monthly mingle: PRIJATA

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: monthly mingle: prijata
when: the month of june
where: anywhere around the city
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

prijata

In the days leading up to June 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Prijata. Riverview Quarantine has a strong culture of love, and they celebrate all types - Prijata is a special celebration of platonic love and building community through friendship. Prijata traditions include gift exchanges between friends, sharing meals cooked together by friend groups, and a variety of events and services aimed at making friends.

a celebration of platonic love

Prijata is a relatively relaxed holiday, focused mainly on friendship and platonic love - dedicated to appreciating the friends already in one's life, and opening oneself up to making new friends. Besides the private giving of gifts between friends, there is also a city-wide government-sponsored gift fountain that is open throughout the entire month. Included in the wide variety of events catered to finding new friends, are 'speed friending' and a large open exhibition where all the specialized clubs in Riverview can recruit for new members - and residents new or old can create a club and recruit.

i. gift fountain

While Prijata gift exchanges between friends are generally a quiet affair, done at friend-group dinners or parties, the element of gift giving does extend outward - community-wide, in fact. Throughout the course of the month, anyone living in Riverview Quarantine can drop by the huge fountain in the City Center, in front of the City Hall. They will find that the fountain is chock full of floating gift boxes in a wide variety of colors, patterns, and different shapes - though none larger than a shoe box. There are signs put up around the fountain stating that the boxes are magic and will only seek and open for their rightful owners. Characters will find that, upon touching the water, a box will float over to them, and when they pick it up, the top will unfurl like flower petals, displaying the gift inside. Sometimes, the box won't appear on the first try, since there's only so much space in the fountain at any given time, but if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Every person in the city (including new arrivals) will receive one gift by the end of the month.

Gift fountain boxes will contain one small item from each character's home dimension (or, for CRAUs, from their previous game), similar to the "items from home" bonus reward, but without needing to spend points. The item should be small enough to fit in a shoebox, sentimental, and cannot be something intended for another person's character. If you can't think of an item like this that would work for your character, something of similar size and quality to what's described above that would make the character very happy can be substituted.

This prompt can also be used for gift exchanges and for characters to receive the Government-given gifts that were suggested in the Prijata Pregaming post on the meme community. Any newly apped character is welcome to post on the meme entry as soon as they're accepted, and will be linked to it in this month's acceptance notification, so to all you pre-existing players please keep looking at the Prijata Pregame meme throughout app week and afterward to help give new arrivals a warm friendly welcome!

ii. speed-friending

This is pretty much what it says on the tin! Much like speed-dating setups, many bars, coffee shops, and other places that people might gather are holding speed-friending! It's your standard setup - characters enter and fill out a quick questionnaire about themselves, and flit from table to table looking for someone with great friend chemistry. Not all of them are general and open to anyone who walks in, though, with many being specialized to people who are invested in certain hobbies, occupations, or with specific sets of interests. With specialized speed-friending setups ranging from horror movie buffs to members of the Perimeter Guard to fashionistas to sports or martial arts to video games, no matter what your character is into, they're likely to be able to sign up for a special event where they can go looking for a friend who's into the same things they are!

For this prompt, you can put up a list of hobbies or interests your character has, and compatible characters can hit them up for a speed-friending thread, like the IC equivalent of the CR meme!

iii. club exhibition

Speed-friending is all well and good, but not everyone is outgoing or open enough to know if they have friend chemistry in only a few minutes. For anyone looking to find groups of like-minded individuals they can spend more than a few minutes with before committing to something as daunting as a friendship, there is a month-long club exhibition happening in the Town Square in the City Center. Table after table and booth after booth are occupied by existing clubs in the city, with an incredibly broad scope of focus interests and hobbies - enough that any character should be able to find a club with their niche interest represented.

And if it isn't? Characters are welcome to start their own clubs - much like a business, a character-run club can have space set aside in the city for meetings and event mingles that are eligible for Activity Point Bonuses for the organizer.

iv. amusement park & waterfight

Remember the Amusement Park that citizens of the city were working together to clean up and power up a couple of months ago? Well, the endeavor has proven to be a success, and after a lot of hard work and technical expertise, the amusement park is up and running! For the first two weeks of June, admission will be free to honor those who helped make the park usable.

