riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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

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Bryn watches him in his wheelchair, making no offer to help him move around or to get him more to drink. She listens, however, and can't help but smile a little. He's not wrong, that would be one way to do it.

"The spiciness might be enough to convince someone that it might have hurt their stomach or heart," she agrees. "I would put it in the water they were drinking while they were working their way through the bird, though that's just a matter of preference."

It's not like they'd taste anything strange in the water or juice, not with all that spice burning their mouth. They'd only focus on the cool, soothing qualities of whatever they were drinking.

"That's a good idea." Enough to make him glance dubiously at the drink he has in his hands, but he hasn't set it down since he got it, so it's probably safe. She doesn't look like the type to poison someone right off the bat for no reason at all. Then again, what did a poisoner look like?

"And how do you know so much about different ways to poison people?" He knows because death and Vikings go together like meat and cheese, but from what he can tell from being here, people had come from far different cultures and places than he had.

It takes effort not to laugh at the look he gives his drink. That momentary doubt and suspicion. Bryn doesn't take offense of course. If anything, she thinks better of him for it, for being careful. It doesn't escape her notice that he doesn't drink from the cup right away after.

"My father is a mercenary who has had dealings often enough with the assassins guild. It's difficult not to know a little when they're repeat guests at our dinner table," she answers honestly, though in truth she learned far more during her training as a Council agent than she did from her father's associates. "How do you know so much about it?"

It sounds like she came from an interesting place. "Assassins have a guild?" That gets a surprised blink from the Viking warrior. Huh. That was the most interesting thing he's heard all day. "Who knew?"

He takes another drink before answering. Ivar's always been clever, despite his lack of formal education. Just sitting around and listening to other people talk has given him views he might not otherwise have come across. "It pays to always know how to kill an enemy. There's not much honor in killing someone with poison, but if that's what gets the job done, I'd do it."

He's a curious sort of young man. He doesn't seem fazed by this conversation in the least which makes her wonder what sort of world he's grown up in. Similar perhaps in some ways but certainly different in others. The concept of honor in death is one that Bryn hasn't heard much about in her time. It's one that was left behind hundreds of years ago.

So she shrugs.

"Perhaps there isn't much honor in using it, but then again some people deserve receiving a dishonorable death by their actions," she says. "Though I admit if it comes down to fighting another I prefer being face to face with them, testing my weapons against theirs."

Ivar's world was far different than any he's encountered here so far. The Vikings were a brutal culture for a savage world, all concerned with fighting, raiding, and pleasing their gods. He'd been raised on stories of Valhalla all his life, so Ivar held very little fear of either battle or death.

"That's the only true way to die. To go out in a blaze of glory in battle, fighting face to face with someone until you breathe your last." He sounds quite pleased talking about death for such a young man.

He sounds quite pleased about it but the Kouhyaran in Bryn, the woman who was raised by a fierce mother and a mercenary father, nods with understanding. It's their influence that gave her the drive to join the sky guard, and gave her the confidence to accept the Council's offer to become one of their agents.

Inviting herself to join him a while longer, she settles onto a nearby bench, head canted to the side.

"If it's the life that you choose, yes, I agree. There are some in my world who are meant to die of old age in bed, surrounded by their loved ones. And there are others of us meant to die fighting for who and what we believe in." She wonders how exactly he plans to die honorably, however, sitting in that wheelchair as he is. "Is this what you plan for yourself? To die in battle?"

All Ivar had ever wanted in life was to be like everyone else. A chance to prove himself in battle the way that every other Viking was able to instead of being looked upon with pity. His father was the only one who had ever given him that chance. For the sake of those memories, he'd formed an army with his brothers large enough to destroy entire kingdoms.

At her question, Ivar sits up straight with pride. "I'm going to die in battle, surrounded by dead foes. Only when I meet someone smarter and stronger than I am will that happen." With all the arrogance of youth, he smirks and adds on, "That will take a long time to happen."

"Yes, I'm sure it will," she says, not at all humoring him. There's a certain light of determination in his eyes. Unmistakable, undeniable, and more than a little unsettling. His wheelchair will be the last thing to stand in his way of achieving exactly that.

"Though you're young enough that I'm sure you have years to prove your prowess before that happens," she adds. Dying young, even honorably in battle by his standards, would be a tragedy as far as she's concerned.

Ivar will go down in history as one of the most famous Vikings for a good reason. He's ruthless, clever, and cruel. It's a combination that will allow him to lead armies and do great deeds despite how young he is. He's got an iron will that is nearly unbreakable. Whatever he sets his mind to, he finds a way to achieve.

"Of course. I've got a lot more to do before I end up being taken to Valhalla. I've got enemies to kill and a whole country to conquer." All of England is going to be cowering before him by the time he's done. Every man, woman, and child will know his name and dread the idea of him coming at the head of his army.

"A whole country?" she asks, raising her brows. "That's an ambitious goal for anyone. Is it your country you would claim for yourself or would you stomp the lands of your enemy beneath your heel?"

Does he mean to become a king, or is there a score that he's determined to settle? Or perhaps it's both? What motivations would he have already?

Ivar tosses his head back in a proud motion. He's already gotten a good start on his plans. "The land of my enemies. I'm going to take England apart piece by piece. But first I plan on killing another king to avenge my father."

Ragnar had been the only one to ever believe his disabled son could do anything with his life. He'd given him purpose and for that Ivar would have done anything for him. His revenge was going to kill two kings and whoever got in his way. He would have done far more for the memory of Ragnar. One was already dead. The other would come soon enough.

Another King. Bryn's eyes narrow a twitch as she studies Ivar carefully. There's no doubt in her expression, but more curiosity. Perhaps the faintest hint of calculation.

"Another king. Would that make you a prince then?" she asks. He certainly doesn't act like any prince she knows, but then perhaps her mother's people centuries ago, before the Unification, would have been more like him. Perhaps.

It certainly makes the young man dangerous, however, to have such plans. Such determination and lack of doubt. She wonders if he'll start with any who might arrive here from this England of his, and consider it an opening move.

"I was, once. Until my father's bitch of a first wife shot my mother the queen in the back and usurped her position." His feelings on the matter are quite clear, rage dripping from every word. It's clear that he's not out for revenge just only for his father. But one revenge plot at a time. He could only kill so many people at once.

Indeed, Bryn is right to regard him as dangerous. He's clever and works things out in his mind in a way other Vikings don't. Here, in this new place, he was learning things quickly. If ever he decided to turn that mind of his towards the destruction of any one of the residents, there was very little that would have been able to stop him.

There's no way that she can't ask more questions, no way that she can't try to learn more about his life and the politics involved. Not when it's so personal, not when it involves the ruling house of a nation. It's the sort of information that the Council bids her to keep an ear out for at all times, even if it isn't directly relevant at the time.

So, settling in for the time being, she begins asking him more about it, showing curiosity and understanding toward his situation as he explains, and sympathy only when it's due. There's a lot to learn about other worlds and the fact that a prince could be displaced when his mother is killed, that it doesn't necessarily follow bloodlines, is a curious thing. Unique even among all of the nations she's learned about on Teru.

It may not be directly relevant to her time in Riverview but a man of his determination and passion, of his attitude toward violence and death, is a man worth trying to get to know and understand.

Just in case.

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introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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