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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Jim smiles. It's a really nice picture, so it doesn't surprise him that Victor wants it. Luckily the booth had captured a fairly similar one right after, and Jim promptly points at that one. ]

And I want that one to have at the Guard.

[ He doesn't have an office per se, but he does have a desk of his own, and he'd love to have a picture of the two of them there. Maybe one of their whole 'family' together, too. Pets included, of course. ]

[And now Victor demonstrates one of their mind syncing moments]

We need a family photograph. I have drawings of you and Lucy, but nothing of all of us together.

I was just thinking that.

[ He smiles, pleased that they seem to always catch on to each other's line of thought, even when it's unwitting. He leans closer to the cotton candy, biting a piece off for himself. ]

Let's take some here with her. And back home too— maybe more like a portrait, with John and Oona. It'd look cute.

I'll leave that part to you. You're the one with the photographer's eye.

[He also eats a piece off the candy. They're making fairly slow progress with eating it, but it's been enjoyable progress]

Maybe, but you're an artist too. We'll both set up something nice. Lucy'll probably have a couple ideas of her own.

[ They know how she is. She gets excited and likes to participate, and honestly Jim is very much glad that she likes to have him around. If she shows interest in setting up a scenario for a family picture, then that's nothing if not a good sign, the way he sees it. ]

Mmm. A storyteller, an artist and a photographer. I think between the three of us, we'll come up with something.

[He grins, already picturing Lucy's reaction to a family photo. This way, she'll have one of her biological and her adopted family together]

You know, I never thought much about fatherhood. But when I saw David and Mary Margaret with their newborn son, I... felt wistful. Then I met Lucy and I was drawn to her. Even when Emma was still here, I just had a sense I needed to watch over Lucy and protect her.

It was sort of like how I felt when I first saw you: that I just had to be near you. Does that sound strange?

[ Jim nods. He's sure they'll figure something out together, and create a nice meaningful memory for all of them.

He listens to Victor in silence, for now pocketing the pictures so he can help himself to the cotton candy without worrying about dirtying them. It's not the strangest thing to hear, honestly. Victor hadn't exactly struck him as the parent type when they'd first met, but somehow it suits him. The whole taking care of the people he cares about. ]

I don't think that's strange at all. Actually, I... think it's just perfect. [ He smiles a bit to himself, looking away. ] Can't say I've ever been the family type, myself. Just thought I'd travel through the galaxy for most of my life, and either die doing that or end up an Admiral somewhere.

I'm glad I ended up coming here. That I got to know you, and have... this. A family, sort of. I'd have never known what I'd missed, otherwise.

[Victor shifts hands so he can wrap an arm around James and still hold onto the cotton candy. He leans his head onto James's shoulder as the other speaks]

I'd be proud of you if you became an admiral. I'm already proud of you, but... you know what I mean.

[ Jim smiles a bit to himself, feeling a familiar warmth in his chest at the way Victor holds him close. They end up having to walk slower like this, but he doesn't mind that in the least. They're in no rush, after all. ]

I applied for a promotion to Vice Admiral once— before coming here. [ He shrugs. ] But Vice Admirals don't fly, and I wasn't quite done with that. Honestly, I don't think I'm cut out for an Admiral position.

[He shifts his head enough to kiss James's cheek]

You were born in the stars, geliebte. I think a part of you will always want to be there. But for what it's worth, I think you'd make an excellent admiral. I don't just say that because I love you.

You're very patient with people, and a strong leader. I've met all your friends and co-workers, and they all love and admire you and are willing to follow you. You're also smart as hell, and brave. Starfleet would be stupid to not promote you, if you really wanted to take the job.

[ Jim smiles a bit at Victor's words. He's never been the kind of person to lack in confidence, even if he has had his doubts, and times of weakness. It's no surprise to hear Victor say those things, but still, he likes hearing them. He likes knowing people appreciate him, admire him— believe in him, most of all. He doesn't do it for the fame or admiration, but he likes knowing that people trust him, that they'd follow him no matter what.

