riverviewlogs | monthly mingle: THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHT

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monthly mingle: THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHT

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: monthly mingle: the festival of light
when: The month of January.
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

festival of light

In the days leading up to January 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: The Festival of Light. This holiday is in celebration of the end of the Quarantine's short-lived winter and serves to welcome the new year. The traditions associated with The Festival of Light involve fireworks every weekend of the month, a days-long formal ball that with an open invitation to everyone in the city, and lighting magical candles and incense with loved ones and new friends alike.

a celebration of the end of winter and the new year

As the Capitol World stops blocking the path between the sun and its moon, the snow melts and the rains of early spring begin to fall and the residents of the Quarantine gather together to celebrate the new year. New beginnings are honored as the sky is lit with fireworks to banish the cold and dark of winter, and residents share the light and warmth of the new year with each other by sharing candles and incense with fellow residents. These traditions are steeped in magic, like many other things in Riverview, and have certain magical emotional effects on participants. Additionally, over the weekend of January 5th - 8th, the Government will be hosting a formal ball to welcome the New Year, which is open to all residents and offers food, drink, dancing, and other activities, as well as places to stay the night and relax or 'relax' with friends.

i. fireworks

One of the main traditions of the Festival of Light is to brighten the sky to welcome the new year, and as always, the Government of Riverview and various other city entities including businesses and various organizations and clubs, have gone all out to light up the sky. Each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the month of January, residents can gather outside on the beaches or park, or indoors at various observation lounges set up on city rooftops for the occasion, to watch elaborate, beautiful fireworks displays.

Outdoor observation is facilitated by use of rented forced-air umbrellas that make viewing the fireworks without having to squint into the rain or peer out from under a traditional umbrellas easy. Curl up with a friend or lover under an umbrella to watch the fireworks displays. Temporary indoor observation lounges have also been set up on most of the rooftops of buildings in the city, if the outdoors isn't your thing. The lounges can range from simple transparent-roofed spaces with rustic benches and hot cocoa to elaborate, fancy bars or restaurants with food service, music, and dancing. Some of the lounges may even have themes, whether they're 18+ adult or just quirky. Let your imagination run wild - if you can think of it, someone in the city's probably set one up.

ii. lighting up

Throughout the city, residents will find booths and special sections in their favorite stores set up with stands displaying magical incense and candles in a wide variety of colors. These are traditional trappings of the Festival of Light, the original and ancient tradition that's built up into the modern celebration as residents know it. Most prolific are the candles - ranging from tiny tea lights to large pillar candles, they are inscribed with the word 'glow' in a variety of different alien languages, including some that residents might recognize. The incense comes in small variety of dusky, earthen colors, each with a different scent and effect, all clearly labeled.

Candles are meant to be lit with one or more other people, and when this tradition is observed properly with a candle inscribed 'glow' - the wick lit by two or more people at the same time, and held together between them for a minimum of 30 seconds - every participant will feel and see certain magical effects. As the candle is held between the participants, they will start to see each other's skin glow, seemingly lit from inside, and as the glow increases, all participants will start to feel an emotional lightness. Stress and despair will slowly dissipate, giving the participants a temporary feeling of absolute contentment, warm and happy. The effects last from 5 minutes to a full 24 hours, depending on the number of people who participate and the length of time the candle is held between participants (more participants or longer timespans will increase the length of the effect), and effects are cumulative - lighting a large number of candles with different people will cause the effect to draw out for longer.

Incense is something usually lit in private, at home or a small gathering at a friend's house, and in recent years as the celebration has become a bit more modernized and commercialized, at the Glow Ball. There are a few varieties of incense with different psychological effects, all of which are pleasant and take strongest effect when the incense is lit with one or more other people, and enjoyed long enough for the whole stick to burn down. Orange and yellow incense will increase feelings of affection and openness, sienna red incense will do the same but also induce arousal; blue-grey incense will make it easier to share and ease grief and sadness, while grey-purple will lull participants into an easy sleep with pleasant dreams.

iii. glow ball

Every year during the Festival of Light, the Government of Riverview hosts a formal ball called the Glow Ball on the first weekend of the month - this year, it spans from nightfall on Friday January 5th until dawn on Monday January 8th. The ball is a relatively new custom, but has quickly skyrocketed to one of the most anticipated events of many residents' year. Similar to the castle-themed maze during Hygge, the Glow Ball is hosted inside a beautiful golden palace erected in the City Center that is much larger on the inside than it appears to be on the outside. While there is no specific theme to the ball, many residents take it as an opportunity to really glow in a wide variety of ways, all up to each person's imagination.

