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

[buildsomething]

Barely. [That one's downright sulky in a way that says he's heard it before.]

Why do we have to go back, is it that dangerous?

[advanced]

It can be.

[Not really, not inside the walls, but he prefers to be overly cautious than not cautious enough. He's silent for a moment before he has a brainwave.]

Actually, I know somewhere you might appreciate.

[buildsomething]

Yeah?

[Tony flicks him a look, slightly suspicious but still intrigued despite himself. He's not actually worried about the guy, more like deeply skeptical of the fact that what he thinks is interesting and what Tony would might match up. Maybe it's just a weird trick to make him go inside, though so far he's seemed a little too up front for that kind of bullshit.]

Like what?

[advanced]

Come with me and I'll show you.

[He gestures away from the crowds and back towards the more densely built up areas. If Stark follows him, he'll start leading him towards the workshop. He's fairly sure that a playground of technology created by an older version of himself will keep him interested, and it might even jog loose whatever the hell has happened.]

[buildsomething]

[Tony's eyes narrow, but something about the fact that he actually just walks away makes Tony follow before he can stop himself. Obviously the guy's pretty sure of whatever this is, and that really makes Tony curious.

He has to jog a few steps to catch up, his new bodyguard friend really is unfairly tall, but once he's there Tony peers at him.]

Okay, seriously. What am I supposed to call you?

[advanced]

[He slows just a bit when Stark catches up to him, but he's used to moving quickly and quietly so it's not by much. The question is a difficult one to answer; he can't say Bucky, it's too much of an unusual name and Howard might have mentioned him and shown his son pictures that could cause awkward questions, better to go a different route.]

James.

[That's safer, much more anonymous.

He stops outside the lab and, really hoping that there are no boobytraps for unauthorised visitors and that it's unlocked, he pushes on the door.]

[buildsomething]

James. Okay.

[Tony nods once to himself like he's trying to make a note of it, but then they're stopping and he's way too distracted by wondering what this is supposed to be.

The door may have a few surprises for the unwary, but it's also overseen by an AI who considers Bucky to be on the guest list. It swings open easily enough and Tony creeps in behind him, already trying to peer over his shoulder.

It's worth it. This place is insane and Tony's eyes go huge as he tries to take it all in. It's like Dad's workshop times a million and Tony's hands twitch a little with the urge to go touch everything. He has a little more self control than that, but not much.

He turns to ask James where he even found all this, but something moving in the back of the space catches his eye. Tony takes a step or two forward, expression shifting into pure delight as he recognizes what it is...only to fade a second later.]

That's...that's my robot. The one I'm building. How...

[advanced]

[Ah.

Bucky hadn't known that this was when Stark built the annoying little arm robot thing, and that does make things a little more awkward. He doesn't have a good answer for why it's already here, nor is he particularly quick at coming up with convincing lies.]

Same reason you're in a place you don't remember how you got to or why.

[He moves to one side and hops up on a workbench to sit down.]

But all of this stuff is yours.

[buildsomething]

[Right. That thing Tony carefully hasn't been thinking about, how he got here. He's known this wasn't just some weird spring break trip for a while, but that's the easier explanation. Otherwise...

Tony keeps staring, then takes a few cautious steps forward. Dum-E's camera turns at the movement and, evidently recognizing his creator, scoots forward with what sounds almost like a happy whirr.]

It's mine?

[Tony's voice is weirdly quiet as he reaches out to brush a hand over the bot's main strut.]

[advanced]

Yeah.

[Maybe this is a bad idea, he has no clue whether this will actually shake anything loose or if it might cause some kind of terrible paradox, but he's made his decision now and so he has to stick with it.]

You're kind of a genius. A jerk, but a genius.

[buildsomething]

[That just earns James a very familiar dry look. It's nothing he hasn't heard before.]

Yeah, but all this is. It isn't possible yet.

[Even being a genius can only get you so far without the right materials. And what he's seeing -- circuit boards so small he can barely figure out what they're used for -- is way more than he knows even he is capable of.

But Dum-E is leaning into his hand almost like an affection cat and Tony can't help quirking a smile at it.]

You know me, huh?

[advanced]

Kind of.

[Stark seems to be taking this better than Bucky would have thought he would, but Stark has always been contrary in bucking expectations so he probably shouldn't be surprised.]

You've been helping me out with something, thought I'd return the favour when I saw you-- like this.

[He shrugs, no point in secrecy now that DUM-E has ruined everything.]

Looks like you lost about seventy years.

[buildsomething]

Seventy?

[That's certainly enough to suddenly gives James his undivided attention.]

I'm old?

[He really has no idea how to feel about that. Though that many years of development would explain why everything looks so different. Tony's eyes dart around the workroom like he's trying to gauge the passage of time just through what projects are on display.]

[advanced]

Yeah, real old.

[Okay, not that old, but Bucky is rarely feeling all that charitable when it comes to Tony Stark, and so a vague implication that he looks older than he is, is pretty generous for him.]

This, what's happening to you now, it's gonna be temporary.

[buildsomething]

How do you know?

[It's petulant, but something in the look Tony throws at him is a little uncertain and clearly not as well-hidden as he would like. James does seem very sure of himself.]

What if I don't want to be old?

[advanced]

Not really your choice, we all get old eventually.

[But is he sure this is temporary? Fairly sure, it seems no different to the other weird effects this place has sometimes, but he can't be a hundred percent positive.]

But whatever happens, you're safe. [A pause, and then quieter.] I'll make sure of it.

[buildsomething]

Why?

[Tony turns fully towards him to give him a searching look. There's something there that feels more intense than just the fact that he's been paid to look after him, but Tony can't figure out what it might be. He doesn't know James at all (though apparently James knows him. You'd think he'd be used to that.)]

Because Dad told you to?

[advanced]

No.

[Does Stark really still believe that Howard paid for a bodyguard, even after learning that they knew each other when he was older? Old enough for Stark senior to be dead, even without premature intervention from the Winter Soldier.]

Does it matter why?

[buildsomething]

[Tony's mouth opens and then closes again. Honestly, he hasn't even considered what the time difference might mean for his Dad. Howard has always been such an overbearing presence in his life, it's hard to think about him not being there.]

Kind of. [His tone is a lot more cautious.] If it means you want something in return.

[advanced]

[It's a little bit sad that a seventeen year old kid is already this jaded about life, it raises a few more questions as to how he was raised to turn out this way.]

I don't want anything from you.

[Simple. Direct.]

Not now, not in the future.

[buildsomething]

[There's another moment where Tony just stares at him, trying to read something that's almost impossible to find on James' stoic face. Eventually he just nods.]

Okay. [A slightly quirked grin] Goodness of your heart, got it.

[advanced]

[Goodness of his heart. Right.]

How about you stop asking me questions and play with your toys instead?

[buildsomething]

Hey.

[And right back to offended.]

You're the one who brought me here.

[advanced]

Figured it would keep you out of trouble.

[Actually, though, he really hopes the armour isn't anywhere that it can be found. Robots and tech can be explained, flying suits of armour are more difficult.]

[buildsomething]

Hah. That's what you think.

[But he does settle down at one of the worktable to start poking at whatever is currently in process there. Dum-E scoots in closer, practically trying to peer in over his shoulder.]