#a bunch if things are gonna go wrong for them

[tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang]

I just finished a movie with a bunch of fights and stuff in it,,, and it’s got me thinking how would chifuyu, baji, ran, Rindou, any others react if their non-fighter girlfriend/partner threw themself over them and took a knife in the back for them during one of their gang fights (and let’s just say she lives for the sake of not getting too angsty….)?

Ah ok! Here's Chifuyu, Baji, Ran and Rindou after their partner takes a knife for them during a gang fight!

Chifuyu-

Chifuyu swears it happened too quickly, he always thought he was fast enough to protect you if anything happened but turns out he was wrong. He's not sure how you got there so fast.

Stands there blinking for a moment, looking at you in shock before shakily calling your name. He pleads with whatever forces are out there that this is just a dream, that this isn't real and he didn't just see you crumble to the floor for him.

The sound of the fight brings him back to reality. Quickly aiming a kick at the guy who just stabbed you, he doesn't even look to see if it took the guy out or not. All his attention is on you.

Taking off his jacket, he presses it against your wound, while screaming at someone to call an ambulance. Takemichi doesn't hesitate to call when he hears the desperation in Chifuyu's voice. Chifuyu feels like hours have gone by waiting for the ambulance when it was only a few minutes. He insists on riding in it with you too.

The hospital waiting room was the worst part, sitting there and not knowing if you're going to be ok or not. He's vaguely aware of the other toman members around him, giving him support but he can't pay attention to them.

When he does get to see you awake he practically launches himself on to you, crying and smiling and just trying to be as close to you as he can. Also says sorry a lot as he blames himself for what happened.

Baji-

He's mad, so mad. And not only at the guy who dared to stab you (though he quickly knocks him out), he's mad at you too. Yells at you "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!???" He knows this isn't the best time for yelling but he can't help it, he's never been so scared before.

Luckily for you Baji's always been fast at acting so it doesn't take long for him to scoop you up and run to the nearest hospital, all while yelling at Chifuyu to follow in case back up is needed if anyone else tries to follow.

He sits in the waiting room with Chifuyu for hours, both of them refusing to leave until they know you're ok. They're both thrilled when they get the good news and after that Baji sends Chifuyu home, saying he'll wait alone until he can see you.

Lectures you a whole bunch when you do wake up, he's glad you're ok but never do that again!

Ran-

He laughs at first, assumes he's taking one too many hits to the head, that this fight was wearing him down more then he assumed. Because there's no way you actually just jumped between him and knife. I mean you wasn't even supposed to be here so it's just a ridiculous thought right?

You smiling at him and saying how glad you are he's not hurt is what snaps him out of it. "What the hell?"

Swings his baton, knowing he's taken out the target without even looking. Does it even matter anymore? He has more important things to deal with. You. He knows Rindou has already called the ambulance, they always have been in good sync with each other's needs.

Crouches down next to you, stroking your cheek gently as he asks "why did you do that?"

He's not sure if he's doing this right when he strips your clothes, trying to get himself better access to to the wound, needing to see the damage and where to press. Keeps making jokes and light comments with you as he does it though. "Oh you're gonna be so mad that I had to rip this top of yours but don't worry I'll buy you another later". He doesn't dare think that there may not be a later.

Says nothing as he gets in the ambulance with you and no one dares to stop him or Rindou from tagging along. He spends the whole ride stroking your hair and softly murmuring to you while the paramedics work.

The waiting room is tense, Rindou has never seen his brother stay awake for so long before.

When you finally wake up he's immediately coming into the room to see you. At first he seems like his usual self, teasing you about how your first fight ended like this. But at one point he suddenly he get's serious. Holding you close and telling you to stay away from fights. Before he invites himself into your hospital bed and promptly falls asleep beside you, clinging onto you the whole time.

Rindou-

His eyes widen as he screams your name in a panic. Managing to catch you before you fall, he suddenly remembers the guy with the knife and looks around for him. Only to see Ran standing over him, hitting him with his baton, one sickening cruch later and Rindou knows the guy is dead, no longer a threat.

"Hey, hey look at me" he calls your name a bunch too while carefully cradling you. He just needs to hear you speak, needs to know it's going to be ok.

