riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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introductory mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and River Festival
when: The month of August; the bulk of celebration will be in week 1, but there is a party and fireworks display on August 14th.
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

river festival

In the days leading up to August 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: The River Festival. This holiday is in celebration of the river and the life that it gives to the city, as well as the heat of summer and forming bonds with friends, family, and romantic partners. The celebrations are marked by a community-wide cleanup of the docks and beaches along the river - particularly important considering the recent acid rain - as well as beachfront cookouts and parties (both private and city sponsored) and beach sports tournaments happening on either open stretches of beach or in special clothing-optional beaches, all capped off with fireworks displays on the evenings of August 7th and 14th.

a celebration of the river and togetherness

Following the hedonism of Carnivale, it's time for something a little more low-key and relaxing. The River Festival happens every year in August, and is geared toward community building through cleaning up the beaches and docks along the river and then using all that freshly cleaned beach to gather on. During the first week of August, there are various lightly-themed government-sponsored beach cookouts and parties geared toward family, romantic dates, or casual all-ages get-togethers for meeting new friends; there are also a few more racy parties at clothing-optional beaches around the city. Many private residents also take this time to gather together friends and family, and have cookouts on the beach with all the typical trappings of the beach barbecue. There are also various casual sports tournaments sponsored by community centers, gyms, and sports teams in the city, featuring prizes ranging from notoriety to sports equipment to big bucks. Finally, there are two fireworks displays, one on August 7th and one on August 14th, with free food, and various live performers beforehand.

i. cleaning up

The holiday starts off on a note that is just a bit more sombre than the rest of the season, with the cleanup efforts following late July's strange fog and acid rain blending into the usual tradition of cleaning up beaches and docks along the river. The cleanup is a group effort, with every citizen who is physically able pitching in to comb the beaches, where they pick up fallen tree limbs, garbage, and anything else that's accumulated during the winter and spring, and then raking the beaches to make them clean and ready to use. The cleanup of the docks is similar, with residents sweeping and hosing them down where necessary. This year, there are a lot of repairs to be made to beachfront structures that might've been damaged by the acid rain, so if anyone has some carpentry or building skills, those would definitely come in handy.

This is meant to be a community building effort, so many businesses in the area, more well-to-do private citizens, and the government have pitched in funding to provide lunches, cold drinks, coffee or tea, and snacks to anyone who's helping out with the cleanup efforts. All in all, the cleanup has a very friendly, welcoming vibe.

ii. cookouts and parties

The main traditions of the River Festival involve cookouts and beach parties. On August 7th and August 14th, the government as well as various corporations and businesses in the city, will be providing funds for large beach gatherings. On these days, there will be booths set up offering wares and freebies from various businesses around the city that have helped fund the party, large swaths of cleared beach where residents can don a swimsuit and catch some rays or swim in the river, massive barbecue setups to provide partygoers with all the standard barbecue fare, beach sports tournaments, dancing and musical performances, and fireworks displays (see prompts below).

The holiday isn't just about these big parties, though - many residents arrange their own barbecues, cookouts, beach camping trips, beach bonfires, and other riverside gatherings and outings. Many riverfront businesses offer discounts on services such as canoe or kayak rentals to go out paddling on the river, jetski or motorboat rentals for tubing, wakeboarding, or waterskiing, or mounts to take romantic rides in the surf. Additionally, there is an adults-only section of the beach where any of these activities can be done in the nude in a clothing-optional setting, including the big city-sponsored parties.

iii. sportsball tournaments

Is your character good at playing a particular sport that could, conceivably, be played on a beach? Chances are that during the month of August, a tournament will be set up for them to participate in. The tournaments are pretty standard, generally sponsored by community centers, sports clubs and teams, gyms, and other organizations and businesses in the city, with various levels of specialization, and levels of skill or competitiveness. The prizes also vary, with everything from plain old bragging rights to sports equipment or passes to gyms and community centers, to large lump sums of cash money. Definitely worth it, for characters with a love for sport.

