riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

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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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[Eddie hasn't been to a rave in years, back home, but he's been to the ones here, and he'd been to clubs at home and the dancing isn't much different. This is something he's always enjoyed - a place where he can get some of his feelings out without needing to articulate the words, where his boxing footwork and natural grace come together to make him actually feel good and comfortable in his body.

There's something nice about being in the press of bodies with the bass thrumming through his core, and Taako pressing closer, graceful hands sliding around the back of his neck. He can feel Taako's wrist against the short hairs at the back of his neck, and he comfortably settles his own around Taako's waist, tugging him in close so their bodies are almost-but-not quite flush.

It's nice, losing himself in the music, sliding closer until he can smell Taako's hair and skin and whatever products he uses, can feel the heat of his body up close and personal. When the song ends, Eddie almost regrets it, wants to carry on for just one more, but he promised they'd go to the powder room. So he tugs lightly at Taako's waist, ducks his head toward the room.]

Do you wanna go. You know. To the powder room?

[He waggles his brows just a little when he says it, light-hearted.]

[When Taako told Kravitz that it had been a while, he was telling the truth. The whole wanted-for-killing-40-people thing didn't leave a whole lot of time for dancing, as it were, and then he'd joined up with Bureau which had eaten up even more of his free time. It hadn't been an issue, really, it's not like he'd been after a relationship and flings tend to get boring after a while.

This is pretty great, though, if he's being honest. The fact that he likes Eddie helps, he's a... friend, even if that word is a difficult one to put to anyone other than Magnus and Merle. But yeah, Eddie is a friend, not just some stranger, and he's pretty good at dancing and his hands are steady on Taako's waist. It's nice.

So the question – as much as it earns a sharp smile, as much as he lets himself be tugged –doesn't get an immediate answer, because he wants to make sure Eddie is genuinely up for it.]

Only if you wanna, this whole thing isn't exactly terrible either.

[There's an understatement, but his tone is teasing.]

I'd say 'not exactly terrible' is underselling it a little.

[Eddie smiles, and his voice is warm and a hint rough around the edges, belying some of the emotion underneath. Because there's no denying it felt good, in a way that wasn't purely physical. Eddie really enjoys Taako's company, he's funny and fun and attractive. He makes Eddie laugh. It feels good to be around him, dancing with him.

The thing is, Taako just said that he likes it too, so Eddie can smile at him, curl his fingers against the small of his back, and raise both brows at him, expression a bit flirtatious.]

There's nothing saying we can't come back out here afterwards, right? I hear that the powder makes touching a lot more enjoyable...

[Taako laughs, soft and delighted, and really, Eddie's response is all the encouragement he needs to take his hand and start weaving their way towards the powder room.

It isn't until they're inside, a packet of powder pressed into their hands that Taako speaks again.]

Not lacking in confidence, are ya? Who said anything about touching?

[Nevermind that they were literally just dancing, or that Taako still hasn't let go of Eddie's hand. He won't let that get in he way of being a shit.]

[It doesn't escape Eddie's notice that Taako doesn't let go of his hand, so he doesn't either, he just slides his fingers between Taako's and heads into the powder room, gets a few packets of blue and red powder (it seems funny, with alcohol coursing through his system) and grinning down at Taako, looking confident and sure of himself, head tilted to the side a little.]

Playing hard to get?

[Lifting their entwined hands, Eddie raises a brow at him, expression teasing and a little cocky.]

Between this and all those times you called me handsome...

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

[Playing hard to get, since Taako tends to just call it who he is as a person; he's hardly any less of a jerk when it comes to friendships or anything else, although maybe he's being just a tiny bit worse than usual, winding Eddie up.

But, well, they're here, aren't they? He's having fun and Eddie's pretty obviously into him, which is nice, and he's pretty into Eddie, so there's no real reason to beat around the bush.

With his free hand, Taako tosses one of the packets of powder into the air, and bursts it with a little flourish of magical sparks. As the powder rains down, he closes the distance between them and kisses Eddie.]

