introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

[riverviewmod]

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

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Kate Fuller [OTA] From Dusk Till Dawn

[littlemisskate]

Soul Mates

[ooc: Open post for Soul Mates. Pick one and run into her at any point! If you can't pick her default is Red Thread.]

[Kate pauses to take a look at the bottles that had begun popping up all over the city. They were colorful and bright and while she knew their purpose, she wonders how well they worked. She picks up one of the bottles, eyes it's contents curiously.]

To love is to love the unlovable. [Her voice is soft but audible to those around her.] Love is unconditional. There is always love. God loves us and we love each other. [She remembers someone from home, a smile and a worried twist to his brow. How is he doing? Her chest aches and she finds herself paying for the potion.

As she walks away she pulls off the cork and uses the bottle. 'If he's here…' She thought desperately to herself. Wondering if this might help her find the people that she loves. Does it have to be romantic love?

For the rest of the day, Kate can be found around the city or at work. She doesn't know who her soulmate is or what the potion will do; not yet.]

Kiss & Tell

[Kate loves fireflies. They light up the sky in a storm of color, dotting and shining in the night like a beacon of hope. These fairy lights remind her of fireflies and she feels herself drawn to them.

Her sneakers echo softly on the ground as she pauses beneath one. She doesn't notice the other person with her nor has she been warned of the fairies effects. Her eyes widen as the knowledge pulses through her. It's like a dream. She knows that she has to kiss or wait but she can't explain how she knows. It's just... a feeling.

She turns towards her partner, her lips pulling into a delicate frown.] What do you want to do? [Will a kiss on the cheek do? Or does it have to be the lips. It's only a kiss but Kate hasn't kissed that many people.]

Wild Card

[ooc: If you want to run into Kate around the potion stands, at the dances or date night I am open for whatever. Hit me up here with something or on plurk. mizuyoko]

iv

[franciscoramon]

[ This just so happens to be the first time Cisco has wandered into this situation, too. He had been drawn to the lights, as well, but less because they remind him of fireflies and more because there's something odd about the way they're glowing that he's never seen before. He'd wanted to investigate them, see what kind of tech would produce that particular twinkling glow.

And then that knowledge rushed into his head, and left him blinking, coming to grips with it. Such an odd feeling of certainty, that kissing is the only way out apart from waiting, but he doesn't trust that certainty. Any process that involved beaming information directly into his brain was shady as hell, and he's not fond of being a puppet.

All of which are thoughts that distract him from noticing who he is trapped with - at least, until she speaks, and he turns his head quickly: ]

Kate?

iv

[littlemisskate]

[Kate isn't sure what to do in this situation. Cisco is her friend but it is only that. The knowledge buzzes around her head like an insistent bee. You know that you're going to get stung eventually but you don't know when it's going to happen. Cold prickles against her sink and her throat suddenly dries uncomfortably.]

So we wait? [She asks, sounding a little unsure.]

Did you get the- [Kate's voice trails off when she tries to explain the mental upload she had just received from the fairy. She hopes that Cisco knows, somehow this whole situation will feel more awkward if she has to explain it to him.

To finish her sentence her fingers wiggle at the side of her head.]

[franciscoramon]

Yyeaaaahhhh, sure did.

[ Cisco squints upwards, at the lights, looking very displeased with the situation. Not because he's stuck with Kate - she is a delight, someone who he really unreservedly likes, and one of the people in this place who is inclined to trust a bit more than others. It's not the potential danger or inconvenience of the trap, so much as the sheer gall. ]

Seriously though where do they get off, putting shit like this up? Like, what kinda meddling weird ass high school bullshit is this?!

[ He is getting heated and indignant, but stops when he realizes that Kate might misunderstand, think any part of it is directed at her. He sighs, shoulders slumping, and says: ]

Sorry. I'm just... starting to get a little tired of the magical bullshit, y'know? With the amnesia spores and now the... evil kiss traps or whatever.

[littlemisskate]

[Kate's lips curl together as she tugs at her hair.]

