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

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"Oh hey Ivar!"

Turning with a bright smile on his face, Marco greets the Viking, putting down the used game console he'd been checking out and putting a hand on his hip. Ivar's looking the same as usual, with his clothes that have more than the usual amount of metal attached, his decked out wheelchair, nice strong arms, and pretty eyes. There's one little difference, though, that Marco, sharp as he is, picks up almost immediately.

The handkerchief or bandage or whatever it is around Ivar's forearm.

Immediately, Marco's beyond curious about it, but he holds back for a moment, because asking a Viking how he hurt himself seems like a dangerous bet - he'll either get an awesome battle story or a deeply poisonous glare. For the moment, he doesn't feel like risking it, so he plays casual.

"Not really. I mean, there's no magic back home, so I'm a little hesitant. I want to make sure it doesn't kill anyone or anything first."

Unconsciously, he's hiding the tattoo on his forearm a little, and while he wouldn't claim to know why, he does, subconsciously. Because he has his suspicions about what the symbols mean, and who they refer to. Marco might not know the language of whatever's on his arm, but he isn't stupid, even if he's great at some well-placed denial.

"You?"

There he is, looking just as charming as Ivar keeps imagining (shut up, stupid soft feelings). Marco's looking at him with that easy-going smile, and the way his hair looks like he doesn't put that much effort into it, but in a good way. Ivar's just trying to remember not to do anything psychotic, though if he hasn't scared Marco off with his crazy ways, he's probably not going to.

"I never thought about it that way." Then again, unlike some worlds, magic didn't come with a price in Viking legends. People were rewarded by their bravery and heroic deeds by gaining magical items. But even if he had considered it, Ivar likely would have gone through with it. He never really thought of other people except himself and those rare few he cared about.

"I got curious. Thought I might try out." He tries to sound nonchalant about the whole thing, though now he's wondering if maybe it just wasn't all a giant mistake. This could make things very awkward between him and his friend. The last thing he would want was to push Marco away, not after he's already lost someone else so soon.

Marco's seen a fair bit of crazy in his time, and honestly what he's seen from Ivar usually just ends up making him feel nostalgic for Rachel more than anything else. And the truth is, Marco can handle a bit of crazy, if it's aimed at him.

"No one's died so far, though, and apparently they do this every year? I was thinking about it a little, maybe trying, but I'm not a little torn on whether I want to. What if I don't have one?"

Lifting his arms, he hooks his hands together behind his neck, still hiding the marks on his arm, eyes on Ivar.

"You tried it? Really? Whoa. What was it like? You find your soulmate yet?"

"Fuck it if you don't. Ending up with one person for the rest of your life starts sounding terrible the more I think about it." Frankly, right about now, Ivar was starting to regret even getting involved in this whole affair. He could see this second attempt ending just as badly as the first one had.

"Well, the first time matched me up with my worst enemy here, so it's been a bit of a clusterfuck so far." Ending up with Dodger was someone's idea of a bad joke. He was going to have to talk to Loki (both of them) later to see if he'd had something to do with it. The idea seemed right up a trickster god's alley. Ivar got uncharacteristically fidgety at the second half of the questions. "I'm on my second try right now. That's why I came out here, so I could see if I could find who I got matched up with." The expression on Ivar's face going to give him away any second now.

Marco shrugs at that, his head tilting a little, "I dunno. My mom and dad are pretty solid, and they've been together for a long time. I think maybe you find the right person and once you do, it works out. I just haven't found anyone yet. Or, well, I've found a lot of someones, if you know what I mean."

Marco winks at him, though the smile fades when Ivar mentions that the first time it had matched him up with his worst enemy, and that it's been a clusterfuck so far. Head still tilted, dark eyes locked on Ivar's face, mouth still curved into a slight smile, Marco observes, picks up as much from the Viking's body language and expression as possible.

"Yeah? What kind of potion did you get? What's it do?"

There's a wry twist to Ivar's mouth. "Judging by my father, my mother, and my brothers, there must be a lot of someones out there for people." Ivar doesn't have the greatest examples of monogamous relationships that have actually worked out around him. There's Floki and Helga....and that's about it.

Ivar's face completely flushes and he's wondering if it's at all possible for the earth to just swallow him whole so he doesn't have to answer that question. Facing enemies on the battlefield with a chance of ending up dead is a piece of cake compared to this. When his prayers go unanswered, he hesitantly gets out some words. "It was this little piece of paper you press to the skin. The seller said it would make the name of my soulmate show up on my arm. I just didn't really think about how everyone's names here are in English and I don't know enough of the letters to understand what it means."

He rubs the spot the handkerchief is covering in an almost rhythmic motion. Is it too late to just turn and walk away before he makes a fool of himself?

"Hey, not necessarily, you know? Sometimes you've gotta try out a lot of people before you find the one. I mean, it's not like I haven't dated like, a million people."

He's not thinking about why he chose the word 'people' instead of 'girls,' definitely not thinking about that at all.

Instead, he's pretty preoccupied with how Ivar is flushing and looking embarrassed and how it's kind of endearing. Both of Marco's dark brows raise as Ivar explains what he'd gotten and how it supposedly works. Licking his lips, Marco laughs softly and leans in.

"Well, conveniently, and despite certain claims made by certain guys at my old high school, I can totally read English. Show me, and I'll read it for you?"

