riverviewlogs | 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

[That. Is. CHEATING!

Rey had ducked behind a tree, catching her breath and waiting for his next snowball attack. It's stupid how cathartic this is. To throw something at Ren and know it won't do him any harm, but knowing it strikes him...it's a way for her to release that pent up anger. The Force shifts and before she knows what to do, she's buried in snow.

There's deafening silence, almost as though the snow had knocked her unconscious. A long pause to make Ren think something had gone wrong. That his temper had caused someone to get hurt, but after several long seconds, the pile of snow starts to move and Rey climbs out of it.

Her face is cold, her hands are freezing....and while she knows she should be upset...she finds herself chuckling and then...laughing.

Maybe she was so tired, she had gone loopy from it, or maybe this was one of their better fights that didn't leave them bruised and wounded.]

[ He pretty much never bothers to stop and ask himself if he's gone too far, no matter how much he destroys. He just moves ahead, cutting swathes of ruin in his path.

But, there is a moment, right here and now, when he actually stops, breathing harshly, staring at the mound of snow where Rey was standing. She's still alive, he knows it, but whether she's conscious... He actually approaches, cautious, trying not to let some small twinge of concern show on his face...

And then she emerges, powdery snow clinging to her hair and coat. There's a beat of silence where he's sure she's going to launch something back at him, but then, once again, Rey surprises Kylo Ren. She's laughing, and it's such an honest, carefree sound.

At first, the corner of his mouth twitches, like he's trying to suppress something... and then he actually laughs along with her in a startled burst. ]

[Rey can't remember when she's laughed this hard. Laughing so hard her sides have stitches and she can't catch her breath. It was so stupid for her to be laughing at a matter like this. Two people, one of Light and one of Darkness, throwing snowballs at each other, and Ren...he just used the Force so effortlessly to win the game.

What was more fascinating was realizing she started to play a game with him. No stakes. No weapons, just something that had been robbed of her childhood...and probably his too.

Her lips feel chapped and her cheeks and nose are probably red. Her hands are freezing and she can't stop laughing. The sound that joins her laughter isn't one she's expecting...it's his. A dark, rich sound that sends shivers down her spine. She props herself up with her elbows, tucking her hands into the sleeves of her coat to simply stare at him. Her laughter dying down as she took in the image of a man who had so much conflict in him, and for a moment...seemingly forget about it.]

You win.

[It was easy to admit he won their snowball fight. He clearly bested her...and it's a shame she can't tell Poe or Finn this. They wouldn't believe her.]

[ As his own laughter dies, he's left with a lingering trace of a smile, one that looks too much like his father's for comfort... which is why it's a good thing he can't see his own face right now. The resemblance would be enough to wipe it off his face in an instant.

Ren looks at her in the snow, the fact that her fingertips are likely aching from the cold, and her nose and cheeks on the redder side of rosy. ]

Since you've conceded your defeat... [ His tone's somewhat teasing and, with some awkward reluctance, he extends a gloved hand to Rey. No ulterior motive, for once. Just an offer to get her out of the snow.

It's a far cry from the last time they faced off in weather like this. ]

[It is a far cry from how they last saw each other in the snow. This is a perfect moment to kill her, and yet, he offers her his hand instead. Maybe there is still some hope...some fragments of Ben Solo in him.

And why...does she like that smile on his face? Because it's something different? Something that's lighter and not filled with pain?

Her eyes look to his gloved hand, and she found herself reaching for it. Clasping his hand in her own. He manages to help her up in the snow, and once on her feet, she slowly pulls her hand back to reach into her pocket to take out her gloves.]

..Next time I'll wear my gloves and..who knows, maybe I'll best you.

[A bit teasing there because this...this is new. No fighting, no shouting...just talking.]

[ Her hand is like ice from handling so much snow. That much, he can feel even through his glove. And there's an unusual impulse that strikes him, that he should keep his hand clasped around Rey's until her fingers are warm again. It's because of that impulse, that odd, stray thought, that he does hold her hand for a beat longer than necessary, before he withdraws slowly and somewhat (somewhat) sheepishly.

At least her comment gives him a chance to recover. ]

Maybe. I know better than to underestimate you. [ Friendly banter. He can do this sometimes. It's oddly refreshing to have a back and forth without any spitefulness or hostility lacing his words. After a beat, he glances down at her hands for a moment, a question lingering in his mind. ] Why weren't you wearing them?

[ How he withdraws his hand from her doesn’t attract Rey’s attention more than how it felt that their hands were touching. He was there to help her up, held out his hand and she grasped it. No fear. No hesitation. Rey found herself wondering how his skin on hers would feel. If he would shiver from the cold or simply hold on to help warm them up.

The answer would never come now that her hand was gone from his. She tucked her gloves under an arm and rubbed her hands togethers to restore some blood flow. ]

Good. At least someone here knows that.

[ He knows what she can do, and int his instance doesn’t hold it against himself. He learned his lesson, and to have him admit it out loud was a huge step. As for why she didn’t have her gloves on. ]

Doesn’t feel the same. Snow is very different than sand and it’s...much lighter than I thought it would be. The cold...the ice...it gave me something else to focus on.

[ He should be able to understand that. How one needed to focus on something else rather than whatever else was important. Now that she felt more warmth in her hands, Rey began tonslip on her gloves. ]

introductory mingle: HYGGE

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