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.

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Comments

[steel_over_blood]

The clack of trotters on cobblestone and the occasional bleat follows them down the road. Bulat looks back to admire the competence in wrangling skills a few times. Just a few; it doesn't seem like he needs to adjust his gait much at all to account for sheep shenanigans, so his focus switches over to getting them where they need to go.

"Hah! Maybe you can relax, but will you? The first hint of trouble, and there you were at a desk, right in the thick of it."

Bulat's substantial chest quakes with a brief burst of laughter. He also bears the curse of a responsible personality. He knows how it is. Being down a leg might slow even him down some, though.

[monsterdaddy]

Good grief, way to read a guy dead to rights, dude.

Startled, Yoojin blinks up at Bulat, then feels heat creep up into his cheeks. Anyone would be embarrassed, having their character assessed so correctly, after so little time, directly to their face, with a smile.

"Eh? W-well, I had to do something." He clears his throat and tugs at the loop of scarf keeping his neck warm, then pretends luring the sheep along actually requires his attention. "It was so hard to get anywhere, trying to wade through all those people! Seriously, I'd totally take it easy all the time if I could. Nothing would suit me better."

Despite the ability to understand others pretty well, Yoojin genuinely believes this glaringly wrong untruth about himself.

[steel_over_blood]

"Sure, sure."

He does not sound as if he believes this, and looks down at the flustered fellow in his arms with open fondness. Better to be blind to your own virtues than to your own vices.

"I know a good man when I see one, Yoojin."

Even a well-behaved Bulat can't resist the old assassin's instinct to go for a weak point. He loves to see someone go all red. He does mean this with all his heart, however. It does him a world of good to see kind, hardworking people about the city.

"I'd like to spend some time taking it easy with you once we clear up the city some more, what do you say?"

[monsterdaddy]

If Bulat enjoys watching people go red, the way Yoojin flushes completely, all the way to the tips of his ears, must be deeply gratifying.

Is. Is he being flirted with right now? Without the royal request an ever-present backdrop to their presence here in Rosavelle, the thought wouldn't even occur to Yoojin. Were Bulat not someone he'd just met, a stranger from another world, he'd chalk it up to the fascinated, patronizing indulgence he inspires in certain types of people. Given the princess's charge, though--let there be love!--it's not as easy as usual to assume Bulat's just teasing a hapless F-ranker, safe in the knowledge nothing will come of it. It's not as easy to dismiss the invitation as a well-intentioned joke they're both in on, that hurts no one.

Given the week he had before coming here, it's not as easy to keep some of his stray thoughts where they belong, neatly and automatically compartmentalized for Not Now, Maybe Never. It's not as easy to let someone like Bulat calling him a good man slip right through his memory. It catches. He'll remember it.

"I, uh," he stammers intelligently, because he's made the mistake of meeting the look in Bulat's eyes and now he's stupid. Yoojin's face is on fire. Unconsciously, he pulls his scarf up to his nose, all but hiding behind the hot pink knit. What he thinks is, what, why, seriously? What he squeaks aloud is, "S-sure! Like, for after-work drinks or something?"

[steel_over_blood]

"All right!" He'd pump his fists in the air if his arms weren't occupied. There's a lot of energy in that reply. "Drinks are classic, right?"

Classic for what? A date? A hangout? The plausible deniability hangs in the air like a light morning fog. Bulat is a little bit concerned that Yoojin might faint if he pushed it. Okay, he's telling himself that; underneath the excuse is concern that he has not been on an actual date in some time and is feeling some nerves himself, even if he is not as gloriously blatant as his companion hiding under the scarf (is it possible to get his face to match the scarf? Bulat's not calling him adorable out loud, but he's thinking it). Best to keep it friendly and enjoy each other's company with almost no ulterior motives. It's Rosevelle, pursuit of the fresh new shoots of romance isn't that ulterior.

"There's a good tavern near the bathhouses. Thistle and Thorn - also a good place for a meal, if you like seafood." This comes to mind immediately because Roselight Springs was his plan A, for the record. Even a Bulat trying to dial it back is still A Lot.

[monsterdaddy]

Oh, thank goodness. Yoojin latches onto that plausible deniability as tightly as he has onto his scarf, like they're life preservers. He's never been great at swimming, after all.

"Seafood's fine! I like seafood." He kind of resembles a shrimp himself, pink all over and curled up in Bulat's arms. "Um, I'll pay, since you're literally doing all the heavy lifting here..."

Not that Yoojin is heavy, but he's still a fully grown, 5'9" man.

He brightens again, recovering some equanimity. "We can swap stories about where we're from and what we do! It's been wild hearing about all the different worlds represented here."

[steel_over_blood]

Being in over your head is a strong incentive to learn how to swim, and Bulat's burly arms are the ocean. He could tenderly support even a jumbo shrimp all day.

"Other worlds really are amazing - mine feels spot-on normal to me, of course, but that's just perspective. If we had ships that could fly to the moon, I'd find that normal. I'm sure some of our Danger Beasts are unique."

Yoojin seems like the kind of guy who'd appreciate some wildlife stories. And speaking of animals, he doesn't hear fussy bleating right now. This is suspicious.

"...Hey, what's that sheep getting up to?"