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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[ Finn's been doing a lot of people-watching himself. Life in the First Order, naturally, wasn't exactly conducive to big elaborate parties and the million different ways people can get decked out for them. He's come suitably dressed himself, thanks to a-- well, friend would be a strong word. Acquaintance. A friend of the three friends he knows he definitely has. One of the benefits of never really relaxing is that he doesn't look any more uncomfortable in this get-up than he would in any other situation.

Poe told him that the General is in the Quarantine, now, but Finn's still a little taken aback when he finally crosses her path in the ballroom. He doesn't completely know what to make of her yet, he realizes-- there wasn't time for much small talk on D'Qar, hardly time to get a real read on her. Weird without the life-or-death part of the galaxy immediately hanging over their heads.

What he knows is, she's good. And Poe holds her in higher esteem than maybe anyone in the galaxy, which is no small matter at all. No amount of momentary surprise can keep him from approaching for long in any case. ]

Ma'am. [ Nailing it on the greetings today, wow. ] Doing all right?

[Poe wasn't the only one for whom life was weird without the life-or-death hanging over his head. Since Leia Organa had been a child (since before she was born, really) there had always been that pushme-pullyou tug within the galaxy of power changing hands, and darkness rising and light trying to rise to meet it. Even when things were calm and they were in the rebuilding years, there was still those feelings of everything resting on Leia's slender shoulders.

It's something that has only gotten worse since she was excised from the Senate, and since people had been looking to her nearly exclusively. But for now, Leia just smiles to the man whom she doesn't know very well. It's a real smile, because the last time she had seen him, there had been the question of his survival. And now here he was wearing... Well, what he was wearing. That made her eyes crinkle even more in amusement.]

I'm fine, Finn, thank you. That's quite a suit. [The colors remind her fondly of a friend, and she's quite sure that Amilyn would have loved and cheered his attire.] I'm glad to see you're doing so much better than the last time I'd seen you.

[ He can't help smiling back a little. There are some people like that, out there. You can't help being glad that something made them happy enough to do it, even if only temporarily.

Finn doesn't get hung up much on war heroes and legends, doesn't put much into revering someone for anything but what they choose to do here and now. (Just how much Poe cares about her speaks volumes for her character as she stands, here and now, really.)

But this is still a General. ]

With all due respect, I think I would've had a hard time finding a way to get worse.

[ Finn's tone can best be described as cautious. In his experience, officers tend to have firm lines across the board when it comes to other people. The only real way he can think to figure out where lines fall with a Resistance General is to carefully try to feel them out. ]

But thank you. I'm glad you're okay, too.

[In many ways, this man reminds her of her brother when they had first met. Had they been so young then? But she remembers the earnestness of Luke when he wanted to save her, and she remembers Finn wanting to save Rey on Starkiller base and she imagined how Han had felt at Luke's assistance to save her. But now, he reminds her of Luke all the more, and she gives him a fonder smile now that most of her people are safe.

She doesn't blame him for Han, she knows he was hurting when he died as well.

So, she gives a small nod, because she is okay. Everything is weird and she can't explain anything at all but she is okay.]

Well, I'm trying to look at this as a small vacation, I suppose.

[ That's normally about where his okay levels fall here, too. Almost no idea what's going on, but trying very hard to go one day at a time. ]

Let me know how that works out. I've never been much of a vacationer. [ Which, of course, history implies is just as true for her. Hard to go wrong with a little common ground.

Finn glances back towards where the bulk of the crowd is currently concentrated. Crowds aren't really his thing either, usually, but getting to stand back and watch all this hasn't gotten old yet. It's so... completely opposed to everything he grew up in that it's hard not to feel a little awed. ]

It's a little easier to get settled when there isn't some big holiday celebration in the works. Give it a few days, the city should be quieter. More time to figure it out.

[That makes Leia laugh. To call her not much of a vacationer would have been to put it lightly. This was a woman who had spent her honeymoon working on rebuilding the Senate and had probably been issuing orders while she was in the middle of giving birth. Because someone had needed to. She had definitely dragged Ben along with her while he was still a baby and had probably breast fed on the floor of the Senate because well. Leia Organa.

But for now, she just looks at the crowds and smiles a little bit, nodding at what he said. Leia's voice is soft when she speaks, because she doesn't really intend on giving this much away.]

