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

navigation

Comments

Natasha Romanoff | MCU | OTA

[unmakeme]

Natasha is angry. No, angry doesn't even begin to cover it.

Natasha is... incandescent with rage. Overflowing with it, practically radiating it. The thing is, it's not doing her any good. She doesn't know who to direct that anger to. She can't be mad at the Perimeter Guard members who met her on her arrival. If anything, the beating she gave them all before someone managed to get enough distance and a clear shot to stun her has her feeling bad for them. Just doing their jobs, even if she refuses to straight up apologize because she was just doing hers. She still can't direct her anger there.

She's also still not entirely sure she believes that there's no consequences coming. She did not hold back, no punches pulled, and a big part of her is expecting a much larger and better prepared group to come take her away. Which is the main reason she hasn't spent any time in the room they assigned her.

-------

The festival provides a way to hide out in the open, lost in a crowd. The first thing Natasha does is check out the market stalls, skipping the silly romantic sentimentality and focusing instead on the clothes. She asks for advice, even though she doesn't want it, because it's what people do here, trying on hats and scarves and glasses, eying herself in the mirrors, asking other shoppers: "What do you think? Too much?"

She buys a bag, a lightweight shawl, a short jacket, a pair of sunglasses, all with a tap card. As soon as she does, she finds people to trade with. Her pink shawl turns into a blue one, dove grey jacket becomes black, even the sunglasses. After that, she rearranges what she's wearing, tying the shawl around her waist, covering her eyes. It's an old habit, and probably an unnecessary one here, but there's that cliche saying about them dying hard.

-------

She needs to eat. The halo headache from the stun gun is annoyingly persistent. So she hits the food stalls next, because it's all free. Everything is free if you have the right look, if someone thinks they can sell you on a sample. So she moves through that section of the festival, trying bits of roasted meats, sweet desserts, quite a few drinks. Occasionally she finds something she actually likes, and gets someone else at the stall to buy it for her. She flirts, or plays up the headache, or just asks to share, depending on the person, depending on what she can tell will work best.

It takes a long time to get enough to feel satisfied, but it has the side benefit of letting her spend time viewing a large portion of the population, as it filters through the celebration.

-------

In between rounds through the food stalls, Natasha takes a crack at the carnival games - the ones with interesting prizes, anyway. Most of it is crap. Not bad quality, just useless. Some, but not all. She doesn't use her tap card here, either. If money can only be spent in trackable ways, she's going to have to figure out a new way to handle it. Later. Right now, she employs the same basic principles she uses at the food stalls. She takes a while to size up one of the players, then figures out the best way to get them invested. For some, it's still flirting. For others, she looks confused, asking how to play, letting them feel smart and helpful for showing her. The easiest one to read, though, is the competitive nature. It's also the easiest one to manipulate. A little chuckle. "Is that really the best you can do?" Which is predictably followed, call and response style, with asking if she thinks she can do better. When she's not willing to pay to play a game, they are, to prove that they're better at it than she is.

-------

There are still sections of the celebrations she really isn't interested in. The roped off adult section, for one. Not only because she can recognize the uniforms of the members of the Perimeter Guard checking ID cards. She's pretty sure no one in that getup is going to be pleased to see her. So her interest level is low there.

That doesn't mean her mind can't be changed, of course. If someone interesting or conspicuous enough heads in there, she may follow.

-------

[[OOC: WIld card! Which is exactly what it sounds like. If you want something else, you can let me know, or just run with it and we'll see where it takes us.]]

Market Stalls?

[toolatetochangethename]

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

Okay, there's that awkwardness you have running into people from your past, like your ex wife's jerk cop boyfriend in his jail, or an ex girlfriend, but this is a totally new kind of awkward--the kind where you run into someone that, you know, the last time you met, you were trying to beat the living snot out of each other.

So, yeah, he may go 'EEP!' when she turns and asks how the sunglasses look on her, and then he'll try to recover, pitching his voice down an octave to sound different, and, you know, MANLY. "Fetching." That's the kind of word Scott Lang would never use, and therefore, his disguise is complete! ...right?

[unmakeme]

"Fetching," she repeats, slowly. Well, that answers her question. This man, who looks a little bit like someone she never actually met properly and could be, if she listens to the powers that be, from an infinite number of alternate dimensions, is in fact from hers. He's also really bad at this. Trust Steve to snag the only person on the planet who just might be a worse liar than he is.

She puts the glasses back, picks out a pair with very round frames that don't really suit her face, and pays for them. She won't be keeping them long, anyway. The goal is to find what she does like, but buy what she doesn't.

[toolatetochangethename]

Look. Scott has a certain set of skills. It's just that this whole thing encompasses precisely ZERO of them.

Also, he remembers how hard she hits, so he doesn't want to get an invitation to another round of that, thanks.

"Darling?" That's a level above 'fetching' right? Hey, he's trying to give a compliment here, but it's backfiring, because she's putting the glasses back.

