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

Dick Grayson | DC Comics | OTA

[fingerstripes]

"like a ladder to the sun" | rooftops

[ There's not much action to be found on the streets tonight, so Nightwing's gone the route of the on-call stakeout instead, perched on the edge of a brightly lit pizza sign within view of one of the louder parties. He's munching on a slice of pizza, half-empty box balanced in his lap, which the light throws into garish relief with every flash of the sign.

There's no visible tension to be found there in his posture, but it's clear the moment he realizes he has company. ]

Hey. [ He raises a gloved hand. A little stiff but not unfriendly. ]


"so get your leather on" | adult rave 1.0

[ Volunteering to play watch dog at one of the rowdier parties in town comes a lot more naturally than it probably should. But it's a way to assuage the call of paranoia. A way to gather information. A way to feel like the time he's spending here (time he isn't at home) isn't slipping away from him, wiled off on things that barely matter.

He's easy to spot in his police uniform, making the rounds right on top of the fifteen minute mark every time, fun policing like he was born for the job. Anyone who looks too young or too drunk is checked in on, anyone showing aggressive tendencies is firmly shown the door. ]

That’s enough. [ As he steps in between two would-be combatants on the dance floor, reaching out to grasp for a flailing arm. ]

Time to crawl out of the wine glass.


"makes me feel like madman on the run" | adult rave 2.0

[ (CW: accidental drug use)

The last time he'd gone dancing just for the hell of it he'd been on Kory's arm in lower Manhatten, which is actually kind depressing to think about, now that it's on his mind. And that's really the feeling driving him back out here, fun policing shift wrapped for the night. For once he doesn't want to think all he has waiting for him back in Bludhaven. The urgency of Gotham's problems. The problems here he's supposed to be solving, day and night.

All things considered though, walking into a tagger bearing a handful of that powder ten minutes after arrival is a pretty inexcusable mistake. After all the time he'd spent researching the bylaws and cultural status of the stuff. After all those hours clocked keeping other people safe and contained. It's one of those things he knows already is going to be embarrassing as hell, sometime tomorrow when he remembers to care again. ]

Hey- [ Whether he knows you or not he's suddenly there, hand outstretched, eyes sparkling with an all-too devious light. ] -do you want a dance? You look like you want to dance.

rave

[divulsion]

[Wanda recognizes Dick at once. They'd spent some time chatting at the Feast of Saint Nikolina and he'd been one of the people who had made something of an impression on her. The dark hair and that smile were a little striking, and he had an easy way about him that made her comfortable at once.

She's dressed a little bit more for the setting than she normally does day to day, but among so many others showing as much if not more skin, she's enjoying it. Smile spreading on her face, she reaches out to take the offered hand.]

I do, actually, I'd love to. [With her own skin spattered with colored powder, it's been much easier for her to relax into the event.]

[fingerstripes]

[ His whole face lights up at that, as if he'd been halfway ready for her to turn him down. He takes that hand with a showy little flourish, then does a neat little twirl around her. All that classical training put to use at last. ]

It's good to run into you again. Wasn't sure you'd remember...

[divulsion]

[The little twirl earns him a surprised but appreciative look. She may not be trained in any way but she's graceful at least, and can keep up with him in her own way, no doubt.]

Well I do, and it's good to run into a familiar face in a place like this.

[Dancing alone is all well and good, but dancing with someone you know is better by far. As they ease into the crowds, she begins moving, getting a sense of the music and the space that they're now sharing. She doesn't let go of his hand, however, even as she begins to dance.]

rooftops

[signifies]

[ Clark has been using the cover of night to practice. Strength and speed feel much safer used against monsters who can take the blows. There's not much activity on the perimeter, so he's working on his hovering. It's very new to him, so he's keeping low, and drifting over the rooftops. ]

Hey. [ The masked man's voice sounds very familiar. Clark smiles the moment he realises. ] I like the blue.

[fingerstripes]

Thanks. It's still kinda the new model. [ And he's definitely beaming a little as he's turning to shade his eyes against the neon glare. Fond as he'd been of the glitter and feathers of the old getup, this is the one Alfred had made him, and he's proud as hell of how sleek it is. ]

This a social call or are you on a case?

[ Please oh please give him something to do. ]

[signifies]

[ It's body armour. A weave he's not familiar with but now certain he'll recognise if he sees it on others. Smells something like Kevlar.

Clark lands on the roof softly. He can't hear anything untoward in the city. ]

How do you feel about hiking?