Sporting just about any amusement park ride you can think of, from kiddie rides, merry-go-rounds, and ferris wheels to high-speed roller coasters and more extreme rides for the thrill-seekers, the park takes it a step further by adding in a lot of different high-tech attractions not available at conventional amusement parks. It has banks and banks of VR simulators that allow park-goers to enjoy a variety of adventures and scenarios, or join shared mutual worlds with other users to explore or take out their aggression with a VR first-person shooter. There are also rows and rows of typical carnival games, some heavily rigged and some not, with prizes ranging from dollar store trinkets to stuffed animals to bits of advanced tech.

For the month of grand opening, though, the amusement park is offering a couple interesting events - a naming contest for the park, and a park-wide water fight.

The water fight is opt-in, with participants signing up and being given a purple or orange flag, tank top, or cap to wear marking them as to which team they're part of. There are buckets of water balloons around the park that are constantly being refilled by staff, and water fighters can participate in special target practice games to win the use of a watergun for the duration of the day - how big your watergun is depends on how well you do in the game! Ultimately, there aren't any real winners or losers, because the point is to get wet in the brand new summer heat, but it's always more fun to cool off with a bit of competition involved, right?

The naming contest is another story. Anyone who visits the park is welcome to think up a name for the park, and all entries will be listed on a large LED board. Every customer who enters the park is invited to vote for their favorite name, and the name with the most votes wins! To submit either an in-character suggestion or a suggestion from yourself as a player, hit up the thread below with a new top-level; whether or not you have a neat idea, place a vote for your favorite! Votes are one per player; suggestions are one per character.

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to set up headers for a communal floor, or threads open to roommates for the purpose of getting to know each other. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during Prijata, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: Odysseas Stamoglou; image ii: Dave Arredondo; image iii: spainforpleasure.com; image iv: mit19237

navigation

Comments

Alex Reagan | The Black Tapes Podcast | OTA

[11calls]

i. gift fountain part 1.

[Alex loves getting gifts, and if you think that she's not going to practically bouncing over to the fountain when someone tells her to touch it, well, you don't know Alex. Grinning broadly, as if this is the coolest thing that she's seen in a while, Alex leans forward and she brushes her fingers across the water, watching as a blue and green box floats towards her.

When it opens, her mouth dropped open in return, and Alex let out a rather loud squeak, and coupled it with an:] Oh my god!

[The digital recorder inside is a bit battered and has seen worse for the wear from how many times she'd dropped it when running around doing something stupid, but it was definitely her own, judging from the slightly faded and grubby PNWS logo sticker on it. After a second, Alex rewinds the digital recording, and hits play and then she just hears a familiar voice, her own at that saying "Don't go." Before she quickly turns it off, color in her face. Still, with all of that, she looks happy as she slips it into her purse.]

Gift fountain part 2.

[Alex has sort of parked herself near the fountain, sitting in a chair in a sundress and drinking an iced coffee. She's wearing a sunhat, and next to her, she's got an overly large, overly packed straw bag next to her, and inside it, she's got a fair amount of gifts, not just for the people that she knows, but for anyone who looks like they need one, honestly. They're assorted shapes and sizes and wrapping paper, but if someone looks like they need a gift, they get one.]

Water fight!

[Alex Reagan is originally from Vancouver, and she was living in Seattle before she came here. Being as both places can be really typically rainy, Alex is out enjoying the amusement park and the water fight that comes with it. She's wearing a bathing suit, but with a tank top over it that says 'In my defense, I was left unsupervised.' She's also wearing a purple flag from her shoulder, and she's hefting a balloon in each hand. She knows that she can try for a water gun, but honestly, Alex is fine just doing this like this.

Guerilla warfare is way more fun. Her aim isn't perfect, but it tends to be pretty good, and when she takes a balloon in return, Alex just giggles like an idiot.]

Amusement park musings.

[Once upon a time when Alex was doing research for her show, she found an absurd amount of people thought that amusement parks were creepy. Most things she could see the creepy factor in them (chart it up to an overabundance of imagination or what not) but when she was actually here and caught up in the carnival-like atmosphere, Alex couldn't see it. She'd changed out of her wet clothing when the water fight was done, and instead was wearing a sundress and a pair of sandals that are completely absurd with strawberries for a strap. She can be found eating some absurdly pink cotton candy, or just wandering about playing games.]

