Rufus Shinra

“One of the most important things you can do, we can do, to help other people deal with traumas and old hurts…is simply being patient,” Stark said once everyone was there.

“But before we talk more of that I hope everyone is all right after the weekend? Sometimes these weekends are hard. Sometimes wonderful. I hope none of you had anything awful happen and no unwelcome visitors. If you did, and you need someone to talk to…I am here. I can be very good at listening.” He’d also provide snacks if that would be helpful. He liked feeding people.

“I had a friend visit. I don’t have family, not family by blood, but I do have friends and one of them has come this weekend for a few years now. It’s always good to see her.” No he would not be getting into any further details thank you very much.

“She’s been patient with me for a long time. Not always. And I need it more than many people do. Sometimes, at least. For a number of reasons.” Like his many many traumas and issues. Those reasons.

“There was a time when I…had to do something very difficult and I was forced into it and I retreated into myself for what felt like forever. I think it was only a few days. Maybe even less. But my friend, Chiana, was there at the time. She made sure I was still eating. Still getting water. Still alive in spite of my own utter lack of interest in making sure I stayed alive. And later, much later, years later when I wasn’t doing well here I went home and she was the one who listened and got me to talk and was patient with me until I did finally talk about what was bothering me. Sometimes people just need time before anything else can be done. She understands that. I try to make sure I understand that.” Stark’s smile was a little sad now. “Because I know how much it helps, having someone be patient with you.”

“So,” he continued after a brief pause, “let’s talk about patience. It can be difficult and sometimes you need to know when not to be patient but that’s much more complicated. Does anyone have examples of patience with others? Or someone being patient with you? Or being patient with yourself? ANy reasons why might need to be patient or you might need not to be? Any other thoughts on patience?”

totalwildcard posting in

Harley was pretty focused on her phone as she breezed into the Perk. Luckily, however, the baristas saw her coming and started dumping way too much pumpkin spice syrup into a cup before she even made it to the counter. Which was great! Because it didn't interfere with her texting Cass which in turn saved the staff from her attention!

The kid had ended up leaving the island on Saturday night, citing 'quirky quaint small town poisoning'. She had seemed kind of downcast, or something, before she'd gone so now Harley was checking in to make sure she hadn't actually contracted some kind of nasty small town bug her street tough insides weren't handling well.

Which Cass was assuring her wasn't the case, and also something about how Harley needed to not be so graphic about taking stabs at guessing her possible poisoning symptoms? Pfft.

Anyway, by the time Harley made it to a table by the window with her terrifying personalized version of a PSL, she had already moved on to splitting her attention between the texting and trying to figure out if she could get the calendar app to start giving her notifs about certain sets of holidays in the future. In a moment, she might also introduce people watching into the attention mix? And actually drinking her coffee?

Eventually!

(open!)

atreideslioness posting in

Today, class had been ~~handwavily~~ informed to meet in the school cafeteria, where they would find that Ghanima had sectioned off an area of tables, and piles and piles of pumpkins -- and other gourds -- which Ghanima had had delivered from Lyman Orchards just that morning. Carving supplies, candles, electronic tea lights, and paints were also piled upon the tables.

"We stand on the eve of October, when people start looking forward to Halloween," Ghanima said cheerfully, as Trebor ran around trying to sit on the largest pumpkins. "A jack-o'-lantern is a carved lantern, most commonly made from a pumpkin; or even a root vegetable such as a mangelwurzel, rutabaga or turnip.

( Jack o' the lantern! Joan the wad! Who tickled the maid and made her mad. Light me home, the weather's bad. )

sith_happened posting in

"Today we're watching another instructional video," Anakin said, "about diplomacy. Allegedly. It's even called ~~The Diplomat~~ The Pinstriped Cookie Pusher."

"We're even informed it's watched by people in the diplomatic services." Look, between the everything that made up Ahsoka's life, she'd managed to miss the concept of hatewatching.

