empatheias_ooc | Zephyras Flower Festival 2016: Details

— ZEPHYRAS FLOWER FESTIVAL 2016: DETAILS —

Just like last year, due to how big this event is in terms of activities and things to do, we're posting the details a few days early to allow everyone to go ahead and plot ahead. There is also a separate plotting post that doubles as a CR Meme. The meme was originally set to be for next month, and the HMD for this month, but the are getting swapped for this purpose.

Because we are repeating a number of the "traditional" activities, most of these will seem familiar. However, there are a few new special ones, so please read it all and enjoy!

» SCHEDULE

The first and most important thing everyone should be aware is the schedule for this event. In game, the festival does not occur until the 15th. ICly it lasts for three days (basically over the weekend) and ends on the 17th. However, three days is definitely not enough for everyone to get their tags and threads in, or at least started. So OOCly, we are posting the event log ahead of time. It will go up on April 13 and everyone will have until ~~April 18~~ April 20 to do their tags and threads before everyone can officially move onto the next scheduled item. That of course doesn't mean you can't continue tagging, but that's the timeframe for scheduling purposes.

So here's the quick reference break down:

4/12: Flower King and Queen sign-ups/nominations begin (OOC headstart)
4/13: Main Event starts; FKQ voting starts
4/14: FKQ sign-ups/nominations close 11:59PM CST
4/15: FKQ voting ends 11:59PM CST
4/16: FKQ results posted
4/20: Event Finale

The only thing that's kind of being crammed is the Flower King and Queen portion of the event, but since the actual process is happening OOCly and, based off last year, everyone usually front loads early so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. More details on that is further down.

» THE TRADITIONS

All right, we've mentioned it a few times, the most recent being in our April Mod Announcement. However, for the sake of easy reference and to help our new players, here it is one last time! For the full discourse, refer to our Seasonal Events page. For the quick and dirty bullet points, keep reading.

New year. Surprise, the Empatheian calendar starts in Ena (April) as they're more of a seasonal calendar and the spring season seems like an auspicious time to start the year. They used to celebrate on the actual first, but the flowers don't really start to really bloom until the middle of the month, so they switched it.
Three things to celebrate. The festival is a dedication to 1) the new year; 2) the new season; 3) love.
Matchmaking origins. That's right, this festival used to be all about matchmaking and getting couples together, with marriage celebrated later in the summer. It's less so now.
Flower King and Queen. Basically your standard beauty/prom contest. Individuals sign up or are nominated and everyone cast their votes to get the winning couple. They get to spend the rest of the festival together—for better or worse.
Tribute to Elios. Since last year, the festival is now dedicated to Elios. Which only makes sense, right?

And that's the festival in a nutshell.

» SETTING

Just so everyone can already figure out where everything is, this year the festival is being held just outside of town near the southwestern area between the lake and western river. For vague idea of where that is, it's here. (Obviously not covering that entire area.)

The festivities are spreading all over various wildflower gardens, clearings, fields, and the shores of both the lake and river. With how spread out everything is and with the amount of activities available, it's almost more like a carnival.

» SPECIAL FLOWERS

Last year, everyone received a special flower from Elios that would bloom the more connections and bonding type emotions were formed. He's not doing that this year, but the festival staff have prepared a substitute. In fact, this may now be a new tradition in the making.

Everyone who enters the festival grounds will be handed one of these flowers and either when the flower has fully bloomed or at the end of the festival, they are to be turned in. If someone manages to make the flower bloom before the end of the festival, they have the option to either keep it around or turn it in and start a new one.

» FLOWER KING AND QUEEN

All right, it's time for everyone to understand what's going on and how.

