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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i. blossom picnic

[Wing isn't made for the kinds of foods and drink that the festival serves, but that isn't why he's here. There are people about, people he is carefully skirting, and there is music of a sort he isn't familiar with but knows he likes right off. The flowers and the trees are beautiful, and this is just where he needs to be right now. So, while he watches out for everyone else, he wanders around through them, taking in the sounds and scents and sights the festival has to offer.]

iii. flower exchange

[While the sights and scents have taken to him, and he to them, Wing will find himself quietly making note of the different varieties of plant life that he can find. They're like nothing that he knew in his own world, though he could suppose the crystals he once grew were close to it. In a way.]

iv. river spirit procession

[For once, Wing isn't here on a pleasure visit. The Perimeter Guard has been called upon to help make sure that this part of the festivities are safe and secure as they can be, and he has volunteered to help make sure that all goes well. He'll be here and sociable, if friends are about, but his watch over what's going on will have to take priority if the need arises.]

v. roommates or wildcard

Wing doesn't have roommates, but wildcard is always an option! Poke at me at

tinymuffin84 if you're interested!

[Makoto doesn't know much about flowers. He'd never bothered looking into them too much. Flowers were just... nice, right? And Wing is still new, so getting a flower during one of the festivals is... extra nice, right?

He'd not good at this. Not as good as other people might think he is, anyway.

So, as he nibbles on a treat he picked up from one of the stalls and he spots the giant robot-man, he'll wave and call out.]

Wiing!

[He knows that voice by now and turns toward it, glad to hear a friend.]

Makoto. Hello! How are you enjoying the gathering?

[He grins up at him, glad to be recognized. He's not too surprised though.]

It's great. I've been trying some of the foods, trying to make sure I don't miss anything.

[Not just food! So he's trying to pace himself so he doesn't succumb to a food coma. Which brings him to something he'd picked up.] I don't know if you care much about flowers but I grabbed this for you. They called it a Crepe Myrtle, I think?

[One of the friends that he has made in this place, and the only one he knows of who seems to fire a weapon at himself to make a soldier appear.]

It would be a shame to miss it, wouldn't it? I am glad you're having fun. It was well worth it to come out today. [That little flower has his attention though, and he lowers himself to one knee to better see it, surprised that Makoto has done something with him in mind.] Did you? That's too kind. Thank you so very much.

It would have been. [He agrees.] I know my friends back home would have given me an earful for not getting out more too, so I had to visit a bit at least.

[He grins a bit as Wing kneels down.] They're getting handed out to a bunch of people and I wasn't sure where you stood with the whole flower thing since we humans are kind of strange. So I thought I'd grab you one.

[Huh, where to put it though?]

[Standing to full height, he still could have seen the flower clearly. This was for Makoto's sake, but he's still not sure how to best take the little plant bloom from the human. So he reaches out his hand, palm up and open.] Thank you, my friend. It's lovely. Do you know what kind it is?

[And he'll set it in that palm, sure that Wing could manage the flower the best way he could, rather than leaving it to the teen.]

Crepe Myrtle's but I don't know a thing about flowers. So they could have just made it up. Glad you like it. They're supposed to be for inspiration or enduring partnerships. Or something like that. I thought it'd be good since we're both on the Perimeter Guard.

[Such a small, delicate thing. He's almost afraid to curl his large, metal fingers around it to keep the wind from blowing it away, but he does without damaging it. He might be made of harsher materials, but there's nothing to keep him from being so very careful with it.]

Ah. I don't know a thing about them either, but this will be something for me to look into later. I'll have to find something to help me preserve this as best I can. [And perhaps pick up something similar for Makoto in the process.] It's a kind gesture, and I know we can make this work for us.

A vase and water usually does the trick. At least for a little while.

[That really is heartwarming to see and makes him smile. This is definitely someone he'd like to keep as a friend. Especially since he knows about his Persona's and his methods.] I'm sure we can.

[Of course, they have to be smaller than he'll trust his hands to handle, but such is the way of this world. It's not their fault they didn't expect someone of his composition or size. He regrets that these flowers may likely die in his care, but he can't rightly refuse such a precious gift.] If you think that will work, I'll find something to accommodate them. Thank you again.

[He straightens to stand and realizes suddenly... he can't. There's a blink from him and a soft, confused sound.]

[At least Makoto could reassure him that it would die in just about anyone's care. The downside of picking flowers, but he hadn't wanted to snub the lady handing them out and it would be a waste to pick it and do nothing.]

What're friends for?

[There's am undignified noise drawn from Makoto as well, feel a bit of a tug himself as Wing tried to stand up.]

What... the hell..?

[He blinks and looks back down at Makoto and is startled to see the human stumble with his actions. He stills instantly, half in a crouch and half out of it. It's not a position he'll be able to hold forever, but he's wary of his own movements now.] Are you okay? I've never had this happen before.

Uh... I'm not sure actually.

[He's not entirely sure how to describe it exactly but he tries:] It felt like I was being pulled toward you.

[Rather than pull away from the human, he lowers himself back into his crouch, moving cautiously.] I felt something similar. What could have caused it?

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monthly mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

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