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

i. harvest feast & stuff swap
[This whole 'not wanting to be in your life' business bothered Alex, but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to try adapting. She could sit here and attempt to dissect every way in which this was wrong (and the Strand in her head was most certainly egging that on) but in the end, Alex was always going to play to her strengths and do the things that she did best: connect with people and get information that way.

One of the best ways to connect with people, Alex had found, was to do things like communal meals. So, that was the reason she was joining the throng at the tent. She didn't have anything to trade as of yet (or at least anything she was willing to trade anyway) but food was something that she could do. So, Alex balanced a bowl of soup and a piece of bread and a drink before she settled into a vacant chair next to someone.]

Do you mind if I sit here?

iii. stray animal roundup

[Some weeks (months) ago, Alex Reagan had bemoaned her lack of a dog to her best friend Nic. So, if she could help with getting homes for lost animals, then she was more than willing to do it. Armed with treats and a leash, Alex had wandered into one of the smaller streets, not really chasing a streak of gray that had dove into a hole. Alex moved closer, and she just sat across from the hole, putting a few treats in front of her, and then the rest in her lap. Following that, Alex just talked to the dog soothingly in her ready-for-radio voice until it stepped forward to the first treat.

Eventually, the large gray dog with blue eyes came over and just sat actually in her lap, causing Alex to laugh as she petted the dog with no concern about any sort of dirt or disease or the like. It almost seemed like the dog was meant to be hers, and Alex knew there was no way she could give it up. When he finished all of the treats and licked Alex's cheek again, she slipped the collar around his neck.]

Well, I'm tempted to call you Strand, but considering he'd probably kill me if he ever shows up, I'm just going to call you 'Apophenia.'

[Strand probably wouldn't consider that any better, but then again he wasn't here now was he?]

iv. letting go

[Alex didn't want to be here, but maybe there was some merit in attempting to let go of things here. Well, not let go of them entirely, but to pick them down until she could go home and pick them up again. The deep seated fear that Alex would return home to find that it had ended, or that something had happened to Richard and Nic and her family rose once more, and she tried to damper it down as she held onto the piece of paper in her hands. The color on it matched the red of Alex's jacket and she was taking that as a sign as she wrote 'demons' on it. Demons here meant the actual kind and the ones she carried, like the idea that she may have caused the end of the world.

Moving close to a fire, Alex held it clenched in her fist, unsure if she should toss it in or not.]

[He hadn't really wanted to come here--large crowds weren't his scene. They hadn't been for years. In Iraq, large crowds were just dangerous, and safety was one or two other guys, men you knew and trusted.

He also wasn't ready for the whole festive thing. It wasn't Thanksgiving, but it was like it just enough to hurt, to make him think of the Thanksgivings he'd missed, deployed overseas, and the Thanksgiving he'd never got to have, coming home.

So he'd tried, but when he'd found a seat, he'd found himself staring at the plate of food without really seeing it, until he hears a voice.

He looks up, blinking, as if confused, just for a moment, shaking his head finally. ]

Yeah. Go ahead.

[He tries to make it look like he'd been doing something with the food other than staring at it. And fails at it probably.]

Sorry, I'm probably not great company.

[Alex just gave him a quick smile, because she was really good at the whole 'dealing with people who aren't good company' thing. So good that if you asked her she probably had a degree in it by now. Or at the very least, she had a start on her master's thesis.

If nothing else, she definitely knew the look of a person who was staring into something more than just his food, and she just tears a piece off of her bread and plays with it between her fingers for a long moment before she replies with a shrug.]

It's okay. I'd be more surprised if any of us were good company right now. I mean.

[Alex spreads her hand and gestures to the group around them.]

They can try very hard, but this place is definitely not home.

[And for Alex, it never will be.]

Some people seem to be doing just fine. [He's not angry about it, more...confused. How could people forget how fucked up this whole 'kidnapped to a weird moon' thing is?]

Must come from some pretty shitty places. [Worse than Hell's Kitchen? Hard to believe.

He holds out a hand, because he does remember, vaguely, manners.]

Name's Frank.

They wanted to not be home.

[The words came with a shrug and frown, because clearly Alex does not agree with that. She'd give a great deal to be able to get back to her life because she has some things to do.

She's wondering if he's the same way. There's been more than a few people here who wanted to get home rather than anything else.

Taking his hand, she gives him a smile again.]

Alex. Nice to meet you, Frank.

Alex Reagan | OTA.

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Letting Go

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kind of a wildcard; feel free to place it wherever in her timeline of interactions

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