It's evening in the back room of the Jewish Bookstore, and Gisa is settled on one of the couches like she owns the damn place or something. She is leaning against the arm, a pillow tucked between her arm and that of the couch. Propped on the end of that same couch arm is a half-full glass of red wine, balanced neatly. One ankle's propped on the opposite knee, forming a platform on which she can rest her book -- a battered volume that's clearly well-loved and quite old, with post-its sticking out of various pages and notations in the margins. Things underlined. That sort of thing. Her right hand balances the book, holds a pen, turns pages right to left occasionally, and sometimes makes a little note in a margin or underlines something. Thoughtful Golem Face. The shin on her forehead glows with a gentle, steady light. If this seems like a way that people have seen Gisa before, well, it's not like goylomim are the most innovative of creatures when it comes to daily activities. They run on routine, almost compulsively so.
Someone's car pulled up and the bell dinged. There was no greeting from the door but eventually a slightly more put together young Kid came in. Hey he got showered which was a huge undertaking. His voice was tired and the hangover sunglasses were back afixed in place. His knuckles were scuffed up on his right hand but his left fist was raspberry with bruises and his knuckles scuffed up more. The smile, as always, was the same for her, warm and genuine. Would she have some mind on this? Certainly, but returning 'home' for him outweighed the cons. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "'eeeeey, bubbe."
GAME: Gisa spends 1 Glamour
-> >> Gisa to Here << <-==============================================
Rolled 4 Successes
< 1 2 2 4 6 8 9 10 10 >
=============================-> >> Resolve + Survival No Flags << <-
"Shalom aleichem, bubbuleh," Gisa answers, closing her book and getting to her feet. As usual, she crosses to kiss his cheeks, and then she frowns, inspecting him. "Hmmmph." That's all the opinion she has at first, before the warmth of the golem flows through the lips pressed to his cheek. It wipes away his hangover, his bruises, the small lacerations, the scuffed knuckles. "What is it?"
Sidney squint as the sunglasses came up and his eye was just bruised black. It started to receede but it didn't keep him from wrinkling his nose as the heat from teh Golem's care burned the remaining alcohol and imperfections back from him like burrs being smelt off steel. He shrugged a bit which became slowly easier over the next minute or so. "Eeeeh met some new friends. They showed me around the place. Nice guys. Very knowledgeable about the local geography." He got in a bar fight with locals. He was penitant though admitting, "Sorry I left early. I'm extending the week to make that up to you."
"So you got in a fight with someone at a bar." Gisa is used to translating Sid to regular speech. She pats his cheek gently and then settles back in her chair. "It's okay. You needed to go. I do not understand why, but I understand when you do. That, at least, I know." One of her small smiles, the ones she doesn't give to many people. "Tell me your news."
Sidney shook his head slowly and squint to her being more Sid-shaded than bruised. "Everything last night just... dragging me back to some bad places. Ain't no one's fault. Just got to sort some stuff... out." He looked confused and shook his head and wandered to teh keurig that seemed to stand there with the air of 'you actually going to do this one up correctly, kiddo? He made himself some coffee and turned leaning his ass against the counter sitting up there. He took a deep breath and ventured into "I might... stay... a while?" Was he guessing? "I might, um, I might try that. Startin to see a reason to." He was really not good at news. Especially old news.
Both of her handsfold together on her lap, and Gisa tilts her head to one side, her copper wire hair glinting in the light. Her eyeflames flicker slowly as she listens to him. All of her attention is for her grandson. "Stay here, in the town? In the Freehold? In the what, Sid?" It's hard for him, and so she's gentle, and careful.
