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)

navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[For a moment, Alex just looks at the woman, and she draws her fist closer around it as if to prevent the paper from being seen, even those woman was only doing what Alex herself does when she is well... on and doing her job.

Or when she's just being nosy as Strand would say. That happens a fair amount too.

Plopping down next to the woman and wearing her red coat, Alex just sighs softly, the sound drawn out against the cracking of the fire.]

It sounds really, really crazy.

[Alex means it. This entire story sounds completely insane, which had been one of the reasons that she had been chasing it for over the last two years of her life.]

*Lola was tiny and very non-threatening. Made her good at being nosy, that and her nose for gossip which Lola worked into a fine skill when she needed it. Still, something about all this said it was serious and weird. But... Lola's been here a while.*

Crazier than the planet we're orbiting? Or crazier than my hair?

*Lola shook her head a little, her hair going from dark blue to metallic gold. Which was shiny enough to reflect the firelight rather well. Before letting her hair shift back to a more natural (for her) color.*

I've been here a while, you get used to crazy stuff.

[Alex is also tiny and can be quite non-threatening when she wants to be. Alas she can also be frightening too when she needs to. But right now she's not, and she just laughs softly at the changing of the hair.]

That's pretty amazing, actually. Can I ask how you do it? I wish my hair would.

[Alex tugs on a brunette strand and looks at it for a moment before she asked another question, this one more important.]

How long is 'a while' I'm hoping that they can get me home sooner rather than later.

I had it done here, it's kinda expensive and permanent. Not really a thing most people would do, but I used to have to dye my hair on a monthly basis to keep myself me.

*Lola's had enough people question the choice to realize maybe it was a bit impulsive, but it felt like her so she stands by it. Even if she totally gets nobody else would.*

Um... nine months? A lot of people have come and gone in that time. Probably cause they, like, want to go home.

That's cool. Though it might make my job a bit harder, both here and at home.

[She imagined not many people would take a reporter seriously with that colored hair even if Terry and Paul wouldn't mind it so much. But it probably wouldn't go with the PNWS brand, and Strand would make fun of her forever for it.

But there was something infinitely more important there.]

I want to go home. So it has worked to send people?

*Lola stared at Alex a few moments, then her hair matched Alex's color perfectly... well, almost, it was redder because Lola's seeing her lit by firelight.*

I can have normal colors, any color I can picture. I just like being... myself.

Well, people go home, it isn't like you can plan for it specifically? Like, it's a portal that doesn't make any sense. But you'll go home, lots of folks do.

Anyway, I'm Lola, do you wanna talk about your piece of paper, or just... ask me more about this place?

Wow. That's really impressive!

[Alex was clearly giving it some thought, and more than a little piece of that thought was: 'how much would this break Richard's brain if I showed up with this and he couldn't explain it.' But then Alex dampened those thoughts down because she really isn't going to be here that long.

Still holding onto her note, she looked to the woman with an easy and coaxing smile.]

Would it bothered you if I asked more about this place first?

*Lola bloomed at the kind words, even if it was technically about a complicated procedure she went through here and not something she learned through hard work. It was still kind words, for her, and she liked that. Her hair reverted to the same color she started with.*

I don't mind, I was new here once, just... don't expect me to be able to answer anything about science, the portal, or outside the city. I don't know how to fight monsters, I kinda suck at science, and I have stayed well inside the walls every time trouble has happened.

It's okay, I also suck at science and fighting monsters. Sticking my nose in places where it doesn't belong on the other hand, I'm pretty good at. I'm guessing that's why they assigned me to the news network.

[Which she really hoped wasn't on camera. God, please let it not be on camera.

Her voice is softer and more focused on Lola when she asked:]

Do you want to go home?

Um... I want home to come here? I guess. My dad, my friends. It's kinda exciting, living on a weird moon in space full of people that all have their own lives and stories and all of them are wild and out there. I really don't wanna think about going home. But...

*But Lola misses everyone. But if she went home she'd miss everyone from here. There wasn't really any good answer to this. Just a lot of complicated choices she thankfully didn't have to deal with.*

If I ever do want to go home, I wanna make sure to plan for it and tell all my friends here before I leave. That's for sure...

*She definitely sounded bitter over something with that last thought.*

I'm guessing a lot of the people who go home don't get the chance to say goodbye?

