riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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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[Steve is watching the man single-handedly decimate a food stall's inventory, standing nearby with his arms folded and an impressed expression. He's been out checking out the festival activities because he can't really resist. But running into someone with that appetite actually makes him smile. He approaches the stall as Steve orders his additional skewers.]

Slow down a little. You don't want to eat more than they can make.

I guess I probably should slow down.

[he's not very good at that in general. sometimes he needs to be reminded. steve smiles at the other man before doing the double-take. It's not like looking in the mirror, but maybe he's been waiting for this meeting.]

Are you...?

[Steve looks back in confusion. He doesn't miss the resemblance, but the surprise on the other man's face is really what catches him. And then the question, which he doesn't finish, hangs in the air.]

My name is Steve.

[Because that's all that the other blond could be asking him, right?]

Rogers?

[steve adds, watching for the other man's reaction.]

That's my name. But from what I've heard, it's not mine alone.

[At the sound of his own name spoken from the other man's mouth, Steve smiles wryly. The next part confirms the rest, and Steve leans back, sizing up the man that shares his name. There's a quiet wariness in his look, a slight judgment, but he's not unfriendly.]

Not unless someone mixed up their paperwork.

[He offers his hand, apparently satisfied by whatever he finds in Steve.]

[finally, someone who speaks his language. steve accepts his hand, the shake firm between the two of them.]

It's good to meet you.

[it doesn't answer all his questions, but his curiosity is at least a little bit satisfied.]

Did you wanna get something to eat? I would've saved you some if I'd known.

Likewise.

[He appreciates that handshake, smiling a little as they let go, because this is a good exchange. It feels natural, and that can be rare when these weird situations occur.]

You look like you needed it. I wouldn't want you to go hungry on my account.

[Yes, he is teasing, but just a bit.]

Yeah, I could use some lunch too. And we should probably talk.

It's hard not to when you burn through it like I do. But I guess you'd understand that too.

[steve finishes with a crooked little grin that might've become familiar, except this other steve probably already recognizes it from his mirror. he becomes a little serious again at that last part. yeah, he's sure they have plenty to cover between them.]

I reckon we should. Do you want to keep walking around, or should I grab us a bench?

Let's keep walking. I don't want you to miss out on exploring.

[He gives Steve a smirk that says he is teasing him, but it's a quiet, relaxed teasing that might go overlooked if someone weren't accustomed to his dry humor. Steve already echoed it, so they appear to have that in common.]

And I've wanted to see the area. Get comfortable with everything.

[Like grabbing food, the walk has a purpose, and the movement is probably more comfortable for both of them than just sitting down and having to face a difficult talk. Like being in the waiting room of a hospital or getting bad news: he doesn't like to hold still and let it hit him.]

[movement is always good - walking, running, hitting a punching bag. it's how steve's staved off a lot of unpleasant emotions. familiarizing themselves with their new environment is just smart. steve waits for the other version of himself to get something, hands in his pockets.]

I don't really know how this works. Is there anything I shouldn't ask about?

[Steve stops at a nearby food stall, returning with two large sandwiches wrapped in wax paper and stuffed full between fried bread. He hands one to the other blond, taking for granted that the man will still be hungry enough to eat it.]

I'm pretty sure these things don't have rules.

[He does sound dryly amused at the question. It's unusual to be talking to someone that asks if he can ask questions. Fury should learn a thing or two from him.]

You can ask whatever you want. I'm personally going to start with what was happening before you got here.

[steve smiles at him as he accepts the sandwich. no, it won't go to waste. he lifts it to take a bite, but then lowers it again. right to the heart of the matter. he can't say that he wasn't expecting that.]

It involved Tony. I guess you could say we had a disagreement. [understatement, and steve's flat tone suggests as much.] My time with the Avengers came to an end.

[Steve glances over at the mention of Tony. Just the way the other man says it hits a chord in him, and he frowns.]

You left the Avengers too?

[Because his double also deserves to know about him. That's something they share.]

Yeah.

[Steve looks over at him, brow quirked at that single word - too.]

Was it the Accords?

Accords? [Steve frowns at the word. It sounds official, and that is off-putting.]

I haven't heard of them. We... lost some of ours. It was bad. The team came apart and I guess we never really came back together.

[Now that he actually says it, Steve realizes how much he misses them.]

What are the Accords?

[steve looks at him, this alternate version of himself, briefly dumbstruck at what he says. he presses his lips together, tension in his jaw, in his forehead, his shoulders. he's a walking ball of it.]

