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

You're naked in a shower with me. That ups your interesting factor by at least five.

[He was smirking, trying to move past whatever weird stumbling block had been set between them.]

It's all for fun, Detective. Maybe I'll get one in the flesh. It's apt enough, don't you think?

[She catches on to that. And while there's a brief pursing of her lips in obvious displeasure at that, she lets it pass quickly enough.]

This place does seem to love its fun. [Too much so, in her opinion.] Apparently that carries over into weird potions and supposed 'soulmate' marks, apt or not.

Would it be so bad, mm? Being soulmates with the Devil when your conception was the literal work of God?

[His hand lifted to let him trace along the outsides of the mark, circling around it on her chest as he waggled both brows at her like the absolute cheeky shit he was.]

It's got nothing to do with being good or bad. I just don't believe in soulmates.

[She can hear him already, scoffing at her perpetual skepticism when faced with the literal Devil. She's no fool; while she may be willing to believe that her and Lucifer were supposed to meet, she didn't like the idea of someone else pulling that particular string.]

Besides, you're the one that got pissed off at the idea of me being manipulated by God in the first place. I would've thought you'd be more upset.

Of course, love. There's a rather large difference between being manipulated or forced into something and possibly not having a choice in the hows and whys of it, and in affirmation that the choice you've made is the right one for you. Not Him. Not the universe. But... us.

That's kind of the point of soulmates, isn't it? Having some predestined partner that you're supposedly meant for? Doesn't seem like there's a lot of choice involved.

That's one way of looking at it. But there's still a choice there. You were with others before me, yes? Nothing stopped you from doing that. Nothing would be stopping you from picking up and leaving right now. Therein lies the difference, Detective. There's a choice. I'm hoping you're opting to choose to be with me.

What? Of course I'm choosing to be with you. That's why I'm saying I don't—

[She shook her head, dispelling the thought before she could form the words.]

You're my partner. I'm with you because I want to be. Not because some mark tells me I should want it. I don't need the universe to affirm anything for me.

But this isn't our universe.

[And therein lay the fun, Chloe. New rules. New concepts. No Dad.]

It doesn't matter. I'm still me, and you're still you. This thing?

[She gestures to the mark on her chest, as if to say 'exhibit A'.]

—doesn't change that.

No, but it does look lovely on you.

[He took a step forward, moving to pin her to the wall of the shower.]

Makes me wonder if there's any other marks I should look for.

[Snorting at that comment, she can't help the small smile of amusement that rises as her back presses up against the shower wall. And maybe it's just the cool surface meeting her naked back, or his proximity, but she shivers at the contact.]

Please. There's nothing there that you haven't put there yourself.

Well, maybe there is. Maybe someone else out there had done something with a bottle of magic and now you're the 'soulmate' of fifty other. I won't know until I look, will I?

If that's the case, I'll be sure to let you and my other fifty soulmates know.

[Really, Lucifer, she came here to shower. Though if he did decide to press on, he wouldn't find any other marks of the sort. Seems whatever magic had spilled on them did not tie her to anyone else.]

Cheeky brat.

[He wasn't going to put any effort into searching with her just then, more interested in lowering his head to let his lips tease over hers.]

As long as I'm the more important one.

I suppose I can pencil you in at the top of my list.

[Said with a smirk against his lips as she pulled back, just enough to watch him.]

Why are you so into this whole mark thing, anyhow? I thought you would've found it silly.

I do, of course. I just... well. I suppose there's some strange new part of me that enjoys seeing something like that. Something that's... us. You. Me. It's not exactly in a place the rest of the world can see, but I like knowing it's there.

Mm.

[A soft sound of acknowledgment at that, as she mulls those words over. He'd said something like them a little earlier. At liking the concept of other people knowing they were a... well, they. And suddenly it seemed to make a little more sense.]

You like knowing it's there because it's something concrete. Evidence.

Yes! Exactly. I figure you'd know all about that, Detective.

[Now she was getting it. He smiled, hands braced on either side of her head on the shower wall, keeping her pinned in as the water splashed down on his back.]

[She let him crowd her against the wall, knowing he had other things in mind, but her eyes trailed to the innocuous mark on his chest that mirrored her own. For the first time since she saw it this evening, she reached up to touch it, trailing her fingertips over the shape of it.]

You know, if the old woman's rambling about this whole potion thing is anything to go by, this is supposed to fade after awhile.

Mm, I'd heard that while I was out earlier as well. Mind, I didn't let some old woman shove anything in my pockets...

[He grinned still, leaning into that touch, but his smile stilled for a moment as he thought further.]

Pity. It really does suit.

She was persistent, alright? Kind of like a certain someone else I know.

[She stilled for a moment as well, mulling that statement over before she spoke.]

I'm sure there are other things that would suit just as well.

Oh? Well, color me curious, love. What else did you have in mind?

[He was still smiling, though his hands slid down to her sides, moving so that he could turn them, to let her be under the spray since yes, she had come in to shower.]

Some kind of token, maybe. That matches.

[She doesn't really have an exact item in mind for them, specifically, aside from the obvious that she's not bringing up. Because that wasn't in the cards.]

What, like... a pendant? A pin?

[A ring? Oh, well... there was a thought.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

introductory mingle: DRAGOSTA

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[rises from the smoke like mushu] I LIIIIIIIIIIVE

Liar

You're right. I'm a zombie

.... Jeebus?

Nah. I don't care much for feet.

snort

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