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

Sera | Dragon Age |OTA

[arsebiscuit]

Food

"Bet I can eat more of it."

Sera's not talking to anyone in particular, just making a statement to those nearest to her as she looks at the Moon Bird (as she's taken to calling it) pieces, particularly the super spicy ones. Hope you don't mind an elf in a ragged dress, bow and arrows slung over one shoulder challenging you to an eat-off.

"Loser pays, yeah?"

All is Fair in Games and Love (kid-friendly or adult-themed area)

"And boom!"

There is cackling as she, once again, hits a target dead center. She'd moved from using her own bow and arrow (something about 'cheating' and 'rigged' and blah, blah, blah) to throwing knives provided to her. Unbalanced shitty things compared to dwarf-craft, if she did say, but she'd used worse in her life. Like sharp rocks tied to a wood spoon worse. So she only smirks and spins.

"What's next?"

This whole 'win prizes' thing wasn't sinking in. Anything they hand to her is just handed off to the nearest person (maybe you). Sera's in it for the fun.

Roomates/anyone: Floor 1, Bed 1+2

Seeing how the occupant of bed 1 never got around to showing up, Sera's decided to claim it as her own. Meaning the slight elf spends more time than should be needed (she's dex based, okay) shoving the two beds together so she has more room to sprawl. After a fun day of shooting things and eating, she can be found lounging on the bed making more arrows, sharpening daggers, or giggling to herself as she hunches over something she is stitching together, but keeping mostly hidden just under the bed sheets she's wrapped in.

Find it unfair she's got double bed? Want/worried about arrows laying all over the room? Interested in arts and crafts? Come and chat. She'll cheerfully greet anyone that comes into the area. And only almost hit a couple of them with an arrow practice shot at the top of the door frame.

fair games;

[usandthedead]

There's so many people and of course Rick is wary of that. He's been walking through and around the periphery of the throngs for some time; watching people, assessing what kind of threat they are, if any, learning about them as much as a person can without actually speaking to them, just by watching. He's learned a lot, believe it or not. But then Rick has always been good at that, at reading people. It's a technique and skill that's kept him alive far past his expiration date back home. Talking has never been his strong suit anyway, not unless he actually has something important to say.

He's paused at what looks to be a gaming range set up where people are using various weapons to shoot at targets across the way. He leans a shoulder against a post and crosses his arms over his chest, watching as various people take part. He's a picture of a cowboy, minus the hat - boots and jeans, western shirt beneath a wool lined coat. The holster buckled at his hip has his colt and a hatchet holstered at each hip.

After having watched and witnessed the talent for awhile, Rick pushes away from the post and is starting to move away when one of the women turns and shoves a peach colored stuffed teddy bear at him. e does what anyone would do when handed something, and takes it, looks down to it, looks back up to her and holds it out. "It's yours. You won it." He says.

[arsebiscuit]

More guns. It's her first thought when she turns, dagger still poised for her next throw in one hand (she moved fast between get rid of weird thing and knives! mode), and takes the man in. Always guns here, instead of weapons that made sense to her. But the hatchet was nice. More homey.

This means it's a moment of her ogling the side arms before she actually focuses on the offered bunny and looks up at the face of the man. No, not just a man. Beard man.

Maker, he'd give Blackwall a run soon.

"Whatcha think I'm gonna do with that, eh?"

Not reaching. Nope. She doesn't trust those little plastic eyes.

[usandthedead]

Guns are necessary where he's from, necessary toward sheer survival. He's brought just a knife to a gun fight before and it's very rare that it ends well. Not that knives can't be useful too in certain circumstances - or bows, or hatchets, or machetes or a metal pipe - whatever keeps you alive. Everyone has their thing, surely. Rick doesn't judge people for doing what's needed to stay alive. It's human nature, after all - and not just human nature, he supposes, but any living thing.

He doesn't begrudge her ogling the weapons though, anyone would. He has a few hidden ones as well since he knows from experience that you can never be too safe. Once that's over with, once she's looking back at him rather than at his armaments, he tilts his head and shrugs. "You're the one playin' to win it."

