riverviewlogs | monthly mingle: FEAST OF THE DYING

monthly mingle: FEAST OF THE DYING

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: monthly mingle: feast of the dying + agricultural emergency
when: the month of october
where: anywhere around the city
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

monthly mingle: october

During the month of October, a particular natural phenomenon on the moon weakens the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead, allowing for the crossover of those dead into the world of the living, with ghosts from the pasts of both the residents and the Quarantine itself to take corporeal form. This has given rise to an array of celebrations and traditions surrounding the transition from life to death, encouraging residents not to fear death, but to embrace it.

Things aren't all spooky celebrations this month, though. There's also a serious emergency happening in the agricultural district, where a herd of vengeful and intelligent hog-like creatures has decided to mount an attack on the city, with a large measure of success. Between September 20th and September 25th, they rammed the fences near the agriculture district where most of the farms providing livestock and produce for the city are located, succeeding in breaking through the fence on the 25th. Drastic action needs to be taken in order to protect the city's ability to feed itself throughout the upcoming months.

feast of the dying: a celebration of the transition between life and death

In the days leading up to October 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: the Feast of the Dying. There is an old, widely-known, and widely-believed superstition or proverb in Riverview Quarantine: 'The greater your fear of death, the easier it is for death to find you.' This is a cornerstone belief of a lot of the residents of the Quarantine, most of whom have survived intensely difficult and violent pasts on their own worlds and who are still willing and eager to throw themselves into exploring and settling new worlds, starting their lives fresh. To honor this spirit, the Feast of the Dying is a celebration of the transition between life and death, an opportunity to face death both figuratively and literally, and come out on top.

The festivities during this time feature tests of courage in highly haunted places, escape rooms both virtual and physical with varying levels of danger, and the week-long Feast of the Dying itself, between October 1st and 8th this year.

i. feast of the dying traditions

Much like any culture, there are a few traditions and events that happen every year in the Quarantine, to celebrate the Feast of the Dying. In-depth information on these traditions and events can be found on last year's Feast of the Dying post, and include:

● Ghosts From the Past: Characters will see ghosts of the deceased in various places around the Quarantine, with some areas, where the boundaries between the living and dead are weakest, being heavily infested with these ghosts, while other areas are nearly ghost-free. These ghosts can be from characters' canons (with limitations - see last year's post for OOC guidelines) or from the Quarantine itself.
● Escape Rooms: Horror-themed escape rooms pop up all over the city, augmented with tech or magic to make them seem more menacing. The difficulty levels and scares range from easy to incredibly difficult, and they feature themes from Zombie Attack to Prison to Torture Traps to Mad Science Experiments, and just about anything else you can think of.
● Tests of Courage: In various places around the city, there are establishments where the boundaries between the living and dead are so fragile as to be barely there - hospitals that treated the ill during the Pandemic, insane asylums or prisons where inmates were mistreated, homes where terrible murders happened, places exposed to dark magic, and other similar places. During October, these places are shut down except to those who wish to stay the night as a test of courage. Characters who stay the night will encounter hordes of ghosts and experience extremely realistic hallucinations that may result in injury (which is up to player discretion) in the name of proving their courage.
● Doom Dates: This year, with the amusement park open for business, there is an event called Doom Date, a spooky themed night at the fair featuring haunted houses, costumed actors, and free rides with the price of admission. More information on this prompt can be found on the September Test Drive Meme.
● Feast of the Dying: A week-long masquerade-style party that is open from sundown October 1st until sunrise on October 9th. Sort of like a formal ball inside an incredibly realistic haunted house, the Feast of the Dying is the tradition that the holiday is named after, and features dancing, party events, plenty of food and drink for everyone, and private rooms for resting or engaging in...private activities with close friends.

ii. creepy chaos

This year, there's something a little different going around the Quarantine. The influx of refugees, the Frysh, that recently arrived, have brought a few new spooky traditions with them - while their celebration of horror usually happens in the dead of winter, they've shared the custom for the Feast of the Dying. And what is that custom? Dressing up as monsters, ghosts, demons, and other terrifying creatures! Considering how many other worlds and universes have similar traditions, it's caught on quickly, with costumes incredibly varied in subject matter and level of intricacy, from standard run-of-the-mill costumes pieces purchased from the local costume shop to intricately detailed costumes featuring holographic accents - and, of course, the 'sexy' version of everything. The culmination of the Frysh tradition is the tenth day of the month, where everyone dresses as something or someone scary, and brings treats (handmade or purchased) to give to family, lovers, friends, coworkers, classmates, or anyone else. It fits with the Feast of the Dying theme quite smoothly, reminding residents that joy and togetherness can come even from frightening situations.

