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_logs2024-10-08 04:25 pm
tehilim127_1) wrote in ph_logs2024-10-08 04:25 pm
[OPEN] let the year and its curses conclude
Who: Zivia (tehilim127_1) & all comers
What: Autumn and the High Holidays
When: Late September through October
Where: All over
Warning(s): To be added as relevant
1. closing the year
Early in September and Elul, Zivia wrote a letter.
A few days later, the Visitors' Center went up, and among the visitors were two of Zivia's dead. No one else was present for her conversation with one of them.
The next week, she went to a certain shady merchant, grimly determined to speak to him about procuring certain items and to pay whatever he asked. She did not expect him to already have them on hand, nor to insist on giving them to her without payment. Perhaps that should have felt like divine providence of some kind; for some reason it did not make her feel any more certain that she was doing the right thing. Nonetheless, she brought the items home and sent word to Anzu and Lyubov that she had, baruch Hashem, acquired a shofar and a lulav -- with accompanying willow and myrtle twigs but not, unfortunately, with an etrog. Which meant pinning their hopes on the Paradesium expedition. (Where they were to begin with, so that's all right.)
During the last week of September, Zivia went out to the old Starr farm to gather a basket of apples and some honeycomb from the hives; talked to Captain Dominguez of the Limoncello and gave him a long and detailed list of requests, heavily featuring kosher meats and cheeses, to be compensated in all the citrus fruit she can carry when the expedition returns; talked to various people at City Hall about the time off work she would need in the coming month; found a source in town for canvas sheets and wooden beams; and put up a notice on the town bulletin board: Help Wanted with Minor (Temporary) Construction Project.
(She also kept her ears open for the general mood of the town in the wake of Dahlia Leeds' party and its shocking revelations. Any angry talk that grew vicious, she did her best to quietly defuse; any fearful talk that verged on panic, she did her best to subtly soothe. She knows too well that this could easily get ugly, in ways that could be much harder to fix than to prevent.)
It's now the first week of October, the last week of Elul. Zivia can be found at home whenever she's not at work, either working on the mysterious construction project or seemingly endless baking: cakes, cookies, tarts, a half-dozen round braided breads. She'll happily explain what's up with all of this, should anyone ask.
[Tag Zivia here for anything in late September or pre-holidays October, including if you want to help with the construction or talk about last month's events!]
2. days of awe, days of joy
And then it's second week of October, the first week of Tishrei.
Rosh Hashanah: two days of feasting and prayer, bringing in the New Year, beginning the Ten Days of Repentance. Lyubov blows the shofar at their little communal prayer services, where they say what parts of the liturgy they can without a full quorum of ten, and maybe a little more besides. They each host meals, with the round challahs and the apples and honey (from the Starr farm and from Angel's gift) and other traditional symbolic foods; Zivia is particularly thankful that they've been able to get pomegranate. Cecil Palmer is invited, and Hawkeye Pierce, and anyone else who's shown interest in participating in Jewish traditions.
Ten days later, Yom Kippur: fasting and prayer and atonement for sins. Again the little prayer group congregates, and Zivia recites the familiar words through an unexpected struggle with tears. Do not cast us away, Lord our God, do not distance Yourself from us --
(She still doesn't know if trying to speak to the local goddesses is something for which she should be asking forgiveness. She doesn't know who to talk to about that, or how.)
Five days later, Sukkot: a week of feasting and celebration, with festive meals in the completed sukkah. If you've befriended Zivia, or if you work with her, or if you answered the bulletin board request to help build the thing, or even if you're just passing by and want to know what the deal is with the weird little structure with canvas walls and a roof of Paradesium greenery, you will get an invitation to come hang out. Inside it's decorated with ribbons and paper chains and fruit (including tiny gourds) and colorful fall leaves, and there are snacks and both cold and hot drinks and occasionally a friendly cat winding around people's ankles, and at the slightest provocation there will be stories and anecdotes about the holiday. You've been warned.
At the end of that week, Simchat Torah: the last of the holidays and in some ways the hardest to observe in their current circumstances. No Torah scroll has shown up at Calloway's, so the best they can do is read from Lyubov's chumash, the end of the final chapter and then the start of the first, beginning the cycle again. There's too few of them to dance properly, but they can and do sing.
[Tag here for religious holiday celebrations if your character would have been at any of them, or for hanging out less formally in the sukkah!]
3. back to the everyday
And then, as every year, the holidays are over. Time for taking down the sukkah, putting away the components in case they need to be reused next year, carefully storing the shofar wrapped in cotton in the china cabinet, planning future meals around frozen leftovers: an end to the celebrating of life and a return to living it.