Also trying not to think about how hard his heart is beating now.

Ivar's perceptive enough to pick up on that one word. People. Not women. It gives him a fair amount of hope. While most Vikings tend to have pretty fluid bisexual natures, he's understood it's not really the same in other worlds. But Marco's words make him feel like maybe he hasn't been misunderstanding this whole time.

Oh, can there just be a natural disaster to interrupt them right now? An earthquake or a flash flood would do nicely. But, alas, he has to deal with his own teenage mortification on his own. Ivar chews on his lips for a moment before undoing the bandage on his arm. He shows off the name to Marco, looking up at him with an endearingly hopeful expression. "Well? What does it say?"

Honestly, Marco's never really thought much about it. During the war, in school, he'd barely had time to consider dating and it had been so normal to go for girls, kinda unthinkable almost, to consider other options. And he hadn't had time to consider other options. After the war, unlike before it, girls had come easy - Marco could basically date whoever he wanted, regardless of how short and skinny he is, just on sheer star power. It had never even occurred to him to consider dudes.

And then Ivar came along. Now it's not 'women,' it's 'people,' because Ivar isn't a woman and Ivar is piquing some definite interest.

If by 'interest,' Marco means like, gagging on his own pounding heart while Ivar undoes the bandages on his arm and exposes it to him. And there it is. Right on Ivar's forearm.

Marco.

"Well."

The corner of his mouth pulls up in a broad, crooked grin.

"Even if I couldn't read English, I could totally read my own name. Unless you know another Marco."

Ivar had never considered men before, at least not in more than an abstract way. Mainly, he'd just followed the example of his brothers at home when it came to pursuing people, and since they all went after women, Ivar had done the same. He'd known from the start no one was going to ever look past his legs anyway. Then he'd come here and Ronan had been his stupid sexy self, which had opened up a whole new world of possibilities when it came to relationships.

Now, here is is, waiting on tenterhooks for Marco to tell him what name is on his arm. There's a long moment where Ivar thinks that Marco's going to tell him another name, or worse yet, reveal it's his own, but have a negative reaction to it.

Then he grins. A relieved smile crosses over Ivar's face and the tight band that's been pressed around his heart eases up enough for him to breathe properly again. "Well, what do you know about that. That's good. I'd have hated to be paired up with someone ugly."

He runs his hand up to the spot where his own name is on Marco's wrist, tracing the letters with his rough fingertips. "This is how you spell my names in runes. Not even many Vikings know how to read them." Is this an excuse to touch Marco? Yes, of course it is.

That catches Marco a little off-guard, the casual way Ivar says he'd have hated to be paired up with someone ugly. Almost immediately, Marco's chest puffs out and he grins.

"Right? And I'm totally cute. You think so, right?"

It's stupid, and childish, but it makes Marco ridiculously happy that Ivar thinks he's cute. When the Viking takes his hand and runs his thumb across the letters on Marco's arm, he looks down at them.

"So I have a temporary tattoo of Viking runes on my arm, huh? Spelling your name? That's pretty awesome."

Ivar's fingertips feel rough and callused against the sensitive skin of Marco's inner arm and he bites his inner lip, eyes on Ivar's fingers against his brown skin.

"Mmmm." Ivar hums in the back of his throat, a teasing tone entering his voice. "Maybe just a bit." Who was he kidding? He definitely thought Marco was very cute, in a way that made Ivar want to pull him down to sit onto his lap. He wouldn't have kept looking for excuses to touch Marco and get him close otherwise.

His hand might just be creeping up Marco's arm of their own accord. Ivar doesn't really feel the need to stop them. It's as bold a move as he's ever made. "As far as first tattoos go, this was a good one to end up with, even if it's only temporary."

"Aw, come on, just a bit? Let's be real, I'm one of the cutest guys in this whole city."

Marco's voice is teasing, joking around, and the way Ivar is looking at him just makes the whole thing more enjoyable. It feels like flirting in a really awesome way, and Marco's really enjoying it.

"Right? I mean, I'm pretty sure back home there's one or two people with permanent Marco tattoos on them but I think you're the only one here. Which makes you even more special than I already thought you were."

A little wink, because he can't help himself.

"I do believe this cuteness is something that requires serious study to verify." This banter with Marco comes easy to Ivar with a way it doesn't seem to do with anyone else. It had started when Marco didn't seem to care one bit that Ivar was in a wheelchair and had just continued from there. It eased something tight in Ivar's chest to be around Marco.

"Would you--" Come on now, breathe. This should have been easier than asking Marco to read the name on his arm and yet Ivar still felt his heart pounding in his ears. "-- would you like to spend a couple of hours doing something?" Doing something. Oh man, could he sound anymore pathetic?

"If it takes that much study to verify, then I'm obviously not as cute as I think I am."

Marco says it with a raised brow, and a slightly crooked smirk, then shakes his head, "Nah, I totally am."

When Ivar asks if he'd like to spend a couple hours doing something, Marco leans over, dark eyes on Ivar's face, and plants his hands on the arms of his wheelchair, grinning at him.

"Yeah, I think I'd like that. I'm sure we can find a thing or two to do around here. I've got a few ideas. Let's go."

Pushing up into a standing position, Marco gestures, and starts off down the street.

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introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

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