The palace is magically-augmented to be lavish, comfortable, and fully-stocked at all times, and features a banquet hall with ample and frequently-replenished food, a bar and lounge area for attendees to get a drink and sit for a while, a beautiful grand ballroom as well as several smaller ballrooms with different styles of music, a swimming pool with hot tubs, a garden, and smaller private vestibules that feature a pillow lounge, incense selection, and a small bedroom where residents can rest or enjoy each others' company in private.

NOTE: New characters are welcome to join in with the party, even if they haven't had time to prepare. Any new arrivals who come to the party in the clothing they arrived in will be whisked up by a fussy light golem or attendant who will fit them with a nice set of clothing for the evening so they can enjoy the festivities.

dinner and dancing

The banquet hall is ringed with tables that offer a buffet food catered to the time of day - breakfast in the morning, light food in the afternoon, lavish dinners in the evening, and desserts, coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, and snacks available all night. With ample seating at group tables, residents can share a meal with friends new and old. The bar and lounge has several large free bars staffed by glowing, ethereal light golems that never tire and never get an order wrong, and offers seating at tables and in cozy dimly-lit booths. Riverview's drinking age is 14 years old.

The grand ballroom is themed golden this year, with the walls tiled in gold and featuring a dance floor of white marble veined with gold. The grand ballroom has classical, traditional dance music playing for those who want a classy formal dance. There are four wing ballrooms that feature different genres of music for residents who enjoy alternate types of dancing, with the genres consistently rotating - whether you like punk, country, rock, pop, or any other type of music from any planet or country, it's likely to be playing in a wing ballroom at some point. Schedules are posted outside of each door and there are four genres per wing ballroom per day.

swimming and gardens

Another feature of the Glow Ball is the beautiful swimming pool - warm enough to be comfortable but cool enough to be refreshing, the outdoor pool has both flower petals and the season's glow candles floating on it, a champagne service offered by light golems, and tables to sit and enjoy a drink and conversation while drying off. There are also small hot tubs ringing the swimming pool where residents can soak away the aches and pains of the day. The pool offers change rooms where speaking a magical incantation (helpfully posted on the door) will change the occupant's formal clothing into an equivalent swimsuit, and will change it back (and dry the occupant) after the dip has been taken.

The gardens are also available for any attendees who want to get a bit of fresh air. With beautiful flower-lined winding paths under a perpetually starry sky and ample candles hanging from the trees and edging the paths for visibility, the gardens are a scenic and relaxing place to take some time away from the light and get some air.

privacy

For residents who want a little private time or want to spend more than just an evening at the ball, there are small private vestibules scattered throughout the palace. Featuring a lounge area with pillows and lap tables for eating, and a comfortable queen-size bed, each room also has a vanity whose drawers hold both suitable pajamas for sleeping in and (in 18+ rooms only) supplies for intimacy ranging from massage oils to packaged toys. And most importantly, each room is fully stocked with a selection of the season's incenses for use in private.

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 Festival of Light, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: Jakub Grygier; image ii: Shutterstock; image iii & iv: credit unknown

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[several minutes after his back is back to normal so there jyn, cassian continues on his walk through the garden looking for jyn. it doesn't take very long to find her, mostly because he just follows the trail of the most interesting plants.]

[his tie is a lot looser than the last time she saw him, and he steps up beside her without preamble, taking a closer look at the blue flower twisting its way up a trellis that she's intently studying. he's in her space, dress brushing against his leg enough that he causes an indent. the music from inside filters out softly.]

