introductory mingle: HYGGE

[riverviewmod]

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

navigation

Comments

[evasives]

[the flat look is a useful one. how does it feel now, finn?? cassian is an Expert at it. materclass.]

[he's not surprised finn leads them towards the steepest, most windy course, mostly because 1) it makes sense for finn and 2) cassian set himself up for that. it doesn't stop him from looking over the various sleds in wait at the top, trying to figure out which one is best for going down: both in safety and fun, of course. DO NOTHING BY HALVES.]

[he gestures at a red toboggan.] That one?

[bythehand]

[ It makes him feel like a human person. But also vaguely offended. Cassian is skilled in all aspects of his face. ]

Fine by me.

[ Finn has no concept of the idea of some sleds being safer for some courses than others. He's kind of been grabbing whatever he sees first or whatever an attendant has put him on with another person. It's a sled, it goes down the hill, good time for everyone.

Walk into a party: immediately case it for exits and keep checking on where his friends went like a hypervigilant bodyguard. Go down a very steep, windy toboggan course on almost zero sled experience: W H A T E V E R it's fun.

This is their toboggan now. Finn is still grinning like a big loser, because he's pre-gamed for fun and because it's all but officially cemented now. They're gonna do this. It's happening.

I'll never say that Finn's not easy to please. ]

You can take your pick on front or back.

[evasives]

[welcome to fun with cassian, where not even something good can escape overthinking and overanalysis. he's not sure his hyper-vigilance with ever get turned off, but at least he's willing to use his powers of perception for fun this time.]

[finn's grin is also a good something. it lights up his whole face and makes cassian feel lighter too, because if someone with the same paranoia hat can let loose, maybe he can too.]

The back. This time. [casually implies he might do it again?? whatever!! besides, finn has more experience with this particular slope, shoves him in the front. he'll also wait for finn to climb on it first.]

[bythehand]

[ That's the spirit. Don't box yourself into only one sled experience. Allow for the potential of growth.

Finn's got no further questions now. He gets front, Cassian gets back, bob's your uncle. He climbs on with no hesitation and waits for Cassian to be likewise situated.

And when a cursory glance back tells him yep, Cassian's as situated as a person can feasibly get on one of these bad boys, he just kinda goes ahead and pushes them off. YEET. YEETING, THE ACT OF BEING YEET. It's for the best that this is a little later on in the day, because Finn doesn't immediately crash them into something.

It's okay if u don't yell, Cassian, once it gets really going, Finn will cover u. ]

[evasives]

[it may have been years since cassian has done this, but it practically comes back to him instantly. the thrill in the speed, the wind in his face - he finds a smile slipping onto his face. it even widens in light of finn's pure joy.]

[he doesn't yell in the process of the YEET, but he does allow himself to laugh now and then on the way down. it's basically a yell in cassian-speak.]

[he's young. he's only twenty-six. he hasn't gone sledding since he was a child, but it's making him feel kind of young again. who knew that was possible!!]

[bythehand]

[ Cassian doesn't sound like he's not having fun. He sounds like he is maybe even having some fun. Which is the real victory here.

Finn's not long in the habit of getting to give people good things, or of getting to try to give them good things. Whether it's an actual gift or a shared experience. Everything was one way growing up, for obvious reasons, and then once he got out it was like two straight days of shitshow before he almost died. He found good things in all that mess. Or maybe they found him. And maybe he was part of a good thing, for Poe and for Rey, and he guesses for the Resistance?

But that was all different.

He'd take the first door out of this place with Rey and Poe if it popped up. It's not bad to be able to enjoy something like this, though. To get to see (or hear technically) someone else enjoy it with him. They're not exactly blessed with idle time back in the right corner of the universe.

They're gonna make it to the end of this course, by thunder. I mean, taking some of these turns is a real gamble at times and there's no way the metaphorical landing is gonna be smooth, but they're going to survive and that's what matters most. ]

[evasives]

[fun is weird and strange, still so rare that it even feels like it shouldn't be allowed. after all he's done, maybe getting to experience the pure joy of sledding shouldn't be a thing?]

[but for once, for the entire ride down, cassian shoves those thoughts aside and lets himself just enjoy it. if finn can do it, so can he.]

[he even decides that next time, he's going in the front.]

[the landing is, just as suspected, less than smooth. they take the last turn too hard and fast, but finn's whooping is the fuel to the risk, so cassian doesn't even care. the sled skids in with quite a few big bumps, and the final jump angles them sideways enough for the sled to tilt over and spill them both with enough force that they actually roll over in the snow.]

[cassian lands on his back, and the fact that it doesn't even hurt his old wounds him lets him laugh again. just - laugh. a real laugh while he lays there in the snow like a child.]

[bythehand]

[ If this isn't Fun: 1, Stolen Childhoods: 0, then I don't know what is.

Cassian has a really nice laugh. Finn tends to think that about most laughs, but from Cassian it seems especially worth noting. He's barely seen the guy so much as smile. So he laughs too, still winded from his whole Excess of shouting. ]

See? Worth the trip.

[evasives]

[maybe one day Fun will earn even more victories...!]

[after a couple seconds, he sits up. the magic isn't quite broken, but he feels the need to not be laying down. he's still smiling though, that's probably a sign fun is still fighting the good fight.]

I have no complaints, I must admit.

[bythehand]

[ Yes he must admit it. That's the law. ]

And no one was even shooting at us.

[ Hardmode challenge: toboggan battle against Jyn and Poe, with snowballs. ]

[evasives]

[he huffs another little sigh that edges on being a laugh.]

Any situation without being shot at is always better than the alternative.

[there's a slow beat, while he brushes some snow off his shoulder casually. even his tone is trying to be casual now.] I could go again.

[bythehand]

[ Cassian understands the other most important thing in life. Situations without getting shot at.

Finn tries to match him, casual for casual. Just a couple of casual dudes. Chillin in a snowbank. ]

Think I could, too. If you're interested in company.

[evasives]

[two bros, chilling in a snowback, five feet apart only bc that's where the sled landed them and nobody is straight in space.]

[there's a reason this all feels very doable to him right now, and that reason is Same Hat. cassian climbs to his feet and dusts off more of the snow from his pants, as though he's not about to get more on it in like five minutes.]

Only if I can try the front next.

[bythehand]

[ They're up! All parts still attached. A victory for freedom fighters everywhere. Finn doesn't bother dusting off, but he respects the effort. ]

You've got a deal.

[ And then they went sledding anywhere from several to many more times, flagrantly choosing to ignore the dumb parts of their brains trying to tell them they aren't supposed or allowed to have fun. WHICH I MEAN, I GUESS IS TECHNICALLY MORE OF A VICTORY THAN NOT SOMEHOW LOSING HANDS SKYWALKER-STYLE ON THEIR WAY DOWN? ]