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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I. [It's a touching celebration, really. A chance for hearts harboring any kind of hurt to heal through the telling of stories, the sharing of food, the eventual lighting and release of lanterns down the river...

But Terra doesn't have time for it. He's got too much work to do. There's his job at the school during the day, any temporary jobs he can find to fill the evenings, catching and putting an end to those rainbow fireflies whenever he has the chance, as well as going out beyond the fences and dispatching any threatening monsters... Anything to 'contribute'... Anything to keep busy so he doesn't have to think about... about anything.

Which is how he ends up hanging up lanterns, anyway. An elderly woman asks for his assistance in decorating her house with the heaping pile of lanterns she's collected and, well, sure, he'll help.

It takes him a little less than an hour to hang the dozens of lanterns around the doors and windows of her two-story house. He's just wrapping up with the last couple when a cat slinks up beside him, gives a paper lantern about as tall as it is a sniff, and then grabs the edge of it in its mouth and darts off.]

Hey! [Terra notices the theft right away.] Wait, that's not... Hey! Cat!

[Cat does what cats do best and ignores him, trotting off with its prize. Terra stares after it for a moment then comes to a decision.]

That's not yours! [He calls out as he follows the cat to and then down the street. Realizing its being pursued, Cat picks up speed but doggedly refuses to relinquish the lantern. The chase is on.]

Look, if you need a lantern, I can find you one... Maybe a smaller one that'd be easier for you to carry... But you can't just steal from others!

[Like the cat can understand him and be reasoned with.]

Cat!

[Cat don't care!! Help.]

II. [Terra had never imagined accepting the job of teacher's assistant at Riverview Elementary School would also result in him becoming a babysitter, but on this particular day, one thing led to another and a young couple looking to spend some time reminiscing about lost loved ones without their bubbly daughter underfoot managed to foist said daughter off on him.

A young girl, all of six years old and dressed in proper six-year-old attire of mismatched clothes and a plastic tiara, reaches up and tugs at your sleeve or taps your arm. Her expression's just as sober as she can make it; she received a watered-down explanation of Memoria, she kind of understands the gist of it, and she's determined to participate.

"Hi. Are you one of the sad people? D'you want some candy? Candy makes me feel better when I'm sad."

She starts to offer up a small bag of goodies, pauses to check out what's in the bag herself, and then offers it again. You can totally have this bag, it's got flavors of candy she doesn't like in it. :(

Never mind that shadow falling over you as a fully armored man with a key-shaped blade slung over his shoulder comes to stand nearby. Impossible to tell exactly what he's looking at or what expression he might be wearing under the helmet, dark as his visor is, but he sure does seem to be watching you intently as his temporary charge tries to comfort you with sweets.]

III. [Terra's there at the start of the lantern release and on through the night, a silent (and, again, fully armored) figure standing off to the side, well out of the way. His Keyblade's thrust into the ground in front of him and his gloved hands rest on top of its hilt guards.

Every great once in a while, a spot of color shows in the dark... and a flicker of magic immediately meets it, deftly striking down another stray firefly before it can cause trouble at the ceremony. Sometimes it's a miniature twig of lightning, other times a tiny ember or ice cube engulfing the bug. Curiously, should anyone accidentally or intentionally make contact with the magic, they'll feel only a hint of the element used -- a tingle of static or a bit of warmth or cold.]

Careful. [He occasionally speaks in a quiet voice to the people passing by, on their way to or from the river.] Some of those fireflies are still around.

[No way he can get all of them.]

Ah.

[The cat makes its way around the legs of a strange woman dressed in black, who steps back to make place for it before realizing it's actually carrying something.]

Was that yours?

Huh? [Terra's so focused on the cat, he's not paying much attention to his surroundings, just weaving around anything that gets in his way.

He's almost past the woman in black when he realizes she said something. He looks up, stalling a moment. Was that... his...? Oh!]

No! Ah... I mean, no. [He glances from the woman to the cat and back again. If anything about the young woman's appearance strikes him as odd, it doesn't show in his expression or in his body language. Maybe he's just intensely preoccupied with this cat and lantern problem? (If only that were it...)

