monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

[riverviewmod]

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

navigation

Comments

Rogue | Marvel 616 | ota

[backwaterbelle]

i | cleaning up

[She needs to get out of the apartment, as much as she’s loathe to leave the architectural bubble of memories and cats, Rogue knows she has to move forward somehow. She’s done it many times before, so logically she can manage it again, correct? Still, she can’t help but feel bitter and angry about the situation.

So when a call for cleaning up the beaches from the recent floods went up, the mutant dressed in form-fitting slacks, a worn t-shirt, boots and work gloves and got to work. The little pieces of trash go ignored as she focuses on the larger, less manageable pieces of debris, picking them up as though they weigh nothing and flying them off to dispose of them. Some even get angrily launched back into the water, landing quite a bit away with an inaudible plop, and others large, flat rocks (often boulder sized) are skipped along the surface.

Even though it’s not much of a workout for her, she does stop for tea with a hefty amount of sugar added to it as well as lunch and snacks, if only to separate herself from a group of chatty, happy volunteers. Every time she crosses paths or vicinity with a happy couple, she takes a break in the distinct opposite direction of them.]

ii | tournaments & beach

[In an effort to both distract herself and provide her with another avenue to affix her focus, Rogue checks out the tournaments to see if she can basically hustle others out of money. The thief would have been in the stands, cheering for her no doubt, but she participates without expecting to hear anyone cheering her name in the crowd.

One day when she’s in a particularly dangerous mood, she even takes a gander at the adult only portion of the beaches to see what sort of damage she can facilitate there, wearing nothing but a pair of black, short gloves and a green two piece swimsuit.]

iv | waterpark

[It takes far too much energy to step into the waterpark than she’d ever admit, and she struggles to exist there without radiating her negative emotions. It’s something he would’ve had a literal blast at with her, especially with a power dampener, but she also knows that he wouldn’t want her to hide and sulk from something she’d otherwise find great joy in on her own. She needs to be better than the person she’s being right now.

She’ll try the lazy river, cautiously enough to wear long gloves, but that’s about it on the giving a fuck factor as she wears a snug fitting two piece that’s more sultry than cute. Fake it until you make it, right? She does, at least, stick to lounging around the pools with more flailing bodies, and is that a flask tucked into the hip of her bikini bottom?

Absolutely. There’s a few reasons for those sunglasses it seems.

In an effort to feel less like a walking pile of Debbie Downer, Rogue eventually situates herself in an adult only pool, hoping to whatever magic and science is involved that she can just stop feeling so terrible.]

v | wildcard

[Have another idea? Feel free to reach out and discuss it with me at Schist !]

I

[partiallysquirrelblood]

[If she was hoping to avoid chatty, happy volunteers, this probably wasn't the girl she wanted to run into. Doreen is mostly chatting with the various squirrels and squirrel-like Pokemon who've decided to help at her request. They scurry around, picking up all manner of small trash, while Squirrel Girl herself deals with much larger, much heavier objects.]

Rogue! Hey!

[backwaterbelle]

[Mission unaccomplished. At the sound of her name as well as the familiar voice, Rogue's eyes widen and she turns to squint at the other female. Don't mind the giant log resting over her shoulder like it's a mere baseball bat.]

Doreen? When did you get here?

[partiallysquirrelblood]

Tippy-Toe and I showed up couple days ago.

[And they'd immediately jumped into helping instead of taking some time to get their bearings. Mostly because immediately jumping into helping was how Doreen got her bearings.]

I didn't know anybody else was here except us and Gabby Kinney.

[backwaterbelle]

[She appears relieved.]

And here ah thought ah'd been a jerk ignorin' your existence for a month.

[The mention of Gabby gives her more pause, but first:]

You knew ah was here? [Realizing that this is going to be a conversation, Rogue hucks the tree limb back into the river where no one was visibly moving and motions her to accompany her to the snacks.]

Steve and Bucky are here from our universe it seems, but Steve's a bit from my past. Ah'm from just after defeatin' the Red Skull with the Unity Squad. Ah've been a bit of a hermit with Remy, who's since disappeared. [Doreen receives a look that hopefully puts all halt to questions on that.] So mah roll call list might be a bit out of date, but ah know Laura's here from another universe and we also got a baby Spiderman swingin' around.

[She grins slightly at that.] Ah call him Itsy, or Bitsy. He's younger than the Peter ah know.

[partiallysquirrelblood]

No, I had no idea you were here. I meant Tippy-Toe and me when...

[Doreen trails off. Spider-Man's real name was Peter? Wait, did that mean-]

Spider-Man is- [She cuts off her shout. Blaring out someone's secret identity for everyone to hear was a idea. Her voice drops to a whisper.]

Spider-Man is Peter Parker? Really?

[worldsaway]

[Thor is not in a particularly good place himself, but better still now that he and Loki are on speaking terms again. He hasn't got too long in Riverview before he needs to go live what promises to be a terrible couple of days back in his universe, so he's immersing himself in what he enjoys.

Which is mostly drinking and fooling around, when there aren't better things to do.

When Thor catches sight of Rogue, he catches a similar sort of air from her. The flask gives him that impression as well as her expression does. He approaches her, stopping short to point it out with a quirked brow.]

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you have a flask in your pants.

[backwaterbelle]

[Her own brow bends in confusion at his statement, though there's the slightest bit of sparkle in her eyes at both his presence and the amusing statement at hand.]

Hate? [She's not exactly drunk, but she has an obvious fluidity to her voice.] Sugah ah'm delighted to be the one to tell you this, but ah ain't wearin' any pants.

[And then she smiles, the sadness merely a thread in her genuine pleasure to see her large friend. He's a sight for sore eyes.]

Ah'm also happy to see you despite the distinct lack of pants. You thirsty?

[She lazily wriggles her hip at him. She's not empty yet, but the flask is more that than full.]

[worldsaway]

I didn't mean pants pants, I meant-- [Thor gestures vaguely at her bikini bottoms. He's not flustered in doing so, but he is fumbling to explain it.]

Pants.

[He drops his attempt, the lion's share of his brain is not being utilized for better things. Like watching her shimmy her hips.]

I am if you're offering.

[backwaterbelle]

The fabric that's keepin' me from displayin' mah lady parts for all to see?

[Her lips curl into a smirk. He's adorable and she's been drinking most of the day, so pants also work.]

Be mah guest. [And instead of reaching down to snag it for him, she simply cocks her hip at him in offering, eyes both amused and challenging.] Mind the skin. Or don't.

i

[seeingscarlet]

[Wanda comes in behind Rogue, wisps of scarlet gathering up the smaller pieces of trash she leaves and depositing it into the trash bag floating alongside her.

Three guesses who this could be and the last two don't count. But Wanda doesn't seem to recognize her.]

You don't need to move all of that by yourself. I can help.

[backwaterbelle]

[The voice causes her to turn while she's still holding a large log one handed, her gaze immediately going to the red powers around the other woman. Rogue's aware that there's a Wanda from a different universe in the Quarantine, but she hasn't sought out the other Avenger. The magic makes for a quick recognition for the mutant, and her brow furrows when she hears the accent. Absently she wonders if this woman's the reason that folks like Tony and the other Steve don't know about mutants.]

Appreciate it sugah, but this is much heftier than a few pieces of trash.

[There's a small, perhaps challenging smile that's crept onto her features and it seems Rogue knows that this woman is more than she seems.]

[seeingscarlet]

[Wanda mostly suppresses an eyeroll and gestures, raising one of the larger rocks and sending it back where it belongs. She's used to odd reactions to her abilities, but that's a new one.]

You shouldn't strain yourself when it's this hot. Let me help.

[backwaterbelle]

[Rogue's smile grows at she watches her replace the rock with her powers. At her comment of about straining, she adjusts her hand on the log so that she's offering it on the tip of two fingers to the other woman.]

Be my guest.

[seeingscarlet]

Now you're showing off.

[But there's no bite in her tone or expression as she takes the log and moves it to join the others.]

iv. that affection pool

[tevinteraltus]

[ It isn't a terrible day, all things considered, but it was only a few days ago that Dorian has realized he's been trapped here, well not "trapped" per say, for a year and he has nothing to show for it. He's also decided that he's had just about enough of nearly finding some degree of happiness only to have it yanked away from him at the last possible moment. Once that happens a few times in a man's life, he's just done with the whole thing. Add to that feeling jealous of his friends and their happiness, and he's just looking to feel...nice for a bit. The Quarantine is very good at providing such things, and ah, here's a pool that's supposed to increase "affection". It seems innocent enough, though it's only after sinking into the exceptionally pleasant waters that he notices he's not alone.

And that he knows the other occupant. ]

Ah, good afternoon, Rogue.

[backwaterbelle]

[Feeling nice definitely is the end goal, but Rogue hasn't been in this particular pool long enough. The effects haven't quite set in yet, and it's frustrating her because she certainly wants instant gratification to numb her negative emotions.

Recognizing the other occupant--who couldn't with such a well coiffed mustache--the mutant offers a smile and a bit of a wave, though it's hard to tell if her heart's completely in it.]

Howdy sugah.

[tevinteraltus]

[ He takes the opportunity afforded the both of them by merit of having fulfilled their conversational requirements to settle in to the bath, to enjoy the warmth as it sank into his skin. He's fine with silence for a few moments before reaching to his things, and to the satchel he always carries with him. Inside is a notebook, writing implements, and a small silver flask of grappa, which he retrieves and settles back into the water. He unscrews the top and moves it to his lips before stopping and raising an eyebrow in her direction and holding it out slightly. ]

Have you ever had grappa? It's a brandy made from grapes.

[backwaterbelle]

[Rogue's glad he's of the same mindset as her in regards to enjoying the warmth of the water, and more importantly, as she soon discovers, the taste of delightfully mind numbing alcohol. The flask receives a curious stare only when he mentions the type of alcohol.]

Ah've had brandy before. It's a bit sweet, yeah? [Compare to whiskey or bourbon at least. She takes the flask and a healthy drink with a pleased little sigh. It's quite good.] Yes, sweeter than what ah usually drink.

iv

[11calls]

[In some ways (or depending on who you asked many ways) Alex could be more than a little bit like a giant kid. So she was definitely being a giant kid and enjoying every damn part of the waterpark and the nice weather that went along with it. But unfortunately there's only so many water rollercoasters and racers that you can handle before your body needs some time to chill, so Alex finds herself on the lazy river, just floating along on the water. Stretched out in her vintage red one piece, when the tube comes close to someone who she knows, Alex sticks a leg into the water in order to slow it down and direct it closer to Rogue without actually touching the woman accidentally.

She remembers after all.

More than that, she spots the flask and honestly at this point it almost seems like every adult here in Riverview needs to be carrying one nowadays. It's just that it seems like the right thing to do, given as you never know when someone (either yourself or someone else) might just happen to need a drink. Still her voice is light when she just cries out:]

Hi!

i'm so sorry this is so late

[backwaterbelle]

[Wow girl, that's one loud voice, and it startles her. There's a moment of squinting hidden behind sunglasses before recognition hits.

Rogue remembers it as well, and thinking about the kidnapping eventually brings her mind back to the main topic of displeasure, the lack of a particular Cajun. It's not silly, but she feels as such, angry at herself for still feeling the painful and worried knot that's grown in her soul.

That flask that Alex spots is snagged as if on cue, and she shifts seamlessly to sitting more upright before taking a sip of the whiskey.]

You're chipper today.

V

[ragnarsson]

[Rogue had called him, saying that something new had happened, but she had been kind of vague as to what that was. So he heads over to her home in his wheelchair, taking his time as he idly wonders what could be new with her.

He knocks on the door and waits for her to answer.]

[backwaterbelle]

[She's having mixed feelings about her discovery, or more importantly, the implications of the timing of said discovery that have her looking back and drowning in the land of What Ifs. When he knocks, she's staring down a full bottle of whiskey that's just sitting on the kitchen counter, with an orange tabby perched on her shoulder trying to battle her hair.

Scooping the cat off her and ignoring the disgruntled noise of protest, she sets him on the ground and steps to the door. Rogue's dressed casually in a pair of dark leggings and an over-sized t-shirt tied at the waist so that it's falling off her shoulder. Key point to note is she's not wearing gloves.

She smiles when she sees him though it's obvious she's still agitated, and she adjusts her gaze downward as she opens the door fully so that he can roll inside.] Hey sugah. It's really good to see you.

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar rolls inside, making sure to avoid her toes. He's never been one much for hugging or other forms of physical affection, but he does carefully pat Rogue up on the part of her arm that's still covered by clothing. She's become a dear friend and he finds that he greatly enjoys her company, something that he can't say about everyone.

When the orange tabby comes over to investigate with a throaty chirp, Ivar leans over to affectionately rub the top of his head. Cats and he get along just fine, for they both simply do what they want.]

Likewise. [He spots the bottle on the kitchen counter.] Is that whiskey? [He wouldn't be much of a Viking if he didn't love his alcohol.]

[backwaterbelle]

[Not like her toes would be any worse for wear from the roll over, but the effort is appreciated. The tough against her arm bubbles excitement and warmth into her chest, and she feels almost guilty about it. That's an emotion she shoves aside in favor of the positive ones that Ivar brings with his presence.

She shuts the door behind him and watches as Quentin eats up the attention, aggressively head butting his hand before eyeing his lap keenly. He clearly came seated just for him, right? Look out Ivar, he's going to try and claim his lap before he's even two rolls in the door.

Rogue chuckles, moving to muss his hair affectionately.] Bourbon, actually. But, that's a type of whiskey. [Motioning towards the living area, she grins nervously.] Make yourself at home, ah... Well ah got somethin' to show you? If you want.