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riverviewlogs2018-09-02 02:48 pm
monthly mingle: DRAGOSTA
what: monthly mingle: dragosta
when: the month of september
where: anywhere around the city
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines
In the days leading up to September 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Dragosta. This holiday is in celebration of romantic love, and seen as a time of the year for Quarantine residents to try to find someone special to cuddle up with in preparation for the cold winter months. Romantic love is highly valued in Riverview Quarantine, as it can foster an incredible sense of wellness and belonging, and is often the cornerstone of found families as well as biological ones. While there are no official city-sponsored parties, there are various holiday traditions and a paid day off on September 7th so anyone who wants to indulge in them with their loved one can do so.
Rather than anything structured and organized by the city, Dragosta is a celebration usually left up to the citizens of the city to organize for themselves - there are a few traditions that many businesses (obviously) capitalize on, mainly the tradition of special date nights with small gifts exchanged for people who've already matched up or want to. There are also various singles dances intended to help people without partners find someone to share the special holiday with, and a tradition among the various magic users in the city of preparing soul mate potions and spells intended to help people find the person they're meant to be with.
i. soulmates
Almost as soon as it hits midnight on August 31st, booths and street corner vendors are popping up all around the city offering various magical potions and spells in little rows of bottles. The number of types are overwhelming, with a different concoction available for every type of magic that exists across thousands of different worlds. But the purpose of every single bottle and its contents is exactly the same: to help you find love. Specifically, these are the traditional magics that promise to give anyone who uses them the ability to find or identify their soulmate.
These little bits of magic can have various effects on the person using them (reminiscent of the soulmate trope in fiction), depending on the type of magic and the person who prepared them, and the options are almost endless. There are a few comfortable standbys, though, that pop up pretty much every year:
● Rainbow Potion: Tiny bottles of a soft rainbow-colored potion that affects the vision. Once drunk, the potion will remove the partaker's ability to see in color until the first time they meet their soulmate after ingestion, then all the colors will come flooding back.
● Time Spell: Purchasing a time spell will get you a little vial of liquid with a tiny hourglass inside. Pouring out the liquid and turning the tiny hourglass will result in the appearance of a timer counting down on the partaker's skin somewhere - like a moving tattoo, it will count down the days, hours, minutes, and even seconds until the person will meet their soulmate for the first time after the spell is initiated.
● Red Thread: Some residents might've heard of the legend of the red thread of fate, a red thread that is tied between the ankles or little fingers of two people destined to fall in love. Tiny jars with a delicate red thread attached to a note (the contents of which are unreadable) are sold to invoke this legend. Once opened, the user should tie the red thread around their smallest finger on the left side and a red thread only that person and their soulmate can see will appear, tying them together. It may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
● Ink Potion: Small vials of a mysterious black liquid are one of the more common offerings - this liquid, once carefully spread on a portion of the partaker's skin, will result in a tattoo-like marking in a particular shape, that matches the marking that magically appeared on their soulmate!
While these are the most common types, there are almost infinite numbers of other types of potions, spells, and magics intended to help people find their soulmates, of varying type and quality.
A Few OOC Guidelines:
● Soulmate potions/spells can be used multiple times with different partners, and the effect can last as long (or as briefly) as you want it to.
● Since there is a wide variation of different types of potions/spells, they can vary in effectiveness. Feel free to use this prompt for either serious shipping or silly pairings for comedic effect.
● There is no compulsion involved in this prompt. The potions/spells will only show the character who their supposed soulmate is, not compel them to fall in love with the other character.
● Because there is no compulsion or alteration of behavior involved, and all effects are temporary and mildly annoying at most, characters ARE allowed to use them on other characters without asking. If your character wouldn't take one of the potions/spells, one of their friends can definitely spike their drink with a potion or use a spell on their behalf. Also, only one party has to use the potion/spell in order for it to work, both parties do not have to partake, though it is up to player discretion how heavily affected the person who did not partake is.
