introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Sampremi Celebration
when: March 8th - March 15th
where: In several different locations in the downtown area of the Inhabited City.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

sampremi celebration

In the days leading up to March 8th, new residents may notice advertising around the city, everywhere from digital screens to paper flyers pasted on blank walls, featuring the name of the spring holiday in celebration of new beginnings, new love, and lust: Sampremi. The advertising mentions that there will be street festivals set up at various locations throughout the week and lists where the market will be set up on each day.

street market

The main draw of the holiday is a roaming street market that features special treats and street food that can only be found during Sampremi, a bustling bargain market with any kind of goods you can think of, and fair games that allow a person to win a prize for that special someone.

i. street food

One of the major draws of the festival is the special street food that can only be obtained this time of year. Almost everything you can buy at the Sampremi Festival is meant to be shared - whether it's one piece of meat on two sticks or desserts baked with a narrow part in the middle for convenient tearing, everything is built in twos. The stalls sell everything from cups of soup, sandwiches, roasted or fried meat, deep-fried vegetables and cakes, dumplings, donuts, bagels, turnovers, and anything else you can think of.

Many of the savory dishes are based on the meat of a particular fowl native to the moon Riverview is situated on that has a taste and texture halfway between chicken and duck, cooked to be spicy (ranging from very mild to throat-burning). Many of the desserts are based around a fruit native to the moon that is spherical, red-orange, and has a light sweet taste that is similar to a combination of mango, pineapple, and strawberry. Both ingredients are considered to be aphrodisiacs. Of course, the foods aren't actually aphrodisiacs and any effect is purely placebo.

ii. fair games

The festival features an entire row of fair games ranging from very high-tech games featuring virtual reality and neon holograms to extremely old-fashioned games with darts and balloons or balls and glasses. The games all have prizes in various shapes and sizes, with the standard stuffed animals, but also with goods and special items donated by any business in the city; ranging from tiny prizes to huge and expensive ones.

Due to the nature of the holiday, many of the stalls are set up to cater to winning a prize for your partner, and due to the nature of the Quarantine, a lot of them involve aiming or other aspects of pretending to fight.

iii. shopping

Originally, the part of the street festival that involved an actual market, with stalls and booths set up with goods, was aimed primarily at romantic trinkets like flowers or jewelry, gifts intended to be purchased for a loved one. As time has gone by, however, this aspect of the market has increased, with many businesses participating, though the emphasis is still on small businesses and anything relating to local culture rather than booths for any of the larger more corporate businesses.

There is still plenty of jewelry to be found, for sure, mostly handmade and artisan, but the scope of the Market has widened immeasurably. The Sampremi Market is an excellent place to find specialty foods, clothing, jewelry, art, or other goods that were originally native to cultures on other planets in this reality, or other realities altogether. Many residents in the city use the market to share their unique cultural goods and traditional dress with others.

iv. adult

In a side alley of the Sampremi Market on any day, one can find an area roped off with a red silken cord, attended by members of the Perimeter Guard in casual dress who will ID anyone entering to make sure they are 18+. Once characters are permitted entry, they will find all of the adult offerings that the market has to offer.

Since Sampremi is, historically, a celebration of lust and physical love, the adult offerings are all set up to cater to two or more people of any sex or gender configuration. One can find an adult or sexualized version of almost anything that's featured in the main market, from fair games to adult goods to street food laced with actual aphrodisiacs (there are always warnings for food spiked in this way to avoid accidental consumption).

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to set up headers for a communal floor, or threads open to roommates for the purpose of getting to know each other. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set at the Sampremi Festival, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit (left to right): Theo Prins, andreasrocha @ tumblr, hrormir @ deviantart, nkabuto @ deviantart

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Comments

Sam Wilson | MCU

[wingedman]

i; street food

Sam's discovered that he really, really likes the spicy bird meat, whatever it is. While he prefers the more mildly spiced variants - the dishes that have different flavors other than simply 'hot' - at one point, he gets dared into trying some of the hottest dishes available. Although he only eats morsels of these, it's enough to have him sweating and trying to find the nearest glass of milk. In the process of stretching for a pitcher, he knocks it off the stand and to the ground.

