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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[It took Wanda a minute, maybe two to realize what might greet them at home once they arrived. While she's not shy, she can be private. Sam, she knows, would leave her in peace. Maybe tease her in the morning. The mice are another story entirely, however. A quick text had taken care of any potential issues, with Wanda promising to owe Sam a favor if he'd just clear out until lunch tomorrow and take the mice with him. He'd agreed, leaving the townhouse empty by the time she and Dick had arrived.

By the time they get to the stairs her heart is beating a bit faster. She's always known that there was mutual attraction between she and Dick. Their time at the party had made as much apparent. But she can feel the urgency in the way he holds her hand, in the quickness that he'd walked her home, and the seeming intent way he was about getting them back to her bedroom. She can almost sense it coming off of him in waves when he pulls her in again and presses his lips to hers. She sucks in a sharp breath in response, letting him back her up against that wall in a way he never has before.

She'd wondered how he might be. If being with him like this would change how he kissed her, how he touched her. Now she knows, and Wanda, who feels everything so fiercely and fights so hard to keep control of herself and never give away anything she's not willing rises to it. Her arms rise and wrap around behind him, not just holding him but pulling him hard against her. Encouraging him to press her tighter to the wall as her lips part beneath his, returning passion for his own.]

[ She pulls him in and his breath catches between kisses, and god this- she really is matching him want for want. Desire for desire. He knows she has this effect on him; he's known it from the first touch. The first kiss that night on the roof, so sudden and explosive and impossible to forget. Knowing she wants him back, that she can want him this much chases fire through his veins.

He doesn't need more of an invitation than that; he rocks forward on his heels, pressing her harder against the wall, pressing further into that embrace. He threads fingers through her hair, still tender but urgent, breaking away only so he can trail kisses down across her jawline, down close to her neck. ]

[Wanda makes a muffled sound at the back of her throat as he responds to her, gives her what she urges him for. Pleased and welcoming everything. A shiver runs up her spine as his fingers slip into her hair, and she sucks at his lower lip--only to have move away from her lips entirely. Letting out a gasp for air, she tilts her face up as he works his way to her neck.

And when he reaches the soft curve of her throat she lets her fingertips press into his shoulders. Wanda clings to him with a sigh, quickly wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue. Her head tilts, nuzzles against his ever so slightly as her eyes close. She'd been wondering more and more lately what it might be like to invite Dick back to her bedroom, to be with her like this.

Though it's just the beginning, already it feels so much better, so much more right than it ever has before.]

[ It would be so easy to get lost here. So easy to lose himself completely in the soft skin of her neck, in the thrill of every little sound she makes against him.

But they're here for more than that. He wants more than that.

He fumbles for the door behind them, a little clumsily as he captures her lips again with his, not wanting to relinquish his hold for a second as he gently draws her back into the room with him. ]

Bed. [ He breathes the word against her neck. A question, almost a plea. ]

[There's nothing that could draw her out of the moment now, nothing that could make her pull away from Dick now. He shifts away and it takes no effort for him to pull her with him. She goes eagerly, unwilling to leave any large amount of space between them.]

Bed. Clothes too?

[Her tone echoes his, urgent and needy, wanting so much more than they have now. It's only that this is the first time, only that they've never been together before that keeps her from tearing his shirt off herself right now. It doesn't stop her from gripping it in her hands, however, torn between undressing him, undressing herself, or simply pulling him onto the bed with her.

There are too many things she wants desperately from him and she's almost spoiled for choice with him in her bedroom now. In the end she decides to give him what he asked for first, swings around to back herself up to the bed, sits and tries to pull him down over her.]

God yes. [ He lets out a breathless little laugh, delighted, all too eager to crawl into that welcoming space, to skate fingers in a gentle caress up under the edge of her skirt, across the long line of her thigh. God yes, does he need her naked. Now. Five minutes ago. ]

You know we really don't have to rush. [ He kisses her shoulder and then her collarbone, trying to look for a zipper. He's... okay yeah, he is really not sure he can actually manage slow right now, but for her. For her he wants to try.