● A long list of trope ideas and variations can be found here. I've only included specific potions/spells for the most common ones I've seen, but please go as wild as you'd like with the types of potions and effects they have, so long as everyone involved is on the same page.
● Mod questions and plotting regarding this prompt can be found here.
ii. singles dances
All around the city, various businesses are hosting and sponsoring singles dances. These dances are an ancient tradition of Dragosta, originating from the reality of a very early group of displaced arrivals. Observed since the founding of Riverview Quarantine, the events have grown and changed with the times, still serving the interests of the modern citizen. The dances will be advertised throughout the city and range in quality, size, and tone, but they will always have the same objective and methodology: to match people up based on chemistry on the dance floor.
All singles or polyamorous pairings/groups looking to add additional members will sign in at the dance of their choice, and attach nametags or stickers to their clothing - pink, blue, or purple to indicate their preferences in partner (female, male, or any), and a "P" or "D" for "poly" or "duo" to indicate their preference for a polyamorous match-up or only one partner. Once they've indicated these preferences, they head out onto the dance floor, where they can either seek out someone they're interested in or wait for someone to come to them. As the dance goes on, and one person approaches another (or a group or pair), the person (or people) approached can either accept or reject the advances, and after finding someone with chemistry, the happy couple (or triad, etc.) can leave the floor together.
Every person who attends and participates will receive vouchers for free dinners and discounts or gift cards for various places in the city to have a nice dinner and get a present for a new paramour, or two or three...!
iii. date nights
This one is pretty simple: restaurants, clubs, hotels, movie theatres, and anything else in the city that might even vaguely be construed as a date location will be offering romantic date night packages, discounts, and other promotions to the lovebirds of the city. There are a few highly-anticipated special events that crop up every year, though.
One of the most popular are the movies in the park, hosted on almost every night of the month, these are romantic comedies and other good date movies from dozens of realities featuring romantic stories in a multitude of different configurations. Lovers are encouraged to bring a picnic blanket and settle on the grass for a nice relaxed show, or tickets can be bought for special experiences such as the mini-deck, with romantic table settings, wine, and catering with a waiter, or the cuddlebug, where a comfortable couch is set up with popcorn and blankets for the lucky lovebirds to curl up on together. The variations are endless!
Another popular option is a retro-futuristic drive-in experience, where any type of vehicle can be driven up to a temporary drive-in diner for a meal, and then pull up to a temporary outdoor theatre. Once parked, the lovebirds can "park" - that is, cuddle and neck in the car to their hearts' content, probably instead of actually watching the movie.
For this prompt, any type of date night discount is cool to assume, or make a mingle top-level with a special event of your own imagining and earn bonus activity points!
iv. kiss and tell
Last year, a researcher from Gramarye whipped something up while under the influence of a confusion spell and being a bit love-drunk from her recent honeymoon - this year, there's no such honeymoon or confusion spell. But it is her first anniversary, and she's still feeling quite smitten, so in honor of what happened last year (and owing to the fact most residents found it fun instead of awful) she's decided to share the love again by whipping up a potent spell to try to encourage a bit of romance wherever possible in the spirit of the season. As a result, residents will see bright little glowing 'fairy lights' floating around the city throughout the entire month of September. What do the fairy lights do, though?
Two or more characters walking under one of these glowing, floating lights will get stuck for one hour, trapped inside an invisible enclosure with an approximate three foot radius. The only options are to either wait out the hour, or to kiss! Characters will know they're meant to kiss, because part of the magic spell is the sudden and intense knowledge that they should kiss in order to break free. There is no compulsion to kiss, just the knowledge that that's how to get free. What the characters won't immediately know is that any kind of kiss will work - a hand, forehead, cheek, or butterfly kiss will work just as well as a kiss on the mouth, but that will require some experimentation to find out.
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 the mod-posted prompt to create a Communal Housing floor mingle. Or, if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during Dragosta, feel free to write it up!
