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

[ Rin nods to affirm both statements--he and Loki are pretty much the opposite of friends. In fact, Rin hates him! So.

As for the rest of it: ]

Yes ... I've only been on the surface for a few years. But my childhood was spent entirely in the Underdark. I did manage to escape, eventually, but.

[ He shrugs. ]

You don't need a sob story, I'm sure.

[Well, at least she found someone who doesn't like Loki. Yay for small miracles.]

You don't need to tell me if you don't want to. [Nor was she in the mood to tell him of her own back story. Too many people know, and the last thing she ever wants is pity.]

Are you coming inside? There are hot drinks inside, if you want.

Ah, it's just so depressing. Lots of slavery and butchery and all that. This is supposed to be a season for joy and peace, right?

[ He shrugs, seemingly nonchalant. ]

I'm just trying not to be a spoilsport.

[ To that end ... ]

If 'hot drink' means 'extraordinarily bitter coffee', then yes.

Like I said, you don't have to say anything you don't want to. After what happened a while ago...I don't want to force someone to share anything they don't want to.

[Pause.]

I don't know? There's no such season in my world. [Or at least on Jakku.]

Don't know about coffee, but this..chocolate drink is good--and you don't like sweets. [Right, Taako mentioned that.]

Could look for something else.

Nor mine. We saw little reason to cling to each other through the winter.

[ Mainly because seasons aren't exactly a thing underground.

He squints as he crosses the threshold into a cabin, ever assaulted by sudden light, however briefly. He feels a brief flash of panic when she mentions that he doesn't like sweets--how could she know--but he masters his face before it registers for too long. ]

Ah--Taako is quite free with his talk, I see.

At least you had enough knowledge to cling to each other. Can't do that in the desert.

[More body heat, and no way in hell would any of the scavengers done that.

She had crossed the threshold, feeling warmer from the fire going on. She looks back at him and wonders if she said something wrong? He looked...lost in thought? Pensive, perhaps?]

It only came up because he wanted to give me and my friends left overs from his bakery. I felt bad because he should've offered them to you, and it came up...

[Was it supposed to be a secret?]

I won't mention it again.

Oh, I misspoke. We don't cling to each other at all. Not unless we're pulling a knife out of our pockets.

[ He says this quite blithely, even as he's looking 'round for something like that coffee he mentioned. Surely not everything available is sweet. ]

And it's fine. Really. Don't worry about it.

[ He offers a reassuring smile as he tucks his long braid behind his shoulder. ]

I simply hope he's been mindful of my sterling reputation.

[ In other, less smarmy words, he hopes Taako's spoken well of him. ]

Oh...well, that puts things in a different light.

[It meant his world was hard, perhaps just as harsh as the one she came from. Now she was looking for coffee or something bitter for him. She goes into the kitchen area of the cabin, starting to go through cabinets...]

Ah, he's spoken kindly of you. Though.. [She looks over her shoulder at him.]

He said he doesn't know why you're with him, considering how 'sweet' he is-! [And now she gets it...and feels some embarrassment now.]

...And I told Taako that you must be dating him because he has a great personality. [Feel free to laugh, its fine, she gets it now.

And after poking around the cabinets a little more...ah ha!]

I found coffee! It's in instant form, but it's coffee.

introductory mingle: HYGGE

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