riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: carnivale

Entry tags:

introductory mingle: carnivale

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I mean, I mostly missed my sister, and she's here now so fuck the spaceship, really.

[This could be the shittiest moon in the universe and it'd still be great because Lup was here.]

[Taako just went from relatable to essentially reading Bellamy's mind, and his expression closes off. His voice is oddly controlled when he responds.]

You got lucky.

[Ah.

Empathy isn't like, the easiest thing for Taako when it comes to strangers, but there are certain things he's hardwired to understand, by the point. Bellamy closes off and Taako gets it.]

Yours too, huh?

[His voice softens, because even if Lup is here, that doesn't make her any less dead back home.]

[Thankfully, they reach the front of the line just as Taako asks, which means Bellamy can turn away to order their drinks. It gives him a minute or so to get himself together, to at least make an attempt to harness the grief and anger that keeps threatening to choke him. It almost works.

He turns back around to pass Taako his drink, his shoulders tense.]

How long has your sister been here?

[That confirms any lingering suspicions Taako might have, but he's hardly one to push into someone else's grief, so he focuses his attention on the menu, despite having already chosen what he wants, and only looks back at Bellamy once he's being offered a drink, which he accepts with a little nod of thanks.]

A couple days. She's from like thirty years before me, which is kinda weird, but the other crew member I got is from about eighty.

[He isn't sure if Bellamy will know about elves and the whole long life thing, but he's ready to field a "wtf" at the 80 years, anyway.]

[It's a good thing he's ready, because Bellamy absolutely gives him a look.]

Eighty years? What, is that magic, too?

[He's still not over the magic thing. Sorry, Taako.]

[In answer, Taako taps the point of one of his ears.]

You should ask about my skincare regime cause I've got a few centuries under my belt by this point and we both know I don't look it. [stop him] Elves live a lot longer than humans.

[Which isn't including the whole reviving thing, but this works for now.]

[He lets out a quiet, disbelieving sound. The terrible thing is, Bellamy is starting to like Taako despite himself. He didn't sign up for this.]

I'll pass. Are you three the only elves here? Anyone else hiding their age I should know about?

[You know what he's just gonna correct Bellamy that Lucretia is human right now, maybe this problem will never come up in the future.]

There's Rin, he's a drow, but we didn't exchange ages so I dunno exactly how old he is, safe to bet he's over a century though, since he's an adult.

[And that's when adulthood officially starts, for elves.]

But uh, even the humans here sometimes have weird shit going on. There's at least a coupe immortals, the Asgardians are old as shit. I think some aliens don't age the same rate? You're better off asking each person if you're worried about it.

[That is... A lot to take in. He's going to latch onto one bit of it, because it's the only thing his mythology nerd brain is familiar with.]

Asgardians as in Asgard?

[Definitely human from Earth then.]

Loki and Thor are here. [a beat, and:] Loki is here twice, sometimes there's more than one of a person running around, it's an alternate reality thing.

[Bellamy only has passing knowledge of Norse mythology, but Thor and Loki are the big shots anyway. Before he can parse that tidbit of information, though, Taako mentions the alternate reality thing, and it pulls Bellamy up short. If there are two Lokis here, that means Octavia could show up, too. A different version, maybe, but it would still be Octavia, and just the thought of it makes his chest tighten.]

How often does that happen?

Uh.... [Let him think about it.

Or let him count it off on his fingers.] There's Loki, that Steve guy, Tony? Actually, you know what, they're like all from the same kinda reality, maybe theirs is just one of the few with a double. Cause like, I've been to about a hundred? I only ran into two that had versions of the same people.

[Bellamy nods, trying not to let the disappointment show. It mostly works.]

And your sister? She's the one from your universe?

She's gotta be, it's kinda complicated, but even alternate realities couldn't repeat the same conditions.

[There's no way it would be possible, not with how the light of creation works.]

[Bellamy nods. It's still strange to wrap his head around, but he's certain the Clarke here is the one he knows, so he gets it.]

You said you've been to other universes before this.

Almost a hundred of 'em, yeah. Our ship didn't do space so much as it did realities. A lot of the time we'd end up on empty worlds, but I've seen some weird shit.

[Jello people. Puppy world. Getting turned to stone.

They've all been fun adventures.]

[Alright, Bellamy is officially super interested. If Taako has experience with this kind of mess, he has to have a good idea how to deal with it. Right?]

You gonna elaborate on what kind of weird shit?

I mean, I've met people made outta like... light, and gelatin. [a beat] Two separate kinds of people, I dunno if it'd work otherwise? There was the world with talking animals that didn't eat each other, that was our first. Uh... [Give him a second, there's a lot to rifle through and some of them were boring.] The voidfish are fucking wild, they can erase or broadcast information from or to literally everyone in a reality.

[Fisher is a good friend but considering the shit it's kid erased, he's still kind of frustrated by their existence.]

There was one place where they'd pulled the plane of magic into the material plane and frozen their world, not like... ice frozen, like someone hit the pause button on a TV kinda frozen. It was sweet as hell. I mean, except for the fact it was totally empty of any life, but I can cross "see a wave frozen mid-crash" off my bucket list.

[That is a lot to process all at once. A lot that Bellamy has no baseline for, so of course he shakes his head and defaults to deadpan. It's almost a defense mechanism, because what.]

So you're saying it could be worse.

I haven't died even once so, yup, could be a hell of a lot worse, for sure.

[He's died a lot.]

[Bellamy's lips quirk up just slightly.]

That's an accomplishment. Congratulations.

[Taako grins, looking way to pleased with himself.]

Thanks! It's kinda weird to get used to but I am not gonna complain, I don't miss the whole bullshit of getting nearly murdered every week.

What, is it every other week here? What's that like?

[Taako sticks his tongue out, the height of maturity.]

It's been once in like four months, I'll have you know. It's fucking wild.

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