introductory mingle: PRIJATA

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Prijata Celebration
when: June 1st - June 8th
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

prijata

In the days leading up to June 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Prijata. Riverview Quarantine has a strong culture of love, and they celebrate all types - Prijata is a special celebration of platonic love and building community through friendship. Prijata traditions include gift exchanges between friends, sharing meals cooked together by friend groups, and a variety of events and services aimed at making friends.

a celebration of platonic love

Prijata is a relatively relaxed holiday, focused mainly on friendship and platonic love - dedicated to appreciating the friends already in one's life, and opening oneself up to making new friends. Besides the private giving of gifts between friends, there is also a city-wide government-sponsored gift fountain that is open throughout the entire week. Included in the wide variety of events catered to finding new friends, are 'speed friending' and a large open exhibition where all the specialized clubs in Riverview can recruit for new members - and residents new or old can create a club and recruit.

i. gift fountain

While Prijata gift exchanges between friends are generally a quiet affair, done at friend-group dinners or parties, the element of gift giving does extend outward - community-wide, in fact. Throughout the course of the week, anyone living in Riverview Quarantine can drop by the huge fountain in the City Center, in front of the City Hall. They will find that the fountain is chock full of floating gift boxes in a wide variety of colors, patterns, and different shapes - though none larger than a shoe box. There are signs put up around the fountain stating that the boxes are magic and will only seek and open for their rightful owners. Characters will find that, upon touching the water, a box will float over to them, and when they pick it up, the top will unfurl like flower petals, displaying the gift inside. Sometimes, the box won't appear on the first try, since there's only so much space in the fountain at any given time, but if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Every person in the city (including new arrivals) will receive one gift by the end of the week.

Gift fountain boxes will contain one small item from each character's home dimension (or, for CRAUs, from their previous game), similar to the "items from home" bonus reward, but without needing to spend points. The item should be small enough to fit in a shoebox, sentimental, and cannot be something intended for another person's character. ETA: If you can't think of an item like this that would work for your character, something of similar size and quality to what's described above that would make the character very happy can be substituted.

This prompt can also be used for gift exchanges and for characters to receive the Government-given gifts that were suggested in the Prijata Pregaming posts on the OOC community and the TDM.

ii. speed-friending

This is pretty much what it says on the tin! Much like speed-dating setups, many bars, coffee shops, and other places that people might gather are holding speed-friending! It's your standard setup - characters enter and fill out a quick questionnaire about themselves, and flit from table to table looking for someone with great friend chemistry. Not all of them are general and open to anyone who walks in, though, with many being specialized to people who are invested in certain hobbies, occupations, or with specific sets of interests. With specialized speed-friending setups ranging from horror movie buffs to members of the Perimeter Guard to fashionistas to sports or martial arts to video games, no matter what your character is into, they're likely to be able to sign up for a special event where they can go looking for a friend who's into the same things they are!

For this prompt, you can put up a list of hobbies or interests your character has, and compatible characters can hit them up for a speed-friending thread, like the IC equivalent of the CR meme!

iii. club exhibition

Speed-friending is all well and good, but not everyone is outgoing or open enough to know if they have friend chemistry in only a few minutes. For anyone looking to find groups of like-minded individuals they can spend more than a few minutes with before committing to something as daunting as a friendship, there is a week-long club exhibition happening in the Town Square in the City Center. Table after table and booth after booth are occupied by existing clubs in the city, with an incredibly broad scope of focus interests and hobbies - enough that any character should be able to find a club with their niche interest represented.

And if it isn't? Characters are welcome to start their own clubs - much like a business, a character-run club can have space set aside in the city for meetings and event mingles that are eligible for Activity Point Bonuses for the organizer.

iv. unveiling the new friendr

Prijata this year is marked by something special - the unveiling of a code rebuild of the ubiquitous Friendr app! Anyone with the app installed already will receive a prompt to update the app, and if anyone hasn't yet downloaded it, they'll receive a quick, easily-dismissed pop-up ad on their device when they next access the network, asking if they want to. No one is obligated, and the ad is a one-time instance, intended to make sure any character who hasn't heard of the app gets a chance.

The Friendr app is a swipe-left-or-right style friend matching and/or dating app that is very common in Riverview, both for PCs and NPCs, and it has received an upgrade with a new appearance, a new interests line for more accurate matching, and a wide variety of themes so that the colors can be customized!

Please see the updated appearance below, with the 'default' color scheme. Players are free to change the colors or appearance of the code but please do not remove the credit line showing where the base code came from, out of respect for the code creator.

