saltwaterlungs: (Coral Sea)
saltwaterlungs ([personal profile] saltwaterlungs) wrote in [community profile] ph_logs2024-11-17 05:49 pm

An ounce of sauce...

CHARACTERS: Darcy and YOU?
DATE: November
LOCATION: Darcy’s restaurant and others
SITUATION: Setting up the new place
WARNINGS: None

Buffet Froid [meta]

The fights in the Casino were the most alive Darcy has felt in a while. Which is probably concerning. But more concerning was the feeling of sinking when check-out finally rolled around and he and his little family left, back to the relative safety and mundanity of the island. Yes, that’s a deeply terrible word for this place, all things considered. But the fact remains that Darcy is bored. Is this all there is? The occasional whetting of his appetite and the return to drudgery, the same menu, the same actions, the same ceaseless endless fucking march of nothing? Most shifts don’t even have Max now that he’s managing his bakery and sorting out the café.

Unfortunately, the casino also had a fancy haute restaurant. And Darcy went. More than once. Even with the goodberries, even with his suspicions of the place. Lyon is a city as known for its food as New York is for belligerence, even with his household budget being tight, you could feel it practically in the water. The brasseries, the intimidating shadow of Le Maison du Paul with its clock-face and the rooster looming, the food carts, the butchers- even school meals were good. Yeah, he’s homesick. But it’s more than that, too.

He misses the excellence of competition, he misses his perfectionism, he misses who he was when he had a goal in mind. It feels more and more like Darcy is a shadow of his former self.

So it’s an impulse when he sees the ‘for sale’ sign being hammered in what looks to be an old run-down pub on his way home from another dull shift. Fight him about it. There has to be something more here, and he intends to find it.
Coquilles

The front door of La Veritable Dragon Rouge has a note hammered to it.

“Deliveries; out the back. Loved ones; I am fine and I am remembering to eat, please only drag me out if past 10pm.”

The first few weeks of the kitchens is a lot of learning how to run the place. Renovations yes, obviously, there’s enough grease on the floor of the kitchen to fry half a city if needed. But mostly it’s things like sourcing supply lines of ingredients, learning how to run the brigade, and- of course- trialling dishes.

A) If you run a farm, early in the morning- about the time of first farm chores- you’ll get a knock on the door. Standing there is Darcy with a notebook in one hand and a basket on the other, with their usual sour expression of intensity.
“Hey. I need to know what produce you have in season right now.”

B) The main dining hall of La Dragon is dark and moody, mostly wood with elaborate carvings on the walls and draped red curtains, and it seems like Darcy wants to keep it that way. Up a set of stairs there are a few alcoves for relative privacy, and towards the back near the pass there’s a chef’s table made of an old butcher’s workbench, scratched up with use. There you can find Darcy hunched over a notebook writing ideas down. Maybe you’re visiting during work hours to say hi, or maybe you’re here to drag her to bed after a too-long day. Either way, there's a tattooed old pirate elf on the back steps smoking, a bitter-looking butch dwarf with a crate of wine checking the labels, and a dapper young half-orc who seems stiffly happy and terrified to show you to the back where Darcy is.

C) Passers-by in downtown will find themselves accosted by a dour young person holding a plate of dainty looking appetisers.
“Hey- try one,” he orders, not really asking. There’s a round of bread with some kind of savoury buttery spread on it and some light herbs, or a folded pastry with a golden crust and wilted wild greens inside.
“Don’t eat that one if you don’t eat animals,” he says pointing to the bread, “it’s bone-marrow.”

Trou Normand

Wildcard at will or message me here/on discord.
decrypter: (walk.)

coquilles.

[personal profile] decrypter 2024-11-17 07:14 am (UTC)(link)
She's happy for her. That's the sensation blooming every time Helena hears her talk about it, letting her enumerate all the details. There's a sense of Darcy coming alive with it, like the new year will bring forth a debut like no other, and Helena basks in it, nurtures it, would listen for hours to hear that note in Darcy's voice that she might not even realize is there.

