riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: HARVEST FESTIVAL

Entry tags:

introductory mingle: HARVEST FESTIVAL

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)

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Okay, step one: get portaled to some moon, unconscious and seriously wounded, wake up later in a hospital surrounded by strangers who can't tell him anything about what happened to... anything or anyone that matters?? Finn absorbs his orientation information, but it doesn't make sense. Almost nothing makes sense. They tell him people are brought here when they feel displaced, and he tells them they're wrong, which they don't seem to have an answer for.

He'd felt like he was exactly where he needed to be. All they can do is take a note of his preference.

Finn does his requisite day-ish of healing up enough to leave, settling into a constant running level of agitation and concern that can't be alleviated by a hospital full of strangers. The minute they tell him he can be discharged if he wants, he demands the paperwork and walks out. He's moving a bit stiffly, but it's more instinctive caution than pain. A couple of days, he figures, and it won't matter. What matters now is getting back. Maybe his prospects weren't looking especially great, but being here means leaving Rey. It doesn't really matter what his prospects were.

Some distant moon that's never even heard of the First Order. A recommendation for honest work he's suited for, but no obligation. A day ago, he would have killed for this. ]

[ i. stuff swap: ota

Yeah, so Finn doesn't really do much by way of possessions. Which is to say he has almost none, and he's not exactly in the market to get more. But he does own a jacket, and he's kind of attached to it, and it's currently a little worse for wear. Maybe a lot worse for wear. There's a nice big slash across the back.

He walks through the hall in part because he's tense and feels at least a little better when he's actively out in the city getting to know his new surroundings. He might eat something while he's there, but his focus is mostly drawn to the corner hosting the stuff swap. There are a lot of odds and ends, a mix of trading and free-to-take, and it isn't long before he's on the hunt for some sturdy needles and sturdier thread, jacket folded and draped over one arm. He might also be holding up one of those many odds and ends, like a weird lamp or a decorative plate with something unusual printed on it, with a look on his face that maybe says "everything that's happened in the past day or so is finally really starting to sink in and this weird looking thing could in fact be what's pushing him over the edge of doneness." ]

[ iii. stray animal roundup: ota

It's ridiculously easy for him to get roped into this. He's minding his own business and then someone is going "sorry, can you give me a hand" or "we need help getting as many animals out of the cold as we can" or something like that, and Finn just sort of. Agrees.

There are so many animals here. There are so many. And so many strays for a moon filled with people who supposedly came in feeling misplaced. Finn spends a lot of time out in the streets doing his best to help with this enterprise, and it's easy to catch him at it. Sometimes running full-tilt after an especially wily dog. There's a time he's holding like five lizards that he didn't even catch, another volunteer just handed them to him to hold while they caught something else. These weird-looking little things. They don't make much effort to escape, more comfortable with whatever warmth he has to offer than without it. He pats one on the head with a finger and says something like "okay".

There's not much else to do. The lizards are here. They're happening.

And because no animal-catching prompt is complete without it, join Finn as he answers another plea for help. Does it get more cliche than a cat up a tree? Not likely. This thing is all too content to chill on a branch while Finn climbs up after it, and all too happy to start taking swipes once he gets up there.

He, uh. He goes ahead and lets everyone in the area know that he's throwing his crate down. There's no possible way it can be useful. He stares down this cat like it's the greatest puzzle he's ever known, and it growls back.

He points at it accusingly. He has... no idea how this is supposed to happen. Everything else was so much smaller. ]

I did not have to come up here for you!

[ iv. letting go: ota

Finn doesn't write anything on the paper he's given. He's caught somewhere halfway between not knowing what he'd even want to write, and feeling like he couldn't fit it all onto one. Logistically, it seems like a bit of a waste of resources.

But he doesn't leave.

He doesn't give his paper to someone who looks like they might not have one yet. He holds onto it instead, carefully folded, staring at it while he listens to the stories that come out around him.

And as the night presses on, as people come and go and talk, he holds one end of the paper to the flames until it catches. It burns down to the edges of his fingers, and he lets the rest fall in just to make sure it's gone. ]

[ v. roommates

WHAT'S UP FLOOR 3 OF SHARED HOUSING, FINN IS HERE. He hates it, but not because of the people hanging around. Just as a concept. His assigned room is room 4, which doesn't stop him from being around in general and willing to introduce himself! Don't worry. He won't bite. ]

[ Between his own lacking memory beyond anything that wasn't dealing with Kylo Ren and the flood of new information that comes just from arriving to the Quarantine, Finn almost doesn't see her in the crowd. It's easy to get wrapped up in thinking, worrying, easy to keep his head down and weave through traffic with no real destination in mind.

When he does see her, walking around herself or sitting down to eat or whatever she might happen to be doing (a brief glimpse that keeps getting cut off by another person crossing his path), he almost writes it off as his imagination. He wants to see Rey more than anything right now, stuck in some new unknown place with no news, no knowledge-- he wants to see Rey more than anything, and for a second he thinks that must be all it is. There's no such thing as luck that good.

Or maybe there is. He blinks, heart hammering in his chest, and she's still there. She doesn't vanish when he snaps to attention from a brief glimpse, and Finn is already starting to push his way through the people around him in the straightest possible line towards the place he saw her. ]

Rey?!

[ It's half a shout. He's still not 100% sure he believes this is happening, but he knows he can't risk it if it is for something as simple as not wanting to make a scene. ]

[Rey wasn't paying to her surroundings too much. She was going to the Harvest Festival, just to see what it had to offer. Part of her was tempted to simply go back to work; either with the Perimeter Guard, or go beyond the wall by herself. Cisco would probably tell her no, but it wasn't like she had anything else going on. She was still trying to figure out how to train using the Force without an actual teacher, much less how to train with a lightsaber without injuring herself.

Rey was still trying to wrap her head around what happened with Poe... Maybe she could talk to Cisco or Alec about it. Maybe lower her walls a little more and talk about how she was feeling rather than keeping it all bottled up. She doesn't see anyone familiar in the crowd, but there was there a shift in the wind? Or something else?

There was a need, a desire to turn her head to a different direction to look for something. Suddenly, she heard her name being called. She turned her head towards where she heard her name, and her heart stopped.]

Finn.

[His name falls softly from her lips, unsure if that really was her friend that she was seeing. Her heart is pounding faster and faster. Run is the first thing that comes to her mind. Her feet start to move, quickly walking then sprinting towards the former Stormtrooper. She's dodging people and trying to get around others without causing any injuries.]

FINN!

[Don't let this be a dream. Don't let this be a vision. Let this be real, please.]

[ It only takes that shout to get him from pushing his way through the crowd to running in her direction full-tilt. He's had one absolute constant fear, one constant concern since he first woke up, and there was really only ever one thing that could alleviate it.

Seeing for himself that she's okay.

There was no time on Starkiller once he started fighting Kylo Ren. He never got the chance to check on her again, to try to get her back to the ship, and thinking that he might be here recovering while she was possibly gone-- out of every potential problem and every potential outcome, that's been the hardest one to try to carry. Seeing Rey himself is the only way to know beyond a shadow of any doubt, the only way to wipe that fear completely off the map.

The closer he gets to her, the broader his smile stretches, because she's okay, she looks okay and she's here. And at least for the moment, it's the best possible outcome to have her here. ]

Rey--

[ Honestly, Finn's going in for the hug without any preamble whatsoever on this one. He throws his arms open like it's his job. ]

finn | OTA

CLOSED | rey

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so sorry about the delay!