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

[wingstosee]

[ she laughs. (tries to laugh. he's not stupid. he knows that sound.) and even if she was trying to evade it earlier, at this point it's too much for him to bear going against. so he laughs too, and even if it's not a real laugh it's a bit louder and a bit more cheery, and even if he's not as good at it as ai a smile is still plastered on his face when he says- ]

Haha! No, I totally get it though? Magic isn't real where I come from, either, so seeing people float around and cast spells is sort of. I mean. It's cool, but also, kind of terrifying??

[ venus what do you mean magic isn't real you JUST talked about the devil and possession ]

I'm pretty sure I met an alien earlier today? [ whoops. can't think about that right now or he'll start blushing. ] And, um, don't tell anyone, but- I'm pretty sure there's a guy here who's literally a god? Like. For death. Isn't that crazy?

[liedol]

[ Ai laughs again. It comes through a little more naturally this time but also a little relieved. ]

Yeah, exactly! This place is nice and all but the magic stuff is... uh, it's a lot!

[ Okay!! Topic change!! Trying (and failing) not to look too transparently grateful, Ai hops tracks without so much as missing a beat. Admittedly, she feels a little bad - she knows what fans tend to want when they unearth things like that and pour them into her hands and when it comes to her fans, Ai knows what to give them.

But a total stranger is a whole different ballgame. It's better to stay safe while she's still learning the rules. ]

I guess maybe I shouldn't be surprised when it's already kind of wild that we're here in the first place but I just keep thinking... wow, there really are all sorts of places out there that're nothing like home.

[wingstosee]

[ she's laughing again. she's smiling again. good. he did what she wanted. they don't have to be miserable for now.

now he just needs to pretend neither of them know. he's always been worst at that part. ]

Yeah, I mean... I guess it makes sense. We were all brought here, right? And time doesn't even pass back home. That seems like... I don't know. Something crazy and magical and scientific. Parallel universes or something.

[ a small laugh. still fake, but it's the one he always makes, so maybe that makes it real. ]

At least it's not summer here. You know? You can always wear more when it's cold, but you can't take your skin off when it's too hot.

[liedol]

The science stuff kinda hurts my head more than the magic stuff does, honestly... [ said with a sheepish little smile. ] I was never any good at that kind of stuff back in school. At least with magic I've got a good excuse, you know?

[ Laughing at her own joke... if nothing else, the more they stick to lighter topics, the easier it is to keep a smile on her face. She's never really been a small talk girl, but you have to get at least a little good at it in her line of work - she can at least hold her own, so long as Venus isn't expecting any particularly scintillating commentary out of her. ]

Was it still summer back home for you? It was just getting wintery back where I'm from.

[ it was also technically her birthday the day she popped over here but. for some reason, admitting that feels a little weird, so she'll keep it to herself. ]

[wingstosee]

Haha, right? At least with magic, you can just say it's magic. If you say something wrong about science, everyone can tell you you're wrong.

[ whoops- starting to get into dangerous territory! he laughs again, a bit self-effacing and a bit polite, and jumps onto that last bit without hesitation. ]

Oh, yeah. Hot and dry and still kind of muggy in the worst ways? It must have been... what, ninety degrees? Ninety-five? [ an awkward beat. ] Oh! Um, I should probably use Celsius, right? That's, um... two-twelve goes to a hundred, and thirty-one goes to zero, so that's maybe... forty... ish?

[liedol]

Forty?!

[ Apparently this is appalling enough information for her polite smile to finally give way a bit and she gapes at him. ]

I'm pretty sure the highest it gets in Tokyo is thirty-something and that's bad enough at it is... Jeez, I can't even imagine how hot forty would even feel...

[ She's busy rolling this over in her head, finding herself wondering exactly why you'd dump a bunch of kids out in the woods in suffocating summer heat like that, but then a more pertinent question asserts itself and Ai feels her nose wrinkle of its own accord. ]

You don't think it's gonna get that hot here, do you?