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!
no subject
"They can talk to us more easily than you who live here?" Frowning faintly. "Do you know why that is?"
no subject
He gestures the idea of strings stretching out, up and beyond.
"They still hear the rest of us, and love us, but it's harder for them to reach back."
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"That's hard," is what she finally says, very quietly. "That's got to be hard."
no subject
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"Can't be helped," she agrees. "And of course, I'm sure I would have too."
no subject
Right! Bread! That's better than this awkward, isn't it? Butter and bread. Not staring.
"Wish it could be helped, though. It's...hard."
no subject
Zivia takes a breath, and puts down the butter knife on the plate with a dull little clink.
"I haven't been able to hear my God since I got here," she says, low and quick, all at once.
no subject
He reaches out as if to touch the hand that had set the knife down, but stops before making contact, gaze flickering to her face as if to ask permission to give what comfort he can.
no subject
"I was before," she confirms, no louder. "Not my whole life, but ... it's been a long time. And it's like ..." A breath. "You ever see a little kid in a crowd, suddenly realizing they can't find their parent? Maybe running up to an adult and realizing it's the wrong one? Or do you remember ever being that kid? It's a little like that."
no subject
"I can certainly imagine. And our goddesses are very different from your god, from everything I've heard."
no subject
A small huff of breath, unhappiness and a complicated sort of frustration, as she tries to find the words.
"Where I come from, it's very common for parents and teachers to tell kids that they should never talk to strangers, especially adult strangers. Do they tell kids that here, or does that sound weird to you?"
no subject
He crosses his arms over his chest.
"And like, they're the goddesses I've always known, so I'm biased."
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She puts her hands together, fingertip to fingertip, pressing lightly in an effort to find a way to make it clearer.
"It's that I've been told not to. There's a rule. And I'm trying to work out whether this is a situation where I need to follow the rule or use my own judgment. And I don't have any way to ask for guidance."
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"I'm trying to figure out the proper way to say 'I don't think I can help you resolve that' without sounding like I'm actually saying 'that's not my problem' or 'I don't care about your culture and its rules'."
no subject
"I think that pretty well covered it. I don't think you can help me resolve it either, I just ... wanted you to get where I'm coming from. On the subject of not being able to talk directly with one's deity, and how it's hard and we don't like it."
no subject
As if inviting a lady to his home isn't forward at all.
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"The bread is very good."
no subject
She takes a bite of her own, chews, gives a small sigh -- not an unhappy one.
"Times like these, it really does help to know that whatever else is going wrong that I can't put right, at least I can make a good loaf of bread."