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

[finethanks]

[Even if Eichi is arrogant and essentially a child in this situation, he can at least pick up on clues that he should stop talking. Whatever happened here is something beyond his own life. His sheltered experience of idol high school doesn't compare to the real world, and he's the one who usually reminds everyone else of that.

There's no more trying to help with this, if Hanzo has already made up his mind. So settling by him, he stares at the lantern for some time, allowing some silence to pass before he speaks again.]

Though it's not so uncommon a name, is this "Genji" the same one who's here? [And decides to completely come out of left field with this question, instead.]

[kuyamu]

[ the change of subject might be sudden, but Hanzo is glad for it; he visibly relaxes, some of the tension leaving the hard lines of his clenched jaw, his drawn shoulders. it doesn't surprise him to hear that Eichi already knows Genji either. actually, Hanzo generally assumes that everyone he meets knows Genji — it's been true nearly his entire life, and he has yet to be proven wrong here. ]

It is. Genji is my little brother.

[ this is the first time he's said it in present tense again and felt good about it. against Reaper, it was a defence, desperately clinging to a connection that's still nothing but raw nerve endings. ]

[finethanks]

The one who said such inspiring things about my weak body as we danced... I see, it makes sense now.

[A little bit. Their mannerisms, and also that they seem so traditionally Japanese the point of seeming almost like comic book characters. Well, he'll keep that to himself.]

I won't ask you to tell me or explain to me everything you did, but I hope that you're able to speak to him directly about it in some way. [Maybe? Maybe.]

[kuyamu]

[ that certainly sounds like something Genji — this Genji, unfamiliar and kind — would do. Hanzo sighs at the rest of it; it's not a secret, and he's hardly trying to keep it as such, but he's... not practised when it comes to this. the questions, the concern, the genuine well-wishes. and definitely not on this topic, which is new like a fresh wound. ]

I am... trying. [ he doesn't sound particularly optimistic about it. ] Until we met here, we had been estranged a long time.

[finethanks]

What a difficult situation that must be.

[Eichi hums as he thinks on it, glancing down to his own lap while he thinks.] I'm an only child, and even the family that I do still have is not so close to me to express anything like love or concern. To be honest, I'm not sure what to suggest.

[kuyamu]

There is no need. It is not your responsibility to suggest anything.

[ his own family isn't a better situation and he knows it; before all of this, before he left them, even then Hanzo can admit that there was no love or concern in their actions. but after the argument he had with Genji about it, the subject of his family is too raw to even think about that, old parts of Hanzo rearing back in panic over the possibility that he could ever criticise anything about the people that raised him.

as painful as it is to talk about Genji, it's a thousand times easier to keep it just to him than to let himself think beyond that. rather than say a word about the rest of his family, he digs deeper into this new wound: ]

Genji is all I have. [ it isn't a bad thing, or rather, he doesn't seem to think of it as such by the way he says that. the misery in his voice is entirely self-loathing. ] And I am fortunate that he is as stubborn now as he once was.

[finethanks]

[Ah. He really doesn't know the half of what's going on here. Some sort of family drama that goes well beyond his own definition of "drama." With someone who's apparently an assassin, he supposes that would be easier. Even if Hanzo says it's not his responsibility to suggest anything, Eichi does want to help. They can be something like "friends" too, right?]

I can understand that, at least. [Stubborn people, he means, and then lets silence take over for a moment. If he can even just sit here, and be a presence beside Hanzo while he thinks through this, then maybe that's something as well. He doesn't mind the quiet.]