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

[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.

Damn it.

[So they've been infected with some sort of machine that's making them ill, only Stark isn't presenting symptoms yet? Did he just transfer them to the other man?]

If I got you to a medical lab, could you analyse the blood and get the machines out?

Maybe? I'm not really a medical guy.

[And figuring out how this stuff interacts with the human body is probably a bit beyond him. At the moment, anyway. He's gonna need to do some serious research, but that's for later.]

And since we don't know where this is coming from, there's no saying that you wouldn't just get re-infected.

Worth a try.

[He pushes up to his feet, sways once, and then gets his balance.]

Might not be your area, but you're the smartest guy I know.

[It earns him a mildly surprised look, though it turns into exasperation pretty quickly.]

That's very touching. Will you sit back down before you fall down?

I'm not gonna fall down, and we need to go to the hospital, that's where they'll have the type of equipment you need.

[He does look more steady as he speaks, as if just saying he's okay makes it so.]

You want to go right now?

[He'd be more enthused with Barnes' apparently belief in his abilities if Barnes wasn't also about to fall right onto his face. It takes some of shine off of the whole thing.]

Fine. Half an hour.

Better to go now before you go down with it and can't work.

[Time is of the essence here.]

I know how to get into the secure lab areas.

Why does that not surprise me?

[Are they seriously going to break into a hospital? Why is this his life now?]

Seriously. Half an hour. I'll even make you some tea.

Now.

[He's quiet for a moment, before he does something he hasn't done before to sway this in his favour, he calls Stark by his proper name.]

Tony, come on.

[Tony blinks. And then rolls his eyes, but he's already moving to grab his things.]

Fine. But you're sitting down once we get there.

Sure, Ma.

[He gives Sta--Tony a roll of his eyes in return.]

Leave the armour behind, it's too noticeable. But bring a mask or something, don't want you to get infected faster.

It's not a good look for me if you fall on your face.

[Right, that's the worry. But he gives Barnes a dry look as he heads for the door.]

I'm already infected, remember? Kind of a moot point now.

You might get infected faster, we don't know how this works.

[He sounds irritated, but he looks ever so slightly worried.]

Just do it, quit arguing for once.

[That actually makes Tony stop, which is probably the opposite of what the intent was, if only to point his exasperation in Barnes' direction. Who's telling who to stop arguing, exactly?]

This from the man who won't sit still for five minutes?

[Yes, okay, he can see that bit of genuine concern somewhere behind the perpetual frown, but Tony's still not really sure what to do with it. Sarcasm is much easier.]

You can't get more infected, it's either there or it isn't.

[He doesn't know anything about viruses or infection, and he eyes Stark suspiciously for a moment as if he might be lying about this.]

Fine, but if you collapse on me there, I ain't carrying you back.

[He will.]

Please. Like you're going to be carrying anything heavier than a pillow.

[A slight overstatement maybe, but Barnes really does look like he's going to keel over at any moment. But if he's going to insist that they do this and keep himself moving through sheer force of stubbornness that's...really familiar, actually.

Tony should probably worry about the fact that he seems to attract that kind of thing. Instead, he just sighs.]

So we're getting a sample from you and seeing if I can get the tech out, right?

Yeah, that's the idea.

[Stark isn't a medical man, he's made sure to say that, but he's damn smart and he's great at tech. Perhaps that'll be enough. He leads the way to the hospital, his steps steadier despite him looking no better, the appearance of a mission forcing him onwards.]

You ever think how weird this is?

[The words just slip out unheeded as they approach the hospital, paying too much attention to staying upright to police his words as well.]

[Tony can't help but snort at that, flicking Barnes a visibly amused look out of the corners of his eyes.]

Which part?

[They're on a moon over an unknown planet, trying to get magical nanotech out of a ninety-year-old war veteran. Gonna need to narrow that down a little.]

The part where you are the person here that I spend the most time with.

[God it's even weirder when he says it out loud.]

Well, I am extremely charming.

[But yes, it is a little weird. He turns a little more to give Barnes a thoughtful look before he just smiles.]

It's fine, I know you're just using me to get to my bots.

[He snorts quietly, shaking his head.]

God help me, I think you might be a friend.

[At least on his end, he's still the guy that killed Stark's parents.]

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