riverviewlogs | monthly mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

Entry tags:

monthly mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

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

flower festival

In the days leading up to April 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: The Flower Festival. Celebrating springtime, beauty, joy, and togetherness, the festival heavily features floral themes and dancing. The advertising mentions that on April 9th, a paid holiday, there will be a Blossom Picnic, as well as lists of various public dances at clubs or other open venues, the River Spirit Procession, and Flower Exchange.

a celebration of spring

The Flower Festival's main event is the Blossom Picnic on April 9th, but it also features traditions of sharing food and drink, and dancing that span over the course of the whole two weeks. There are a large variety of events going on throughout the city, from dancing lessons in any wide variety of traditional dances, to old-fashioned sock hops, to adult raves complete with mild party drugs. Feel free to use the prompts below or create your own event at any point during the festival, and if your character creates an event and hosts it in a top-level, you can submit that thread for extra bonus points.

i. blossom picnic

The main event that kicks off the second week of the Flower Festival is the Blossom Picnic on April 9th. A relaxed and low-key event, it draws several thousand people every year to the spacious Riverview Central Park, where there is a generous lawn lined with various blossoming trees, and families, found families, lovers, and groups of friends are encouraged to lay out a picnic blanket and share food. There will be live bands playing (but not loudly enough to distract from conversation and peacefully watching the petals flutter in the wind), a variety of demonstrations of traditional cultural dances from many different realities and planets, and a ton of ice cream vendors. This is an excellent festival not only for celebrating togetherness with the people who are already important, but for mingling and making new friends.

Characters may either pack their own lunches or they can purchase pre-packed Blossom Festival lunches. Stores and street markets are carrying a wide variety of specialty food that is only available at this time of year - predominantly pastries, an assortment of types of candies, and ice cream treats all in various floral flavors, as well as a sort of ambrosia salad based around a sweet rose-flavored cream and a native fruit that is bright green and tastes like a combination of peach and citrus.

ii. dancing lessons and dances

Starting on April 2nd, there will be dancing lessons offered almost everywhere you look! From partner dances to group dances to line dances; sexy and sensual or innocent and childlike - almost any type of dance you can imagine is represented, from any reality or planet that has people in Riverview Quarantine.

Additionally, the Riverview Central Community Center has multiple rooms blocked off so anyone who knows a dance from home can teach it to others in their community - sharing is caring, after all. Characters are welcome to block off one of these rooms and offer lessons in any dance they happen to know from home (and these sorts of thread starters would be eligible for the mingle AC Point bonus)!

As for the Flower Festival dances, they're pretty straightforward - in almost every club, community center, or other public space, there will be dancing at almost all hours of the day or night, formal and informal. Musicians bring out their instruments and play in the street for demonstrations of cultural dances and music at the same time as clubs are offering VIP cover charges for exclusive dances, and you can find anything in between.

Grab a partner, a group of friends, or just cruise and mingle the various dancing events.

Characters may also notice that most of the street markets and clothing shops are offering clothing that features floral patterns, flowers as accessories, and that show a lot of skin - for men, women, and anyone in between!

iii. flower exchange

During this year, there's been an influx of people from a dying reality consisting mostly of living plant people, and they've really taken the Flower Festival as a great opportunity to introduce one of their most honored traditions to the people of their new adopted world. The tradition involves sharing various types of flowers with strangers, with each type of flower having a different meaning and effect on both the giver and receiver - the bond of the exchange can spark emotion as well as physical responses that function in a unique way that affects almost everyone that participates, whether animal, plant, or even android.

Any characters exchanging the flowers with other characters, whether friends or strangers, will experience emotional/psychological effects, physical effects, or both once the exchange is complete. Effects can last for as short or long a time as the players involved want, and are as follows:

● Baby Blue Eyes - Trust/Healing the Inner Child
Emotional Effect: Either an inexplicable trust in the person the flower was exchanged with, or a generalized paranoia.
Physical Effect: De-aging. Characters can become a younger version of themselves, physically, mentally, or both. Whether or not their normal selves are of age, de-aged characters may not participate in adult prompts unless they're de-aged to something above 18.

