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

[idolpire]

[It's an automatic reaction for him to scoff and he can't help himself from doing that. However, he can't quite bring himself to get the words out that would normally accompany them. He wants to. That demonic, vampire side of him that would bathe in her blood wants to hurt her, because that's what he does.

But he wasn't exactly a prime example of a vampire. He was a little broken. A little too prone to feeling things. He loved. He had. He might again. And that part of him that was maybe a little off remembered, barely, those feelings for her. Something that had wormed its way down into his gut and festered there, like a pulsing sore. The look on her face didn't help that. He'd seen her look that way over Angel, and there was some part of him that couldn't wrap his head around that look directed at him.]

Not going to happen while this chip is still in my bloody head. I can't even spar with it. Can't even nip someone who'll let me, and there are plenty of those types here. You want me happy? Bring that bloody doctor out here who put it in in the first place. Get him to do it right. That'd make me happy.

[first_summers]

[ And there's that flicker of hope again, a tiny flame that she almost wants to squish out of existence because maybe then it wouldn't hurt so much to be standing in front of him, waiting to be rejected by the only person she wants to be accepted by.

Biting her lip, she considers her options. That doctor who chipped him isn't here, and honestly she's a little hesitant to see him without the chip until she has a better idea of what his life here is actually like. He hadn't wanted the world to end when Angelus had tried, but he'd also never been shy about killing people before the chip stopped that. But... there is something she can do. ]

You can spar with me. Even with the chip, after I came back, you... You could hurt me without feeling pain.

[ You came back wrong. How those words had haunted her. They still did, in a way, because of what they'd been a part of - some of her darkest months that she's so glad to be beyond now. ]

[idolpire]

... I beg your what?

[He tipped his head at her, giving her a look from that bobby blonde ponytail down to her shoes.]

After you came back from... oh, right. The dead thing. But you've died before. It's how there's a second Slayer in rotation now. So what, two deaths is what makes you... what? You're not a zombie, are you?

[He almost wants to reach out and prod her, make sure she's still flesh and not some figment of his imagination.]

Right, well, that would explain me trying to-- ah, that.

[Because really, the idea of it should have given him a headache, but if he'd gone so far as to have her have to stop him, then there was something to her little tale.]

And you're really going to sit here and offer to just let me have a go at you?

[Oh. Well. That was tempting.]

[first_summers]

[ Well, at least he hadn't immediately attacked her at that news. That counts for something, right? Maybe? She doesn't even know anymore. ]

We used to have fun with it. It's not like we can't keep up with each other.

[ She gives a shrug, seemingly not at all concerned about what she'd just offered him. ]

I'm not a zombie, by the way, [ and boy is there a look that accompanies that statement ] but with the way I came back... The way I am now confuses the chip. You won't feel a thing, I promise.

[idolpire]

Did we...?

[He couldn't help the leer that came to his face or his voice, his eyes automatically slipping down over her before he caught himself. Their little dance had always been both predatory and vaguely sexual. It was the nature of vampires, really. It's why he always preferred to feed from females.

Still, the notion of going hand to hand with her again had him perking up. Whatever was happening back home -- had happened, according to her, he'd always want to smack a Slayer around. The demon in him craved violence, and as he figured out how to respond to that, he sucked in his lower lip, humming as he did.]

Oh, I'm sure I'll feel something.

[Sorry, Buffy. You get flirty jerk, Spike.]

[first_summers]

[ Her immediate response to every part of his reaction is to roll her eyes in utter exasperation. ] Spike.

[ She's not surprised, nor should she be, considering how many times they'd gone through this in the past. When they'd been simply enemies, when things had gotten complicated by his trying to fight the good fight because there really wasn't anything else he could fight, and then when they'd... Well.

The point is, this is definitely old hat, and that's almost comforting in a way. It's the Spike she remembers and the one she can deal with without feeling too much pain. Sighing with more than a little exaggeration and a tiny bit of amusement, she raises her eyebrows in expectation. ]

So is that a yes or a no?

[idolpire]

As long as you're not pulling my leg. Don't want to agree to a little rough and tumble and wind up getting a headache when I get a hit in.

[That'd be the ultimate in rudeness, Buffy. Especially when he was playing along so nicely. And she's not hitting him yet, which he took as a good sign.

But still, he was suspicious. This was all too neat. Too tied up. Too shiny with a bow that was dropping fortune in his lap. He wasn't used to that.]

If you're not having one off on me, why not? I could use the exercise.

[first_summers]

[ As much as she wants to just keep insisting she's not lying to him, she realizes it's not going to do much good. She can say it until she turns blue and he still won't believe her until he sees for himself. It's frustrating, but there's no good way around it. ]

Okay then. I'm gonna go... [ she fumbles for something to say and finally gestures with the food she's still holding ] eat my kebab. [ Which is probably cold now, good job, Buff. ] Just let me know when you want to, you know.

[idolpire]

[He watches her, sees that bit of awkward he's not used to seeing around him. Around others certainly, but he'd never mattered. He'd never meant enough for her to care what he thought.

Seemed something was indeed changing -- or had, and he just wasn't aware of it yet.]

If you don't find your way back home, I'll see you around, Slayer. I don't plan on going anywhere.

[first_summers]

[ She has to smile at that, a slow stretching of her lips that matches a softness in her eyes, a relaxed look to her expression. Things aren't perfect, but he's not running away from her this time, and she'll see him again. That, if nothing else, is enough to buoy her spirits. ]

Good. I'm glad.

[idolpire]

That's going to take some getting used to.

[Her being glad to see him, that is. Normally, she just tolerated him -- at best.]