Rick looks around, tapping the first kid he sees on the shoulder, a young girl with a group of other young girls. He hands her the teddy bear and she seems happy enough. Clearly, he doesn't want it either. "They should offer things adults want too. You're a good shot. Good aim."

[arsebiscuit]

Her eyes follow the young girls wandering off, eyes softening slightly. Ah, kids. And the simple things that made them happy, like little pieces of useless fluff. And then the man was talking to her again.

"I'm freakin' brilliant."

The boast is softened somewhat by the huge grin she has with it. Yeah, yeah. Bragging and all. But the skill's for her enjoyment instead of winning over approval.

"Lookin' for a challenge?"

[usandthedead]

At least the toy is going somewhere it'll be appreciated rather than to himself or the woman who won it. Rick really prefers that to wasting anything. And really, it says something that that child still can appreciate something so simplistic as a stuffed teddy bear. Kids in his world, as rare as they are, don't get that luxury much of the time. Rick finds that he likes that they do here.

Her boast gets a slight smirk out of him. There's really no need for it. He's been standing here watching her skill, after all. He's seen it firsthand. However, something about the playfulness of it makes it less edgy and more amusing.

"I know better than to challenge someone with your skill. Don't mind shootin' a bit at the targets for fun though." He says. "If you're game for that, count me in."

food!

[spellslots]

It's Sera's ears that drew Taako's attention; she's the first other elf he's seen and even if he doesn't usually care about whether he's around elves or humans or orcs or whatever, the fact that no one here even seems to know what an elf is has started to get frustrating. Seeing someone else with those long pointed ears is such a relief that he wanders over without thinking, only to be challenged to an eating competition.

He blinks, a little taken aback, before laughing, "I'm not taking a wager I'll lose! Pick something that wasn't a poor animal at one point and maybe we can work something out."

[arsebiscuit]

Elf. He's the first she's scene, and her spin goes rigid for a moment before she notes that, nah, he doesn't have the tattoos that means she's about to get an ear full about failing to live up to her elfy-destiny by eating human food or some shite. But her face scrunches up a little at what he says instead.

"What's wrong with eating birds? Not like they're complaining."

[spellslots]

"Had a terrible experience once, it turned me off for life," It's hard to sell being vegetarian because he gives a shit about animals, when there's just like, a whole lot of murder that happens when he goes adventuring.

And this is mostly true, so he doesn't even need to roll a bluff check.

[arsebiscuit]

"Bird tried to eat you."

It's not a question. Probably should be, but Sera's imagination is making the decision for them both. She's seen giant all kinda things. Could imagine a big people-eating bird. She doesn't much think she'd want to eat something that ate people, either. But these are small...

Still. It's a kinda weird she can live with.

"So. Spiced up...uh. Potatoes? Or something?"

[spellslots]

"Got it in one!"

That makes just as much sense as anything else, and this way he doesn't have to come up with a lie to explain it.

"If you're real set on spicy shit, they got this whole noodle soup thing that people were crying while eating."

Why is he even doing this there's no reason to eat a bunch of spicy things and suffer, but Sera challenged him so now he's determined to not be a weenie.

Floor 1 buddies

[greatcleavage]

"I'm noting a certain proclivity for archery," Roy said with a smile as he stepped into the room, unslinging a new backpack from one shoulder as he did. Beneath that smile was serious appraisal, though, as he took in her motions and made what deductions he could from them. (Hint: he had deduced she was Dex-based.) "And I'm guessing it's more than a hobby."

[arsebiscuit]

She blinks for a second at the word choices. It's like a bald Dorian. With a sword. And no mustache-

Okay. Not like Dorian at all. Just the big word thing.

"Pro-lick-what now?"

[greatcleavage]

Words and sword -- either anagram was pretty big, no lie.

Meanwhile, Roy was reassessing his life choices. Or at least recognizing that maybe he was letting himself be a bit too influenced by his association with Haley in opening this conversation.

