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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She can think of a couple of choice places for him to shove his knives, but the thought manages to escape her head at the feeling of his hand near her face. There are plenty of little flowers and petals in her hair but that one? That one's the best one.

Shut up, girly feelings.

Her first attempt to speak fails, so when she does manage her cheeks are flushed pink. "Bold of you to imply I dressed with you in mind."

He's well aware of the effect such a gesture might have on Letha and he'd been hoping it might produce the exact reaction it has. He's a cruel man, but like most people, Ivar isn't made up simply of black and white. He likes Letha well enough, even if she does turn his blood to anger more often than he'd wish. So the gesture is heartfelt, if also a little manipulative.

"You said it. I didn't." He grins at her, that infuriating one that says she's been outsmarted once again.

And outsmarted she has been. Her face turns scarlet, and with a practiced motion she pulls her fan from her bag to cool herself down.

She's not looking at him anymore, but... she'll truck along with what she'd meant to tell him the next time they met. "I meant to- contact you earlier, but I didn't deem it appropriate given the... well. I wanted to know if... if you're still interested in finding a way to contact Valhalla."

She's going somewhere with this, she swears. In fact, she's been planning this conversation in her head since Sampremi, but her nerves are getting in the way and making her stutter.

She's a pretty woman and prettier even still when she blushes. If he were more sure of himself, he might be able to flirt, but... He's not. Ivar has never had much luck with women. They look at him as someone to feel sorry for, not a romantic interest.

Ivar's eyes soften up at the mention of Valhalla. To get the chance to contact the dead, see his father one more time, it was more then he could have hoped to ask for. Here she was trying to be nice and he'd spent days being mad at her instead.

"I'd like that very much. If you're still willing." She didn't seem like she was holding a grudge, but maybe she'd dangle such a prospect in front of his face only to snatch it away again.

She's quiet for a moment, building up her courage, but... if she doesn't get this offer out now, she's sure it'll eat her alive before the next time we speak.

"I'd like you to share my bed with me tonight." And she realizes it sounds weird, and she can't think of a better way to word it, she's tried. "I want you to watch over me, so... I can try and seek Valhalla. If you're in my bed you'll have the best vantage point to guard my body while I'm outside of it."

Her speech had sped up so much while she said all that that she's praying she didn't become unintelligible - the last thing she'd want would be to have to repeat it. And she can't help being terrified of Ivar teasing her for the offer.

Far from teasing her, Ivar goes very still as she makes her offer. His mind goes immediately to one thought at first and he looks petrified. For one, he hasn't even thought of having sex with Letha. She's a married woman and that's cheating even in Viking society. Secondly, there was the matter of his...problems. She couldn't know about it, but he did, and it made him terrified at the idea of sharing a bed with a woman.

Once she explains herself, he looks less like a deer in headlights and breathes a sigh of relief. So, just watching over her. He could do that. He's done as much before during his time back home for his brothers when they were up at the cabin they'd built. He's very succinct when he speaks, not trusting his voice not to have an edge of panic when he speaks. "I'll do it." He hasn't been that close to a woman since the last time he'd slept (platonically) with Margrethe. Still, he could do it. He could. Ivar just had to convince himself.

The deer-in-headlights look doesn't escape her notice... it was the same sort of look Aristeo had given her, most times that she opened her mouth. Almost exactly like the look he'd given her when she'd offered to bear his child. But she can't pretend to know what went through Ivar's head, and the thought of sex never occurs to her with nine other people sharing her living quarters, so for now she ignores it.

More importantly, it'll be nice to have a living human in her bed again. It feels wrong, after nearly a year, to have a bed to herself again. And if that person is a beautiful Viking, all the better. "Thank you. I trust you not to let any harm befall me while I'm away, and... I promise not to come back to the land of the living until I've made an honest effort to find your father."

Being young and having a group of brothers that had sex as often as they did, the topic was on Ivar's mind quite a bit. He just wanted to be like everyone else, able to please a woman in bed. Alas, he was unable to, and therefore, lesser than he should have been in his own eyes. He remembers what Margarethe told him, about how sex was easy compared to being a son of Ragnar Lothbrok and finding greatness. He prays that she was right.

"You're a kind woman, Letha. I promise you that no harm will come to you I'm there to watch over you." People never did things just out of the kindness of their hearts for him. He wonders what she wants in return. He supposes she'll get around to telling him sooner rather than later.