Credit: image i: Gleb Alexandrov; image ii & iv: unknown; image iii: Raphael Grimm
COMMUNAL HOUSING APARTMENT MINGLES
Floor 12
He may actually get it, but not right now. There's a knot in his stomach as he skulks around the area. Even in here, it's weird. He's used to rough wood and tatami, low tables, sliding doors. He doesn't even know what these appliances are called.
But he's not even out of the kitchen when he hears something. He freezes, his left hand unconsciously drifting to the hilt of his sword. Just in case. Haganemaru hears it too, and follows his gaze.]
Somebody there?
ii. or wildcard it or make your own toplevel, go nuts y'all
i!!
she'd stumbled into this city with a huge hole in her stomach and they patched her up no problem, but now she's got the throbbing ache to deal with, the dressing that needs to be replaced, and a sour look on her face that's hard to lift, or maybe it's that she doesn't want to lift it. it's a mark of how tender and self-centered she's feeling that she doesn't even bother to check the place out for potential threats before she'd made a beeline for the nearest couch, throwing herself into it to sulk. it's the sound of a morose, lung-heaving sigh that jintetsu hears, after a few hours of lying there staring at the ceiling. there's a pause after he speaks, and then villanelle pokes her head over the back of the sofa. )
You're interrupting my alone time. ( her accent – patently russian – obviously doesn't belong to someone whose first language is english. it comes out in an irritated monotone. )
no subject
Still, his hand leaves his sword. For now. The first thing he needs to do is figure out whether this woman's an immediate threat - if it's not gonna be safe to sleep here, he doesn't have that much time to find someplace else. He comes closer, cautiously, to get a better look at her over the couch. The two main questions he has are 1) is she armed, and 2) is she a crazy person. Presumably, one of those will be quicker to answer than the other.]
Who are you?
[She's a foreigner, obviously. Not the first one he's ever seen - those were earlier, at the portal - but it's been yet another big shift in his paradigm. He doesn't recognize her accent, but then, he also doesn't recognize the language they're all speaking (including himself), and that's much weirder in his book.]
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she came in with a gun but it's under her mattress now, and there's no bullets in it anyway. she folds her hands on her stomach and tongues the inside of her cheek since the pressure hurts. her eyes swivel down to his hand. brows bucking in towards the middle, she gives him a look that's halfway between apprehensive and just plain unimpressed. ) Were you going to stab me with that?
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... No.
[Not without good reason, anyway. She's a little hard to read - put off by his appearance, yeah, but he's used to that reaction. But she doesn't seem particularly scared of him. Is that a good thing? In this situation, he's not totally sure.
He adjusts his hat, almost as a tic. Well, he can try to be diplomatic? Yeah, that's probably best.]
Sorry. This whole situation is just... so bizarre. [Hence why he's so wound up.]
no subject
she shrugs, sitting back, though that's not the same as relaxing. how do real people do this? ] What's your name? I'm Villanelle.
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It's a strange name, but what was he expecting, honestly?]
Jintetsu of Steel. [Three guesses how he got that byname.]
SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER
That makes me Villanelle of – Chanel. Now we all have silly names.
HOW DARE no jk its cool
I'm gonna take a look around. [And the nearest door is to the bathroom, so he'll start with that one.]
Jyushimatsu Matsuno | Osomatsu-san | OTA
ii; singles dance
iv; kiss and tell
v; wildcard
iv.
She had been on a break, having attended a little cafe to get a drink and bite to eat, before going to return back to the office. Only to find that she can't. With a furrow on her forehead, she couldn't help wonder what is going on, when she feels a tug on her sleeve.
It is a little start that Padmé gives, blinking as she regards him. For a moment she had thought that it was the man she had run in to before, Osomatsu, but, is he? Her eyes scan, even as she answers.]
Ah. No. It's like a wall is just there.
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It's super weird, isn't it? If we can't get out of here, then what? Are we yelling out for help?
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Is it the same where you are?
