riverviewlogs | monthly mingle: SAMPREMI

Entry tags:

monthly mingle: SAMPREMI

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

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Taako thinks this is a rescue mission. He sees the dance floor dissolve into some sort of overly intense mosh pit and that's not really his jam, but then he catches a glimpse of Finn somewhere in the middle of it and well, he worries? A little? He knows from their few conversations that there are a lot of things Finn is new to and he assumes this might be one of them.

He's buzzed on the powder but not enough that he can't spell cast, so a quick blink gets him to Finn without having to fight his way through a crowd of people. So he's sort of just - there. Suddenly. Reaching out for Finn's shoulder so he can lean in to be heard over the music.]

You okay in here, my man, cause I can get ya out?

[ Probably any other day, Finn would be startled and promptly very offended by Taako startling him. It would be a whole thing. And in the future, it probably will. It almost definitely will.

On this special occasion, Finn's about at the TFLN-level of "i guess at some point he got here but i barely remember getting here." So what he does is get a hand on one of Taako's shoulders while he also leans in. He doesn't even think about it. This is just a thing they're doing mid- mosh pit with a couple of people inadvertently jostling them. Case closed, it's great.

He beams. ]

Hey! [ Then, waving his free hand: ] Don't worry, it's the best part!

How is this the best part!

[Taako isn't too concerned by the lack of personal space, he's noticed that Finn tends to get relatively up close on a normal day and has mostly just resigned himself to it, so it makes sense that Finn sans inhibitions is even worse.]

This like-- it's not even dancing!

[ What a foolish question. Taako needs to get his priorities in order. ]

I know! That's-- [ Finn gestures again like it helps state his case in any capacity. That's the point. ] I can't dance! Fit right in with it!

[ When most of your social life is about faking it until you make it, this is truly revolutionary. Mostly it just doesn't hurt that the mosh pit scenario involves a crowd of people trying to congeal into one singular touch-related entity. ]

[He'd make a point that anyone can dance if they believe in themselves but he's seen Magnus dance and knows the truth.]

My twink ass was not meant for this shit.

[Taako isn't a twink, but he doesn't let the truth get in the way of a good joke.]

Come find me when you've had enough of getting beat up? We can hang.

[Despite half their interactions being weird and intense, Taako does actually like Finn.]

[ Sometimes the best way to broaden your horizons is to accept your limitations. Like Taako is doing right now, maybe. Finn doesn't get the full metaphor at work here, but the sentiment seems in line.

Much like how he doesn't think of it as getting beat up, but he can see why that impression might get left. Finn looks confused for about half a second, because it's a pretty abrupt departure. He thought Taako just got here.

Of course, it's a big crowd and he wasn't actually paying too much attention to it. Maybe he didn't just get here. Maybe he did his share of tooling around in the pit already.

It's kind of nice to get the invite to find Taako without something horrible happening to one or both of them. That could be... nice. ]

Sure. Sure, yeah! If you're still around. I'll look for you.

[In a moment of leaning into the whole affection thing going on, Taako plants a kiss on Finn's cheek.]

Have fun, pumpkin!

[And then he's sort of just gone, back into the ethereal plane where elbows can't get him, it's much safer there, at least until he's back into the general part of the club.

Taako spends the evening doing whatever it is that Taako does, but at some point he definitely just finds a couch to hang out on with a drink in one hand. He may or may not be watching a mini-orgy that just sort of popped up about ten feet away. You don't know his life.]

[ That's a cool wizard move. If Finn could have just been a wizard, escaping space fascists would have been way easier. Anyway, he collects that kiss. It's in his collection now, which has a whopping total of three, and his cheek stays warm there for a while.

He feels like he could rack up numbers if he tapped basically anyone on the shoulder here and asked. Maybe another time. Right now he's thriving on an unsanctioned mass fistfight that people keep pretending is a dance.

Finn does eventually get tired of basically getting beat up by a crowd of strangers though. That's his truth, he'll live it. Once he's struggled his way free and straightened his shirt back out, he just kinda wanders around until he either remembers he planned to meet up with Taako, or until he sees Taako because he already remembered to go looking.

That looks like a comfortable couch. Well, as he always says before he hops into the semi-frequent insomniac couch fort in his and Poe's apartment: make room for Finn. Or don't. But he's here. ]

Glad to see you stuck around.

[ He catches movement and ends up looking towards the mini-orgy. His eyebrows go up as far as humanly possible. Then they furrow back down, about as close to his usual range of expression as he's gotten so far tonight. It's a face journey. ]

Sort of hoping that's not why.

[Taako won't make room for Finn because he's a lazy asshole, but what he will do is kick his legs up until they're in Finn's lap since that's just like - more comfortable?

And then he promptly bursts into laughter at the face journey he got to witness.]

Hey, it's free entertainment, can't turn your nose up at that.

[He's not talking about entertainment in the sexy way, he's just amusing himself.]

[ This position is amenable. Touching people without a lot of unintentional fistfights in the Pit: that's actually kind of the dream. It can't be all adrenaline all the time. Otherwise his legs would give out eventually or something.

He's not really thinking in legs context, but still. ]

I mean, I'm pretty sure you can. Not that anyone over there cares anyway. [ Like, being fair. ] So is this just the way you hang? Hmm?