He can't wait for the ambulance so he carries you as fast as he can to the hospital. Ran of course manages to outrun him and get there first, telling the hospital staff to be ready when Rindou brings you in.

Rindou finds it hard to give you over to them, to let you go even though he knows he has to. He just wants to stay close to you. Ran is the one who guides him to the waiting area and sits with him.

He can't stop thinking about what will happen if he loses you, tries not to cry but s few tears end up slipping out.

When he gets the good news and gets to see you again he immediately asks how you're doing and feeling. He's prepared to get anything you might need. But he's relieved when all you ask for is a hug, he wanted to do that from the start but was worried about hurting you.

[atelierlili]

Katniss, Peeta, and the messy in between.

For a while I've been seeing the sentiment of blaming the distance between Katniss and Peeta after the 74th games on Peeta entirely and I think it's rather unfair. It's a messy situation involving two teenagers who are both valid in their feelings at this point in time.

There's multiple things going on at the end of book 1 in regards to Peeta's relationship with both Katniss AND Haymitch that it feel unfair to blame him, when Peeta, like Katniss, more often than not, is the last one to find out other people's intentions/plans, even from his own allies.

Now before I start, I feel like I must preface this by saying I'm not bashing anyone in this analysis so if you're gonna say something rude and mean about my babies, make that U turn cause I aint having it. Also I'm a yapper so this is gonna be really long lol.

It begins on the train tracks. Katniss and Peeta are walking along the tracks when Peeta picks her a small bouquet of wildflowers as Katniss is struggling to convey the kind of danger they are in, while also being paranoid that they're being watched. At this time, she also connects Gale to the wild flowers Peeta has picked for her and its adding her anxiety to the point where she can't even pretend to be happy at Peeta's gift. And that's something he picks up on.

When the train makes a brief stop for fuel, we’re allowed to go outside for some fresh air. There’s no longer any need to guard us. Peeta and I walk down along the track, hand in hand, and I can’t find anything to say now that we’re alone. He stops to gather a bunch of wildflowers for me. When he presents them, I work hard to look pleased. Because he can’t know that the pink and-white flowers are the tops of wild onions and only remind me of the hours I’ve spent gathering them with Gale.

“What’s wrong?” Peeta asks. “Nothing,” I answer. We continue walking, past the end of the train, out where even I’m fairly sure there are no cameras hidden in the scrubby bushes along the track. Still no words come. -THG - Chapter 27

Its not until Haymitch appears and drop the bomb and bows out that Peeta finally catches on that Katniss and Haymitch are still playing up the lover act without his knowledge.

Haymitch startles me when he lays a hand on my back. Even now, in the middle of nowhere, he keeps his voice down. “Great job, you two. Just keep it up in the district until the cameras are gone. We should be okay.” I watch him head back to the train, avoiding Peeta’s eyes. “What’s he mean?” Peeta asks me. “It’s the Capitol. They didn’t like our stunt with the berries,” I blurt out. “What? What are you talking about?”

“So, what you’re saying is, these last few days and then I guess . . . back in the arena . . . that was just some strategy you two worked out.” “No. I mean, I couldn’t even talk to him in the arena, could I?” I stammer. “But you knew what he wanted you to do, didn’t you?” says Peeta. I bite my lip. “Katniss?” He drops my hand and I take a step, as if to catch my balance. “It was all for the Games,” Peeta says. “How you acted.”

-THG - Chapter 27

The truth comes out. Uh oh. It seems this star crossed lovers act when on longer than Peeta expected. Granted, I don't recall him or Katniss ever making their status official, but somewhere between the cave and now, Peeta thought both him and Katniss were on the same page about their feelings. He's not wrong for thinking Katniss liked him back, she does, what he didn't account for is Katniss not knowing herself that she liked him back.

I think Peeta learning the truth through Haymitch and not Katniss starts them on the wrong foot. Because she isn't honest with him for a majority of the time in this scene. Yes, Katniss was worried if the capitol could hear them, but even after Haymitch lets them know they can talk freely, she's still isn't 100% honest with Peeta.

Now here comes the big question.

