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

Not as much as the rest of me will be.

[ He likes having a challenge learning something. He's done a lot of time on learning things fast and doing them well. Some of the what's happened here has left open space for trying things just because he can. No consequences for doing them wrong. No time limits on figuring them out. It's easier to work on having that freedom than it is to work on a lot of the other stuff he tends to carry around.

Finn takes her hand and helps get himself back up, wobbling towards the wall with determination well in hand. ]

Right. We can definitely do this.

[There's nothing dangerous about learning something new--especially when they can take their time for it. No one will die if they don't know how to glide on the ice within minutes. Nor will a planet be destroyed because they can't stand on the ice longer than a second. This is new...it's fun, and there weren't any strings attached.

With Finn up and on the wall, they can hold onto the edge and try to 'walk' rather than glide upon the ice.]

Yes, yes we do--oh! [And Rey is grasping the wall again because she can't find her balance and having her knees locked isn't helping her.]

Think I'm starting to prefer sand over this.

[A light laugh escapes her, knowing Finn probably hates the sand by now.]

[ The truest betrayal in Star Wars, wow.

Finn is so glad that they wall these things in. It's a whole activity he has no knowledge about, history or execution or otherwise, but he's at least had time to think "how bad off would we be without this wall to walk alongside". The answer, he's pretty sure, is "bad off". ]

That makes one of us. [ He's still smiling. ] Kind of hope it stays that way.

[ Sand is bad and there's at least one Force ghost in the vast reaches of the galaxy who supports him, okay. ]

[Sand may get everywhere, but at least Rey knows how to deal with it! At least she knows it won't cause her to fall like this!

Where they would be without the wall to help them stay up, Force only knows. At least they're smiling and laughing about it. She bends her knees a little and takes small, baby steps forward.]

Maybe, you might change your mind if you fall three, maybe four more times.

[A bit of a cheeky reply, but at least she seems to be making some progress...and again, Sand doesn't hurt this badly...

It just gets everywhere.]

If my mind wants to change, it'll have a hard time convincing me.

[ That's totally how it works.

He turns his eyes back to other skaters while he's mostly out of the way of their trajectories. It's the same principle as learning anything, right? Observe and practice. There's just nobody going out of their way to explain the basics first.

Knees bent, forward lean, slow start, keep balance. He just has to... execute it.

Finn joins Rey on the awkward shuffle boat, slowly and carefully. ]

I think gravity and ice will convince you sooner or later.

[A bit of a cheeky response, but they're having fun at least. Rey looks at the other people who are skating by, who aren't 'walking' on the thin blades, but rather pushing themselves forward, creating momentum and moving about.

Both of them are doing an awkward shuffle, but Rey stops for a moment to push away from the wall for a moment, give herself some momentum and...

She stays upright! One small victory!]

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this...

[She feels proud of herself for it, carefully pushing off on her back foot and slowly moving forward.]

It's..gliding more or less.

[ Finn is one hundred percent proud of her for this bold achievement. That's not a lie, that's genuine fact. The smile on his face can be testament to that. ]

Never been big on gliding.

[ But what, is he gonna not follow her out? Don't be ridiculous. He's gonna wobble-glide right after her and wonder how people get from shuffling to looking half-decent so fast once they step out here. ]

[She's gliding for a few inches and then grabbing the wall again for balance. It's all about practice. Instead of looking back at Finn, she turns around--slowly to face him.]

I'm sure you can do it. Just..bend your knees and try pushing yourself off the wall a little.

[There's an encouraging smile on her face, and she even holds her arms out. If he falls, she'll try and catch him.]

[ There's something so odd about Rey, in all her small-framed sincerity, holding her arms out like she'll just catch him if he falls again. It juxtaposes sharply with knowing for a fact they would probably both end up falling again if she tried it.

Put him in a simulation or a proper fight, and he'll do pretty well for himself. Maybe not graceful, per se, but about as graceful as general competence and practiced experience can convey. Put him on two thin blades on the ice, it's all a wash. Finn barks out another short laugh in spite of himself. ]

If I can't do it, please don't catch me. It's better if only one of us goes down.

[ But he pushes off, cautiously, and manages to not immediately eat it on the ice. Small victories. ]

[Small victories indeed! At least they were making progress. There's a big grin on Rey's face. She's so proud of Finn at this moment. Really, they should record it so future generations could witness this crowning moment: an ex-stromtrooper who knew how to ice skate.]

If you can't do it--I will still catch you.

[Because, he would do the same for her, wouldn't he? Even if she told him not to, he would still do it.]

You got this! Keep going!

[Was she Finn's biggest cheerleader? Rah, rah, fuckin' yes, boom bah!]

I just told you not to!

[ Is Finn only arguing for the sake of arguing? Yes. There's absolutely zero real heat behind it, and bickering is one of his favorite things to just like. Do.

And obviously if active stormtroopers got wind of this epic victory, they'd be getting defectors in droves. ]

Maybe we actually can do this.

[ FAKE IT TIL YOU MAKE IT WORKS AGAIN, SORT OF. ]

introductory mingle: HYGGE

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