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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Well. Bucky isn't uncomfortable enough that he can't quite keep himself from laughing at the image of the other guy almost choking on his dick-shaped popsicle.

"Two of me, two of Steve, far as I can tell. And you're Sam Wilson, aren't you?" Not exactly like the Sam Bucky remembers, but that's the whole point of alternate timelines, he guesses. None of them are quite the same. The mention of the murderhobo gets a little cringe out of him. "Yeah, we've... met. I'm guessin' he's not in a good place."

"God, if there's one person we don't need two of, it's Steve." But it sounds more like a joke - one shared with someone who knows just how Steve Steve can be - than any sort of real insult. "Hell, I feel like I need a double just to keep the one out of trouble."

Sam makes a face, eats the rest of his popsicle in a couple of bites and tosses the stick into a nearby trashcan. He'd promised Bucky he wouldn't talk to Steve about him, but another Bucky who already knows he's there? That's not strictly breaking his promise, and maybe he can give him some insight. "He's confused. I'm, uh, from about a year and a half later than he is - and where he is, he just broke free of-" He doesn't want to mention HYDRA out loud, not in the middle of a crowd. It seems a little silly, but paranoia usually serves everyone well where HYDRA's concerned. "His handlers," he finishes instead. "He's on the run, trying to hide from everyone. He's scared, had his brain wiped so many times he doesn't even know who he is."

"Well, think about it this way, our Sam's getting a helluva vacation back home, with no Caps run him ragged." It's kind of a sad thought too, because Sam won't know where they've gone. He'll be worried, if not a little pissed.

The amusement fades out of his expression as the conversational topic turns to the other him, though. Just broke free of his handlers, that makes sense, and so does the fact that he wants to run and hide for a while, but what doesn't make sense-

"He doesn't remember? Steve didn't use the Cosmic Cube on him?"

"Man, lucky guy. Getting some quality chats with his psychic bird. Although- do you have three Caps, then?" Stark's told him that he's Cap in his world, and three just seems a little excessive. Hell, he doesn't even know why they'd need two.

Sam blinks at the question. "Cosmic what?" Sometimes he feels like he's miles behind the people from the alternate universe - okay, that's pretty much most of the time. Which, he realizes, is probably how Steve feels all the time.

"Three? There have been a lot of Caps." Bucky could list them all, from Jeff Mace to William Burnside to William Naslund, but he's not sure if that's what Sam is asking. He doesn't know yet about Sam being Cap - Tony is from farther along in the timeline but Bucky hasn't asked. "Steve gave up the shield to me for some reason. Technically it's just the one."

He pauses, Sam's confusion evident, and it makes a bit of sense, he guesses. If the other Bucky doesn't remember his life, then of course they didn't go that route. "Never mind." He shakes his head. "If his current state is anything like mine was... It'll take time for him to come back to the world."

"Your universe is weird, man," Sam opines. "Where I'm from, we just got Steve, and that's it." Keeping track of multiple superheroes with the same alias - even if they don't all use it at the same time - just seems like too damn much work to Sam. Sure, he can understand the importance of passing the mantle on, of keeping the idea alive, but nothing's ever happened to his Steve that would necessitate that.

(You know, apart from the whole being frozen for decades thing.)

"Kinda figured that." From what he's gathered, the other Bucky just wants to be left alone, and Sam's willing to do what he can to help with that. "And if Steve finds out he's here-" Sam just sort of shrugs. "I think he's got a lot of ideas about who Bucky should be, and I don't know if any of them match up to who the guy is anymore." It's an outsider's perspective, he knows that, but he doesn't think he's wrong.

"It's... complicated, and not many people know all the details. When Steve and I went down during the war, the world still needed a Captain America. First it was William Naslund, then Jeff Mace took over for him. Morale woulda gone down if the people had known the real Cap was gone. In the 50s, there was a Cap-wannabe, William Burnside, and... think a couple of others over the years. Steve got thawed out, and he was Cap again. I was just filling in when he couldn't be there, but I guess he liked the look on me when he got back." A pause. "Yeah, I guess it does sound pretty weird, huh?"

Normally, he's not so verbose with anybody, especially essentially a stranger, but this is Sam Wilson. It's Sam, even if it's not the Sam he knows. If anyone deserves to be filled in, it's him.

The comments about Steve, though, get a slight, exasperated smile out of Bucky. "If your Steve is anything like mine, he's too stubborn to give up. He'll come around eventually though."

"You went down at the same time? In my world," and god, it's still weird to actually say something like that, "you - he - fell off the side of a mountain in the Alps. Off a train, actually. And then he took down a HYDRA plane with Red Skull on it and crashed it in the Arctic." Apparently nobody back home had been especially concerned about morale. "They found him about four years ago and thawed him out. Can't say he's ever felt the need to take a break."

Sam pauses for a moment, then adds, "Stark says I'm Cap where he's from." And there's a whole lotta things that make him wonder about that - like how wild the public is about having a black Captain America - but he's not going to bring that up. "And that I have a psychic pet bird." The last is a little skeptical-sounding.

"Man, I spent a couple years chasing cold leads. I know he's too stubborn to give up. I'm more worried about the other you." Not that he isn't worried about Steve - he worries about Steve a lot, but Sam's pretty sure that's his new job these days.

Sam's world's version of events have a slight frown forming on his face, just a furrow of his brows for now. "A train." That seems so strange, that such a big event could be so different from one place to the next. He guesses that's why they're alternate timelines. "It was a buzz bomb for us. A drone plane directed at the White House, flying out from the Channel Islands. Zemo's. Steve didn't want to- I was sure we could make it." It had been his fault, ultimately. "He slipped off. My sleeve got caught trying to disarm the bomb." The resulting explosion had taken his arm and sent his dead body into the sea, while Cap froze and drifted, but he doesn't think he needs to explain that part.

