riverviewlogs | monthly mingle: PRIJATA

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

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She watches with concern, and really, she can't imagine what that's like. She just... heals. Venom, stab wounds, broken bones, they just heal for her, and she couldn't imagine what that must've been like. But she also knows from experience that life does these sorts of things; many of her friends have died. Maybe of her friends have been hurt terribly. It's best to simply accept it and push onward.

She reaches to turn her paper, reading it aloud to help.

"I like horses and candy and almost any kind of food. I speak and write Spanish. Art and P.E. are my favorite classes. I don't like stupid people like Susan from school."

"I like horses too," She said, glad to have found something in common with her. "We have some at the farm and I've been learning to ride..before this."

Before she lost her sight. Soon as they found a cure, she would go back to learning. "P-E, that stands for Physical education, right?"

She was meant to start the term at the start of fall, but now they were focused on her learning to adjust. With any luck, she would still be able to start if she progressed to what she needed to be.

"I love how they look when they run. They're... pretty."

It's hard not to appreciate the way their hair plays on the wind as they go.

"Physical Education, yes. My stamina, speed, and strength are high, so I do well at it."

The small positives of being enhanced and mutated.

"I was...I am..supposed to start school this term." Her social worker tried to tell her that at best, her enrollment might be delayed, but she'd been promised that her condition wouldn't prevent her from entering.

"Do you know how to ride?" The times she had actually seen Laura and from what she knew of her, Gyda saw no reason why she shouldn't. "I was learning to ride when I had my sight. Once you get used to being that high up, it's almost like flying."

"I do not... I've never had the chance yet."

She'd like to, though. She would like to feel like flying.

"You should start school. It is a nice way to make friends."

Laura is not very good at making friends — she's too odd and quiet and scary when angered, but she's learned to live with being that sort of outcast. Besides, she's not really sure how to relate to most of the children here, not when her background is so steeped in violence. But Gyda should be able to get more friends. She's a nice girl.

A server came up and asked Gyda if she would like anything; she asked if she might have a sticky bun and the milky coffee.

"There are horses on the farm." Having visited Athelstan plenty of times before loosing her sight (and even afterwards) she was well aware of this. "One of the farm hands could give you lessons."

If she didn't already know how. Gyda had a strong feeling this was the case.

"You seemed to have made a few enemies." If her list was anything to go by.

She rolls her eyes just thinking about said enemies.

"They are bullies. They are mean to many kids — stay far from Susan, because she's a two-faced cabrón." A pause, as she considers her time at school, namely in the presence of people like said girl. "If she or anyone ever gives you trouble or hurts you, let me know; I will knock them into a trash bin."

She didn't know what 'cabron' meant, but she could understand the context just the same. "What does she look like?" She hoped by the time school started, she would have her vision back. "Or..if I can't see her..what else should I know about her?"

If she were to stay away from someone, she would need to have some information on them.

"I think my father and brother would wish for me to knock them myself." She managed to smile at her. "But a second person with me is appreciated."

Laura was better in combat than she was.

"She usually has pigtails. You will know her best for her annoying voice, though. She almost sings everything; it's very annoying." Laura's ire for Susan knows no bounds. "And she always has a flock of other girls around her, so you will likely hear them say her name a lot. They are like seagulls."

Laura has been down by the beach, she knows exactly the perfect visual.

"I'd be more than happy to help."

"Sings a lot and has a lot of girls around her." If she were still blind by the time she enrolled in the school, those were things she'd best be able to keep an out for.

The comparison made her laugh. She knew the visual well enough to be able to picture it in her head. "

A server arrived with her bun and coffee. "Does Susan fight a lot, or does she just use words?"

"She never shuts up," is the totally kind answer.

But she smiles a little, anyway.

"Sometimes people should stop and enjoy the quiet."

She doesn't see, but the smile's evident enough in her words. "She doesn't sound like she would. People who talk a lot often get themselves in the most trouble, like the god Loki."

Well, the loki from myths anyway. The god was as known for getting himself in as much trouble as he did to get himself out of it. "When the timer goes off, we should go to the stables. They could arrange riding lessons, and at this time of the day it's often quiet."

