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

[inafadingcrown]

Misty may be a bit overwhelmed, but she's doing a wonderful job of pushing past it, which Galadriel appreciates immensly. It's useful at times, to have such a powerful effect on people, and she would not trade her gifts for the world. But it can also be frustrating, and isolating, when it makes people feel they must keep her at a distance, even when she is reaching out.

"Oh, she is a woman full grown and has been for some time now." She pauses and hums thoughtfully. "I would have to think for a time to find the exact figure, but offhand, I would say she's a few centuries shy of three thousand."

[mistyday]

On the contrary, Galadriel's aura, her entire being only draws Misty in. She instinctively wants to know this woman better. And well... she certainly knows a thing or two about being isolated, feared even, on account of her powers, even if hers aren't as obvious on first meeting.

"Three thousand!" She felt Galadriel was ancient, but somehow hearing it said out loud really drives it home (and that number is only for her granddaughter!). "Guess I can't blame you for not knowin' the exact number at that point huh?"

[inafadingcrown]

"After the first few thousand years, it truly makes little difference."

Galadriel has to laugh a little, not so much at Misty, but at herself for not immediatly realizing the sort of reaction that answer was going to get. She's so used to being around elves (or those who are familiar with elves) that it didn't even occur to her that not everyone just knew about these things.

"I gather, then, that I am the first elf you have met?"

[mistyday]

"We have stories about elves but I've never seen one." But she accepts the reality of them reality of them easily enough. After all, if there are witches and ghosts and zombies, why not elves? Plenty of people think Misty's a fairy tale too.

"I knew a couple of immortal humans but they paid a terrible price for that." She stops weaving her flowers to stare at Galadriel intensely. "But I can tell you're not like them, not at all. You're Good."

[inafadingcrown]

Well now, this has turned very interesting. Galadriel drops her hands to her lap, letting the partially woven flowers rest there, and cants her head lightly to the side, regarding Misty with interest.

"You see more clearly than most."

She gives a small nod of approval and, smiling, resumes weaving the flowers as she speaks. "Elves do not age in the manner of men. It is simply our nature. As for the rest-"

She looks up at Misty again, her expression a little softer. "I am what I choose to be, as are you. As are we all."

[mistyday]

Divination, Cordelia called it, Misty's sixth sense. She had it too, even more powerful than Misty's. Thinking about her makes her a little sad, though. Cordelia is one of the few things she's going to miss about her former life.

Trying not to think on that too much, she thinks instead of some of the horrors she left behind. "They chose wrong."

At least, Marie Laveau did. Misty can't help but think that Madame LaLaurie was born evil. Misty frowns down at her half-finished flower crown.

"I'm trying to choose right. I think it'll be easier, here."

[inafadingcrown]

There's something oddly familiar about this conversation, half spelled out and half inferred as it is. She was on the other side of it last time, but she remembers clearly- Menegoroth, Melian, and not quite knowing how to move forward but wanting to so desperatly. 'For that woe is past, and I would take what joy is here left, untroubled by memory.'

It never quite works that way; you carry too much with you. But Doriath had been a time of healing for her- and of growth- and if this place turns out to be half that for this young woman, then it will be a blessing still.

She ponders this silently, studying Misty's face for a while before speaking. "You intend to stay here, then? Make a home of this place, perhaps?"

[mistyday]

"Oh yeah, no way in he... heck I'm going back there." Seems wrong to curse in front of this woman, somehow. "Ain't nothin' much for me there anyway. There's always someone after me, in one way or another."

[inafadingcrown]

She looks more than a little amused at the self-correction. One of the few other elves she has met was tossing around 'fuck' in front of her but Misty won't even say 'hell.' Then again, she got the impression Taako wasn't one to stand on ceremony regardless of the situation.

"Then I am glad for you. It is never easy, to leave one home for another and begin again, but it can be fruitful and a reason for joy." She debates, for a moment, about asking why people are always after her, but decides against it. If she wishes to share, she will.

"I beg your pardon. We have been speaking all this time and I have yet to give you my name! It is quite a shameful lapse of manners on my part. I am Galadriel."

She's always very particular about the way she introduces herself, and she conciously decides to refrain from adding any titles. They will mean little to most here as it is, and it would bring an unwanted formality to this conversation.

[mistyday]

"Galadriel! Oh that's beautiful!" A perfect name for her, really. Misty sets down her flower crown and sticks out her hand for Galadriel to shake. She may hold a certain amount of reverence for the elf that keeps her from being quite as blunt as she normally would be, but that doesn't erase her inherent friendliness. "My name's Misty!"

[inafadingcrown]

"Oh, thank you." She laughs lightly. "I am quite fond of it myself." By this time, Galadriel knows what a handshake is, but she still hasn't exactly perfected it and it's fairly obvious that the gesture is strange to her. It's a decent attempt, though, awkwardness aside.

"Misty is a lovely name as well. Is there a tale behind it?"

[mistyday]

Oh, right. Guess she should figure elves don't exactly do things the way humans do. It seems to be working out all right though. Misty settles back into her crown-making while she explains.

"Don't know. I think my mama just like the sound of it. Suits me though, or so everyone says." She smiles up at Galadriel. "I grew up down on the bayou and in the swamps, you see, and that's where I get a lot of my magic, so makes sense. Not that Mama had any idea I was gonna be a witch, mind you."

[inafadingcrown]

"You would do well among my people, I think. We are bound to the land of Arda and from it, we too, may draw great strength."

She won't use the term 'magic' because it seems a slippery term to her; she's heard it applied to her own gifts and those of the Enemy, which, to her mind, are worlds apart. Words matter a great deal to her, which is why she pays particularly close attention to how Misty refers to herself- and it surprises her more than a little.

"Is 'witch' a term you favor? It is considered something of an insult where I am from."

[mistyday]

"It is where I'm from too but that don't change what I am, does it?" The stem of the flower she's working on breaks and she frowns at it before selecting another flower to work with, setting that one aside for now. "If the worst thing someone can do to me is call me witch then I'm hardly gonna get worked up about that. All it is is the truth."

[inafadingcrown]

She gives a soft hum. "Blame a lifetime of diplomacy, if you wish. I simply wished to be certain of what you prefer." Her hands slow, her concentration moving from the crown to her words. "In truth, you are the first mortal I have met with such power- at least, the first without elven blood."

She gives a quick, curious glance up- one that clearly says 'are you sure you don't have any elven blood?'- before returning to the crown.

[mistyday]

"Well, I never even seen an elf before you! Then again, ain't too many of us in the world neither. And those that are left keep fightin' one another, makin' things worse."