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riverviewlogs2018-05-01 07:34 pm
- !mod post: holiday,
- !mod post: monthly mingle,
- almost human: dorian,
- halo: forward unto dawn: chyler silva,
- imperial radch: breq,
- marvel (616): billy kaplan,
- marvel (616): tommy shepherd,
- marvel (mcu): bucky barnes,
- marvel (mcu): loki,
- marvel (mcu): peter quill,
- marvel (mcu): steve rogers,
- marvel (mcu): tony stark,
- marvel (mcu): wanda maximoff,
- once upon a time: victor frankenstein,
- original: shigeru miyata,
- ppz: elizabeth bennet,
- rivers of london: peter grant,
- star trek (aos): james kirk,
- star wars: cassian andor,
- star wars: finn,
- star wars: jyn erso,
- star wars: poe dameron,
- voltron: keith,
- ✖ marvel (mcu): shuri,
- ✖ original: freya vaughn,
- ✖ original: the tetherer,
- ✖ persona 5: akira kurusu,
- ✖ persona 5: makoto niijima,
- ✖ shadowhunter chronicles: alec lightwoo,
- ✖ the finder: willa monday,
- ✖ the raven cycle: ronan lynch
monthly mingle: MEMORIA
what: monthly mingle: memoria
when: the month of may
where: anywhere around the city
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines
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.
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!
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!
no subject
He’s not perturbed by Peter’s approach, rather, he seems comfortable with his presence even if he isn’t really smiling.]
Oh, it’s an old song from Asgard. Very old, older than my father. We used to sing it at funerals before we lit the arrows for the ships.
no subject
But instead, he just lets out a sort of acknowledging hum, watching as the lanterns drift away down the river. He kneels at the bank, setting down his two lanterns – pretty insubstantial, considering the veritable fleet Thor seems to be sending off. ]
Ravagers had their own thing. [ Light. Conversational. It seems only fair to offer up his own bit of history, even if Thor never asked. Peter digs though his pockets, looking for a match. ] We’d commit a Ravager’s remains to space, if they died an honorable death. We’d send out our fleet and fly our colors to light their way through the stars.
[ There was some sort of religious undertone that Peter never really bought into and never quite understood, but he recognized the significance of it. He sat silently through more than a few Ravager funerals as he was growing up, and every time, he had looked at Yondu, had seen a deep, inscrutable sadness in his eyes.
Peter pauses as he finally retrieves his match, then looks up at Thor. ]
I, uh. Probably should’ve asked first if it was okay to join you. [ so... technically... he’s asking now. ]
no subject
He bows his head in acknowledgement, watching Peter intently as he explains. The term Ravager rings a bell somewhere in the back of his mind, but he doesn't question it just now.
Instead, Thor crouches down to sit beside Peter.]
I don't mind. They brought us here to mourn together, and mourn we shall.
no subject
He strikes the match on a nearby rock before lighting the candles inside. ]
Anyway. It was this big thing. [ The Ravager ceremony, he means. And he suddenly thinks that he should have brought more lanterns, should light more candles, for the brothers he lost. They were such fucking assholes, but they were family, weren't they? ] Like fireworks in space.
And then we'd get blackout drunk afterward.
no subject
[Thor says, his gaze is on the sky because he can picture how spectacular fireworks would be right now. That’s really like of Loki’s jurisdiction, but it makes him follow through with an urge he’s had for most of the evening.]
I can’t promise fireworks, but.. [He looks into his pocket, searching. Thunder rumbles overhead and the sky does light up, with a flash of lightning instead of sparkles.]
..We can get blackout drunk. [He offers, pulling an ornate flask from his jacket and waggling it toward Peter. He’s not a drunk, but he’s certainly known alcohol to be a fine companion in mourning.]
no subject
But the dude doesn’t seem to react, even if that was seriously weird, and Peter glances down at the fancy flask he produces from his pocket. Apparently, Peter is willing to set aside his reactions to odd weather phenomena when booze is thrown into the mix. ]
How quick is that gonna knock me out?
[ Peter’s only heard a few vague stories about Asgardians – mostly that they were formidable warriors, protectors of the realm, blah, blah, blah. Among those stories, he’s also heard that they threw some kickass keggers, which Peter has to assume means that Asgardians, as a general rule, must have, like, livers of steel. ]
I don’t wanna piss off Gamora by having her carry me home, is all.
[ though it would hardly be the first time she’s had to do that. ]
no subject
For a human? You'll probably feel it after the first drop. [Thor punctuates that by taking a decent swig of it, holding it out to Peter.]
I'm not above carrying you home.
no subject
Fine. But you’re explaining to Gamora why I’m passed out on your back.
[ He hesitates, though, before he sets the little lanterns into the river, letting them drift away. He swallows thickly, jaw clenching briefly, before he reaches up and gingerly takes the flask. He takes a sedate little sip and—
His face instantly twists at the unholy burn as it travels down his throat. ]
Jesus.
[ Slightly strained, as he hands the flask back. He coughs into the crook of his arm. ]
What the hell is that?
no subject
[Thor says, not really knowing anything about how Gamora feels about anything. Instead, he's glad to watch Peter's reaction.]
Asgardian ale. Fermented for centuries and brewed under the great halls. [He takes the flask back and raises it in a half-hearted cheer.]
I was gifted a few flasks last year, during the giving festival.
no subject
[ And usually Peter likes that – or tolerates it, more accurately. He makes another face, tongue lolling out briefly like that might help rid him of the aftertaste. ]
no subject
He reaches out, playing as if he'll grab Peter's tongue if he doesn't put it back where it came from.]
The burn means it's working.
no subject
And Peter shuts his mouth, trying to bat the guy’s hands away. ]
Maybe for you.
I’m pretty sure I just made my entire esophagus flammable.
no subject
If you're going to breathe fire, I would very much like to know in advance. [He eyes Peter warily.]
How are you feeling?
no subject
[ That look snaps him out of his disgusted loop – you know, like when something is gross, and all you can think about is how gross it is, even as you tell yourself to ignore it – and Peter frowns a little.
He feels— a little loose, in that particular way where he's had a couple of beers, and he blinks for a second, startled. He definitely only had a quick sip of whatever was in that flask. ]
What the hell was in that?
[ —which is and isn't an answer to Thor's question. ]