"We should. I would like that a lot," Laura says kindly — it's easier to speak to children than to adults, in times like these (unless they're the likes of Susan, really). But she couldn't help but wonder — "Have you met Loki?"

"I've met..one of him," She'd been told that there where several 'versions' of the god; she'd met one once on the her friendr account, while her brother was connected to the one they mostly knew from the sagas. "But he was younger then I've heard and this was a while ago, so I don't know if he's still in this realm."

Which didn't seem as sad as it should've been. If the gods decided to come and go back within this place, who was she to say otherwise; though she'd be sad if Thor had to leave.

"He is. I have not met the young one, but I know the older one."

She cocks her head to the side, curious. It's strange to leave Transigen and walk into this world where there are so many intricacies to culture — she can't really wrap her head around just how many there are, or where to look for her own sense of self. She never really had a 'culture'. She never really belonged anywhere like that.

"I've never known about gods before; you've heard of them often?"

"Only the ones that matter," She answered, a slight grin forming on her face without fully realizing it. "We're told the stories of the gods since childhood. Maybe the details are different, depending on the skald or seer who's doing the telling, but the main parts are all the same and it's fun listening to them talk about who's heard what."

When a good portion of the year involves days that only last a few hours, there was little to do besides tell stories and games.

That's interesting. She was not particularly told... much of anything, about the outside world. Little glimpses through words, here and there. But nothing ever concrete; nobody was ever allowed to do such a thing, to tell them the stories of the world. Escaping Transigen was like being born again.

"It must be strange, to meet the people from those stories."

"Yes and no," She admitted, licking her fingers. The sticky bun was good, but rather messy; she might've tried to eat it with a fork next time, but where was the fun in that. "We know the walk among us back home, especially the god Odin, but they often take different forms and its only by signs or recalling the stories that you know who they are."

So seeing them in this world wasn't a total surprise, but it was strange to see them just admit to who they were-especially Loki.

Forks are for squares, never use them. Laura does to appease some of the adults in her life, but really, she can't blame anyone for using their hands to eat. It's not like you can't wash them later, right? They're there to use, c'mon. "I don't think we have them in my world. We only have mutants — and there are not that many left anymore."

She would like to think there are people like Loki, magicians of sorts.

But she isn't holding her breath, because her world offers little comfort.

"Maybe mutants in your world are descendants of gods, or perhaps the elves." Such things were possible; maybe the descendants didn't all have powers, but they were often chosen for one thing or another.

"Are you able to come to the stables, now?" She didn't like to think that there weren't so many gifted people in Laura's world anymore. Perhaps it could've just been a matter of time, but even she knew that many would fear such powers. "They shouldn't be so crowded."

It's a curious thing to wonder, certainly. Where did mutants truly come from...? Maybe someone like Rogue or Gambit could tell her. But she's pulled quickly from her thoughts, eyes widening slightly. The thought of visiting horses right now? Instantly more appealing than friend-dates.

"... Let's go."

And it's as easy as that, to decide.

She felt the table move and heard the chair pull away from the table. She did so herself, taking hold of her cup in her free hand, the cane in the other.

"You'll have to lead the way to the stables." It was simple enough to get the spoken directions on the device, but at the moment both her hands were full.

"Yes, I can help. Do you want to hold hands?"

She is fond of hand-holding, even if she doesn't do it too often. But Laura's never really been around someone blind; it's hard for her to know the right way to handle the situation, other than offer whatever means of aid she can.

Gyda thought a moment. Though she had nothing against holding hands, she wondered if she might be able to manage.

Then again, with another person, perhaps she might not have to rely on one.

"Alright." She carefully pushed herself from the table, taking both her cane and drink in hand. Her cane was equipped with a strap, she looked it around her wrist, holding the hand out to Laura.

The girl was straight forward, so she trusted her not to lead her anywhere dangerous or embarrassing.

She takes her hand with patience and softness. There's no need to rush, really.

"You will have to explain which way to go. Is that alright?"

She's not sure where the farm is, but as long as she can lead a general direction, they can make it work.

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monthly mingle: PRIJATA

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