introductory mingle: MEMORIA

[riverviewmod]

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!

navigation

Comments

[burntbridges]

[Taako is a terrible liar, but she's not about to call him out on it. She's just happy that he can be happy and distracted for a bit.]

What's a cooking show?

[She's still learning about concepts like TV.]

[spellslots]

[To be fair, there was no television involved.]

Did you have travelling caravans in your world? Like folks who'd take their workshops and goods from town to town and set up and sell their stuff?

[He should clarify this first because otherwise he'll need to explain a travelling caravan in more detail.]

[burntbridges]

[She tips her head.]

I've heard of them, but any traders we had while I was alive were dealt with outside of the town. I never saw them myself - our Elders forbade us from dealing with outsiders any more than we absolutely had to.

[Which is, of course, why she surrounded herself with the most foreign-looking people she could find once she came here.]

[spellslots]

Your Elders sound lame as hell.

[Just putting that out there, but he continues on with his explanation anyway, since that's more important here:]

Alright, so basically what I'd do is roll into town, set up the wagon and put on a show, like a performance. I'd walk the audience through whatever dish I was making, add a little magic for pizzazz, and then serve up what I cooked. Between you and me, I was pretty damn famous.

["Between you and me" like he doesn't brag about it all the time.]

[burntbridges]

That sounds rather magnificent.

[Yet more proof that every world except for hers is amazing. Taako has only shown her little bits of magic and they were incredible, she can only imagine how wonderful this 'cooking show' thing would be.]

[spellslots]

It was rad as hell.

[Mostly he tries not to sound too wistful, but a little bit of it sneaks into his voice. He misses traveling and cooking and having fans, even if he knows what he does with the Bureau is important.

When it's all over, if the world hasn't ended, maybe he can go back to it.]

I will admit, I did get a little carried away with the magic sometimes, but the audience was always digging it.

[burntbridges]

I know I would be, if you ever cared to put on such a show here.

[She has no idea what 'digging it' means, but she can guess from the context and she feels it.]

The foods I've eaten since I came here have been so very different and varied from what I got in Thornwell. Our farmland was rather bleak, and we didn't get many traders, so our meals were often... plain. If a caravan had showed up serving up hot meals and magic there, I'm sure everyone would lose their wits.

[spellslots]

[There's a lot of guilt and grief wrapped up in performing, and he's not really sure how to explain it all, or if he even wants to, so he focuses on the rest of what Letha said.]

I went to a lot places like that, I gotta say, I was pretty lucky growing up. We were kinda cut off but my aunt always had herbs and spices to make shit interesting.