● Chamomile - Peace & Harmony/Animal Support
Emotional Effect: A desire to make peace with one's enemies, or an inexplicable urge to push away loved ones.
Physical Effect: Both participants in the exchange will wake up the next morning with an animal companion that represents their soul/personality. Whether the companion can speak is up to player discretion.
NOTE: Animal companions from this event can be kept for a total of 300 Points. If you wish to keep them, just submit a request under your name on the Activity Bonus Rewards Page. For new players ONLY (players apping/reapping their first character in April) who wish to keep the animal companion but do not yet have points, feel free to submit and I will credit 300 points to be submitted once you have them.

● Rose - Friendship/Beauty
Emotional Effect: Openness and a desire to make new friends, or excessive competitiveness.
Physical Effect: A temporary glamor that makes both participants in the exchange appear as the most beautiful possible version of themselves, and improves their charisma.

● Crepe Myrtle: - Inspiration/Enduring Partnerships
Emotional Effect: New and creative ideas to solve life issues, or finding oneself averse to change.
Physical Effect: As soon as the exchange is complete, the two characters involved will be bound by an invisible tether that keeps them within three feet of each other. The tether won't affect anyone but the characters involved (no, you can't clothesline your enemies with it).

● Valerian: - Relaxation/Heart-Opening
Emotional Effect: A near-complete erasure of anxiety and stress, or a dramatic inexplicable increase in it.
Physical Effect: Forced honesty. Both affected characters become incapable of lying. Whether they're compelled to blurt the truth or if they can keep their mouths shut or talk around the truth is up to player discretion.

[Flower meanings used in this prompt come from this site.]

iv. river spirit procession

The River Spirit Procession is a yearly tradition in the Quarantine where a (usually small) contingent of people walk along the edges of the river carrying candles and dressed as river spirits, and offer sweets and blossoms or petals by tossing them into the river. The offerings are intended to appease the river spirits and guarantee safety from flooding, storms, and to ensure a good growing season. With the flooding that's still affecting the river, the turn out this year is much greater than usual, with a large number of residents entering the processions that happen throughout the month, usually on weekends.

During the processions, residents dress as river spirits, which is a relatively broad description and can be taken in a wide variety of ways and leaves a lot up to interpretation. They enter the procession at the place where the river enters the walls and follow the banks of it carrying candles, and often whispering or quietly speaking their gratitude for the river's plenty and their wishes for the year to come. Many residents also bring baskets of young blossoms or petals from flowers, and small sweets such as candy or tiny pastries and throw them into the river to appease the spirits. They carry along the river for as long as they wish to.

ACTION PROMPT: This year, with the flooding, the monsters, and the heavy turnout, the river spirit procession is a little more dangerous an undertaking than usual. After the first procession on April 1st resulted in several residents being swept away in the rising flood waters, and several others being attacked by a loose crocodile, the trouble becomes painfully evident. The Perimeter Guard will be sending out extra detachments and calling in reserve members to help keep the processions safe, and any extra hands to protect those who choose to participate will be more than welcome.

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 Flower Festival, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: unknown, found on pinterest; image ii: Steven Kent Lomtong; iii: Ryan Talbot; iv: Toru Nishimura

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I prefer General Erso, actually.

[ it's literally only jyn's dry delivery and natural resting bitch face that allows that lie to hold any water. she is, first of all, way too young to be a general and still stubbornly refuses to accept selfa's brevetting -- if he wants to make her keep her promotion, he can get his ass here and fight her his damn self. second of all, honestly it sounds really believable and chyler doesn't deserve this. ]

[ Dom comes running back with his stick, which Chyler has to ignore because she just snapped to attention. Why do none of the officers here act like officers what is it about this place. Also where the frick frack paddywhack does Jyn come from, to be a general this young? ]

I'm sorry, general.

[ Domitius doesn't care about ranks. If Chyler's not gonna throw the stick he's gonna bring it over to Jyn. ]

[ oh gosh it was better than she expected and she snorts a huff of a faint laugh, reaching down to take the stick from the dog. ]

Joke.

[ the dog is like no take only throw so jyn simply shoves her hand in his mouth to get it open, taking the stick and letting him lick all over her hand before she hurls the stick and wipes her hand on her jeans because ew. ]

Unlike the Captain, I don't have a rank. [ suck it sefla! ] You don't need to call me sir.

[ Well that's embarrassing. Enough so that Chyler goes faintly pink, too pale to hide her blush. ]

You still outrank me.

[ How many times will she have to tell people that??? Still, it's true that Chyler has been calling John by name outside of work. Half the time. Maybe a quarter of the time.

Dom returns with the stick and drops it on the grass, then proceeds to roll around next to it. Chyler kneels to rub his belly, eyes still on Jyn's face. ] What should I call you?

