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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It's easy enough to empathize with the need to cling to whatever might be familiar or comforting to a person. She's clinging to her dress and certain proprieties from her home. Rick is clinging to his weapons and his skepticism of people in general. There was a time when he wasn't so wary of people. His world doesn't lend itself to the alternative anymore. There's a lot of ways he's changed over time since his world fell apart - and maybe he's clinging to those things too. Needless to say, he understands the need to hold on to certain comforts and won't begrudge her those things.

She curtsies and Rick only responds with a slight dip of his head, a minimal greeting when measured up to her own, and he hopes she isn't offended over it since he isn't sure how to curtsy and a bow just isn't his style. At least that's what he guesses from watching a movie now and then back in the day, women curtsy and men bow. Is that right? Maybe.

"Nah... I better not." Said after a moments thought where he'd truly thought about having a piece of the sugary confection. In the end, he just isn't all that sure about it. "Was I time I had one of those every mornin'. A long time ago." So very cliche, he and Shane used to joke, since they were sheriffs. But they were there for the taking at the station and it became habit to leave with one or two every morning. "Now my eyes and my stomach are disagreein' over the idea of it."

Rick glances to the doughnut again. "Is it the kind that melts in your mouth?"

Luckily for him, Cecelia is willing to give a little leeway here. She can't expect others to fall in line with her societal norms, as much as she might like them to for greater ease. She would have a better understanding of where she stood with others if they were all on the same footing and following the same rules. But there's nothing for it; she will simply have to accept things as they are. She gets the impression that trying to convert the masses to her form of society wouldn't go well.

"Indeed? I hope the sight of it is not so displeasing?" Because even though she's holding it with a napkin, she doesn't think she can securely wrap it and hide it away in her reticule without making the inside all sticky.

Cecelia smiles a little and shakes her head no. "Not quite. I am sorry to say there is a bit of chewing required. But I am bearing it as best I can." A little joke there. "Oh, I quite forgot. We should really have introductions. I simply do not feel right conversing with a person and not knowing their name. I am Cecelia Wynn."

Edited (having one of those days where i spell my own character's name wrong) 2017-03-08 22:11 (UTC)

There's a bit of relief that she doesn't seem put out with him, truth be told. This is his first time approaching anyone here instead of just standing back and watching or doing what needs to be done in his new work place. He has to admit to a bit of nerves over the matter given how out of place he feels in anything resembling a normal functioning society now. He's a square trying to fit into a circular hole in this place. He knows it. He feels it. And there's really nothing to be done about it.

"Nah... it smells and looks good enough." He's quick to tell her this so that she doesn't feel obligated to rush through it or get rid of it. Her joke doesn't fall on deaf ears and garners a slight smirk from Rick along with a nod as if he understands the intricacies and different types of doughnuts - which he supposes he did at one time.

Introductions, yeah that's another thing he sometimes forgets. Sometimes there's no time to talk or learn someone's name before they're turning on you. So far, he doesn't foresee that with Cecelia Wynn, as she's said her name is. "Cecelia. I'm Rick Grimes. Been here a few days. First time really gettin' out though. I gotta admit, you stand out from the rest."

"Ah, I do believe you are correct." She turns her head to take in the venue at large and the many different types of people roaming around. Why, she's even seen people with pointed ears! But there is a distinct lack of bonnets and long dresses here. It does make her feel out of place, yet at the same time, it makes her want to cling all the more to what she knows.

"Perhaps I am the only one here from my part of the world and my year. I suppose that means I have much to learn, would you not say?"

Sadly, it only occurs to him belatedly that his comment could possibly be taken as a slight in some way, even if it wasn't intended as such. Once he does think of it, he's quick to both correct and reassure. "Not in a bad way. I mean, I've just never seen anybody dressed like you unless it's in a movie or somethin'. You look just fine, but different. And I guess I probably look different to you too now that I think of it."

Her part of the world and her year. That would explain a lot. Rick gives himself a moment or two to let his mind expand to that new idea, that she's from the distant past and he's from her distant future. It isn't so far a stretch given the nature of this place. But at the same time, Rick has the luxury of time to take new things in in this place.

"Maybe we have a lot to learn from you too." He counters, implying that the learning should go both ways. "What year are you from? And where?"

