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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It works for me.

[He's still grinning, pausing to place his hands on his hips and glance over the last thing he'd fixed. If he's at all bothered by Cisco stumbling over his words he makes no indication - he doesn't seem to notice, honestly.]

It is. Alchemy's useful for all sorts of things, though. This is pretty basic stuff.

[At the last question though Ed pauses, there's a wary sort of flicker over his expression as if the other had overstepped with that line of questioning, but it's gone as quickly as it shadowed his features. A smaller, almost rueful, smile replaces the grin before he answers softly. Four years and the word 'magic' still put him at unease, even if he was less prone to admit it now.]

It's a science. Even on my world not everyone understands it, really... Only an alchemist can perform transmutations, you just need the knowledge and proper materials.

Alchemy, huh?

[ If Cisco notices that temporary wariness, he gives no indication of it; he's pretty used to people having mixed or even bad reactions to his curiosity. He's a nosy guy, and he knows that. But one of the reasons for that is that he's a scientist, always wanting to understand how things work, to expand his knowledge. Which has been rather a delightful challenge, since arriving in this place, where there are all kinds of science he's never seen before, and magic on top.

When Ed calls it a science, though, Cisco's expression lights up. ]

So you're an alchemist. That something people are born to be, or did you go to school for it?

[ What he's curious about here is whether the ability is hereditary, or whether it's just a learned skill. ]

Alchemy was a term people used for really early science, in my world. Like hundreds and hundreds of years in the past. Never let people do that, though.

[He quirks a brow a the response, because he was used to many. People arguing that it was magic, people saying that they were familiar and it was an outdated practice, or anything but what Ed knew it to be. Alchemy from their world was apparently very different from the majority.

His expression only falls even flatter when Cisco asks if he went to school for it. At the last part - and Ed waits until Cisco is done speaking, he's heard all of this before by now - he waves a hand as if to dismiss the guy.]

Yeah, I get that a lot. People tell me it's magic, or outdated science or- whatever.

[He turns his attention back to the next item, clapping his hands together and fixing a broken railing before speaking again.]

To answer your question it's ... kind of both. Everyone is born with the potential to learn alchemy, but studying is still involved and some are just better at it than others. Natural talent or more dedicated researchers, I guess.

My brother and I taught ourselves when we were kids, although we also had a Teacher for a bit- there's no proper school to learn it at, or anything like that.

[That was the weirdest question yet.]

[ Cisco nods; if Eddie's expression or tone of voice are dismissive or irritable, he certainly doesn't seem bothered by it. At a certain point Cisco had just gotten used to grouchy people. He's not about to let a little bad attitude dim his curiosity. He watches intently as Ed fixes that railing, keeping his eyes focused on the metal itself. It's hard, with that flash of light, but he just catches the material knitting itself together, and damn, but that is cool.

The way Ed is describing alchemy sounds an awful lot like the way both Lucretia and Taako had described magic, in their world - everyone has the capability, some are more naturally attuned with the skill, and people train on their own rather than there being a great big institution everyone goes through. And all of that strikes him, again, as pretty damn bizarre. Sure, lots of great scientists were dropouts, but most were involved in school institutions for some portion of their education and career, and metahuman powers are definitely not something everyone is born with. ]

You said you need the proper materials for alchemy. You good to fix all these, you need me to bring you some... I don't know, whatever it is you're using?

[He'd already heard about Lup comparing it to magic from Al's post, but thankfully people here had been mild about the connection if nothing else. Purg was a different ball game, he'd had more than enough of magic users trying to force their beliefs on him regarding his own ability.

At the question he turns, smirking some.]

As long as nothing's missing from whatever's broken all the components I need are right here. See this hole here?

[He motioned to a pile of rubble, concrete that looks like it had come off the porch he'd just mended the railing for.]

That's probably where this stuff came from. If this debris was gone, I wouldn't really be able to fix this, not the way it was before at least. I could thin the materials out a little, but... That's probably not safe dealing with buildings, you know?