He wants to give her everything, everything she wants. It feels important for her to know that. ]

[Wanda feels her heart skip a beat to hear him response, to hear that little laugh and feel his fingers skim up her bare leg. She's eager, too eager by far to play coy or pretend she doesn't want him there. Her legs part to welcome him above her, knees already bending as if to cradle him there.]

I know we don't but...

[But she has him in her bed. She has him fully clothed in her bed and they both know what they're going to do and she'll be glad to take her time with him maybe when...when they get a bit deeper into things. Right now she wants to help him get her clothes off and then move on to his after. She doesn't deter the kisses as they come, his lips on her skin in places they've never really gone before...but she leans up. Slips her hands under her body, making it arch under him as she tugs at the ties of her dress to loosen it. One under her shoulders. One at her neck. The fabric goes slack, ready to pull away, but she'll leave that for him.

Instead, Wanda reaches up, slides her hand past his cheek and into his hair, looking down at him with a sigh.] I just didn't realize how much I wanted you until we started and now...now it's hard to take it slow.

Yeah. I- [ Her touch arrests him entirely for a moment, and it pulls at something inside him. It's been so long. So long since he's had anything with anyone that even felt like affection. He leans into it before he really means to, and then he has to tilt his head enough to kiss the palm of her hand.

Alright, fast is a go. ]

We have all night. [ With a sheepish little grin.

He lets the dress fall away, letting his lips follow the fabric across breast and rib cage, letting his hips roll against hers. He needs to get his jeans off. He needs to find the condom. ]

Anything you want, anything...

[Before, with others, Wanda was always too in the heat of the moment to really register things like being naked or partially undressed around another person. She'd half expected to feel something awkward about being in that state now, but as Dick pulls her dress down from her chest and kisses her skin, she realizes she doesn't feel that way at all.

If anything it's more notable that she doesn't feel even the slightest bit uncomfortable. With him, she's more looking forward to seeing his reactions, to hearing his voice with these little exchanges.]

Clothes off, then. Please...

[More than anything right now, she wants to slip her dress off and press up against him, to wrap her arms around him and feel skin against skin when she steals her next kiss.]

[ To do that he has sit up, has to scramble up and out of that lovely cradle of her thighs, which was definitely a serious strategic error on his part. Shoes and socks are quick work, jeans he unbuttons with a little less grace only because he's still desperately hard.

He has his shirt tugged halfway off before he even... before he remembers. Then he stops, fabric gripped tight in his hands. He'd forgotten. She'd made him forget.

Maybe she'd let it go this time, if he asked to keep it on. Probably she would, because she's Wanda and she's never once asked him for more than he wants to give.

If he's willing to hold onto the lie. Willing to hide from her. To let that part be more important than this.

He comes to a decision and the shirt is tossed away, but there's probably no way to pass the moment off as anything other than what is was. The flicker of fear passes, uncertainty tucked back under a smile, but he doesn't quite reach for her yet. He holds out his open hand, face soft and a little chagrined. The choice to take it is hers. ]

[It's the first time that Wanda's watched him get undressed for her. Shoes and socks are nothing but the pants and more...it's all new. She watches from the bed, eyes warm with anticipation. For a man with his acrobatic history and current profession as a police officer, his legs are as well muscled as she'd have expected...

But the fact that he pauses before he pulls his shirt off is odd. Her expression freezes, brows knitting together with brief confusion--that passes as he seems to make a decision. Passes as he pulls his shirt off after all and reveals all of the scars that lay beneath.

It's more than she's ever seen on anyone before, and Wanda's watched former agents of SHIELD, Avengers train together. Former soldiers. At once, she wants to ask him what happened to him. She wants to know where each and every one of those scars came from and find out what his life has been like that he carries all of those every day. And all with the ability to still be so light and carefree with her. She sees the fear in his expression, almost feels it coming off of him and it's almost like biting her tongue to keep from reaching out with her powers. But Dick doesn't know about that side of her powers, and she'd never invade his privacy that way.

