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Fandom Island Museum, Thursday Daytime

What had originally been intended to be a few days back in London had turned much longer when Khonshu had a request for his avatars to fulfill.

Well, all right. A request he wanted Marc to fulfill but Steven was part of the deal now and Khonshu could choke on it.

That had kept them all, Llewellyn included, away until yesterday evening. Which meant, between unpacking and making sure Midnight was all right, there'd been no time to catch up on what had happened while they'd been away. Such as why there were stray piles of glitter in the Museum lobby. Or why there was some sort of orange? Yellow? Originally a... fruit? Maybe? Rotted goop that had appeared in one of the previously empty displays in the museum's lower floor. Or the very clearly - which in and of itself was frankly suspicious - brand new and healthy tomato plant that had sprung up in the middle of the artwork upstairs.

Blathers was able to fill Steven in that he was pretty sure the glitter was leftover from the chaos of the previous week. The rest was anyone's guess. After some gentle questioning Blathers and Steven felt at least somewhat confident that the tomato plant wasn't an island resident having a day of it. But even so to be on the safe side they decided to leave the strangeness be. Hopefully whatever made these things appear would make them disappear as needed. No matter how tempting it was to try the tomatoes.

The glitter, on the other hand, had a known origin. So once Blathers went to bed for the day, Steven was left with a broom and dustpan to do the best he could to try to get rid of it.

Impossible to succeed, of course, but Steven gave it a go all the same. At least it kept him in the lobby and easily available to any visitors who stopped by.

[Sometimes real life provides Fandom inspiration. Anyway, open! Steven and Harley conversation NFB please.]

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Trooper Station, Wednesday - 9/10

Things were back to normal this week. Which meant there were the usual phone calls about weird colored deer and raccoons bringing back their pumpkin stout.

None of which was actually normal, but for here... sure. Fine. Danny would take it. Which meant he was adjusted to this place as much as he ever would be. So he was just going to do his paperwork and pretend to be fine with rodent beer.

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Second Floor Common Room, Wednesday Evening

Erasmus had ordered Chinese takeout for dinner, but the delivery guy had brought...way too much. Like, way too much. So he'd decided to eat in the common room, where maybe he could foist some off on someone else, and there was always the refrigerator for leftovers.

While he shoved fried rice and mushroom chicken into his mouth, he'd started flipping idly through the channels on the TV, and wow, this dimension's TV programming was weird. Where were all the nonhumans? Where was that popular crime drama about a warlock detective and his vampire partner, who the whole internet agreed should make out and Erasmus totally hadn't written half a fanfic about, really, he swore? Where was--wait. He flipped back a channel.

"Oh, thank Gaia, Interspecies Habitat." A popular home design show about refitting homes to suit the needs of romantic partners from two very different species? He'd take it. This week's pair were a siren and a yeti, so it ought to be interesting.

(Open common room is open!)

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$gulch,
sabine wren

Wellspring Arms- Wednesday

Sabine was back, which also meant going through and getting the shop together. There was dust to clear, inventory to check, and about a hundred other things that she'd remember as they came up. At least she'd stay busy/not bored.

She'd brought Murley in, too. He was sleeping in a corner and being completely unhelpful.

[Open!]

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health

Health Education, Wednesday, Second Period

"All right," Don, who seemed considerably perkier and wasn't holding a travel mug like it was his only hope of salvation this week, said at the beginning of class. "Take two. I hope everybody is who they're supposed to be this week, and has their usual complement of thumbs, whatever that may be. I remain Dr. Donald Blake, and this is still Health Education. Spoiler alert: the humors have gone out of fashion.

"So, I want to talk about relative knowledge. Where I come from, some people come from space. Some people are gods. Some people are from different time periods or dimensions. Sound familiar, right? This means that's what's basic knowledge to one person may be brand new information to the person standing next to them, or one way of explaining something may not work for everyone, and that's okay. So if I start talking about, say, vaccines, and you're thinking, 'Pffft, everyone knows this,' please remember that maybe the person sitting next to you doesn't. Maybe they use magic where they're from, or vaccination hasn't been invented in its modern form yet. And if the explanation I use for something doesn't work for you, please don't be afraid to say so and ask for more information. Okay? Okay. Now let's talk about vaccines, because they're important.

( Medical talk under here! )

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Over Easy, Wednesday

Gray still couldn't believe he had a job.

Gray really wasn't sure what he was supposed to do at said job. He'd never had a job before, okay? It was weird. And the staff weren't even letting him choose the specials yet. He would never do such a mean thing to a beautiful waffle as put coffee in it.