Rooftop

[dust_of_life]

[It's hard to sleep in a bed that's not your own. This is something of a new revelation for Fatima. It's never really occurred to her before that she hasn't lived away from home. Like. Ever. Quite the unexpected side effect of being kidnapped. And she's added that to a growing list.

Restless and disgruntled, she wanders the streets that evening. 'Patrolling,' as Buffy calls it. A hunting knife tucked into her boot, a wooden stake twirling absently in her hand. As far as she knows, there aren't any vampires around. But that could change. That could change quickly and violently. Just because she's not in Kansas any more, that's no excuse to get rusty.

And exercising her skills leads her to catch her eye on a man, crouched up over a pizza place.

Well. That's a choice.

She eyes him for a moment. Publicity stunt? Drunk frat boy? Some sort of...leather fetish? The people in this place are so complicated. And before she knows it, eyeing turns into staring. At least until he waves and says hello.]

Hey.

[A pause.]

Is eating pizza on a rooftop a tradition of your people?

[fingerstripes]

Yeah, you bet. That, and the sacred rite of overcooked breadsticks. [ He's returning that stare for a moment, eyes shifting from the stake to her face. Then he covers it over with a broad grin, nudging a cardboard carton with his boot. ]

There's a few left in the box if you're hungry.

[dust_of_life]

That would require me to climb up there, I imagine. My mother warned me about scaling rooftops with strangers.

[Not that she wouldn't do it. Even in her stilettos.

Still. Caution. It's a thing that people occasionally have. Fatima really needs to think about getting some.]

You're wearing a mask. You might try to give me music lessons, then drop a chandelier on me or something.

rooftops.

[batbullets]

Hey yourself, Dickiebird.

[The voice may sound a little bit older than the voice Dick had been used to hearing, but the similarity is undeniable. For his part, Jason's standing just behind Dick on the rooftop, arms crossed, looking down at the man whose shadow Jason had briefly been shrouded in. But that was then, and he liked to think that he'd grown out of that shadow and into his own person.

Barring the fact that the Red Hood suit he wore was one of Dick's discarded designs, anyway.]

Fancy meeting you here on a night like this.

[fingerstripes]

[ And for a moment Dick is still. It’s automatic, the way his insides freeze up, the air in his lungs choked off. It’s a voice he’d let down in a thousand ways. A voice that’s haunted a thousand dreams and nightmares. A voice he’d buried, mourned, and never, ever forgotten.

Older. Different. But the same.

And the spell shatters, just as fast. Because it’s not Jason, and it’s not possible. Someone’s fingered him here. Someone’s reached inside him and plucked that voice out to strangle him, and he’s letting them, hook and line. ]

Yeah. Fancy that. [ He’s on his feet in a second, nearly upsetting the pizza box with the force of the sudden movement, all rigid tension and cold, soundless fury. ]

The pitch is good, but I’m not swinging.

[batbullets]

[Okay, of all the things that Jason had maybe been expecting, that reaction hadn't been one of them. Automatically, Jason takes a step back and moves into a familiar defensive stance. He's dressed in his Red Hood uniform - all blacks and dark greys with red highlights, that bat emblazoned across his chest, and his trusty brown leather jacket. His Red Hood helmet is in his hand, but he considers slipping it over his head for a moment before deciding against it.]

Swing all you want, Big Bro Wonder. You might land a shot or two, but it's doubtful.

[Say what you want about Jason, he's always been a little cocky. Sure, Dick is technically the better fighter - the acrobatics definitely give him an edge - but Jason's great at brawling and ducking out of the way. Usually. Unless crowbars are involved, but he's not thinking about that.]

The hell did I do to piss you off this time?

rave 1

[smokedout]

['too drunk' and 'aggressive tendencies' are Dodger's middle names. And honestly, if Dick hadn't broken them up the guy he was arguing with was about seven seconds away from a broken bottle in his neck.

Of course he could just shove the man aside if he wanted to, but Dodger's been conditioned well by his old boss to stop when someone tells him to. At least long enough to assess the situation. Which, currently, is a police officer grabbing him to stop him from breaking some heads.]

Fuck off, can'tcha see we're having fun? [He's not at his peak for quips at the moment.]

[fingerstripes]

Yeah. Now you're taking your ball and going home. [ Somehow it's never the quiet ones turning ugly on nights like this. He steps further in, blocking the other man's path to Dodger with his body, keeping his grip firm on the arm. He'll start edging him towards the door if he doesn't meet too much more resistance. ]

Come on. We're going outside.