Are you stealing any of these to take back too?

[ don't tease her about her stealing and then expect to get some of her liberated shrimp when they get home, cassian. she doesn't seem to notice his closeness, or perhaps she is simply used to it now. it is a fact of life. ]

Maybe once I figure out its care.

[ it's harder to commandeer a plant since she'd want it to live so she'd have to transplant soil and sort out what type of sunlight/warmth it requires and how saturated the soil would need to be. it would take more effort than she's willing to expend right now. ]

[cassian finds himself smiling, thinking about the small squadron of plants their apartment seems to be collecting, starting with the tiny bit of ivy from outside the window. he thinks if he ever gets her flowers, it would never be a bouquet.]

It's probably better to go to a florist. [he feels like he is dooming their house into becoming a giant green oxygen maker.] Did you find a favorite out here yet?

[ jyn gestures to a small flowering shrub, soft brown flowers almost looking dead at first glance. up close the petals are as soft as velvet and smell like vanilla and touching them leaves a coating of golden glitters on fingertips. (jyn suspects that is the pollen.) it's not an ostentatious plant, elegant in its restraint, muted and understated.

she loves it. ]

That one.

[ she will definitely find a way to transplant a cutting of that bush, that is for damn sure. ]

Edited 2018-01-06 06:08 (UTC)

[he definitely moves to touch it and definitely comes away with sparkling fingers, very surprised by how soft it is and how nice it smells. everything about it seems exactly the kind of plant jyn would adore, and he wonders if they can buy one somewhere?]

I suppose now I match the party theme. [he wipes it on his pants, leaving a trail of glitter that doesn't completely come off his fingers.]

You and me both. [ she lifts her hand, wiggling her fingers with the same gold glitters, hint of a smirk crossing her expression. they match. also she could have warned him but why would she, that is stupid. now cassian is marked with the same sparkles and she feels less foolish.

solidarity. ]

How is your back?

[ she's been in the garden for a while, she might have dropped some eaves briefly before she gave him and poe privacy to converse without being overheard. she just wanted to make sure his back was okay, but poe seemed to have that covered. she is still mildly concerned and will be until he answers so she might as well get it out of the way. ]

We match the theme. [he corrects it and tries to ignore the way his stomach swoops with her smirk. he has zero surprise that she didn't warn him at all. he had to learn the hard way, just like she did.]

[cassian freezes for a second, caught. how did she know.]

It's fine. [he moves back over into her space again like it's nothing. they're not home, but he remembers their new house rule about honesty.] I just needed to sit for a little while. If I feel like I have to leave, I will tell you.

[ yeah that is right, this is a zone of truth, andor. there is something weirdly satisfying in both watching him realize that she knows and watching him correct his deflection. maybe a little too satisfied, but it's not every day she manages to catch a former spy off guard. thanks to his constant vigilance, usually he is the one catching her off guard.

she nods once, in agreement. ]

Alright.

[ that's it. no argument. she trusts him. and if he doesn't follow through, she will drag him out the door her damn self. ]

[he's uncomfortable for a little bit under her scrutiny and how easily she surprised him, but then he remembers it's just jyn so all of that sort of just...disappears. she accepts he's okay, and that's that. she's seen him at far worse than this, sore back vulnerability is nothing.]

[the silence stretches on for another minute or so, and he's content with it while jyn nerds out over the plants. but the music filters in again and he is overcome with a very strange thought and urge.]

Do you know how to dance?

[ idly, to the plants: ] Yes, of course, I was trained at my finishing school on Coruscant.

[ which sounds for a second like it could be truth merely from the ease that it comes out of her mouth, but then reality exists and no, no such thing ever happened so the answer is probably no. ]

[he smiles quietly because it's such a jyn thing to say, even as he hears the no tucked inside it.]

I can show you. [he offers his hand out lightly, because maybe if he just fucking goes for it, she won't have any time to say no. he's trying to be direct, but he will admit he feels a little nervous, because she could still say no.] Dance with me.

Out here, in the garden?

