[mingle log] Working In Paradise

[kokuyoyo]

Who: Anyone visiting or working at the Lazarus Bell Cafe
What: The Cafe's grand opening!
When: December 1
Where: Lazarus Bell Cafe

After a month of carefully preparing everything, the cafe is finally having its grand opening! And since it's a Saturday, that means it's fully staffed and hopping.

Whatever the weather might be like outside, it's perfectly arm and toasty inside of the cafe itself... Although some people on the outside dining areas might like that chill. Or perhaps they're simply looking for a table that's not filled to the brim. Either way, it does't matter. After all, the menu has been updated for the winter season!

There are all sorts of things available for customers: peppermint hot chocolate, elderberry-ginger tea, and turmeric-black tea brew, among other things. Of course, there's also the old favorites that are being brought from the demo cafe that happened during the Flower Festival, so don't worry! You're still free to buy that lavender cake you like so much.

Of course, for the people working during all this, it might not be as easy but hey....

Comments

[hachitaro]

Taro hates working. He really, truly does. Still, he's managed to drag himself out of bed and to the Cafe, because if nothing else it'll give him a lot more people to meet.

A

Taro can be found flitting from table to table, taking orders and running them to the kitchen. He's quick, and he's got a charming smile, even keeping it when there's a customer or two who has a complain.

Of course, maybe a customer - or coworker - doesn't like how lightly he seems to be taking some of the complaints, but at least he's getting things done...

B

... Of course, Taro only has so much patience. And, for that matter, so much energy. Sometimes a guy just needs to crash.

It would probably be better if he's not napping on top of some of the much-needed supplies, though. How is he comfortable like that? It's a mystery.

[kokuyoyo]

A - On The Clock

Chikusa has wisely decided that he's not the type to be out and about serving people. Even if he does his best to go along with what he recalls of Ciro's memories and mannerisms, he's still going to inevitably be too blunt with someone or another. And all that constant smiling? Shoot him, please.

So instead, any other workers can find him in the kitchen with his short hair pulled back and an apron tied around his neck and waist. Despite how sleepy looking he seems to be at any given time- in fact, he still looks like he's half asleep right now- Chikusa still apparently keeping up surprisingly well with all the orders that are coming in.

Still, he could use a hand.... Or are you here just to come give him more orders to whip up?

B - Break time

Even though it's entering the winter season, Chikusa can still be found outside slumped back into a chair and his long legs stretched out before him. The apron is nowhere to be found; no one can recognize him as an employee to be bothered this way. His fingers are curled around a warm mug of something or other, but he's not drinking it right away. Instead, slowly, he blows out some warm breath of his own and watches as it disperses.

It doesn't seem like he's doing anything right now...

C - Clean Up

It's been a successful day, probably. At least, Chikusa hopes so, if only to keep this ruse running for a nice long while. Since he's technically the manage of this place, it's up to him to help close out before night can fall and curfew can take place.

Still, while it's close to closing.... Is that another person coming through the doors? Is that one lingering for too long?

Excuse the.... very focused if dull eyed stare that's coming your way as the teenager over there helps clean the counters...

D - Wildcard

[As the manager, Chikusa can also be bothered if someone is having issues, so feel free to harass him at any given point in time. Also, other workers are free to bother him in the back room. If ANY of this doesn't appeal, feel free to approach me with anything and I'll usually go along with it!]

B

[kokuyoyo]

On one hand, it's not as if Chikusa isn't sympathetic. He, too, would like to just crumple on the floor and go to sleep forever. It'd be nice. He could ignore work that way.

But on the other hand....

Enjoy that foot nudging into you, Taro. "I need those..." Yeah. He's not bothering sleep as a manager, he's doing it for his own primary job.

[hachitaro]

Taro cracks an eye open and looks at Chikusa. "Muh."

He rolls over onto the floor. This is Fine. "I didn't think there'd be so many people here today..."

B

[lovelledup]

Gladion found Chikusa falling asleep in random places when they were setting this place up, and now he's gone back to the storage area and finds Taro asleep on top of the stacks of utensil boxes he was going to go open. Sleeping on top of boxes of forks really cannot be comfortable... but that's beside the point. He sighs with exasperation.

"Not you too."

A

[lovelledup]

Gladion started off trying to be a server. Not because he wanted to but because they needed one. Now? He'll be lucky if he doesn't yell at someone or punch them or something and he has thankfully found someone else to switch positions with. Though now that he's finished with the immediate task that person had been working on, he finds himself at a loss for what to do next.

"Do you need help back here?"

A

[de_light]

At least one of his patrons is both very familiar and unlikely to complain about much of anything under the circumstances. He's actually impressed at how well things are running, considering he's been aware of some of the setup and how much work the students put in. He smiles back when Kei gets to his order.

"An elderberry-ginger tea and a piece of the lavender cake, please."

[kokuyoyo]

"Yes." There's the dull cracking noise of an egg hitting the edge of a counter top. "But I don't want anything to get messed up..." This isn't a point of professional pride for Chikusa or anything. Honestly, he could care less what his so-called customers think. However, if he ruins something, that just means he'll have to make it all over again.... Effort. Annoying, annoying effort.