“It was all for the Games,” Peeta says. “How you acted.” “Not all of it,” I say, tightly holding on to my flowers. “Then how much? No, forget that. I guess the real question is what’s going to be left when we get home?” he says. “I don’t know. The closer we get to District Twelve, the more confused I get,” I say. He waits, for further explanation, but none’s forthcoming

I'd be more than happy to dump all the blame on him for being a pissy baby after the revelation if it weren't for that last part at the end.

Peeta's hurt, yes, but he can rationalize that Katniss had to play lovers for the games, but here, right now, he's asking what he should be expecting when they get home. The words aren't there, but the subtext is loud and clear.

This is a confession. I'm hurt. But I still like you. Do you like me? Will we have something when we go home and the cameras are gone?

Katniss gives him her most honest answer yet. She doesn't know. She's confused and she's getting more confused as they get closer to home. And that's it. That's her answer. But it isn't enough.

Peeta explicitly waits for more of an explanation from Katniss. He hears nothing about her thoughts, feelings, fears. He only knows what she tells him. And when he doesn't get it, there's no other way to take it as a rejection.

So now what?

“Well, let me know when you work it out,” he says, and the pain in his voice is palpable. -THG- Chapter 27-

“No, I ate at the Hob,” I say. “But thank you.” My voice doesn’t sound like my own, it’s so formal. Just as it’s been every time I’ve spoken to Peeta since the cameras finished filming our happy homecoming and we returned to our real lives. -CF- Chapter 1

The camera crews and reporters packed up and went home. Peeta and I assumed the cool relationship we’ve had ever since. -CF- Chapter 2

And this is why I feel like it's so unfair to solely blame Peeta for their distance between THG and CF. This distance came from both sides.

Peeta ends Book one asking Katniss to be honest with him once she figures her own feelings out. But she never does. She just picks up her life and tries go back to what it was before the games.

Was he waiting for an answer? How long did he wait? When did he give up and accept that whatever was the 74th was something his mind made up while he lying half dead in a cave?

Katniss has a valid list of a million things that are clouding her feelings for Peeta. We know them because we're stuck in her head. But Peeta isn't. And to be honest, I don't think he ever knows all of them throughout the trilogy.

I want to tell him that he’s not being fair. That we were strangers. That I did what it took to stay alive, to keep us both alive in the arena. That I can’t explain how things are with Gale because I don’t know myself. That it’s no good loving me because I’m never going to get married anyway and he’d just end up hating me later instead of sooner. That if I do have feelings for him, it doesn’t matter because I’ll never be able to afford the kind of love that leads to a family, to children. And how can he? How can he after what we’ve just been through? -THG- Chapter 27-

And this isn't a silly little fling for Peeta. He's liked Katniss since forever. Has there been other girls that caught his eye? Yes, maybe, but Katniss Everdeen has always been a soft spot for him.

Now, there is a part of him that now as to wonder WTF was going on in the Games, in the Cave and the Interview that followed after. You know the one, where Katniss cries into his chest, buries her face into his chest and practically sits on him the entire time.

Unlike Katniss, Peeta now has to question everything because the rug has just been pulled from underneath him. Yes, he's aware about the lover act and playing it up for the audience, but he isn't aware that Katniss and Haymitch have some crazy telepathic connection to each other that was guiding how Katniss would act towards Peeta in the games. He was even delirious half the time. How far did that go? When did it even begin? He knew that Haymitch was sending packages to Katniss instead of him.

I'm not making this shit up because it's the one thing that Peeta outwardly expresses frustration at (especially) Katniss and Haymitch.

“This has to stop. Right now. This — this — game you two play, where you tell each other secrets but keep them from me like I’m too inconsequential or stupid or weak to handle them.” “It’s not like that, Peeta —” I begin. “It’s exactly like that!” he yells at me. “I have people I care about, too, Katniss! Family and friends back in District Twelve who will be just as dead as yours if we don’t pull this thing off. So, after all we went through in the arena, don’t I even rate the truth from you?” - CF - Chapter 5 -

So what is the point i'm making here? Oh right. I think Peeta is 1000% justified in withdrawing from Katniss after the train tracks. What else is he suppose to do? This isn't something he can bounce back and recover from right away. Taking a step back is the most mature thing to do in this situation. For his sake and hers.

