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

[His eyebrows lift a little -- but right, she'd said the planet she was from was a desert or something. Single biome, apparently, or at least the section she lived on. Interesting, but also not the point at hand.]

There's always something new to discover.

[It's comfortable, the way he says it. Comforting. Nobody knows everything, as much as he might try sometimes.]

Like your planets. You'd really never seen greenery before?

Mhmm.

[ No one knows everything and it’s comforting to hear that. There’s something new to discover, something new to learn. That’s a constant thing. A consistent truth.

She ducks her head a little. ]

Growing up on a planet that has sand and rust, it’s rare to see anything green. Then to see a planet that’s covered in green, in different plants and trees, it was breathtaking.

I bet.

[Entire desert planet. Huh. Tony can only imagine the culture shock on that one, even for people who apparently treat going to other planets like a run to the store.]

This place must be even weirder then, huh?

[Monsters and abandoned cities and weird portals oh my.]

Not...really? The portals, sure, that's weird. Also the lack of droids, but Jakku had other species on it. There were very few plants that grew there, and I knew of other planets. But, it's different in terms of actually being there.

And nothing gets as dangerous and strange as running from a rathter.

[She pauses for a moment, glancing over to Tony.]

What about you? Is this weird for you?

Considering we haven't exactly done the interplanetary travel thing yet? Yeah, it's weird.

[As if being on a moon is the worst part. It is up there, in terms of what the fuckery, though.]

People from different times, different universes. I've met two other versions of myself. If I think too much about how weird it all is, I'll lose it.

[Rey's eyes widen slightly. She had yet to meet the same person from a different universe. Though, it could be argued that Poe might count, but she wasn't going to think too much on that.]

Well...if it makes you feel better, you're the only version of you I've met.

[There's a pause as something else pops into her head.]

One of my friends was brought here, along with his droid. I could introduce you to the two of them, if you like.

Droid, huh?

[Well that's definitely enough to distract him. From everything Rey's said, droids are seriously something he wants a look at. Seems like now's his chance, go figure.]

Sure, why not. I'm always happy to meet less dumb bots.

[He loves Dum-E, really.]

Yes, a droid. BB-8. He's a friend, and Poe's droid.

[And that comment is enough to make her smile a little, holding back a chuckle.]

I suggest not calling him a robot, he's much more than that. I could ask Poe to meet you, and for BB-8 to meet your robot. I'm sure they would get along.

[Hopefully..]

[ Poe is wandering the beach, testing how far he can push himself before he starts to think of Jakku. It's better, better than it was, but the cold of the moon reminds him of the cold of that desert planet at night.

He stays close to the uneven heat of the fires, which is where he spots Rey, talking to a stranger. And, being Poe, he's curious. So over he wanders, hands in his pockets and BB-8 rolling at his heels. He smiles at Rey, then gives Tony a curious look. The guy seems cozy at least?? ]

Hey.

[Tony blinks as another figure suddenly appears. In the faint light cast by the fire, he can see the familiar glance shot in Rey's direction, so safe to say this is probably a friend of her's. And...there's a ball thing. Rolling at the guy's feet.

He stares at it for a moment before he registers the fact that it's clearly got an AI of some sort, rather than any kind of remote control.

So safe to say, this might be Rey's friend with the droid. Tony's clever sometimes. He can still at least attempt to be polite and let her make the introductions.]

Pull up a chair.

[His smile is wry as he nods to the expanse of sand.]

[Well speak of the pilot! Rey looks to see it's Poe and BB-8. What a coincidence.]

Hey!

[She wasn't expecting to see them this suddenly, but she wasn't about to complain about it.]

Poe, BB-8, this is Tony. [She gestured to the man she was sitting with.] And well, Tony, this is Poe and BB-8. [Introductions for the win!

She waited for Poe and BB-8 to get settled before roping Poe into the conversation.] I was telling Tony about you and BB-8, he doesn't have droids from his world, but he has a robot. It's rather interesting--and it doesn't speak binary.

[ Poe plonks unceremoniously down on the sand next to his droid, who rolls over to Tony's mobile blanket fort and chirrups a greeting. ] A robot that doesn't speak binary?

[ How... weird. Well, not as weird as it would have been before this moon and BB-8's numerous attempts to talk to any electronics that looked remotely sentient, anyway.

Poe props himself up on his hands, looking skyward. ] I've got at least three people here who already want me to teach them to speak it.

[ IF HE SOUNDS SKEPTICAL OF HIS ABILITY TO DO SO... well that's 'cause he is. ]

[One of Tony's eyebrows goes straight up, but his attention is much more taken by the little ball thing rolling around his knees. It's cute, he'll give it that. Binary as a method of communication is an interesting design choice, but hey. Whatever works.]

