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

( it is late, and billy has been outside, inside, and back outside again more times than he can count. the chill had started to get to him long before loki even came by; nose even flushed a soft red when he turns his head to face the godling.

he’s tired, too. exhausted even if all he has been doing for--quite some time is sit in a soft pile of snow. billy takes caution before opening his mouth, already having gone too far with his words with more than just loki. but he’s still raising a hand up to take the stick from hand, careful to keep their fingers from brushing. )

I don’t get you either.

You're in a bigger club than I am.

[ More people find Loki strange than they do Billy, he's sure. Billy could go and complain to any of the heroes from their world and they would sympathise immediately.

He picks at his candy, flicking lumps into the snow. ]

It wasn't what you said, as much as who it reminded me of that said it before. May we sit?

( he’d argue the difference between that is loki is much more well-known than he is, many more people know what kind of mess loki is rather than the kind of mess billy can be. they’re both confusing in their own right.

he’s tempted to tell loki no, to shoo him away and deal with it later. but billy doesn’t. he lets out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding, moves a hand to pat the snow next to him. )

Here's fine.

Thanks.

[ For letting him sit down at all. He kneels in the snow, idly picking at his misshapen candy for something to busy his hands with, to look at. ]

I've had a depressed little voice inside for a while, certainly far longer than I've been here. It's a kind of great irony, that I should be afflicted with the same constant downer of the soul that you suffer, or perhaps a great justice.

[ That feels like the right place to start. His shoulders round down as he breaks pieces of candy into smaller lumps, grinding them into dust with a fist over the snow. ]

I hate myself more than anyone else ever could.

I get it. ( it’s something billy fights against every day, too. that voice that tells him that he’s not good enough, that he’ll never be good enough, that it’s just not worth the fight anymore. that it’d be so much easier to just lay down and not get back up again.

unlike loki, billy’s actually moving to put the stick of candy into his mouth, leaving it in the side of his cheek as he keeps on. )

And it wasn’t what you said. I mean--it was a little. ( no point in lying. ) I started it. Sorry for calling you clingy.

( loki definitely is clingy, but that’s unimportant right now. ) I don’t get what you want from me.

I haven't finished.

[ Not that he doesn't feel bad for upsetting Billy, it's just hard to explain without the full story. ]

King Loki, me from the future, he came back to ensure his survival. He tied me down half-naked and called me a naive idiot, that the cuddly and vulnerable repentance act was like watching a precious little girl-child. [ His grip on the candystick tightens, a crack snapping it in half. ] He wanted to drive me mad in the knowledge that no one I loved felt the same way, that they could never accept a liar. No one loved him in our future, after all, and he had craved their hearts moreso than me.

[ Swallowing a lump in his throat, he forces himself to look at Billy. ]

You were right, I am clingy. I gave up all my memories of you and my life when I killed myself to escape him, and now ... here, on this moon, they're all I have. I have to cling to something.

I don't want to be alone like he was.

( oh. that’s--that’s a lot, and a lot to process. there’s the sinking feeling in the pit of his gut; he’s furious, both at the loki that came to be and what must have drove this loki into it. being alone, unloved. billy has gone so long with a constant presence around him that’s taken mere weeks for him to start cracking under pressure; he can’t imagine how bad it’d feel to have that weight constantly over someone. this isn’t about him, this is about loki, but he can certainly empathize with him. loneliness is awful. billy’s just lucky it’s not something he usually has to deal with.

he can’t even begin to imagine how lonely being loki must be. how terrible dealing with his future self like that was. having to erase the very parts that made this loki himself to escape a possible awful future. loki isn’t alone here, but he must be aware of all of those with full intentions to leave him behind as soon as possible. billy didn’t hide it. tony left him. billy’s left him before. god that’s--awful.

what’s worse is billy can’t even promise not to leave him. he can’t promise loki won’t be alone. that he’ll be loved. not like that. it’d be so much easier if he could just start spouting lies and empty promises--but that isn’t the kind of person billy is.

the hand closest to loki reaches out, tries to wrap fingers around the hand holding onto the broken popsicle stick. ) I wish-- ( i could be in two places at once. he cuts himself off mid-sentence, lips pressing together tight. trying to find ways to word that which won’t. ruin anything. ) There. . there isn’t anything wrong with being clingy, or cuddly, or holding onto what you’ve got as tight as you can.

You shouldn’t have to be alone. I don’t want you to feel lonely. ( loneliness is more than enough to drive someone mad. ) I’m here for you, okay? And it’s not just me--here. You’ve got friends. You’re not alone. Not here.

[ He lets the candy drop to the snow and laces his fingers through Billy's, giving a grateful squeeze. All the sickly worrying and fretting eases when they're back to normal or, at least, the new standard of what passes for it between them. ]

I shouldn't have taken that jab at you, it unfairly came out of left-field. I suppose I'm still not the nicest god on the block when I feel cornered. [ Billy insists he's here and although he will one day leave, Loki senses it will hurt a little less now. Slightly. ] I'm sorry I upset you.

I don't think you were ever the nicest god. ( not necessarily a jab against loki. he's--loki still. who knows what he gets up to when billy isn't around to see it. they're a mess, but it's no less messy than most of billy's relationships. at least there's some normalcy in that.

another deep breath in, fingers gripping back onto loki's. ) And it wasn't what you said. Not exactly. I wouldn't hold onto Kate like this, or lean up against Kate watching Netflix, or--most of this. You're right: I wouldn't ever cheat on Teddy. I've been letting you draw the line, so if you're going with Kate rules, we can roll back to that.

I know where I'm comfortable, and I'll tell you to stop if you start to cross that. I know how to use my words, Loki.

[ ... That's fair.

