riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: MEMORIA

Entry tags:

introductory mingle: MEMORIA

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Memoria Commemoration
when: May 1st - May 8th
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 the evening of May 8th, 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. 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 the morning of May 9th.

iv. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to set up headers for a communal floor, or threads open to roommates for the purpose of getting to know each other. 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: glowconcepts, image ii: by trenchmaker, image iv: cherryorange; image iii: found uncredited on Pinterest - please let the mod know if you find credit!

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[Some other time, he might try to brush away the tears and pretend that he's perfectly fine, but it feels wrong to try to hide how much he misses Lup.

Still, Taako offers Jon a smile and lifts a hand up to ruffle his hair.]

Hey, bubbale. [He remembers what that means, now, so many people have asked but the memory was tied to his sister, her bright grin as she teased him about the endearment their aunt had given him.] You saying goodbye to anyone?

Yeah. A few people.

[ Goldie. The alternate versions of his parents. Captain Storm. He had to do something for Goldie, at least. Jon was responsible for her death. Jon tentatively reaches out to squeeze Taako's hand. ]

Are you gonna be okay?

That sucks, kiddo.

[Taako remembers being ten a lot more clearly now that half of his childhood isn't fuzzed out by the voidfish, and he wonders if he would've done something like this for his parents, back then. He and Lup barely remembered them, they died so young, and all that mattered was each other.

He lets out a shaky breath, and squeezes Jon's hand in return.]

Of course, Taako's always good. [He feels like someone's ripped out his soul, but that's not the sort of thing he wants to tell a kid.] Anyway, she'd kick my ass if I spent the rest of my life moping.

. . . I think it's okay to mope a little. Cuz then they know they were missed.

[ He moves a little closer, wrapping his arms around Taako's middle. ]

[Aw, heck.

He doesn't have the energy to make a fuss about being seen as Nice and Affectionate(tm), so he just puts an arm over Jon's shoulder. Might as well get a hug out of all this bullshit.]

She-- [She was alone, she died alone and it wasn't supposed to be that way. They were supposed to die together, every time.] She'd know, she'd have a damn field day knowing I'm crying over her. She'd never let me forget it.

[ A lot of things happen the way they weren't supposed to. Jon's existence was like that. A strange, nebulous thing that he hasn't given much thought to because he's seen a little past the web of realities and it scares him. ]

She sounds tough 'n strong.

She- [is]- was. I know I'm like, super awesome with all my magic shit, but she was the real wizard. No matter what got thrown our way she'd protect us.

[He remembers why he'd picked a less offensive school of magic, now. Lup always took care of the fights.]

She brought down an ogre once, we were like, sixteen? Something like that. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.

Wow, an ogre? What happened? Why were you fighting an ogre?

[ He can't help it, Jon latches onto stories like that. ]

[It's okay, that's what he was expecting, and he's happy to talk about this rather than dwelling on the fact she's gone.

If they can get the ship back, it might be fine, but Taako... isn't sure if that's possible, not when the Hunger has already reached their world.]

We picked a real bad spot to camp. [They'd both blamed each other, afterwards, but there'd been no heat in the argument.] I was sitting at the fire, minding my own business, when this entire tree comes flying at me. Lup nearly burned half the forest down, but she kicked that ogre's ass.

[ Jon winces slightly. Still, he's invested in the story. ]

Yeah, I've done that. I burned the sand so much, it almost turned to glass.

[He's seen Clark's heat vision, so he assumes that's what Jon is talking about.]

She made something that could do that, but it wasn't... [Gods, she'd hated the destruction caused by the gauntlet, and he feels suddenly guilty for allowing it to happen again, after Lup sacrificed so much to hide it.

Taako shakes his head, dismissing the thought for now.] Most of time she couldn't get that hot, but fire was for sure her thing. I think she'd be pretty impressed by the shit you and Kal can do.

[ Kal. It takes Jon a moment to parse that. His father's Kryptonian name. Jon doesn't hear it very often, unless it's from Kelex or remnants of Krypton's history coming to dog their footsteps. ]

Dad's better at it.

[ That's not true, but in Jon's mind, it is. His dad is better at everything. He smiles, tentative. ]

But I'm sure she was amazing.

[It's a way for Taako to make sure he keeps the two separate: Clark is for talking with people who only know the reporter, Kal is for everyone who knows the Kryptonian.]

You're like ten, of course he's gonna be better at it.

[The for now is implied, but Taako figures that it's a case of age and practice. The ten year old struggling with his powers isn't going to have as much strength and control as a grown ass adult.]

She was the best fucking person I've ever known. [Better than him, by a long shot. Lup was his moral compass.] She wasn't supposed to leave.

[ Quietly. ]

I don't think anyone is . . . supposed to. I think it just happens.

I meant, uh. We're twins. Were twins, I don't...

[Does he stop being a twin just because she's gone? It's never a question he thought he'd have to ask.]

We promised each other that we'd never leave.

[They died together eight times. They should've died together one final time, instead of Lup being alone in that cave.]

[ Promises are the backbone to Jon's life. They dictate everything he does. Every little action and inaction is tied to his safety or a bigger picture. He squeezes Taako's hand.

Sometimes, though, promises are the worst thing that could happen to someone. ]

I . . . kind of vanished once. Someone — a powerful reality-bender took me away. I was vanishing and my dad — he kept promising how he wouldn't let me go, how he wouldn't let them take me.

I think just — having that promise, even if it doesn't always work out means a lot.

[He thinks of the people they tried to save from the Hunger, the family they brought onto the ship, and how they disappear between one blink and the next.

He thinks of Lucretia, taking away the memories of Lup, so that he couldn't even mourn her.]

That's heavy, bubbale. [His tone is gentle, though, and he's relieved that the way Jon's talking about it makes it sound like it got fixed.] There might be a way to save her, but I dunno. It's a long shot.

[ Jon shrugs, his gaze flitting away. He doesn't like to talk about what happened. It's far too recent and emotional. ]

But you should take it. Even a long shot can work out in the end.

I gotta live through the end of the world first, so you know, cross your fingers for me.

[If nothing else, he can rely on Barry to fight tooth and fucking nail to get back to the ship to save Lup.

Both of them would let the world die if it meant saving her, even if she'd hate them for it.]

[ He holds up his hand and crosses his fingers, displaying them proudly. ]

All ready!

[That earns a grin and another little hair ruffle; he's feeling affectionate, sue him.]

You wanna hear about the time we got adopted by a mongoose family?

[It seems like the kind of story that Jon would enjoy.]

[ An awed inhale. ]

Were they talking mongoose??

Kiiinda. They had their own language, not Common but it sounded like... [He makes a little chittering sound, which is basically hello in the animal language they learned.] We landed on this planet full of smart as hell animals, and all of 'em were pretty scared of us cause they'd never seen people. But the mongooses knew they could mess us up if we tried anything, so they talked to us first.

[Annnnd they all died :(

But he'll leave that part of the story out.]

[ Probably for the best. ]

Did you have to do some kind of trading quest with them?

Nah, Lup and I skipped the quest part of that planet. We just wanted to understand them, you know? It was the first alternate plane we'd been to, so talking animals with their own like, society and shit was pretty exciting. I mean, they didn't even eat each other, it was wild.

[Full on Zootopia, except without housing structures, or poor allegories to racism.]

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