Sidney bounced his heels on the cabinet where his legs dangled, not harshly so. He took his coffee because he could avoid things easier if he had a hobby. Yay vices. He shrugged, "Not... the freehold." He was only a member of the one overseas with her. That was different. "Maybe... vermont. I um... The wayhouse is good, ya know? There's people. They come. They go. They're low maintenance. I can help them. Help them out with... whatever... and they go off and leave and new people come in." Really for him? That was fucking ideal. He stuck to Gisa and Saul like a koala to a tree, but other people? He just stopped forming attachments after he yielded to the Dusk court. "Eh, thinking about giving Vermont a chance. Maybe... maybe look at property a little down the line. I can't stay at the Wayhouse forever, and Lucky's place is kinda a death trap. Thinkin about it." It was a step. He took a deep breath uncomfortably changing the subject sideways, "I need to eventually man up and go back to Santa Barbara. Settle things."
Moving a sleepy Gisa.
-> >> Sidney to Here << <-============================================
Rolled a chance die for a failure
< 5 >
=========================-> >> Composure + Subterfuge No Flags << <-
-> >> Gisa to Here << <-==============================================
Rolled 3 Successes
< 2 3 4 4 6 8 8 9 >
=================================-> >> Wits + Empathy No Flags << <-
"Roots are good for you, Sidney." That's simple enough, and for a while, that's all Gisa says. She leans her head to one side, and her lips part as she considers him. "I know that this is scary for you, but I am proud of you for realizing that -- yes -- it is a good idea that you sit still for a moment." She pauses. "I think Lucky is part of this, yes?" It may be a loaded question but she doesn't make it sound that way.
Sidney could tell the loaded question and also, pledges or not, would not lie to his grandmother. When someone raises you up from the ground out of your own tears and blood you do not repay them with such an unkindness... also he was a pitiful liar. At least he had something else he throughly excelled at. Everyone gets three right? He didn't answer her out loud but did not. His brow creased and he lifted his coffee mug up to drink from it because it gave him something to do with his hands. Finally he took a deep breath and nodded again, "Yeah." he had to laugh though and squint at her comisserating, "He always gets what he wants though don't he?" There was no bitterness there, but the irony of futility sort of working in his favour.
Her head slowly tilts to the other side; sometimes his grandmother looks very much like a statue just slightly on fire, and this is one of those times. Gisa blinks slowly, the lights going off in her eyepits and then returning. "Is what he wants different from what you want?" And part of being the grandmother figure here is that you cut through the bullshit: the self-deprecation, the self-dislike, the self-flagellation that comes with that fatalism. She sees him.
Sidney pressed his lips together because if he says it out loud then the nebulous becomes manifest and he has to own his shit. Fianlly his eyes squint shut and he confessed to her with that look of dread eating at him. "Yeah... it is." There, hard part done. His fingers worried the ceramic of the mug. he shook his head, looking back to her, eyelashes clumped together. "I can't go through that again, bubbe, and I can't... I can't walk away from him either."
Without saying a word, Gisa gets to her feet, and does something she'd never do with anyone else: she wraps both of her big clay arms around Sid and cradles her grandson to her. She's warm, gentle, and strangely soft. She doesn't say anything there, just... hugs him, in silence. Sometimes? That's the best thing you can do for someone. Be present.
Sidney set the coffee down. His mantle caused the outlets to spark faintly but that seemed to be negated and subdued when Gisa closed the gap. He hugged Gisa which was sorta like hugging your coffee mug: Ceramic, warm, hopeful. That was all that was needed. Did it fix anything? No, but it helped tremendously to have that one constant pillar there that wasn't burned down to ash and put to ground. Finally after a long silence he swallowed letting emotion even itself out, "It's like ... not that long ago you told me Sacho was gone...everyone else and I'm still ...with them every day... and I miss 'em so much and there's no way to make peace with that. and I don't...I Someday something is going to happen and it won't be able to be change that and-" He shook his head pulling hias hands into fists around her shirt, "I don't want to miss him too, bubbe. Everything is dust and I'm tired of holding onto sand. The harder you hold on the faster it goes away."