Oh, and a lot of these tournaments are happening on the adults-only clothing-optional beaches, for those grown-up sports fans who like a bit of an extra challenge.

iv. performances and fireworks

On August 7th and August 14th at the end of the large city-sponsored beach parties, there will be evening performances all along the beach. Not as extensive as the musical performances during Carnivale, there are two large-name performers per night, with various lesser-known groups performing at random off and on throughout the day and night. Areas of the beach are cleared for residents to watch and dance to the music, both on the regular and adults-only clothing-optional beaches (acts will switch off between the two areas so both areas get both performances).

Player-characters who are musical artists, DJs, or otherwise perform are free to set up shop around this party and panhandle or put on free performances for publicity.

After the sun goes down, boats will head out into the water carrying a variety of fireworks, and there will be a beautiful display of exploding color in the sky for residents to watch and enjoy. The fireworks are highly advanced, incorporating old-fashioned gunpowder as well as modern technology that result in really beautiful displays that can take the breath away!

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 the River Festival, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: credit unknown; image ii: Albert Ramon Puig; image iii: Claudio Pilia; image iv: Alan Philips

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Whoah. That was pretty damn FAST. Worryingly fast actually, and when he just ... LOOKED at the thing she threw, she followed his gaze, blushing in embarrassment. Way to go Marinette, you threw your thread at him. It took all day to find that color, what if --

Oh, he gave it back. Well that was awfully nice of him..! ....he's still scary as fuck though. She slowly crouched, not taking her eyes off of him, even as she berated herself for judging by appearances.

.... oh. Oh CRAP she just kind of assaulted her own roommate. OHGOD. "Yo.." Well the beds haven't been occupied long, but she didn't expect their roommate to show up already. ".. O.. OMIGOSH I'm so sorry!"

His eyes narrowed slightly at her apology, not understanding its origins. He's shown up in her room, a place most people would feel safe, without warning. He'd been told he could be...menacing. It stood to reason she would be afraid. He did wonder, though, if she often used spools of thread as weapons, but that was beside the point. He also realized he could have tried harder to not appear so imposing, but he had a hard time understanding exactly what it was people felt intimidated by.

Normally, he assumed it was his silence. "Don't. I...should apologize."

He moved slowly inside, not to scare her more, and moved to his bed, taking a seat before starting at the buckles holding his claw in place. Maybe that was what frightened her. "I've been told I can be...cold."

The red eyes. The shady face. The CLAW. Never trust a dude with a claw. Frankly Marinette was still on edge, staying right the hell where she was even as he calmly moved over to his bed.

"Uh...W-well..." cold? Erm. That was hardly what had rattled her. "It.. it's my fault too. I .. there's all sorts of strange people here, who can be perfectly nice ..sort of... like the vampire I met a few weeks ago and -- aa-h! N.. NOt that I'm saying YOU'RE strange! Or a vampire... you... you just startled me..a little..."

"It's fine." He moved to place his removed claw on his newly acquired nightstand before removing the rather large gun of his from its holster as well, opening a drawer to tuck it away. Could he be dangerous? Certainly. Did removing his weapons change that? Not at all. What was hidden inside him...was best not pondered. It stayed quieter that way. "I...have that effect on people."

He raised his gaze to take her in more fully. "What's your name?" It wasn't spoken softly, or with any sense of comfort, though he meant it to be gentle. His gaze was softer, at the very least.

A claw, a gun .. what the HELL else does he have on him? Was it even safe to sleep around him? Though she felt a little guilty about treating him like a hostile invader, yet she couldn't shake the uneaseiness.

"...ah m..my name? It's... Marinette. Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Please don't kill me. She really wished someone else were here.

He nodded, staying on the bed in an effort to appear less intimidating. He didn't mean to scare the girl, but apparently, that's just what he was good at. He nodded at her introduction.

"Marinette. That's...a pretty name." He looked away after his comment, unhappy with his greeting. Surely there was something else he could do or say to put her at ease.

"...I'm sorry." Or he could apologize. He did that fairly readily.

Oh man, he was really making her feel guilty now. How did SHE turn out to be the bad guy? He wasn't even trying to make her feel guilty or anything, she just felt super bad she was making HIM feel bad when he first arrived. WOW Marinette, you suck. "O-oh! Uh... Thank you." She fidgets a little, peels herself away from the wall and scoops the bag she dropped, fetching that spool of thread at the same time when he gave the apology. Waat. Why is he apologizing again??