	Friendr
«		»
	» Age: your character's age » Seeking: friendship/romantic/anything » Preferences: sexual preference or n/a » Interests: three interests » Bio: 30 words or less
	base code by photosynthesis
	Character Name
	« ✘ ✔ »

<br><center><table style="width:300px;"><tr style="border-bottom:1px dashed #528887;"><td></td> <td style="padding:20px; padding-bottom:0; width:300px; font:38px Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; text-transform:uppercase; color:#c4c4c4; text-align:center; letter-spacing:2px; background-color:#2a2a2a; border-top-right-radius:50px; border-top-left-radius:50px;"><b>Friendr</b></td> <td></td></tr> <tr><td style="font-size:70px; vertical-align:middle; text-align:right; padding:0; color:#528887;">«</td> <td style="background-color:#2a2a2a; padding:20px; padding-top:10px; padding-bottom:0; width:308px;"><img src="IMAGE URL - 300px WIDE OR LESS" style="border-radius:20px;"><br> </td> <td style="font-size:70px; vertical-align:middle; padding:0; color:#528887;">»</td></tr> <tr><td></td> <td style="background-color:#2a2a2a; font:12px arial; text-align:left; padding:10px;"><span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Age:</b> your character's age</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Seeking:</b> friendship/romantic/anything</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Preferences:</b> sexual preference or n/a</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Interests:</b> three interests</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Bio:</b> 30 words or less</span> </td></tr> <tr><td></td> <td style="text-align:right; font-size:10px; background-color:#2a2a2a;"><font color="#528887">base code by</font> <a href="http://photosynthesis.dreamwidth.org/" style="color:#528887;">photosynthesis</td></tr> <raw-code><tr style="border-bottom:1px dashed #528887;"><td></td> <td style="background-color:#2a2a2a;font:20px Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; color:#c4c4c4; text-align:center;">Character Name</td> <td><td></tr><tr><td></td> <td style="border-bottom-right-radius:50px; border-bottom-left-radius:50px; background-color:#2a2a2a; text-align:center;"><table style="width:100%; font:30px Verdana;"><tr><td style="text-align:left;"> <span style="text-decoration:none; color:#528887;">« ✘</span></td> <td style="text-align:right;"><span style="text-decoration:none; color:#528887;">✔ »</span></td></tr> </table></td> <td></td></table></raw-code></center>
base code found here.

For this prompt, you can either post your character's new, fancy Friendr app profile in the comments, or provide a link to their updated code in an entry on their journal. Whatever floats your boat!

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to set up headers for a communal floor, or threads open to roommates for the purpose of getting to know each other. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during Prijata, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: Odysseas Stamoglou; image ii: 5ofnovember; image iii: Sina Pakzad Kasra; image iv: mit19237

navigation

Comments

[aeturnus]

[ Cain turns to her and smiles in greeting, but it turns into curiosity and he turns. Sees what's there. His expression shifts to something open and disbelievingly hopeful before he just shuts it down into something more general. Just interested in what's in there. ]

You're right. I think this is mine.

[ He scoops it out of fountain, pulls out a small stack of journals and sets the box aside. His can't help but stroke at the covers with his thumb, plain but high quality leather to make sure the binding stays. They're old but not ancient, used and obviously respected. It takes a moment but he glances up at her, something tender in his eyes. ]

Thanks, Lucretia. Almost didn't notice.

[scholiast]

(She tries not to be curious, but it's hard; his gift isn't as small as hers had been. It's especially hard to ignore what appears to be a set of bound leather books. Lucretia stares open as Cain turns them over in his hands, inspecting them; her gaze jumps away as he looks up.)

That's alright. (Dimly, she wonders what would have happened if he hadn't noticed it at all. Would the gift have blossomed and sank to the bottom of the fountain? What a waste of the books that would have been.)

What... did you get? If you don't mind me asking.

[aeturnus]

[ It's rather hard not to be curious, isn't it? He notices the look and smiles for it, shifting to open the top journal. Even he isn't sure which one it is until it's open, and he makes a soft sound, closer to a breath, when the first pages are full of French. It's segmented, single lines of text here and whole, passionate paragraphs there. It's his families, his memories, being preserved in the best ways he has. ]

They're journals. I've been keep them for a while... Didn't think I'd see them here of all places.

[scholiast]

(Very hard.

Lucretia tells herself she won't look, but is absolutely looking as he slowly opens the journal at the top of the stack, flipping through to the first few pages. Not only is the writing in a language she can't understand, but she doesn't even recognise it in the first place. She squints, frowning over his shoulder.

Asking means admitting to being nosy, but it'll be worth it for the answer.)

What- sorry, what language is that written in? I haven't seen it before.

[aeturnus]

[ If he looks surprised, it only lasts for a second. Right. There's plenty of people from different earths, but that's not necessarily what everyone else is going to experience. ]

It's called French. [ He flips through a page or two, then starts to read one of the paragraphs. It sounds like... well, French, when trying to speak something else intentionally, and he stops soon enough. Just an example of what it sounds like. ] Did you ever visit any Earths in your travels?

