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

[devilstongue]

[ That finger waggle is cute, honestly. ]

You have spells like that?

[spellslots]

I've got all sorts of spells, pumpkin.

[Just gonna add a wink with that because he's the worst.]

Teleportation is just one of 'em.

[devilstongue]

[ Now, Molly is not an wizard expert or anything (he knows approximately shit other than what he's seen Caleb do), but teleportation? That's some serious spell, right there. ]

You were not kidding when you said you were the best transmutation wizard! I definitely want to try this!

[ Show him the magic, Taako. He wants to be cool. ]

[spellslots]

It can be a little disorienting, but I've got you.

[It's always nice to impress people, especially in this place when there are people like Loki. So he unhooks the umbra staff from where it's hanging on a belt loop and makes a quick gesture in the air with it.

And just like that, they're standing on the street outside of one of Taako's favorite bars, a little hole-in-the-wall place that does very good cocktails.

He's definitely grinning.]

All good, bubbale?

[devilstongue]

[ Molly looks a little dazed for a moment, but then he's grinning so wide that his fangs are on display. He almost looks like he wants to applaud, because honestly magic that isn't harmful is completely new to him - Jester's healing aside. ]

That was amazing!

[ It seems he's also not queasy, which might be a first. That, or he's good at hiding it. ]

[spellslots]

[He might not clap, but Taako does a tiny little bow/flourish once they've arrived.]

Wait until I turn into a direwolf, I'm very good at my shit.

[Lup is the only one who gets queasy leave him alone.]

[devilstongue]

You certainly are an experience.

[ There's something both impressed and suggestive about that, especially the look in his solid red eyes - but then he looks at the venue. ]

Nice place.

[spellslots]

[Taako @ himself: you have a boyfriend.]

I do my best, on both fronts. There's a lotta good places on this moon if you know where to look. [On that note, he's going to push open the door to the bar and head inside.] I'll take you to Trix sometime but that's more of a nightclub than a spot for a drink.

[devilstongue]

[ It's fancy - fancier than he expected (at least from medieval fantasy standpoint), and Molly is briefly uncertain if he has the money for this. He got some from the people in charge, and he might have a job lined up (and how weird was that?) but he still had to be careful.

Which sucked, considering the joy he had felt of having tons of gold thanks to the shenanigans with the Mighty Nein. ]

What would you like? I'm afraid I don't really know much about drinks in this place, apart from the standard ale, mead and wine.

[spellslots]

Don't worry, darling, I've got it.

[Never mind that he literally started this expedition by insisting Molly by him a drink, Taako's already at the bar, leaning across it so the woman behind the counter can plant a kiss on his cheek. If they'd just stayed at the amusement park and gotten a cheap drink he would've let Molly pay, but this is a fancier place and Taako (obviously) knows the bartender.

He orders two cocktails, something tropical for himself and after another glance at Molly, something dark rum and vanilla based. The bartender tells him to take a seat and she'll bring them over, so he heads to one of the booths with another little finger waggle to let Molly know he should follow.]

Have you ever had rum before?

[devilstongue]

[ He's a little confused, honestly. Still, he nods to the bartender in greeting and lets Taako order for them - and slides the approximate money down his pocket on the way back to a seat. He's got good sleight of hand!

Shrugging off his coat and wrapping the scimitars in it, he sits down in the booth with his things next to him, making a little content sigh at the padding. Everything here in Riverview was so damn decadent, he's going to be spoiled for life. Even the shitty community housing beds were real mattresses and not hay!

At the elf's question, he smiles. ]

I have! It's a little more unusual where I'm from, but I've traveled a lot. It's good.

[spellslots]

["Confused by rolling with it" is the best way to deal with Taako, who tends to just follow whatever whim catches him in the moment.

He clocks both the scimitars and the scars, but isn't being too obvious about it.]

Excellent, cause that's what I got you, everything's pretty good here. [That's why he likes it.] So what is it you do, my fella? You don't exactly look military, but those don't seem decorative.

[Those being the swords.]

[devilstongue]

Then I look forward to trying it!

[ The question of what he does is kind of fun, because why not spin a story? Mostly some variation of the truth, though, because it's wild enough already.]

Military? Goodness, no! I used to be the star of a circus not too long ago, but I decided to try my luck adventuring! I'm fairly decent with those swords, so I joined a famous group known as the Mighty Nein.

[ He looks a little fond at that. ]

They're good people, at least so far. I'm keeping my eye on them.

[spellslots]

[He could make an insight check on that but honestly he doesn't care all that much if Molly isn't being entirely truthful. It doesn't hurt anyone.]

The Mighty Nein, huh? That's not the worst name I've heard, kinda intimidating. Have you fought any cool shit yet? We faced off against a purple worm a couple months before I got here and lemme tell you, not the most fun I've ever had.

[She was very big.]

[devilstongue]

You killed a purple worm?

[ Holy shit, Taako. Molly's kinda blown away - this elf is some serious shit if he's not lying. ]

The biggest thing we've fought is a hill giant.

[spellslots]

[He holds up a hand to wave that off.]

We fought a purple worm, luckily it was a mama worm and once we survived long enough to get her to her babies she left us alone. And, well, she did also kill us like at least four times, if that makes ya feel better.

[This is a normal sentence to say.]

But hey, a hill giant isn't anything to scoff at. I've done ogres and they were rough, so...

[devilstongue]

You died?

[ Okay, now he has to be lying, right? Insight check that bullshit, but it seems genuine???

????????????????????????????

He needs a drink right now. ]

[spellslots]

[It's perfect timing, because the bartender turns up with their drinks, setting them on the table with a wink to Taako.]

Right, uh, fucked up time magic kept bringing us back until we got it right.

[He's not going to worry about explaining the Starblaster]

[devilstongue]

[ Excuse him, he's knocking back that shit. It's probably delicious but Molly is somewhere between scared and horny right now. ]

That is... certainly something.

[spellslots]

Sorry, darling, I kinda forget it's a weird thing, dying is pretty uneventful.

[Or at least it is for him, since he never got beyond darkness.]

A few people here have done it, but that's cause they beefed it for good back home so this is just a second chance, they can't go home and some of 'em are touchy about it.

[devilstongue]

[ That hits kind of close to home, honestly. A second chance. He knows he's not the same person that died, but still.

The tiefling tries to pull himself together, and manages a smile. ]

You are one fascinating man, Taako.

[spellslots]

[He mouths "not a man" to himself but it isn't worth fussing about.]

I haven't even got to the part where I've traveled between the planar system yet.

[devilstongue]

Elf.

[He corrects himself, because Molly is good with passive perception shit.

...then his head honestly hurts, because what the fuck.]

You have to be messing with me.

[spellslots]

[That just gets a little salute with his drink before Taako takes a sip.]

Nope, I'm a member of the Institute of Planar Research and Exploration, we figured out how to travel outside our planar system and I haven't been back since.

[devilstongue]

This is the strangest story I have ever heard. [ He grins. ] I'm into it.

[ What else could he do, honestly? If it was a lie it was a damn entertaining one, and it it wasn't, he's pretty sure he's meeting a goddamn arch mage. Caleb would have a fit. ]