riverviewmod: (Default)
Riverview Moderator ([personal profile] riverviewmod) wrote in [community profile] riverviewlogs2018-05-01 07:34 pm

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
neversurrender: (:|)

iii;

[personal profile] neversurrender 2018-05-09 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's the voice that draws him near when he would otherwise prefer to keep his distance. The lanterns are personal, far too personal to just intrude in on. So after releasing a few of his own, he always backs away, putting distance between himself and the other mourners. But he can never tear himself away completely, too entranced watching the lanterns as they float away.

But this voice is familiar, despite not understanding what the song means. He can't help but feel that he's heard it before. The voice. The language. And as he draws closer, he realizes why.]


Wanda?

[The surprise he feels at seeing her fades as he notices the lantern in her hands. He doesn't have to ask who it's for.]
seeingscarlet: (girl; 116)

[personal profile] seeingscarlet 2018-05-10 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
Steve?

[There's no hiding the relief she feels, even now - if Steve is here, then everything's going to be all right. Something about his presence is just calming, even beyond the comfort of seeing a familiar face.

Wanda pulls the lantern boat back and sets it on the grass. If she's going to release it, it's going to have her full attention.]


I didn't know you were here.
neversurrender: (pic#7819734)

[personal profile] neversurrender 2018-05-12 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
[He approaches and slowly kneels down next to her, facing the river. As happy as he is to see her, it's hard not to let that joy be overshadowed by the sad and melancholy atmosphere around them. But he also can't help but see the irony that on a day of remembering the lost, he's regained one of his friends.]

I could say the same for you. I've been here since December. When did you arrive?
seeingscarlet: (girl; 199)

[personal profile] seeingscarlet 2018-05-12 12:39 pm (UTC)(link)
A week ago? It hasn't been long.

[Maybe she shouldn't be at all surprised to see him here. They've both lost their homes. Of course they felt out of place.]

Thor said I was here before, but I don't remember.
neversurrender: (pic#10177095)

[personal profile] neversurrender 2018-05-16 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
[He raises a brow.]

You talked to Thor and he didn't mention I was here? What about the others? Tony and Sam are also here. Among others.

[His tone is light and teasing. And he doesn't blame Thor for not wanting to get into discussions about the others that would ultimately lead into explaining the multiverse and how some of them have doubles here.

Apparently that falls to Steve. Unless she's picked some of it up during her week here. Which wouldn't surprise him. News travels fast.]
seeingscarlet: (girl; 131)

[personal profile] seeingscarlet 2018-05-19 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[She shakes her head. Sokovia had come up and after that...

Thankfully Steve hasn't steered the conversation to home. The festival hasn't been easy on her on top of finding herself in a strange place. How do you try to pull yourself together and move on when it's constantly in your face?]


Who else? It sounds like the city is collecting us.
neversurrender: (pic#7819731)

[personal profile] neversurrender 2018-05-21 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
[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.
seeingscarlet: (girl; 199)

[personal profile] seeingscarlet 2018-05-26 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
[Fortunately Billy's already introduced her to the multiverse, although it's hard to imagine actually being someone's hero after everything she's done. Maybe the people of Sokovia still love her...but sometimes it's hard to see why they should.]

People like Billy. He told me a little about it. [A beat.] That maybe Pietro could come here someday.

[He had tried, very specifically, to dissuade her from that line of thinking, but Wanda's always had blinders where her brother is concerned.]

I'm glad you found Bucky again.
neversurrender: (pic#10177193)

[personal profile] neversurrender 2018-05-30 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Billy? I must not have run into him yet. Aside from the other Steve and Bucky I've only met Rogue.

[He falls silent for a brief moment, glancing away. The last thing he wants to do is give her false hope. But he also can't lie and say it isn't possible.]

People can be brought in from different places in time. Bucky is from several months behind the rest of us. And...someone else I knew from the war had been here when I arrived. She's gone now though.

[He nods to her with a slight smile.]

Yeah, so am I.
seeingscarlet: (girl; 149)

[personal profile] seeingscarlet 2018-05-31 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[She doesn't expect the others to fully understand their bond. Pietro will find her one day. He has to.]

And what is several months behind the rest of us? The last thing I remember is our first training day.

[Wanda had been so nervous that's it's not surprising the city picked up on it. She has an official uniform and an official 'title,' but it never quite sunk in. She wants to be better. She's just not there yet, and Wanda's going to need more time to let go of her guilt and grief.

Ending up here in the middle of Memoria really isn't helping.]
neversurrender: (pic#9108457)

[personal profile] neversurrender 2018-06-08 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
[Their first day of training. That happened right after Sokovia. Looks like Wanda is also behind. When he continues he speaks a little slower. A little more cautiously.]

Tony, Sam, and I are about a year ahead of you then. I think...Thor and Loki are ahead of us. But I'm not sure by how much.