"Sorry!" he apologizes, though it's just a single quick word before he starts gulping the liquid down. Maybe this is a little too hot for him. Once he's finished his glass, he's quick to offer napkins to help clean up, in case some milk splashed on you. "Man, that's the last time I take a dare from these guys." He laughs and shakes his head ruefully. A second glass goes down a little slower. "Do not eat that stuff."


ii; fair games

While he might not be a match for his superhuman teammates, Sam's always been a damn good shot, and he likes all the goofy fair games. He winds up competing against anyone and everyone - definitely lets more than a few kids beat him, of course, but adults will find a decent competitive streak in the man. The only problem? It means he ends up winning some prizes that he doesn't have anything to do with. So eventually he just starts shoving prizes at people. He tries to give most of them to kids, but later in the night, it's harder to find children. Guess what? Your character is now being bestowed with the bounty of Sam's winnings...whatever it might be.


iv; adult

And much later in the night, Sam can be found in the adult section of the festival. He's had a few drinks - just enough to enhance his natural friendliness, not enough to impair his judgment - and he's got a frozen treat that's suggestively shaped. Not that he really cares much about the shape at the moment; it's just something he'd picked up to eat while browsing. But while he's looking at a stall with some intricately made dildos on display, he glances over and idly remarks, "Not much you can do with any of these in communal housing, huh?"

[ooc: the last is open to anyone in the adult section, but characters physically over 25 are preferred. Drop me a PM if you have any questions!]

ii

[toolatetochangethename]

It's not every day someone walks up to you and shoves a giant plush spider (seriously?!) in your face, but hey, this is his life now?

"Hey!" Around a mouthful of fabric tarantula leg. "Spiders are not cool with ants, man."

[wingedman]

"After Leipzig, I'm not too cool with spiders, either." Yeah, maybe he's still a little bitter about getting his ass handed to him by a kid.

"How you doin', Tic-Tac?" Sam seems pretty relaxed for a guy who's been uprooted from his normal peaceful fugitive life and plopped down on an alien world with way too many people he sort of knows from an alternate universe.

[toolatetochangethename]

"Yeah, that kid?" Ugh, messed up his whole GiAnt Man schtick!

He's less relaxed than Sam, but then again, he was new to all the weirdness of the Avengers like aliens and evil robots. He shrugs. "Better than super jail, at least." Understatement of the day, at least.

[wingedman]

"Like I really need some guy whose voice hasn't even changed yet sticking me to the floor. Got gunk all over my wings, too - do you know how long it took me to clean that shit off?" There's a joke there that he thinks about making, but doesn't.

"Man, do you even see the point of sticking guys like us in super jail? Like, come on, I don't have any powers." Sam scoffs. "I can't do a goddamn thing without my jetpack." And it's not like Steve had any more difficulty breaking them out of the Raft than he would have at any other jail. In fact, it had probably been easier.

i

[dust_of_life]

There was a stubborn and petulant part of Fatima that was determined to be as miserable as possible. Having a good time implied that she was okay with just being whooshed out of her world. And she didn't want to be okay with it. She was born a control freak and she would die one.

Still. A girl had to eat.

And Fatima--a true California girl--couldn't resist the promise of something spicy.

Whatever it was delivered. It wasn't exactly her mother's cooking, but Fatima decided it would do. And she was almost, maybe, sort of enjoying herself. Until a lightweight nearby accidentally spilled milk all over her.

At least he was cute. And apologetic.

Fatima smiled, taking a napkin from him. "Which one was that?"

[wingedman]

"The stuffed peppers." The peppers themselves had been mild, more like a bell pepper, but something in the stuffing had been a hell of a lot spicier than he'd expected. "At least, I think they're peppers." With what they had here, it was hard to tell, but it had been some kind of vegetable that had been stuffed with the minced meat of one of those weird birds.

[dust_of_life]

Definitely a lightweight. But an extremely good-looking one, so she could get over it. Fatima offered him a smile, reaching into her messenger bag to pull out her notebook of the local flora.

"I recorded something that looked like a pepper in the marketplace. Was it red or green?" Already, she was flipping through the pages. She'd kept meticulous notes, with drawings every now and then. Fatima wasn't much of an artist, but she knew how to convey shape and size well enough.

And she sure as hell knew her plants.

