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!

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[For a second he thinks Barnes has tripped, and has to spend a good moment or so trying to keep them both upright. It's only catching a glimpse of his face that makes it pretty clear to Tony that it was on purpose.

Well, the insult helps too. He still keeps a hold of Barnes' arm as he gives him a look of pure exasperation.]

Excuse you. Where do you think you're going, huh?

[Don't make him shove again with the metal arm.]

You're gonna get sick. Whatever this is, it's strong enough to get past the serum, you don't have that.

[Despite protesting he was fine before, he's not fine about potentially infecting someone else.]

You should keep away from me.

[Oh, is that all? Tony rolls his eyes slightly as he tries to tug Barnes back in. If only he'd known that some day he was going to have to fight the Winter Soldier for a hug.]

This thing is everywhere. No more likely I'd catch it from you than anyone else. Stop wriggling.

[That doesn't make him feel a whole lot better. He's not quite sure when he started caring if Tony Stark was okay or not, but he does, so it's not good enough.]

Put on the suit.

[He looks stubborn, he's capable of running off even like this.]

It's gotta have some kind of air filter thing, right?

[That earns a look of pure exasperation. And not just because that sounds familiar.]

Do you really want to just stand here waiting for the armor to show up or do you want to sit down somewhere not on the street?

[Is that a real question? His jaw sets, he learned his stubborn look from the best.]

I want to stand here and wait for the armour.

[Lord save him from overly stubborn idiots.]

Fine.

[But he's still going to ease Barnes to rest against the nearest building first. They got him on his feet once, Tony would like to keep him there.]

You always like this when you get sick?

[He gives a half shrug, looking a little disconcerted.]

I don't remember being sick.

[He can remember Steve being sick, does that count?]

...right.

[Ask a stupid question. But they're not that far out that the armor won't get there soon enough. It's disconcerting to see Barnes this out of it.]

No idea when this started?

Few days, maybe a week? I've been trying to get the sick people to the hospital or to isolated areas. Figured it couldn't touch me.

[The serum was meant to prevent this.]

Well, you know what happens when you assume.

[Luckily for both of them, there's something that sounds like a jet approaching. Barnes seems at least mostly able to keep himself upright, so Tony takes a couple of steps away.

And the second the armor lands, he steps right into it.]

Okay then. [He reaches one hand out to Barnes as the eyes light up.] Can we do this now?

[He only hesitates a moment before taking the offered hand, squashing the tiny inner whisper that still sees Stark as a potential threat when he's in the suit.]

Suit should've been black, red and gold is too conspicuous.

[Random unasked for thoughts are what's needed here, right?]

Stupid design for something you need to fight in.

It's a flying suit of armor, it was never going to be stealthy.

[There's a weird patience to Tony's tone as Barnes moves in closer, but honestly Tony's attention is mostly on a weird reading that pops up on the HUD. There's something strange about Barnes, but this isn't the time or place to investigate.

Instead, he subvocally tells JARVIS to keep an eye on that for later, and wraps an arm around Barnes' torso.]

Hold on, okay? I don't want to have to explain that I dropped you.

[Bucky winds his left arm around the armour because he can lock that in place, and he's much less likely to lose grip there.]

Just shut up and fly, Stark.

Prickly.

[And with that observation he does take them airborne, if considerably slower than he usually does. Barnes might be able to handle the g forces normally, but he's clearly not on his best game and Tony can admit to himself he is kind of worried about that. A little. Sort of.

But it's not actually that far to the workshop, and he sets Barnes gently down in front of the door, which immediately swings open.]

Right. Couch. [Tony points over towards it as he makes his way inside behind it, then stops.] Or would you rather go upstairs? Probably more comfortable.

[He's flown a lot, but never like this. It's exhilarating, even through the fog of fever, like being an actual bird. He finds that he's jealous of Stark for owning this armour, even if it is flashy and useless for stealth.

He stumbles when he's set down, even though Stark does it gently, and shakes his head at the offer of upstairs.]

Not interested in getting into your bed, Stark, the couch is good enough for me. I just need to rest for an hour.

Buddy, if I was trying to get you into bed, it wouldn't be when you look like a walking corpse.

[But fair enough, so once Tony steps out of the armor, he starts gently propelling Barnes towards the couch. He's slept on it often enough, it should be fine.]

You mind if I do a scan?

Pretty sure you hit on me before.

[It had been very uncomfortable, at least the way he interpreted it. He just gives a half shrug to indicate that Stark can scan him if he wants, it's a sign of the trust that he's been building that he doesn't question it beyond that.

Any scan will show that he's pretty damn sick; his fever is dangerously high and his pulse is racing, he shouldn't be as cognisant as he is.]

Pretty sure you didn't look like a strong wind would blow you over before.

[It does sound like a thing he'd do, especially given the number of altered states Barnes has seen him in so far. If it hasn't gotten him punched yet, Tony's not hugely worried about it. His relationship with Barnes is weird enough in a general sense that Tony tries not to over analyze things.

He does at least wait until Barnes has settled to start scanning, pulling up a stool as the results flicker into the air in front of him. And yeah, his brain should probably be boiling by now, but it's the nearly microscopic little dots in his system that Tony's slightly more worried about.]

Hey, random question, you haven't been playing with any nanotech lately, have you?

[Even with how out of it he feels, that question has him sitting bolt upright and looking entirely alert and ready to kill something. Nanotech? Like trackers in his blood?

Did Pierce do something to him when they fought, or at the hospital? Surely he would have noticed, wouldn't he? But who else would want to track him this way and mark him without his permission?]

No.

[It's hard and grim.]

But Pierce works for that big company, and I was in his office.

[And Tony just goes utterly still before glancing over Barnes' way.]

Why were you in Pierce's office?

[His expression shutters, he doesn't want to talk about this. But if Pierce has put something in him...]

I thought he'd done something to someone I liked, I went to confront him. It didn't go to plan.

[Well. Okay. Tony can see how that might go, especially since Barnes seems to have weird blind spots for people he likes. He still thinks going anywhere near Pierce is the worst of all possible ideas, but hey. Barnes clearly isn't asking him.]

Rarely does, with that guy. [It's mild. Maybe a little too mild, but Tony has no love lost for the man.]

But I don't think that's it. This is...too wide spread.

[There's a brief pause, then Tony shuts his eyes.]

JARVIS, scan me?

[Wide spread is pretty much Pierce's speciality, it's what HYDRA did, they got in at one place and then spread out until they were everywhere. But he doesn't protest Stark's assessment because he's really hoping that this isn't Pierce, that there's not something else buried beneath his skin that might make him a danger.

He's quiet for a moment or two, not knowing how long it takes for the AI to comply with any request, before he looks around as if he might actually see JARVIS somewhere doing some scanning.]

Anything?

[Please let it not just be him.]

[A second window pops up, and. Sure enough.

Tony lets out a long sigh. On the one hand, it means this isn't Pierce (probably). On the other, it makes even less sense, because Barnes looks like hell and Tony feels mostly fine.]

Yeah. Well. Guess I'm gonna have to find someone to tenderly mop my brow.

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