riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: MEMORIA

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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

[He lets out a low sound, like a scoff or a laugh that he doesn't quite finish. Arms crossed against his chest, his military duds actually missing for once. He probably looks a bit odd, in a pair of jeans and a battered old black hoodie.]

Don't ask my opinion on life like that. [Because each life could be considered a waste of space and resources. Lol.] As for mourning... I've seen enough of it. My Abuela used to savagely make us celebrate the Day of the Dead back home. Some shit about those who died needing to be remembered every year.

[He doesn't have much time for that shit.]

If you ask me, big 'celebrations' for 'mourning' are unnecessary.

The Day of the Dead? What a mysterious sounding holiday that is.

[A whole holiday for remembering those who died? That really is something else. Well, but he thinks Japan also can have festivals and things along those lines. Folding his arms loosely, he brings one closed hand to his chin and looks back and up to Reaper.]

They sound so foreign to someone like me, who grew up with frequent deaths around me. They're so common that an arrangement was made between my family and a buddhist family close to our own. They're always made to handle our funerals. That's why my childhood friend promised me he'd take care of mine, as well, and I don't have to worry at all. They're always quick, quiet things.

Not so much mysterious as it was like a giant party. Everyone makes food and noise and the streets are lit up day and night... [Just remembering it in his neighbourhood was a headache. But... that was a better time, not that he'll admit it to the other.]

You're from Japan, right.

Easily explained by cultural differences, I think. Can't say I know what a Buddhist funeral even looks like.

Yes, that's right. A funeral like that... There was always a monk, and that childhood friend of mine conducting the funeral together. Burning incense in the darkness, and the sound of recited sutras, mokugyo drums and sobs. It was nothing like a party.

[Not his idea of a fun time, even for as many as he saw.] Where are you from, Reaper-san, if you can recognize Japan? There are so many people who come from foreign worlds that it's difficult to tell at times.

...

It sounds like a scene from a horror movie. Like a summoning or some shit... [He rolls his eyes under his mask, not that Eichi will see it. And after that, there's that pause. If Eichi's well-learned enough in Reaper Language, he'll understand it as the ghost trying to decide if he wants to answer the others' question or not.

Like he's deciding if the answer is too friendly an offering or if he should just tell the idol it was none of his business. The moment passes, and surprise:]

My roots are elsewhere, but I grew up in America. Los Angeles, to be more on the nose.

Ah, American. That makes sense, even if your roots are elsewhere. [Reaper's got that American feel about him?? Don't question Eichi's logic here, but he's very pleased that he got an answer at all.]

It's strange how somewhere so far away can seem close right now. I've always wanted to try real American burgers. [He really loves meat, okay.]

'Makes sense', does it. [He gives Eichi one of his looks from under the hollow dark of his mask, cocking his head to the side in that 'you got something to say?' sort of gesture.]

...

If you want a real American burger, you go to In n' Out. But that shit ain't real food, I'll tell you right now. Your heart won't like it one bit.

[He just chuckles at that look, like he's not intimidated at all. He's just saying...]

Fufu, you may not think it from how I look, but I'm quite the meat-eater, you know. ♪ I enjoy full meals like that, so it's fine to try once in a while even if it's greasy, right?

[He assumes that's what it is. He'll live, give him a burger. Anyway, he reaches, like he'll take one of those lanterns to help hang it up.] Why don't you tell me how you've been, Reaper-san? It seems I'm always the one who has to come find you. That's not a good way to act towards your friends.

Say that once you've eaten a full plate of animal fries and not gotten sick. [He lets out a low scoff, tilting his head away as the other finally takes one of the lanterns from him. He should be intimidated by him!! But of course, Eichi is Eichi, and he throws out that word again.

Friend.]

...You're really attached to that idea, aren't you.

Without even knowing what kind of person I am. You throw the word 'friend' around...

It isn't so difficult to see what type of person someone is, Reaper-san. You've helped me many times without expecting anything in return, even if you insist on acting so scary. I'm not so arrogant to think that I'm very important to you, but I think that at least we can be considered "friends."

[He hopes, at least, and from Reaper's actions he'd say it was so, regardless of how he answers that.] You'll hurt me if you say otherwise, you know.

...A barely old enough to drink idol kid who actually has enough common sense to live this long seriously wants to consider an old memory like me a 'friend'. Honestly, it's a joke... and you can do better.

[And yet, despite all this jeering, he does as much as refusing to voice the fact that perhaps he's fine with the other calling him a friend, even if he doesn't think it a good idea.]

Call it what you want. But when the nanites in my body stop working and I die again for real, don't you dare consider having a funeral for me.

I'm nothing but a tyrant who's lost more friends than he can keep, so it makes me sad to hear you talk down on yourself like that, Reaper-san.

[He glances past him, at some parts of the festival, and then back at him again.] Besides, I don't want to hear you talking about that. I expect to be long gone before you ever disappear, okay?

[Should he be saying this... Well, he is.] By the way, do you like sweets?

[What are we having a 'ill die before you' battle now? Because that's what it feels like. He gives it a moment, giving Eichi a flat look that can only be described as 'tired', if the other could even see it behind the hollows of that mask. He chooses the best response to the others' first question and the statement of being a tyrant is best left unanswered, so:]

I don't hate them. I don't taste a lot of things anymore, sweet things don't always tip the scale for me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

introductory mingle: MEMORIA

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