[GP] Dia Le Los Muertos

[st_recuerdame]

Miguel, with the help of Mack, Mia, and Carlos, was able to put up decorations and flyers all over the inn telling about Dia De Los Muertos. Carlos had helped make the food for the offrendas that people wanted to put up. There were picado banners strung between the temple door and some tables around it. He had set up his ofrenda outside of the temple and of course with Vax's help got the area inside the temple all cleaned up and special if people wanted to go inside and put little welcoming and celebrations of their friends or family that have left there instead of outside.

He very carefully lit a couple of the candles on his table once the sun went down. Miguel had been able to find some marigolds and with permission, picked a few to put the petals around his area. He had a picture of his family that had arrived in his egg and a picture of Scanlan on his phone. Miguel didn't know how to print it off to use it so he had his phone on his ofrenda, with the picture up. Sure his friend had gone home rather than to the Land of the Dead, but he was gone from the inn so that counted. At least it did in Miguel's mind.

His guitar was tucked in his lap where he sat cross legged by a plate of sugar skulls and began to play what he'd been playing this time last year with his little sister and family. Proud Corazon.

Dante sat next to Miguel, with an eye toward the food. He was tempted, but he didn't. He knew how much this meant to Miguel and the others here. He wondered with the veil so thin, if others would be able to see him as the Spirit Guide he was, or if he would look like a Xolo dog still to them.

Comments

ota

[st_hotflashes]

Liz was still sort of coming down from yesterday. She remembered most of it and a lot of his was embarrassing. Did she have to use so much weird slang? Every time she thought about it, she wanted to hide under a blanket. But, being from Roswell, Liz knew what today was. Not only did she have her grandmother to remember, but now she had Alex.

She didn't have a photo of her grandma, but she did have one of Alex alongside everyone else just before prom. She walked up to the little space that Miguel had made and placed the picture there, stepping back with a bittersweet smile

Jane and Liz

[st_artingpoint]

Jane was still sorting through the emotions and memories of yesterday. A part of her had felt and had probably always felt that Sif was the 'costume' and Jane was the person. Which was why she'd decided to take her drawing of her brother Roman that she'd made along with a portrait she'd drawn of the woman identified as Shepherd in the FBI files.

She placed them both near where Liz stood. Jane had no idea if they were dead or alive, but they were lost to her and it felt right to do this. She caught Liz's attention and shared the same bittersweet smile. "Is that your friend?"

Curnen, OTA

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen had not had the strength to look at this photo for over a year. She might well have gone on that way, but something in her had shifted with the regaining of her lost wings on Halloween and their subsequent vanishing again. She could not put the wall back up between her and her memories.

She knew Bliss had packed it for her, along with shots of their parents, shots of the two of them, and shots of...

The photo showed Curnen and a young man. Like all Tufa, especially pure-blooded Tufa, they looked more than distantly related, but there was another story being told in their shyly pleased smiles, in their bright, excited eyes. And in the rings shining on their left hands. Curnen's at first might look a little off because of the extra pinky, but it was clear what they were. Who he was.

Her fingers shaking, Curnen placed the picture on the ofrenda, looking into the face of her lost husband and softly singing.

Her husband, was a hard working man
Just about a mile from here
His head was found in a driving wheel
But his body never was found

She was weeping before she finished the verse.

Miguel and Curnen

[st_recuerdame]

He didn't speak when he approached Curnen. He knew for some people, this would be an emotional day, not just a celebration of memories. Miguel slipped his hand quietly on her shoulder and just stood there. She didn't have to say anything, Miguel just wanted her to know that she wasn't alone.

OTA

[st_ackeddeck]

Emma wasn't Mexican. Día de Muertos wasn't her holiday, although the sisters and Mémé had always 'encouraged' prayers for her parents on All Souls' Day. But honoring and remembering the dead had become so much more important once she was living with Sabine and the Soul Train.

She fried some bugnes to add to the ofrenda – hoping, again, that putting part of herself into the observance wasn't appropriative – and said a prayer as she placed a small watercolor of Mémé alongside it. Then she found a spot nearby where she could sit with a sketchpad.

"If you want a picture of someone you're remembering today, I could help," she offered when a shadow fell across the page where she was trying to capture the essence of Byron and the others who'd been part of the Soul Train for so long.

Emma & Buffy

[st_accato]

"Really? That would be great. I'd like a picture of my mom." Buffy said gratefully. She'd only got a picture of some tween that she had no idea who it was show up in her egg.

"I didn't really know how to participate in this without something except just to be here."

OTA (and tag Miguel/Dante if either or both want!)

