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

[livingsymbol]

[Steve raises an eyebrow at the response. The short laugh doesn't really put him off, but Letha's response itself makes him shift his weight slightly, like he's getting ready to meet some oncoming object.]

Pretty sure the point of these stories is just to remember people, and that doesn't have anything to do with what we may or may not have done in the past.

Are people calling me a war hero?

[He frowns at that. It might just be more carryover from the other Steve Rogers. Sharing a name seems to be a big hurdle for some of the people here.]

[burntbridges]

Rumors and gossip always pass around. I can't be sure if it was you or the other one, but I heard bits and pieces about a war.

[She still can't quite tell the difference between them - except that one seems a little more approachable, she thinks. A little more... humble. She doubts most of the people here really notice, though, and the retold tales blend together.]

I have nothing of note to share, in any case. This world is so varied and interesting, and my world is so... plain. I'd be taking away from others' time by sharing.

[livingsymbol]

Oh? Well, I'm sure there are people around that know more about him than I do, but he does have a military look to him.

[If he could hear her thoughts, Steve would be surprised to know she couldn't tell them apart. While they do look similar, he's built heftier than the other man, with a worn, almost older appearance thanks to his general wear and tear. They could be brothers or maybe cousins, but they are far from twins. The effects of their worlds each played their part in shaping two different men, despite sharing a name.]

I understand if you don't like sharing. No one is going to force you. But I don't think anyone here would consider it a waste of time. We all think our lives are more common than they are. You get used to seeing what you know, but to others... It's brand new. Surprising.

[Like waking up in an entirely new decade that everyone else took for granted.]

[burntbridges]

[She fidgets nervously. It's only half-true that she finds her world boring; the other half is that she's had a lot of people upset with her for her magic. Many people come from worlds where waking the dead is disrespectful, and they get up in arms about hearing her stories of casual grave-digging and children playing with bones.]

I think I'll hold off, but... I wouldn't mind hearing something from your world.

[livingsymbol]

[ The way Letha reacts to Steve's words gives him pause. She seems uneasy at the thought of sharing her stories rather than just shy. He wonders what memories she has that would cause such a reaction, but he doesn't ask. That seems disrespectful considering how little they know of each other. It's too much like prying. ]

Mm. Maybe some other time, then.

[ Steve knows how painful some memories can be. ]

My world has a lot of people with a lot of different skills in it. Sometimes we're so different that it's difficult to understand everyone else. I was on a mission, deployed in a place I'd never even heard of before, when I got into trouble. Honestly, I was in bad shape, and the first time I met some of the locals, I thought that they were crazy. Or worse, I though that I must be going crazy. The things they did seemed like things I'd seen from a lot of enemies, and that meeting reminded me that when you're on your own, it's easy to think that anything new might be enemy design. But it turns out that those strangers had actually rescued me. They went on to save my life a number of times after that, and for my part of the introduction, I'd tried to take them all out. They accepted me even after that. I've learned a lot from them.

[burntbridges]

That's hardly specific...

[But she guesses that's what she's going to get out of him. If he's not comfortable with sharing more, that's how it is.]

I suppose you're a bit familiar with being displaced, then. Is it... normal, do you think, to feel more at home here than where you came from?

[livingsymbol]

Not sure what you're asking about.

[ Steve's answer is simple and honest. There's just too much to tell. The stories range from past wartime tales to Avengers escapades and time-bending encounters to intimate moments with friends and confusion over meeting other heroes, which could get complicated when so many new people kept popping up over the years. And everyone's story was unique. Waking up in the modern times was a short one, and he left off the detail about skipping decades because it just didn't seem that relevant.

Steve Rogers' focus was simple in a lot of ways. It doesn't even occur to him that showing up in Riverview and his experience of being frozen have any real parallel. One was a portal to another world and the other was simply a really long nap. ]

It depends on where you're from. I've always felt more at home around people I trust. I used to move around a lot when I was deployed before, and I learned that the group you're with means more than the place you're at a lot of the time.

This could be home for a lot of people. It just depends on what you look for. Honestly, I could see some of us settling down.