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 Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:44 pm
Philomel checked her hastily-scrawled grocery list again to see if she needed one can of evaporated milk or two. With classes suspended, Philomel had more time than she knew what to do with. Of course, it did mean she could shop for Mr. Dooley, who had asked for two cans of evaporated milk after all. Mr. Dooley, her elderly neighbor, who for as long as she could remember (which was clearly not that long) had paid a woman to do his grocery shopping for him. But when whatever-it-was (the whatever-it-was that was responsible for all of Philomel's current predicaments) hit Destiny City, she'd fallen dead asleep in the middle of Southern Poultry, a local supermarket.
So Philomel had been called in to take over the job, which was really the nicest part of all this. If she could find enough people with hired help in comas, maybe she could begin to forget something had gone as wrong as it had. Maybe she could even find enough work to avoid beating Chrono Trigger this week. Philomel dropped two cans of evaporated milk in her basket and moved onto other, more worthy things. Next on her list was Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup. That should be nearby, right?
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:56 am
Sophie had commandeered a shopping cart, and was pushing it purposefully around Southern Poultry. In the top, where fragile goods and small children sometimes sat, she had established her own personal ops center. On the left was her errand list, on the right, the Southern Poultry circular, and in the center, a short stack of flyers, which she handed out to every customer she came across.
The Socially Conscious Youth of Destiny City, one of Sophie's favorite causes, was working overtime. The current epidemic of unknown origin had left a large number of people hospitalized, but an even larger number of family members were affected as well. Her current mission was shopping for inexpensive baking supplies, in preparation for the upcoming bake sale, and cleaning supplies for the car wash.
"Here- please take one." Sophie dropped a flier into an elderly lady's cart and kept on pushing to the canned goods section. Milk spoiled quickly, possibly before the baking date was settled upon. Evaporated milk would keep as long as they needed it to. Consulting her list, Sophie cut the amount in half and tipped four cans into her already crowded cart.
A short way down the aisle, she spotted a teenager with a basket. Jackpot. While teenagers rarely made donations, even Crystal girls who could afford to, they made up the majority of the volunteer base. The Y in SCYDC wasn't there just for show.
"Hi there! Do you have a moment?" Sophie wheeled her cart up closer to the girl, flyer in her free hand. "I'm a part of Socially Conscious Youth of Destiny City, and I have to say, we could really use your help."
Making people feel needed usually worked. It was how they got her, at least.
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 6:08 pm
Philomel startled a little at the unexpected voice, though she tried her best to hide it. She kept her eyes focused on the row of cans she'd been scanning for Cream of Mushroom soup and, spotting a likely can, tossed that too into her basket. The can she'd grabbed was actually French Onion, but one Campbell's Soup can looked like every other Campbell's Soup can at first glance, and Philomel didn't take a second look at it. She looked instead at the girl who'd spoken to her and tried to look calm, collected, and totally reliable. Definitely not like a girl who had just unknowingly put the wrong kind of soup into her basket, at the very least.
"Sure," Philomel said. "What's the group do?"
It didn't matter very much, but it was prudent to ask what she was signing herself up for. Socially Conscious Youth of Destiny City implied something about the purpose of the group, but nothing about what it did. Philomel was not an activist ("Polar opposite" would not be a bad term), and she wanted to make sure there was a place for someone like her (i.e. for a drudge) in an organization like SCYDC. There usually was.
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Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 7:23 pm
The most frequent reaction to Sophie's kind of outreach was a polite, disinterested smile and a "no, thank you" before the person rushed away. Other common results included people rushing past pretending not to hear, or telling her to do things that Sophie didn't think were anatomically possible. But every so often, somebody would stop and listen, and that made everything worthwhile. She would ask a thousand people to help if she knew that even one of them would.
"Of course!" Now that an interest had been established, Sophie went full-throttle into spokesperson mode. She pulled her cart to a stop, offered the girl the flyer, and stood up just a little bit straighter. It was important to make a good impression, as a representative of the organization.
"Socially Conscious Youth of Destiny City is, as the name implies, a group primarily made up of kids and teenagers who have taken an interest in the state of affairs in our city. Most of our focus is on helping young people in difficult situations: runaways, homeless families, victims of abuse, et cetera. You could call us a 'by kids, for kids' group, except there really isn't an age limit. The only requirement is a desire to help your peers.
"Currently, our focus is on helping those affected by the current catastrophe." Sophie didn't elaborate; anyone who didn't know what the current catastrophe was had to have been braindead long before the incident. "The obvious victims are being cared for as well as possible, given the circumstances. But the families and friends of those victims are having a hard time as well. Many young people lost at least one parent, some even lost both. While we're still hopeful that the researchers will be able to discover something, in the meantime, these families are without sources of income. Right now we're holding a number of fundraisers, to try to raise both money and awareness for this group of people that is largely going unnoticed in favor of the people in the hospital."
Sophie spent her new free time mostly divided between SCYDC and the hospital, and both situations were pretty dire. But in both cases, what was really heartbreaking was not the sheer number of victims, but the families crying, praying, hoping, but ultimately able to do nothing. Even though her hours were long and her job a mostly thankless one, after seeing all of the people visiting their loved ones, Sophie never considered dropping her work.
"We're also trying to organize therapy groups for those whose families were hit- oh, forgive me, I didn't even ask. Are you...?" She trailed off, unsure how to finish the sentence. "Are your parents comatose?" was far too blunt, but then, talking about people's families without checking to see if her target was one of them was hardly sympathetic either. "A lot of people whose families were affected are volunteering as well," she finally said. "In case that's an issue."