"You'd be surprised how seldom I hear that." She mumbles, half to herself, as she gets up and dusts off her skirt. She'll admit, her streak of good luck has once again encouraged her to push her luck. And well, this time she has a god on her side. So Ivar is getting a kiss on the cheek. Arguably platonic, affectionate... gaging his reaction to her touch.

"My bed's the fourth one on the first floor... I keep a skeleton in it, so it's hard to miss." And while she's moving to leave before her embarrassment and nerves over what she just did take hold of her, she won't protest if he pulls her back or follows her.

Ivar very nearly flinches away from the kiss on his cheek. It's a good thing he doesn't because he likely would fall right out of his wheelchair if he did so. Instead, he just scrubs at his cheek like a young child who has received one and is worried about catching cooties.

Later on that night, he makes his way down to floor one. It's a good thing with the festival going on that there aren't many people turning in early. He feels self-conscious enough about this as it is. He's already had to talk himself out of turning the chair right around and going back up to the fifth floor. He puts the brakes on, slides easily out of the chair, and onto the bed. Then he waits for Letha to join him, wondering if he should have worn more than a T-shirt and sweats to bed. What can he say, modern clothes are very comfy for sleeping in.

Like she said, it isn't hard to tell which bed is hers... there's a full human skeleton curled up in the bed, which seems to be grinning at Ivar while he waits.

Letha herself stumbles in shortly after he arrives, finally remembering their agreement after getting caught up in the festival for a while. When she spots Ivar a playful grin appears on her face, and she makes a beeline over to sit beside him. Close enough that if he doesn't move his hand he might risk touching hers.

"I'm surprised you didn't lose your nerve." She teases gently, "Cover your eyes, will you? I need to get dressed for bed."

Edited 2017-04-05 13:19 (UTC)

He's touching a woman and sitting on her bed. And she's about to get undressed. Red alert, this is not a drill. Basically, Letha has just unknowingly discovered the most effective way to make Ivar's entire brain shut down in one fell swoop. He just doesn't know to deal with feelings, especially mushy sentiments like the ones that keep trying to overload his system right now.

It isn't until he realizes that he's going to see a lot more than either of their archaic sensibilities will probably approve of that he turns his head and covers his eyes. "Right. Sorry. Go on." He reminds himself she's a married woman. What they're doing is purely platonic and between friends. Right? Right, of course.

His stiffness doesn't escape her notice, but she just finds it cute above all else. After all, her husband would get stiff like that too and it would always make her want to kiss him. And this is no different, Ivar is so very close and being particularly adorable.

...It's not time for that right now, though.

She gets up and moves to her dresser, shedding her dress as she moves and moving to grab her nightgown. For Ivar's sake she gets ready quickly, and once her hair's loose and her nightgown is on properly she crawls back onto the bed and gently reaches to pull his hands from his face. "You can look now."

It's the first time he's seen Letha with her dark hair loose. She looks very pretty, her skin pale even against the whiteness of her long nightgown. He watches her lie down and he shifts the bones of the skeleton onto the floor so he'll have enough room to do the same. He props up his head with one hand so he can look down at her, and tries very hard not to be distracted by how close she is, so close that he can feel her body heat.

"So how does this work?" The way she's described it makes it sound like she just goes into a comatose state. He wonders if there's anything else that goes along with it or if he's just going to be watching over her sleeping body for the rest of the night.

Honestly, she'd sort of underestimated how frustrating it would be, to be so very close to Ivar and not comfortable enough to flirt. She's still not even sure if she has the moral ground to do so. But... on the other hand, perhaps if she succeeds she can see what his father thinks of the subject.

"I'll be... dead, effectively, until I get back. My body will go cold, and it might not breathe. You won't be able to wake me up once I'm out of my body, so that's why I need someone to keep it safe." She settles into the bed, looking up at him with an affectionate smile on her lips. "But, my daughter should be old enough to stay behind in her own body. So she can keep you company if you like."

There's a small pause before she adds, "If I find your father... is there anything specific I should tell him?"

Somehow, the talk of her body essentially being dead is enough for Ivar to focus on what she's saying rather than what her body looks like. Being next to what was going to essentially be a corpse made it easier to remember why he'd come here in the first place. He had to protect her from all harm. That was his job.

