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

[Where else would Dorian be if not at a picnic? There's wine, there's fine food, there's beautiful people wearing next to nothing...

...there's music, he's had a lovely visit with a new friend that proved to be very relaxing, and now he's going to join his adopted sister to enjoy the nature around them...such as it is.

He smiles pleasantly when he finds her finally.]

Iona! How have you been?

[Iona has been spared encounters with the flowers – so far – but she is still in a thoroughly good mood considering her general state as of late. But this festival is... sorely needed. And reminds her a little of home. Her mood is made all the better with the appearance of her adopted brother. She beams up at him when she sees him, reaching out with a hand to drag him to join her should he take it.]

Hello, Dorian. I’m fantastic, at the moment. How are you?

Happier than I've been in some time, perhaps ever.

[He frowns for just a moment at having said such a thing without provocation, but whatever trouble it may have caused his mind seems passing at best. Shaking his head, he does take her up on that invitation to join her.]

Fantastic, are you? Have you been spending much time with the Commander, then? He is here, you know, and yet you haven't asked me once what I think of his not knowing you.

[His words surprise her, but she’s happy for him. She wants one of them to be, and he deserves all the happiness in the world.

She blinks in surprise at his comment. Why should Cullen – Serah Rutherford have any bearing on her current state? He is... complicated, for all that she enjoys his company and thinks of him more than she should.]

No...? I’ve seen him some, yes, but not all that much. [Looks, it’s complicated, Dorian. She huffs a laugh] I know he is, we crossed paths shortly after his arrival. [And then she had been reeling from what she’d learned and the knowledge that someone she considered a friend hadn’t a bloody clue who she was, and hadn’t thought to ask Dorian. Which was wrong of her.] I’ll ask now, then. What do you think of all that?

It think it's all rather fascinating, really, that so much of a world can be constant with so many things drastically different. Have you the two of you spoken at all about the differences between his version of our reality and, well, ours?

[He looks thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head.]

No, I suppose you haven't. He would have mentioned that.

[It bothers her more than Dorian might think, Serah Rutherford’s arrival and what it means. What she’s learned. Realised. As much as there is a part of her that is curious about the differences... after Adamant, with the weight of everything and how badly she’s failed everyone... she’s not sure she wants to know.

She shakes her head, her gaze shifting away from him.] No. I haven’t. It hasn’t come up. There hasn’t been an opportunity to ask.

[Which isn’t... entirely the truth. She probably could have asked at any time, or sought him out specifically for such a conversation. And it’s not that she doesn’t want to seek him out. That’s the problem. She does.

Which is part of the reason why she hasn’t. As often as she's wanted to, anyway.

It’s complicated.] Have you spoken much with him about the differences?

[A smirk flickers across her face.] Aside from the obvious one, anyway.

We've spoken a bit about who he knows as Inquisitor Lavellan, but he was more interested in you, really.

[ He smiles. ]

If I didn't know any better, I believe the Commander has taken a shine to you.

[ Teasing? Well, yes. Big brother's prerogative. ]

[Look who’s just the slightest bit flustered, Dorian. It’s your little sister.]

I’m a curiosity. And one of two people here currently that’s intimately familiar with the inner workings of Thedas. Naturally he’d want to know a little about the woman who’s Inquisitor in another bloody world.

[No they haven’t been flirting shamelessly since the moment Cullen – Serah Rutherford – met her.]

Oh?

[ He let that little comment dangle in the air for a moment before continuing. ]

Is that all this interest is? Academic? Why, I seem to recall our dear Commander saying he found you charming.

[She looks at him mock-archly, which is only ruined a little by the cheekiness she’s using to hide the fact that she’s a little more pleased by that than she should be.]

Well, I am. That’s simply a statement of fact.

[Borrowing a little from you right now, Dorian, hope you don’t mind.]

[ You can't borrow his devil-may-care flippancy. That's his. It's trademarked. ]

Be that as it may, it takes more than a bit of wit to catch Cullen Rutherford's eye.

[Yes she can. Little sisters totally have that right. And she’s borrowing it shamelessly.]

If I was trying, in any way, to actually catch Serah Rutherford’s eye, that would be extremely useful information. But I’m not. So I think I’ll continue to be myself. Charm and all.

[And, you know, avoiding him sometimes and trying very hard to ignore the fact that she’s attracted to him. All part of the Iona Lavellan package.]

[ Dorian raised an eyebrow at that, fully not believing it for an instant. ]

Do you mean to tell me you do not look upon our dear Commander with anything other than chaste respect?

[Iona gives him an arch look, which is only ruined a little by the fact that she’s blushing. No, chaste isn’t the word to use to describe the way she looks at Cullen – Serah Rutherford. ] I look on your dear Commander with... contemplation, Dorian. He doesn’t know me. And it’s taken some getting used to.

[And despite that she’s still... attracted. Very. Attracted. And it’s complicated and she should keep her distance but it doesn’t stop her from wanting to kiss him. ~~Doesn’t stop her from wanting him.~~So she deflects, in the hopes that Dorian won’t press things further. Although it’s the truth, as well.]

No, he doesn't, a fact that seems to trouble him to no end. I wonder why that may be...

[ He leaves that statement to dangle for a moment before continuing. ]

You could, you know, ask him to dinner, allow him to know you. I believe he'd accept.

[She eyes him for a moment before answering.] Because I’m a strange and unfamiliar entity. An unfamiliar woman carrying a far more familiar Anchor. Nothing more.

And I’m sure I could. [And she’s just going to leave it at that. No, asking Cullen – Serah Rutherford – to dinner is a very bad idea and she shouldn’t do it. Isn’t going to do it. It’s better their encounters be short and infrequent, with her having an easily available escape route.]

If you want to be so abysmally morose about it, that's your prerogative, I suppose.

[Though his expression clearly states he isn't buying it for an instant.]

Is it you're concerned he doesn't feel the same, you'd rather assume this distance now than to be disappointed by it later?

[He only asks the question because that's what he would do in her situation, and she should damn well know that. Also, do as he says, Iona, not as he does. He's a terrible example of healthy emotional choices.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

monthly mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

i. picnic!

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