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

[The lightheartedness drops almost instantly.]

No! I don't-- fuck. It's fine, I swear. I checked everything.

["Food poisoning" isn't the same as "straight up actual poisoning" but the suggestion is still enough to make his heart leap into his throat.]

[ah. Ben's quick to lift a hand, mouth grimacing.] I was joking. Mostly. I can take a little three hour bathroom session if all goes awry, don't worry. Your food tastes like, way better than the six day KFC binge my mom had us on before I came here so -- [a thumbs up??]

[Okay, deep breath, chill the fuck out.]

Uh, yeah, listen. [He feels like he should explain so Ben doesn't think he's a loony.] I used to do this shit professionally until my asshole assistant poisoned forty people and pinned it on me, so it's, you know? One of those things.

[Ben's immediate, internal reaction is yikes and the external reaction on his face isn't too far off that either. He's frozen, comically, with his fork inches from his mouth, face the very picture of uuuhhhhhhhh.]

Damn.

[damn] No insensitive stomach ache jokes. Notes.

Yeahhhhh.

[He recovers pretty quickly after that, if by "recover" we mean "shoves it down real deep so he doesn't have to think about it anymore".]

It was this whole thing, totally cool now, but I would definitely appreciate no stomach ache jokes.

I mean, if it makes you feel any better, I probably wouldn't stay dead for long. In the theoretical universe where I wouldn't be joking.

[He pats his belly. ] But I got you, brother. I don't have any allergies so, you know. Nothing to worry about there either.

[Thanks Ben you're a pal.

But only part of what he said catches Taako's attention.]

That's a, uh, interesting assumption to make. What makes you think you wouldn't stay dead?

All the times I didn't stay dead, probably.

[He's grinning, which is -- concerning, probably.]

That'd do it, for sure.

[He's done it too, but there were usually extenuating circumstances.]</small. If you're a lich I'm gonna be kinda bummed, I gotta admit.

Depends what a lich is. I don't think there's a word for what I am.

Some idiot who decided to bond their soul and magic together so they can live forever, usually evil, always ugly as hell.

[Which, you know, could exclude Ben due to the fact he isn't a skeleton or corpse, but liches are usually pretty good at illusory magic.]

[A VERY SIGNIFICANT PAUSE. Some more chewing.]

Yeah, that would be pretty fucked up.

[his grandpa is satan]

[Well.

Fair.]

Yeahhhh, it for sure is. Living forever is not worth withering away to a creepy skeleton ghost and feeding off people's emotions.

I mean, it worked out for Grandma Petra I guess.

[Is this not how you talk about your grandparents?]

[Aww, come on man.]

Your grandma's a lich?

[A long pause.] So I have a feeling that this might also be one of those things that are sensitive to you? So, I'm gonna be honest. But also, don't really. Tell anyone? It's kind of a thing.

[His whole family is a Thing, but well.] She's mostly human now because of a big mistake she made, but yeah she did the whole 'I'm dying so here's my soul in exchange for being immortal and also looking great forever' thing. Minus being a skeleton. [Another spoonful to chew.] It's weird, because our grandpa from dad's side is really, really nice. Poor guy.

[If only he was from like a day minutes later in his timeline and had met the single nice lich in the world.

But still, Taako is doing his best not to hold the standards of his world against other people, since it's annoying as shit when people do it to him.]

I'm not a snitch. [Just to get that out of the way; he appreciates the honesty and isn't about to repay it by blabbing.] Sounds kinda messed up, though, my dude. Anything powerful enough to make you immortal does not have your best interests at heart.

[Just a little friendly advice there in case Ben ever thinks taking after grandma is a good idea.]

[Ben blinks slowly, as though coming back out of a memory, and grins, a little sheepish.] No deals with the devil for me. I think I'm pretty set on what I've got.

[Which is, incidentally, living for -- not forever, really, but long enough to see the world end.] I don't see either of my grandma's a lot, anyway. So I'm probably safe from Petra's super vain influence.

introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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