introductory mingle: RIVER FESTIVAL

[riverviewmod]

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

Comments

a. I'm sorry, I know you already have a lot of hits for this but I can't resist.

[brightline]

[The funny thing? That look is familiar, even if he's never seen it from sickness, he's seen it from other things. Trauma. From seeing too much. He's seen people break down before, he's even broken down himself, and so that's what he thinks it is when he sees a guy standing there with his eyes screwed shut and repeating a littany of names, over and over.

Now, Marco's not exactly the empathetic type, in fact, he probably wouldn't know empathy if it bit him in the nose, but if this guy needs a distraction, he's cool with providing. Moving close enough that he can hear a bit of what he's saying, Marco waits until he looks somewhat stable, then leans in, brows raising a bit.]

I have not heard of even one of those superheroes before, but I can still totally tell they're superheroes. Funny, huh?

it is a-okay friend!

[sanator]

[Thom blinks a couple of times at the stranger's words, trying to bring him properly into focus and more importantly, distract himself from the potential electrical storm in his own head.] Hey that's great... I mean they do sound like superhero names, right? If that's what superhero names sound like at least. [He shakes his head a little wryly.] I'm pretty sure no-one here recognises mom and dad's names... [It was an odd thing for him to say out loud too, or at least with the mom part there. He was undeniably the son of his world's most infamous hero, while his mother rather got a mention.]

[brightline]

[When the guy looks up at him, blinking blearily, obviously trying to draw his attention to the here and now, Marco smiles at him. It's a little softer than Marco's usual smile, though the guy might not know that (and it's probably for the best, in Marco's mind, if he doesn't know).]

There must be some kinda universal constant on superhero names sounding cool and badass.

[Marco's dark eyes flick up and down the guy's body, taking in his posture, his body language, his facial expression, trying to work out if he's okay, or if he's gonna lose it.]

Wait. Hold up a minute. Are you saying your parents are superheroes?

[sanator]

I know... I wish I got one before- [He pulls himself short, shaking his head a little. It was probably better if he didn't go into it; mostly because he already felt like trash and there was no reason to go about exacerbating the sentiment.]

[Thom nods a little sharply.] Major Might and Invisible Lass to everyone else... mom and dad to me. [Even if he only knew about his mother having been a superhero recently; he'd grown up knowing his dad was one... a disgraced one, but still a hero.]

[brightline]

[That sentence dangles way too enticingly at the end, and Marco has to physically bite at his inner lip to stop himself from saying anything or asking more. Really it's only a matter of time until he gives in, but it's best done strategically.

And it is not strategic to ask when he's pretty sure he just interrupted a minor meltdown.]

Huh. They probably don't exist on my world, because I don't know their names, and I promise you, if a superhero exists on my world, I know their names. That's just the kind of guy I am. Mind you, superheroes don't really really actually exist, unless you count idiot teenagers with a deathwish trying to save the world from alien invasions. There is spandex, but it doesn't match and there's a tragic lack of capes.

[A pause, and then he raises his eyebrows in faux-surprise.]

Wait, you said you wish you got one? Dude, are you a superhero?

[sanator]

Alien invasions? You have those, too? [Maybe Thom's world wasn't the weirdest after all. The Planet Eater had ravaged New York and created the Wilson Tower disaster; that was kind of an invasion. Then again, Justice could've been seen as a one man invasion except he sought to keep earth peaceful and his own Alien-ness was a pretty foreign concept, considering he was raised in Kansas.]

[Thom nods eagerly at the question.] I am! [Except his eagerness slips a little and he frowns, chewing on his lip thoughtfully.] I mean, I was... I'm kinda not- not anymore, I got kicked out of the League of Heroes. They took my probationary membership away from me. [Which probably wasn't the right direction for this conversation to be taking.] That's what I meant, when I said before...