Cecelia had been more self-deprecating than anything, and she is willing to learn. It means that Rick's reassurance is a surprise, but certainly not unwelcome. She smiles a little brighter, even though she has no idea what a movie is. That's a minor detail she won't focus on right now.

"A bit, yes. So many of you wear these blue pants." Her eyes travel down for a moment, but only to acknowledge the obvious and not leer at what he's wearing. She knows some people here are from her future, but can't be sure if they're also from her world or from an alternate one. She knows from talking to Mrs Regis that they are definitely from two separate worlds, though only 40ish years apart. She knows Mr Kent is from 2013 America, but is that the same world as hers? She assumes that werewolves will be extinct by that time in either case.

"I am from the year eighteen hundred and fifteen A.D." She's said it multiple times to others by now, so it's no surprise to be asked, and she did bring up the word year first. "Lancashire, England." Though she is a gentleman's daughter with all the accomplishments that come with it, there is still a tinge of Yorkshire to her accent, but she well knows that someone that sounds like Mr Grimes probably can't tell the difference in English dialects. Besides, moving the next county over isn't like moving from Hertfordshire to Derbyshire.

"Comfortable and can weather most things pretty well." He says of the blue pants with a shrug. It wouldn't do to wear dress slacks when fighting Walkers. Even his old Sheriff's uniform had been a sturdier wool than dress slacks, or any thin material that tears too easily when a person is fighting for his or her life. "Although next to you I'm pretty under-dressed."

It's been forever since Rick has worn anything but clothes like what he has on though. No reason. No event. No special occasion. All of that's gone. Trivial things get lost when the bigger picture is such a weighty thing as it is for him.

"Eighteen..." He pauses, taking that in. Cecelia's from a long, long time ago. Yes, he assumed. But hearing it spelled out for him, it's shocking, really. And all of this, the entirety of it, both people and place, must be a real shock to her. "Yeah that's... pretty far back where I'm from. We're well past the two-thousands. And I'm from Georgia, US. Never been to England. Seen plenty of pictures of it back in the day. Looked... historic. I like the old buildings they've kept up over there."

"Is that so?" she asks, looking down at herself. "To me, this is not very 'over-dressed.' It is a simple day dress. An evening dress comes with more finery." Of course in her day, women changed dresses sometimes four or five times a day.

"Goodness! Such a number of you from after that time!" She shakes her head a little, but not in disapproval. Only from the coincidence of it all. "Georgia... oh! Yes, of course. The colony named after our king's grandfather." Though now her mouth twists into a little frown. "Or was it the great-grandfather? Oh, well. It was quite awhile ago. And I see the United States survives over two hundred years, then?" It was only recently that the British and Americans stopped their little spat and her country returned to facing Napoleon and the French. Cecelia only knows bits and pieces, but people often spoke of how the United States would collapse as a nation soon enough.

"Must be a time period thing." And truthfully, it's been a very, very long time since he's seen a woman in a dress at all. They just aren't all that practical in the apocalyptic world he's from. So any dress would make a woman seem dressed up to Rick. Cecelia just seems to wear it very well.

She says the United States survives and Rick thinks about that word that means so much more than she probably realizes. Yeah, the world has survived - for now, including the US. But only just barely. There's no real government factions as far as he can tell, no military operations bringing aid to survivors.

"Yeah, we survived." He says. "England's still there too, I guess." A once ally of the US. If they were in any position to lend aid, they would. The epidemic was worldwide, he assumes. Everyone in the same boat. Rick has never really thought about that until now, death on a worldwide scale rather than surviving what's currently in front of him at any given time.

"Although I'm findin' out that not everyone's from the version of Earth I'm from." He says. "It's strange. Maybe yours ends up better off."

"It is strange!" she says in quick agreement. "I hardly know if what I am saying will be understood or not. It seems I confuse others at times. I do not mean to, of course, but things are so very different between times and worlds."

At least it's an adventure. Cecelia's never really felt like her life was an adventure before. There's a first time for everything, it seems.

"Your world is not well, then? If you suggest mine may be better off, I mean."

"How about we both feel free to ask each other if we get confused about anything?" The offer seems the simplest and most appropriate way to deal with any discrepancies between the two because of time or place. He mainly wants to put the offer out there in case he ever says anything that makes no sense to her. Better to bridge the gap than leave it as it. Rick's always been a problem solver.