[smokedout]

You really think I'm gonna go that easy? [He rolls his eyes, yanking his arm away now with a moody little gesture.] You want me outta here, you're gonna need to earn it.

[And now fighting the man he'd been up against is just a matter of rebellion, so he teleports behind him, kicks the man to the ground and flashes Dick a mock-innocent shrug.] Oops.

Rooftop

[greatcleavage]

[Roy stares up from the ground, trying to put some sense behind that perch the other man has adopted.]

[He can't. And so after a long moment of trying, he lifts a hand and waves at the man, the sign, the whole scene in general, and he raises his voice so it will reach up that high.]

...Why?

[fingerstripes]

[ It's a performance Dick watches without comment. At last he picks another piece of pizza out of the box, furrowing his brows a little. ]

...Come again?

[greatcleavage]

Why up there?

[Sure, it takes all kinds, but normally people aren't so chaotic as to just climb things for the purpose of sitting on them. Roy just -- doesn't understand. And as much as he isn't sure he wants to,he thinks he needs to.]

rooftops

[anotheroldsoldier]

[With all the partying going on, there are plenty of shifts to be taken with the Perimeter Guard and police force to patrol the streets and keep the peace, but tonight, Captain America is out. The cowl is a good way to separate himself from it all, keeps people from trying to get him to join in.

He just feels awkward, through it all. Like these celebrations and raves are meant for other people. Maybe they could have been meant for him at one time - but he's older now, wiser, he's lost his shine of happiness and youth.

Bucky stops when he spots someone else - also in costume? not a costume he recognizes, but a costume nonetheless - sitting on the roof with a box of pizza, and he smiles wryly despite himself.] Having your own afterparty?

[fingerstripes]

Something like that. [ He doesn't recognize the costume or the voice, but there's something familiar and oddly reassuring about a surprise rooftop visit from someone in a mask. Someone else with a mission. A cause. A need for something that's probably going unsatisfied tonight.

He nudges the pizza box with his foot, gesturing towards it with his chin. ]

Door prizes are going fast, if you want to pull up a chair.

joining the rooftop cadre

[greyjane]

[So sue her. She likes the stars. And solitude, and generally being beneath an open sky. She's been wandering around half the night already, sleep schedule wrecked by how terribly, horrifically short these days are comparative to what she knows. Anyway, she's an explorer at heart.

She can't fly like some metahumans can, but she can make hard-light constructs (albeit always a crackling, energetic blue) and she's been using that to wander her way across rooftops, little bridges that pulse and shine and dissipate in a smattering of sparks once they've served her purpose.

People are a series of electrical impulses. She's hard to sneak up on for that reason alone, and so she knows full well she's wending her way towards a living, breathing thing. She has no idea the sort of person who would stick to a rooftop on a night like this, but honestly? So long as they're not out for something sinister, she'd probably like them. She sees him, takes in his appearance (masks? seriously?) and when he says hey, she gives him a cheerful wave.]

Gorgeous night for a stroll, wouldn't you say?

[fingerstripes]

[ Now there's something you don't see every day. He climbs to his feet, hands on hips, the quick wariness in his face melting into something like fairly unabashed wonder. ]

You should try it from here. Though I'm not sure the view will compare.

rooftops

[deathkid]

[ despite how in tune nico is with the earth (thanks to his powers), he's always had a fondness for high places. like the crow's next of the argo ii. or here, now, atop one of the city's many buildings. he's shadowed his way up there, stepping out of a dark corner to have a look around. only, he's not alone, and at first it takes nico by mild surprise. he reaches out with his senses and once he's certain the person in the strange getup is human, he relaxes a bit.

he's intending on keeping quiet, keeping to himself, but that doesn't last long when the other man apparently notices him and offers a greeting. ]

Hello.

[ mildly and maybe just a tiny bit stiff. there's a wicked looking blade sheathed at his hip and his shoulders are a bit tense, but he tries to appear, well... normal. not exactly easy when he's seemingly stumbled upon some guy in a mask. eventually, he points at the pizza box. ]

Is there any left?

[fingerstripes]

[ He's been eying the kid with more curiosity than real wariness, but something there in the question breaks the standoff. He smiles, giving the box a token little shake before setting it carefully on the cap of the industrial ventilator beside him. The ledge seems a little unwelcoming, by contrast. ] Sure. As long as you're alright with anchovies.

[ Though in retrospect that might be a lot to ask of a stranger. ]

I won't judge if you pick 'em off.