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

↪ feast

[mrterrific]

[ It's not that Curtis can't cook, but the fact is he hasn't needed to very much for the past few years. He just never seemed to get the time: between gym time, and working at Palmer Tech, and helping the Green Arrow, most of the time it ended up being Paul who took care of the food. It's only in hindsight that Curtis thinks maybe that was kind of a bad sign. Maybe there were a lot of little inequalities like that that he'd been justifying or ignoring for too long.

Not exactly the happiest thought to begin a feast with. But he tries to shove it aside, as he shows up with a big canvas bag filled - carefully - with a rather large amount of flowers that he's picked from the outskirts of the city. He goes over to the table with the loose flowers and begins to add his own offerings. Some little piles, he merely adds to, but there are a few new varieties of flower that he's contributing, too. Maybe it's not as good as bringing a baked dish or some kind of fancy drink, but he figures it's better than nothing. ]

[divulsion]

[Food and drinks are an easy thing to bring to a feast. Anyone could head to a market and pick up one or the other and bring it to the event. Flowers, however, aren't usually offered up, and as Wanda notices the young man approach with a bag she can't help but move forward to join him.

It's apparent at once that these aren't flowers from any florist, but some carefully picked. The best to offer from the further reaches of the city. Touched by the gesture, she moves to stand next to him, to examine the flowers he's brought as he gets down toward the bottom of his bag.]

These are lovely. Thank you for bringing them. I wasn't certain I would have enough--[She breaks off, seeing a couple in colors and shapes she hadn't before. Wanda picks up one in red with a black center, lifting it up to catch it's scent.] You don't know the names of any of them, do you?

[mrterrific]

Nnnope. Not a single one of them.

[ Curtis tries to lay out the flowers as neatly as he can, untangling the stems but keeping them intact so they can be woven later. He figures that's what they're for, given the wreaths sitting nearby and the crown of flowers around this young woman's head. ]

I can tell you where I found them, though. Those ones are from over near the abandoned sports arena - it's pretty close, you can see it from the inner fence, even though it's technically on the outside. And these ones... [ He lays a hand against some flowers with thick stems like calla lillies, with petals shaped a little sweet peas but colored in variegated green and gold and blue. ] ...are from the riverbank to the south, under that big bridge?

[ It had been a good excuse to wander the city a little more and cement the layout of the place in his head. Which isn't something he would have thought to have done, before Oliver started training him. ]

You're Wanda, right? This is your party? Happy Saint, uh- [ Whoops, Curtis has forgotten the name of the thing ] -Nik...olai Day?

[divulsion]

[She tries to commit the shapes and colors of the flowers to memory, as much as his explanation of where he found them all. He didn't simply walk to a field of flowers. He explored, gathered flowers from all over the Quarantine. She treasures the flowers, even as fleeting a presence as they'll be.]

Happy Feasting Day to you as well. [Saying Happy Feast of Saint Nikolina has long since been shortened. There's only one major feast in Sokovia, so it had been easy enough to distinguish it from other holidays.] And yes, I'm Wanda. You are?

[Don't mind her as she starts to pick up flowers, one or two to slip into the wreathe on her head, and after some consideration of the colors he's wearing she reaches up to slide three more into his pocket. She looks pleased with the effect.]