introductory mingle: HARVEST FESTIVAL

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Harvest Festival celebration
when: The month of November.
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

harvest festival

In the days leading up to November 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: The Harvest Festival. This holiday is in celebration of the harvest season and autumn, as the moon transitions into its winter period, and is characterized by indulging in the plenty that comes with the harvest season with loved ones, cleaning house figuratively and literally, and making sure that those in need don't suffer during the winter. Celebrations tend to focus around food and charity, with citizens enjoying and sharing cultural meals and sharing stories, or participating in any of the wide range of charity projects and events going on during this season.

a celebration of sharing

The biggest traditions of the Harvest Festival are centered around giving and sharing. Charity is central, and the each year the city sets up a large open tent with warm places to rest for anyone who might be homeless and a table capable of sitting over 50 people at any given time, with a round-the-clock catered feast for anyone who wants to sit and have a meal with anyone else who's dropped by. Besides this, there are a wide variety of events benefiting charities in the city, including a karaoke concert, stray animal round up, and the annual "stuff swap" where residents clean their homes and donate anything they don't need to those who might be lacking. There is also a tradition of writing down repressed or bottled up thoughts, feelings, regrets, sins, and other troubles and tossing them into a bonfire to go into winter with a clean soul.

i. harvest feast & stuff swap

For the first few days of November, anyone dropping by the city center will notice a large tent structure being put into place - by November 3rd, as the last of October's ghosts fade into nonexistence, a veritable banquet hall will have been sent up. For a week following the setup, anyone who drops by the hall and steps inside will see a large table laden with food. Bread, stew, fruits and vegetables, soups, roasted meat, and almost anything else one can think of will be on the table, along with plates, silverware, and cups. Anyone is free to take a plate, settle down at the table, and help themselves to a meal.

The Feast is staffed entirely by volunteers, who do the cooking, cleaning, and tidy up the dishes and area afterwards, keeping the constant stream of food coming. Whether your character is heading in to sit beside a stranger and strike up a conversation, or volunteering their time, energy, or cooking skills to the hall, they're more than welcome.

One corner of the hall is entirely dedicated to the yearly "stuff swap." There's a long-standing tradition of fall cleaning in Riverview Quarantine, where residents will thoroughly clean their homes and rid themselves of excess in preparation for the winter. The extra things that aren't needed can be dropped off at the city center where the Feast is set up, and anyone who is in need of a particular item that has been donated can take it free of charge. This is an honor system, so please be kind to others! (Or don't.)

ii. charity karaoke

On the weekend of November 10th and 11th, while the Feast will be cleared away, the tent is being repurposed for a new event - a Karaoke Concert for the needy! Set up as a makeshift bar and lounge area, the space will be fronted by a large stage where singles or groups of people can choose a song and karaoke their hearts out to a crowd of spectators. There's a by-donation cover fee, and guests are encouraged to reward the best (or most hilariously bad) renditions of beloved songs from across the multiverse with digital "tips" that are transferred to the karaoke performer's charity of choice.

Whether you're a spectator tipping a performer, or a performer who's singing their heart out on the stage to benefit a variety of charities from the homeless to the animal shelter to children in need (and almost anything else you can think of), the Karaoke Concert is both hilarious and heartwarming.

iii. stray animal roundup

One of the main charity events that seems to happen every year is the stray roundup. As the seasons turn and it gets colder and colder at night, many residents who have a soft spot for animals band together to round up as many stray animals as possible and take them to shelters where they can be rehabilitated, given a warm bath, fed, and have a safe place to sleep. Volunteers take to the streets with crates and nets or restraining poles as well as generous bags of treats of food to entice the strays with, and capture them safely to be brought back to the various animal shelters around the Quarantine. Any animal who's caught is put up for adoption, and volunteers are encouraged to take home any strays that they bond particularly well with, or are invited to foster animals in their homes.

Whether your character is a die-hard animal lover, looking for a new pet, or just wants some wacky hijinks trying to chase a wily critter around the streets, they'll be suited up with supplies by other volunteers and released into the fray. The most common animals to be found are cats, dogs, and small domesticated foxes, but feel free to assume that your character is rounding up a reptile, rodent, bird, or a domesticated alien critter. Playing a thread with this prompt is a great opportunity to get a cute alien pet for your character without spending AP.

iv. letting go

On the evening of November 15th, a series of large bonfires will be set up all along the beaches of the river, and as the night falls, people begin migrating to the beaches from all over the city carrying slips of paper in a wide variety of colors with words written on them in a wide variety of languages, and throwing them into the fires. This is a way of psychologically and emotionally cleaning house for the residents of the Quarantine, because the papers they bring contain the stories of their pain, poems written about the feelings they bottle up, a venting of their anger and fear and resentment, all to be eaten up by the flames and washed away by the river with the next rain.

No matter where a person comes from, they carry pain and suffering and hurts that they must hide. This is a welcome opportunity for characters to write out their thoughts and feelings and release them. And if the symbolism of burning them isn't enough, there are always other people around the fires who are willing to listen, to hear all those things that people keep locked up inside. Share a story willingly, listen to someone's story, or just get caught holding your deepest darkest secrets on a really vulnerable piece of paper...it's up to you.

