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

[supersweet]

[ Jon gives him a flat look, but it grows more thoughtful. ]

I know Robin is. They came over for Christmas. Mr. Wayne and Damian Wayne. Who did you think Robin was?

[fingerstripes]

That's, uh- not important... [ A different world, he tells himself. Different history. It doesn't mean anything for the Tim he knows.

Damian. Damian Wayne. ]

So, wait- Damian's Robin now? And how did you two meet?

[supersweet]

[ Jon eyes him briefly before shrugging. ]

He kidnapped me and took me to the Batcave to do tests.

[fingerstripes]

[ Give him a minute. ]

...Someone in a Robin suit experimented on you.

[supersweet]

No, it was Damian.

[ Jon shrugs. He's already over it. Jon doesn't hold onto resentment for very long and Damian is a friend now. ]

S'fine. He didn't hurt me. And I do have to do tests with Batman and my dad.

[ Jon doesn't need to say why. Any superhero, especially from their world would know immediately. ]

[fingerstripes]

[ A Robin he doesn't know. A Robin with Wayne attached to his name.

A Robin who's apparently fine with some pretty gross sounding violations of the personal autonomy of other kids, which is really the hardest piece of that to take, just now.

There's a lot he doesn't understand about the situation. He knows that. ]

Last I checked that wasn't his call to make. [ This he says more gently. ] It wasn't right for him to do that.

I'll have a chat with him, if-

When I get a chance, alright?

[supersweet]

[ Jon doesn't know what to make of that. And he feels a little bad if Damian is going to get into trouble. A little. He shifts on his feet awkwardly. ]

It's really not a big deal. Nothing happened. And — Damian's a friend. Really. Sort of.

[fingerstripes]

Oh yeah? [ He relaxes a bit at that, a little chagrined. If he's honest, it stings a little to think of his parents' colors continuing on to an unknown factor, even in a world he has no part in. The sting is sharper when he imagines those colors twisted. Used by someone willing to be intentionally cruel under the banner.

But then, there's no word yet on whether there's a Dick Grayson in that world, shepherding them on to whoever Damian Wayne might be. And either way, it isn't Jon's fault.

If Jon would call him a friend after that, it can't be as bad as it sounds. ]

I'm sure you know who to call if things get out of hand.

[supersweet]

[ It takes him a moment to figure out the answer. ]

My . . . dad, I guess. Though he'd freak out if I was in trouble.

[ Even though Superman let Jon wear his colours, that's still a far cry from letting him into the superhero world. And sometimes, Jon isn't sure how he feels about that. Jon would definitely call his father if he felt it was beyond his scope but . . . ]

[fingerstripes]

He's pulled my behind out of a few frying pans in his day. [ He says it fondly. ]

But it sounds like your world is pretty different from mine. If you're ever up for sharing I'd love to hear more about it.

[ The Damian question he tables for later. Jon is a child, and all of this must be overwhelming for him. He should find a roundabout way to ask the kid if he needs anything. ]

[supersweet]

Sure, if you want.

[ Normally, while that would fill him with enthusiasm, Jon has a sinking feeling in his heart. Did no one know his world? His Superman, his Lois Lane? Granted, their world wasn't even theirs. But Jon missed the familiarity.

And deep down, he's scared. ]

[fingerstripes]

You don't have to worry about it right now. I know it's... a lot, all at once.

[ Given that he'd capped off his first meeting with Jason with what was in retrospect a pretty over the top emotional meltdown, he figures Jon's doing alright if he's handling it any better than that at this point. ]

How's all the been, so far? I should've asked before.

[supersweet]

It's okay. Nice so far?

[ Jon still has to hide, but he doesn't feel the oppressive weight of his secrets as strongly. No one seems to be paying him much notice, so he's having no trouble blending in. But he is without his parents for the first time. That is still a little unnerving. ]

I haven't seen a lot of kids.

[fingerstripes]

You might be one of the first. [ Which he kind of thinks is probably a good thing, but. ]

I'm glad. I know I didn't have an easy time with the alternate reality thing when I got here. [ He offers a sheepish little shrug. ]

If you ever end up need to talk to someone who's been there, you can call me, alright?

[supersweet]

[ Jon blinks before nodding quietly. ]

I'm from an alternate reality. I mean, we moved from our old one into another one. So there were two Supermans, and two versions of my mom. So everything was confusing.

[fingerstripes]

Man. [ He folds his arms across his chest, impressed in spite of himself. He'd been in his late teens before he'd even heard a whisper of alternate realities. ]

I've met probably... three or four now? Mostly just in passing. Besides the one I know from home.

Not sure how weird it is that I've only met two of me, so far.

[supersweet]

S'not always a bad weird.

[ After all, his parents in Riverview aren't really his parents, but Jon can feel they're the same. They fit close enough. Enough that Jon feels safe. And that wasn't always the case with alternates. ]

You . . . have to make do.

[fingerstripes]

[ He can't really not think of Jason there, and right on cue he feels a reflexive little twinge. Wisdom from the mouths of babes, or however the saying goes. ]

That's... really not a bad way to look at it.

[supersweet]

[ Jon hadn't expected that, so his expression warms minutely. ]

You really think so?

[fingerstripes]

[ And Jon gets a smile. ]

Yeah. I really do. You're a smart kid.

[supersweet]

[ He beams, cheeks going pink from the praise. He's never been complimented by other heroes before. ]

Did you ever work with my dad?

[fingerstripes]

Actually yeah. We met when I was about your age. [ And for a moment his grin nearly matches Jon's, lit up with the memory. ]

Remind me to tell you about the time he fished me out of Gotham Harbor before Batman even found out I was missing.

[supersweet]

My age?

[ That's a little hard to swallow, but come to think of it . . . Damian said he's been doing this since he was three. Maybe Batman starts them early. Like, in their diapers early. Who knows?? ]

Did Batman forget? Or was it like a swimming test? Batman likes tests.

[fingerstripes]

Nah. I was grounded for homework, that night. I snuck out of the cave to, uh- fight crime. [ It's occurring to him a little late that he should probably remind Jon not to consider that a prescriptive pattern of behavior. ]

...Anyway, Intergang got in the way of that plan. When they took me out to the harbor to dump me, your dad heard the splashes. [ And his frantic screams for help, but he'll step around that part of the story. ]

Then we took out that entire branch of the organization. [ How most Superman stories ultimately end. Dick's still proud to have been a part of that one, and it shows in his grin. ]

[supersweet]

[ Intergang. Jon scowls. ]

Intergang sucks. They kidnapped me and my mom once. And then they set the building on fire. I think dad was busy but he came to get us later.

[ But the idea of fighting crime strikes a chord in him. Jon hasn't done that . . . except with Damian. Come to think of it, he wouldn't have done anything if Damian hadn't forced him to go. He's still not sure how he feels about that. ]