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

[Of course a celebration of love is going to have some corner dedicated to the more risque side of things. Christian is quiet and remains out of the way, but he's taking the opportunity to peruse the different stalls and their wares. It's all fun and games, right? He's checking out the different stalls when he overhears that question.]

Do you end up in real handcuffs that often?

[Peter blinks as the response comes from behind him, but when he glances over his expression is wry.]

Put people in them, you mean.

[Alright, and he may have ended up in them a time or two as part of training exercises. But that's entirely different.]

Oh, right. That too.

[While he's perfectly aware that Peter is a professional, he has to continue teasing with insinuations. He has to amuse himself, right? And he's not denying anything, so it looks like the jokes are actually relevant.]

You mean you've never tried them yourself?

Not recreationally, at least.

[Uncomfortable or not, Peter has been very well trained to consider them a work tool. Not exactly the sort of thing he'd want to be playing around with on his off time.]

I mean, I know people get the fluffy ones or whatever, I get that. It's the real thing I'm more confused about.

Well that's probably a smart idea.

[Says the man who has (thankfully) never been in handcuffs for any reason. As much as Christian teases, he doesn't really dabble in things that don't directly come back to magic, so law enforcement and human hobbies, common or more exclusive, aren't often on his schedule.]

Maybe they like the feeling. I mean, some people do, right?

I suppose.

[People like a lot of things that start at questionable and continue from there. Peter doesn't judge, but he does wonder at it.]

I would also suppose that there's at least someone that likes anything in here. Would defeat the purpose otherwise, no?

Probably. It does seem like a place that likes its experiments. Which is nice, I guess.

[There are limits, of course, but he's pretty sure they won't be dangerous. It seems like Quarantine takes a lot of care to ensure nothing goes too crazy.]

What's the weirdest thing you've tried?

Weirdest thing in terms of what?

[If it's a difference between professional and personal, one of those is going to win hands down. Being police can be strange enough without adding wizardry to it.]

In terms of anything. Magic? Recreation? I like a good story.

[He says, never mind the fact he tends not to be the one to try these things himself. He's all about dabbling in strange magical encounters, but unusual kinks and odd human hobbies is a bit too close to home for him.]

Yeah, but I'm not sure how we're defining weird. I mean, you think things are going alright, and then you have to bust up a fight between a bunch of drunk blokes in fancy dress, and then things get surreal very quickly.

[Peter very much does not miss his patrolling days.]

And then there's getting into a literal pissing contest with a river god.

[Peter's response gets an actual laugh out of Christian. He might have chuckled before, but hearing the cop talk about pissing contests with a god and the very relatable way he describes most of the encounters Christian himself has had through the years makes him offer a few loud notes from deep in his chest.]

That's always the way it goes, isn't it? Just when you think things might be normal for a day the world proves you wrong.

Tell me about your river god. That sounds fun.

There was a lot of drinking involved.

[It's offered with a wry grin and probably isn't much of a surprise. Peter's not sure he would have let himself be roped into it otherwise, agreements or no.]

There's a few of them around. Father Thames and his sons and Mama Thames and her daughters. Others too, probably, but those are the ones I deal with most often.

So you're a drinker? Well, that's good to know. I was hoping you weren't too serious.

[He's just teasing, of course. It's the only way he can really get comfortable with people. Jokes make the tension easier to bear. As he gets more familiar with Peter, though, he finds that he likes this strange police officer.]

A whole family? What do they look like?

I'm a copper, of course I drink.

[That might be the first time anyone has even jokingly accused him of being serious. Usually it's the other thing that gets him side-eyed.]

And not quite. The two groups aren't really related, except in the metaphysical sense.

[Christian's eyebrows go up slightly, less in surprise and more out of interest. The way Peter talks about being a cop is still something for him to get used to. Do magic cops act more like cops or magicians? That's the big question.]

What else do you do? For fun, I mean, not for your station.

[It makes sense to him that the river deities would be more related in title than actual connections with each other. As far as he knows, spirits only loosely affiliate with each other in most cases. A few do run in groups, but those tend to be less individuals in their own rights.]

Are you friends with them?

[That's the real question he has.]

With the Rivers? Friends might be pushing it. Friendly, at least. With most of them.

[He's not sure Tyburn is capable of friends, and even if she was it certainly wouldn't be with Peter. And if he'd once contemplated something a little more than friends with Beverly...well. It's very much a moot point now.

But fun? He arches an eyebrow of his own and shrugs a little.]

I don't know, telly? Videogames? I set up a space back home that we could put all the electronics so they wouldn't get fried accidentally. I don't have all that much in the way of free time on my hands though.

You talk with them. You're on speaking terms?

[And they don't want to eat him, which is really what Christian is asking, because his interactions with spirits often comes down to creative ways of avoiding becoming lunch. It's a priority for most of them, food.]

