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

[She recognizes the voice and smiles. It's sort of nice to hear someone friendly, for a change.]

Maybe not, but this lantern business turns out to be a full-body contact sport. I almost got shot earlier.

[And then she looks up. And sees the jacket. Oh, Bucky. That's just wrong.]

You went with the fringe, huh?

[Both eyebrows lift at that, skeptical.] What'd you do to nearly get shot? I didn't think a lot of people carried here. [He does, but. That's him.

And then he rolls his eyes.] Why does everyone have commentary on my jacket?

I almost got shot for lighting a fire in front of our resident hobo. The guy with the long dark hair. Calls himself "Ian."

[She gives him a lopsided smile, imagining lighting a fire on that jacket because...seriously.]

And as for the jacket...it's a statement piece.

[His stomach sinks a little. The name doesn't mean much but 'hobo' with long dark hair sounds like a certain someone he knows. It doesn't surprise him if Bucky is going by a fake name but he wonders if Fatima has drawn the connection. He continues the thought,] And you startled him. You shouldn't do that. Some guys have reflexes they can't turn off.

[He brushes a bit of dust off the front of his jacket a bit defensively.] It's comfortable.

In my defense, I had just offered to light his lantern.

[Of course, she did it by lighting her own hands on fire. But Fatima's feeling a little too self-righteous to admit to that, right now.

She shrugs, waving it off. Being afraid of guns would go so very much against the image she wants to project. Better to just ignore the whole thing.

If she can.]

Comfortable enough to do the Y-M-C-A dance, I'll bet.

With matches or somethin' else? [He can hazard a guess. One of his best friends during the war had been a human torch - able to light himself, and other things, on fire. He's used to it, but from everything he's gathered, the other Bucky is not.

Aaand that comment gets a somewhat blank look.] I don't know what that is.

[It's the blank look that trips her up. For a second, there's something almost sort of vaguely familiar about it. Fatima can't quite put her finger on it. And it's gone almost as quickly as it came, that flash of familiarity. But its presence lingers in her chest.

What she wouldn't give, sometimes, to have Auntie Diana's ability to read people like tea leaves. Sometimes, she thinks, it would make her life so much easier. If not a little more lonely.

Shaking it off, she sighs.]

A really stupid dance. Not important.

What do you mean, "Matches or somethin' else?"

[A lot of pop culture things go right over his head. He missed a good chunk of time between 1945 and his present, and even now, he's been too busy for the more superficial things.]

I mean, did you offer to light his lantern with a match, or some other way? If it was enough to startle him into drawing a weapon...

[A deep scowl settles over Fatima's features for a moment. The fact that he was able to make that leap is somewhat impressive. Also a little unsettling.

At last, she shakes her head. Just slightly.]

It wasn't with matches.

[Bucky remains impassive, despite her scowling. He's honestly just trying to give a bit of good advice - to help her and "Ian" both. He knows better than anyone what it's like to feel startled and threatened, to not be able to control your instincts. And he knows what his other self can do. It wasn't that long ago that he threw a teenager into a bookcase for throwing a lamp at him.]

I would advise no sudden movements. Sometimes it's hard to separate threat from benign. Hell, a person shakes my shoulder to wake me up and they end up in a chokehold.

Yeah, well. Obviously there's something wrong. He mistook a piece of fruit for a grenade the other day.

[She sighs in frustration.]

I don't know what to do to help him. Especially since he clearly doesn't want to be helped.

He's probably working through some things. Unless he asks for help, it's not your responsibility. [And maybe there's a touch of bitterness in his tone, when he remembers Sam's attempt to psychoanalyze him at the bar not too long ago when he was stuck in a slump and drinking his way through his feelings. Why does everyone insist that they both need help?]

He didn't actually shoot you. That's something.

Yeah. I'm not really a sidelines kind of girl. When someone needs help, it's usually my job to, you know, help them.

[But she shrugs. It's not something she needs to discuss. This unnecessary compulsion. And he's right. At least he didn't shoot her.

Could he have? That's the real question she's been wrestling with.]

So how about you? Enjoying the ceremony?

[Bucky gives her a strange look at that, apparently less willing to drop the subject.] It's a person's life you're talkin' about. You don't know what he's been through. You don't know if pushing things is actually gonna help. [Why is he so defensive about this?

He shoves his hands in the pockets of his jacket, a little stiffly.] It's nice. A holiday for remembering. It's a nice idea.

[She notes the defensiveness, but decides not to press. Probably dealing with his own issues. Who doesn't have them?]

I'm not talking about solving his issues for him. Just giving him a blanket or two and a decent meal.

[She waves it off. No point in fighting.]

Frankly, I find this whole thing just super depressing.

[He picks up the first lantern he had been looking at again, blue and dotted with little white stars.] Nobody said you had to participate. I think it's nice. Releasing lanterns tonight should be... cathartic, I guess. [Which is always appreciated when you've lost as much as Bucky has.]

Funny. That's exactly what I said to him.

[She looks at her own lantern. And her scowl begins to deepen.]

My Auntie Diana always said that "the hardest part of love was letting go." I think I'm too stubborn for catharsis.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

introductory mingle: MEMORIA

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