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

[mannerism]

Efficient.

[ she has to agree. they both have one lantern, after all. peggy has a striking feeling that this woman has more than one loss, however, much like herself. childhood training for one, military and war experience for the other. She lets her lantern go, watches it for a moment before rising. she looks down at her heels and then at the other woman's. ]

Not the right shoes for tonight for either of us, I'm afraid.

[realimperfect]

You could say that. [ There's a point where she's aware she ought to at least somewhat acknowledge these things, but... there's also the lingering lessons of her childhood, that things were meant to be dealt with quietly and with as little productivity lost as possible. Re-L had only just now had the moment's time to stop and even think about her loses (other than Iggy), even with events in her prior temporary home forcing in her face how convenient it was to have her own doctor. Or, at least, one that so readily made time and sacrificed for her.

The comment about her shoes at least raises a chuckle out of her, looking down at those well worn boots with a slight nod. ]

By now these shoes have seen much worse than a muddy riverbank, but I suppose I ought to stop abusing them before they give out on me totally. I had to dry them out for a week the last time I got them soaked.

[ The long time frame for drying, admittedly, was because they lived in a freezing wasteland that wasn't all that conducive to drying layers of fabric and materials inside of leather. Eventually Vincent had made up some sort of contraption to dry them out (after a lot of vigorous complaining about the shoes being damp on Re-L's end) - and they'd been good as new. Still, in looking around Riverview - ]

Or I could just use it as an excuse to get new ones, as if I ever need one of those.

[mannerism]

I'm unsure they make many pairs likes these here.

[ her own heels have been bought in new york at the end of the war. blue, practical and above all comfortable as heels can be. they used to make shoes that could last once; these days, it seems to be quite the opposite, the new pair she bought has started hurting her feet after only three hours.

amateurs. ]

Different times, different shoes, it would seem.

[realimperfect]

I would be confused if they didn't. [ Really, they seemed to be basic enough shoes that there didn't seem to be a reason Riverview wouldn't have them... But then again, maybe she'd already been to look and hadn't been able to find what she was looking for. Re-L had the natural advantage of being on the taller side, for a woman, but the slight heel of her work uniform had become such a constant in life that wearing a shoe without a little height to it almost seemed odd. Mostly because of the slight difference in her height, but...

She could still reach top shelves in the grocery store without them, so really she wasn't suffering all that much. ]

I haven't gone to look yet for a new pair, though, so I suppose we'll see. Shoes in my world were always very comfortable. [ But she'd also had access to more exclusive stores and quality of items, so.. there's always room to be let down outside of her usual bubble, to be honest. ]

Though I may have to find somewhere far off the beaten path to avoid all this crowding, considering this is also a day time affair it seems.

[mannerism]

[ for peggy, her work never quite demanded it, not any urgent need regarding height. heels, much like her lipstick and nail lacquer and curls were all a manner of war paint, a carefully placed armor that gave her the confidence she needed when working in a field that brought so much belittling and patronizing with it.

She is not a social person, not by far. but she senses a form of familiarity here, another one with no time for nonsense. ]

Only leaving the riverbank should give us enough trouble. Step into the street and you would be presented with brand new lanterns.

[ or worse, a hug. ]

[realimperfect]

[ They do share that at least - the idea of make-up and her hair style as armor. Very few people had ever seen her without it, even in desperate situations like missions on other planets it had been one thing she insisted on. Of course, being put together and the lot was completely expected in her world previous to this one, and it may well simply be a habit that she's just not been able to let go of, just yet.

A breeze catches them, propelling their released lanterns faster down the stream, and Re-L tucks a stray piece of dark hair behind her ear. Honestly, she'd rather if they had more raves rather than this.

At least at the flower festival there'd been alcohol available. ]

Well, exactly why I'm staying here. [ Or, well - ] Why I wandered here originally, at least. People want to blubber too much about things that no one has any control over as if they personally perpetrated it and it's exhausting.

I don't have the patience for it, at least. Where I'm from this kind of thing was never done in public, ever.

[mannerism]

Our world had known war for many years. Still, when it ended most people seemed to want to celebrate the living rather than mourn the dead.

[ peggy had done her mourning in secret. a night spent in tears over steve and barnes and michael and all those the war has taken from her but that was then. ]

What should we blubber about, if not our grief?

[ she's as keen on a different subject as the Re-L, it would seem. ]

[realimperfect]

War? Can't say I've ever had to deal with that, really, but.. I gather that I'm not at a loss for having not experienced it. Reading about it was enough for my liking at the time. [ Well, there's one thing she's never in her life experienced. Of course, she's only been alive for a total of 20 years, so it wasn't all that long in the scope of things. And .. when there's very few humans still in existence that helps as well. She still hadn't had the time to properly process everything that happened so rapidly, and with her own hold ups to do with emotions it's more likely it'll happen in an all at once explosion, but that's beside the point in that moment. ]

Depending on the success of my shoe mission I may blubber about that, if I'm honest.

[ And slightly sarcastic. ]

[mannerism]

Not at all at lost. I suppose that in that regard, you were very lucky.

[ she doesn't go and assume anything about our regards. there are other things but war that can harden a person and this young lady is no soft thing. ]

Oh, surely we could find something more cheerful and less shallow.

[ how about a name, first? she reaches out a hand. ]

Peggy Carter.

[realimperfect]

In that way, yes. In others .. well it's a matter of perspective I guess. [ She'd led a very charmed life, after all. Being the Regent's granddaughter has some bonuses attached to it, as everyone with station has a little bit of spoiling in them. To bad it'd all gone to hell in a hand basket rather quickly, but then again, she's also not complaining about this new found freedom, either. ]

I don't know what's cheerful about being surrounded by a bunch of people talking about dead people.

[ But her hand is duly taken, a solid hold and firm shake. ]

Re-L Mayer.

[mannerism]

Everything is, I suspect.

[ so many had beautiful illusions of the days after the war but for peggy, that was always just that, an illusion. The days without a war were challenging in a whole other way. Simpler but difficult, a matter of perspective, indeed. ]

Not shoes and not dead people, we might succeed in finding a middle-ground.

Miss Mayer, it's a pleasure, circumstances aside.