riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

Entry tags:

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

navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[What are those.]

Lola, nice to meet you.

[He looks a little wary, but Ed steps back with a sweeping motion as if to invite her in.]

It's hard to tell with her, sometimes she slips out a window... Come on in.

[Ed had never really thought to ask where she goes all the time, honestly it hardly seemed like his business.]

Maybe floor ten is where she lived before, she probably has friends there. She was hanging around here so much we kind of told her to just make it official recently. You can put the cookies on the island in the kitchen if you want... I'm Ed, by the way. Edward Elric.

[There was a brief impulse to shake, but he ignores it for the moment. Too many people knew about the automail as it was, and he saw no reason she needed to any time soon.]

I shouldn't be surprised, she is a ninja. Windows are perfectly good exits if you're close enough to the ground.

*Lola didn't think this high up was close enough to the ground, but she didn't know any other ninjas to be sure. Lola will walk over and put the basket down, looking around to see how this kitchen is set-up, compared to what she did on Floor Two.*

'We?' I guess you guys must be pretty close to all invite someone to stay on your floor. That's pretty nice to have.

*Lola's eyes are most decidedly not on Ed's face as she's talking. She's looking at how he stands and moves, or looking around the room. There's something... wiggling in her head, half an idea to think about.*

Being close to the ground has nothing to do with it.

[He might have some experience, but he's sure it matters even less to someone like Yuffie. Besides, chances were she was going up if she was heading to Floor Ten, or the roof. He imagined scaling a wall wasn't much for her, but maybe he was wrong.]

Ah... Yeah, I guess so. Some of us, anyway. My brother's also here, and I showed up a few months ago. Apparently most of us showed up around the same time so it was easy to find something in common.

[Like being stuck in a new world. If he notices the way she's watching him he doesn't comment or even seem to mind. Going about his business as usual.]

Do you want something to drink? There's all sorts of stuff in the fridge, just- make sure you use that one.

[He motions to the fridge that doesn't contain Garrus' food, because he's not sure he wants to deal with whatever outcome that may have.]

Hmm? I would think that'd be at least a detail to keep track of when you do... ninja things.

*Like it might be a very small detail, but being this high up has to mean at least a little something. But that thought vanished from her mind as that other half-thought managed to find its footing. Cementing itself down into the details she remembered, and the details she forgot.*

You were that guy who didn't like parties who got dragged there by his friends! My hair looked like this at the party.

*She'll worry about drinks later, right now she wants to know if she got that right. Lola's hair faded from pink to sterile lifeless faded out white.*

I was the short one.

*You're always the short one.*

Maybe, but I'm not sure it matters much when you're going up anyway.

[Yeah, Ed had a very predictable speech pattern. He had a tendency to talk about the floor and his brother a lot, these things were bound to come out. Still his head tilted as she made the connection, wondering how pointless those masks were after all.]

Yeah... We arrived together in a group, a lot of us do- a lot of things together.

[His eyes widened some as her hair changed, he was used to the unusual but that still wasn't expected. At the last part he smirked, shrugging a shoulder.]

I was a little shorter there, myself. Dress shoes aren't quite the same as boots.

*Masks work great if your mask doesn't say 'I'm with Yuffie' in loud obvious type.*

That's weird, why would men's shoes make them shorter while ladies's shoes make them taller. Maybe it's to make dancing a little easier...

*Lola's getting distracted, give her a moment to muse over the completely unimportant as her hair turns pink again.*

Anyway, it is nice to properly meet you now. So... you asked Yuffie to move in, any reason you weren't just okay with her wandering in and out and staying where she was?

[Well that shouldn't have been a problem if she wasn't running around taking her's off, either. Details.]

They don't. Normally.

[He kind of just motions to his boots with the 1-2 inch soles with a shrug.]

What-?

[That's- an out of the blue question, and almost seems kind of accusatory.]

It was just an invitation. She took it. No one said she had to.

[If Yuffie was giving people the idea she was asked for that reason he didn't know about or why she would think that.]

