introductory mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Flower Festival Celebration
when: April 2nd - April 15th
where: In several different locations in the downtown area of the Inhabited City.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

flower festival

In the days leading up to April 2nd, residents new and old may notice advertising around the city, everywhere from digital screens to paper flyers pasted on blank walls, all advertising an upcoming holiday: The Flower Festival. Celebrating springtime, beauty, joy, and togetherness, the festival heavily features floral themes and dancing. The advertising mentions that on April 10th, a paid holiday, there will be a Blossom Picnic, as well as lists of various public dances at clubs or other open venues, and adult raves.

a celebration of spring

The Flower Festival's main event is the Blossom Picnic on April 10th, but it also features traditions of sharing food and drink, and dancing that span over the course of the whole two weeks. There are a large variety of events going on throughout the city, from dancing lessons in any wide variety of traditional dances, to old-fashioned sock hops, to adult raves complete with mild party drugs. Feel free to use the prompts below or create your own event at any point during the festival, and if your character creates an event and hosts it in a top-level, you can submit that thread for extra bonus points.

i. blossom picnic

The main event that kicks off the second week of the Flower Festival is the Blossom Picnic on April 10th. A relaxed and low-key event, it draws several thousand people every year to the spacious Riverview Central Park, where there is a generous lawn lined with various blossoming trees, and families, found families, lovers, and groups of friends are encouraged to lay out a picnic blanket and share food. There will be live bands playing (but not loudly enough to distract from conversation and peacefully watching the petals flutter in the wind), a variety of demonstrations of traditional cultural dances from many different realities and planets, and a ton of ice cream vendors. This is an excellent festival not only for celebrating togetherness with the people who are already important, but for mingling and making new friends.

Characters may either pack their own lunches or they can purchase pre-packed Blossom Festival lunches. Stores and street markets are carrying a wide variety of specialty food that is only available at this time of year - predominantly pastries, an assortment of types of candies, and ice cream treats all in various floral flavors, as well as a sort of ambrosia salad based around a sweet rose-flavored cream and a native fruit that is bright green and tastes like a combination of peach and citrus.

ii. dancing lessons

Starting on April 2nd, there will be dancing lessons offered almost everywhere you look! From partner dances to group dances to line dances; sexy and sensual or innocent and childlike - almost any type of dance you can imagine is represented, from any reality or planet that has people in Riverview Quarantine.

Additionally, the Riverview Central Community Center has multiple rooms blocked off so anyone who knows a dance from home can teach it to others in their community - sharing is caring, after all. Characters are welcome to block off one of these rooms and offer lessons in any dance they happen to know from home (and these sorts of thread starters would be eligible for the mingle AC Point bonus)!

iii. flower festival dancing

This is pretty simply what it says on the tin - in almost every club, community center, or other public space, there will be dancing at almost all hours of the day or night, formal and informal. Musicians bring out their instruments and play in the street for demonstrations of cultural dances and music at the same time as clubs are offering VIP cover charges for exclusive dances, and you can find anything in between.

There are also many low-cover-charge raves that allow under-18s so younger characters can stay up all night and dance like crazy. The legal drinking age in Riverview Quarantine is 14, and so anyone over 14 can enter and indulge in a few drinks, dancing, and playing tag with a non-intoxicating version of the colored powder featured at the adult raves. There is copious amounts of security on site to ensure that everyone is safe, as well as nurses and off-duty police officers to offer advice or care for anyone who overindulges out of lack of experience.

Grab a partner, a group of friends, or just cruise and mingle the various dancing events.

Characters may also notice that most of the street markets and clothing shops are offering clothing that features floral patterns, flowers as accessories, and that show a lot of skin - for men, women, and anyone in between!

iv. adult raves

Advertised on flyers and digital screens around the city, made to pop as if they were under blacklight, is a series of adult raves that are happening in various large empty warehouse spaces around the city, including one that is listed as the danger rave and hosted in an abandoned factory outside the inhabited city walls. With bouncers at the door to ensure that anyone entering is 18+, the raves are comfortably adult in nature. Clothing is optional, showing skin is encouraged, and there are a lot of neatly tucked away spaces for attendees to get some time alone with one or more than one person, as well as spaces intended for orgies. The atmosphere is sex-positive and non-judgemental, open to any orientation or preference, with various forms of protection available for free, however, to ensure that everyone plays safe there are sober security teams out en masse at all premises to oversee the events.

