goneawaymod: (Default)
Piper 90: Mods ([personal profile] goneawaymod) wrote in [community profile] goneawayworld2020-04-17 08:20 pm

SHEETCAKE PARTY #1


SHEET CAKE MEETUP


“Who the fuck is Linda?”

The question pops up every few minutes, a little tack of punctuation above the offensively-inoffensive music being piped in*. The room the hires have been ushered into is clearly just a conference room, with a layout that requires either sitting at awkwardly-spaced intervals around a giant table or milling and scooting around the smaller folding table, where the “big surprise” the corporate officers promised them is on display: a sheet cake.

A sheet cake that that still bears HAPPY BIRTH DAY LINDA in blue icing across the top, although someone has, at least, gone to the effort of writing welcome, to the team new hires in Sharpie on a purple flashcard and used a Popsicle stick and tape to plant it like a dismal flag right in the middle of Linda’s “DAY”. Dedication aside, the cake itself looks pretty suspect too, not as if it were poisoned but more like if it were salvaged. The cake part looks dry, and the frosting seems strangely...sweaty. No one’s eating yet, and yet there’s already a piece missing.

However, there’s no lack of enthusiasm around the room. A projector hooked up to a laptop casts an off-center, warped rectangle of WELCOME TO, THE BEST TEAM. NEW HIRES!! onto a wall. The many paper plates have a festive print, although they all seem to be Christmas themed. The table cloth looks as if it came from both 4th of July and potentially a war, given the scuffs and tears. The shot-glass sized paper cups are inadequate to hold a satisfying amount of sparkling cider, but at least they don’t leak. There are many more plastic knives than forks, which could prompt some hires to give in to their animal instincts and just use their hands, or perhaps start a barter economy for the better utensils.

“I’m so jealous,” a corporate employee keeps saying as she ushers hires into the room. “We haven’t had a good party in this office since Kelly’s baby shower, and that little girl practically has teeth now!”

(An eagle-eyed hire may suspect that the box of donuts next to the sheet cake might have come from said baby shower, on account of the fact that the few stale hunks of donut remaining have Pepto-Bismol pink strawberry icing and that there’s still the paper envelope for a gift card with ITS A GIRL written on it.)

Most of corporate slips out after the hires get set up - this is clearly an event for the hires to do some “team building” and work on “rapport” in addition to filling their bellies with cake that tastes remarkably like sand. There’s a karaoke machine in the corner, but hires are instructed not to touch it because, as an employee points out, last year’s Christmas party demonstrated that karaoke is the worst thing in the entire world for morale (“in any world! even before this one got eaten away by the bombs!”).

There’s an additional big glass jar filled with scraps of paper, which the hires are informed are filled with prompts for ice breakers and activities in case the party needs a pick-me-up. Any hire who investigates will find that most of the ice breaker activities start with three benign questions (“what’s your name?” “where are you from?” “what’s your favorite animal?”) and somehow, always a fourth question that feels a little invasive (“what are your feelings on unions?” “under what circumstances would you kill an innocent person?” “do you use the same passwords for all your accounts?”).

“Please enjoy yourselves and all the desserts Jorgmund has generously supplied you with,” one of the employees says on her way out, “and don’t worry about making a mess, janitorial gets paid too much to sit around as is.”

*All music that can be summarized as ’grocerycore’.
purple_paradox: (Dramatic Side-Glance)

[personal profile] purple_paradox 2020-04-19 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well," Saint replied, "I suppose that's for the best."

He sighs.

"At least the drinks are...okay. Probably why they are so small."
fromfryingpantofire: (A - Hmm)

[personal profile] fromfryingpantofire 2020-04-19 08:06 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, that looks like the drinks are safe enough." Sam did move to pick one up. "This is all just...I mean, you see things like this on sitcoms back home, not actually participate in one." He picks up a cider. "Want one?"
purple_paradox: (A Moment of Softness)

[personal profile] purple_paradox 2020-04-19 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"Ah, thank you," he replied, taking the offered cup. He holds it up in a joking attempt at a toast. "Za Zdarovje!"

Even trying to gingerly sip the tiny cup left him only with a single gulp, but hey, it was better than nothing at this point.
fromfryingpantofire: (A - Drinking)

[personal profile] fromfryingpantofire 2020-04-19 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Not like Sam's having much better luck, but it's a bit easier for him to take small sips. "Ah. Skol, I think." He raises his hand in return, grinning slightly as he takes a sip. Which probably leaves about half the glass. They really are small. "This is all very strange."
purple_paradox: (It's Gepetto!)

[personal profile] purple_paradox 2020-04-19 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"That is one hell of an understatement, friend."

He finishes his drink in a disappointingly short amount of time.

"I am Saint-14, and this--" he points at the little drone floating near his shoulder, "--is Gepetto."

The little drone bobs politely.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance," it adds.
fromfryingpantofire: (A - Drinking)

[personal profile] fromfryingpantofire 2020-04-19 11:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"That's me. Master of understatement."

It's not even slightly untrue.

Sam watches the little drone, then looks back to the robot. "I'm Sam and...the pleasure's mine? I think." Well, the drone is real and it talks. So that's a good start. "I have to admit, when I went to sleep last night, waking up here was not what I expected."
purple_paradox: (Dramatic Side-Glance)

[personal profile] purple_paradox 2020-04-20 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Believe me, I doubt anyone here was expecting the same thing."

He sighs.

"I would say this is better than being stuck in the Infinite Forest, but at least the Vex did not try to make me go to awkward parties with bad cake. They just shot at me. Shooting, I can deal with. This? This, I cannot."
fromfryingpantofire: (A - Hmm)

[personal profile] fromfryingpantofire 2020-04-20 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"If these cups were bigger, I'd drink to that." Seriously why are these cups so shit?

Actually, Lucifer absolutely would have made him go to an awkward party. So would Zachariah. So, really, this was to be expected. "At least with shoot, you can shoot back. Usually."
purple_paradox: (Steel Calls For Steel)

[personal profile] purple_paradox 2020-04-27 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
"They took my gun."

He sounded insulted, like Jorgmund taking his weapons hurt his pride more than it made him feel unsafe.
fromfryingpantofire: (A - I Give Up)

[personal profile] fromfryingpantofire 2020-04-27 12:40 am (UTC)(link)
"I didn't even get to bring my gun with me." Normally he would have, but the gun had been on the bedside table. The knife had been under his pillow. "They have my knife, though. Which is really annoying."