The next bit of news makes him pause, but he shrugs it off. "Tony's from farther along than Steve and I. I haven't... asked, what happened. It probably isn't good to know too much about my future." He'd known about the buzz bomb, once, but he only vaguely remembers it beyond the feeling that certain things have to happen. But then he mentions the bird and Bucky smirks. "Well, I'm not sure if the bird is psychic, or if it's more that Sam is psychic with birds, but yeah. You do."

His expression slowly evens out to something more neutral again, and he breathes out slowly. "Give him time. Steve will keep looking, but he's- we're good. He can stay hidden if he wants." A pause, and quieter, "It took me a year on my own, to get back."

"Zemo?" That's a name he recognizes, but just barely. "Zemo's from my time. From Sokovia. He just caused a real big mess back home to-" Sam hesitates a moment. "To break up the Avengers, pretty much. Posed as the other you, bombed a UN summit, whole bunch of other bullshit."

"No superpowers on my end." He'd say he's a little jealous, but Tony'd implied that getting them hadn't exactly been pleasant. "Just me and the wings." And his drone.

"I told him I'd let him be, if that was what he wanted. Tried to offer to keep him fed, but he's too damn paranoid for that." Not that he blames Bucky for that, he just doesn't want the guy to starve or get caught stealing food.

Bucky shakes his head. "Heinrich. Not Helmut. Turns out being an evil Nazi with a sock on your face counts as a family business. Like father, like son." And he's never heard of Sokovia. The Zemos were German, he thought. "Sounds a bit like Zemo's MO though. I guess some things stay the same."

And some things change, like this Sam not having any powers, but that's okay. It doesn't seem worth commenting on. It's not like Bucky has any either, besides his arm, which. Does that even count? He doesn't think it does.

"I'm sure he'll manage. If he doesn't, I'll handle it."

"You're telling me. I'm still getting the hang of this whole...multiverse thing. Where I'm from, we just got the one - as far as I know, anyway. Stark might know otherwise, but he hasn't deigned to mention it to the rest of us." And won't be anytime soon, with the way things are.

"If there's anything I can do, let me know." They probably won't need any help, but Sam still has to make the offer. Still wants to help, even if there isn't anything he can do. "I know this isn't exactly the same thing, but- back home, I did counseling for vets with PTSD. Went through it myself, after Afghanistan. And, like I said, I know it's different from what he's going through, but..." He shrugs helplessly.

"That you know of," he jokes lightly, but then straightens out again. "It's still way above my paygrade, don't feel too bad. It's exhausting to try and think about it too hard." Bucky definitely doesn't like to consider it - how many other Buckys are out there, how many went through the Red Room, how many woke up to find themselves a monster. Hell, how many of them haven't even woken up from that nightmare? It's too much to consider, so he just... doesn't.

"I don't know yet, honestly. I don't know how much he went through that was the same as me. But..." A pause, as he edges into sentimentality again. "For what it's worth, when I came back, when I took up the shield... Our world's Sam was a huge help. He made me want to be better. To deserve my second chance." And he's sure this Sam is just as good a person as their Sam. Maybe that's why it's easy to open up to him a little bit.

He looks a little thoughtful as Sam mentions his experiences, though. "PTSD. Isn't that what they're callin' shell-shock these days? My dad talked about shell-shock sometimes."

"Yeah?" He tilts his head thoughtfully as he listens to Bucky talk. Maybe he and the other Sam aren't that different, in the end. It's a good thought, to think that his other self is out there helping people, same as him. Sam's always thought that you don't have to be a superhero to save people - that sometimes the most important thing you can do is just be there when someone needs you. And it sounds like that's just what the other Sam did for Bucky. "Sounds like he just saw what was buried inside of you all along - maybe what you thought wasn't there anymore, after all those years of doing what you did."

And it makes him wonder if staying away from the other Bucky is really the best course of action. Maybe he needs someone who isn't Steve (or himself). But he'll give him some time, first.

"Combat fatigue, back in your day," Sam agrees with a nod. He'd assumed that Bucky would be up on the modern lingo, maybe incorrectly. "Lots of names for it over the years, and not near enough treatment for it." He's wondered sometimes if Steve might have it - knows that he and Bucky come from a society where you just didn't admit that kind of problem to anyone because it made you look cracked or, worse, like a coward. But that's not the problem he's dealing with right now, and he doesn't need to start spouting off World War II-era statistics he'd learned in college. "Might be similar to what he's going through, might not. Point is, I know something about psychological issues and coping mechanisms - how to deal with flashbacks and panic attacks, that sort of thing. They never go away, but you can learn about how to minimize the effect they have on you."

"Don't get sappy on me." It's getting into more uncomfortable, more personal territory. He's not sure he wants to talk about 'what's inside him'. Not entirely sure what that is, or if he wants to unearth it. The nagging thought is always there at the back of his mind - what if what's inside you is just the killer you've been all along? It's not like his hands were clean before the Russians got hold of him. That was the whole point of Bucky Barnes - to do what the American Hero, Steve Rogers, shouldn't.

"I never paid much attention to the psychobabble. I don't have those kinds of problems." Or, at least, he's insistent that he doesn't. He saw a lot of awful things and he could still function perfectly fine, still does fine today after everything. He's not crazy. He's not sick. "I don't know how bad it is for him though."

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introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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