Anakin nodded. "So we'll watch the first episode and then discuss the portions you think are probably not realistic for an actual diplomat," he said.

Hint: all of them.

throughaphase posting in

Once in a while, Kitty and Tino would use a shift to try coming up with new drink recipes. Today they were going with a fall theme and trying maple with different things to see what stuck. Maple and cotton candy vodka? Absolutely not. Maple margaritas were not going to be happening. The maple bourbon lemonade honestly had no right to be as good as it was.

SPECIALS
The things we're coming up with!

[Open!]

afraid_of_marshmallows posting in

Hey there island. It's ya girl Arden Finch, bringing you reports of a much quieter day than the last few have been. Guess everyone's taking some time to rest after the influx of visitors. There were a lot this year.

*chittering*

No, I'm not saying that.

*insistent chittering*

I'm not saying it's not true, I'm just saying I'm not gonna say it!

*emphatic chittering*

FINE! Goddess, okay! The squirrels also want to make it known that there were a lot of hot parents today and my compromise for saying that much is not reading off the squirrels' list of Hottest MILFs and DILFs--though they recognize not everyone on this list was actually a parent or guardian.

Sometimes I hate this job.

*sulky chittering*

Don't give me that. Besides, your numbers three and five ought to be switched and I don't even know how number six made the top ten. I'm blaming the alcohol.

Anyway, we had classes at the School yesterday! Flight and Flying had us up as part of the Blue Angel squadron and I now have definitive proof that I don't get airsick. Yay me. Cryptozoology discussed the Mongolian death worm, which for once, nobody was blaming on aliens. Charlie let Professor. Sims know that her Aunties took offense to his claim that Bigfoot doesn't exist, and he said they were free to email him about it. How Not To Drown covered the freestyle and also the historical existence of windmills. I...sure, man, I don't even know.

The porg has been doing a dance routine since I arrived this morning, so it's safe to say we have notes from the Dorms. Henry was writing in his journal, and he and Erasmus checked in with each other about how their weekends and guests were.

Bravo! Bravo! *clapping* That was a great routine, honey, I'm sure you're very proud. And please say thank you to all your porg friends and family. They really made Galen's whole weekend, even if he'll never admit it out loud.

Lastly, Town was pretty dead, while everybody recovered from dealing with friends, family, or other. Even the allure of National Coffee Day couldn't seem to get folks really up and moving until the afternoon. Not that I can blame anyone, coffee is gross. The Cape Rouge docked in the port, with Ms. Blake and Mr. Crocker talking about returning to the island without Mr. Morn--err, they discussed their return to the island and wondered what's changed in their absence. I can assure you, Mr. Crocker, the onsen is still there, and I think that's enough sharing about a personal conversation. Professor Vess was recovering from her weekend with a bubblebath and mimosas, but did get a bunch of texts from Professor Sims complaining about one of her guests. But apparently she doesn't like him, either, so that was probably fine. The Perk was celebrating National Coffee Day, which meant Rey ended up with two large coffees, and Professor James Stark brought also brought some to the Clinic, where Stabby made it weird by bro fisting him over the events of the weekend. Okay, who's been letting the crab watch 80s college movies?

Okay, that's all my notes. We'll see if things pick up again today, but if folks are still looking for chill, easy vibes, let me leave you with golden hour by JVKE. And that's where I'll leave you, so have a great day, Fandom! This is ya girl, Arden Finch, signing off.

thatwaslucky posting in

It was, in fact, National Coffee Day, which Rey didn't know when she went to the Perk after class, her hair still damp. They were pretty effusive about the specials and somehow she where up with two large coffees (not a venti, they didn't like when you called it a venti), which there was no way she was going to finish. But she was also going to sit here and try and make a dent in one so she didn't have to carry them both around if she didn't have to. Or someone could take the extra off her hands. Whatever.

One of the baristas also seemed to maybe be hacking a bit of a quiet meltdown at her coworker about the weekend, but Rey was trying really hard not to listen to that.