[ Cisco listens attentively, nodding a little as Ed speaks. The explanation is not exactly detailed, but he thinks he is starting to get it, a little. ]

So conservation of mass still applies? You're not creating anything, just reshaping materials back to the way they were?

[ He may never have heard of this particular kind of alchemy before, but Cisco is still a scientist, after all. It doesn't take him long to catch on, and immediately begin speculating what kind of molecular manipulations would be necessary to accomplish that. That flash of light, the electricity - is that a byproduct of the process? Where does the energy necessary to do it come from - this guy's body itself? ]

That's so completely dope. What else can you do?

[ He sees that smirk, and thinks that if he wants more information, maybe a good way to get it would be a little bit of light (but totally sincere) flattery, and giving the guy a chance to boast a bit. ]

Right.

[He's picking up on this pretty fast, considering Ed hasn't gone into detail.]

I can adjust the components to make them into something else, as long as the molecular structure is still the same. Repairing broken items and creating things with scraps are the most common... It's just a matter of deconstructing and reconstructing the base ingredients.

[Even after five years Ed's still not used to some of the more modern lingo - it wasn't heard often, even in Purg and Attollo - but Cisco is right about one thing. Boasting about alchemy was still something Edward enjoyed.]

With the right ingredients I can create something from scratch...

[A frown at that, it had been quite awhile since Ed created anything from a pile of basic components. The human transmutation, the doll when they were kids. The thought process leads him to another one, human transmutation was one thing - it wasn't possible - but creating chimeras still was.]

Alchemy's capable of a lot, but- just because you can doesn't mean you should.

[He might look like he's speaking from experience there, taking a moment to inspect the railing as if to distract from that thought.]

Fascinating...

[ The capabilities of alchemy stretch even further than he had imagined. Cisco has one tiny moment, entirely out of nowhere, of jealousy. Everything that Ed is describing is pretty much an engineer's dream. How useful those abilities would be, for fixing the Flash suit, or a thousand other things. But no, Cisco had to get shitty nightmare vision powers, because fate hated him or something.

But that feeling passes quickly, and he's left looking somewhere between delighted and like he's holding back a thousand more questions. ]

Ah, yes. The Jurassic Park rule. Definitely a good one to follow.

[ Sometimes people in this place from other worlds will understand his references (particularly if they've been around long enough to be exposed to a certain amount of Earth culture that's been imported by the many inhabitants here from version of Earth). But a lot of the time, they don't understand. He's just gotten into the habit of explaining: ]

It's a movie where scientist recreate dinosaurs from fossilized DNA, and then like, immediately get eaten by the dinosaurs.

[Ed glances at Cisco as he explains the Jurassic Park rule. He is unfamiliar with pop culture references even with years in other worlds, so this one was new even for him. He's unaware of the other's thought process, the jealousy or bitterness over his abilities vs. Ed's - which was probably a good thing.]

That sounds dangerous.

[It sounds stupid is what he wants to say, but not the concept of the movie, just what the characters did. It reminded him of the military and he scowls slightly before shrugging.]

Mixing DNA to create creatures that shouldn't exist. The military did that back where I'm from, it's a depraved practice but they encouraged it to make an army of talking chimeras.

[He doesn't mention he was assigned that research as a kid, the final straw that made him quit the military before his time there even began. They wanted him to take over and continue what Tucker had been doing, but that was nearly ten years ago now.]

[ Cisco was all primed and ready to dive into an enthusiastic rant about the importance of people making stupid-ass decisions to the plot of all action and suspense films, but then Ed is dropping a bomb about the military conducting DNA-mixing experiments to create chimeras and that is just way more important. And horrifying. ]

Whaaaaaaaat the fuck.

