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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Girl, don't even get me started on some of the stories that people tell in my world.

[ He could tell her stories about things both far sillier and far stranger than a sentient snowman. In fact, Cisco makes a mental note to tell her some of those stories, later on. For now, though, he contents himself with simply saying: ]

Not sure it really counts as a myth. It's just a song that kids sing, you know? But I promise, I'll steer clear of old silk hats for our guy, magical or otherwise.

[ Rey's question about a coat surprises him a little, though maybe it shouldn't. It's not so much the fact that she clearly still thinks about things in terms of what is necessary for survival and what isn't, but the implied temporariness. Even if the cold were nearly over, there would be next year, and the year after. But of course, Rey doesn't intend on staying that long, probably. That's not exactly the most cheerful thought. ]

It's gonna be cold plenty longer. You really oughta have one.

[ Cisco heads out the door, towards a nearby undisturbed patch of snow. When he gets there he crouches down. He starts scooping it up, forming a large sphere that will eventually be the base of the snowman. ]

What? That isn't the most ridiculous?

[Joking of course. Men of snow coming to life because of a magical hat. Not just any hat, but a silk hat. But it's just a children's song. Nothing more than that. Yet, behind every song or story, there had to be a bit of truth to it, right? Or maybe she was thinking too much on the subject.

But they could talk about that later. She doesn't argue with the necessity of the coat and simply puts it on. How much longer was he thinking? A few more weeks? Maybe a month?]

How long does snow fall usually last? I'm not going to put off getting one, but it can't be this cold for too long.

[She follows behind him, feeling much better in a coat and gloves. Okay they were needed, and it made it easier for her to have fun in the snow. Cisco already starts preparing the base of the snowman, leaving Rey to create a small snowball and then roll it up to be a smaller size of what Cisco's making. They'll have a base and a torso!]

I got no clue. It was spring when I showed up, so I don't know how long the winters last on this moon. And I've stopped trying to figure out what can and can't happen, in this place. I sort of just assume anything's possible.

[ Cisco keeps work, rolling the snow, talking to Rey as he does. The cold makes both of their breaths into clouds of steam, and Cisco can see Rey's cheeks and the tip of her nose get red from the chill, knows the same must be happening to him. But isn't going to freeze her fingers off at least. ]

Speaking of truly ridiculous myths, there's another one back home, about how long the winter will last. There's this kind of animal, called a groundhog. They're tiny little rodents that live underground, about this big. And on this one particular day every year, you're supposed to be able to tell if it will be an early spring or if the winter will last another month and a half, depending on whether or not the groundhog sees its shadow and gets spooked and goes back underground.

[ He has gotten the base large enough, now, and spends some time shaping it, trying to get it as perfectly spherical as possible. This involves some patting on ice to some areas, buffing off the pointy parts with his palm elsewhere. Honestly, the more Cisco says about the whole groundhog day thing, the weirder it sounds in retrospect. ]

So this winter could last months? [Urgh, that was not fun. Not fun at all. That would mean she would need to buy clothes more suited for the colder weather. Not that she didn't have the funds for it. She had plenty, but she still spent very little on herself and planned more around food (especially more so since Poe and Finn arrived). Well, better stock up on more supplies in case of a snow storm. If they were anything like sandstorms, they weren't pleasant.

Her nose is feeling a bit running form the cold weather, and her lips are chapped. She would have to be mindful of getting something to help with it. A balm or salve to keep her skin from cracking in such cold conditions...and to help prevent sickness.]

So...you leave your weather predictions to this...groundhog deity?

[Truly this is confusing to someone like Rey. Why would they let an animal decide how much longer winter was? And did it actually work? She moved over to him, patting down the snow she had gathered, trying to make it the same shape as his.]

Do you know, there's an actual planet called Hoth where it's nothing but ice and snow? The complete opposite of Jakku.

It might. Hope it doesn't, but. You gotta be prepared for the possibility it will.

[ Cisco hopes that the cold weather doesn't last that long; he's been enjoying the snow and the fun winter activities, but that was all going to get pretty old in another few weeks, and then he would just be left feeling chilly all the time and trudging through snow on his way to the workshop, and that's no fun at all.

Rey's confusion sends Cisco into fits of giggles. ]

It's not a DEITY! Most people don't take it that seriously! It's just a silly old superstition, that's all!

[ He motions for her to move a little, and then gets his hands around the sphere that she had made. He waits for her to do the same, and together the two of them heave it off the ground and then perch it on top of the base. Cisco starts securing it there, packing some wet snow around the space between them. ]

Sounds horrible. You ever been there?

