monthly mingle: SAMPREMI

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: monthly mingle: sampremi
when: The month of March.
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: there will likely be nsfw content; please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

sampremi

In the days leading up to March 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Sampremi. This is one of Riverview's four yearly celebrations of love, this one focused on sexual love and lust, and sexual relationships that might bloom into more (or not). Traditions associated with Sampremi are a roving street market, raves where residents can seek out some free love and get a little crazy, a massive week-long kink convention, and a tech expo with all-ages and adult options.

a celebration of sexual love and lust

Riverview has always been a place focused on love and building connections in order to foster community, and for a lot of people, sex is part of that, which makes it something worth celebrating! For people who use sex as a way to connect with others, even if only for a short time, or those who use it as a way to connect on a deeper level with the ones they already love, Sampremi is the perfect holiday to get their freak on in a host of new and exciting or comfortable and familiar ways. The holiday features a large kink convention, where various entities in the city can show off their toys, explain their niche kinks, and share their insights with anyone who might be interested, a series of raves that are both all-ages and adult where residents can find someone(s) to share a night (or a week, a few months, or even a life) with. This year, there is a large tech expo where cutting edge tech companies in the city are sharing their newest toys, like improved virtual reality, robotics advances, and many other types of toys - all for work, play, or, in the spirit of the holiday, pleasure. And for those who don't want to connect through sex or who aren't old enough to, there are dances, games, and an entire market full of street food that's meant for sharing, so they can connect in other ways.

● OOC NOTE: Please be sure to warn in subject lines for any threads involving sexual content, drug use or other content that fellow players may wish to avoid, and do not use the prompt mechanics to circumvent consent in your threads, as non-consensual sex is not permitted on the game communities. Items such as aphrodisiacs, VR, or party drugs mentioned in the prompts are intended to facilitate consensual sex, not to encourage sexual assault, or to 'trick' characters into having sex that they would not normally have. ICly, please remember that there is always security to intervene and make sure everyone is safe.

i. color raves

Advertised on flyers and digital screens around the city, made to pop as if they were under blacklight, is a series of what's called "color raves" that are happening in various large empty warehouse spaces around the city. They are called color raves for the bright colorful lights, the preponderance of glowsticks that attendees wave around, and for the brightly colored powder for attendees to play with, some of which is spiked with a mild party drug and some of which is just for fun (with the difference clearly marked, of course). There are three types of color rave - adult, all-ages, and youth raves.

(CW: DRUG USE) At each adult rave and all-ages rave there is one specific room where attendees can enter (after proving themselves 18+), and dance or play tag with brightly colored powder that contains small amounts of a legal party drug commonly available in Riverview, which is absorbed through the skin. Not much more intoxicating than having a few beers, the effects of the drug are a pleasant low-key buzzing euphoria, positive sensitivity to touch, a heightening of desires for intimacy, and a mild lowering of inhibitions. Once a character has been hit with the powder, the color lingers on the skin so other attendees can know who has partaken, but once the powder makes contact with a surface (whether it is skin, clothing, or structural) it deactivates, meaning that partakers can safely dance with non-partakers without sharing the intoxicating effects.

Adult raves will have bouncers at the door to ensure that anyone entering is 18+, and there is no limit to when and where the debauchery happens. Clothing is optional, showing skin is encouraged, and there are a lot of neatly tucked away spaces for attendees to get some time alone with one or more than one person, as well as spaces intended for orgies. The atmosphere is sex-positive and non-judgemental, open to any orientation or preference, with various forms of protection available for free, however, to ensure that everyone plays safe there are sober security teams out en masse at all premises to oversee the events.

All-ages raves are open to anyone who wishes to attend, regardless of age. There are bouncers at the door who will check ID and stamp the hand of anyone who is 18+ with a special ink that shows up under blacklight for easy identification. At all-ages raves, 18+ and underage characters can mingle, but there are specific areas set aside for only 18+ characters where they can get down and dirty either in private or the open.

Adult and all-ages raves will have only spiked powder to avoid confusion.

