introductory mingle: carnivale

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Carnivale Celebration
when: July 1st - July 9th
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

carnivale

In the days leading up to July 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Carnivale. This holiday is in celebration of music, and the onset of summer and warmer weather. The celebrations are marked by street parties, an extensive program of live musical performances, with a large parade (and paid holiday!) capping it off on July 8th.

celebrating music, and summer

After a couple of months of low-key or even solemn celebrations, it's time for Riverview Quarantine to throw a good, old-fashioned party. Carnivale is a city-wide festival that pretty much everyone gets into, and many residents take the entire week off so they can enjoy all the festivities. With events ranging from impromptu street parties, free live musical performances, food stands, themed club nights, adult lounges with kink shows, and topped off with a massive party parade, the holiday has a lot to offer for anyone who likes to sing, dance, and show some skin!

i. street parties and food

One of the staples of the Carnivale festival is the spontaneous street parties and food trucks and carts. It's not unusual during the holiday to turn a corner and run into a group of people dressed in bright colors and sequins having an impromptu party with a few drinks, and then be invited to join right in! Carnivale is a celebration of music as well as summer, so most shops and stalls will be blasting danceable music into the streets to facilitate these little street parties - it's considered a sign of good luck for the owner of a business if an impromptu Carnivale celebration starts up in front of their door.

Considering the proliferation of street parties and people out and about to celebrate the warmer weather, local business owners also take to the streets. Food carts, stands, and trucks pop up on almost every street corner offering a wide variety of food from savory treats to sweet desserts. Many of the carts are offering one free item to anyone dressed up for Carnivale - anything shimmery, shiny, or brightly colored will do!

ii. live musical performances

One of the major roads in the city center has been completely roped off for the entire week, and all along this street, various temporary stages have been set up, each with a nice hefty sound system. Volunteers hand out printed flyers, and digital boards are set up here and there with schedules of various performances that are all free to attend, ranging from well-known popular music artists to new up-and-comers or independent artists who are looking to make a name for themselves. This event is very widely advertised around the city, and is accepting entries until the very last minute.

At couple of the acts might be familiar faces to some of the residents.

Eichi Tenshouin has signed up himself and his friend Tsumugi Aoba into the music festival as a first-time appearing idol unit called "Higanbana." Dressed in all white with splashes of color (blue, largely, with only their headsets being a red spider lily), they carry a very commanding and angelic image together. They'll have a routine that emphasizes their great harmony with each other, taking turns doing solo lines and joining together to show off each of their talents. Singing and dancing, they interact heavily with the audience and will encourage a lot of involvement with speaking between songs and gestures, winks, and so on. Basically, they intend to make this Riverview's very first prominent "idol performance".

For his performance, Otabek Altin will start with rock remixes of a few popular pop songs. He wants to make sure that it starts off with recognizable pieces for some people, and he certainly thinks it is something that could get people excited even if they don't know it. Then, it shifts into a few original songs. They are upbeat, rock songs that he put together with the intention to make people dance and move, since he is a DJ. He'll end his set with a slower piece he put together that is also an original. Through the entire performance, he's focused and quiet, though he may occasionally try and excite the crowd with a few words.

Any other player-characters who are musically inclined are more than welcome to assume their character was fit in for a performance, and can post up a top-level with a rundown of their performance to get bonus Activity Points for posting a mingle!

iii. carnivale parade

The other main attraction of Carnivale week comes on July 8th, which is a paid holiday for everyone in the city. The Carnivale Parade will be starting out by City Hall and winding through downtown in a lazy pattern so everyone in the city has a chance to see it. There will be all sorts of floats, dancers, marching bands, with all sorts of clubs, businesses, and other organizations represented. The theme is theatrical, big and showy, bright and colorful, sparkly and shiny, with loud music and lots of glitz and glamour. Observers can expect great music, excellent dancing and marching shows, neat vehicles provided by classic car clubs, the fire, police, and Perimeter Guard. They can also expect a lot of party favors, whether it's a sparkly plastic beaded necklace, a fan to take the edge off the heat, candy, popsicles, a temporary tattoo, or any number of other little treats or toys to be tossed into the crowd - some of them fit for kids and teens, others of a more 'adult' nature handed out a bit more discreetly to anyone who looks the part.

And make sure you wear your waterproof mascara - Carnivale floats have a tendency of spraying or spritzing water, both in an unspoken competition to see who can make the biggest water-refraction rainbow in the air, and to keep observers cool in the new summer heat.

iv. adult: lounges and kink exhibition

Thanks to the Carnivale tradition of showing as much skin as possible, some event organizers' minds have turned to topics of a more adult nature. In the evenings, residents may see clubs doing "lounge nights"; these adults-only events have bouncers IDing everyone at the door to ensure they're 18+. The themes may vary, from very specific niche themes like 'golden age superheroes' to broad themes like 'rainbows,' and each event is clearly marked as what it is - all-nude or clothing-optional, and can host events ranging from amateur to professional exotic dancing, food served off of nude bodies, anonymous masked hookups, or just provide a comfortable space where casual sex is encouraged with whoever happens to be around. Various legal substances can be found at these lounges, but nothing that would cause violation of consent, and every substance would be clearly labeled and have warnings to ensure that no one partakes unless they choose to. Please be sure to warn in the subject line for sexual content or drug use (since some mild party drugs are legal in Riverview).

