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

[bringbackgold]

[ "Athletic duties". He feels...like he's talking to a robot or something. It's very odd and awkward. Otabek's used to being the awkward one when conversing with people. Usually the other person felt far more confident. He blinks. ]

Uh... Thanks.

[ It seems like the most appropriate way to respond, even though he's a tiny bit curious about her now. She's odd, even to him. ]

I'm... Otabek.

[howlongiwonder]

I am YoRHa unit 2, type B. 2B.

[Here's an entirely ordinary introduction that totally doesn't make this conversation any weirder than it already was.]

[bringbackgold]

Unit...2...type B?

[ There's implications in her name that aren't lost in him. Though he is sufficiently confused by her. He has a hard time hiding his confusion, too. ]

2B is your name?

[ Really? ]

[howlongiwonder]

Yes.

[Well, technically it's her designation, but let's not sweat the details.]

[bringbackgold]

Interesting.

[ He's a little confused, and his straightforward nature makes it difficult to hide in his tone. Although his expression has barely changed, she could most definitely hear that confusion. ]

I've never heard of someone having a name like that.

[howlongiwonder]

No, I suppose not.

It must be very unusual where you're from.

[It makes sense, after all this android type wasn't developed in any universe other than her own, as far as 2B can tell.]

[bringbackgold]

We just have names. Unit is usually reserved for...things.

[ Was that too straightforward? Maybe. But, that says everything. What. Are you? He doesn't want to ask, but he kind of...does. He's considering her as he stands there. ]

[howlongiwonder]

[That's one way to look at it. 2B's gaze lowers, showing that she didn't exactly enjoy hearing that. But in a way it's true, and that's the worst part.]

I am a thing after all.

[She responds quietly.]

I am an android, built to serve as a soldier for humanity's sake.

[bringbackgold]

[ Oops. He didn't really know what to make of her response. He looks uncomfortable, feeling like he has made a bit of a mistake when he finally answers her. ]

Android?

[ Coming from a world of just people has left him unprepared for interacting with non-humans. ]

I don't mean you're a thing.

[howlongiwonder]

Still, I was created with an artificial body.

[That discomfort doesn't escape 2B. She feels a little guilty, dropping the bomb in a conversation. This is why she hoped to avoid it.]

Sorry, I know many people who arrived here came from places without androids.

[She came from a place without humans (for the most part), so it evens out.]

[bringbackgold]

You seem like a person.

[ It's not conceptually unfamiliar to him. A lot of media had things with androids, but he didn't imagine he'd actually ever meet an android. He's a little dumbfounded. And still awkward. He's going to treat her like he would treat any person, he realizes. But he didn't interact with many people, so maybe he shouldn't commit to treating her like any other person. ]

Yeah. We don't have anything like that.

[ His own world, like himself, was...completely normal. ]

[howlongiwonder]

I see. Humans are... rare, I never met any before I came here.

[And the first thing she did after meeting one was catching herself staring, good going 2B.]

Androids were created with a purpose, to serve humans, so it wouldn't surprise me if humans treated them like objects. It makes sense.

[And yet, here we have one, saying she seems like a person. 2B quietly clears her throat.]

Thank you.

[bringbackgold]

[ Otabek can't imagine treating even someone he disliked as less than a human. She was basically a person as far as he can tell, even if she was saying she was an android. ]

There's a lot of humans here.

[ He steps back, and takes a look around. ]

As far as I can tell.

[ But who knows. ]

[howlongiwonder]

[She nods.]

Yes. It was very surprising.

[2B glances to her sides briefly as well. The aura of awkwardness that has befallen the conversation doesn't seem to dissipate any.]

Yet that's the circumstance we're in now.

[bringbackgold]

I imagine...

[ It's... awkward. Super awkward. ]

That's how my home is, too.

[ This whole 'other worlds' thing is a pretty strange concept to someone who's world is completely normal. ]

[howlongiwonder]

Is it similar to this place?

[2B glances around briefly. The blossoming trees of the park, the city beyond it... and the ruins, past the inhabited part. It's hard to imagine they're all on a moon.]

Other than the people, I mean.

[bringbackgold]

Not really.

[ He doesn't have to think long about how he answer's that, either. It's really nothing like home. There's no fences keeping monsters out. The world back home seemed so much bigger. ]

It seems freer at home.

[ He wonders if that makes sense. ]

[howlongiwonder]

Freer?

[She ponders the meaning of Otabek's words, arms still folded.]

Is this because we are forced to remain in this city for a period of time?

[bringbackgold]

[ It's hard to explain what he means. ]

It's because of the fence.

[ He clarifies it, because he doesn't necessarily feel safer as a result of the fence either. It's so much harder to explain that he thought it would be, too, even as he tries. ]

There's so many opportunities at home.

[ It feels like less here. ]

[howlongiwonder]

Opportunities.

[She wonders what kind of opportunities she had back at her own world. No matter how you slice it, it didn't look very good...]

What kind of... things, can you do now?

You can still do your job as an athlete, isn't that right? Otherwise you wouldn't eat in preparation for it.

[bringbackgold]

Not here.

[ Still, not being able to do it in the capacity he did at home didn't mean he was about to slack off. Otabek worked hard to get where he was, no use in losing it because of this place. His job here... was very different from what he did. ]

I DJ. I... put together music.

[ He doesn't know what she knows, so he feels the need to explain what it is. ]

[howlongiwonder]

Music?

[That seems to have sparked 2B's interest. Just for a moment though, as she realizes that Otabek is also a case of someone who can't do what he really wants here. It may seem trivial for some. But it's probably very important for him.]

Sorry.

Maybe you'll be able to do that later.

[bringbackgold]

Maybe.

[ He still can skate, so at least he has that. But he does notice some interest at the mention of music. He likes to talk about music. It's easy, one of his passions. And he's pretty good at it, he's been told. ]

Yes. Music. I put together music for a club. I mostly remix.

[howlongiwonder]

I see.

[She doesn't really know what a remix is. Or a club for that matter. But 2B still sounds interested.]

Is there a lot of it?

[bringbackgold]

Of what?

[ The answer is different depending on what she means. Although being able to talk about music and his other job has made him feel significantly less awkward. ]