Wildcard. Office mates.

[Alex was used to being mostly alone in the offices at the Riverview News Service, and honestly, she quite liked it for the most part. When she needed noise, Alex Reagan just decamped to a coffee shop before coming back here to work in the relative silence of her office. But when she heard that there was someone else assigned to the spaces there, she just headed over to knock on his door, carrying two cups of decent black coffee in paper cups in her hands. After all, if she was going to warn someone about the coffee machine, it was only fair to bring him some actual good coffee to replace it. Bumping her elbow on the door, Alex just said quickly, in her chipper, canadian accented ready for radio voice:]

Knock knock!

gift fountain part 2

[jolting]

[By this point Victor has received his gift, but he still comes by the fountain. He's trying to figure out the magic of it. The fact that it's just giving out stuff doesn't sit well with him. So many years of Storybrooke has branded the rule of magic with a price into his mind.

He notices Alex and gives her a little wave. His eyebrows go up seeing the basket]

Wow. Someone's popular.

[He's assuming those are all gifts people gave her]

[11calls]

[The way his eyebrows go up just makes Alex laugh softly, and she quickly shakes her head in order to stop that notion.]

Actually, someone tends to go a bit nuts when it comes to giving presents. So, we've got this. As a matter of fact...

[Alex looks down into the basket and ruffles through it until she finds the parcel labeled 'Victor Frankenstein' which is somehow amazingly, not wrapped in green. Instead it's wrapped in blue instead, and it's heavy as she hoists it over to him, and irregularly shaped, not quite a gift basket with everything inside of it, but not quite not one as well.]

[jolting]

That makes a bit more sense.

[He looks surprised that she's giving him anything, but also touched. The blue wrapping is a good choice. He can't really see colors, but blue is slightly easier to perceive]

Thanks. Should I open it now?

Wildcard

[pinkyswearing]

[ Kai is just starting to settle into this new place, new building and starting from scratch -- and without his sister to do a lot of the dirty groundwork with him. He'll manage somehow. It's also, not exactly been easy to find adderall here and he's almost out and he'll have to find a supplier or a prescription pad to steal -- too bad Rudy isn't here...

And then the recollection of what he'd done to his brother...

But before he can sink too far into the regret and sadness there's a bump on his door, followed by a chipper voice. He raises a brow, this must be the reporter that works in this place. He'd done as much research as he could, groundwork and all.

Instead of calling for her to come in, he moves to open the door and greet her with a charming smile. His hair is pulled back off his face, faded blue with the blond roots growing in. ]

Well, hello there.

[11calls]

[When the door starts to open, Alex has a bright smile on her face as well, but then when she sees who's standing on the other side of it, Alex's eyes go wide all the way around, as she takes in the faded blue of his hair and the expression on his face, and she can't help but just stare. Really stare for a long moment.

Was this what Simon meant by his appearance scaring her? It was a bit unnerving to see him looking so much older than he did as the kid who's picture they'd released from Three Rivers, and that she'd seen, but there was the point that he wouldn't let her see him in Turkey.

Barely managing to hold onto the coffee cups, Alex managed to squeak out:]

Simon?

[pinkyswearing]

[ Kai's eyebrows raise but his smile doesn't change. ]

Be careful there, miss, you almost lost your cups. [ He says with the same charming smile. ]

And no, I'm not Simon. The name is Kai Anderson and who do I have the pleasure of meeting?

[seeingscarlet]

You know, they're cheating.

[Wanda cocks her head and eyes the stacked bottles. It's a simple enough game: knock the bottles over, win a prize...except she can feel the added weight in them. Those bottles aren't going anywhere without some help, especially with such a pathetically lightweight ball.]

The bottles are too heavy.

[11calls]

I know. It reminds me of back home though, in that way. Some of the games aren't weighted though, so you don't find out until they end getting your money.

[Alex doesn't sound too bothered by it as she turns away from the game, having left her money on the table as it were. It's been too much of a good day in order to end up worrying about being cheated on some game. For Alex, at least, if she catches someone else getting cheated, she'd probably take more issue with it.]

Thanks for the warning though. [The words come with a grin, and she offers the other woman her hand.] I'm Alex.

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda.

