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

[ Cisco had been wondering if there were metas, or some equivalent to them, in Tony's world. Seems like maybe that's the case. But... and it's possible Cisco is wrong about this, but he thinks that Tony isn't talking about powered people as if he is one of them. Maybe that's just Cisco conflating him with Ray, thinking he's probably a relatively ordinary smart guy in a flying suit. It's just, well, a vibe. ]

How'd it happen for you guys? I'm assuming not a particle accelerator.

[ That would just be too freaky of a coincidence, and besides, it would be sudden, and Tony said that it wasn't. He's always curious, finding out how people got their powers in other worlds. He's talked to people from places where everyone has access to magical powers, and people from worlds where powers are genetic and the people with them call themselves mutants. It never ceases to interest Cisco, all that variety. ]

Also, maybe none of my business but I hope those enhanced folks who were science experiments had a say in the matter.

No particle accelerators. [That gets a flash of a wry smile.]

Honestly? No one big catalyst, as far as I'm aware. A lot of alien influence, though. [Tony knows how that sounds. But they're already talking superhumans, so maybe it isn't that weird in context.] Magic stones. Go figure.

But all the experiments I know of were voluntary, so there's that.

[Even the ones that probably shouldn't have been. And he's really hoping there weren't ones he doesn't know about, but Tony's a cynic at heart. He won't lay bets on it.]

[ There was a time when Cisco's reaction to a phrase like "alien influence" being delivered in all sincerity would've been a whole lot different. But he's been in this place a while. He's met aliens. He's friends with a few aliens. If Tony says aliens were making people into metas somehow in his world, Cisco's got no reason to question that. And besides, it's not really all that much more bonkers than what had happened in Central City. ]

So you've got people with superpowers from science and from magic, huh? Wow. Kind of a double-whammy, there.

[ Some of the science gets really, really strange, but as far as Cisco knows, there's never been any real, actual magic in his world. Which he hadn't realized he should be grateful for, until he'd come here. ]

So your suit, is it modeled off alien tech at all, or is it 100% Earth-grown goodness?

Hah. No, that's all me.

[He might look just a bit smug about it. The suit is his baby, he's allowed.]

And that was before the aliens showed up in force. Mostly. But magic is... [he trails off and waves a hand back and forth] It's kind of a Clarke's Third Law thing, you know? There's a lot out there we don't know yet. Who knows what this stuff really is.

[ Cisco just grins; clearly, he thinks that smugness is entirely warranted. He has only just glanced at the tech from the outside, but he can tell that both care and expertise went into it. He wonders if Tony would show him the full suit... but maybe that's the kind of thing he should build up to. ]

So there was like... an invasion?

[ Cisco asks it delicately; he doesn't want to sound biased against aliens, and it's difficult to know what might be considered an insensitive comment, to someone from a different reality. He's met people who come from places where humans and aliens cohabitate happily, and people from places where they very much do not. ]

Oh yeah, I get you. I mean, I'm sure there's people out there who think metas are magic, and refuse to hear otherwise. And there's a few metas whose powers we don't really understand at all, yet.

[ I.e. him, he's talking about himself, but Tony doesn't need to know that. ]

So... I told you about our heroes, now it's your turn. There's... Iron Man, obviously. Who else?

Edited 2017-07-19 01:10 (UTC)

There was an invasion. Attempted invasion. It made a mark. [Though the aliens had been around before that.

Explaining it kinds of takes a back seat after the second question, though, and Tony resists the urge to sigh. It's a more complicated answer than it really should be, though he flicks Cisco a mostly-geniune smile to cover for it.]

A good half of them are here, if you're really curious. And alternate universe versions. It's a whole big thing. But...[he's fairly sure Cisco isn't going to let him get away with just that.]

If you're looking for the first big group that was a super-solider from World War II, a man who triples his mass and becomes indestructible when he gets mad, an alien possibly-god, one of the best spies in the world and an expert marksman. And me.

Shit. Sounds messed up.

[ Definitely not cohabitating happily, then. And definitely not aliens like Kara or Clark. But at least, from the sound of it, the invasion wasn't successful, even if it did have a big impact.

