monthly mingle: MEMORIA

[riverviewmod]

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

Comments

[wiccant]

( he's so tired, temperature running rampant and every muscle feels like it's about to fucking collapse in on itself, unable to support and keep him upright. loki's fingers run through his hair and billy closes glazed eyes, slumping forward to press in close.

and shakes his head, a hand raising to shove fabric away from his mouth and press a palm to his lips. ) They. . uh, don't. I ch-checked.

[ikols]

[ He strives to sound light about the situation but deliberately cools his hand as it lays over Billy's roasting forehead. ]

Hush, I'm sure they have more than we do. I'll take you there now, we'll take the scenic route. [ Uncertain about teleporting with Billy in such a state. ] I'm going to carry you, okay?

[wiccant]

( the summer benefits of having loki around have come early; cool hands are amazing and billy's raising one of his own to press it over the one to his forehead, soaking up the cooler temperature for a few moments before that becomes--uncomfortable.

he's already given up on standing, re-trying to walk sounds like too much effort when billy doesn't necessarily have to. another gross cough forces itself up, and billy grips tight to keep from falling forward, nodding after he's finished heaving.

deep breaths; it's fine, he's totally one hundred percent okay. )

[ikols]

Dearest ...

[ It's a light chide as Loki has to watch Billy suffering and as soon as possible sweeps him gently into his arms. He keeps his temperature lower than usual to combat the heat radiating off his boyfriend who, though shorter than him, now seems so small that he could be a breakable bird in Loki's arms.

A kiss brushes Billy's forehead as they set off. ]

I have you, no fear. Rest awhile, I'll wake you when we arrive.

[wiccant]

( on a normal day, billy'd respond by bitching and fussing if loki decided to pick him up and go gallivanting off into the sunrise in the middle of the day in town. this--isn't one of those days, he feels like shit, and billy doesn't want to go through the effort of walking himself if he doesn't have to.

one arm raises to wrap around loki's neck, holding onto the back of his shirt. will loki drop him? probably not. but that doesn't keep billy from getting a good grip on him. an eye cracks open, tip of his tongue sticking out as he looks up to loki. and furrows his brows. )

Don't--kiss me, gross. 'm covered in sick germs.

[ikols]

To which I'm evidently immune. Asgardians don't suffer from mortal diseases, did you know that? Which means whatever is wrong with you is entirely fixable, whatever it is.

[ Loki will absolutely not drop Billy, one arm under his knees and another cradling his back in a secure bridal-style heft. He walks swiftly, trying not to jostle his passenger without wasting time on their journey. ]

Now comes the important part: which do you prefer as hospital gifts, grapes or chocolate?

[wiccant]

( he did know that, thank you. which just brings them back to the idea of idunn's apple, which billy really doesn't want to stop and think about when he's busy dying from whatever the hell is causing this stupid fever. eyes closing once more, he leans into loki's shoulder, shoves his face along with all those sick germs right into his arm.

coughs against loki's stupid shirt because if he's going to sass about being immune you bet billy's going to be dramatic over it. )

'm not staying.

[ikols]

You're going to stay in that hospital until you're healthy enough to pin me down and have your wicked way with me again. This is not a debate.

[ Billy can be as gross as he likes, all it does is keep Loki holding onto him protectively all the way to the hospital. When they finally arrive, he refuses to put him down until someone brings a stretcher, and that is how Loki checks Billy in by dictating his information to a nurse. ]

[wiccant]

'm not-- ( nobody likes staying in hospitals, billy included. not up for debate, maybe, but that doesn't mean he's going willingly. once he's set back down, he--puts more effort into actually resisting; sits himself up on the stretcher with a palm pressed into the padding behind him.

nose wrinkled when he squints up at loki prattling off to a nurse. ) You can't make me.

[ikols]

[ While Billy bitches and moans on his stretcher, Loki herds the nurse to the other side of the corridor where he adds in some extra details about Billy being delirious and oddly malcontent, anything to suggest he can't give his informed consent to leaving the hospital. Loki's lies can be persuasive; the report is taken away.

Heading back to his grumpy boyfriend, he offers a palm for his forehead again, frustratingly all that he can do to help. ]

How are you feeling now?

[wiccant]

( this is bullying and loki should feel bad for it. billy--has an idea of what he's up to when he disappears around the corner, but doesn't say anything. it's--not fine, but not worth the arguing. when loki disappears off to do whatever it is lokis do, he'll just--teleport his way out. text someone. he has ways!! just not ways that are very effective with gods around.

he's sweaty, gross, exhausted despite not doing jack shit. cold on the inside but too hot on the outside and it makes for a really bad combination on top of everything else. billy coughs into an arm again, has to take several moments after to regain his bearings, lungs aching inside his chest. )

Like you're going to regret this.

[ikols]

[ That attitude again. Good thing Loki knows how to handle it by leaning in and gently rubbing Billy's back, lowering his voice to a private purr threaded with a plea. ]

Something is happening in the Quarantine and you're very ill. The folk at this hospital are trained to make you better in ways I can't, which scares me. Please, Billy, let them help you. I promise to stay.

[wiccant]

( it could be worse!! he could be too exhausted to try and bitch. as it is, he's quickly losing the ability to keep his eyes open at all, closing them in the middle of loki's sentence with an irritated groan. )

'm not. . that sick. It's--( he can't really say that it isn't that bad, because. the virus has been around long enough for him to see how fucking destructive it's been. ) a flu? 's fine. Fine.

( is he repeating it for himself or for loki is the real question here. )

[ikols]

A super awful flu, aye, but before you can wrestle me to the ground and pinch my nose for being a bother, we must see you get better. Trust me.

[ He tries not to let on how entirely wracked with worry he is, combing back Billy's hair. Guiding him to lie down on his side so the coughing won't be so bad, in theory. ]

It's okay, you're okay. Just a boring overnight vacation at the hospital.

[wiccant]

( he is okay. he'll be fine. this isn't enough to take down billy--some weird space flu won't kill him. no one else has--died, right? not that he's heard of. he's fine enough to wander around outside! he made it that far before loki carried him off.

fingers in his hair and billy follows loki's lead down, lays on his side and closes his eyes. gives a soft low sigh while sliding fingers over to grab onto a wrist. ) Don't. . don't forget to--water Noh-Varr.

[ikols]

[ Playing coy as he brushes through Billy's hair, he tests him to see how far gone his fuzzy head is. ]

Which one is Noh?

[wiccant]

The uh--fluffy one? ( please note: noh is now a fluffy cactus.

don't judge him. his nose wrinkles, hand reaching out to grip onto loki's shirt and hold on tight to him--just moments before his grip loosens and he falls asleep. )