end-of-month catchall

[morganizedchaos]

Who: [Ghost, mostly open post, one closed prompt
Where: Various
When: End of Kazoo - some prompts have specific dates
What: Ghost engages in food-based bribery, shitty piano plunking, and CHORES, MY GOD.
Warnings: Probably safe for now, will mention anything that comes up in headers

Kitchens/Dining car, Kazoo 26-27

CHINESE FOOD IN EXCHANGE FOR LAB CAR VOTES, reads a flimsy paper sign in the dining car, tacked above the coffee machines. (Other requests: maybe.) is scribbled in smaller text underneath. Talk to Ghost (short guy, purple) in kitchens.

Actually in the kitchens... Well, you know how most of the time, people aren't going to use enough of the spices on the train that they'll need to be restocked, just like in a normal kitchen? Yeah, the train's going to have to restock some of that stuff this time. The smell of vinegar-pepper-and-garlic based sauces has overtaken the area around one of the stoves, and there's a fryer with a growing pile of breaded chicken next to it. The next stove over has actual, more traditional sorts of Chinese food rather than the Americanized edition, though given the limitations of the "generic" ingredients of the train (distinctly Western kind of generic), there's a decent amount of substitution going on and the selection is kind of spotty.

Spoons in the sauces occasionally stir themselves as Ghost himself rolls out some kind of dough at the counter across the aisle. There will be dumplings, just like, give him a bit here.

Closed to Murphy -

Are you suspectible to Chinese-food-based bribery? Because I have the ability to produce Chinese food bribes and an investment in getting a goddamn lab space.

Yes, this is just telepathically dropped into whatever Murphy is doing at the time. Deal with it.

Melancholy hours (Kazoo 27, late night)

The piano in the upper floor of the music car is a good place to be melancholy. Thus, the fact that Ghost is currently sitting at the bench, a mug (of tea, thanks) slightly tilted where it's sitting on the sheet music stand over the keyboard.

He's not doing anything with the piano, at least for the first little while he's sitting there. He's scrolling through his phone, with a wistful expression, very definitely not making any attempt to play. It's only after quite a while of sitting that he actually starts plunking away at the keys, with a snort of 'might as well.'

And it very definitely is plunking, in the way of an adult beginner who has a decent idea in their head of what sounds good but absolutely no formal training. And an experimental inclination, judging by some of the kind of awful chords that result. Eventually the piano experiments are abandoned for just the hot chocolate and a dancepop song playing from Ghost's phone, set now in the place of honor (the sheet music stand).

Scrub, Scrub, Scrub (anywhere, any time)

Purple team is set with cleaning.

Ghost, in his own way, has decent prioritization. That prioritization focuses on "the parts of the train people can't normally reach." Ergo, there is currently a brush scrubbing very energetically on a ceiling panel, while Ghost watches below - occasionally flicking the tips of his fingers in time with the brush motion, back-forth-back-forth - with a sudsy bucket. And a CAUTION: WET FLOOR sign for the inevitable dripping.

Wildcard

Anything else leading up to platform goes here.

Comments

Bribery CW: Zombie Stuff

[zombiemessiah]

Murphy's whole-heartedly ignored the train's poll from the library, where he's currently reading. He even turned his chair to put his back to the ICP so he wouldn't even see it up. This man, who aggressively fought for the right for the still sapient undead to have their place voting, just absolutely refusing to vote.

Then Ghost's voice pops into his head.

Is it worth wontons to you? Because fried rice won't cut it. That's a wonton deal. He's not sure a vote is dim sum worthy or he might have even pushed for an arrangement. Wontons seems reasonable.

Damn, he shouldn't have made those bizcuits. He could have used some of that brain and commissioned himself some extra special dumplings. That thought is quickly cast aside, though.

[morganizedchaos]

I can definitely do wontons. I've also started on chicken and a bunch of sauces if you want American-style sweet and sour or something.

Don't worry, Murphy, there will be more brains and more chances to bribe you into doubling his vote. Brain dumplings are not off the table forever.

I can probably also do noodles of some kind, the pasta press isn't really the right shape but I can probably manage.

[zombiemessiah]

Hey, I'll take the adventurous and the boring.

Ugh, voting though. He supposes he has to if he's gonna get fed. He puts down his book, pulls out his ticket, and heads over to the ICP to cast his vote.

