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

[trying to creep up and startle finn just seems like a bad idea, okay?? maybe the way was unnecessary, or maybe he just wanted to, who's to say huh??????]

To be fair, I cannot say I have ever really attended one for... fun. [fun and cassian do not overlap very often.]

[it is very strange how quickly he admits and just starts bringing this up to finn though.] A party is a good place to get information.

[ it's ok cassian finn likes you too. thank you for not startling him. ]

Sure. Yeah. I wasn't on track to go into Intelligence or anything, but-

[ A vague gesture towards... the party as a whole basically. Finn may not know how to people as a verb, but he's pretty smart and he sure as hell knows anonymity. Put on a nice suit and a good game face in this place, you're about as standout as any singular stormtrooper on a base. Probably.

Everyone relaxing, having a good time, socializing.

Fit right in. ]

I think I know what you mean. [ He glances Cassian's way. ] Having any fun doing it for fun?

[it's odd having people know he was in intelligence and being completely chill about it. cassian himself is rarely chill about it! he doesn't know how to chill. he gets the gesture though.]

I know how to blend in, even if I am faking it. This is easy in comparison.

[at finn's question, he finds himself looking briefly towards jyn, who's shoving more food into her purse, and his expression turns a little lighter.] Yes. I think I am.

[eRASES IT BACK INTO CASUAL once he realizes.] There is always, at the very least, good food at these sort of things. How do you find it all?

[ Cassian is hopeless as hell for more reasons than Finn can even pick up on yet. It's amazing?

Finn's glad to hear that he's having fun, though. Cassian deserves to have a nice time, okay, he doesn't make the rules. And so does Jyn, who Finn... might talk to later about the nature of purse food and why she should really wait until right before she leaves to shove it all in there, maybe. ]

Loud. Crowded. Messy. The clothes aren't comfortable and I'm not gonna use this jacket for anything else that I can think of. Everything in here is completely unnecessary.

[ It's just a whole mess of extravagance. The height of over-the-top Nice Things and people milling around looking beautiful and being happy to be people. Finn grins like the NERD HE IS. ]

I think I might love it.

[lbr, if there is one area in which cassian is Not Subtle, that area is jyn erso. it's been a problem from the start and he's barely aware of it.]

[finn might be using more negative words, but his tone suggests otherwise, and it's proven when he just opens up into a big fat grin over it all. it's bright enough that cassian's lightness comes back, because he too is also glad finn is having fun. SAME FUN SAME FUN.]

A very accurate description. [it's really hella extravagant, but at least it's not imperial opulence.] Nothing is stopping you from wearing it again whenever you please. You would stand out more, I am sure, but it suits you quite neatly.

The whole point of tonight is fun, so I suppose we are doing something right.

If I need to stand out, I'll remember that.

[ Getting lightness onto Cassian's face is practically the same as getting a smile. He thinks, anyway. Maybe he holds the real smiles off for real big-ticket items. Maybe he's just this reserved all the time.

Finn's not always great at reserved. Live behind a helmet, you get used to letting your face do whatever you want most of the time-- as long as you keep a good tone, keep it together when you have to take the helmet back off. It takes a lot of active work for him to put a lid on things, so to speak.

He likes being happy, anyway. He likes smiling. He's pvp-ed long and hard for his smiling rights. ]

Guess you're right about that. [ They're doing it?? They're doing a good job? Sounds fake, but it's happening. ] Who knew this was all it would take to manage it.

[ just a big ballroom and 4 other dancing rooms and a banquet hall and swimming pool and elaborate garden walkways nbd. he's allowed to joke bc this is the part of january where he's happy enough to joke and i'm taking advantage of it. ]

[cassian is super reserved all the time. it's a safety precaution! one he is letting go of in very slow careful layers, only sometimes. he has been careful of what he looks like, how he holds himself, the kind of expression he wears, for almost his whole life. control has kept him alive - or at least, it did.]

[but he doesn't mind turning that off a little bit right now. they are doing such a good job, conversing and socializing and partying. hell yeah. if finn can just say fuck it and enjoy himself, maybe there's hope for him yet.]

So what, if every night was like this, we could handle it all a lot better? [a...joke. sort of?] I might get tired of dancing.

[literally bc his back cannot handle it.]

[ Cassian is here to cut loose. Footloose. He's the Captain Holt of this enterprise. ]

I didn't know you danced. [ He's reeling in Cassian Facts. That's like, two in two months. Obviously they can customize to take this new knowledge into account. ] Maybe once a week.

[he's in a state of total euphoria.]

I know how. It's just really not a habit. [he has to bite back the TOO MANY FACTS ABORT ABORT instinct that has been the majority of his life. dancing seems like a weird spy skill, but it is one!] Every other week. You have to ease people into it or they would be suspicious.

I'll take your word for it. Last thing we need is to make people suspicious.

[ Actually that is kind of sound thinking. ]

[don't be suspicious.mp3 is cassian's mantra. divert attention, be unobtrusive, etc etc.]

These festivals already seem like they could be placating from a certain point of view. Keep the people happy, well fed, they will not complain or seek change. But too many parties and free necessities would draw concern, especially among the paranoid. [of which he and finn are, ofc.] It would seem like they were trying to hide something in all the distraction.

[not to like, get super serious about it all but wHOOPS.]

[ Cassian is good at laying out the pieces of how people work, too, beyond that. And in a lot of ways it's interesting to hear the insight when he talks. He's very good at it. Even though he doesn't seem like he generally slots in well as a people.

