introductory mingle: HYGGE

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Hygge celebration
when: The month of December.
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

hygge

In the days leading up to December 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Hygge. This holiday is one of Riverview Quarantine's four yearly celebrations of love, this one focused on familial love and found family. The traditions associated with Hygge involve coziness and warmth with loved ones, as snow begins to blanket the Quarantine. Meals comprised of family favorites are shared together most nights of the month of December, and families both biological and found gather together by outdoor fires to drink hot cocoa and other warm drinks, roast marshmallows, and enjoy the beauty of the short-lived winter season on the moon, especially at night, when both the stars and almost unreal aurora borealis light the night sky.

a celebration of familial love and found family

Winter comes to the moon very quickly every year, as the orbit of the Capitol World crosses between its moon and the sun - the temperature drops to just below freezing in the span of only a couple of days, and the trees often don't even change from green to orange. During this short winter, the celebration of Hygge keeps all the residents warm. The main traditions involve comfort and warmth with those people you think of as family - platonic or romantic, though preferably mixed between the two - groups of people gather together to share meals and exchange gifts. The city sets up a series of cabins, each fronted with a fire pit, along the banks of the river, which has been lined with floating logs to interrupt the rushing water and allow the surface to freeze solid and form a series of skating rinks for the public to enjoy. Throughout the month, anyone can head down to the riverbank to make taffy candy in troughs of cold snow and share the various flavors with other families, or toboggan along winding, circuitous courses that range from easygoing to high-speed for the adrenaline junkies. The Town Square has a large, intricate ice sculpture set up, this year in the theme of a castle, that once entered proves to be a maze with a prize at the center for anyone who happens to make it through.

i. beach treats

The cabins that are set up all along both banks of the river are small and cozy, big enough to provide a comfortable lounging area with piles of pillows in front of a small fireplace where gift exchanges can happen, a kitchen to cook in, and a table for groups of people to share a meal at. Much like hotel rooms but without a fee, they're intended to be claimed at the start of the day and used for a while before being tidied and reset for the next group. Each cabin has a fire pit out front where a fire can be set up so groups of people can cook marshmallows for their hot chocolate and share stories or play music together.

Another major feature on the beach are the candy making areas, each big enough to accommodate a couple groups of people, featuring a bank of burners that keep various flavors of thick sugary syrup hot and ready. Once the syrup is at the right temperature, it can be drizzled into the snow packed in troughs to chill, and then rolled onto popsicle sticks to be eaten as a sweet chewy treat. Many families have their own particular flavor combos that are the go-to every year, and new families gather every year to start their own tradition.

ii. winter activities

After all that sugar, everyone's sure to be pepped up for a little activity! Every year, just before the big freeze, crews set up a grid of floating logs to calm the surface of the river along the banks, and when the temperature drops, those areas freeze into a thick layer of ice. As soon as they're safe to be skated on, booths pop up to fit residents with skates so they can skate around with loved ones, participate in ice dances, and play the ice skating version of almost any sport you can think of.

But skating isn't the only type of activity available! The sloping banks of the river have been set up with a variety of tobogganing courses, where people can share various types of sleds to slide down various set winding paths ranging from slow sloped ones to steeper, higher-speed ones that almost resemble bobsled courses.

Finally, for the more competitive, there is a less-gender-divided variation on a Lumberjack Competition, with various physical events that residents can compete in like sawing massive logs, logrolling, speed climbs, and boom runs.

iii. skygazing

After all that sugar and activity, lots of groups of family will settle down around fires either at the cabin or along the beach to enjoy a cup of spiked hot chocolate, coffee, or tea, and look up at the sky. Throughout the cold snap season in December, the sky is almost unnaturally clear and both the stars and the Capitol World are easy to see. Besides that, large swaths of the sky are bathed in beautiful aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, that paint large swaths of bright, beautiful color across the night sky. Curl up with a lover, a friend, a family member, or all of the above to keep warm and enjoy nature's fireworks show.

iv: ice maze

In the city center, residents can find a large, beautiful, intricately carved castle-themed ice sculpture. From the outside, it looks only about as big as a small house, but once residents enter they will find that the inside doesn't quite match the outside - courtesy of some of Gramarye Magic Research's top magic-users, the inside is massive, at least the size of a stadium. While cheery music plays, residents can traverse the complicated ice maze, each wall intricately carved and decorated with greenery, lights, and translucent watercolor paints. The walls are almost opaque, and the maze generally takes a couple of hours to get through for most residents.

