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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[Ronan regularly calls his friends "losers" among other names (plus he played the bagpipes) so it doesn't register that he's said something rude. Or he just doesn't care.]

I hope you're right.

[It then occurs to him that he is talking to someone who is, undeniably, braver than he is. Ronan has never tried to save anyone, which if Billy surely has, and he's told a handful of people the truth about himself.

Ronan resents Billy for a moment before his frustration turns on a more familiar and appropriate target-- himself. He frowns. And then he shifts, hands going into his pockets.]

Hey... What made you do this?

Me too.

[Hey, he's not offended, and really, he's been called worse and much more maliciously in the past. He idly crosses his arms after a moment, thinking that over.]

I guess after spending most of my time in school getting punched in the face repeatedly, it felt good to actually have the power to punch back when these abilities finally kicked in.

[He gives a wry smile, shrugging his shoulders. Although when these abilities kicked in, he nearly killed the guy because he couldn't control it. That was definitely not entirely something he was proud of, but it wasn't worth getting into.]

... And, at the risk of sounding like some stupid after school special or something, I think if I have it in me, then I should use this power to help other people. The people who can't fight back. Besides, I grew up adoring the Avengers, so getting the chance to be one? I couldn't pass that up.

[Plus, you know, the costumes.]

No one taught you how to throw a punch before you got the cape? Can't they make afters chool specials about that?

[Of course that's what Ronan fixates on. It just doesn't make sense to him. Not that he'd ever gotten into a fistfight with his own bully, just retaliated in street races.

Maybe he'll fixate on the rest later. He just really wants to put it out of his mind even though it's there in the forefront. What good are his dreams and nightmares going to do anyway?

Oh, Ronan's too creative not to know the answer to that.]

But it makes sense. I guess.

[He shrugs and kicks the ground once more.]

There's a lot out there to avenge.

Well-- I didn't have powers and to be honest, I didn't want to fight. Running was less... you know, punch-y. Plus, the guy was a jerk. He wasn't going to stop because I was a gay nerd who was easy to pick on.

[Which-- okay, those are all probably excuses. He'd been told a lot of times to stand up for himself, to not let himself be pushed around, but he didn't. He ran away because it was easy.

Something he still has a tendency to do, just in other ways.]

I guess so. Though right now, it's less about avenging and more about getting back, I guess.

[He shrugs his shoulders absently after a moment.]

How about you-- got any secret powers or abilities? If you want to share, anyway.

[Ronan tenses at the question but only in his shoulders. He casts a meaningful glance at the crowd, presumably most of them enjoying the festival. Chainsaw stops preening her feathers to squawk "Kerah" at them before taking her rightful place on his shoulder.]

Time and place, man.

[That's a yes.]

Right, sure.

[He gives a nod-- and lets his costume fade back to his normal jeans and t-shirt. No need to be all suited up here. He does give a curious look to the bird as she makes her landing on his shoulder, but--]

We can always get into that some other time. I'm Billy, by the way.

[Ronan nods. Some other time when, presumably, he'll have come to terms with spillings his secrets all over again. Some of them.]

Ronan Lynch.

[He gestures to his raven.]

This is Chainsaw.

[Yes, Chainsaw.]

Wow, Chainsaw?

[He gives a short snort as he looks at the bird.]

Can I ask why Chainsaw at least? I mean-- that's quite a name for a raven.

I wasn't gonna name her Spot.

[Seriously, people name their pets shit like that and he gets side eyed for naming his raven something perfectly respectable? Ronan's judging all of them just as hard.]

No. You gotta have serious bite to survive where she's from. She's Chainsaw.

[Ronan almost cackles after that comment, clearly too pleased with himself. Billy will figure that out later, given his raven came from Ronan's dreams.]

Of course not. That's a dog's name, I mean.

[But hey, he's never even had a pet to name, so who knows what he'd call his?

Probably something nerdy though.]

Well, I'm sure she's a very tough bird, I mean. You have to be, to live up to that name.

Literally the toughest bird I know.

[As if Ronan knows many birds, which he doesn't. Unless you count birdlike monsters, which he also doesn't.]

But I hope you didn't name your dog Spike. Or use it as your code name.

I don't really have a pet, so I can't say that I did. I think I'd name him Gandalf if I did.

[Because Lord of the Rings is still the best trilogy ever, written or made into movies...]

My code name is Wiccan, though.

[Ronan's lip curls, then he snorts.

Well, if you're going to be a heathen, why not go all out?]

That's creative.

[His voice clearly says not. But at least it's not something like-- he doesn't know. Flying Superhero Man?]

Can't be any worse than naming your kid Christian, those poor bastards.

[Hey, it gets worse... He's actually Jewish. Or-- well, he used to have faith, anyway, now he doesn't quite know what he is but.

That gets a laugh out of him.]

Hey, it was either that or people were trying to call me stuff like magic lad or something.

[Honestly, Ronan doesn't judge anything except the name, hypocrite that he is (Chainsaw). Though he's not sure what Blue would think. Is his friend even Wiccan? Any variety of pagan? ...Atheist? Damn, Ronan probably needs to pay more attention. Maybe.]

When you put it that way, yeah. I'd rather take Cape Man than Magic Lad.

Hey, there you go. If you ever decide to go the superhero route, you can totally be Cape Man, with your sidekick Chainsaw.

[Which has to be the most ridiculous duo he's ever heard of, actually.]

No way, man. I'm not that crazy.

[He leaves it open to interpretation if he's talking about the code name, being a super hero, or both.

I've been in the back of a police car too many times anyway.

I wouldn't worry about that. I broke my brother out of juvie and he's on the team.

[Among-- you know, various other issues his other teammates had. Future villain, drug abuse...]

But fair enough. I guess Cape Man will just have to wait for another day.

You broke him out of juvie? If I become The Crow I'm joining your team. Not that it'll happen.

[Oh but Ronan would enjoy that juicy story. Those things are even better when he doesn't have to live through it. He probably should have read comics as a kid.]

Well, I mean, it was a little more complicated than that, but yeah...

[He arches a brow.]

The Crow? Is that gonna be your hero name or something?

[Ronan holds up one hand.]

No way. Like I said: not happening.

[He paused, hand frozen for a moment before he rubbed his chin and looked at his raven.]

Corvus would be better anyway.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can't think of names anyway. That's half the fun.

[Well, that and costumes anyway.]

Corvus has a way better ring to it, you're right. It sounds intimidating.

Most things sound better in Latin. What did you come up with?

[Ronan thinks most things sound better than Wiccan, honestly. Unless you're going out of your way to be bad.]

Um-- my first superhero name was Asgardian. If you're familiar with Norse mythology, I guess you can tell what I was trying to fashion myself out of.

[He makes a face.]

But I mean, there are some pretty cheap gay jokes you can make with that one.

[Ronan laughs both loudly and for a long time, almost embarrassingly so.]

Oh shit, I'm not even going into how many you can make. It's the gay-pagan combo.

[Judging by the way his lip twists, he's coming close to cracking up again.]

I don't blame you for Wiccan anymore.

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