[ Watching orgies like someone sitting in a park to watch birds??? Taako? Please. ]

Am I sensing some judgement, pumpkin?

[If there is he clearly isn't particularly bothered by it, but the best way to answer a question is with another question.]

[ Finn tips his head back against the couch, hums in thought over this question he should arguably be able to answer without thinking. He pats Taako on the shin a couple of times, truly sagely and benevolent. ]

Yeah, I think so. But I'm not gonna hold any of it against you.

[Much sage, very benevolence.]

I appreciate that.

[DEEPLY SARCASTIC but also fond. Finn gets the fond tones now because he's managed to somehow become a friend despite all their interactions being weird sort of disasters.

Which sounds about right for most of Taako's friendships, honestly.]

I gotta say, I did not pick you for the partying type, you seem way too serious.

[rude but tru]

[ Weird disasters make up a lot of Finn's canon friend face time. The Quarantine's been a strange mix of completely benevolent bonding on one end and overboard disaster shenanigans on the other end.

Of course, on the bright side, there's been a lot more time here to have it spread out.

And Taako is good. In his own weird way. Kind of how Han Solo was good. ]

You got me. I'm always serious. I was serious as a baby. I do things that are serious. A lot of things. And I definitely know what I'm doing with them. All the time. Thanks for pointing it out.

[ Nailed it, sounding confident as hell. Is serious a real word? Whatever. ]

Except now! Because I'm having fun. On purpose. Because I can do that if I want. [ Finn frowns at the ceiling, and follows it up with a vague hand flapping gesture?? As if to say see, look at me having all this intentional fun. He's basically ready for clown school now, probably.

Then he turns his head to look at Taako, already swapping the frown out for a grin. ]

Don't worry, I'm taking my fun very seriously.

[Those sure are a lot of words and Taako is pretty sure most of them are bullshit, but that's okay with him, he's used to bullshit. And honestly it's kind of charming, when Finn breaks out that grin, all Taako can do is laugh.]

You know, you don't need a giant party to have fun, you can make your own whenever you want.

[Just saying.]

[ They are absolutely mostly bullshit. That's about the level he's on, and he appreciates that Taako listens anyway.

He cannot argue with Taako's logic. But does that matter, tho. ]

I don't even always have fun at parties. I can just always find one. They have parties for everything here. There's always a holiday.

[ He'd come up with a dumb off-the-wall hypothetical holiday, but he's afraid that it'll turn into a dark festival prophecy. Like a native will overhear him and go yeah, it's great how you knew next month is when we celebrate shining our left boots, Finn. ]

Makes people wanna stay, like - look at how fun this place is, don't worry about all the horrible shit that happens cause there's free alcohol and people fucking and that's a good distraction, right?

[There's maybe something a little bitter creeping in there, but he's trying not to be too grumpy about the whole thing, he's just saying what comes to mind as it comes to mind.]

Yeah, they're pretty bad at that. Last holiday wouldn't even let people get distracted.

[ If he's here long enough to hit that "dwell on your problems" rigmarole again, he's ascending from this mortal coil forever. Worst holiday. ]

I always like the people more than the parties. Even you. Even if I have to keep yelling at you. However long we're here.

[ Pat pat.

Marks a day on the calendar once per month to yell at Taako about something I guess? ]

[Taako makes the very important decision to slip one of his shoes off in order to kick/jab Finn in the side of his torso. It's never been more obvious that Taako is a sibling when he does shit like this. He's ready to throw down over a mild insult.]

Wow, bubbale, don't lay it on too thick, I might start thinking we're friends or something.

[ The narration, as a sibling, agrees 100%. That's a #mood.

Finn just laughs, short but loud. ]

Do you think we're not?

[ Get drunk and tell 👏 people 👏 they're 👏 your 👏 friends 👏, apparently. Part of his brain is saying "okay but wait, he might actually not," but it's. So much easier to ignore that part right now. ]

You think I'm weird.

[This is a very circuitous conversation in which Taako honestly isn't sure whether or not people consider him their friend because he's got a terrible metric for it. A century of ride or die sort of messes up your perspective on how friendships work.]

You tried to get me to change my name to Dixie Normous.

[ Checkmate and good day, sir. ]

But don't worry. I think everyone's weird.

That's cause it'd be fucking hilarious.

[Finn thought it was funny, Taako knows he must've, deep in his soul.]

Maybe it's like-- maybe you're the weird one.

[ Loving the commitment to humor motion.

Finn takes a few seconds to dig into the pocket on the side most... Taako-legged.

He pulls out a glowstick, which he very idly tosses at Taako's torso. He warned you bro. He told you. It's only luck that he took that glowstick. ]

I can't be weird to myself. I'm me.

[Taako makes a very dramatic "oof" sound as the glow stick hits him, as if he is so delicate that it actually hurt.]

Nah but like, you think everyone else is weird cause you're weird. I'm actually hella fucking normal.

[The laughter as he says this probably doesn't sell it.]

Edited (autocorrect u gotta stop turning small to shall) 2018-03-30 22:44 (UTC)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/834978723149447172/-pe9YWrw_400x400.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dy3Gf9I.jpg

im so glad u spent time making that

it was vital

ur my hero

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