There's a flicker of raw pain that goes straight through Ivar, not only in his face, but in his whole body. It's clear that he's still mourning his father, the only man who had ever believed in Ivar and what he could do. Some days, it doesn't feel like the gaping wound inside his heart is ever going to fully heal. There's so much he wants to pass onto his father in Valhalla, but most of it is far too personal. He remembers what his father last told him and it inspires the message he gives Letha. "Tell him...tell him I was merciless. That his revenge is nearly complete. King Aelle was blood eagled and King Ecbert is soon to follow."

She doesn't understand a word of that, despite vaguely remembering them as historical figures, but she nods along and makes a note to remember it as best she can. Aelle, Ecbert, blood, revenge, got it. The important part is that Ivar seems to be proud of it. Hopefully his father will be pleased to hear the news.

"I shouldn't be too long... but don't get worried if it takes me all night."

Her body gets cold and motionless, and at least her eyes are closed so that he won't have to watch them being dull and blind. Her belly is still noticeably warm to the touch, as her daughter is still functioning normally in there. Out of her body she can feel the strong resonance of Ivar's soul, proud and warm, and tries her best to follow it toward any familiar ties of his. And while she manages to make it to the afterlife, she discovers not only is Ragnar Lothbrok not there, but neither is Nathaniel Regis, nor any person she expected to find.

Part of her reluctance to come back is from the determination to find them, and part of it is stalling to decide whether she should lie to Ivar. He wouldn't know any better... but she's made enough mistakes to not want to risk making him angry again if he ever found out. And anyway, what would she say to him? She's never met Ragnar, she doubts she could say anything convincing to his own son.

Nearly an hour later she returns to her body, and blinks awake, checking to be sure Ivar is still at her side and still not sure what to tell him.

Ivar watches, waiting to see if there will be any physical changes. Really, she looks almost exactly the same, minus the slight rise and fall of her chest that's missing. Her skin eventually goes cold like that of a dead person when he brushes her cheek with a finger. Well, she did say that she would be dead as far as all intent went.

He waits for her to come back to her body, settling down into a waiting pattern. He's used to needing patience before battles, making sure weapons were sharpened, armor was clean, and the other five hundred small tasks that went towards moving an army towards victory. He watches over Letha as he said he would, thankful that most of her roommates were out. Watching over her while she appears to be sleeping would bring up some awkward questions he's not sure he wants to answer.

He notices when her chest suddenly has breath in it once more. Ivar sits up as she blinks her eyes. "Well? How did it go?" He's not sure what level of expectations he should have. What does he know about visiting the afterlife?

There's some obvious disappointment in her face, but... after delaying the trip for so long she's happy to visit an afterlife at all. Even if she now has to explain to anyone she's gotten up the hopes of that she's essentially failed them.

She sits up slowly, her shoulders slumped. "I can't contact anyone who didn't die in this reality." That much was obvious; she couldn't find Ragnar, or her family, or Kravitz. Only dead perimeter guards and lost loved ones of the locals. In the back of her mind she'd been hoping she could cheat the system and dreamwalk with her brother, but. Of course not. "I'm sorry. I won't be able to speak to your father for you."

There was a little bit of disappointment in Ivar, but really, he hadn't been hoping for what was essentially a miracle here. She'd done her best. Her hair, usually so prim and proper, was tousled from laying on the pillow. He reached over and tucked a bit of it behind her ear. "Thank you for trying."

He lays back down, staring up at the ceiling. "Do you mind if I sleep here tonight?" He was too tired to consider dragging himself all the way back to his own floor. He also didn't even fully consider, in his sleepy state, the implications of actually sleeping with her beside him this time instead of just watching over Letha.

She hesitates a brief moment, wondering herself about the implications, before she just shifts closer to him and lays an arm delicately across his chest. "Well... I don't know how likely he is to find out, but I get the sense that Loki will be disappointed if you don't stay the night."

She wonders vaguely if that's enough to count as admitting she was gossiping, but she's too sleepy to worry about the implications. And too relaxed, finally getting to lay in the strong arms of a living man again. She's basically halfway to sleeping again as she mumbles it.

"Mustn't disappoint a god. They're likely to retaliate if you do," he murmurs, intending to close his eyes. Then she's touching him again. That's enough to make his brain short circuit and think of nothing else but the slim, white arm lying across his chest. The bed was wide enough that he could have pulled away to the other side if he really wanted to but...he doesn't want to. Ivar hasn't had much luck with women in his short life. Just being able to lay down with a beautiful woman beside him is more than he could have hoped for.

"Good night, Letha." He gathers up his courage, reaches over, and runs one of his rough hands gently over her cheek.

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introductory mingle: FLOWER FESTIVAL

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