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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[Don't mind the weird whirring noise his suit makes — he's suddenly completely dry after it stops whirring, anyway.

Stark tech is bonkers.]

I'm the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man — Mr. Stark added the friendly neighborhood thing, but it makes me sound a little less scary. You know, a lot of people are arachnophobic, and all that.

[ The weird noise catches his attention, and maybe in a different moment, Peter would be totally jealous of that particular feature, but—

Listen. It's hot as hell outside. He doesn't mind being wet, but he does mind the near miss with indignity he faced earlier, at the hands of, like, a half dozen kids.

... though he'll probably forget about that soon enough, too. ]

Spider-Man. [ Repeated back like he's testing it. Then, he gives a quick nod. ] And I'm guessing you're going for a double life kinda thing?

... Yeah, something like that. Not many people seem keen on the idea, but...

[He rubs the back of his head, a motion more resembling the kid under the mask.]

... I don't know. With still being in school back home, and worrying about if someone tries to hurt my friends by association — and if something happens to my aunt because of who I am, it's just — you know? [He clears his throat.] I just don't think it'd be smart to come out about who I am.

[ He waves a hand dismissively. ]

No, I totally get it. [ Peter was raised on cartoons and comics, man. He's all too familiar with the importance of a secret identity.

And even though they're still hurrying away from the war zone – Peter is leading them toward some food stand, apparently – he turns to walk backwards, his water gun settled against his shoulder and pointed toward the sky. ]

So do you have powers and stuff? I mean, I saw the rope stuff – pretty cool, by the way – but can you do other crap? Or are you just, like, really acrobatic?

[ super powers are so cool, man ]

Oh, um. I can crawl on things without the webs... y'know. Like. Like a spider. [He almost makes it sound like that's totally it, but then he counts things off.] And enhanced senses, strength, invulnerability, healing... that sort of stuff. I think there's more I don't really understand, but I've only had powers for the last eight months, so it's kinda a work in progress.

[He's inexperienced because he's a kid, but also because he literally just got these powers this year. What a shitshow.]

I made the webs myself, though! Just a little organic chemistry know-how.

Man, that's cool.

[ some folks have all the luck in the super power roulette.

This Peter just has some weird shit he'd much rather forget. ]

Did you, like, grow into them? Perform some kinda weird ritual? Get weird, biohazardous goo dumped on you, like the Ninja Turtles?

Uuuh, actually — I got bit by a radioactive spider on a science field trip.

[So yes, close enough to the Ninja Turtles.]

Edited 2018-06-13 09:28 (UTC)

[ Peter stays silent, waiting for the inevitable “haha, just kidding.”

... except it doesn’t come. ]

... Wait, seriously?

... Yes?

[C'mon man.]

It was the worst. I was pretty sure I was dying, so it's cool that I, like. Didn't.

[ Yeah. Okay, Little Pete. Big Pete is looking at you with complete and utter disbelief. ]

What kind of field trip did you go on that radioactive spiders are just on the loose?

[ Peter’s most exciting field trip was to the zoo in St. Louis, a half hour away. And the animals were, you know, safely tucked away in their exhibits. ]

I go to a pretty nice science and math-oriented school, so sometimes we get to visit big corporate labs and museums and stuff... But to be honest, I don't know what the deal was with the spider.

I'm still kind of worried I'll wake up with eight limbs or something. You ever see that crazy-old movie where the guy turns into a fly? I had that nightmare for weeks after that. Eck.

[ He casts the kid a sidelong glance. ]

... You mean The Fly.

[ c'mon, kid, it's a simple title.

but also that movie was fucking weird, and Peter winces in sympathy. ]

So do you normally get betrayed by the folks who pay you, or is that just a recent thing?

[He snaps his fingers.]

Yeah, yeah! That one. But not the Goldblum one, that's too gross.

[He huffs a sigh.]

And yeah. I mean, not betrayed or anything, but I'm used to kind of ending up the bad guy. I mean, not the bad guy like a villain. More like I try to help with a mugging and both parties run away screaming. But you know, the point is doing everything you can.

When you've got powers, there's a responsibility to use them right.

To protect people... To look out for the little guy.

[ Another sidelong glance, but this one is more thoughtful, more sober.

(When he was a kid, he always just... wanted to help, to right wrongs and do good in the world. Protect the helpless, in whatever forms they took.

Like small, terrified frogs.

He lost that, somewhere along the way. He's only just now slipping back into that mindset.)

Their walking has brought them to Peter's intended destination: yep. A food stand. Listen, running for your life from bloodthirsty ankle-biters will work up an appetite, okay?