There's something there and she can see that he's worried that now that she knows, now that she's seen those scars she'll reject him.

These thoughts flicker through her mind in an instant, and there's barely a moment's hesitation before she reaches out to take his hand, using it to pull herself up. Wanda scoots in, still only partially undressed, and winds her arms around behind his neck the same way she has every time before. Her lips find his, and she shows him through action that she accepts it. Whatever the story is behind those scars, it's significant. His hesitation in showing her speaks volumes, and the last thing that she'll do is push him now when already it's clear that it was a hard choice for him to make to show her at all. To take this step. More significant than coming to her bed. She breaks the kiss to say just one thing:] Wherever they came from, you're still you and I still want you here.

[ Still you. Still himself. Still unchanged in spite of how it must look to her. The holes in the stories he's told. The holes those stories left in him.

His breath leaves him in a little rush when her arms come around him. And then he's kissing her back; heated, desperate. He never wants to stop. ]

It's okay. I'm- I'm alright, I- [ He wants to tell her he isn't ashamed. That it only hurt when he'd thought she wouldn't understand. That he hadn't known. He hadn't known until this moment how badly he needed to hear it. To know that she wants him anyway.

He crushes her to his chest instead, holding her tight against him for a moment, closing his eyes at the feel of her skin on his. ]

Thank you.

[From the outside looking in, it seems more likely that Dick is sensitive about the scars because they're ugly. There are a great many of them and they cover his body, mar what might otherwise be physical perfection. For someone as handsome as him, she could understand feeling self-conscious about that sort of thing. It's not a sign of vanity but a sense of...self, perhaps? Natasha has a pretty big scar at her hip, doesn't she? One that she never leaves uncovered. She'd understand it being the same for Dick.

It doesn't explain how he got them or why there are so many...but he's still him. Never once has she gotten a sense that he's someone other than he presents himself to be. What truths he's told her are just that. The truth.

Wanda lets him pull her in close, sighs in the circle of his tight embrace and closes her eyes. She holds him close, hands running over bared skin, over all the scars under her fingertips and treats them the same as the unblemished skin. Worthy of being touched, worthy of being stroked and caressed the same as the rest of him.]

No, thank you for trusting me with it. [And in saying it she makes her promise that she won't tell others about those scars. Not if he's so intent on keeping them private.]

[ Her touch makes him shiver; lights a dozen little fires he wants to move into and against at the same time. He kisses her hair, her cheek; lets his hold on her slacken only so he can capture her mouth again.

Wanda is a hero. An Avenger. She's seen war and destruction and pain. He knows it's irrational to feel such intense relief. That it isn't fair, asking her to accept this without an explanation, with nothing to offer in the bargain but himself.

But she is anyway. Somehow without needing to be asked, she's- ]

Ask me. [ He breathes when they break apart. ] Ask me sometime, and I'll-

[ The truth. He'll give her the truth, if she wants to know. ]

[Wanda is more than happy to kiss him again. Sitting there half-naked on her bed, the excitement she felt at the start has only dimmed somewhat, overwhelmed only by the unexpected feelings that have risen within them both. Nothing has changed how she feels about him, however, and if anything when he kisses her she gives herself over to it even more.

It's harder to pull herself back from what she's feeling, from what she wants when he tells her to ask him about his scars sometime, but she does enough to nod. Enough to take a breath.] I will, later I'll ask.

[But not now. Definitely not now when they're there together like this. His scars have piqued her curiosity, and she'll ask about them, but tonight she plans on kissing them more than talking about them. Learning where they are and how much of him they cover, even tracing the impressions on his skin with the tip of her tongue just to see if they feel different.] But right now I'm asking you to touch me. Please, Dick...

[Her hands slide over his skin as she does, working up his chest to the line of his collarbone before she draws them down, down further over his abdomen.]