His touch drifts up to Billy's floppy fringe, tidying it to one side and trailing fingertips down his cheek as he talks. ]

It's not just the old memories of us, you know. You, here and now, even without them you're ten times as real to me. [ He sits a bit closer, looking away as he rakes back his own hair, one hand still curled around Billy's. ] I saw Nico earlier and told him I was staving off all contact, all dalliances. I'm pretty sure I bruised his heart, it's been waxing toward me a while.

But I don't want to miss any opportunity to be like this with you, if I can.

Edited 2017-12-05 16:44 (UTC)

( there's a soft hum when loki's fingers move through his hair, head tilting into the touch when it moves down his cheek. )

This isn't a dalliance. And it'd better not just be about the stuff I can't remember. ( because he. doesn't. he doesn't know what he was up to before, what his thought process was, what loki meant to him and how close they had gotten. it kind of ticks him off a little--theoretically speaking, if he ends up here for months and months, where will billy end up? would it be about the same? what would he be doing?

look at how different their dynamic is already--just a few weeks later. ) So I'll tell you when to stop, you tell me when? Does that sound fair?

It does.

[ Minor dalliance, then. A dilly-dally? He pecks Billy's knuckles with a fleeting kiss to seal the deal before he can think better of it, then raises an arm to wrap around him if Billy is up for cuddling in the snow. With all that settled, he asks, ]

Aren't you cold?

( a dilly-dally. the kissing thing is still weird, but loki's not pushing it, so it's fine. his own arm wraps around loki's waist when he pulls him in, leans against his side. )

I can't feel my nose, but I was too busy ignoring it earlier to really care.

[ RIP Billy's nose. ]

Minus the rum, you want to get some hot chocolate? My treat. Sugar sacrifice.

( one day it will come back to him. for now he'll shove it against loki's shirt for a moment, before moving to stand himself up and dust the snow off of his pants. )

Sure. ( but-- ) So, Nico?

( that explains the bit about his curiosity about loki, at least. )

Have you been collecting hearts in your free time?

[ At least his furry collar can do that frozen nose some good. Arm slung around Billy's shoulders as they head toward the snack huts, he winces when the topic shifts. ]

Ah, not really? Nico has been a friend for a while. The other night he came over and I was a fox, a big one, and he was petting me on the couch and I licked him a bit because he was on top and everything felt so good, having your fur scratched is really the best ... [ Billy must remember, he's the one who asked about this. ] He asked me to change back into a man, so I did. Then he continued with the ... petting.

Edited 2017-12-05 17:49 (UTC)

( that's way too much information there, loki. immediately raising his free arm to shove his hand back over his face. that's not an answer he wanted nor needed, thank you. but now the image is seared into his mind and. )

Remind me never to pet you. Ever. Not even if you're small and fuzzy. ( and billy doesn't know nico that well, but he's met him and spoken to him enough. ) Generally speaking, I'm pretty sure you're supposed to talk over stuff like that before going that far.

I didn't mind letting him go farther or assisting him when he wanted more. He kissed me insistently!

[ Say what you want about Loki but he will always help a friend get off. ]

It wasn't as if I wanted anything out of it, except to see him happy.

What about his feelings? ( maybe he's in the minority here. between watching tommy's dating escapades and a decent portion of other teenagers-- )

I don't know him well, but he seems really into you. Not "kissing just because it feels good" into you. ( bruised heart, as loki said. ) I mean--if I let you kiss me just because it felt good and went that far then told you I didn't want anything out of it and didn't want to do it anymore, how would you feel?

I'm not ready for another relationship. The last one went to shit and while Nico is very nice, I don't think I can care about anyone as much as I did about Anthony. Not for a while. [ His eyes widen sincerely. ] It was just friends having fun. I'm sure Nico's fine.

[ Maybe Loki should buy him a casket of chocolate or something. ]

He's better off with someone more ... mature. Grounded.

I understand. Really, I do. ( considering the whole spiel he gave loki about teddy earlier. he doesn't get the whole friends having fun bit, but. billy isn't nico. he doesn't know what he was up to. he's not too sure he wants to think about it that much either.

maybe he'll talk to him later. for now, billy settles on pressing his nose into that furry collar. loki might not be warm, but the fur definitely helps. ) I'll take your word on it.

Anthony was a cuddler, did you know that about your Iron Man? He was always warm, as if he had no off-switch.

[ Billy can stay buried in Loki's collar as he orders two hot chocolates, the godling lost in musing. ]

I always thought his futurist status was a bust but he really was able to see someone as they could be. I wonder, if that's why he and other heroes never fail to believe in people.

[ Extra cream and marshmallows for Billy. ]

( it's a little weird to think of tony stark cuddling up to loki. or to anyone. this isn't a line of thought billy's ever really stopped and considered, but. while they may have been idols to billy, occasional comrades, occasionally things he had to fight against, he'll keep those comments to himself.

because he meant something different to loki, and it's loki who is hurting over it now. ) That's part of being a hero, isn't it? Believing in people. ( that things will work out. that even small changes can make a difference. that things once thought of as nothing but wrong can become something good. )

I'd shove my cold fingers against your neck but I don't think it'd be nearly as effective.

Yeah, but ... He believed in me.

[ Such a strange and natural development that it explains, in part, why Loki has trouble letting Tony go. The only other time Loki has felt worthy was on the moon, under a spell that reversed his axis and helped him lift Mjolnir. ]

You need some mittens, that's your current priority.

I believe in you. ( loki isn't--always a great person, but he has the capability to do great things, if he wanted to. he's trying. that's more than most people ever do. ) It's not that weird.

( for now, he'll settle on warming his hands on the hot chocolate, fingers wrapping around the cup to try and absorb some of the warmth through it. ) I'll go back inside soon.

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