(CW: DRUG USE) In each location, there is one specific room where attendees can enter, and dance or play tag with brightly colored powder that contains small amounts of a legal party drug commonly available in Riverview, which is absorbed through the skin. Not much more intoxicating than having a few beers, the effects of the drug are a pleasant low-key buzzing euphoria, positive sensitivity to touch, a heightening of desires for intimacy, and a mild lowering of inhibitions. Once a character has been hit with the powder, the color lingers on the skin so other attendees can know who has partaken, but once the powder makes contact with a surface it deactivates, meaning that partakers can safely dance with non-partakers without sharing the intoxicating effects.

Please be sure to warn in subject lines for any threads involving drug use. And remember, there is always security to intervene and make sure everyone is safe.

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to set up headers for a communal floor, or threads open to roommates for the purpose of getting to know each other. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set at the Flower Festival, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: third image by Steve Goad; other images found on uncredited on Pinterest or Google images - please let the mod know if you find credit!

navigation

Comments

[spellslots]

[Taako keeps his hands busy, partly because that's just how he works, but he's also making a point to not get all hung up on this, figuring that people being weird about it is just going to make the situation harder.]

He's not your dad yet, or is this one of those alternate pl— universe things?

[Alternate planes is how he tends to think of it, but he's getting used to adapting his terminology for most people.]

[supersweet]

[ How to explain DC Comics to a stranger.

Half the time, Jon isn't even sure either. Not that his parents didn't keep him in the loop, but a lot of the events were a bit . . . rushed. There was no time to fully absorb what was happening to them. Only recently, things seemed to slow down. Jon had a life, his father was Superman again, his mother wrote and published articles . . . ]

It's the latter. I've met a few versions of my dad before, so I can tell the difference. I know how they're supposed to feel. So he feels right.

[spellslots]

[Taako accepts the explanation pretty easily, he's wrapped his head around these concepts pretty quickly for someone coming from a Fantasy(tm) background, and eventually he'll realize why that is.

But for now, he gestures Jon over to the bench, handing him a measuring cup.]

Pop a cup of flour and a cup of the brown sugar in the bowl for me, bubbale. [And then:] Kal's probably like, the nicest fucking dude I know, so even if he's not your dad dad, I reckon you're still in good hands.

[supersweet]

[ As he follows the instructions, Jon flounders for a way to respond. Finally, he changes the topic. ]

What's a bubbale?

[spellslots]

[That's okay; Taako doesn't exactly need a direct response, he was just trying to be reassuring in his own way.]

It's a term of endearment, but I've totally forgotten what it actually means.

[There are... gaps, things that are too hard to think about, and Taako doesn't like to dwell on the past, anyway.]

My aunt used to call me that all the time, guess it stuck somewhere along the way.

[supersweet]

What's your family like?

[ Elves and magic must have interesting lives. And Taako said he knew a dragon. He hops onto the table as he watches Taako move around. ]

Is it big?

[spellslots]

[Oh, that's a hard question to answer, and Taako takes a moment to crack some eggs before answering. The honest answer isn't a fun one, but he also doesn't want to lie.]

It was.

[Before the wars.

He smiles, a little more gentle than previous ones, just because he figures Jon is smart enough to pick up on that past tense.]

But you know, I guess the thugs I work with are kinda family by this point. One of 'em's a dwarf, he worships some nature god and has a plant for an arm. [Taako wiggles his fingers at Jon.] And Magnus is the big guy, except he was kinda stuck in a mannequin last time I was with him, so not quite that big anymore.

[supersweet]

[ Whoops. Maybe Jon should have given it some thought before asking personal questions like that. He certainly wouldn't have enjoyed getting the same questions back. He kicks his legs in a fuss. ]

Aren't thugs like . . . bad guys?