*It takes Lola a minute to figure out what he means by that. His boots are pretty much designed for function. And one of those functions is height. Hmm.*

Is that a guy thing? Caring about how tall you are?

*Lola cared when people thought she was twelve, but that hasn't happened since she gained hips. And dyed her hair. And started wearing make-up. But she never really had any concern she needed to fix it. Not really. Maybe once.*

Okay, just making sure. So... what do you do around here, I'm guessing something smart?

*Lola was trying to do small talk but different from what the covered. It might also fix her assumptions she made about his friend, who was female, at the party. Now that Lola knows he was talking about Yuffie. It seemed like something else to her at the time, now she wants to know what it really is. Before she makes anymore mistakes.*

I think it was more a being 4'11" until I was 21 thing.

[He didn't like to talk about, honestly he cared less now but he'd found no reason to change from the boots he'd always worn. He did care when people brought it up though, so offering the discussion himself was a far cry from normal.

Ed didn't really have the luxury of growing up, he was 16 for four years and then magically 20 with all that came with it, and no gradual adjustment period. Being sixteen for four years sure did make some habits stick.]

Research, mostly.

[He had to smirk at the something smart, it did make them sound like nerds.]

We tend to run a group of people exploring the outer city sometimes, bring back what we've learned and see if any of it is useful in terms of understanding this place better.

You mean how tall I am? And probably will be forever?

*She hadn't grown any taller in years. So nothing he said really... felt like it mattered. She'd grown fuller, curvier, less awkward, more confident. But that was it. And while she saw a million features on a million people that looked good, she'd grown out of wanting to look like them.*

That sounds like... fun? I mean, the exploring part. Not the research part, I hate researching for things. It's a lot of reading and then wondering if what you've found is the best resource or if there's a better one on a different site. Plus I can't stray too far outside the main city.

*As much as exploring sounded fun, it was also scary, and dangerous, and could definitely kill a person who wasn't careful. Lola was well aware she was not careful in any way.*

[Totally resisting the urge to say it's different because she's a girl or something. Ed's patience with this topic had run out by this point so he's just goign to move on to the next subject that isn't about a complex he'd spent the last few years trying to ignore ever existed.]

It is. The research is more- hands on, we make note of things we find out there.

[There was other research too, book research but they'd done a lot of that already, so until they found another resource it was time to find their own information. Of course she uses the word 'site' and something in Ed's brain ticks off with a dismissive gesture, lips quirked into a sort of smirk. These people and their internet.]

I don't really trust the internet. too much going on there.

[At the last part his eyebrows rose curiously.]

You shouldn't go past the wall unless you can defend yourself... Or have someone with you that can defend you and themselves.

I don't know how much control there is to keep information sources online honest and verified here. But... if you're doing the research yourself, it's still a good tool to collect and share your information with everyone you're working with?

*Lola was used to trying to sort misleading and just wrong information out from the stuff of value. You don't go finding out when, where, and how to get an abortion without knowing something about using the internet.*

Do you not trust libraries for having too many books?

And I don't, I mean I'd like to go see what else this moon has to offer. But I know it's full of monsters that could definitely kill me. I only go into the abandoned city if I have someone with me.

*Having no viable skills sucks.*

Yeah, Chloe's already made that point. I have a laptop I use to compile notes now, makes it easier for everyone.

[For the tech savvy people, anyway. Ed and Al kept to their notebooks, after all, where was the harm in having back ups?]

Libraries are easier to navigate, besides... I tend to stick to the ones that are purely research related.

[Ed hadn't gotten into the military to access the records in a restricted library to read fiction. That sort of stuff was harder to sift through online, especially for the uninitiated.]

That is part of the job of the Guard, keeping civilians safe if they want to go past the wall.

Unless you're not in a library. I mean, it isn't the same because I'm not carrying a lot of books, but...

*Lola fishes her cell phone out and puts it down on the kitchen island, and opens a picture of her and another girl. Cute, brunette, her age. Then scrolls to another picture, with another girl with her. She keeps scrolling through pictures of herself and friends. Most are from home, but a few pictures are from the Quarantine.*

You can carry so much with you in a very easy to use way if you bring something like this when you research, and if the files are networked you can update people in real time with new information.

