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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[he almost laughs at her disregard for the word fun, just because it's so #relatable. cassian wouldn't know what fun was if it hit him like a snowball.]

I suppose the definition of the word may vary from person to person. [self deprecating jokes are all the rage.]

[he shakes his head yet again. so many offer declines, but it's not because of rey herself! he swears.] Not yet. I don't mind the snow or the cold for the most part. I can recognize when it's necessary to be inside again. It all reminds me of Fest, I like to be out.

[wait, he doesn't think he told her that? just that he was born in the outer rim. it's strange to feel so free to clarify it, but she's already seen him die, you can't get much more personal than that. he's already bundled up to perfection, which shows he knows exactly how to handle this weather.] My homeworld. It was a very snowy planet.

I suppose. I mean, Poe seems to know how to have fun.

[And he was one of them--people who had to live through a war. Who knew what it meant to give it his all, and what loss truly meant. He still held onto life and lived it to the fullest. Whereas with Rey, it's hard to let go of old habits that have kept her alive all this time. So the concept of doing something 'fun' that isn't productive, is still hard to over come...but she's getting there.]

Fest?

[A planet, one she hasn't heard about before. He's captured her attention and it's more than interesting to her. It's a chance to learn more about Cassian, to help carry on who he was...so he wouldn't be forgotten.]

I didn't know. The only ice planet I knew of was Hoth, and Jyn has never been there--thank Force, her words. [She lets out a light chuckle there, and then looking at him, she asks in a soft voice:] ...What was it like?

[She's trying not to pry, but she had dreamed of visiting other planets, to get off of Jakku and travel with her family. Only half of that dream came true--even if she's only been to two planets (Ahch-To, she isn't counting since she was there for a handful of seconds).]

His kind of fun definitely may not always line up with others. [ALWAYS DRAGGING POE. but he also means it genuinely, because fun is just. weird to think about.]

[he finds it very odd to talk about his home planet. he's sure it was listed in whatever files draven kept on him, but homeworlds don't always come up when it comes to the fight, especially when you were in it as long as he was. planets were razed and ruined, refugees existed and immigrated everywhere.]

[he might find it odd, but he also finds he does want to talk about it outside of just jyn. if people are going to know his name, they should know about fest too it's not a major player, but it's his home.] It's in the Atrivis sector, in the outer rim.

It's full of snow most of the year, sometimes all year long. Very cold and mountainous. It's not as bad as Hoth, much more inhabitable. Our main industry was mining, which of course made us a prime target for those after resources. [he pauses.] We were a Separatist sympathetic planet, during the Clone Wars. It came to be occupied by the Empire in the years after I left.

That I have no doubt. [Poe may think drinking is fun, considering how often he goes out to the bar, but it wasn't her place to say anything on the matter. But, yes, fun is weird to think about.]

Oh. [She hadn't any idea where Fest was, but it was on the outer rim, well...that explains why. Not too many people traveled to the outer rim to Jakku. Sometimes, it felt like Jakku was part of the outer rim itself considering what a junkyard planet it was, but some how it was still part of the middle rim.

She listens, captivated by Cassian's explanation of what Fest was. In the back of her mind, she was trying to recall if it was still around during her time, and why she didn't bother to better memorize a map of their galaxy.]

Did you ever join the Separatists? [She knew of the Clone Wars, knew of the Separatists, but the thing with history was that it was altered by whoever told it. Sure, there were logs and files on some of the crafts of the Empire on Jakku, but nothing pertaining to the overall history of the different wars, or the different factions.

Cassian couldn't have been working for the Empire at some point...could he?]

[he can tell she's not quite sure where it is, but that's not much of a surprise. there are a lot of scattered planets in the outer rim, and many in the core worlds don't think much of them. not that rey is from a core world, but the expansive nature of it all makes it hard for anyone to keep track.]

[cassian was seven when the clone wars ended. he knows that now because he's an adult who learned proper history, but at the time it just felt like one long never ending state of fighting. his enemy never really changed.]

I was three or four when the Clone Wars started. My parents were involved in an insurrectionist cell fighting Republic expansion. I was involved by default as it went on. [so, that's a sort of yes? he has no shame in being a separatist, even though he was just a child who could hardly grasp any sense of nuance.]

Many Separatists kept fighting, even when the Republic turned into the Empire. It made no real difference what they called themselves. It was always seen as imperial expansion.

[When this is over, she'll try to find a star chart somewhere here, just to see if she could find Fast. If it was still around. To learn more about the hero that Cassian was. To learn anything and everything she could, just so she could have his memory live on in the Resistance.]

That's....really young to be part of it.