Process. There's no need to get in costumes or parade down an aisle. This is more of a contest where photos are placed up and people cast their votes based on the photos.
Setting. The staging area for this year is going to be just outside of the city by the lake shore. Instead of a plain billboard and printed pictures, it's all magitech this time. Utilizing air cores, the team has devised special levitating screens that will display all the pictures for the candidates. They even have a photo area in case those interested want to show themselves off with some waterside backdrops.
Nominees. As briefly alluded to, participants can either nominate themselves or be nominated by someone else. The staff don't care, they think it would be even more fun, honestly. Heck, the staff might even nominate someone on their own! Just pretend they're doing a survey and bam, they got their information. So if you want your character on the list and need a reason, there you go. For those who are ICly signing up, the only requirements are:
- Must be done on site.
- Must prove the candidate is a real person (this can be done by just slyly bringing the would be candidate by and give a conspiratorial wink and nod at the staff)
- Provide a picture or a set of pictures.
When it comes to the picture, it doesn't have to be a physical copy. We live in an age of telepathy! All the participant (or nominator) needs to do is telepathically send an image of the candidate to one of the staff and it'll go up on the board. Yes. That means the submission could actually be completely "fantasized" so long as it remains realistic. (Tl;dr fanart is allowed have fun) In addition, candidates can be in both categories. Of course if they somehow win both categories, then they will be placed in whichever position they had the most votes in and the runner up of the second category wins.
Gender does not matter. Men can be Queens and women can be Kings. The final pair could be both men or both women.
Voting. We'll repeat this in the post itself, but here's how it'll work.
- Vote on site. Anyone can vote, but this time it must be done at the site. However, no worries. For those who are shy and don't want to show who they are voting for, there are special curtained booths that voters can go into. And you can better believe staff will drag anyone who even comes within sight of the area to vote. ADDITIONALLY, there will be plenty of volunteers with miniature screens going through the festival grounds and may solicit votes at random. They are also annoying and won't leave unless the person actually runs away. They'll keep track of who they talk to so people won't get hit twice, but this is an option for those who want their character forced to vote and need a reason to do so. (When in doubt, blame pushy NPCs.)
- Vote for anyone and everyone. Voters can vote for as many candidates they want, but they can only vote once per candidate. So if there are 5 candidates, a character can vote for one or all five. However, once they cast their vote, that's it.
- Rank system. This time we're specifying that this is a rank system. Those who are voting need to rank the entry between 1 and 3, with 3 being the highest. It's technically based on looks, but we all know people vote to their own criteria. Troll votes are fine as well. There is no harm putting a "1" or "3" for the person you hate (either as a sign of disgust or because you want them to suffer—respectively).
We do encourage players to rank vote as many entries possible, even those that your character has never even met and have only seen the pictures.
The Arehtei. Last time, someone submitted Elios and he won by a landslide. This time, the Arehtei won't be up for voting among the usual pool...but they DO have a pool of their own. So there will be a separate section for characters to vote.
Separate log. This portion of the event will have its own log to keep things a bit more organized. Results will be posted separately as well.
Winning couple. The winning "couple" will get to wear special costumes for the day and do whatever they like. For reference, last year they had these: king and queen. This year...well that's a surprise.

As a reminder on dates, we are going to give a head start on sign-ups/nominations only by posting it on April 12 and sign-ups last until the 14th. Voting will start with the event and will end on the 15th.. Results will be posted on April 16, around noon.

If you have ANY questions, comment to them here.

» MAIN FESTIVITIES

ALL RIGHT, here's the big stuff. These categories will match what will be in the main log. Other than just the basic list, we will not be posting these details on the log itself, but we will link back to this exact section so everyone can refer back to it.

Additionally, if you'd like your character to be volunteering to work at the festival for anything—activity/game booths, Flower King and Queen, security, food—feel free to do so.

IMPORTANT! What we list before is NOT the be all and end all for activities. These are just specified examples to serve as ideas and prompts. If you have an idea for more activity ideas, either throw it in the thread the day of, OR suggest it here and we can try and fit it in if we think it works.

» FOOD
Food galore. There are plenty of tables and food stalls that will be set up all throughout the festival grounds. Picnic areas and tables are also in a designated area. Seafood will more likely be found at the lake. There are also a few restaurants by the pier that will be open, with special service for couples. Yeah, good luck getting into one of those. In general, nothing too "tricksy" is going on about the food, aside from leaving folks feeling generally good and happy. But that doesn't mean there may not be some...special food stalls that may be trying to sneak in a bit more love and appreciation good feels around.

Aside from that, here are some actual food based activities that are around:

Cake Feeding. One of the main attractions is a buffet of all you can eat cake. Chocolate cake, vanilla cake, strawberry cake, marble cake, ice cream cake, apple cake, and more are available for this tasting. The catch: you cannot eat cake all by yourself. You must find a partner to eat cake with! How, you may ask? By feeding it to them! Why, yes, this is mimicking the cake eating tradition found at weddings. Careful not to shove that cake in their face! Or maybe that's what you want to do.
"Pocky" Game. Of course, the label on these chocolate-covered biscuit sticks are not "Pocky" but "Tocky". For this game, two people must enter and share a tocky stick. Beginning on opposite ends, the two must slowly chew their way to the center. If you break the stick completely, you lose! But oh no, if you continue eating the stick, the two of you will kiss! Bailing results in losing, too. Good luck!
Jumbo Gum-Ball Shooter. You know those huge jawbreakers that live up to their name if you actually try to bite into them? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to try and shoot someone with them? Wonder no more. Although these are gumballs and not as hard as jawbreakers, they do hurt. And in this game. Two people are randomly pit together and have to try and either hit the trap targets or hit the person as they go through a wacky obstacle course. Don't worry, if you get hit, the gumball explodes into a sticky mess so the bruises will be light. And everyone will have padded gear and helmets. Totally safe. Although it's mostly randomized, set games can be made. So it's a great outlet for couples or friends who need to let out some steam.