I dislike the notion that his apology denotes complete wrong doing on his part. He's having a human moment and he navigates it better than most would. Yes, he freezes her out, but he doesn't berate her, blame her or is mean to her. He just fucks off and deals with his own emotions and only shows up to play the perfect boyfriend. (And when he does, he never does it with malice OR resentment, at least to from Katniss' obervation.) What other alternative is there? He's genuinely hurt and I feel like expecting him to be comforting and supportive on and off camera when he's hurting inside to be unfair.

We sympathize with Katniss because we're in her head 24/7. We can get to hear her yearn and pine for Peeta after the train tracks. But Katniss also just doesn't mention her every trying to fix her relationship with Peeta between books. She lets the ice freeze over until Peeta comes back to ofter friendship instead. Yes, she has trauma and more hang ups than the average modern day person, but so does Peeta. Trauma is an explanation, not an excuse. If Katniss is allowed three books to figure out her feelings for Peeta, Peeta should be allowed the in between of Book 1 and 2 to figure out his with Katniss.

There should be more nuance when we look at this point in time where Peeta and Katniss' relationship is estranged. Peeta has a lot of reasons why he might want distance from her and I think it's unfair to blame him for it. From him questioning the games, Katniss and Haymitch's involvement with each other and Katniss non-answer of a rejection to his feelings, there's a lot of things he needs to sort out himself. Yes, she saved his life, but she also doesn't answer a lot of questions he asks of her. Katniss doesn't owe him a relationship for what happened in the games, or even her reasons why she's not ready for a relationship. But in turn, we shouldn't blame Peeta if he personally needs time to pick himself up, to figure things out himself. And this is just one thing on top of the trauma that follows both of them after the games. He also just fucking lost his leg LMAO

[mollysunder]

Shimmer, Plants, and Firelights: Is the Firelights' Tree HQ being Sustained with Shimmer?

One of the most impressive things about Ekko's community, the Firelights, is that they were able to build a real home for one other another against the brutal struggle to survive that the Undercity has been caught in for centuries. Arcane best shows the Firelights' success in community in their ability to build and manage a green community. In the Undercity, a place of Iron and Glass, where plants and clean air are such luxuries that they count as status symbols, the Firelights are practically bathed in it in their Treehouse HQ. But then when I rewatched the series, I remembered Ekko said they FOUND this tree. The Firelights didn't grow it from seed to massive old growth themselves (especially if the timeskip was just 6-7 yrs at most), they certainly cultivated it in a way that allowed the tree to support itself and them too. After finishing Arcane it was so easy to firmly associate successful plant cultivation and the hope it brings for the Undercity with the Firelights, to where I had forgotten that the plants do grow in the Undercity.

The first time we see plant life in the Undercity is at the Crab Palace, better known as the Cannery. Through the cracks in the ground are leafy ferns (I think they're ferns) and generally very healthy looking weeds. At first I'd assumed maybe this area was in a slightly less polluted area in the Undercity, but it's literally by the place Silco was drowned. The place where the river is so toxic it eats muscle tissue. And yet, in the light of day plants grow. In fact, even underwater vegetation seems to be able to grow too. And everytime we see an instance of vegetation growing and surviving in the Undercity, there is always a source of Shimmer and/or Shimmer production nearby.

In the Cannery we can see the literal veins of Shimmer (Void Veins?), act as a medium that allows plant growth.

In the time it took for the sun to set on 2nd episode we can see that even more fern saplings are growing on and around the Void Veins.

In Singed's cave where he is cultivating Rio, the mutation related to Shimmer's production the cave is filled with bioluminescent plant life. I don't know if this a normal plant in League of Legends, but in the real world there are no naturally occurring plants that actively glow in the dark. Not only do they exist in a cave system that's fed with water visibly polluted with visible chemical runoff they manage to grow in decent looking clusters with limited light.

Later in the season, Viktor's experiments with the hexcore show that the Void is capable of stimulating the growth organic life and Shimmer may be the key to maintaining it.

