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

Akira Kurusu | Persona 5 | OTA

[jokerofhearts]

iii. floating of the lanterns

[ Akira has found himself around those who are hanging their lanterns. He looks from lantern to lantern. The phrases that are scrawled across the lanterns causes a sad frown to show. There's not much he knows about Riverview in retrospect, and that is something he needs to fix. Maybe that's why he's sitting back and watching how everyone handles this festival. There is reverence then there are those that are really just use it as an excuse to party.

He sighs and pushes his fake glasses up his nose. ]

Memoria, huh...

iv. down with the sickness

[ Murmurs of the illness have gotten far into the Quarintine by the time Akira sees it himself. Being unable to turn a blind eye to people suffering, he made the mistake of helping someone that had collapsed on the street. After helping them, though, he's felt under the weather himself. Blurry vision from time to time, dizziness, a pounding in his head.

It should pass sooner or later.

At that moment he sits outside the Community Housing, thumbing through his phone as he leans against the wall to try and keep up right. ]

iv

[breqintopieces]

[Breq is on her way inside, stiff and tired and moderately satisfied with her day-- she's not nearly the state she wants to be in to travel beyond the walls but she's getting there, slowly-- so she nearly misses the sight of Akira, focused as she is on making her way to the door of the building, so she can get up the final flight of stairs and finally get her weight off of her complaining left hip.

Some flicker of his phone screen tracks her eyes to him, then makes her pause. Half a second later, she's changing course, moving to within a few steps of him.]

Locked out?

[jokerofhearts]

[ Akira looks up as soon as someone addresses him. He blinks a few times, a glassy look to his eyes if they can look past his glasses. It takes a moment for what she is saying to register. Then, he shakes his head. ]

Ah, no, I... [ saying he can't stand up straight seems pathetic. ] I was just...

[ He pushes himself to stand up and has to force his heels into his shoes so he can be straight and try to disguise how he sways. ]

Needed a moment.

[breqintopieces]

[Breq takes a half-step back to give Akira the space to stand, but continues to watch him critically, not yet turning and leaving for the building. Instead, she looks him over again, one hand braced on her hip.]

Are you waiting for anyone?

[jokerofhearts]

No. [ He shakes his head slightly. ] I was waiting for the dizziness to pass.

[ Not that he wants to worry a stranger. Which is why he pockets the phone and forces himself to continue to stand straight, as if it'll show he is fine now. ]

[breqintopieces]

[Unfortunately for Akira, the critical look doesn't disappear. If anything, her examination has sharpened.]

Which floor are you on?

[jokerofhearts]

Five.

[ He takes a few steps to s how that he's fine now. Well, more or less fine anyways.

Honestly, he isn't used to strangers asking him so many questions. Or... seeming like they care. ]

[breqintopieces]

I'll walk you up.

[It might be a little out of her way, but better that than leaving someone outside looking ready to be knocked over by a stiff breeze.

And, because she's never learned entirely to leave well enough alone when it comes to helping people in need:]

My name's Breq. I'm on the second floor.

[jokerofhearts]

[ Usually, he isn't like this. He can stand just fine and move just fine. But, illnesses come and go. It shouldn't be something too serious. ]

Kurusu Akira... [ being the well mannered boy he is, regardless of being a phantom thief? He gives a bow. ] It's nice to meet you.

iii. floating of the lanterns

[likeacoupon]

Who are you remembering?

[Willa arrives to watch those with lanterns but she doesn't light one. She wants to believe that she's immune from missing people; that it's a weakness that she doesn't possess. She's lying to herself but sometimes those lies are what keeps people going.]

Or are you just here to see what hundreds of lanterns look like in the air?

[The young gypsy walks over and takes a seat next to Akira. They aren't really friends but she knows him and that's enough for Willa.]

[jokerofhearts]

!

[ He turns his head at the familiar voice. Akira's shoulders ease slightly at the sight of the woman who sold love charms. In fact, the one he bought is hanging off his shoulder bag. There isn't a reason to not put it there. Maybe someone else would see it and be inspired to go to her business.

Akira gives a slight nod to greet her. ]

My friends that aren't here. [ Makoto is, but, the rest of the Thieves are still back home. He looks back up at the lanterns. ]

It's beautiful.

[likeacoupon]

Yeah but they aren't dead either.

[She looks over at him, wondering if maybe she's wrong and his friends are dead. If so, that's be very depressing and not at all what she wants to think about.

Willa exhales a shallow sigh.]

Yeah, I think making them pretty is part of the point. It's comforting.

[jokerofhearts]

I was just thinking about them.

[ None of them are dead, which means they made it out of their final battle alright. There is no reason to doubt anything Makoto has said - or not said - about their final trip into Mementos. He just... misses his family. ]

Yeah. [ Akira looks at her. ] Are you making one?

