![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riverviewmod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
riverviewlogs2017-12-02 08:47 pm
- !mod post: holiday,
- !mod post: monthly mingle,
- dc comics (rebirth): wally west,
- dragon age: dorian pavus,
- it: stan uris,
- marvel (616): billy kaplan,
- marvel (616): steve rogers,
- marvel (mcu): bucky barnes,
- marvel (mcu): gamora,
- marvel (mcu): loki,
- marvel (mcu): peter quill,
- marvel (mcu): steve rogers,
- marvel (mcu): thor,
- marvel (mcu): tony stark,
- original: shigeru miyata,
- star trek (aos): james kirk,
- star wars: cassian andor,
- star wars: finn,
- star wars: jyn erso,
- star wars: poe dameron,
- star wars: rey,
- the adventure zone: taako taaco,
- vikings: gyda ragnarsdottir,
- ✖ animorphs: marco,
- ✖ arpeggio of blue steel: haruna,
- ✖ chb chronicles: nico di angelo,
- ✖ dc comics (rebirth): damian wayne,
- ✖ dc comics (rebirth): jason todd,
- ✖ dc comics (rebirth): jonathan kent,
- ✖ dceu: steve trevor,
- ✖ dctv (flash): cisco ramon,
- ✖ dctv (flash): eddie thawne,
- ✖ fullmetal alchemist (03): edward elric,
- ✖ kuroshitsuji: ciel phantomhive,
- ✖ kuroshitsuji: undertaker,
- ✖ marvel (mcu): alexander pierce,
- ✖ marvel (mcu): valkyrie,
- ✖ marvel (ultimates): tony stark,
- ✖ original: letha regis,
- ✖ osomatsu-san: chibita,
- ✖ osomatsu-san: osomatsu matsuno,
- ✖ overwatch: hana song,
- ✖ persona 3: makoto yuuki,
- ✖ shadowhunter chronicles: alec lightwoo,
- ✖ shadowhunter chronicles: clary fray,
- ✖ the adventure zone: lucretia,
- ✖ vikings: ivar ragnarsson
introductory mingle: HYGGE
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
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.
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!
Credit: image i: Ryan Woodhouse; image ii: Hjalmar Wåhlin; image iii: David Fortin; image iv: Tzuyu Kao
no subject
[Ghosts and memory sharing and so many other things, that it feels like it was almost a life time ago. Then there was her friends arriving here, catching up with them. They continue to walk, with Rey trusting that the magic Lucretia cast wasn't leading them in circles.
The path looks a bit different, at least. So there was that.]
It certainly does. It's as though this place doesn't want us to rest for too long before something else happens. Another festival, or something else. [A pause as she thinks over Lucretia's magic...] Are you a wizard too? I only know of one another with magic, Taako. [Well, there was Magnus, Alec's husband, but she hadn't interacted with him much.]
no subject
Mmmm. I feel like I've only just recovered when Quarantine arranges for something new to bowl me over. I suppose at least it isn't... dull?
(Though she wishes it were dull in a less harmful way. Her expression changes when Rey mentions Taako, a little flicker of a smile appearing.) I am- just like Taako. Of course you've met him. He sure does get around.
He's, uh... (one of her team mates? Not any more, if she wishes to correct terminology. Best friends would be fine if it didn't feel like it fell short of the true depth of their relationship. Lucretia eventually settles on:) family. He's family.
no subject
Ahh, I didn't want to assume or anything. He's nice, and he's really good at baking things. He's friendly, and chatty.
[Which is good, because it drew Rey out of her shell more, and at least she has something of a connection to the magical world. An insider, sort of.]
Are you... [She pauses to think about it for a moment. No, she isn't 'Lup' as Taako had mentioned. Lucretia would've said so to start off with.] Never mind. I think we're getting closer to the center. This looks entirely different.
no subject
(That's the perfect word. Another good word would be: relentless. Or at least, that's how Lucretia feels about it sometimes. She waves Rey's explanation away.)
Don't worry about it. I've known him for a century, so I sure hope we seem like we're familiar.
('Are you'...? She tips her head in curiousity, but Rey changes the subject pretty quick so she's fine to let it drop. The spell drags her right one final time, then dissipates completely.)
Oh, well. Good, because we're on our own from here.
no subject
Well...further than where we were before. [Which is true. They're further into the maze now than before. They could either go left or right.]
