riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

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introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Dragosta celebration
when: The month of September.
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

dragosta

In the days leading up to September 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Dragosta. This holiday is in celebration of romantic love, and seen as a time of the year for Quarantine residents to try to find someone special to cuddle up with in preparation for the cold winter months. Romantic love is highly valued in Riverview Quarantine, as it can foster an incredible sense of wellness and belonging, and is often the cornerstone of found families as well as biological ones. While there are no official city-sponsored parties, there are various holiday traditions and a paid day off on September 8th so anyone who wants to indulge in them with their loved one can do so.

a celebration of romantic love

Rather than anything structured and organized by the city, Dragosta is a celebration usually left up to the citizens of the city to organize for themselves - there are a few traditions that many businesses (obviously) capitalize on, mainly the tradition of special date nights with small gifts exchanged for people who've already matched up or want to. There are also various singles dances intended to help people without partners find someone to share the special holiday with, and a tradition among the various magic users in the city of preparing soul mate potions and spells intended to help people find the person they're meant to be with.

i. soulmates

Almost as soon as it hits midnight on August 31st, booths and street corner vendors are popping up all around the city offering various magical potions and spells in little rows of bottles. The number of types are overwhelming, with a different concoction available for every type of magic that exists across thousands of different worlds. But the purpose of every single bottle and its contents is exactly the same: to help you find love. Specifically, these are the traditional magics that promise to give anyone who uses them the ability to find or identify their soulmate.

These little bits of magic can have various effects on the person using them (reminiscent of the soulmate trope in fiction), depending on the type of magic and the person who prepared them, and the options are almost endless. There are a few comfortable standbys, though, that pop up pretty much every year:

● Rainbow Potion: Tiny bottles of a soft rainbow-colored potion that affects the vision. Once drunk, the potion will remove the partaker's ability to see in color until the first time they meet their soulmate after ingestion, then all the colors will come flooding back.
● Time Spell: Purchasing a time spell will get you a little vial of liquid with a tiny hourglass inside. Pouring out the liquid and turning the tiny hourglass will result in the appearance of a timer counting down on the partaker's skin somewhere - like a moving tattoo, it will count down the days, hours, minutes, and even seconds until the person will meet their soulmate for the first time after the spell is initiated.
● Red Thread: Some residents might've heard of the legend of the red thread of fate, a red thread that is tied between the ankles or little fingers of two people destined to fall in love. Tiny jars with a delicate red thread attached to a note (the contents of which are unreadable) are sold to invoke this legend. Once opened, the user should tie the red thread around their smallest finger on the left side and a red thread only that person and their soulmate can see will appear, tying them together. It may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
● Ink Potion: Small vials of a mysterious black liquid are one of the more common offerings - this liquid, once carefully spread on a portion of the partaker's skin, will result in a tattoo-like marking in a particular shape, that matches the marking that magically appeared on their soulmate!

While these are the most common types, there are almost infinite numbers of other types of potions, spells, and magics intended to help people find their soulmates, of varying type and quality.

A Few OOC Guidelines:
● Soulmate potions/spells can be used multiple times with different partners, and the effect can last as long (or as briefly) as you want it to.
● Since there is a wide variation of different types of potions/spells, they can vary in effectiveness. Feel free to use this prompt for either serious shipping or silly pairings for comedic effect.
● There is no compulsion involved in this prompt. The potions/spells will only show the character who their supposed soulmate is, not compel them to fall in love with the other character.
● Because there is no compulsion or alteration of behavior involved, and all effects are temporary and mildly annoying at most, characters ARE allowed to use them on other characters without asking. If your character wouldn't take one of the potions/spells, one of their friends can definitely spike their drink with a potion or use a spell on their behalf. Also, only one party has to use the potion/spell in order for it to work, both parties do not have to partake, though it is up to player discretion how heavily affected the person who did not partake is.
● A long list of trope ideas and variations can be found here. I've only included specific potions/spells for the most common ones I've seen, but please go as wild as you'd like with the types of potions and effects they have, so long as everyone involved is on the same page.
● Mod questions and plotting regarding this prompt can be found here.

ii. singles dances

All around the city, various businesses are hosting and sponsoring singles dances. These dances are an ancient tradition of Dragosta, originating from the reality of a very early group of displaced arrivals. Observed since the founding of Riverview Quarantine, the events have grown and changed with the times, still serving the interests of the modern citizen. The dances will be advertised throughout the city and range in quality, size, and tone, but they will always have the same objective and methodology: to match people up based on chemistry on the dance floor.

