riverviewlogs | monthly mingle: CARNIVALE

Entry tags:

monthly mingle: CARNIVALE

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: monthly mingle: carnivale
when: the month of july
where: anywhere around the city
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

carnivale

In the days leading up to July 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Carnivale. This holiday is in celebration of music, and the onset of summer and warmer weather. The celebrations are marked by street parties, an extensive program of live musical performances, with two large parades on July 8th and July 9th.

celebrating music, and summer

After a couple of months of low-key or even solemn celebrations, it's time for Riverview Quarantine to throw a good, old-fashioned party. Carnivale is a city-wide festival that pretty much everyone gets into, and many residents take the entire week off so they can enjoy all the festivities. With events ranging from impromptu street parties, free live musical performances, food stands, themed club nights, adult lounges with kink shows, and topped off with two massive party parades, the holiday has a lot to offer for anyone who likes to sing, dance, and show some skin!

i. street parties and food

One of the staples of the Carnivale festival is the spontaneous street parties and food trucks and carts. It's not unusual during the holiday to turn a corner and run into a group of people dressed in bright colors and sequins having an impromptu party with a few drinks, and then be invited to join right in! Carnivale is a celebration of music as well as summer, so most shops and stalls will be blasting danceable music into the streets to facilitate these little street parties - it's considered a sign of good luck for the owner of a business if an impromptu Carnivale celebration starts up in front of their door.

Considering the proliferation of street parties and people out and about to celebrate the warmer weather, local business owners also take to the streets. Food carts, stands, and trucks pop up on almost every street corner offering a wide variety of food from savory treats to sweet desserts. Many of the carts are offering one free item to anyone dressed up for Carnivale - anything shimmery, shiny, or brightly colored will do!

ii. live musical performances

One of the major roads in the city center has been completely roped off for the entire week, and all along this street, various temporary stages have been set up, each with a nice hefty sound system. Volunteers hand out printed flyers, and digital boards are set up here and there with schedules of various performances that are all free to attend, ranging from well-known popular music artists to new up-and-comers or independent artists who are looking to make a name for themselves. This event is very widely advertised around the city, and is accepting entries until the very last minute.

So jump in and stomp around in a mosh pit or just dance around in the streets, let yourself get lost in the music and the summer heat!

Any player-characters who are musically inclined are more than welcome to assume their character was fit in for a performance, and can post up a top-level with a rundown of their performance to get bonus Activity Points for posting a mingle!

iii. carnivale parade and children's parade

The other main attraction of Carnivale week comes on the weekend of July 8th and 9th, which are paid holiday days for everyone in the city. There are two parades, the Carnivale Parade on July 8th, and the Children's Parade on July 9th.

Both parades will start out by City Hall and wind through downtown in a lazy pattern so everyone in the city has a chance to see them. There will be all sorts of floats, dancers, marching bands, with all sorts of clubs, businesses, and other organizations represented. Observers can expect great music, excellent dancing and marching shows, neat vehicles provided by classic car clubs, the fire, police, and Perimeter Guard. They can also expect a lot of party favors, whether it's a sparkly plastic beaded necklace, a fan to take the edge off the heat, candy, popsicles, a temporary tattoo, or any number of other little treats or toys to be tossed into the crowd.

The Carnivale Parade on Saturday has a more adult tone to it, and party favors thrown may be toys or gag gifts of a more adult nature suitable for older teens and grown-ups. The floats are more risqué and the people in the parade show more skin, dance more provocatively, and there are wet T-shirts, occasional flashing, and other things that might not be suitable for children. The theme is theatrical, big and showy, bright and colorful, sparkly and shiny, with loud music and lots of glitz and glamour.

Geared toward children and younger teens, the Children's Parade is on Sunday and generally more low-key, with more of a cartoony than glitzy theme. The Children's Parade will have more conservative floats, with bright colors, juggling and dancing, and mascot costumes. Party favors will lean more toward candy and temporary tattoos, rainbow pinwheels, and small toys. Keep an eye out for floats with pop performers and for popular cartoons in the city!