All well and good, but someone has other ideas - enter Phineas, a rather notorious mage who's just recently gotten out of a year-long stint in prison. Elderly, a bit of a codger, more than a bit eccentric, and extremely powerful, Phineas has decided to put his own spin on this particular spooky tradition by casting a powerful citywide spell. On October 10, anyone who puts on a costume to participate in this particular celebration will find themselves turning into their costume for the evening. Dressed up as a werewolf? Prepare to howl at the moon! Dressed as a vampire? Be prepared to get a serious taste for blood. The possibilities are endless...

OOC Note: Please remember that Riverview does not allow non-consensual sex, and that game mechanics are not put in place to encourage sexual assault, or to 'trick' characters into having sex that they would not normally have. If your character's costume is the 'sexy' version of anything, feel free to play with aphrodisiac effects or lowered inhibitions, but keep this rule in mind.

emergency in the agricultural district!

iii. hog wild

Residents of the city may or may not remember a particular patch of fertile ground that was scouted over a year ago, and the highly-intelligent and territorial alien hogs that were protecting it because the soil's fertility stems from it being a alien hog graveyard. After that revelation, the city had abandoned the project for the foreseeable future, as digging up an intelligent species' graveyard is more than a little beyond the pale.

That would've been all well and good, had the alien hogs stayed in their territory. However, after being disrupted by two teams over the course of a few months, the hogs (who have an excellent memory for this kind of thing) have started to get a little restless. It's not enough to be left alone - they want revenge. And with the summer winding down into harvest season, they've figured out how to get that revenge. As September winds down and October starts to dawn, the powerful and intimidating hogs have started on stage one of enacting that revenge - they've been making concentrated runs at the fences closest to their territory, hitting it in the same spot over and over again, herd mentality at its strongest, trying to make a dent. And they're succeeding.

The big problem here is that, on the inside of that fence, is the bulk of the Quarantine's agriculture sector. Fields full of livestock and crops that are meant to make up the majority of the winter's food supply are in danger of being wiped out if that fence falls, and if that happens, it's going to be a cold, hungry winter, no matter how many supplies the Capital World manages to send up to the moon.

Since September 20th, residents have been being called into service whenever they were willing to, at first to try to repair the damage to the wall and keep the hogs from bursting through, and after September 25th, to help stem the damage being done by the rampaging hogs. As September ends and October begins, the fight is still underway, and residents haven't managed to do much to stop the creatures encroaching on the agricultural district, so more help is always welcome.

A full write-up of this situation can be found on September's Test Drive Meme.

iv. drift compatible

As October continues on, the situation with the invasion of hogs and all the other creatures that are coming through the massive breach in the outer wall of the Inhabited City is starting to get really dire. As a last-ditch effort, the government is pulling what remains of their fleet of three-story-tall mech suits out of storage. Longer-term residents may remember these mechs from last January, when a herd of behemoth monsters was attacking the city. Since then, the five remaining mechs were taken over by a private tech company, improved upon to some extent, and then sold back to the government, where they were reverse engineered into something new and a little different, and more were manufactured.

As of now, the government is holding on to a fleet of around 40 smaller, more maneuverable mechs that are still quite powerful, but most importantly which still need to be piloted by two people. Considering the emergency the city is facing, the government has released the fleet of mechs to the Perimeter Guard, and is calling for anyone with piloting experience, or even people willing to take a quick course in it, to help man the fleet and head out into the battle, backing up fighters on the ground to try to push back the tide of creatures flooding into the vulnerable and very important agricultural district.

