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

Oh. No. I mean, there are people that I work closely with, but no one that I feel romantically toward.

[Rush Clovis comes to mind, but she couldn't say that they had worked out. She also has no desire to make any attempt at rekindling that relationship.]

I don't mind. For now, my work keeps me busy, and I am surrounded by friends and colleagues who share my mindset.

[Alex just watched Padme for a moment before she gave her a little bit of a nod. If there was something that Alex got all too well it was throwing yourself into work and saying forget it your personal life. Of course that didn't work all that well when the two intermingled.]

What sort of things do you do?

[Alex didn't think she had asked before, so she was remedying that mistake right now. After all, asking questions was one of the things she was good at, after all it was definitely her job, but she had a way of asking them that felt genuine, because Alex definitely really wanted to know the answers to the questions that she was posing.]

At the moment, we've been trying to stop the Military Creation Act.

[Which might take a bit more explaining to fully provide why she didn't desire it to happen. Padmé has always been a believer of peace, a believer that meeting force with force should not be the go to answer. Conflicts usually stem from an inability to understand and communicate with each other.]

Typically, we act as mediators and regulate trade to protect the citizens of the Republic. We will draft bills or acts and the like and present them, or vote in turn on the ones that were brought forward. We discuss issues and come to decisions, or at least we try to. There are over two thousand representatives, so it sometimes takes time.

[Alex just blinked for a moment at the woman's obviously political job. Back home, Alex's involvement in politics basically stopped and started with feeling more than a little personally responsible for Trump being elected (look, Simon had told her that she'd sort of started the Apocalypse by playing things on her show, and while Simon could be sketchy as hell, she did trust and believe someone who believed she'd save the world. ) But she's visibly impressed by the idea that Padme is doing such good work when it comes to running the government where she was. But one thing sticks in her mind, and it falls out of her lips before passing through any sort of filter.]

Two thousand? God, how do you guys get anything done?

[Looking slightly abashed, Alex added:]

Sorry, reflex. But it seriously needs to be overwhelming at times. I don't think that I could do it, honestly.

Slowly, sometimes.

[As much as Padmé does desire to scream out or pull her hair. She doesn't. Rather, she often has to take a breath and a step back, and approach the situations with a neutral stance, to coax others, to sometimes rile them with words.

But she offers that wry smile.]

It is trying, at times, but then... When you are able to bring about something beneficial, it makes it all worth it.

It must take months to get anything done. I swear you must have the patience of a saint or something.

[For a woman who was incredibly impatient and frequently had no sense of chill, Alex was always slightly in awe of those who did have it. She probably would have been kicked out of the Senate somewhere around the middle of the first week honestly.

If she lasted that long.

But she focused on the other woman’s job as she asked:]

What kinds of things did you do? When you can get them to work, I mean.

You just try to keep in mind what you are fighting for.

[Verbally, that is. She can fight, to defend herself, and has done so, but harming others is not something that she takes pleasure in. She would always prefer that diplomatic solution.]

Ah. Relief aid to planets. Tariffs on those who abuse the system.

[Alex always tried to keep what she was fighting for in mind, but there were some days that were honestly better than others. And there was that whole prone to doing something stupid thing, but at least when Alex did something stupid, she committed to it a hundred percent.

Giving Padme a quick grin, Alex bumped her with her elbow lightly.]

Sounds like you're seriously quite the badass at home, Padme.

[That earns a soft laugh from Padmé as she offers a smile. There are many words she could use to describe herself, and she also knows that those that she works with consider her to be stubborn and strong-willed. She is.]

Well, I don't know if I would use that work. Thorough, maybe. Determined, certainly.

I'm determined.

[Alex announced with a grin before she added other words to what she was.]

And annoyingly persistent and a little insufferable sometimes, but I don't think I could do what you do. You should definitely take that badass boss title, Padme!

[There's a grin, because she means it and nothing her friend says is going to change her mind about it.]

[There is a little shake of her head. She can honestly say that no one has ever called her that before. Padmé offers a grin of her own, mirroring the one that is given to her.]

Well, I suppose I will take that as a compliment then.

[That made Alex laugh, she couldn't help it.]

It's definitely meant to be one, if it helps!

Then it certainly does.

[Not that she truly considers herself a 'badass'. She does strive towards the tasks that she desire to accomplish. That much is true. Padmé knows that she can be a force of nature, but she also knows those who work just as hard as she does, who put in as many hours, if not more. Bail and Mon do come to mind.]

Although I can't say I will have that title etched in to a plaque or anything... Community Ambassador is more than sufficient for me.

Maybe you should.

[Despite what certain people may or may not have believed, Alex was good at planning, and she was planning now. A sign would be pretty easy to come by, and there was always another festival for gift giving. Hell, Christmas would come soon.

Of course Alex probably wouldn't be able to wait until then. She was a planner but she had all of the patience of a kid on Christmas eve. But for now she focused on other things.]

Do you like it, compared to back home? Being the Community Ambassador, I mean.

Perhaps those with a sense of humor might see it bring a smile to their face, but those who are more serious...

[That little quirk of her lips. She knows that there will always be those who you cannot please, no matter what you try. It isn't that Padmé has the mission in life to make everyone happy, but being approachable and known as someone who will listen are things that she does like to portray.]

Ah. It's different, of course. In a way, I was on better footing back home. I knew my duties, and had been at them for some time, and I knew the system, for all its flaws and strengths.

People who are more serious, in my opinion, definitely need to chill out.

[Nope, she's not talking about someone from her daily life or anything. Just a generalized 'people' thing. Because honestly, it is true. Still she frowned about the system, a system that had stonewalled her on multiple things, honestly.

She was a nosy reporter and some people just didn't appreciate that.]

What are you having trouble with? If it's okay to ask.

There are certainly some occasions where they do need to relax more, but there are also times when a more serious minded individual is needed.

[Imagine trying to get through a difficult situation and the people are jesting and joking? She does work with several who are stout and might seem boorish, but sometimes it is just their culture.

She gives a little shake of her head.]

I don't mind. I suppose that it's not exactly set out, and this community here of people who are brought together, come from such varied lives. There is nothing wrong with any of that, but it is a little like a dream that you find yourself giving a presentation that you haven't prepared for.

[Alex is the sort of person who makes bad jokes under stress (and when she's not under stress too if she was honest) but she also does the things that she needs to do. Most of the time anyway.

The best way to do it, in Alex's opinion is to have a mix of both the joker and the serious person and go from there. No one should have to solve all of the problems alone.]

I can imagine that. I mean, just what people want out of here and how they go about getting it are so varied. I'd probably lose my mind if I had to deal with it, so you get good grades on it from me!

[Alex was a reporter, it was her job to follow the story and then to report it. That normally meant she wasn't fighting the whole group of the Quarantine at large.]

I might not lose my mind, but it is going to take me a while to learn how to juggle it all.

[It is not as if she has the backing of a planet behind her, well, not like she used to. They had offered her the job, for which Padmé is happy. While she would put her best effort in to any employment that came her way, she isn't exactly qualified for all, and she's not afraid to admit that.]

It's a bit like my first day as queen. I knew what to expect, and yet I had no idea.

[Sorry Padme Alex is just going to blink at you for a moment, tilting her head to the side like the puppy that she can sometimes be.]

Wait, Queen? I thought you were a Senator or something.

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monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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