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 is passing by when he catches a few of those more inventive invectives, muttered with so much frustration and anger that he pauses, turns around to see what has annoyed someone just that much. He sees Bryn struggling to fire the water pistol, attempting to hit the target and missing despite her care to take aim. Quickly, furtively, he says: ]

Here, lemme see it?

[ Tampering with the water pistols probably isn't allowed, strictly speaking, but the person running this booth is distracted, attending to someone a little further down the stall, taking their money and getting them set up with a water pistol of their own. So Curtis holds out a hand for the pistol, gesturing that Bryn should hand it to him so he can take a quick look and see what is making the aim so screwy. ]

[inlaid]

[Generally speaking Bryn's minded not to give him the pistol. She's a skilled marksman and this shouldn't be difficult and she hates the idea of handing it off to someone else to win for her.

However, she's also frustrated enough at this point that she'd rather beat the game any way possible than stubbornly keep trying when it's not working. She hands the gun off to Curtis without a word, watching him to see what he'll do.

Maybe he's some sort of whiz at working with fake guns as opposed to real ones?]

[mrterrific]

[ Once he has the pistol in hand, Curtis does not lift it to take a shot of his own. Instead, with only the quickest glance up at the booth's attendant, he starts to examine it, examining the alignment of the parts, fiddling with the trigger to test it's resistance, sloshing the contents to make sure they move like regular water without anything added. Sure enough... ]

Well, no wonder you can't hit the target. This's got something added to it, feel that?

[ He gently squeezes the trigger so a little of the liquid trickles out into his palm, and though it's clear, it doesn't feel quite like water. It's a little too viscous, just faintly sticky. Too heavy, throwing off her shooting. Curtis holds out his hand so she can touch the stuff to confirm before he is shaking his hand dry and combing over the gun again in detail, squinting at it and saying. ]

There's something funny about the nozzle, too. It's not exactly straight along the barrel, look? You can see it kind of shifting around in there, the little tube the "water" is going through? So it's in a different position now- as opposed to now [ He squirts the pistol at the ground once and then twice, pointing to the translucent case of the pistol to show how the internal part has shifted. ]

If I didn't know any better, I'd think this thing was designed to miss.

[ Curtis' voice has a hint of irony in it because, as he's sure they both know, that's probably exactly what happened. ]

[inlaid]

[If he can find that much fascinating about the fair game's pistol, she wonders how he'd respond to the one she carries with her, the one with the barrel that can shift to accommodate all kinds of ammunition.

Eyes sharp, she follows along as he explains how the gun has been rigged, not just in the nozzle but with the water itself as well. She takes the gun back from him with a wry smile, but her gaze is no less intent as she stares at the target in front of her.]

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. I think you've got it right. Now let's see if I can make a few adjustments to work with it's failings...

[She steps forward again, and after a moment reassesses the targets before her. Initially she'd gone for a target higher up, but with the added weight of the liquid something lower seems better. She steps in as close as possible and aims a little bit up to arc the fluid into the hole of her new target. While it's only barely better than she was doing before, it seems to be enough to weigh down something inside, knocking the target over.

Looking over to Curtis, she gives him a little chin lift in acknowledgment.] Why don't you pick a prize?

[She wouldn't have gotten that one without his insight.]