melodiesoflife | How Many Cooks do we Have, Anyway?

Entry tags:

How Many Cooks do we Have, Anyway?

WHO: Barkeep, Tear, Santa, Lust, and Tsubomi
WHAT: Working on this Job quest: help Moglin build a chocolate statue.
WHEN: Marsh 18-25
WHERE: Planning at the Space Saloon, then building it outside of the Castle.
NOTES: There are multiple header threads, feel free to threadjack for maximum fun!

[This was a fun idea. The Barkeep may not celebrate Easter - or whatever they called it here - but how can he refuse to build something out of chocolate? That's the easiest quest he had ever heard of. Not easy for most people, but a less of a stressful project for this esteemed cook and househusband.

The difficult part comes from deciding what to make, as that will determine the materials he has to buy for the molds. Still, after buying a large, metal cooker to melt chocolate and tubes for squeezing out little bits for decoration, he sends out a letter to the other four given this task asking them to meet at his place and plan it all out.

He's going to give Moglin the best chocolate statue ever.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There's a small notepad in front of each team member when the rest sit down, and larger sheet of paper taped onto an empty wall of Mordecai's back office. He remains standing, pacing in front of it as he speaks.]

Alright, we only got a little over a week to build this, but that don't mean we can take as much time as we want. If we're gonna make the biggest statue Moglin's ever seen, we got plan it all out.

[He stops, holding his hands behind his back.]

Now, durin' my time as mayor of Mars, I learned a few things about meetin's. This is why you all got your own notebook, to jot your ideas down. Then we'll share 'em with each other. [He picks up a pen and sits on a chair by the large sheet of paper.] Five minutes, write down whatever, then we'll convene and talk about all our ideas until we get one amazin' one.

Ready? Time start! Go team! [And he begins scribbling. Once five minutes are up, he stands up and uncaps a black marker.]

Now, what are some things you came up with?

[Santa's never been one to follow instructions, so after the five minutes are up, all Santa has is a paper airplane with doodles of choco-Godzilla crushing a stick figure with a Barkeep-like mustache. Not to say he doesn't have ideas- he's just not going to be a good citizen and put them in a neat little list. He tosses the airplane and watches it whiz through the air.]

Look, if this puff-ball's never seen a chocolate statue before, anything we make will be fine, right? We ain't got any standards to live up to.

An egg.

[That was the only suggestion that seemed reasonable to Lust. She idly watches the paper airplane fly by.]

Carving and molding chocolate seems rather messy. Perhaps it's better if we simply focus our efforts on decorating, rather than sculpting.

[Why is everyone so bleh here? Tsubomi, however, went for something different - a Moogle]

W-well, it would be simple, b-but maybe we should be able to at least appease to those here. M-Maybe we can do two?

An egg? [Deflated, but the Barkeep writes it on the whiteboard, anyway. At least Lust has a suggestion that isn't in the form of a paper airplane slowly gliding to a stop at his feet.] Traditional and easy, can't go wrong with that one.

[But it's a terrible and boring idea. Not that he would voice it so early in the meeting.]

They only asked for one huge statue, and it's for Mysidia, not here. Don't have to worry about local opinions on that.

Egg's too boring, unless we fill it with shit. That end up being more work, making enough candy and toys and stuff to fill it.

[He scratches the back of his head absently.] We could just do a rabbit. That's what everyone else does.

[Lust shrugs casually, unphased by the rejection of her sole idea. It isn't as if she's had the time and luxury to expose herself to any sort of creative arts in her five or so years of existence. Besides, this job was ill-assigned to a being such as herself, and made poor use of her skills. If this project turned out to be a failure, then the job giver had only him/herself to blame.]

[So she listens to the other suggestions, not really caring one way or the other what they want to choose. In the end they're still making a sculpture out of food. It seems ridiculous.]

I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of an egg and filling it... [ Except Tear's voice was rather soft when she said it, because with the way this crew seemed to be shaping it likely wouldn't be the best idea.

As for her own idea? She wasn't in a hurry to share it either since it had already been suggested, but if anyone looked to her they would notice her still idly drawing a particular type of rabbit. ]

[But it's so uncreative! The Barkeep could be disappointed in the unproductiveness of the meeting, but like a good leader, he has to make up for the small list of ideas.]

Egg's got a lot of empty space inside. We can try a rabbit of somethin' with a bigger surface area to volume ratio and fill that in with caramel or mousse or whatever you want.

So. [He draws a loose outline of an Earth rabbit on the sheet of paper.] Rabbit. What other animals do they like there?

[Santa is so done with this song and dance.]

Look, this is like Easter, right? So it's rabbits and chickens. Or chocobos or whatever chickens on steroids they got here. That's how it is on Earth.

[People here were into chocobos, right? They had races and everything. And they were sturdier than rabbits.]

Last time I checked, chickens ain't related to Easter. It's eggs and sometimes ham, usually at the same time. Trust me, I lived a Earth for a while.

[Until his early teenage years, but he keeps up with the times on Mars.]

N-No, no, he's right... B-But, we all have different ways of celebrating it.

[And Tsubomi slinks back a bit.]

Really, though, I... kinda don't. It's not that big back home, really.

[He doesn't hear the last bit, but Tsubomi brought up a good point.]

So if we do it all different, how about findin' somethin' those versions all have in common or mix 'em up together at the least. Like a chicken standin' on top of a rabbit.

[Santa huffs. 'Lived on Earth for a while,' huh? Laaaaame.]

Look, I'm from Earth, so trust me. Chicks are a part of it.

An' there's no reason to get all complicated. If you have things stacked up, you're going to have to build a whole foundation to support it, and then there's transportation...

[Ok, there are logistical problems with getting too fancy with this, especially with the amateur crew, but Santa doesn't wanna look like he cares or anything. He shrugs.]

We don't gotta reinvent the wheel or anything. Just make a big-ass rabbit and let's be done with it.

Agreed. I'd prefer to get this over with. Are they providing the supplies for this statue, or are we supposed to come up with the materials on our own?

[She doesn't look particularly annoyed or amused; she just wants to take up her new job and see if it can really do what it says it can.]

[Santa and Lust won't budge on their stances. As much as he disagrees with them, this is a group project, and the sad thing about being a leader is that you have to make compromises with the people you're in charge of.

Sigh.] Right. Looks like we agree on large bunny, stylized however we feel like it. We're gonna be in charge of buyin' supplies, I'll get the chocolate.

Alright. [Santa is mollified by Barkeep's agreement, so he figures he can do his part.]

I guess I can see if this place has any baking supplies. Candy molds and carving knives and those little piping bags and shit.

[He shudders.] It's gonna get messy, so don't wear anything you care about wearing again.

[The time has come. All materials have been gathered at the designated location. The cool weather helps with solidifying the chocolate, but will the group be able to build something before Easter? And will it collapse on itself?]

[Despite Santa's failure with the planning part of the mission, he's here for the actual doing part. He wants his new job...and it's not like he's never made stupid fancy chocolates before. He'd made sure Akane had homemade chocolates on her birthday and White Day, growing up.]

[He's got his hair pulled back with a headband, and a black and white apron to protect his clothes. He cracks his knuckles and looks around.]

Alright, losers. We need to temper this chocolate before we start molding. We got a double boiler?

Right here. [The barkeep arrives, wearing a vest and old pants instead of the usual robes, wearing an apron covering the entire front of his body. In rolls a cart with two portable heaters and four double boilers onto the work area. When he said he was going to get everything ready, he meant it. As far as he know, no one else here knew how chocolate worked.]

Might have to form an assembly line at some point. [He taps on one of the boilers with a knuckle.] Bought some of the easiest models to work with.

...You did a lotta research beforehand, didn't ya. Nice to see folks takin' initiative.

[Guess who didn't take any initiative and is just standing there holding her spear, waiting for orders? ...What? Homunculi weren't created to express their own wishes and ideals, nor are they known for expressing creativity. They're there to serve a master. Even if Lust has her independence, she doesn't know the first thing about chocolate or art. But if they need her to use the hook or blade of her spear to carve, she can probably manage that.]

Just how big is this statue going to be?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

How Many Cooks do we Have, Anyway?

Planning

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Our Grand Creation

no subject

no subject

no subject