Once they reach the center, they will find wrapped gifts arranged on a series of beautifully decorated tables, along with treats and warm drinks. The gifts are tailored to each individual in the maze, having been magically selected from a stockpile of items that have come through the portal, and consist of one small item from each character's home dimension (or, for CRAUs, from their previous game), similar to the "items from home" bonus reward, but without needing to spend points. The item should be small enough to fit in a shoebox, sentimental, and cannot be something intended for another person's character. Alternately, if there are no special items from home that a particular character would want or be attached to, an item of similar size and value that would make the character happy will be inside the box.

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 Hygge, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: Ryan Woodhouse; image ii: Hjalmar Wåhlin; image iii: David Fortin; image iv: Tzuyu Kao

navigation

Comments

Poe Dameron | OTA unless specified | will match format!

[volitaunt]

ii. winter activities - skating (closed to karen)

[ Poe sits at the edge of the frozen water, skates on his feet and a frown on his face. Yeah, sure, he's seen people do this on Hosnian Prime, he's seen his friends do it, he's even seen some natives of colder planets skate circles around everyone the way several of the showoffs (look who's talking) are doing on the ice right now.

He is not sure yet whether this is any kind of good idea.

Mostly because the last time he tried ice skating, he fell on his ass and kept doing so, and BB-8 has been reminding him of this all afternoon. ]

You sure you don't want to just. Make some of that candy or something?


ii. winter activities - sledding

[ It echoes across the slopes turned into sledding hills, ringing forth from the steepest path from aboard the fastest toboggan: the cry of a pilot who has not gone at any speed faster than a jog in the past three weeks. ]

Woohoo!

[ He shoots past the end of the track and has to lean into a turn, sending the sled to a skittering halt shortly before it would have crashed sideways into a barrier made of snow. BB-8 is perched on top of the snowbank, slowly melting a divot into it. Poe rolls off the toboggan and onto his feet, eyes bright, and yanks sweaty curls back from his forehead with one hand. ]

Just one more buddy, I promise.

[ BB-8 makes a noise. A very, very doubtful noise. ]


iii. sky gazing - cabin (closed to castmates/existing cr/open mingle starter)

So.

[ Poe has a cup of cocoa in one hand, a stick with one of those weird marshmallows stabbed through it in the other. That, he raises to hold over the fire outside the cabin, turning it this way and that as he tries to figure out what to say. It only seems right to say something. For Finn, for Rey, this is a first. For Jyn and Cassian, it's a chance to reach out. ]

This whole thing is pretty strange, I guess. Strange moon, strange universe, strange customs. Strange people. [ He flashes Jyn and Cassian a grin. ] Stranger people who are glad you came.

[ He dips the marshmallow a little closer to the flames. ] I don't know. My dad's the one who's good at these kinds of things--best host in the Yavin system, he can make anyone feel at home. But I think that's kind of what this is about. Even if it's strange. Finding something of a home while we're here. Because that's one of the things my dad always made pretty clear. A house is a place, but a home is the people in it. [ A pause, and then without a trace of insincerity: ] And if we're here, I'm glad I'm here with all of you.

[ His marshmallow catches fire. He stares at it for a second (there appears to be a design flaw in marshmallows) and then... dunks it in his hot chocolate.

It seemed like a good idea in the moment. ]


iii. sky gazing - solo

[ Eventually, Poe drifts away from the cabin, its occupants and visitors. He's not an introvert, he's enjoying their company, but sometimes... Sometimes, like familiarity, distance is nice. Particularly looking up at this sky, with its own rainbows, so unlike the ones that arc across Yavin 4 during weather kind of like this, a festival kind of like this.

Besides, he has his prize from the maze to look at.

He activates the tiny holocube, and its projection springs to life, hovering over his open palm. His mother, young and vibrant, his dad, still broad-shouldered but without gray at his temples, without the wrinkles time has sketched across his features. Poe, maybe seven years old, sitting on his dad's shoulder with his mom's hand resting against his back. All three of them together, just before things started to come apart.

Poe deactivates the cube and pockets it, sitting down on one of the big logs positioned near the water as benches. He runs his thumb over the surfaces of the little box. ] You'd both love this.

iv. wildcard

[ Feel free to throw something else at me, or ping me on plurk @ ninjae Also feel free to run into him in the maze i'm just too lazy to write another prompt for it. \8D/]

iii

[talentedscavenger]

[Rey is trying to pay attention to what Poe was saying, but she's also concerned with the stick that he placed over an open flame. Yes, he roasting some small, white, fluffy thing, but he does know that his stick could catch fire, right?

