Log:Pizza and Gossip

Pizza and Gossip
Participants Dielle, Gisa	8 June, 2017 Dielle visits Gisa at Tamarack Falls Jewish Books. They talk about current events and long-ago deaths.
Location MT03
It's been WAY too long since Dielle and Gisa got to hang out, and Gisa is prepared. There is sweet tea, and there's pizza. Gisa's gotten good local brick-oven pizza, and the scent fills the room. The unicorn's arrived, the hellos have been had, and now the boxes of pizza are being opened. One is just plain pizza, the other is a veggie pizza with white sauce. The golem grabs a piece of cheese and a piece of the white veggie pizza and settles down in her favorite chair. "I have been too busy," she confesses. "I forgot that we had shipment this morning and I could not meet Sidney for a bagel as we had discussed. I have not been around, and I am sorry for that." Gisa looks, frankly, kind of exhausted. Who knew that a ceramic person could have shadows under their eyes? Dielle comes in with a small succulent for Gisa, that she automatically sets down on the table. "Life happens. I'm just finishing up finals, so I haven't been available much, either! In fact, I finished my last one this morning, so yay, celebration pizza!" She goes to grab a glass of tea and a slice of each kind of pizza for herself. Then she settles in a chair that's cati-corner to where Gisa's sitting. "But I have missed you! You look tired." "Mazel tov! I knew there was a reason I was getting the pizza. I am proud of your accomplishments, Dielle." Her eyeflames flicker gently, and she smiles just a bit, contentedly. "I am very tired," admits Gisa, tucking her bare feet up underneath herself as she curls up with her pizza cradled on her lap. One hand waves dismissively, and then she picks up her cheese slice and tucks in. After the first bite, she asks, "Other than finals, how are you?" Dielle chews and swallows. "Don't congratulate me yet, I took them. I won't know if I passed for a bit. Ummm...I joined the Harvestmen. I'm teaching Haruki to fight. I figured out what major I want to change to." She takes a breath and considers. "Lots of little things. Still can't stand Max or Paige, but that's not new." "What about you, Gisa? Just working? How are things with Alonso?" Dielle wants to ask more personal questions, but decides that if that's going to come out properly, it needs to be organic. Or something like that. Surprisingly, there's not tons of Jon talk. "Just getting to the end of a semester with everything that is going on is an accomplishment. I will be happy again at your grades, I hope, but I am happy that you finished the semester," Gisa answers, shaking her head a little bit. "You mentioned you wanted to join the Harvestmen. How is that going? And is it connected with teaching Haruki to fight? Is he going to join as well?" You never know, after all, Max is a Custodian. Another bite of pizza as she listens; she swaps back and forth between the two varieties. "Mmm. I do not know Paige. Max still worries me." Her eyeflames dim a bit, then brighten again, as if she's looking down, or thinking for a moment. "I am... " But if she doesn't tell Dielle, who will she tell? "I am working to join the Pilgrims. Alonso challenged my dependence on prayer. And I think he is right. I have not been doing my morning prayers. And I am not -- together. But I am not -- getting better over time." Her shoulders rise and fall slowly. "Alonso is good. We are good. He challenges me." Beat. "How is Jon?" "Jon is working his ass off, and I don't get to see much of him, but when I do, it's still wonderful." Dee smiles a little, and is a little sad, at the same time. "It's about what I expected, though. Med student." She takes a breath and says, "I don't think that it's wrong to want a morning meditation in whatever form, to get yourself together. I think he's wrong. But I support you doing whatever you want to do." She takes another bite, chews and swallows, but it's a small bite. "Haruki just wants to learn to fight. He doesn't want to hurt anyone or join the Harvestmen. For which I am devoutly grateful. Oberon put him in enough danger." "It is good to have a man who works, but it is also sad when you do not see each other as much as you might wish to," agrees Gisa, and she finishes her first two slices, reaching for two more. Golems need fuel, mmkay? "It is good that you two are happy when you are together, though." There's a gentleness to that sentence, a reassurance. "It is reassuring that Haruki does not want to be in more danger. One Max is enough." And then she circles back to explain, "It is not about the ... meditation. It is about the dependence on it. I." Pause. "I began keeping to it very carefully after the first time that I -- that I killed someone in the course of protecting someone. Because I wasn't sorry. And I felt I should have been sorry. But I still am not sorry." A sigh. "He's right. I am dependent on it." "That's always been a thing with me and Jon," explains Dielle. "Just that we used to also have jobs in the same place, so we could at least see each other, if we couldn't just hang out." She sighs, and says, "Not so much anymore. But it's ok. It's what I signed on for." She considers Gisa. "If you agree that you're too dependent on it, it's not for me to contradict you. Maybe it's because you made it a habit, and you're trying not to do those, for whatever reason. But I do understand about not being sorry you killed someone." There's some knowledge there of her own, this is one she can understand about firsthand, and that's somewhat communicated by tone of voice. There's a sympathetic look from Gisa, one that Dielle, at least, can suss out. Knowing the golem's expressions can be a learned thing, after all. "I understand, yes. I think I would see a lot less of Alonso if he did not work at the store with me." Gisa's contentedly chowing down on the pizza, relaxing all the more as she talks with her friend. "I am glad of your commitment to