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royalooc2025-10-06 08:01 am
royaldecreemods) wrote in royalooc2025-10-06 08:01 am
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Test Drive Meme #1: Season Of Wilting
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!
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!
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!
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.
Bonfire
Hi! I'm Han Yoojin. Nice to meet you, Cindy.
[He scoots over on the driftwood crate someone hauled over to provide seating, shifting his crutches into the crook of his far arm so he can pat the space he's just cleared.]
Here, you wanna sit? There's plenty of room.
no subject
When he offers, she bobs her head in agreement and takes a seat.]
Thanks, yeah.
[Han Yoojin? Definitely a Korean name.]
Where are you from, Yoojin-ssi? [Taking a stab in the dark and using a neutral honorific, figuring that's least likely to cause offense.]
no subject
I'm from Seoul! Though I was, uh, somewhere in China just before coming here.
[And the less said about that, the better.]
Are you Korean, too, Cindy-ssi? [Right? She looks about his age, he thinks.] I was wondering!
no subject
[Cindy waves off the formalities, being an American goober...]
I'm ethnically Korean, but I was born and raised in Queens. So I'm American. My parents are from Daegu, though.
[She's happy to be from the background that she is, but she's a New Yorker at heart.]
I've been to Seoul a bunch though, for work. I'm a reporter. What about you?
no subject
I--um.
[It occurs to Yoojin, belatedly, that there's no reason for anyone here to know who he is. Maybe someone from Korea would, or even someone who's just visited--like Cindy here--but for the first time in years, he's arrived somewhere his reputation does not precede him.
He can just be normal. Or rather, he can just be himself--not a valuable commodity, not a guildmaster's brother, not the resentful's favorite punching bag. Just Han Yoojin.
His hand tightens a little on the frame of one of his crutches.]
Well, I'm a Hunter. Uh, just a support-class one, though, so nothing to write home about.
[Moving on as if that doesn't require any further explanation--]
What do you report on that brought you all the way to Seoul from America?
no subject
[It's more mumbled to herself than anything. Cindy has no idea what it means, and it probably shows in her expression. Could it be like...Blade or something? A monster hunter? Probably not just the kind of dude that goes deer hunting on the weekend if there's classifications of them.
She does answer his question though, instead of pressing for more information.]
The last time it was to report on a company that was apparently raising the dead. Turned out to be a hoax, but my boss bought into it pretty hard and dragged me over there with him.
[James Jonah Jameson was nothing if not impulsive.]
The whole thing was some hokum involving computers simulating the voices of dead people.
[Not...technically true but she'd signed a few NDAs. And it was close enough, plus easier to explain that temporary clones.]
no subject
[He holds up a hand.]
I would've heard about something like that. [Even in his suddenly magical world, resurrection isn't a thing. They don't even have ghosts.] When did that happen?
[He's confused; she's confused. In the disconnect, an inkling of a notion starts to take shape. Like anyone else on Earth of 2020, Yoojin's watched movies. He's aware of a popular sci-fi trope or two.]
no subject
[Now this she can explain. Cindy, and really every Spider-Totem, knows all about the Multiverse.]
It's unlikely that we're from the same variant of reality. Are you familiar with the Multiverse?
no subject
[He nods a little, taking the revelation in stride.]
I know other worlds exist--or at least existed--besides Earth, but I'm not sure we've got the whole alternate-versions-of-the-same-place thing going on. Uh, back home, I mean. There's no reason it shouldn't be a thing, though.
[Musingly, he looks up, watching sparks rise into the overcast sky.]
If Princess Cal...astasia-- [He TriedTM.] --has the power to bring people from other worlds to theirs, it makes sense that they can call people from different editions of the same place. Probably different points in time, too. It was the year 2020 for me, for example.
no subject
This whole thing is pretty weird, but yeah, that's what seems to be going on. We've definitely got multiple universes represented, and multiple times, too. I'm from 2024, and so far it sounds like there are a bunch of folks from well in the past.
[She looks down into the flames, fingers curling around the cup of wine she'd picked up.]
I met a woman from Edo. Not...Tokyo, but Edo. The name it had more than a hundred years ago. So whatever brought us here is really, really powerful. I'm going to assume it's magic, based on everything we've seen today.
no subject
Oh, it's definitely magic. And powerful as heck.
[Thinking, he swings his good leg and idly taps his chin.]
Where I'm from, transporting just one normal person safely off their world would take insane, cosmic-level power, let alone protecting all of us through the process at once. There's, what, maybe fifty of us "royal guests?"
[That's as many as five tens. And that's crazy.]
If this is what royalty here is capable of, no wonder our princess is so determined to pass their mysterious tree exam.
no subject
[Really, she doesn't have a clue, but she is friends with Wong and Doctor Strange so she is nominally familiar with some of the basics. Like the fact that it would've taken extraordinary amounts of power to pull this off.
