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!

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Comments

[leadintheyoung]

How do you live?

[ She is looking at Morgan as though he just grew two heads and one of them is perpetually cross-eyed. Life without ale and mead is... well, it's certainly a personal choice, but one that strikes her as downright strange. ]

[morganknight]

My sister makes root beer that's to die for, that's how.

[Morgan endures her withering judgment without complaint, quite used to it by now.]

Oh, and hot apple cider in the winter, which is even more to die for!

[leadintheyoung]

The hot apple cider I can believe, but I do not think I have heard of this 'root beer' before.

[ It really isn't ringing much of a bell. Beer made from roots? She's not entirely sure. ]

What's that like?

[morganknight]

How do you live?

[He might be a little too proud of himself for that echo.]

Oh, we have to find a good one for you to understand. The difference between a good, properly-brewed one and an ordinary mass-produced one is night and day. THAT will be the first thing I look for, when we're looking.

[leadintheyoung]

Hard and fast with a full cup.

[ And with all the zeal of one who realizes that today could be her last day. ]

I am assuredly game for the hunt. I do believe I smell some rather tasty dishes being served up from here, too.

[morganknight]

Well today we'll fill that cup with root beer!

[Straightening up to put his full height to advantageous use, Morgan scans the street -- then points to a building somewhat down the way.] That looks promising! Kind of a restaurant/pub mix I think.

[leadintheyoung]

There should be something for everyone, then.

[ She's taking a look-see in the direction he's gazing and she can't quite argue with his statement, not that she's looking to argue. ]

Let's give it a try, shall we? If we don't like it, there are plenty of other options to be had.

[morganknight]

One of the advantages of being me is hunger.

[Not a disadvantage, not when food is generally really tasty. Morgan burns so many calories that he can enjoy himself without guilt.]

[Leading the way through the crowd by virtue of height and agility, he reaches the door, opens it, and bows her through with exaggerated motions.]

[leadintheyoung]

Good to know you've got an appetite.

[ It's a quip, but one given gladly as it's something of a redeemer considering that he doesn't drink. Still strange, though, that, but she's glad to put it behind them and cross the threshold into the pub. She's wise enough now to take a few additional steps forward and slightly off to the side while he catches up, her eyes wandering around them and up as she takes in the sights and scents of the place. ]

This place shows some promise, after all. Your thoughts?

[ And she'll look over her shoulder to Morgan. ]

[morganknight]

Only one way to find out. [Morgan lets the door bump shut behind him as he does much the same as Li, eyes quickly flicking over the place. In reality he's more letting stuff wash over him; despite his eyesight being perfect, Morgan is incredibly bad at noticing details consciously. Intuition tells him this place might serve, though, and he trusts his intuition.]

[So he nods over to an empty table for two.]

[leadintheyoung]

[ Líadan doesn't need any more prompting than that now that she's got had her initial look-see. Moving for the table, she'll slide into a seat and claim it for the two of them. Best that he grab a seat quickly as one of the servers is already making their way toward them. ]

It has an atmosphere about it, that much is certain.

[ And a menu she can't read, but she doesn't look terribly troubled by the odd, laminated paper with its chicken scratch. ]

[morganknight]

I'll hope you mean that in a good way.

[Morgan doesn't bother with the menu at all, turning his charm briefly on their server instead to establish first that they have root beer, and second that it isn't some crap mass-produced stuff. Hopefully Li doesn't mind a guy who orders for her, because they're both getting a mug of it. That's the limits of his insistence, though, promise!]