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

navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It gets tedious before too long.

[She almost stops from responding further, but then remembers-- she's not hiding who or what she is from Dorian.]

Most of my tasks, when there wasn't fighting to be had, were maintenance. They were all necessary, but not especially interesting, particularly on the hundred thousandth repetition.

I doubt it'll ever feel that way to me.

[ Mostly because Dorian is still drinking it in. Being alive, being here. Being able to do things. ]

That's because you're yet young.

[She leans forward in her seat, resting wrists against knees and watching the bustling activity of repairs going on up and down the beach. Then she makes a brief gesture, half a shrug.]

Company makes it less tiresome.

[ He concedes that with a careless gesture, mimicking what others do. ]

Is there no one you miss?

[That question, innocent as it is, still has Breq going silent for a few uncharacteristically long moments. Eventually she laces her fingers together, and speaks in a studiously even voice.]

In the sense of doing chores with them? I miss having the rest of myself to work alongside.

[ Ah, Breq. She reminds him a little of John sometimes, in the way they skirt away. It's so very human. ]

I meant a person. Someone close to you.

A different person, you mean?

[There's maybe a hint of edge to that phrase, though not true anger. It's not the same kind of offense it would be coming from, say, Seivarden, or Anaander Mianaai, but knowing that her origins will make people consider her not a person, not really, is a great reason for her hiding them. As terribly obtained as it was, her freedom is something she jealously guards.

But she subsides after a moment.]

Seivarden, I suppose. She was learning not to be so insufferable.

[There's another, more obvious answer to the question, but it's too raw to say just yet.]

[ Dorian doesn't quite understand the edge. Everyone is a person to him, automatic, even when there are other distinctions to be noted. ]

How so?

[For a brief second, Breq finds herself doubting the proper pronouns for Seivarden, wondering if she'd mixed them up again. Whether she has or not, it's easier not to switch mid-sentence and explain, so she forges on.]

She was well-born and hadn't been given much reason to think about anything other than herself for a long time. Then she lost everything, and it didn't quite help the process. [She shrugs.] Too occupied with her own misery.

[ What an idea. Being too occupied with their own misery. Could someone feel so strongly that they can't escape it? ]

But was she learning?

She was.

[The quality of Breq's voice is subdued in that moment, carrying fleeting hints of any number of emotions, briefly.]

I saved her life. I think she felt determined to repay me for it.

[Then she pauses, turns her head to consider Dorian.]

I don't suppose you have favorites the way a ship would.

I don't get to interact with that many people over an extended length of time. Mostly, it's John. Rudy, the police technician who fixes me and a few others.

[ He's fond of them all, but he's really only close to John. But . . . ]

There was a robot named Vanessa. I try to think about her when I can.

[That's a no on Favorites, then. Breq hesitates, but in the end, sets that topic aside. The need to love someone, your Captain, your Lieutenants, is a complicated topic, and Dorian, with his freedom to choose, might not get it immediately.

And, selfishly, she doesn't want to explain about hers. Not on a bright, beautiful day on the beach like this one.]

Do you wish she was here?

Yes.

[ There's no hesitation there. Dorian looks out into the expanse. ]

I promised her that I would remember her. So there is a place where she is, no matter where.

[Remembrance. Ships don't exactly have mourning rituals for their fellows, but they do have long memories, for their cousins who are long since destroyed and relegated to the annals of history. So she hums, a little, a song from some planet about respecting one's ancestors, and watches Dorian watch he beach.]

What was she like?

[ Melancholia. Nostalgia. Experiencing them now feels like he's opened a part of himself that he's kept hidden all this time. ]

I didn't know her very well or for very long. She was . . . a little like myself. They use the same technology for bang bots that they used for me.

She liked people. She missed them when they were gone. She wanted to know things, feel things.

[ "Where am I going?" "To a better place" "Will you be there?"

"I will remember you." ]

['bang bots' sounds entirely as crude as it's probably meant to, but although there are plenty of things the euphemism could mean, it's enough to give Breq an idea of what it does actually indicate.]

What happened to her?

[A half-second's pause, before Breq adds on,] if you want to say.

[ A pause. ]

She had to be deactivated. An illegal android made with human skin.

[Illegal, for having presumably cloned parts-- Breq can only imagine how horrifying she must be to someone from Dorian's world. Even to some in the radch she's a corpse soldier. To them, she must be a nightmare made real.]

Where I'm from, citizens will wear a piece of jewelry to represent those they've lost.

[ To be fair, Vanessa's case had been unique. And terrible to the human women who were dying to produce the best sex bots in the industry. Dorian understood but . . . it was a loss. ]

What kind?

[Breq brings up a hand to tap at the front of her shirt by her shoulder.]

All kinds-- the status and significance varied according to time and place. But pins were most common for memorials.

[Pins she's noticably not wearing, though her hand lingers for just a moment by her shoulder.]

I could never own accessories before.

[ but now . . . ]

I'll look into it.

Neither could I.

[She still doesn't have many, or at least, few of that kind of sentimental value. Her fingers linger briefly on the collar of her jacket as she considers it, then shakes her head and begins to push herself upright again.]

I think that's enough resting.

[ Dorian smiles. ]

Back to the grind.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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