Characters are also free to set up their own food tables or help out with the locals.

» GAMES + ACTIVITIES
Can't have a festival without games, right? Your traditional game booths are going to be all over the place: ring toss, bean bag toss, knock the bottles, fish scooping, shooting galleries. Arts and crafts are also popular, like making flower crowns and special Elios designed feathers for bracelets and hairpins. Due to the increased venue size, there are also a few other games that are making it this time around. Well. Something like games.

"Sports." What better way to show off to the person you like than by competition? Various two-person sports and other competitive games are around. Ping pong, badminton, tennis, throwing darts and knives, wrestling, archery, advanced shooting range—this is not an exhaustive list but you get the idea.
"Hyper Frisbee." Of course there are more relaxed things. Like Frisbee! Special magitech made discs that if not thrown correctly may start whizzing off into the air and threaten decapitation. Okay, they're not that powerful, but if they hit someone at full speed, it'll leave a hefty bruise for sure.
Roller skating. A skating rink has been erected that anyone is free to try out. Or take over for roller derby. Or hockey. Hey, that can be fun for couples and friends, too, right? Or maybe it's a singles take-over.
Lakeside. There are a few things available for those who may want to be out in the water. Special "swan boats" for couples, although normal boats and canoes are available for those who are less romantic. The water is a little chilly, but for those who dare, they can actually swim. Maybe Sosyne will be nearby and be angry enough to warm it up.

There's a lot that could be done in this section, so feel free to use whatever may come to mind!

» SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS
Due to how complex these are, this year they're getting their own section instead of being part of the general "Games" thread. The following are special activities that have their own rules to bear in mind. They are also far more extensive, usually with their own setting or across the entire festival grounds.

Mini golf. Surprise, bet you didn't know there was a mini golf course out here, did you? Well there is! And while not officially part of the festival, they are allowing discount entry to all "pairs." That is to say, you don't have to be a real couple. Just have to have one other person. This course isn't your standard run of the mill kind, either. As you can guess, emotions are going to play a huge factor in your game. If you stay calm, you're gold. But anything, and we mean anything, other than calm? Then the course will change drastically, including the placement of the hole! Even worse, your opponent can affect it as well. Hope you're playing with someone who actually likes you instead of a troll or good luck.
Garden Maze. The maze returns! Made out of flower covered hedges, it's rather straightforward—pairs go into the maze and work their way through. However, there's a small difference. Whenever the pair reaches a dead end, they must focus positive emotions and the plants will recede to allow them to progress forward. The additional catch is the emotions need to be about each other. They can be simple thoughts, like "I like their hair" or "They're a good friend." For couples, this is the opportunity for them to gush about their feelings. Once this is accomplished, they can continue onward. This happens several times throughout the maze, and there is a checkpoint at the center. This checkpoint has a special fountain and a beautiful garden where pairs can rest or even just stay there for a while. Rumors have it that many couples get engaged in this location.
Flowercuff Speed...dating? More like speed-get-to-know-this-random-person better. But there are a bunch of random people who are just going around and slamming these cute little "handcuffs" that are actually just made of flower stems and vines. There are two ways to get them off:
- Good way. Make the flowers bloom by spending time together and actually getting to know the person better. Maybe play a few games to get some teamwork in. It doesn't have to be romantic, can be completely platonic.
- Bad way. Maybe this is just a very bad fit. If the pair does not get along at all, then the flowercuff will just wither up and fall to the ground. However, this can only be achieved if there is a lot of hatred and anger from both sides. If one party is furious and the other just shrugs in defeat, that can also work. But if the other party is like, "Hey, no, let's totally do this" then it's going to take a bit more work to get it off.
If it's any consolation, these flowercuffs have an automatic timer to release after fifteen minutes. They can either be turned back in or left on the ground to be later picked up.
Extreme egg hunt. A quaint scavenger hunt type game involving hiding eggs and having to find them. A few hundred special eggs were crafted by the local toysmiths, each containing a special little prize (mostly candy, but other cute small trinkets). However, like everything in this place, it's taken up a notch.
- Elemental cores. Each egg is infused with a certain type of emotion and an elemental core: fire, water, or air. To find an egg, one must focus on a particular emotion. When near an egg of similar type, it will start to glow, revealing its location. But where it is depended on its element. If had a piece of fire core, it would be in a hot place and would also be on fire. If it had a water core, it would be somewhere near or under water, and frozen. If it had a piece of an air core, it would actually be found floating somewhere and would require some method to bring it down.
- Pairs required. To participate, you must have a partner. Doesn't necessarily need to be romantic, but you can't solo this!
- The hunt. Each pair is given a list of twelve specific eggs to find. There are four of each core type, so four fire, four water, and four air. Each egg also comes with at least one clue or riddle as to where they are. We aren't providing any, so players are free to make up them as they go. Just keep in mind the eggs are scattered all OVER the festival grounds and can be in the most ridiculous of places. Like in the hat of one of the main staff.
- Prize. Collecting all twelve eggs will net the a special voucher that will allow them specially discounted meals at several different diners and cafes.
We of course don't expect folks to thread every egg, but we do expect special hijinks for the ones you do. Hope the fire core egg doesn't explode in your face.