He sure as hell would do anything to protect them. ]

They did give me the position. I just decided not to take it. [ He glances at Victor, shrugging. ] Guess the offer was pending, should I ever want it. Just not sure I'll ever want it.

Mmm. I get it. That would be me with a teaching position. I heard Mary Margaret discuss putting in a science division at the school, and Doctor Jekyll and I heading it. I enjoy helping Lucy with her classes and us doing little science projects together, but I don't know if I'd do that for whole classrooms of students.

I think I'd miss the hospital too much. It's where all the action is. [Not that there wouldn't be action in a classroom, but it'd be of a different sort]

Mm, so you like a bit of action too. [ He grins, tipping his head a little and nudging Victor's side. ] Then you know how I feel. Although... gotta say, you as a teacher would be pretty hot. I wouldn't have missed a single day if you were heading my science classes.

[He makes a face at that] If you want to see my teaching skills at work, how about you just join me and Lucy on our home science projects?

[ Jim looks almost surprised by that offer, and he raises an eyebrow slightly. ]

Really? I thought that was... you know, your thing. [ He'd never even asked to join them, just because he didn't want to intrude. ]

Well... yeah. It is. But I don't mind sharing until you and Lucy find your thing. Maybe you can teach her to play space chess.

[Yes that's what he calls that style of chess]

Space chess?

[ Jim says that with an amused quirk of his lips, both eyebrows raising higher on his forehead. ]

We do read and watch movies together. I'm not sure if that counts as 'our thing'— but chess does sound like a fun idea.

Yeah, you know. The one with all the different levels. She's very smart, so I think she'd pick up on it in time.

Three-dimensional chess, honey. [ He nudges him playfully, taking another piece from the cotton candy. ] It's a little complex, but if she likes chess, then we could have fun.

[ He'd ask her sometime. Right now, he just wants to drag Victor into one of those silly bird-shaped boats and go on a slow, romantic and dimly lit ride. ]

Fine, three-dimensional chess. [He nudges back, picking off more of the cotton candy for himself]

[He sees the bird-shaped boats and throws James a half amused, half questioning look. But all right, he'll get in and slide up next to James]

[ Hey, don't judge!! He thinks it's cute, even if it's also cheesy and tacky. He doesn't care. He scoots closer to Victor the moment he climbs inside, looping an arm around him and fetching his phone so he can take a selfie of the two of them. ]

Smile for the camera. [ He kisses Victor's cheek as he takes the picture, then looks at the result, pleased with himself. They always look cute together, he really likes that. ]

[It's not all that hard for him to smile when James is kissing him. He's never taken a photo like that before so he curiously glances at the result when it's done.

The camera even captured the light that sparks up in his eyes when he's happy. Victor has to shake his head a little at the image]

This is one that'll go in the house for sure.

We'll run out of space, if we keep going at this rate.

[ He's smiling wide, though. He's never felt the urge to put up pictures all over any place he's lived in, but it's an urge he has with Victor a lot. He wants pictures of them all over, alone or with Lucy, or even John and Oona.

Putting his phone away, he scoots closer to Victor again, keeping his arm looped around the doctor's shoulders as their boat enters the tunnel. There's little more than romantic wall lamps inside, casting a very dim light onto the walls, the tunnel more or less shaped in the form of a heart. The whole point of the ride is clearly to spend some alone time with someone special. ]

That's what photo albums are for, James.

[He snuggles up close, helping pick off the rest of the cotton candy as they ride through. He is trying so hard not to look too amused by everything, but this is super cheesy and he romance factor is at an overkill level.

But it's alone time with James, so he will go along with the cheese]

We'll start one of those, too.

[ Or more than one, actually. Jim has a lot of ideas, and evidently he loves cheesy stuff, when it comes to romance. He has to agree, though, the tunnel is a little overkill, but he still likes it.

He also appreciates it that Victor goes along with it, even though it's probably all kind of silly to him. He takes the last piece of cotton candy, then rests his head on Victor's shoulder, reaching for the doctor's hand and plucking the now stripped wooden stick from it so he can weave his fingers through Victor's. ]

monthly mingle: PRIJATA

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