[As far as Eddie's concerned, it's not bad, it's not even remotely bad. It's fun, his mind is clear and hazy with alcohol all at once, he's focused on Taako and how pretty he is and not regret or guilt or sadness or homesickness or Iris. When Taako throws the packet of powder up, pops it with a burst of magic, Eddie laughs out loud.

He's still laughing as Taako leans in to kiss him, his mouth slightly open, his posture loose and comfortable, and his arm slides around Taako's waist, he leans in and tilts his head and kisses back, eyes sinking shut, and he lets go of Taako's hand just so he can finally slide into his hair at the side of his head. Taako is warm and his mouth is soft and Eddie's skin is tingling where the powder hits, and for a moment, it's totally, absolutely perfect.]

Edited 2017-04-15 07:26 (UTC)

[It's a little odd, being so affection in public; it's not as though he's ever hid it, but he's pretty private about his shit, and kissing someone in a very public and very crowded room takes some getting used to. But they're hardly the only couple engaged in a little more than just dancing, so he tries not to worry about it too much.

Which isn't difficult when he's busy kissing Eddie. The powder hits his arms and he's not sure how much of it is to blame for the way he shivers when Eddie slides a hand into his hair, but he's hardly complaining. Taako brings his hands to frame Eddie's face, idly brushing a little powder off his cheek as he deepens the kiss.

At some point, he'll need to like, breathe, but that's a concern for later.]

[On the other hand, Eddie's always been a public displays of affection kind of guy. Tugging Taako in a little closer, he lets his thumb brush the line of his ear, along the bottom, both slightly surprised and a little curious by the different shape of it, fingers sliding through warm hair without disrupting the styling of it. Taako is all soft and smooth and Eddie can feel the way the elf shivers when he touches his hair.

It's so easy to get lost in it, the taste and feeling of an unfamiliar mouth, the way Taako's nails scrape slightly through the day-old stubble on his cheek and jaw, the way they shift so their mouths can fit together better. Eddie's jaw works as he kisses, his chin pushing forward, he makes a soft noise in his throat, pulls back to breathe, but not very far, his lips closing against Taako's lower lip and tugging just slightly.]

[It doesn't surprise him that Eddie is a touchy kind of guy, it fits with everything else that Taako has learned about him so far, and even if it's not the most familiar thing, he thinks he could get used to it pretty quickly.

And then Eddie pulls back, and that little tug on his bottom lip makes him laugh.]

You still wanna say I'm playing hard to get?

[His voice is a little rough, belying the effect the kiss had on him.]

[It's funny, but ever since Eddie got here, he's been deprived of touch - at home, before, he'd been kidnapped, and then only had a half day or so to touch Iris before his death and coming here, to Riverview. And since he's arrived, he hasn't been touched, not much, not affectionately, and it isn't until Taako is pulling back from him that he realizes how much the touch, the contact, had been satisfying something in him that he hadn't even realized he was craving.

Licking his lips, he smiles at Taako, fingertips still trailing along the bottom line of his ear.]

Mmm, no. No, I can't. Not that I mind.

[Raising a brow, he leans in a bit and grins at Taako.]

I'm guessing...you don't exactly mind either.

My fella, you are gonna ruin my calm, cool and collected image if you keep asking me this shit.

[Or maybe that's the way he's leaning towards Eddie's touch and looking up at him way more fondly than he should be.]

[Eddie can't help it - he laughs softly, leaning in and tilting his head, kissing against Taako's cheek and the corner of his mouth. Everything is buzzing like electricity in his head, his body feels warm and perfect, and this feels perfect.]

I like it when you're not calm, cool, and collected.

[It's a bit rough, a bit flirtatious, his fingers skating along Taako's ear into his hair, palm resting against his cheek for a moment.]

[It's such a fucking line, but it absolutely works, especially when combined with the kisses. His answer is a little delayed because he needs to steal another quick kiss.]

You're gonna have to try pretty damn hard.

[He's absolutely making that a challenge, it sounds like fun.]

[Maybe it's a line, but Eddie means it, absolutely, and it's obvious by the expression on his face when he says it. When Taako makes that challenging statement, Eddie laughs, leans in and catches another kiss, closes his teeth lightly against Taako's lower lip, and tugs.