him, and his to you." She nods once. "It isn't habit, it's dependence." And then she turns her face slightly. "I am still not sorry." "Was the person you killed a bad person?" asks Dee, curiously. Then she starts chowing down since she's still on her first two slices of pizza. And she's a hungry unicorn, and that question might take some thought. And it does take a lot of thought. Gisa sits very still, not eating, just looking off into the near distance. "She was someone who was a danger to the people I was sworn to protect. She was a clear and present danger." She shifts in her seat, quietly. "I carried out a sentence, Dielle, because the Summers were the offended parties, and I did it without... without it being revenge," she explains. "I have not spoken about it in thirty years." Dielle leans forward. "Gisa, I may be the last person who will ever fault you for it. I think that sometimes, the sacrifice that we Dawns make isn't entirely our own. For both of us, it was the knowledge that we can do something horrific and not feel shame for it, but because it needs doing. It isn't easy knowledge." A small, grateful smile slips across Gisa's face like one of those flickers that pass through her eyeflames now and again. "It was a sacrifice," she finally admits, as if she hadn't thought of it that way before. "I was doing what I must do," the golem agrees, adding, "I would do it again. I am not going to be sorry, but I feel as though I should -- I should regret killing someone, even if I do not regret killing her. It is the end of potential, when a life is ended." She looks down at her hands, then, clearing her through with that tumbled-rocks sound. Dielle says, quietly, "You saved more potential than you ended, and you saved hope for many more than you ended it for. And to do that, you sacrificed some peace of mind for yourself forever." She straightens her shoulders and says, "There are things worth doing that for." Her head tilts a little more forward, and Gisa doesn't say anything in response to that. For once, the golem is entirely silent; she presses her ceramic lips together, and they make a sort of strange squeaking sound when she does so. She bites her lower lip with her diamond teeth, and then nods, just once. Clears her throat again. Dielle nods once, significantly, and retires back to her pizza, giving Gisa some time to consider that viewpoint. It's damn good pizza. And a difficult viewpoint to incorporate. In the end, rather than answering about that directly, Gisa reaches for another piece of white veggie pizza, folds it in half lengthwise, and takes a bite of it. "How is teaching Haruki going?" She's clearly tucking the words Dielle said away for later thought and pondering: it may just be too much right now. Dielle understands. It took her some time to get there, as well. "Slowly. Our first session was just to test some of what he knows. He already knows quite a bit. I did recommend that he take some aikido classes, since he doesn't really want to learn to punch. I suspect most of what I'll be doing is personal training for strength, stamina and flexibility." "That sounds like a lot of fun. If you need help with any teaching, I make a good person for someone to train with, because I am very difficult to hurt." The subject change is complete. Clearly Gisa's still thinking, because her eyeflames are still flickering subtly, but it's time to eat pizza and talk about combat training. "It is good for him to be able to defend himself. Is Oberon leaving him be, now?" "He'd better be, or Byron will kick his ass in," says Dielle with some serious satisfaction. "And drag him before the Queen." She takes a breath and says, "But I don't think Oberon's accepting any responsibility for his own actions. I talked to him a little, last weekend. He had to leave quickly, but he was trying to get as much pity as he could. Which is problematic, since I don't have any pity for him." "Hnnnghhhh." Well, that's a noise that Gisa hasn't made in Dielle's presence before, something between a tortured sigh and a bewildered moan. "I suppose I ought not to be surprised. I do not know him very well -- I think I have met him twice -- but everything I have heard about this situation has been genuinely distressing. I do not know Byron well either, but -- if he is heading up the Harvestmen... " "I don't know Byron well, either, but I find I trust him. Well, I trust him way more than Paige, at any rate, but that's not a high bar to jump, y'know? I do trust Byron to keep an eye on things and the Harvestmen are under orders to keep an eye on Oberon." Dielle's eyes widen. "Mind you, I almost feel bad for the guy, what with his sister and all." Like she just remembered. "Hmm," agrees Gisa. "It is important to trust the person who you are trusting with your life, in one way or another. You will be trusting him to give you assignments or send you on things and... it is important to be able to trust him. Yes, I know you do not trust his lieutenant, but you can trust him at the end of the day." And then Gisa's forehead wrinkles up. "His -- sister? Who him? Sister?" Clearly this is a piece of the puzzle that Gisa doesn't have. "I trust Byron because he doesn't send people to do what he won't." Dielle sighs and puts down her pizza crust. "Oberon's sister was Kerrigan. She and I were scouting out a site for the Harvestmen hollow. She was killed. I couldn't save her." Her voice is quiet and a little flat. This death bothers her. Setting down her pizza, Gisa reaches for a napkin, wipes her hands clean and then reaches over and rests her warm palm on Dielle's forearm. "May her memory be a blessing." A gentle squeeze, and then Gisa pulls her hand back. "I am so sorry, Dielle." The matter of how it affects Oberon is left to the side for the time being; what's important is how it affects her friend. "Thank you," is all Dielle says. "I can't save everyone. That will never stop bothering me. I did save her dog, it's the only real consolation."