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

[heavyhead]

[to appear in where the fuck]

This happened to you before? You really are unlucky.

[finethanks]

[He lets out a little breath that could almost be a laugh if it weren't slightly miserable.]

If I believed in anything like luck, I'd be inclined to agree with you. I wonder if this is karma? [Eichi] Fufu, anyway, it seems you have one more lantern to get to. Do you want me to look away?

[heavyhead]

[Noctis has not been through sensitivity training yet, okay....]

Probably just bad luck. [how bad can a high schooler be,] And- no, don't worry about it.

[He'll put down the candy and pick up this lantern, finally; somehow its candle hasn't gone out yet. This one... What should he write on it? Sorry my old man sacrificed so many of you for my sake? That's a little...]

Too many names to write on this one. I'll just let it go with feeling, right?

[Cheesy enough?? He'll give it another quiet look for a moment, then lean down to let it drift away. Bye.....]

[finethanks]

"With feeling" should work just as well, if you ask me.

[He watches the lantern float out with the others, then looks down to the ground where his pen is still sitting. That's it for the lanterns, then.]

You don't have to answer this, but does it help at all?

[heavyhead]

[Does it help... That's a good question. Noctis watches the lantern drift off, thinking about it; he's not sure. The feelings are still heavy and he doesn't think they ever won't be, and for all he believes there might still be something to achieve, some hope of some kind- well, now he's here.

So it's a toss up. He shrugs, looking down, the fudge baggie crinkling as he curls his fingers into it. Hmm...]

I guess we'll find out the old-fashioned way. [waiting, and being sad meanwhile,] I don't feel any different, if that's what you mean.

[finethanks]

I see...

[So it doesn't really help. That's what he had assumed, but then why are all of these people here, trying this? He doesn't understand. But he does want to help a little. He shifts, pushing himself up and pocketing the pen, then dusting himself off.]

Why don't we go for a walk? [Fudge and all. Sitting here isn't helping, so.]

[heavyhead]

[Better idea: he goes home and goes to sleep. He's probably a bad example to make assumptions about this whole festival from, as shaken up as he still is about things he's apparently supposed to be over and done with already. There's a time limit on these he just didn't get the memo about, but - oh well.

Meaning only that he's a little surprised Eichi wants to go do more stuff now, instead of just sitting here until it's time to go home. But... alright, he'll get up.]

Not to another tea party...

[finethanks]

[He laughs.]

Not to a tea party. Honestly, it's as if I was trying to torture you. Come on, we're moving far from here.

[Away from this festival for a while. There are lanterns all over the place, but the festivities center around the river. So, he'll move with him away from the river, and down streets with shops that are far less active thanks to everyone being near the lanterns.] Sitting there and staring sadly after the lanterns as they've moved on... Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand it at all.

[heavyhead]

[Yes, take him away from people, that's totally fine... He's down for this.]

Maybe you're just impatient. [he understands,] So, where are we going?

[finethanks]

Nowhere in particular.

[Exciting, right? He still gives Noctis a look for that impatient comment.] I have plenty of patience, you know? That's why I find enjoyment in something like this, where we walk until we've found somewhere nice and calm away from the rest.

[heavyhead]

[Okay Noctis is the one who's impatient, he'll cop to that.........]

Or we could go home. That'll be quiet.

[finethanks]

That wouldn't be quiet at all, since you'll likely start playing that game of yours.

[He says that with a playful sort of smile and moves on quickly from it.] Are you going to leave me to head home by yourself? That's not any fun at all.

[heavyhead]

[Don't test him, he can play and walk at the same time.]

Maybe I just don't like having to walk everywhere. Want me to say it's not you, it's me?

[finethanks]

Ah, do you need me to carry you? I may not have the strongest body, but I can lift someone your size with no problem. ♪

[Want him to carry him princess style?? He's just saying.] I won't let us walk very far, and it will be on the way home, anyway. How's that?

[heavyhead]

Let's not and say we did.

[See, that's a turn of phrase, but he'll realize in due time that Eichi is weird enough to ignore that and take it literally. Whatever. No princess carries!!]

As long as we don't wind up on the other side of the city - lead the way.

[finethanks]

This should do.

[After leading the way, Eichi brings them to a simple little bench along the side of a street, positioned in just the right spot to see past buildings and streets to the glowing lights in the river beyond that. On top of that, there are still lanterns decorating the streets.

Mostly, it's just a nice and quiet spot and it looks a little pretty. Eichi is easily pleased. He sits down on one end of the bench with a sigh.]

I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't have set a lantern off for myself, after all.

[heavyhead]

[A bench? He chooses a bench?? It's not even an exciting bench, god, Noctis could be at home and sleeping by now.

He still sits down with Eichi. But he could be asleep. That said, is this another "dry up like a raisin" joke? He doesn't know how much Eichi death stuff he should be taking seriously.]

I thought you didn't care about that lantern stuff.

[finethanks]

It's not that I don't care about it, but that I don't understand it. Since I was little, I've been surrounded by things like death. My childhood friend is the same child who would appear at every funeral of my family to help with the ceremony, and we'd spend hours and days speaking about what type of funeral I might have.

He wanted me to have a pyramid.

[This is the sort of childhood discussion he had. And well, he knows this isn't very exciting, but selfishly, he wanted someone to talk to. So here they are, since Noct hasn't left.]

Anyway, what I sent out was a little selfish, so I feel silly about it now. Simply wanting to "fit in" isn't really the behavior an Emperor should have, is it?

[heavyhead]

[Ah, they're back to the "too much for him" territory of conversation, he sees. Noctis just doesn't understand it - going through life expecting to die and talking about it like it's nothing. Maybe not nothing—but talking about it as openly as Eichi does. It's... strange.

Also, Eichi isn't a goddamn emperor, but whatever.]

Could've picked something besides the mourning stuff to fit in... [weird,]

[finethanks]

Fufu, I've been trying many things, actually. Dances, shopping, missions... I've ended up in the hospital a couple of times, but it was largely due to me misjudging my body after moving from universe to universe like this.

Besides that, it's why I thought we could walk away from all of that. You don't like to talk about it, do you?

[heavyhead]

I don't like to talk about a lot of things.

[He says it like this to make it seem less obvious, that he really overtly isn't chill with any of this festival, but it just sounds dumb... He hears it, don't worry.]

Uh- tell me something you liked doing.

[finethanks]

First you say you don't enjoy talking, but then you ask me to talk? Fufu, for someone who's always calling me weird, you're quite strange yourself, Noct-kun.

[But that's not a bad question, he'll take it.] Let's see... Since all of my time and energy went into my school, it's safe to say that I loved everything about it. Student council responsibilities, tea club activities, lives...

To be honest, I didn't have much free time outside of any of that. I put everything I have into being an idol. What about you?

[heavyhead]

[What the heck is an idol...]

I didn't really like school. [great] Thought it was pretty boring, and I didn't like studying, either.

[Does Noct enjoy anything besides mobile games and fishing?? No.]

[finethanks]

If I went to a normal school without any passion, I'm sure I'd think the same way. Ah, but wait, wasn't the question "What do you enjoy?" You can't return with something like that.

[He leans forward a little, resting an arm on his leg so he can look at Noct more relaxed.] I want to hear what you enjoyed doing.

[heavyhead]

[Ugh, no... this is bullshit..... He sighs and leans back on the bench, like talking about his interests is the most inconvenient thing in the world. In a way, it stings; even if he didn't like going to school, it's not like he'll ever have that (somewhat) ordinary day-to-day life back, is it? Is the high school he went to even still standing?

But Eichi wants him to talk about something that isn't depressing. He'll count off on his fingers:]

Fishing, games, the arcade... [which is just more games] Better?