For the rest of October Zivia is back to her usual routine. Find her at work, or shopping downtown, or having a drink down at the Oak & Iron on occasional evenings -- or, once in a while, taking a walk on the beach while it's still warm enough to do that.
[Tag here for after the holidays, at any of the named locations or your choice of wildcard!]
tehilim127_1) & all comersWhat: Autumn and the High Holidays
When: Late September through October
Where: All over
Warning(s): To be added as relevant
1. closing the year
Early in September and Elul, Zivia wrote a letter.
A few days later, the Visitors' Center went up, and among the visitors were two of Zivia's dead. No one else was present for her conversation with one of them.
The next week, she went to a certain shady merchant, grimly determined to speak to him about procuring certain items and to pay whatever he asked. She did not expect him to already have them on hand, nor to insist on giving them to her without payment. Perhaps that should have felt like divine providence of some kind; for some reason it did not make her feel any more certain that she was doing the right thing. Nonetheless, she brought the items home and sent word to Anzu and Lyubov that she had, baruch Hashem, acquired a shofar and a lulav -- with accompanying willow and myrtle twigs but not, unfortunately, with an etrog. Which meant pinning their hopes on the Paradesium expedition. (Where they were to begin with, so that's all right.)
During the last week of September, Zivia went out to the old Starr farm to gather a basket of apples and some honeycomb from the hives; talked to Captain Dominguez of the Limoncello and gave him a long and detailed list of requests, heavily featuring kosher meats and cheeses, to be compensated in all the citrus fruit she can carry when the expedition returns; talked to various people at City Hall about the time off work she would need in the coming month; found a source in town for canvas sheets and wooden beams; and put up a notice on the town bulletin board: Help Wanted with Minor (Temporary) Construction Project.
(She also kept her ears open for the general mood of the town in the wake of Dahlia Leeds' party and its shocking revelations. Any angry talk that grew vicious, she did her best to quietly defuse; any fearful talk that verged on panic, she did her best to subtly soothe. She knows too well that this could easily get ugly, in ways that could be much harder to fix than to prevent.)
It's now the first week of October, the last week of Elul. Zivia can be found at home whenever she's not at work, either working on the mysterious construction project or seemingly endless baking: cakes, cookies, tarts, a half-dozen round braided breads. She'll happily explain what's up with all of this, should anyone ask.
[Tag Zivia here for anything in late September or pre-holidays October, including if you want to help with the construction or talk about last month's events!]
2. days of awe, days of joy
And then it's second week of October, the first week of Tishrei.
Rosh Hashanah: two days of feasting and prayer, bringing in the New Year, beginning the Ten Days of Repentance. Lyubov blows the shofar at their little communal prayer services, where they say what parts of the liturgy they can without a full quorum of ten, and maybe a little more besides. They each host meals, with the round challahs and the apples and honey (from the Starr farm and from Angel's gift) and other traditional symbolic foods; Zivia is particularly thankful that they've been able to get pomegranate. Cecil Palmer is invited, and Hawkeye Pierce, and anyone else who's shown interest in participating in Jewish traditions.
Ten days later, Yom Kippur: fasting and prayer and atonement for sins. Again the little prayer group congregates, and Zivia recites the familiar words through an unexpected struggle with tears. Do not cast us away, Lord our God, do not distance Yourself from us --
(She still doesn't know if trying to speak to the local goddesses is something for which she should be asking forgiveness. She doesn't know who to talk to about that, or how.)
Five days later, Sukkot: a week of feasting and celebration, with festive meals in the completed sukkah. If you've befriended Zivia, or if you work with her, or if you answered the bulletin board request to help build the thing, or even if you're just passing by and want to know what the deal is with the weird little structure with canvas walls and a roof of Paradesium greenery, you will get an invitation to come hang out. Inside it's decorated with ribbons and paper chains and fruit (including tiny gourds) and colorful fall leaves, and there are snacks and both cold and hot drinks and occasionally a friendly cat winding around people's ankles, and at the slightest provocation there will be stories and anecdotes about the holiday. You've been warned.
At the end of that week, Simchat Torah: the last of the holidays and in some ways the hardest to observe in their current circumstances. No Torah scroll has shown up at Calloway's, so the best they can do is read from Lyubov's chumash, the end of the final chapter and then the start of the first, beginning the cycle again. There's too few of them to dance properly, but they can and do sing.
[Tag here for religious holiday celebrations if your character would have been at any of them, or for hanging out less formally in the sukkah!]
3. back to the everyday
And then, as every year, the holidays are over. Time for taking down the sukkah, putting away the components in case they need to be reused next year, carefully storing the shofar wrapped in cotton in the china cabinet, planning future meals around frozen leftovers: an end to the celebrating of life and a return to living it.