[unmakeme]

"Quit while you're--" She cuts herself off, head cocked to the side minutely. "Not ahead. I don't know. Just quit." Does she sound tired? She feels like she sounds tired. It's probably just in her head.

She turns a bangle bracelet over in her hand, stares at him out of the corner of her eye. "Did you intend to come here?"

[toolatetochangethename]

Right. You know, when scary assassin lady tells you to stop talking, you should probably stop talking. Besides, he's run out of adjectives.

Not that Scott got where he was in life by listening to common sense, though.

"Here? Like...the market? Yeah, I was looking for some electronics." What? He totally wasn't stalking her!

[unmakeme]

"No," she replies flatly. Her eyes flick up to the sky, down to the ground, then back to him. "Here." She is not going to spell it out for him. Today it's utterly draining to put on a show for people who will believe it. He knows what she is, even if he doesn't really know who she is. She doesn't have the effort to spare, and isn't that its own special kind of unsettling?

[toolatetochangethename]

To be honest, he's spent the last seven seconds freaking out that when he said 'electronics' she might think he meant, you know, weird sex stuff. Sure, that's a different market out here, but, yeah, well, hey. That's how freaking out works.

"Oh. Here here." Right. He's got it.

"No. I mean, glad to be out of that Raft place and all, but...," he looks around. "Not sure I could imagine a place like this well enough to intend anything about it. "You?"

[unmakeme]

Given the circumstances the last time they saw one another, her mind does not go right to sex toys, no. She assumes he's trying to find something to use to make a weapon. It's what she's been doing, though no purchases of that kind made so far.

"No. I don't want to be here. I guess their system needs some work." Which feels like the understatement of the century.

Market stalls

[ragnarsson]

Ivar is people-watching. Moving at a slower pace than the rest of humanity for most of his life means he's learned to observe people, learn how to read them even if he doesn't always understand them. He watches as Natasha trades one shawl for another. Then a little further down she does the same thing with her jacket. Huh. That's interesting enough to warrant him taking a closer look.

He wheels up to her, bumping into the back of her legs. Whoops. He still hasn't gotten control of the hand brake yet. "Clothes don't fit right?" The voice comes from behind her, the boy with the unusual blue sclera sitting in the leopard-print wheelchair he's only just bought today.

[unmakeme]

The second his chair hits her, her boot kicks back, connects with metal. Had it been a shin, it probably would have hurt like hell. Since it's a chair, the worst he'll get is a jostling. She spins to face him, assesses the threat level, schools her features, and covers the reflex. All very quickly, the blink of an eye, and she doesn't mention what just happened, moves right along to his question with a small fake smile on her lips. "They fit fine. I just didn't like them as much. Maybe later I'll find something I like more than these."

He has an unsettling look about him. His eyes are blue. Not only blue where they should be, but blue where they should not be, the whites not white at all. It's very off putting. Which is part of why Natasha doesn't look away. "How about you? Chair not fit right?" She's fine mentioning that he hit her, just not that the reflex on her part was to draw blood.

[ragnarsson]

He notices her knee-jerk reaction is to kick him. Apparently, she's not one to be messed with. She's pretty and that husky voice only adds to it. That's the first thought that crosses his mind when she speaks to him. What can he say? He's sixteen, so he tends to notice these sorts of things. It makes any possible thoughts of an apology for running into her go right out of his head.

"I only just got it today. This was the least gaudy of all of them, if you can believe that." The rest had been painted in ostentatious colors or had some attachments to them that Ivar had eyed with suspicion. He was having difficulties enough as it was just getting around without adding more gadgets to it. Before today, he'd been crawling around using his arms. The wheelchair has been quite the upgrade.

[unmakeme]

"Leopard print was their least gaudy?" She does find that a little difficult to believe. Mostly because... well, it's leopard print. That's never anyone's least gaudy anything. "Maybe they were just trying ot unload old stock on you. I hope you got a good deal." Still, it's a solidly built chair, from what she can see. Not that she's an expert.

Good construction is good construction, though. She kicked it really damn hard and she felt that solid reverberation up her shin when she did. "I suppose you could take a can of spray paint to it."

[ragnarsson]

"I wouldn't know." Ivar shrugs. The owner of the shop could have fleeced him blind, but the prices had seemed reasonable for the equipment being offered. "I've never owned one before." Which does beg the question, how someone who can't use their legs was getting around before he purchased one? He'd been dragging himself around for most of his life before coming here.

"Paint comes in a can?" The words themselves sound like they could be the sarcasm of a snarky teenager, but the bewilderment in them is genuine. Considering the old-fashioned clothes he's wearing, it's clear that Ivar isn't from anything close to modern days.

[unmakeme]

"Yeah." She smiles minutely. "Paint comes in a can." Maybe he likes the leopard print, though. Maybe he doesn't want to cover it up? Well, it's his call. "Most paint comes in a can, but spray paint lets you just point and shoot. It's easy. If you want to change the look."