It reminds me of Alderaan and Coursant. Back before everything. It has the same sort of energy to me.

[ He doesn't have experience to draw on. Hasn't seen or heard about Alderaan beyond the occasional holo or clean-cut history lesson. Jakku, Takodana, D'Qar, and-- well, the Quarantine, he guesses, that's about where his traveling's gotten outside of what the First Order brought him.

The way her voice softens, he thinks, says more than a history lesson ever did. It says enough. ]

Pretty nice energy. [ Finn can take or leave plenty of things in this place, but this, right now, this much he can agree on. ] Do you think it's good? Seeing it again in something else?

[ After a beat, he wonders if maybe that wasn't the best line of impulsive questioning to gun it on here. He's interested, sure, he wants to know, and she probably knows by this point in her life that there are basically no questions she actually has to answer anyway, but-- ]

Sorry.

You don't need to be sorry, Finn.

[Leia just smiled at him for a moment, because she didn't want him to worry about upsetting her. Plenty of things did, and there was a time when this would have, but for right now the memory is a good one. So she just nods in response to the question he'd asked before he'd apologized.]

I do. I think it's a sign that there are things in the universe that are constants, if you just keep looking for them. There were times when both of those places were wonderful and a bastion of people, and I think that this place has the potential for it as well.

[A beat.]

Or at least it would if they hadn't kidnapped us.

[ If I said he didn't look especially interested, it would be a huge lie. Finn likes to hear how people think. He likes to see a little bit about how they tick. He absorbs her answer, files it off to think about.

He wonders if hope, if being able to find constants in the universe that are good, is something that can only spring up naturally or if it's something a person can learn. ]

Yeah. They don't make the best first impression. [ Or a good one at all, really. When he was conscious enough for it, he was just about livid. ] I've been trying to make a habit out of not letting kidnappings stick.

I am right there with you for that. There's far too many kidnappings in the lives of people like us.

[And Leia meant to include him in that, because Finn was new, but she considered him one of them. Han had liked and trusted him, which meant that he had earned the General's like and trust as well. That was simply how it worked with her, if only because Han could be so damned picky at times.

So, she gives him a smile.]

We're going to get out of here. All of us.

[ It does mean something to him to get automatically roped in as a "people like us". One of her people. He's made a point of not thinking too much about the Resistance here, honestly. Exactly how tied into them he is, if he's supposed to be joining up officially or... whatever.

He's not looking for a new cause, he thinks.

But between Rey and Poe, the more he's gotten to know them and grow closer to them here-- and maybe because of Leia someday, who can say. The people he's found and chosen are the first things he's ever genuinely felt like he could fight for to the bitter end. He respects that. ]

We're in it together. Might as well get out of it that way, too.

Too right! And given how many of us there are here and how long we've been here, they need to have gotten a head start on where and when to get us back too. Until then we might as well enjoy it.

[As much as they all can anyway, given everything. But for now she just smiles and bumps him with her shoulder as if she's cheering him on, which in a way she is.]

So tell me what you've been doing since you've been here, Finn.

[All of Leia's attention is on him, because she's really interested in knowing otherwise she wouldn't ask.]

[ The bump sets another brief smile across his face, if one tempered by a crease in his forehead that says he wasn't necessarily expecting to smile.

She's small, but she fills up the space she's in. Rey is like that, sometimes. ]

Not too much? [ If he tries to boil it down into specific things that he's actually done, it gets hard to pin down. Mostly he's just been living. With the occasional thing, unfortunate or not, happening. Some of it isn't his business to tell. ]

Joined the Perimeter Guard. I've met a few people. Good ones. Been trying to look out for Rey and Poe. As much as they need it, I mean. They handle themselves fine. Not always great at asking for help.

[ He can only assume Leia knows that much about Poe, though. ]

I've often found that people who can handle themselves are never good at asking for help.

[She was including herself in this of course. And her former husband, and her brother, and everyone else she knew basically. Especially Poe. She doesn't need to single him out, not when Finn knows that too.]

It's good they can count on you to help them, Finn. I am very glad for that. And I'm glad that we'll be working together with the Perimeter Guard. I'm going to be representing them to the Council.

Yeah?

[ He starts to smile again. ]

Hope they're giving you your dues on that. You might just be over-qualified.

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monthly mingle: THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHT

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