[A genuine question from Padmé, not one insinuating that he is wrong. She moves next to him, her own hand reaching out again, but yes, it is still there. Padmé presses, but even as she strains against it, nothing happens.]
I wonder if other people will hit the wall, or if there is some invisible door?
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I guess it is? Hmmm...! [ He gives it a hard punch, but the sturdiness surprises him. Thankfully his hand is just a bit sore, and at least the walls are not made of electricity or something worse. ] Nope, we're stuck! I'm strong and yet it's like this thing absorbs any blow! So annoying!
[ He looks at her, sheepish. ] We could hope there's a door somewhere...
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[Which doesn't help matters at all. Feel around for a door knob? Padmé isn't certain if that is the answer. It is almost like the Force, that barrier that one cannot see, although she has never seen it used in such a manner.
She also hasn't heard of anyone doing such a thing like this before, either back home or here. Might it be something that has happened before? She knows that this place tends to have festivals that come around yearly.
She glances back towards her unwilling partner in imprisonment, finding her gaze drifting to his lips, and wondering- yet she gives a little shake of her head. Padmé is hardly the sort to go about kissing strangers, and why she is starting to think that that is the way to get free, she can't explain.
Rather, she runs her fingers along the area where she is, looking to see if there is any change in the field that is keeping them in.]
I'm Padmé, by the way, since it seems we may be stuck here for some time.
no subject
This is so weird and uncomfortable for his virgin mind... but least there will be introductions. ]
... I'm Jyushimatsu! [ He says with a bit of stutter, and chastises himself for acting exactly like a Cherrymatsu would. ] Sorry that we kinda met this way!
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Circumstances aside, it is nice to make your acquaintance.
[Which is true on her part. She does enjoy meeting new people, listening to their stories, sharing her own in turn. And, because it has been nibbling at the back of her mind.]
You don't have a brother here, do you?
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I do! Not sure which one, because I've got five!
[ He turns a bit quieter, muffling the sound of his voice with a sleeve covering his mouth. ]
But no matter who, he's gone now. All the bros I had here disappeared at once!
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[That softness to her voice. She can't even begin to imagine how hard that must be. She has arrived with no family of her own here. No one, in fact, that she knew, which is a blessing and a curse. Thankfully the people here are friendly and she has met those from her own galaxy. Yet they aren't family, and no doubt that would be hard to deal with.
Her hand reaches out, tentative, a small gesture to squeeze his shoulder if he doesn't move away from it.]
I am sorry to hear that. I visited a shop, and he made me a drink and sold me a cookie.
no subject
Fortunately, as weird as it sounds, those sour feelings over his brothers serve as a good enough diversion. ]
Oh... you're talking about Osomatsu-niisan then! He used to work at a cafe that sold lots of sweets! He's the eldest of our bunch!
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Mm. He was very kind. I wasn't familiar with a lot of the fruits on the menu so he offered up suggestions. You've no one, then, from your world here anymore?
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It's good that he was sweet to you! And yeah, there's no one left, just me...
[ Himself and the house that Osomatsu had gotten before Jyushimatsu even arrived. ]
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[Padmé knows that it is no consolation, that it doesn't negate having someone that you know, especially a family member, but friends can also help that void left behind. It won't be the same, but it certainly could be something to experience. She can say that so far the people that she has met have been quite friendly and welcoming.]
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[ His personality allows for some people to gravitate towards him, fortunately, but he didn't do a lot of shaping up to make myself friendlier or less weird. He was quite lucky compared to his brothers prior to Riverview. Going through the process with his own efforts is pretty tiring. Talking to people takes energies he never had to consume before. It's not that debilitating to him, a guy with so much energy stored in himself to last him years, but he can still feel the weariness after a while he spent socializing.
Since they're going with small talk and he hopes the barrier goes away if they just... chat for a while, he relaxes his pose. ]
How are you faring here, yourself? Did you make many friends? You seem like a nice person!