[ Cisco's still unclear on just how many different planets Rey had visited back in her universe. He knows it's not all that many, but... ]

I know..I know. You have to be prepared for nearly anything here.

[Which sucks, but it's something she's somewhat used to. She had to be prepared in case of anything on Jakku. She had to make sure she had enough food rations, and water, otherwise she would be probably starve to death.

And what? Why is Cisco giggling? It was a serious question! She doesn't know who or what the people from his world believe!]

I didn't know! I mean, at some point it was taken seriously enough for the tradition to keep going! [See! She has a point! Kind of.

They work together to get the middle section on top of the base. It looks like it'll hold. The end of it was flat to make it more stable..]

No, I haven't. Only been to Takodana, and D'Qar--though for the last one, I was only there for a few minutes before leaving. [To look for Luke...to find him and bring him to the Resistance.]

Hey, think about it this way - it can't last forever, and I bet you're gonna love the spring.

[ Cisco has vivid memories of when he'd first arrived, and everything had been in bloom, with the flower festival in full swing. He doesn't imagine there were a whole lot of flowers on Jakku. Probably there were none at all. And he's sure that Rey will love them, and love seeing the world turning green again after the drab winter. ]

Okay, okay. You got a point, there.

[ There probably are superstitious people who do put a great deal of stock into the whole groundhog thing, and Cisco had just told her that the myths on Earth were stranger than she could probably imagine. ]

Hey, that's still two planets more than me. What were they like?

[ As he speaks, he gestures for Rey to keep on smoothing out the first two sections of the snowman, while he starts rolling up snow for the head. ]

Hey, in this place you never know.

[Maybe now that Cisco's said, winter will last forever and all they'll have is ice, snow, and snowmen. It could happen! But, it does get Rey to thinking she needs to prepare for colder weather, and just overall, prepare in case something happens; power cuts out, running water isn't available, things like that. She makes a mental note to talk it over with the others later.

But...if spring does come, she can only assume it'll be beautiful. Seeing new life grow and bloom, it's amazing to watch.]

Back on Jakku, there were these people--aliens--called Teedos. When there were long sandstorms, they called it the breath of god. It's...interesting what people can believe in.

[She follows his lead, smoothing out the first two sections, adding more snow to help keep everything together.]

I didn't see much of D'Qar. It was the base of the Resistance...and Takodana.. [She stops for a moment, trying to put into words what she saw and felt there.]

The entire planet was covered in green. So many forests and plant life--just life over all. I had no idea that much green existed in the galaxy.

If winter lasts forever here I'm filing a formal complaint with Aslan. [ And then, before Rey can even ask, Cisco waves a dismissive hand and explains: ] Pop culture reference.

[ That's the system the two of them have worked out, now. There's no way for Cisco to weed out all the references in his speech patterns, and trying to do so much made talking feel stilted and weird for him. So he just says what he wants, now, and immediately tells Rey when it's a reference so she doesn't get confused.

It makes him smile, hearing the awed way Rey talks about Takodana. Sometimes it really hits Cisco, how much Rey had grown up without. Family. Comfort. Friends. But also things like forests. His voice is soft as he says: ]

You would love Earth. It's got deserts, like Jakku, but also forests millions of species of plants and animals. There are cities but also huge rainforests and mountains. Some places are really dry and others it just snows and snows and snows.

[ At some point Cisco had stopped rolling the snowman's head, and his smile takes on a certain sadness. He'd managed to make him homesick, without really meaning to. ]

Okay.

[Rey basically shrugged her shoulders at the pop culture reference. She didn't really get it, but it was from Cisco's world, so she simply learned to roll with it. If she really wanted to know, she would ask. It was sometimes fun to see the gears in Cisco's mind turn as he tried to explain away one reference that was tied to another.]

Earth...or as Poe likes to call it, Dirt.

[A small joke, but she does listen to how Cisco explains his world and the different lifeforms there...and looking at him, she can tell there's something else on his mind. Maybe...it was time to change subjects.]

It sounds lovely...A place that, sounds like the stuff of dreams. So many climates...and different places.

But um...[Subject change...what could they talk about that didn't make Cisco sad?] Is binary more than coding in your world? BB-8 speaks in binary and it seems like Poe and I are the only ones who understand it.

