riverviewlogs | OPEN / "Bring Yourself" Arts & Culture event!

Entry tags:

OPEN / "Bring Yourself" Arts & Culture event!

who: Cameron Waltz and you!
what: "Bring Yourself" Arts & Culture event!
when: Today!
where: Riverside Community Centre.
warnings: None predicted.

Open invitation on the network!

The community center is normally a modest building, albeit one with a spectacular riverfront view. Tonight, it's putting on the ritz. Multicolored lanterns hang on either side of the sidewalk leading up to the front of the building, and music of all kinds, depending on what time it is, pours out of the open doors and into the street. Local vendors have set up small carts to show off their wares and offer small trinkets and fresh food for sale, displaying their local pride.

Inside, things have been completely redecorated for the event. It's a modern open concept gallery, with blank walls for artwork and written word, empty pedestals to display objects, and plenty of tables with chairs. Some pieces are already on display, from paintings to exotic foods. Small crowds gather around people telling stories or showing off their special skills and talents.

That music plays live from the small main stage overlooking a dance floor, both of which can be cleared for demonstrations of everything from dance to martial arts. Anything physical that requires that little bit of extra room.

Musicians are free to write their names for a time-slot on the stage, and can choose to be accompanied by the onsite pianist and guitarist, bring their own instruments or backup, or perform solo.

All throughout the room are food and drink stations, where staff serves wine, beer, limited spirits, and soft drinks. The exotic foods are on display here, from which the guests can help themselves. If you can imagine it, someone has managed to cook it.
At the far end of the building is an outdoor patio overlooking the river, with seating and torches to light the area through the night. Most displays of magic take place out there, where practitioners can go all-out casting their most extravagant spells.

The crowd ebbs and flows, gathering to socialize during lulls and splitting off to see new events and installations as they come in. Other than opening and closing statements by Cameron Waltz, there's very little structure.

Casual and relaxed, the focus is on learning, generating conversation, and meeting new people. It's an organized free-for-all, a mini festival dedicated to the celebration of the cultures and backgrounds of everyone in Riverview. And in a city made up of a thousand universes worth of people, there's more than enough to see.

[Characters can bring pieces with them as they arrive, and simply set themselves up around the room. Contributions aren't limited to art, anything goes! Feel free to play random observer/staff/performer NPCs. The party goes until midnight, have fun!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Finn, as encouraged by the official event title... brings himself. Well, it's more like he's brought. Dragged, possibly. By Poe.

And he knows that Chyler is going to be doing something, and he did, just possibly, catch the part of the network post where Athena yelled really loudly about performing? Athena's pretty cool. So there are some factors in play.

The principle of the matter is very much the same regardless, because he's here and he's interested in what people are showcasing, even if he hasn't brought anything to contribute to the displays or demonstrations himself.

Culture isn't much of a thing for him. Or-- not a thing he has that he'll ever know about. He's pretty sure. And yeah, maybe he's never entirely been the museums and galleries vibe type of person. But he sure does like people, and he sure does like the infinite number of different things that they could do at an event like this one. Finn can be an easy sell. He's part nerd.

So he'll be around. Very around. Straight-backed, sharply observant, not always adhering to the basic tenets of personal space, and definitely not afraid to start leaning in and asking about displays or demonstrations. You know, what is that thing. What's it for. That looks really good, you did good work on it. Etc. No demure class, we give in to curiosity, dare we say wonder, like men.

Finn will naturally also be on the prowl for familiar faces to bother. In fairness, he's never not on the lookout for familiar faces. There are a lot less of those in the city these days than there used to be. The face side quest makes no discernible difference in his main party quest.

[ brackets and prose both welcome! i'm also open to hashing out and writing individual starters, if the milling-about route doesn't take your fancy. feel free to hit me up about that! ]

[ It is equally possible that Poe is here both because Jeff made him come and because he saw the mutton chops guy mention scientific drawings and he's curious. He spends a fair amount of time studying them, and quizzing their maker, because Poe the Nature Nerd cannot be tamed.

It's after that when he starts poking at the exotic food tables. He's curious about these, too, in a twelve-year-old "I dare you to eat it" kind of way. BB-8 flanks him wherever he goes, whistling and making rude noises at people who assume he himself is an exhibit of some kind.

When Poe finds Finn, he has a plate laden with different items and a fork with what looks like an eyeball on the end held up in offering. ]

I dare you to eat it.

[ Demons are real and they look like ace pilots.

If there's a point in Finn's future where he gains a modicum of chill and stops giving people exactly the scale of reaction they want when they do these things-- there can't possibly be such a point. The narration is going to ignore that that even got typed.

It's the present. Finn has no chill and tbh, he's probably just argumentative enough to end up taking that dare. ]

Is that even food, or did you just find it at a murder scene?

[ Observe the eyeball delicacy. Become one with the eyeball delicacy. Immediately insult the eyeball delicacy. ]

It's a candied something something injected with something-filling.

[ Look, Poe has his favorite foods, he has stuff from other planets he likes well enough to remember the names, but when it comes to certain things... well. He smiles, he nods, he promptly forgets everything he's been told.