[ He just stares for a moment; he doesn't disbelieve Ed, it's just... kind of an awful thought. He's heard about some shady science - and participated in some, too, though never intentionally, but trying to create an army of DNA-spliced monsters kind of is on a whole new level. ]

There was this general in my world, who wanted to develop drugs he could give to people to make them into super soldiers. He was giving them to this gorilla to test them... torturing it, basically. In the lab where I worked. We didn't know what he was up to, and when we found out... my boss kicked him out.

[ What had happened to Grodd is monstrous, but Cisco still can barely force himself to say anything that sounds even vaguely good about Dr. Wells. He'd probably known what Eiling was up to all along, and just waited for the most dramatic moment to expose the general and make himself look like such a big damn ethical hero in the process. ]

What's up with the military and fucked up medical experiments, anyway? Like can they just not resist themselves, or what?

[That's about the only reaction you can have to that, Cisco.]

Yeah, the guy got turned in and military supposedly executed him. They still wanted me to complete his work... and come to find out he was never actually executed. They let him continue in secret, the bastards.

[Particularly awful when you're twelve the first time you're exposed to it, only to find out it was going on all along despite their cover ups.]

Super soldiers..?

I guess it isn't very different from one place to the next, is it? Same twisted ideas of making better soldiers, just using whatever methods work on their world. They're all depraved... Scientific experiments, using prisoners or even their own men against their will.

Now that is just all kinds of shady. They seriously faked an execution? Fucking figures...

[ Cisco can tell this is something personal for Ed - not just a story he heard. It makes sense, once he explains that he'd been expected to continue that fucked up research, himself. Cisco's own experience of military corruption is not quite so personal, but he still has strong feelings about it. ]

Doesn't sound very different, nope. And people talk about how the military will handle all this dangerous stuff all on their own, but a lot of the time the people in charge of those groups are just out for their own good, and don't care how many laws they have to break or how many people they hurt in the process.

[ He thinks about Bette Sans Souci, whose death still stings, about Eiling kidnapping and torturing Stein, about him developing weapons specifically to stop Barry, who was the one actually on the side of good. ]

That's one of the things I like about this place. I mean, sure, there's the Perimeter Guard, but it's not the same, you know? They don't operate that way.

I was told they decided to forego the embarrassment of a trial, too much evidence piled up against him. Especially with witnesses... I guess I didn't think to question it, I was only twelve at the time.

[Ed could tell Cisco horror stories, but everyone he's told so far reacts pretty intensely so he's learned to keep the story of Nina to something more generic. It was always weird to realize what bothered people here and what didn't, and nothing was universal.]

Where I'm from the military has a reputation. We're called dogs of the state, civilians don't like us much. They say we're on a leash and have to obey orders no matter what the outcome.

[It hadn't been like that for Ed, he'd gotten around things and he knew it. Not that it mattered now, he was a fugitive of the state when he went home.]

The Perimeter Guard is made up of new arrivals and civilians, I'm not sure how much it could get away with considering there probably isn't too much loyalty in the ranks.

[There was too much fresh meat as far as he was concerned, that'd make it hard to pull off a seedy operation no one else new about. Still, he's skeptical considering how much went on behind the scenes in his own world.]

I hope you're right though... That there isn't anything going on that we don't know about.

[ Cisco's reactions to things operate on a different logic than one might expect typically. For relatively minor stuff, he tends to be loud, exaggerated, flamboyant even. But when something is truly shocking, he mostly gets still, and quiet, and understated. And that's what happens, now. He's had this happen before - run into people who casually mention something that makes it clear how rough their life has been, or else talked to people from dystopian hellscapes, from planets that were destroyed, from worlds in the middle of the actual apocalypse. It's not something he's really getting used to. ]

You were in the military when you were twelve?

[ Normally, Cisco's not one to comment on age in this particular way - which is a legacy of being tired of people asking him why he was so much younger than his fellow students or coworkers. But for there to be a preteen in military service, well, that's so far from normal that he has to ask. Maybe that's normal in Ed's world, which would be fucked up. Or maybe he'd been an exception, which... is still super fucked up. ]

I know a few people in the Guard. People I trust.