[wingedman]

"Green. Not the same shape as a bell pepper, more rounded," he offered. Sam didn't know much about plants, but he had a good memory for food, and for the ingredients he'd seen used. "Smaller, about the size of a plum. They stuffed it with a mixture of what looked like chopped bird meat, some kinda grain - not quite rice - and whatever gave it that kick. Spicy vegetable of some sort, maybe yellow? The whole thing was grilled."

IV

[arsebiscuit]

Hold on, Sera has to giggle for a good thirty seconds (someone else has had a few drinks), her pointed ears wiggling a little as she does, before she can answer. Oh, honest folks. She doesn't know how they don't explode.

"Can think of five straight off. Few more, if you've got nothing to hide."

[wingedman]

Sam hums thoughtfully, tapping his lips with the dick-shaped popsicle. "Depends on how you use it and how many people you got stuck in one bed. And if you just got the one dildo."

An exhibitionist he might be (on occasion), but the whole eight beds in one room thing really puts him off. Blame it on living in barracks and trying to hide a relationship with his wingman.

His gaze slides up to her ears, clocks the points, but he doesn't seem terribly fussed about it. There's a lot of weird people here, after all. His first thought isn't elf, actually, but Vulcan (despite all the D&D he'd played on deployment in Afghanistan). And if she's got pointed ears, she probably isn't going to get a Spock joke.

iv; because why the hell not

[anotheroldsoldier]

Bucky doesn't exactly know why he finds himself in the adult section. There isn't a particularly good reason why, except that he was wandering a little bit, spending a bit of time by himself. It hasn't been pleasantly spent, though, with everyone asking him where his date is. On the other side of a portal, he's started snapping at them. It figures he'd get dragged here right before a festival of love.

Someone remarks on a stall full of dildos, and Bucky raises both eyebrows as his attention is drawn to them. Those are. Well. Those are something. It's not like he's never seen a sex toy, he's not that much of a grandpa, but...

"Who even needs one that big? Makes a man feel inadequate, don't it?"

[wingedman]

"Maybe you, white boy," Sam teases with a slow grin. In truth, the one he's looking at is far larger than he'd like to think any human is capable of being. Possibly the Hulk, which is a thought that he instantly regrets having, and now it won't leave his mind.

(Maybe he needs another drink or five.)

"Me, I'd be more worried about whether or not I'd be able to walk in the morning. Or, you know, whoever I happened to be using it on."

[anotheroldsoldier]

Bucky just gives Sam a pointed and very skeptical look at that comment. There is no way you're built like a foot-long soda can, buddy. But he can't quite bring himself to say that, instead struck by a vague sense of familiarity that eats at him.

"There's no way people actually use those." Let alone on- yeah, his thoughts were entirely on why would a woman even want one of those inside her, not... Well. "But hell, they're so shameless about displayin' 'em. Nothing wrong with that, I guess, but-" He's not at all used to it yet.

[wingedman]

Hey, he might be hiding a third leg in those jeans - though it's doubtful, because it sure doesn't look like there's any room for it. But mostly he just enjoys a little good-natured ribbing.

"Not my thing, but I can guarantee you some people do. You oughta see some of the stuff on the internet-" Well, okay, maybe not. "Point is, people'll stick damn near anything in any hole, no matter if it fits or is meant to fit."

"Hey, it's a fertility festival." Sam takes this opportunity to lick a drip off his popsicle, and while he's not being half as blatant about it as he could be, the fact remains that he's still, well, licking a dick-shaped popsicle. "And you're in the adult section. Not really sure what you expected here."

i!

[starspangled]

"What, this stuff?"

The stuff that Steve Rogers is currently eating with a little bit of a smirk on his lips. Yeah, he saw the whole thing, and while watching a friend suffer would be enough to make most people avoid the dish in question, it just made Steve even more determined to try it.

"It could use just a little less salt for my taste." He takes another bite. "It would go great with a couple of beers though."

Sam, why do you hang out with this guy again.

[wingedman]

Sam just rolls his eyes and resists the urge to mutter a (mostly) fond 'asshole' under his breath.

"Just confirms what I've known all along, that you've got no taste," he says instead. And that the man's more or less a human garbage disposal. When you have to eat as much as Steve does, Sam figures you don't really stop to register how it tastes.

