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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[ Engrossed in daubing birds on the white lantern, ink over his fingers, Loki looks up in blank distraction; and a wide smile breaks out across his face, lifting his expression with genuine pleasure. ]

Officer Grayson! [ Wishing he didn't look such a mess surrounded by his half-made lanterns, Loki moves a couple to make room. ] Did you want to sit? I've no breakfast meats for you today, sadly, although I saw a vendor selling bacon rolls not far from here ...

[ Half-joking, because mentioning food makes the squirming snakes in his stomach suddenly starving. ]

It is you. [ And real delight lights up his face. In retrospect he probably shouldn't be so surprised. ]

You sure? [ Though he's already taking that offered seat, cross-legged beside him. ]

We can chat later, if you need time.

You didn't recognise me? It's my hair, isn't it? I styled it differently.

[ And, well, everything else. Pausing in crafting, he devotes his attention to his new company. ]

What are you here for, did you send off a lantern of your own?

No. Not yet. [ Delivered easily and lightly, it almost passes for carelessness.

He props his chin in his hands, content to admire Loki's handiwork. It's impossible not to wonder about the stories they hold inside. He tries to resist the temptation to guess. ]

Seems like you've been covering a lot of ground.

Lots of dead and lost souls to say Hi to.

[ Haha ... ha. It's a type of explanation, just because Dick's too nice to ask directly. ]

They ever answer back?

[ He asks it like a serious question, head tilted. ]

Never tried. It's a nice tradition they have here, I thought I'd get in on it.

[ Shrugging. ]

It is, yeah. [ And it seems to stir some thought in his mind. He's on his feet again with an agile little hop. ] Be right back.

[ And in less than five minutes, he's returning with two wrapped portions of food from the bacon roll dealer. Held innocuously in his other hand is a blank, undecorated lantern. He reclaims his seat beside Loki. ]

They were out of the bacon rolls but they had these dumplings. I'm pretty sure there's pork in this one...

[ It's a sweet gesture and one deeply appreciated, or so says his stomach as it growls in approval. Break time, then! Though he takes note of the new lantern Dick holds, Loki doesn't ask about it just yet as he sets his aside with the rest of his row and accepts the pork dumpling. Not directly, at least. ]

Planning on staying awhile?

[ He sets the lantern down carefully, and casts a quizzical look towards Loki. ]

You mind? [ It's a serious question. ]

[ Pausing, he lets Dick see him think it over for a moment then shakes his head. ]

I don't mind if it's you.

[ It's one thing to drop by for a chat about safer topics. A distraction from the hard edges of what they're all really doing here. It's another to be allowed to stay, even for a time. Whatever that means to Loki, it isn't an open hand he takes lightly.

His eyes drop to his own faceless lantern. Like a dozen others he's picked up and set down again. ]

I... don't mind either.

[ Softly, nearly a confession. The shadow is there and gone again, and his eyes flick back towards Loki at last. ]

Seems to work out for both of us.

[ Subtly peeking at Dick when the man gets a little introspective, Loki's attention is back on his food when he feels the weight of Dick's gaze. ]

Have you met many other people since you came here?

[ People that Dick could sit with by a riverside, quiet and companionable. ]

Not too many who can do a first impression quite like you.

[ His smile is back, though his attention is on the line of twirling acrobats he's drawing. He knows many people. There's only Clark that knows him. It's lonely and it's taxing. He's tired. ]

You? Still doing alright in housing?

[ His gaze lifts again, and there's real concern in his expression. ]

I may move out in a few weeks.

[ He's been wondering if it would be better for everyone, that way. Aside from the other Loki breaking through his and Stephen's magical wards, if Ikol isn't there then the wards won't be needed much at all. No target.

And as expected as the friction is between himself and 99% of the Avengers, it gets wearing. ]

Don't tell anyone.

I won't.

[ There are a few conclusions he could probably draw from that, but Loki asked for privacy. He can only respect that. He draws a line from the acrobats to the open wings of a red bird. A good soldier who believed in justice and deserved so much better than he got. Dick writes the words in Latin, for Jason's love of the classics. ]

If you ever need a break from the upstairs crowd in the meantime, I wouldn't mind the company.

[ Mentally noting that drawing and the Latin. ]

Little intimate, isn't it? You'd have to see me every morning and night, could you handle it?

[ Waggling his brows. ]

[ That actually prompts a real smile. ]

You can seriously drop in again.