Youth raves are intended only for younger characters under 18, so they can stay up all night and dance like crazy, and meet other young people in the city. The legal drinking age in Riverview Quarantine is 14, and so anyone over 14 can enter and indulge in a few drinks, dancing, and playing tag with a version of the colored powder featured at the adult raves that won't give you anything but a sugar high. There is copious amounts of security on site to ensure that everyone is safe, as well as nurses and off-duty police officers to offer advice or care for anyone who overindulges out of lack of experience. Youth raves will have only sugar powder, brightly colored and sweet to the taste, meant for fun and to play tag with rather than to cause intoxication.

ii. kink convention

For the week of March 4-10 there will be a massive kink convention on the top floor of one of the large exhibition centers downtown, limited to characters 18+. The exhibition is a sexy adult informational convention featuring various kinks and fetishes. Whether you're into leather, latex, lace, or anything else, you'll be able to find the clothes, toys, guides, books, erotica, fiction, and a wide variety of other interesting stuff to explore. While the atmosphere is sex-positive and there are private and public (for the voyeurs and exhibitionists in the room) venues for having sex, it's definitely focused on exploration and information about different stuff to try.

If someone has thought of it and figured it sounded sexy, it can be found here, and with Riverview's high level of tech advancement and widespread acceptance of magic, things can get pretty kinky. Whatever your kink is, there's probably a VR program, sex toy, potion, or spell that can make it happen, and someone who's got the downlow on how to make it great.

iii. tech expo

Riverview prides itself on its technological advancement, and so, running concurrently with the Kink Convention on March 4-10 and on the bottom floor of the same convention center, various cutting-edge tech companies in the city will be sponsoring a Tech Expo. The expo features demonstrations of all of the most advanced technology that's coming into use in the city, ranging from advancements in VR and holotech to robotics and gadgets, you can find the latest and greatest in almost any area of modern technology. Attendees will be able to come with a friend or a date or anything in between to play VR games, enjoy holoprojected escape rooms and puzzles, meet robot pets, try out the most recent music player or that new cell phone that can bend without breaking, and a wide variety of other gadgets.

While most of the tech expo is all-ages and non-sexual, there is a decently-sized adult area where characters must show ID proving they are 18+ in order to enter, where the technology is mostly related to sexual use. This area features advanced sex toys, VR systems intended to explore sex with other people in a virtual environment with no strings attached, sexy video games and holoprograms, and many other sensual technological.

iv. street market

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 or more sticks or desserts baked with a narrow part in the middle for convenient tearing, everything is built to be shared. 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, though there are some booths (clearly marked and with someone to check ID) that sell actual aphrodisiac-laced foods and drinks to people who are 18+.

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(s), and due to the nature of the Quarantine, a lot of them involve aiming or other aspects of pretending to fight.

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.

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 Sampremi, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: saber XU; image ii: Jose Borges; image iii: Nicolas Sitbon; image iv: Andreas Rocha

navigation

Comments

[trashvalkyrie]

i. i'mma get your heart racing in my skintight jeans

[Val purposely doesn't wear anything she cares about getting dirty to this rave, considering the main draw of the party. She's been moping for nigh on a month, now, and this Sampremi thing seems like as good an excuse as any to get loose and have some fun. Guilt-free.

She shows up in something skintight, strappy and black, but with combat boots because she's Val and she refuses to wear anything she can't run in. Just in case. She doesn't hesitate to plunge headfirst into the fray, arms reaching skyward, letting blue and red and yellow settle on her bare skin, pupils dilating as the drug in the powder seeps into her system.

It...turns out to be a really good excuse to touch people. Eases some of her stiffness, lets her feel a little more comfortable breaking down those barriers. If she knows you, she's much more likely to greet you enthusiastically, in all likelihood with a hug if the crowd is thin enough that she can get her arms around you. She won't turn down a dance with a stranger, either, for that matter.]

ii. feeding on your hungry eyes, i bet you're not so civilized

[She's gotten much more accustomed to the wild world of sex accoutrements since she's been in Riverview. That's not to say that they didn't have things like lingerie and sex toys on Sakaar, because they most certainly did. But Val's lifestyle then had been much more solitary and much less social, and she'd viewed all of it from a cautious distance. But here? Fuck it. It's fun to look at if nothing else, and she's not holding herself to some weird, skewed idea of a moral code here.