His words are heart touching, and as much as she would want to comment on them...his stick catches on fire.

She called it.

Already she's getting up to go grab him another one--one he hopefully doesn't burn this time.]

Glad we could all be here, but, please don't catch anything else on fire. [Teasing]

[volitaunt]

[ Poe grins at her. ] Aw, come on. I like catching things on fire. I'm good at it!

[ Still, he'll accept the new stick. The old stick is now standing upright in his hot chocolate, held in place by the marshmallow. ]

[talentedscavenger]

[She'll simply stare at him, partially in disbelief and partially thinking he's joking. ]

Uh-huh. You're good at other things too. [Like being a friend, a good listener...a good host..and she'll take that other stick out of his hot cocoa.]

Don't think you need to burn anything else though.

[volitaunt]

What if they taste better on fire? Some things do.

[ He gives the black-and-white puddle of mush floating in his hot chocolate a dubious look. ] Maybe.

ii

[franciscoramon]

[ Cisco's attention had been drawn by that particularly exuberant cry, and he had come closer, not knowing who was on the toboggan until Poe rolled off and got to his feet. It had been going so fast - way too fast if you ask Cisco - and that leads him to call out: ]

Did you mean to do that?

[ Seriously, he's only just starting to get to know Poe, but also, he doesn't want the guy to DIE and if he keeps sledding like that, well, it seems like it's not unlikely. ]

[volitaunt]

I absolutely did. [ Flushed, check. Giddy, check. Flying high on adrenaline, triple check. ] Took me three crashes to get it down, but I got it now.

[ This is him, Cisco, this is exactly who he is. ]

[franciscoramon]

[ God help him he's befriended another reckless heroic type who apparently has an obsession with speed. Three crashes? And on a sled like that?! Cisco sets his hands on his hips, asks: ]

Should you have, like, a helmet, or protective gear, or something?

[ This is exactly who HE is. ]

[volitaunt]

[ Bless. The narration apologizes for Poe Dameron. ]

Probably!

[ BB-8 gives a worried trill. ] I'm fine, buddy, promise. There's no socket or I'd take you with me.

[ He gives the droid a pat and winds the toboggan's lead rope around his hand. To Cisco: ] Wanna come?

ii

[dancingmd]

[While she doesn't understand binary (yet), BB-8's tone is clear enough and Beverly has to chuckle as she watches from the top of the hill with her own tobaggan in tow. Poor little droid! It must be tough when your human best friend insists on doing dangerous activities. For fun.

Not that Beverly's any more sensible about it, mind you. Poe's always been fun to be around and she's glad that despite the circumstances, things aren't too awkward between them. She calls down to them:]

Look out below!

[volitaunt]

[ Poe cups his hands around his mouth and yells back wordless encouragement because yelling is just his thing today apparently. Still, he does move back to join BB-8 at the snow barrier, cheering enthusiastically enough at Beverly shoots down the hill that the droid eventually gives in and voices his own peeping contribution. ]

[dancingmd]

[Laughing, Beverly sits on her toboggan, takes a moment to calculate the angle of descent and: whoosh!!! She flies down the hill with an excited yell. As she reaches the bottom of the track, she does her best to steer, but alas, her piloting is not quite as good as Poe's and she ends up crashing the sled into the wall. No harm though - the snow is cushion enough and she tumbles out of the toboggan with another laugh.]

Whoo! [Eyes bright, she stands and brushes herself off.] I haven't done that in forever!

[volitaunt]

[ Poe applauds, and because he's a gentleman: ] Could've fooled me. Besides, crashing is part of the fun.

[ Somewhere, Finn suddenly yells "NO!" and doesn't understand why. ]

I haven't done this in ages either, not since I was in the Academy.

iii. cabin

[realists]

[ jyn excuses herself after poe's speech because she's having a single feeling and that's disgusting. she misses her friends from home. bodhi could finally be free here, chirrut and baze could have a family, melshi could continue to get beat up by jyn for her own personal amusement, bail organa could exist.

okay, good, bail organa broke her out of moping and she moves back into the room, finding herself next to poe. of course. ]

You grew up on Yavin?

