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

[duelo]

As the saying goes, bad things come in threes. Derek finds himself wondering wildly, absently, when he hears Buffy's voice, whether good things come in threes as well. There's now only one person missing from the little pack he'd called his own in the complex. His expression shows surprise, but only for a few seconds, before it breaks out into a huge grin. Buffy was the first person he met in the Complex and she's easily his best friend.

Meeting her in the middle, Derek takes her into his arms in a hug, lifting her off the ground for a few seconds before putting her back down. He doesn't step back right away, clinging to her for a moment and, like he surreptitiously had Alcide, taking in her scent to familiarize himself with it now that he actually can.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay, are you okay?" he asks as he finally steps back to look her over. "I don't know, a week maybe?" He hasn't really been sleeping all that well, actually, without the SleepAid he hadn't realized he'd become somewhat dependent upon. Hopefully that trend won't last very long. "Alcide is here, too, did you know? I wonder if there's anyone else..." he murmurs, lowering his voice a little just for her. "Shit, I missed you, you know that? I'm glad you're here."

[whattingawhat]

In this case, good things come in threes. Of course, Buffy doesn't know that anyone except Derek is here so she's counting it as a lucky thing, not thinking about threes or twos or anything. Though, it wouldn't have taken her long to wonder if Alcide were here if he hadn't mentioned it.


The hug is incredibly welcome right now and she basks in it for a few seconds then she's back on her feet, glad to have him close, taking the chance to look him over. He looks good; he looks like Derek.

"Peachy," she quips. "Whatever that means. Yeah, I'm okay. I've been here not quite a week. I keep waiting to see if it's some kind of prank, you know?" She's been getting acquainted with her powers, glad to have her stamina back, glad she doesn't need as much sleep as she did in the Complex. "Wait. Really? Is he okay? When did you see him?" She's having a hard time believing her luck right now. She catches that trailing sentence, that wondering if there's anyone else and wonders if he's thinking about Katniss. However, she's distracted when he says he missed her. She smiles broadly. "Awwww. I missed you too," she tells him, hugging him again impulsively. "I'm glad you're here too. What room are you in Or floor, I guess."

[duelo]

"Yeah, I do," Derek agrees. He's sort of been waiting for the other shoe to drop this whole time, too. Before talking to Alcide, even, Derek had almost managed to convince himself that this was where they sent treasonous Citizens who had been arrested for their sins. Alcide made good points, though, and he doesn't think that anymore. He does still feel himself waiting for something else to happen, though. This place isn't home, but home isn't much anyway. Therefore, this place feels a little too good to be true.

"Really," he promises, "and yeah. Yeah, he's good. Just, maybe an hour ago. We were wondering about the rest of you. You haven't seen anybody else, have you?" he asks. It probably goes without saying, but he murmurs, anyway, "Katniss? Or, uh...Zee? He's looking for Zee," he adds. Derek supposes that doesn't really require explanation, considering Zatanna had straight up moved into their room the night before he woke up here. They're close; of course he's looking for her.

Frowning slightly, Derek wrinkles his nose. "I'm on the first floor. Alcide's on five. I was trying to talk him into just going full wolf and heading out into the woods, but I guess we can't do that now," he says with a small smile. They probably could, but Buffy would be a lot more uncomfortable sleeping in the woods than either of them would be. "What about you?"

[whattingawhat]

Buffy hadn't actually considered that only because this place seemed far too nice to be a part of Alpha. She'd considered that maybe someone had found an exit and this was it, or maybe this was the surface. Clearly, she has no idea where or what this place is. She's still exploring and learning and talking to people. She sort of figures that there's something else coming as well, something beyond the monsters outside the fence.

That makes her smile. Later, she'll examine all the reasons why she's glad that Alcide is here and what that means, but for the moment she is simply glad that he's here. She's glad Derek is here as well, but her feelings for him are far less complicated than her feelings for Alcide. Her delight at finding Derek and Alcide here, dims a little as she gives him a sympathetic look and shakes her head. "Sorry. I'll keep an eye out though. Maybe we just haven't seen them yet." She hopes for Derek's sake and for Alcide's sake that both the girls show up. This place, so far, is much better than Alpha and it would be nice to have people that they care about not only here, but out of the Complex.

"Well, I'd appreciate a bed, but it's a lot of people to share with." A lot of people that Buffy doesn't know and isn't comfortable with. "Maybe we could find a happy medium. You know, bed in the woods. "Floor two, with about a billion other people."

[duelo]

In spite of the fact that he hadn't actually expected an affirmative answer, Derek still deflates just a little at her response. Nodding, he sighs. "No, that's fine. I'm sure they'll be along, right? It can't be a coincidence that there's three of us here, can it?" he asks and, stupidly, a little bit of hope creeps into his voice just then. He misses her, he can't help it. He'd feel the same pang of disappointment if Katniss were here but neither Buffy nor Alcide were. They all matter to him too much for him not to feel that way.

He huffs a small sound that would probably be a laugh if he hadn't just bummed himself out confirming that Katniss appears to be missing in action. "Yeah, about a billion other people seems about right. And I thought having to share with you two was bad," he jokes.

Derek starts to walk, leading her with him just so that they're a little more off on their own. "I mean, we could try finding another empty communal room? Or...I don't know, see if there's an abandoned house or building we can squat in or something?" he suggests. "Or you can suck it up and sleep in the woods," he adds with a little smirk.

[whattingawhat]

Buffy smiles a little sadly at him, nodding. "Yeah. It makes sense." She's not going to take that hope away from Derek or Alcide. She understands missing people.

She smirks at his comment. "Yeah, I bet we're looking like easy street to you now."

She considers the proposal, nodding a bit. "Derek, I'm deeply attached to showers and beds. You don't understand our relationship. We could be room mates again though or flat mates. You know what I'm not deeply attached to? Sucking," she teases him.

[duelo]

Laughing again, Derek shakes his head a little. "I mean, showers are still entirely accessible whether or not you sleep in the communal rooms. Nobody can stop you from going back in and taking a shower," he points out playfully, but he gets it. Derek's not as attached to beds because he doesn't have to be if he's in wolf form. Buffy can't do that, so it makes sense.

"So we'll just find another communal room and hope there's an empty one and we'll just crash out there until we figure out something else. I feel like it's going to take me way longer to get used to the sounds of eight or nine people than it did to get used to the sounds of you two sharing my room. Especially since now I have my hearing back, so...I don't know, you try falling asleep to the sound of that many heartbeats in your head and see how easy it is," he says with a shrug. "Harder than I realized it would be, that much I know."

Derek nods toward the housing where they'd probably both originally come from to get here. "Come on, let's go back and find him. He'll want to see you."