riverviewlogs | 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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't blame you. Some of those things are unnecessarily big.

[ Derek's attention shifts away from her as someone sits down beside him on his other side. The seats are starting to fill up now, so that's something. They'll get to play again soon. ]

I don't know, you did pretty well for a first try, coming in second like that. That was pretty damn close, if you ask me, Clementine. Or maybe it's skill. Or both. Either way.

[ He grins a little and nods. ]

That would be kind of nice, I agree. But I don't think you moved it off the target too much...you did really well last round. So either you didn't move it off very much or everyone else moved it off entirely too much.

I don't know if not moving counts as skill. [It's something you get used to when hiding from both zombies and other people, though, so maybe it is. She's not getting her hopes up for this next round, in any case. For all she knows, this next group could be better at this game than the last one.]

I'm happy not to come in last.

[She has some pride in her ability to aim, at least. She'd honed that ability with weird guns that kicked back a lot more than this one did. She'd like to see someone else fire a shotgun at age eleven. Those things knocked her off her feet at first.]

You ready?

I think it does. It takes focus and concentration, which is something not a whole lot of people have a good grasp on. I think you're selling yourself short.

[ He gives a little shrug. As far as Derek is concerned, focus is not an easy skill to master. It took him damn near sixteen years to master focus well enough on an anchor to keep from being nothing short of a bloodthirsty monster every full moon, after all. Granted, that's a very different thing than this game, but the fundamentals are the same. ]

I'm ready as soon as they are.

[ Derek grins a little at her and then looks over at the woman running the game as the last seat fills. They should be starting any minute now. ]

[Clementine figures they could run more games if they didn't wait for all the seats to fill up, but then she isn't the one in charge of this. Maybe they don't wait as long on days when there's less people around. Today is one of the times there's enough to fill them every time.

Well, she's not a businesswoman.

She smiles back at Derek, also ready for when that buzzer sounds. Before it does, she gets in one last quip.]

If I beat you, you have to get me cotton candy.

[Because really, who cares about the other players or who actually comes in first?]

[ Surprised amusement registers on Derek's face and he laughs, shaking his head as the woman running the game starts the countdown. ]

Deal.

[ The bell rings and Derek starts shooting but he can't help thinking about the fact that, when this conversation started, Clementine was adamant that she make clear she owes him nothing for letting her have the bear he won at the other game. Now, she's challenging him and setting stakes. He must be doing something right.

Derek doesn't go out of his way to let her win. He figures she'll be able to tell if he does; he just plays and intentionally keeps his eyes off the horses this time, so he's not tempted to pull back if he happens to be ahead. He'd rather just not know and let her win if she's going to win or lose if she's going to lose. This time, they're not paying as much attention to anyone else playing, so much as she's set forth a challenge specifically to him, so he's going to let that play out without looking at their standings. ]

[Glad that Derek has gone along with that so easily, Clementine is smiling as the game starts. She puts her all into hitting that target, as it wouldn't do to just shove that bet out there and then not follow up. He hadn't even countered with anything she'd have to do if he beat her, which doesn't seem all that fair. Hopefully she'll come out on top so she doesn't have to think of something.

Maybe the group this time just isn't as good at this as the last one, or maybe the fact that they've already had sort of a warm up makes this easier for them, but when the winning bell sounds Clementine has come out on top. It takes her a moment to even register this, as she'd been so focused on the target she'd hardly noticed what her horse was actually doing.

She pumps both fists up into the air victoriously. The actual prize from the game doesn't even matter.]

Whoo!

[ Clementine pulls out the win and Derek grins over at her victory celebration as the woman running the game takes down one of the stuffed animals and other players start to get to their feet to vacate the game defeated. ]

Nice one. Guess I owe you a cotton candy after all, huh?

[ His arms stretch up over his head and he looks around, because he hasn't actually paid that much attention to the sweets like the cotton candy, ice cream, and funnel cakes; he's been concentrating on the savory, trying to fill his stomach properly. If he passed a cotton candy stand, Derek didn't notice it. ]

You know where to find some or should we just start looking?

[She probably shouldn't so any more of these games. Two stuffed animals is far more than she intended to get and now her arms are going to be loaded down with them. This one's some sort of fat blue and pink pony that she thinks looks both cute and ridiculous at the same time.]

I think there was some stuff near the entrance to the games area, but I don't remember what they had. [There's food all over so it's hard to keep track of what's where.] Man, I haven't had cotton candy in... I need to stop saying stuff like that. It'll just get repetitive.

[It should just be a given that it's been several years since she's had a lot of things.]

Then I guess we should head in that direction and check it out. Worst case scenario, we have to turn back around again. No big deal.

[ Huffing a quiet laugh as they get to their feet and start to move away from the game with Clementine's newly acquired stuffed pony, Derek shakes his head. ]

Nah, it's okay. You're allowed to be repetitive with that sort of thing while you're adjusting to a new place. I think it's sort of a given. I'm not judging, anyway.

introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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sorry for the delay

no worries

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