[She only hesitates the tiniest fraction of a second before shaking Alex's hand. She's still getting used to being treated like a normal person again, not like she's going to make someone explode if she sneezes or whatever nonsense people have gotten into their heads.]

If you throw the ball very hard, you may still be able to knock them over.

[...or if you have a psychic backing you up. Okay, it's technically cheating, but they haven't caught on or kicked her out of the park yet.]

gift fountain part 2!

[knightofcybertron]

[By now, Wing has set to wandering about after viewing the fountain for some time. He hasn't touched the water yet, as he has seen others do, to find out if it will offer him a gift, and he doesn't know why. Perhaps he will later. But here he has found a stranger to him, and he's not quite so hesitant to approach someone who may potentially be a new friend, now that most of the city has at least seen him around and knows not to fear him. So he offers a smile and steps a little closer, keeping his distance modest in case his size makes her nervous.]

Enjoying the event, I see.

[11calls]

[Alex is a short lady. so most things tend to tower over her, but even so, her brows grow up when she sees how tall he is. There's no shock of scream of surprise, instead Alex just offers up a grin, and she nods. She's not scared of him, that's for sure, and instead Alex is wondering what she's got in the bag of gifts labeled 'friend' that might work best for him. While she's still thinking about it, she gives him another quick smile and a nod.]

I am! I think we need it after last month!

[knightofcybertron]

[Good! He hasn't frightened her. That's the last thing he wants and, sometimes, the first thing he gets, even now. But it's a work in progress. He's getting there. Seeing that she's not nervous of him, he chances a step closer.]

Oh, indeed we do. I saw the network and the illness that seemed to touch some of us. I wasn't one of the ones affected, but I am glad to see it's over. I felt so helpless in it all, but I can only imagine how the others felt.

amusement park

[justbeginning]

[ It's been a really, really long time since Elizabeth did anything even in the sort of... area of a theme park or anything. Past a certain point, there was always school or work or... more work. Then she was in Atlantis, and that's obviously very amusement park-free.

She can't say she's glad to be stuck here. And she can't say that she's not left handling an increasing amount of trepidation about the prospect of staying stuck here for a while yet. That gets a bit hard, because every day is one day longer, and the longer she's here the more she's forced to realize that it's likely it won't happen to end anytime soon.

So a lot of what she's doing is trying. Looking to adjust, to find things here worth embracing or being distracted with. Apart from work. The nanite outbreak put a setback on that, but she's always game to get back onto her proverbial feet.

Elizabeth recognizes her face in passing and changes course to end up in her general vicinity without a second thought. The rides aren't exactly Elizabeth's style and she's not feeling the games at the moment, so the people (and admittedly some of the junk food she hasn't gotten to have for a long time) are the main draw.

Whatever else, there are plenty of good people here. ]

It's Alex, right?

[11calls]

[When Alex hears her name, she instantly looks up with a bright smile. Being good with names and faces is important to her job, so Alex places Elizabeth right away and gives a quick nod in return to go with the grin.]

Yep, that's me. I'm Alex. You're Elizabeth right? Would you like some cotton candy? You'd really be saving me from myself with it.

[Quickly she holds out the bag to the other woman because eating it this way is so much easier than a cone and it also means that Alex is way less likely to eat the entire thing herself, even if it is still quite a distinct possibility to have happen. Or a probability without some help.]

How are you settling in? Still fighting with your skeptics?

[justbeginning]

[ She's quick to smile back. ]

That's me. [ Elizabeth is valiantly prepared to sacrifice herself in the name of saving Alex from this terrible fate. Which is more to say, she'll take some cotton candy off her hands. It's been a while. Might as well enjoy some of the perks of the place. ]

And I've been settling pretty well, thank you. Turns out my skeptics have a better handle on the place than I do.

i. gift fountain part 1

[somakemelaugh]

[He hears her outburst and looks over at her, wondering what could get such a reaction. Everyone else who received something that he had observed seemed pleased with their gift, but hers? Oh, there was something amazing to be seen here, or something that held a deep root in her person.]

[From his seat at the edge of the fountain, he watches her, smiling in his usual way.]

Must be something terribly sentimental.

