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

[ikols]

[ Star-speckled Billy is always welcome in Loki's personal space. He snatches up his hand and reels him in, close enough to sway as if they might waltz but in ways that would definitely lose them points.

Gold-dust smears on Billy's pretty shirt from the godling's bare chest, oops. ]

Make it a demand and I'll still say Yes for you.

[noassgardian]

[He lets Loki pull him in, huffing out a laugh when that just gets him smeared with dust, but it really doesn't stop him from stepping in, settling his other arm around Loki.]

Dance with me, Loki.

[Billy is plenty fine with being demanding, if Loki isn't going to discourage it.]

[ikols]

Aye, Mister Wiccan.

[ He drapes his arms over Billy's shoulders so he can nuzzle in with a laugh, seeking out the beat of the music to carry it between their hips. Loki's green eyes are darker than usual, dilated, and he watches Billy like he can't decide whether to eat him or ...

All around, the people happy to bask in Loki's influence start pawing at each other, kissing hard and lazy, but with Billy he behaves and descends into none of that. ]

[noassgardian]

I guess you've been having fun, huh?

[And-- wow, so's everyone around them when Billy's eyes scan around them. His attention is quick to return to Loki though as he falls into time with him, moving to the beat of the music as his arms slide around his waist, keeping him tugged in a little.]

What's it like? The powder...

[ikols]

Like the first time you get drunk and feel the floor move on its own. Like a noise so loud your skull swims. Like ... kissing until you forget which lips are yours.

[ A hip bucks playfully at Billy's to give Loki the space to slot a thigh between his legs. ]

I know you're at least familiar with the latter.

[noassgardian]

I'm pretty familiar with all of that, I think. I mean-- I know that wasn't just punch at the New Years party.

[And it hadn't stopped him from overindulging, underage or not. It was a celebration after all, a new start.

Boy, did he get a new start...

They all kind of did, he supposes.

The buck does its intended effect, making Billy part his legs so they're pressed even nearer, fitting against each other easily.]

But if it's like that, it sounds like it's worth a little dusting.

[ikols]

I've no idea what you mean.

[ Even though Loki organised and paid for the entire thing. Alcohol? Surely not! ]

You're sure you want to try the drug? It lasts a while ...

[ Plucking open a few of Billy's buttons, if allowed, Loki searches out his heart; the perfect easel for a golden doodle. ]

[noassgardian]

Uh-huh, of course not...

[Like you can be a Norse god, throw a party, and not have booze...

The way that Loki starts working at the buttons on his shirt does earn a bit of a raised eyebrow, the contact a little electric at first-- it feels like it's been a while since anyone's gotten this close to him, really.]

I don't know-- I mean, I've already had a few beers... and I'm never too sure how out of control I should let myself. I don't want to pull some weird magic.

[ikols]

[ Somewhere in between steadying Stark's fall from sober grace and wrapping his arms around Billy's apprehensions, Loki has become the responsible adult. ]

I'll make sure you're alright, I promise. [ He reaches out to a passing group and dips his fingers in the gold powder, brushing it over the skin atop Billy's beating heart so the drug can sink in. Loki's lips brush along a jaw. ] You can always hold onto me.

[noassgardian]

[He lets Loki brush it on his skin, tilting his head in against the crook of Loki's neck after. Well, if Loki is offering, Billy is taking that literally for the moment-- at least until he gets used to how it's going to make him feel.]

Can I now? [He smiles a little against Loki's skin-- which may actually not be the best place to me considering he's dusted with so much gold, but...

Billy finds he doesn't mind that much.]

Making room for me in the crowd you've collected, huh? That's pretty flattering, Loki.

[ikols]

Don't say stupid things.

[ Running a hand up Billy's neck to sift long fingers through his hair, Loki huffs fondly against his own wishes. Can't be helped. If Teddy isn't here and Billy wants to experience something new while feeling safe, that's the least Loki can do (to assuage some of the lingering guilt from years past) by gathering him in as close as can be. Like a cool pool in the summer heat, his skin remains a balm under the press of Billy's warm body. ]

How is it for you?

[noassgardian]

[But Billy and stupid go hand-in-hand kinda always. But he huffs out a laugh as he straightens himself back up. The contact feels-- sharper somehow. Clearer. The solid press of Loki's body, the way their bodies sway, and he just.

Feels pleasantly light in a way that even the alcohol hadn't made him feel.]

Good.

[He looks up at Loki, eyes half-lidded, lips curled into a warm smile.]

Like I'm floating or something. I feel amazing... and so does this, as a matter of fact. Keep dancing with me, Loki.

[ikols]

[ It feels quite precious to have Billy in his arms again (literally this time, he was too short and, well, cruel before) and to have so much trust imbued in their relationship so easily. Loki continues to dance with him as per the request, stroking through soft chocolate-brown locks and nosing at a rosy cheek.

He shouldn't push his luck, and yet he yearns to ask, ]

Are we friends this time, properly?

[ As he would be friends with Verity, sort of. ]

[noassgardian]

I think so. I hope so.

[Because friends might be what get them through all of this, right? And Billy isn't looking to make enemies, least of all with the guy who shares the bed next to him.]

But it kind of takes two people... what do you think, Loki?

[ikols]

I think we should be, which is annoying because a good friend wouldn't want to convince you to kiss them and cheat on your boyfriend. I could be a bad friend?

[ The weakest of jokes. Points for admitting his angle, though? ]

[noassgardian]

[He pulls away, enough to be able to meet Loki's eyes.]

I don't think you want to be a bad friend though, Loki, or you wouldn't be bringing it up. You'd just do it.

[He gives a wry smile. He's a bit too relaxed at the moment, guards down, to really freak out over something that's been-- kind of obvious anyway.]

This is-- complicated, you know. It's not like I wouldn't want to... like I don't want to.

[He shrugs his shoulders.] I'm not making sense, right? Or I'm probably saying the wrong things.

[ikols]

[ Shame Billy isn't high enough to stop making sense, the perceptive little jerk. ]

You want to?

[ As if he could stop himself brushing along Billy's jaw to bring up his gaze, inches away from a kiss in the dark shadows of the rave, colourful lights rippling over their faces and bodies. ]

Teddy's not even here, we could let it be our secret ...

[noassgardian]

It's a tempting thought. I may be a man in a relationship, Loki, but it's not like I don't notice other guys...

[And he helped age this particular guy up-- and he does like what Loki grew into...

He meets Loki's eyes after a moment, thoughtfully-- or as thoughtful as he can possibly be at the moment anyway. The music thrumming, the way Loki feels against him, and just-- everything going on around them...

It's all very distracting.]

And what would happen after a kiss, Loki?

[ikols]

[ He'd be surprised if Billy didn't find him at least a little attractive, given he all but designed how Loki would turn out. So many choices, so many awful avenues, but he ended up looking like the hero he wishes he could be. ]

Whatever you wanted. More dancing?

[noassgardian]

You know I'm terrible at keeping secrets from Teddy, right?

[He's never been able to, not for long anyway... Or really, in general. Billy isn't a talented liar.]

Definitely more dancing.

[ikols]

You know he'll beat my ass into the ground if he ever finds out, right?

[ The Manhattan slang feels appropriate for what would be, in Loki's imagination, a New York smackdown for Billy's tarnished honour. Impulsively, and because Loki Is the Bad Guy seems to be the only theme that works for him when it comes to taking the burden of that title off anyone else, he ducks in and steals a peck.

Lingers, just for a moment so lips can melt and Billy's warmth be memorised, then straightens up. ]

There, done.

[noassgardian]

I wouldn't let him touch you, Loki.

[Because honestly, he'd be mad at them both. But he returns the kiss after a moment, quick and soft, stretching up to be able to reach.]

No, now done. No weirdness tomorrow?

[ikols]

[ ... Licking his lips just to taste more of Billy. He nods. ]

None. Maybe a little but it won't be, you know.

[ About this. ]

[noassgardian]

Good, because I know there are a lot of familiar faces around, but I'm glad to have you in particular you know.

[And maybe he's being a little looser with his words than he'd normally be, but it feels like it needs saying anyway.]

You don't get to stop being a Young Avenger that easily, you know.

[ikols]

[ His smile turns sad at the edges because Billy is too kind and Loki was never really a Young Avenger. Young Traitor, sure. He can't forgive himself for being such a moronic little duplicate back then, it's humiliating and depressing in one. ]

Okay.

[ Agreeing to keep the peace is a lot easier than letting Billy see him inwardly crumble. Honestly, if Billy weren't here then Loki isn't sure who he would be able to turn to for an actual thread of support and that scares him, he hasn't been alone in so long. He misses Verity horrendously. ]