And the station keeps me up nights, so I honestly don't really care about the timeframe. You probably aren't gonna wake me.

[ He'd have to actually sleep for that.

Most of the bat stuff is hidden away in the lair. If Loki had ever intended to harm him, he's had about a thousand chances by now.

It's a risk, but it doesn't feel like an untenable one. Dick wants to think they're friends. That they could be better friends.

Loki is a friend who clearly needs something. ]

[ It's tempting as he considers the invitation, biting his lip in thought. Getting away from the Avengers would be beneficial (it goes without saying, really) and it might help him be a better friend to Billy if he isn't accepting every open invitation to snuggle with Teddy's fiance. The only person he would miss is, surprisingly, the only one stimulating his mind: Tony. It could be a good idea to get away purely because of that. Loki isn't sure how he feels about the easy companionship Tony offers, always a step ahead of where Loki's thoughts seem to go or at least meeting him there at the same moment, and with the loss of Verity it's been companionship that comes without scorn that Loki craves.

But here is Dick, too. A new option. ]

I'll cook for you, then. [ A favour! Oh, ah, although Dick is mortal with ensuing concerns ... ] Unless you'd prefer monetary rent?

Spoil me that much and I'm not gonna want you to leave.

[ But his grin is still easy as he flicks his gaze back up to Loki. He likes him, and maybe it should feel more dangerous than it does.

The Titans are next. He writes the names of the dead in spiraling circles, united by a common cause. A family. Raven gets a small flower. Joey two lines of a love poem. Danny a matchbox car. Kole. Vic. There are so many he's running out of space. Loki's lanterns are so beautiful. Individual. Dick's is a chaotic mess of emotion. He stops drawing, brow a little furrowed. ]

Wait, did they actually give you a job on day one?

[ Somehow he'd pictured Loki having important... god... things to do that would preclude mortal concerns like money.

Then again, there's probably not much about Loki that could surprise him at this point. It's something in him that he's drawn to. ]

[ The waggle of his eyebrows hints that maybe that's Loki's nefarious plan, to lure in Dick with delicious home-baked treats. He laughs when a curious look is thrown his way, though, and tries not to appear as interested in Dick's lantern as he is. ]

Ah, no ... I don't think I've met another person who wasn't given a job, actually. Perhaps I'm special!

[ More like it was less hassle to let him do as he pleased. ]

I thought that went without saying. [ With a crooked little smile. He sees what you did there, Loki.

Finally an incentive to actually clean out all the old takeout out of his fridge. And having real company around a little more often is more appealing than he wishes it was.

The mission here is different. The rules here are different. Doesn't it make sense to hold a hand out to someone with a grasp on a different side of it than he has?

Dick sets the lantern down at last and leans back on his palms. For all that no side stands empty now, it still feels inadequate. A poor marker for lives lost. The people he'd let down as leader. Brother. Friend.

After a moment: ]

I think I'm starting to get why you went for the combo option.

[ He should have taken point and made a bunch. Ten. At least. ]

All that smooth talk is going to slip you up one day, Grayson.

[ When Dick seems dissatisfied in some way with his lantern, Loki sets his own aside and turns to sit facing the one scrawled in multiple messages, heartfelt scraps of tales he doubts he will hear if he never asks about. And he won't, Dick's stories are his own to dole out as he sees fit ... but he does raise both hands to set the lantern aglow with magic and put a trick on it; the messages separate and run around the circumference, one after the other like a rotating lamp so that each can be enjoyed in motion.

He drops his hands to his lap and sends a smile to Dick, hoping he hasn't ruined the thing. ]

Is that better?

[ The air smells a little like ozone in the wake of the spell, clean and fresh like rainfall. ]

Edited 2017-05-21 16:25 (UTC)

I- wow, that’s… [ He's visibly startled, but the looks fades out at once as Loki's purpose registers.

He lifts it as if he expects it to shatter at his touch, and when it doesn't he turns it slowly, touching every image. Loki has distilled it somehow. Made the memories more real. More his than they were before. His breath is stolen for a moment. ]

It’s... actually a lot better. [ Which is an understatement. It's perfect now. And suddenly he can't find the right words for what the means to him. His eyes look for Loki's at last. ]

...How did you know?

[ What it was supposed to look like. ]

[ Feeling oddly shy under so much positive attention he picks at the grass between his legs in idle restlessness, pinned by Dick's stare. ]

It's just rotating what you wrote, that's all. It seemed the logical solution to your cramped messages.

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