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

[staystrong]

A trick prop?

[Clementine narrows her eyes at the newcomer. She's always cautious around strange men. A girl her age has to be, though this world feels far less threatening than the one she came from. That doesn't mean she should let her guard down.]

I figured these things were rigged, but I didn't know how. Thanks for the heads up.

[Maybe she'll aim for the bottom instead.]

...Were you wanting to go?

[fingerstripes]

Nah. Shot's all yours. [ If he catches anything in her expression it doesn't show in his face. Caution is a great survival strategy. ]

Long as you know what you're throwing at, you're golden.

[staystrong]

[She's a little uncomfortable having an audience for this, especially since she doesn't know what she's doing and he clearly does. It feels like she's being judged. He could just be waiting for his turn, letting her go without interruption, but she'd still prefer not to have a witness in case she screws up particularly badly.

If he laughs at her, the next ball will be aimed at his face.]

Guess I better figure that out, then...

[Should she aim low? Or would it be better to aim higher? If any of the pins are weighted down, the ones on the outside might be a better shot since they aren't supporting much and should topple more easily. That'll make it harder to get a large prize, but it's better than hitting no pins at all.

She aims right and hits a single pin, but it's a good shot so that one pin falls.]

[fingerstripes]

[ When you're a kid at a party there's not a whole lot that's worse than being crowded by watchful adults. He's here to watch the market, so watch the market he does for the next few minutes, melting off a little ways into the crowd with the kind of aimlessness that's probably only conspicuous if you know to look for it. It's the sound of the single pin falling that grabs his attention again. ]

Hey, good going. [ He gives her a thumbs up from a little ways off. ]

[staystrong]

[From her perspective, Dick's compliment seems insincere. Even if the game is rigged, she'd still only knocked down one pin. That isn't exactly worthy of praise, if you ask her. So in response to his thumbs up she gives him a finger of her own, sticking the middle one on her right hand skyward with a grimace. She isn't appreciative.]

Sure.

[She picks up the second ball, glaring at the still remaining pins. That bear isn't going to be hers any time soon.]

[fingerstripes]

[ Kids, man.

But it is kind of on him for interfering, which makes it tough to blame her for taking the game a little personally. ]

What? you know hardly anyone hits all the pins on the first try, right?

[staystrong]

Yeah, but you don't have to mock me.

[She can only assume that's what she was doing. Even with the game being rigged, a single pin isn't worth a thumbs up. It didn't feel genuine to her.

She picks up the second ball, glaring back at the pins.]

I don't even know why I bothered with this.

[fingerstripes]

[ Confusion shows in his face for a moment, but if nothing else experience has taught him the futility of arguing about perception when it comes to performance. Even at a low rate carnival game.

For the kids at the circus who knew the game wasn't fair, part of the fun was cracking the code. Taking a chance on one possibility, then another, then another. For the others, they'd learned to tip the odds, every once in a while. The moment was what mattered. ]

...The game's not designed to pay up on chance. There's one way the pins fall, so you run out of patience or cash before you hit the right angle.

You're halfway there. Just picture them about an inch higher.

[staystrong]

[While she's annoyed that he thinks he can offer help just like that, Clementine still listens to what he's saying. She hasn't gotten this far by ignoring good advice. Will it help her much now? Maybe not, but she'll give it a try. It's not like she intends to stick around all day trying to learn the tricks of the trade. ]

An inch higher, huh?

[She has decent aim - can get a walker straight through the eyes at several yards away, but throwing a ball is something else. He's assuming she can even adjust her throw that much. She'll be lucky if she gets it in the general area.

After a moment, she tosses another ball. It isn't the shot she'd hoped for, but it isn't far off. Unfortunately a shot that's close to good enough won't knock over a set of pins. A couple more wobble and fall off the top, but the main structure is only knocked back slightly.]