introductory mingle: MEMORIA

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Memoria Commemoration
when: May 1st - May 8th
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

memoria

In the days leading up to May 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Memoria. A more solemn celebration than Sampremi or the Flower Festival, Memoria is a week-long time of remembrance for those lost in the Great War and the epidemic that decimated Riverview Quarantine's population 10 years ago. Memoria traditions include lighting lanterns for the dead, telling stories about lost loved ones or lost homes, eating meals with loved ones, and a special gathering to send floating lanterns down the river in honor of those lost.

a solemn commemoration of those lost

While the main city-wide event associated with Memoria is the floating of lanterns down the river on the evening of May 8th, the holiday is generally seen as a time of reflection on and appreciation of things that have been lost - people, homes, cultures, and planets. It is also a celebration of the things that remain. Many locally-owned shops will host displays of culturally-significant food, and will hand out informational flyers sharing the unique customs of their own homeworlds. There is a heavy emphasis on sharing time with family, friends, and lovers, and anyone who is able to will cook meals or treats for loved ones, or at least purchase them something good to eat.

i. hanging lanterns

Throughout the entire week of Memoria, residents will be hanging lanterns around the city. Lanterns are generally placed in greater number in places of passage - streets, bridges, and all alongside the train lines are particularly well-decorated, as are any trees alongside paths, and most homes and businesses have a profusion of lanterns around their doors and windows. This tradition is twofold; some people believe that the lanterns are hung in these places in order to guide the spirits of the dead back to those who still love them, other people believe that the lanterns are to give light for living loved ones to find their doors in times of darkness...many people believe both.

No matter what your character might believe, you can be sure they will find themselves offered a lantern for free from various businesses or friendly citizens passing by, and invited to hang it before the sun sets, or they may be handed a bundle of lanterns and asked to help share them with others.

ii. sharing life

Throughout the city, characters will find groups of people gathering to share hot drinks and talk about their loved ones lost, their homes and planets, or their experiences during the Great War and the epidemic. Anyone who has lost someone, who has fought to survive, who is feeling cut off and homesick, is welcome to sit and share their story. If your character chooses to sit and to share their story, they will find that people will gather to listen, will generally be respectful of the telling, and may share their own similar experiences in return. This is an excellent time to air grief in an environment where most people understand and respect grief, and a good time to deepen the connections to others around you, to understand them better.

There is also a very large focus on cooking or purchasing meals or treats for loved ones during Memoria, with many people taking meals with everyone they care about during the week of the holiday. Some go the extra mile and will hand out baked goods (usually chocolate or cinnamon), packets of candy, or other little treats to acquaintances, especially if they would like to form a closer bond with them. This is a great time for characters to reach out to someone they would like to get to know better with a surprise treat!

iii. floating of the lanterns

On the evening of May 8th, just before sundown, many of the city's residents will head toward the banks of the river, where they will light lanterns in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, in honor of their dead loved ones. The types of lanterns vary wildly, based on personality (either of the person floating it or the person they are honoring), culture, and many other factors. Some lanterns are very simple, others are incredibly complex, but the one common feature they all have is that people write on the shades of them - they write about their feelings for their loved ones, their wishes for their relationships and friendships, a memory from childhood or home, or even just lines of poetry or lyrics from songs that express something they miss, or something that hurts them.

Once those emotions are written on the lanterns, the lanterns are set free, floating down the river in the darkening evening, in a cathartic gesture shared by most residents of the city. Waves of lantern floating will start around 7 pm and continue until the sun rises on the morning of May 9th.

iv. 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 during Memoria, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: glowconcepts, image ii: by trenchmaker, image iv: cherryorange; image iii: found uncredited on Pinterest - please let the mod know if you find credit!

navigation

Comments

i

[advanced]

[He's surprised to see Clark out in the open, flying and displaying his alien nature so freely, but perhaps something has changed that he's just missed. He waits at the bottom of one of the buildings until Clark lands again.]

You're hanging them for the Kryptonians?

[At least he remembers what Clark told him about his world, how it's gone, and how he had to choose a side for Earth.]

[signifies]

[ Clark hears his heart first then his arm. He's smiling warmly when he lands. ]

I am. Would you like to help me?

[advanced]

I would.

[He owes Clark a lot, maybe this way he can actually repay it a little.]

As long as you don't abandon me to do it with your kid again.

[He is not cut out to be a babysitter.]