It's fine. I can understand the frustration. [She feels it too though Kate is a lot more contained than most.] I don't understand it though. This holiday is all about finding love. [Which Kate and Cisco have both currently sworn off.] I don't see how being trapped together for an hour or kissing is going to do anything expect upset people. [It makes no sense.

Kate wraps her arms around her waist as she looks up at the fairy. Maybe it's an accident? Like the spores or rain though she doesn't know where the faeries had come from.]

What if it's a kiss on the cheek? Do you think that'll be enough? [She sorts through what she knows and given the mental download she's surprised that it doesn't specify.]

[franciscoramon]

Somebody's idea of a joke. They can't really think getting stuck in a weird invisible box together and kissing your way out is going to result in any kind of sustainable relationships?

[ Cisco does think that, maybe, there may end up being a few random hookups as a result - if the right kind of people at the right level of inebriation end up getting stuck. But for everyone else it is just a huge pain in the ass.

Kate's suggestion of a kiss on the cheek seems too good to be true, at this point. But it's certainly worth a try. Cisco gives a shrug, hands fidgety and uneasy at his sides. Even if this is Kate, who he is friendly with, it's awkward and uncomfortable, kissing her on the cheek because he's forced to. He gets it over with quickly, leaning in and planting a quick kiss against her cheek. There is no sound, no shimmer in the air, but when he reaches out with both arms, trying to feel those invisible walls, they are no longer there. ]

Oh thank god.

[littlemisskate]

[Kate isn't particularly happy about the faeries and their games but she is happy when a kiss on the cheeks seems to do the trick. She exhales a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding when they managed to step outside of the affected area.]

This feels like a horrible twist on a children's book. [She looks up at the sky and see's more of the lights flickering and dancing along the street.] How far away do we have to stand to not get caught by them?

[It feels like a silly thing to have to worry about but Kate imagines that it's worse when you happen to get stuck with a stranger.]

[franciscoramon]

I'd give it a good, healthy four or five feet. 'Cause that was aboooout... [ Cisco steps back a few times, sizing up the area they'd just been stuck in. ] The bubble or whatever it was around us was a circle, I'm guessing about a three foot radius, so if you leave that much of a gap walking by, hopefully...

[ But it wouldn't be proper science if they didn't actually give it a try, and even if he did just get out, attempting to figure this out with Kate is definitely preferable to being uncertain and being trapped with someone much worse. So Cisco carefully steps around five feet apart from her, and then walks past where she is, still near to those same lights. Sure enough, he keeps on walking, unimpeded. ]

Yeah, so, that's actually a pretty narrow window, should be easy to dodge these from now on.

[ Or so he thinks. For now, though, he is free and clear, so he says: ]

Sorry. About the...

[ And he just points to his own cheek, assuming the rest of the apology will be self evident. It had gotten them out, but even so, he feels like he ought to apologize. ]

[littlemisskate]

[It isn't hard for Kate to follow Cisco's train of thought. To make it easier she stays where she's standing and watches as Cisco tests the radius in which to avoid people. Kate doesn't want to have to deal with these fireflies but if she's going to test how to avoid them with someone, she'd rather it be Cisco. At least he wouldn't get the wrong idea about anything.

His apology made her laugh and shake her head.] You have nothing to apologize for unless you were the one to let these things go. [It's seriously better than it could have been.]

And now we know.

[Cisco has been constantly a good friend to Kate.]

It's a shame their so pretty. [She says, looking up at the flickering lights.]

[franciscoramon]

Yeah, no way, and I better not find out who let them loose, either.

[ He says it with plenty of sass, but ultimately it is an empty threat - at most all he would do would be to give that person a strong talking-to about what a stupid idea it was, and ask what they'd been hoping to accomplish in the first place. ]

It is a shame. [ But at least one good thing had come out of this; running into Kate. Cisco turns to her, asks: ] You busy? I was gonna grab a bite to eat, you're welcome to join me.