[ no one is around anymore as far as she can tell, which is leaps and bounds better than inside which is full of people. she doesn't give cassian time to answer, nodding a moment after her question is asked, settling her hand in his. ]

Alright.

[the garden is definitely the better choice! he wouldn't even dream of asking her inside, even though he thought about it once or twice as an impossibility. her agreement is almost punctual.]

[it's not even the first time he has held her hand, but it's nice. it's different. it's comfortable and agreeable and he winds their fingers together while he steps in closer. with his free hand, he pulls hers to his shoulder, then settles his at her waist.]

You like numbers. Think of it like counting.

[ it is a weird stance, she decides, all elbows and stiffness and her nose scrunches up reflexively before she shifts to make herself more comfortable. it brings her in a little closer, much closer than his dance with taako, hand sliding a little closer to his neck so she can curve her arm around his shoulder. that's much better, she feels less stiff this way and she looks up at him, expression rather dubious. ]

Counting.

[this is more comfortable. he helps it along by adjusting his own arms as she does, moving with her like it's second nature. they're close, but it's not even the closest they've ever been, so it doesn't faze him in the slightest.]

By fours. [he offers her a tiny smile, then starts to move. it doesn't quite match the music, but the important part is teaching her how first. he counts, one, two, three, four, punctuated by a step each time. they move together, and he leans in closer while his hand slides towards the small of her back, his chest brushing hers while he tries to lead her around the steps.]

[ perfect -- ed sheeran

even though she would never admit it, jyn realises quickly that since she'd given up on her fancy dress shoes and tucked them neatly under one of the garden benches, her height is what is making for some of the discomfort in this hold and she presses up on her tiptoes to claim those few inches.

maybe it's a habit of stubbornness, but it takes jyn a few full counts until she relinquishes the natural instinct to buck against being led. it just isn't in her nature anymore, not since saw abandoned her and she'd learned to take the lead on her own life, but eventually she does begin to follow and suddenly they're actually dancing. it isn't particularly difficult and once she relaxes there isn't much of a struggle.

they're much closer than he had been with taako. ]

This is dancing?

[ she doesn't see much of the appeal, really, even as she settles a little bit closer to him, hand stilling against the back of his neck. her own neck is tired of looking up at him, especially this close, and after some time she leans in to rest her cheek against his chest. dancing is boring, but it's nice. ]

Edited (adds important details of cuteness) 2018-01-06 15:48 (UTC)

[they come to be pressed in together and cassian is not really aware of when exactly that happened, which is very bizarre for someone so hyper-vigilant, but he finds it doesn't bother him. every time she tries to take over and lead, he pushes back because no jyn, you don't know how to do this yet! he likes that part too though, even if he likes it just as much when she relaxes into him and just... trusts him with it. that's what this feels like. trust.]

[and then she rests her head against his chest and he almost trips over his own feet, which would do a lot of damage to his professed ability to dance. fortunately he keeps swaying them instead; his palm splays over her back to keep her in, somehow having slid up under his jacket when it moved away and up from her waist, and the tips of his fingers ghost the skin right above her dress. their clasped hands have also come to rest in close, and his head lowers towards hers, like he's being pulled down into her orbit. she is consistently the only person who keeps throwing him off, only to turn around and ground him again two seconds later.]

It's a dance. A simple one. [she is so close and she smells like grass and pastries and a little bit like a candlewick flower. powdery, rich, petrichor personified.] There are too many planets out there for one single kind of dance to exist.

Edited (nvm here's some more good shit mmhmm) 2018-01-08 00:45 (UTC)

I've been to a ball, [ jyn says after a period of silence, still tiptoeing along with cassian's practiced swaying. ] On Inusagi, at the Chieftess' palace.

