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

[spellslots]

Thanks for noticing.

[He could play up the dramatics a little more, but instead he just grins and tips the hat on a slightly more jaunty angle, then moves on.]

How's that pastry, was it worth whatever the hell I paid for it?

[He's not comfortable enough with how this place works to haggle, so he's just paying what people ask.]

[staystrong]

It's delicious.

[She doesn't have any real reason to lie about that. Though to be fair, most things here are delicious, especially to someone who's been denied a lot of fresh food and home cooked meals for years now. She would have traded tons for something like this there.]

So probably. You should keep tabs on that, though. What you're paying, I mean.

[Just in case they choose to rob newbies blind.]

[spellslots]

[With Clementine's expert opinion on the pastry given, Taako breaks off a little piece of the half he kept for himself and pops it in his mouth.

It's not terrible.]

If they rip me off, more power to them. Someone's gotta take advantage of us idiots wandering around.

[He is actually keeping vague track of prices, he's just facetious.]

[staystrong]

Glad you can be so chill about all of this.

[Food made that sort of thing easier, true. Even for her. Honestly she's going to have to be careful about spending all of her money on food. There's so much of it and it all looks wonderful.]

They could be overcharging us for everything and we wouldn't even know. I don't know what everything's worth, do you?

[The last time she used money herself it was the allowance her parents gave her.]

[spellslots]

[Worst case scenario he either steals a bunch of stuff to survive or trades magic favors for money; he's survived by the skin of his teeth enough times that he knows he'll be fine.]

I'm used to gold and silver changing hands when people wanna buy shit, no one gave me the 101 class on currency conversion.

[staystrong]

Gold and silver? Psh. I'm used to bullets, batteries, and food. You know, things with actual worth.

[Her world is still unfit for a proper economy. No one in their right mind would have over useful supplies for coins or jewelry.]

[spellslots]

Good old barter system, huh? Can't go wrong with that.

[He's actually being genuine there; money is great and all, he's super into money, but there's nothing wrong with trading useful items or even skills and favors.]

I gotta say though, carrying around money is a hell of a lot easier.

[staystrong]

Oh yeah, definitely.

[It's especially not fun when you're as small as she is. Sometimes she can get a hold of a vehicle, but in the time it takes her to find a gallon of gas that hasn't been siphoned yet she may have used up more than that.]

It's just gonna take some getting used to.

[spellslots]

There's probably like, a responsible adult or whatever who can tell you how much shit should cost.

[He is absolutely not counting himself as a responsible adult because that would require, you know, being responsible.]

[staystrong]

So you're an irresponsible adult, huh?

[That's okay, she's known plenty of those. She's had to tell some of them what to do before. People fall apart so easily.]

I'll keep that in mind.

[spellslots]

Totally. I spent my last paycheck on a pocket spa.

[It was worth it, but you know, don't ask him to make any decisions about important things, especially not involving money.]

[staystrong]

A... what?

[Clementine has been introduced to some weird things since she arrived here, but that's not something she's heard of yet. She's not even sure she heard him correctly.]

Is that a facial mask or something?

[Certainly it isn't literal.]

[spellslots]

It's a spa that shrinks down to fit in my pocket.

[He says it as if he's talking about the weather; magic shit is perfectly normal to him, even though the pocket spa is pretty rad. It's not really Up There on the list of weird shit he's experienced.

(That would be the robot controlled by ghosts).]

[staystrong]

That is... so stupid.

[Not that it fits into your pocket. That's incredibly useful. There are just so many better things you could make shrink to that size and back. The ability seems wasted on something like a spa.]

[spellslots]

Are you kidding? What's stupid about it?

[Firstly, he loved (loved, since it didn't come with him) having somewhere to chill in whenever he needed it, but also: it's useful for secret meetings and for hiding people in.]

[staystrong]

Well... why a spa? Why not like... a bedroom? A workroom? Hell, even a bathroom? There are so many more useful things it could be.

[Especially if you're travelling. Being able to carry along a place she could sleep or piss would have made things SO much easier back in her world.]

[spellslots]

My friend has the workroom.

[Magnus is the one that has a use for it, with the carpentry and all, there's not a whole lot that Taako would do with it.]

I mean, we're not going on month long camping trips or whatever! There's usually somewhere to crash, the spa is just a nice little extra, relaxing, you know?

[The don't do a lot of typical dungeon crawling, really.]

[staystrong]

Must be great.

[Well of course his friend has the workroom. Obviously. She shouldn't be jealous. If she was jealous of everyone here who came from a better situation than she had she'd never get along with anyone.]

Do you still have it?

[She'd only had what she'd had on her at the time they'd grabbed her from, but if the spa fit in this guy's pocket then there's a chance he still has it.]

[spellslots]

Nah, maybe you can't take pocket dimensions through a dimensional portal. That sounds like the sorta shit that would fuck something up real bad.

[He's not entirely sure if that tracks; dimensions and planes of existence aren't exactly his forte, but it makes as much sense as anything else, since it was in his pocket before he turned up here.]

[staystrong]

I couldn't even start to try and figure that out, so I'll take your word on it.

[Taako at least has some concept of dimensional planes and how they might work. Or at least he's lived in a world where they exist. If there's more than three dimensions to her own world, Clementine isn't aware of it.]

[spellslots]

Oh man, I'm stupid as hell, don't take my word for anything.

[He's mostly joking, although it's probably smart advice to never listen to anything that Taako ever says.]

[staystrong]

I'll try and remember that.

[He gets a bit of a smirk for his comment. She can appreciate his humor, at least she will until it becomes obnoxious.]

[spellslots]

Unless you want advice on like, the amount of sugar to add in a muffin recipe, in which case I'm your man!

[His only talent: cooking.]

[staystrong]

You cook?

[Her eyes are instantly brighter. Making friends with people with cooking skills is important in the apocalypse. Clementine hasn't known that many of them. He's good with her as long as he isn't serving up fresh leg of human.]

[spellslots]

I had a TV show! Of course I can cook.

[And he hasn't done it very often for the past six years, but he's getting back into it now that he knows Glamoursprings wasn't his fault.]