Incredible confiscated edibles (Open)

[Josie Raines]

It had never been explained to Josie how sharing food in the staff room worked, but it was simple enough. Anything with a name on it: off limits. Single-serving anything: better not risk it. An entire tray of something, say, brownies, left on the counter? Fair game, especially if it looked like others had picked at it already. So when Josie discovered the half-empty tray of brownies on her lunch break, she didn't think twice before helping herself to a couple of pieces.

The next hours or so passed more or less as normal - there was always something to clean around here - but before long Josie was pushing her mop around more and more sluggishly. How long had she spent on this one spot? And it only seemed to be getting bigger. And moving. She was probably just tired; maybe she should go sit down....

Back in the staff room a totally unknown period of time later, Josie was far too enraptured with the cat on the cheesy "Hang in there, baby!" poster to notice how much more of the brownies had vanished. She sat on the couch upside down, feet on the wall, head hanging over the seat, giggling manically into her fist as she stared at the poster - it looked like the cat was being sucked into space from this angle!

[Zebadiah Hayes]

Zeb found himself more and more stopping by the staff lounge. At first it was to replace coffee he'd borrowed. Or to borrow more coffee. But then he realized if he was going to make friends his own age it was probably a good idea to actually interact with people his own age. And why not start with co-workers. He usually had a good conversation with them. And if worse came to worse he could always make up an excuse to get back to his room by saying he had a meeting with a student or needed to check in on a trouble maker.

He smiled when he walked in and saw Josie relaxing on one of the couches. Though he didn't ever admit it out loud he always thought that the teachers at Hammel were on a higher level than himself. He felt like he was more on Josie's level though. He did clean up messed the students left behind though it was more emotional messes usually.

"Hello Miss Raines. Having a good day?" he asked as he swung by the coffee pot to top off the mug he had in his hand. He spied a tray of brownies as well and decided to help himself to one before finding a seat on the couch opposite Josie.

He cocked his head to the side, smiling at her giggling. But for the moment not seeing anything too odd about her position or her mood. After all he didn't know her that well to judge how she should be acting.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

((OOC: Warning - Brief discussions about puberty and gender dysphoria for an NPC.))


Sean had spent all morning in sessions with students, his usual suspects for a Thursday. He had had to attend to an emergency during what should have been his lunch period instead of eating, and it had involved a lot of crying and a trip together to the nurse’s station. Unfortunately, one of the students who identified as transmasculine had begun menstruating, and it had been an event, as puberty always was, and as it was always made worse for those who identified as trans. The three of them had gotten through the event, and now the student had necessary supplies and an excuse note to miss his classes for the rest of the day.

The psychiatrist had spent the rest of the afternoon quickly scarfing down half of his sandwich and an apple before logging into the administrative conference call with the mental health departments at Eisai gakkō, Kocher, and Padhaai Guni. They had these calls periodically to discuss trends among the students and any recent articles anyone had been working on. Sean liked all of his colleagues, and, in fact, had worked with one of the therapists at Padhaai Guni prior to the school opening, but they always took at least two hours, and prevented him from eating the rest of his lunch or finding more coffee. Due to the confidential nature of the discussions, he couldn’t even send a telepathic message requesting more coffee from one of his coworkers.

Finally, with the conference call ended, and most of the afternoon having disappeared, Sean put his “Be back in 15 minutes” sign on his office door and strode quickly to the staff lounge. He needed coffee and something to eat, and he needed both now.

Fortunately, he found both readily enough: coffee in the pot that looked fresh, and a platter of brownies on the table. He offered both Zeb and Josie a smile, but, before he could take a brownie, he noticed how out of it Josie appeared.

“Did you get your flu shot this year?” He inquired delicately. She had the zoned out appearance of someone teetering on the edge of delirious fever.

[Josie Raines]

Somewhere nearby, the lounge door opened. Josie's head turned, slow as a molasses drip, to find Zeb talking in her direction.

"Are you seeing this?" she asked him, gesturing vaguely towards the poster. "They got these in like every office in America - " - or at least every office she'd seen on television - "an' I never really looked at it but now it's like - " Josie held a hand to her temple, splaying her fingers wide while she made a bwoosh noise. This cat was the best thing she'd seen all day and it was blowing her fucking mind.

Behind Zeb the door opened again, and soon she was looking up two pairs of nostrils instead of one.

"Flu shot?" Josie repeated. She'd had one well before the month had started - a necessary precaution when your job involves cleaning up after potentially disease-riddled kids living in close quarters, but it was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment. "What kind? Starve a cold, drown the flu, right?" More giggles bubbled up; starve a cold, drown the flu! Where was that even from?

[Daniel Taylor]

Dan had finished his morning classes. He walked through the hall to the English offices with is his arms full of papers his students had turned in today. He sat at his desk. He reorganized things while Dan waited for a student to come see him about missing work. It had been since the last time the student turned something to Dan. Dan wanted to check in with the student to see what was going on.

