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

[evasives]

[he shakes his head.]

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

[spellslots]

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.]

[evasives]

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!]

[spellslots]

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.]

[evasives]

[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.

[spellslots]

[That just makes him laugh.]

Nah, I'm the sensible one, as fucking hard as that might be to believe.

[Taako is the more cautious of them, is what he means.]

[evasives]

What, did she drink more than you?

[he absolutely does not believe that right now, but it's not like he knows anything about lup to compare.]

[spellslots]

She started pre-gaming while I was still doing my make up. Pretty sure that puts her ahead.

[They're great at adulthood. If by adulthood we mean "alcohol".]

[evasives]

Was it at least as free for her as it has been free at most of these parties? Seems like a waste otherwise.

[spellslots]

Everything's free if you're determined enough.

[Don't admit to stealing things, Taako, that's not the best idea.]

[evasives]

That's assuming you're also stealthy enough.

[there's zero sign of anything in his face. judgment?? agreement?? cassian has stolen things before, including some very important space station plans, but it's mostly just matter of fact right now.]

[spellslots]

[New best friend!!!!!

But first, with nothing more than a wave of his hand, Taako casts invisibility, disappearing from where he was sitting. There's still faint signs of his presence; the way the sand shifts as he moves, the sound of his breathing, the shadows the fire is casting.

And then he's back, with a grin and a shrug, as if to say I'm pretty stealthy.]

[evasives]

[f..riend?? what a strange concept.]

[cassian is surprised by the disappearance, but he catches it, the only sign a brief flicker of his eyebrows before he puts on a more simply curious mask. when taako comes back into view, he does nod his head with a vague sense of impressed, if only to get him to talk more about it.]

I could still see where you were in the sand and hear you. But I suppose it works better when someone doesn't know you're there. Is that another elf trick?

[spellslots]

I wasn't trying super hard.

[He waves a hand as if to dismiss those criticisms, especially because if he really wanted to be secret there are others way to do it, it's just that invisibility is a lot easier and doesn't risk not working, the way blink does.]

And that, my man, is a wizard trick. It's magic.

[evasives]

[magic sounds like the force and if he hadn't just seen the invisibility with his own two eyes, cassian's not sure he'd buy it. but then again, it did get pulled in here through a portal across the multiverse, so there are a lot of strange things happening. besides, there were a few seconds at the end where he might have believed in the force.]

And how does one learn a wizard trick, or is it something by birth?

[spellslots]

You learn a wizard trick from a wizard, most times.

[This is a familiar line of questioning, and mostly he's just glad that Cassian hasn't immediately dismissed it, since in Taako's experience, space people don't believe in magic.]

Everyone's got the potential, but not everyone gets it. Same as any skill, I guess.

[Not everyone is going to be a champion marathon runner, but there's specific rules about who can and can't learn magic.]

[evasives]

[being dismissive doesn't get answers! even if it doesn't completely make sense to him, he's quick thinking enough to go with it and at least form a picture of how it works from taako's pov.]

Certain people have affinities for certain skills. [he is basically reiterating what taako said on purpose.] What helped you get it so easily? This or other tricks.

[spellslots]

That's it, yeah.

[Repeating something back to someone is a good way to make sure it's understood, so like, that's cool.]

Elves are a little more inclined to it, cause of the whole fey ancestry. It helps that I'm fucking awesome, but we had to get good pretty quick, too. Magic goes a long way when you're two skinny kids on the road.

[evasives]

[what is a fey??? he wants to ask but he'd rather try to figure out by context clues first.]

And what other kinds of magic have you learned over the years?

[spellslots]

Well, transmutation's my specialty, Lup's is evocation, but we're pretty well versed in most other schools, except divination, that one's a bit washy-washy.

[He holds up a hand as if he realizes that his answer is not very helpful, and is getting ahead of future questions.]

The seven schools are transmutation, turning shit into other shit; abjuration, protection; evocation, damage; divination, hiding shit and seeing hidden shit; illusions, that one's pretty self explanatory; conjuration, making shit outta nothing; and necromancy, fucking around with dead things.

[The seven official schools.]

[evasives]

[he just.]

[explained everything.]

[it took one question and taako just dropped it all like it was nothing. cassian knows there are people like that, but it always surprises him. it's so easy. he's barely even trying.]

[also he's a dead thing, probably, is taako just fucking with him??]

Which is your favorite?

[spellslots]

[There's no reason to be secretive about this; if Cassian wanted, he could probably find it in a book somewhere, this just cuts out the middle man.]?

Depends on the circumstances, you know? Evocation and conjuration are good when you wanna fuck someone up, but I got a soft spot for necromancy cause it's saved our asses more than a few times.

[Barry. Lup. Rescuing Magnus. They'd all be dead and gone if they hadn't dabbled in necromancy.]

[evasives]

[talking about himself is just not a thing cassian does! it's always odd when people do it so easily, even if it's not the biggest of secrets.]

What do you mean by - what does your magic do with the dead?

[necromancy and star wars, not really a thing ok.]

[spellslots]

Well, like, I was kinda oversimplifying it, but one kinda necromancy spell is, um- [pick a not creepy one, pick a not creepy one] - there's one that lets me kick my soul outta my body without dying. Last time I used it was to help out a friend who got his dumb ass possessed.

[Never mind it was a lich, another undead thing made by necromancy, responsible for the mess in the first place.]

[evasives]

[virtually all of this sounds like nonsense, because the dead stay dead back home. it doesn't even sound like the force.]

How does the body keep alive without a soul?