» MUSIC + DANCE
Music is everywhere, and there's enough space to hold several concerts. There are also several "traveling" musicians going about, so it could really happen anywhere. But there is one special tradition that will also be available, along with a few other new interesting activities.

"Ena Trees." Based off the European "Maypole" tradition, for those unfamiliar, it's a tradition where a pole is erected and a group of individuals take the ends of long streamers, ribbon, or garland and dance around it in a circle. The end result is a beautifully wrapped pole. Several of these will be the open parks and people can either join in willingly or dragged in by exuberant participants. The Ena Trees will have long, garlands of flowers, all of which will shimmer and glow various colors reflecting the lighthearted atmosphere.
Ribbon dancing. Ever wanted to try and be a ribbon dancer? Well, this isn't actually it. Based off those love chain ropes from earlier, pairs are to dance together and are bound at the wrist by a chain of ribbons made of seven colors, each with their own meaning. Red means love, Pink is adoration, Green is appreciation, White is admiration, Yellow is protection, Purple is comfort, and Blue is respect. Yes, you guessed it—it's in line with the Arehtei. There are two ways to release themselves.
1. Fill the emotion. Make each ribbon release itself by having both individuals sharing that ribbon's respective emotion. As each one is fulfilled, one end of the ribbon will break and will stream freely around them. This can either add to the dance or slap them in the faces.
2. Last through five songs. If you want to suffer or just have incompatible partners, then they have to dance together through five songs before the ribbons fall off on their own. The worse they are, though, the uglier the colors.
For the record, the feelings can be platonic—they do not have to be romantic. The types of dance will also vary between fast to slow, with the style also ranging from classical to jazz and swing.
Sing us a love song! Come on, you know you want to. Belt out that special tune just for you special guy or lady. Although, even if you don't want to, the staff at this stage are more than happy to drag any passing couple they see and shove them on stage. If singing isn't your forte, maybe a musical instrument?
Performances. Maybe there's no one in particular you want to sing to. Maybe you just want to perform music because you like to. Well then, come on stage!

» ELIOS'S LOVE ADVICE
All right, we can't have the Arehtei of love around and not be able to give some love advice. Elios is generally around, soaking up the love, but there will be a designated thread at the end of the post just for people who may need some love advice. However, so as not to be overwhelmed, we are going to make one request in regards to the threads: try to keep it on point. We know everyone loves talking with the love birb, but Elios has a lot of people to talk to and things to see! Everyone is going to be on an IC time limit as well. So we request threads to stick to whatever love problem they have and save any other questions they may have for the Arehtei for another time.

» SEPARATE EMOTION TRACKER

Okay, before hitting the fun stuff, we'd like to go ahead and mention that when the event starts, we will be posting a separate emotion tracker for everyone to comment to. This way folks will (hopefully) be less likely to forget about the intense emotions their characters will surely feel.

We are also combining this with the special flowers that will be given out to everyone. Remember, the more positive, the more beautiful those flowers will bloom. We'll use these flowers as part of the finale.