Cisco listens as Tony explains that a lot of his fellow heroes are here, which is definitely of interest to Cisco. It's always good to be able to get a sense of who knows who, of which groups of people were familiar with one another before they ever came here. There are relatively few people here from Cisco's own world - just himself and Eddie, that he knows of. ]

Yeah, that doppelganger shit is crazy, isn't it? Like I can't even imagine how weird it would be if some dude showed up saying he was a different me...

[ Cisco can't imagine what would be worse - meeting a version of himself with a crappier life who would end up being jealous of the opportunities he had had, or a version of himself who had his shit much more figured out, who would make Cisco feel like a failure. ]

Sounds like an awesome group if you ask me. The um, the super-solider guy, that's like... Captain America, right? Peggy told me about him ages ago.

[ Which gives Cisco some sense of which world Tony is probably from, and also throws his earlier comments about superheroes who were made by human experimentation a little clearer. ]

Yeah, that's...wait, Peggy? Peggy Carter?

[It's the first thing that comes to mind, and if it's true...well. That's one more thing for Tony to try to wrap his head around. Jesus.

He laughs dryly rather than try to focus on it. Cisco doesn't need to deal with his difficulties even if Tony was at all likely to explain them to a near-stranger.]

But yes. Tell me about it. There are three of me.

Yeah, that's her! British lady, very chic, works for the police department - you know her?

[ Tony sounds surprised, but Cisco doesn't have any reason to think it's not the surprise of finding out that someone he knew personally is actually here. If he were thinking about it a little harder, he would remember that Peggy said she was from the 1940s, and Tony definitely does not seem like he's plucked from that era. ]

There are... [ It takes Cisco a moment to get what Tony means: not that there are three men who serve as Iron Man back in his world (which would make sense, it's a suit, it could theoretically be flown by anyone, they could take turns...), but instead, that he has not only one but two doppelgangers. That makes Cisco set his drink down, mouth forming a perfect 'o' of surprise. He leans forward, asks: ]

You mean you've not only got one other version of you here, but two? Holy shit, dude. Like... holy shit!

Edited 2017-07-20 00:06 (UTC)

[Tony gives him an absolutely wry look and salutes Cisco with his bottle.]

My thoughts exactly. It's...taken some getting used to.

[And like he's just remembered he has the drink, he takes a long sip before answering again. He's known that people are here from different times, but for Peggy to be here -- for Peggy to be active -- that's a much bigger jump than anything he's heard of.]

Yeah. I know her. Sort of.

Do you guys have, like, a system to help people tell you apart, or what?

[ Cisco is just assuming that there are no visible differences; that at most one of the doppelgangers might wear slightly different clothing, or be a year or two younger and older thanks to timeline nonsense. It seems like there are some Parent Trap-type pitfalls they might want to avoid.

Cisco narrows his eyes when Tony says he knows Peggy 'sort of'. It doesn't sound like the kind of 'sort of' that means "we met at a party once" or "worked in the same office for a while but didn't interact". There's more to that sort of, so he asks: ]

Sounds like there's a story, there.

[ Not quite prying, just... gently prompting Tony to elaborate, if he wants to. ]

We don't look exactly alike. It's not hard.

[Which is as close as he's going to get to admitting that the both of them have a good four inches on him and he's got nearly a decade on them.

The other not-quite-question has more of Tony's attention anyway. He lets out a long breath as he tries to figure out how to put it all into words. To someone who doesn't have the context. He doesn't even know when exactly Peggy is from or how much she's told anyone.

In the end, he just shrugs and goes with the simplest truth.]

She was a friend of my father's.

Oh! Well, that's gotta make things a little easier.

[ Maybe not on a psychological level, but pragmatically, at the very least. Doesn't have to worry about his doubles impersonating him and giving him a bad rep or anything like that.

Tony's explanation is what clues Cisco in, reminds him of what he'd forgotten. ]

Shit, right, I forgot she's from, like, the 1940s.

[ He didn't miss the 'was', either. Seems like any of the options there are probably not especially pleasant ones: either the friendship had ended, probably poorly, or Peggy is dead in Tony's time, or his father is, or maybe both of them. In any case, seems like pretty personal territory, and even Cisco can manage his nosiness a little bit. ]

So level with me. What am I gonna have to bribe you with to see the rest of the suit?

[Continued!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

introductory mingle: carnivale

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject