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

[ikols]

Maybe you could write to them, too.

[ It's not as if the city lacks for spare lanterns. ]

I'm going nowhere for a while.

[deathkid]

You'll stay with me?

[ possibly a loaded question, but nico finds loki's presence surprisingly comforting. ]

[ikols]

[ He spreads his hands to showcase the half-finished collection. Then, as if thinking of something, he snaps his fingers and two chilli dogs pop! out of the air to land in between them (somewhere down the bank of the river a voice yelps, Did you eat both of those?! and a quarrel begins). Loki dusts grass off his snack and takes a bite, drawing a leg underneath him to sit with the lantern more squarely in his lap. ]

[deathkid]

[ stifling a small laugh as the sounds of the argument drift upstream, he gives loki a slight grin and starts working on his next lantern. in ancient greek, he begins listing all those lost between the two wars. it's rather cathartic. after a moment, he speaks again. ]

Loki? How long have you lived for?

[ikols]

[ With his bitten chilli dog resting next to Nico's and both demigod and godling working away, he hums distractedly. ]

Um, four or five years. Generally speaking, over a thousand or so. I can't remember.

[deathkid]

[ paaaaause as he stares at loki. intellectually, he knows it's possible. he's both 86ish and 16, so maybe something like that happened to loki. still.... it's a bit confusing. ]

How does that work?

[ikols]

I died and kind of recently came back. I'm much changed.

[ If he wasn't, he might be setting lanterns alight to immolate their makers while people are working on them rather than quietly making his own, inserting his own faith into the narrative of the Quarantine's customs. ]

It was an existential mess, essentially. I remember an overview, but ... some parts of my memories remain foggy.

[deathkid]

Sounds like it... [ a low hum. ] My father experienced something similar while his Roman and Greek counterparts fought each other. All the gods were experiencing that for a while. It was... rough.

[ikols]

Oh, I'm always myself, no fear. What happened to your father?

[deathkid]

[ squints at loki, because if that isn't ever cryptic... ]

Basically, Father is usually always himself. The Greek and Roman incarnations are merged as one. However, for a while, they were split due to the fighting between Greek and Roman demigods. I have a half-sister who is the daughter of Father's Roman incarnation. It was hard for us both, for a little while.

[ikols]

That sounds like a headache. I wouldn't like to argue with all of myselves, therein lies more madness than I want to think about. One or two is my limit.

[ For instance, sometimes he ends up writing on lanterns to young versions of himself. ]

This must sound pretty weird to you.

[deathkid]

[ he thinks about it for a moment, considering ways in which a god could have more than one self. when he thinks about it in terms of what his pantheon experienced, it's not that hard to understand. ]

Actually, not really. It makes sense that all gods have multiple selves, given how many incarnations exist in myths and such. Reconciling them all must be difficult.

[ and suddenly he feels a great deal more empathy for his father... though hades has always been one of the more... parental of the gods. ]

[ikols]

It's like reincarnating without becoming someone new, you're simply different. I just so happened to be a supervillain, but I don't run with that crowd anymore. They drag me down to their level with so little effort, you know?

[ It sounds so blissfully simple yet tastes sour on his tongue, the price of attempting to be better and knowing he never really was. The fire caught up with him in the end ...

And now he's here and another Loki is back home, living the life that should have been his. Time stolen. ]

I think this body is in its early twenties, it's been ageing oddly. My fault.

[deathkid]

[ tentatively, almost shyly, nico reaches out to rest a hand on loki's knee, looking up at him with empathy and understanding. being able to admit something like that, to acknowledge the faults in one's past and things like that... it's no easy feat (nico knows this first hand) and he appreciates the way the godling is opening up to him. ]

Whatever the case, whatever happened in the past, I'm glad for who you are today.

[ikols]

I'm glad for you being glad over me.

[ A roundabout thank you, and this time he doesn't shrug off Nico's touch. He goes back to painting in amiable silence. ]

[deathkid]

[ feeling a flush of pleasure when loki doesn't pull away, nico smiles a little to himself and then continues working on his own lantern. it's peaceful like this and the tradition is one he can appreciate.

after a while, though, nico glances back at loki, studying his profile in the dim light of passing lanterns. in some ways, he looks a lot like percy, but the more nico gets to know the godling, the more he learns that the two are nothing alike. if anything, loki seems more like him, if he'd never lost bianca. still carrying the weight of a heavy past, but not entirely dragged down by it.

before he realizes it, his ears begin turning red and nico has to hastily look away so that he doesn't get caught staring.

oh no, he thinks. this could be bad. ]

[ikols]

[ Feeling the weight of a stare is nothing new although this one is welcome and suffered gladly. He doesn't glance over until Nico has turned back to his lantern and by then the boy looks warmer in the spring weather, pale cheeks blotchy with pink.

There probably hasn't ever been a cuter necromancer in the Ten Realms, honestly. ]

Your dog is going cold.

[ He pretends not to have noticed anything, starting work on a second lantern. ]

[deathkid]

[ starting a little and coloring all the more for it, nico glances over at his chili dog and then nods, scrunching his shoulders. ]

Oh, right. [ he picks it up and begins nomming on it, glancing at loki with flushed cheeks not unlike those of a chipmunk. ] Fank-oo.

[ikols]

[ A smile softens his expression. ]

Welcome. [ After a few more minutes the white lantern is done and Loki sets it on the grass, admiring it and simultaneously finding it isn't enough. It's as Nico said, nothing seems right.]

I wonder how many festivals we're going to have while we're here. What do you think the next one will be about?

[deathkid]

[ considers this, still munching at his chilidog. ]

Mm, I wouldn't be surprised if they celebrated something to do with the seasons. That seems to be a typical thing to do over many different cultures.

[ikols]

Summer lovin', had me a-blaaaast!

[ Wriggling on his butt as he starts touching up Angela's lantern, he settles down with a sigh. ]

... I hope it's not another rave.

[deathkid]

[ makes a face at the song (what is it even from????) and then huffs a little. ]

I didn't go. Apparently I'm not considered old enough...

[ikols]

How old are you? [ Snorting, he can't keep the thought to himself, ] You're like weathered licorice.

[deathkid]

That makes me sound gross... [ making a face. ]

I'm like... [ pauses to count in his head. ] Sixteen, plus about seventy years or so?