By the end of the season, Shimmer production is shown in a very controlled environment like the factory where plant life would be weeded out to avoid accidents and prevent damage to machinery. When the show reaches the Firelights' HQ, audience members like myself already forgot Shimmer's association with plant life. But looking back, it seems few requirements are needed for Shimmer to make plants grow. All the plants probably needed was light, moisture, and a healthy supply of Shimmer.

It makes sense that the Firelights' treehouse was able to grow so large and grand in a place like the Undercity with the help of Shimmer. Shimmer is a literal magic wonder drug (a super steriod) for humans, and magic doesn't need to understand basics of biochemistry, it's the Void. The real question is where is the source that's feeding the tree? The easiest answer could be that Silco dumps subpar quality Shimmer around the area, maybe the batches aren't strong enough but inadvertently make good fertilizer. The more worrying answer is that the Void Veins over the years have dug deeper into the Undercity than anyone, except maybe Singed thought was possible.

No matter the answer, if it's true the tree was only able to survive before the Firelights reached it would be devastatingly ironic for Ekko and his group. Shimmer, the drug that elevated their enemy and upended their lives also made their home possible. It could be an opportunity to look once again at the nuances of Shimmer's applications once more, especially as previously the Firelights and now Piltover are hellbent on destroying it. But it also makes their home an even bigger target.

Somewhere there is a reserve of Shimmer sustaining the Firelights' tree in a time where production in its industry has been effectively shut down. They are possibly living on an extremely flammable gold mine. The gold mine may or may not be closely psychically conected to other Void-connected transmutated people like Jinx and Viktor. It also doesn't help that Piltover's quick to storm in first and ask questions later in high tension situations.

[eerna]

wait just a minute. why is Hermes in s1 of PJO??

[leatherbookmark]

an interesting thing abt jgy antis is like. where is the source of their, shall we say, negative opinion of jgy? like, 1. jgy is a villain, he does horrible things with no remorse, he’s willing to do everything to achieve his selfish, egotistical goals. --> 2. the source of this claim: this, this and this scene. --> 3. alright, but to me -- says someone who’s not an anti -- this reads differently. that he did all those things, and did them on purpose and without remorse, is not that obvious to me. why do you think that? --> 4. well, obviously because he’s a villain and does horrible things with no remorse.

like... he’s evil because he does bad things, and he does bad things because he’s evil. i’m interested in how antis came by those opinions, but a, unfortunately i have them all blocked, and b, even if i or someone else made a poll, it wouldn’t be authentic because no sane anti is going to say “well, people hated him and wrote all those things about him on twt, so i started hating him as well”, or “i only care about wgxn, you could sell me anything about other characters if your arguments were convincing enough because i zoned out during the parts when wgxn weren’t on screen/pages of the book”. it’s all “written in the book/shown in the show” and “logical arguments you’d agree with if only you could read”.

[running-in-the-dark]

so! I've not been sleeping well lately. and I've gotta get through the next few months (of writing my stupid thesis) somehow. I need a lot of sleep to function. so I've decided to increase the dose of the medication that lets me sleep (an antidepressant) again. we only just reduced it earlier this year so I know it's fine.

the dose I've been on is the lowest dose possible, so this is still very low. I don't think it really does much for my mood either way (even at the higher dose that I used to be on). but not sleeping well definitely makes me feel like shit, and especially lying in bed not being able to fall asleep. I'm not good at consistently taking this medication long enough before I go to bed, so it usually takes about an hour until I can sleep. I know that at this slightly higher dose, I get sleepy very quickly, maybe read for a few minutes and then fall asleep with no issues.

I really want to take fewer meds (for someone who is ~young and healthy~ according to their GP (🙄) I take a lot of medication every day, and tbh it is really annoying), but they help a lot and at the moment I can't function without them, so I'll just have to wait a little longer (and that's fine)

[oldestking]

     /  My god- my love for gil is always present but as i’m sitting once again to hopefully finish watching C.CC (last time I got distracted) it just refreshes me once again just how interesting and unpredictable g.ilgamesh is, yet how at the same time, all that he says still ends up making sense to his character! He really is a character that is difficult to fully box in one slot once you look closer down the rabbit hole that is himself and that is always a delight to see

[unofficialadamtaurus]

per the rules, everyone take a shot 🥃

[thesmokinpossum]

Montréal Pride cancelling the parade 4 hours before it’s supposed to take place “because theres not enough volunteers” 🥴

I checked their social medias and they did absolutely nothing in the past days to find some volunteers or anything of the sort and at this point I’m left wondering if we’re truly dealing with gross incompetence or if there’s something going on behind the curtains 

[onepiexe]

my god. yesterday was a day.

