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

[umbrastaff]

Damn. I'm sorry, Dorian. Something has some kind of truth effect on you.

[ She looks concerned and a little annoyed at the same time. ]

It's not even the kind I'm used to cheating, so I can't help you there. You want me to take you home or something?

[tevinteraltus]

[He frowns, shaking his head.]

No. Iona means well, but she'll ask pointed questions, and I'll have no choice but to answer them. Besides, I know my way well enough.

[He breathes a sigh.]

If it's a spell, it should have a set duration.

[umbrastaff]

Alright. It's probably just another Riverview thing, so it should pass.

[Hopefully.]

Wanna just sit and chill for a while?

[tevinteraltus]

Yes, I'd rather like that.

[He nods, taking a breath.]

Unlike your attractive and deceptively intelligent brother, you embrace your intellect. I appreciate that about you.

[umbrastaff]

[ She can't help giggling a little at that. ]

Thank you, Dorian. Taako likes to make people underestimate him, but sometimes I'm pretty sure he's smarter than me.

[tevinteraltus]

I doubt he's smarter, though, from what I've heard of your mishap with an umbrella, he is a bit less reckless.

[He smiles.]

[umbrastaff]

Okay, that's fair. I'm definitely the reckless one.

[She's beaming at him, like it was a big compliment.]

Do you have siblings?

[tevinteraltus]

[This is Dorian "I'm a mage but I'm going to charge into the front lines and hit people with my staff" Pavus. It was a compliment.]

No. All my life, I have had the distinct pleasure of being the sole receptacle of my family's hopes and dreams, and the disappointing fate to dash them all to pieces. [He rolls a shoulder in a shrug.] I assume I am an only child simply because my parents loathed one another and were married simply to produce me, which they accomplished. No more need to copulate.

[And all that, it doesn't seem, bothers him to have said, even though he can't lie.] Iona, whom I mentioned before, is the first true friend I've made outside the Imperium, and, while elven, not human, is someone I would trust with my life, and with whom I would share anything. She's seen the very worst of me and her opinion has never wavered. I suppose she's something like a long-lost sibling, though I have little to compare it to.

[umbrastaff]

[ They're both bad wizards in that regard. ]

Shit, you really hit all the bullshit when it came to family, didn't you? At least you grew up to be a cool person in the end, but that couldn't have been easy. [ It was beyond normal human noble stuff and right up there with warning signs.

When he talks about Iona, Lup smiles a little. Found families is something she can totally understand.]

I think I spoke with her quickly, once. I'm glad you have someone like that in your life, Dorian. We don't chose our parents, but we can chose our family.

[tevinteraltus]

[In his defense, he normally uses a shield, first.]

Naturally. [He inclines his head.] They were paired for it, you see, in an attempt to distill the perfect mage and the perfect leader. I'm charming, charismatic, painfully attractive, brilliant, everything they could have hoped for...save one: I am in possession of no desire to reproduce, or to be trapped in a loveless marriage. That tradition, like so many others, has become antiquated. I understand it also stung my father quite a bit that I rather enjoy men and only hid it at the behest of lovers, never for him...and always for them...

[He grimaces and steps back to the zone on which she cast that spell, because honestly now.]

Yes, you're right about that. I think I'll stay here. How long will this spell of yours last?

[umbrastaff]

[ That's actually better than her, good work. ]

Holy...

[ Lup watches him move off to where the antimagic field had been - it was gone now, unfortunately. She would have had to kept her concentration on it for it to remain, so all that happens is a bit of distance between them. ]

Shit, Dorian. The thing's gone, I should just shut my mouth.

[tevinteraltus]

No, no. Those really are my deepest secrets...well, aside from my secret love of Ferelden ale, which has no impact on anything whatsoever, as you've never seen Ferelden, and have no understanding of the implications thereof.

[He smiles.]

You're welcome to share in kind, be a good sport and all that.

[umbrastaff]

I... don't really have secrets like that. I mean, I can tell you about my first boyfriend and how I broke up with him by vomiting on him? Or the time during the cycles when I died in the least cool way possible after slipping and cracking my skull?

Maybe that it took almost thirty years for me and Barry to get together because we were both too chicken to actually do shit about it?

[She pats the space beside her again.]

Me and Taako are identical twins, but I knew I was a girl already as a small child. That wasn't traumatic or anything either, but hey. Sharing.

[tevinteraltus]

[He breathes a sigh, taking the invitation for what it is and moving to a spot beside her, reclining rather gracefully on the ground.]

Dying in that manner seems rather unpleasant, but I'm glad you got better. [He still isn't really sure what to make of this "cycles" he keeps hearing about from them. It all sounds a tad too fanciful to be true, but he was currently in an alternate dimension speaking to an elf who doesn't sleep. Who was he to judge?] Given the longevity of your race, I can't fault your hesitancy. Feelings leave you all too vulnerable.

[Though he frowns reluctantly at her admission at the end.] I know a man in a similar situation. He serves as the lieutenant in a mercenary company in the employ of the Inquisition. His name is Cremisius Aclassi, though he was born a woman, he is very much a man and a fine one at that. [He's done good work with Krem, with his commander or without, but his frown only deepens as he thinks on what she's said.] I envy you that...the lack of trauma.

[umbrastaff]

Mm. I prefer the fancier ones, it makes a good story later.

[ Her little group are so messed up with their death count and the circumstances of getting reset every year. It almost became a meme, dying in the stupidest ways.

His words about her long pining over Barry makes her laugh a little, and she nods. ]

Definitely true, at least for some. The one thing we had on the shit was time, though. Years and years and years of falling in love and being dumb about it.

[ Lup leans back, curious as she hears about this man from Dorian's world. At least her friend knew what it meant, so it was all good. (Dorian should tell her about Maevaris, too.) ]

Maaaybe because I was gung-ho on setting anyone on fire who fucked with us - but yeah, we were lucky that way. We've had a lot of shit, but at least not for who we are and what people we are interested in. Taako's a man, I'm a woman. Taako only likes men, I like both. It's just who we are.

[tevinteraltus]

Stories are important, it's true. [He smiles over to her, though there's a bittersweetness to his smile.] In my experience, falling in love at all is "dumb". I wouldn't recommend it.

[And there are a lot of reasons why.]

Still, It sounds...pleasant, not to be alone. It isn't unheard of in Tevinter of course. I know a senator as well, born as a man by living as a woman, and she's a dear. I think you'd like her. I don't count many of my countrymen among my friends, but Maevaris is certainly one.