introductory mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Flower Festival Celebration
when: April 2nd - April 15th
where: In several different locations in the downtown area of the Inhabited City.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

flower festival

In the days leading up to April 2nd, residents new and old may notice advertising around the city, everywhere from digital screens to paper flyers pasted on blank walls, all advertising an upcoming holiday: The Flower Festival. Celebrating springtime, beauty, joy, and togetherness, the festival heavily features floral themes and dancing. The advertising mentions that on April 10th, a paid holiday, there will be a Blossom Picnic, as well as lists of various public dances at clubs or other open venues, and adult raves.

a celebration of spring

The Flower Festival's main event is the Blossom Picnic on April 10th, but it also features traditions of sharing food and drink, and dancing that span over the course of the whole two weeks. There are a large variety of events going on throughout the city, from dancing lessons in any wide variety of traditional dances, to old-fashioned sock hops, to adult raves complete with mild party drugs. Feel free to use the prompts below or create your own event at any point during the festival, and if your character creates an event and hosts it in a top-level, you can submit that thread for extra bonus points.

i. blossom picnic

The main event that kicks off the second week of the Flower Festival is the Blossom Picnic on April 10th. A relaxed and low-key event, it draws several thousand people every year to the spacious Riverview Central Park, where there is a generous lawn lined with various blossoming trees, and families, found families, lovers, and groups of friends are encouraged to lay out a picnic blanket and share food. There will be live bands playing (but not loudly enough to distract from conversation and peacefully watching the petals flutter in the wind), a variety of demonstrations of traditional cultural dances from many different realities and planets, and a ton of ice cream vendors. This is an excellent festival not only for celebrating togetherness with the people who are already important, but for mingling and making new friends.

Characters may either pack their own lunches or they can purchase pre-packed Blossom Festival lunches. Stores and street markets are carrying a wide variety of specialty food that is only available at this time of year - predominantly pastries, an assortment of types of candies, and ice cream treats all in various floral flavors, as well as a sort of ambrosia salad based around a sweet rose-flavored cream and a native fruit that is bright green and tastes like a combination of peach and citrus.

ii. dancing lessons

Starting on April 2nd, there will be dancing lessons offered almost everywhere you look! From partner dances to group dances to line dances; sexy and sensual or innocent and childlike - almost any type of dance you can imagine is represented, from any reality or planet that has people in Riverview Quarantine.

Additionally, the Riverview Central Community Center has multiple rooms blocked off so anyone who knows a dance from home can teach it to others in their community - sharing is caring, after all. Characters are welcome to block off one of these rooms and offer lessons in any dance they happen to know from home (and these sorts of thread starters would be eligible for the mingle AC Point bonus)!

iii. flower festival dancing

This is pretty simply what it says on the tin - in almost every club, community center, or other public space, there will be dancing at almost all hours of the day or night, formal and informal. Musicians bring out their instruments and play in the street for demonstrations of cultural dances and music at the same time as clubs are offering VIP cover charges for exclusive dances, and you can find anything in between.

There are also many low-cover-charge raves that allow under-18s so younger characters can stay up all night and dance like crazy. The legal drinking age in Riverview Quarantine is 14, and so anyone over 14 can enter and indulge in a few drinks, dancing, and playing tag with a non-intoxicating version of the colored powder featured at the adult raves. There is copious amounts of security on site to ensure that everyone is safe, as well as nurses and off-duty police officers to offer advice or care for anyone who overindulges out of lack of experience.

Grab a partner, a group of friends, or just cruise and mingle the various dancing events.

Characters may also notice that most of the street markets and clothing shops are offering clothing that features floral patterns, flowers as accessories, and that show a lot of skin - for men, women, and anyone in between!

iv. adult raves

Advertised on flyers and digital screens around the city, made to pop as if they were under blacklight, is a series of adult raves that are happening in various large empty warehouse spaces around the city, including one that is listed as the danger rave and hosted in an abandoned factory outside the inhabited city walls. With bouncers at the door to ensure that anyone entering is 18+, the raves are comfortably adult in nature. Clothing is optional, showing skin is encouraged, and there are a lot of neatly tucked away spaces for attendees to get some time alone with one or more than one person, as well as spaces intended for orgies. The atmosphere is sex-positive and non-judgemental, open to any orientation or preference, with various forms of protection available for free, however, to ensure that everyone plays safe there are sober security teams out en masse at all premises to oversee the events.

