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

navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Taako's seen lots of different versions of magic, since coming to the Quarantine, but most of them have less limitations than his, or are more impressive. Not less.]

If a mage hand is high level magic I'm not sure I even wanna ask what your regular shit is like.

Well, I mean, I could probably do something similar. It's for moving things, yeah?

[Some combination of impello and palma would probably do it, but Peter is actually trying not to get mentally sidetracked trying to work out how.]

Just not as...visibly.

It's for anything you'd use a hand for - [He wiggles his fingers.] - just as dexterous as a regular ol' hand, so if you gotta pick pocket someone or whatever, it works for that.

[He could've used any example and he went for that.]

A bit more noticeable though, isn't it?

[Being sparkly and blue and all. Just a bit attention catching.]

That's what this is for.

[He pulls the glove back out of his pocket, though he doesn't bother putting it back on. Instead, he just shrugs.]

There's all sorts of shit you can do with magic, most of it's like - about fucking people up, ya know?

[Peter's eyebrows lift slightly. That's a very different take on magic than he's heard, even here.]

Offensive spells, you mean?

[He's seen more than his share of that. But Peter would very much like to believe that's not all there is too it. It's magic, it can't be that limiting.]

[Look he comes from d&d world don't judge him.]

For sure, that's a whole class right there and then you've got abjuration on the other side of things. Like - that's not all magic can do, obviously, but a lotta spells we learned so that we could, you know, fight.

[Defend themselves, mainly.]

[He nods once -- thank god for a childhood of playing D&D for giving him any idea of what 'abjuration' means. That's certainly something Nightingale never taught him.]

Yeah, no, I get that. It just seems a little bit like waste, you know?

I guess? But like, you'd wanna talk to other magic users for that shit probably, wizard spells have gotta be created like, uh, a recipe? An equation? We don't just pull this shit outta our asses on the spot and it's pretty fucking hard. So if you're about to go toe to toe with a chimera or whatever you're not gonna waste time figuring out a spell to solve world hunger.

[Taako has cast without using a learned spell twice and while it didn't kill him, he knows he's lucky. Everything else he does relies on transcribed spells.]

But I mean that's not every single spell, just a lot of 'em. I can create a fancy mansion in a pocket dimension, that's got fuck all to do with a fight.

So there are...different types of people who do magic where you come from? Not just wizards?

[Peter's trying to follow along. It doesn't help that he keeps getting sidetracked.

Like, say:] Wait, an actual other dimension?

Wizards, warlocks, sorcerers, bards, druids, clerics, paladins...

[He trails off with a shrug, very much a the list is long and I'm lazy kind of gesture.]

And yeah, for sure, pocket dimensions aren't that hard. I've got a couple spells that work with 'em; the mansion one is a big one, takes a lot of energy but that's cause you're conjuring a lot of shit too.

[Sure, of course, blatantly doing away with the laws of physics isn't that hard. Peter's used to a certain amount of strangeness when it comes to magic, but this is clearly something else.]

Could you show me? It wouldn't have to be anything big.

[Look, you've got his attention now. Peter's going to trying to work this one out for ages.]

[The spell that comes it mind is rope trick, but he doesn't have rope.]

You know, I stopped carrying my pack with me since I got here so I don't-- uh, fuck it. Go big or go home, as I always say.

[Does he say that? Not really. Does Peter know this? Absolutely not.

Taako steps to the side, towards the outer wall of a nearby store. He plucks the umbra staff from where it was hooked on his arm and points it at the wall; the gestures he makes with the umbrella don't really follow any pattern because somatic components of spells are for nerds and he mostly just does what he wants. After about a minute, a door shimmers faintly on the surface of the wall before it swings open to reveal an ornate entryway.]

After you, pumpkin.

[Past the entrance there's a grand ballroom laid out with a huge banquet table, because if he's going to waste the spell slot he may as well show off.]

[Peter's eyes shoot wide and he actually rocks back a step. That definitely is a sudden doorway, and not in the 'ripping a hole through the wall' sense he's seen his teacher do back home.]

