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

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[This causes Mantis to picture her antennae as whiskers coming out from her cheeks and she breaks into a brief involuntary giggle.]

No, not like whiskers! I can feel emotions, if I touch a person, when I use my powers they will glow.

[But Mantis has learned it is never a good idea to go touching and feeling people without warning, and that it is best to keep her hands to herself.

Unless she is fighting bad guys, then it is okay to not ask permission]

Right.

[Because what else do you say to the Weirdest Shit You've Ever Heard?]

Feeling other people's emotions doesn't sound like much of a power anyone sane would want.

[Last thing he'd want, honestly.]

[Honestly, she has never even considered the sanity of her powers, or the trouble with them. To her every emotion has been fascinating, and every person's different, but, having spent so many years around only one person, her perspective is perhaps somewhat...skewed.]

I was born with this power... I do not know if having empathic abilities is very helpful. My master kept me to help him sleep.

[Mantis often wonders how much crankier Ego may have been without her help.]

[Okay that sounds fucked up. Just an opinion. Sure, he has the Chairman, but it's...different. Totally. His car, his race. His choices. Many of which the Chairman, lately, hasn't liked.

It's pretty clear that he thinks the 'kept me to help him sleep' meant, you know, sexy things. Because this isn't awkward enough. But he'll recover. Somehow, and his eyebrows will return to a normal position. ]

How the fuck do you know what your own emotions are?

[In all fairness, Mantis is not likely to fully understand what normal is even if it catches fire and comes flying at her face.

She is only just beginning to understand how different everyone here is, and how different the places they come from really are. She is drawn in. Frankenstein's question has her holding up both hands, and wiggling the fingers poking out from her gloves in his general direction]

I only feel the emotions of others when I touch them. [She frowns a moment, recalling what it feels like to her and how to even begin explaining it.] Then they are all that I feel...

Unless I am forcing them to feel something else.

[Surely not a disturbing concept at all.]

[Frankenstein only knows his world's normal which he knows is just basically screwed up. ]

So you can't tell what I'm feeling right now.

[Should he be weirded out by that last bit? Eh, not like he's morally pure himself.]

Worse ways of doing that. [Mood Whiz, VR, all the ways the UCA manipulates people's emotions. Fuck. Even the Death Race. ]

Oh, no!

[Mantis can't even imagine how overwhelming it might be to be surrounded by all of these people and feeling everything of everyone around her. She is relieved her powers are more sensible.]

I would never do that without your permission. [If only because she has learned how traumatic it can be for people to share their feelings] I have been told it is very effective. I am very good at causing sleep.

[Despite the fact that she herself sleeps very little.]

Thank fuck for that. For your sake.

[She seems like a nice lady, and his brain is a pretty fucked up place. ]

So someone keeps you around, just to help them sleep.

[Sounds like something the Chairman would do. Frankenstein hates him already.]

[She nods along in confirmation. If Ego had kept her for any other reason, Mantis does not know it. She had assisted him at times in making some of his progeny more...compliant, but Mantis has never really believed he needed her for such things.]

He did, before he exploded.

[And Mantis knows she helped to make it happen. She had given away his weakness, to save the only semblance of friends she has ever had.]
Now...I am free. [To what end, she does not know.]

Bad things happen to bad people.

[See, that simple.]

Freedom can be hard. Trust me. You run along someone else's track for so long, sometimes you don't realize you have other choices. Then, you have to decide which choice to make.

[In his case, his choices both sucked. Die for the Chairman? Join the Resistance? Fuck both of those.]

[Mantis hopes that's true. That, and the opposite. Good things should happen to good people, right?

Like a sponge, she has tried to soak in everything around her, and Mantis doesn't always understand every word of every thing, but she can feel in the tone of Frankenstein's words a certain ring of truth that is a bit...universal.]

I do wonder if I have made a right choice. [She frowns to herself, and it is almost but not quite a pout. She doesn't notice her antennae drooping a little.] Or only...a selfish one.

[Not that she is able to take it back now, whatever course it set her on.]

[Frankenstein doesn't really know any good people, himself included, so he's not likely to bet on good things happening to them.]

Choosing to fight your own fight isn't selfish. Someone keeping you to help him fucking sleep is.

[Mantis stares at Frankenstein for a moment, absorbing, until her shoulders slump ever so slightly with a hint of relief. He has made her feel better, whether he meant to or not.]

I think you are right... and I am glad he is gone now.

[She shifts her gaze from her new acquaintance to the items on the table, and sort of halfheartedly pokes at a bra made of gray lace. At the very least, she recognizes what it is and how it would be put on.

And she is free now. She could. If she could only figure out why she should, or if it is for her. She's really not too sure about that last part.]

Do you also come from somewhere else?

Trust me, I know selfish.

[It's what Annie'd been throwing in his face the whole last day. How he just wanted to win for himself. He figured it made him an expert in that, at least.

And his eyes follow her motion down to the bra, and then back up. Yeah that's...he's still not quite used to that.]

Yeah, somewhere a lot different than here. [No giant displays of saucy underthings, for one thing.]

[When Frankenstein says to trust him, Mantis already does (for whatever reason), so it is not a hard stretch to continue to. She wonders what he means, and she wants to ask, but she also does not feel this is the place to interrogate someone as to the nature of their familiarity with selfishness.

As he answers her, she bends to look closer at another thing, head tilting to examine the detail more closely. These are not the first items for sale that she has examined with such intensity. There are just so many things she has never seen before.

She pauses in her examination to nod at him.] Where I am from, there are not many buildings... and many more plants. But they are nothing like the plants here.

[The plants here are lush and mostly, all green. Not the rainbow of colors on the misleading utopia she is used to.]

[ He wouldn't trust himself, to be honest. Or anyone. But where he's from, you look out for yourself. Or got taken advantage of. ]

I don't even know what plants we still have. Stuff that can't be turned into food, I guess.

[It's green enough...in parts.] Mostly desert where I'm from.

[Talking about plants? Way less awkward than lingerie.]

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introductory mingle: carnivale

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