Poe waggles it on the end of the fork. ]

I'll eat one if you eat one.

[ That's so not reassuring. Finn knows that Poe knows that that's not reassuring. He's not sure he wanted reassurance on the menu anyway, as much as for this eyeball-looking thing to magically have never been conceptualized by a chef, but you know.

Life is many things. Fair isn't one of them.

There's literally no one in the vicinity that can keep them from being stupid or make them think about doing something less dumb, so Finn takes the fork. He has something to prove here. This is a test. He doesn't know what he's proving, but he's gonna knock proving it out of the park before he figures it out. ]

Fine. But then I'm gonna find something that looks even worse and I'm gonna make you do this all over again.

[ He waggles the fork right back. For emphasis.

All this, obviously, with the purity of education at heart. ]

Deal. [ Poe is grinning. Was this supposed to be a deal-making situation? It's not entirely clear, but hey, he's not going to question it if Finn wants to participate in his shenanigans.

He picks up another slimy eyeball thing off the plate with his thumb and forefinger, tempted like a two-year-old to smash it just to see what happens, but that would probably be a step too far for where they are right now. It only barely stops him. ]

On three?

[ He's participating very willingly in this adventure. ]

[ There would be no getting back into dare town if he squished that eyeball thing right now, no. That needs to be on the official record. He still wishes Rey specifically were in this room right now?? Not just because it's a neat setup with a lot of new things to see, but also because she could put everyone to try-new-foods shame without even trying.

Finn is filled with deep, very real regrets right now. But like with most situations, the fact that he a) has already more or less verbally committed and b) isn't alone doing this very dumb idea vastly overpowers his real regrets.

Plus Poe is kind enough to let him keep the one on the fork. So he doesn't have to have it in his own actual hand, aka the least ideal situation humanly possible. If that's not consideration, what is? ]

Yeah, on three.

[ Poe can do the countdown for posterity. Finn will catch the next one when he finds the worst-looking food station he can think of. ]

Three, two--go.

[ Does he not say one specifically because he knows it will bother Finn? Maybe. One's friends truly are the chains one forges in life.

Poe pops the little thing into his mouth and bites down. The texture is absolutely as eyeball-y as it looked, bursting between his teeth and filling his mouth with a lightly sweet, lightly spicy jelly. Poe has to admit, he's surprised by how good it tastes. He was expecting something weird or gross, but the weirdest part to him is simply the package the food came in, as it were.

He swallows. ]

There, see, that wasn't so bad. It was even pretty good.

[ Friendship ended with Poe Dameron. Now Cassian Andor is Finn's new best pilot friend.

Finn struggles valiantly through the duality of this.... Thing. Because yeah, the flavor is fine. It has flavor, and it's not a bad flavor.

But it's texture hell. It's exactly what it looked like. He doesn't know what he expected.

Light and dark. Balance in the food Force like you wouldn't believe. ]

If you find out what planet it comes from, remind me not to go there unprepared. [ But he would still go. Therefore: ] It's fine. I'll give you that one.

[ He had to give it very serious thought, very surprising. This is a fancy party about culture. Everybody becomes a fancy critic who is very serious, obviously. ]

[ A small fistpump. Victory is his.

Then he licks his fingers, trying to get them to unsticky-ify. ]

All right, now we have to find something you think is weird.

[ Poe: licks his fingers like an animal.
Finn: Why Is He Like That.

He lives with this. It shouldn't be such a thing every time he has to witness it, and yet. Here he stands, forced to bear witness. ]

Weirder than you forgetting how napkins work. That's hard to picture.

[ He's already craning his neck to scope out what the nearest table has to offer. Somehow this feels like it won't be terribly hard. Almost everything is weird. Sometimes it's just important to sprinkle a little bit of salt onto the conversation, though. For the flavor. ]

[ Poe grins at him. ]

What's a napkin?

[ That's it that's the tag. ]

[ Finn is getting a friend divorce immediately. This is a nice party. Someone's probably a lawyer. Until the paperwork goes through, he'll settle for giving Poe a little push in any direction but him. ]

Just get to the food tables.

[ I can't believe that's the culture they bring to the whole party. They're thriving. ]

[ Finn is one of the people Simon has been people-watching. He sticks out, intentionally or not--he's very solemn-faced for a man who seems intent on congratulating everyone at least once before he calls it a night. But it's not an act. Serious or not, he seems genuinely invested in every display he asks about, every compliment he gives. He's also good-looking.

Color Simon curious.

He slides up smoothly alongside Finn, offering him a small glass of a mixed juice one of the servers had been handing out--something that tastes vaguely like mango and pomegranate, with the sharp citrus kick of pineapple--taking a delicate sip of his own.

If Finn is on the lookout for familiar faces, he'll certainly find one in Simon--he looks unavoidably like Cameron Waltz. ]

You seem as though you could use a break for refreshments. Non-alcoholic, never fear. I wouldn't presume to offer a stranger anything harder than a handshake.