I'm sorry. [there's a little heaviness at the words. no matter who it was, he knows they meant something to this man, meant a lot.] The Accords were documents, an agreement. It basically said that the Avengers couldn't act without the approval of the United Nations first, and that's not even going into the fine print.

[steve frowns as he thinks back, giving the other man a slow shake of his head.]

I couldn't agree to it. I've seen things like that go sour before, and too many innocent people die when it does.

[The tight, awed look he gets makes Steve frown in return. There's some real pain there. A real sense of something terrible that he doesn't understand, because whatever the Accords were, they must have done a lot of damage. He knows the loss of his friends, the loss of his team, but some things just don't carry over. He goes quiet, lowering his eyes even as Steve says the word sorry.

That silence turns to quiet anger as he listens to what the Accords meant. Steve says he couldn't agree to it, and of course he couldn't. One hand closes into a tight fist, crumpling the wrapper of his recently eaten food.]

You mean it was like registration.

[It still makes him tense. Just the idea alone brings up far more resentment than he likes to admit to.]

What happened to the other Avengers?

That was part of it.

[steve remembers lines about dna samples, tracking bracelets, and that was even after he'd made up his mind.]

Some thought it was the right thing to do. They were really Tony's team all along. [he hangs his head at the mention of his name. there's more, and there's no point in holding anything back now that he's started.] Tony and I...we fought, but it wasn't about that. [steve looks up again, staring straight ahead. it's a good thing if his other self has finished eating, because what steve says next could really ruin a person's appetite.] Bucky killed his parents.

What?

[He was going to get angry about what sounded a lot like their own fight. The government trying to control and regulate its heroes by whatever means necessary, even if that control meant hurting innocent people that hadn't wanted to be involved. But the shock that comes with the next part of what Steve tells him hits him hard in the gut. He can barely register it, because Bucky, his Bucky, is back in the world and doing so much better than Steve has a hard time even picturing him as anything else.

But he was. The reality makes him tense up, bracing himself for something that he doesn't want to hear.]

Bucky wouldn't do that.

He did.

[steve's jaw tenses, hands buried deep inside his pockets to hide the way they clench too. things got personal for them, for him and for tony, and that made everything brutal.]

Hydra had him brainwashed, they stripped his memories. He was a weapon in their hands, and had about as much say over what was happening. It wasn't him.

[he finally looks over at steve when he says those words, suddenly desperate for him to believe it, for him of all people to understand that bucky wasn't that kind of man, and understand why steve had to defend him.]

I couldn't let Tony kill him.

Edited 2017-04-12 15:07 (UTC)

[The whole concept seems like some nightmare someone would have dreamed up. Steve is stunned by it, horrified because it's familiar, yet skewed. A reality that is too similar not to be true, but awful. Unbelievable.]

Why would Hydra target Tony Stark's parents? They weren't in any position of power.

[But then again Steve doesn't know what was going on in that other world. He doesn't know what Hydra was planning or what advantage they might have found in removing the Starks from the picture. The grim look id admission of that, even if he doesn't say it. He has no choice but to believe what Steve tells him, because Steve wouldn't lie.]

Tony tried to kill Bucky.

[That sounds almost like despair. In a world where Bucky was under Hydra's control and Tony Stark tried to murder him, his double really had no choice.]

He won't do that here. I promise you, I'll make sure that Bucky is safe. No one here is going to go after him.

We just need to find a way to talk to him.

Howard managed to recreate the serum. They sent Bucky to get it.

[to kill for it, and steve can anticipate the other man's immediate concern.]

They made more Winter Soldiers, but they've been neutralized.

[the corners of steve's mouth tug down at that word. it was murder, really, and as much as he was willing to stop them through any means necessary himself, that doesn't make what zemo did right.]

Bucky doesn't know about this, he hasn't lived it yet. [he glances over at steve.] I don't want him to find out about it. He'd just blame himself, maybe disappear for good.

Howard Stark managed to-

[That really does sound like a nightmare world. The weight of what Steve tells him makes his head spin, because anyone successfully recreating the serum that made him, someone restarting the project that destroyed so many lives in the attempt to do just that, shouldn't be possible. It changes everything. It means that all those lives were wasted. And Tony and Bucky... He lowers his head, looking over to meet Steve's gaze.]

I won't tell him. He doesn't want to talk to me anyway. I'm practically an impostor to him.

[He takes a breath and lets it out.]

What's important is reaching Bucky. Not the Soldier.

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introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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