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

[deathkid]

[ nico doesn't bother hiding his gasp as he watches the godling all but breathes life into the shell of a creature he'd pulled from the earth. it's beautiful, in its own way, with the gentle flowers and glow. almost instinctively, he reaches out to hold up an finger (the one with his skullring on it) and watches as one flutters down to land. ]

That's amazing. Far better than my trick.

[ and he glances at loki, holding the godling's gaze for a few seconds. ]

[ikols]

They can be as real as they want, now.

[ The pleased warmth he gets from seeing the excited mice is compounded when he meets Nico's eyes, a twinkle of mischief in Loki's that matches the tease of life in the creatures. Are they alive or dead? A bit of both. ]

You ought to name your new friends. Any ideas?

[deathkid]

[ they certainly have the aura of something caught between life and death. it's astounding and almost makes nico feel giddy when his senses reach out to brush against his and loki's creations.

focusing on the one on his finger, he leans forward, a small smile threatening to form at the corner of his lips. ]

I'll name this one Bianca.

[ the way he says it implies the name means a lot to him and it's spoken with a hint of an italian accent. ]

[ikols]

Pretty. [ Interesting choice, seemingly not a random one as Loki observes the fond play of emotion in Nico. ] May I suggest one for her partner?

[deathkid]

[ looking back up at loki--it's easy to get caught in his eyes; green but so different from the sea-green he's familiar with. ]

I don't see why not.

[ikols]

[ A warm green to match the spring-time surroundings, less so the sharp gleam that lingers when in fouler moods. ]

Bjorn, small as a thimble but fearsome as a bear! Protector of Bianca.

[deathkid]

[ nico's ears tint a little red in response to the gaze and he drops his own to the flutter-mouse on his finger. his lower lip snags in his teeth as he watches it flutter off to land next to the other. ]

I like it. Bianca... needs to be protected.

[ikols]

[ A soft-hearted son of Death, how poetic. ]

She was beloved by you, the person you named this little one after?

[deathkid]

[ ducking his head so his eyes are hidden by shaggy, grecian curls, he nods. ]

Being a demigod is dangerous. There's no knowing when we can get killed or eaten by monsters. And, my sister...

[ he trails off and the air around him seems to go a bit cold. ]

I'd rather not talk about it, if it's okay. So is this kind of thing all they do around here? Flower festivals and stuff like that?

[ikols]

Okay, Nico.

[ The quiet agreement skips a beat as Loki sits up to cross his legs, taking some pressure off the introverted demigod by looking around them at the scenic surroundings. ]

No, actually, we had monsters under the Quarantine last month. It caused a kerfuffle of enormous proportions but it's all done with now, probably totally safe.

[deathkid]

[ if he's grateful for loki's relent, it doesn't show. instead, he snorts, rolling his eyes a little. the cold, at least, fades away. ]

Of course, monsters. At least I won't have to worry about not getting my regular training in. I doubt anywhere is truly safe, especially unknown universes. I should probably check the shadows.

[ the last bit is more to himself. ]

[ikols]

[ Will have to ask about that temperature shift later, maybe during a second meeting. ]

Be careful if you do, there might be creature of shadow and you don't want to wander inside one of those accidentally. That's what you mean, isn't it? By checking them, you really will.

[deathkid]

Shadow monsters don't scare me. I can control the shadows.

[ and to demonstrate, he gestures at loki's shadow, wiggling his fingers to tug on it, drawing inky tendrils towards him. not unlike peter pan trying to retrieve his own shadow. ]

[ikols]

[ Loki's shadow startles, opens bright green eyes, and swats at the force pulling it as Loki looks on, tsking. ]

I wouldn't do that if I were you, he might come and find you in the night.

[ Who knows what the Hel a dark part of him would do if pulled free of his command. ]

[deathkid]

[ with a shake of his hand, nico breaks the connection, then looks up at loki with a speculative stare. his eyes, normally almost cold to look at seem to have a spark of heat in them. ]

Is that so? What would your shadow try to do to me?

[ikols]

I don't know. [ The shrug he gives is light, honest. ] Something awful, maybe. Don't poke gods, Nico, especially their gooey bits. It's not very smart.

[ With a friendly wink to the most Intense Teen in the world. Settle down, angry button. ]

[deathkid]

[ intense teen with no chill. except the occasional literal kind. ]

I poke my dad all the time. Granted, he's threatened to vaporize me a few times, but most of the time I think he's joking.

[ikols]

Sounds like a standard dadly deity.

[ How many times has Odin lost his shit at Loki, no one knows. ]

Do you know many of the pantheons? Personally.

[deathkid]

[ lifts a hand to count off his fingers. ]

Personally? Not as much... I know of the Norse Pantheon, and obviously am a product of the Greco-Roman (I have a half-sister who's the daughter of Pluto, my father's Roman incarnation). I also met Anubis once in New Orleans. Other than that, those are the only pantheons I'm familiar with.

[ikols]

So I'm your introduction to my lot, hm? The pressure is on! I'll be on my best behaviour.

[ Funny how he can sound sincere but look like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. ]

Do you speak with your dad often? I expect he's busy with that job, Hela usually is.

[ Unless she decides to go out and buy another dramatic hat, then she doesn't give a heck. ]

[deathkid]

Um, I'm already familiar with some stories about you. I think I had one of your cards as part of the Norse Pantheon expansion pack of Mythomagic.

[ ears turning red again as he pokes at the soil. admitting his old obsession with mythomagic has that affect. ]

I do, from time to time. Probably more than most demigods speak with their parents. Sometimes he has me do errands for him. Fetching errant souls that Thanatos doesn't have time to collect. That kind of thing.

[ikols]

What a winner. [ Hades, come on. Step up.

More importantly, if Mythomagic is anything like D&D: ] Do I have a figurine?

[deathkid]

I think so? Most of the major, powerful ones have figurines. I never had the chance to pick up the Norse figures. I was mostly interested in the Greco-Roman.

[ and he reaches in his pocket, withdrawing the small figure of hades that his sister had found for him. he offers it to loki, to examine. ]

I... kind of burned most of my collection a few years ago.

[ikols]

'Kind of'. You don't have to explain.

[ Just like Nico happens to look so tender when he mentions the name Bianca. He can't help his emotions sometimes, that's what Loki is learning.

He turns over the figure of Hades, rubbing its nose. ]

At least you don't look like your dad.

[deathkid]

[ gives loki a mildly dubious expression. ]

Not completely, anyway. And neither of us has blue, fiery hair.