[ Her hands slip lower and his little laugh is choked off at once. A reminder that somehow he's still the one wearing the least amount of clothes in this bed. That he's still wildly turned on; that even his self control has a bottom somewhere. That he's a gentleman, and no gentleman keeps a lady waiting. ]

You're a little overdressed. [ He says, close to her ear. He kisses her there, then moves down to her neck. His hands slip back up her bare thighs, aiming to divulge her of the rest of the fabric. ]

Edited 2017-07-21 03:50 (UTC)

[She can't help but laugh in response, something low and throaty even as she shivers from the kiss to her ear. He's not wrong, she's wearing more than him and every kiss to her neck, every bit of flesh he slides his hands up has her all the more aware of how much she could still remove.]

I'll help... [Staying close, she adjusts her positioning. Rises up enough to let her dress drop down from her hips. The panties beneath slip down with minimal effort, a tug here and there, and by the time they reach her knees she's already summoned her powers to drag it off the rest of the way. It's a trick she's not certain she could use confidently with others...but perhaps in time she'll try practicing on Dick.

Wanda's dark hair falls over her bare shoulders and she rests there on the covers naked, expression expectant. Her experience is minimal, and she can't even remember in all of the rush of those other times if she ever actually got naked in front of her partner. She can't recall, which makes it feel like a first.]

[ He lets her move away from him with a little reluctance, but oh. Oh. This way he gets to watch, and it's almost, almost as good at getting to touch. The trick with the panties makes him laugh; startled, enchanted. ]

You're beautiful. [ It's an absolute, definitive fact. And he moves to close the rest of the gap at last, the moment he thinks it's alright, letting his gaze drift over her as he does. Take all of her in. Letting her see him do it; see the unguarded lust in his face. He peels his underwear off with a graceful little shimmy, and then he leans in to kiss her again, hard, intent. Finally, finally he gets to touch again. ]

[Yes, this is definitely a first. Wanda would have remembered being naked in front of someone and seeing them look at her the way Dick does now. It's a look she'd hoped to see from him for a little while now, and well worth the wait. Her cheeks color despite herself, offering him a little smile that holds as he slips out of his underwear as well.

She looks down, she can't not. It's a brief thing, gaze attracted by his movements and held by curiosity. But as he leans in again she takes in the whole picture, the shape of him, the scars and all, and knows that her expression shows much of the same as his did. Desire, intense and present on her face.

Wanda meets his kiss with that same passion, arms wrapping around him as she scoots in close once more. The movement presses back against him, and she decides to go with it, to pull them both down to the bed. Legs tangling with his, she lets herself touch him freely, fingers tracing lines down his body and palms smoothing over his hips before they glide further down to his thighs. This is what she wanted, more than anything. Nothing between them, just the connection of mutual affection and desire drawing them closer moment by moment.]

[ Something in the way her cheeks color tugs at him, and so impatient as he is he settles for a minute on letting her run her hands over him. They'd said fast, and god does his body wants fast, but this... this part he doesn't want to rush her through. If she needs this.

Then her hands move down his thighs and that's... he can't not squirm there, letting out a breathless little laugh. She'll show him up if he lets her.

In retaliation he drops kisses on ribs and breast, using his tongue to taste skin, fingers sliding over thigh, dipping down close to where her legs meet. ]

[Even having decided to take this step together there's something curious about this first time together. The decision doesn't make things smooth, doesn't make them each instinctively know the pace of the other. There are things Wanda wouldn't hesitate to do if it didn't seem like it might rush him, but her own actions may in turn prove to him that she's content with a slower pace.

As Dick kisses her skin, however, licks at the soft flesh of her breast even as his hands trail along her thighs the moan she gives him in response makes it clear that it's not too fast at all. Her hands grasp at his legs even as her own part for his hand, body language making it clear that she's eager for more.

So much so that she decides to push things further herself, dragging her own hands up until she's grasping a cheek in each one and squeezing experimentally.]

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introductory mingle: carnivale

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