[ It's been a little while since the two of them have had a chance to speak, and Cisco has some gossip he wouldn't mind sharing with her. Besides, he likes spending time with her, and is rather curious what she thinks about all this soulmate nonsense that's been going on through town. ]

[littlemisskate]

[Kate shakes her head.] No. I was just heading home for the day. [She has no other plans besides cleaning up and that's the sort of thing that's easy to push back and do another day... any other day.]

Where are you headed?

[She steps forward before pausing.]

How about you lead and I follow.

[Just in case.]

i. soulmates?

[chaosvessel]

[Holidays meant little to Vincent, and he had no interest in this world's...whatever this was. It seemed almost insulting, really, some mockery of love, not that he'd paid too much attention to it from the onset. He was still exploring, when not on shift as a guard, getting to know the place, which meant he did at least pay a cursory attention to the holiday as preparations went underway, but not to any of the potions being offered, or anything like that.

And so the red string curling about his finger, trailing down the street and around a corner, was strange and unexpected. Allowing curiosity to get the better of him, he decided to follow it. It led around the corner, eventually to a...bar?

He stepped inside, his own crimson eyes following the thread to the bar and...Kate...?

He stepped over. Liquor did nothing for him, due to the entity that dwelled within, so he didn't have a seat. Surely she'd notice.]

i. soulmates?

[littlemisskate]

[Even after drinking the potion, Kate is surprised to see the red string wrap magically around her finger and then curl out of sight. She had a mind to follow it except that she had to head to work, she doesn't want to be late and she doesn't think that the string leads to anyone in Quarantine.

The bar is slow since it's midday and Kate finds herself standing off to the side drying glasses and putting them away. She stands out with her cute features and the silver cross that is always hanging around her neck.

The string lifts and pulls Kate's attention to the figure standing at the side of the bar.] Vincent? [Her voice is soft and confused. She knows that she drank a potion but Kate hadn't expected for it to attach itself to anyone here.

Kate looks down at the red string around Vincent's finger.] I'm sorry. I drank one of those silly potions. [She knows that Vincent wouldn't have drank anything like that and the thought that she'd been caught is starting to make her blush.]

i. soulmates?

[chaosvessel]

[The blush did very cute things to Kate's already endearing face, but it only made him look away as though he'd caught her in some sort of compromising decision. You'd think, after all he'd seen and been through, that a woman wouldn't have that sort of influence over him, but here he was, awkward as ever, and uncertain what to say.

His downward-cast gaze called his attention once more to the thread laced around his finger and he frowned, not looking back up.]

...why...did it choose me?

i. soulmates?

[littlemisskate]

[Kate turns and signals to the other person standing behind the bar that she's going to step away. She moves closer to Vincent so that he's blocking most of her from view, making their conversation a little more private.

Her fingers began to curl as if she is tempted to fiddle with the red string tied around her finger. She wonders how long it will last.]

I don't know. I hadn't thought it would connect with anyone here.

[Kate doesn't have a lot of experience when it comes to love but she believes that you can love someone and have it not be in a romantic way. All the people she loved and felt close too were back at home: her brother and the Gecko's. She has friends here but it never felt the same, as if this world and life is somehow disconnected from what she knew.

Now that her eyes follow the red string to Vincent's finger, she wonders if there is more here than she thought.] It's some sort of magic. [She admits as she tilts her chin up to meet Vincent's gaze.] I don't understand how it works.

i. soulmates?

[chaosvessel]

[Vincent was fairly gifted at blocking views, with his sweeping cape. Kate wouldn't even be the first person to ever use it to hide. Aside from the literal, Marlene for instance, Vincent himself used it to hide quite often. He came off as cold, distant, when in reality, he was very nearly debilitatingly shy.]

You...left someone behind.

[That was also a pain he knew well. He found himself wondering if Kate, too, had left that person ignorant as to her feelings, or if the chance to confess her feelings had been stolen from her when she'd died.]

...probably some kind of trick.

