Test Drive Meme #1: Season Of Wilting

[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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The Season of Wilting settles over Rosavelle with a pretty healthy chill. Early in the season, the snowfall is light – just enough to dust the rooftops, lace the bridges, and gather along the edges of the canals. It's cold, but not biting, with most days bringing crisp air and still skies. But as the weeks progress, the cold deepens, and by mid-season, snow is piling up and most of the kingdom's blooms have begun hibernating for the cold season.

Throughout Wilting, expect soft snowfall most days, with the occasional flurry sweeping in from the Azurite Sea. The canals rarely freeze completely thanks to the island's magic, but the bridges can get icy, so tread carefully. The skies tend to stay clear, but a few soft snowstorms pass through. By the end of Wilting, the cold reaches its peak. The days are short, the nights come early, and most people tuck themselves into warm taverns and candle-lit shops to escape the chill.

But that doesn't mean there's not plenty to do around the kingdom! It's been a little while since your arrival in Rosavelle - just enough for you to start settling into the comings and goings of life around the kingdom and you should know by now that when folks are in need across the island, everyone pitches in to help!

PROMPTS

Mind The Gap

Looks like one of the canal bridges is out of service for the time being! A decorative footbridge reacted particularly badly to the icy weather and collapsed. Thankfully no one's been hurt, but it does mean that easy access to the other side of this particular canal has been cut off. And the detour routes? Unsurprisingly, they're packed! Some handy helpers are trying to alleviate the situation, so it might be nice to contribute towards their efforts by giving strangers a boost across the canals or otherwise trying to organize a replacement bridge. Whatever you're up to, you'll have to deal with being stuck on this half of Menthward somehow!

Fruity Flotsam

Fruits on the loose! A boat full of produce tipped over, and now fruits and veggies of all kinds are bobbing down the canal like runaway balloons. Normally this wouldn't be such a terrible problem, but this deep into Wilting the water's way too cold to just dive in and scoop them out! It's up to you and a partner to chase them down – whether by boat, on foot, or even from the bridge with a net – and rescue as many as you can before they float out into the sea and are never seen again. Or maybe instead of teamwork, you'll opt to get competitive about the whole thing! In any case, once they’re returned to their rightful place, the vendor might see fit to reward you and your fellow helpers with a warm drink, a tasty snack, or even a discount on your next basket for your troubles!

Dockside Detectives

A mix-up at the Mouette Docks means the wrong goods have gone to the wrong boats, and vendors are not happy, to say the least! A handful of volunteers are running interference to try and make sure everything gets to the right place, and it just so happens that you've been looped in to help untangle the deliveries too! Who ordered twenty crates of lemons? Who's missing their flower garlands? It'll take a bit of detective work, but you’re in luck! A handy dandy enchantment on the boxes means that working in pairs will give everyone a sense of what should go where, so you should be able to figure it out eventually. Or if you're not the manual labor type, hey, someone's got to keep all these vendors calm and happy somehow. Feel like running some customer service interference?

By The Bonfire's Glow

It might be cold down by the water, but to warm everyone's spirits a bit, an impromptu bonfire has been lit up on the beach and everyone's invited! There's meat, fish, and veggies by the bucketful to roast by the fire, and some mulled wine in case the fire isn't quite toasty enough for you. There's gossip and local stories galore (some definitely less based in fact than others), and everyone's in high spirits, which makes it a perfect opportunity to break the ice a little. Challenge a friend to a contest of who can tell the most unbelievable story, test your skills to see who can roast the best goodies without dropping their food into the fire or team up to keep the flames fed with driftwood gathered along the shore. Whether you're competing, sharing secrets, or just quietly soaking in the glow, the night is alive with possibility!

Petal Panic

A magical flower stall has misfired, turning a corner of Primavain into a localized snowstorm of petals. It's extremely #aesthetic but also completely impractical, thanks to the enchantment on them. They’ll cling to passers-by and inflict glamors of all kinds on them - making your skin sparkle, changing your hair to all sorts of colours, making your features warp into a caricature of yourself and who knows what else! Thankfully, the vendor in question knows how to reverse the spell – but they'll need a handful of volunteers to fix it! Team up to help the vendor fix their runaway magic, chase down flying flowers, or otherwise do your best not to slip and die on the combination of soggy petals and snow.

Paint the Town

A local painter is starting up a for-funsies communal mural project: help design, paint, or charm the flowers that will decorate Primavain's central square. If you're not the artistic type, you can help out with clearing the square of all the snow currently in the way or just wrangle supplies and keep the cocoa flowing for everyone else. However, once the canvas is clear, there's plenty of supplies free for everyone to borrow and use. Whether you’re painting seriously, messing around, or heckling your friends’ brushwork, it's a nice excuse to mingle.

Snowball Showdown

There's a snowy skirmish going up in the hills! What started as a playful snowball scuffle between some noble kids has snowballed (literally) into a Bellvine-wide winter free-for-all. The flower-draped balconies are raining snow, enchanted snowballs are flying through the air, and even some of the stuffier residents have been pulled in to defend their honor. With this many people lobbing this much snow around, the lines between playful rivalry and outright chaos are getting blurry! If you've got decent aim – or you really just don't want to lose – it's the perfect time to jump in!

