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

[hevenly]

Angela has seen many strange creatures in her long life, so the sight of a man with a tail emerging from the water does little to faze her. She merely reaches out to steady her lantern, decorated with the lyrics to Scarborough Fair, and ensure it will continue its journey down the river unimpeded.

[soundsfishy]

Llŷr gently swims past the lantern, black eyes following the little bob of the shiny piece before he looks up at the woman who had placed it in the water. "That's a beautiful song," he says softly, leaning a bit on the river bank so he could talk to her without the river's flow pulling him away.

"What made you put that on it?"

[hevenly]

Angela replies simply, fondness in her voice. "It is a song which my beloved taught me, many years ago."

AKA, it's their song.

[soundsfishy]

That's really sweet. Now he's curious, and Llŷr's curiosity tends to forget about tact.

"What happened?"

[hevenly]

That's fine, Angela herself is tact-light at best.

"She was lost to me, for a time. And now that I have rescued her from Hel, we are separated once more." All trace of fondness has left. In its place is a burning anger at her circumstances.

[soundsfishy]

He leans a bit to the side to watch her, black eyes hard to read but the frown more obvious. That was one of the first legitimate bad things he had heard about this place, to be honest.

"I'm sorry. If you got her back once, I'm sure you'll find her again, though." At least he hopes so.

[hevenly]

"I know exactly where she is." Assuming she has not wandered out of Brooklyn in search of Angela. Hopefully she hasn't. "It is where I am that is the problem. This place is not among the Ten Realms, and we are stuck here."

[soundsfishy]

"Not forever, I'm sure." He's spent some time in a fae realm once, so Llŷr imagines it's similar. Just a matter of time until stuff's fixed.

[hevenly]

"No, not forever." Not if Angela has anything to say about it.

[soundsfishy]

He nods a little, curious about this woman and her...armor? "Are you some kind of warrior?"

[hevenly]

Armor indeed, as well as a big fuck-off sword hanging from her belt. She didn't particularly need to be armed, here, but she felt more comfortable with it. Her ichors she had left in the trunk at her bed in the communal housing complex. But her sword she kept on her person, as well as the ever-present ribbons floating about her.

Is she a warrior? Angela supposes that isn't too difficult a question. "Yes," she answers. "You could call me a warrior."

[soundsfishy]

"Really? What do you fight for?" That really is a big sword, he's impressed.

Pushing himself up a bit more, he curls his tail a bit so that he's completely out of the water. Llŷr was in no way an expert on weapons - he had used a harpoon a couple of times, and that was it.

[hevenly]

"Hire." She fights for no cause, not anymore. She has run her own campaigns to win back what was taken from her, and now she is but a simple mercenary blade.

[soundsfishy]

He smiles at that, cocking his head a bit to the side. Oh, he's been around a few mercenaries before, and he's never really had an issue with it. On the contrary, they usually had the best kind of stories.

...but while he was a somewhat tactless guy when it came to questions, even he figured that asking for her stories might not be the best thing right now. Instead, Llŷr makes due with the weapon.

"Does it have a name?"

[hevenly]

Angela follows his gaze to her sword, shifting to rest a hand on its hilt. Not to draw it, not here and now when there was no call for it, just to reassure herself of its weight.

"It is called Xiphos, the Sword of the Stars."

[soundsfishy]

"That is a kickass name." It really, really was. "Is it made of stars?"

Llŷr had heard about star daggers and how good they were against fighting undead, but a star sword was pretty epic.

/makes shit up bc canon gives no details

[hevenly]

Angela looks at the fish-man with a look that says that what he just said is the most ridiculous thing she has ever heard.

"It is made of the finest Dwarven steel, forged under the new moon on the night when the Ten Realms were most in alignment."

o7

[soundsfishy]

He's not too taken back by that look, but he still raises a brown slightly. Really, that's what sounds the most ridiculous so far to her?

"That sounds very fancy. I hope you got a good price for it, the dwarves tend to push up the value to twice as much for any non-dwarves. Especially humans." Greedy little buggers - not that he blamed them. he just heard a lot of complaining about it.

[hevenly]

Angela doesn't comment on how she isn't human, because she doesn't find it relevant. (That and she still doesn't like saying she's actually Asgardian.) Instead, she just says, "I did not purchase it; it was won in battle."

[soundsfishy]

Oh, now he's even more curious. "You won it in battle? Against what? Was it epic?" Tell him your stories, Angela. He's excited like a puppy. A sea-puppy.

[hevenly]

"It was," she says plainly. All Angela's battles are epic. "I cut down a horde of usurpers in Heven." Strange, now, that she won her weapon defending the place she had thought of as her home. A place that she is now exiled from.

[soundsfishy]

"Amazing!" Look at him, he's so impressed... even if her pronunciation of Heaven seemed a bit off.

"So you're quite the warrior. It's an honor." Llŷr does a little bow, half-sincered.

[hevenly]

Angela scoffs. "You need not bow to me." Though technically she is Asgardian royalty, she is exiled from Asgard as well, so there is nothing actually royal about her, outside her blood.