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

[Whether he wanted a corndog or not, he's getting one. They had a deal. Fried mystery sausage cloaked in corn batter for one stuffed possibly-an-otter-but-who-knows. It's a fair trade.] Well, if we're a couple'a free agents, then. [It's not like spending time with Tony is a hardship. There aren't a lot of people Bucky can relax around, but he's become one of them.]

Sure, I can do that. I'm a proper gentleman, you know. [He shoots him a wry smile and offers his free arm, like the proper gentleman he's not.]

I have heard that about you.

[It's an agreement so grave and serious that it comes out the other side again, but Tony doesn't hesitate the to take the offered arm with a smirk. It means a moment of juggling all the various nonsense he's holding, but that's a small price to pay.]

So where to, then? More food?

My reputation precedes me. [He glances sideways at Tony for a moment, expression a little more calculating than someone just spending time with a friend.] What else have you heard about me? [Just. Out of curiosity.

He shrugs briefly, leading the way in some random direction, wandering down the street lined with games and food stalls.] If you're still hungry after that. Or- I don't know what else there is to do at this thing, really.

Uh. Games and shopping, I guess. [He sounds just a little bit doubtful.] Or just wandering around and looking at stuff. Everyone keeps yelling at me to spend some time outside of the workroom, so here I am.

[It's accompanied by as much of a shrug as he can give with his arm still tangled with Bucky's, but he flicks a quick look back at him.]

And not much, honestly. I know you're Cap [kind of hard to miss the shield] but I haven't exactly asked around. And it's not like I can go off the Barnes I know.

I keep gettin' told to take time off work. I think my overtime is givin' the accounting department heart attacks. [He snorts quietly, making a joke out of it, but it's true, probably. He works a lot because it's easier that way.] I guess we can just take a look around. It's nicer out than it's been.

[He blows out a slow breath.] I was Cap. Gave the shield back to Steve. I was just supposed to be filling in anyway. [He learned that back home he's a dead man and gave up the shield willingly back here in Riverview.] Can't blame me for asking, though. Avengers from your timeline expect... well, not me, when they hear 'Bucky Barnes'.

What, you mean the fact that you don't hide in shadows and look like a hobo?

[He snorts a little. Things are better between him and the Barnes of his world -- it would be hard for them to be worse, really -- but that doesn't mean everything is great. It's almost a reflexive dig, though, rather than any kind of genuine attack.]

I'm trying not to make assumptions based on the people I already know. Not like I can throw stones there.

[He doesn't always manage it, but he is trying.]

Yeah, that's about right. [His feelings toward the other Barnes are... complicated. They get along after a fashion, but it's a sort of tense version of 'getting along'. That's when they see each other at all. It's better for both of them not to spend much time together; nobody hates Bucky Barnes as much as Bucky Barnes, and he thinks that thread runs the same through both of them.]

Do you hate this alternate universe shit as much as I do? [The corners of his lips quirk up.] It's way above my paygrade.

I don't know about above my paygrade, but it sure as shit does confuse the hell out of me.

[Case in point: what do you call an alternate universe version of yourself?

It's a much better question to focus on than wondering about all the changes between them and the reasons that might have caused it. That way lies a dangerous rabbit hole to spiral down.]

I mean, it's one thing to theorize infinite variations, it's kind of another thing to have it proven to you.

It'd be Fantastic Four kinda bullshit on my Earth, not my kind of thing to deal with. I've seen some weird stuff in my day, but this takes the cake. [These are questions Bucky ponders too, more often than not. He's just started referring to the other Bucky as 'Barnes' to avoid confusion, although that's not much better.]

And it's another thing entirely to have one of those variations starin' right back at you. There but for the grace of God go I.

Yeah.

[Oh boy does he get that. Tony and the other Stark are very similar in some ways and really, really not in others. And they've still got nothing on Barnes and his myriad issues.]

He's doing better. [Because it feels like someone has to stick up for the Barnes he knows.] I mean, you'd probably know better than I would. But he is improving.

I wouldn't, actually. [He shakes his head once.] Glad to hear it though, don't get me wrong, we just... don't see each other unless we have to. Generally speakin'. [It's different than some of the others and their alternate versions, he thinks. He and Barnes have too much baggage between them to be in the same room for long, too alike and yet too different all at once.]

Reminds us both of too much that we don't want to be reminded of.

Fair enough.

[Look, Tony knows just enough about Barnes that he can make assumptions. And it's not anything he's going to make someone talk about without good reason, which means it's time for a subject change. Maybe not the most graceful thing ever, but if it works, it works.]

So what other weird stuff do you deal with, then? Everything I've heard about your place makes it sound completely insane, just so you know.

[Bucky is thankful for his tact. It's not that he doesn't trust Tony, it's just difficult to talk about. The whole subject is still just one big open sore spot.

So the subject change is welcome.]

Oh, you know, the usual. People not stayin' dead when they damn well should, body thievery, evil terrorist organizations. We had an alien invasion once. Shapeshifting Skrulls.

[The usual, he says. Tony might almost think he's being fucked with if it doesn't match up with some of the things he's heard from the others. For all that Tony envies them some things, it sounds like they've got a lot more to deal with, too.]

We've had the aliens. Well, attempted invasion. No shapeshifting, though.

[Isn't that a fun thought.]

[Earth-616 is pretty much constantly in some kind of catastrophic peril. If nothing else, at least there's always something to do.]

Count yourself lucky. I'd kill for just an up-front alien invasion. These things, Skrulls, they infiltrated everything first and nobody had a clue. Kidnapped people to their planet and took their places. They didn't win, but it was a long, hard fight.

Yeah that sounds like a hell of a thing.

[Tony grimaces just slightly. They've had enough problems without wondering if the people they knew were really who they were supposed to be.]

You ever notice that some things seem way too interested in taking over the world or whatever? What do they think they're gonna do when they've got it?

Beats me. Seems like it'd be more trouble than it's worth to take over the whole world. Not to mention what you're riskin' to even get that far. [Earth-616 is like wall to wall superheroes. Why does anyone bother anymore?] It's way more likely you're cruisin' for a beat-down at the hands of the Avengers, or the X-Men, or the Fantastic Four, or SHIELD, or whatever solo superheroes are runnin' around that day.

Some people just don't learn, I guess. Though we don't have half of those.

[Just the Avengers, really. Maybe not even them. But that's not anywhere Tony feels like going at the moment, when they're having an otherwise pleasant chat.]

And let me tell you, being in charge of people is not nearly as much fun as you'd think it is. I gave up being CEO for a reason.

You're lucky then. Fewer super-powered assholes to keep up with. [Even the good guys can be assholes a lot of the time. It's a pain in the behind. Catching up on the updates to the SHIELD database takes up hours when he bothers.

He snorts out a short laugh.] Yeah? Careful in your future. Our Tony was Director of SHIELD for a little while.

So I've heard.

[He does not sound particularly enthused by the idea. In fact, his expression twists into a genuine grimace for a second before it shifts back to something lighter.]

But if Fury ever gives it up for longer than a minute, we'll know the world is ending and it won't be a problem.

Until you stave off the end of the world. That's what Avengers do, right?

[It startles a huff of breath that's not quite a laugh out of him.]

Sure seems to be. It'd be nice if the world could use less saving occasionally.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

monthly mingle: SAMPREMI

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