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

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Comments

[ragnarsson]

"Huh. Sounds like people got weaker as time went on instead of stronger." Ivar had come from a brutal time period, where even the so-called 'civilized' groups of people would cut the nose and ears off a woman who had been accused of adultery. Only the strong would survive. Ivar himself was tough as nails despite, or perhaps because of, his circumstances. Everyone was.

"Of course, I can see why. You all are that much closer to Ragnarok." Two thousand years in, the end of the gods had to be coming fast.

[naz]

Her expression falls into something a little more pinched and just this side of offended. He isn't necessarily wrong, but he isn't necessarily right, either, if you ask her. People may have gotten a little weaker from his standpoint, but in her time, they have different threats and completely different things to worry about than they did in his time.

"I think it's a different world and you're neither right nor wrong," she counters gently, trying to sound neutral. "...when is Ragnarok supposed to happen? I didn't realize there was a specified date to that myth..." She's heard of it, but really only in passing back when she'd been taking some elective course in college. She remembers very little except that it's supposed to be something like the end of the world, or a reboot of the world perhaps, is more accurate. That might not even be accurate; it's been a while since she's been in college.

[ragnarsson]

Ivar naturally a rude little bugger. It comes from having no real social skills to speak of. Even by the standards of his own time, there's very few people willing to tolerate his sharp tongue and blunt manners.

"It was always meant to happen at some point in the future. I think two-thousand years from my time qualifies it as being later enough. But I'm no expert. You can ask one of my gods if you want a more exact answer. Loki is here, in this city, right now." Ivar sounds so very pleased by that. This is two gods he's encountered in his lifetime. Now he's living with the god of mischief not more than few beds away from him. As a religious sort of person, it's definitely made the transition of living in the city a lot easier.

[naz]

"Yes," Caitlin agrees slowly, "but so would three thousand. Four thousand. Five." She can't help pointing that out to him because a part of her gets the impression that he's feeling slightly smug about the idea of Ragnarok hitting the "weak" people of the future of which she happens to be a part.

"I'll pass. Your gods are not my God. I prefer not to mix religions too much; it feels a little blasphemous," she admits. It isn't that Caitlin is particularly devout, because she isn't, but she was raised into one religion and hers says nothing about an end of the world scenario, as far as she can recall. Therefore, it's preferable to her.

Feeling a little put off by the turn of the conversation, Caitlin clears her throat and gives him a small smile. "Anyway, thank you for this," she says, indicating the prize he's given her for the game she hadn't won. It's her subtle and hopefully polite way of beginning to excuse herself.

[ragnarsson]

Caitlin's definitely got him right on the money. Ivar can't help but feel he's a little bit superior to some of the people he's met here. They just seem so easy breakable, as if their lives are too overwhelming for them to fully manage. His own life is hard, it's true, but he's learned how to cope with it. He figures everyone else should do the same.

"You're missing out," is all he says in regards to the talk of religion. He knows such a discussion is perhaps a bit too heavy for a first time conversation. There's that old saying about never discussing religion, politics, and children with people. It holds true even in Viking days as well as the present.

"Glad to have been of service." He'll let her escape the conversation for now. Even though the city is big, it's inevitable that they'll run into each other again.