riverviewlogs | monthly mingle: MEMORIA

Entry tags:

monthly mingle: MEMORIA

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: monthly mingle: memoria
when: the month of may
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 each Sunday evening of the month, 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 and inviting others to share those customs. 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 each Sunday evening of May.

iv. down with the sickness

The epidemic that happened 10 years ago was an incredibly traumatic experience for the people living in the Quarantine, on a cultural scale as well as a personal one. While most people who live in the Quarantine are able to leave after 5 years, the trauma lingers in any number of invisible ways in the city. Besides that, there is a small population of people who have chosen to live permanently in the Quarantine, who have made it their home and embraced its melting pot of cultural diversity as their own. Many of these people are survivors of the epidemic, and have a particularly poignant connection to the Memoria celebration.

One of these long-term residents is an engineer specializing in magically-enhanced robotics who lost most of her family in the epidemic, and as each year passes she becomes more and more distraught by how the population turns over and slowly loses track of the importance of Memoria. In her eyes, it's become symbolic, commercialized, a celebration of general grief and not the very specific grief the Quarantine experienced 10 years ago. And she has decided to do something about it, something to make the specific trauma of the epidemic very real and very current to everyone in the city.

On May 1st, she will be releasing a small cloud of self-replicating magically-enhanced nanites near City Hall. The nanites are drawn to warm, living bodies, and once they enter, they find their way to the brain and central nervous system (or equivalent, depending on physiology) and start to take effect on the parts of the brain (or equivalent) that control a person's sensory experiences and psychosomatic responses. In effect, the nanites work as an artificial virus that makes residents horribly ill, and which can be passed from person to person like a contagion.

Throughout the month, reports of this mysterious illness will sweep through the Quarantine, with residents uncertain of how to cure it. Symptoms vary widely depending on the person, with each affected person facing a uniquely personal set of symptoms - but each case has the same thing in common: it ends with the victim losing consciousness and lapsing into a coma.

How It Works

● Participation is opt-in, and while the "epidemic" can't be ignored in the city, characters are not required to get ill even if they are exposed.
● The "disease" can be spread from person to person by skin-to-skin contact or exchange of fluids (kissing, coughing, spitting, etc.) There is no set symptoms for the "disease," and how much or little a character is affected or in what ways is up to player discretion. Incubation period (time between exposure and first symptoms appearing) is also up to player discretion.
● Since the nanites are based in both tech and mgaic, they are much harder to defeat than they would be otherwise. However, they can be deactivated and destroyed through a combination of electromagnetic pulses and magical nullification or spell-dispersing abilities. Players are also welcome to come up with other ways to deactivate the nanites, keeping in mind that it should not be too easy.
● Affected characters can be sick for as long or short a time as the player decides, and once they lapse into a coma it can last as long as the player decides. Once the character wakes from the coma, they will no longer be sick and the nanites will no longer be present in their system.
● Once a character has been infected, they will be immune and cannot be reinfected.
● All sick characters will be well again by May 31st and there will be no long-term effects.

● If any players wish to pursue or bring to justice the perpetrator, please send the mod a PM and we can discuss your ideas!

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to meet new roommates, for the purpose of getting to know each other, or hit up the mod-posted prompt to create a Communal Housing floor mingle. 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: RAW Visual, image ii: by trenchmaker, image iv: Bianca Draghici; image iii: found uncredited on Pinterest - please let the mod know if you find credit!

navigation

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[He nods, waving Cullen away with a flippant motion of his hand.]

Do what you must, Commander. I mean to dine well this evening and I can't have you reeking of road dust and sweat. Off with you. I'll be here.

[It's a little strange still, anytime he sees Undertaker with his hair pulled back. Just like it was strange to see his eyes back on the Campania. And probably as strange as it would be to see him without an eyepatch.]

It is. [He knows it isn't a question but he answers all the same. His chest tightens every time he thinks about saying anything about that birthday or relating to the month that had followed.] I... would appreciate the help.

