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

[wingedman]

Goddamnit, I've spent how much time not talking about Bucky around you and you knew he was here? Seriously?

[Stupid murderhobos. Sam is so disgruntled right now, he thought Bucky was this big secret that had to be kept from Steve BUT APPARENTLY NOT. So much for that.]

And about Peggy- you're more than free to tell me to shove it, but you oughta do more than just think about a girl who looks like that, you know what I mean?

[Read: try actually getting laid for the first time this century, bro.]

[starspangled]

Yeah, I knew. For a little while now.

[steve tries not to smile, because it feels like it might be a little bit at sam's expense. but maybe it's for the best that they hadn't talked about him before now. no use in tangling sam up in what steve hasn't even got ironed out yet.

he snorts softly at his suggestion about peggy. yeah, he's pretty sure that even he can read between those lines.]

She is beautiful. I probably think about her a little too much. [steve laces his fingers together, hanging his head for a moment.] It's just...she gets married. She has a family. I feel like I'd be stepping in the way of that.

[wingedman]

[He's been pretty tangled up in it since before they got stuck in a collapsed building together and had to dig their way out, but that's neither here nor there.]

Too much for a guy who lives in a dorm, anyway. [The comment's wry, muttered under his breath. Sorry, Steve.] Look, nobody really knows how this multiverse shit works- where we go when we leave here, if we can even go back home, no matter what they claim. We don't know if time passes, or if they return us to where and when we came from. What I'm saying is, you have an opportunity that not many people get. You aren't stepping in the way of her future if it doesn't exist yet, Steve. If you ask me, you need to take the time you have and make the most of it. Think about how you'd feel if you didn't.

[starspangled]

[he's been given so many second chances, chances that most people never get - with his own life, with bucky. to have that with peggy too seems, in a way, just a little too much.

steve's frowning thoughtfully as sam talks, but he's listening, like he always does. and of all the things that sam says that make sense (and really, all of it does), it's that last thing that has the most impact.]

You think I should go for it. [and really, would steve be so quick to come to that conclusion if it hadn't been on his mind a little too? he looks up, smiling faintly.] She is beautiful. And smart - have you two talked much?

[wingedman]

Steve, I'm about to go out and buy you a box of goddamn condoms, that's how much I think you should go for it.

[Seriously. Get laid for once in your life, bro. Gentle nudging only goes so far.]

Couple times, yeah. [Sam just looks amused. With how rarely Steve talks about women, this is practically gushing.] She's a hell of a woman, that's for sure.

[starspangled]

We're not there yet.

[to his credit, steve doesn't blush when sam mentions condoms. for a guy who's waited as long as he has, it would probably make more sense for him to be that ready. but this is where steve takes things slow. obviously.

and while he doesn't blush, he does glow a little.]

You should see her punch. And her aim.

[maybe he should take that second one back. an angry peggy is a dangerous peggy.]

[wingedman]

I've seen her punch, we met down in the tunnels when she was surrounded by a bunch of lizards. Helped her out of a tight spot - which she could've got out of herself if she hadn't been ambushed by a second pack.

[Because, hey, Sam's gotta give credit to the lady's fighting skills. She's not as impressive as Natasha - few people are - but she sure as hell can take care of herself.]

Leave it to you to fall for the kind of lady who can beat you up.

[He probably likes that kind of thing.]

[starspangled]

I guess I have a type.

[and apparently their last name is always gonna be carter. but sam's observation is pretty spot-on too.

steve's smile fades a little when he thinks about the other person.]

What about Bucky? Did he - how did things go when you talked to each other?

[wingedman]

Well, an entire building fell on top of us, but that wasn't Bucky's fault. He was just trying to help me. Apart from that - he just seemed to want time to sort himself out. Can't blame him for that. I told him I'd give him food whenever he wanted it, but he didn't take me up on it.

[He doesn't know how Bucky's feeding himself, but he must be managing it somehow. And apparently doing a terrible job of keeping away from Steve, which makes his entire refusal of Sam's offer totally pointless.]

[starspangled]

It wouldn't surprise me if he thought it was.

[it's murmured, almost to himself. bucky's been used as a weapon of death and destruction for so long that he seems to think that's all he's capable of. and not willing to risk letting anyone prove otherwise, even after helping sam.]

I'll talk to him the next chance I get. [with sam in charge of that, at least steve could be sure that bucky actually was eating.] Which is mostly up to him. He really is like a ghost.