[ Impossible to be 100% certain, of course, particularly when it came to the folks who were complete strangers to Cisco. But Wally and Billy, at the very least, wouldn't be party to anything awful or even a little bit fishy. Cisco doesn't trust widely, or easily, but he trusts those two. ]

I haven't seen any signs that there is. And believe me, when I first showed up? I looked.

[Ed is also one to go quiet when news is extreme, so he recognizes it in Cisco immediately. He'd triggered something there, and he wasn't sure what until the other spoke.]

Yeah...

[A disarming grin accompanied that response, waving a hand dismissively. He could see that it bothered Cisco, but he wasn't sure of the in depth reasoning.]

Youngest ever to pass the State Alchemy exam, I'm ... kind of famous back home.

[It sounds less somber that way, right? Like it was no big deal and clearly not a normal habit of the military to enlist minors. He's just trying to take the edge off, no idea if it will work though.]

I've been looking since I got here... but that was in June, not that long ago. Not long enough to really uncover anything. I'm part of the Guard myself, I have too many skills to really limit to one particular unit so I've been able to snoop around a few places.

Damn...

[ Even if it's not a habitual recruitment policy, and even if it sounds like maybe what he was doing was primarily state-funded research, Ed is essentially saying he's famous for being a child soldier, which is pretty damn messed up, according to Cisco's way of seeing the world. There's just no way that wasn't ten kinds of messed up, especially considering the rather dismal view Ed seems to have of the military now, and all the shady shit they were apparently doing involving DNA experiments.

But he really doesn't even know how to talk about any of that without nosing into shit that isn't his business, or possibly sounding judgmental, so Cisco somewhat awkwardly diverts the subject: ]

That's the weird thing about this place, huh? It- equalizes things. You get to leave your reputation behind, start fresh.

[ That had been a good thing, for Cisco, at least. He hadn't been famous, back in Central City, but in certain ways he had stood out, been different. Here, he doesn't. Everyone is from worlds too diverse and too different for any one set of biases or preconceptions to reign over everyone. Which is new, and strange, and kind of great. He's already decided this place is where he wants to stay, permanently. ]

How long would you say is long enough? Or are you just going to keep looking?

[Civilians tended to have a dismal view of the military to start, calling them dogs of the military and all that - so naturally he'd gotten a lot of shit for joining from family. He hadn't done it out of any interest in being part of the military, but Cisco didn't question his motives to get involved either. He just moved onto the next subject, which Ed was relieved for.]

It really does.

[He's not sure if that's a good thing or not, a lot of the time. He'd made some friends out of some very shady people in the past because Purg was the same way, there was no way to know about a person until they revealed themselves. Nevermind that it took a demonstration for anyone to believe anything he could do, which was unique to this place as well.]

Probably just keep looking. The first thing I saw in the military was corruption, and I didn't realize how deep it went for four years. I'm not making that mistake here. Even if there's nothing malicious going on, things are kind of weird here and I intend to keep checking them out.

[ Cisco nods, not saying anything for a few moments. He isn't much surprised by Ed's answer. If anyone knows how deeply it can impact you, finding out that you've been manipulated, that secrets have been kept from you, it's Cisco. For him, that betrayal had been personal, rather than systemic. His own form of paranoia comes in interpersonal relationships, rather than the broader conspiracy theory type stuff.

But if it was the military itself that had pulled all that shit... it makes sense, that Ed is just going to keep looking, even if this place isn't shady after all. Cisco doesn't know him well enough to judge whether that's healthy or not. It's not really his business. All he can really do is give a short shrug and say: ]

Fair enough. You find anything sinister under the weirdness, and you need someone to back you up, lemme know.

Edited 2017-08-29 01:25 (UTC)

[He seems surprised by that response but nods with a small smirk.]

Will do, just let me know how to find you.

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introductory mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

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