This is definitely an adventure for everyone. For Rick, this place is far better than where he came from - plenty of food and running water, electricity. The monsters are mostly kept outside of the walls so far. He's thankful - so very thankful to be here and that his son is here with him.

"Yeah it's... torn apart by a virus." He smirks. "Somethin' you can't even see or combat, and it's killed most of the population. Spread pretty quick. We're tryin' to stay alive, maybe eventually rebuild, but it ain't easy. That's why I wanna get the rest of my people here."

"I think that would be best. Sometimes the best way is the most direct way." As long as it is still done politely, of course! Manners is what separates them from the wild beasts, and she would know, being a wild beast herself once every month.

Cecelia lifts a hand to her mouth in shock. "It is some sort of plague?" she asks, because she understands that better than the word 'virus,' but context seems to suggest that's what he means. "How terrible! And, yes, of course; I do hope you are successful in that endeavor!" But how could he do it? The Portal is beyond her understanding, and she doesn't know if it can see people everywhere at all times, or if her feelings of wanting to flee home were like a loud cry in the dead of night and here in Riverview they heard her plea.

"Have you spoken to those who work with the Portal about it?"

Rick nods in agreement, knowing that sometimes politeness gets lost in the direct approach he's more accustomed to now. But he also knows that it's a fine line that can separate him from those in his world who have lost their minds, or even between him and the dead. He's been on that line before, maybe even crossed it a few times in the name of survival, but he still clings to his humanity, his morals. He doesn't want to be a monster. Hopefully that means Cecelia has nothing to worry about in that regard with him.

It is shocking. Rick remembers his first days after waking up in the hospital to a changed world. Shocking. Maybe it isn't the best topic for meeting someone the first time. But to Rick, it's just life. It's his life and his son's and his people, his family.

"I'm gonna try." Rick is always trying to make things better for the people he cares about. He isn't always successful, but he's trying. "That's a place to start, yeah. And then from there, just keep askin' questions until I figure it out."

He glances around the area where they're standing. "Right now I'm mostly tryin' to keep an eye on my son. You got any people here?"

"Good. I wish you every success." It's a testament to the type of man Rick is that he is determined to keep trying and keep asking. Cecelia already admires him for that.

She shakes her head no to his question. Her life at home was rather isolated and the only people she knows who could be here are her servants or the local gossips. "I am afraid not. I am a widow and have no children. Nor any other family." Which isn't exactly true. Her parents are likely still living, but she highly doubts they ever want to see their monster daughter again.

Rick nods his head in a silent 'thanks' for her support. There's no telling how it'll go or what his efforts will turn up. But maybe that's not even the point outside of merely trying for others he cares about, people who are in a far worse off situation than he is right now.

There's a definite empathy here, Rick being a widow too in a most tragic way. The words are at the back of his throat, a want to share that about himself too so that she knows they're in the same boat in that regard. But they don't come, not yet anyway. Rick has always found it difficult to share things about himself, especially the darker things.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Losin' people's never easy." He says instead.

Cecelia gives a tight smile in reply that seems to suggest she doesn't wish to talk about this any further, and yet her mouth has other ideas, and she says, "Especially for a woman who is wholly dependent on her husband." She releases a soft sigh through her nose and gives a slow blink before her brief moment of melancholy passes.

"Though I am far more lucky than most. I was not turned out from my home or anything like that."

There's definitely an understanding of that look. Rick has a hard time talking about certain things too. Sometimes he even has a hard time talking in general. But seeing that look, he's ready to let it go save for the fact that she continues. He's surprised by what she says, but it makes sense given her time period, and maybe even beyond that in some instances.

He nods slowly, considering that. "Guess there weren't a whole lot of opportunities for women back then... not like there are - were - when I'm from. But even now, the women fight right alongside the men. No room for doin' it any other way."

To add to that, Rick has always had a lot of stubborn, strong women in his life. He wouldn't think of telling them that they can't do something, except to maybe suggest it with Lori or Maggie when they'd been carrying a child. That's more out of concern though, not any sort of superiority complex or injustice.

"I wouldn't be alive if not for the people around me... includin' the women." And that's the truth. But he also says it so that she can shift the conversation in another direction or keep it on the track its on, either way.

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introductory mingle: SAMPREMI

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