[Easy workday! Open!]

solo_sword posting in

The class was back in the flight shed, where Jaina had set out some pastries and coffee.

"I figured after the weekend, people might deserve a very healthy breakfast," she said. "Do not bring them in the simulator.

"I'm not sure how aware you are of them, but here on Earth they have something called the Blue Angels. They're a Navy demonstration squadron, known for going out to air shows and performing. Which means you're going to be flying one of their planes, a Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Which also means you're going to be doing some tricks. The pastries are also there in case you need food with Dramamine, which I do have."

Helpful!

stykera posting in

fandom_clinic

"Enjoyed your weekend, did you?"

Stark ducked his head and didn't answer, just held out the coffees.

"Oh, being shy now?"

"I... yes. It's National Coffee Day." Yes, that was a desperate attempt to change tyke subject. "There was a sign at the Perk. Lots of specials."

That was why he had extra coffees and even more elaborate ones than usual.

Stabby, ignoring coffee talk, crawled up to the top of his tank and held out a claw and then waited for Stark to give him a fistbump.

The clinic was open, the alien was in, and the crab was feeling congratulatory.

sith_happened posting in

McGarrett was still benched, sitting on the side of the pool and looking even worse than he had last week, with a black eye and his shoulder in a different, more constrictive, sling.

"Bad Parents Weekend?" Anakin asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Went home and arrested a rogue MI-6 agent," Steve explained. "He didn't go quietly."

"You should've stayed here," Anakin said. "There was pie. Anyway," he said, turning to the class, "time to get back in the water, this time without the flippers. We'll work on the arms part of the freestyle today."

"Well, some of us will," Steve said with a wry look at his sling. "Okay, even though it looks easy, there are four parts to the stroke: entry, catch, pull, and release." He used his non-slinged arm to demonstrate. "You enter at shoulder height--keep it long and low to the water. Yo don't want to waste energy making huge windmill motions--" He stopped and looked at Henry and Lydia. "Do you have windmills?"

And now they were derailed!

intheeyeofthebeholding posting in

Did Jon look a bit disgruntled and foreboding today? It was probably just your imagination. There was no reason for him to be out of sorts; he hadn't had any visitors this weekend.

"I hope you all had a good weekend," he began. "Today we'll be talking about the Mongolian Death Worm." He brought up a picture. "Or in the local language, 'olgoi-khorkhoi'.It is alleged to exist in the Gobi desert. It was first described to the wider world by an American archaeologist in 1926 after he got the stories from the Mongolian people. None of the ones he spoke to had ever seen it, though; there were only second- and third-hand stories. In 1983, some locals were shown a Tartar sand boa and confirmed that was the creature, but other descriptions of it don't seem to match, so there's some question as to if it is that snake, or if it's another creature altogether. Descriptions from the 1926 tales say it was 'shaped like a sausage about two feet long', which might fit, but the worm is said to have no head, which the snake does, and to be 'so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death', whereas the sand boa is both nonvenomous and nonpoisonous." And do not get him started on the difference!

"One later book describes the creature as travelling underground, detectable by the waves of sand it creates, and says that it can kill at a distance, by either spraying acid venom or creating an electrical discharge. However it should be noted that this description may owe much to an earlier fictional depiction of similar beasts ~~which we won't go into because Ghanima~~. Several scientific expeditions have endeavored to find the animal, but with no results."

He shrugged. "So, the only question is if we believe it to be real or not. This one is actually not outside the bounds of terrestrial lifeforms, nor does anybody claim it to be supernatural or extraterrestrial for once. The only question is if we think a venomous, electrical worm - or snake, or legless lizard - exists or existed in the Gobi desert. And before anybody asks, you will not get extra credit for finding one. Just sunburn, probably."

He would absolutely be impressed and help you write a paper about it, but he didn't want to encourage that sort of thing.

solo_sword posting in

Good morning, this is Jaina, and after the last few weeks it's a little weird having this many notes. That's Parents Weekend for you.

