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

[realists]

[ jyn's head bobs in a nod. exactly, bodhi knows exactly what she is talking about, excellent. it's nice having someone here she knows. not that she doesn't have cassian, but someone else. they were a team, maybe now is there chance to be friends.

it's hard to reconcile the feeling in her gut, the i would die for this brave man feeling, with wondering if he'll even want to be friends with her, galen's daughter, saw's surrogate daughter. it's an odd dichotomy to navigate. ]

It's called citra? It's fruity, with bubbles. [ she offers it out to him, which is honestly the surest sign that bodhi has been firmly planted on her good side. sharing food, even so much as a beverage, is Important. ]

[onlydoubts]

[ he looks from Jyn to the drink in her hand, being offered. A little surprised at the action of her sharing her drink. Because he can go and get his own, no problem. But the fact that she was offering - well. There hadn't been a lot of time for the group to get to know one another beyond surface details. Bodhi got that she didn't trust easy, but she was offering him her drink like it was no big deal.

They'd been a team before. Now they can actually get to be friends, they have that chance.

With a nod, he takes the drink and takes a drink. Eyes widening a little as it fizzes in his mouth. ]

Oh, wow. [ Grinning, he hands it back. ] That's really bubbly.

[realists]

Isn't it?

[ jyn has discovered that she loves carbonated drinks, but only fruit flavored ones. the brown ones taste like medicine and she won't stand them. ]

They don't have blue milk, but they have this so I suppose it evens out. [ she wonders if bodhi drank blue milk, if they had blue milk on jedha or eadu, if her father had it brought in the way he'd had it delivered to lah'mu with their occasional supplies. ]

Have you tried shrimp?

[onlydoubts]

It is. I wasn't expecting that. [ Yes, he's gonna need some of that for himself.

Fruity fizzy drinks. Hm. He likes this place more. The next comment gives him a reason to pause, look at her, surprised. Maybe not the hugest fan of milk as a whole, which had been a rare treat, growing up on Jedha. But he does recall Galen drinking it from time to time, grabbing a glass with him in the cafeteria at dinner or when he'd gone to speak with him in his office. ] They ... don't have blue milk, really?

No. I haven't had a - shrimp, you call it? I had chicken, though. There's just so much food here.

[realists]

Come on.

[ bodhi not having had shrimp is all it takes for jyn to abandon the rave (for now) to rectify this situation because she had discovered in riverview that she likes shrimp and she happens to know the one place in the quarantine that has shrimp 24/7. she grabs his wrist with her freakishly strong grip and turns to lead them outside.

it's very important bodhi try shrimp. ]

The milk here is white, brown, and pink. But no bantha milk.

[onlydoubts]

Okay, okay - [ He's not quite used to Jyn's superstrong grip but matches her hurried pace, at risk of losing an arm if he doesn't.

Shrimp must be good, if she's this excited for him to try it. Either way, he's not about to turn down more food here, Bodhi finds all the variety offered exciting. Much better than a diet of ration bars, or whatever he could get that was easy to eat over a long flight. ]

Brown milk... That doesn't sound all that good. Why so many colors, but no blue?

[realists]

They're flavors, I guess, [ jyn offers with a shrug. it's weird and she doesn't know if she likes any of them or if she's too used to being starving to be picky.

once she has decided bodhi is in fact coming with her she loosens her grip slightly, but keeps ahold of him like she's afraid she'll lose him on the way. it's apparent pretty quickly that she's bringing him toward the main residential housing. ]

How're you settling?

[onlydoubts]

Have you had any of them? [ Even now, a few days in - he's still looking around to memorize the routes and sights as not to get lost or turned around for future reference. Grateful that there's some circulation returning to his arm, but Bodhi doesn't shake out of the grip - it's still a comforting reassurance. ]

I'm settling. Sort of. It's a lot to get used to, but... I'm getting there.

[ Maybe in a few weeks, or a few months - he'll feel as sure about this place as Jyn and Cassian seem to be.]

[realists]

This is the first time I've stayed in the same place in -- [ her shoulders lift in a shrug. ] -- years.

[ it's kind of... staggering, when she thinks about it. she's been here for something like six months and that's-- ]

Well, I suppose I was in prison for quite a while.