[ Cisco can see what Rey is doing, drawing his attention away from melancholy thoughts by asking him about something nerdy. His smile widens, still a little sad, but with a renewed fondness in it as well. He is grateful for Rey. Even if he misses his planet, wishes he could show it to her... he never would've gotten the chance to meet her, if he'd stayed there. Her, or Taako, or any of the other people from fantastical universes that he's befriended here. He never would've gotten to know Eddie, or seen magic, or any of that.

He perks up considerably, explaining everything he knew about binary and how it worked back home, and who knew what about it, and funny binary jokes he'd heard over the years. As he does, he finishes rolling up the snowman's head and heaves it up onto the other two, and together he and Rey work to secure it, and then smooth it out to match the others. Eventually... ]

Let's have a look at him.

[ And Cisco pulled off his own bright red scarf, just for the time being, and draped it around the snowman, as if he were wearing it for warmth. ]

Next, I think... arms. Look for some good, arm-shaped branches.

[It was easier to talk about something both of them had a talent and fondness for. The jokes Cisco made were enough to make Rey chuckle, but she didn't really know too many binary jokes. Laughter was such a rare thing in the harsh desert climate. Being able to freely and openly discuss things that brought smiles to their faces was refreshing. Though, she could still see the lingering sadness there.

The homesickness. The fleeting moments where one wished to be back home. Rey had those feelings every night when she was first brought to Jakku...and she could only hope Cisco adjusted better than she had; crying herself to sleep and wishing every day for her parents to come back for her.

Now, it was time to look at their work. Three balls of snow all stacked up on one another...and it looked like a person...kind of.]

You really think that's a good idea? [The motions to the scarf. Wouldn't Cisco get cold without it? He wasn't planning on leaving it there all day, was he?

And by 'good arm-shaped branches,' Rey figured he meant a branch with five smaller branches on it. She started to look around for some and then looked up to the trees...

Well, if they didn't find any on the ground, maybe she could try to break one or two branches off?]

It's temporary. We're gonna have to swing by a dollar store and get some stuff for the face, and a non-magic hat, and all that.

[ He likes that scarf too much to leave it out for long, but for now it's doing some good making the snowman look a bit less monochromatic and undecorated.

CIsco finds a stick that will work for one of the arms almost right away, and then turns to see Rey searching so intently, scrutinizing, rejecting several candidates that look just fine to Cisco. As he walks over to stick his into the snowman's body, at a jaunty angle, he calls out: ]

Doesn't have to be perfect, you know. Just something about this size. While you do that I'ma run and get the rest of the stuff, okay?

[ There's a certain appeal to the idea of bringing her with him, but Cisco thinks he can get it done more quickly if he just goes on his own.

He waves to Rey, smiling, and heads off away from the river in the direction of the city. He's only gone around 10 minutes, and when he returns, he's got a plastic bag dangling from one hand and a top hat tucked under one arm. ]

What stuff would you get? Candy?

[Well...that would seem like a waste. For sweet, sugary treats to be frozen and unusable after being made into a face. Or maybe not. Who knows! Rey was just being overly critical of the snowman, because she really didn't know what to make of it.

Seeing Cisco just casually pick up a branch and stick it into the body of the snowman...she really was over thinking things.]

Okay, I'll keep watch.

[He can go to the store and Rey finds another branch with fewer fingers but sticks it to the body too.

By the time Cisco comes back, Rey is rolling another snowball. It has the same size as the base, but wider and more spherical. She places it next to the snowman and starts to make another smaller snowball. Turning, she saw him coming back and grinned.]

Thought he could use a snow droid.

[ Cisco sets down his spoils, pulls the top hat from his head and says: ]

Moment of truth...

[ He places the hat on the snowman's head and pretends to brace himself; but of course, it does not animate. Nothing happens, and Cisco laughs, crouching down to sort through the various decorations. He unwraps the coal from the newspaper he'd put it in, carefully installing the two eyes.

He looks curiously over at what Rey's working on: ]

Is that BB-8?

[ Cisco had finally met the little droid, when he went sledding with Poe, and he can't help laughing at how comically easy it would be to replicate the little guy in snow. He was just so... round! ]

I love it.

[Rey watches as Cisco puts on an 'ordinary' hat on top of the snowman figure. There's a cold breeze....and nothing. There's not sparkle. No shimmer. Nothing that suddenly moves without the aide of wind. Just...nothing. A bit underwhelming, but good to know magic doesn't just suddenly happen.]

Good. Wouldn't know what to do if it did come to life--if would even speak basic.