After the little meeting with the student, Dan was feeling a little peckish. He opened his desk drawer where he keeps his trail mix. He didn't have his snack in there. He didn't realize that he ate it all. Dan started for the staff lounge. Most certainly there would be some sort of snackie food there. Dan entered the staff lounge to find three of his co-workers. Dan smiled a greeting for not wanting to interrupt the conversation at hand.

Dan spotted the brownies on the counter top. A brownie and cup of coffee would do. He took a brownie and bit into it. He took a napkin and placed his brownie on it while he poured a cup of coffee. With brownie and coffee Dan went to take a seat next to Zeb. "Hello," Dan greeted his co-workers as he walked over. "Is someone not feeling well?" Dan asked. When he came in, he caught someone saying something about the flu.

[Mallory Reynolds]

Oh boy did Mallory need coffee. Her morning classes had not gone according to plan, and after narrowly missing a small grease fire on a stove and untangling one of the sewing machines, it was high time for a break.

She headed to the staff lounge with her favorite pink travel mug in hand, ready for filling. Maybe she'd find something to nibble, too. With chasing after students all morning she could do with a bite.

It was a party in the staff lounge, apparently. Smiling and greeting her coworkers she first made a stop at the coffee pot, filling and seasoning it with sugar and milk before her attention turned to the brownies on the counter. Perhaps Ferris had been busy again. She knew he left treats almost as often as she did. Well, she didn't mind if she did. Taking one, she headed over to where her colleagues were gathered. "How is everyone?" Hopefully, everyone was having a less challenging day than hers seemed to be.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean followed Josie’s attention to the poster on the wall, one to which he had long become desensitized. He didn’t believe in inspirational posters, far preferring actual artwork for décor, but he had looked at it enough times that he would notice if it was gone, but otherwise paid it no mind.

The poster didn’t warrant that level of amusement, and so he stepped closer to her. “May I?” He asked, holding is hand towards her hand, palm facing himself so he could feel her forehead. He wouldn’t touch her without permission, but if she was sick, he wanted to get her down to the infirmary sooner rather than later. The flu came on quickly and often turned one’s concentration to mush.

He looked towards Daniel as the younger man entered, replying, “We’re trying to work that out right now.”

He hoped that Josie wasn’t ill, of course. If she was, as soon as the doctor saw her, then he would make sure she got home in one piece. She seemed in no condition to drive, but the psychiatrist would happily call her a taxi.

Then, when Mallory entered, he turned to offer her a smile. “Good afternoon,” he responded. Seeing that she already had a brownie, he felt no need to point out the platter to her. “Right now, we’re trying to figure out whether Josie caught the first bug of the new year.”

[Josie Raines]

More and more people piled into the room; the door never seemed to stop opening and shutting, opening and shutting. And the people brought a crosswind with them so that the car shook back and forth tenuously. Josie hoped its claws were on tight, but if it came loose maybe one of these people crowding around could grab it. In fact, the Doc seemed to notice it too, because he was reaching his hand out -

Josie blinked sluggishly at the hand floating above her face. It was taking forever to reach the poster, he'd never get there at this pace. Her head rolled slowly, slowly, to the side, and her bleary brown eyes fell upon Daniel and Mallory.

"You better help him," Josie giggled, "he's never gonna make it in time. I think he's slow 'cause he's old," she added in a stage whisper before snorting with laughter.

[Daniel Taylor]

At this rate the whole staff of Hammel was going to be in the staff lounge. They kept coming one after each other. It was like there was memo to come to the lounge during this time period. Dan greeted Mallory when she came in.

Dan most certainly hoped no one was sick. It was that time of the year for illnesses to spread like a wild fire among the students and staff. It was definitely not the best time of the year.

Dan finished his brownie. That was a good brownie. He sipped on his coffee. His eyes widen at Josie’s comment about Sean. Calling a co-worker old was not something to say out loud. Like asking if a co-worker was pregnant. Either Josie was truly sick or it was just her personality. Dan didn’t know Josie all that well to make that call. He wasn’t about to get in the middle of that.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Old? Yvette Morgenstern, and Claude Harris before her, had been at least a decade older than Sean was. The telepath might suffer from the aches and pains inherent in being fifty-eight, but he required no assistance devices, and he still went swimming, jogging, and managed to have a healthy sex life with his partner of a similar age.

Not that he needed to get defensive about his age. Not that he would disclose the nature of his sex life with his colleagues, particularly not someone young enough to be his daughter.

That was the crux of the matter; Josie was so young that his age seemed as far off in the distance as Josh’s parents’ ages, surely. Sean had worked at Hammel for longer than their janitor and groundskeeper had been alive. In the interest of avoiding an argument with someone who was obviously impaired, he chose to keep all of that to himself and to let her remark slide.

He touched her forehead briefly before drawing his hand back. “You don’t have a fever,” he told her, and then turned around to face Dan and Mallory. “The coffee’s fresh if anyone wants a cup.” He had seen to that himself, and, with a last look in Josie’s direction, he picked up his cup to take a sip.

“I think having to deal with Eugene has finally taking its toll.” Not that he could fault her for that. His own interactions with Sam Rixon and Vincent Verax had led him to consider early retirement on more than one occasion.