riverviewlogs | monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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

river festival

In the days leading up to August 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: The River Festival. This holiday is in celebration of the river and the life that it gives to the city, as well as the heat of summer and forming bonds with friends, family, and romantic partners. The celebrations are marked by a community-wide cleanup of the docks and beaches along the river - particularly important considering the recent flooding that's left the banks of the river littered with debris - as well as beachfront cookouts and parties (both private and city sponsored) and beach sports tournaments happening on either open stretches of beach or in special clothing-optional beaches, all capped off with fireworks displays each weekend in August.

a celebration of the river and togetherness

Following the hedonism of Carnivale, it's time for something a little more low-key and relaxing. The River Festival happens every year in August, and is geared toward community building through cleaning up the beaches and docks along the river and then using all that freshly cleaned beach to gather on. During the month of August, there are various lightly-themed government-sponsored beach cookouts and parties geared toward family, romantic dates, or casual all-ages get-togethers for meeting new friends; there are also a few more racy parties at clothing-optional beaches around the city. Many private residents also take this time to gather together friends and family, and have cookouts on the beach with all the typical trappings of the beach barbecue. There are also various casual sports tournaments sponsored by community centers, gyms, and sports teams in the city, featuring prizes ranging from notoriety to sports equipment to big bucks. Every weekend, there are beautiful fireworks displays and free concerts. This year, the River Festival has been chosen for the unveiling of a new water park in the City, with free or heavily discounted tickets during August!

i. cleaning up

The holiday starts off on a note that is just a bit more sombre than the rest of the season, with the cleanup efforts following the recent flooding blending into the usual tradition of cleaning up beaches and docks along the river. The cleanup is a group effort, with every citizen who is physically able pitching in to comb the beaches, where they pick up fallen tree limbs, garbage, and anything else that's accumulated during the winter and spring, and then raking the beaches to make them clean and ready to use. The cleanup of the docks is similar, with residents sweeping and hosing them down where necessary. This year, there are a lot of repairs to be made to beachfront structures that might've been damaged by flooding and the traffic along the riverbanks from the heroes that participated in the rescue of cult hostages, so if anyone has some carpentry or building skills, those would definitely come in handy.

This is meant to be a community building effort, so many businesses in the area, more well-to-do private citizens, and the government have pitched in funding to provide lunches, cold drinks, coffee or tea, and snacks to anyone who's helping out with the cleanup efforts. All in all, the cleanup has a very friendly, welcoming vibe.

ii. beach activities

The main traditions of the River Festival involve cookouts and beach parties. Each weekend in August, the government as well as various corporations and businesses in the city, will be providing funds for large beach gatherings. On these days, there will be booths set up offering wares and freebies from various businesses around the city that have helped fund the party, large swaths of cleared beach where residents can don a swimsuit and catch some rays or swim in the river, massive barbecue setups to provide partygoers with all the standard barbecue fare, beach sports tournaments, dancing and musical performances, and fireworks displays (see prompts below).

The holiday isn't just about these big parties, though - many residents arrange their own barbecues, cookouts, beach camping trips, beach bonfires, and other riverside gatherings and outings. Many riverfront businesses offer discounts on services such as canoe or kayak rentals to go out paddling on the river, jetski or motorboat rentals for tubing, wakeboarding, or waterskiing, or mounts to take romantic rides in the surf. Additionally, there is an adults-only section of the beach where any of these activities can be done in the nude in a clothing-optional setting, including the big city-sponsored parties.

If your character is good at playing a particular sport that could, conceivably, be played on a beach, chances are that during the month of August, a tournament will be set up for them to participate in. The tournaments are pretty standard, generally sponsored by community centers, sports clubs and teams, gyms, and other organizations and businesses in the city, with various levels of specialization, and levels of skill or competitiveness. The prizes also vary, with everything from plain old bragging rights to sports equipment or passes to gyms and community centers, to large lump sums of cash money. Definitely worth it, for characters with a love for sport. Oh, and a lot of these tournaments are happening on the adults-only clothing-optional beaches, for those grown-up sports fans who like a bit of an extra challenge.

iii. fireworks and music

Each weekend throughout the month of August, there will be evening performances all along the beach. Not as extensive as the musical performances during Carnivale, the performances are geared more toward dancing than true concerts, with areas roped off on both on the regular and adults-only clothing-optional beaches for dancing and mingling (acts will switch off between the two areas so both areas get both performances).

Player-characters who are musical artists, DJs, or otherwise perform are free to set up shop around this party and panhandle or put on free performances for publicity.

