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

[When he touches her, it confirms that he is real. He doesn't phase through her. He's not a figment of her imagination, or part of a vision. Her eyes are wide, taking him in. How could this be? How could he be gone one moment and then brought back so quickly?

Better yet, what did he remember?]

I'm fine. I.. [When did she get here? Her heart drops into her stomach. He doesn't remember.

This was all new to him. He doesn't remember anything, but he's back. It's a good and bad thing. So many conflicting emotions that she can't sort out at this moment.]

I got here two months ago. [She waits to read his reaction before asking a simple but important question.] What's the last thing you remember?

Two months?

[ That makes absolutely no sense. Sure, there's the whole space-time differential thing that Star Wars kind of glosses over but for the here and now, it makes no sense. He saw her days ago. A week. ] The... I just saw you off. You just left.

I left?

[Because he's the one who left her. He's the one who made her sick with worry and trying to get over how she was right back at square one with nothing. Rey kept telling herself it was for the best, that the Resistance had their best pilot back. But her leaving?

Unless he meant when she left to go find Luke... That had to be it.]

I did leave, I left to find Luke and I landed on Ahch-To. Then I was brought here. [Best way to really put it, minus telling Poe he had been here too. Now wasn't the best time to bring that up. Still...the fact that he was back was overwhelming.]

I didn't think I'd see you again.

[ There's something in the way she says that. Some spark of anger, something he can't pinpoint. It confuses him, sure, but it also makes him worry. Something isn't lining up here--

Okay, to be fair, a lot of things don't line up here. Them being here at all doesn't make sense. There's so much wrong he can barely wrap his head around it, but (selfishly, he knows) the fact that she's here gives him something to center on. It gives him a way to manage the day to day while he looks for a way back. ] Didn't think.... Why? What'd they tell you?

[ Because if the Powers that Be fed her some line other than "we'll send you home," he wants to know. ]

[A lot of things aren't lining up here. So many things that bring too many questions for her to answer. She should be relieved that he's back. That should be what she focuses on, not the questions, yet they swirl around in her mind like a tornado.]

I've been here for two months. I've been looking for a way back home. [To the resistance, to go back to her original mission.

Finding a ship was difficult, and trying to make one was damn near impossible if she was starting from scratch.]

But I haven't found anything that could help. Even the stars here look different. I was told they would work on trying to send me back. [Assuming that would even work, but she didn't have much faith in that.

So after two months of being grounded, and of losing Poe, she didn't think she'd see him again, much less this soon.]

That's what they said to me too.

[ He's noticed the stars. It would be hard for him to miss. The first thing he tried to do was map out where in the galaxy they might be, but all that did was drive home the fact that they're nowhere he's familiar with. ]

Two months.... [ He still can't wrap his head around the time distortion. But he can make that secondary, for now. For now, he can focus on other things. ] How have you been? They been treating you all right?

[It's a bit jarring to have Poe ask how she's doing when all this time she was focused on him. On his health and how he was doing. He's the one who vanished for, she didn't even know how long, only to come back in a matter of what? Days? Hours?

She still feels guilty for not checking on him sooner, to the point where she moves towards him and finally hugs her friend.]

I've been fine.

[For the most part. Minus having him leave then come back, finding a teacher int eh ways of the Force then having him disappear, gaining a few new friends, and still stressing out over her training, she's been fine.]

When did you get here?

[ He hugs her back, not satisfied with that answer but not willing to push, not right now. Fine is like the universal placeholder for really not okay probably. Poe would know. He uses it himself enough. ] Few days ago. I've been flying low, getting my bearings.

[ Trying to decide if he'd gone nuts or if this was actually real. ] Where are you staying?

[Fine is the universal place holder for other feelings one doesn't want to let the other person know about. She hasn't been fine in the days since he disappeared and apparently, he got back some time ago. It's hard for her to really know when Poe left, and even harder to when he came back.

This all so frustrating and infuriating at the same time.]

It takes a few days to get used to things. [But it's very doubtful that she'd get used to this place overall. Nothing makes sense, and the fact that nothing makes sense is the only thing that does make sense.]

In the Communal Housing building, on the 12th floor. If I had known you were here, I would've tried to find you. [She nearly says 'again,' but thankfully stopped herself before it slipped past her lips.]

[ It's going to take at least a few days to get used to things, no question. He laughs, irony in his tone. ] I'm one floor down.

[ The universe seems to love jokes like that. Poe shakes his head. ] You want to head back there? I could make us dinner if you haven't had anything yet.

[ And it would get them off the beach, away from the constant itch of anxiety building in the back of his mind. ]

[ She’s one floor above him. Rey wouldn’t have guessed. She tightens her hold on him before pulling back. ] Guess we’re neighbors.

[ The idea of getting dinner would be a sound one but with all the emotions running through her, she doesn’t think she can eat. ]

We can head back, yeah. That’s fine.

[ A lot of things are 'fine', seems like. Poe walks in silence for, oh, about thirty seconds before he says: ] What's wrong, Rey?

[ They might not know each other particularly well yet (at least on his end), but it's not hard to tell she's genuinely bothered by something. ]

[ The silence was awkward, with Rey being pensive. She was trying to sort everything out in her mind. She had been here before and now Poe was in the same boat as her, more or less. Neither of them remembered being here and if she brought that up now, it would make her friend upset. She would have to find a time to do it...]

Huh? [ Shes pulled out of her train of thought by the question. ] I have a lot on my mind. That’s all. [ Shes making sure not to use the word ‘fine’ again. ]

Don’t worry about it.

[ He's tempted, very tempted to push. Instead he just bumps her shoulder lightly with his own, smiling sidelong. ] That's a great way to make sure your friends worry about it. If you need to talk, I'm here to listen, all right?

