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

III

[nobasisinfact]

[After his last encounter, Richard wasn't expecting much when he was thrown out of Howard's house and sent to go 'make some friends.' While the sentiment was getting old, he had some things to think over in regards to the postings on the network. People you knew and loved having a life here before you arrived. Even if this was a delusion, (which it was), that didn't mean that Alex didn't feel like she'd been here for so much time before he'd arrived. It begged the question of what else had happened while he wasn't here. Why she was reading the books she was. They didn't seem the type she would choose without reason.

Alex was always more of a Bronte and Lawrence person then theoretical physics.

He almost passed the stall where Jeff was being waylayed, but something about the man's speech patterns reminded him of the conversation he'd had with someone on that stupid friendr site that Alex had forced him to partake in.

In the end, he decided to stop and follow the voice. Curiosity had never been a problem for him, but, he was curious. He glanced over the materials, making sure to show no real interest before he addressed the man.]

Gardening?

[bardish]

[ Oh thank god, SALVATION. Jeff's so relieved to have another person join the party, if only so he can ease into disengaging from the gardening club member who's telling him all about the ins and outs of soil selection. So far, his every attempt at a graceful exit has been stalled by the guy promising that his next point will be his last.

He's already gone off on five "one more thing"s to add on the subject of soil. Jeff's been counting. ]

Heeeey!

[ He gives Richard a big smile in greeting, patting the other man on the shoulder. Hope you don't mind that overt display of friendliness. Jeff's working on his escape plan here. ]

Buddy! There you are. My new friend here was telling me all about the gardening club. [ Jeff waves a couple of brochures, so full of excitement. ] It's fascinating. Really. Let me tell you all about it at lunch-- [ Apologetically, to the gardening club rep: ] which we're late for.

[ Come on, Richard, play along. Help him out here, man! He doesn't want to talk about soil anymore! ]

[nobasisinfact]

[This has become thoroughly awkward. Compounded by the fact that this man is now metaphorically hanging on him. It was almost disturbing, but the speech pattern was clearly the one he remembered in text form from that friendr conversation about recreational drugs.

He was reasonably sure he neither got nor wanted to get the man's name at the time. Even now, the predicament he was in had been entirely his own doing.

One thing was clear though; the man had no intention of joining the damned gardening club. If it was the person Richard thought, it was the draw probably to grow hemp. So he'd gotten himself caught by an actual garden enthusiast, and now Richard had gotten caught by him. Which made Richard almost as bad as him in the end.]

I don't care about gardening.

[It was blunt and, as he said it he pointedly looked at the person who was talking happily about soil.]

[bardish]

[ Sorry to break it to you, man, but "Awkward" is Jeff's middle name. Actually, it's "David," but that doesn't change the fact that in a minor social crisis (like: "how do I escape this verbal beating of a dead horse without seeming rude?") he becomes an alarmingly awkward person.

Let's just say that when Jeff dies, his tombstone definitely won't read "Cool under pressure (real or imagined)."

Thankfully, where Jeff kept dithering and failing to assert his disinterest, it looks like this guy's able to cut right to the point and break the enthusiastic gardener's heart with a simple, decisive statement. Well, whatever works, as long as Jeff's not the one to disappoint them. ]

Oh, well, uh. [ He shoots the gardener a contrite grin. ] Sorry, guess this isn't his scene. We should go. It was lovely talking soil with you. Bye!

[ Keeping up the facade of familiar camaraderie, Jeff's going to make a valiant attempt to guide the man he'd just conscripted into friendship away from the gardening club. But, to his (uh, small?) credit, he drops the act once they're out of earshot. ]

Sorry. I was just desperate to get out of that conversation. [ He offers his hand to shake. ] Jeff.

[ Nope, he totally hasn't put two and two together to realize that this is the skeptic he'd spoken to the other day, on Friendr. ]

[nobasisinfact]

[Jeff's attempts to guide Richard were met by Richard quickening his pace. The whole idea that this was, apparently, because the man didn't know how to say no was annoying. How could a person conceivably go through like without saying no, politely or not. Even the kindest people he'd ever met knew how to tell someone to fuck off. He couldn't imagine the things this man had gotten into because of this, stupid quirk of his.

To his credit, Jeff did stop, and Richard appreciated that. He didn't need some random person pretending they were old friends every time they accidentally crossed paths.

When he offered Richard his hand and name, Richard reluctantly accepted. There was honestly no reason for him not to. Just offering a name didn't agree to a lifelong commitment, and it wasn't as if he were giving Jeff his home address or something.]

Richard Strand, and I advise you to learn to say no.

[bardish]

[ Hey, at least he can say no when people are being dicks! It's just... when they're nice about it, it's so hard to disengage. But now that they're away from the pushy gardener, he can relax a little and stop worrying about inadvertently crushing somebody with disappointment.

It helps that Richard doesn't seem like a particularly sensitive person, so there's no fear of accidentally hurting the guy's feelings or anything. ]

Believe me, I'm working on it. [ Haha no he's not. But, wait. Jeff blinks, peering at Richard with belated recognition. The name helps things click together. ] We spoke before, haven't we? You're the guy with the theories.

[nobasisinfact]

[Richard knew people like Jeff. People who said they were going to do something but then never did. They were, annoying, and easily manipulated into forgetting what they were initially planning on doing. Jeff seemed like one of those types of people, so Richard doubted that he really was working on trying to be more assertive when saying no to people. Instead, he assumed Jeff would remain the same. Always getting into situations like the one Richard had just 'saved' him from. Not that he had planned to stick around long enough to see if there were any results.

There had been an assumption that Jeff had already figured out that Richard was the same man from the friendr. After all, he spoke the same as he wrote. Of course, he still had to reply, well, he didn't have to, but he would.]

Yes, and you're the man looking for narcotics.

[It seemed an appropriate time to remind the man what he'd asked about.]

[bardish]

[ Shit.

Called out. Both in what Richard's saying to him and in what Richard's thinking-- luckily, Jeff's not privy to the latter, painfully accurate as it is. At least Jeff tries to look chagrined at the reminder of his, uh, quest for marijuana. ]

You make it sound so shady. I'm not, like, skulking around looking for dealers! I'm just-- [ Pause. Okay, so many he was actually looking for some kind of 420 aficionado group or something, just so he could get a hookup for some medicinal mari--

...

Oh. Wait. That is 'skulking around looking for dealers.' Jeff trails off, realizing he didn't really have a good argument lined up in his defense. ]

[nobasisinfact]

Skulking around, looking for dealers?

[It's easy to finish Jeff's sentence for him, after all, he was at the horticulture tent, and he was asking about illegal narcotics. It wasn't hard to put a rather thick pin into what he was doing at the tent. There was a part of Richard that thought Jeff had gotten exactly what he deserved in regards to the potting soil conversation. After all, if you go to a horticulturist, you're going to find out about dirt and actual plants. If one were looking for a more shadier plantlife, Richard doubted that it would be found in what was basically a college club exhibition.

Still, rescuing Jeff wasn't without its benefits. There was the possibility that Jeff would feel indebted to him, something useful at a later date should it arise, but more importantly, there was something Jeff had distinctly mentioned that was currently a more pressing matter. For now, though, he'd watch Jeff dig his own hole.]