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

sam wilson / mcu

[wingedman]

i.

[Having already received his gift don't ask what it is because I don't know on a previous night, Sam returns to the fountain to people-watch. Admittedly, he's curious about the sheer variety of things people get in their boxes, although he's not nosy - he's content to look on from a bench instead of getting up in someone's business. If your character wants to give him a gift, this would be a good time although I'm That Lazy Person handwaving all their prijata gifts oops.

Sam's idly rubbing a feather-shaped ring on one thumb as he watches the crowds ebb and flow. When someone comes near, he offers a:] Hey, wanna sit? There's plenty of room here.

iv.

[With the arrival of summer, Sam is all about that water fighting life. He's decked out with guns - a larger one is strapped over his back, and he has a pair of decent-sized pistols in both hands. He's running around in just a pair of swim trunks, a purple bandanna tied around his bicep. He doesn't care much about teams or winning, he's just out here to get thoroughly soaked.

Which doesn't mean that he isn't about to ambush your character from around the corner of a building, going into a roll before he crouches and fires with his pistols. Sure, this might be easier from the air, but that's cheating. And not nearly as fun. But you might be able to tempt him to do it...]

v.

[The obligatory wildcard option! Hit me with whatever you've got.]

iv. the easiest but most necessary tag

[shoplifter]

[She sprays him in the back of the head with a watergun.

That's it, that's the tag.

And yes, she's dressed in normal clothes, jacket included; she doesn't need your dumb summer clothes.

Do your worse, birdboy.]

[wingedman]

Aw, come on.

[but there's a grin as he slides the big gun over his shoulder.]

You ready for some of this, kid?

[shoplifter]

[She slowly pushes her cupcake-themed sunglasses down, then does a little rude shot at his face again, in response.

Oh, she's ready.]

Too much talking.

[Yes, she just dissed your two sentences.]

[wingedman]

[Finally someone who keeps their mouth shut during a fight.

Although, man, why does he keep fighting literal children? IT IS A MYSTERY.

Thankfully, in Riverview, you don't have to pump up the big guns to get them ready to shoot like some kind of big macho metaphor. And Laura? He knows she can handle more than the average kid. So he lets his wings slide out and suddenly, he's a couple feet above the ground as he takes aim and shoots.]

i

[inebriety]

[Tony has his fountain gift box tucked under one arm and when he approaches Sam he ignores the offer to sit, instead opting to put the box down there instead while he pulls out his wallet and counts out a stack of cash that is then thrust into his face.]

Happy Priwhatever this is called.

[wingedman]

[Blinkblink. Sam takes the money, still looking wholly confused.]

Th...anks? I have something for you at home.

[Whatever it is, expect it to be delivered by either a drone or a fuckoff-huge bird. Yes, that is a size of bird.]

You sure you don't wanna sit?

[inebriety]

[Tony is still fascinated and surprised when people give him gifts.]

You did? Why would you do that?

[wingedman]

Because you're a friend? Same reason why you're giving me a present.

[You know, presumably. Maybe Tony just likes shoving wads of cash at people.]

iv because I am weak

[seeingscarlet]

[Excuse you, cheating is so much more fun. Wanda's half-hidden behind a tree, nearly doubled over giggling, and the reason quickly becomes apparent.

There's a bucket held aloft by wisps of scarlet flying at him. And if Sam thinks she's above chasing him around with it...he's got another think coming.]

[wingedman]

Wanda!

[he doesn't even need to see her to know she's the one behind this nonsense; the scarlet light around the bucket is enough. And since he can't get away from the bucket on the ground -

- scarlet wings that look like they're made from light flare up from his back, and in the blink of an eye, Sam's in the air. Time for some evasive maneuvering. And while he's up there, he's scanning the ground for Wanda herself.]

[seeingscarlet]

[Wanda really wasn't expecting that, but the bucket's completely undeterred and is still trying to chase him. Why worry about it sloshing everywhere when it's in its own bubble?

She just laughs even harder when he calls her name in annoyance. This is prime comedy and the tree should provide enough cover...right? If nothing else there shouldn't be any surprise swooping.]

[wingedman]

[Sam tries shooting the bucket with his bigger gun, but the spray doesn't knock it from its path, of course. An annoyed huff, and- yeah, there's a flash of red hair on the ground. He might not be able to swoop, but-]

Hey there.

[Sam grins down from a branch before he takes aim and fires. Of course, holding still leaves him wide open for the bucket...]

i.

[bythehand]

[ There's something worthwhile about circling back to the fountain, when he's got the downtime. It's sort of got a refreshing energy to it. Consistently positive, which Finn figures a lot of people could use after last month.

It's just... nice. Sometimes nice is nice. He isn't trying to read too much into it. The question takes him a bit by surprise, more because he wasn't paying a lot of attention to his more immediate surroundings than anything else. It's a nice thing to offer. So really, the fountain square's got him 3 out of 3. ]

Yeah. Sure. Thanks. [ And then after about half a second's delay, his brain catches up with his mouth and he actually, you know. Sits. ]

Are you with the Perimeter Guard? [ He thinks he's seen him around there. That's never exactly a guarantee that someone works with them. But Finn knows he knows faces, at least. ] I mean, I know you were the one who did the-- thing. The meetup. For soldiers. But I wasn't sure about the Perimeter Guard.

