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

navigation

Comments

[sentiences]

[ Dorian doesn't curse. Or even look the slightest bit put out by this information. There is nothing but a certainty there; protect. Dorian gestures for Cisco to stay back as he approaches the crocodile which snaps at him viciously. ]

It's fine. It'll take us longer, but we can still make it.

[ The reptile squints at Dorian before lunging at him — but Dorian was ready. Quick as a flash, his hand comes down and slams down the snout. The crocodile growls, its tail lashing out at Dorian's legs but Dorian doesn't budge. He's made out of metal and the scrapes show the blue covering underneath his "skin". ]

It's best you move along, friend. There's no easy food for you here.

[franciscoramon]

[ Cisco is really grateful, then, for what a level head Dorian is keeping in all of this. The fact that he's keeping hold of his own composure - however tenuously - is down to the other man not panicking. Was that because he a robot, or just because he was brave? But that's a question for another day.

Cisco watches, horrified and helpless, as the crocodile lunges for Dorian and gets a smack on the nose for it. ]

Watch -

[ But before he can get to the - out!, the tail has struck Dorian's legs. It doesn't sweep him off his feet, however. Somehow Dorian stays standing. Cisco stays behind him, but reaches out to touch his shoulder, asking: ]

You okay?!

[ He isn't going to let that happen again, he thinks. The next time the crocodile makes a move, he's going to blast it right in the nose. It would blow his secret, to Dorian and anyone who might be looking, but he can't just let Dorian take a beating, even if he is made of metal...

But the crocodile seems discouraged by its inability to knock Dorian over. It backs up a little, dark eyes fixed on them. Would it leave? Would it try again...? ]

[sentiences]

[ Dorian blinks quizzically at Cisco's question. ]

Of course. Even if I lose a limb, I'll be fine.

[ He cocks his gun at the crocodile, seemingly unconcerned by his own blase statement. ]

We should press on.

[franciscoramon]

Okay. Damn. Gruesome, but good to know.

[ It's not that much of a leap to see why a robot would be designed to still function even without one or more of its limbs. What surprises Cisco isn't that, but how completely matter-of-fact Dorian is about the possibility. Like it wouldn't distress him at all. He might by metal underneath, sure, but does that mean he has no sense of self-preservation, or fear?

Cisco keeps moving with Dorian, keeping behind him as they move further from the crocodile. He's just about to ask which way they're headed next, how many more shots he has in that gun, when the sound of helicopter blades overhead makes Cisco look up. A helicopter is approaching, shining a spotlight down. Someone is aiming a gun out the door of it - Cisco barely has a chance to register what's happening before the person has fired a half dozen shots, all of which hit the croc.

For a moment, Cisco thinks the thing must be dead. But then he sees a few glints coming from various places across its tough hide. Tranq darts. They must be. Relief floods through him. ]

C'mon, buddy. Stay down. Just have a nice little crocodile nap.... night night...

[sentiences]

[ The side of Dorian's face glows, spindly blue lines lighting up before he relaxes and puts the gun away. He hated the idea of killing it, but his directive in such a situation is clear. He's killed before, but Dorian has never liked it. Never will. Briefly, he touches the scrapes on his skin with a frown. Maybe Tony would oblige him for a fix. ]

Why gruesome?

[ He says that automatically before realizing there are more important things to deal with. ]

It's all clear. He's asleep. Sorry for the less than optimal cover.

[franciscoramon]

[ There's a swarm of people, as the helicopter lands and the members of the guard who had been in it come rushing out to move the crocodile onto a huge stretcher - something that looks pretty challenging, but they're clearly getting it done. Any help Cisco might try to offer would just be getting in the way.

Dorian's apology catches him by surprise. ]

Dude, why are you apologizing? You completely saved my ass. Haven't got a scratch on me.

[ Cisco's eyes are drawn to those scrapes, his smile dimming a little. ]

Can't say the same for you. Are you- does it hurt? Do you need to... see a doctor or...?

[ He might have components that are organic, after all. Cisco doesn't quite know how to ask that, though. It'd be pretty ungrateful after Dorian saved him to start prying and asking super invasive questions about his body. ]

[sentiences]

Hurt?

[ Dorian's face is a little blank before he gets clued in and smiles graciously. ]

No, of course not. It doesn't hurt. I'll probably just ask Tony to fix me up cosmetically.

[franciscoramon]

Oh, good.

[ Cisco smiles, bright and relieved. It's starting to properly sink in, finally, that they've been rescued, that he can relax a little. But there's still enough adrenaline in Cisco's system that his laugh is a bit too loud and his voice a bit too full of sass and indignation when he exclaims: ]

Hey, man, I don't know! Ain't no 'of course' here for me, I wasn't gonna just assume!

[ He stumbles over to a nearby cement planter and promptly collapses onto it, grateful to sit down. His legs are shaking pretty badly. ]

You were a serious badass back there, dude.

[sentiences]

Thank you?

[ Dorian doesn't feel like a badass and it's strange to take pride in such a thing. He's doing what he's meant to do. ]

I'm just glad you're all right.

[franciscoramon]

Where'd you learn to shoot like that, anyway?

[ Cisco can tell an experienced gun-user when he sees one. Some of it might be down to robotic nerves, or whatever, but Dorian seemed like he was used to handling a weapon. Cisco still knows so little about him... ]

I'm glad you're all right, too.

[ Maybe that's weird to Dorian, but Cisco doesn't care. He says it anyway. ]

[sentiences]

[ His brow furrows, completely baffled. ]

I didn't learn. It's programmed into me. That's how I pick up things.

[franciscoramon]

[ Marksmanship was pre-programed? That's... an interesting choice. ]

Yeah, but you must learn stuff, too. Right?

[ That just seems logical, to Cisco. Why bother to make a robot that so meticulously mirrored human appearance, if they weren't self-sufficient enough to add new skills and information to their memory. ]

[sentiences]

[ Dorian nods slowly. ]

I am capable of learning the way humans do, though it's not necessary to pick up the skill. Those files are usually available to me.