[ technically, she didn't go. she wasn't invited even though she was the one that forged the invitations for the partisans. she thinks of maia and her voluminous dress hiding so many weapons, her own dress seeming stiff and restrictive even though the gauzy fabric swirled freely around her ankles and leaving her feeling naked because for once she had to dress like a lady and show off a young adult body she was still unused to.

she thinks of the rayeths beautiful water dance, part flying, part swimming, before the stormtroopers barred them from their own tradition. she thinks of the starbird legend.

she thinks of the massacre and barely suppresses a shudder, wondering if cassian had heard what the partisans had done to those people, stormtroopers and corrupt nobles and innocents, alike. and maia. maia's limp body crumpling to the ground. jyn had called it a massacre and saw looked at her with his sad, tired eyes and asked "what do you think war is?" ]

I didn't dance.

[it's in the way she nearly shudders, he's too close to miss it, and knowing jyn was with the partisans, that tells cassian she was there at the massacre on inusagi. she couldn't have been older than sixteen, which isn't even the youngest someone could witness something terrible, but still unfortunate. he was twenty, on naboo at the time. the massacre was one of the reasons the growing alliance could not see eye-to-eye with saw, which was a little high-and-mighty especially when he was in the midst of an assassination on naboo.]

[his grip on her tightens even more and he rests his chin on top of her head, like he can envelope her in...good things. not that he feels much like a good thing most of the time, but he doesn't want her to drift off and get lost in remembering inusagi. but there's very little space at all left between them now, if any. he just wants her to feel safe.]

I have been to a few. [never as himself. only as a spy or a murderer.] But I think I like this one the most.

[she wouldn't have danced on inusagi. he imagines no one got much dancing done.] We don't have to keep dancing, if you want to stop.

[maybe she doesn't want to be here at all anymore?? he doesn't ask her about it. if she wants to talk, she'll bring it up herself. attempting otherwise usually just gets her to clam up instead.]

No.

[ she wants to keep dancing. she doesn't want the awful past to ruin such a small moment of calm and comfort. she shoves the feeling down, forcing her grief at the memories of saw back into the cave. she doesn't want to grieve, not yet.

surely that is incredibly responsible and healthy. in any case, his presence does convince her body to relax. not all at once, in increments the longer he holds her but he's had that effect on her for a while now. a grounding touch, bringing her back to the present where there is grass under her toes instead bodies, music instead of screaming. peace.

what a novelty. ]

Okay.

[he keeps dancing with her, hoping the slow and steady pattern of it helps too. without realizing, his thumb moves with the music too, an idle slide of comfort over her back where he holds her. he thinks maybe she should talk about it, that maybe they should talk about a lot of things, but he's also not sure now is the time.]

[he doesn't lessen his hold either, even while he can feel her relaxing back in tiny pieces against him. he could, but he doesn't, because the moment may have passed but he still wants her to feel safe. he does, he realizes abruptly. he feels safe like this, tucked against her and wound up with her, which really shouldn't surprise him given how they sleep. but they're not sleeping now.]

[she deserves to have a sense of peace. he knows she can't chase away inusagi entirely, but maybe together they can push it away at least through his dance.]

You are good at this.

[ jyn doesn't know if she deserves, but... part of her does want peace, personally. ]

It's not like you started me with a difficult dance, Captain.

[ they're barely dancing. not that jyn is complaining, per se, she doesn't particularly want to attempt something more complicated right now, but she does feel it's necessary to point out that they're doing the bare minimum to even be considered dancing.

her chin tips up slightly. she's not looking at him, but she isn't still looking at the grass or their feet. ]

You would be surprised at how people can still be bad at this one.

[it's very simple but he likes the simple. his life is never easy or simple but right now it's quiet and they're together and he doesn't have to think. she tilts her head, and he pulls his away a little to look at her face.]

I could always show you another.

[he's not sure he wants to, because he likes being with her like this, a slow comfortable rotation. but he would if she asked.]

No, of course not. [ she shakes her head the tiniest bit. ] What would you teach me the next ball?

[ provided he can convince her to go to another ball. (though if they have food, she will not be a hard sell. she will just reuse this dress, it's not too offensive.) ]

[OH GOOD they're on the same page. they usually are, but it's always nice to confirm it.] What, already planning to go to it?

[teas...ing? it's not like these parties are exactly their speed or style, but he kind of likes going to them with jyn.]

We could try something a little faster next time. [he likes the way next time sounds too.]

iii.

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