[Cullen cracks a smirk at Dorian's remarks.]

It must be important if you're willing to wait for me.

[He doesn't waste time in showering. He never truly does. It's been a long, stupidly warm day and he's ready to be clean and full and have an ale in his hand. As soon as he's in his room, he strips to nothing and heads straight for the shower two doors down, toiletries in hand.

Fifteen minutes later, he's clean. Five minutes after that, he's dressed and his hair is barely styled. But that's fine. He doesn't need to spend five hours fighting with the unruly locks to be ready to go out.]

Sorry I kept you waiting. Are you paying for this foray or are we going 'dutch'?

[he quietly watches her with the lantern, recognizing it's for galen as soon as she starts writing the word papa. it's a very fitting lantern, all the math scribbles turning it into a very sciency lantern.]

I don't know. To make sure we remember all the important things and people, maybe? As a whole, the city seems very fond of sharing.

Maybe there's nothing to accomplish, only remembering.

( his are both gone already, floated off into the distance during the time they spent speaking. but he--stops to watch pietro's go, purses his lips together to keep from opening his mouth. his wanda has willed others back to life, caused massive waves of destruction, has spent quite some time trying to get it all back but--

she's capable of a lot for the people she loves, and billy gets it. has made some of the same mistakes himself, despite knowing the things wanda went through when making decisions like that. it's--surprising pietro is still gone, honestly. but maybe this wanda's power isn't quite the same, doesn't have the same impact. )

Sweeter or stronger? There are a few coffee places in town, so. .

( pick your poison, he'll show her the way. and climbs back up onto his feet, dusts off the thighs of his pants. )

[They giggle a bit behind their hands.]

I'm sorry to assume. I've never met an undead person before. Though I have been on a world that was ravaged by mutated and crazed people, which was as close to a zombie movie as I've experienced. He doesn't sound quite the same.

[The teen wraps both hands around the cup, bowing his head slightly like Tanaka might have told him to.]

Thank you. [He smells the tea, curious, and takes a slow sip.] I didn't realize there were so many people that had been here so long.

Right.

[ Okay. Peter's stalling. He's definitely stalling, and he's pretty sure it's pretty clear to both of them that's the case.

Just do it quick, he tells himself again. The paper shade crinkles beneath his fingers for a second as his grip tightens, but finally, he gently sets the lantern in the water, letting the current take it away.

He watches it for a breath or two as it drifts away, and for a second, his mind goes blank. Then, after a couple of seconds, he flops back, sitting heavily on the river's bank. He heaves out a breath, scrubbing his face, and he feels the telltale tightening of his throat.

God, don't cry in front of a stranger. Do not. ]

... Does doing this usually suck?

[ There's a thread of good humor in his voice, even if it's slightly thick. ]

Way I see it, I'm doing you a favor taking these off your hands.

[ And he gives a demonstrative little shake of the stack of lanterns. Apparently he's keeping them. (He should probably hang a few for the Ravagers, he thinks. Sure, all of them were giant pricks, and all of them treated him like shit, but they were still almost his family, for a little while.)

With a winning smile, ]

I figure the least you could do after almost knocking me over with 'em is get me a beer.

[ He pauses at that – that's... oof, that's heavy – before he lets out a small, acknowledging hum.

He strikes the match on a nearby rock before lighting the candles inside. ]

Anyway. It was this big thing. [ The Ravager ceremony, he means. And he suddenly thinks that he should have brought more lanterns, should light more candles, for the brothers he lost. They were such fucking assholes, but they were family, weren't they? ] Like fireworks in space.

And then we'd get blackout drunk afterward.

[ He lights the dark red lantern next, shaking out the match. ]

I dunno that letting go is ever easy.

[ says Peter Quill, the king of never letting anything go. He hoards everything with meaning – memories and songs and stuff – that even attempting this tradition is as risky to him as skydiving. ]

You've already done this, then? [ And he gestures toward the river bank; he means the lantern-lighting thing. ]

Maybe I don't want to remember.