After the sun goes down, boats will head out into the water carrying a variety of fireworks, and there will be a beautiful display of exploding color in the sky for residents to watch and enjoy. The fireworks are highly advanced, incorporating old-fashioned gunpowder as well as modern technology that result in really beautiful displays that can take the breath away!

iv. waterpark

This year, there's an extra little bit of fun being thrown into the River Festival - the grand opening of a new waterpark! It's quite the park, set near the river with a scenic view, and featuring all sorts of amazing rides, from waterslides that are catered to all ages and levels of thrill seeking, tube rides that are almost like a rollercoaster on water, a pool where customers can faux-surf, funnel rides, side-by-side racing slides, a lazy river, and almost anything else you can imagine. Besides the rides, there are also a wide variety of swimming pools for kids and adults - wave pools, lap pools, splash pools - and an equally wide variety of hot tubs featuring various minerals (and some aromatherapy) for relaxing, invigoration, and other effects.

Some of the hot tubs are in a clothing-optional adult area, where there are some normal pools and some clearly-labelled pools contain elements that increase arousal or desire, or simply affection to encourage some closer bonding!

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to meet new roommates, for the purpose of getting to know each other, or hit up one of the mod-posted prompts for each Communal Floor. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during the River Festival, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: credit unknown; image ii: Albert Ramon Puig; image iii: Claudio Pilia; image iv: Alan Philips

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[ Unfortunately or fortunately for Skye, Genji's quite the wanderer. He's been assisting in the clean up and decided to take a break and have a little walk. And all thanks to his cybernetic agility, he manages to dodge fast enough to not get any dirty water and sludge on his sweet tank top. ]

No harm done. [ He scratches at his hair. Then turns to the voice and perks up, smiling. Ah yes! ] Oh, Skye! Hello.

( the universe is clearly a kind one, because that tank top is bitchin'. not that she knows what the (assumed) japanese letters mean. skye might be surprised to be found, but when the intruder happens to be her too-cool-for-school sensei, she can't be that mad. )

Welcome to my crib. ( deadpan as always, but there's a grin slowly replacing her previous expression of pure concentration. ) Nice tank.

[ Genji's recently cut all the faded green out of his hair, so he's back to black with salt-n-pepper temples. No armor, just his scarred face and crows feet out to get some sun. He grins and looks down at his shirt. ]

You can't go wrong with Ultraman. [ Genji crosses his arms and heads over to her, head tilted. ] So you're practicing, I see? How is it going?

( genji's just a Cool Dude. she's fond of him, in the "i need to loosen this man up and expose him to my terrible life choices" kind of way. naturally, practicing her super-saiyan action movie star movies with her new gauntlets would be where they'd meet up totally accidentally, because it's the one place she can't just force him to do terribly stupid things. well, for the most part. )

It's going. ( a shrug, super casual, as if she hasn't just screamed into the void after attempting to splash him with river gunk. ) No tsunamis yet, but it's been kinda shake-y all morning.

( wow, so many terribad puns. get new ones, skye. )

Total honesty, I feel like I'm trying out some Toys R Us action hero gloves.

[ When Genji 'loosens up,' things historical tend to get perhaps a bit too wild. It's part of why he's been in a slow process of figuring out how to 'chill' the past decade. He's already made enough bad decisions for about ten people; he'll probably tell Skye all about it at some point. ]

Moderation is usually the best, yes. [ He appreciates the puns, don't worry. Genji walks his way over to her and sits himself down.

And chuckles. ]

I can see that. I have my own version of those. [ He gestures with a hand, the top of his wrist opening open to reveal the currently empty section of where he keeps his shuriken, the insides rotating around like mechanical muscles and tendons. ] I had to wear one of Cisco's power dampening bracelets for a bit, it's an interesting experience.

( she's not staring. of course not. staring is rude, and she's at least enough of an adult to recognize that doing rude things is no way to make friends. except, you know, for the whole concept where genji's just casually showing off his cybernetic arm shit as if that's totally normal — fuck rudeness, she's absolutely staring.

yes, the girl's practically a cartoon, eyes wide as saucers and everything. )

Dude. ( dude. ) That's ridiculous.

( awesome, so incredibly amazing; she really has to fight the urge to reach over and touch it; she wants to ask a million questions but at least has the sense of self to not immediately ask them all... )

Also, the power dampener bracelets sound terrible, hard pass on that.

