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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[Bucky goes back to outlining the name on his lantern, content to start a conversation while they work.] He told me some stuff. Why he went through with the process, some of the stuff he went through. I don't remember if he mentioned being color blind or not, I know he was an artist. Before the war. [This Bucky might have a hell of a lot more memories than the other one, but his memory is still faulty a lot of the time. Holey. Small things just slip through the cracks.]

You didn't know him before then?

[that surprises him. those are details that his bucky would know, if he could remember them. maybe it's the same. steve drops his head, picking up the thread of the previous conversation.]

I did a lot of sketching. Charcoal, black and white. No chance of getting something the wrong color that way. I've seen a lot of art since then that doesn't seem to care about things like that.

Steve and I met when I was sixteen, he was twenty. In the Army. I was assigned to be Cap's partner, after the brass put me through a bunch of training in England. [He starts filling in some of the letters on his lantern with a black pen, not terribly neat or artistic about it.] We barely knew each other a couple of weeks and we already felt like brothers, though. [It's different from the other timeline, he already knows that from his talk with Bucky.]

I don't know anything about art, honestly. [He admits with a quiet laugh.] Steve always used to draw me pin-ups when I asked, though.

[different ages too. steve leans forward to listen, careful of the lamp in his lap. it's strange and fascinating, but the part about brothers earns a smile. maybe some things just can't be changed.

his laugh is brighter at that last part.]

Bucky always tried to get me to draw them for him too. He's a sucker for beautiful legs.

[Some things stay the same. Not all of it, not even all the things that one or the other would consider important, but the similarities are there. It makes it easier to talk to this Steve, the combination of what is different and what remains the same.

Bucky laughs too, hit by the nostalgia of it.] Who isn't a sucker for a beautiful pair of gams, though? And I guess you would know 'em. I heard from Carter that they had you on USO tours.

Every bond you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guy's gun. Try saying that three times fast.

[steve smirks a bit. he used to have to read that word for word, now the words come to him easily. but they leave a little less of a bitter taste in his mouth than they once did.]

I hated every minute of it. But if I hadn't done it, I wouldn't have been in Europe, I wouldn't have been able to get to Bucky and the others. It sort of set everything into motion I guess. [he winces after a moment.] Come to think of it, my legs probably didn't look too bad in those tights either.

I'm embarrassed for you. [Bucky can't help but laugh, shaking his head. It still seems so bizarre that this version of the US government would manage to make one solitary super soldier and then put him on USO shows.]

I still can't figure out what the thought process was, there. They had Steve dealing with German spies even before we were officially in the war. [A snort.] Everybody says that. Bet I pulled off the tights better.

Sometimes I'm amazed I didn't shrink back down again.

[he felt like he was dying a little on every stage, even while the audience was eating it up. steve could never convince himself that he was doing his part, not in any way that mattered.]

Guess they didn't think one super soldier was enough. [steve looks over at bucky with a quirked eyebrow.] And I'd give my favorite record just to see that.

[he can't even imagine his bucky in tights. he probably would've strangled someone at the very suggestion of it.]

One turned out to be plenty. I shudder at the thought of babysitting a whole platoon of you guys. [It was bad enough with just Steve. Not that he'd trade it for anything in the world, those days. They might have been at war, but they were some of his best days. Fighting, being useful, doing good for his country.]

Oh, yeah, I had the whole getup. Red tights and little blue shorts, and a domino mask. I was probably the only soldier in the US Army who had spirit gum in his kit.

A domino mask.

[one brow lifts. now he understands how bucky must've felt earlier when he said he was embarrassed on steve's behalf.]

I bet that was a good look for you. The ladies must've loved it. [but all jokes aside-] Why'd they make you wear it?

You knockin' my domino mask, head-wings? [But it's lightly teasing, good-natured. Actually, he wonders if this Steve's outfit has the head-wings or not. They're kind of a staple on Earth-616.]

Hey, I had girls fallin' all over me no matter what I wore. I pulled it off. [A snort.] Why do you think? Propaganda. Captain America and Bucky, America's heroes. I think I was supposed to be some kinda counter to the Hitler Youth, they always made me seem younger than I was.

[steve makes a low sound 'head-wings', but it's the amused tone of a man who knows he's been beaten, and by a man he doesn't mind losing to in the first place.]

Yeah, they're good at polishing things. You should've seen the exhibit about us at the Smithsonian. They didn't outright lie about anything, but they sure left a few things out. [he smirks, but there's something cynical in his eyes.] Even my shoes looked shinier by the time I left.

Yeah, I bet they did. Those exhibits never give you the full picture. [They certainly never mentioned what kind of person Steve Rogers really is, never mentioned Bucky's real purpose at his side during the war, or how much they went through. The shiny story scrubbed clean.] Maybe it's for the best, though.

Maybe.

[steve's voice is softer with the word. the whole truth probably wouldn't have been very good for morale. he studies his lantern a little closer for a moment after that.]

I think it's about time to set mine afloat.

[The whole truth is never good for morale. It wouldn't, for example, inspire the youth of Earth-616's America if they knew that plucky Bucky the sidekick was really a highly trained, underage, orphaned wetwork operative for the US government.

When Steve looks down at his lantern, Bucky offers a slight, tentative smile.]

I can go, if you want some privacy.

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introductory mingle: MEMORIA

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