[goodnightwindy]

did i ever tell you guys about heatstroke river

[jrueships]

😬✌🏿 ✌🏽😁

bonus josh looking like Australian psycho +Jay scrubb who is NOT John collins

[foreverxdaydreaming]

never realize how many useless notifications you get until you put your volume on.. all of these emails / scams / marketing have ruined the importance of calls/notifications entirely,,

[fingertipsmp3]

I love my family but they are being Way Too Much today and I am just not here for it I’m sorry

[weaselle]

it was too much i had to make my own post

line cook here. ACCURATE

if you don't get the hate, here's what you don't understand.

it takes up to 2 hours to close down the kitchen.

The last 60-90 minutes before closing time you do almost no cooking because the restaurant doesn't have many people in it and you've already cooked most of their diners.

So if someone walks in during, like, the last hour, the cook is in the middle of an industrial deep clean of the kitchen.

(these numbers can vary quite a bit from place to place but i have worked several restaurants with these actual times and the concept remains the same)

Say the place closes at 10. If you wait til the restaurant is already closed to start all your cleaning duties, you'll be there until at least midnight.

More than that your boss knows that on an average night you can start your clean up as soon as the last rush ends and get out of there around 10:45, even 10:15 on a slow night if you get lucky. That means there are plenty of restaurants where if you do take until midnight the manager is going to come up to you at some point that week and ask you what went wrong that night, and you'd better have an answer.

So this example restaurant closes at 10 pm. The dinner rush ends around 8:30, and shortly after that the cook is going to start getting every single dish possible over to the dishwasher because the dishwasher always gets hit hard and late, and the machine runs for 2 full minutes and only holds so many dishes, so the way that works out is if you wait an extra 30 minutes to give the dishwasher all your stuff it can mean adding like 60 minutes to the end of his shift. And you're gonna KEEP finding shit to send to the dishpit right up until you leave probably.

all these little square and rectangle containers in this cold table have to be pulled out and changed over into new containers, replaced by new full ones, or in some cases filled from larger containers in the back, which can result in even more empty containers to send to the dishwasher.

while it's all pulled apart to do this, you have to clean up all the spilled food and sauce and juices and stuff from the joints and ledges and shelves and drip trays

Once you get your line changed over in this way, and fully stocked, anytime someone orders something that makes use of a bunch of that stuff, you have to restock and re-clean it some. It might already be covered in plastic. Some of it might already be stuck in the back to make room to take apart your cutting board counter to clean. To cook a dish isn't TOO much of a problem at this point, but you're really hoping for zero orders because you still have so much other cleaning to do.

Meanwhile the salad bar and appetizer section and server station and everybody are all doing the same thing. Even the bartenders are stocking olives and lemons and sending back whisks and stir spoons and shakers and empty 4quart storage containers that used to hold the back-up lemons and olives and things. Every section is dumping their must-be-cleaneds to the dishpit as fast as possible because early and fast is the only thing they can do to to help that dishpit not absolutely drown into overtime.

The poor dishwasher is always the last to clock out, soaking wet and exhausted.

Around this time you probably scrub the flat top, which has turned black from cooked on grease and is still about 500 degrees. Line cooks are divided in opinion on water-based or oil based cleaning methods for this, but they all involve scrubbing with (usually) a brick of pumice stone using every ounce of your strength while you try not to burn yourself

you scrub it from fully blackened to gleaming silver and now if somebody orders something that needs the flat top to cook, you can either fuck up your cleaning job or fake it in a couple frying pans and pass that tiny fuck you down to your dishwasher (who usually understands, especially if you help them take the garbage out or clean your own floor drain later)

If there's deep fried stuff on the menu then the fryers have to be cleaned out, which includes straining the oil out into enormous and super-heavy pots full of oil so hot that if you spill on yourself then it's probably a hospital visit and if you slip and fall face first into it it'll be the last thing you ever do.