That's impressive. A lot of people don't trust cops. And a magic cop sounds a lot like a Hunter to me.

[Not that he'd know. In response to Peter's list of activities, Christian winces.]

So you work? That sounds... like a choice. You need another hobby.

On speaking terms, yes.

[Sometimes more often than he'd like.]

We're...there are Arrangements. [Somehow he even manages to pronounce the capital.] We keep an eye out for anyone breaching the peace. The larger community may not like us, but we are necessary.

[And he can't help a huff of a laugh.]

Mate, I'd love one. But between policing, magic lessons and Latin lessons, I barely have time to sleep some days.

That's better than a lot of people are with spirits. Even ones that aren't ascended. So you're actually lucky.

[That's... a compliment of sorts. At least Christian is attempting to compliment him.]

And they just accept that? The other people in your community? I mean, I know the normal humans will listen to authority for the most part, but what about the others? Do you have any psychics around you? Any important families?

Don't think I'm forgetting, by the way. You need a better hobby. Something fun.

[Peter's eyebrows lift slightly at the idea of spirits and ascension, but he tucks those particular questions away for later. Christian seems to be after something in particular, so Peter can wait his turn.]

No psychics. And just the Rivers in terms of important. Mind you, all this is just in London, it might be different other places. [No one ever really seems to know, which frustrates Peter more than a little. But he's working on it. Or was.] I mean. They accept it because my governor has the power to back it up. The Folly's been around for a long time, people in the demi-monde generally know what it is. And they're all English, so they know the police too.

[The shrug he gives is just the slightest bit helpless.]

They might be magic or slightly magic, but they're all just people. Mostly.

[Christian is trying very hard to figure out how close Peter's relationship is to spirits. As a rule, humans tend to draw a line between what they do with magic and the spirits that come from the world they interact with. Psychics are a little more accepting of the strange beings, but most would still rather use a part of a spirit than deal with one. And Hunters of course want nothing to do with them. A policeman, an enforcer of law, is fascinating to him. He doesn't know where this man fits into the natural world.]

No psychics. You mean, no psychics at all?

[That's impossible.]

What about druid families? Old sage's or magician's descendants? Taliesin? Mac Lir blood?

[Peter's answer baffles Christian even more than getting no response. He stands back on his heels, looking at the man like he just told him the secret to some riddle he'd never been asked before.]

Your world is incredible. Are you sure it exists?

[He's quiet all throughout the list, eyes widening a little as it continues, but Peter can't help breaking into a laugh at the end of it.]

Oh, it's real. Seems a bit different from yours, though. [To put it mildly.] And no, to all of it. Well, no magical druids. There's the ones that turn up to Stonehenge on the solstices, but I'm not sure they count.

There are other magicians around. Hedgewizards, they're called. Sort of retirees, you could say. Or ones that never went to become official wizards.

[Peter pauses, considering. There are the others, too. The Little Crocodiles. But that's...not especially something he wants to talk about when they're having an otherwise nice chat. A confusing chat, but a nice one.]

Everyone thought the magic was going away for a bit. For years. Not sure if it's coming back, or if there's just more around to notice it now.

Different how?

[He's instantly intrigued. If there are different groups of psychics or magical people in London (or in a world where London has magical police) he wants to know about them. His knowledge of the big families in his own world is already limited, but the more people he meets, the more he learns.]

A lot of the druids wouldn't. Like the mediums and the witches in my world, I'm sure. The words get tossed around more than the actual magic.

[The second part gets a subtle reaction from Christian, but one Peter can probably pick up. It's a quiet shift in his gaze when the officer mentions magic leaving. A solemn flicker of recognition that he keeps from spreading through his whole expression. When he looks back up at him, he's more intent.]

People forget how to look for magic. Sometimes I think that kills it as much as anything.

[Peter studies him for a moment, catching the change in mood, before he nods once.]

There used to be a lot more wizards. A whole school for them. But then most died in the war, and the ones that didn't sort of...gave up. There was no one left to teach, and so no one learned. And it all kind of faded away.

[Until Peter himself. And lord knows he never would have gotten a foot in the door if the old ways were still running.]

Just, all the things you mentioned. We don't have any of that. Well. So far as I know.

You don't have psychics? People with family lines dating back?

[He's not as surprised to hear that, because a lot of people just don't know about the psychics that exist in his world. They rarely have any exposure to those with powers claiming to have them. It's far more likely to see frauds and hoaxes.]

I mean, I don't think we have wizards as far as I know. Not the magical school kind anyway. That sort of thing is kind of left to the imagination. Good old traditional skills are kind of hard to find. But it seems like you see more than me. I don't know that many humans that would be considered real practicing anything.

monthly mingle: SAMPREMI

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