For the weekend from July 7th-9th, there will be a kink exhibition in one of the large exhibition centers downtown, limited to characters 18+. The exhibition is a sexy adult informational convention featuring various kinks and fetishes. Whether you're into leather, latex, lace, or anything else, you'll be able to find the clothes, toys, guides, books, erotica, fiction, and a wide variety of other interesting stuff to explore. While the atmosphere is sex-positive and there are private and public (for the voyeurs and exhibitionists in the room) venues for having sex, it's definitely focused on exploration and information about different stuff to try.

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 one of the mod-posted prompts for each Communal Floor. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during Carnivale, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: Roger Patterson Jr.; image ii: Syd Mead; image iii: screencap from the movie Paprika; image iv: siamon89

navigation

Comments

[heirlift]

[ John is sufficiently distracted so that not only does he not notice Dave as he approaches, but he also doesn't exactly look over when he sits down. It's only when he hears a familiar voice that his head whips around, eyes wide and smile somewhere between confused and ecstatic. ]

Dave?! Get out of here, it's really you?

[ He hasn't seen Dave in person in so long; even if they talked on the internet, it just wasn't the same. As awkward as it is, he leans over the side of his chair to throw an arm around Dave's shoulder in the world's weirdest hug. He doesn't care, but the couple of drinks he managed to get through might have helped with that. ]

Boy, am I glad to see you! How long have you been here?

[chumpelstiltskin]

[The initial question prompts Dave to pat himself over his chest and face as if trying to deduce whether he really exists.]

You know? I think it may actually be.

[Petty garbage aside, Dave is genuinely pleased to see John. There's an appeal to Riverview, new people, new scenery and new opportunities, but he won't lie and say he hadn't felt anxiety at all of this unfamiliarity.

John is a familiar face, and a welcome one, and Dave thinks he's probably more pleased to see him than almost anybody else. He lets himself be hugged, leaning into it as best he can without really returning the gesture.]

Um, a couple of days, maybe? I went through my little "How to Cope With Displacement" course, got a job and then everyone kicked off to play hookey at the carnival. Gotta say, there's significantly less Ferris Wheels and peanuts here than the last festival I saw. [He takes the opportunity to glance around at all of the close dancing and heavy drinking around them.

As for being glad to see John? He's feeling it, not saying it. He feels weird about expressing feelings of closeness, even now.]

[heirlift]

[ Fantastic. Excellent awkward bro hug. Just as awkward as he remembers. Ten out of ten. He doesn't really expect anything else from Dave, though, because that's just the kind of guy Dave is. Any other reaction would have been suspect.

John has been acclimating fairly well, but that doesn't mean he isn't legitimately psyched to see his best friend here. It was admittedly kind of lonely; John doesn't have trouble making friends, but only on a surface level, and plus, none of them could ever really understand what they went through during Sburb. There was a special kind of bond that came along with that. Even if neither of them ever actually say it, and even if John's not really aware of it, he can still feel it. ]

I like the part about the peanuts, but the ferris wheel is kind of disappointing, now that I think about it. You want a drink? --where are you working?

[ He has a lot more questions, all at once, but he leaves it at that... ]

[chumpelstiltskin]

[Having John here is quickly making Dave feel more grounded. Today has been surreal, it felt mostly like a weird fever dream filled with crazy, sexy shit and strange faces and vivid colours. Now he has a familiar face in front of him and it reminds him that not only is everything that happened real, but that this is real too.]

I could go for another one of these apple drinks. [He swills around the stick from his cherry in his empty glass.]

I'm a writer and a story-boarder for my own cartoon on some cartoon network, here. They put like, weird amounts of faith in people who just appeared out of nowhere with no legitimate qualifications.

[heirlift]

Yeah. Me too...

[ John looks forlornly at his near-empty glass, and decidedly flags down a server for another of each.

He's not surprised to hear that Dave is doing something artsy, that seems to be just up his alley, but he's also got a point. ]

Maybe that's true, but it's probably better than letting people figure it out for themselves. I wouldn't even know where to start...

[chumpelstiltskin]

What did Big Brother assign you to? [Everyone is nice here, but it's suspiciously nice. He's just waiting for some fuck-off huge alien to burst in and ruin everything.]

Yeah, for sure. Imagine if they sent us to college? Let us pick courses? We'd both be lounging around in coffee shops pretending to work on our dissertations about media. Which reminds me- we know like fuck all about this place, or the culture, or the pop culture. How are we going to be edgy and relevant now?

[heirlift]

continued!