Lab vote in.

Though, realistically, that should have been his vote anyway even if his stubbornness was stopping him. He needs space in case he needs to work on a vaccine. For all that he has confidence in his own immunities, he doesn't know how the serum will react to other diseases it encounters in the future.

Kitchen

[helborn]

Casper just wanders in and leans against one of the work surfaces, watching Ghost. He's pretty sure the guy is well aware of his presence before he speaks.

"So what's this about bribery? And here I thought you played fair." He grins.

[morganizedchaos]

He's absolutely aware; Casper is pretty distinct, considering he always brings company with him. Ghost doesn't feel the need to make a visual acknowledgement beyond lifting one hand in a lazy wave, but his voice - phone clipped to the back of his belt this time to keep it from getting food prep on it - says, "Who said anything about fair? My whole family is corporate scumbags, bribery's practically a family tradition."

[helborn]

He's also mercifully much more psychically quiet, which probably helps. "I see. Not fond of most corporations, so if you start getting a big head about it I'm gonna kick you in the shins with my prosthetic."

His tone is teasing - he's pretty sure Ghost isn't like that. "Why a lab?"

Melancholy hours

[firewalled]

It's past curfew, and that usually means Rich should be in bed. He hasn't been good at that lately, but that's fine, because at least there's always people making the same poor decision as him out in the various cars.

He's thrilled to hear music when he enters the music car. Very rudimentary music, but hey, Rich has been self-taught for a while as well. He grabs his guitar and then heads up the stairs to meet the other man with a small little smile.

"Hey. Mind if I riff off you for a bit?"

[morganizedchaos]

Ghost doesn't exactly turn in Rich's direction to look at him so much as lean very far back and twist his head around. "I mean, you're welcome to try," he says, and hopefully the weirdness of voice-from-phone won't be too distracting. "But I think you're overestimating my skill if you think I'm going to produce anything riff-able. This is my first time with a keyboard."

[firewalled]

That's definitely a weird thing. Rich isn't sure if the guy has some sort of voice app, or there's something else going on with him. Something kind of tech-adjacent, and therefore worrying. He tries to hold his flash of panic back, though, until he learns a little more.

"Hey, not bad for your first time, at least. I'd offer to help, but I never got into piano."

2-D

[securityconsultant]

Murderbot had said it would find Ghost at some point, and, well. Time to hunt so it can investigate some tech, right? So, as much as it hates actively going out to talk to someone, it figures that 2-D will be the easiest way to at least start...

Knock knock. Who is it? Some nerd, looking uncomfortable.

"...is Ghost here?"

[morganizedchaos]

Some nerd, but Ghost has a good memory for voices, and - oh, that explains quite a bit of weirdness. The door slides open seemingly on its own - Ghost is lounging on the folded up bottom bunk he has by virtue of 'last pick,' and gives a cheerful wave. "Hey, Rin," he says, the voice synth on his phone running in the usual way. There's a book from the medical car in his hands that he folds up and tosses further down the bed-bench. "Come on in."

[securityconsultant]

Right. Okay. Cool. It's got this.

"It's fine, I'm just here to look at your phone?"

Which it's already reaching out for- nonphysically. Don't mind a little bit of a radio ping, so to speak, as it tries to figure out an initial approach to the tech.

Scrub x 3

[controlsthedie]

"I thought I was cleaning up fewer of those. Didn't realize I had help," Thanatos says while looking up at the brush cleaning the ceiling. He's also been cleaning up high because his ability to float makes that task a lot easier.

[morganizedchaos]

The brush scrubs another time or two before Ghost responds.

"Well, it's not like we're lacking in time. I might as well lend a hand." Also cleaning up is, technically, Purple's chore, though the ceilings are probably not the usual place people fulfill the assignment. "Are you really the only other person who pays attention to it? I know I've seen other people who could manage it." There's a lot of weird abilities around here.

[controlsthedie]

Cleaning is also Red's chore for the month, but the description of areas leave much to be desired. "The amount of dust I've found in the rafters suggest that."

Ignore that trains don't have rafters. He's not entirely making a good 1-to-1 connection between what he knows from home and can put into practice on the train.