Breq | Imperial Radch Trilogy | ota
[It starts in the little tea shop that Breq has taken to frequenting. She's not really a coffee drinker, and despite living in the Radch, whose love of tea rivals that of the British Empire, she never picked up the habit. But their pastries are good, and she knows the value of staying hydrated on the days she's going to the guard or out into the forest.]
No thank you, citizen. I just need my order.
[From her clipped, distant tones, she might not be particularly satisfied that she stopped by today, though. The holdup at this moment, creating the line that's formed behind her, is one of the cashiers, trying to press a soulmate vial on her.]
I assure you. I don't need one.
iv
[At any other time of the year, little hidden plazas strung up under awnings decorated with fairy lights (the electronic kind, not magic ones) would be a little hidden gem in the streets of Riverview. For some, anyway-- Breq mostly uses it as a shortcut on her way from the Perimeter Guard barracks to the Community housing, and back. Today is no exception, considering the slightly slumped set to her shoulders as she makes her way toward the apartment building.
But Dragosta isn't exactly any other time of the year, and Breq wasn't here for the dangers of the little glowing free-floating balls of energy. So when a particular section of it is mildly brighter than usual, she doesn't think anything of it, doesn't do more than politely sidestep the person walking past her--
and comes up short, right in front of the sudden barrier, with one forearm braced in front of her defensively. With a sharp breath, she uses that hand to strike the barrier, before turning back toward the person now stuck in here with her.]
Well.
[For all her apparent irritation with the barrier only an instant before, she doesn't sound particularly angry as she speaks. Rather, she sounds neutral. She could be commenting on the weather, for all the emoting she's doing.]
iv
However, he is not paying attention that evening, thinking over a particular patient of his in hospice who is likely to die in the next few days. His thoughts are deep, and distracting. He was wondering what good it might do, if he lit some candles and said a prayer to Ulis, for their easy passing. Could Ulis hear him, from this little moon, so far away? Were there other, local gods, to whom he should direct his prayers.
Maia, therefore, doesn't realize someone is approaching until they have nearly collided, and he quickly moves to give them space. Only that is when things go strange. His shoulder collides with something, except there is nothing nearby. The air around him is empty, except for one of those glowing lights.
Which is when the spell settles in, and information springs into his mind, from nowhere. They are stuck, and the way to break free is - to kiss? Maia's brow furrows, and he wonders at that strange, inexplicable thought. It does not strike him as one of those strange, passing fancies, where something will bubble up from the depths of his mind without prompting. This feels... different. Too strange and somehow foreign, as if it had been put there. But is such a thing possible?
He turns to look at the person he had almost collided with, and recognizes: ]
Breq!
[ Maia, not trusting to that strange thought, tries to take a polite step away from her, but his shoulders collide once more with that barrier. It is not painful, but it is inflexible. Eyes widening slightly, Maia asks: ]
What... is this?
no subject
[She sounds remarkably unruffled, considering the information she's just received as well. Instead she looks over Maia, conjuring up a congenial smile as she takes in the difference in clothing, and inclines her head, a nod more than a bow.]
Edrehasivar. I'd apologize for the circumstances, but I don't think I can take the blame for... this.
[She gestures toward the barrier, tapping her finger briefly against that invisible wall.]
Whoever or whatever caused this has a very particular sense of humor. Are you all right?
[Don't think she didn't notice those wide eyes or the way he walked himself into the barrier just there.]
1.
It is the clipped tone that makes her shift her attention forward, finding it familiar in sound. Not having followed the full conversation, Padmé just assumes that someone is trying to up-sell something to her, and it is something that she doesn't want. A special, perhaps? While she is trying not to eavesdrop, the commotion has caught her attention.]
Harry Goodsir | The Terror (TV) | OTA
It's not really that Harry is offended or even displeased with this whole festival; he just ... has no real use for it. He has no attachments here or desire for any, and the one person he's come even remotely close to having any kind of feeling for is a very long way away in time and space. Best not to dwell on that.