An awkward silence fell as Sophie realized that she lost her place in her pitch. She had gotten the basics across, at least, and so she looked at the other girl expectantly.
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Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 8:50 pm
As soon as it became clear to her what the other girl was asking, Philomel began to shake her head. Her mother had lost a few patients to the mysterious coma outbreak, but she herself was conscious, and Philomel's father was trapped in Iceland or something. If school had stayed in session, her life would have barely been affected.
"No," Philomel said as soon as she could get a word in. It was uncomfortable to be around people who were uncomfortable. She wanted to get the record straight as early as she could. "I do things like this at school." She left the and the lack of club meetings is slowly driving me batty unsaid. It didn't really need to be said, and she wouldn't have wanted to say it even if it did. She took the flyer and laid it on top of her groceries.
Philomel made a little smile that she hoped looked friendly and unoffended. "What do you need volunteers for?" she queried.
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 11:09 pm
It seemed that Sophie hadn't inadvertently made a terrible faux pas. Breathing out, she nodded. "I'm so glad to hear that." There wasn't much to say beyond that. Just because their parents weren't directly affected didn't meant that the work ended there. If anything, it was all the more reason to work hard for the people who couldn't.
"Oh, so you have experience! Excellent. Not that experience is really necessary, but it's always helpful, especially with a crisis of this degree." It wasn't the girl's experience that really got Sophie excited, but her willingness to participate. She could have been a careless klutz, as long as she took an interest. But not being a careless klutz was good too.
Reaching into her basket, Sophie pulled out her shopping list. "Right now I'm shopping for fundraisers: a bake sale and a car wash. We can always use more people helping with those. We're also working on recruiting more people, on collecting donations... I'm not really in charge, so I can't say for sure what you'd be working on. But there's always something to do, if you're willing."
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 1:59 pm
Sophie-- not that Philomel knew her name yet-- gave Philomel a distinct impression of a true believer. She wasn't too surprised by this-- many of the people involved in this kind of community service work were, and it was a good thing that there were people who truly, passionately cared. Not that Philomel herself was cold and cruel, or that she was disillusioned about the true value of charity work (although she was under no illusion that she or Sophie could change the world, she didn't think charity work was useless); she simply feared Sophie thought she was a true believer, too. Which she wasn't, and she tried to avoid seeming like one in all things because it was really embarrassing to be labeled and thought of like that. Passion was frightening sometimes, and the girl she'd encountered had far too much of it. Hopefully she'd realize that Philomel purposefully kept herself apart from these things before too long. It wasn't personal or anything. It was self-preservation, and Philomel's sense of that was enormous.
Philomel was also always willing to help, and she made a gesture to that effect to Sophie when she asked. "Is there anything I can get for that?" Philomel asked, looking at the list Sophie had produced. "I'm shopping for a neighbor, and he doesn't ask for much."
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:12 pm
If Philomel could see into Sophie's mind, she would see a True Believer in the truest sense of the phrase. Not only did she believe in the work that she was doing, but she believed that it really could change the world. It was the fact that other people didn't share that view that kept the world from changing as quickly as it could- at least, that was her opinion, and she was sticking to it. Fortunately for Philomel, Sophie's lecture quota had already been filled for the day.
The offer, Sophie figured, was meant in good will. Still, her expression soured slightly, and she clutched the list in her hand tightly. "It's very nice of you to offer," she said stiffly, "but I think I've got this part covered. I've got a system, so it shouldn't take me long." She smiled again, slightly forced, but doing her best. She didn't want to scare away a potential volunteer. But she also didn't like the implication, whether intentional or otherwise, that she was somehow incapable of doing her job.
"When you've got time though, come by the center." Sophie gestured at the flyer again, slowly relaxing. "I'm sure they'll be thrilled to get your help. Oh, and just in case..." The shopping list had a pen clipped to it, for Sophie to mark off the items as she got them. Turning the list over, she handed it and the pen to Philomel. "If you want to give me your contact info, someone will call you about specific events that could use extra hands. Whatever works for you, really."
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:32 pm
"Anything works for me," Philomel said, though it wasn't really true. She took the pen and wrote the expected words on the back of Sophie's list: Philomel Selyck, 64 Blah Blah Blah, (123) 777 - Blah Blah Blah. She was a little less comfortable handing it back to Sophie than taking it blank. Philomel wasn't stupid. It didn't seem that Sophie was going to blow up on her, but you could never be sure with these things. People were unpredictable. Even Philomel was a little, which was really the most uncomfortable truth of all.
Philomel tried to smile. It was a little forced, to match Sophie's, but there was also real gratefulness behind it. She'd just been saved from a life of doing nothing much in particular, and she was, at the very least, grateful for that much. "I'll stop by, too."
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 8:02 pm
Sophie waited as Philomel filled out her information, rereading her list and confirming the aisle she needed to go to her next in her mind. It took a moment for her to snap back to the moment when she was handed back the paper. "Oh. Right, thanks." She glanced at it quickly, just to make sure all of the pertinent info was there. "Philomel? That's an interesting name." Why did she say that? "I'm Sophie. It's nice to meet you, and with any luck, we'll be working together soon."
Her smile was still a little stiff, as if it had been rehearsed, but less obviously so. "Well, I'm sure you have more shopping to do for your neighbor, so I'll leave you to it. You should be getting a phone call soon, and then we'll be able to get things done!" Once Sophie had her mind on something, it was hard to change topics, or even to end the conversation. "Um... take care."
Sophie nodded and slowly started to push her cart down the aisle, looking for canned cherries and thinking. She hadn't come to Southern Poultry looking for volunteers, not really, so finding one was quite the bonus. Even though she never found the canned cherries, she left the store feeling quite satisfied.
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