Mechs are piloted by two people working together - while it's not exactly drift compatibility, the two characters need to act together, with one directing where the mech goes and keeping an eye on the terrain, and the other one manning the guns and keeping an eye on the mech's defenses and energy and ammunition levels. This takes a lot of concentration and cooperation, and this day is bound to forge a lot of new friendships....and probably a few mortal enemies. On top of the difficulty of working with someone who may be a total stranger, don't forget this new fleet of mechs are in beta-testing and are only being used as a last resort, which means they have a bad tendency to break down in unexpected ways.

Each mech is fitted with one large canon-style gun that can be semi-automatic or automatic with a limited amount of ammunition, one plasma sword, and a force shield that can take four serious hits before it is depleted. They have a finite amount of energy storage and are able to be in continuous use for 3 hours maximum before shutting down. Out of the fleet of 40 mechs, the mod expects only about 5 to still be functional at the end of the month, so feel free to destroy or seriously damage them in threads.

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 the Feast of the Dying, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view; images may contain disturbing themes

Credit: image i: Logan Preshaw; image ii: Alejandro D'Marco; image iii: Jeff Jumper; image iv: Johannes Mücke; image v: Davey Baker; image vi: David Edwards

navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

'It's none of your business' was on the tip of his tongue, but since he'd gotten here - no, before that, it had become her business. She'd managed to interweave her life with his in a way that he couldn't untangle. It was infuriating - no, concerning, no, infuriating was the right word.

"You think you're going to die in Geneva, you don't have the right to talk about running away." Maybe, maybe if he hit her hard and fast she'd let him leave. Maybe it would spare her the possibility that she firmly felt was going to happen.

Alex blinked, and she took a step back, but she didn't break eye contact more than that. Instead, her scowl return and she shook her head. "That's what this is about? The fact that I'm afraid I'm going to die in Geneva? I am afraid I'm going to die in Geneva. I'm afraid you're going to die in Geneva. I'm afraid that the goddamn world is going to end in Geneva. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going."

A beat and then she added, "and I didn't think you needed a hallucination to tell you that. Or is it that it makes it more real?"

"You know that's not the only thing." She was there, she knew what he'd heard and she'd had to overhear. The fact that she knew what he thought those around him were thinking, that he saw the demons in the forest. They were all things he never wanted her to know about - yet now she did.

Alex just stepped closer to him, her voice a low but angry whisper. They were having this fight in the middle of the street it seemed, but that didn't mean that she had to shout it.

Even if she did want to shout it.

"You didn't drag me into anything, Richard. I called you, remember? Twenty-three times? And chased you after you left twice, and then dragged you back into the actual world of the living. And we're not pawns, and I am not going to abandon you, or let you abandon me. All you're doing is hurting everyone around you for no reason, to keep us all safe when I'm already involved, and it's not coming here to hurt Jeff or Stan or Peter or anyone else!"

"It already has, or did you forget what was out there?" They may have been hallucinations, but they were real enough to terrify anyone they knew. These ghosts were the same. What if he somehow brought them here another time? He was the one that would, not Alex. He was the one surrounded by all this lunacy his entire life.

"How the hell could you possibly think that I've forgotten what was out there, Richard? I'm not sleeping again, and I'm freaking out and of course I haven't forgotten. But you're the one who keeps saying that they were hallucinations, Richard. And they're ones that are specific and only happen three days out into the woods. And yeah, they definitely were trying to fuck us up, there's no denying that."

A beat, and Alex reached out and touched his cheek. "All you're doing is letting them win by doing what they meant to do and having you drive everyone important to you out of your life. You think that being alone protects us, but it doesn't. It hurts us. All of us."

Her voice just dropped a bit more, and she frowned before she added. "It hurts me, Richard. It hurts me."

His hands balled into fists as he tried not to touch her. Doing so had become natural to him, surprisingly. It was hard to resist something like that now.