*Lola's impossibly good at navigating through complicated bits of information on her phone.*

Yeah... I'm glad we have the guard. Means I can just, be. You know, not have to worry too much. If I stay where everything is safe anyway.

[For the most part, Ed just nods politely and makes a show of listening. He's heard much of this before from other more tech savvy people, but it didn't make adjusting any easier.]

We do a bit of both, I think it works for us.. So far, anyway.

[Cain had given him that laptop. At the last part he just kind of smiles faintly.]

It is nice to be able to actually protect people here. Where I was before, there were no boundaries, monsters could get in whenever. The wall really contributes to keeping this place safe, I guess.

*Lola is absently scrolling through photos, they stop being of home and start being of people from Floor Two, including Li and her garden. Before Lola frowns at the device and shoves it back into her pocket.*

It'd be a lot harder to build up a city like this without the wall and the guard. I'm glad for it, I just know it isn't something I'd ever be good at.

Maybe I should bring the guard post snacks from time to time. That might cheer people up...

*In spite of trying to avoid thinking about Li, and everyone else from Floor Two to come and go over her time here, Lola's mind is lingering there and she's frowning.*

Maybe someone might know something about tending a garden...

[Ed hadn't really been paying attention, he caught the images as she scrolled through them but it didn't register right away. An eyebrow quirks as she shoves the phone away abruptly, but he doesn't say anything.]

That might help, it can be a tiring job.

[Or maybe just because he has three of them.]

Garden..?

[Ah yes, the picture. It registers belatedly and he takes a moment to consider, looking somber as he speaks again.]

That was Lí, wasn't it? In the picture. She's the first one I noticed disappear from this place...

I mean, if someone wasn't tired from being a guard, that'd be bad right.

It means they aren't doing it right.

*Lola logic. But Lola's inability to keep her feelings to herself is going to just take over. Lola looks visibly wilted at being confronted with this, tired from the coming and going of people.*

Yeah, she lived on my floor. And turned the deck into a vegetable garden. Some berries, other herbs. She was really nice too. Plus having that to supplement expenses was good all around. Wait, she's the first person you've noticed went home? Like first ever here?

*She'd forgotten how that felt.*

I don't know about that, the job entails a lot of different things. We don't have to kill ourselves to be productive.

[But he's smirking as he speaks, because frankly it was a tiring job and chances are most people got tired doing it no matter where they were assigned.]

She mentioned the garden, we talked about making meals... It sounds funny now, being a perfect stranger but she offered to bring our floor food- from the garden and hunting, would've saved on grocery expenses, that's for sure.

[He only nods at the question]

Here, yes. Others might have disappeared before her but... Something about her presence- it was obvious when she left. I guess I'm just so used to it I didn't think about it until now.

[Back in Purg, the first person that he'd notice missing was Al, right after he'd first arrived there his brother vanished just as quickly. It was a lot harder back then.]

I mean, it's still work, even an easy job for enough hours is going to wear someone out.

*Lola likes the reminder that other people, aside from her, are just nice folks. Which was pretty much Li. Of course, it kinda becomes bittersweet without her here.*

If you wanna pick from it, I won't mind. I just... don't know anything about gardening to keep it going. I mean I assume the herbs don't need as much replanting but the veggies will. Eventually. I don't know how to turn seeds into plants, just plants into food.

*First world never having space to garden problems.*

Sometimes I notice them, sometimes I just notice the empty bed. It took a little while longer with Li because she spent so often out. But... she left all this stuff she had to at least show up to tend, sometimes.

I don't like how there isn't a chance for goodbyes. They just go. Every time.

*If anything this sounds a lot more personal than what they're talking about. Lola's got no ability to hide or divert her emotions and she has a lot of feelings about being abandoned by people she had some attachment to. For some reason.*

[He watches her quietly as he listens before shrugging]

Maybe someone else will, have you thought about asking around? It would be nice to keep going I think... Fresh food always reminds me of home.

