introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Sampremi Celebration
when: March 8th - March 15th
where: In several different locations in the downtown area of the Inhabited City.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

sampremi celebration

In the days leading up to March 8th, new residents may notice advertising around the city, everywhere from digital screens to paper flyers pasted on blank walls, featuring the name of the spring holiday in celebration of new beginnings, new love, and lust: Sampremi. The advertising mentions that there will be street festivals set up at various locations throughout the week and lists where the market will be set up on each day.

street market

The main draw of the holiday is a roaming street market that features special treats and street food that can only be found during Sampremi, a bustling bargain market with any kind of goods you can think of, and fair games that allow a person to win a prize for that special someone.

i. street food

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 sticks or desserts baked with a narrow part in the middle for convenient tearing, everything is built in twos. 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.

ii. fair games

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, and due to the nature of the Quarantine, a lot of them involve aiming or other aspects of pretending to fight.

iii. shopping

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.

iv. adult

In a side alley of the Sampremi Market on any day, one can find an area roped off with a red silken cord, attended by members of the Perimeter Guard in casual dress who will ID anyone entering to make sure they are 18+. Once characters are permitted entry, they will find all of the adult offerings that the market has to offer.

Since Sampremi is, historically, a celebration of lust and physical love, the adult offerings are all set up to cater to two or more people of any sex or gender configuration. One can find an adult or sexualized version of almost anything that's featured in the main market, from fair games to adult goods to street food laced with actual aphrodisiacs (there are always warnings for food spiked in this way to avoid accidental consumption).

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to set up headers for a communal floor, or threads open to roommates for the purpose of getting to know each other. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set at the Sampremi Festival, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit (left to right): Theo Prins, andreasrocha @ tumblr, hrormir @ deviantart, nkabuto @ deviantart

navigation

Comments

↪ fair games

[mrterrific]

[ Curtis has been doing his best to keep his head done since he arrived in Riverview. No need to make trouble when he's in a strange place, surrounded by people who know more about this settlement and its customs than he does. But, well, fair games aren't exactly a complex cultural ritual, are they? They should be simple, and (relatively) fair. So when he stops to look at the dart-throwing game and sees the woman throw the dart that is clearly deflected by the balloon, he frowns. Her exclamation might not have the tone of an accusation, but his voice does when he adds: ]

Yeah, she did hit it. Pretty hard, too.

[ He takes a couple steps closer, looking between the man running the game, to the woman who'd thrown the dart, to the board of balloons. Curtis folds his arms over his chest, expression suspicious. ]

What are those balloons made of, anyway?

[naz]

[ Hearing the words in her defense, Caitlin spins toward the source and lifts her eyebrows with incredulity. ]

Right? I threw it really hard. At least, it felt like I threw it really hard.

[ Her attention moves back to the man running the game and she's awaiting some sort of answer even though she hardly expects to receive one. Of course he's probably not at liberty to share the secret. The stranger seems to think it's something about the composition of the balloons. Caitlin wonders if it might be a combination of things, perhaps his theory in addition to under-inflation or maybe the darts are more dull than she realizes, she just hasn't noticed because she's got such a small frame of reference.

The man running the game, predictably doesn't cop to anything, but just gives a generic sort of "I'm just doing my job" sort of response and Caitlin sighs. ]

Well, at least I'm not crazy. You saw it, too. I have a witness.

[ A small smirk tugs at her lips and she holds her hand out to shake after transferring the remaining darts for her turn to the other. ]

I'm Caitlin. Thanks for backing me up.

[mrterrific]

It looked like you threw it hard enough.

[ Curtis is unsurprised when the guy running the booth responds with a mixture of indifference and mild hostility. That's fine. Curtis is more than happy to leave his arms folded, to give the guy serious side-eye and declare, loud enough that plenty of people around the booth will hear it: ]

But I guess you don't care about having a game that's totally rigged, right? I mean, I'm new here so maybe I'm wrong but I thought this whole Sampremi thing was supposed to be about love and having a good time, but I guess some people are only interested in cheating and making a profit. I feel sad for you, man. Where's the love?

[ A few of the people walking past and milling in the area are looking over, interest and suspicion in their faces, and Curtis decides that's probably enough. No one expects these games to be completely fair, but if one is rigged to be impossible... well, maybe he's gotten a rumor going that'll dissuade future customers. He reaches out to take Caitlin's hand. ]

Curtis. My pleasure. Sorry you spent your money thinking you'd be given a fair shot. [ Okay okay, one last little-too-late comment, now he's done for real. Curtis smiles down at Caitlin and says: ] What were you trying to win?

[naz]

[ Caitlin has to press her lips together in a tight line to keep from grinning as the stranger passive aggressively lays into the man working the game. It sounds so much like the kind of thing she could imagine Cisco doing in the moment that the pang of nostalgia that comes with missing him almost hurts while still also, admittedly, being kind of funny. ]

It's okay. I kinda came into it assuming it wouldn't be fair. My mom never used to let me try when I was a kid because she said these things were rigged. I guess she was right.

[ But all the same, she throws her second dart, this time trying to throw it even harder, but in her attempt to give the throw a little more oomph, she comprises the aim and completely misses, making the dart land several inches from its intended target and settling into the board in a spot where there clearly had once been a balloon which someone else apparently conquered before she'd gotten here. Caitlin frowns and rolls her eyes at herself. ]

Oh, for goodness sake…

[ Looking back at Curtis, she shrugs a little, nose wrinkling slightly with sheepishness as she smiles. ]

I don't know, literally anything just to be able to say I did it, I guess...

[mrterrific]

Sounds like your mom and my mom had the same policy on fair games. More like unfair games. [ Almost immediately after Curtis says it, his smile turns into an apologetic wince. ] That one was pretty bad, even for me.

[ Internally, he thinks that he's one more unfortunate rambling comment away from Felicity levels of awkwardness, which he really wants to avoid if at all possible. He watches Caitlin trying with her second dart, without any success. If she'd been going for a particular prize, he might have offered to try to win it for her, himself. But if all she'd wanted was to win - and Curtis has enough of a competitive streak that he totally gets that - his offer would be useless, and probably more than a little condescending. ]

Maybe give it just one more shot? Even if it's rigged, it's probably not totally impossible.

[ He pulls some coins from his pocket, hands them over to the man running the booth (who is giving him a seriously sour look that Curtis ignores) to get two more darts. He offers one to Caitlin, keeping the other for himself. ]

We can throw at the same time.

[naz]

[ Once again, in spite of herself, Caitlin smirks a little bit at that. When she responds, it's with a low tone of understanding wrapped up in feigned seriousness. ] I won't judge you.

[ He suggests her giving it another shot and while she does intend to, Caitlin's nose wrinkles again as she looks back at the board. It's pretty obvious to her that it isn't impossible because she can see with her own eyes that there are plenty of balloons that have been popped already. Granted, those could be intentional to create the illusion, but all the same, she doesn't think so. She just...sucks at this, apparently.

At his suggestion, Caitlin grins a little. ]

And try to hit the same one? I like that kind of team work.