[volitaunt]

[ He's pretty sure he said something wrong when Jyn leaves the cabin, but he doesn't comment, doesn't follow. She left for a reason, and he can respect that. The fact that she and Cassian came at all is heartening.

He's busy trying to toast a marshmallow over BB-8's maintenance torch because he's already succeeded in setting two more on fire over the fire pit. Maybe having it a little more contained w--

Hi there Jyn how are you whoops the marshmallow is again on fire.

Poe has to blow on it like five times before the flames finally go out. ]

Uh, yeah. Not the gas giant, obviously, that would have been sort of. [ A PAUSE. ] Deadly? Anyway, yeah, Yavin 4.

[realists]

On the base?

[ all she knows about yavin 4 is the base. it's a planet, of course, so intellectually she knows that it was abandoned aside from the base, the same way she knew people were on lah'mu outside of her tiny near uninhabited village. but all she personally knows of yavin 4 is the base in the ruins.

and, frankly, she was only there a couple of days.

also while they're talking, jyn will carefully toast a marshmallow to golden brown perfection without even trying. ]

iii.

[evasives]

[there's a speech. of course poe makes a speech. the best way to respond to it is clearly silence, because it's too mushy. it makes him miss bodhi, chirrut, baze. k2so. he doesn't like it! he suddenly misses his droid especially so fiercely with the way bb8 beeps around. he hadn't had a home like any of them in so long.]

[fortunately the marshmallow catches on fire. it lets cassian move towards the back of the cabin, hands curled around his hot chocolate while jyn flees. he takes a sip and burns his tongue, the only sign of the pain the way his mouth thins into a tight line. at least now that serves as a nice excuse to feeling vaguely grumpy.]

[bb8 chooses that moment to roll over and boop beep at him, knocking into his leg.]

You can't have any. [no hot chocolate for droids.]

[volitaunt]

[ BB-8 tweedles and then makes a low buzzing noise. He didn't want any of your hot chocolate anyway.

Poe makes his way over once Jyn is gone and Finn and Rey are occupied, his own hot chocolate cooler now with the addition of the marshmallow, even if it went in a flambé. Poe's got a smile on his face, but it's a little sad this time. ]

Well Jyn ran away more obviously. But I overdid it, didn't I?

[ Callout post for Cassian Andor. ]

[evasives]

[the concept of home is a sore spot for both of them, far more so for jyn. he's not surprised she ducked away, just like he doesn't chase after her because he knows she needs a moment. he'd welcomed her home not to yavin, but to the rebellion. maybe to him. but then they died. they all did. it could be a second chance here, but it almost doesn't feel fair to the others.]

[cassian shrugs. it's nothing!] It was very sentimental for a relative stranger. But not surprising.

ii.

[imperceptus]

[ Rin stands on the snowbank, arms folded over his chest, watching with apparent amusement as Poe pops up from the toboggan. He glances at the thing Poe's addressing--an automaton, he guesses, some kind of golem, albeit of a make he's never seen before.

Eyes on BB, he mutters. ]

Well, aren't you a charming thing.

[volitaunt]

[ Poe, being a shameless ham, grins at Rin. ] Why thank you.

[ Cue an indignant noise from BB-8. ]

[imperceptus]

[ Rin drops to his haunches, eyes fixed on the droid. It's truly fascinating to him, as someone interested in fantastic objects of all kinds--not that he's yet distinguished BB-8 from your average wondrous artifact. ]

Oh, yes, you were stunning as well.

[ Said nonchalantly, even as he's reaching a careful hand out to the droid. ]

What is this thing?

late with christmas starbucks

[paged]

[ Karen is out on the ice before he even has his skates on, telling him she'll be right back. She just wants to make sure she hasn't lost any of the know-how. Growing up in Vermont, everyone in her family knew how to skate. Whether they were good at it, though, was another matter. Karen had always enjoyed it and practically flew around the rink once before coming back to Poe.

She smiles down at him when he asks that, laughing. She holds her hands out to him, ]

Come on, you'll love it once you get the hang of it.

[volitaunt]

[ He takes hers, relying a little too heavily on her to help get him onto his feet. And then he grabs her forearm with one hand, wobbling. ] I still can't believe people do this for fun. I will never believe it is actually fun.

[paged]

[ She tries to keep him balanced and upright, slowly moving her skates to where she's pulling him further out on the ice. Her air puffs out as she laughs, ]

That's just because you don't know how to do it yet.

Once you do, it can feel like you're flying.