[He'd never tried his hand at gardening, so he couldn't exactly offer his own services, he might be willing but that didn't mean the skill was there. Ed wasn't about to kill what was left of the garden.]

If the bed's empty and it's someone you don't really know, do you mind?

[It was an honest question, sure some of his roommates had gone just as abruptly but if they weren't acquainted it was none of his business. Maybe those people had wanted to go home. At the last part though, Ed gets quiet. There's a long moment where he doesn't speak at all, and when he does it's fairly soft.]

That's what I don't like about this place. They say we come here willingly and we're welcome to leave when the portal is pointed in the right direction, but people leave here just like they did everywhere else. With no warning, whether they wanted to or not.

[He's been shot down repeatedly for speaking badly of the Quarantine, but he was suspicious by nature and that one detail only made it worse. What was this place, really?]

*This entire topic has taken most of the color out of Lola's hair, it's gone from bright and cheery bubblegum to a... sorta off white, the ghostly echoes of pink to it, but not anything one would call cheerful.*

Somebody minds. Nobody can just... be here and not know people. Someone, out there, is going to notice and feel it. And knowing that just... you know, it sucks.

*Just because it wasn't Lola suffering didn't mean it wasn't something she could piece together just by how she felt. There was also the fact that she realized she didn't get to know them, find out what kind of pie they liked, worked out what they enjoyed doing during festivals. Which also just bothered her as a person. Since she liked knowing a little about everyone around her.*

I... just thought, if the portal is as wild and erratic as that, if it is pointed in the right direction there might not be a lot of time to go about saying goodbyes. Like... a refugee having to leave a war. You just don't always get to say goodbyes.

It still sucks.

*She liked it here, she liked the festivals, and the people she met. But like any world out there it wasn't all good. There had to be something that just sucked. Like people who mixed patterns, or bigotry and hatred, or bus crashes...*

[Well, before anything else he's definitely taking note of the hair change. He has to nod at her words, though, it did suck.]

People come and go so often on our floor sometimes it's hard to tell who even really lives there until you ask them.

[Which means you'd have to talk to them and some of them weren't around long enough for even that.]

It sucks... It's always unpredictable, like every world I was trapped before, and it doesn't matter how much we think it sucks, because it will continue this way.

As for saying goodbye, with all this technology you would think a text wouldn't take much time.

[What would he know? He didn't use text before he got here, when he had it was voice to text anyway.]

But you all came to the party together right? So a bunch of you have just kinda decided to make it a thing.

*But it meant anyone who didn't join in on that was probably... well, really alone. Lola didn't like that idea at all. It just made her feel all sorts of uneasy. Anyone feeling left out.*

Yeah... but people can abandon you even at home. You don't need stupid portals that go anywhere but home to do it. Some people just get so caught up in their own things that even sending a text is just... not a thing they'd think about. And you don't even need to text, a quick video goodbye would do. If you can't figure out the right words, just use emoji. Airplane, planet earth, house.

*Lola that's a terrible way to say goodbye. Also yes she can mope and talk about emoji at the same time.*

[He paused at that.]

Some of us became quick friends, when my brother arrived he was put on the same floor by coincidence I guess. We do make it a point to try to include everyone, but... not everyone wants to be included- and honestly, those that don't tend to be the ones that disappear fastest.

[Not everyone wanted to be a team with a bunch of strangers, he got that. He considered himself lucky to be as close to Chloe and Jason as he was. Of course when Yuffie started hanging around like part of the family Ed had invited her to stay too, if she wanted. It seemed like a no brainer at the time.]

They can. There's all sorts of reasons you'll never see someone again without a goodbye. They can leave, or die... All the more reason you'd think if you had a chance you would make it a point to say something.

[Video might take longer, depending on how many people one needed to reach, but then she starts talking about emojis and he just kind of ... stares. He's seen emotes on the network, but discussing them outside of context meant she was basically speaking Greek at that point.]

I just wish there was a way to confirm it's as voluntary as they claim.

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