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cara

WTFH - Fandom Radio [Thurs, October 2nd]

*chittering*

You're a herbivore, you look ridiculous. Are you going to be in costume all month? Why am I even asking, of course you are.

Up at the School, Space Pirates, Pirate In Space had a movie day, while Health Education extolled the virtues of exercise.

The Dorms were back to being quiet, while in Town, Gray was on his phone at Over Easy, while Sabine was reading and silently judging at Wellsrping Arms. Henry rode his horse in the Park much to the amazement of Quinn.

Finally in the Woods, the Spirit Halloween in the burnt out Wal-Mart was back...are we going to have to fight capitalism again?

*chittering*

No, it's not about the relentless struggle of the proletariat, and since when do you care about that? It's about the fact you can't punch a concept in the face. It's not satisfying.

Entry tags:

The Photo Hut - Thursday

It had been nice catching up with Professor Broom and Hellboy over the weekend, even though Noctra had been somewhat disappointed that none of Hellboy's cats had made it over for visit as well.

Since it was near the start of a new month, Liz thought she'd spend a couple of hours downstairs during the morning, getting the spreadsheets set up and reports ready while she was working downstairs. She didn't think it would be too long before she started working from the apartment since it was getting a bit harder with walking a lot these days.

[The Photo Hut is open!]

Entry tags:

survive the zombie apocalypse

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Thursday, Per 3

Class met at the Danger Shop, but rather than the standard classroom sim, they were standing on Loon Drive, right outside of the school walls, next to the junkyard. Waiting patiently were several rickshaws, bicycles, and other non-vehicular means of conveyance. Look, Liliana didn't want to walk around the island, she wouldn't blame her students for not wanting to, either.

"Congratulations, class," she said. "Most of you survived last week's onslaught, and several of you came up with creative means to do so, or used skills you were not used to. Today's assignment is a bit different. It's time for you to find a place to hole up. In most circumstances, you would be limited to whichever building you were either in or could get to when the zombies began attacking. Perhaps, by being very quiet or clever or lucky, you would be able to sneak somewhere else and better fortified. Today, however, you will have the chance to explore the entire island uninterrupted by zombies. Your task, then, is to find the best place to build a base in, the worst place to build a camp in, why you have decided on both of those options, and at least two safety concerns your potential base comes with and how you plan to mitigate them. You are free to explore on your own, or buddy up. There are, however, some caveats."

None of you had thought it was going to be that easy, right?

"There are a few changes to the usual places on the island. There are no sanctuary spells anywhere. Neither the dorms nor Caritas are magically protected, and neither is anywhere else, which includes the school, the school library, and the boarding house." Also anywhere else that there had been magic that she hadn't known about, because when she'd been putting things into the sim, she hadn't included magic for any of it. "Furthermore, special technologies have been disabled. Luke's no longer has a freezer large enough to require a tram service. The junkyard no longer has spaceships. The Danger Shop in the school, the Holoscene, and any other similar rooms no longer work. And, of course, neither my home or my shop exist on this version of the island. 'Go to the necromancer's house' is an excellent idea, assuming that said necromancer is not behind the invasion in the first place, but I am not in the mood for guests."

The Causeway was also disabled, but Liliana didn't mention that.

"Several important notes. The first is that there are zombies in the preserve and on the school grounds, so simply shutting the school gates and waiting for them to go away will not work. You're still welcome to potentially set up camp in any of the school locations, I just wanted to be clear that it wouldn't be so simple as that. Second is to pay attention to numbers. Some of you may find places suitable for just one person to hide. Some of you may want to take over the largest area you can find. Both extremes carry their own benefits and dangers, including the possibility that you might end up gaining or losing people, and that could seriously affect the safety and integrity of your chosen spots. Keep flexibility in mind, as well as your own basic needs, and, of course, safety from a threat that does not tire or give up."

She pointed to the park, where there was already a charming little picnic set up. "You all have forty-five minutes to explore. Please return to the park when you're ready to discuss what you've found."

And with that, she was heading towards the picnic to settle down and see what her class discovered.

Entry tags:

The Park, Wednesday Afternoon

If Henry had been restless after the weekend, then he assumed Pebbles would be doubly so. She'd been in the stables most days, after all, not getting much exercise.

(And perhaps Henry himself had been in need of a familiar face, or at least something familiar, after having one ripped from him so quickly.)

So on Wednesday he took her out of the stables, and rode her across the dorm lawn, down the pathway. Now, they were clopping about along the park. There was a little field of grass over there-- he was steering Pebbles there, so he could get off of her and she could enjoy the change of scenery for a bit.

"There we are, girl. Nice and steady..."

[[ open ]]

Entry tags:

$over easy,
gray

Over Easy, Wednesday

Gray might be rewatching the video of Galen pretending he wasn't excited by the porgs for at least the fiftieth time since Saturday. You couldn't prove it.

Okay, you could if you looked at his phone screen. But it might also be anime on there! You never knew.

Will It Waffle? Wednesday Special
Croffles

Over Easy is open!