And frankly, it is a little weird that it was done for what she'd think of as trivial.]
But yeah, I get what you mean and I think that we really need to take it seriously. The princess is definitely not a bad person, you can tell that just by looking at her but if there's a lot of magical woo-juice in all this ritual stuff we need to try our best.
[Looking down at her cup, Cindy sighs.]
...Feels a little like she plucked me up at random though. And I bet others feel the same. I've got terrible luck with love.
no subject
[Yoojin has an idea why he might have been picked regardless, but that's a level 40 secret he hasn't even told his brother. Cindy's nice and all, but she's still basically a stranger, and a reporter, at that. Lips: zipped.
He looks her way again.]
If it's okay to ask, what makes your luck so rotten? Just... not meeting the right people?
[Again, he's never dated and doesn't really pursue dating. From what he understands, though, the modern dating scene has been dire, even without throwing monsters and magic into the mix.]
no subject
Ah...well. A combination of things. [She doesn't really mind sharing, exactly.]
Life keeps getting in the way for most of them. Possibly the right person, but at the wrong time. And other times it's been the wrong person but we're stuck in a rut and don't want to let go. Or there's tension neither of us wants to act on for professional reasons. And I can't forget the time I started seeing someone right before my world fell apart and I had a mental meltdown. Pretty embarrassing.
[Sighing.]
I think the healthiest relationship I've had was with a playboy who realized it was the wrong time and hooked me up with a good therapist. Eternally grateful to him.
no subject
[A playboy who set aside his fun to look out for her... the latter part reminds Yoojin a little of someone in his life, too. He refocuses on Cindy, on smiling gently, to keep that bittersweet pang off his face.]
Sounds like you've had a rough time of it so far, Cindy. I hope things work out better for you... maybe here, or maybe in the future, back home. Hey, the thing with luck is that it always turns at some point, right?
no subject
Though a part of her can't help but roll her eyes and snort. Good naturedly, more self-deprecatingly than anything.]
We'll see. I'm not holding my breath.
[She refocuses, giving him a small smile.]
Since we're sharing, what's held you back?
no subject
[He did this to himself, asking her something so personal, but it's still an awkward question to answer. After a moment, he chuckles, inclining his head.]
Our parents died pretty young, so I had to work hard to provide for the two of us. Me and my little brother, I mean. Between juggling jobs and taking care of us both, I never really had time to put myself out there. The one time I did ask someone out, I got shot down. Ah!
[Straightening suddenly, he turns an earnest look on her.]
I don't want it to sound like my brother was holding me back! I love that kid with everything I have, and I don't regret a single thing I did to raise him. How could I, seeing how well he's grown up, and is still growing...?
[Yoojin legitimately looks a little misty-eyed. With a little shake of the head, he clears his throat.]
It just meant I always had other priorities, you know? I still do. Always will. Right now, it's making sure we don't get overrun and eaten by dungeon monsters. That's a little more important to me than dating.
Sorry, I was feeling sick last night!
That's very noble of you, and it makes total sense.
[But there's another thing there that's honestly more interesting than dating. He's cute, but as always business comes first. And business for a superhero is punching bad guys and monsters.]
Dungeon monsters? When you said you were a hunter, you meant you hunt monsters? I thought you meant something more like deer.
Oh, no worries ever! I'm not always a consistent tagger myself
(Their parents, for two, but that's besides the point.)
But yes. As always, business comes first.]
Oh, no. I mean, yes, kinda, but I don't do a lot of that kind of hunting, either. "Hunter" is kind of a technical term in my world. It just means any Awakened person--I mean, anyone who got powers--who helps with the general monster safety effort.
[He pats the thigh of his healing leg, smiling wryly.]
Typically, I stay out of direct combat. I'm barely any stronger than a normal human--there are probably Unawakened people stronger than me, honestly--which makes me a liiiiittle too squishy for the front lines. So: support Hunter.
no subject
[Cindy rolls that all over in her head. Awakened Person is probably the same meaning as Enhanced Individual in her own world, the term S.H.I.E.L.D. gives for people like herself who weren't Mutants but had gained powers in some way. It's a little weird hearing it spelled out a bit like in a video game, but it's pretty impressive.
There were people she knew back home who operated in the masked vigilante space who didn't have powers. Bobbi Morse and Shang-Chi were the two she knew best, but she'd met others. All of them pretty smart and competent.]
It's pretty cool, all the same. Not to make a big deal out of it, but fighting for a cause is certainly brave. [She'd...definitely call it that.] My world has people like that too, but we don't have a monster problem really. Probably because of them. There's a bit of a density of people with powers, and one in particular that sort of protects our Earth from magical stuff that might cause an outbreak of monsters.