And make sure you wear your waterproof mascara - Carnivale and Children's Parade floats have a tendency of spraying or spritzing water, both in an unspoken competition to see who can make the biggest water-refraction rainbow in the air, and to keep observers cool in the new summer heat.

iv. adult: lounges

Thanks to the Carnivale tradition of showing as much skin as possible, some event organizers' minds have turned to topics of a more adult nature. In the evenings, residents may see clubs doing "lounge nights"; these adults-only events have bouncers IDing everyone at the door to ensure they're 18+. The themes may vary, from very specific niche themes like 'golden age superheroes' to broad themes like 'rainbows,' and each event is clearly marked as what it is - all-nude or clothing-optional, and can host events ranging from amateur to professional exotic dancing, food served off of nude bodies, anonymous masked hookups, or just provide a comfortable space where casual sex is encouraged with whoever happens to be around. Various legal substances can be found at these lounges, but nothing that would cause violation of consent, and every substance would be clearly labeled and have warnings to ensure that no one partakes unless they choose to. Please be sure to warn in the subject line for sexual content or drug use (since some mild party drugs are legal in Riverview).

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 Carnivale, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: Roger Patterson Jr.; image ii: Jie He; image iii: Aaron Walker; image iv: Lewis Monson

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh. [ He leans to take a look at the other side of his face. From his angle, he couldn't have been able to see it anyway, and he didn't even know to look for it. ]

Wow. I mean, I... sorry. I couldn't tell. [ He seems to be a little awestruck at the moment, don't mind him or his fascinated smile. ]

I'm Jim. [ Offering a hand to him. ] It's... really nice to meet you.

[There's a brief moment where his LED flickers to red. Is he in trouble? But then the man smiled at him, so he settles back to blue, only to flicker to yellow as he processes. It was nice to meet him? Even Carl didn't say that when they first met.

He's not sure what to do with the offered hand, though. He can understand touching humans in the course of his assignment as hospice caretaker, but to shake hands? His hesitation is only a few seconds, which is not that long in human terms. Finally, he shakes the hand]

I've been given the name Markus.

[ His lips twitch a little at the corner. The way he says that, rather than just saying 'My name is Markus', is kind of endearing in Jim's eyes. He shakes his hand, then lets go. ]

But do you want me to call you Markus? [ Just because he was given that name doesn't necessarily mean he wants to go by it. ]

[That gets him processing again. Before he arrived here, Carl was the only one to call him Markus. Leo calls him a plastic toy, and other humans just call him "it", if they acknowledge him at all. But Jim is the first to ask if he want this name]

Yes. I am Markus.

Alright, then. Markus it is.

[ He pops one of the deep fried snacks into his mouth, using the pause to study Markus. ]

You're one of the more recent arrivals, aren't you?

Yes. I was with my-- [Technically Carl is his owner, but the word doesn't feel right. That's not who Carl is to him. But he's not a client or a patient, either] I was with Carl. I take care of him.

Now I take care of people for the hospice society.

That sounds really nice. [ Jim's not at all used to androids as part of day-to-day life, so to him it's always a source of amazement to hear about the different types of jobs they have. ]

Have you met Dorian yet? He's an android too, with a synthetic soul. The only other one here, if I'm not mistaken. He's a detective.

[He's not sure how to respond to that. He did like being with Carl. Does that make it nice?

He does know how to respond to the other comment, though]

Cyberlife was revealing a prototype detective android. That could be it.

No, it's different. [ He shakes his head. ] Dorian doesn't have that... glowing circle, like you. I assume all androids have that, where you're from? So he might not be from your universe.

[He presses a finger to his own LED, processing. Only child androids have removable LEDs as far as he knows. Jim is right: this Dorian is from some other world]

I understand. [He's intrigued, though, in how other worlds might design their androids]

Nevertheless, you should meet him. He's an alright guy. Fun. I like him a lot.

[ Being an android certainly made Dorian seem more fascinated at first, but getting to know him as a person, Jim's actually grown very fond of him. ]

How're you finding this place? Is it very different from your world?

[That's a puzzling statement. If this Dorian is a detective, there would be nothing in his programming that would make him "fun". Markus may very well have to find this other android and figure it out.

To the other question, he nods]

Everyone is friendly and so far I don't see any Android Only designations, which leads me to conclude androids are free to go anywhere.

Everyone is free to go anywhere, here. And do whatever they want, too. That's not the case in your world?

