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

[ragnarsson]

He notices her knee-jerk reaction is to kick him. Apparently, she's not one to be messed with. She's pretty and that husky voice only adds to it. That's the first thought that crosses his mind when she speaks to him. What can he say? He's sixteen, so he tends to notice these sorts of things. It makes any possible thoughts of an apology for running into her go right out of his head.

"I only just got it today. This was the least gaudy of all of them, if you can believe that." The rest had been painted in ostentatious colors or had some attachments to them that Ivar had eyed with suspicion. He was having difficulties enough as it was just getting around without adding more gadgets to it. Before today, he'd been crawling around using his arms. The wheelchair has been quite the upgrade.

[unmakeme]

"Leopard print was their least gaudy?" She does find that a little difficult to believe. Mostly because... well, it's leopard print. That's never anyone's least gaudy anything. "Maybe they were just trying ot unload old stock on you. I hope you got a good deal." Still, it's a solidly built chair, from what she can see. Not that she's an expert.

Good construction is good construction, though. She kicked it really damn hard and she felt that solid reverberation up her shin when she did. "I suppose you could take a can of spray paint to it."

[ragnarsson]

"I wouldn't know." Ivar shrugs. The owner of the shop could have fleeced him blind, but the prices had seemed reasonable for the equipment being offered. "I've never owned one before." Which does beg the question, how someone who can't use their legs was getting around before he purchased one? He'd been dragging himself around for most of his life before coming here.

"Paint comes in a can?" The words themselves sound like they could be the sarcasm of a snarky teenager, but the bewilderment in them is genuine. Considering the old-fashioned clothes he's wearing, it's clear that Ivar isn't from anything close to modern days.

[unmakeme]

"Yeah." She smiles minutely. "Paint comes in a can." Maybe he likes the leopard print, though. Maybe he doesn't want to cover it up? Well, it's his call. "Most paint comes in a can, but spray paint lets you just point and shoot. It's easy. If you want to change the look."

Which, yes, leads to the next question. "How did you get around without a wheelchair?"

[ragnarsson]

"Every time I start thinking I've learned everything about this place, something else comes along." He was still struck by how easy things were compared to home. Life was hard and there was no easy shortcuts like there was here. If he had wanted to change the color of something back home, it would have required a lot more than a spray can.

"These." He holds up his arms. There's a pair of braces made out of leather and studded with metal on them designed to help support his wrists and upper arms. Yes, he's spent most of his life dragging himself around from place to place, or waiting for someone to carry him. It's also allowed him to develop some fantastic upper-body strength. "Not very dignified, but it gets me where I need to go."

[unmakeme]

"Wow. That's... intense. So you didn't have anything like this where you came from? Or cities that look like this anywhere in your world? That's not just a costume you're wearing?" It's definitely something that she'd have no problem seeing as some very specific sort of fetish wear. This is interesting, though. He'll be the first person she's met from a world that mirrors such an early point in her world's history.

[ragnarsson]

"Uh, no, no, and no." He hadn't been expecting that response to cause so many questions. Ivar has adjusted surprisingly well. Part of that was due to being smart enough to work things out instead of panicking. Part of it was just being too ignorant of what things were to be shocked by them.

"The biggest building I ever saw before I came here was a castle in England." That paled in comparison to some of the skyscrapers he's seen here. "Even Kattegat, my home, it's small compared to all of this."

[unmakeme]

She tries to imagine entering a society hundreds of years ahead of your own in terms of technology, what that might feel like. Rather than try to form a bond, find common ground, say something encouraging or nurturing, she just nods her head once and looks out over the crowd. "I guess I'm done here. Do you want me to take you to a hardware store for some paint?" Complete and total culture shock? No, she's got nothing to help him with that. Sympathetic ear or shoulder to cry on? Nope and nope. Help making his wheelchair a little less ridiculous looking? Sure. She can do that.

[ragnarsson]

Feelings are difficult. Ivar completely understands. He tends to normally be in a state of anger that never fully goes away. He never reacts the way he should to things and on some level he is aware of this. So her lack of reaction really doesn't surprise him at all.

Her offer to help get him paint is greatly appreciated. With how different everything else is in this place, he'd likely get in over his head even with something as simple as paint. "We can paint it to blend in a little better. I'm thinking green and black."

[unmakeme]

"Camo. Sure." She takes one step away from him, then turns back. "It's short for camouflage. It's a pattern that looks like mottled foliage. Lots of greens and browns and blacks, usually. Come on. We'll go to a hardware store to get you some paint."

She doesn't offer to push him, or make any special effort at corralling the crowd. Mostly because she'd be pretty insulted if someone did that to her, and there's something about him that's a little familiar. It's a tiny flame that most people probably wouldn't notice. It's the refusal to do anything but survive at any cost.

[ragnarsson]

Ivar is always on the lookout for the condescending attitude people seem to have towards him. They look down on him as a pitiful little creature, someone not as worthy as other Vikings. To have this strange woman not point anything out reminds him strongly of Ragnar. His father had never cared about his son's disability, instead, pushing him to work with his disadvantages instead of against them. It had been a refreshing attitude after years of pity.

"Good. It'd be hard to hunt monsters and animals in colors like this. That would alert every creature for a mile around." He wheels alongside her at a speed that's almost the same as walking. His arms have been built up from years of dragging himself around, and compared to pulling his full body weigh along, this is much easier.

[unmakeme]

Well, that's one hell of a thought. "It probably would, yes." Natasha can't quite imagine rocketing through the wilderness to fight monsters in a wheelchair, but she's not going to discount the possibility entirely. She's seen weirder shit. Besides, she very much doubts that the Guard is going to let just anyone head out there without being certain of their skills. It would put an entire unit at risk. The kid will either wash himself out, or it'll turn out that he can handle it. He's strong, at least.

"Left up here," she says, pointing ahead of them both to a cross street where Ivar will have to cross in front of her. Kid in a wheelchair or not, she's not crazy about people getting behind her.

[ragnarsson]

Ivar's got no worries about being suited for the Guard. There had been a few dissenters at first, but he'd soon shown them what he was made of. He could do anything anyone else could, even if it took him a while longer or he had to do it a different way.

He keeps glancing at Natasha as they walk down the street. Partially it's because of the way she looks, but mostly it's because she seems ill at ease, despite physically blending in. "Do you come from a city like this?" He's curious, trying to get a measure of her.

[unmakeme]

"Not exactly, no. This place is probably closer to my world than yours, though. The buildings are familiar enough, most of the technology, the social structure." Close enough to be unsettling. Close enough to be navigable. Hopefully close enough to ride out her five year sentence.

She waits for Ivar to turn down the little side street first, following the wheelchair until he emerges onto a main road again and she has the space to walk beside him. "Here we go. Hardware store. They should have paint."