It's a distraction technique.

A moment later, Eddie pinches some of his red powder, flicks it at Taako's shoulder, and pulls away, smirking at him.]

You're it.

[And then he does his level best to disappear into the crowd.]

[What the fuck.

The distraction works completely, both the kiss and the little extra bit of powder, and Taako is left blinking after Eddie for a solid five seconds before he registers what happened.

He might have dropped his second packet of powder during that first kiss, but he swipes another from a nearby partier as he plans his next move. Eddie's mistake, as it were, is tangling with a wizard who's in a good mood, is a little drunk, and is feeling playful.

Locate creature is an easy spell, and Blink saves him from having to fight through the crowd.

Taako finds Eddie while he's still in the ethereal plane, carefully splits the packet of powder without spilling any, then reappears just behind him. The packet of powder is shoved down the back of Eddie's shirt, because Taako is a mature adult who makes good decisions.]

Pretty sure this means you're it, pumpkin.

[This is fun, and Eddie thinks...it's the first time he's really, truly had any kind of carefree fun since he'd been kidnapped by the Reverse Flash on that bridge. Maybe for a while before that, too, with all of the insanity around Barry, with Joe refusing to give his blessing for Eddie to propose to Iris. It's been a while since he could let go and play.

Considering that Taako has magic to cheat with, Eddie manages to evade him for at least a little while, enough to be proud of. Still, he's caught off-guard when Taako yanks his tank top open at the back of the collar and dumps powder down his back. He can feel it, the tingly, buzzy sensation, his skin flushing warm where the powder slides against his slightly sweaty skin, and he turns, grinning over his shoulder, reaching out, swaying slightly as he does.]

Aw, c'mon, you're cheating aren't you?

[As he turns, he flicks a handful of bright blue powder at Taako, dusting his left shoulder and arm, eyes bright as he gets himself turned around, swaying slightly, heading into the crowd after him.]

Magic, totally not fair.

[Despite the unnecessary use of magic, Taako isn't actually trying all that hard to win this little competition, so although he dances backwards after Eddie gets him with the powder, he doesn't go very far. Nor does he bother slipping back into the ethereal plane.]

I'm working with what I got, homie! That's just life.

[The drugs in the powder are a new experience, he hasn't exactly taken fantasy ecstasy before, but it's a nice sensation, warm and buzzy and making him a little more willing to be caught, if it means more touching.]

Edited 2017-04-17 03:05 (UTC)

[It's not like Eddie's ever really tried ecstasy before either - in college, he hadn't been popular enough to go to the clubs it circulated at (he suspects that if Taako had gone to his college, that wouldn't have been a problem), and then he'd been too responsible, too adult. Too much a cop, and ecstasy too illegal. Of course there were cops who did drugs, but Eddie had never been one of them.

So he's a little caught off guard by the way it feels, too. Dizzy and buzzy and warm, his skin sensitive and pleasant to touch. And when Taako doesn't try too hard to get away, Eddie laughs, goes after him, takes some of the blue powder with the tingling fingertips of his right hand, and moves. Everything sways around him, but he catches up, catches Taako's wrist as the elf heads toward the less-crowded area near the wall, and falls forward, pins Taako against the wall with his body.

Grinning just slightly down at him, he lifts his hand and brushes his fingertips against Taako's cheek, smudging blue powder over his warm skin.]

Got you.

[Letting go of Taako's wrist, he shifts, presses in against him a little closer, chest to chest, leans in to catch his mouth again. Tilting a bit of the powder into his hand while he kisses and Taako's head tilts back to meet him, he smudges more powder down the elf's throat, turns his head to follow the line of it, down Taako's jaw and toward his pulse point.]

Edited 2017-04-17 05:19 (UTC)

[Taako doesn't even bother pretending that he's disappointed to be caught, not when he's way too distracted by the way Eddie has him pinned against the wall, which he's pretty into, even if he's not planning to admit that out loud. The little needy sound he makes into the kiss might give it away, which, damn that's embarrassing and he's going to hope that Eddie doesn't call him on it, or at least doesn't make fun of him for getting a little hot under the collar over kissing. But it's been a while and the powder is buzzing pleasantly on his skin; it's warm where Eddie trails it down his throat, then even warmer when Eddie's mouth follows.]