Still, as he prepares some things, he at least glances over in Gladion's direction. "....Could you do simple things?"

[kokuyoyo]

"It'll slow." It better fucking slow. "But first time openings..." Or something like that.

For the time being, Chikusa just allows this since it makes stepping on Taro easier. "There's an actual staff room on the second floor."

[hachitaro]

Taro looks up at Gladion, stretching. "What? ... I'm tired."

[hachitaro]

Oh. Great. He keeps a smile plastered on his face as he writes down the order. "Of course. Would you like anything else with that, or should I go and take this order back for you now?"

[lovelledup]

He gives him a frustrated look. "So is everyone."

[lovelledup]

Given his mood, he has to try not to bristle at the implication that he would mess something up. He knows Chikusa doesn't mean it that way, but it's a sort of thing he heard too many times from Skull grunts being all high and mighty about how he wasn't one of them. He just nods to the question.

"When I lived alone," he catches himself there and adds, "before this place," to clarify he's talking about the real memories and not the fake life, "I used to cook for myself. I don't know how you're making everything here, but I can handle it." As long as he knows what he's supposed to be doing, he'll be fine.

[de_light]

He can tell Kei isn't entirely happy to see him. And he's not really surprised by that, all things considered. The way there's only the slightest shift in his expression and he keeps the smile is... commendable for a waiter, probably.

"That's all for now."

[hachitaro]

He does his best. Mostly because he kind of needs this job. "Very good. I'll be back in a few moments with your tea."

Once he goes in the back and screams into a cup.

[hachitaro]

"Yeah but you're not used to the sun being up meaning it's time to go to bed." He has like a hundred twenty years on you, Gladion. "... Tch. Why do we have to run a cafe? Couldn't we have just gotten enough money to buy a warehouse or something?"

[hachitaro]

He will deal with this. Right now he's just too sleepy. "I was just taking like a ten minute nap..." He's supposed to be out on the floor soon and he knows it. Ugh.

[kokuyoyo]

Another kick. "Ten minutes elsewhere.... that's not on cooking products." He'll kick your ass, Taro, don't think he won't.

[singlefaith]

A. Ran's strength is in her cooking and baking skills, so she's taken over the cake and cookie-making for the moment. Both seem to be flying out the door, so it's mostly been all she can do to keep up, letting Chikusa handle the regular cooking.

She can probably be found in the back area of the kitchen where she can spread out, away from the prep area for the rest of the food so that there's no cross-contamination. She's busy, hands tapping an egg there, dashing flour into a measuring cup (though seeming assured enough not to look at it too carefully), working the mixer.

She actually seems to be enjoying herself, though -- there's a small smile that hasn't quite left, and you might occasionally catch her humming. There are smudges of flour all over her, including on her nose.

Catch her at a busy moment, or when it's starting to calm down a little.

B. With all the work that's gone into getting the cafe ready functionally, not as much effort has gone into the decor yet, and that's something that Ran intends to change. Camped out at a table in the corner, Ran is busy cutting snowflakes for the windows in different colors of paper -- white and silver, blues and purples. A boxed tangle of lights -- mostly white -- sit on the seat across from her.

A

[transient_specter]

Makoto's strengths are neither in cooking nor in serving people, so he's been mostly working on hauling things around. For the moment though he... has nothing to haul, so he wanders over to Ran's area. His hands are at least clean - he'd had that drilled into his head, to wash his hands any time he was in the kitchen and not the storeroom - which is good because he immediately puts his hands on the table where she's working, looking at what she's doing with curiosity.

... He knows she's baking something, but what exactly it is, he's not sure.

[hachitaro]

He whines, flailing at Chikusa's leg. "Everything else is too lumpy, though."

[singlefaith]

Ran's just finishing up some spiced molasses cookies as he comes over, polishing off the last bit of glaze by drizzling it over the cookies. She glances up as she senses another presence near the table, her smile immediate as she recognizes who it is. "Makoto-san."

"You can try one if you want -- the glaze just hasn't set yet."

[kokuyoyo]

Another kick, the exact same as before. Don't make him aim for something vulnerable. He'll do it. "There's a bed. It's not too lumpy."

[kokuyoyo]

So someone who actually knows what he's doing instead of.... other people. Like Makoto. Chikusa tosses an egg shell away and nods to one mixing bowl that's been placed to the side. "Can you stir that? I'm making another cake..." The slices might go individually, after all, but that's still a lot of slices being sent out to plates.

In the meantime, that means he can focus on other orders that come in which can't be made for multiple people with one recipe. At least, that's what he hopes he'll be able to do.

[transient_specter]

"Erm." He's quiet for a few long moments, before glancing at all of the baking items around. "... It's not that. I was just... curious. ... About what you were doing. ... I haven't really seen anyone baking before." Ryu-san didn't bake, and any time Onari or the others ever made something with the oven he wasn't really around.