riverviewlogs | 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

I'm a prototype.

[Like that really explains anything. He watches her put the pasty away, confused. Does she not need to eat, either? Or she could just not be hungry]

[Belatedly, she wonders if he might be able to pick up on her own modifications, inactive though she's kept most of them as she's tried to hide her nature as an ancillary. If he can scan her biometrics, he just might. Then again, it's a strange new place, and he might not understand the significance of all of them.

And more importantly, there's what he said. Her attention flickers for the barest fraction of a second to the light in his temple.]

A prototype of..?

[There is definitely something about her that's different, but Markus has no reference for it. For his part, he's never really had to explain what he is to anyone. Carl knew because he was friends with Kamski, and Leo didn't care]

Android. My function is to take care of the terminally ill and elderly.

[It's a bit of a surprising response, bu maybe not in the way Markus might expect it to be. Breq has met Dorian, and knows what he is, the same way that he knows about her, but she'd been under the impression that there were few, if any, other artificial sentients in Riverview.

Then again, with the portal, that can change at any time.]

If you will indulge my curiosity-- do you operate via a synthetic soul?

You're referring to Dorian. I was told about him by someone else, but I haven't met him yet.

My system works differently. I have biocomponents that are powered by thirium. It's something that was invented by Elijah Kamski.

I am. He's a cousin of mine, in a sense.

[And that 'biocomponents' part definitely gets her attention, even if it's rude to just ask someone how much of their makeup is human.]

However, I'm not familiar with that name.

You're similar models? [Because in a sense, all androids in his world are related since they're all built by the same company]

He is the founder and former CEO of Cyberlife. I haven't seen him since he gave me to Carl, but I know he's since stepped down from his position.

We're from different worlds, but we're similar enough to relate. [And to consider relatives, in the broad sense of the word that Breq prefers to use. The same could probably be applied to Markus, but she's not going to extend that offer just yet, without having had the chance to discuss it with him further.

Speaking of: time to pull out the big guns.]

Then he's [No hesitation, this time, with the pronoun. Luckily for her, Markus already identified him for her. ] your creator, in a sense. What do you think of him?

Yes, he is my creator. I think he is an intelligent man whose ideas influenced great changes in the world. He is also generous, as he gave me as a gift to a friend of his. He must have a good heart to do so.

That is one way to look at it.

[She suspects another. She may be biased, of course, but some of Markus's reasons come out sounding like justifications to her.]

Though I couldn't say, since I don't know him.

I'm not sure anyone knows him these days. He's been reclusive since he left his job at CyberLife.

[She's trying not to pass judgement, but she still doesn't like the idea of him. Rather than express that, though, she lets her expression remain neutral and waves it off.]

You'll find that being given to other people is not allowed, here.

[He doesn't know what to say to that, so he says nothing. He's already seen that this is not like Detroit]

monthly mingle: CARNIVALE

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