(CW: DRUG USE) In each location, there is one specific room where attendees can enter, and dance or play tag with brightly colored powder that contains small amounts of a legal party drug commonly available in Riverview, which is absorbed through the skin. Not much more intoxicating than having a few beers, the effects of the drug are a pleasant low-key buzzing euphoria, positive sensitivity to touch, a heightening of desires for intimacy, and a mild lowering of inhibitions. Once a character has been hit with the powder, the color lingers on the skin so other attendees can know who has partaken, but once the powder makes contact with a surface it deactivates, meaning that partakers can safely dance with non-partakers without sharing the intoxicating effects.

Please be sure to warn in subject lines for any threads involving drug use. And remember, there is always security to intervene and make sure everyone is safe.

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to set up headers for a communal floor, or threads open to roommates for the purpose of getting to know each other. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set at the Flower Festival, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: third image by Steve Goad; other images found on uncredited on Pinterest or Google images - please let the mod know if you find credit!

navigation

Comments

I.

[leadintheyoung]

[ If there's anything that's guaranteed to catch Líadan's attention at the picnic, it's a blanket with a single occupant. As someone very much lacking her important people and rather missing them should she let her mind wander, she's keen about mingling and making new friends, which sees her flitting from blanket to blanket with a smile, an offering, and a spring in her step when she's not exploring the stalls and observing the performances in the streets.

It's more the style of her dress than the colors that sees her stand out a bit. Her apparel consists of robes and a hooded cloak she's held to in spite of the heat colored primarily with greens and browns with a bit of yellow and black in accent. The dagger sheathed at her side, the bow and quiver full of arrows at her back, and the authenticity of the leather boots and the satchel at her side speak more strongly of a young culture. A head of braided hair doesn't do much to detract from the impression and she's a quick thing, quiet and nimble as she navigates the site.

Single occupant blanket spotted, Lí claims a seat atop it as surely as though the place had been meant and held for her and she was, perhaps, a minute or two late. Depositing her own varied collection of treats to the side with his, she'll pause and reach to gingerly pluck a few petals out of his hair with a smile. Really, the color seems that much brighter against hair so richly dark. She looks at the petals for a moment, then drops her gaze to him. When she speaks, and she speaks as naturally and fondly as though he were a good friend, there's a hint of an accent there -- Old Gaelic, should he be familiar. ]

With as many petals as you're collecting, I should make you a crown. It'd suit you, you know.

[ikols]

I wouldn't be opposed to wearing one, should you make it.

[ He spots her dipping from blanket to blanket in the picnic area like a colourful bird, harmless and chatty. That Loki remains where he is, hopefully expect of a visit at his own picnic, is invitation enough; he stays still when she cleans off his hair, chinning a hand where he lies on his side.

A nod is given to her treats, spread beside his own pastries. ]

You're busy. Money to burn?

[leadintheyoung]

Enough for this adventure, I think. People trade goods and services for goods and services where I'm from. Money is... new to me.

[ And new isn't bad, but money is a bit awkward to her. Sure, she gets it. One uses money to buy goods and services, but what's actually worth what and is a hard day's work really matched in worth by something like these units? She didn't miss his initial statement, though, and she's turning her eyes up and around at the branches of the tree closest to them in search of the best flowers among the boughs. She may have just sat down, but she's comfortable enough to forgo climbing for the moment. ]

A moment, if you please!

[ And really, a moment or two is all she needs to breathe a wordless, but lively little magickal melody to pick the flowers of her choosing with an invisible hand along with a few choice pieces from among minor, flexible branches. They'll be dropped gingerly into her hands as she finishes her little tune and just like that, she's setting to work on that crown with a smile. ]

Líadan Ní Donnabháin, by the way, and you are...?