The Errant Envelope

Someone's enchanted love letter got caught in a stray gust of wind - and unfortunately for them, the charm meant to guide it discreetly to its recipient has completely backfired. Now the poor thing is zipping wildly around Bellvine Hill, swooping past balconies, diving between flowerbeds, and expertly dodging every grabby hand along the way. To make things worse, the streets are icy from the snowfall, so chasing it means slipping, sliding, and probably landing flat on your back if you're not careful. The trouble doesn’t stop once you catch it, either - reading even a few words might stir up fluttery feelings and an irresistible urge to flirt with whoever happens to be in front of you! It's going to take teamwork (and maybe a little magic) to snag it before it blows right through someone's window – or worse, into the wrong person's hands.

(CODE)

Comments

Shizuru Kuwabara - Yu Yu Hakusho

[funkyvibes]

1. By the Bonfire's Glow (possible CW: underage drinking)
Firelight paints the early evening in warm golden hues. Shizuru offers some mulled wine to the person beside her after topping up her own glass. She's cozed up in a heavy sweater, hair pulled into a side ponytail and a wry smile on her face.

"So, what made you decide to accept the invitation to this place?"

Because she's hoping not everyone's trying to recover from fucked up romantic trauma like she is.


2. Snowball Skirmish
While some people are blindsided by the snowballs flying, Shizuru seems to have a sixth sense for when one's flung near her (...because she does), dodging out of the way. A more targeted attack will get a reciprocal snowball response, though; she's perfectly content to prove her valor if dragged into the fight unwillingly.

And if that leads to picking someone up by the back of their coat and tossing them into a snowbank face-first, so be it. The Kuwabara family are all fighters at the core.


3. Paint the Town
Paint is not Shizuru's usual artistic medium. She's a beautician, not a muralist. That said, when offered a chunk of wall, she begins sketching out the vague outline of a Nagel woman, framed in red spider lilies. It's perhaps a little off-theme, and the symbolism of that particular choice of flower is certainly a thing.

But to those coming from Earth in one form or another, the Nagel woman might be a surprisingly familiar sight to remark on.


4. Wildcard
[Bring your own prompt, I'm wide open. I can be found on Discord or Plurk to plot, though I will be bedding down for tonight soon after I post this. Shizuru is coming from right after the Dark Tournament and Sakyo's death.]

1 | Beacon Kohler | OC

[summerless]

"Me?" Beacon says, tilting her head as she stares into the fire. The effect is rather like watching a cat trying to figure out what you just meowed about.

She taps her bad leg with the shepherd's axe. "... Well, aside from the obvious... It's been ages since I allowed myself a relationship. Not that I expect this to work out, but one can but try, try again, right?"

[funkyvibes]

"Yeah. No, I know what you mean, about not expecting anything. I've had bad luck, myself, with anything romantic."

Though hers is more recent and fresh on her mind.

[summerless]

She sips at a bit of something warm, hums, sips again. "Yeah, it does not go easy. With me, it's because I travel a lot. Haven't had much time to really... uh. Lay down roots."

Again, she taps her bad leg. "Well. Sometimes I have to at least gather some moss."

[funkyvibes]

"You'll at least be able to settle for a while here. Not permanent, but enduring."

Shizuru glances at the fire quietly, thinking.

"Prolonged vacation, I guess."

[summerless]

"Well, it's to be hoped!" Beacon says, with a wistful smile, and then looks at the fire and whose empty cauldron is that? The answer is, 'it doesn't matter, Beacon's using it now'. She gently pulls the fire under it with a motion like spinning threads on a card, and sets to cooking something decently warming.

"Ah, I'm finally starting to get a bit of the hang of it... What a day."

[funkyvibes]

"Huh. Is that...magic of some sort?"

Shizuru's used to weird shit, but unfortunately her whole kit is passive/perceptive. If this place is going to teach her how to do weird shit on her own, she's going to be starting from scratch.

[nightwild]

[Yayoi takes the wine, sniffs it once, then pushes it back at Shizuru, making a face. It's a sign of how far she's come that she doesn't just dump it out on the spot. Still, the question's a good one...]

Didn't finish reading it, honestly. I just heard that someone needed help. I assumed it'd be about punching guys, not... all of this, though.

[funkyvibes]

Oh, geeze. Always read the fine print before agreeing to things. That's how corporations get you.

[If there even are corporations where this gal's from. The fox ears are a quick sign she's not human. How interesting, it's not like Shizuru hasn't seen a red-haired fox before...]

[nightwild]

[Yayoi doesn't have fox ears anymore! But she does have a big... rainbow fox-tail pattern on her jacket. So the fox theming is definitely still there and obvious.

She shrugs, though.]

If they tried, I'd just punch them, too.

[It's so easy to handle things when your world view boils down to punching.]

[funkyvibes]

Let me know how that works out for you in the long term, punching corporations.

[It's the sort of thing Kazuma would say, and brings a bit of a smile to her face.]

Or using punching to handle every problem here, for that matter.

[nightwild]

Hey, I won't use punching to handle every problem.