He's been trying to avoid the fairy lights, having seen what they do, but the best laid plans of mice and men and all that. Every now and then, despite his best efforts, he and someone else pass just within the danger zone right as a light drifts by—and there they are.
Harry sighs.
"My apologies," he says.
v. wildcard
Following an unfortunate incident with a land-crab, Harry has been gently but firmly asked by the Riverview hospital administration to move his impromptu menagerie out of there. This coincides with his decision to find somewhere else to live, and he has now moved self and creatures to a small stone cottage by the river. It's relatively isolated thanks to fences and overgrown hedges on either side, and there is a cellar and an outbuilding for both the living creatures and the curiosities he's been collecting. Come visit.
[ And if there's something else you'd like to set up, hit me up at
iv.
He takes a step back from it before he realizes that he's been caught in whatever magic this is with another person, and that particular knowledge comes to him along with the firm warmth of another body as he backs into it. Turning, eyes wide, cheeks and the tips of his long ears flushed pink with embarrassment, he ducks his head a little.
"We are...pardon. I am the one who should apologize. I was wrapped up in my work."
The way he speaks is slightly awkward, unused to speaking informally as is the custom here, but trying his best. Lifting his head, he studies the man for a moment with a calm expression on his face - tan skin, thick dark curly hair, rather impressive facial hair. Good-looking, if foreign in the way Csevet is still trying to adjust to.
"At some point, I will become accustomed to the quantity of magic in this place."
His voice is slightly exasperated, but only slightly. After all, speaking informally and using a computer or not, there are certain types of decorum that can be retained, and his composure is one of them.
no subject
"It is less the nature or quantity of magic that troubles me," Harry says ruefully, "as the manner in which it seems to crop up at the most inopportune times." He prods at the invisible wall that surrounds them, shakes his head. Then, because it seems only polite to introduce oneself to someone when you may very well be stuck with them in close quarters for the next hour: "My name is Harry Goodsir, by the way."
no subject
A pause, and Csevet looks visibly frustrated, for just a moment, before he continues, voice still slightly awkward.
"I must admit, I haven't experienced much of it. I was bitten by one of the fireflies, quite early on after my arrival, and found the effect uncomfortable, but I have not experienced such obvious magic just yet. At least personally."
For a moment, he's quiet, and then sighs a little himself, lifting a hand to push his long braid back over his shoulder so it falls heavy down his back.
"I am pleased to meet you, Mer Goodsir. My name is Csevet Aisava. Have you been subjected to much of this sort of magic?"
no subject
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While Harry may not be interested in standing on ceremony, that same structure of ceremony is so built into the fabric of who Csevet is that it's difficult to let go, almost impossible. It's why his speech is stilted and he feels frustrated more often than he ever had in his own world.
At the mention of the firefly, Csevet's cheeks and the tips of his ears go a little red, and he averts his eyes.
"They are quite troublesome. I was bitten by one with a red light, and it made me far more...amenable...than usual, to certain indulgences."
no subject
csevet aisava ✒ the goblin emperor ✒ m/m 19+ for any romantic/sexual content
singles dance
It's not the way he moves that makes him stick out. He's every bit the picture of fluid grace and ease. No, it's the look on his face, the way his eyes scan the crowd. It piques Jack's curiosity enough to get him to move closer, to get a good look at the coloured sticker he's wearing, the preferences it displays. It doesn't strike him as the hesitance of inexperience, of new territory. Not even hesitance, really. No, Jack can't put his finger on it. Which is not the kind of fascinating he expected to find at this dance, but it's got his curiosity piqued all the same. So he dances his way through the crowd, until he's close enough to be both seen and heard.
Even up this close, his initial assumption of male doesn't seem to be a lock. Not exactly delicate, not quite feminine, just something of the other about him, and not just in his uncertainty. "Buy you a drink?" He somehow manages to say it in a tone of voice that suggests he could have just as easily offered a blow job, and without the slightest trace of shame or concern. Easiest thing in the world, the most natural and comfortable.