[signifies]

[ Clark smiles sheepishly. ]

Sorry about that. I hope you'll think about playing football with us again.

[ They have to get more lanterns so Clark waves him to someone giving them out. He hands two to Bucky. ]

[advanced]

He's a nice kid, but I'm not used to that.

[He didn't hurt Jon, but...]

Pretty sure he wouldn't want to come play with me again, I think he was bored.

[He takes the lanterns obediently, waiting for instruction on where Clark wants them hung. These are for his people, after all, he should make the decisions.]

[signifies]

He just has a lot of energy, along with superpowers.

[ Clark didn't at that age. He's a more introverted personality than Jon and he had withdrawn the moment his strength manifested.

It's nice that he can walk with Bucky on the street and talk to him like a friend. Clark doesn't mind showing up when he might be in trouble but he doesn't think that's fair to Bucky.

They turn left on the street for a footbridge. Clark checks its side. No lanterns yet. ]

How's this bridge?

[advanced]

[He shrugs, glancing over the side of the bridge.]

These are lanterns for your dead, you decide where they go.

[Maybe that was too blunt a way to put it, but he doesn't mean it cruelly.]

[signifies]

[ Bucky's bluntness doesn't bother him. ]

Here, please.

[ He leans over to look for somewhere near it for the one he has. ]

[advanced]

Do you need to write on them?

[Maybe not.

It's probable that Clark doesn't know the names of all the Kryptonian dead.]

[signifies]

[ Clark shakes his head slowly. ]

I only know how to write a prayer for the dead.

[ He feels that's more appropriate for floating the lanterns down the river later. The writing will be lost amongst all the others. ]

[advanced]

[Bucky nods, but he takes a pen out of his backpack and scribbles on the side of the lantern. His handwriting is exceptionally neat, a leftover from his schooldays in the thirties when handwriting had been very focused on.

"In honor of the dead who fell fighting for what they believed was right, far from home."

Only then does he lean over the side to hang it.]

Tell me the prayer.

[signifies]

[ Clark recites something like this quietly for Bucky, in a language he never thought he'd speak. He has the words written down in Kryptonian letters on a piece of paper which he takes out of his pocket to show him.

Clark's not sure yet if he follows the same religion his people did but it's not respectful to them to leave out the name of the god they followed. ]

Here it is.

[advanced]

[He listens respectfully and glances at the piece of paper, though he doesn't recognise the words at all. Not a surprise, he's fluent in most Earth languages but he obviously knows no alien ones.]

You know any prayers for human dead?

[signifies]

Yes. Almost all the major religions, but only the English translation.

[ He hasn't had time to study them all in their original languages. ]

What about you? Are you a Catholic?

[ He's guessing. Brooklyn in the 1930s had a substantial Irish population and Barnes is a surname of Irish origin. ]

[advanced]

I was.

[At least he knows that much for solid fact. But it's hard for religion to hold up through what he's been through.]

I don't remember any of the prayers or hymns or whatever.

[signifies]

There's nothing wrong with what you wrote on it just now.

[ He doesn't know if Bucky's putting up his own lanterns. It must be terrible to not remember the people he lost. ]

[advanced]

That was written for your dead.

[He sounds almost forbidding, he isn't sure he's going to set any lanterns going and he doesn't deserve to honour the dead that he actually remembers.]

[signifies]

Oh. [ He hadn't expected that. ] Thank you.

[ He tastefully doesn't mention they might have spat on it. Kryptonian xenophobia isn't something Clark's proud of. ]

[advanced]

[He shrugs a bit awkwardly, but his expression relaxes a bit.]

These were lanterns to honour your dead, right? I don't know your prayer, or my prayers, I figured that might work. I'm not going to light a lantern of my own.

[signifies]

[ Invulnerable as Clark is, he knows to avoid that subject. ]

Okay. Let's put these two on the end of the bridge. We'll need some more.

[advanced]

How many?

[Not that he has anywhere to be today, but if Clark is planning on hanging lanterns for the entire Kryptonian race then it might take a while.]

[signifies]

A few more should be okay.

[ He's hung one lantern per thousand. ]

[advanced]

Are you going to float them later?

[Or just hang them as more permanent reminders.]

[signifies]

I should. [ As much as he wants to remember and hold on to a lost past, Clark can't keep living there. ] Makes sense to let them go, doesn't it?

[advanced]

I don't know, does it?

[There's no judgement, just a question.]

Isn't it better to hold onto what memories you have?