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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[Bucky sees Steve flinging snow at a bunch of other people, and it itches at the back of his head that the idiot is leaving his six so exposed. Seems like that's a problem all Steves have, not just his.

A bunch of the kids that have joined in are starting to flank Steve, coming in from his unprotected rear, when all of a sudden they all go down to a mysterious volley of snowballs flung with precision from a nearby tree. Who did that? Nobody up here, just keep moving...]

[ He's enjoying the impromptu snow fights. It helps to take his mind off of the frustration of being at odds with people still, and not knowing where he belongs. In a way, being in a city that doesn't know him is what he wanted, but being unable to really help makes Steve feel useless. It leaves him conflicted. So he enjoys the chance to focus on something physical.

He gets pelted by snowballs and that's just fine. He's laughing, letting people land hits and enjoying the challenge of tagging kids with snow, when he suddenly hears a bunch of kids behind him yelp as cold snow hits them in turns. He looks around and tries to find where the mystery sniper came from, but at first can't pinpoint him. Steve helps up one of the kids, wondering what happened. When he spots Bucky lurking in a tree, he raises his hand, waving with a hesitant gesture.

And then gets hit by another snowball from the side. ]

Hey!

[ Look at that. Surrounded again. ]

[Seriously, Steve?

Bucky looks a mix of exasperated and fond, but at least he doesn't immediately run away when he's spotted, just packs more snowballs to take out the kids surrounding Steve all over again.]

Don't leave yourself wide open, idiot.

[ They're just kids. He doesn't really think about covering himself when he's not up against HYDRA goons or yellow hazmats or aliens with guns pointed at him. Or SHIELD on those occasions where Maria Hill gets a bit too tetchy. Which is probably why he'll likely get stabbed one day.

Steve is surprised that Bucky doesn't bail out immediately when he waves, and he takes another snowball to the back because he's registering it, which at least brings him back to the game. He scoops up snow and returns fire, sending children scattering and yelling as they dodge. ]

I don't know what you're talking about. I'm twice as tall as most of the people here. Anything is "wide open."

[ A lion among a pack of wild dogs. And he keeps getting nipped. ]

That doesn't mean you have to stand there in the middle of open ground.

[Bucky drops very suddenly to the ground, the faintest crunch from the snow underfoot the only warning of his approach, before he's back to back with Steve. Not close enough to touch, but very obviously offering to fight together.]

You're an idiot, didn't your-- didn't Bucky ever teach you different?

[Steve gives Bucky a questioning look, like he can't imagine there being a problem with standing out in the open. Clearly he must have forgotten getting bombarded by snowballs seconds earlier. Now that Bucky has taken up a position next to him (Don't cry, Steve, don't cry!) he's already moved past the incident.]

You know, he might've mentioned something a time or two.

[Like that has ever stopped Steve from charging in blindly to anything. At least he knows how to hold his position with Bucky and fend off the kids from a standing point. It probably says volumes that holding his ground is something Steve is actually good at.]

[At least Steve isn't dumb enough to let the kids win now that he has someone fighting with him, and he's finally able to drop his fighting stance once all of their attackers have run off in search of easier prey.]

Maybe try to think about your position next time.

[He takes a half step back, as if he might retreat again now that the fight is over.]

I do think about it.

[To a point. He might recognize what position he's in, but Steve's approach has always been charging forward, so he assumes he'll be able to take the hits and win by sheer determination. He scratches the back of his head, reluctantly accepting Bucky's judgment because he doesn't want to drive him off.]

It wasn't so bad.

Wasn't so bad?

[He raises an eyebrow, looking suitably unimpressed at that assessment.]

If I hadn't been there, you'd be a snowman right about now.

Well, it could have been worse.

[Granted, that's mostly because Bucky came to his rescue. Still, Steve chuckles at the criticism.]

If they buried me, someone would eventually dig me out.

Thought you'd have spent enough time on ice by now.

[Okay, maybe that was a bad joke... but it was still a joke?]

[Wow, Bucky. Steve is surprised, and the grin on his face looks bashful.]

Well, I wasn't planning on becoming a snowman, but I guess I've gotten more used to the cold. It's... different now.

Yeah?

[Now he's genuinely curious.

Is it the same for the Steve where he's from, does the cold no longer bother him as much? It's the opposite for Bucky; training in Siberia and being put under between missions has instilled a hatred of the cold for him.]

[He's a little surprised that Bucky is sticking around to talk, but it's a pleasant surprise that Steve finds touching. He ducks his head briefly, smiling with embarrassment before he recovers.]

It makes a difference to have people to share those cold moments with. They don't bite quite as deeply.

And... It's enough just to know they are there. Even if I can't see them again. I can deal with the cold as long as they're out there.

[It's hope rather than a sense of comfort that gets him through the cold.]

Idiot.

[It's mostly just a weary sort of insult, but there's the tiniest buried amount of fondness underneath too.]

Just don't put yourself in the position where you need to deal with the cold unless you have to.

[Steve smiles, inclining his head as he accepts Bucky's judgment.]

I'm glad that we came here.

[He's glad to have met this man. Even if it pulled him away from his home, Steve has learned a lot in Quarantine.]

Maybe I should buy another jacket. Do you think that'll help?

I think not being a dumbass would help the most.

[But it's not a real grumble. He keeps his distance now, but not like he's about to flee any moment.]

[It's not completely unfamiliar to him. It reminds him a bit of Namor or even Fury back home. Bucky is someone that takes his standards very seriously, but in the end he's a good man. Someone Steve respects.]

It's a good thing I have people who can help me with that.

...yeah, yeah, I guess it is.

[People like his Bucky.

Shouldn't he be doing this for his Steve? Odd, how he feels like he's failing all of a sudden, like he's been neglecting a task he forgot he even had.]

[Keeping Steve out of trouble is a full time job that even Bucky can't manage on his own. And Steve himself knows that his friend is going through his own difficulties. They all are. No one needs dead weight.]

Mm, but I think I do all right on my own. No one's been shooting anything more than snow at me lately... Are you all right?

[Speaking of worrying about people.]

Yeah, yeah I'm okay.

[Strangely he's telling the truth, he's not been doing too badly recently. Sad that will all change with the arrival and rise of Pierce.]

But I should still be going, I don't like to hang about in open spaces too long.

Yeah, I understand.

[Steve, as always, is naively optimistic that things are actually looking up. Maybe Bucky will start to learn to trust him, he thinks. He hopes that they'll be able to get to know each other. Slowly.]

You can call sometime, you know. Or come talk to me without saving me from fire.

When you're ready.

[When he's ready... that's almost funny, because who even knows when that will be? But he just nods, even giving Steve a tiny twitch of a smile before he just backs off and then turns to walk away.]

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introductory mingle: HYGGE

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