"They were hallucinations, but that doesn't mean that what they said isn't what you think." Because it was. They were speaking the things that they didn't want to hear (except that whole thing about Coralee being perfect, Richard doubted Alex felt that way about the woman). "I'm not going to let you die in Geneva." But it seemed as if she didn't believe that. It was a blow stronger than most things to him.

That was when Bobby spoke up again. "Why don't you just tell her that you're scared Richie. I mean, dude, you are, right?"

"I don't think you're going to let me die in Geneva, Richard!" It's louder than she wants it to be, but she can see how he's restraining himself from touching her again (still?) and she's not letting go of him. "I think that you'd do anything you could in order for me not to die." Anything, and that's what she's afraid her purpose is within this thing. A catalyst or something else. "Just like I know I would do anything I could in order so that you didn't die."

Looking to Bobby, Alex just frowned at him, but she knew he was right. So, she lifted her eyes back to his again. "Yeah he is. He is scared and he's got a right to be. This is scary as hell. And it's scary because you've got someone else to lose. So you're trying to minimize the losses, Richard. But does that make you happy? Did that make you happy in the twenty years since Coralee? Are you happier now than you were then alone?"

"Warren isn't going to do anything to hurt you." It's said with decisiveness. He wouldn't let Warren do anything to her. He'd kill the man first. "You also seem to think you're some kind of host for the Helvation. Demons aren't real, and thinking they only make you more prone to doing stupid things." He gestured to Keith who had now become a cautionary tale.

"And I wasn't wrong about my hurting the lives of others. Can you honestly say your life is better from knowing me?" She doesn't sleep, fears demons and is too deep into a conspiracy that she's become part of it. There's no way that this is an improvement in her life.

When he said that Warren wasn't going to hurt her, Alex just rolled her eyes, because of course he would hurt her if he needed to. She'd told Harry that she'd knew Warren would hurt her, kill her even to get Richard to do what he wanted, and Alex believed it even if he didn't. She also had told Harry that Richard would do anything to save her, which she knew too. So yeah, he probably would try and kill Warren first, but Alex didn't even know if that would work.

She doesn't mention the Helvation, because it's her fear. It doesn't need to be rational or explained, because Alex told him right when they began that she hated demons and they were the one thing that scared her. And he'd basically dared her (in a flirty way) to watch that black tape anyway by saying that she didn't have to watch it if she didn't want to. Of course she'd taken that as the dare it was, and said that she could handle it.

His question made her sigh, because she knew that it was a lose-lose situation for her. "If I say yes," she began, "you're going to think I'm a liar, and if I say no it's just going to make you double down on doing this stupid bullshit that you're already doing with me and Jeff and everyone else." There's some bite in her words, because this thing sucks and Alex was trying to cover the hurt with anger. "So yes and no, my life is better because I love you, and I'd rather have you in it with all the other stuff that comes with it than have a 'normal life.' The not sleeping, the demons, the everything else? They're worth it for you, and you're trying to take that choice away from other people."

"It's already done." There's no going back now that he'd done what he did. He doesn't regret it either. What he'd done was for their own good, and it wasn't something he could or would take back. If Cam had been more secure, then perhaps it wouldn't have worked as well as it had, but he wasn't, and that picture up for as little time as it had been had done exactly what he wanted it to without caused any real damage to the man in question (he didn't like Cam per se, but he wasn't that much of an asshole as to truly blow up his life).

"It doesn't have to be." She sighed the words quickly. "You could apologize, I know you're allergic to it, but I don't think that you intended it to get as big as it did, with Dorian and everyone else who saw it. You could apologize, or at the least explain." Alex would have said that she'd tried to explain already, but Richard knew her, and he knew that she would. And hell, he had probably heard her when she was on the device in the kitchen, cooking and making things.

"I can't make you apologize, but I wish you would. Cam and Jeff didn't deserve that. And knowing you, you probably think think this was a kinder way of going about it than you otherwise would." Alex looked to Bobby and then to Keith, because they all knew what she meant here, because Richard could be a real bastard when he wanted to be, and she got it as bad as most especially before he'd come back from seeing Charlie.

