Minimum Order

The requisition system requires a minimum order of four.

I have been aware of this constraint for the past two and a half months, since I started thinking about the fifth chair in practical terms rather than theoretical ones. The system will not let me order one mug. It will not let me order two or three. Minimum order of four. This is the kind of logic that makes administrative sense and no other kind.

We have four mugs in active rotation. Brit's is the green one, which everyone knows is not actually his but which he has never corrected. Black Samson's has a small chip on the handle that I have noted in the damage log three times and which he has asked me, twice, not to file. Bulletproof's is new — the previous one was left at the Flaxan deployment site and came back in pieces, if it came back at all. Shapesmith does not drink coffee but uses his mug for warm water and does not appear to want this pointed out.

Four mugs. Minimum order of four.

I thought about it for a while. I have a line-item budget for breakables, which mugs technically fall under. The existing four are in serviceable condition. There is no administrative justification for ordering replacements.

I put in the order on Tuesday.

Four mugs. Minimum order. They arrive Thursday. I will put one in the cabinet — the back of the cabinet, behind the existing four, where it will not be immediately visible. Not a statement. Not a proclamation. Just inventory. I do not know who the fifth chair will be. I do not know when. There is no official indication that a fifth chair is forthcoming.

But the cabinet will have five mugs in it, and the next time I count them, the number will be right.

Forty-eight hours notice minimum, for a new active-status team member. Supply chain lead time, equipment pull, locker assignment, access credentials. I know the timeline. I have thought through the timeline. I am not accelerating it.

I am simply managing the breakables budget in a way that happens to leave room.