[OPEN] a beautiful day, don't let it get away

[tehilim127_1]

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!

Comments

[tehilim127_1]

She beams. "I hope you do enjoy it. I know I'm going to, I made a whole five-pound bag of flour's worth and I'm keeping about half of it."

[astrogator]

'It must keep well, then,' she says approvingly. 'Do you bake other things, or is the bread a speciality - oh, and can I make you some coffee?' This last as almost an afterthought, as she realised her hospitality was lacking.

[tehilim127_1]

"Coffee would be lovely, thank you." She beams. (And notes internally that hospitality to guests seems to be an exception to the nothing-for-free rule. Unless it's understood as demonstrating appreciation for the value of a guest's company? Either way, not against practice -- and she remembers that Tayrey was willing to accept a similarly offered drink when she was visiting.)

"And yes, I bake all sorts of things, though right now I'm limited to the recipes I've memorized and the ones where I can fudge the details. What I wouldn't give for my files ... As to how well it keeps, I'll find out -- I'm used to better refrigeration, so this is in the nature of an experiment."

[astrogator]

Zivia's perceptive. Hospitality customs in Tayrey's sector are in fact older than their law of contract, although she's completely unaware of the fact and might well rationalise it with the value of a guest's company.

'I'll get it started,' she says, before going to put the bread safely away in one of her storage cupboards, and setting a pot of water to boil over the fire. She has yet to come up with a quicker method.

'It's impressive,' she says as she sets out her coffee things on the table, including two little dishes, one with sugar and one with spices. 'Baking. You could try looking in the library? It won't be the same as home, but they might have books with local recipes.' She thinks for a moment. 'I'll have to work out how to preserve food for the winter, too, since freezing isn't an option. Fruit should keep well in jars, if they're properly sealed and heated.'

[tehilim127_1]

"Right," she says, "canning -- I've never done that myself, but I know how to dry fruit in a low oven, it'll last that way too. That's a good idea, too, check the library for cookbooks. Maybe make some copies and start up a new recipe file."

She leans over to look with curiosity at the spices on offer, and gives a cautious sniff to see if she can identify them.