datacycle | under new management [OPEN: Hex Soup Kitchen mini-mingle]

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under new management [OPEN: Hex Soup Kitchen mini-mingle]

CHARACTERS: Orpheus, & anyone!!!
DATE: May 5th-15th, the period the NPCs have vanished
LOCATION: The Hex "Diner"
SITUATION: It's mutual aid time, baby! GET YO FREE FOOD
WARNINGS: N/A (as of yet)

When the NPCs disappeared, Orpheus went to the Diner and saw no one there.

Well, what a horrible thing to let waste. There's a lot of folks here who can't get groceries or cook on their own--this place needs to run, and people need to get fed. Even those who are perfectly able-bodied only benefit from the diner's operation. And while this place's usual style runs on money, he has different plans.

First, he sends out a call for help.

Then Orpheus cracks his knuckles and gets to work.

[ OOC: this is the mini-mingle log for the Hex Diner that's been commandeered by Orpheus and turned into a local soup kitchen. The food is warm and filling and it's free for even volunteers to take. Because this effort spans many muses, this is here as a way to centralize prompts and threads that specifically concern this place, rather than spreading it across a bajillion open logs.

There's also an OOC post for everyone who's helping out to sound off. You can also plot there! Or plot on the actual May synopsis post, it's your choice.]

There are lots of roles one can take when helping out. Ideas to help get brain juices flowing but by no means are necessary:

one: the food. || You're in the kitchen helping prepare enough food to feed fifty or sixty mouths, give or take. Or you're one of the people who takes the stuff the kitchen makes and divvies them up to make proper dishes to be served. Get crackin'! Hopefully nothing goes wrong. Don't burn yourself in a fryer accident, please.

two: serving. || Once the plates are made, they have to be served. Either you're at the counter meting out the food and swatting away hands who are trying to take much more than their fair share, you're one of the waiters who are making sure everyone's cups are topped off and they've got plenty of napkins, or you're helping run deliveries throughout the city.

three: pantry. || You're helping keep stock and manage incoming food deliveries, and swatting away looters. Or you're one of the people trying to pilfer ten cheese wheels. Maybe you get away with it; they can't stop everyone. It's not as if this place works all hours on the clock, but some might stay behind to help look after the space...

four: cleaning. || A place this busy needs a lot of cleaning. Clean the floor, clean the tables, clean the bathrooms, clean the dishes. Some of this kitchen equipment needs a really good scrape once the day is out. Did anybody check the grease trap?

five: eating. || Maybe you're just here sitting at the tables enjoying the free stuff, a sitting duck to be bothered by some stranger. Or the kitchen's wrapping up for the night and you're here to take your pickings of what can't be kept for the next morning. Now is the acceptable time to take fifteen extra boxes. What do you need with those, anyway?

six: numbers. || You're on clerical and organizational duty. Schedules and volunteer shifts. Numbers for the population versus the meals, and the amount of food that needs to be cooked for each one. Figuring out what the next day's menu is gonna be, taking in dietary considerations, and deciding whether the kitchen has the means and the supplies to get it done. And if it doesn't, finding alternatives or ways to make it happen. Might have to put out a call for someone to raid the nearest grocery...

seven: wildcard || You don't need me to tell you this, but you can do whatever the hell else you want that has to do with the Hex Diner space. Go fuckin' buckwild. You don't need to be on the volunteering side to tag in, you just need to be here. Whether you're kicking back at a random table playing on your phone, or standing there surprised at the way the place has changed, or filling in some other volunteering stuff I haven't covered, you're welcome to toplevel. Or not! I'm not the boss of you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

one

[Orpheus has taken to doing a little bit of everything once the ball gets rolling. He's here, he's there, checking this, checking that, flitting between the kitchen and being a waiter and checking up on the pantry and answering every question he can manage that a volunteer has to ask. Mostly the kitchen, though. He's a busy bird and a proactive one; he set this up and he's determined to keep it going, plunging into this project headfirst with a confidence as bright as a star.

It takes a lot of energy, though, and by the end of each night he usually looks beat. Still, he's in good spirits, humming away as he cleans up dishes once they've closed service for the night and left out their extras for pickup, preparing for the next morning. A record that somebody picked up from the new mall is softly playing in the background. Someone got a turntable in here, apparently.]

Gods, I haven't done something like this in a while, [he says into the quiet air, to anyone who will listen.] It feels good.

[Then he yawns.]

D'you think the NPCs will be mad when they come back?

two

[Even though he's already working so hard, Orpheus has taken up post at least once in the Diner's pantry to guard it from looting at night, plucking away gently at his guitar to while away the hours. They may provide free meals, but they need to be organized to do it. That includes making sure they have everything they need to make the food during the day.

So if he gets any visitors... well, he won't look up. Won't get mad. Just give them a gentle reminder.]

We can feed you free of charge in the day, you know.

three

[wildcard!!! feel free to just hit me up!]

Edited 2021-05-05 06:41 (UTC)

[The turntable matches the one from the Partycrash nightclub; Coda donated the one that had been in their room after moving out. The record is also something Coda found--some mostly-instrumental chillstep, easy to hold conversations over while setting a relaxed mood in the room.]

Have you eaten yet? Sit, I'll finish washing these plates. As for the NPCs, if they're mad we can tell them about what the alternative was. Better we work together than every man for himself, ye?

‘Suppose I haven’t…

[His first instinct is to protest: no, please, he’s got this,
let him take care of it, let him help. It’s what he’s been doing all damn day, pulling as much of the legwork of keeping this place running as he can. Exhausted as he is, the effort is well worth it. He’s never been more in his element in all his time in Svelte than now.

But what’s the point of a community kitchen if the doesn’t let the community help, even for the small things? Ah.

So he just smiles warmly, lifting his hands out of the basin andy pulling off his gloves.]

Alright then. Your turn.

[Which is to say “thank you.”

He grabs one of the leftover prepared meals out front, comes back, and sits down heavily somewhere nearby. He would’ve opted for a countertop if 1) this weren’t a kitchen, and 2) he wasn’t so tired. His feet hurt.]

Mm. I thought that I should take the opportunity to organize. Food is a right. It shouldn’t have to be paid for, the basics at least—and when the NPCs vanished and all their rules and roles with ‘em, I knew someone had to protect this place. We had to protect it.

… Where I’m from, the state of things is pretty poor; too many folks flit from place to place, following the fair-weather and running from winter, jobless, homeless, often without family, always without food. In the cities, the kitchen lines stretch, wrappin’ around entire blocks like a rattlesnake. But at least they were there at all.

[Hum.] When the wind starts to blow, a community’s got to stick together if it doesn’t want to scatter to pieces. I’m a country kid, you know. It’s the only way we get by.

Orpheus | Hadestown

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one!

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Two

Coda - Changeling: the Lost

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2.

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Jumping on the 2 train.