Which, yes, leads to the next question. "How did you get around without a wheelchair?"

[ragnarsson]

"Every time I start thinking I've learned everything about this place, something else comes along." He was still struck by how easy things were compared to home. Life was hard and there was no easy shortcuts like there was here. If he had wanted to change the color of something back home, it would have required a lot more than a spray can.

"These." He holds up his arms. There's a pair of braces made out of leather and studded with metal on them designed to help support his wrists and upper arms. Yes, he's spent most of his life dragging himself around from place to place, or waiting for someone to carry him. It's also allowed him to develop some fantastic upper-body strength. "Not very dignified, but it gets me where I need to go."

[unmakeme]

"Wow. That's... intense. So you didn't have anything like this where you came from? Or cities that look like this anywhere in your world? That's not just a costume you're wearing?" It's definitely something that she'd have no problem seeing as some very specific sort of fetish wear. This is interesting, though. He'll be the first person she's met from a world that mirrors such an early point in her world's history.

market stalls

[signifies]

( using brackets if you don't mind )

[ Clark is exploring this section of the market for completion's sake. He spots one or two pieces and think they might suit Lois, if Lois was a jewellery person.

He's in the clothing stalls looking for something comfortable in his size, when Natasha looks over at him. ]

Er.

[ She doesn't look like one of those women who'd ever be "too much" in anything.

Then he remembers she asked him a question. ]

It's nice. You could pair it with the blue scarves.

[unmakeme]

[[OOC: I don't mind, but do you mind if I respond in prose? I find it much more comfortable to write in prose the way I'm guessing you find it more comfortable to write in brackets. I personally don't really care if styles match, especially if it means it's easier for us both to tag.]]

She makes a thoughtful humphing sound, grabs a thin blue scarf and wraps it around her neck, tests the combination in the mirror. "I don't know..." She swaps the black hat she had on for a light brown one. It's nice. It doesn't look like her, but it looks nice.

She notices that he doesn't seem to be looking for anything for himself. Unless he's the type of guy to rock a pair of blue and green chandelier earrings. No judgement. There's no ring, though. Is that a thing here? No girlfriend hovering around the stall, either. Most couples seem to be shopping together. "Did you sneak off to try and grab a surprise gift?

[signifies]

( I don't mind! thank you )

What about with those earrings?

[ There's a tray of accessories next to the mirror, with earrings, bracelets, and necklaces to match along with scarves and hats. It has a pair of studs with sapphires the same colour as the scarf. She doesn't seem enamoured of it, though, so Clark starts looking for something else in the scarf rack. ]

No, just looking. They have shoes at the back.

[ Clark needed a pair for walking, and is coming up empty handed because they all have frills he doesn't want. The shoes just have to be comfortable. ]

[unmakeme]

She nods her head, picks up the earrings and puts them down again, does the same with a pair of deep green stone drops, and a pair that look like tiny fall leaves in rose gold. "In the back, huh?" She nods her head, looks down at his hands, which are notably empty. "And yet, you aren't carrying any shoes."

The next scarf she picks up is deep red and just as long as the blue one. She gives up on the hate entirely.

[signifies]

[ Clark smiles with an expression of polite habit. ]

They didn't have anything in my size.

[ She didn't ask for his input on the red, so he doesn't offer it. ]

[unmakeme]

She actually really likes the blue one. It's a complimentary lighter shade of a shawl she's been eyeing down the lane, waiting for someone with the wrong skin tone to buy it. She's not buying anything she plans on keeping, though. Not that the red one is bad. Looks like it would suit him more than her, though.

When he mentions the lack of shoes in his size, she automatically looks down. His feet don't look that big. She takes half a step back, leaning even further, getting a look at the rest of the little covered stall, at the rows and rows of shoes on cramped shelving. "Really? Seems like there would be something." She looks back at his feet, then once again to the back wall, before standing up straight and turning so that her back is to the accessories and she's facing him. "Want help?"

[signifies]

[ Clark likes blues and greens. They're often overlooked in a crowd, and he buys shirts that do a lot to cover his size. He wouldn't mind red, but it draws attention. Superman can have it. ]

Thank you.

[ He doesn't particularly, but he's not going to say no to her if she really wants to make sure he has a good pair. Clark points to the shop opposite, which has the same cramped shelving in the back. ]

I was going to look over there.

[unmakeme]

Natasha likes blues and greens for the same reason. It's not so much that they themselves are easy to overlook, it's that they're such favoured shades, so common, because they look good on almost anyone. She wears more earth tones when she's allowed to be herself. Jewel tones, especially reds, when she needs to stand out. Natalie Rushman, for example.

She buys the hat that Clark liked, then tips her head across the walkway, an invitation to follow. There's humour here, below the surface. He doesn't want the help, she doesn't particularly want to be helping, but they both know that this is what normal people do. Pity they don't see it in one another.