[wingedman]

[Maybe it's the same sort of thing that makes Sam keep coming back. Memoria is a good holiday - full of shadows, but it lets people get their emotions out (although he prefers it when they do it in healthy ways instead of engineering goddamn magic germs). But Prijata is something totally different

Uh-huh. Support, mainly - I do counseling. But I fill in with the Guard whenever they need help. I was out helping with the flooding, filling sandbags, doing evac, that kinda thing. Gone on a couple exploration missions, too.

[bythehand]

[ Oh, that tracks. Support and counseling. Finn can't say he knows much about the counselors except that they seem a lot chiller than psytechs. Which also tracks. ]

Right. Must be keeping you pretty busy lately. [ Between like. Actually, now that he thinks about it, it's been a wild lineup the past few months. There was the "clear the air" thing that made everyone think about their problems all the time. The flooding. Memoria. The nanite virus. He absolutely must have been kept busy lately. ]

I'm Finn. RR-1 unit. [ After a beat, he turns enough to offer a hand. ]

[wingedman]

You know it. Seems like the only time I've been able to breathe lately was when I ended up in a coma. [Which he's...surprisingly casual about. But now that he's come out the other side of his illness with no harm done, he just sounds a little wry about the whole ordeal.]

Sam. [He takes Finn's hand and shakes it.] You one of John's boys, then? [Because of course he knows John Sheppard.]

iv

[ofmyth]

[So Thor, sporting orange swim shorts, was only planning to get into the waterfight a little because he's a trained warrior and using his skills against civilians is... slightly unfair. Besides, it's hot and getting wet is fun.

But when the opposition performs a tactical roll and surprises him with a hit square in the chest, he feels no qualms throwing a water balloon back hard enough to try to knock one of those pistols out of his hands.]

[wingedman]

[Sam does a bit of a double-take, because, wow, big, blond, and muscular there looks...a lot like Thor. Or Thor before he got his hair chopped short and lost an eye, anyway. Not quite the same, but off in the way that he's used to seeing between his friends and their multiversal counterparts (generally speaking).

But, while he's gawking, the water balloon absolutely knocks his pistol flying. Can't stop to stare, Sam. Can you blame him, though?]

Damn!

[Stupid move. He ducks behind cover and shoves his remaining pistol into the waistband of his trunks, grabbing the larger gun instead and waiting for his adversary to come closer.]

[ofmyth]

[Thor absolutely takes advantage of the staring, but the man is too fast. Another waterballoon splats uselessly against the surface the man's hiding behind.

He only has two balloons left and the discarded pistol is lying right there...

Ready to throw the moment some part of his opponent appears, Thor cautiously approaches the fallen water gun.] Give up now, friend! Save yourself a soaking. [He doesn't expect the man to surrender, he just wants to know his position- whether he's still where Thor saw him last.]

[wingedman]

[Technically Sam's cornered, but that's only when you take the ground into consideration. That whole not cheating thing suddenly finds itself abandoned with a flicker of red light in the shadows, and the next thing Thor knows, Sam's streaking by over his head, propelled by wings of red light that unfurl from his back.

And, just to add insult to injury, he absolutely drops a water balloon as he flies by.]

Sorry, can't hear you!

iv;

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter is really awful at this waterfight game.

Not because he's awful at aiming; far from it, in fact. He's decked out with a rifle of his own – something that looks like a Super Soaker, which is a far cry from the squirt guns he remembers as a kid.

Mostly, he's bad at this because he has no sense of loyalty, and he's pretty indiscriminate about who he goes after. Purple? Orange? Who cares! As long as no one gets hurt, right?

But when Sam comes rolling into his path, guns akimbo and firing, Peter yelps in surprise. That was an impressively well-executed roll, and maybe later Peter will be impressed by it, but—

Then he curses, rubbing at his eye with the back of his wrist. ]

Come on, man. Right in the face?

[ who takes headshots in water fights? honestly!! ]

[wingedman]

Sorry man, training took over.

[There's a brief flash of a grin from Sam's position behind a tree, not that it gives Peter much to aim at. Okay, maybe Sam shouldn't be using his military training in a water fight with civilians. Maybe. It's not like he's out to win or anything - he's just here to cool off and have a good time. But there are some reflexes that get ground into you till they're second nature, and that appears to be one of them.]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter’s expression pinches into one of distaste. ]

You’re gonna take someone’s eye out, dude!

[ ... even if Peter’s totally been using his own skills as part of this water fight. Listen, if they didn’t want him running and leaping off planters and pedestals and fences, they should put up signs saying so.

(There are absolutely signs. They probably say, “No Climbing! No, seriously. We mean it. Not even if it makes you look cool. And yes, this means you, too, Star-Lord,” but Peter’s ignoring them.)

But hey, listen, even if Sam is hiding behind a tree, that doesn’t mean he’s completely out of the woods. Because Peter tugs one of the water balloons he has hanging from his belt and gives it a bit of a spin as he lobs it at the base of the tree. Maybe it’ll flush the dude out? Or at the very least, the water will splatter all over him. So, hey, win-win. ]

[wingedman]

It's water!

[Sam disappears behind the tree completely, and by the time Peter's balloon splashes, he reappears up on a branch with his guns out again. How did he do that? Magic.

Or maybe it has something to do with cybernetic wings. Possibly.

But no matter how he got up there, the result is that he gives Peter healthy squirts from both pistols. No headshot this time, at least?]