monthly mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

[riverviewmod]

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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Comments

ii

[wit_and_sword]

[In truth, Elizabeth didn't mind dancing. She actually enjoyed learning new steps and there were surprisingly a number of similarities between sparing and dancing; it was only when the dancing came with the goal of finding a husband that she had to let out a few huffs.

The dances here were different than the ones back home, but she did one class that taught the same steps as she knew them. This she stayed for awhile before moving on, and then someone introduced to her what was called 'swing'. She peered into the window, fascinated by the sort of wildness to the dance.

Then she saw Alex. For a woman unschooled in the deadly arts, she looked like she could still be a threat to her partner.

[11calls]

[When Alex catches sight of Elizabeth Bennet, one of her personal childhood heroes watching her, she just freezes in place for a moment, her arms above her head. Right. Oh. Definitely not in the realm of dancing from the Regency period. No, it was more in line with the raves of Seattle that she had visited in her younger and more able to sleep days. The curse of getting older and all of that stuff.

So, she draws her arms downward, and then she moves towards Elizabeth, her cheeks blazing crimson and not just from the exertion that she'd been involved in. No, this was good old fashioned embarrassment. It happens sometimes. With a slightly out of breath laugh, she just said:]

Hello Miss Bennet.

[wit_and_sword]

Feel free to call me Elizabeth. [At this point, she saw little reason to keep formalities; they were hardly a professional relationship after all.] And do not stop on my account, though you may want to give your dance partner a break just now.

[She's clearly teasing; in truth, she's seen worse, but she can't help the quip either.]

[11calls]

Well, I don't think they're technically my partner as much as they're someone I just happen to be dancing with. In my time, we don't normally do the partner thing unless it's like a slow dance.

[Or grinding, but she's not going to explain that. Still her explanation comes with a broad and easy grin, because Alex is used to being teased like this.]

[wit_and_sword]

[She was torn between scoffing and smirking, her face twisting to a comination of both.] Of course, I meant the person you were dancing with, how else would you describe it. You were certainly not dancing just by yourself moments ago.

[Though the aforementioned partner probably wished she did.]

[11calls]

Just someone I was dancing near! I don't even know their name. They just came over and did the hot girl slide. So, really it was kind of their own fault.

[Alex just shrugged and waved to him before dismissing him with a quick flip of her hair and her attention back to Elizabeth.]

The hot girl slide is where they just kind of invade a woman's space because they think it's sexy. It's honestly really not but they seem to miss that fact.

[wit_and_sword]

[She frowned. Having had to dance with disagreeable partners in the past, she knew it wasn't as simple as punching them away. Yet, that was civil, what happened here was just rude.] I know you are not the violent sort, but I think such gestures do deserve a swift jab with the elbow. See if that does not get the message across.

[Atleast with the dances from her era, one didn't spent the entire time with their dance partner.] I do not suppose you would fancy a break from lessons?

[11calls]

[Alex just chuckles softly at that, and she follows it up with a large grin. Now you sound like my friend Amalia. Only she'd tell me to kick them in the junk.

[But instead she just passive-aggressively casts a wave in the person's direction before looking back to Elizabeth again.]

Yeah, let's get away from Mr. Hands over there. What did you have in mind?

[wit_and_sword]

[It took her a moment to understand what this 'Amalia' referred to as 'junk', but when it did, her smile only widened to a grin.] Well, I do see her point, it is an obvious target, but it is also the first they try to protect. The solar plexus or even the nose are not so clear targets.

[One never knew, the information might be handy to know.] There are dance demonstrations going in the building across from this one. I think watching might be easier than trying to perform.

[11calls]

[Alex considered it for a minute, a little smirk on her face the entire time.]

A nose might be hard to play off as not on purpose, especially if they're a lot taller than be. Solar plexus I bet I could do though. Easily.

[And then she nods and starts to move away from the dance floor.]

Watching is definitely easier, I think.

[wit_and_sword]

[She walked with her, thinking that she did bring up some good points; the former was more of a last resort in any case.] Dancing was one of the few female arts we all mastered, though my sister Mary considers herself an accomplished singer. [She's not really, went unsaid.]

I find it is almost like sparing. In both instances, it is all about footwork and reading your partner.

[11calls]

I'm afraid I'm not very good at sparring either. My Dad, he taught me some basic self-defense moves when I was in high school. You know, the normal stuff: carry your keys between your fingers for a makeshift weapon, yell really loud and never go quietly. But he and my mom never let me do karate or anything.

[A beat, and a broad smile.]

Of course not it might be useful.

[wit_and_sword]

[Her mouth twisted in something like a smirk.] Mother would have preferred us to learn karate or Judo and Kendo, but father studied in China and preferred their teachings-there was also the matter of cost. Traveling to the Mainland is less costly than the islands of Japan.

[They walked outside, towards the more public demonstrations.] He was, all of us, our first tutor though. With the exception of Lydia, who was six, we were all seven when we learned how to use the dagger.

[Which, should have informed Alex just the sort of instructor their father was.]

[11calls]

[Alex knew that Elizabeth was a warrior in her world, but she didn't expect that she would have been trained and sent away in such a fashion, so her eyes were a little wide at that. But it was in a dazed and amused sort of way. Elizabeth Bennet could kick her ass and Alex was living for that, honestly.]

Wow. That's really impressive. But with the zombies incredibly practical too.

[wit_and_sword]

[She caught the expression on her face and smiled just a little.] Admittedly, not everyone learns the art of war back home. The dagger or musket is most basic, but not everyone has the means to travel, not even to China.

[Some, like Penny Mcgregor, had to put faith in only the most basic of security-until it ran out.] I have also read the book you lent to me. I am glad to see that even without Dreadfuls, those would see me with a sharp wit-if not a sharp sword.

[One out of two wasn't so bad.]

[11calls]

I think if there were zombies around, I definitely would have paid more attention to the things that my dad was trying to teach me. But he's a cop so at that point it probably would have involved shooting things and stuff.

[Okay, the book mention just makes Alex's eyes sparkle. She can't help it, because this is completely amazing, and she kind of wants to just 'oh my god' Elizabeth to death. Instead, she just grins and elects to go in a different direction.]

I'm glad that you're glad! I definitely looked up to your wit when I was a kid.

[wit_and_sword]

Your rifles and pistols are more reliable, the ones I grew up with were in pour habit of backfiring and were difficult to aim properly.

[She watched some of the more acrobatic dances, wondering if she might be able to do similar if given instruction. She was pulled from them at the compliment.] You might also recall that my wit would get me in trouble. The Eliza in the book did not have a chinese monk striking her with bamboo every time she said said a smart remark.

[11calls]

Yeah, that's definitely true. They're a hell of a lot more lethal when I'm from, especially in America.

[Alex has opinions, despite being from Canada. But then she laughed at what Elizabeth said.]

Yeah, I've definitely had a similar experience with my wit getting me into trouble, but hey, it's worth it right?

[Alex definitely thinks so, judging by the grin on her face.]