[ One: he does look unavoidably like Cameron Waltz. Putting aside the facial hair situation and the different outfits, he's also maybe a lot less blatantly tense than Cameron Waltz. Finn doesn't have a good read on the guy yet, so he's not sure if that tension level is a same hat all the time thing or a "worked very hard to organize this and it has to go right" thing.

Are they like... brothers...? It's unclear. Finn leaves that question on a back burner for the time being. Different energies. Different current comfort levels in their own skin.

Two: it's a handsome face to have regardless. Any right-minded person with eyes could agree.

Sometimes a really handsome dude in a turtleneck offers you a drink at what's essentially a very big gallery event, apparently. It's a nice thing to do. Finn's not set to complain about it. He is, in fact, a right-minded person with eyes. And he regularly uses them. ]

Thanks? [ Not confusion, per se. More amusement.

After a beat, Finn realizes that he has yet to actually take the glass, so he gets on that. ]

I mean, I do take handshakes. If you're trying to introduce yourself. For the record.

[ A little half-bow at Finn's answer. ] Handshakes don't leave much of an impression. I prefer to be remembered if at all possible.

[ To whit: ] Simon Templar, at your service. Lately of England, presently either experiencing the most vivid hallucination of my life or, alternatively, standing in another universe.

[ Honestly it could be either one, as far as he's concerned. He's approaching this entire thing from the position of 'sane until proven otherwise', which is only so helpful when everything he sees and hears makes him feel crazy.

He can still wear a smile, though. No matter the situation, no matter the stress. He's very good at wearing a smile. ]

And who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?

[ Not sure if charming or ridiculous, a 2018 problem. Finn sort of appreciates that in itself, objectively speaking. Does he like not knowing what to do with a person yet? No. But the fact that there's always someone else out there who's wildly different, that he can't figure out what he's supposed to be doing with. That's nice, in a weird way.

For a small city, it's an awfully big city like that.

And if nothing else, he knows the fish out of water sensation of feeling more out of place here than he had been at home.

So he smiles back, some gradual and tentative curling at the corners of his mouth, eyebrows lifting. ]

Finn. Just Finn. [ Esquire. Obviously. ] And if it helps, you start feeling a lot less like you're crazy after a while. I did, at least.

I'm uncertain as to whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I'll drink to it either way.

[ A TOAST. After he takes a drink, Simon gives Finn another, more considering look. This one geared less toward Them Thighs And Ass than at the man himself, in general. ]

How long have you been here?

[ Honestly, that's fair enough. A little skepticism goes a long way on the sanity argument. Or at least Finn thinks so, because he's skeptical all the time and sometimes he feels like the only sane person in a room.

So he mock toasts back, takes a drink. Makes what can broadly be called a Not Bad face over the taste. He doesn't have the the most complex or rigid standards, but it isn't too sweet. Win-win. ]

It's been about-- [ Hm. Math. Math he hasn't actively thought about much.

Wow. ]

A year. Sometime next month. You know, plenty of time to get a handle on being here.

[ A year. He could be trapped here for a year, wasting away in this tiny metropolis. Sure, there will be things for him to do, criminals whose lives he can cheerfully ruin, but a year in one place? He's not stayed that long anywhere since he was a boy. ]

Well. Happy Anniversary, I suppose. You'll have to treat yourself to something extravagant to mark the occasion.

[ Quarantine is suffering when you're thinking size or life goals. For Finn, given to narrow individualized focus and long strings of short-term goals, it's been easier to get his sea legs. And he's had a lot of help in keeping them, more or less. Not everyone gets to be that lucky.

Nicest place he's ever lived, anyway. ]

Thanks. I'm looking forward to extravagantly going to work. [ There's a gentle humor to it. Buried in there somewhere. Proceeds to send Simon the only fancy gilded invite to the Finn party probably. ] Let me know if you need anything, though. If you want. I won't mind. This place can be a lot.

[ Finn gets a small laugh out of him, a genuine one, which is the first in the past twenty-four-plus hours. Will probably be the only genuine laugh in at least a week, maybe for the entirety of this month, once Simon finds out how long the ghosts will last. ]

I appreciate that. I'm fairly proficient at getting my feet under me wherever I land, but this is rather more than I'm used to.

[ So much more, Finn, so much. ]

[ Finn's contribution to the arts and culture event was winning the arts and culture event by getting someone to laugh. It's not all the time that he manages that when he's actually trying, now that he thinks about it. Which is what happens when it's not all that often that he... tries it. Still, though.

Would definitely be lying to say he doesn't look pleased to get it either way. A true success. ]

It gets easier. Once you get past the part where you think maybe it can't. [ That's been his experience in most of his life pursuits? ] You'll probably be back on solid ground before you realize you made it.

[ Finn has known Simon for a couple of minutes and now has every faith in him to make it, assuming his new acquaintance doesn't turn out to be a murderer or a huge jerk. Not really the vibe he's getting, though. Instinct has to be good for something. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

OPEN / "Bring Yourself" Arts & Culture event!

OTA

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

i can't believe i finally have a reason to use this icon

once again riverview provides

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject