itscurtains | Week One

Entry tags:

act 3,
week 1

Week One

[Yesterday, everyone woke up in a strange place and realized that they'd been kidnapped, and also that everyone else around them may or may not be kinnies? Wow, what a weird escalation of kin drama! Given what some people have seen of Spongebob's freaky arm thing, though, maybe it's not that at all?

Your Assistant Director, Hester, showed off her stuff and immediately had her life threatened by Lumpy Space Princess, who got her life threatened right back. Maybe you should keep that in mind if you decide to pay Hester any more visits! She won't be making another public appearance this week, but as promised, she'll be available for visits and consultation in the Principal's Office during business hours.

If you don't want to chat with Hester, there's always the school to explore! Some of you might also be receiving mysterious coins next to your bedside this week - those must be useful for something, right? There's lots to do, and you all seem like a group who can make your own fun, so enjoy your first week of school!]

Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday

(( OOC: This will be the last mod post for this week! Feel free to start submitting regains for any threads that aren't with Hester. Remember, song threads mean an extra coin! This is a peace week, so get all that CR while you can! ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It could get dirt on it. I guess this floor's pretty clean, though?

[ No way to track dirt in from outside when you can't go outside! Still, Orpheus turns on one of the sinks and rinses the fish off briefly before setting it on a cutting board and turning on the stove, letting the pan heat up while he looks for some kind of cooking fat. Thankfully there's a bottle of olive oil on a shelf nearby, which he uses to coat the pan. ]

I'm Orpheus, by the way. It's nice to meet you! [ he says, smiling over at the strange man. ]

[Mumble watches with no small fascination as Orpheus turns on the sink and the stove, and takes some flat round thing and pours what definitely doesn't look like water into it.]

I'm Mumble! It's nice to meet you too, Orpheus. [He does a little head-bob of greeting. Then, his attention diverts back to the pan, and like, the entirety of everything going on around it.] What is all this?

Oh, um. I was going to fry it, if that's okay with you? It seemed easiest.

[ Orpheus pauses, thinking about Mumble's general look of fascination and his earlier confusion when he offered to cook for him. ]

Have you not watched someone cook before?

No - no, we don't really do that. At all.

[And he's only vaguely familiar with what he means by the word through context clues.]

It's more of an Alien thing.

Aliens? [ Orpheus blinks owlishly, before something seems to dawn on him. ] Are you not human?

[ Because that would explain some things. The fact that whoever Mumble's 'we' is apparently doesn't cook at all, the weird body language, the trying to pick things up with his teeth. ]

Oh, no. [He says it with a lot of friendliness for someone who has had to answer this question multiple times so far, to varying results.] I’m a penguin.

Oh, okay. [ Orpheus nods. Yeah, that makes sense. Of course he's only ever really heard about the gods turning humans into animals, but he guesses there's nothing stopping them from doing it the other way around! ] So I guess you don't know what any of this is, then? Hmm.

[ Orpheus looks at the pan, where the thin layer of oil on the bottom is now just barely starting to shimmer with the heat. How best to explain this? ]

This is a stove. The little circles on top of it make fire - do you know what that is? And that heats up the pan [ which he points to ] so that food that gets put in it changes texture. Depending on what kind of food, it can get softer, or more tender, or it can harden, like the eggs Spongebob is making.

[ He gestures over to where the other man is working. ]

Most humans also think food tastes better when it's cooked. I don't know if that'll be true for penguins? But we can find out.

[Mumble follows attentively, completely interested and invested in the walkthrough explanation. Being here, he's felt completely in the dark about...well...nearly everything. He's a naturally curious penguin, but it feels like he's asking questions left and right.

At least people are ready to help him out. With varying levels of confusion themselves.

He nods alongside Orpheus, signalling he's following.]

I'm looking forward to trying it! You can't really find much that isn't cold back home, haha.

[#arctic probz]

This all seems kinda complicated, though. You don't just...eat it?

It's complicated, but sometimes when we eat raw meat or fish it makes us really sick. I don't know if that's true for penguins? You might have stronger stomachs than us.

[ In any case, the pan's hot enough now, so Orpheus takes a moment to pat the fish dry with a towel and lays it carefully in the oil, where it begins to sizzle away merrily. ]

And it's kind of an art form? I'm not the best at it, but with the right ingredients and methods, someone who knows what they're doing can make food taste completely different and much better than what goes into it. There are people who devote their lives to learning how to do it.

[Oooh, hear that sizzle. It's a delightful sound, and smells good too!]

That's a lot of dedication. [He nods with appreciation, for the craft.] Must use up a lot of food, too.

