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riverviewlogs2018-02-01 10:29 pm
- !mod post: holiday,
- !mod post: monthly mingle,
- legend of zelda (botw): zelda,
- logan: laura,
- magnificent seven: billy rocks,
- once upon a time: victor frankenstein,
- original: shigeru miyata,
- ppz: elizabeth bennet,
- star trek (aos): james kirk,
- star wars: poe dameron,
- vikings: gyda ragnarsdottir,
- ✖ animorphs: marco,
- ✖ dctv (flash): cisco ramon,
- ✖ legend of zelda (botw): link,
- ✖ miraculous ladybug: marinette (ladybug,
- ✖ mutant x: brennan mulwray,
- ✖ my hero academia: toshinori yagi,
- ✖ original: freya vaughn,
- ✖ original: minsu oh,
- ✖ original: rosalina nurumi,
- ✖ osomatsu-san: osomatsu matsuno,
- ✖ persona 3: makoto yuuki,
- ✖ the finder: willa monday,
- ✖ the raven cycle: blue sargent,
- ✖ the raven cycle: ronan lynch
monthly mingle: FAJRO & LUNAR NEW YEAR
what: monthly mingle: fajro & lunar new year
when: The month of February.
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines
In the days leading up to February 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Fajro and the Lunar New Year. This is a combination of various traditions from several different universes, all of which involve cleaning house, physically and metaphorically, in preparation for the upcoming spring and summer months. The traditions associated with these celebrations involve getting rid of clutter and unnecessary junk that is then burned in large bonfires along the beaches, clearing the air of lingering resentments and old wounds with magical penalties for those who choose not to share, and a broad sampling of Lunar New Year traditions from a variety of cultures.
There's nothing that's more detrimental to the forming of a good, solid community than lingering resentment and anger - this is something that most residents of the Quarantine tend to agree on. In recognition of that fact, Fajro is geared toward cleaning out the negativity, getting rid of clutter and trash in the home, body, and mind. Residents do spring cleaning in their homes and businesses and either give away or burn the things that they don't need and that are only serving to add an extra burden. Likewise, residents are encouraged to clear the air with friends, family, coworkers, and anyone else interacted with on a frequent basis. The second half of the month is taken up with the Lunar New Year, which is an almost universal tradition in this reality, and focuses on letting go of negative energy and welcoming positive energy into life going into the new year.
i.cleaning house
The first thing that most residents do during the month of Fajro is cleaning house. This means going through all the junk in the house, all the little things that clutter up a place, and clearing them out. A commonly-heard saying in the Quarantine during Fajro cleanup is "does this bring me joy?", a proverb that encapsulates the meaning of the tradition - to shed the parts of the past that bring pain or add to a person's burden, and keep only what brings joy into each person's life. The rest is either thrown away and burned, or donated to bring joy to someone else's life.
After the cleaning is complete, residents carry what they no longer want or need to the beaches of the river, where bonfires are set up each night for two weeks, in order to burn the excess and let the ash float down the river, a symbolic city-wide purging of bad memories, pain, and burdens.
ii. clearing the air
Another tradition in the Quarantine during Fajro is to clear the air with friends, family, acquaintances, coworkers, teammates, or anyone else that takes up space in a person's life. Every relationship comes with some amount of resentment, and the residents of the Quarantine take pride in being able to shed that resentment every year, to start fresh on relationships, building them into something newer and healthier. However, with every wave of new people that arrive during a year, there's a common pattern - those who haven't yet fully come to accept this particular tradition may avoid airing their grievances. Whether it's because they don't care to understand what they're feeling, don't acknowledge the resentment, want to appear strong and unaffected, or just because they don't like confrontation, there are any number of reasons people might choose to keep their hurts and resentments to themselves.
Of course, that doesn't really lend itself to clearing the air, so several of the higher-ups at Gramarye Magic Research came to a quick and easy solution in the form of a magically-infused mist that falls over the city on the morning of February 1st, which will burn off by the evening of February 3rd. Anyone who inhales the mist or absorbs it through their skin by going outdoors or being close to doors, windows, or air vents, during the first few days of February will find themselves thinking more often of the things that have hurt them, the resentments they've built up, and the desire to talk about them, to excise them. Starting on February 15th, any character who has been exposed to the mist and who has still kept their grievances bottled up will find themselves...afflicted with something very uncomfortable to remind them of how unhealthy it is to keep things to oneself and let them fester.