[scholiast]

(As it turns out, French is not even close to anything that she knows.

It shouldn't be so surprising. She's done enough travelling to know that she couldn't possibly have learnt everything there is to know about languages already.)

Huh, (is all she says, for a moment, thinking. It's strange for her, being on the intellectual back foot even if just for a moment.) Any... Earths? No? What does that mean?

[aeturnus]

Planets called Earth. You mentioned traveling between different—planar systems, kind of like what happened when arriving here. Just thought perhaps you might have come across where it was from.

[ He shakes his head, shrugs a shoulder and closes the journal for now. This one eventually moves on into English and the contents are possibly not the best way to keep a conversation going relatively innocent as it is. ]

[scholiast]

No, I don't think so. (She shrugs. Sometimes they'd come across planets they'd never found names for, and just invented them as they went along. Anything is possible.) But maybe I'll encounter one in the future.

Is that where you're from?

[aeturnus]

Yes, the planet Earth. It's pretty common, actually. Lots of different versions of the same basic blueprint. Completely improbable but you can't really argue with the facts.

[ The entire multiverse at the tips of their fingers and more than anything, it's still a surprise when people come from someplace other than Earth. Maybe he'll crunch the numbers on that someday. ]

[scholiast]

I'll keep my eyes peeled.

(Looking back out towards the fountain, it seems a little unreal that there are still so many boxes floating gently on the water, waiting for people to claim them. Are there really that many people staying here?)

It's nice, isn't it. This holiday, I mean. (After all, some people seem to have received things that are very dear to them.)

[aeturnus]

[ He nods, turning to follow her gaze and then lets his attention spread out to all the people gathered around. ]

It is. Good spirit behind it, definitely brings something... special. Then again, the other holiday I've seen has been pretty focused at bringing people together, too.

[scholiast]

Yeah. Yeah.

(She's thinking aloud as she watches the fountain's gentle spray of water.) It's very kind. Arriving here, and immediately being able to join in with something community orientated makes it... less stressful to be away from home, in a way.

What do you think they do with the boxes that people don't accept?

(Maybe they just throw everything away. It's a sad thought.)

[aeturnus]

I wonder if that's intentional. Timing their festivals like this.

[ Tucking the journals against his chest, he moves to escape from the press of people pushing in further to the fountain. He motions to ask if she'll follow along. ]

I'm not sure. Do you think there are any that wouldn't be accepted?

[scholiast]

Probably.

(She falls into step beside him with a nod, hands in the pockets of her jeans.)

Maybe? There might be people who wouldn't want a reminder of something from home. Or maybe people who are just suspicious of the whole thing.

[aeturnus]

They seem pretty well hand-picked, but then again, there's just some people you can't help...

[ He glances back at the fountain, tilts his head in something like a shrug and turns back to Lucretia. ]

First thought is that it could become up for grabs if it's rejected.

[scholiast]

(She grins a little, giving him a good-natured elbow.)

Somehow I don't think that quite aligns with the nature of the holiday?

[aeturnus]

[ He laughs, sidestepping away from the elbow with a grin in return. ]

Then how about donating it?

[scholiast]

Better.

Though, if it was all really sentimental stuff, would anybody else want it? (Case in point: she reaches into her pocket, and shows him her sand dollar trinket.)

[aeturnus]

[ Cain looks at it, shrugs. Sentimental is a good way to describe all these things so far because he can't quite see anyone else having an interest in the presents received. ]

Maybe not. Could be good for making some kind of art piece, maybe?

[scholiast]

Yeah.

I mean, I think you're supposed to put it on a table? Or something. (She turns it over, curiously, then puts it back into her pocket.) Who knows.

Anyway, we're encouraged to get things for other people as well, right? Are you getting anything for anybody?

[aeturnus]

[ He shakes his head. ]

I've been thinking about it, but I'm not really sure I'm close enough to anyone here for it to be appropriate. Hard to judge that sort of thing when it feels like we're operating on entirely different standards.

[scholiast]

Yeah, I feel the same way.

Though I do know somebody from home here, so I'll get him something. (Eventually. Lucretia feels like everything has been so busy since she got here. There's a lot to explore; it makes keeping a to-do list tricky.)

[aeturnus]

[ That statement makes something click in his brain. There's somewhere he's heard Lucretia's particular phrasing before, back when they met, and then back when he met someone else... ]

Taako? Lucky. Having anyone you know here, I mean.

1/2

[scholiast]

Uh huh- have you met him?

(She grins, fleetingly.) It's pretty nice. I hope somebody you know comes here too.

[scholiast]

(And then she realises what that sounds like, and backpedals immediately.) Sorry– I don't mean... not as a result of them dying, or anything, I wouldn't want that.

(Yikes.) Sorry.