riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

Entry tags:

introductory mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

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!

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ That's a quality that he can appreciate in a person, at least; he vastly prefers to cut through the "hello"s and "how are you"s.

Sasuke glances over again, however, as if not expecting her to continue to question him. ]

Neither. I just happened to need it held. [ Which may seem strange given how he's only operating with his right hand, but his cloak does a fair job of obscuring the fact that his left arm is missing altogether. ] Do you want compensation?

*She eyes him again, handing him the goods she was asked to hold. Something feels weird, she can't quite put her finger on it.*

No, I mean, well... I'd like to know why you came to a flower festival dressed for a funeral?

*It seemed like a fair question, and really it might help her understand him.*

[ Oh. Well, that's direct.

It's an inquiry that gives him pause even as he takes back his food, phone tucked away and purchase finally successfully completed. He even looks down at himself. ]

... this is how people dress for funerals in your mind?

*Lola makes a show of stepping around him to get a full picture of what he's wearing.*

The style isn't really anything anyone would wear at home, nobody really does capes. But the tone is right, you look like somebody died.

*Lola is so subtle on this topic.*

[ This is a first; no one's ever really commented on his clothing before. Then again, he's well-known enough in his world that it's not normally the first topic of discussion when he encounters someone he hasn't met. ]

I haven't been to many funerals and it's been a while since the last one. I suppose this isn't that far off. [ Though she's right, the cape is an extra touch. ] ... I have nothing else to wear.

*To someone who spends as much time and energy on her appearance as Lola does, how you present is a huge part of who you are. It's the first thing everyone sees, and that matters. Hence the hair, and the clothes, and the make-up.*

Do you want help finding a new outfit? Something that's a little more appropriate for a flower festival. It doesn't have to be very colorful, but I think if you were wearing something in white or a light blue it would really work!

*She just wants to help.*

[ Sasuke, on the other hand, is far more likely to accurately guess a person's body fat percentage than remember what they were wearing when he saw them five minutes ago. ]

... no. [ Just no. ] That's completely unimportant to me. Besides, I'm already here, in this.

Well, yes, but wouldn't you have more fun if you weren't so... off putting.

*Lola you are not making this easier. No matter how much you want to help.*

[ Another question he's never really considered. ]

Possibly. [ He looks past her, finally, eyes skirting over the rest of the vibrant festivities that he does not at all match. ]

In that case, aren't you better suited to finding someone who shares your philosophies?

*Lola's like that, she says stuff that nobody really thinks.*

Well, yes, but you asked me to hold something while you fumbled with your phone.

Normally I'd just see you wearing... that, and wonder why but not actually say anything. Unless you talked to me or asked me to dance.

I see. [ He doesn't. Even a little. ]

Though your criteria for sharing your opinions makes little sense to me. If you feel it strongly enough, say it.

But it isn't really any good if I share my opinion with people that don't care about it.

Still, you should consider dressing a bit more for the festival, you're really nice to look at but your clothes kinda send a message not to talk to you.

You can't gauge the impact until it's been said.

[ a brief pause ]

However, your assumption about how this would go is correct. I'm fine with sending that message.

*You see, to anyone else, the question itself would be a problem. They'd realize what they asked and how obvious the answer could be. But, for Lola, she has to ask it, and she can't think of why this would be a wrong question to ask.*

Why don't you want people talking to you?

[ It's hardly the first time he's been asked, remembering an old teammate far more forceful than her and with equally standout hair. ]

I have nothing to say to most of them.

So... you're okay, being in a strange place, alone?

*That seems really sad to her. And it shows, cause Lola's got no poker face.*

I am. [ He eyes her for a moment, however, noting that expression. ]

... you're too concerned about me.

I'm trying to figure out why someone would want to be alone rather than try to build something new.

But I can be concerned about who I want to be, it really isn't your concern is it?

*She knew what she was doing, mostly. Okay she knew nothing of what she was doing but she could make her own bad choices.*

It depends on what you mean by "build something new". Some people exist alone for the purpose of ensuring others can lay a foundation more securely.

... though I suppose that won't be easily understood. [ Yeah no this just sounds weird. ]

*Lola studied him on that one, trying to see something. That's a very bleak view of oneself, to exist just to let others be happy. She hated when that was her life.*

Everybody exists alone, but they choose if they want to stay that way or not. You lose people, then you find new people. If you're choosing to be alone then that isn't on the universe, you did that.

[ Interestingly he respects that view, but then he's particularly attached to the concept of personal responsibility. If he weren't, he'd slip back into old habits fast. ]

Yes, I did.

But you sound as if you've made surrounding yourself with others a priority in your life. It isn't one in mine. I'm of more use to those I care about when I'm away from them.

I can't help anyone if I don't know what they need. I won't know what they need unless they tell me.

But, yes, I don't like being alone. It feels weird not to have anyone.

Then we can say it's simpler for me. People... my people, the ones that matter to me, what they need is to stay alive and safe. That's my goal.

*There you go making Lola look all sad again, survival is like... hardly worth it, if that's all you're interested in.*

And since they aren't here... you don't need to do much but not get killed by whatever exists outside the wall?

[ you know nothing, Lola Snow ]

... if that's your interpretation of the situation, perhaps. That's an oversimplification.

introductory mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

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