riverviewlogs | 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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Cisco leans into the bracing weight of Lucretia's hand on his shoulder. When she offers to cast a spell on him, something that would free his thoughts from external influences, he drops his hands, looking at her with sudden hope. It doesn't occur to him to ask what the spell is, how it will work, if there are any risks. Instead, he just gives a small, unquestioning nod. ]

Of course.

[ As if it would never even occur to him to say no, or doubt the efficacy of her spells against whatever enchantment the flower has put over both of them. Lucretia is powerful, and right now, he trusts her completely and without hesitation. Before she even casts it, he says, gratefully: ]

Thank you, Lucretia.

(This gives her a moment of pause. She had been expecting him to take this with a huge grain of salt, considering everything that he knows about her. That, and he's so suspicious about everything right now, but it... doesn't seem to extend to her now that she's thinking about it. After all, he'd let her reassure him every time, let her come into the workshop with him, and now he's fine with her casting a spell on him? He doesn't even know what the spell is.

Lucretia looks at him for a moment, his clear, hopeful expression.)

... Why do you trust me?

(This is weird. It's not that– she likes that he's trusting her, but she doesn't quite understand.)

Of course I-

[ He starts off with a small smile of disbelief, like he has no idea why she's even asking the question. It's like she's asking him why the sky is blue or rain falls down instead of up. It's just a fact. But he pauses, actually thinks about it. She wouldn't ask something so obvious, not with that serious look on her face.

And then it occurs to him that, okay, maybe this is... not exactly the usual state of things between them. It's not like Cisco is on his guard all the time around Lucretia, or suspicious of her motives at every turn. But he doesn't trust her instinctually, automatically. Hell, he doesn't try anybody like that, except Eddie.

So why is he, now? ]

I... don't know.

[ Yet even that realization, which some part of his brain realizes should distress him, is not enough to put a dent in that trust. So he gives a little shrug, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth despite the lingering nervousness in his eyes. ]

But I do.

(She watches Cisco carefully as he processes this. It must be another aspect of the flower... to ground him, perhaps? It would be awful, if he were to become intensely suspicious of everything around him. Lucretia's presence seems to be the only thing from keeping Cisco from flipping out entirely. She's reminded forcibly, unpleasantly, of the kiss bubbles. Designed to bring two people closer together by means of strange circumstances, but ultimately harmless.

Hmm.)

Okay.

(She'll keep this in mind! For now, her expression softens a little at Cisco's tiny, awkward smile.) In any case; thank you. And I hope that this works.

(Mind blank is an eighth level spell, and is no small feat to cast. It takes Lucretia a good thirty seconds to center her thoughts correctly. Her hand is still resting lightly on Cisco's shoulder, and she gives it a gentle squeeze; it helps, to have the point of contact. It should feel like his paranoid thoughts are being muffled, slowly wiped away as she casts.)

[ The effect is not instantaneous. It takes a few moments, for the fear to drain out of him, for his racing thoughts to gradually spin down to a reasonable rate. Cisco keeps his eyes on Lucretia as a sense of peace comes over him. Some part of him can tell that it's not natural. It's not the natural quietness of just waking up from a nap, or being totally focused on some new engineering project. It's more like his brain has been muffled. Like there's a few feet of snow resting on top of his thoughts, insulating him, but slightly smothering.

Still, it may not be natural, and may not be perfect, but it is a huge relief nonetheless. Cisco's shoulders sag and he lets out a long, ragged breath. His smile is a slow and gradual one, but all the brighter for it. Without a word of warning, he throws his arms around Lucretia and hugs her tightly. ]

Thank you. Thank you so much.

(Lucretia relaxes the moment his shoulders drop, unable to help smiling too. It worked! And it seems it has brought him respite, something that brings a tidal wave of relief crashing down over her all at once. It's okay now. She's kept him safe.

It's the reason she returns his hug with such enthusiasm, pressing her cheek happily against the top of his head.)

Of course. Any time, Cisco.

monthly mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

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