For awhile, she browses a rack of handmade floggers, fingers trailing curiously across the soft strips of leather, lengths of cord and rubber and chain and feather. A little further along the floor she finds herself eyeing up harnesses and collars with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. If she notices you looking awkward, she might just...give you a teasing little wink, or a waggle of her eyebrows. Or a sympathetic eye roll. She's in good humor, clearly.]

iv. i followed you down until the sound of my voice will haunt you

[So all those foods meant to be shared with another person?

Yeah, Val is having none of that. She's scarfing down sandwiches, cakes, basically anything she can get her hand on. She's both tired and needs the energy, and hungover and needs to put something in her stomach.

Anyone who offers to share with her is going to be laughed at right in their face, honestly.]

i

[valr]

[A rave isn't the usual kind of party that Kara would attend, but she's willing to make an exception once or twice, especially considering the general theme of these things seems to be getting laid. That's nothing to scoff at, not when it's her ideal way to cope with anything that needs coping with. Her usual outfits don't quite blend in at a dance party, but she makes do with a backless bodysuit and leather shorts.

The powder barely effects her but that doesn't stop her from partaking, and that decision is more than worth it when she spots Val in the crowd. Kara disentangles herself from the person she was dancing with and makes her way over. Not being all that physical affection, Kara simply lays a hand on Val's arm to draw her attention.]

Having fun?

[trashvalkyrie]

[Val's found that she can circumvent her own natural tolerance by just going buck fucking wild and letting that powder get all over her; eventually, enough of it builds up that she's got a decent buzz of a high going. Her normal reaction to a hand on her arm would be a quick turn and a strong grip to the wrist, but as relaxed as she is, Val's reflexes are slowed, and she merely looks over at Kara and grins lazily.]

Hey. [She doesn't hesitate to step in a little closer, so Kara can hear her over the music.] Hell, yeah. This is such a good party. You?

[valr]

Music's shit. [But she almost echoes Val's grin, her own just a bit more subdued.] Can't complain 'bout the orgies.

[She's already a little mussed up, because Kara doesn't have a whole lot of qualms about fooling around with strangers or in public.]

iv

[panacean]

[ Carson has a plate with a pair of meat skewers on it, and he had been looking for somewhere to eat it out of the way of general traffic in the market. Now, though, he's distracted by the very pretty young woman trying to drown herself in apple(ish) fritters and slightly on edge with the expectation that he's gonna have to give her the Heimlich Maneuver in a second.

NONE OF HIS BUSINESS, REALLY, BUT (in a very Scottish accent): ]

You might want to slow yourself down a wee bit. Give the food a chance to settle.

[ BEFORE U PUKE, GURL. ]

[trashvalkyrie]

[Val turns toward the voice, half a chicken leg sticking out of her mouth, and swallows heavily. She's honestly like a Gods-bedamned cartoon character.]

Huh? Why? [She gets the rest of the meat off the bone and tosses it over her shoulder. It might hit someone in the head. It's fine.]

I don't have some wimpy human stomach, you know.

[panacean]

[ It does, in fact, hit someone in the head, and Carson spares a thought to wonder if that was intentional or just really good (bad?) luck.

He spares another for how strongly he's reminded of Ronon.

Carson makes a soft noise along the lines of ah, accepting without question that she's not strictly human though she may look humanoid. Mildly: ]

Do your people still need air?

i

[scholiast]

(Lucretia's gone the exactly opposite of Val by wearing something she intends on dirtying; she's already collected a very exciting array of colourful, smoky spatters from all the powder. The artist in her is absolutely delighted with the way the pigments stand out starkly on her skin. She's been doing a little bit of dancing, a half-hearted sort of participation on the edge of the dance floor but when she spots Val weaving her way through the crowd she immediately tries to catch up to her, calling her name once or twice.

