ArchivedLogs:Burnout Prevention Trains

Burnout Prevention Trains
Dramatis Personae Blink, Rasa
In Absentia	2017-08-29 "it's more or less just sitting back and watching the trainwreck for the rest of us."
Location <NYC> Workhaus - Harbor Commons - Lower East Side
The wide entryway leads into a semicircular sitting area with plush modular chairs, sofas, and huge beanbags arranged around two low tables. The bright, open expanse of the house fans back and out from here, executed in stunning industrial style with extremely conservative usage of rough stone walls. Through a door on the right is a library boasting an eclectic but extensive collection of books, a cozy reading nook, as well as a state-of-the-art computer work station. Opposite this is a media room with a projector mounted overhead and a formidable sound system on all sides, the windows still admitting plenty of light when the blackout curtains are pulled back. Beyond the sitting area, toward the back of the house and separated from adjacent areas only by plentiful black granite counters, are a pair of kitchens, each stocked with their own appliances, cookware, servingware, and utensils. Adjoining the (vegan and kosher) kitchen on the right is a simple dining room with a long oval table and chairs designed to accommodate a range of body shapes. On the other side, tucked between the general-purpose kitchen and the media center, is a guest room and a full bath. At the center of the entire house is a cylindrical elevator shaft of steel and glass with two floating stairways coiled around it like an immense double helix. Both elevator and stairs lead down out of sight and up to a circular landing joined to the second storey wings by walkways that leave the space above the sitting area open. Above the kitchens is a sun-drenched split-level recess, the lower half a conservatory enclosed by glass and the upper half a rooftop garden. The whole is walled with glass and lets in copious quantities of natural light softened by lush greenery. It's quiet here, as game nights go. Perhaps the absence of two of the usual hosts is telling on the attendance. But many regulars have come all the same, and there's a movie ('Finding Dory') playing in the media room as usual. Blink is at the dining table, setting up a game of Ticket to Ride next to a giant bowl of corn chips and a much smaller one of guacamole. She's dressed in a short-sleeve pink satin tunic trimmed in geometric purple patterns and loose, matching pants. Rasa tromps in from BeachHaus, carrying snacks in hir arms. Ze needs to close the door behind hir with the flat sole of hir foot as the plates of pinwheels are rather precariously balanced in hir hands as well as on hir forearms. Ze skitters over to the dining room table and starts laying out plates before looking around for another place to house them. The pyramid stacked pinwheels have flags sticking up from the middle of them - denoting which ones are vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, and non-dairy meat. Ze scratches the back of hir head with hir tail as ze distributes the wealth a little, before returning to the table to look over the game Blink is setting up. "Ohhh. Brave choice. Didn't someone thump the table last time we tried this one --- and launched all the trains all over the place?" Ze is a fluffy beast today, feathery light hair covering most of hir exposed skin, with a baggy tee shirt over tightly belted, loose jeans. Hir fingers pick up one of the 'pescatarian' pinwheels, which seems to be made from smoked salmon, cream cheese, and capers. Blink dips her head in a small bow and shifts the bowl of chips when she sees Rasa arriving heavily burdened. "Those look great!" she says, eying the pinwheels. "What's in the vegetarian ones?" She's reaching for one without hearing the answer first. "Yes, and I can hardly criticize. I often /want/ to thump the table when I'm playing this against Flicker." Her smile is shy. "But I figure it's been long enough. Do you want to play?" "Cream cheese and salsa, pickled red pepper, and some black beans, scattered and smooshed within." Rasa ticks off the ingredients with a thoughtful expression, hazel eyes squinting with recollection. "Vegan's striped with hummus and baba ganoush, dotted with pomegranate and pickled cauliflower." Ze pops hir first selection in hir mouth, chewing quietly, nodding to Blink's invitation, hooking a foot under a chair leg to pull one under hir without looking. "Yeaaah. At least it's not Power Grid. I don't even bother playing that one anymore. Just not competitive enough to challenge the master strategy. Blink hums at Rasa's description and nods, biting into the pinwheel. Hums again, happily, and eats the rest of it quickly. "Mmm, that's good! Did you make these?" She takes a swig of her cider and finishes stacking the cards on the side of the board. "My sister said she'd play, but she's outside smoking, so might be a few. If Flicker or Matt joins, it's more or less just sitting back and watching the trainwreck for the rest of us." She snickers, grabbing another pinwheel before sitting down across from Rasa. "It's a /good/ show if they're /both/ playing." "Yeah, I kind of threw them together. Vanya helped, but had to run a job tonight, so couldn't come. He sends his ..." Rather than speaking Ivan's greeting, ze gives a thumbs up and smiles and nods. It helps that hir features shift a little to immitate hir partner's expression when giving the 'good luck' wishes. Ze inhales and relaxes, hands lowering to toy with one of the small train bits. "Yeah, no worries. I'm not in a hurry to get started. Got some good food to tide us over until the others are ready to play. How ya been?" "I appreciate it. We're so spoiled here, when it comes to food." Blink chuckles softly, nibbling on the pinwheel in her hand. "My contribution on that front is carryout, which is no comparison. Me..." Her brows wrinkle slightly. "Busy, I guess. I've been running a lot of logistical support for the protests -- moving people and supplies, you know? How're you?" She ponders the train pieces. "Oh, and you mind if I call green?" "Oh, Nice. I always mean to ask about the behind the scenes stuff but barely have time to just show up." Rasa curls hir legs up underneath hir as ze helps shove more of the green trains toward Blink. "Nah. Go for it. Pick your color of choice. I'll probably just take the black ones unless someone cares a lot." Ze picks up a little more food -- a vegan pinwheel this time -- and nibblse thoughtfully. "Sometimes Takeout is just fine. Don't worry about it." "The behind the scenes varies a lot on the actual scene in question. Honestly, it's /kind/ of a mess," Blink says. "My sis does a lot of organizing with her NYU campus group, so that's mostly how I get dragged into it. She coordinates between medics, jail support, and the various logistics groups." She pops the rest of the pinwheel in her mouth and downs it with a swallow of cider. "Anyway, if you ever have the time or energy, we can always use more organizers, but..." She scoops up the green trains and piles them in front of her. "...showing up counts for a lot." "Definitely going to keep showing up, that's for sure." Rasa starts to line hir trains up in an orderly pattern, end to end, four deep, then starts building to the right of hir first line. "But I will keep that offer in mind. Maybe I can get in on email stuff. I do have some computer time while I'm doing phones." "Alice can tell you about what kinds of stuff needs doing, when she joins us," Blink says. "Even if you can only do a bit, it spreads the load around, you know?" Her smile is small but hopeful. "If we're going to be in this for the long haul, we have to look after each other so we don't burn out, or give up." "Combating burn out... yeah." Rasa shakes hir head and pulls a receipt out of hir back pocket, writing hir email address on it in anticipation of Alice's return. "Coming to game nights helps with the burn out too. Being with friends and family when you don't have to do anything or fight." Ze gets up half way, placing one foot on the ground. "I'm going to grab something to drink. You good?" Ze peeks at Blink's cider. Blink nods solemnly. "That's so true! We get so focused on the fight, we forget we need...this." She gestures at the...whole party, basically. "We could all use some reminding." Her smile is kind of crooked as she looks down at the game laid out between them. "Even if that's a bit of a trainwreck, too. And now that you mention..." She swishes the remainder of her cider around, then downs it all. "I could use another, por favor."