riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: MEMORIA

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introductory mingle: MEMORIA

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!

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[ There's just one thing the monster likes about this 'celebration' called Memoria, and that's the fact that the people-watching is informative, if nothing else. Most here are sending off lanterns with at least some kind of mark made on their translucent screens, but there's only one that Sans sees that's entirely blank.

Maybe there's more of them like this, but hell if Sans can tell from where he's standing by the water, passively pushed along by the collective masses. Writing anything, saying goodbye? Heh, all of that feels like making a deliberate decision, a promise to take an action - to stay or go - and Sans, he isn't too keen on making promises or taking action.

Plenty of distractions abound, though. And the one that preoccupies his thoughts is what would make a guy wearing a mask dip his hand into the water like he's not so sure what to make of something nearly everyone else just takes for granted.

No real time spent ruminating over what a guy might mean by 'New Game Plus' when all it does it confirm for the skeleton that the stranger is a total nerd. ]

I mask ya, pal--

[ The crowds that have approached the edge of the water to set adrift their lanterns have begun to thin out, and a person standing at no more than five feet slouches here with his hands in his pockets and his head shaded by the hood of a rumpled and assuredly unwashed hoodie. With no other monsters around, Sans doesn't need a mass panic because someone saw a skeleton, but ain't nothing wrong with making small talk.

Smells like stale ketchup. ]

You just get off the portal?

[It's a combination of nothing left to write, promise or say good-bye to. Zacharie let go a long time ago and while it didn't affect his interactions with others, it meant it was easier when things came close to the end. Just another wait until the game started again.

But that's also treading into spoiler territory.

Sans is not wrong in his assessment of Zacharie being a total nerd. He did love himself some video games and being in a new one was both interesting and exciting. Where that love comes from is something entirely different, however

But aside from the cat mask Zacharie looks like an average twenty-something composed of nothing but black and whites. He offers a friendly wave and it sounds like the NPC is smiling when he speaks.

Smells like nothing but burnt sugar, meat and smoke. But that's the wrong game.]

Yes I did. It's certainly quite an engaging place I have found myself in and I am taking every bit of the delightful moments it has to offer so far. Yourself?

Delightful, yeah.

[ Gotta real weirdo here. Then again, to practically everyone else, the skeleton's the weird one. This guy could at least, uhhh, potentially? Pass as human?

Once you get past the fact that he looks like he's permanently locked in an encounter, but hey.

Different worlds, and all. ]

Couldn't help but notice you checkin' out the water. What, different from whatcha expected?

[One could say that his world was permanently locked in a one-sided encounter. Although that is getting into a level of meta Zacharie normally didn't bother with. Theories are a whole different ballpark than practical jokes.

And if the NPC has picked up on the fact that he's been chatting with a skeleton, it doesn't show. Then again, he is wearing a mask. As far as anyone's concerned Zacharie could be making stupid faces at people and they'd be none the wiser.]

Exactly! This substance is far different than the malleable sea of Plastic that I am used to. It is quite a change in setting, although I should not be surprised given this is a different world after all and not a game. You called this water, dear friend?

[Yeah, he's skipping over the fact that he said this place wasn't a 'game'. Probably means something else...?]

[ The fact he rolls with it is appreciated. Not all of Sans's run-ins with people have gone as well, but that, too, is a vetting process that helps him assemble a list of the people worth keeping an eye socket on. So, eh. It works.

He says 'game' but the part that Sans actually addresses is: ]

Plastic?

[ Before the knee-jerk thought that this can't possibly happen gets a chance to kick in, Sans is already mentally correcting it. The multiverse is a confirmed thing. Technically, uh, anything's possible.

Not really worth the hassle getting worked up about it. ]

Yeah, water. A clear, mostly tasteless liquid everybody needs to live. Hope that ain't the case with you, pal.

[ There's a joke in there, lurking, about how acquiring malleable plastic might end up being sticky in the logistics department, but he'll SPARE the guy for now. ]

[Well one could say he has a unique perspective. And hey, Sans seems like a nice enough guy regardless of the whole talking skeleton thing so there's no reason to raise a fuss.]

Ah ah ah, not quite. There would be a certain amount of morbid humor to be had if that was the case, but Plastic is used as a foundation and a means to provide very safe barriers so people don't fall into the sea and thus off the map. It would be entertaining for the Player certainly but there are only so many times you can provide that sort of gag.

[It's logical and illogical at the same time. And probably brings the question of what everyone drinks in his world if there's no water.

Which is easily answered by "It's just a video game. You don't have to think so hard about it." Ahahah.]

So as you have likely guessed this is my first time experiencing it. It is quite fascinating, if I do say so myself. Although given the event that is going on, I doubt the locals would be pleased with me helping myself to some from here. Maiou.

[Worst impression of a cats meow or just the most half-assed? You decide!]

[ Sans, being what and who he is, has heard a lot of peculiar laughs in his life, would barely even be bothered to do more than take cursory note of Zacharie's if it wasn't lining up with a lot of other ones. Better to chalk it up to being as foreign to him as he probably is to... just about anybody else here.

But hell if that didn't almost sound like a laugh in reverse.

Funny little thing to get hung up on when there's so many other choice words here. Phrases like 'off the map', terms like 'the Player', a self-awareness of comedic tropes unique to... well.

Few people. ]

Heh heh heh, ok. You make a good point. Pretty sure the "locals" might have one or two reasons to stare if ya did.

[ Lapping at water from the river is just one of them. ]

So, what's up with the get-up? You a--uh-- [ What was the word Al used? Oh man, that's the one. ] Cosplayer, or somethin'?

[ Seriously. The meowing, the mask... not the weirdest things the guy's done or said so far, but pretty noteworthy. ]

[Quite the interesting interpretation of someone's laughter there Sans. But that's probably just the by-product of his laugh being a soundbite. Sounds the same each time.

Speaking of which, Zacharie does laugh again at Sans's cosplayer comment. In part because he's actually the first person here in Riverview to comment on the NPC's appearance and because the peanut gallery helpfully remarks he's totally right, you know.]

Perhaps so! It would be another way to explain my change in masks once the protagonist so helpfully points out that I am still myself and not the Judge. And besides it's rather cute.

[Yeah, a mask with an expression that can be taken as either a wide grin or grimace, too many teeth and based off a dead cat. Real cute.]

And speaking of which, I have also failed to introduce myself. My name is Zacharie and, to quote a friend of mine, I am aching to know your name, my friend.

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introductory mingle: MEMORIA

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SORRY FOR DELAY, I had to graduate lol

no problem! congratulations on graduating :)

Thanks!

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