[ He can't imagine what it must be like, to have so much on her shoulders. The weight of the General's expectations, the legacy of the Jedi, those would be heavy enough burdens without this moon and the time differences making everything infinitely more complicated. Being stolen away and helpless to do anything about it is already more than enough. ] How have you been keeping busy?

[ Not the best thing to a friend, yes but that’s all she could say. Or willing to say for now. There was a nod of her head, silently agreeing that if she wanted to talk with him about her problems she would. But she didn’t want him to worry. Her problems were her own and she would find a way to figure it out...hopefully.

As for how she’s been keeping busy...]

Various things. I tried to chart the stars to see if anything looked familiar but that didn’t work. I do have two jobs, part time with a friend, Cisco, and with the Perimeter Guard. Back to what I was doing—scavenging, more or less. [ But the pay was way better. ]

Met a few people from our world or star system. They’re from the past, apparently people from various times in history can be pulled here.

[ Lines up with what Poe has noticed about the stars. Or at least what he hasn't noticed, which is anything familiar. He's glad she has a friend here, that she's keeping busy. Two months is a long time to be stuck on alone on a strange moon (ha ha).

Poe pulls up short at that last part. Sure, it falls in line with what Taako said about his sister being from two decades earlier than him, but it's a very different thing when it's people from home. ] Who? From when?

Cassian Andor and Jyn. They.. [She lowers her voice a little.] They were the ones who stole the plans about the Death Star.

[People who were never given names until now. Or at least for Rey that was the case. Her education was lacking, but she knew enough to get by. She was working on improving her education by going to the library, but she didn't have time for it. Maybe she could find something about the Jedi there too.]

I didn't know about that. I only heard about how the Death Star was destroyed, but never thought that the design flaw was intentional.

[ Cassian Andor. Jyn. The names are familiar in a ghostly way, like a forgotten childhood memory. Then she says that next bit. And Poe gapes.

He remembers where he's heard those names. Except he hadn't heard them, he'd read them. They'd been engraved on a placard in the old Temple Base, now a New Republic museum. The rolls of the dead from Scarif, the heroes of Rogue One. He used to wonder about Jyn Erso as a kid. She was the only one up there without a rank. A naked name, in the middle of all those military titles.

And there's another revelation, even to him: ] I didn't know that either.

I don't think many people know that either.

[Because that's a huge revelation. To know that someone had made that design flaw intentional. That there was one engineer or architect in the Empire that wanted to bring them down. Rey wouldn't say how she knows that. That is for Jyn or Cassian to tell him. She doesn't want to tell their history and mess something up. But, their story would continue on.]

They're both nice and good people. You should contact them, or maybe we could all share a meal together at some point.

[All of them together, discussing the Empire and maybe giving Cassian and Jyn a chance to ask about the future...and maybe stay away from the topic of the First Order.]

I haven't told them about the First Order, not yet. Not after hearing how they lost their lives to defeat the Empire.

Finn is here, Rey. If they meet him they might find out pretty quick. [ And if they hurt Finn, he's pretty sure he and Rey would both have Words with the heroes of the past and basically that seems like a bad idea all around.

Poe runs a hand through his hair. ] Have you two found each other yet?

[ Because it doesn't seem right to say "seen" each other. The desperate look in Finn's eyes when he asked Poe for help on D'Qar made it pretty damn clear that Rey was one of those people that occupies the center of a person's heart. ]

[In that moment Rey stops in her tracks to star at Poe. What did he mean Finn was here? How could Finn be here when he was resting in med bay back at the Resistance base? ]

What do you mean he's here?

[And now her heart is thumping madly in her chest. She has to find him. She has to make sure he's okay and that nothing happens to him. He came back for her and she would damn well go and find him if he was here.]

When did you meet him? Why isn't he with you now? [Yes, could Poe tell that Finn meant a lot to Rey?]

Edited 2017-11-13 05:04 (UTC)

I mean he's here, awake and healthy.

[ Poe gives her shoulder a little squeeze. At some point he would need to get the story between the two of them, but at the moment it's enough to see how important they are to each other. ] I ran into him in the city.

[ ~~And this is where Poe would say that Finn is looking for her if that wouldn't twist the space-time continuum of these threads into even more knots BUT THERE WE ARE~~

screw it ] Pretty sure he's looking for you.

[ More than pretty sure, but that's clear from the smile on his face. ]

I should've been checking the network to see if anything popped up...

[Her mind is whirling, trying to figure out how she would find Finn. The squeeze to her shoulder helps ground her, and her heart is ready to jump out of her chest.

He was looking for her too? Why is it he always manages to go looking for her? To coming back to her? More questions than answers really, but now she wants to focus on trying to find him...]

Do you know where he is? Or...do you think he's well enough to see people? [Because considering his condition from the last time she saw him, he was in pretty bad shape.]

He's good. [ Poe grins, because seeing Finn hale and whole is almost enough to make up for where they are, at least for a little while.

After the way Finn talked about Rey on D'Qar, and after the reaction Rey had to finding out Finn is here? Poe wouldn't want to be in the crowd between these two when they find each other. ] He'll want to see you, I can guarantee that.

[If Poe told Rey that Finn talked about her on D'Qar, she would be surprised. She wasn't used to being talked about, expect maybe for work. It might be enough to get her to blush a tiny bit, but the world may never know.

Her heart starts to slow down hearing that Finn is good. He's alive...that's all that matters.]

I'll want to see him too. [Because, he's her best friend. Because he's saved her twice at least? Or rather, they keep saving each other...]

I'll see if I can find him tonight. I mean, there aren't too many places you can go, or hide. [At least that's what she's telling herself right now.]

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