Then you gotta scrub out the fryer. Like you gotta take the (hot) screen out and reach your arm down into the weird rounded pipes and curved areas (so hot, burn you if you brush against them hot) and scrub off whatever is down there

Depending on your kitchen you might have to do up to four of these. Then you'll have to pour the (dangerously hot) oil back in

oh, and if you didn't dry the pipes and get ALL the water out of the trap and tank?

water reacts with hot oil in a sort of mentos and coke way that can send a tidal wave of oil past the open flame of the pilot light ...HUGE dangerous mess and/or burn down the kitchen if the oil lights up.

Unless! If the oil has been used too hard and needs to be changed, it's time to carry those open topped super heavy pots full of will-kill-you-hot oil and dump them in the barrel outside by the dumpsters so you can put room temp fresh oil in the fryers. whew!

The clean up is not just some light wiping down that can be easily interrupted, is what i'm saying.

You might have to do some kind of walk-in duty (moving around 50lb cases of lettuce and 50lb bags of onions to get to the stacks of five gallon buckets full of salad dressings and sauces to move so you can reach the giant metal pots and bus tubs full of prep and get it all organized and make sure it's all labeled and i have to stop now i'm having flashbacks)

THE POINT IS

by 15 or however many minutes to close, the line cook is doing an intense deep clean and probably has the whole stove taken apart to detail.

For some industrial stoves this means lifting off large cast iron plates that weigh like 20 lbs each and are still quite hot. Whatever metal burners are on there, you gotta take off and clean, you can see here the lines that indicate the large thick cast iron rectangles that sit on top of the burners to allow heavy pots to rest on. Those five (each has one front burner hole and one back burner hole, see?) have to be lifted off and cleaned with soap and a wire brush usually, and then the underneath area also has to be cleaned because a lot of shit falls through the burner holes on a busy night.

if you didn't do it when you did the flat top you have to do the grease trap (which can be like a full five minutes and is always disgusting).. You gotta clean out all the little gas jets in each burner with a wire or something so the burners all flame evenly, and sometimes you have to remove some of the natural gas piping that connects the burners to access where you have to clean.

you gotta clean out the bottom of the oven and the wire racks, and, oh gods, you gotta take down the filter vents from the hood fans above the stove.

See all the lined parts along the top of the wall?

those are hood vents, and as they pull air up they also pull a lot of grease and they have to be taken down and cleaned, then you gotta climb up there and scrub where they go before you put them back...

And then there's the mopping and floor drains and...

Anyway, that's what the line cook is doing when you walk in fifteen minutes before closing and order something that needs to be cooked on that stove. They are doing an entire industrial cleaning of a professional kitchen.

In some restaurants maybe one or two of these jobs will be every other night or even only twice a week, but in many, possibly most kitchens, ALL of these things happen EVERY night. You don't want to leave any food mess that might attract insects or rodents for one thing, so a really good kitchen is as close to brand new as you can get it every night.

IF YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO ORDER SOMETHING ANYWAY, HERE IS WHAT TO DO

open with an apology and ask the server to go ask what the cook would prefer you to order.

Any good server will already know what the cook is hoping for and what will make their line cook go into the walk in and scream. If it's significantly less than an hour to close and they say some variant of "oh anything is fine" they are either telling the lie their boss wants them to say, or they actually do not know what their line cook wants, and you can either use human connection and a conspiratorial just-between-us tone to get them to drop the customer-is-always-right act, or get them to actually go ask the cook.

It might be as specific as "the lasagna is easiest on the kitchen" or it might be a simple guideline like "nothing that requires the flat top" or "any of the sautés are easy" but a good line cook will probably have a system for if they have to make a couple of the most popular items after they start their close, so the answer is likely to include something most people like and you should be good to order that.

but for the love of all that's holy, please only do so at great need. Leave that last 30-60 minutes to the truly desperate and the crew's duties.

[snekdood]

"tumblr culture is-" NO! no its not! it is ~for you~, but your experiences and reality is not universal, my good bitch!