And you know what, let's give you guys a goal. If we can get fifty (50) full flowers by the end of the event, we'll give a special bonus treat.

» POSTS TO KEEP TRACK OF

We're going to end this post with the post set-up for the event. Like last time, we'll be having several posts going up, so here's a heads up of how everything is broken down:

OOC: This one. Obviously, you'll want to keep track of this post because it's going to have all the activity details and the actual log post won't. Not to mention all the other details about everything else happening!
OOC: Plotting+CR Post. A special post for everyone to not only plot for the festival but also work on CR for the future.
OOC: Emotion Tracker. Just another reminder that we're having a separate entry for everyone to tag their emotions in.
IC: Flower Viewing. Last year we had this as part of the main event log, but it got kind of really cramped. And we were smaller then! So this year, we're keeping this separate, and it'll have its own little prompts for people to play with. Players will have to make their own top-levels.
IC: The Flower Festival: This is where all the main events and activities are to be threaded out. As mentioned, there are a lot, and this is going to be a mess no matter what. So like last time, we will be providing subthreads for all the activity categories. Players must comment under these subthreads.
IC: Flower King and Queen log. This log will be designated as a staging area for those who may want to react to the postings and votes occurring. It's basically an outlet for characters to make fun or tease each other before throwing themselves in.
OOC: Flower King and Queen voting. Like last year, we are going to have an OOC voting post. We'll be changing how the voting system works, but you can at least get an idea of how it will be here.
IC: Flower King and Queen results. This will just be a small post announcing the results that anyone can respond to. If the contest log isn't that busy, we may just add a thread when the time comes instead like last year.
IC: Finale. As with all of our events, there will be a finale post to just signify the end of the event. These usually don't have too much happening in them aside from the norm, but it will be open for any post reactions. Unless, you know, something drastic happens with the characters or festival that requires us to throw everything out the window, but what are the chances of that happening...

And that should be it. It's a lot, right? We'll also have a navigation index posted at the top of the main community as another source of easy reference.

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ALL RIGHT. Think that's everything. If you have any questions, post them here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Can someone nominate themselves/be nominated for both King and Queen or are they limited to one or the other?

Whoops, forgot to put that in there! Yes, they can be put in both categories.

/goes to edit

So I have someone who could really use a lesson in loving others, but the thing with Pride is that he would never ask for that kind of advice. Would it be possible for Elios to initiate the conversation with Pride, since he's aligned to him? I would imagine they wouldn't want him near the festival with so much hate and negative emotions, so I'm not sure how far Elios be willing to go for just him, and this might end up happening at a separate time. Figure I asked anyway, cause I'm sure he'd want Pride to embrace what the festival is trying to promote, because he really needs to stop being a hateful brat 24/7.

Oh, that's a pretty good question, hm hm. I think Elios would likely want to meet up with him before the festival, or at least talk telepathically if not physically (although I can easily imagine him perched on top of the house regardless).

But after that, this is where I'd need your help in figuring out what exactly would actually help persuade or at least get Pride to start understanding and looking into the idea.

Before the festival makes sense...and Lae can live the dream of picking up Pride and dropping him from a high place--I mean.

The feelings of love is there in Pride, but he doesn't acknowledge it because he considers it a flaw and a weakness. So it makes it hard to bring it out. Another thing...and this is more in headcanon/theorizing is that he doesn't acknowledge love, because he outlives a lot of things that he sees no reason to love or feel for others, especially when the only thing that mattered to him was Father. He also labels himself as a monster and he accepts this fact without complaints. If the subject is pushed, he probably shows that he really dislike being labeled as such and this leads to him rejecting others so he never has to deal with the feelings of being rejected, ignored, or abandoned by others.

So possibly starting up about his longetivity could lead to somewhere, since Elios is also a long living being.

I can do it if you really think it would help—

Yeah, reading on the longevity thing, the first that came to mind was how Elios could probably relate. And then probably start spewing all about positive love things and the whole "better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all" spiel. So we could try with that angle. I'll probably keep in contact with you to make sure the thread is going CORRECTLY but yeah we can do something! We have the catch all up right now so if you start a thread there, I can tag into it.

We'll just let the thread play out and see what happens. ;)

Annd I can totally go make a post in that catch-all thread. Know that I'm okay with the results ending up not going completely positive or him being fully convinced, just that he's given something to think about in the end.

While someone is playing an instrument, is it possible for them to project telepathic images like oh say, images of their home world?

Yep, definitely doable!

Zephyras Flower Festival 2016: Details

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