It can, sometimes.

[ Orpheus frowns a little, thinking about how wasteful some big city restaurants can be. Not that he has much experience with those personally, but it's something he's vaguely aware of. ]

But cooking can also be a good way to stretch food out so it lasts for more meals, or stays good to eat for longer. Like how we can't eat bones normally, but if we heat them in a pot of water it makes something called stock, which is can be pretty tasty and good for you, and lasts longer than meat would on its own.

You don't eat the bones? [Your species is kinda weak. No offence.] That's smart, though. We don't exactly have a lot of food back home. If we could make the fish last longer...that'd solve a lot of our problems.

[But fish are...pretty small. And penguins are pretty needy.]

[ Not everyone can just swallow their prey whole Mumble. ]

Oh, [ says Orpheus, frowning sympathetically. ] It's the same where I come from. We've been having really big storms and droughts for years, and it's made it hard to grow food or raise animals or hunt, so everyone has to be really careful about how much they eat. This - [ he gestures around at the kitchen ] - is the most food I've seen all in one place in a really long time. I hope it's enough to last all of us for as long as we're here.

I'm sorry to hear that, too. [He frowns, then looks over at the food.] How long do you think that's gonna be?

Oh, just a moment.

[ Orpheus takes a spatula and flips the fish over in the pan. ]

It won't take as long to cook on this side, since it's already heated through. I will warn you that you can't eat it right away, because it'll be really hot when it's done and you might burn yourself? But I hope it'll be worth the wait.

Oh, I- I meant about being stuck here. But that's good too.

[He can't deny, he is totally looking forward to that fish.]

You know, if you hadn't told me, I would've thought you were an expert at this.

Oh, that. [ Orpheus frowns, looking thoughtful. ] I don't really know? I don't think any of us would actually try to hurt anyone else, and they can't keep us here forever, right? The Wizard will have to realize we're not going to give them what they want eventually and let us go.

[ Which may be an optimistic way of looking at the situation, but, well, that's all Orpheus has got. Anyway, once he's got a decent sear on the other side of the fish, he lifts it out of the pan and sets it on one of the spare cafeteria trays. Classy! ]

It should only take a little bit to cool, but after that it's all yours.

[Mumble agrees with a nod.]

I'm sure that if we can just talk to The Wizard we can sort all of this out. We can just appeal to their better nature.

[Easy! He watches as Orpheus sets the fish down on the tray.]

Aren't you gonna have any?

Exactly! Miss Hester said we couldn't talk to the Wizard yet, but that means we probably can in the future? And I'm sure we can persuade them that this isn't going to work.

[ Orpheus beams, glad to have someone on the same page as him. ]

And I'm fine! I ate with Spongebob earlier. Here, try it now, though. I think it should've cooled off enough?

Yeah! I'm sure there's a logical explanation for all of this, and nobody has to get hurt at all. And - oh, right.

[Fish time!]

Thanks, Orpheus.

[He beams, and then...picks it up in his mouth and tries to swallow it whole.]

[ Well, okay! Orpheus cooked it pretty competently, so chances are it's going to fall apart a little on him, tender and flaky but uh, still probably full of bones! Maybe he should have thought of this earlier, when Mumble was trying to swallow it whole the first time. ]

Um. If you're having trouble we can break it up into pieces that are easier to swallow. It might be a little big right now.

[Yeah, with the limitations of a human body, this isn't happening.]

That might help.

[He says, with a mouthful of fish.]

[ Orpheus will hold up the tray again for Mumble to spit the fish out onto, and grab a knife and fork to cut it up into more bite-sized pieces. He'll also just... remove the bones, just in case. He doesn't want Mumble choking on one or something. ]

Here, this might be a little easier. We don't really swallow our food whole a lot of the time? It's what these are for. [ He curls his upper lip back and points to his teeth. ]

Oh, so you guys are like the leopard seals. You tear things apart when you eat them. Your teeth don't look very sharp, though.

[He looks at the cutlery, having just watched the fish be carved up.]

Is that why you have those?

They aren't. I think it's because we usually eat more plants than we do meat? So they're good for cutting and chewing up tough things.

[ He's pretty sure someone told him that or he read it somewhere. ]

And forks and knives [ he gestures with each as he says the word, for Mumble's benefit ] are useful because sometimes things are too big to break down with our teeth, or would make a big mess and waste food if we tried. Here, though, this should be easier.

[ He holds the tray with the bite sized pieces of now de-boned fish out to Mumble again, pretty sure that he's just going to go for it face first again and resigned to that fact. ]

Week One

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

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)

(no subject)