tehilim127_1: (Default)
Zivia "Cecilia" Birnbaum ([personal profile] tehilim127_1) wrote in [community profile] ph_logs2024-05-19 10:44 pm

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

Who: Zivia ([personal profile] 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!
preacher_in_reticence: playby: Waleed Zuaiter (Neutral - Listening)

[personal profile] preacher_in_reticence 2024-06-15 04:04 am (UTC)(link)
He nods his understanding, lets his hand fall away.

"I can certainly imagine. And our goddesses are very different from your god, from everything I've heard."
preacher_in_reticence: playby: Waleed Zuaiter (Neutral - Thinking)

[personal profile] preacher_in_reticence 2024-06-21 05:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"No, no, I understand what you mean. These are not your 'adults' and are completely foreign, and you don't know their rules or motives or anything. Right?"

He crosses his arms over his chest.

"And like, they're the goddesses I've always known, so I'm biased."
preacher_in_reticence: playby: Waleed Zuaiter (Neutral - Pointed Look)

[personal profile] preacher_in_reticence 2024-06-23 04:12 am (UTC)(link)
Degas sits with that for a moment, before letting out a bit of a sigh.

"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'."
preacher_in_reticence: playby: Waleed Zuaiter (Action - Talking)

[personal profile] preacher_in_reticence 2024-06-23 05:40 am (UTC)(link)
"Right, the other part is 'I like you, I don't want you to deal with things you don't like, and I wish I could help', but saying all that feels...forward? Something."

As if inviting a lady to his home isn't forward at all.
preacher_in_reticence: playby: Waleed Zuaiter (Neutral - Eyes Closed)

[personal profile] preacher_in_reticence 2024-06-23 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Degas considers that smile, waffling on whether to say more, before he shrugs and changes the subject like the coward he is.

"The bread is very good."