She has a goal. She wants something. She's pursuing it. And though Helena won't say it aloud, it's subtly and subconsciously going to chip at that idea Darcy has about what she's good at. That more than the dishes keeps her enthusiastic for the progress.

The sign can't stop Helena because she can't see, so it's becoming a bit of a habit for her to stop by on lunch break, or after her own work in the evenings. At least every other day, and even if Darcy's terribly busy, well wishes can still be dispensed. Today's another evening, and Wentworth lets Helena know where to find the one she seeks. There's a warm smile on her face, and a tiny bit of ink on her face, one she didn't catch when scrubbing.

"How are things coming?"

It's never a just a polite question, after all. There's a thousand things moving and changing, and she delights in letting Darcy explain.
decrypter: (hold.)

[personal profile] decrypter 2024-11-17 07:33 am (UTC)(link)
She knows better than to argue with Darcy that her nothing fantastic is still going to be very good. It's about her standards, and nothing will compromise them. So, she sits without a word to the contrary.

"Later, unless you're eager to show them off. Tell me what's on your mind?"

Dinner is not an immediate concern compared to details of the renovation, the slow building trust of the team, and what concepts are being unearthed to be tried.
decrypter: (beginning.)

[personal profile] decrypter 2024-11-17 09:29 am (UTC)(link)
"I kind of want to hear this speech, now that you bring it up, and give you a chance to perform it even so. Or are you saving it for when you really do quit?"

She giggles, folding her hands on the table and propping up her chin. If Darcy does die in the pursuit of renovations, Helena will never tell a soul and blame the weird wolves in the forest.
impostor_syndrome: The head and shoulders of an old-fashioned diving suit tinted purple (humanoid | diving suit)

Coquilles C

[personal profile] impostor_syndrome 2024-11-17 12:25 pm (UTC)(link)
"What's the catch?" asks the person in the purple diving suit, reaching for the bread anyway even as they say it. It smells delicious and they're a huge fan of free food, but it wasn't that long ago that they lost most of a weekend to eating a significant fraction of their own weight in complimentary pulled pork at the food-demon's casino. They're conflicted.

Deciding not to overthink it since the demonic buffet didn't actually do anything worse than make them smell like barbecue sauce for a few days, they pop the front window of their helmet open and slide the bread in for a bite without waiting for Darcy's answer.
goodweather: (emerging from his burrow!)

coquilles

[personal profile] goodweather 2024-11-17 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Like any proud father, Phil has been talking the future restaurant up to the various townspeople she sees during the day, because of course she is. She's not going to put up a formal announcement on the radio until it's actually done, but until then she'll satisfy herself with merely spreading the word on foot. And there's only a little bit of bias in there.

She makes the time to visit the building proper. She doesn't go up to Darcy right away; she takes the time to touch down in front and say hello to his new prospective employees, warmly sharking hands and introducing herself like, hi, hello, I'm Darcy's father, so glad to see you and I hope everything's going well so far, excited to see what happens, et cetera. As much as she has her misgivings about the concept on paper, she's nothing but pleasant face-to-face. And she'd be one hell of a hypocrite if she wasn't willing to give these guys an full-chested chance.

... Part of her wonders if Darcy got that from her.

Eventually she makes her way to the back to where Darcy is hard at work. There's a folded, thick-looking black cloth in her hands.

"Heya, Darts. The ship's shaping up pretty nice out here. You're doing great so far."
Edited 2024-11-17 22:26 (UTC)
decrypter: (flow.)

[personal profile] decrypter 2024-11-18 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
Helena's grinning, trying to not burst out laughing and give Darcy's rage a proper space to exist, but it still is amusing. She can picture the shocked gasps everyone will let out.

"The fact that they used one of your knives is bad enough. You're being quite mild on them, all things considered."

