riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: HYGGE

Entry tags:

introductory mingle: HYGGE

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

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ winter activities.

Finn doesn't need the extra sugar to be drawn to this part of the festivities. There's a little bit of competition and a lot of things to do, and at least with this particular festival he has the luxury of being a little more used to being here. Does he see the point of having two huge holiday festivals so close together? Nah. But he's a little more settled than he was last month, and physical activity has always been a favored outlet.

The cold makes his back twinge. He's not sure if it's physical or if the snow just carries an association for him now. It could be worse, though, so he's fine to go on about his business.

Finn stays back to observe the ice skating for a pretty long stretch, and anyone is welcome to join him where he's standing or sitting. He might be found out on the ice later on, undoubtedly working overtime to attempt to even begin getting the hang of moving like that. It's. Not a one-day learning curve, honestly, he hates this.

He absolutely hits up some of the lumberjack competition events while he's in the area, more likely leaning towards boom runs and speed climbs than anything else. Finn's performances improve notably the more that he tries and gains an understanding of the rules throughout the day. He doesn't walk away with any victories against people who actually know what they're doing, but there's satisfaction in learning something new and working until he's better at it. He got through most of his childhood on that feeling.

Finn's a little more easily intrigued by the tobogganing courses, and has zero qualms sharing a sled with someone. Sledding is something a little easier for Finn to pick up the controls on, so to speak. Helps that there are some simpler courses to cut his teeth on, which he does with all the laser focus of a cadet learning an entirely new weapon.

That said: judging by the whooping he's doing once he hits the steeper, higher-speed courses, Finn is actually finally having real life fun in real time?? Sounds fake, but it's not this time. Sorry to anyone potentially sharing a sled with him at that point because he's a) pretty dang loud and b) probably doing everything in his power to go faster. ]

[ ice maze.

Welp. This is sure happening. Finn hates the cold a little more by the time he gets through, but he does kind of appreciate the challenge. It's interesting. And way bigger on the inside, he's not sure why.

What's up with this moon and magic anyway?

In any case, he's already here in the thick of it, so it's too late to back out. Catch him wandering, occasionally pausing to give some of the intricate decorations an appreciative look. And hey, while he has you: ]

Don't suppose you know exactly how to get through this thing and happen to be backtracking for fun.

[ HE'S GETTING TIRED, SUE HIM.

When he eventually reaches the center of the maze, he pulls a small holoprojector out of the wrapping paper. Nothing too fancy. A still image made up of blue lines, flickering a little. Finn closes the projector almost immediately after the image pops up, half on an instinct not to go projecting something out in the open and half because he doesn't want to project it in the open once he registers what he sees.

Someone with an especially keen eye might catch sight of it for themselves in that brief span: it's the image of a young man about Finn's age, face long and thin and neutral in expression. The kind of shoulders-up, impersonal, professional photographic energy you'd get from an ID badge at work or in a mugshot lineup. They might catch sight of a string of digits laid out beneath the image like a label, instead, reading FN-2003.

Finn is quick to shove it into his jacket pocket and make for the exit. ]

[ skygazing.

He's never seen anything like this before. That's a sentiment that can carry to almost anything that Finn does experience in this quarantine, to put aside a lot of the experiences he had before he even got here, but this really is something special. Something worth getting around to.

He'll be spending a fair amount of time out skygazing, sometimes with a cup of hot coffee close at hand. He's open to conversation right now, and likely to offer a greeting to anyone who might happen to pull up a seat close by. Doesn't hurt to be friendly when he's feeling pretty legitimately relaxed.

Every now and again, he might have the holoprojector pulled back out to stare at, though whether or not he's got it open to look at the image depends on how alone he thinks he is.

The First Order teaches about worlds and cultures and people through a strict filter. Chaos in need of order. Disaster in need of containment. Differences as jagged edges that need to be smoothed over for the greater good, in unity and featureless industrial greys. Beauty doesn't matter much when you're only looking at what you can take and how you can use it.

Finn's not sure he'll ever say he's glad to be here, if he's honest. He's settling for being glad he's not there anymore instead. ]

[ wildcard.

for all other potential options. i'm open to plot something out if none of the above quite takes your fancy! feel free to hit me with a PM, or over at

comatoseroses! ]

[ What's better than one yelling crazy person rocketing down a hill on a board with blades strapped to the bottom?

Two crazy yelling people rocketing down said hill on said board.

Poe is not exactly sure how they ended up like this--something something running into each other at the top something something wanna not crash this time--but he's glad they did. There's something refreshingly simple about streaking down a hillside howling like the dog Taako threatened to turn him into. ]

[ If there's any person on the moon who can make insane fun even more insane and fun, it's about guaranteed to be Poe Dameron. Adrenaline does a lot of favors, but Poe was sort of the icing on the loud-happy-yelling cake even in the middle of stealing a TIE fighter. This is simply a fact.

Plus it means him yelling won't annoy Poe, since Poe is also yelling. It all works out, so Finn's glad they ran into each other, too.

And in any case, another person on the sled scientifically like. Has to make it go faster. Finn's not a scientist and he has sledding experience, he just believes.

It's kinda wild how much more fun narrow misses are when they're not in life-or-death spaceship chases, actually. They probably almost just died by tree and Finn's not even mad. He's mostly impressed. ]

That's what I'm talking about!

[ What's the point of elite stormtrooper training if he can't use his raw talent for extreme sledding. There's no point, is the answer, obviously. ]

[ Poe is laughing wildly, delighted both by the speed and the fact that Finn is so delighted. They've had so much happen that's so serious, just racing down a hillside with nothing at stake but possibly wiping out via tree or hidden rock is like the sun after days of bad weather.

Giddy with celebration, it's easier to think about how much he wants to show Finn of the galaxy. Rey too. The Prisma Festival, the solar sailing races on Huron, the Five Sabers, so much of Hosnian Prime. That last thought passes so fleetingly, during a sharp turn and a slap of wind, that it doesn't occur to him to second-guess it. To even be sad. (The guilt of forgetting will come later.)

The bottom of the hill comes crashing up toward them, and then they're there, spinning to a halt, or more accurately spinning into a snowbank. Poe goes flying into the powder, still laughing. ]

finn | OTA | down to match whatever format

winter activities - sledding

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skygazing you asked for this

when u laugh at the mood whiplash but also are crying

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ice maze!

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winter activities--ice skating

[fiery elmo emote]

yasss

skygazing

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wildcard. that time poe made them all get a cabin

poe, the glue holding this cabin together

honestly, he's the real hero