Kitchens K26

[spikelet]

'Chinese food' is so vague that a-Qing just has to go to the next carriage over and see what the note's talking about. She at least waits long enough that her hot chocolate is ready, and holds it carefully in both hands as she watches him manipulate the entire kitchen.

"What's a lab car?"

[morganizedchaos]

Good news, there's both the Americanized stuff and some stuff that she'd actually be familiar with! The bad news is that I'm not actually familiar with traditional Chinese food so you have to suffer handwaving and meta-text.

Also, it's not the entire kitchen, at least not all at once - it's just a singular third hand that isn't attached. Carefully juggling the rate at which sauces are stirred sure makes it look that way, though.

"Did you see the poll the train posted?" he asks, looking up.

[spikelet]

Lacking any particular experience with telekinesis, she's perhaps more impressed than she should be, then, but that's just the risk you run when using supernatural abilities:

Highly interested teenagers.

"Kinda," she allows, preoccupied with crossing to the hob to poke at one of the spoons. "I didn't do it yet. Anyway, you didn't answer my question."

kitchens

[foxyou]

Jiu may not actually be familiar with the name "China", and may in fact have very little intention of voting for this "lab" car the post spoke of, but the offer of free food draws him to the kitchen nonetheless.

He certainly doesn't regret the decision, once it turns out Chinese food appears to be something resembling food from his homeland. The lanky teenager hides his ears and tail as he casually steps into the room, looking perfectly human as he curiously cranes his neck to look at the self-stirring spoons and familiar dishes-in-progress, and ends his tour a couple feet away from the chef.

"Is there a reason you're going to these lengths, or is it simply an excuse to cook?" As if he isn't practically drooling for the offerings.

[morganizedchaos]

"Blatant bribery. Did you vote in the train's poll yet?"

The voice comes from the phone clipped in relative safety to the back of Ghost's belt, but hey, weirdness attracts weirdness. He glances up from the dumpling dough in response to another person in his general space, though.

[foxyou]

"Would it make sense for me to say yes, in the face of such bribery?"

The weird voice does give him pause for a very short moment, but aside from giving the chef another curious once-over, Jiu doesn't pay it too much attention. The rest of this train is weird too, after all. "I don't suppose you could explain to me the importance of a lab car while you cook."

Resisting the urge...to sneak a taste of one of these unfinished dishes....

kitchens

[mtsilver_conquor]

She'd originally decided to track him down to find out what the pit Chinese food was. Yet, on stepping a foot into the kitchen car, she's reminded of home -of many of the smells used in Pallet's cooking- in many ways. In many, many others, it does not, and she manages to keep the frown at the breaded chicken pile mostly off her face. Just because she eats the final product -it's not bird-mon based, it's fine- on the train doesn't mean she likes seeing how it's made.

Yet, as much as all of this smells like home, like Pallet, it's not, and as such, the young woman pauses.

"... None of this 'Chinese' uses coffee in it, right?"

[morganizedchaos]

"Nope, wrong continent." Just because she's human-looking, he supposes, doesn't mean she's from Earth. "Not that historical precedent stopped anyone from descending on peppers immediately, culturally, but coffee's a harder sell when the whole culture has thousands of years of history with tea."

The voice comes from the phone hooked to the back of his belt, and there's a distinct feeling of 'I will cut off my rambling there but I could keep going.' Ghost straightens up from the dumpling-construction to look at her properly.

Melancholy Hours

[worthallthis]

"Now that's not a song I've heard before," Soldat says, somewhere between curious and amused. They make a patrol of the train before bedtime, which is... pretty much right before the train transports them all into bed and knocks them out for a few hours, anyway. So while they see Ghost often enough in the kitchen, this is them without anything to keep them busy, and they do love music.

"And I've got a lot of music." As Ghost will probably know because the time spent in the kitchen car is half of the time accompanied by music of their own, playing from their tablet. Of course, "a lot" by their standards is probably a drop in the bucket compared to Ghost's collection.

[morganizedchaos]

The song doesn't pause for his voice synth to go off, but he does wait for the next time there's instrumentals, so as not to 'talk' over the music too much.

"You wouldn't have," Ghost says. "Considering she was born sometime in the early aughts." There's an obvious fondness in his expression.

Still he gestures at the other end of the piano bench, scooting so that Soldat has plenty of space to sit without touching.