She has internalized the sacrilege of using a chef's knife without permission. Let alone not cleaning it.
goodweather: (shaman of the shadows!)

[personal profile] goodweather 2024-11-18 08:08 am (UTC)(link)
She laughs gently, taking the opportunity to press her lips against the top of his head. No kissy noises, just a nice and dignified but loving gesture.

“I guess it’s two things at this point. One, a kind of congratulations for taking on a project like this. Not everyone is made for it. Two, and this is the main thing: your 18th birthday present is finally done.”

She holds it out for Darcy to take.
goodweather: (woodchuck chuckers!)

[personal profile] goodweather 2024-11-18 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)
“You do look handsome in it.” Look at her baby, all gothic and severe-looking in all that dark drapery. He looks like a Poe villain.

“But here, put it on with the pin, see how it looks. Tell me how you feel. It’s made of deer bone. I got it commissioned from River.”
goodweather: (is it a squirrel?)

[personal profile] goodweather 2024-11-19 12:10 am (UTC)(link)
Regret flashes through her; the moment Darcy seems to be in pain she’s up and at her side, but there isn’t exactly room to interfere, and before long it seems to have… mostly passed. Christ, she didn’t expect something with such a singular effect to ripple like that—

Suddenly, a sound she filters out from everyone else but is eminently absent in Darcy.

“It’s a warmth charm,” she explains quickly, “it’s just a warmth charm. The thing in the falcon’s eye is an ember from the first fire we lit to warm the house. It’ll always burn. No matter how cold it gets outside, as long as you have it on you, cloak or not, that… that should keep you warm.”



She really hopes she didn’t just screw this one up big time.
decrypter: (calling.)

[personal profile] decrypter 2024-11-20 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
"So soon! You've been making so much progress, I don't doubt you, but that's marvelous. And definitely attractive to people. I don't know about others, but when it's winter, I don't want anything incredibly fancy. I'd just like something good. Something that makes me feel comfortable." A tiny pause. "I think other people will also like not having to cook for themselves. That'll be a very big draw."

Says the woman who enough times just has to make a pathetic enough face to get someone she knows to do that for her. She can help set the table and dry dishes and do all that in exchange, after all.
Edited 2024-11-20 02:17 (UTC)
hate_gettin_older: (eager)

Coquilles, C

[personal profile] hate_gettin_older 2024-11-20 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
You really don't have to work very hard to get Edgar to try something to eat. He's already reaching for the bread, but pauses at the warning.

"Yeah? What kind?" He's still picking it up, though.
hate_gettin_older: (eager)

[personal profile] hate_gettin_older 2024-11-20 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
He bites in, and makes a pleased sound through that first bite. In deference to what little he's learned of table manners, he swallows before saying "'S good. Uh, one to ten with ten like best thing ever eaten, or ten like couldn't be better this kind of thing?"

Look, the question makes sense to him.
littlefairytale: (atlas; hand on hip)

coquilles

[personal profile] littlefairytale 2024-11-21 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)

It's late when Ruby arrives at the restaurant, but it's not the farmhouse she's come from. There's still some grime on her hands from the forge and she's shivering even through her (now, finally, back to its rightful red) cloak in the stark contrast between the heat of the fires and the cool night air, a late night of work of her own only just finished.

She gives a polite smile and a thanks as she's led back, before turning to Darcy with a hand on her hip and says, "If we're not careful, the others are going to start thinking we both got lost on our way home."

goodweather: (70)

[personal profile] goodweather 2024-11-21 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Darcy smushes against her and--oh, thank God. Thank god.

Hugging him back is as much a warm and tight affair as it's always been, but the feeling of his skin warm against hers is striking an odd and almost unnerving dissonance in her brain; she's spent so long getting used to cold skin meaning Darcy, and warm skin meaning not Darcy.

But it means it worked. He's warm. Phil did that.

"Of course," she says, because as always, of course. "I'm glad you like it. And it shouldn't break, but if it does, we can take the pieces back to River and get another one made."

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