riverviewlogs | 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)

navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ BB-8 has spotted that dancing bit of paper, and there's nothing in his readouts of the air currents around the bonfires to indicate that it should or could be moving that way. It's an abnormality, and therefore worth investigating.

BB-8 rolls to a stop near Caleb, trilling a question, his photoreceptor fixed on cat and paper. ]

[ Caleb and cat both stop and stare at BB-8; the former because he cannot, for the life of him, figure out just what it is or what it attempted to communicate to him, and the latter because, well.

Cat. ]

Uhm, [ he says, because he's a teenager and sometimes one's vocabulary just. Gets away from you, but then he realizes what is probably the focus here. Probably. ]

I'm doing it.

Don't tell.

[ BB-8 does the equivalent of a DROID GASP, rolling backward a fraction and tilting his head dome. He lets out a long sequence of preets that amounts to HOW TF ARE YOU DOING IT. ]

[ Oho, rolly one. The cat is very interested in sniffing every single part of you, especially the oculars (think cats and cameras). Caleb, on the other hand, is totally charmed. What is this thing? Who is this thing?
Can he learn it's language? ]

Uh...it's magic.

I know, that sounds lame, but it's true. [ He shrugs. ] Small things are okay, but bigger things are dangerous in the long run.

[ BB-8 makes noises of protest, swiveling his head dome and leaning one way then the other as he tries to get the cat away from his photoreceptor. He can't scan properly with this quadruped all up in his roboface.

He might be peeping for help, Caleb. HE CAN'T EVEN FOCUS ON THE INQUIRIES GENERATED BY THIS NEW INFORMATION. ]

[ Caleb can't help but watch this interaction for a few seconds with a bit of a smile on his face before leaning down to scoop up the offending cat into his arms, where she promptly begins kneading his chest.

Yep. That's happening. ]

Is magic a thing where you're from?

[ He has no idea how he's going to parse this...robot's? Response but he's damned sure gonna try. ]

[ BB-8 has gathered by now that certain actions translate better than binary around here, so he swivels his head-dome in a way that clearly indicates "no."

Then, since he can't stop himself from chatting, he adds that the Force is an energy field that connects all living things in the galaxy and has religious contexts that occasionally bring its definition close to that of fictional magic.

You totally understood that right Caleb. ]

[ Well, what he got is: ]

So magic isn't a thing where you're from but there's something else? That reminds you of it maybe?

I need to learn the language, sorry buddy.

[ A whistle that's clearly an affirmative, at least. From somewhere near the bonfire an exasperated voice calls: ] BB-8? Buddy, where are you? You've gotta stop doing this.

[ The droid whistles, calling Poe over to Caleb and the cat. Poe scrubs a hand through his hair, sighing. ] Sorry, is he bugging you?

Nah, it's cool. We were chatting about magic. [ Oh Poe. You smell like interesting things, but Nile? Nile has other ideas.

She backs up and wiggles her butt and then, suddenly: a black fluffy small cat is perched on poor BB's head.

Caleb has to stifle a laugh. ]

Kinda one-sided, though. Do you think you could teach me his language?

Magic.

[ Poe says it the way one might say Youths, shaking his head. ] Going to take me a while to get used to that one.

[ Er. He looks between BB-8 and Caleb, clearly out of his depth. ] Y'know, you're the second person to ask me that? I mean, I could try. I just don't know where I'd start. I grew up knowing binary.

So it's not a thing where you guys come from?

Most people don't believe in it, back home.

[ Wait, the little droid robot thingy speaks binary?! ] That's kinda crazy. I mean. In a good way!

No. We've got the Force, but that's not... it's not magic. It's the Force.

[ He's good at explaining.

Poe smiles. ]

Not where we're from. It's pretty common, really. Most droids speak some version of compressed binary if they don't have programming that supports Basic.

..What is the Force?

[ Why does that sound important, like the difference between a king and The King? ]

Huh, okay. Binary is a programming language back home but I don't know anyone fluent in it.

It's... [ How can Poe explain this. It's like droids, something people know about whether they believe in it or not. The legends of Luke Skywalker, the Jedi... how could people not know? How can he be so far from home that those stories don't mean something? ] It runs through everything. Binds the universe together. It's part of everything that lives, everything, a part of existence itself.

[ Poe scratches the back of his head. ] I'm probably not saying this right.

introductory mingle: HARVEST FESTIVAL

iv. R U USING THE FORCE CALEB

MAYBE?

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asjdkfasdf I lost the notif wtg me

IT HAPPENS

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