All singles or polyamorous pairings/groups looking to add additional members will sign in at the dance of their choice, and attach nametags or stickers to their clothing - pink, blue, or purple to indicate their preferences in partner (female, male, or any), and a "P" or "D" for "poly" or "duo" to indicate their preference for a polyamorous match-up or only one partner. Once they've indicated these preferences, they head out onto the dance floor, where they can either seek out someone they're interested in or wait for someone to come to them. As the dance goes on, and one person approaches another (or a group or pair), the person (or people) approached can either accept or reject the advances, and after finding someone with chemistry, the happy couple (or triad, etc.) can leave the floor together.

Every person who attends and participates will receive vouchers for free dinners and discounts or gift cards for various places in the city to have a nice dinner and get a present for a new paramour, or two or three...!

iii. date nights

This one is pretty simple: restaurants, clubs, hotels, movie theatres, and anything else in the city that might even vaguely be construed as a date location will be offering romantic date night packages, discounts, and other promotions to the lovebirds of the city. There are a few highly-anticipated special events that crop up every year, though.

One of the most popular are the movies in the park, hosted on almost every night of the month, these are romantic comedies and other good date movies from dozens of realities featuring romantic stories in a multitude of different configurations. Lovers are encouraged to bring a picnic blanket and settle on the grass for a nice relaxed show, or tickets can be bought for special experiences such as the mini-deck, with romantic table settings, wine, and catering with a waiter, or the cuddlebug, where a comfortable couch is set up with popcorn and blankets for the lucky lovebirds to curl up on together. The variations are endless!

Another popular option is a retro-futuristic drive-in experience, where any type of vehicle can be driven up to a temporary drive-in diner for a meal, and then pull up to a temporary outdoor theatre. Once parked, the lovebirds can "park" - that is, cuddle and neck in the car to their hearts' content, probably instead of actually watching the movie.

For this prompt, any type of date night discount is cool to assume, or make a mingle top-level with a special event of your own imagining and earn bonus activity points!

iv. kiss and tell

Something a little different is happening during Dragosta this year - one of the magic researchers at Gramarye, who was recently married and only just returned from her honeymoon, got hit with a confusion spell by accident. A little muddled and love-drunk, she acted on her intense desire to make everyone in the city feel just as happy as her, and shared the love by whipping up a potent spell to do so. As a result, residents will see bright little glowing 'fairy lights' floating around the city throughout the entire month of September. What do the fairy lights do, though?

Two or more characters walking under one of these glowing, floating lights will get stuck for one hour, trapped inside an invisible enclosure with an approximate three foot radius. The only options are to either wait out the hour, or to kiss! Characters will know they're meant to kiss, because part of the magic spell is the sudden and intense knowledge that they should kiss in order to break free. There is no compulsion to kiss, just the knowledge that that's how to get free. What the characters won't immediately know is that any kind of kiss will work - a hand, forehead, cheek, or butterfly kiss will work just as well as a kiss on the mouth, but that will require some experimentation to find out.

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to meet new roommates, for the purpose of getting to know each other, or hit up the mod-posted prompt to create a Communal Housing floor mingle. Or, if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during Dragosta, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: Anya Goo; image ii & iv: unknown; image iii: Raphael Grimm

navigation

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II. All the Single Ladies (Outfits in Starter)

Lola had some... issues, in her personal life. That was kinda directing where she was going and what she was doing for the foreseeable future. More than her powers, more than anything, one thing had her deciding she had to do things. Run, jump, play, anything she could to avoid her own feelings. She didn't want to be the person she would be if she thought about this.

So she was desperate to have fun, and for her that meant take advantage of the many singles dances in the area. She picked through and found two that just felt fabulous in her mind. Both were friendly to the under eighteen crowd, both were themed so that meant new outfits. And neither was about true love.

The Young Love Sock Hop was all about those in the under 25 crowd looking for someone to spend time with, get to know, and just have fun. It had clearly stolen more than a few details from the 1950s (but not all of them accurate due to how many 1950s there have been in the multiverse), it was upbeat and energetic. The drinks were plentiful and mostly non-alcoholic. Lola's dress was one she hoped would make her stand out. Although she matched her hair to her orange belt and scarf. Since this dance wasn't really aimed for anything serious, there were no markers for poly or duo, instead you wore an age range. Lola's listed 15-22.

Grandeur of Love was open to anyone who didn't want to go home alone. The party was about style and, well, fun. Set in one of the ritzier hotel ballrooms the party offered fine dining, fine music, and fine looking people. With more than a few rooms for the party goers to... avail themselves of. While nothing about the party suggested 1920s, Lola decided a flapper dress was the way to go. Hair a dark metallic purple to offset the silver bangles she wore in it for the party. Which wasn't a bad call, anything that could be gilded was in this place. The bubbly was more than available and everyone was alive and having fun. Lola's name tag was marked with purple for her zero cares about who she spent time with, and both a P and a D because anyone willing to give her some time and attention she'd take it.

IV. Kiss Kiss

You would think, after the first few times, Lola would learn to stop getting distracted by sparkly faerie lights. You'd be wrong. What? They're just so pretty! Anyone she knows and isn't into she'll just offer a quick kiss to get them out of here. Strangers get the same unless they creep her out.