The music is too loud for that, however; she manages to catch Val by the wrist, give her a gentle tug to get her attention. It's amazing that they're surrounded by people from all sides and yet Lucretia doesn't feel uncomfortable, simply exhilarated, almost excited by the thrum of energy in the crowd.)

Hey!

[trashvalkyrie]

[Val turns at the hand on her wrist, and her whole face lights up when she sees the person attached to that hand. Her pupils are blown wide, expression more open than it's ever been around Lucretia before. She leans in closer to call:]

Hey! You came back to dance!

[referring, of course, to the last time she'd seen her!]

This is what I call a party!

[scholiast]

(Lucretia figures she probably looks more or less the same, but the wide eyed, excited look Val is sporting makes her laugh. She has cover her hand with her mouth when Val leans in to talk because she can't stop giggling.)

I had to, when I saw my best dance partner in the crowd.

(Whatever's playing right now has some serious beat: usually Lucretia listens to stuff that can be easily delegated to the background of whatever she's doing, but she's really digging this music. The beat feels like it's going right through her, it's trippy.)

No kidding! I've never been to anything like it!

iv

[burntbridges]

[Honestly, the sight of this woman is more bemusing than anything. In her time in Varberg Letha had gotten used to gluttons and a stark lack of table manners, but bottomless stomachs tend to belong to giant men and are reserved for feasts. This seems... expensive.]

You might want to be careful, lest you eat one of the sticks.

[She's really trying not be judgemental... but she's absolutely feeling judgemental.]

[trashvalkyrie]

[See the thing is, this woman is Asgardian, and thus she has the bottomless stomach and, well, the weight of a giant man, all neatly wrapped up in a small package. She turns, raises an eyebrow, and chomps down the last half of whatever it was she was working on.]

Come on, I'm hungry, not stupid.

ii.

[circumitus]

[This was a mistake, clearly. Rey is no prude. She's experienced her share of walking in on people, catching pornography and gossip among those reveling in their erotic exploits. Though Rey mostly kept her business to herself, she never stepped inside a sex shop before, let alone a whole convention dedicated to it.

[For now, she's just looking, trying to figure out how some of this shit works. Most she can more or less use her imagination or exercise her reading eyes, but others are perplexing. Like where the hell are these beads supposed to go--?

[Oh.

[When she recognizes the "toy" and its function, she instinctively drops it instead of properly putting it back. All the while avoiding eye contact with the woman she sees out her peripheral vision.]

Shit. [Rey glances over her shoulder to see if anyone else is around to catch her mishap and flushing red face, before she goes to pick up the discarded string of enlarged beads.]

[trashvalkyrie]

[Val glances up just in time to see a woman dropping a set of anal beads, and too bad for you, Rey, you're now on the receiving end of a wolfish grin from Val, who sidles up to the other woman.]

It's okay. I don't think it's been up anywhere unholy just yet. Unless this seller is particularly unwholesome.

[circumitus]

[She almost drops the beads again when Val speaks. Instead she avoids looking in the woman's direction and quickly puts the infernal item back where it belongs.]

Some of the shit here looks like it shouldn't even be used in private at all, let alone at a vendor.

[The thought grosses her out a little. Butt-beads, why.]

ii

[wingedman]

[Sam is very much not awkward at the display of leather in front of him. And if some of it isn't his thing, well, some of it just might be. He catches sight of Val over one of the racks and arches a curious eyebrow at her.]

I'd ask if this reminds you of home, but that might imply that I have a real skewed view of Asgard.

[But, you know, leather. There's a connection there that makes sense to Sam, anyway.]

[trashvalkyrie]

[Val glances up, fingers curled around the straps of a leather chest harness, and the corner of her mouth lifts into a smile at the sight of Sam.]

I mean, you're half-right. The stuff we wore back then was more...protective than decorative, though. [She pauses.] Though you can't say this isn't functional.