[ SHE DOESNT HAVE A RANK CHYLER THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE ]

My first name could work. It's Jyn. [ and if chyler calls her sir again jyn might actually decide to outrank her just to make her write out "i will not call jyn erso sir" on the whiteboard a billion times. ]

Cassian said you're a good shot.

[ IT IS SO POSSIBLE, CHYLER'S A CADET AND JYN IS NOT A CADET THEREFORE JYN OUTRANKS HER.

She stands up and throws the stick again, sending Dom scrabbling to his feet and racing away. ]

I'm Chyler, then. [ And she brightens up. ] He did?

[ oh there it is. she was right. chyler has a crush on cassian andor. bless her, jyn is never going to let him live it down. especially after he tried to convince her that he didn't have a bunch of pretty rich girls in love with any number of his undercover personas.

part of her wants to tell chyler that she doesn't have a chance because jyn and cassian are Super Associated, but that would involve admitting they're more than Platonic War Buddies and clearly that is all they are capable of being so. sorry, chyler. ]

You took down that plant thing, didn't you?

[ rule number one: own your badassery, silva. ]

I helped.

[ She's too much a product of the formal military, where group success is prioritized over individual accomplishment. If the group is successful, she's successful. That's just the way it is. Still, if Cassian spoke well of her: ]

Captain Andor is the one who spotted it.

Cassian is effective, yeah. [ jyn often calls cassian captain or andor, but she is trying to make a point here and she is still really balls to the wall about making sure that she and cassian are more than just what the war made them. ]

But I doubt he would be in one piece without you.

[ Sounds fake?????

Okay less fake than it might have two months ago. Slightly. A little.

The dog returns! With a different stick. ] Now where did you get that?

[ She kneels to scratch him around the neck, looking up at Jyn. ]

Thank you, s-- Jyn. [ SHE'S GETTING BETTER. ] Were you in intelligence as well?

[ another snort of a laugh, this one slightly derisive. she doesn't hate the playa anymore, but she still hates the game. ]

No. I wasn't part of the Alliance. [ the army, the navy, whatever. she doesn't think chyler knows what the alliance is, but she's clever enough, jyn figures she can sort it out on her own that the alliance was some kind of military force. ]

I was raised by a soldier. In his cadre.

My parents were Marines. Soldiers. [ Pry stick loose from dog's mouth, throw stick, watch dog to make sure he doesn't tear through anyone's picnic.

She looks at Jyn, trying to figure her out. ] But that isn't what you mean, is it?

No, it's not.

[ see? she was right. chyler's probably fifteen, sixteen, something like that. old enough, clearly, to handle herself in a fight and now all alone, jyn sees zero resemblance, none at all.

(the physical resemblance has not escaped her, for the record. dark hair, light eyes, pale and rosy skin, accent like she could have grown up around the upper walkways of coruscant.) ]

He was a revolutionary or a terrorist or a hero, depending on who you spoke to. Sometimes all three. I was eight and I had nowhere else to go.

[ This time when Dom comes back, Chyler orders him to sit, then to lay down. The dog obeys with a gusty sigh, still looking up at her like he’s waiting for her to come to her senses. ]

Your parents were dead?

[ It’s either dead or they abandoned Jyn, in which case they might as well have been dead. Chyler’s not sure how to approach the fact that Jyn was raised by someone who could be called a terrorist. It’s not as though she’s ever made a secret of her own family history. She hesitates, but only for a second. ] Mine died in the field, fighting Insurrectionists.

[ She doesn’t mean it as an accusation. It’s just a fact. One she thinks Jyn has a right to know. ]

My mother was. [ there's something bitter in the way she says it, not directed at chyler, simply a natural byproduct of thinking about her lyra erso. she doesn't add any more information, doesn't burden chyler with the mention of watching her mother being murdered in front of her.

she does make a mental note to tell cassian about chyler's parents though. ]

There were a lot of war orphans in the galaxy. On both sides, I suppose.

[ Chyler knows that kind of answer. It's the kind of answer that she and plenty of other kids on Mamore would give to questions from outsiders. An anger gone sour, facts with too much emotion behind them to be presented in any way but bluntly. She doesn't pry.

Slowly, like she's betraying her parents just by thinking it, she says, ]

I never really thought about orphans on the other side.