Kicking's good, too.

[Is she making a joke, or does she mean it...?]

[funkyvibes]

[If that wasn't such a familiar mindset...]

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, huh? Well, you do you. I'm curious how well that's going to work out here.

1

[soaringspear]

Ooh, don't mind if I do...

[ Kanade will eagerly take a refill of wine... and promptly downing the refilled contents. Her cheeks are already a little flush, is this alright...? Eh, it's fine, probably. ]

Ahh...! Hm? Ohhhh right, the invitation! Well, it said they needed help, right? I mean, I didn't mean to accept it so quickly, but sometimes that's just how world-hopping goes.

[ Can she get some more wine...? She can probably handle a few more glasses before she gets a little too relaxed, right? Yeah, probably. ]

Besides, could be worse! We could be fighting a bunch of monsters or something. Though I guess that might be simpler...

[funkyvibes]

Probably quicker, too. But I've had enough of monsters and fighting for a while. This is a nice change of pace.

[Alright, Shizuru's catching on that Even More Wine is going to be a bad idea here. She might need to try to get some water into Kanade, somehow. Or be ready to hold her hair back if she gets sick from all the wine.]

[soaringspear]

Exactly. I've been due for a nice vacation anyways, so this is a pretty sweet deal, don'tcha think?

[ Awwww, Kanade pouts upon the wine being taken away. She's still goin' strong, y'know! But ah, well, bein' responsible is important too. ]

I take it that means I'm not the only fighter here, then? Maybe I oughta find somebody to go a few practice rounds with... it wouldn't do me any good to get rusty while I'm here.

[funkyvibes]

I'm not, like. Someone who ends up taking part in fighting tournaments or nothing. But I can hold my own, I guess.

My baby brother's the real fighter in the family. Spirit energy lightsaber and all.

[She's content to let him have all the glory. He's more flamboyant, in a lot of ways. He is only fourteen, though.]

[soaringspear]

Hehhhh... I thought I'd seen what other worlds are like already, but there's always somethin' new to surprise me, huh?

[ Spirit energy lightsaber... sure, not the weirdest thing Kanade's seen, but still. ]

Well, all that aside, I'm lookin' forward to not havin' to fight for a while. Might get a lil antsy every now 'n then, but I can manage. And, well... I guess gettin' to meet new people is part of the appeal too, huh?

Snowball Skirmish

[catsgothistongue]

[Ranma's been eye-spying Shizuru for a while now. Watching as she ducked and weaved around any snowballs pitched at her. Gotta say, not half bad. Not as great as most people he knows, but she wasn't anything to sneeze at.

Finally, a worthy opponent!

Through his observations, he's only observed the balls coming from the same level as this chick. Let's see how she handles three snowballs being hurled down from one of the close by buildings!]

[funkyvibes]

[Because Shizuru's working on intuition, instinct and 'hey, that's a weird feeling' rather than actual senses, she finds herself side-stepping the trajectory of the snowballs, and then looking to see just who threw them.

Once she realizes it was an aerial assault from the buildings, there's a bit of a pout.]

Well, that's not fair, is it?

[catsgothistongue]

"All's fair in love and war!"

Yelling that out with a cheeky look, before he continues on. "Besides, they never said getting higher ground was against the rules, did they?" That smug, cocky grin on his face must scream 'hit me, pelt me with a snowball already' at max volume right now, doesn't it.

[funkyvibes]

"If I thought that were actually true, I'd be packing gravel into the snowballs I'm going to throw at you!"

Because she is going to make the attempt. Unfortunately, though, she's not particularly good at range, and that height advantage sure is a thing, so it's unlikely the balls she lobs at Ranma get anywhere close.

[catsgothistongue]

Ranma impassively watches the brunette's terrible attempts, silently wondering if he should've brought snacks to this circus act... Ball after ball, splatting against the wall and the ground and everywhere but the teenager. He even dangles one leg over the balcony to tease her, pulling it right up if by some sliver of a miracle one snowball reaches that high.

"Maybe you should! It could improve your aim!"

Helpful advice coming from the teenager now hanging upside down off the balcony, with only his legs and feet preventing him from having a rough land. Ranma really should come down sooner or later, to make this a real fight... Buuuuuuuuuut seeing this lady struggle is humorous enough to hold off on it for another min.

[funkyvibes]

Pissing Shizuru off is a great way to make her try harder. Eventually, she manages to hit one of his arms, which is victory enough for her to be satisfied.

"Don't be a dumbass. You're starting to remind me of my brother."

1

[ohaiyo_isekai]

"Hm."

Shizuru could be forgiven for mistaking the man next to her for a fellow teenager - that thin mustache wouldn't fool anyone, and his robe and wizard hat could be elaborate cosplay - but the worry lines on his face are too deep for that, and the pointed ears and dragonfly wings are. Certianly there on him.

He accepts the drink without commenting and looks into it, cupping his hands around the vessel holding it to warm up, before answering.

"A chance to help people that's... more restful than my situation back ho- back in Mundus," he says, voice surprisingly deep, if monotone. "Though I admit the prospect of romance was a factor," he mutters in a softer voice.