[st_ratagem]

Loki avoided the temple, for the most part. Even when people had taken his 'god of mischief' title seriously, not many had actually worshipped him, and he himself had never been particularly spiritual. The shreds of it he'd once had had been disintegrated along with a fair amount of his identity: what, after all, did Asgardian spirituality have to do with him? He was Jotun.

But tonight, he found himself drawn to the place. Not inside, but in the area outside, where tables, candles, flowers, and food were set up. Unusually cheery for a death festival, Loki thought, but different cultures were different. One specific table drew him; unlike others that had pictures set up, this one seemed to house only a few pictures alongside an assortment of junk.

Including a group of carved and polished wooden runestones, one of which was Isa. His rune. Loki was more than good enough at magic and ritual to know that that was the reason he'd been drawn to the table, but without other context the full meaning escaped him.

Miguel/Dante & Loki

[st_recuerdame]

Dante noticed him first, of course, and pushed up from where he was with Miguel and came over to greet his friend.

As soon as Dante left his side, Miguel looked up to see where he was going - just to make sure that he wasn't going after the food. When he saw Loki, he followed his friend over to him with a smile.

"Hola."

Thor and Loki - IW Spoilers

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor is surprised to see Loki at the ofrenda. He never cared much for rituals or celebrations. When he joins him, he sees him looking down at the runestone he'd left for him with his symbol. He had never expected Loki to be drawn to the altar, let alone find it; it was such a small thing among so many.

Thor sets a hand on Loki's shoulder and grips it lightly.

"I wanted to honor the brother I lost," he tells him. Hopefully, it wouldn't lose this one as well. He could only hope that this brother wouldn't join him.

Loki & Sunny

[st_igmatized]

"Something wrong?" Sunny asked as she watched Loki studying something on the altar. There were many people Sunny missed, but since none of them were dead it felt wrong to her to put their pictures on the ofrenda as though they were. Her own relationship with death was... well. When she went invisible she was technically dying by slivers and then coming back. The lines were blurry enough for her. She didn't want to make it any less clear.

So the sole photo she put up now was a woman she had never met, her grandmother who had died before she was born. Ozoemena was her mother's mother, the line through which she traced her magic. They may not have met, but they were connected in ways Sunny was still learning.

Re: OTA (and tag Miguel/Dante if either or both want!)

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie was not far away, sitting in a small alcove. She wasn't hiding, but she had been sitting and thinking. Sitting and thinking led to her crying and now she cried quietly there. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and wedged in between her chest and knees were two stuffed figures. One was of Spider-Man and the other Iron Man which Mr. Stark had given to her only recently.

Valkyrie & Loki - "First" Impressions

[st_allionofdoom]

By the time Valkyrie had bid Thor a fond "see you later," there was only one more face she desired to see before she returned to her room. She had a sense the man was still lurking about, though he was nowhere to be seen among the faces present. Likely. As given to displays of grandiosity as he was, he also savored his space. Pity him that, back in her time, they cohabited in such cramped quarters (made far more so by The Green One.)

Passing around the side of the temple, there Loki sat on one of the better lit benches flanked by a hedge. According to Thor, this Loki was from a time shortly before Odin's passing. Before they met--before anyone knew that any trace of the Valkyrie still remained.

Well, certainly no time like the present to put that myth to sleep for this one, if nothing else. Direct was best. "Your Highness." Valkyrie called to him, striding up.

ota

[st_evengrantrogers]

He'd seen the preparations of the table, and though it wasn't too common of a holiday before the ice, Steve had heard of Dia de Los Muertos from his second time wandering the world. It was a holiday that sparked curiosity in him. Any chance to pay his respects to those who had gone before him was a-okay in Steve's book.

So he came to visit the altar, carrying the photograph of Peggy that he kept in his wallet. It was faded and the edges were bent and soft from age, but it was Peggy all right. He hated to part with it, but he knew that he could come back and pick it up when the remembrance was over.

Steve very carefully and very gently laid the photo down on the altar, giving a gentle, "miss my best girl."

Steve & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Paper could lie, and didn't Curnen know that. After all, her photo still looked crisp and new, despite the fact that that must have been taken somewhere around 1960 if she remembered correctly (and she allowed that maybe she didn't). So even without the words, whatever the physical picture looked like, the feeling she got was not that this was not the picture of a mother or another ancestor.

"Your wife?" she asked quietly. Her eyes were still red from crying, but Miguel's company had steadied her enough that she could leave her photo up and remain. And what's more, she wasn't in the temple, just near it. She could do that.