[ a little staircase is added as well before she seemingly runs out of memories to tack on to her father's lantern. that's... discouraging. she sets it down to pick up another, orangy-red, printing akshaya across it. ]

[While he might bring it up eventually, if only to know how much she remembers from back home, he tries to dive into the complexities of this place slowly, starting with the easier things.

Like what familiar faces can be found wondering around.]

Those are probably the only ones you know. I heard when I arrived months back that Natasha was here, but I've never seen or heard from her. Otherwise, a friend of mine, Bucky, is here. As is Valkyrie, another Asgardian and friend of Thor's.

[Now for the weird stuff.]

There are also doubles of Bucky and I here in the Quarantine. They're from another universe. The same universe I believe. And there are a few others here from their universe as well. People with powers. Other heroes.

No one ever did. And sometimes he would share his spare eggs with us. Usually when food was scarce.

[He stirs the soup idly. There's a reason he doesn't talk much about his childhood and it has a lot to do with how he thinks people will react.]

It was. My mother raised me single-handed and did her best up until her death.

[He looks up at the sheer brick wall of the hospital and then raises an eyebrow at Stark.]

You can climb that on your own, then?

[Without anything noisy like the suit.]

Yeah, me either. I was trying to get the infected people into some kind of quarantine, keep it spreading, but it's like trying to fight a forest fire with a wet blanket.

[And now he's managed to get it too, which is really not a good sign where everyone else is concerned.]

[A part of him says that he really shouldn't be talking about this. These were his mistakes, his fights, and he doesn't want to endanger Steve by dragging him into it. But he's so tired and he feels ill, and for just a brief time he wants the reassurance of knowing he has someone he trusts at his back.]

I owe Pierce a favour.

[Just saying the words feels like swallowing battery acid and his lips twist in disgust.]

I don't wanna be owned again, Steve.

[He could almost think that this was a product of fever induced hallucinations, because he never in his wildest dreams thought that there would actually be a way to make him safe again. But it couldn't be, because he wouldn't hallucinate a teenage girl he'd never met to do it.]

If you're telling me the truth, then I'll do anything you want me to in order to help.

[And then he'd owe her his life fifty times over.]

I don't understand, it shouldn't be possible. How did you build something like that?

[He glowers at his other self and folds his arms, but he does relent and explain a bit.]

I don't know the code to your security.

He looked over the names, curious, but didn't ask. Not yet. Not with the nature of this 'festival' or whatever the people of Riverview would classify it as. At the thanks, he turned a faint smile towards her before shaking his head.

"No need to thank me. I think we all need a bit of support today, even if it's just carrying something."

I'll take your word on that one. So... listen, I'll let you get some sleep. I have my pager if you need me, or I guess your mice friends can come find me.

"The bots?" Breq frowns. Not something she's heard about, but the, after having recovered from the injuries that brought her here she hasn't spent much time around the hospital, has focused mostly on understanding the Quarantine as a whole. She hadn't had much attention to spare for anything other than official news, and her links in the gossip chain aren't in place yet. Briefly, she wishes for the time she had thousands of ears to listen for this sort of thing, the times when nothing went on in or around Justice of Toren that she wasn't aware of.

"I already have been," Breq points out, though she remains obligingly distant, now that Beverly is awake. "And you will need help getting to your destination. You mentioned your apartment?"

[She can't help but look a little disappointed.]

Guess that makes sense. Ain't gonna lie, though, there's been plenty of times I wished I could be an animal instead.

He did all right by me, yeah.

Whatever is causing it seems to be helped by some kind of supernatural power. I don't know what it is, but if it's getting to you, it can't be just a disease.

[It makes him wonder about other things, too.]

I haven't been exactly at my best either, but I didn't think it was this virus.

[His reactions seemed to be different. Steve, as usual, brushes things off when he can keep going.]

Now I'm not sure.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 41 of 76

monthly mingle: MEMORIA

no subject

<3

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject