Zivia "Cecilia" Birnbaum (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tehilim127_1) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ph_logs2024-05-19 10:44 pm
tehilim127_1) wrote in ph_logs2024-05-19 10:44 pm
[OPEN] a beautiful day, don't let it get away
Who: Zivia (tehilim127_1) & all comers (with prompts for Lev, Anzu, Ava, Dahlia, Tayrey, Degas)
What: Things resume after the flood
When: Late May and early June
Where: At work (Town Hall), at the beach, at the grocery, at an impasse
Warning(s): To be added as relevant
1. you love this town
Somehow -- magically? miraculously? Zivia feels like either of those could apply, and like neither is safe to use carelessly -- somehow the island and the town have been barely damaged by the floodwaters. Neither the plants nor the animals nor the works of human hands are any worse for wear than they might be after a heavy rain.
This does mean more work at Town Hall, as Zivia and Fever empty all the file drawers to make sure there's no water damage anywhere, and then have to put everything back. And simultaneously have to be available to answer any questions anyone has, though they agree to take turns being on call while all of that's going on. Maybe you'll show up with a question while it's Zivia's turn to address it? Or maybe, sometime during this month, you'll encounter Fever at Town Hall's booth at the job fair, and decide to follow up by inquiring within.
2. reach me, i know i'm not a hopeless case
One nice thing about living here, Zivia will readily admit, is being within walking distance of a beach.
She's out for a walk on the shoreline, some days after the end of the flood, feet bare in the sand and shoes tucked into a bag slung over her shoulder. As a wave recedes, a glint of silver catches her eye, and she breaks into a brief jog to get closer before the water comes in again.
Anyone who happens to be nearby at the time will see her drop into an unsteady crouch to pick it up, then press one hand over her mouth as though to keep from crying out in shock -- or maybe just to keep from crying.
3. see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
It is so good, after even that brief time spent scrounging things on board ship, to be able to walk into a shop and purchase things again. Whole wheat flour, honey, salt, oil, a form of yeast she isn't familiar with but is nonetheless confident she can figure out; dried spices, fresh herbs, a basket full of vegetables and fruit in season; a beautiful fillet of salmon, which she hurries home to stow in the icebox directly next to the ice. Milk, eggs, butter. A few bottles of wine, after some conversation with the shopkeeper not too dissimilar from the one she had with Dahlia on board the cursed ship.
She considers, briefly, giving Dahlia a bottle of wine in return, and discards that idea. Instead, Dahlia -- and a few other people around town who've been especially helpful in the last month or so, including Ava Starr, Arilanna Tayrey, Wilson Higgsbury, and Degas Clayton -- will receive a small loaf of home-baked braided bread by way of appreciation and thanks.
(Feel free to run into Zivia doing her grocery shopping, or to meet her delivering challah, whether to you or to someone else!)
4. after the flood all the colors came out (for Lev/Lyubov and Anzu)
One thing she can't buy anywhere here, she already knows, is kosher meat. Which leads to her picking up the sending stone to contact Anzu and Rov Morgenshtern, and asking if either of them knows how to perform shechita; the soaking and salting part she can do, she assures them, but she's never done that part.
And the thing is, she explains, she'd really like to be able to serve chicken if they would like to join her for Shabbos dinner, this or next Friday night.
5. it was a beautiful day
Wildcard!
tehilim127_1) & all comers (with prompts for Lev, Anzu, Ava, Dahlia, Tayrey, Degas)What: Things resume after the flood
When: Late May and early June
Where: At work (Town Hall), at the beach, at the grocery, at an impasse
Warning(s): To be added as relevant
1. you love this town
Somehow -- magically? miraculously? Zivia feels like either of those could apply, and like neither is safe to use carelessly -- somehow the island and the town have been barely damaged by the floodwaters. Neither the plants nor the animals nor the works of human hands are any worse for wear than they might be after a heavy rain.
This does mean more work at Town Hall, as Zivia and Fever empty all the file drawers to make sure there's no water damage anywhere, and then have to put everything back. And simultaneously have to be available to answer any questions anyone has, though they agree to take turns being on call while all of that's going on. Maybe you'll show up with a question while it's Zivia's turn to address it? Or maybe, sometime during this month, you'll encounter Fever at Town Hall's booth at the job fair, and decide to follow up by inquiring within.
2. reach me, i know i'm not a hopeless case
One nice thing about living here, Zivia will readily admit, is being within walking distance of a beach.
She's out for a walk on the shoreline, some days after the end of the flood, feet bare in the sand and shoes tucked into a bag slung over her shoulder. As a wave recedes, a glint of silver catches her eye, and she breaks into a brief jog to get closer before the water comes in again.
Anyone who happens to be nearby at the time will see her drop into an unsteady crouch to pick it up, then press one hand over her mouth as though to keep from crying out in shock -- or maybe just to keep from crying.
3. see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
It is so good, after even that brief time spent scrounging things on board ship, to be able to walk into a shop and purchase things again. Whole wheat flour, honey, salt, oil, a form of yeast she isn't familiar with but is nonetheless confident she can figure out; dried spices, fresh herbs, a basket full of vegetables and fruit in season; a beautiful fillet of salmon, which she hurries home to stow in the icebox directly next to the ice. Milk, eggs, butter. A few bottles of wine, after some conversation with the shopkeeper not too dissimilar from the one she had with Dahlia on board the cursed ship.
She considers, briefly, giving Dahlia a bottle of wine in return, and discards that idea. Instead, Dahlia -- and a few other people around town who've been especially helpful in the last month or so, including Ava Starr, Arilanna Tayrey, Wilson Higgsbury, and Degas Clayton -- will receive a small loaf of home-baked braided bread by way of appreciation and thanks.
(Feel free to run into Zivia doing her grocery shopping, or to meet her delivering challah, whether to you or to someone else!)
4. after the flood all the colors came out (for Lev/Lyubov and Anzu)
One thing she can't buy anywhere here, she already knows, is kosher meat. Which leads to her picking up the sending stone to contact Anzu and Rov Morgenshtern, and asking if either of them knows how to perform shechita; the soaking and salting part she can do, she assures them, but she's never done that part.
And the thing is, she explains, she'd really like to be able to serve chicken if they would like to join her for Shabbos dinner, this or next Friday night.
5. it was a beautiful day
Wildcard!
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She assumed, reasonably enough, that this was Ava's illness. Ava and Peter's shared illness, now, swapped back to her.
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Ava flexes her fingers, before taking hold of the hot kettle's handle, pouring water into the plain teapot, and steam escaping into the air. She breathes it in and clearing her senses.
"Could you carry that? To the table."
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(That hint of ... was it guilt? She isn't sure, and it's a touch troubling, but -- well, whatever. Ava will talk about it if she wants to, and it wouldn't help to ask about it if she doesn't.)
"Did you ever hear of the old English tradition of telling the bees?"
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"Tell the bees what?" she asks, curious. They have a bit for the tea to steep, so she's happy to listen to any sort of stories in the meantime.
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"Ah," she clears her throat. "So I should... be letting them know of Peter's passing... on such months?"
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A bit hurriedly: "Oh, not saying you should be doing that. Just that you might be, if you were raised in rural England. Always thought it was sort of a nice custom, but I don't know if I'd pick it up myself."
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She pours the tea, for Zivia first, and then her own cup.
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Part of her mind has already begun working on a pitch for that, before she's finished speaking.
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"It's just... a lot more than I anticipated. Mostly thought I could watch the plants grow and the rest would take care of itself."
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But she supposes it's hard for anyone to morally disagree with vegetables. "It's mostly the heavy lifting I'm worried about. With Peter..."
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"Yeah," she agrees, chewing on her lip for a moment. "I'd volunteer to help with that part, but my back's been periodically reminding me for the past five years that I'm getting too old for heavy lifting. I can offer bribes, though, if you were to ask for volunteers."
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"If you could," Ava asks hopefully. "You surely are better connected than I am." Since she spends most of her free time hiding out at the farm, she hasn't managed to build many new associations amongst the population.
no subject