[It makes sense to her: if they find the right place and time to drop someone off at, then they would want to be able to send them home immediately while they still could. Of course, Alex knew how it felt to have friends just disappear on you for months, so she knew:]

That's got to be incredibly hard, both for the people leaving and the people who are still here.

Nobody really says goodbye, they just... go. Well, once I got a goodbye.

*That didn't sound like it was a good or happy experience. Her hair gets a little darker as she thinks about it.*

I dunno how hard it is for the people that go home, but it sucks to not resolve things.

[Alex just frowns at that. She's someone who gets attached to people easily, and she knows how it feels to have people just disappear on you for months and it's the worst. She can't imagine how it would feel to have someone just be gone from your life forever.

No, wait she can--there was a long period where she didn't know if people would come back, and that had been hellish.

Without thinking about it, Alex reached over and put a reassuring hand on the girl's arm.]

Well, if nothing else, I promise to make sure to say goodbye so there's at least one for you.

[Guess you're friends now, Lola.]

*Lola smiled. She's gotten used to being the one to console others, it's a thing she's good at. And everyone here is some emotionally stunted hero who needs to learn how to socialize better. So it was nice someone else made an effort with her. It put a bit more shine back in her hair.*

It's a nice thought, if that works. I've written a bunch of letters that one of my friends knows to give out if I leave.

*Lola made a new friend! To the surprise of nobody, this is literally what she does.*

[This is also something that Alex is good at, so it's easy for her to say. And she just nods at the mention of letters.]

That's a good idea. Maybe I'll record audio so people can have that from me anyway. I mean, I'm way more comfortable on audio than on than on video or writing. It's what I d back home.

So, I'll make one of those for you for sure, but I'll try and say goodbye in person too.

I've been meaning to update them to videos but I'm not super sure how to have those get where they're meant to go.

*She'd need to see what sorta super cool futuretech just lets her set-up messages off network.*

We should figure out stuff to do before goodbyes, and stop talking about them. They're sorta depressing?

[Alex had already been poking around with the weird tech, because it was both so similar and so different than the ones that she had been using at home. Eventually, Alex had decided, she would figure it out and share that information. But for now, she nods along, because the subjects of goodbyes is depressing, even if what Alex wants is to go home so badly.]

So, what do you do here?

Edited (Stupid html!) 2017-12-11 03:03 (UTC)

Um, go to school, work as a waitress, try all the super weird foods they have here. I try to keep it normal? Or as normal as can be, here. It helps.

*Lola's very 'in the moment' with her activities. She's enjoying herself when things are good. Because, well, things go bad pretty easily too.*

...except when I'm practicing with weirdo superpowers I accidentally gained. And no, no I don't know how those happened. They aren't very interesting either.

*Yes, she looks a little guilty about all of that.*

Weirdo superpowers?

[Sorry, Lola, you just happened to catch her brain with that, and Alex frowned quickly because what was that about now. And then her frown moved to an easy smile.]

I don't know, they sound pretty interesting to me. Then again, any powers would. I know it seems like a sore subject but is that something that happens often here?

I can heal people, not... very fast, but just like faster than normal? I... speed up metabolic rates and reduce fatigue? It's complicated and I don't quite get it.

*Lola's far better at doing than understanding what she's doing. And thus a great deal of her problems.*

Not sure how often, some other people have suddenly gained powers. But it isn't like a constant thing I see on the network. So I don't think even for here its normal.

Wow.

[The sound is drawn out as she considers it. This moon is completely insane, and now there's the added idea that people can be given powers. It's weird and a little bit to take in, but at the same time Alex is completely enthralled, and Lola has her complete and full attention.]

Still, that's pretty amazing.

It is now that I can control it, before it just happened if I focused too hard on someone. And superpowers are exhausting. I kept taking naps in weird places and my hair kept losing its color.

*She doesn't seem overly bothered now, but that sounds like it was a problem.*

Wow. [The word came again, because Alex had a tendency to overuse it. But she continued with less awe and more empathy in her voice.]

That must have been really difficult. How did you get it under control? Was it just like practice?

I needed to learn how to not focus too hard on people. Just... change how it turned on? I guess. I dunno, it took a while.

*Lola is the best at explaining things. Other things, not this. She's bad at explaining this.*

[Actually, Alex is following along with this easily, so she just nods for a moment, and then smiles again.]

I can imagine. But definitely a skill worth having, I would think.

introductory mingle: HARVEST FESTIVAL

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)