But it's not just any food stand. This one is apparently home to all of the unhealthy desserts one might expect at an amusement park. A healthy diet? What the hell is that?

He gestures toward it with a thumb. ]

I really want some ice cream. You want anything?

[Oh, yeah, he was about to go full introspection mode, himself.

But then those wide, almost cartoony eyes on the mask blink impressively large.]

What, you're buying?

[Spoken like a fifteen year old trying not to sound secretly like a five year old.

It's very hard to brood about the past mistakes in your young unfair life when someone offers you free carbs.]

Yeah, I guess. Unless you've got a wallet in that getup.

I mean, I doubt they're gonna let you pay in water-logged candy.

[ This, with a jerk of his chin toward the bag still hanging from Little Pete's belt. Sure hope that thing was airtight, man. ]

Yeah... good point — oh, wait!

I'll just pay you, so you can pay them. Because ice-cream sounds so sweet right now. Genius. [He untangles the bag and pulls an unopened bag of gummy sharks, waggling it at the air. The dude manning the little food stand is making such a face at this entire exchange.] How's a bag of sharks for some of those fancys dippin' dots?

[ His eyes narrow, and the expression on his face reads, "This is the most ridiculous thing ever."

But mostly because— ]

As if I'd ever say no.

[ He holds one hand out for the baggy, and with his other hand, he pulls out his payment card. To the employee – what appears to be a teenager working a summer job, ]

You heard the kid. And make it two, please.

[The exchange is made, and all is right with the world. The teenaged worker is appropriately sick of his job, Quill has him some gummy sharks, and Peter is plopped down on a nearby bench in full Spider-Man garb, the mask pulled up just enough that he can shovel weird ice-cream dots into his mouth while he waves his feet back and forth.]

Who do you think would win in a fight, Rambo or James Bond?

I feel like it kinda depends on the setting.

[How'd we end up here. Who knows.]

[ Listen. Peter is just relieved that anyone is willing to have this conversation with him that he doesn't really care about the particulars. ]

Also depends on which Bond.

[ He says it around the mouthful of ice cream, because the Ravagers never particularly stressed good table manners. ]

And whether or not 007 gets to use his fancy tech.

[ there are just so many factors to consider, here. ]

[Peter's already scarfed down his by the time Peter's done talking, which is a terrible idea, really.]

I guess it depends on which Rambo, too, 'cus he gets pretty crazy later—

[Aaaahfughg, he grips his head, wincing. He's turning into Elsa, he's gone full frozen, rest in pieces. Slushy brain is a real and dangerous thing that some people are dumb enough to fall victim to every time.]

Ow ow ow.

[ Peter glances up, startled, and—

Ah. Brain freeze. ]

Just so you know, I'm not gettin' you another one just 'cause you inhaled yours.

[ Aaaand he eats another spoonful of his own ice cream. You know. At normal people speeds. ]

But what if I give you the sour neon gummy worms?

[He's about to say more, but then he stops mid-breath — Quill can't hear her of course, but Karen is in his ear, alerting him to activity on the Riverview police radio about someone threatening a sky tram conductor. He pulls his mask back down over his face and the eyes seem to sharpen a little with newfound focus.]

Oh, something's going on a few blocks back — I better head back to my actual work!

[He laughs a little, hopping up to his feet and clicking around the features on his web shooter so that he's not shooting a web grenade and looking uncool in the process.]

But we should definitely do this again sometime! I mean.

... Thanks for being. You know. Cool. And hanging out.

[How'd you not realize he was Peter Parker sooner, listen to that awkward teen social anxiety.]

[ He blinks when the kid hops up, and—

Right. The vigilantism. He's not entirely sure how it is the kid knows something's going down, but if he wants to beat a hasty retreat, Peter isn't going to stop him.

... also is the first time someone has ever willingly called Peter "cool" that wasn't himself?

... probably. (Absolutely.) And Peter can't help the pleased smile that tugs at the corner of his mouth. ]

Next time I see you, you better not be siccing a child army on me.

[ Also? He's pointing his spoon at the kid. ]

And I'm waitin' on that movie night.

You got it! No more child armies. Plus one on the movie nights.

[Look, he was gonna fist-bump you, but then he'd just fistbump your spoon, which would be the most uncool thing ever. And he's already so dorky as it is, he can't afford to lose cool points.

So he throws the ol' fingerguns instead, because that definitely isn't any less cool.]

And don't tell anyone I'm the weird spider guy!

[Such graceful parting words, as he zips off in the direction of trouble, swinging off the side of the ferris wheel before disappearing into the tall trees beyond. Cooler, at least. He's a WIP.]

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monthly mingle: PRIJATA

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