[spellslots]

[Taako isn't really bothered; he didn't even remember most of his family until recently, so the loss is an odd thing, almost detached.

And the question makes him laugh.]

I'm using it in the general sense.

[Is that even a thing!]

Trust me, Magnus is definitely a good guy, he's the type of dude that cries because dogs are so nice.

[Merle.... less so, and Taako's pretty sure he doesn't fall into the "good guy" category either, but Jon doesn't need to know that.]

[supersweet]

What about adventures?

[ Jon is going on all his knowledge of fantasy stuff. Which isn't much. All he knows is that there's magic and adventures. Oh, and dragons, of course. His eyes shine. ]

You must have had a favourite adventure right?

[spellslots]

[All of his adventures involve murder.]

My favorite adventure, huh? [Phandalin is out, thousands of people died. The train was kinda boring. Refuge was just a whole lot of dying, over and over. Wonderland was... bad.

Maybe Lucas' lab?]

There was the time I met the grim reaper, you wanna hear that one?

[He can tone it down to make it age appropriate.]

[supersweet]

Yes!

Wait, what's a Grim Reaper?

[spellslots]

[With all the ingredients together, Taako puts the bowl and a spoon in Jon's hands.

Let the kid with superstrength do the mixing.]

A grim reaper is the guy in charge of the astral plane, it's his job to make sure no one goes messing around with the rules of like, life and death, ya feel?

[Wait shit is a servant of the god of death an appropriate topic for a ten year old? Shit.

Oh well he's committed now.]

He's pretty cool, he can, uh, possess stuff? First time I met him was a golem made outta crystal.

[supersweet]

[ Jon stirs obediently, his attention laser-focused on Taako's words. ]

They have rules for that?

[ Says the DC kid where rules like "life and death" are constantly broken for. ]

[spellslots]

[This is potentially the worst decision he's ever made. He should've just told Jon about the murder game show.]

Well yeah, just the usual stuff. People usually die when they're supposed to, it's not super great if you screw that up.

["Usually" is an important modifier, there.]

Kravtiz, that's his name, he works for the Raven Queen, she's the god in charge of all that shit.

[supersweet]

Ugh, super power beings that play stupid games are the worst.

[ Jonathan Kent. Fully informed about murder game shows. ]

[spellslots]

Tell me about it, my dude.

[But he's going to take this opportunity to change topics a little, since he can just feel Clark making disappointed faces at him.]

What's cool though, is the time I got shrunk real small and fought a turtle. That was wild.

[supersweet]

Why did you fight a turtle?

Was it an evil turtle bent on world domination?

[spellslots]

It was working for a crab that wanted to take over the world, so.... yes?

[He literally doesn't remember if that's what the crab wanted, it was a while ago. All he does remember is that it wanted his blood, but that's not child appropriate.]

[supersweet]

[ Jon is starting to have doubts as to whether this is a real story or a story with Parental Guidance warnings. ]

That sounds a little too crazy.

[spellslots]

I'm an elf wizard and you're an alien but the evil crab is where you're drawing the line?

[Just saying!!!]

[supersweet]

[ There's a long pause before Jon admits defeat. ]

You have a point there.

[spellslots]

Thank you.

[He likes winning.

Taako makes grabby hands at the bowl.]

Now gimme that before I decide your disbelieving butt doesn't get cookies anymore.

[No he wouldn't do that.]

it's okay justine, i still love you

[supersweet]

[ Eep! He hands it back dutifully, looking a little sheepish. ]

Do you think it's ready now?

i have dw tools and i dont use it??? why am i like this

[spellslots]

[Taako casts a very critical eye over the mixture, then shrugs and grins.]

It'll do, we're not exactly competing on Chopped, here.

[He's already got a baking tray set up, and he grabs a spoon to scoop out perfectly sized dollops of dough onto the tray.]

Now, what's the trick to perfectly baked cookies?

[Jon said his mom cooks, surely she has passed on this very important wisdom to her son.]