Terra spares her a hurried explanation.] It's not mine. The... lantern or the cat. But the lantern belongs to an old woman and the cat stole it.

[Another look in the cat's direction and his hands curl into determined fists. He might be a dog person by the end of this day.]

So you want it back?

I mean the lantern. Not the cat. For the old woman.

[Just what the situation called for, more distractions. 2B feels the need to specify though, for some reason.]

[Terra shifts his weight from one foot to the other, trying to keep the cat in sight, worried any minute now it'll vanish and he'll never find it again and the lantern will be gone and the old woman will be heartbroken. (The possibility that she might not care at all or might even think it's endearing a cat took one of her lanterns doesn't occur to him. No, as far as he's concerned, that particular lantern means the worlds to her and he must retrieve it.)]

... Yes. That lantern might have a special significance to the old woman. If the cat wants a lantern, there are hundreds of free ones being given away all over the place.

[He hesitates but there's no time and getting the lantern back is more important than his pride.]

Can you help me?

... Alright.

[She didn't consider the offer long before agreeing. As soon as 2B turns around to face the cat though, the animal stops lounging tauntingly, just out of reach, and starts running away through the crowd again!]

Follow, and I'll cut off its escape route!

[How is she going to do that, still standing here, with the cat getting further away with every passing moment?]

[Terra sure doesn't know but he's going with it! With a sharp nod, he starts after the fleeing feline... only to come to a plunging stop and twist around before he's gotten anywhere.]

Follow you or follow the...?!

[Eh, forget it, gotta catch that cat! Shaking his head hard, he takes off again, pushing himself to run just as fast as he can. Which is, frankly, not very fast at all. Add in having to navigate the crowd and... it's looking more and more like the cat's going to give them the slip. Barely hindered by the size of the lantern, it's putting considerable distance between itself and its pur(r)suers.

Hope that woman in black's got some kind of trick up her feathery sleeve...]

[She takes a deep breath, and focuses. Many people around, so she must make sure this is extra precise.]

There.

[She jumps into the air! Well, more like launches herself into the air, judging by the height of the jump. Side spinning mid-air to extend the distance she covers, she manages to land in front of the cat - not right in front though, since she aimed for an opening without anyone around.

The cat jumps in surprise at first, but immediately tries to run around her as she's still in her landing pose.]

Ah...

[A shadow passes overhead and Terra watches as the woman in black suddenly lands near the cat, apparently completing one super long jump. Or did she fly?

... Either way, it's impressive.

Though Terra forgets his awe when he sees the cat regain its senses and dash around the woman.]

I don't think so!

[Catching up to them, he lunges awkwardly, diving to grab the cat and feeling his hands close over fur.]

Got you!

[The next thing he feels is many needle-like claws connecting with his face.

A strangled shout tears itself from his throat as he lets go of the cat and clutches his wounded face instead.

Cat's not giving up the lantern that easily.]

Ah! Are you alright?

[She calls out to Terra, but not losing the animal is a higher priority now. She's close enough to leap at it as well, one hand trying to grab for the lantern, the other for the cat.

The cat responds by furiously clawing both.]

Ow. Ow.

[Monotone voice of pain.]

[Flat though those pained sounds may be, they rouse Terra from his... facial suffering. His hands drop away from his head and he lurches back up onto his feet.

It's one thing for the cat to attack him... but for it to lash out at the woman who was only trying to help...

Terra snaps his right hand out at his side and his Keyblade materializes in his grasp. It takes him a second to 'lock on', to focus and make sure his heart targets the cat and only the cat, and then he's thrusting the gold blade up and out into the air. Sleep. White light bursts from the end of the blade and pulses out around him in a swirl of cloudy energy. It's a short-range spell but the woman's quick-thinking has ensured that the cat's still near enough to him for him to use it.

The magic hits the cat mid-mauling and it promptly slumps over, emitting a squeaky cat snore.

Terra stares at the cat a few moments longer before straightening and looking to the woman in black with clear concern in his eyes. His eyes framed by so many jagged red lines. Thanks, cat.]

Are you all right?

[Boy, the crowd here's gotten a bit of a show.]

Terra | Kingdom Hearts | OTA

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