If, uh, shit– [He huffs a laugh at himself, squirming a little.] If you give me a hickey I'm gonna kick your ass.

[No he won't.]

[Eddie had been completely ready to pull back the moment Taako showed a sign of being uncomfortable with being pinned, but the response seems to be completely positive. Intoxicated as he is, a little high, a little drunk, fuzzy and hazy with a sort of uncategorized want, Eddie is hyperattentive to every signal Taako's body is giving him. The way the elf makes a soft, desperate little noise into his mouth when he kisses him, the hitch in his voice and the swear when Eddie's mouth finds the tendon on his throat, then his pulse.

Smiling against the warm skin, Eddie closes his lips and, almost in challenge, starts sucking over Taako's pulse point, his hand still dusted with blue powder as he drags it down Taako's bare arm to his hand. Taking it gently but firmly in his, Eddie lifts it and pushes it against the wall they're leaning against, right next to Taako's head, teeth scraping at sensitive skin under his mouth.]

[There's a reason he'd been into Kravtiz back when they first met, and only a little of it had to do with how handsome Krav is; Taako likes to live dangerously sometimes, as much as he'll talk a big game about avoiding any risks. And even if this is all playful, there's still a thrill in it.

Which is great, except for the way they're very much in public and Taako's thinking that there are way too many layers of clothes between them, and he's not sure he has enough self control to remember how terrible of an idea it would be to remedy that right now.]

Hey, listen, I'm gonna float an idea here, I think it's... I think you're gonna be into it. [Words are hard, give him a second.] Do you wanna get the fuck outta here?

[It's easy to lose track of where they are and what they're doing when he's enjoying all the teasing, the flirting, the kissing and how Taako's skin tastes under his mouth, mixed with the slightly sweet taste of the powder. It takes a moment for him to regain his senses when Taako pauses and asks him to wait for a second, and it's only after he registers that he wasn't pushing harder than Taako wants that he stops feeling immediately a little guilty for his distraction.

In fact, Taako is asking that they go somewhere else, and Eddie is nodding, smiling at him.]

Yeah. I'm...yeah. Somewhere private? Anywhere you want, I can call a cab...

A cab would be great, I'm pretty fucking sure I shouldn't try magic right now.

[The last thing he needs is to accidentally make an attempt to teleport and end up hitting a wall or something.]

And like, I bet your roommate's great and all but I'd definitely rather avoid having to do a walk of shame in front of a teenager.

[He grins with that, to make it clear he's joking about the whole walk of shame part. He's not joking about avoiding Yuri though, if this is going where he's pretty sure it's going.]

[It's an intense relief to hear that Taako is on the same page as him, that the reason he'd suggested going somewhere else was the same reason Eddie had in mind. Laughing softly at the comment about Taako not wanting to do the walk of shame in front of a teenager, Eddie shakes his head a little.]

Yeah, yeah...I get that. Mm, okay, let's...let's go.

[Eddie unpins Taako's hand, doesn't let go as he leans in for one last kiss and then tugs him toward the door.]

We can check into a hotel room, maybe? Someplace with a decent breakfast?

[A little grin, as he twines his fingers between Taako's so he doesn't lose him as they thread through the crowd, tucks his packets of powder into his back pocket as they head out through the main front door. All it takes is a quick call to a cab company, a quick network search, and he's booking them a hotel room before they even get in the cab.

And Eddie can't believe he's doing this, but at the same time...it feels way too right.]

dwrp is full of old fogeys

spellslots - 2017-04-17 06:57 (UTC) - Expand

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introductory mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

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tw: making out???

i mean there's definitely making out

absolutely, I just wasn't sure if the kids were warning for that these days

asdsfs "the kids"

/waves cane around and mumbles something about my lawn

how i feel on tumblr tbqh

how i feel on the entire internet

dwrp is full of old fogeys