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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[Sirius has nothing but snuffles and doggy kisses for people, plunking to sit and enjoy the pats while Mantis and Stephen spoke. Sam might have strong-armed Stephen into this (Making friends won't kill you dumbass!) but the dog was especially happy to be getting so much attention.]

For the most part. [Even if Sam had enlisted most of his friends in tattling should Stephen be out and about without Sirius for company. Annoying to be sure he didn't need a service dog, but the lab was calm and well-behaved so not the worst fate to befall the sorcerer.] Not many places you can't bring a service animal after all.

[ Mantis has never encountered the term "service animal" before! What sort of job does Sirius do, she wonders? He appears to be a normal dog to her... ]

Oh? A service animal? What service does he provide?

[Oh. Damn okay, she doesn't know what they are he wasn't planning on explaining that but... oh well. He was the idiot who brought it up after all.]

Sirius helps out when I'm having a bad hand day. [Holding up one of his scarred, ever-trembling hands by way of explanation of why.] Usually through fetching things, opening doors, flipping light switches. Things like that.

[Not everything Sirius does, Stephen's gonna stay mum on the PTSD help because he totally doesn't need it.]

I'm fine without, but Sam's fairly insistent that I bring Sirius with me just in case.

[ Mantis leans in closer when he shows her his hands, her head tilting and her face etched with both curiosity and concern as she inspects them. ] Oh... [ Seeing the damage, she can understand why he may need help with things. ]

Are you in pain now?

[Stephen shrugged at the question, lowering his hands.]

So, where are you from Mantis?

[Dodging the fuck outta that question like a goddamn champ.]

[ Mantis doesn't always have a great handle on what is and isn't appropriate to ask a stranger, but she also doesn't even seem to register he's dodging the question by asking one of his own. ]

I was orphaned on my home world, so I do not remember it. I was raised on Ego's planet. Oh! [ She's just realized something. ] I was Ego's service animal, like Sirius! Mostly, I helped him to sleep when he could not.

You're certainly not an animal. [Said maybe a bit gruffly before he settled himself somewhat.] You'd be more like a carer.

How did you help him sleep though? Special lullaby?

[ Mantis frowns, thinking. “Carer” doesn't quite sound right to her, all things considered. She shakes her head when he asks if she uses a lullaby. ]

I am an empath. When I touch someone, I can feel their emotions, or I can alter them. I am able to use that ability to make someone sleep.

[Note to self: no handshakes.]

Empath? Certainly a useful skill, especially if you're able to alter emotions not just feel them. Is that something unique to you?

I think it may be something unique to my species.

[ Mantis has yet to meet another of her kind, but she is not sure where else her powers would have come from. ]

My antenna appear to have something to do with my abilities. They glow when I use them.

How interesting. It wouldn't be the first time I'd come across an empath species, though not all of them can influence emotion. That seems a bit rarer of a skill to have naturally.

[Sirius of course has no idea of any of this, just laying his muzzle gently on her arm with a wag of his tail, clearly mugging either for more pats or a treat.

Stephen was curious as was to be expected of him, but seemed to catch up with himself a bit, offering a wry grin.]

Feel free to ask me things in turn, or I'm fairly sure I'll never stop. I might be a bit nosy.

Oh? It is?

[ It's not hard to tell that Mantis doesn't know much about her own species, or any other species with abilities like hers. She has nothing to compare herself to, so it comes as a surprise that she may have an unusual ability in comparison to others like her.

Mantis looks contemplative for a moment as she thinks of a question she'd like to ask him in return, and remembers he had listed magic as an interest. ]

What kind of magic do you like?

Oh yes. I'm not sure if that's because others simply don't try and use their abilities that way, or if they simply cannot.

[Her question earns a wryly amused chuckle from the sorcerer, brows lifting slightly.]

Right for the throat with the hard questions, hm? Aside from 'all magic'... magic I haven't seen before. New spells, challenging spells. The joy of discovery I suppose would be the best way to put it.

Oh... [ Interesting!

As Mantis tends to take new sayings rather literally, the "right for the throat" comment causes her a bit of confusion, her head tilting when he says it. But she doesn't ask for clarification, instead finds herself interested in the discussion of new magic. ]

I enjoy the joy of discovery too! There are many things I have yet to learn, although I do not know if I am capable of magic. What sort of magic do you do? How did you learn?

[Stephen of course is unaware of her ignorance of the turn of phrase, especially with something as interesting as magic to talk about.]

I do a wide variety of sorts. There's many different types and I make it a point of trying to learn at least a bit of them all. Practice tends to be the way of it, as with most skills.

Empaths tend to at least have the potential for magic in many cases- I don't mind working with you to see if that's way in your case if you'd like.

[ As he speaks, Mantis sits and listens carefully. And the more she watches him explain his experiences with magic, the gears in her head start turning. She realizes now why she had thought him familiar at first - he bears a striking resemblance to the wizard she had just met on Titan before she was sent here to the quarantine. ]

You would teach me magic? [ omg ] What would I learn? Oh! Could I learn to fly? I met a wizard who could fly- [ As soon as she says it, she pauses and a confused look crosses her face. ] Or, perhaps it was his cloak that could fly...

[Oh no her enthusiasm was so cute. Stephen couldn't help his chuckle at that, finding that a bit infectious.]

Well if we work at it I don't see why you couldn't learn a flying spell. Or enchant something to allow you to fly- my own Cloak does that fairly well in my case.

[He was wearing a leather jacket, but the fabric that looked like a wide red scarf around his throat shifted, one corner peeking out to wave a gold-brocade edge at the mention.]

Oh! [ The cloak is waving at her! And it's the same red colour that she remembers the wizard wearing. And she's suddenly thinking very hard about what she's been told so far of alternate timelines and worlds and- ]

You are the wizard! Are you the wizard? [ Mantis gasps, pointing at him as the connection sinks in. What did he call himself again? ] Doctor Weird?

Doctor Strange, actually, but you're pretty close there.

[Well, did she know Babyface then, or was she from yet another alternate universe.]

My otherdimensional counterpart was here for a time, he might be the one you're more familiar with.

Otherdimensional counterpart...

[ She repeats the word as though she's trying it out, brows furrowed as she does some intense thinking. On one hand, this universe gets a little more confusing each time she encounters someone she's met, but on the other, it is solidifying the fact that well, anything really is possible here. ]

Oh... perhaps? Was he friends with Spider-Man and Iron Man?

As far as I could tell he and his version of Iron Man got along. I can't say for sure about Spider-Man we didn't talk much about that sort of thing.

[Theirs was a weird friendship of snarking and arguing.]

His version of Iron Man? There are otherdimensional Iron Mans too?

[ What a place this universe is! ]

Is there an otherdimensional me?

There are two here at the moment, there were three at one point gods help us all.

[This place is wild, no doubt there!]

We do have a Mantis back home yes. I haven't crossed paths with her terribly often, but we have worked together in the past.

[ There is another Mantis. What! The Mantis sitting here in this world is actually quiet now, the look on her face giving away a range of emotions - surprise, uncertainty, wonder, and puzzlement, mostly. ]

Well, then I am especially glad that the Gamora, Peter, and Groot here are my Gamora, Peter, and Groot!

[Stephen, in a rare moment of tact gives Mantis a moment to process the idea. It is a weird concept after all.]

It does help having familiar faces around. Have you been here long?

monthly mingle: PRIJATA

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