"Wh... Um! You don't have to apologize, really..! It's totally my fault for jumping to conclusions - I should know better than that."

Vincent shook his head at her apology. "It doesn't matter." It was past, and he'd, at least he hoped, stopped being intimidating. He looked over to his side dresser, where he'd stored his weapons, then back to her.

"I should explain." He motioned toward the cabinet. "Where I come from, monsters are common. Most carry weapons."

"Yes it does! My parents raised me better than that. Or at least, they tried to." BAD Marinette, No macaroons for you. And she wasn't going to let him just brush it off like that. Which is in a way a good thing, because if she was annoyed at herself, she couldn't be afraid of him at the same time, right?

She gave him a perplexed look though, "Monsters carry weapons?" ..why would a monster need a weapon? They themselves would be a weapon wouldn't they? Maybe she just heard him wrong.

He lowered his brow then, looking at her perplexed for a moment, mulling over what he'd said to attempt to pinpoint where he'd gone wrong. Ah.

He shook his head. "No...well...some do. Others...cast magic, but I mean...humans. Most of...us carry weapons." He was still hesitant to think himself among their number anymore.

He took a quiet breath. "But I won't hurt you." At least...not on purpose.

"But..." ...humans aren't monsters. Granted there are some people who are truly horrible, but Marinette would never call them monsters. Well, she's yet to meet someone who she would call a 'monster'. She doesn't even call Papillion that.

Still, that latter comment gets a slow nod, "... Allright." He at least sounded genuine when he said that, and she really wanted to make it up to him somehow, with how she treated him. She fidgeted a little, took a breath and nodded, "Welcome to Floor 10, Vincent!"

Maybe Vincent wasn't a monster, but the beast inside of him? That was a different story. It wanted destruction and nothing more. He couldn't get rid of it, he had no control over it. That made him a monster, too, but Marinette didn't need to know all of that. At least...not yet.

At her change of tone, he tilted his head to the side slightly before, for the slightest of moments, the ghost of a small smile crossed his features. "Thanks. It's not so bad."

She'll learn the hard way. Marinette crossed over to her own bed, perching carefully on it and tucking her legs underneath her so she could talk to him normally. Aww, he had a nice smile. "Yeah, most everyone here tries to help out since we're all in the same boat, pretty much. There used to be more people here," she motioned at the beds, "We had a full room for a while. Terra, and Yuffie, and someone else. Yuffie's still around, I think she just moved a few floors down. So it'll be a matter of time before we're full up again, I bet."

His smile was fleeting in the first place, and at the mention of Yuffie, his expression fell into one of confusion. Yuffie was here? It was possible, of course, Marinette meant someone else. He needed to clarify.

"Yuffie?" He tilted his head to the side. "Kisaragi?"

Marinette looked surprised he knew the girl's name, "Yeah, I think that's her last name. From Wutai? Short brown hair and brown eyes? She goes by Treasure Princess on the network, I think." She was fairly certain that was the username she saw. "You know her?"

A nod of his head was his only indication of experience with Yuffie, at least for a moment. He found himself wondering how long she'd been here, why she's moved from this room, where she was to be found now. He wasn't particularly fond of the Ninja, but when you'd saved the world with a person twice, they tended to be important to you, tolerance for her escapades or no.

"Yes. How long have you known her?"

Marinette didnt' know why anyone would dislike Yuffie, she seemed really nice! ... though she also didn't have an opportunity to get to know the other girl so maybe they knew more than she did. "Um, about a month? Yeah, actually she was here when I came home from the festival one day --uh...kind of like ... erm..." Like him. Only Yuffie had been chilling out, and Vincent had been..brooding out?

Yuffie was loud, energetic, dynamic, and constantly trying to pull Vincent out of his comfortable melancholy and into the light. Not only that, but shortly after they'd met the spritely ninja, she's robbed them blind and run off with all their materia. Needless to say, the young woman had made a bad first impression on the surly sharpshooter. She'd been there when it mattered, of course, so he didn't despise her, but Vincent Valentine could only take so much Yuffie Kisaragi at once.

He found himself glad she no longer lived on this floor.

"A month." He nodded. "...do you know her well?"

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introductory mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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