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

[he doesn't miss when the other person approaches, taking in the ears and vaguely assuming some sort of alien. cassian can't say he was actively seeking company, but he can't kick the guy away from his own fire either. he'll just hang out for the appropriate amount of time then bail. say he's meeting a friend. he could totally have a friend!]

Offset the hangover by drinking more water now.

[New friends are great!]

Elves don't get hangovers, I'll be sweet as hell come morning.

[This is bullshit, but 'slightly tipsy' isn't enough to result in a hangover, especially since he's going to be awake until at least three am (that is a real elf thing).]

What's your name, pumpkin?

[maybe not an alien?? he's not sure what an elf is, but he's not about to ask flat out. besides, it's not like it's terribly hard to just guess. new species are whatever.]

Sounds useful. Any more party tricks? [but that's a good question to ask :)]

[the use of pumpkin is greeted with absolute nothingness. it's better to be unaffected than react one way or the other obviously.] Cassian. And you?

Taako.

[Cassian is a pretty neat name; it sounds like it could be from Earth, but he won't make an assumption just based on that.]

And yeah, I got a few. If we're talking just the elf shit, then I can see in the dark, don't sleep, and can't be magically charmed. [Handy!] Oh, and I'm hella old, we're one of the more long lived races. Haven't run into one before?

[Which makes him think that this dude isn't from Earth, since most of them are aware of the concept of elves, even if they aren't much like Taako.]

[he nods, already memorizing the name like it could be useful. the sheer amount of self-descriptive babbling that follows tells him a lot, though whether it's alcohol induced or natural, it apparently doesn't take much to get taako to talk.]

No. But there are a lot of planets out there. How old is old?

[he will get to the more than just elf shit in a moment. he wants to know more about elves first.]

[Taako loves talking about himself, it's a problem.]

Pretty sure there are unspoken rules about not asking a dude his age.

[The very brief scandalized look is replaced by a cheeky grin, and Taako adds:]

We can get up to like eight hundred, nine hundred? I've been around for a few centuries, spent one of those not aging, so it gets kinda tricky to fill out forms, you know?

[a problem for taako maybe.]

[he raises an eyebrow.] No one said you had to actually answer the age question.

[there are definitely species out there that live that long, like hutts, so there's zero sign of surprise on cassian's face. not that there would be if he actually was surprised.] You could always lie about age I'm sure.

Oh, for sure, but I make it a rule to only lie about the important stuff.

[He tries to keep a straight face but it lasts for maybe two seconds before he grins a little, clearly amused.

Taako would lie about the colour of the sky if he thought he could get away with it.]

Important to you?

[lying is serious business! cassian is an expert liar. the grin tells him taako is very much a liar too, but how good of one is up in the air.]

[with the sheer amount he's talking about himself though, cassian is definitely getting the sense of self-interest lies.]

There are other kinds of important things?

[Because like, the world obviously revolves around him so it's not like anyone else could have things they consider important.]

Depends on who you ask, doesn't it?

[what a non-answer.]

[but cassian is painting a clearer picture of taako.]

Depends on who's opinions I give a shit about, more like.

[He does, genuinely, have a pretty significant ego, but he also likes playing it up for shits and giggles.]

What about you, bubbale? You look pretty human - no offense - but that doesn't always mean anything.

[cassian shrugs. it's no less telling an answer.] Most people are picky about whose opinions they care about.

[he bites off a tiny piece of chicken. literally no offense taken, lots of species look human and aren't.] I am human. We don't age quite so long.

[or like, ever again in his case, but whatever.]

You say that, but...

[But a lot of people are stupid and care about the opinions of people who don't matter.

That's not even his ego talking, he really does think too many people put too much stock in the opinions of others. He doesn't bother finishing the sentence, though, just shrugs and moves on.]

Well, hey, you're in good company, there are a lotta humans here. Most are from Earth, but not all of 'em.

[he lets it go, if only because he's not interested in that kind of philosophical nature of sentient beings question when he's too busy constantly philosophizing about life and death.]

Humans are originally from the planet Coruscant, but we are born across too many planets to name now. [a beat. because he's still adjusting to and trying to establish the reality of alternative universes.] Where I am from, at least.

Are most of the people here humans?

Oh, cool, you're a space one.

["A space one" because he's learned to divide the people here into what basically amounts to three categories; space, fantasy, and superheroes.]

Back on my world humans were just humans. Didn't come from anywhere, didn't go anywhere, but all of us had kinda only just figured out the spaceship thing. [He worked for Fantasy Nasa!] And yeah, like, there are a lotta people here, but if you count the recent bunch of us dipshits, it for sure skews human.

[space one. well, ok, at least that means there are others from space, probably.] As opposed to what other ones?

[taako's world sounds... so limited...they only just discovered spaceships??? cassian cannot even remember how many different ships he's piloted.] Are humans the dominant species?

Well you've got your like, regular Earth thugs, your Earth plus metahumans or superheroes, and fantasy bullshit. I'm from one of the fantasy bullshit worlds.

[Someone let him watch too many movies. He's too genre savvy for an elf.]

You mean here or back home? I mean the answer is no to both, but ya know.

[it's. kind of descriptive. the classification tells him more again about taako than the actual types. he decides to let that go for now too.]

I did mean your own home first, but I suppose it's a question worth asking for here as well. What is it here then?

[That's about right, let's be real.]

There... isn't one?

[Honestly, the question confuses him a little.]

Why would one species be dominant over any other? We're all just chilling, my fella.

[he shakes his head.]

Not dominant like power. I meant more along the lines of population. The most prominent, I suppose.

Ohhhhh, fuck if I know, I'm not the city planner or whatever. Maybe you can look it up? I'd do it but Lup took my phone.

[She's very rude.]

Lup is a friend of yours?

[it's an easy enough answer to figure out the more he wanders the city anyway. he's not concerned - just more curious. it's always good to know more about where you are!]

My shitty twin sister who has fucking cruelly abandoned me, probably because she found someone with fireworks.

[His tone is very dramatic, but also clearly put on. He loves Lup more than he loves anything else in the entire universe, himself included.]

[absolutely an exaggeration, because cassian gets the sense of that typical faux sibling exasperation which tends to translate into affection.]

If you have already drank too much, maybe she thought taking it from you was a safer choice.

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