Afflictions can vary in scope depending on how thoroughly the character was exposed to the mist, how intense their feelings of resentment lie, and most of all, player preference. They are primarily physical effects that can range from mildly embarrassing to extremely uncomfortable. Whether it's the addition of a tail or horns, skin that changes color depending on the character's mood, loss of a sense, or any other physical effect, the sky's the limit. Afflictions should be something the character finds uncomfortable, and will last until February 28th or until the character clears the air, whichever comes first. Talking to a third party about their feelings of resentment will provide a temporary relief from the symptoms of the affliction, but the only way to permanently remove it is to talk directly to the source of the problems. If a character carries feelings of resentment toward someone who is not in the game, having a deep conversation with someone in the Quarantine will permanently clear or preempt the affliction.
iii. lunar new year
Originally, Fajro was celebrated all on its own in the Quarantine, but over the years, the traditions have evolved - the major change that's happened in the past decade or so is the addition of an entire other set of traditions surrounding the Lunar New Year, the celebration of which has proved to be a pretty universal constant across many different planets and in many different universes. Lunar New Year is celebrated with special food, activities, and street markets that pop up across the Quarantine throughout the month of February.
This year, the patron animal of the Lunar New Year is the dog, so residents are encouraged to bring their canines out with them to be spoiled, dressed up, and primped.
Thank you to Mari and Anna for suggesting the celebration and submitting the activities and images for this prompt!
hound town
Anyone wandering the city will find it beautifully decorated with beautiful red lanterns, and paper or cloth dog effigies. There are lots of stalls selling adorable themed dog clothing. At night, the red lanterns light up the streets, bathing them in a warm orange-red glow each night.
The entire city looks festive, and residents can be seen wearing red and gold or dog-themed clothing, strolling through the night markets with their pet dogs, sharing drinks of warm alcohol or other warm beverages. Booths selling a small toy called a jegi can be found very commonly, along with instructions on how to play the traditional Lunar New Year game, jegichagi (video), which involves kicking the jegi to keep it from falling to the ground, with the winner being the one to keep it up for the longest number of kicks.
Other booths are selling a wide variety of dog-themed items, red lanterns for residents to carry around on sticks, and giving away some very special red lanterns that the sellers will advise residents to hang onto for later in the season...
wish lanterns
Toward the end of the festival, the special red lanterns that residents received will start to glow, displaying a set of instructions outlined in magical light on the shade - residents are encouraged to take the lanterns down to the beaches by the Fajro bonfires on the last night of the celebration, and whisper to them a wish. Once the wish has been whispered to the lantern, it will lift into the air, hanging there for a few moments with all the other lanterns. For a few moments, the night sky will be alight with bobbing lanterns.
And then they will all pop into an explosion of colorful confetti, showering the crowd below. Anyone standing in the crowd who gets showered with confetti will feel a glowing wave of positive energy sweep through them.
street food and games
Street food is very popular in Riverview, and special food for the Lunar New Year is no exception, and considering how many different cultures and alternate realities have some version of a celebration for the Lunar New Year, there are a ton of seasonal snacks that are being sold from carts and featured in restaurants throughout the city. While you can find just about anything that's ever been associated with the Lunar New Year, some of the most popular dishes are sliced rice cake soup, savory pancakes, a cooked vegetarian salad, stuffed sticky rice cakes, and beautiful candy boxes that are usually given as gifts or brought to Lunar New Year parties. Besides these treats, tiny citrus fruits ranging from mandarin oranges to tangerines to any alien variety of small citrus.
And for people who bring their dogs along, many stalls are giving away complimentary biscuits for them, with the option to buy boxes or gift packs of the biscuits to take home.
Credit: image i: Roman Ignatowski; image ii: Jan Vavrusa; image iii: Federico Belingheri; image iv: Yuechi Lee
Gyda Ragnarsdottir | OTA
Cleaning house
The bonfires were what got her attention the most. Even in her era, people only burned items if they belonged to the dead, but that didn't seem to be the case here-not entirely, atleast. This, as she was told, was more their way of celebrating the New Year (though why now and not midwinter was what didn't make sense.