Finn can't judge. He's still slotting in as a person, too. Now that he's done acing assessments only to not fit in as a space fascist. One side of his mouth quirks up. ]

Well, when you put it like that.

[ It's okay, Finn loves his paranoid grandpa friend and his layouts of basic strategies for controlling a docile populace. ]

[only after does he just... ramble off the entire thing does he realize he just did so, casually, at a party, where he and finn are trying to have fun. this is probably not fun? not that finn seems to mind at all, but it's not the normal they're chasing after either.]

[cassian knows people. he just doesn't know himself.]

[he huffs out a sigh, and puts on a weak, self deprecating smile.] Sorry. It can be hard to turn it off.

If it helps, you made it interesting.

[ He's not sure if that helps, or how much it would if it does.

Nothing to be ashamed of, though, he thinks. Nothing to blow out of proportion. ]

Don't worry about it. Pretty sure everyone's got something.

[it...does help, actually. sometimes he's just so caught up in feeling like a fake person that making something interesting on his own, for no other reason than it's him, feels like an accomplishment.]

So then what is your something? Since we have apparently discovered mine.

... not really sure yet.

[ Is living in a constant state of vague dread a something? Probably not. ]

Poe might have a few suggestions. But he'd probably open with "pessimist," so.

[ An actual shrug. He takes that with a grain of salt. It's being realistic, poe, learn that biz. ]

[living in a constant state of dread is honestly a Mood. so, it could be finn's something!]

What some people call pessimism, I call realism, especially in a galaxy like ours. [for a pessimist, cassian is pretty optimistic.mp3. hope is important! even if things are shit.] Realistic could be your thing.

[he's not being super serious, at least.]

[ Finn gestures. Elegantly. (Not elegantly.)

Exactly what it's called escapes me, but basically imagine the epitome of a gesture someone makes when they're trying to be like "yes exactly! realism!" ]

At least you get it.

[ Look, hope is a great thing, he's sure. He likes hope. It's been a rarity in his life, which he didn't mind much because he never knew it was something he'd want or need or like. And optimism bundles right up in there with it. Nice things to have. Probably very important.

Really, really shouldn't outweigh realistic things like "we are probably going to die," in Finn's humble opinion. ]

[between the gesture and the comment, cassian actually lets out a laugh. it's very quick and more like a huff or an exhale, but it existed. maybe that's more proof he's having fun!!]

Maybe you just need to be more persuasive with your arguments. [and now he's even teasing!] It seems smart to me to be realistic about hope. Don't leave it unchecked, but don't let it burn out either.

[ That is absolutely proof he's having fun. Finn can and will accept fun had mildly at his expense. Not from everyone, and not all the time, but on a nice night at a fancy party, from someone in the same hat, sure.

Would his life be different if his strongest negative arguments against Poe or Rey didn't basically boil down to "YOU CAN'T DO THAT WE'RE NOT DOING THAT"? A thought for another day. ]

I'd rather leave hoping to people who are a little better with it. Happy to help them out if I can. Mostly worried about staying alive.

[ The TLJ character arc he hasn't updated to yet: oh you haven't heard? ]

[have some realistic hope thrown at you while you wait for all those tlj moments to come flooding in!!]

[cassian's relationship with hope is such a weird, tenuous, and flexible thing. but rebellions are built on hope, duh.] I don't think they need to counteract each other. You can hope to stay alive at the same time you strategize how.

But I know it's not always there. Not always accessible. Maybe one day it will come easier to you.

[he... wait for it... hopes so.]

[ Cassian "namedropping hope" Andor. Thanks for the hope supplement fam.

Stormtroopers don't really come up on hope. There are things that are, and there are orders. A "greater good" no one questions, presented not as something to necessarily believe in, but as a fact to accept.

Hope doesn't have a way of coming naturally to Finn, any more than optimism does. He never had it, never needed it. One of those things the First Order took before he even knew what it was.

Poe and Rey have their own ways of seeing things. Poe is big on positive thinking in particular, practically generates it. Rey scrubs and assesses until she finds it, goes looking for potential and pragmatically pulls it out. And yes, obviously them being themselves is a good thing. They're the first two people Finn ever looked at and... felt hope happen. And he thinks he's getting better at it, with time.

But it's nice to hear Cassian's brand of optimism (realism) on this, because it comes laced with some of that understanding most things end up having with him. No frills. No expectations. No "thinking positively" assignments. Just a maybe. A one day. ]

Yeah. Maybe.

[ Weirdly enough, Finn hopes so, too. ]

[hope always seems to come from the people around them. cassian knows it reignited some of his own old optimistic hopes listening to jyn, however crazy their suicide mission.]

[he offers finn a very very faint but understanding smile. they're making progress, both of them.]

There's that realism again.

[he's tempted to clap finn on the shoulder like some weird robed mentor on a desert planet, and even though he's pretty sure finn himself wouldn't mind (cassian has long since noticed he doesn't seem to care about personal space), it feels weird on his own end.]

Don't rule it out as your thing.

[ Cassian, the kindly old sage. What did Finn do to deserve this robed mentor. How will he ever repay him for his wisdom in the future.

It sounds really irreverent, but nah Finn actually is grateful and this is a conversation he's appreciated from the get-go. ]

Starting to think it might be.

[be the best jedi he can be!! that's how to repay it, obviously.]

[he shoots finn an almost wry sort of smile.]

Try not to let it interfere with enjoying yourself here tonight.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

monthly mingle: THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHT

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suggestion: i squish both of their faces.

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