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to meet new roommates, for the purpose of getting to know each other, or hit up the mod-posted prompt to create a Communal Housing floor mingle. Or, if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during the Harvest Festival, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i & iii: Bastien Grivet; image ii & iv: unknown (stock/hobbiton)

navigation

Comments

[bastardofipswich]

[ Chase covers his mouth, trying not to laugh too obviously at the creature as it decides that the end is near. Then, he hears a whimper coming from the carrier and makes a face as if to say God, puppies are so clingy, amirite? (it's half-hearted, at best; you're not fooling anyone, Chase), before moving back over to it. ]

Magic. [ He admits it easily, totally casually. One great thing about this place: magic isn't some secret, unknown thing. Nobody's gonna kill him the way the Puritans executed his ancestor. Chase grins, obviously proud. ] You could say I'm a little... witchy. [ After a beat, he adds: ] I'm Chase, by the way. [ May as well introduce himself. ]

[ragnarsson]

[Clearly, the power of puppies is even too great for a pair of terrible people to resist. Ivar strokes the alien on the head, producing a weird, contented sort of hum that sounds more like a bumblebee's buzz than a cat's purr. It's decided that it is in fact going to live another day.]

Magic. Of course. [After living this long in the Quarantine, he'll accept just about any answer given to him. Chase gets an eyeroll for his next words. That's practically a pun. Ivar wasn't going to tolerate puns.]

My name is Ivar The Boneless. [A name from the history books. One day, he'd be one of the most famous Vikings in the world. Right now, he was just a teenager with an attitude, anger issues, and a chip on his shoulder.]

[bastardofipswich]

[ Whoa, whoa, whoa-- don't you eyeroll at his borderline punny comment, Ivar. Chase hasn't even reached his full potential with them yet. And he's about to make a snide comment to that end, until Ivar introduces himself, and...

That's the coolest name ever. ]

Ivar the Boneless? Are you serious? [ IT'S BADASS. Way more badass than Chase "I don't get a cool title" Collins. ] It makes you sound like a Viking warlord or something.

[ Which, okay, maybe his brain jumps to "like a Viking warlord or something" because the name twigs some familiarity with something he might've come across in his junior year European History class. It doesn't yet occur to him that this kid could actually be from Ye Olde Viking times. Like, sure, he's got some kind of European accent, and he's dressed funny, and...

Oh. Hang on. Wait. No way. ]

...where are you from?

[ragnarsson]

[Alright, Ivar approves of that reaction to his name. Much better than the usual one, which involves a lot people wondering why his nickname was so 'mean.' If Ivar didn't like it on some level, he wouldn't have kept using it. The mention of sounding like a Viking warlord gets Chase a genuine grin. If only he knew...

Ivar's on the verge of explaining just how accurate that comment is when he asks where he's from. It's a usual question from people who have just arrived, considering they're all from different places and time periods.]

Norway. In 816.

[He's learned to add the year in there after introducing himself to people over these long months.]

[bastardofipswich]

Holy shit. It's 2006 for me.

[ He's grinning, because: holy shit. This is Chase's first official interaction with somebody from centuries into the past, so he's not totally blasé about this sort of thing yet. Should he tell Ivar he's from New England? DOES THAT MEAN ANYTHING TO SOMEONE WHO PREDATES NEW ENGLAND ENTIRELY? ]

Does that mean... Do you get to do a lot of pillaging and plundering? [ He's at least got enough of a sense of decorum from growing up rich and surrounded by WASPs, who are very good at not talking about things directly, not to ask how Ivar manages to Viking it up when he's gotta use a wheelchair... Though, do Vikings care about decorum? Whatever. ]

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar straightens up a little with pride. The small creature in his lap has calmed down, curling up, ear fins flattened down, and snaking the tufted tail around itself. It's a good thing Chase doesn't ask about the wheelchair. That's a good way to get whacked on the head with an axe handle.]

Of course. Lots of plundering, pillaging, killing, conquering England. That sort of thing.

[He makes it sound like, y'know, no biggie to be conquering an entire damn country.]

[bastardofipswich]

[ That sounds like the life. At least, in an abstract kind of way. Chase may be all about murder when it's beneficial to him, but that's probably a far cry from being a warrior. ]

Fuck 'em. [ He says it with a laugh, even though lbr, Chase doesn't really have any feelings about the English, any which way. ] What I wouldn't give for some of that back home. [ Look, conquest sounds a hell of a lot more fun than anything Massachusetts has to offer. The puppy whines in its carrier, and Chase glances back down at it. ] I guess we should start heading back to the shelter with these guys.

[ragnarsson]

Finally someone who sees sense.

[He can't say that he's grown fond of the attitude that he should stop with all the killing and violence. He might as well stop breathing as soon as he'd do that. Ivar speaks to the beast on his lap as they start to head for the shelter.]

Hold on, little fella.

[The alien creature responds by snaking out a long, reptilian-like tongue, and wrapping it around Ivar's hand in a lick. He really doesn't seem to mind all that much at being covered in alien saliva. He's been covered in a lot worse in his time. He starts to wheel back, the little creature hunkering down on his lap. There's a glance he spares at the puppy in the carrier.]

So are you going to keep him?

[bastardofipswich]

[ Now there's something Chase doesn't hear very often. But it's got him grinning, because somebody agreeing with him when he's not being a total phony is way too rare.

As for the puppy... ]

I don't think so. [ Chase shrugs, very nearly leaving it at that. But, after a beat, he goes ahead and shares, just a little. ] I've never had a dog before, so I wouldn't even know what to do with it. [ Glancing back down at the alien creature in Ivar's lap: ] What about you?

[ragnarsson]

Animals are easy to take care of. All you have to do is make sure they're fed and have a place to sleep. Do that, pay them a little bit of attention, and they stay happy. [This is said with the carelessness of someone who had grown up in a farming community.]

I've already got four animals and a child at home, so unfortunately, this little guy is going up for adoption.

[Such a shame too. The odd-looking little beast is starting to grow on him, ear fins, tufted tail, and all.]