"Everyone I have ever loved is dead except for you and Alonso." Which is the first time she's ever admitted out loud that she loves Alonso. It's pretty obvious, but saying it out loud makes it real. Gisa rocks back and forth, petting Sid's hair, one hand smoothing down his hair, his horns. It is a lot like hugging a ceramic mug, or a warm statue, but there's a strange softness to her. She rumbles, deep in her chest, and gently rocks him, her weight shifting back and forth from foot to foot. "Why am I the one telling you that you cannot stop the people you love from dying?" She presses her warm lips to his forehead, very gently. "You can't. That will happen. All you can do is protect yourself and them as long as you can, and hold on to the time you have with them as joyfully as possible. We say the shehechyanu because we are thankful we reached that season safely and joyfully." A pause, and she kisses his forehead again. "Seasons pass. Another season will come. More joy will follow. That is hope."]
Sidney just took deep breaths and accepted the burden for what life was like a man that had to walk too far and carry too much. Knowing one will starve and die if he were tos tand still there was an emotional shifting of weight and but a will to walk forward because the situation would not just change. He knew the answer to that one. "Because I don't want to be right. No one does, bubbe, but it is how it is... still sucks." more joy will follow , that is hope. He sighed and said, "and a storm will come and bury that in sand too, that... is reality." Such a Dusk, not even moping jsut accutely aware of the long picture. "I don't like being alone, but I can't go through that a fourth time, but to be fair I don't think he can either, and we can't walk away so here... we are." He took a deep breath and had to laugh at the irony of ti all, "Seriously why the ever proper penguin is all the scary stuff in likfe not made out of monsters? I mean we can DO something about monsters like hit them with a spray bottle or smack em with a stick or give them a hula hoop. Bar fight? Manageable. A day where nothing goes wrong? Terrifying." Apparetly that last one made sense to him because he kept right on going. "heh, it REALLY sucks, but... yeah. I mean it IS what I want I'm just... waiting for the earth to kick my teeth in again and everything... I dunno. Everything feels sharp" He paused and looked into her glowy eye pits, "But yeah I've decided to try and stay."
"That's how it works," Gisa answers, rocking Sid gently back and forth. "You know what they say about all of our holidays. 'They tried to kill us, they failed, let's eat.' Except some of us do die. But as a people, we go on. That's why all our humor is dark and all our parties are amazing." She kisses his forehead gain. "It's reality, Sidney. We don't have to like it, and it can be scary, and that's not how we want to live, but it's how life is. So we find hope where we can." Rock slowly back and forth, hug Sid, pet his hair. "The fact that you exist makes it okay for me sometimes. And I keep helping new people when we find them. So someday, when I die, there will be another golem to look after you." Her arms tighten around him. "Good. Stay. Help me make things better."
Sidney was at least while entirely unnerved by this was also strangely comforted. Just beyond futility was acceptance. The emotions were still real but the anxiety ebbed; at least as much as it was going to. He buried too many people and his solution was to break any substantial ties, and yet, here we all are. The Kid patted the Golem on her back and assured her, in spite of any esistential drift, "Hey, I didn't walk all teh way over here to leave you behind. You ain't alone, Gisa. Not while i'm alive enough to cause all my own problems. One thing though? Can we please keep CB off pontificating about car fires?" he took a deep breath and while he was back to all is casual in tone only, the rest of his expression read: that shit will always be too soon.
And that is when the lights go on, figuratively speaking, for the golem. "... I did not put two and two together," Gisa admits. "I knew you were upset but I must have missed the exact phrase that set you off." She squeezes Sid gently, still rocking him back and forth. "I should have noticed. I'm sorry that I didn't, bubbuleh. I'm so sorry." More gentle petting, and she sighs. "He means well."
And the last thing he wanted to dwell on right now was being back in that rollover. APparently he cleared his head of it lifting a hand to her cheeka nd patting it. "Hey, I wasn't going to bring strife into your home. I'll take that schmendrick outside or just go deal with my things myself. I mean he didn't know.It's not like he set out to do it and frankly what are the odds?" Out of pure instinct he looked up jsut expecting Lucky to descend on them answering that question, but he did not. Back at hand he offered, "Any more than I think he would have menat to offend you. He hasn't learned and anger is a terrible teacher, right? C'mon. let's light the candles. It'll be good for us."
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