[ Genji grins. It's still rather delightful to be looked at with awe and wonderment instead of the disgust and fear he was used to. So he doesn't mind at all, look away. His cybernetics are pretty cool. ]

Indeed. [ He snickers. ] Next time I do maintenance on my hands you are more than welcome to observe.

[ He puts his hands on his lap, proper posture and all. It's kind of insufferable, really. ]

It was. This place tends to give people, well, extra 'gifts.' I woke up one day with the ability to grow plants and it caused a... minor jungle. In the apartment. [ He winces. Not one of his finest moments. ]

What, like Poison Ivy meets Sky High?

( skye can't help but laugh, a bit incredulously, trying to picture genji the supercool cybernetic robot ninja waving his hands around while plants grew enthusiastically all around him. it's a great mental image. probably less great to live through, though. )

I hope these people are paying him to make that shit. Stopping a natural disaster should probably come with bonus checks.

( but they're probably not, because when have governments ever done the right thing? never, if you ask skye. )

[ He... kind of gets those references? He's from the 2070s, what is Sky High. ]

I suppose so. [ He drags a hand across a patch of dying and dead grass nearby and it flutters back to life for a moment, all green. ] I've spent most of my time trying to not create jungles, but it's nice to have a literal green thumb I suppose.

[ He shifts back to his proper posture, chuckling. ]

You would think. I tend to repay him with alcohol and good conversation to make up for it.

[ whaaaaaaaaaaat. you wouldn't think that surprise superpowers would really be that much of a kick for skye, given her own fairly recent development in that regard, but you'd be wrong. her eyes still light up like a kid in a candy store watching his hand swoop and save the earth. ]

How — okay, listen, you are seriously downplaying your badass existence right now. I was totally down for Mr Miyagi, but this is cool.

[ she's not sure why she's surprised. maybe she just assumed that the "gift" he got was temporary, like the effect of the fireflies or the enthusiastic music from carnivale. ]

Can you control what you grow? Or is it just hyped up magic fertilizer?

[ Genji chuckles, looking down at his palms. ]

I haven't had much of a chance to really.. delve too deep into it. As I said, I mostly just make sure I'm not accidentally growing a redwood tree in my living room. But being able to revitalize plants is certainly useful.

[ He looks back over at her, appreciating her enthusiasm. ]

I'm sure I could, were I to practice. I have noticed that certain kinds of plants have grown around me when I'm in certain... moods.

[ Aka Shigeru tends to make flowers pop up and flourish. And thorny vines have shown up when he's angry. ]

Uh huh.

[ certain moods, you say. don't mind her eyebrow waggle in response, genji, she's totally picking up the concepts you're not entirely putting down. sorry, she's incorrigible. ]

As much of a bummer as a giant tree in the middle of your shit would be, growing plants out of nowhere is definitely a useful superpower. You're basically a ninja Venasaur.

[ GENJI USED VINE WHIP. IT WAS SUPER EFFECTIVE. ]

[ Genji rolls his eyes... then gives her a quick little wink. Yeah, yeah~ It's not like he didn't say it knowing there would be an implication.

But he laughs at that, a little hoarse sounding. ]

I have been called worse, so I will accept the comparison. Perhaps eventually it will be a skill I can use in combat. But for now, I just like to use it to tend to my plants. [ He looks at his hands again. ] And make sure they don't grow in my joints and get me locked up.

[ she's extremely relieved to not have to explain the concept of a venusaur. ]

Yeah, that... doesn't sound like it'd be fun. [ it sounds extremely painful, actually. good on him for avoiding that. ] But do you know what would be?

[ if he's imagining a bit of a terrible gleam in her eyes, he's not wrong. ]

Have you ever seen, like, those old cowboy movies where the dude rolls up on his stallion and lassoes another guy? That would be fun.

[ Definitely not. ]

It's very annoying, if anything. It's quite a chore to disarticulate my limbs and clean them.

[ He does notice that gleam and he's delighted... then he bursts out into laughter, dipping his head back. ]

An old friend of mine embraces the cowboy aesthetic. The thought of him with a vine whip is hilarious. [ It's high noon indeed. ]

[ the sound of genji's laughter is unlike anything skye's ever heard before and she loves it. new goal: make genji laugh as much as possible. ]

Please tell me he wears a tacky ten-gallon hat and spurs everywhere.

[ It's a very good laugh, slightly hoarse when he doesn't have his helmet on. He's still grinning, currently amused by memories of McCree. ]

Oh absolutely. Says 'howdy' and uses a revolver and everything. He's very committed to it.

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monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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