You can't use another spell or...? [Rey asked, unsure of how magic actually worked. If not, she could try something else..]
no subject
(She shrugs. Sometimes it's easy to forget that this kind of knowledge isn't common place, that elves don't exist everywhere.)
I could, but I only have so many slots for higher level spells. (There's a lot here that might go over Rey's head, but Lucretia powers through anyway, considering both left and right turns.) I was planning to keep one freed up for teleporting out of here after completing the maze.
no subject
[At least from her world that would be true. Humans could only up to what? 100? Maybe closer to 90? It was hard to tell, especially with a war going on.
And yes, all of that does go over Rey's head. So she has to think of something else they could do. Her eyebrows are knitted together in thought as she thinks of something that could work. The center, she's focusing on finding the center, and trying to have the Force guide her...
There! A tug, a slight nudge for her to go in a certain direction.]
Left...we should continue left.
[Just don't ask how she knows.]
no subject
Rey is concentrating very hard on the fork in their path. Lucretia watches her, made curious by the moment she decides which way they should go, confidently, as if the correct answer had come to her just like that.)
How did you do that? (She asks, but takes the left as instructed. Rey had trusted her directions, after all.) Do you know magic?
no subject
As for how she knew where to go...
No, magic doesn't exist in my world. We have technology and other things, according to Taako usually it's one or the other; magic or science.
It's...just a strong feeling.
[So...yeah, she doesn't really want to talk about it. But! It does look like they're going in a different path, seemingly getting closer to the center.]
no subject
They push on.)
You were right. (She says, and hopefully Rey isn't offended by her surprise. The colours of the walls are changing, and the corridors are letting a little tighter.)
I don't think we're far off. (A good thing, too, because the cheerful music echoing about the maze is starting to drive her crazy.)
no subject
[It's hard enough to explain what the Force is, especially when Rey knows very little of it herself. But, it's also something she doesn't want people to know about.]
I was hoping I would be. [She's a bit surprised too, but hey, she'll take a win when she can.]
No, I don't think we are. [They continue following their path until there's a wider opening. Upon crossing the threshold, they'll see several boxes..and they're at the center of the maze.]
Finally.
no subject
It doesn't matter. They've reached the center, and Lucretia stares at the veritable mountain of gifts: boxes and bags and packages of every shape and colour. She wonders if one in the pile might exist for her, and the moment that thought occurs to her, she instantly knows that there is.)
Wow.
I didn't know we got a prize for completing.
no subject
[Rey isn't going to start digging through the gifts. More than anything there probably isn't one for her. Yet, the same feeling that guided them here was still calling to her. Among the numerous boxes, Rey managed to go to one with her name on it.]
Think it's a trap?
[Because that would be awful. But, one couldn't be too sure about these things.]
Is there anything with your name on it?
no subject
A quick find traps spell doesn't catch anything, so Lucretia starts to pick absentmindedly at the tape on one corner of the present. Surely they're meant to be opened now, right.)
Don't worry, they're safe.
no subject
[Rey will still stay wary of the items, but she eventually she does pick the box with her name on it. Does...does she open it now?]
Should we head out now?
[Before something happens...cause knowing their luck, that could easily happen.]
no subject
(She pockets her gift, and offers Rey a hand automatically.) Would you like me to teleport you out as well?
no subject
[She debates about opening the box but decides against it, pocketing the item for now.]
If you wouldn't mind. [She gives the other woman her hand and waits for 'magic' to work.]
no subject
(She casts teleport, and whisks them to the entrance of the maze again in the blink of an eye.)
There you go, (she says matter-of-factly, taking her hand back.) Hey, thanks for getting me through the last little bit of that maze. I'm fairly direction-impaired; I probably would have got myself lost if I'd had to finish the rest of it by myself.
no subject
Thank you.
[She lets go of Lucretia's hand, preparing to walk away and back to her shared room.]
You're welcome, thank you for using that first spell. It got us further into the maze, more so than I could've done.
no subject
You're welcome. Any time.
(Lucretia means it too: she likes Rey. She's practical, has a good head on her shoulders. As she turns to go, she pulls her present out of her pocket curiously, ready to peel back the wrapping paper now that she's headed towards a bit of privacy.)
I'll see you around, Rey.