Re: ota

[st_ranger]

Bucky found his way to Steve's side, staring down at the picture of Peggy. "Best officer in the army," he murmured. He'd looked up to her, once he had met her and realized who she was. Not the girl in the red dress, but the girl who fought hard. She fought for Steve. She fought for the Commandos. She was a force to be reckoned with and he had respected that.

Glancing up at Steve, Bucky gently patted his shoulder. "She was a great lady."

Tony & Steve - Taking a Chance Again

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Of all of Tony's skills being utilized today, the only one seeing action was his capacity to keep to himself. So many faces, and he had little to offer. He didn't want anyone taking, either. Not his emotions and certainly not his memories. That right belonged to a very precious few, Madonna Inn or no.

When Tony saw Steve standing there by his altar, the little voice in his ear piped up.

'Go on.'

Tony averted his eyes and willed a wall to rise from the earth and close them off. He didn't have a right to any part of Captain America but his strength. A superficial wink here, a performative nudge there. All building goodwill until that inevitable truth regarding Thanos. That's what they'd been since Steve's arrival.

No. As far as Steve was concerned, Tony never had a right to the man's past beyond what existed on paper.

'Go on.'

Whatever power that niggling voice had, it also influenced his legs to walk Steve's way and to have his hand find its way to Steve's shoulder. "Peggy Carter." Tony knew her at a glance. "Quite the woman."

OTA - Infinity War Spoilers

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor had plenty to leave at the ofrenda.

Runes that represented his father, his mother, his brother. Things for the Warriors Three and the Asgardians who had died on Asgard and then again on The Statesman. Things for the guardians, but especially Quill, who he'd grown increasingly more fond of since his arrival in spite of their frequent clashes, and Groot, who he missed, despite their friendship having been short-lived.

There was something there for Peter and for Tony, too, who he was sure had died on the planet. He didn't know Strange well enough to have left something for him, but he left something for Bucky, because he knew how much he meant to Steve and it felt necessary to honor him.

A prayer only seemed appropriate, and so Thor said it.

"There do I see my father, and there do I see my mother and there do I see my brother and my people there back to the beginning and they call to me. All those who have perished and all those I've lost, I bid you take your place in the halls of Valhalla, where the brace shall live forever. Not shall we mourn, but rejoice for those that have died the glorious death."

Miguel/Thor

[st_recuerdame]

Miguel waited until Thor finished speaking before he approached him. "Valhalla? Is that your Land of the Dead?" He'd learned that other cultures had kind of the same thing, but they called it different things.

Thor & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie had long been fascinated by her giant warrior neighbor, though in no small part because they associated with different people any interactions between them were mostly hello, how are you and not much else. She had not considered a possibility of this side, something softer and more contemplative, and she knew she should have known better. Everyone had people they loved. People they missed. People they'd lost. Just from first impressions, you wouldn't have thought Thor someone who had lost so many people and keeping in so much pain.

She was leaving one of the photos of Felix that Sunny had had printed for her. He was not dead, not that she knew, but he was lost to her possibly forever and she still missed him so much it hurt.

She considered the runes Thor had left for a long moment of silence while he prayed. "I should have thought of that," she said. "Making something, I mean."

Quill | Thor

[st_arlord]

Quill felt compelled to go to the shrine. He was not a religious person and he liked to avoid places like it, but he was drawn. When he got in, he saw Thor and immediately went to him. He stood beside Thor quietly and took in what Thor put out in front of him.

"So you've added the whole gang, huh?" He said after a moment. "I guess I should be honored."

He put his hands in his pockets to give him something to do.

OTA

[st_arkintern]

Peter was thankful he had so many pictures on his phone.

There were pictures he'd saved there of his parents, of Ben and of May, and of all the friends he left back home. He'd go through them sometimes when he felt lonely and it helped. But right now, he felt more grateful for those photos than he ever had been before.

He'd printed two photos: one of him and his mother and his father when he was young, or at least younger than he was now; a second one of him and Ben when he was older. After he places them on the altar, he stands there in silence, not quite sure what he should do now.

Finally, he opens his mouth to say the one thing he feels: "I miss you," he tells the photographs. Because he really does.

Peter & Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

"Who are they?" Curnen asked softly as she came up alongside Peter. She did not reach out to touch him, not just yet.

Most people where Curnen came from all looked at least a little like each other in the way that small town folk did when roots of kinship went back long and tangled into the past. With Peter's photos, though, the resemblance to these three new faces spoke of something different. He was a New York City boy, these must be near relations. Those two were his parents, she supposed. But she didn't say it out loud. Not yet.