[11calls]

[For a moment Alex looks surprised, and then a little embarrassed at someone seeing how she reacted to something so strongly. Really, she'd forgotten that she was in public, which she knew was dumb, but there it was. Alex's cheeks flush a bit up to the tips of her ears before she nods in response to the question.]

Yeah, it really is. I mean, it's sort of like an old friend, honestly. But it's my recorder from home. I'm a podcast reporter, so I used it basically all the time. Using my phone here has definitely not been the same.

[somakemelaugh]

[He's not making fun of her, oh no. Rather, he likes her joy in something so small, even without knowing what it might mean to her. He tilts his head.]

Podcast? Not familiar with it, I'm afraid, but I get the idea. There are a few material items in this world I could scarcely live without myself. [One being the mourning chain which, even now, is ever hanging around his waist.]

i.

[killthepast]

[ Curiosity brings Ren to the fountain, though he isn't really expecting much to come of it. What gift could it bring to him that he could possibly want? Nothing tangible, nothing that could be contained in the little boxes.

When he arrives at the site, a tense feeling of anticipation washes over him, and all he can do is linger back and watch as others collect their presents.

That tends to be how he experiences these sorts of events in Quarantine: watching from the sidelines, unable (unwilling?) to allow himself to participate fully.

He nearly decides to leave empty-handed, rather than approach. But as he turns to leave, he catches sight of Alex, parked in her chair, with a bag of gifts. Well, since she's on the short list of people he actually enjoys talking to, he might as well walk up to her. ]

You're truly feeling generous, aren't you.

[ It's barely a question, more an observation. ]

[11calls]

[Kylo is tall, so Alex can see him approaching her, and she's got a ready smile for him, and one of her hands is already shuffling through that bag of presents, looking for the one that she'd found for him in one of the stores. Honestly, Alex was really glad that she'd grabbed a fair amount of extra ones, because just from sitting here she was noticing how many people got things that it seemed that they would prefer not to, and no one needed that after the month that everyone had just gone through.

So, when he said she was feeling generous, Alex just shrugs almost philosophically and gives him a quick grin.]

Yeah, I suppose I am. But after last month, I think most people could do with a bit of cheering up, and I figure when in Rome...

[Alex makes a small sound of triumph when she pulls out a thin, but good sized package wrapped in black, and it's got 'Kylo Ren' written on it in Alex's tight and untidy scrawl. Honestly, her brain goes faster than her hand, so she tends to be messy just to play catch up.]

Here, I saw this and thought of you. A friend of mine back home, he believes that this is the only way to listen to music, so I figured I'd be remiss if I didn't give you a shot at it.

[killthepast]

[ He makes a thoughtful, if noncommittal, sound when Alex mentions recent events. The truth is, he'd been so wrapped up in his own feelings-- about his mother, primarily-- that he spent the past month steeped in the distraction of his job. He was certainly aware of what had been going on, with the nanite-induced illnesses, but had kept his distance from the crisis.

Ren looks at the offered gift, a mild expression of surprise crossing his features. But he accepts it all the same, turning it over in his hands, his brow creased as he studies it. It's clear that whatever he'd been expecting, he hadn't anticipated anyone getting him a gift.

Surprising though it is, the kindness... isn't unwelcome. ]

Thank you...

[ He glances at Alex again, sincerity evident, before he carefully begins to open the package. ]

water fight!

[mistyday]

[Misty, too, is drawn to the water park - though, granted, the rain in Louisiana tends to be of a different sort than in the Pacific Northwest. Either way, she loves water! She wears a plain black one piece under an orange kaftan, signalling her team allegiance from a mile away. And what better place to be practicing her telekinesis than during a water fight?

Granted, it still needs some work - the balloon she aims at Alex completely misses, landing at her feet instead.]

Aw, shit!

[11calls]

[When the water balloon splattered at her feet and sprayed her absurd sandals, Alex let out a squeak of surprise and protest and she jumped backwards in response to it. Looking around when there was that curse, Alex just grinned as her eyes laser targeted on to Misty's, and Alex rolled a very full balloon between her palms.]

Oh! It's so on now, Misty! [The words come with a laugh as she hefts the balloon in the other woman's direction.]

[mistyday]

[Alas, Alex's aim is much better than Misty's and the balloon hits her right in the back as she tries to run away. She yelps with surprise.]

Damn, that's cold!