[Which is more or less the same language everyone seems to speak here.

Rey keeps working on building her little snow droid, focusing more on the top part--BB-8's head. She could carve out his pattern in a moment. Right now, she wants to make sure his head is done correctly...and then find the branch that'll be his antenna.]

Yes, figured he could use a friend.

[There's a slight chuckle, happy to know Cisco did meet the little droid.]

What did you think of him? I know we thought about bringing him to Eddie's party, but it was best if he stayed behind. We didn't want him to bump into things, or take away from Eddie's amazing food.

[ Cisco grins one of his big, bright, beaming grins up at Rey. ]

Absolutely. Everything's better with a friend.

[ Is he still talking about the snowman and the little snow droid? Or is he talking about himself and Rey, now? Hard to say. While Rey works on the small BB-8, Cisco carves out a little hole beneath the eyes and carefully installs the carrot nose, closing in the snow around it to secure it. Then it's on to the mouth, made of tiny multicolored gumdrops, curved into a smile. ]

BB-8? Well, we didn't get a chance to chat, but he seems like a great... [ Cisco's not quite sure of the terminology that would be appropriate for a droid. ] ...guy? Dude?

[ He really is going to have to ask Rey more about droids and addressing them and how it's supposed to go, grammatically. ]

He seems great. When all this is done, we should definitely call Poe and get him to pose with his snow twin.

Indeed...it is.

[Whether or not he's talking about the snowman and BB-8,or about her and him..she can agree. Everything is better when one does have a companion. Be it a person, or a stuffed doll. Something or someone to keep the loneliness at bay.

She's working on sticking the head to the body, adding some snow to make it stand still and stick together. After that, she carves out the ocular eye port for the snow droid. Following that, she looks for a short stick to his antenna, a straight stick, nothing else would do.]

His coding is more masculine, so calling BB-8 a guy is fine. He pretty much is one. Did Finn ever tell you how he and BB-8 met? Well, how the three of us met?

[And as for Poe being dragged into this...she couldn't help but smile a little.]

Yes, I'm sure Poe and BB-8, would look smart next to both of them.

Edited 2017-12-24 07:47 (UTC)

[ Cisco's laughter is an immediate answer, when Rey brings up how Rey and BB-8 had met Finn. It had been a pretty great story, though he knows that the reality of it was probably a lot more stressful and uncertain at the time. Still, the mental image he has of it - Rey, with her staff, ferocious, and tiny round BB-8, egging her on, and poor Finn, utterly confused by the whole situation - is very funny. ]

He did.

[ He may have heard that anecdote, but what he doesn't know are the larger questions - and what better time to ask them than as he's arranging coal buttons for the snowman. ]

So droids are... they're artificial intelligence? Like you or me, with thoughts and feelings and identities, just in a body made of metal rather than bones and skin and stuff?

[ She'd said 'coding' which makes him think that's the case, but it doesn't hurt to be sure. Taako had told him lots of stories about robots that were essentially houses for the souls of the dead. BB-8 could be a being like that, or something else entirely. Or he could be like a version of JARVIS, or Gideon, just with a little round body to roll around in. ]

Good. [She lets out a laugh of her own.] It's a one of a kind story, now that I think about it, and funny too.

[You know, when they weren't trying to get killed, or blown up, or die from poisonous gas.]

Kind of... [Give her a moment, she's never really had to stop and think about it. They simply existed, and had been for hundreds of years.] They are artificial intelligence, they have their own personalities, or what's been programmed into them. Sure, you can have just the basics put in and then have them develop their personalities as they grow. Depends on the manufacturer, or the maker.

I do think of them as beings themselves. They do feel pain, they can die...and they can be great friends.

Gotcha. Well, I hope this helps to win BB-8 over as one of my friends.

[ Cisco is only too ready to think of the little guy as a living, feeling being; he already anthropomorphizes his own machines all the time, and considering BB-8 walks (well, rolls) and talks like a person, why not think of him as one? Just one with a slightly different construction.

The two of them chat a little, about droids and what Rey knows about them, and about the lack of droids and other such things in Cisco's own world. They chat as they put the finishing touches on the snowman and snowdroid, and then eventually, Cisco stands back, hands on his hips, assessing. ]

They're freakin' perfect. Strike a pose next to 'em, I wanna take a picture.

[ And he pulls out his phone to do so, grinning from ear to ear, happy (not for the first time, and certainly not the last) that he had stumbled across Rey that day and become her friend. ]

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introductory mingle: HYGGE

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