monthly mingle: CARNIVALE

[riverviewmod]

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

navigation

Comments

[alfa]

[ The street is wide and there's no traffic, but it is incredibly crowded. It seems that pretty much everyone in the city has decided to take the party to the streets, quite literally. Point is, even when people have to move away for something big to make its way through them, Owen doesn't notice it until Hiccup and his friend are standing right next to him.

He turns. Slowly. The rest of his squid-fish-thing is in his hand, at the moment forgotten. Well, to him, anyway. The big black creature has narrowed his eyes at it, and Owen looks between him and the rest of his food in his hand. ]

Uh... here? [ He reaches out and offers it for the creature to take. Just please don't eat his whole arm. ]

[thisisamazing]

[Toothless smacks his lips a few times, slowly, slowly leaning forward, gummy mouth opening, as if he's going to delicately pluck the treat out of Owen's hand. Right about the second his teeth pop out, Hiccup rolls his eyes and gives the dragon a Look.] Toothless. Quit trying to eat people's food. Yours is coming. [Toothless pulls away and sits down on his behind, eyes narrowed, barking out short sounds that could almost be irritable mocking.]

Sorry! You don't have to feed him. We're, uh. We're still working on big city manners...

[alfa]

No, it's alright. [ He glances at the guy, but his eyes move back to the dragon pretty quickly. He tilts his head, lips quirking and a flash of teeth showing in a faint, amused grin. ] I was pretty much done, anyway. It's not really— to my taste. But if your friend here likes it...

[ He tries offering it again. Go on, buddy, take it! ] What is he?

[thisisamazing]

He seems to. [Hiccup laughs briefly, turning for just a moment to pay for his order. The guy is working hard to get thirty fried up.] We'll see if they agree with him later. I need to make time to go fishing soon.

[Toothless watches Owen with curious eyes, flicking from his face down to the food, such that it is, and licking his lips. Darting a glance at Hiccup, somehow smug, he snatches up the rest of it (deftly keeping those teeth from so much as brushing Owen's hand - he's been hand-fed before) and horks it down with a happy rumble.]

He's a Night Fury. A dragon. Hi. I'm Hiccup.

[alfa]

[ By the happy look on Toothless's face, the hard work won't be for nothing. He seems to enjoy his treat, and Owen has to admit, he looks pretty cute as he takes it from his hand and swallows it down. ]

A dragon. [ Yes, he knows, he sounds mildly skeptical. Even if he's in no place to. Most people would react the same way if he mentioned living dinosaurs, so. ]

I'm... Owen. And he's Toothless, I'm guessing. [ He nods to the dragon, reaching out tentatively. Does he like being petted??? Because Owen kinds wants to. ] So, are dragons common, where you're from?

[thisisamazing]

Yep, in the flesh. I know not everybody has dragons where they come from, but they're all over the archipelago back home. Berk is- you know, it's great, we live right alongside them. [Toothless eyes his hand for a moment, and then dips down, offering his head for petting. He's gotten a lot more used to being touched by strangers in Riverview, and anybody who offers food is apparently in his good books.]

He likes when you scratch behind the ear fins, by the way. Don't worry, he doesn't bite. He's great with people.

[Toothless just purrs out a contented noise, even if his eyes keep flicking back to the vendor.]

[alfa]

We definitely don't have them where I'm from.

[ Some people would generalize and say dinosaurs are just dragons without wings, but it's more complicated than just that. Even if he can still see some similarities, at least in the dinosaurs created for the park. ]

I'm not worried. He's friendly, I can tell. [ If Toothless had any intention of attacking him, Owen would know. He takes Hiccup's suggestion and starts scratching behind the fins, absolutely fascinated and delighted to meet such a weird and curious animal. ] Did he come through the portal with you? At the same time?