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

[leadintheyoung]

[ She listens and watches Clark intently, leaning just slightly forward when the toast drops into the previously empty slots designed for them. Huh.

After two seconds, she turns her eyes back to him and smiles, realizing she forgot herself again. ]

Sorry, I'm Ní Donnabháin, and you are...?

[signifies]

Clark Kent.

[ He holds out his hand to shake hers. ]

If this is your floor, I'm one of your roommates.

[leadintheyoung]

[ She's not familiar with that sort of greeting, but you know what? She'll extend her hand and follow his lead. ]

Well met, Clark. This is indeed the floor where I'll be bedding. I'll try not to be a burden!

[signifies]

[ Clark shakes her hand warmly. ]

I don't think you will be. Everyone takes some time to settle in.

[ His toast pop out. Voila. ]

[leadintheyoung]

[ The gesture is returned with a gentle enthusiasm that speaks to her energy. ]

You have my thanks for your patience.

[ And her head snaps in the direction of the freshly popped toast, which she will be leaning forward to take a good look at. ]

Do you mind?

[ If she takes it, that is. She's not sure if he's hungry or if he was just demonstrating how the construct works for her. It looks dry, like it might carry well across a long distance. ]

[signifies]

Not at all. Help yourself.

[ He takes out butter, two types of jam, and Nutella for her, along with a spreading knife. ]

[leadintheyoung]

[ This part is more familiar to her. Jams and butter aren't such a foreign concept and she'll set to work trying out the butter alongside a jam. ]

Many thanks. May I ask how long you've been in Riverview, Clark?

[signifies]

About a month. I was one of the first here.

[leadintheyoung]

One of the very first? Truly? You must have some insight into this situation, then.

[ The displacement, Riverview's situation, that of those pulled through the portal... and she's taking a bite of that toast. Pleased? Pleased. Quite pleased, even. ]

[signifies]

I'm not so sure about that.

[ He smiles sheepishly. Clark just adjusted to being on an alien world. He's been through it before. ]

What kind of world do you come from?

[leadintheyoung]

Our constructs are a lot simpler, I can tell you that much.

[ It isn't a complaint so much as an observation and she chuckles for it. There's a fond tone steeped about her voice when she speaks. ]

A world wilder than this, to be sure. My people call her Erde. I couldn't tell you if there's anything beyond the Isle, but the Isle herself is a vast land decked with ancient forests, lush hills, high mountains, and a number of plains. There are winding rivers, bountiful lakes, cascading waterfalls, and caves so deep some say you might meet Erde herself should you venture deep enough. The fauna are no less than the flora. Some are as beautiful as they are fierce. My clan lives in the eastern Heartland and many more make their homes across the Isle. I would say our don't reach such heights, but the people of Ardglass make their homes in the northern forests and they would have my tongue for it.

[signifies]

[ Please don't be talking about magical constructs. Clark doesn't get it even though he's tried to. ]

It sounds like a wonderful place.

[ Her description is so vivid. She clearly loves her home. ]

I'm from Kansas, it's farmland.

[leadintheyoung]

[ Nah, they don't have too much in the way of that yet. It's mostly very basic technology at this point, but they're getting there. ]

I like to think so.

[ Ask anyone else and you might get more complaints, but -- ]

Kansas. I like the name! What sort of crops do they grow in Kansas?

[signifies]

Wheat, hay, and corn. My family has a farm there.

[leadintheyoung]

Wheat and hay I'm familiar with, but not corn. What sort of crop is that and... is it peaceful in Kansas?

[ She's fairly curious about that. Not every settlement on the Isle can be said to enjoy anything remotely like peace. ]

[signifies]

It is.

[ Clark takes out his phone to show her a picture of corn. ]

This is what corn looks like.

[leadintheyoung]

[ That is certainly useful! She looks at it for a moment, studying the picture with quick eyes. ]

It looks like a grass vegetable maybe? If it's a fruit, it's a strange one.

[signifies]

It's a grain plant, not a fruit. You can try it out at the festival market here or some of the snack restaurants in the city.

[leadintheyoung]

I think I will. Do you have any other suggestions?

[ Because this lady is quite partial to food. ]

[signifies]

What do you like to eat?

[leadintheyoung]

What don't I like to eat would be a better question! Venison, rabbit... if we're being honest, I haven't met a vegetable or fruit I wouldn't eat. Perhaps something a little less sweet than festival fare? I've had quite enough of that for one day.

[signifies]

I'll make a list for you.

Do you have any allergies?

[leadintheyoung]

I would appreciate that! I do not have any allergies that I aware of thankfully.

[signifies]

Do you have a phone? I can send it to you in a message, so you can look at it whenever you want.

[leadintheyoung]

I do! You can do that? Truly?

[ Forgive her, Clark. Tech is not her strong point. ]