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

Don't think I won't tackle you.

[ He slips, takes the opportunity to grab a handful of snow, and slings it at her as she closes the distance between them. HE'S STILL RUNNING it's just sort of slidey tractionless running. ]

[ She keeps running, giving another yell as she meets the snow, swinging an arm at it as if to bat it away. ]

Don't think I won't jump on you!

[ Yeah, cuz u short. #tinymandameron ]

[ Wow don't call out his shortness??

Still his short tiny man legs might be no match for Karen's gazelle-like speed and grace and why is he thinking about that, also he doesn't even know what a gazelle is. ]

Eat snow, Page!

[ She will call it out whenever it benefits her cause tyvm.

Which it does when they round the tree and she uses a burst of speed to do exactly as she threatened. Arms go around his shoulders and she throws her weight on him and sends them both into the snow.

But she's rolling away and crawling her way up into a run as she hollers out in victory at being a dirty dirty (taller) cheater. ]

[ For a second Poe just lays there, watching her run with an odd, light feeling in his chest.

Then he remembers he's supposed to be competing. He scrambles to his feet, running flat out, but the fuzzy-feeling pause has cost him too much distance. ]

[ She makes it all the way back to where they started out with a breathless laugh, panting as she throws up her arms, crowing out, ]

Now who's eating snow!

[ In answer... Poe tackles her into a snowbank.

Gently. ]

[ She lets out a small scream but it quickly tapers off into laughter after she hits the snowbank, her arms around him again.

Her breath is hot against his ear, ]

Didn't know you were such a sore loser.

[ It's really hard not to notice the heat of her when his feet are freezing and the snow is melting against his skin. He makes a breathless little noise in response to her words, ignoring the buzz in his stomach. ]

That's because I'm usually a gracious winner.

[ A hand reaches up to brush some of the snow from his hair, ]

Not today.

[ Her own feet have gone pretty numb save for the tell-tale pricking of cold on more cold. But she can't help noticing the warmth of his body pressed against hers. It's a little distracting... ]

[ He could kiss her right now, he thinks. And then he thinks, that's a terrible idea. They're barefoot in the snow. She's probably melting her way even deeper into the snowbank while they lay here staring at each other--

Staring at each other. Both of them. At each other.

Poe rolls off of her and into the snow, flailing until he's in a position to get up and help her to her feet. ]

Loser treats winner to hot chocolate. I still can't believe this place has actual chocolate.

[ She doesn't know what she expected to happen but she can't help feeling just a tad... disappointed at him moving away like that. But she doesn't have long to dwell on it when the cold seems to rush back in as soon as the warmth of him is gone.

They were in the snow. Barefoot. Right.

Shit. Get it together, Page.

She takes his hands, needing the help this time with her feet feeling numb. ]

They have no shortage of it on Earth, either. But I think I need my shoes, first.

Right, shoes. I forgot I had feet for a second there. [ IT'S A JOKE ABOUT HOW HIS FEET ARE TOO COLD TO FEEL ANYTHING GET IT.

That whole freezing thing is a lot easier to ignore while running.

It's really easy to ignore for just a breath of a moment as he pulls her to her feet and they're almost eye-to-eye again.

He could still kiss her.

Poe breathes in, slow and deep, and makes himself look away from her face. ] ...Where did we even put them?

[ She breathes out a laugh, laughing at both him and herself. This was ridiculous. But it was still sweet of him to even try. She had forgotten she told him about that. But she squeezes his hands, turning to look over her shoulder and then tug him with her as she started walking in that direction. ]

At the table where we got the skates.

introductory mingle: HYGGE

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