[It wasn't stated maliciously.] For...the holiday. [Like personal fireworks.]

i. soulmates?

[littlemisskate]

[Kate shakes her head softly.] I don't think that a soulmate has to be someone you love romantically. I think it can be anyone that you care about. [From Kate's point of view, these things aren't black and white. Love is deep and complicated and you can't just tag someone as your soulmate.]

In that sense, I left a lot of people behind. My brother, most of all.

[Her lips tug into a wistful smile as she meets Vincent's gaze. She never found his eyes unsettling and she liked looking at him when they were talking like this.]

It might be a trick but I think that we were meant to meet. [Her voice is soft but confident.] Some people are destined to cross paths and I think that no matter what happens from here on out we'll cross paths again. So, [She pauses, releasing a short breath of laughter.] I don't think that it's a trick. It might be miss leading but I think it's important; to know who you care about when there are so many things making life complicated.

[She has hope and she knows that Vincent is someone who is important to her.]

i. soulmates?

[chaosvessel]

[He words swirled around in his mind, mixing with feelings that hadn't seen the light of day in years, but which had been swelling back to the surface recently as though to mock him. They were memories that belonged in his own fevered dreams, and they gave him something he wasn't certain he deserved: hope.

She thought they were destined to meet? He shouldn't even be alive. There was no way he was part of anyone's destiny, regardless of purpose. He frowned, looking away from her.]

Destiny...doesn't have anything to do with it.

i. soulmates?

[littlemisskate]

[A lot of thins have changed for Kate but she believes in hope. No matter how dark things got, there is always a bit of good in it... sometimes it's just hard to see.]

You don't think so? [She asks with a curious inflection.] I believe in destiny. I feel lucky to have gotten the chance to know you.

[Their meeting at the fireworks could have been chance but there really is no way to know.]

i. soulmates?

[chaosvessel]

[I feel lucky to have gotten the chance to know you, she'd said, and those words ran about in his mind for a while, not connecting with anything recognizable. No one had ever said something to him like that. She didn't know him, he hadn't even said much to her in the first place, but she was glad for the chance? Most tended to avoid him, seeing him as cold, distant, aloof and without concern. Kate wasn't frightened of him, nor had she ever seemed to be, and now she was saying she was glad for the chance to know him.

And she believed in destiny. It left him with all sorts of questions, and he frowned as he looked up from the red string trailing whimsically between the two of them.]

...when does Destiny end?

i. soulmates?

[littlemisskate]

I don't think it does.

[Kate looks up at him, undaunted by his demeanor or stature. Vincent is complicated and hurting but he isn't so unlike others she's met through her journey through Mexico. She believes... even if he doesn't. She'll believe enough for the both of them if she has too. She won't let anything beat her down.]

I get off of work soon.

Do you want to do something?

kiss & tell;

[followhim]

[he had already been stuck in the cloud when kate walks into it. he wouldn't kiss her unless she wanted to, but he's willing to hang out with her for an hour if that's what she'd prefer.]

It's up to you. I wouldn't want to kiss you unless you wanted to.

kiss & tell;

[littlemisskate]

[Kate pauses as the rush of information slips into her mind. The longer she thinks about it, the more that it doesn't make a lot of sense. What will people kissing each other do?]

Um... do you kiss people a lot?

[She has nothing against kissing him however Kate isn't as practiced as others. It came with growing up as the preachers daughter and then the hell she had faced in Mexico. She hasn't had a lot of time to think about kissing.]

[followhim]

Not that often, actually. [he laughs. that struggle when your girlfriend is space. he dedicated all his time to fighting in the war when he was back home; it's still weird to be in a place where war isn't the number one concern 24/7/365. or whatever the galactic standard was w/e ok.] But I've kissed people before. I promise it wouldn't be too painful.

[littlemisskate]

[A smile twitches at the corner of Kate's lips.]

That's good to know. I'm a little out of practice. [It's hard to find the time to think about kissing when you're fighting vampires and trying to stop your brother from being a murderer.]