[starspangled]

"Maybe not." Steve agrees with a good-natured smile. And look, he's reaching for a glass after all, even if he's not gulping it down. "Gotta say, this is the last thing I expected." He gestures at the games, the food, and he hasn't even seen everything yet. (For the best, possibly.) Steve's scanning the crowd now, gaze traveling from one person to the next.

"But maybe it's needed." He adds in a murmur. "Everyone seems to be having a good time." Steve's attention turns back to his friend then, literal wingman. "What about you? Anyway win you a giant stuffed ladybug yet?"

[wingedman]

"What, after the storm and everything?" Sam tips one shoulder in a half-shrug. "Indomitability of the human spirit, and all that. Hell, you know as well as I do that people will find ways to celebrate even in the middle of war. So why let a little storm dampen their spirits?"

Sorry, Sam can never resist a good pun.

"Oh, you think I need someone to win me a stuffed animal?" He grins at Steve. "Haven't found anyone yet. I might have to stoop to doing it myself." Because wouldn't it just be a damn shame if he didn't get an oversized stuffed animal?

ii

[prisonking]

"Thanks, I've always wanted one of these."

Michael wraps the feather boa around his neck. It's a strong accessory choice for a long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of cargos, but the hot pink does bring out the green flecks in his blue eyes.

He's not in a great mood, the festival is already wearing on his nerves. He'd just been about to leave when the boa happened. It might just be highlight of his evening.

"Seen any over-sized sunglasses? I think they'd go."

[wingedman]

"Always glad to help a guy accessorize," Sam jokes. Judging by the other man's body language, he's not in the best of moods - he seems a little tense, Sam thinks.

"Mm." He taps a finger against his lips thoughtfully for a moment. "Couple stalls down, throwing balls into goldfish bowls. They've got some nice glittery frames, too. Just the thing you need to go with the feather boa."

[prisonking]

"I'm more of a rhinestone kinda guy, but glitter could do in a pinch."

It's hard to be in a bad mood around this guy. His smile is infectious, and before Michael knows it, he's smiling too. Focusing on his voice makes it easier to drown out the noise and movement of the crowd around them.

Maybe it was a little early to head home.

"Think you could win me a pair?"

iv. I'm sorry in advance

[causational]

It wasn't really Eddie's intention to come into the adult section, but honestly he's had a few beers at some of the local brewery booths, and it seems like a good idea as he shows his ID and heads into the adult area. It's been a long time since he got to look around at an adult shop or anything like that - he and Iris hadn't had a particularly exploratory relationship on that end of things.

Mostly, he's just a spectator, with no real intentions to buy anything, wandering around and checking out some of the games and booths. He plays a couple of the more tacky games, his cheeks flushed bright pink and laughing as he heads out, accepting a couple of the prizes offered, almost grudgingly - and promptly shoving them nervously into his bag.

The dildos catch his eye mostly because they look like pieces of art, so he's got his head tilted to the side, thoughtfully, his cheeks still a little pink from the game, when the other guy by the stand talks to him. Eddie actually startles a little, and then laughs, abruptly.

"Right? These people definitely believe in the whole free love thing."

[wingedman]

"Free? Man, take a look at the price tags on those things." Sam laughs, shaking his head. He knows what the guy means, he's just choosing to be more literal in his interpretation. "Gotta pay for all their so-called aphrodisiacs, too. Capitalism at its finest - playing on the basest human instinct of them all. But, hey, you know what they say: sex sells."

And judging by the popsicle he's eating, he really doesn't have any room to talk on that point.

[causational]

Eddie can't help it, he bursts into bright, almost surprised laughter when the other man says that. Shaking his head, he leans in a little and picks up one of the little tags, reading it, one blond brow raising.

"Ouch, you're not kidding about that one." he says, one corner of his mouth raising a little as he glances over, "Aphrodisiacs. You know, I have zero interest in trying that one out to see if it's legit. At least not without, you know..."

Vaguely, he waves his hand at the table, or maybe at an absent partner. Who knows, really? Eddie isn't sure, himself.

"At least they're pretty open about it and no one's being, you know, crude. Mostly. I've had a few interesting offers, though." That sentence trails off into a wry laugh.