[ikols]

[ ... Well, look at that. ]

Loki of Asgard, God of Mischief. [ Glancing from her hands to the boughs and back again, he doesn't hide how impressed he is. Enough to tease. ] Are you a flower-weaver on command, too?

[leadintheyoung]

[ Well, that... was definitely an unexpected introduction and it sees the corners of her mouth tugging that much more upward along with his teasing. There's a spark of recognition in her eyes when they find him now. Not the slightest inkling of fear, but wonder, excitement? Oh, there's plenty of that. ]

I could free my hands up, but I think this is deserving of a more personal touch. Vafþrúðnir never mentioned you being the God of Mischief, though.

[ And she feels somewhat cheated for it despite that her dear friend had only recently began to relate to her his people's tales of the gods. 'God of Mischief'? She hears 'God of Fun'. ]

[ikols]

Maybe the Loki of your world is all about something different, hm? What could it be?

[ The lack of fear is refreshing, albeit naive. He offers her a smile to prompt more of an explanation about what her world's godling is like. ]

[leadintheyoung]

[ To think she blundered in her excitement! She takes it in stride, though, thinking back a ways for that prompt of his as her fingers weave away with due care. Her eyes drop to the crown on occasion as she speaks. ]

Well, Vafþrúðnir called him by a few names. Loptr was one he used interchangeably when reading from the texts. He called him God of the Air and Breath and freest amongst the Gods. That magicks and wordsmithy would be chief among his arts didn't seem so surprising when he related that, nor did the Etan's epithet for my people, but... I suppose the Loki of my world could be a God of many more things than these. I wish I could tell you. Vafþrúðnir's time with me has been cut short as of late and it's left me with little and few stories where I imagine there's a wealth of them.

[ Which is a disappointment in and of itself for her love of them and his skill in telling them, but more importantly -- ]

My apologies. I don't suppose there's anything flattering about being taken for someone other than yourself, let alone a different Loki.

[ikols]

Don't worry, it happens all the time.

[ One Loki is as bad as the rest, it seems the multiverse is of that opinion across the board. At least the omniverse isn't totally selling him out as pure evil just yet. ]

Why was your time cut short with him? Your friend, the giant Ol' Thruddy.

[ Old misty memories offer up that much about her teacher. ]

[leadintheyoung]

[ If that isn't a relief! She's glad she didn't offend him; though, both that statement and his question sees her pause for a moment and her expression? It falls as she speaks. ]

He became king of Jörð's people, who we call the Etan, I want to say... well, it was a month before I found myself here or thereabouts. I am glad for him, but -- [ and if that 'but' doesn't speak as to something else, her face does ] -- I'm finding kingships tend to mean more responsibility and less time for friends and fun.

[ Which seems to be a theme affecting her closest friends as of late and not one she's all that fond of. ]

Have you ever come into a situation like that?

[ikols]

Well, I've personally never been a king, [ in this lifetime, he can't speak for others because he's seen what other Lokis have gotten up to in the Multiverse, ] although from the state my father is usually in, I wouldn't recommend it as a career move for anyone ... especially those with friends they would like to keep.

[ Odin and Freyr love each other, he knows, but Loki wouldn't say his adoptive parents ever really liked one another. Hard enough to keep a wife and harder to keep allies. ]

I'm more about the fun parts, just like you.

[leadintheyoung]

Then I am glad to meet a kindred spirit! They seem harder to come by these days.

[ She winds the last flower into the crown and lifts it to inspect it for imperfections. The colors are vivid and the branches certainly agreeable enough. She thinks she's judged the fit well enough, too. Hmm. ]

I'll keep that council for a different time, not that I imagine fathers kingly or otherwise to be so easily moved.

[ And she'll offer the crown to him for inspection with a smile. One to tarry in more solemn matters? Hardly, least of all when nothing can be done to address them immediately. ]

What do you think?