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

[starspangled]

[sooner or later, he'll probably wake up.

steve tells himself that every time he sees her, still unable to accept this one reality that seems just a little more impossible than the other impossibilities that he's met with here.]

Hi Peggy. [saying hello is so much nicer than goodbye, isn't it? the weight of that coffin on his shoulder is probably the heaviest thing that steve's ever carried,
but the sight of her makes his heart feel lighter. but it's rude to stare, and after a few seconds of doing just that, he finds himself awkwardly thrusting the muffin in her direction.] Sorry, I couldn't find any scones. I hope this will do for now.

[mannerism]

[ small mercies, indeed. it's been such a short while since she was able to truly bid him farewell, letting go of the last piece of him; a little vial, its content carried away by the water of the east river.

this is that much kinder. he shifts in her direction and she smiles, reaches to take the little pastry from his palm ( if her fingers linger, it's strictly by chance ) ]

Thank you.

[ such a humble gesture that makes her smile, she doesn't bother to bite it back.

it's a soft, tender moment and then --

then, peggy, unthinking, happy with her gift, cuts the muffin into two halves with manicured fingers and proves that while she may keep on a stern, prim front, she's not quite the ladylike eater.

it doesn't even occur to her how much of an oxymoron that is when she offers him the other half with her mouth full. ]

[starspangled]

[there's a tiny amused quirk of his eyebrow before steve's lips follow suit. maybe it's not ladylike according to some, but it's pretty adorable. he'll fight anyone who says otherwise - literally.]

You're welcome. And thank you too. [steve accepts the other half, unable to turn it down. he breaks off a piece to eat, looking at the last speaker who'd just finished up.] These people here are pretty amazing.

[mannerism]

[ she almost chides him, what are you laughing at? before deciding she can let it go today. far more pressing matters, after all. she looks at the groups of people, trading pastries and embraces. ]

Never seen anything like that. It's been a year but no one really seems to want to talk about the war.

[ she thinks about jack thompson, of all people, I've been trying to tell that story since I came home from war, he said. how many more of them could say the same? she never really asked. no part of her wanted to discuss any of it. ]

[starspangled]

I'm not sure I would've either.

[something in his chest feels tight whenever he thinks about all the time that he missed, the weeks that turned into months and years. he might not feel quite as out of his own time these days, but he still hears falling bombs and glenn miller in his dreams.]

You can talk to me, you know. About anything.

[mannerism]

And vice-versa.

[ Good God, the things he must have seen, the things he must have felt. Weeks after her arrival and she is not entirely settled. but this is a second time for him, years away, worlds away. But every bit of her knows these talks are near impossible for people like them. the private kind, the sort to carry their burdens on their own.

there's also a small part of her that insists she hasn't done right by him, hasn't worked hard enough, hasn't gone far enough. still - ]

I went back to New York.

[ after the war. ]

[starspangled]

[her offer surprises him, not because she did offer - steve knows that she's as compassionate as she is strong. hell, she would've made a good candidate for the serum herself. no, what catches him off guard is how much he suddenly wishes he could open up to her, to share things that he's never told anyone before.]

I hear they threw a hell of a party. Ticker tape parades and everything.

[he's willing to bet that she skipped that. he would've too.]

What did you do next?

[he read everything that he could get his hands on about her and her accomplishments, watched the films and interviews, talked to her on her good days. but there's nothing like hearing it from her right now.]

[mannerism]

VE-Day? I've been out long enough to knock Stark into the Thames when he went about kissing any female in the nearest one hundred miles.

[ yes, she did certainly skip it all. too much work to be done, anyway. ]

Officially? Phone company.

[ she already knows he won't believe it for one bit. perhaps an indulgent part of her just wants him to keep asking. ]

[starspangled]

He'll settle down eventually.

[still, he can't help but smile when he imagines peggy serving up a knuckle sandwich for howard's womanizing ways.]

Right, officially.

[because phone company? no her, not when there was so much work to be done and she was more than capable of doing it.]

But off the record, you were a little busier than that.

[mannerism]

Only a little.

[ and even more off record than he imagines. She opens her mouth, closes it. No part of her wants to tell him her official duties mostly included lunch orders and filing. In a way, she feels like it would disappoint. She wanted her work to be meaningful, as meaningful as his was back in the day. He has a certain image of her, she can tell by the way he's looking at her ( it makes her heart race, just a bit ), she doesn't want him to know of her failings. ]

Howard needed help. You know how he is, inviting trouble to his doorstep at every turn.

[starspangled]

[the only people steve would be disappointed in are the ones who wasted her talent. there was something inside him that went unnoticed and unappreciated for a long time, but it seems like it would be a lot harder to miss with her. steve can't even bring himself to look away even when he knows he's staring.]

You keep getting stuck with guys like that. [the smile on his lips is more than a little self-deprecating.] I'm starting to feel jealous of him again.

[mannerism]

Of Howard.

[ there are no words to describe how indignant her expression becomes. honestly, hadn't she shot him over this implication? one would think a few bullets would drive a point home. ]

You're lucky I'm unarmed. Honestly, Steve Rogers, I doubt this little gathering of sharing life experience would appreciate me throwing a punch at you.

[ and breaking a finger or two in the process. ]

Even if you do deserve it, might just set your mind right.

[starspangled]

[steve hangs his head a little bit, as much to hide the broadening of his smile as in shame.]

You're right, I am lucky. [the fact that she's unarmed is only one of the blessings that he can count right about now. he glances up bashfully.] I'm glad you were there to help him.

[and that howard was there for her too, a friend who could be there for her when steve wasn't. steve hesitates before clearing his throat gently.]

You feel like taking a little walk? I doubt they'd miss us, and it is looking like a pretty nice evening.

[mannerism]

Well, someone had to and the man is impossible as they come. Lord knows who else would have put up with him but his friends.

[ and howard, they've learned, doesn't have many. ]

-- Yes.

[ just a little bit breathless but she'd dare anyone to call her on that. ]

It would do us well, I imagine.