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

[There's one thing that could even remotely be considered 'artistic' that Eddie can do, and that thing is dancing. Honestly, since he's come to the Quarantine he's had a lot more opportunities to dance than he ever did back home, especially because Iris hadn't really been into the whole dancing scene. But no matter how many times he goes out dancing, either alone or with Cisco, he never gets tired of it.

When he sees a mildly familiar face in the crowd at one of the dancier, more hip-hoppy shows, he makes his way over to her, dancing his way across the floor, grinning, to hold a hand out to her.]

May I have this dance?

[Alex was only dancing with people that she knew, and she'd turned down a few offers already, but with Eddie, her response was an immediate grin and nod. Dancing wasn't something that she did often; her time out was limited after all, but she still did it when she could. Like him, Alex probably had danced more here than she ever did at home over the last three years.

She was supposed to be taking this time as a vacation, even with all of the weird and terrible things that were happening, so she was going to.]

Always!

[It's nice, that she just takes his hand, sliding out onto the floor with him, and he pulls her along, laughing under his breath. He's a few beers down, a little tipsy but not far along enough to have lost his inhibitions, just loose enough to really enjoy spending some time, even with someone he doesn't know super well.]

Why thank you, Alex.

[A bright grin, and he gives her a little twirl before starting to move in time with the music, and her. Keeping a polite distance, but reaching out to place his hand at her waist to signify he's dancing with her - after all, it's no good for hanging out if someone else cuts in, right?]

Of course!

[Her smile is bright and easy as she moves into the dance. She's moving more gingerly than she otherwise would, but she's definitely still getting into it as she moves with him, placing one hand on his shoulder, but staying an otherwise distance between them. The two of them both have significant others after all, and this is how rumors can get start.

But Alex does move reasonably in rhythm and rhyme, even if there's slight undertones of the whole dances of her native Cacuasia thing.]

[Eddie's a detective, and he's a detective for a reason - she's hiding it pretty well, but there's something going on with the way she moves. A little stilted, a little awkward, and it's not just that she has a slightly awkward dancing style. She's definitely favouring part of herself, and it takes him a couple of songs but he still can't quite figure out what part of her it is.

After a bit, he moves his hand to her hand, gives it a squeeze, leans in so she can hear him over the music.]

Hey, you want to take a break and grab a drink?

[Alex is actually a little grateful for that, and she just gives him a quick smile and a nod to go along with it. The woman can be willful to a fault, and she's prone to overdoing things, but Alex is trying to be slightly better about this stuff at the moment. So, taking a break from dancing with her ribs is probably a smart choice, and Alex makes it even if it's somewhat out of character for her.]

That sounds great! [She leans forward and calls over the music, before heading off the floor towards the thankfully quieter bar.]

[Eddie's not really tired, but it's not exactly hard to tell she is, and he's willing to take the blame. Still hanging onto her hand, he starts walking toward the bar with her, orders a beer and pays for whatever she orders since it was his idea to get a drink, and then looks around for a booth.]

How about over there?

[He gestures vaguely with his beer bottle toward a booth that's being vacated, and starts moving the moment she gives any indication of being okay with it. You have to move fast to get a booth in a place like this.]

[Alex is definitely familiar with how quick booths moves at bars like this, so she just gives him a nod to jump on it immediately. After all, this is valuable real estate during a busy time like this, and she's good for the moment. In the end, Alex had just went along with what he was having: a beer, because welp it was easy and it was simple and it wasn't the sort of thing that she'd normally drink enough of to get intoxicated on her best days, never mind ones like today.

Weaving through the crowd after him, she slides into the other side of the booth than he'd taken with a quick smile, setting her beer down on the table in front of her. Giving him a quick grin, and glad it was quieter here, she just asked:]

How are you doing?

[The minute she gives him the go-ahead, he goes for it, getting there a few steps ahead of her and sliding into one of the benches, setting his beer down on the table and if she needs a hand getting the step up into the booth, he offers it. Once they're settled in, and she asks how he's doing, he smiles at her.]

Great, honestly. Things are really great lately. Cisco's been having a rough time lately, but I think he's coming out of it, you know?

[A beat.]

And you? How are you?

[At the mention of Cisco having a tough time of it, Alex can't help but give a worried frown. She'd heard what happened, of course, but it had gotten a little lost in everything that had happened over the last several weeks. Mentally, she was already making a note to check up on him.]

Is he okay? [Alex had to ask, even as she kept it casual.] Is there anything I can do to help?

I'm fine. I'm just bad with keeping quiet, even in situations where I definitely should.

[Like when being kidnapped by cultists who really hated it when you talked back. Or fought back. Both of which Alex had done to a fair amount.]

My ribs are still healing is all.

monthly mingle: CARNIVALE

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