Thor held office hours, where he got a visit from Valkyrie. Looks like she knows a different version of him but he knows of a version of her? Anyway, they had questions.

Elsewhere, Summer, Stark and Chiana woke up after having entirely too much fun together the night before, and Ignis made breakfast for Liliana's guests, but mostly it was an uncomfortable conversation between him and Jace. This weekend is really good for that. And Pam had Janet and her Harley buzzing around Pick Your Poison and putting bows on plants, and Adrian brought his relatives by.

And then of course there was the brunch, where Hans tried to get Henry to see all this as an adventure, without getting turned into a toad by his roommate, and Jon and Gladio compared weekends, with a lot to say about Liliana's guests. One of which was Gideon, who inspired him to take off his shirt and ask for a spar. Erasmus introduced Henry to his mom Lydia, and eventually Hans joined them and assured him that no one was getting turned into a frog or horse. At least until the island does it. Liliana offered that Lydia a magical bear trap, and while the notes don't tell me what that is, I actually really want to know. Riri confronted Namor about why he came, and Hans had Henry explain the food to him in case there was magical bread. He's an interesting one.

That's all the notes the squirrels have given me. Hope the weekend wasn't too traumatic, enjoy your Monday.

imafuturist posting in

Oh wow. That's a lot more than usual. Well, let's get started on it before it somehow gets worse.

( So Talky OMG )

joan_of_bark posting in

You know, if you disregarded the questions about why Pam was currently sitting on the sofa with her feet up on the table and not moving around a lot, today was very close to perfect.

Janet was in the back room, prepping food for lunch or sorting through inventory. Harley kept breezing through the store, poking at things, keeping up a running commentary on all of the items in Pam's store (and the ridiculousness of her having one in the first place). Somewhere in between, Pam was getting a lot more information about Harley's students than she'd heard over the past few months.

It was nice.

She sipped her hot chocolate with some contentment.

Now if only the constant throbbing pain in her side would leave her be. Then it would really be perfect.

"I'm gonna go put some bows on the plants out front!" Harley hollered, then flung the door open, then marched outside. "And maybe get some more chocolate!"

Yep. Perfect.

[[ open ]]

weirderthanthou posting in

'Twas the last day of Parents Weekend, and thus the last day to eat on the school's dime. Delicate little lanterns hung all around the park for whatever reason, casting their dim light on a truly impressive spread of brunch items. Catering to all dietary wishes and several time periods besides.

Enjoy. And try not to start any fights.

carbsliftthespirit posting in

Was Raiden a little bit nervous about his brothers seeing his new restaurant for the first time? Honestly, yes, even though one of them had done most of the interior design and the other two could not care less about interior design. Look, nerves didn't have to make sense.

At least he knew the food would be good.

Specials
Whole Wheat Apple Pancakes
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Chorizo & Egg Skillet
Welcome, Guests!

Over Easy is open!

mustbeawitch posting in

Good morning, dear listeners. For those of you who may be new to our little traditions, I am Miss Lydia Bennet, here with the morning news, as reported by the squirrels. Yes, I did say squirrels.

Right. Let's get on with this, I have brunch and then a festival to get to.

( Parental Visitation Radio )

needsacatchphrase posting in

Things could somehow get weirder this weekend. But Jane had extended an invitation to her... doppelganger? Duplicate? To the other her here. So, here she was, cleaning the bar like it would save her from the weirdness of everything.

Tino? Unhelpful. Valkyrie? Also unhelpful, but in a different way.

"I'm not getting you popcorn for if Thor shows up," Jane scolded under her breath.

Val just laughed with her fully stolen bottle of whatever alcohol had been closest when she'd sat down. "Spoilsport."

Parents Weekend Specials
Ginger Apple Moscow Mule
Spicy Bourbon Pumpkin Smash
Maple Whiskey Sour

The bar was open, though!

intheeyeofthebeholding posting in