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

[franciscoramon]

[ Furiosa - that had been the other name she had mentioned. If the conversation were a degree less serious, he would definitely make a comment about how totally badass a name that is, but even Cisco knows that now is not the time or place for that.

Her comment about not wanting her and her sisters (who knows, if she means biological sisters, or if a bunch of them had bonded so closely in their captivity that they'd become like a family and just referred to each other as such) to give birth to babies who would become warlords pretty much confirms Cisco's suspicions, about why they were kept locked up and away from people. And that feeling of nausea over what humans are capable of only gets worse. Cisco's not entirely unfamiliar with the idea that human beings can treat one another with inventive and breathtaking cruelty, but he's not used to encountering it so up close and personal, on a sunny beach while he's making a sandcastle.

For a moment or two, he doesn't even know what he could possibly say to that. But he has to say something. ]

I- wouldn't want that, either.

[ It feels so impossibly inadequate, particularly when he had never been in a situation where that was even a remote possibility. Cisco looks at the Dag for a moment, chewing absently at his lower lip, face quiet with sadness. It's moments like this that make him glad he comes from a world with heroes. A lot of bad things still happened, sure. But bad things happened everywhere - and at least where he's from, people had someone they could latch their hope to, who they could believe in. ]

I'm... I'm really glad you escaped. And that you won, and you're all going to be in charge, now. I'm sure you'll make things better than they were.

[foreseeding]

[No one's ever really looked at her like that, with so much sadness, and she doesn't know how to deal with it, not when so much of this is just how the world works. There's very little kindness to be found, any instance of softness is burned out of people, and she knows that she could count herself amongst them. She's not cruel, none of them were, but she knows there's a hardness in her heart that Cheedo doesn't have, and will hopefully never have to learn.]

There was always enough food and water for everyone, but he wanted it all for himself. We won't be so greedy.

[franciscoramon]

[ Cisco laughs, then; there's no amusement in it, really. Just a short little huff of air, followed by a small shake of his head. ]

People who have everything never want to share even the tiniest bit. It's like that in my world, too.

[ The degrees might be different, but the principle still applies. Cisco has absolutely no love lost for that sort of person. People like Hartley, who'd been brought up with everything he could ever possibly want handed to him. Sure, that had all ended when his parents disowned him, but it had shaped Hartley fundamentally in his formative years, stripped him of pretty much all traces of empathy and morality. Cisco might almost feel sorry for him, if he wasn't such an entitled insufferable tool. ]

It must be hard. Being away from your sisters, in a place that's so different. Have you made any friends, here?

[foreseeding]

[She wants to hope that it doesn't make them greedy, suddenly having access to all those resources without the restriction of Joe's control, but she has faith, at least in Toast and Capable and Cheedo. They won't forget what they've been through.]

People have been nice.

[Which is a "no", but that's mostly because she's very new and a little reluctant to really trust people.]

[franciscoramon]

Yeah, that really freaked me out when I first showed up. How nice everybody was. Thought there had to be some kind of hidden agenda.

[ He doesn't know if the Dag's mind would operate in a similar way, but just in case it does, he thinks it might be important to mention that not everybody is happy and comfortable the second they show up in this place. Even if, compared to their world, it seems utopian. ]

Haven't seen any trace of that, though. I've been here about five months, now. Stopped worrying about it after a bit

[ Cisco can't declare with 100% certainty everything is above-board, in this place. He can only tell her he's seen no signs to the contrary, during his time. ]

Listen. I'm not some super macho badass or anything, but... if anybody is ever not nice, and you need some help... lemme know, and I'll do my best.

[ He knows that it is an offer coming from a complete stranger, that she is probably ten times as capable of taking care of herself than he is. But just in case no one has said something like that... he just wants to put it out there. ]