Having only lived here a few months, there were few items she thought really weighed her down; a few except for one. This she retrieved back at the farm house; the dress she wore when she first arrived, and was still suffering from the flu.
The dress didn't bring her joy, not really. It reminded her of home, not the good memories of her life before, but the knowledge she could never go back, not even if they allowed it.
She threw the home-spun garment on the fire, watching it burn.
Lunar New Year
Jegichagi
Regardless of how strange it was for a New year to be celebrated this time of the season, Gyda couldn't keep herself away from seeing the celebrations. Everything was so bright and festive, when she was handed a lantern, she saw no harm in accepting it.
At some point, she joined a few other
npcchildren at playing some game with a flouncy toy. For all she couldn't really pronounce what the game was called, the rules seemed simple enough and she could follow along even holding the lantern.The circle consisted of only herself and two other children by the time she lost that round of the game.
Street food/games
The rest of the evening passed by in a better mood. At one of the game stalls, she won a small red and gold dog that was now attached to her belt, along with the red lantern. Part of her wondered at the significance of the surrounding colors, but the majority of her just thought they were nice to look at and wasn't about to question.
She made her way to one of the food stalls, curious as to the stuffed rice cakes being sold there.
Lunar New Year
So she just watches them play. It's interesting to watch, anyway, and she doesn't have to worry about making a mess of it in some way — she's socially awkward, so used to being locked up. She sees now why some kids look at her with a furrowed brow, well aware of her lack of experience in all things kid.
Anyway. Sorry, someone's staring from across the way, don't mind being spied upon.
Re: Lunar New Year
Being out, she lost interest and started looking around, only then noticing a girl her age observing them. She recognized her from the message on the network, however she couldn't recall her name.
"Hello..are you looking to join?"
no subject
"I was — just watching."
She'd like to try it, but she's not entirely confident in her people skills. As she usually is.
"They should not have booed at you. You did a good job."
And for a potentially normal kid, too! Laura approves.
no subject
Or not, depended how she felt-the point of games was that they weren't mandatory. She wasn't sure if she'd actually buy one of the toys there, but it was fun to join in. "It's still fun."
no subject
"It looks fun," she says after a moment. "I'm still learning games; there are a lot to memorize."
Way, way too many, but at least it always leaves something new to learn.
no subject
"This game is easy." She pointed to the others who were starting a new game. "You simply have to keep the ball from falling to the ground, using only your feet, and kicking it to someone else. If you miss, you're out of the game."
Seemed simple enough to her, almost like something they'd play back home.
no subject
no subject
She turned to one of the nearby stalls. "I could buy one and we could start our own game?"
no subject
"You would like to?"
It's not that she's so utterly distanced from the other kids that she can't play with them, but... it's just nice to hear it, sometimes. Especially when she can't rely on her lifelong friendships from Transigen.
no subject
"What's your name? Mine is Gyda?"
no subject
So this is the girl he had nudged her to make friends with, is it?
A small town.
no subject
About the school and not being allowed to fight. Gyda had wished to ask questions, but so many people were speaking and she didn't understand why she wasn't allowed to defend herself.
She nodded. "The markets here are good, but it's not the same as hunting for food." Though the markets were a good safety net. "Did he let you keep the hyde? What did you do with it?"
no subject
"A fur blanket." This is a more interesting topic to her than the game, for now, so she settles on it with a more relaxed aura about her. "Do you know how to do those things as well? Making things from what you hunt?"
Street Food
"Hi."
Re: Street Food
She was headed towards the line when she heard a familar voice, turning to see Stan. "Hello." She moved so he might stand with her in line. "I'm curious as to the rice cakes are, they look like they're filled with something."
no subject
"I'm not sure if it's a sweet or not," he adds, standing with her, even though he's more hesitant to try new things.
no subject
"Does it matter, so long as it tastes good." Then again, so much of the food here was new and strange here, she stopped being picky.
no subject
"I don't think it'd taste as good if it was sweet and not a meat or something inside of it."
But really, what does he know.
no subject
"If you like it, you can order one of your own." If not, well, she'd ordered it for herself after all."