OPEN / "Bring Yourself" Arts & Culture event!

[enveloped]

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!]

Comments

[tevinteraltus]

"The freshly dead are the most useful, but the thought is appreciated." He smiles charmingly and inclines his head at the compliment, unstated as it is. "I did incorporate a necromantic ability into my display, of course," he adds, and by way of explanation, "the quickening."

"Unlike others present, aside from my natural charisma and proclivity towards fashionable choices, magical endeavors really are my only talents. You seem to be rather well-rounded, Hawke."

[indigobird]

"Good to know? But damn, there are a shortage of people around here worth killing, unlike back home." Which, like, is overall a good thing because less criminals and less shitty people, but for necromancy demonstration purposes, that poses a problem. "Is that what that was? I'll admit, I've never seen that spell before. Did you speed up or did time slow down?"

Her lips twist into an almost bashful smile before she laughs, just a hair nervously. "Oh damn, then I've been discovered. You saw my art, I take it?"

[tevinteraltus]

"There are plenty of beasts out there worth the killing, and which make fine vessels." He raises his glass as though to accentuate his point. "Of which I have first-hand experience." He takes another pull from that glass afterward.

He preens at the opportunity to explain and makes a motion with his hand. "I sped up with the aid of spirits. While it is possible to slow time down, the very action of doing so increases the instability of the very fabric of reality. I really don't recommend it."

He nods, though. "You have and I did. I saw nothing to be ashamed of, however."

[indigobird]

"A valid point, but... I don't know. Reanimated animals and monsters don't seem quite as hilarious in my head as reanimated people. Perhaps I'm leaning in too much towards comedic effect and not dazzling effect." Something of which she's quite guilty of on a number of occasions.

"Oh darn, and here I was, all set to try and screw with the flow of time." Yeah, no. No worries on that end, Hawke's perfectly content with zapping people and warping gravity a bit. "Interesting application of spirits there. What's your record time for being able to hold that spell? Not terribly long I take it."

"Not ashamed, just... not used to it. My art's always been a very private matter." Aside from when she sketched out stuff in the early days in Kirkwall just to make some extra coin. That was just desperation. "I've never really shown it off. I could count on one hand the number of people alive who know that I draw."

[tevinteraltus]

"Indeed. I'm not entertainer." He inclines his head. "I'll leave that to you. If you're ever a mind to learn the subtle and complicated art of manipulating the spirits of death around you, I may be able to teach you a thing or two, but keep in mind, to maintain control of the reanimated corpse, your focus must never waver, even as you continue the fight."

Translation: it's a very complicated and encompassing form of magic. "No, less than half a minute at most. It's rather draining on mana stores, and we're woefully low on lyrium."

He nods, able to appreciate the secrecy, the desire to have something private when faced with celebrity...or infamy at the very least. "I'll tell naught a soul."

[indigobird]

"I'll do my best for the both of us." He can be the smart, technical mage and she can be the dumb, flashy one. She's good at it, so why change it now? "Consider your offer noted. Can't say I've ever been keen on learning it but if I change my mind I know precisely who to go to."

She gives him a little smile. "I appreciate it, though the cat might start coming out of the bag regardless. Others have seen it, and I'm sure one of these days someone at the house will pop into my little room and see what I've been working on."

[tevinteraltus]

"It's a rather intricate and complicated practice, Necromancy. I can understand the hesitance." Because she is the dumb, flashy one after all.

"Have you thought of displaying them? We do have a few walls."

[indigobird]

"Oh, please. I grew up with two siblings. I'm well aware of the 'goad them into doing something by insinuating they're too much of a coward/dummy/whatever to do it' tactic. It won't work." Even if he's just doing it to get under her skin a little, she's not rising to the bait. She's perfectly fine with zapping people, thank you.

"I don't know. Maybe? The Wounded Coast one might not be too bad. I doubt Cullen wants the one I did of him hanging up, though." She smiles wryly. She made him look extra grumpy in that one.

[tevinteraltus]

Yes, but with Necromancy you can zap them faster and revitalize yourself with their essence. Okay, that might be a tad creepy and maybe he shouldn't mention that part. "We'll see."

He smiled. "You should take more pride in your world, Hawke. It really is rather impressive."

[indigobird]

...yeah, please no.

"Thank you. Maybe once I get used to showing it more. One step at a time and all. Who knows? Maybe I can be the artist here I couldn't be back home."

[tevinteraltus]

He smiles, a wistful but sad expression. "That, my dear, is the true magic of this place. We may all be what we cannot, for various reasons."

[indigobird]

"Yes. I'll have a ridiculous studio and pretend I know what I'm talking about when people ask me about my art. Maybe I'll even have some rich, old, fat man as a patron. That's what a lot of them do, right? Ooooh or maybe a nice old widow who inherited a fortune from her poor, poor husband who died under mysterious circumstances. Kooky but sweet, who'll ask me to paint five different caricatures of her dearest poochie poo."

...someone's given this a little too much thought.

"Anyway, what about you?" She cocks an eyebrow. "What do you want to be here?"

[tevinteraltus]

"Fat men, at least the rich ones, to tend toward patronage, it's true, and kind old women, though less so." He chuckles at the thought, shaking his head. Hawke is prone to flights of fancy as ridiculous as Varric's at times.

He hesitates at her question, though, looking down at his wine glass and taking a long pull from it before replying.

"I would like to be someone who is allowed to ask of himself that question."

[indigobird]

"Riverview surely has a few of those around, right?" And look, there's a reason Hawke and Varric got along so well, and it's not just because they're stupidly good-looking.

Hawke tilts her head at his hesitation. She's stepped into something heavy here, it seems. "And why can't you? You can ask it now. Nothing's stopping you."