This sounds familiar...you must have been aware of this at some point. Good.

...maybe you were wrong about this world, but you're still not sure about everything. Sounds like people outside of this place are as shitty as you thought, but...that sound pretty good, actually.

She finishes her stir fry, spooning it out onto a set of plates. 

She hands the dishes off to a passing toy, leaning against the counter and looking you in the eye.

Vine leads you over to a couple of plastic vats, popping the lids off of them- there's some modeling dough inside, in all kinds of colors. She gestures to a variety of tools on the nearby counter, all plastic with lots of different shape cutouts and mechanisms. 

She gestures to a tool with a crank. 

Vine puts some white dough into the machine and cranks it, cutting it off after a set length. 

You nod and set your sights on the dough in front of you, starting to work on the process Vine went over with you.

You start off simple, just using the cookie cutters that your new mentor gave you. There's hearts and stars and flowers and other simple shapes...and when you use a combination, they end up looking kind of like sprinkles, or confetti. Something makes you feel pretty proud of your first attempt, though it is a little bit messy on the whipped cream swirl.

Vine looks over and gives you an encouraging gesture as you put it out for someone to take, and you feel a boost of confidence. Maybe this was going to work out. 

Your ego properly inflated, you start to try and get a little fancy...after all, you got it right on your first try. Your second try however, doesn't go quite as well- now you've just got a mess. When Vine looks over again, she just yells for you to put it to the side and try again, and so you press on, newly humbled...but just as determined.

You do two of each design you have in your head- two of them with flowery shapes, both made from cutouts and delicately placed round balls, and two of them with thick, overlaid stripes- kind of like a present. Something to keep people's heads out of the cold weather outside, and something more...festive. Just felt right.

They're not perfect, but you do like them, and from the look of it, so does Vine as someone picks them up and carries them out past her.

She gestures to your flopped attempt at the special from earlier. 

You pick up the plate and follow Vine as she takes you to a break room in the back, the chef sitting down with you and handing you a fork. 

You take a piece off of your dough creation and raise it to your mouth, surprised as the taste of fresh cake and whipped cream comes to mind. It immediately makes the hunger pangs in your belly fade away, and before you know it, you're digging in. Like Vine said, every "bite" you take of it makes more dough disappear, and it doesn't take long for you to have a clean plate.

She reclines in her chair, and you can't help but do the same. 

She stopped to think for a moment, your nerves rising up with her pause.

She hesitates again.

You can't help but feel a sharp pang in your chest.

She gives you a sympathetic but unreadable look, and you avoid eye contact, feeling awkward. 

Huh. You're really curious about this one, but it looks like you're gonna have to wait.

She can't help but laugh at her own comment, and you end up snickering along.

The older bear shrugs.

The two of you get up and head back to the kitchen, Vine leading you over to the now freshly cleaned dough station.

She taps a huge jar of translucent red substance next to the counter. 

Same situation as before...you can either ask for help, or try to go in with your own plans. You do know more about dough this time, so it shouldn't be too bad, but the option's there.

She gives you a confident look before returning to her own station, looking at the orders coming in and resuming her work with blinding speed and efficiency.

You wonder if you'd be as good as her, if you stuck around doing this...No time to worry about the future, though. You had noodles to make.

You start by getting some yellow dough and putting it into the machine, quickly realizing that Vine wasn't joking- this stuff came out fast and in tangles, and you're going to have to finagle the machine into cranking this shit out in a shape that you like. Swirls, swirls, go for swirls...You take a few tries to get used to the right motions, rolling up any botched dough back into a ball before putting it back in. It's almost starting to get frustrating, but you remember what Vine told you- your intent matters here. If you get all pissed off at the food, it's probably going to taste like trash.

After what feels like forever of fumbling, you manage to get a near-perfect looking swirl of pasta on the plate. The orders were stacking up, though...you had to get moving.

You take some slime out of the jar with your hand, trying not to be taken aback by the texture- it's both tantalizing but also, oh god, so sticky and stretchy. You are absolutely terrified of getting it everywhere, but somehow you manage to drizzle it onto the plate, spreading it carefully over your pasta and hurrying to get some basic confetti-like shapes on there. It's put out for the server to take and you catch Vine giving you another encouraging gesture, fueling you to press forward.

The next squeeze of dough comes easy, and before long, you're getting fancy with it. You go for stars and bursts, sparkly shapes, trying to make it look like a firework display. Even the server looks impressed, and even though your slime coverage wasn't the best, you get it done.

The next set of orders gets filled with the same pace- you fumble here and there, but it all looks pretty good in the end, and you have to admit, you're having fun. If what Vine said was true, that's what mattered when people got it. Maybe you actually had a calling with this...or got lucky, considering it's your first job ever. Even still, it feels good to know you have something you can do here.

You walk over to Vine once the orders are done, the beanbag deep into making what looked like a mix of different slimes in a pot. Like she mentioned earlier, she had gloves on- and you can tell she's pretty tense over it.

She glances up at the clock for an instant and nods, getting back to her...soup, as she dumps some glitter in.

Well, it's as she said. You're a free bird now...with three hours to kill.