Entry tags:

health

Health Education, Wednesday, Second Period

"This week I thought we'd talk about the importance of staying active and exercising," Don told his students. "Living a very sedentary lifestyle, where you don't move around or really do much, physically, is very bad for you. I encourage everyone to at least get out and take a walk every day, especially since with all the stairs on this island you get some bonus exercise built in." So many stairs. "But if you want, adding some extra exercise in might be a good idea. I have some information here on some basic exercises, and there are all sorts of demos and routines you can learn about online on places like Youtube. I won't be doing any demonstrations today because I have a bad leg and my form wouldn't be 'correct,' but that's also an important consideration. You can always modify exercises if they don't work for you because of physical limitations.

"Now, why is it important to exercise? Lots of reasons. In the short term, if the island is invaded by, I don't know, Doombots, you'll want to be strong enough to fight or have enough stamina to run away. In the long term, it improves your overall health and will help to prevent problems later in life. So again, I would recommend at least a walk every day, and maybe some squats or something if you feel like it. You can try out some of the exercises now, if you'd like, but I've never done a burpee, so I can't help with your form or whatever." Thor could, probably. But Thor wasn't here.

Entry tags:

@woods

The Spirit Halloween in a Burned Out Walmart in the Woods, Wednesday

It's the first of October, and you know what that means! That's right, it's spooky season! Which meant that in the middle of the night, one minute there was an undisturbed patch of woods. The next: a burned out Walmart with a Spirit Halloween banner hanging haphazardly across the front of the building.

So not that different from how normal Spirit Halloweens appeared, actually, except for how it also manifested the building.

Come one, come all, for all your spooky season needs! The Spirit Halloween inside the burned out Walmart is here for a one month limited engagement! On November first it'll be gone again, so get your reasonably priced mass-produced Halloween decorations and costumes while they last!

(The Spirit Halloween in the burned out Walmart will once again be visiting the island for the month of October, and is open to and moddable by all. It does not appear to have any staff and all the registers are self-checkout. Or shoplift! Who's gonna stop you? Down with capitalism! Maybe you conveniently find stuff you wouldn't normally find in a Spirit Halloween shoved to the back of a rack there! Who can say?)

Entry tags:

$gulch,
sabine wren

Wellspring Arms- Wednesday

The problem with having a quiet job was also the benefit of having a quiet job, meaning Sabine could just sit behind the counter and read since she had the place to herself. She'd gotten a list of the most banned books here and was making her way down the list, silently judging people who got mad over it. Because she was alone and it was harder to judge out loud without the squirrels looking at you funny.

[Open!]

Entry tags:

pirating

Space Pirates! (Pirates in Space!) [Wednesday, 1st Period]

The ship was not in evidence today, and neither was one of your teachers. The other one was also halfway out the door.

"Listen, I have to go talk to Isabela about some of her life choices," Aphra said in a tone that implied that she couldn't believe that either. She was not supposed to be the responsible one. "You got a movie!"

So now you had no pirate ship and no teachers.

Fandom Radio, Wednesday 10/1

Good morning, it’s Wednesday an-

*chittering*

All right. Wednesday and Officially Spooky Season, according to the squirrels. That explains the pumpkins with faces. And it might explain the skulls those don’t look real…

So, at the school. Reclaiming Your Childhood made jack-o-lanterns. Diplomacy watched something Anakin claimed was educational but was really just a television program. Educational in the same sort of way as his nonsense in the summer is team-building? Maybe. And my class on Dealing With Other People’s Trauma discussed the importance of patience.

Nothing from the porg about the dorms but I think he’s still pleased he had notes yesterday from Monday because he doesn’t look too sad.

In town, Harley was texting and getting what the squirrels have written as “EXTREME PUMPKIN SPICE” with several exclamation points and underlined. Maybe I should see if I can get that? Does it come with extra whipped cream?

And at Caritas Kitty and Tino were trying to make new drinks for the season. With maple. The squirrels apparently recommend the maple bourbon lemonade even though it doesn’t have any rum in it.

That’s all I have for today from yesterday. Enjoy your Wednesday. And spooky season. And pumpkin spice. And all the other things, I suppose.

~~[now in the right comm!]~~

Dealing With Other People's Trauma, Tuesday 9/30, 3rd period

“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?”

Entry tags:

$perk,
harley quinn

The Perk; Tuesday Afternoon

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!)

Reclaiming Your Childhood, Tuesday, Period 1 [9/30]

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. )

Entry tags:

diplomacy

Diplomacy, Tuesday, September 30, 2025 [2nd period]

"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.

Entry tags:

Caritas- Tuesday

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!]

Fandom Radio, Tuesday, September 30th

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.

Entry tags:

$perk,
rey

The Perk- Monday afternoon

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!]

Entry tags:

flight and flying

Flight and Flying- Monday, 1st period

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!

Fandom Clinic, Monday 9/29

"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.

Entry tags:

swimming

How Not to Drown, Monday, September 29, Period 3

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!