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

[winscenario]

You don't look like the kind of guy who'd do well with kids.

[ Jim smiles at the mental image anyway, eyes closed even as he feels Loki's fingers playing along the fabric of his sleeve. ]

Burger and fries. The greasier the better. And a milkshake. [ Or literally anything else that's food and delicious. He's not particularly picky. ]

[ikols]

So they tell me. [ His first life's children aren't exactly well-adjusted.

His fingers don't take Jim's when they reach them, curling up nearby. He doesn't want to assume anything but the warmth of Jim's mortal hand is a nice contrast to Loki's cool digits and so they rest close, lingering. ]

Hah, noted. I love milkshakes, too. [ Burger and fries, easy. He might throw in some hotdogs too for an authentic Manhattan meal, the kind he survived on until he learned how to cook. ] You need to find a proper sheath for Laevateinn, by the way. Don't slip with it and cut off a finger, I'll get the blame.

[winscenario]

[ Jim wasn't exactly well-adjusted either, so really, it doesn't take much to be a bad parent. Sometimes all you have to do is not be there.

At any other point in his life he probably would've just shifted his hand himself and caught Loki's fingers in his own, but now, even as he feels the touch lingering close, he doesn't do anything. Not because he's uncomfortable with it, but simply because he has no intention of pursuing anything right now. ]

Mm. Just not strawberry flavored. I'm allergic— in case you didn't know that about me already. [ He cracks an eye open to glance at Loki. ] Yeah, I will. Don't worry, my fingers will all be perfectly safe.

[ikols]

I didn't know that about you, no. I'm sure there's a lot I don't.

[ High tales are all very well, ancient or TV-bound, but they don't represent a person ... especially from an alternate universe like Jim. He opens an eye to peek at him too, feeling the weight of a look. ]

Tell me something else that's news to me?

in honor of that dumb trek plurk I posted

[winscenario]

Good to know I still have some secrets.

[ He wouldn't call them secrets, exactly. Jim doesn't keep a whole lot of those, all things considered. Not that he'd get to anyway. ]

Don't know what would be news for you. Mm... Toilet paper is one of the weirdest things I've seen in this place so far. Does that count?

sweet lord

[ikols]

[ Demure as his pseudo-nap is, it breaks on a barking laugh and he rolls onto his back, holding his stomach. ]

Tough time pooping, Captain?

[ He's going to burst a lung, send medics stat. ]

[winscenario]

[ Jim ends up laughing too, shoving a hand at Loki's arm. ]

No! That's not what I meant. I just— forgot that's how people used to clean up. [ Snorting, he shakes his head, tone warm and devoid of any actual offense. ] Idiot.

[ikols]

[ Shoved away with the push, he rolls back and sits up hugging his middle. ]

What did you do the first time? Sit there and wait for the space sharks to bite the bits from your bum? Captain Poop.

[ Snorting into a hand, giggling uncontrollably. ]

[winscenario]

Are you serious? Our toilets have cleaning and disinfecting mechanisms. Jets, vapors, or even sonic pulse systems like the showers.

[ How the hell do people even walk around all day after having gone to the bathroom with leftover bits of— ohhh my God he is not thinking about that. ]

So am I to assume gods are still stuck in the ancient use of toilet paper, too?

[ikols]

[ The tongue he sticks out is excessively mature, as is the snooty smirk he gives Jim. ]

I can't speak for any other Asgardians but my booty is permanently fine as Hel in all respects.

[winscenario]

[ Who would've thought gods were this mature. Jim is so shocked. ]

Yeah, you'd say that. [ That's not an invitation so please don't flash half the people at the park just to prove your point, Loki. ]

[ikols]

I'll send you a list of reputable references. [ Excuse you, Jim, he wouldn't flash anyone in public. His booty is a gift to be unwrapped in private! ] Is this what it's like on your ship? Poop jokes. My best friend would have loved it, she was a sucker for childish humour.

[winscenario]

[ Well it's not like he knows what you crazy gods are into! ]

Mm, no. We don't usually get a lot of free time for poop jokes. Also not everyone can be as immature as me.

[ikols]

You are the most fun captain I've met in a while, and that's counting Peter Quill.

[ Said with the air of someone who has looked into the abyss and in the abyss there was Star-Lord arguing with Kitty Pryde while they had guests. Wow. ]

[winscenario]

Well, I have no idea who that is, but I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you. Is he around too, by any chance?

[ As if Kirk and Quill meeting isn't the recipe for disaster or anything. ]

[ikols]

Not that I've heard but he's kind of a roamer, so who knows. [ Rubbing his chin, he makes a very difficult decision. ] Hmm ... yes, you're just a tad cuter.

[winscenario]

[ His lips twitch in amusement at that, and he shoots Loki a look. ]

Just a tad? You're not very good at this flattery thing, you know.

[ikols]

My deeply beloved Captain, if I were flattering you then my tongue would not be confined to my mouth.

[ He's a lot more proactive than that. Chuckling, he flops back down and drags half the picnic blanket over him, head cushioned on a bent arm. ]

Now, I'd love to discuss the ninety-degree angle of your chin, but I'm wiped from the raves and need to crash. Feel free to stick around.

[winscenario]

[ Jim can't help but laugh softly at that, shaking his head a little but otherwise not the least bit embarrassed. ]

You're terrible. [ Said more amusedly than anything, he sighs as he glances at Loki. ] Mm, I will, then, if you don't mind. You have a good nap.

[ And if he ends up dozing off for a little while too, well— no harm done. ]