[But she understood. No one ever asked to be part of a war--especially children of it. If their parents were involved, they would be entangled with it too. Sooner or later they would be dragged into it. Her information on the Clone Wars wasn't great, but she knows the gist of it. Jakku didn't have a library or classes, but people still talked of the past.]

So you were fighting to keep the Empire from expanding? [She asked, just to make sure she understood.] When did you decide to join the Rebellion? [What made him join? He could've walked away, unless he hated the Empire that much.]

[he sort of shrugs, a very light gesture.] The Empire did not care about age. Most wars don't. Even in the Clone Wars, it was impossible to avoid sparing children the face of war.

[on both sides. for such a short war, the clone wars nearly consumed the whole galaxy and birthed an empire that continued to drag in children.]

It was not much of a choice, and I do not mean that in a bad way this time. The Rebellion became the only thing standing in the way of the Empire ruling everything. [he gave too much of himself to it, that much he can... probably admit, at least to himself, but given the choice, he knows he would do it all over again.]

[he wasn't lying to jyn when he'd told her he lost everything. all he had left was the cause, and the cause took him in.] I was officially recruited a few years after the Clone Wars ended. They had better resources. It was the logical jump from tiny rebel cell into growing resistance.

[his fight has literally never stopped. war is his blood.]

[It seemed their world--their universe was destined to become lost in wars. When one war was over, another began. There weren't too many moments of peace, but the aftermath of the last war could still be felt. On Jakku there was so much proof of it littered in the ship graveyard.]

I didn't think of it in a bad way. You were doing what you could to stop the Empire from growing, from becoming stronger and taking over every planet.

[He was a product of war, and he would've stayed in the Rebellion for many years to come. If he had lived through the Empire...maybe he would've been with Leia, trying to tackle and destroy the First Order.]

If...I were in the same situation, I would've joined. The things they did in the name of 'ruling' or trying to control 'chaos' were heinous.

[when he's feeling extra cynical, cassian might think every universe is susceptible to war. but it must be just as likely to draw in those who would fight back. he would not have lasted as long as he did if he didn't believe in the people and their hope, no matter how bitter the war left him. it's a strange dichotomy in a person.]

I believe you would. [HIGH PRAISE.] For years and years, it was hard for me to understand why anyone would not join the fight. [he pauses, and thinks of jyn.] I get it now, better than I did before. But I always felt there was no good future as long as the Empire was allowed to reign free, and I wanted something better to exist one day.

[the empire can go fuck itself tbqh.]

[Very high praise coming from someone like Cassian. Rey makes sure to keep that compliment to herself, locking it away in her memories.]

When you're caught up in something for so long...it's hard to see another's point of view. Finn...he kept wondering why I wanted to go back to Jakku. I clung to the belief of my family returning that it made it difficult to do anything else--to consider a better future for myself. [So she can see that happening with Cassian, caught up in a war that it's hard to see any other reasons except to fight and to keep on fighting. But little by little, points of view change because of the people you meet.]

No, there wouldn't have been a future at all if the Empire ruled. There wouldn't be peace, there would only be fear and more lives would have been lost.

[A beat as she looks away from Cassian to consider that she owes him and Jyn her future--as crappy as it was, but it was a future free of the empire.]

...Did you know, that for all the credits the Empire had, their TIE Fighters were crap? They were made from the cheapest materials around.

[The empire can go fuck itself and they can talk all the shit they want about it.]

It's not that I could see not it. I recruited for the Rebellion. It involved seeing other people's perspectives all the time. But when the Empire has taken everything, the only logical choice for me was to fight back. [he pauses.] But it isn't always that simple.

Like you have just said, sometimes priorities need to be much more personal. I would not make the same choices, but I would not disparage anyone for the same anymore. [meeting jyn had proved that to him. it's not his fault he just... lost any real personal reasons to avoid the fight.]

[she gets an almost smile, a tiny flash of one.] They were mass produced a lot of the time. Very easy to destroy or sabotage.

It would've been a logical choice for a lot of people. [But there would be others who didn't see it that way. For reasons that Rey couldn't think of, aside from the urge to simply run and hope the Empire didn't reach them.

She saw that flash of a tiny smile. Another victory in her book.]

Yes, there to overwhelm an x-wing or other ships. Designed to be lightweight, and fast. It didn't matter to them how many lives were lost for their cause--not even their own people mattered to them.

Not one made as often as you would think. [so many small and separate rebel cells. he admired bail's attempts to bring them together, even if he was very used to the smaller level work.]

The Empire seems to think in numbers, in size. Overwhelm is not an incorrect word. The more soldiers they have, the more cannon fodder. The more resources, the less harsh a loss of TIE fighters are.

[he sort of gestures at the snow.] We should walk, unless you are not done with your snowman. Movement helps to keep warmth.

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introductory mingle: HYGGE

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