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

Well, some would consider me an asshole so I suppose I have to like them. That or I have a breathtaking amount of people in my life who are far more patient and understanding than I deserve.

[Alex is just going to laugh at that.]

Well, it explains why we're friends. I'm pretty fond of assholes myself.

[Obviously. And that whole patient and understanding than some people deserve too.]

Well, there's one piece of evidence for that theory then as you are certainly not an asshole. [Though in all honesty, Alex is one of the few friends in her life who isn't. Most of her friends back home could qualify as assholes in some way, shape or form.]

Oh I don’t know about that. I think I have my moments. But then again everyone does.

[Of course not everyone goes busting into people’s lives and pasta and secrets like Alex has which maybe was what tended to make up the difference for her. She’s mostly learned her lesson and tries but sometimes she’s still.... Well, she’s still Alex Reagan.]

There's a difference between being an asshole and occasionally doing asshole-level things. If someone claims they are or have done neither, then they're lying.

[No one's that good. Not even the Divine or Andraste herself. People are too imperfect, too impulsive, too selfish... but it's not a bad thing. If everyone was nice all the time, the world would be horribly dull.

Relm shifts from her spot, stretching out her legs in the water.]

This thing is dangerously relaxing.

It really is. I kind of wish when Richard had redone his house in Seattle, that he'd put one of them in. Don't get me wrong, the shower he put in instead is frankly amazing, but sometimes well... this is what you need.

[The mention of being an asshole was dropped for now, as Alex just gestured around the tub that they were currently soaking in.]

And whatever they put into the water is heavenly, I swear. I wish I could get some of that to take back home when I go. Like the sleep incense.

I find showers amazing, period. Having all that water conveniently dumped on you. And with warm water, too. What a treat.

[Thedas is a long, long ways from indoor plumbing, sadly. Hawke's going to enjoy it while she can.]

It's ridiculously relaxing. Almost alarmingly so. And this is just one of the effects the tubs offer. I saw ones for increasing arousal?

I can only imagine. I mean I'm used to it? But give me a few days in the wood or on the road in crappy little motels, and when I come home and take one, I'm ready to believe in whatever god happened to do give me such lovely hot water.

[The words come with a grin as she settles back into the tub, stretching her legs out but in a way that didn't bother Hawke or invade her personal space. Thank goodness the tubs are like that.]

Yeah, for some reason Riverview is really invested in people having sex. It's sort of weird. They have loads of things that invite it, which is fine if you've got someone willing to do it. [It's clear Alex didn't. Richard wouldn't be caught dead in one of those sorts of situation, and wouldn't touch her if she had done it alone. He was old fashioned like that.]

Motels are like shitty versions of inns, right? And hotels are the nicer ones. Or they're supposed to be. Anyway, I thought every place had indoor plumbing here, or at least most actual buildings do. Is that not the case where you're from?

[The woods not so much, but she wonders if this lovely indoor plumbing and its hot water heaters aren't so universal as she was made to believe.]

...there is so much I could say about that that I'm not even sure where to start. [So many jokes, so little time!] Damn, I have no one. Where's Isabela when you need her?

Yeah. Motels are definitely shitty inns. And they have them but a lot of the time they don’t work or have only ice cold water or are just super dirty so you’re better not stepping into the tub honestly.

[And then because she’s Alex she asked softly:]

Isabella?

I suppose you get what you pay for, since they're the cheaper option.

[Oh hey, she gets to talk about her pirate! And one of her BFFs to boot!]

Isabela, yes. A good friend from back home. Always good for getting into some misadventure, stealing shit, or for a good romp in the sheets. [Among other things, too, like having her back and being there when needed. But she wouldn't want to ruin Isabela's reputation, so she keeps that to herself.]

Yeah, it's the cheaper option, but sometimes it's just that the places we go, they can be in like the backwoods and stuff, so staying at a nicer hotel or an air b&b isn't exactly an option for us. It's either motels or crashing in a car, and I already don't sleep and Richard is six feet tall so that seems like it would be asking a lot.

[And she just shrugged, because also she didn't want to hear it if they did need to camp in the car. He wore suits, and that basically said all there was to be said about that.]

Oh, it sounds like she's lovely. Maybe she'll show up. You never know, right?

So you two travel a lot together? For leisure or do your jobs require it?

[As she realizes she's never asked what Alex does for a living. Whoops.]

Oh, she's quite lovely. Depending on personality she can be difficult, but I've never had an issue with her. [Hell, the only one she butted heads with was Aveline. And if the guard-captain hadn't been such a rule stickler and judgmental prick to the pirate, they'd have gotten long much better.] I miss her, but I don't know how well she'd do here. There's nary an ocean in sight and I think she'd go a little stir crazy after awhile.

For work. Back home, Richard was the subject of my podcast, which is like a speciality news program. It's how we met. Things just developed from there. I was a reporter back home, and started investigating these things he was working on. So we did a fair bit of traveling together.

