Around him is red. Fire? [Or just the reflection of Yayoi's hair?] He follows the red... and it's surrounded him. It gets too close... The elemental cycle. Fire destroys metal. The silver melts. There's only fire left.

[hallucinogem]

[that's...]

[emerald doesn't know what it could mean. she doesn't know what the silver man is. she knows a silver man, so she could guess that it's about mercury. and the fire is... obvious. ha. but he and cinder are on good terms right now—in service of salem together. of course. so why would it burn him? but it's... it's hard to find any other interpretation. she breathes out shakily.]

Is Merc in trouble? Is something bad going to happen to him?

[nightwild]

I... It looks like it? But if he just stays away from fire, it should be okay, maybe?

[She finally looks up from the mirror.]

[hallucinogem]

[dread sinks deep into emerald's heart like a dagger. she'd avoided saying it so far, but there's no way around it.]

Our boss' name is Cinder. I don't know if he'll have the chance to stay away from fire.

[she looks down into the mirror, unable to interpret what's happening, but trusting yayoi. and not really looking anyway. her thoughts are moving faster than she wanted them to, and why is... why is it so hard? aren't both of them supposed to be... isn't she supposed to be more worried?]

[nightwild]

Oh... So if she's the fire...

[She's thinking...]

Well... If the fire's not literal, then the rest might not be either?

[hallucinogem]

[emerald draws her arms around herself in a very loose hug. it isn't much comfort.]

...Have you ever just not known if you should be relieved or worried about something?

[nightwild]

[She has to think about that.]

... Basically every day?

[hallucinogem]

[it doesn't feel good to do it, but she smiles. very slightly.]

That's probably right. Something else everyone already knows about. [but she gets over herself quickly enough and speaks with more clarity, more purpose.] If this is right and something bad is going to happen to Mercury, I really don't know how to feel about it. Something bad happening to my best friend shouldn't make me feel that way.

[nightwild]

Mm...

[She isn't sure how to handle this. But she needs to help. It's her fortune that caused this- She can't just say it's not her problem.]

... Keep in mind it's not that my fortune is necessarily right, but... If it is...

What is it you like about him? What makes you want to be his friend?

[hallucinogem]

[the answer to that feels obvious. she loosens her grip around herself, but still feels uneasy.]

He's been with me through everything. Him, me, and Cinder have been a trio for longer than I remember. We've gone through so many things together.

[nightwild]

... Is that all?

[She doesn't want to judge. She understands the power of going through shit together. But...]

[hallucinogem]

I...

[she works her jaw around words that aren't coming to her, then shrinks back in on herself. it's slow and it's pathetic and it's embarrassing. she keeps embarrassing herself. she can't even look at yayoi.]

[nightwild]

... Sorry.

[god, this is awkward. She's kicking herself inside- Why couldn't she just keep her mouth shut?]

You don't have to answer or anything.

[hallucinogem]

[she breathes out shakily. it would be easier to get angry if she weren't struggling with that answer herself. her response should be anger.]

It's fine. [her voice is too small.] It's nothing I haven't worried about already. Maybe it's easier to deal with if you have more people in the first place.