OTA

[st_illkindalost]

There'd been plenty of people who died on the island and some Hurley knew better than others. The ones he knew best were easy enough to find things for, but the others it was far harder. There hadn't been anything for him to take pictures with, and even if there had been, he probably wouldn't have had it on him when he showed up here. He found a little toy airplane and that seemed good enough for them.

Then there was his grandpa and his grandma. The people whose deaths he felt responsible for, even something for Tricia Tanaka. It felt like a lot to put up there. Maybe he should have stuck to the people he knew well, but this just felt right.

But most important was Juliet, who he missed more than anybody else. When he stands there at the altar, he thinks about her and how much he misses her. It hadn't been very long before he arrived here when he lost her. Juliet had done so much for him, and he never really got the chance to tell her that and he wish that he did. Talking to her grave had given him some sense of comfort, but it wasn't the same.

"Guess I should probably say a prayer," he says to the altar.

Miguel/Dante & Hurley

[st_recuerdame]

Dante's nose lifted into the air where he sat beside Dante, sniffing. He smelled food! Not the food that was on the table though he smelled that, too but other food. He turned his head and noticed the man that usually was in the kitchen like Carlos. He gave a soft whoof and stood up to go over.

Miguel kept a close eye on Dante to make sure that he wouldn't go after the food so when he stood up to leave, his attention immediately went to him. When he saw that he was going over to Hurley, Miguel was curious enough to follow him.

As he got closer, Miguel heard him speak and he said softly, "you don't have to if you don't want to. They will know that you're thinking of them." Miguel had no idea how they knew, only that they did.

Anita/Mia - Open

[st_artfeeling]

Mia wanted to be there for Miguel, it was important to him, but more importantly, Mia wanted to honor her brothers and sisters that weren't with them anymore. She didn't have anything to put on the table and Mia didn't dare to put the picture of her, Nyska, Fred and Max, it showed too much emotions on their features for AI.

So she placed a little sugar skull that she'd helped Miguel make. It was decorated with flowers and cogs. Maybe that would do. It was a combination of natural and man made.

Re: Anita/Mia - Open

[st_eepedindarkness]

Tyrone wasn't aware of Mia's presence as he stood there looking at his only picture of his older brother Billy. He stared at the picture and as he did, darkness began to coalesce around him. This, too, he was unaware.

OTA

[st_x5_494]

Alec was hovering. He didn't want to be there for multiple reasons. Religion, for one, made him feel incredibly uncomfortable - it probably had something to do with Ben, his twin, from going batshit crazy and sacrificing people's teeth to the Virgin Mary. He also wasn't good with his feelings, so being here on this day - which Peter had to explain to him - was awkward. Still, technically he did have someone to honour. Technically, he had lots of people to honour if he wanted to count everyone he killed, but he didn't really think about those people too much.

So Alec was hovering. He had the necklace in his hand, but he hadn't moved to do anything with it. He wasn't even sure if he was going to. Peter had dragged him inside and he was going to be polite and not run out right away - the kid had a good reason to be here, after all.

Emma & Alec

[st_ackeddeck]

Emma had noticed Alec hovering and debated for awhile before moving up to stand next to him. "There are lots of ways of remembering and honoring our dead," she said, looking straight ahead instead of at him directly, as though offering the thought to the space around them. 'Our dead' because she didn't question that Alec had experienced loss, and she knew she carried her own. Not to mention all the other people here for Día de Muertos.

"Sometimes ritual helps. Sometimes it just gets in the way."

OTA

[st_ranger]

Bucky had made his way into the celebration with mixed emotions. It wasn't his heritage, but he was curious about it. Later, he'd look up the history on it and try to tell himself more about the meanings behind it.

He stared at all the tables and offerings. He had nobody that he could miss, no pictures to share. In his mind, he did think of those long past. The Howling Commandos. His family from so long ago. He even thought of Howard Stark, the young Howard Stark from the war who had made Steve and gone out for a drink or two with the Commandos once. Peggy. As much as he wanted to miss people, he had no pictures to contribute.

Instead, he stood there and said silent prayers for all those that were gone. Not just his friends, but the lives he'd taken too while he was under HYDRA's control. People that probably deserved better than to die at his hand. A single tear slid down his cheek as he prayed.

When he was done praying, Bucky took a couple steps back, quietly watching the room and the people. Reaching up, he wiped the tear away, hoping nobody saw him.

Loki & Bucky

[st_ratagem]

It likely wasn’t the best or kindest move to interrupt a praying man, but few people had ever accused Loki of being kind. Bucky was a sort of friend, though, and some effort of some kind seemed called for. In this case, Loki offered a tissue for the tear and (noting the longing mixed up in the grief radiating off him) a murmur of, “Symbols seem to work too, not just pictures. Should that be helpful.”