[OPEN] observe the month of spring

[tehilim127_1]

Who: Zivia (tehilim127_1) & all comers (with prompt for Degas)
What: Settling in, and scrambling to prepare
When: April, prior to the event (backtagging welcome!)
Where: At home, at work (Town Hall), at the docks, at the Oak & Iron, at wits' end
Warning(s): To be added as relevant

At home
There's a lot of work that goes into making a house one's home, even when one receives it fully furnished. Zivia's resigned herself to doing it in stages, and moreover to those stages happening out of the order she would prefer, since according to the best-approximation calendar she's discussed with Lev-Lyubov and Anzu, Pesach is coming. Which means getting ready for that first.

She's put up a request on the community bulletin board; if it pans out, they'll be able to bake matzah, at least. Cleaning out the house she's been allotted is taking up a good chunk of the rest of her free time, though she might be willing to take a break to talk with a visitor.

At work (Town Hall)
The filing system isn't too hard to learn, it turns out. She takes notes during her brief training, writes up a couple of cheat sheets, and keeps one at her desk and one on her person. The chair and desk aren't particularly ergonomic, but they're sturdy and functional and won't completely ruin her wrists or spine, so she'll call it good.

It's been a while since Zivia's done any purely paper filing, but it's funny how it all comes back to you. Anyone else working there or visiting may overhear her humming to herself as she works.

At the docks (for Degas)
She hasn't forgotten the preacher's offer of help, so he's the one she calls on when she first comes across a task that needs an extra pair of hands. And, she's hoping, a cart or wheelbarrow or something to that effect, to help haul a bunch of items from her house down to the water's edge and back.

At the Oak & Iron
This city isn't the one she's always thought of as hers, but it's hers now, at least for now. She has to remember that. Has to learn that, internalize it until it feels like the truth. And that means, first and foremost, coming to know its people.

So even if she's a little tired most evenings now, Zivia makes a point of coming down to the pub after work at least twice a week, to meet her neighbors. Find her in the common room with a hot tea or a cold beer, looking for familiar faces or new ones.

At wits' end
Wildcard!

Comments

At Home

[immortaldemonsoul]

In a town this size it's nearly impossible not to be aware of the business of others -- especially with so many houses standing empty. When a grey-haired human woman moves into one of the townhouses on Ellarinne's street and starts energetically -- very energetically -- cleaning it from top to bottom, well. She'll admit to some curiosity.

She sees her chance to introduce herself on a bright and clear morning when through her kitchen window she spots the woman hauling a full dustbin down to the public receptacles on the corner. By the time Zivia returns, Ellarinne is sitting on her own front doorstep, a clean white handkerchief wrapped around her head as a blindfold, while a second holds her teal hair out of her face.

She waves to Zivia as she walks by. "Good morning!" she calls out to her. "Perhaps you'd like an assistant today?"

[tehilim127_1]

"Good morning!" Zivia answers with a ready smile. "Possibly, are you offering?"

[immortaldemonsoul]

"Of course." Ellarinne takes over the dustbin, easily pulling it along. Her rolled-up sleeves can't quite conceal the muscles that lie beneath -- or the jagged green tattoos that peek out from beneath her sleeves and the edge of her shirt collar.

"We're neighbors, aren't we?" She smiles, carefully close-mouthed. "My name is Ellarinne. I arrived about a month ago now, from the planet Azeroth."

[tehilim127_1]

(The muscles and the tattoos get only a glance, not a second look.)

She gives an appreciative sigh, swinging her arms a little now that they're free of the burden. "Thank you. I can't remember the last time I did anything like this big a job on my own, and I'm reminded every day that I'm not as young as I used to be. I'm Zivia -- just got here last month myself, from Earth."

[immortaldemonsoul]

"Many of the offworlders here seem to be from Earth," Ellarinne remarks. "Or at least from a planet that bears that name. Are you from one of the versions that lacks magic of its own, or not?" She's genuinely curious! If Zivia needs extra help getting adjusted to things Ellarinne considers perfectly normal, she's happy to help.

[tehilim127_1]

"Well," as she wipes sweat off her temple with the back of her wrist, "since you asked me I can tell you, mine has got magic of its own. But it's not a thing everybody knows about, so if you asked, say, my next-door neighbors back home, they'd tell you we don't."

[immortaldemonsoul]

"How can they not know about it?" Ellarinne, coming as she does from a world where magic is bright and flashy and most mages are, let's be real here, kind of arrogant know-it-alls, has accepted the idea that there exist worlds without magic. But the concept of a world that has magic that isn't widely known has thrown her for a total loop. "Are mages on your world so rare?"

[tehilim127_1]

"It's kind of complicated," she says, "but, short form: some magic isn't readily perceptible to most people, and some magic can be perceived easily but tends to pose cognitive and emotional dangers to anyone who isn't prepared for it, so those of us who know about it take some pains to keep it hidden. All that adds up to, there's a small subset of the population that knows about magic and can see it wherever it may be, and everyone else ... basically benefits from it without knowing it. Or, in some cases, suffers from it without knowing it. We try to put a stop to those when we can."