[wingedman]

I'd say I'm disappointed that Asgard doesn't really look like a cross between Lord of the Rings and a bad BDSM porno, but...yeah. Not much of a letdown there.

[A shrug, and Sam tilts his head to look at the harness she's examining. Possibly thinking about it on her, and his fingertips linger over the leather of a strapon harness.] Strictly speaking, yeah. It has a function, and it fulfills it.

i

[worldsaway]

[Thor's solution to avoiding ruining his clothing is to just avoid wearing clothing for the most part. He's wearing shorts and shoes, because he's not a complete barbarian, but the rest of him is bare and covered in the remnants of powder he's been supplied through the evening.

He's elated to see Val in the crowd, moreso than usual. He'll creep up and wrap his arms around her waist, lifting her up so he can twirl her around. Someone gets kicked in the face in the process, Thor doesn't notice.]

I'm here to escort you out. For roughhousing. Which I assume you're doing.

[trashvalkyrie]

[Val's not easy to creep up on, but Thor has her own intoxication to his advantage, as well as the fact that she's making out with a very drunk girl when he comes up behind her. Val lets out a screech as she's pulled up and away, and there's no question of who it is, because there are very few people who could actually lift her that easily.

She...sort of kicks the girl she's been making out with in the face. She doesn't notice, either. It's fine.]

I was doing nothing of the sort. You, on the other hand—!

[She's not even really struggling so much as wiggling to make it look like she's putting an effort into fighting him off.]

[worldsaway]

I'm doing fine, thanks for asking.

[Thor says, almost defensively, as if he's on guard and ready to make sure everybody knows that he's coping.

She doesn't need to wiggle much for him to set her down, though his arms linger over her as if he expects she needs help balancing. He's not sure if it's the strobes, the black lights or the powder, but he feels almost as if he's seeing her in a different light. He needs to blink and refocus, but his perception doesn't shift. She looks almost ethereal in her ripped shirt and combat boots, skin lit by the flashing lights above her.

It's probably definitely the drugs. He needs to put a stop to that train of thought, so he pushes forward with casual conversation.]

I've had so much powder and I really want to dance.

[He yells, into her face, casual and friendly.]

ii - cw for nsfw mentions

[personifications]

[ Eames is well-enough acquainted with the idea of sex enhancing "toys" and even the idea of scenes wildly out of his own preferences, but he's drawn by some mix of curiosity and boredom (and maybe even a little more want than he's fully cognizant of).

Little of the convention is surprising (though interesting is a different beast entirely), but the least so is stumbling upon Val here. Her countenance has always screamed of an alluring sort of domination (very "step on me," and he's thought about it once or twice), and he feels somewhat vindicated in a subtle sort of what he considers confirmation enough.

He finds her eyes, gets a wink, and honestly that's (more than) all he ever needed to sidle on over. ]

Adding to a collection, or starting one?

[trashvalkyrie]

[Val's more than glad to catch a glimpse of Eames in the crowd of convention-goers, and can she be blamed for winking at him as she does, when she can very clearly remember some very sloppy, drunken makeouts in a closet at the Festival of Light? It was fun, and the leather flogger in her hand looks fun, and when he comes over she's already adding the two together in her mind.

She smirks up at him.]

Starting one. Thought I needed another hobby besides bench pressing hot strangers in closets.

ii

[volitaunt]

[ Well there's a face he hasn't seen since they said their goodbyes-slash-see-you-laters at the Festival of Light. He's thought about her a couple of times since then, seen her at a distance, but this is the first chance he's had to say a proper hello.

He might be a taken man (?????????? how did that happen?????) these days, but she was fun, and she doesn't seem like the type to get the wrong idea.

Besides, he needs to pick up some stuff. ]

They're not shy around here, huh?

[trashvalkyrie]

[Val glances up at the voice, does a double-take, and splits into a grin. She hasn't seen Poe in a while, but the sight of him is a welcome one.]

Hey, Flyboy! [She takes a glance around them. Oh, hey, artisanal lube. She might need to check that out.]

Not at all. It's the best. What have you been up to, anyway?