That is...

[But he trails off before he can finish the sentence, leaning forward as curiosity gets the better of him.]

Is it constructed as part of the spell, or is that just a...portal to a building somewhere?

It's all mine, comes with invisible servants and food for like, a hundred dipshits? I'm guessing you missed the masquerade last year?

[Since that was a modified version of this spell, although with help from Lup and Loki, since it needed to be bigger than Taako alone could pull off.]

Ah, I haven't been here that long.

[It's an almost absent-minded answer, considering Peter's brain is very much elsewhere. Invisible servants?

Well, it's certainly the sort of thing he'd have imagined when someone someone said magic, before he'd gotten involved with it himself. Don't get him wrong, he loves the Newtonian stuff, but this is is on a level he doesn't think he'd ever have thought actually possible. Just one more question for Nightingale, if he ever gets home.]

And you can just. Do this. Whenever you want.

I gotta rest between casting, for me that's four hours, for a human wizard it'd be a normal sleep, uh.... seven? Eight? Whatever that is for you thugs.

[He spent a century living with humans but neither Barry nor Lucretia had regular sleep cycles and sometimes Magnus would just conk out for like twelve hours so sometimes Taako forgets what the requirements are.]

And this is uh, pretty high level stuff, not everyone can do this. I'm very good at my shit.

[Kind of a brag but also true.]

[That actually makes more sense, that this is incredibly well-practiced work, and not just an everyday sort of thing. Peter doesn't doubt Taako's claim for a second.]

It's impressive.

[A genuinely honest statement, even if it sounds a little distracted. The but how does it work section of Peter's mind has gone into overdrive, as much as he keeps trying to drag himself back to the conversation at hand. Really, the only thing keeping him from immediately asking a million questions is that he's not sure where to even start.]

Aw, thanks darling.

[As if one cue, a tray with two martinis balanced on top makes it way over, first to Taako (he takes his without hesitation) and then to Peter in case he wants one too. It's kind of showing off, but he's also demonstrating that the food and drink in here is definitely real]

I've been doing this for uh, about two centuries? When I started out I could barely conjure a glass of water.

[That, at least, Peter barely blinks at, though it might partially be because he's eying the drinks tray with mild suspicion. But the idea of wizards just lasting that long is something he got used to pretty early on, even if it seems like a slightly different sort of issue.]

I've only been learning for a few months, really. And supposedly, it takes about ten years to stop being an apprentice.

[If Peter doesn't take his martini then Taako just gets two]

Fuck, if I have to keep teaching my apprentice for ten years I'm gonna kill him.

[His tone is Very Dramatic but in a way that's obviously over the top. He loves Angus, don't tell anyone.]

I dunno what's like - standard for our wizards? We taught ourselves or traded for a half hour lesson if a wizard was travelling with the caravans, we never apprenticed or went to a school.

[Peter nods, even if he can't quite imagine it. At least for the magic he knows, it's not anything he'd have been able to figure out with just a few hints here and there. He wonders a little if it's the way this other magic works, if it's just how Taako works.]

There used to be a school, back home. Until there wasn't really anyone left to run it. Now it's just me and my teacher.

[And the fact that even if there was still a school, they wouldn't have let Peter in. On the whole, he sort of prefers things as they are, unfortunate bits aside.]

[It's a little of both]

What, like, you're the only two thugs doing magic?

[It's a weird thought and something a little unsettling; Taako knows there are worlds where magic doesn't exist at all, but the idea of it having existed and, what? being wiped out? disappearing? It's a shitty thought. Taako's magic isn't innate, but it's as much a part of his identity as his cooking is.]

Not quite. Well, officially yes.

[It's such an odd distinction, but it's one Peter is getting used to.]

The only official wizards, in England, anyway. There's probably others other there. And then there's the Rivers and the fae and whatever else.

[It's hard to imagine the idea of there being official versus unofficial wizards, as if there's a book somewhere you have to write your name in to be official.]

The Rivers?

[He knows what fae are, even if they're more myth than anything at this point.]

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