"There's nothing shameful about emotions." It's honest. Richard has never thought that emotions were shameful or something to hide. He did, but that was his choice and a product of keeping himself from being hurt the same way he had in the past. But Alex had seen him emotional. She'd seen him at his worst, she'd drank with him after his wife had disappeared once more. No, Richard had no shame over emotions. His or others.

"The picture was up for a few minutes, and he was the one who took it as an insult." The frown heavy on his face grew as he looked away, hand running partially through his hair. "But, I'll explain to Jeff. If necessary."

"Yeah, I know there isn't, and I know that's not how you viewed it, but I also know it's not how it was perceived, Richard." Alex just sighed softly, and she wrapped her hand around his, still ignoring the ghosts around them. She knew how he had changed her mind and how it had been that night when they'd drunk, and Coralee had left. Alex had told their listeners that she'd forgotten that he was a man who had lived through the things that he had, and she'd never forgotten again.

But people here didn't have that, and they didn't know what Richard had gone through because he had essentially forbid her from saying anything. So, she didn't even though it sucked. "You need to explain to Cam too, he's the one who's face it was."

"No." The answer is just as blunt. There's no way that he would tell Cam anything about his life. Cam had continuously been annoying. He hadn't earned the right to know why Richard did anything, and Richard was just fine with that. Jeff, however, already knew enough for him to be trustworthy.

"Only Jeff." He relented, lightly squeezing her hand in return.

She knows that she's not going to be able to change his mind (any more than he can change hers about anything) so Alex just sighed softly, and let out a little shrug. Yeah, Richard is a little bent, but then again, so is she so there's nothing to fight about. There's only so many things they can go into circles around, and this isn't going to be a battle that she can fight. Jeff, however, is another matter and more than that, Jeff has the discretion to do with the info as he feels necessary.

He'll tell Cam, or he won't, but that's on Jeff.

"You know I'm still going to encourage you to find friends, right? Even if you do manage to piss off everyone in town."

"I have more than enough people around me to deal with. Besides, most people don't seem to believe me when I tell them the truth." For some reason, people didn't think he was an asshole even though he wore the distinction like a badge of honor. Perhaps they thought they could reform him or that he was exaggerating, but either way, they were disappointed when the statement was true.

"Hey, it's not like they listen to me either. I tell them that you're an ass too. But I also tell them you're worth knowing even if you are an ass." Jeff had said that Richard had softness in his middle like a porcupine, and that was a view that Alex agreed with too. Not that she'd tell Richard that--knowing him he'd see it as an invitation to try and get rid of it, but she liked it. It made the moments when he was the worst worth it.

Still, there was another thing, and she sighed softly. "They'll believe it now, I think though. So at least there's that."

It's one of the reasons that what he did was designed to affect adults and not children. Some, like Stan, needed a safe place, and Richard was the only one willing to provide it (as strange that as seemed with all the 'good-hearted' people in this place)He may have wanted to push people away, but he wasn't about to rip a child's safe place from them.

"If they've made up their own minds on why I did it then it's their fault." Richard was well aware what the picture would look like to anyone who didn't know him. It'd look like he was belittling someone for crying. He wasn't. It wasn't even on a chart of reasons why he would do something like that. Anyone who thought that had no idea of the person he was, and there were people who knew without him telling them. Alex had been one of them.

The problem was that for most people, Richard didn't show that side of himself to people. He kept it locked up and hidden below armor of snark and assholeness. So, people were willing to think the worst of him and run with it. Alex could do what she could to mitigate the damage, but she couldn't undo it, or even mitigate most of it, if it came down to it.

So, in the end, she just cupped his cheek with a long sigh. "Next time, just talk to me about this rather than assuming, Richard. Fears are fears, but I am definitely not planning on intending on dying in Geneva, though I may kick your ass if you try and stop me from going."

"I'll take it under consideration." Habits were hard to break, and for Richard, this was a habit that had taken years to hone and perfect. It wasn't going to break any time soon.

"You do realize I'm going to be extremely annoying and overly explain everything to you for a while, now, right?" The threat is only half of one, and delivered with a smile and a squeeze of his hand.

"Just so we're clear."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

monthly mingle: FEAST OF THE DYING

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject