riverviewlogs | 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

navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She gestures acknowledgement, tilting her head, though she doesn't laugh the way Skye does.]

Fair enough. Where I'm from they would be recycled, or turned into rags. I don't know what they usually do here.

[The gauntlet, though, has her coming closer as soon as the invitation is made, curiosity glinting in her eyes. She's seen some new and unusual varieties of advanced technology here, thanks to Tony, but she's been under the impression that it's relatively rare.]

A prototype, then. [And, observing the wave it makes when Skye gestures, she adds,]

I assume it's not just for flinging around errant debris.

Yeah, a prototype.

( and it's one she's exceptionally thankful for. she's gotten better at controlling the mechanics of her own abilities now, thanks to the removal of the looming cloud of potential injury, and each day that goes by leaves skye feeling more confident that she can actually handle it moving forward — which, overall, just means she feels a lot more confident about showing off when she can. )

Technically, the gauntlet's not doing any of the fun stuff. It's just making sure I don't break my arms in the process.

( she can't keep showing off forever, though. a break every now and again is important. so, after a second wave is sent out, skye brings her arm back, letting it rest with her palm facing upwards; it gives her the ability to use her other hand to unhook the straps and buckles keeping it in place, exposing the milky underside of her arm and its splatter of still-healing bruisework. )

The shockwaves have a bad habit of fracturing bone when I try to control them on my own. The gauntlet focuses the vibes, keeps them from going back in, so I can direct them where they need to go. Like towards debris.

[She's been introduced to the concept of modified humans and unusual abilities already here, and even the more complicated world of superhero vigilantism, but the idea of abilities that are so outright damaging to their wielders is rather new.

She looks down in time to see the bruises, but other than a quarter-seconds pause as her eyes flick over Skye's forearms and the devices that she's not removing, she doesn't gasp or wince in sympathy or draw attention to them.]

Like a mirror behind a light, then. Very sensible. And I suppose not easy to develop.

Your guess is as good as mine. [ a small lift and fall of her shoulders. ] I don't really get the tech behind it, to be totally honest with you. I just got really lucky finding somebody who did.

[ it really was luck, if she's being honest. there was no skill on her part. wally had basically shoved her in cisco's general direction, and she hadn't exactly been in a position to argue. ]

It looks worse than it is, though. The bruising just refuses to go away.

[Breq is no doctor, but the last part still makes her frown. She's sure Skye has already talked to someone qualified about it, but...]

Do they not have [Momentarily, she pauses, sorting through words to find one for the concept she wants to express.] correctives, here? For healing.

[ there's a brief moment of silence as skye's mouth is otherwise occupied, teeth holding a bit of wrapping taut while her fingertips reassess the area. once relieved of duty, though, it's all too easy to fire back a casual response. ]

Oh, like moon drugs? Yeah, they do, and they offered, but — [ she doesn't quite shrug again, but the corner of her mouth does pull to the side in a pause that mostly reads of apathy. ] Didn't seem worth it.

[ in reality, it's a potent reminder of what could still happen if she's not careful. a lesson to always wear her gear. ]

The good doc helped me straighten out the worst of it. I mean, before I couldn't even lift my arms without wincing, so this is definitely a major improvement.

[Breq's gesture is indeterminate, indicating 'kind of' where her face doesn't quite say it.]

First aid correctives where I'm from are applied outside the skin, for healing bruises or scrapes. Not exactly moon drugs. [But she nods and doesn't press. Some things just don't heal all the way, and sometimes 'healed enough' is the most important part of it. Breq has her own experience with that.]

Indeed. As is having safe material to practice on. [Which Breq says while eying the netted piles of floating trash.]

Yeah. [ a soft laugh at her own expense is chuffed out under a breath. ] I'm pretty sure using a mutant force on unsuspecting bystanders is frowned upon here.

[ as is accidentally splashing people with river muck, but at least breq doesn't seem too upset by the faux pas. ]

Sorry about that, by the way. I guess I got a little too gung-ho with it.

Unlike the crocodiles in the river, you didn't mean it maliciously.

[Again, Breq waves off the concern in order to instead hold out an empty trashbag to Skye, an offering for the trash that still needs to be gathered out of the water.]

monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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