He doesn't speak at all. No voice protocols.

[His tone is almost absent as one hand appears out from the blankets to hold out in front of the bot like he's greeting a pet.]

And the other one just speaks English. Or sarcasm. Same thing.

Yeah it was...interesting. [To meet a robot that didn't have a voice box, or a way of speaking aside from tilting it's head or doing other movements.

As for the other robot Tony has...]

I thought you only have DUM-E. I didn't see the other robot you had--oh!

[And Rey turns to Poe once more.] He has this armor that's advanced. It looked similar to C-3PO, but it wasn't. He was able to summon it.

[Ignore how excited Rey got there. She does enjoy learning different technologies.]

You named your robot DUM-E? What kind is it? [ At least Poe has already figured out that English is another name for Basic, so he doesn't have to ask that stupid question.

BB-8 tilts his head dome at Tony's offered hand. He does not get it. Is this some moon greeting?? He's just going to... stick out one of his maintenance arms in response. Poe hides a smile behind one hand. ] He'll understand if you talk to him.

[ BB-8's dome swivels to look at Poe for a moment before the droid cycles it back around to Tony, whistle-chirping a confirmation and then letting out a tumbling sequence of electronic chimes that rise and fall like any language. Poe laughs. ] He says you can summon Threepio too. He just won't get to you very fast.

[ It's nice to see Rey excited about something, and Poe has to admit, he's curious. The armor definitely sounds different than what he's familiar with. ]

[Why does everyone comment on the name? Sheesh.

He gives the little orb an amused look and reaches out to gently grip the extended arm like he's shaking hands. Hey, why not?]

Same to you, superball.

[Back to the humans, he flicks a glance towards both of them.]

He's a helper bot. Assistant, sort of. That's what he's supposed to be. And the other one isn't a bot, he's an AI. No physical form.

[Does whatever world they come from have those? Huh.]

[English..Basic.. Rey has just gone with the assumption everyone here speaks Basic, which is a relief, but maybe she'll take another crack at learning a different language.

After this lovely introduction.

She wants to warn that BB-8 may zap Tony like he did with Finn, but...it's a learning experience, and she won't take that away from him.]

Oh, so what you were working on before, with all the rewiring? [She vaguely remembers that. Unless Tony was working on something else.] Though, I still don't know why you would name him DUM-E. He's not... [Well, dumb, but compared to BB-8, DUM-E might be a bit...simple.] Anyway, how long did it take you to make him?

Sort of what Bee does. He's an astromech--flight assistant. Does basic maintenance in flight, lightspeed jump calculations, general aid. [ A lot more than that, to be honest, but as much as Poe could talk for days about how awesome BB-8 is, he recognizes that is not a topic of conversation everyone is interested in. ] He's got his own intelligence, though, don't you buddy?

[ A cheerful "yep" noise, and BB-8 retracts the maintenance arm, satisfied with his greeting. ]

Dum-E? I don't know, a couple years. I was working on him while I was in school.

[And his world hadn't actually had working AIs at the time, so that had been interesting. Then again they still don't have lightspeed, and Tony can't help but arch an eyebrow in Poe's direction.]

You've got a specific kind of bot just for flight?

[Or maybe that's just this one? The little guy's certainly got enough personality to be one of a kind.]

So..he was a project then? Something for school? Or something for you to do? [She doesn't know. She hasn't received a formal education.]

BB-8 does more than just flight stuff. He's very handy and helpful overall.

[Like when fixing things, or trying to help in anyway he can. Really, BB-8 was their friend and buddy..and a lot of other things.]

There's also medical droids who help with doctors and physicians.

He does a lot. [ Poe smiles down at the little droid. ] But I would've been dead without him in the flight socket, more than once.

Something like that.

[He nods at Rey as he says it. He had been a school project, in that they'd given him a grade for it, but he'd also just been an early experiment in AI. Neither of which explain why Tony's kept him around as long as he has, but that's besides the point.

His eyes flick between the two of them, and then down at the bot.]

Huh. Seems like a helpful guy to have around.

He is. He's very knowledgeable. Without him...[She looks at BB-8.]

Probably wouldn't have left Jakku.

What about your AI?

[ Poe rests a hand on BB-8's dome. ] What's it do, without a body?

JARVIS? He helps run my workshop. And my life.

[He sounds cheerful about it, though. JARVIS has been running his life for a long time.]

Technically he helps run the armor too, I guess. So sort of a co-pilot. Like your friend there.

introductory mingle: HYGGE

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