riverviewmod: (Default)
Riverview Moderator ([personal profile] riverviewmod) wrote in [community profile] riverviewlogs2018-06-02 10:21 pm
Entry tags:

monthly mingle: PRIJATA

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
tetherer: (042)

[personal profile] tetherer 2018-06-09 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
[The Tetherer inspects the object in Breq's palm, once she's offering to show it to them.

It looks like some sort of religious artifact, almost. Though... it does look eerily like Breq. Maybe it was personalized? The Tetherer really has no context for it.
]

Does it have some kind of cultural significance?
breqintopieces: (Discovering)

[personal profile] breqintopieces 2018-06-10 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
It's a religious icon.

[After a few more moments, Breq folds up the icon again and tucks it away in her pocket.]

It, among other things, was given to me as a favor while I traveled in the Itran Tetrarchy. I didn't expect to find it here, of all places.
tetherer: (041)

[personal profile] tetherer 2018-06-10 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[So their assessment of it was correct.]

My gift came as a surprise, as well. Perhaps they were transported here by the same technology that pulls people.

[They hold up the chain around their neck to show the white gold pendant, of two hands grasping one another tightly.]

Mine was also originally given to me by someone else. A partner of mine.
breqintopieces: (Pleasant Conversation)

[personal profile] breqintopieces 2018-06-10 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[Breq looks over the necklace and nods. Were it a pin, she might have asked if it were about patronage-- but this isn't the Radch. If it's a private gift, the Tetherer at least seems comfortable showing it to her.]

Or they've collected detritus that comes through the portal, and are using 'magic' to match it. It's good to have them back, despite the statistical unlikeliness.
tetherer: (067)

[personal profile] tetherer 2018-06-10 10:41 pm (UTC)(link)
A lot must come through the portal, if past gifts specifically for the people here are among them.

[Statistically unlikely, to be sure.]

Is the religion your gift represents one you follow?
breqintopieces: (Amused)

[personal profile] breqintopieces 2018-06-11 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
[Breq makes a little uncertain gesture.]

I don't know how common it is. Maybe it's easier to draw in things from universes it's already touched.

As close as I come to it. I find the meditations soothing. [There's also the bloodletting part but that's not a good topic for polite company, and something she'd played up to make herself seem more alien, besides.]
tetherer: (4)

[personal profile] tetherer 2018-06-11 06:48 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe.

[That is certainly how Tethers work, but the portal always seemed more random. Maybe it's not.]

Do you meditate in reverence to gods? I'm sorry if my questions are insensitive; I don't have much experience with other religions, so I'm always interested to hear about them.
breqintopieces: (Watching softly)

[personal profile] breqintopieces 2018-06-13 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
[Breq's gesture is a casual shrug.]

I suppose you could put it that way. I'll admit to less reverence than the average citizen, but the effect is the important part.

The interest is refreshing. I don't mind, though I'm no priest.
tetherer: (060)

[personal profile] tetherer 2018-06-13 05:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I see. Then the ritual itself is more important than the intent.

[That's certainly different.]

Is what you follow the major religion among your people?
breqintopieces: (The Seivarden Expression)

[personal profile] breqintopieces 2018-06-15 12:39 am (UTC)(link)
In my case. I may be unusual in that.

[Another shrug. She watches the packages floating in the fountain, as another one starts to bump along toward another person across from them]

It's not. I'm more well-traveled than most. It's likely it would be hard for some to swallow, where I'm from.
tetherer: (135)

[personal profile] tetherer 2018-06-15 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh. Then it's very unique to yourself.

[A religion all her own... it certainly adds to Breq's aura of mystery.]

Nexian religion is very important to daily life and culture, so I'm used to a much less... secular approach than the Quarantine seems to generally have. I'm still getting used to it.

[Especially with how traditionalist the Separator became after she converted.]
breqintopieces: (Scars)

[personal profile] breqintopieces 2018-06-16 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
There are two possible reactions to the intermingling of cultures here. [Breq pauses, tapping a finger against the icon disk, then shakes her head slightly.] Well, three.

[She ticks them off against the edge of the fountain.] First, adopt a universal religion that allows integration of the religions of all us refugees. Second, adopt a secular approach.

Third would be to enforce the local religion militantly, but with the proportion of non-native residents that option would be costly to employ without bloodshed.
tetherer: (12247190)

[personal profile] tetherer 2018-06-28 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ah. The third option would be what option the Nexus took. Of course, there were far more natives or descendants of refugees than there were refugees, so religious minorities managed to crop up mostly harmlessly for those that refused to convert.

Mostly. The Tetherer wasn't involved heavily in dealing with the occasional repercussions this had, but they've... been aware of what went on.
]

Yes, that... would be bad, without the proportion of functionally native families that the Nexus had. I would be interested to see what a universal religion would look like, though.
breqintopieces: (Staring)

[personal profile] breqintopieces 2018-06-30 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
One that makes it very easy to integrate other religions into its own framework. The Radchaai religion has thousands of minor deities, and Amaat, the creator and the universe, easily encompassed any other creator deities central to the local religion.

It did not always work smoothly, but in order to avoid that third option... well. [She shrugs.]
tetherer: (4)

[personal profile] tetherer 2018-07-02 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
The creator and the universe...

[Hmm. They contemplate this. There are many theories as to how the original world was created, but none are solidified in the Nexian religion's core tenets.]

We don't have a Creator, only the three gods who Separated, Tethered, and Destroyed the world into countless new wholes. With the power of proof of Natures and the gods' power, the Nexian religion was easier to uphold as the only real one in all the worlds.
breqintopieces: (Remembering)

[personal profile] breqintopieces 2018-07-02 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
By the theology of the Radch, I assume deities would be incorporated as they are. ...Assuming the people who followed the Nexian religion would go along with it.

[That sort of claim of godhood that the Tetherer describes would have led to death and destruction-- not the best topic for a celebration, with gifts stacking themselves nearby.]

As always, it's different elsewhere.
tetherer: (042)

[personal profile] tetherer 2018-07-08 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
It's hard to imagine.

[Religion is so important to the Nexus, after all. They've soaked others in like a sponge all this time. For thousands of years.

An institution that old, that powerful... it's hard to think of it as surmountable in any way.
]

Well, thank you for sharing this with me. I'm sorry if my questions were too probing.
breqintopieces: (Default)

[personal profile] breqintopieces 2018-07-10 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
[Breq gestures ambivalence, as she watches the fountain.]

Not at all. There's no better place to learn than a crossroads.

[In other words, she's learning too, as they linger by the gifts and talk.]