riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

Entry tags:

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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i. Soulmates - Ink Potion

[Oh what fresh insanity is this. A whole festival dedicated to helping find love. That was touching and weird at the same time. Lyle had more or less just been intending to wander around the festival and just look at things when one of the vendors made him "an offer you can't refuse". Okay, yes he could have refused it and tried a few times, but finally gave in a bought the silly bottle of ink from the vendor.

Supposed to help you find your soulmate was it. Well, worth a shot. Now that he was away from the vendor (because he really didn't need to know if he had used it or not) he rolled up his sleeve and spread it on his arm, leaving the design of a celtic knot on his arm. How oddly appropriate.

Now would someone else have the same pattern? We shall see]

iv. Kiss and Tell

[He was being followed.

Yep, he was definitely being followed. Lyle was sure of it now. These weird lights had been following him around for a bit. He'd stop and turn back to them and they'd come over and hover around him like a swarm of fireflies until he started walking again. What the heck were these things?!

Of course he hadn't encountered anyone yet, but his luck was probably going to change soon]

Edited 2017-09-04 03:34 (UTC)

[aren't the lights nice? Osomatsu really likes them. he's been enjoying his sadly single life, taking advantage of the fun foods and festivities. he is pretty lonely. not that he'd say so out loud.

as he's wandering along, drinking some fancy soda, he comes across his cuddle-buddy! he holds up his free hand in greeting]

Yo! Lyle! How's it goin'?

[Lyle had been a bit distracted with all of the firefly... things around, but when he spotted Osomatsu, walking along also by himself]

Hey there. It's been a while.

[Okay, maybe not, but close enough]

Good. It's going good. Seem to have these lights that won't leave me alone.

You?

[hm? Osomatsu's eyes flick to the lights. huh... he hadn't noticed that they were actually following him]

Uh... Things have been okay! Mostly I've just been working, getting use to my job, an' life here.

[Well at least they seemed like they were to Lyle. They seem to always be around him. Maybe they weren't the same lights. Maybe they were different ones, but they weren't exactly numbered so it was hard to tell they were different than the original]

That's good to hear. You work at the cafe right?

That's right! [hey, he remembered. for some reason, that makes Osomatsu happy. perhaps because Osomatsu's not used to someone paying attention to him, other than his brothers]

It's hard work. I mean, they made me assistant manager when I never had any experience working. So I went from being a NEET to being semi-respectable overnight!

[Maybe Lyle knows - or thinks - he knows a little about that. He always felt that people cared more about his brother than him. As much as it bothered him that Neil was always the more popular one, when they were younger, Neil had been the one he could trust and talk to. Made him wonder sometimes where that had gone]

Hey, that's pretty cool. Congrats. Must be a lot of hard work.

[Osomatsu nods, soaking up the praise]

Have you been enjoying the, uh... I guess it's a holiday? Celebration?

Yeah I am. There's a lot going on here. Never seen a lot of the stuff they are selling right now.

[Like those weird ones that were supposed to help you find your soulmate. Sure that was going to work]

You enjoying it?

[right? it's bogus! Osomatsu does not really believe in things like soulmates. he's not a romantic]

...I guess. Kinda wish I had someone to share it with, though.

Someone to share it with as in a date or someone to walk around with just for company? I can do the second one, but the first might be a little forward considering how few times we've talked.

[a sly grin]

I'll take either. [hehe. they did snuggle, after all! he brings his hands up, linking his fingers behind his head] It's a bit much, though. I just got here, an' already I'm jumpin' into a romantic holiday. And it lasts for more than one day. I can't imagine I'm not the only lonely guy wandering around here.

Yeah, probably not. I'd think there'd be a number of those, guys and girls.

[Too bad it was a little hard to find someone when you hadn't been there that long. Lyle had been there a bit longer, he thought, but it still wasn't too long of a time]

So this is a romantic holiday. If this were happening back home, would you have someone to share it with?

[opens his mouth to answer, then holds back for a brief moment. hm]

Nope. I mean, there's a girl I like, but... we're not... together...

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, kind of the same for me.

[Not going to go into the whole "she was killed" thing. That might ruin the mood here so he'll leave that out]

So... shall we walk, check this out?

[Osomatsu nods, and turns to start heading down the street.

But he smacks right into a... well, it feels like a wall is there, but he can't see any sort of structure. After rubbing his nose, he reaches up, putting his hand against it]

What gives?

[Lyle started to walk with him, but somehow manages to stop himself when Osomatsu suddenly smacks into something, having to brace himself against said invisible wall to stop himself]

What the hell?

[As part of the spell that had been put on them, he somehow knew... they were supposed to kiss. Well, this was awkward]

[super awkward! but Osomatsu feels it, too, that knowledge that they need to kiss if they want to break free. it isn't an overwhelming urge, just a thought. he rubs his cheek]

Is this a game, or part of the festival, or something? [he spots a fairy light hovering over them, just out of reach. they looked so innocent, too]

[Lyle glances around, noticing that the lights that had been following him are hovering there still, out of reach, almost like they were taunting him. He did reach for one of them, but his hand came into contact with a wall as well]

I think this is part of the festival.

[So what do they do now...]

[are they trapped here forever? or just a little while? because maybe they can wait the spell out. but Osomatsu doesn't know for sure]

Man. What a pain. [he looks down for a moment, tapping his foot, then back up Lyle. they aren't the only people who are stuck, it looks like, because he sees someone a few feet away bump into an invisible wall] Someone's having a good laugh at us, probably.

[Well, at least its not just them. He takes some comfort in the knowledge that other people are having the same problem as well. It still doesn't solve their currently situation]

Yeah, I'm sure that they are. It would just like this place.

[He still has that nagging knowledge that they need to kiss. Now the question... should they? Even just to get out of this]

[yeah, maybe? Osomatsu doesn't see any other way around it]

Has this place... Have the people pulled other shit like this before?

Not like this. At least not that I'm aware of. No one's told me otherwise.

[Nope, there is no way around it]

I think we're going to have to kiss.

[well. it could be worse. Osomatsu's not the type of person to refuse a kiss... unless someone was trying to get him sick, or something. but that's another story for another time.

he rubs at his arm, looking away for a moment, before fixing determined eyes on Lyle]

If that's the only way, then we must! [dramatic fist clench]

[Definitely could have been worse. Could have been someone that he didn't know at all. That would have been really weird]

Yeah, I think that's the only way.

[Okay... so here they go. He didn't have an issue with kissing others, but it had been a little while since he'd kissed anyone. Lyle leaned in closer to Osomatsu. It took a moment, but he finally pressed his lips to Osomatsu's]

introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

Lyle Dylandy | Gundam 00 | OTA

iv sorry lyle

it's all good

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