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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[there's a speech. of course poe makes a speech. the best way to respond to it is clearly silence, because it's too mushy. it makes him miss bodhi, chirrut, baze. k2so. he doesn't like it! he suddenly misses his droid especially so fiercely with the way bb8 beeps around. he hadn't had a home like any of them in so long.]

[fortunately the marshmallow catches on fire. it lets cassian move towards the back of the cabin, hands curled around his hot chocolate while jyn flees. he takes a sip and burns his tongue, the only sign of the pain the way his mouth thins into a tight line. at least now that serves as a nice excuse to feeling vaguely grumpy.]

[bb8 chooses that moment to roll over and boop beep at him, knocking into his leg.]

You can't have any. [no hot chocolate for droids.]

[ BB-8 tweedles and then makes a low buzzing noise. He didn't want any of your hot chocolate anyway.

Poe makes his way over once Jyn is gone and Finn and Rey are occupied, his own hot chocolate cooler now with the addition of the marshmallow, even if it went in a flambé. Poe's got a smile on his face, but it's a little sad this time. ]

Well Jyn ran away more obviously. But I overdid it, didn't I?

[ Callout post for Cassian Andor. ]

[the concept of home is a sore spot for both of them, far more so for jyn. he's not surprised she ducked away, just like he doesn't chase after her because he knows she needs a moment. he'd welcomed her home not to yavin, but to the rebellion. maybe to him. but then they died. they all did. it could be a second chance here, but it almost doesn't feel fair to the others.]

[cassian shrugs. it's nothing!] It was very sentimental for a relative stranger. But not surprising.

Edited 2017-12-15 00:09 (UTC)

[ Poe smiles down at his drink. ] Look, I owe both of you my childhood. My home. Yavin 4 would be nothing but space dust without what you did. You don’t have to feel the same way—you barely know me—but.

[ He shrugs. ] I take my family where I can find it.

[funny you mentioned space dust, poe, because that's all he and jyn are now back home. his entire family is stardust. jyn's nickname was prophetic.]

[he risks burning his tongue again to avoid responding immediately, and this time it only stings a tiny bit.] You are right that we do not know each other well. [his name on a memorial wall doesn't mean much.]

Family is a luxury, Poe. Not all of us find them or have them so easily.

[ Poe's hand lifts, brushing the spot on his shirt over where his mom's wedding band hangs. ]

It's not easy. [ He says it quietly. (Muran. Lampar. Kun. Asty. Arana. Furillo. Meltsa. Seastriker. Teffer. Wright. How many, how many more?) ] That's why it's important.

[it's a liability, he wants to say. human connections are (were?) dangerous things for a spy. being an orphan made him the perfect choice. somewhere along the way, cassian forgot how to have a family altogether. until rogue one.]

[maybe family is important, but he's not going to say that.] When you have it, I suppose. But as I have said, still a luxury.

[how many families has he himself killed or broken? how many children did he orphan?]

If you do not have a family, hearing another person speak so candidly and invite you into your own is not always welcome.

[ At least Poe looks properly chastened by that. He'd never thought about it that way. He, Finn, and Rey fell in together so naturally that it seems only right to welcome others in the same way. He presses his hands against the sides of his mug, debating what to say.

It's Poe, so. Y'know. He goes with blunt. ]

How do you want me to... [ A BEMUSED, ONE-HANDED GESTURE. ] Be, I guess, with you two?

[oh. okay. he hadn't really been expecting that sort of almost somber reaction from poe, but cassian weirdly appreciates it anyway. even if it's throwing him off for a moment on where to go from here.]

[but then, ofc the blunt question is easier than anything subdued. cassian feels like he's always prepared for poe to be blunt.]

I don't want to tell you how to be. Just remember our situations are very different. I spent my childhood fighting for yours. All of this - [he makes a vague gesture with his cocoa at the cabin] - is not - it was not accessible. We can't just jump right into it.

[ Statements like that--I spent my childhood fighting for yours-- just make Poe want to do the exact opposite of letting Cassian and Jyn ease into things. He wants to shower them with every good thing he can find and dropkick every bad thing into the stratosphere of this tiny moon.

Which is the opposite of what Cassian seems to want, and that is terrible. ]

All right. [ CAN YOU SEE THE HNGLRBLRLE LOOK ON HIS FACE, CASSIAN. He's trying really hard ok. ]

[the hnglrblrle look serves to amuse cassian, so at least it has that going for it. situation lighter, somehow?? he doesn't laugh, but it almost seems like he might, a tiny puff of air that tried to be a laugh but failed somewhere in the exhale.]

Don't push. Especially Jyn. [he's way better at not being an asshole in pushing back, is the translation.] We're here now, which is more than I could have said for us a few months ago.

You mean well, Poe, I can see that.

I think if I try to push Jyn she would cut my arms off. [ But no, he gets what you mean, Cassian. He scratches his nose, looking away. ] My dad--

[ Is that okay?? Talking about his family?? For a moment there's a prickle of confusion over whether or not this crosses the hazy lines Poe is trying to establish. ] He really is good at this kind of thing. When we'd have visitors, on the colony--not tourists, we got plenty of those, but people who meant to stay for a while, sometimes they'd come stay with us. It's just... natural, with him.

She would. [he 100% believes jyn is capable of this.]

[it's better this time when poe talks about family, just because he's more conscious of it. besides, he's talking about his own father, not trying to welcome jyn and cassian into it.]

Some people find it easier. You mean what you say. I do not doubt it. Jyn and I - [what? don't know what it means to have a family? can't process kindness as genuine and homely as poe's? cassian believes absolutely that poe just wants to shove attention on them because he thinks they need it. that they'd appreciate it. it's entirely well meaning. he and jyn are just not prepared for anything like that. sometimes he still thinks he doesn't even deserve it.] You are coming from a good place. Maybe you aren't as natural as your father, but no one says you can't keep figuring it out. No one says he would be successful with us either.

I don't have an answer about how to do this. But we did come tonight by choice. [so...baby steps. probably.]

[ Poe's smile is a little sad. He lifts a hand to give Cassian's shoulder a small squeeze. ]

You're too young to be this old.

[the sad smile makes him feel vaguely... weird... because he doesn't know what to do with people who are...sad for him??]

[at least he doesn't jerk out of poe's grasp this time.]

[dryly:] Twenty years of fighting apparently ages a person.

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introductory mingle: HYGGE

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