[That's a nice way of putting it honestly, but she's trying to keep stuff from the show private, so she's going to do that.]

Well, who knows, we may find an ocean yet somewhere in the woods or whatever.

[The words come with a hopeful smile.] But maybe if she comes, Poe Dameron or someone could teach her how to fly the ships we have here, and then she can be a space pirate.

Oh, so one of those... journalist types? I think that's the word. What sort of things did you two investigate? Crimes?

[That's what she usually hears journalists reporting on, right?]

Can you imagine some poor idiot just walking in the woods and suddenly BAM, ocean? I suppose if one follows the river far enough they'd eventually come to an ocean, but Maker only knows how far away it is.

[Isabela in the air. Now that's a mental image.] Might be a hard sell for her. She loves the water. Then again, she might not have much of a choice. A flying ship's better than none at all.

Sort of. Well kinda. Mostly we investigated paranormal stuff. Ghosts and demons and stuff like that.

[Don’t mind Alex if she forces her voice a little lighter than it normally would be. Demons are sort of her kryptonite honestly. Among other things. Normally she wouldn't be so cagey, but now she's keeping secrets for three. It's harder than she thought it would be, honestly.

So she's just going to think about something else.]

But honestly if someone found an ocean it probably wouldn’t even be the weirdest thing this year really. So there’s that. But I think that someone can get used to almost anything.

[That... gets a slight furrowed brow from Hawke. Demons in her world aren't written off as medieval fantasy; they're very real and very dangerous. As a mage, Hawke gets leery when people say they have anything to do with them.]

You're not a mage, are you? How are you able to investigate anything to do with them?

[It's not often the mundane folk mess about with demons. Demons don't usually mess with mundane folk either. (It also occurs to her a moment later that, since magic isn't the same everywhere, demons might not be either...)]

At least it'd probably be a nice discovery. Better than a cult popping out of nowhere, at any rate.

Oh god no, definitely not a mage! I'm just me, normal human who drinks way to much coffee and doesn't sleep nearly enough. But we investigate reports of them and things. Richard, that's his job: he debunks supernatural happenings. So, I was investigating cases with him.

[And him too, but she doesn't need to mention that. Or Coralee, or anything else that goes along with it, so she doesn't. However that doesn't stop her from making a rather horrific face, because honestly cults. It's always demons and cults. Always.]

Fucking cults. Seriously. Fucking cults.

He debunks them? So, if people are claiming it's demons, he goes to make sure that's not actually the case? What happens if it is? Who handles them?

[Oh yes, she's asking quite seriously. Because demons are a very serious matter and it kind of worries her two mundane people are investigating anything tied to demons.]

[Alex is weighing her words quite carefully, and the effort is visible in it on her face.]

Richard would say that there aren't any cases where the demons are real, because demons themselves aren't real.

[But given the evidence of the demon on her black tape that was on the network, Alex clearly doesn't agree.]

[That gets a long, hard, skeptical look. But her earlier realization keeps Hawke from immediately blurting out something along the lines of "Then his three PhDs didn't do him a damn lick of good because he's a moron". Instead, she opts for:]

I'm really hoping that this is a case of us having different kinds of demons or something, because otherwise I'm going to have some choice words for Richard and they won't be nice. Define "demon" for me, in the sense that you understand them.

He would argue that different worlds have different rules I think. And of course that the rules of ours mean that they’re aren’t demons in it. He won’t believe in them until he has proof that can’t be denied.

[And honestly even then he’d deny if probably. He was her irrational skeptic after all. But she just sighs.]

I would define demons as the shadows made when the goddess Tiamat created to destroy the world. Or as the artificial ones that Warren was making with his machines. Unfortunately there’s no good way to prove they exist or stop them. At least so far anyway.

[And that definition sets her at ease, because those are very much not like the demons she knows about. Alex's demons sound like a completely different brand of awful, honestly.]

All right, then definitely different than what I'm familiar with. Richard gets a pass there. But why are they so hard to prove? Certainly you've encountered them, judging by what you've said and what you know.

Because testimony doesn’t count as evidence. Neither do video tapes. Or a lot of things.

[Like the things in her sleep notes and her nightmares. Simon’s bilocation and his tapping in her apartment.]

Basically until he actually captures one or something he’s not going to admit that he believes.

[Alex thinks he does believe, honestly but is clinging to his irrationality like a child clings to blankets when there’s something under the bed.]

The testimony I get but, don't these videos capture everything? If he actually sees one on video, how can he deny it?

[Yeah, Hawke's starting to wonder as well if this guy is just digging his heels in. OF course, she's only hearing Alex's side of things and not Richard's, but it wouldn't entirely surprise her.]

I don't know, maybe I'm letting my own experiences color my view here. One doesn't argue the existence of demons back home, they're a given.

monthly mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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