[ jyn's father was the other side. is she an imperial orphan or a rebellion orphan? cassian is the orphan child of seperatists. different sides, so to speak, but both their parents were killed by the rising empire. ]

Most people don't. Why would they, they're the enemy.

[ they're children. ]

Edited 2018-04-09 03:45 (UTC)

[ Chyler feels... something. A prick of anger, a prick of guilt. ]

And half of them are probably as capable and willing to kill as I am.

[ They are the enemy.

They were the enemy.

Her defensiveness dissolves again.

They were the enemy. They're not hers to fight any more. Not her problem any more. She doesn't have that purpose, the doesn't have that goal. She can't go back. Her war is over. It ended with those ships in the sky over Corbulo. Enemies so completely inhuman that there wasn't a place for anything but fear.

Dom whines. She kneels to run her fingers through his fur. ]

There was a planet under Imperial control, called Jedha. The rebels there were fighting to free Jedha from the Empire's grasp. There was a little girl caught in the fighting, couldn't have been more than four, a native girl. Would you have let her die?

[ a four year old, who couldn't fight back, who probably wasn't ready or willing or capable of killing bugs. ]

[ Four years old, caught in the fighting. Chyler's instinct is to blame the rebels for fighting at all, for putting a child at risk in the first place. For trying to free Jedha from the Empire's grasp.

A bunch of overtaxed farmers, Tom's voice says in her head. ]

No. She's four, a noncombatant.

[ Still, Chyler finds herself not able to look up at Jyn. ]

I learned to use a handgun when I was six, because Insurrectionists on Mamore didn't care how old you were if your family was loyal to the UEG. We weren't the ones killing children.

Edited 2018-04-09 04:57 (UTC)

That you know of.

[ propaganda is a thing. it is a big thing. saw was blamed for tamsye prime when it was the empire that destroyed that planet. rebels would have blamed for jedha too if they hadn't spun it another way. probably scarif, as well, now that she thinks about it. ]

That little girl is dead now. The Empire destroyed the holy city, obliterated it, and then called it a mining accident. Their own people were still on the ground when it blew.

[ acceptable sacrifices, probably. and jyn didn't care, quite frankly. but she does suppose some of them had children, families that thought tyranny playacting as peace was what peace really looked like. ]

Edited 2018-04-09 05:00 (UTC)

The United Earth Government isn't like that. The UNSC isn't like that.

[ Her parents wouldn't serve something like that. Her friends wouldn't train to fight for something like that. ] We serve and protect. This war, our war, is ugly and terrible and we weren't the ones to bring it to that point.

[ Dom whines again, then gives a high-pitched bark. Chyler gives his nose a light swat and voices a commanding No.

Our war. Again, she slipped into that, into thinking she has a fight to go back to. Like everything hasn't changed with the arrival of those things in the sky, with that simple footage of Insurrectionists and Marines fighting side by side against something so much worse. ]

It's my whole life.

[ It was.

It hasn't been for three months now. She's suddenly ashamed of how easily she's adapted to this place. How comfortable she's been, when almost everyone she knew and cared about is dead. Dead at the hands of alien invaders. Not Insurrectionists. Not humans at all.

It shouldn't be this easy for her to live without them. ]

[ it makes jyn a little sad because no one should have to wonder, deep in the back of her mind, if maybe they are like that. if maybe there was something wrong with what they supported. if maybe there were things they didn't know. she should always be questioning.

but chyler is such a Good Soldier, jyn doesn't want her to just accept orders because they're orders. ]

It was mine too. But there isn't a war here and even though that can feel wrong and it's hard to turn off and even though there are things to fight here, you're a person before you're a soldier.

[ You're a person before you're a soldier.

It runs counter to everything Chyler has ever believed, ever been taught, ever wanted for herself. The success of the unit is the success of the individual. Without a unit, who is she? She can't just leave RR-1, she doesn't want to, she knows that much.

She doesn't know how to be a person first.

No--that's not entirely true. She has John. She has him, his stupid skateboard and wrinkled clothes, his lollipops and tidbits of shared wisdom. He has him telling her to have fun and never telling her to put her weapon down.

It's possible to be both. It's possible.

She still doesn't really know how. ]

How do you tell the difference?

It's a job. Being in the army, in the fleet, whatever it is, it's only a job. You're more than just a rank and a last name or a number. You have to learn how to turn it off, live life.

[ a beat, she looks down at the dog looking so forlorn at not having 100% of the attention on him. ] Otherwise what the fuck are you fighting for.

monthly mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

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