"Let me rephrase. I mean that in this world where the ranged weapon of choice is -- firearms, I believe that was the term -- it's comforting to see someone who prefers bows, which I'm more familiar with." He offered another smile, hoping that restatement was a better start to a conversation.

[arsebiscuit]

"Right."

She's still giving him an odd look, digesting all that. Maybe trying to figure where licking fits into it. Just a little.

"All sorts of strange types 'round. True enough."

[greatcleavage]

"...Look, I am the first to admit I have no ranks in Sense Motive, but I have this sneaking suspicion you're including me in that," Roy said, shutting his eyes as he wondered just what he did NOW.

food

[barksnark]

"You really should get to know your competition before making a statement like that."

William's got his arms crossed as he lingers, drawn in by very fashionable accessories. Travel across every kind of dimension and nothing will stop you from feeling fascinated about archery, apparently. (William wouldn't apply the word 'fascinated' to himself, he's way too cool.)

Also, she's pretty.

[arsebiscuit]

"Ha! A taker, yeah?"

She sizes him up- human, male...got nothing else- but just grins that he's accepted. She'd eaten the mess of fire and pain that Bull called food.

"Sure I can swallow most anything," a small bit of cackling that follows that, "Oh, that was a good one."

[barksnark]

"Yikes, don't say that too often, children might hear you."

He doesn't have to cackle to be in on the joke, really. Teenagers will do what teenagers do: show how immature they are.

"So, what's it gonna be?"

[arsebiscuit]

"You're on. Let's see who can swallow what, yeah?"

She's waving at the merchant now, ready to order a range of spicy meats. Time to see who cried first.

fair games

[divulsion]

So far Wanda is holding a stuffed egg with legs (Humpty Dumpty? She can't really tell,) two inflatable frisbees and a goldfish in a bag. She'd accepted the egg when handed to her because she'd thought Sera merely needed a hand for a moment. The first booth, after all, hadn't really had a place to put down her prize and apparently she'd intended to play more.

But then one prize had turned into two, three. Wanda was carrying them all because she'd followed Sera from the last booth to this one, intending to give the elf (she's an elf, isn't she?) her things back.

"You haven't won enough prizes yet?" she asks, amusement dry in her voice.

[arsebiscuit]

Sera was more than happy to have someone so interested in gathering this random junk they kept shoving in her hands after a nice trick. Some noble tribute kinda thing, best she figured. Like winning a handkerchief from some royal arse.

So when the voice pipes up that Sera was expected to recollect the piles she turns to blink owlishly at the other woman-

Who was prettier than she'd noticed from her distracted state earlier. Sera lowers the knife to give full attention.

"All yours now, yeah? No worry there."

[divulsion]

Wanda blinks back at Sera in surprise. She hadn't realized that the elf was handing off the gifts to her to keep. Does no one in this place want to play a game to keep the prizes? Looking down to the egg, the frisbees, and the goldfish, she wonders what on earth she'd do with them.

"Are you sure?" she asks doubtfully. "You don't want to keep any of it for yourself?" It's an important question for her to ask. she hadn't been following Sera the whole time in hopes of taking all of her stuff. Not that Sera couldn't probably earn it all back again considering how well she's been doing with the fair games.

[arsebiscuit]

"That lot?" She giggles, like the question was a joke. Maybe acting like they were trash wasn't the best way to impress a girl with gifts, but Sera can't help who she is.

"Not really the kinda bunk I'd know what to do with. Seems more..." she gives a vague hand-wave meant to include the whole world around them. "More here like?"

[divulsion]

Okay then. Most of what she's holding doesn't appeal to her but she can't very well dump it in the street. Maybe she can find a child who would like one or more of them? It doesn't occur to her that Sera's trying to impress her with her winnings.

"That was my thought as well," she admits, giving Sera a wry smile. "Though I do like the fish." She could keep it on her nightstand. See if she could keep it alive? Maybe even name it if it survives the next week?

"So, you're just playing for the fun of it instead, I suppose?"