[ Sounds a little depressing. But in Dorian's world it also seems like androids just aren't given their due worth. Jim can't say how it would be in his own universe, if they had androids— he just knows what he believes things should be like. ]

[He blinks away the strange coding that appears briefly in his vision. Jim is asking him questions no one has before, because everyone's just used to a certain way of life]

Carl... he encourages me to make choices. But when I'm outside his home, I have to go only where androids are allowed to go.

You're... well, allowed to go wherever you feel like, here. [ For lack of a better word. ] You won't find yourself barred from entering any place that everyone else can go to.

[ And he won't have anyone here to tell him what to do, or when to do it. He'll have to figure it out on his own. ]

You're also very much encouraged to make your own choices. [ Speaking of— ] You wanna go for a walk?

[Markus just stares, too stunned by so much freedom to properly react. He grew used to it in Carl's house, but that was a small space with someone he trusted. Markus checks his current mission parameters, but they're still set on his latest order: "enjoy the festival"]

This festival is so full of color. I want to see if they have paint.

Ah! [ Jim grins and nods. ] They do, actually. Lots of it— mostly body paint, though. Come on, I'm sure we can find something.

[ He tilts his head, waiting for Markus to join him before heading down the street, looking around them and taking in the details of the festivities. He is admittedly more curious about Markus's own reaction, though, which is why he ends up looking back to the android more often than not. ]

[Any sort of paint will do. He keeps an eye out for any pedestrians so he doesn't disturb anyone and he maintains a distance from the food carts so they'll stop trying to feed him. A new objective, "find paint", has created itself.

But when he does find paint, he's at a loss again. The fact that it's body paint is fine. There are no androids here to take his payments. He looks to Jim for direction]

[ Jim finishes his own snack halfway through their walk, and turns his attention to finding some paint too. It's fairly easy, which he sort of expected, since most of the partiers have good portions of their bodies covered in paint by now.

He looks back to Markus, head tilting a little. He doesn't quite get the confusion, so he dips two of his fingers into the paint, swiping them across Markus's cheek. ] There. Like that.

[ Then he turns his head sideways, so Markus can do the same to him. ]

[There is a brief flash of red on his LED when Jim gets close. He's too accustomed to humans who aren't Carl attacking him to have it unlearned right away. But it seems he's only in danger of paint, and the color shifts to blue.

Markus finds a brush, his LED glowing yellow as he starts processing all the things he could paint. Carl's coaching comes back to him and he carefully starts to paint a small design on Jim's cheek.

When he's done, Jim's cheek looks a little cyberpunk with circuitry accenting the bone structure of his jaw and cheek]

[ In hindsight, it probably wasn't his smartest move to get that close without warning. He's starting to understand now what the different colors on his LED mean, though, so he'll pay more attention. For now he's just glad that Markus didn't move to defend himself against a perceived attack.

Jim stays as still as he can manage while Markus paints on his cheek. Once he's finished, he finds the nearest reflective surface to take a look. ]

Wow. That looks amazing. [ He glances at Markus. ] Do you paint often?

[He feels something warm and swelling inside him at that "wow". Similar, but not quite, to how it felt when Carl was in awe of his painting. But then, Markus hadn't been able to fully process Carl's reaction before Leo interrupted them]

This is the second time. Carl encouraged me to try it before.

That's brilliant. [ No one learns this fast. Being an android doubtlessly plays a role in it, but still. It's no less impressive to him. ]

You should definitely try it more often. Mine looks... poor, by comparison. [ He gestures to Markus's cheek. ] But I can try to do something a little better, if you're fine with it?

[It helps that ~~his dad~~ Carl is a talented artist, so Markus learned from being around and watching him. The praise gives him a strange reaction. A human would know it as pride, but Markus has no real reference for emotions.

Markus touches the smear on his cheek]

You can paint more.

[ Jim beams at the permission. Since he smudged blue paint across Markus's face, he adds a bit more to it, then finding himself a couple other colours, he starts painting a starry theme to the side of his face. It's not as good as Markus's painting, nor as precise, but Jim's happy with the mix of colors, and the way the LED will interact with the white stars speckled across the side of his face.

He also takes a little longer. But Markus doesn't complain, so he only stops once he's happy with the result. ] There.

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