For the rest of October Zivia is back to her usual routine. Find her at work, or shopping downtown, or having a drink down at the Oak & Iron on occasional evenings -- or, once in a while, taking a walk on the beach while it's still warm enough to do that.
[Tag here for after the holidays, at any of the named locations or your choice of wildcard!]
no subject
"You like it? I'm going for classic preindustrial. Zero plastic."
no subject
Plastic piques his interest a little- what in there could even be made of bakelite?- but he figures he shouldn't think too hard about what's clearly a joke.
"It's fantastic. Can't wait for autumn to really come around, then we can see the model in other colours."
He's just blatantly going for the baked goods.
"You been keeping alright, Ziv?"
no subject
"Yeah, I'm good." Her smile is sincere, even if there is a touch of despite everything in it. "I always say this time of year, it's a good thing I like cooking. And bless Captain Dominguez, I've got a lot of ingredients from home I've been missing. How about you, you doing okay?"
no subject
"Ah well, as much as anyone can be here. Feels like I keep getting curveballs, which is especially confusing when I think I'm playing golf. I don't know the conversion rate of home run to par but I think I'm doing alright. Just uh- some personal complaints, nothing I can talk about."
Feeling how he is about Fever, he still doesn't want to publicly drag her name through the mud. And he knows Mulcahy is a friend of hers, so discussing that is off the table entirely. So here he is, with his baked goods feeling vaguely still like he's not sure which way is up.
no subject
cw flippant mention of psychiatric institutionalisation
Hawk exhales, blowing air through his lips.
"Back home is bad, right? The war, everything, you get it. But back home, I can handle that. It's war- you make some jokes in bad taste, do what you can, one foot in front of the other, and you make it through."
Some people, evidently, don't.
"And then I get here, which is great. I'm not busy for once- I could hibernate over winter if I really wanted, and I want to, do I ever want to. But the- when things go bad here, when- when people go bad, most of it is so nuts I don't even know how to approach it. I don't know if I should be adjusting better or getting myself acquainted with the Marrow Isles giggling academy. I'm not really doing either, and I can't tell if that's working."
no subject
"I know that feeling," she says, "a little. If it seems like I've adjusted really well here, it's probably because this isn't the first time my life suddenly got extremely weird all at once. Like none-of-this-should-be-possible kind of weird."
no subject
... C'mon, Hawk.
"Sorry. You're trying to help. Keep going."
no subject
A pause. "Can I ask you something? No specifics, just kind of general situation?"
no subject
Of course, that isn't happening, so he wipes down his face with his hand.
"Interpersonal. Deeply, deeply interpersonal. Big 'classified' stamp on it and everything interesting on the page redacted."
no subject
"Then I'd probably better not ask. I'm sorry, though, that's rough as hell. If we were back home I'd recommend a therapist, just so you could tell someone and know it wouldn't go any further."
no subject
"Probably would be a good idea. There was this shrink back home- Sidney, great guy, terrible poker face outside of sessions. He could be listening to a patient at their bedside, hearing about all the grizzly details without blinking. But he got a trash hand at poker? Would wince like someone kicked him in the shin."
The details aren't necessary, strictly speaking, but they do make him feel like more of a person. Like he comes from somewhere that is still meaningful, even outside of here.
"Course if I saw a therapist here there's every chance it'd turn out they use magic or eat people. I'm thinking of drawing some eyes on a rock and bouncing my problems off that."
no subject
A pause. "That a problem on par with eating people, or just weird again?"
(If she were guessing, right now, she'd guess this is at least partly about Dahlia Leeds. Which isn't surprising, all things considered.)
no subject
Rubs the back of his neck, "I'll take any rockomendations you have."
no subject
"This is going to sound like a joke," she says, "and I promise it's not: you ever hear of something called the rubber duck method of problem-solving?"
no subject
"As invented by Archimedes, but far less famous than his other bath discovery," he agrees.
Which is to say, no he doesn't.
no subject
"So the idea is, you explain the problem, out loud, to a rubber duck. Or you could use the rock with eyes, that'd work the same way. And you just keep breaking the problem down, explaining it in simpler and simpler ways, and sooner or later you'll have restated the problem in a way that suggests an answer."
A pause. "Now, this was invented for logical problems and not emotional ones -- but people really do it and it really does work. So if you don't think that sounds too dumb to try, I'm serious about getting you a nice rock."
no subject
"Y'know what, I'll try it. Might be just what the rocktor ordered. Thanks, Ziv."
no subject
(The following day, Hawkeye will get a small rock in his mailbox, with a note wrapped around it. This one looked like a good listener. -Z.)