[likeacoupon]

[Willa lifts her shoulders in a shrug.]

I don't know who I'd make one for. [It's a lie but Willa is very convincing.] I have no family at home and no friends. There isn't anyone to miss me or for me to miss. I'm jut here to see what the big deal is about.

[A name flickers in her head but she stifles it. Willa doesn't want to believe that she'd started caring for someone only to have them vanish.]

[jokerofhearts]

[ His eyebrows raise at the statement. Something seems just a little off, but, he won't press. He might just be looking for reasons to mistrust people. ]

So... the Quarantine is more like your home.

[likeacoupon]

Something like that, yeah.

[She looks over at him.]

Does that surprise you?

[jokerofhearts]

It's not somewhere I'd call home.

[ It is a quiet, and reserved statement. ]

iii

[phantomqueen]

[Makoto has already contributed her own lantern, complete with a promise to the man it honours that she will do all she can to make him proud. It feels strange, not being able to share this moment with her sister - even though in recent years, that hadn't happened anyway. The option had always been there, and the fact that it's not now may have led to her adding a promise to make Sae proud too.

When she moves away, it's with the intention of finding somewhere quiet where she can watch and not have to engage with anyone. That changes when she spots someone familiar up ahead, one of the few people who knows what meaning this event has for her.]

I wasn't sure you'd be around for something like this.

[But that's not to say she doesn't realise that maybe there's someone he wants to honour, too, that he hasn't told them about. She really doesn't know too much about his life before he ended up living with Sojiro.]

[jokerofhearts]

[ He glances over at her from the corner of his eye when she walks up. A small smile forms on his face before he turns to look at her. ]

Information gathering. [ Although, it sounds heartless when he says it out loud. He's trying to be more active in learning about Riverview... maybe they can find something out about his options if he does.

His expressions softens instantly though. ]

Are you alright?

[ He figures she launched her own lantern, but, that doesn't always mean the emotions float away with the lanterns. ]

[phantomqueen]

That makes sense. Occasions like this are a good way to learn about the place.

[She'd likely be doing the same, if she weren't here for another reason. Even if she hadn't been contributing, she figures there's nothing wrong in showing solidarity and empathy for those who have experienced loss in their lifetime.

She's not surprised when he asks - she's told him about her family situation and they're not exactly difficult dots to join. Still, she puts on a little of a brave face, because to crumble would be to fail in what she'd just promised before the lantern's even floated.]

I am. It...does make me miss Sis a little more but it's nothing I can't handle.

[jokerofhearts]

[ A small frown tugs at his face. ]

If you're upset... you can show it. No one is going to judge.

[ They're all there mourning someone. He won't tell anyone if she lets her guard down, allows the mask to fall. He's already seen it a few times. If she won't let him help when it comes to regards of what will happen in the Depths of Mementos? Maybe he can help her with this. ]

[phantomqueen]

I appreciate the sentiment. But I'm fine, really.

[In many ways, she's made her peace with her loss. Missing Sae's a separate issue, to her mind, something she deals with at another time, in another moment because while she's not here, she's alive and well somewhere.

Never mind that she wouldn't let it show here anyway. To Akira is fine, because he's seen and knows those sides of her no-one else sees. But this is a little too public for her to let the mask slip too far and beyond that, she's never really been all that good at admitting she needs help except where it involves her helping someone else.

It's nothing personal. It's just how she's grown to handle things.]

[jokerofhearts]

[ Akira's frown remains on his face, but, he nods regardless. His hands slip back into his pockets as he looks up at the sky at the lanterns. Masks are important for them -- as thieves and as those who tend to rebel against what society has done. ]

We don't need to light any for anyone else... do we?

[ He knows Makoto won't tell him exactly what lies in wait for him at the end of Mementos. But, hopefully, she can rest that worry on his mind. ]

[phantomqueen]

We don't.

[It's a reflexive response, but it's one that's not quite as certain as she'd like because there's one member of their team who isn't around as far as she knows - but he's not really dead as such so she's not really sure.

(It also occurs to her, belatedly, that he's not considering Akechi and neither had she until just now. But that's likely a sensitive subject so she won't go there.)

Still, she knows he'll pick up on that and she supposes she can't dodge everything.]

Though we did find out what Morgana really was. And after the Metaverse disappeared, well...so did he.

[jokerofhearts]

[ He nods to her statement. It helps alleviate some worry about what happens that has bothered her so deeply. A slight smile spreads on his face as he turns to face her entirely.

Akechi... that is a topic for another time. Everything since Shido's Palace is better left for another time.

Then, the smile disappears. His eyes widen. ]

Morgana ... disappeared?

[ It sends a special panic through his system. An urge to charge forward and fight against that fact rises up. Not that there is anything he can do about it here, in Riverview, or maybe anything about it back home. Makoto knows his future; he's lived it. What else can he do? ]