People she has actual feelings for... well... that's another matter.

I, III, and Wildcard

Lola's kinda in an overall bad mood, but she's distracting herself with anything she can. If you would like to plot out anything, soulmates shenanigans or a date prompt, contact me on plurk, Discord, or via PM.

Lola had spent the better part of her day wandering the city following this stupid soulmate spell. See... it was a little compass tattoo that appeared on her left wrist. It pointed toward her soulmate. That was the advertisement. That's how this should be. Super easy, even an idiot like her could do that!

Every few seconds it'd jerk in the opposite direction, then a few seconds later it'd jerk back to where it was originally point. Or near it. The thing was, like, not getting a GPS signal or something! This was the worst. Eventually after a day of wandering she went back to Communal Tower.

...and now it's pointing in the same-ish direction. The variation wasn't the pronounced thing it was before? Whatever it was one of the two targets seemed pretty still to her and close based on how it was acting. Just... up. She took the elevator floor by floor until the arrow had flattened out to say she was on the right floor. (Nobody appreciated this, by the way.)

Floor 6? She'll just tentative knock on the door she's very used to entering wondering who it's pointing to. Suddenly she's a lot more nervous than she was five seconds ago.

Ed was having one hell of a day himself, and not for very different reasons than Lola. He'd taken one of those potions basically as a joke and the damn thing had turned him color blind, which wasn't the worst scenario he had been in, going blind made this pretty easy in comparison. It was just annoying, and he wasn't sure how long it was going to last but after three weeks with no vision in Attollo he didn't exactly have his hopes too high.

After awhile of trying to enjoy the festivities despite the romantic nature of the holiday, Ed gave up. He returned the communal housing to get away from the whole thing and absorb himself into his work - which is exactly what he'd been doing when the knock on the door came. He really didn't want to deal with anyone, and had been mostly ignoring his room mates even if they were present - except no one else around when the knock came, as far as he could tell. Which meant he got up to answer it himself.

"Lola?" Okay, by now Lola could literally be here for anyone, but honestly with the whole romantic holiday this month and the stupid soul mates thing Ed figured there was a chance she was here for someone specific. "I don't think Yuffie's here." She could have come in through the window while he was busy absorbing himself into whatever studying he had been doing, but he doubted it.

Lola had already walked in past Ed, before he managed to say who wasn't here. With that tidbit she let out a breath she'd been holding. She wasn't really sure of how much she was anxious about that. It wasn't like the potion was meant to be, you know, for real. It was a joke. A laugh, look how much it doesn't work. But if it pointed her to Yuffie that'd hang over their... weird, naked, whatever it was they were doing. So a part of her was glad Yuffie wasn't here.

And a part of her wanted to know when it swung back to it's target on this floor, it was pointing behind her. There was only person behind her now. Lola sighed, "These potions are dumb."

Lola held her arm out and walked back over to Ed, so he could see her little compass on her wrist, that alternated between something out in the distance, and him. This isn't awkward at all!

Marco is not distracted by faerie lights, at least not more than he's distracted by any other weird phenomenon he's trying to avoid. Unfortunately, while he's trying to avoid one of them, he ends up getting caught by another one, quite a bit higher up than the one he's had his eye on.

The curse of being short.

It's only after another couple steps forward that he realizes his mistake, and a second after that he's plowing into the person in front of him, who he hadn't even seen. Funnily enough, he recognizes the scent of her before he registers who he's run into, and he reaches out to catch at her shoulders.

"Whoa, sorry Lola!"

Smelling people is weird Marco. She's a little grateful for the catch, she could have probably managed on her own, but the help was appreciated. This of course left Lola with a bit of an issue. There was a way out of this trap. "Hi, Marco."

She turned and looked at him, there was definitely something a little off about her affect. It wasn't the tired thing, it was more... she just wasn't the same bubbly vapid thing she normally is. She was studying his face more than looking at his clothes. She just felt a little but off her A game. Like she wasn't sure about what to do. Which was a very un-Lola look.

Look, no one knows better than a guy who's morphed dog how much scent factors in to memory.

Either way, what's more important is that Marco can tell something's up with her. He's never really been the perceptive or emotionally intelligent type. He's not Cassie or anything, but he can tell there's something wrong with Lola, or at least that she's not the same as usual.

"Hey. Wow, this is awkward."

Doesn't make it less weird.

Lola's going to just lean against the bubble, and pout. Lola's decent at hiding her emotions when she's online, using text or voice to just hide her face which clearly shows she's in a less than good place. Here... it's just visible.

"We could just make out and go our separate ways."

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introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

Lola Pacini | OTA (Will match formats.)

@alchemyfreak @thegreatninja

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iv. fall in love

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