Will It Waffle? Wednesday Special
Pumpkin Spice Latte Waffle

Over Easy is open!

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pirating

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

Class was in the Danger Shop again, and the not-actually-a-space-ship was present again, this time with deck chairs and a projector set up on its deck.

"Welcome back," Isabela greeted them cheerfully, because they were just not talking about last week, basically. "Space is full of darkness and terror, or so I'm told."

Mostly by Aphra, who, while not lying exactly, had no problems exaggerating those terrors to impress women or get a high rate of danger pay. "So today we'll be watching an instructional film about those terrors."

Fandom Radio, Wednesday 9/10

Wednesdays mean I’m here, again, as usual. With notes from squirrels about all we’ve done that they care about or haven’t been bribed to pretend they don’t notice.

At the school there were 3 classes. There was a trip to the zoo in San Diego in Reclaiming Your Childhood complete with gift cards for buying food and souvenirs. Anakin and Ahsoka tried to model diplomacy at a party in their Diplomacy. And my class on Other People’s Trauma talked about being changed without consent.

I’ve nothing from the dorms, unfortunately. I really think the poor porg ought to be given other things to do so he isn’t disappointed so often.

So, notes from the town. Ignis was contemplative at Luke’s and then Liliana arrived and they discussed grief and…licking? I really don’t need to know any more, thank you. How about we move on to The Perk where Don tried to have apple coffee but ended up with pumpkin spice. But pumpkin spice is delicious. Jaina had better luck getting what she wanted and Don seemed impressed by that. Liliana was also there, I assume before she went to the diner. She and Don discussed divinity and last week.

Gladio was inexplicably asked about his favorite snack at the gym before Jon came in to work out.

Prompto was battling…spreadsheets? At The Photo Hut. That sounds unpleasant.

And finally in the evening at Caritas Kitty was preparing for this weekend’s Three Minute Dates. I…don’t know if I ought to avoid the bar or not, really.

That’s all for yesterday.

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Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

So, Adrian had spent all of last Wednesday thirteen years old and hiding in the Grove, waiting for warlocks to come drag him back to their cabal on behalf of the Spider. That had put him in enough of a funk for him to skip Supper Club the next day--not that being a pony had made the concept of restaurants particularly appealing--and had brought back old nightmares he hadn't thought of in years.

Those troubled dreams were still lingering, so Adrian was here and drinking a lot of coffee to make up for it, already mentally putting together a list of things to put into a strong sleeping draught.

Entry tags:

library

Fandom Library, Wednesday, September 10th

With all of the pictures from yesterday's trip, Arden was spending today going through them, deleting any of the ones that weren't great, finding the ones she liked best, and even doing a bit of color touch-up and editing. It was not easy to do on a tiny phone and she found herself wishing for access to programs that would make it easier.

"Except they're all stupid expensive," she muttered, trying to get rid of a glare. And then she paused, considering. "Huh. Maybe I'll have a whole Christmas list after all."

Something to seriously consider oh, in November, maybe. But that wasn't going to get this set of pictures looking as close to professional as she could possibly get them, so less wishing, more working, Arden!

Dealing With Other People's Trauma, Tuesday 9/9

“Welcome back,” Stark said once it seemed like everyone that was coming to the classroom today had arrived. “I hope none of you had too hard a time last week with all of the island nonsense. Fandom weirdness. Whatever you might want to call it. There certainly was a lot of it. Much more than usual in such a short time.”

“Turning into something, or someone, is somewhat common here. It was not where I’m from. The first time I wasn’t myself was…very strange.”

This was a huge understatement. The first time Stark was shaped unlike himself he'd spent a lot of time yelling and otherwise freaking out. If Stark had found himself pony-shaped last week he would have screamed loud enough for the whole island to hear, probably. There would have been so much stomping of hooves.

“I’m still not used to it, not really, but it may get easier for you all with time. I yell a lot less than i did the first time. First few times.”

“Sometimes I’m a koala. Which makes no sense but many things in this universe and others make no sense. Eventually, maybe, you can come to accept that. Not always. Not for everyone. That’s something to keep in mind, when dealing with others. You may grow accustomed to things. You may accept things. Not everyone will do both, or either. Just because something is fine for you doesn’t mean it’s fine for someone else. And just because something is fine for someone else does not necessarily mean it will be fine for you.”

Stark paused then and looked around. “If I ever talk of things that upset you, that you don't want to deal with, please tell me. I don't want to upset any of you. The whole idea of all of this is to not upset others needlessly if it can be avoided. Some things can't be.”

He'd lost his train of thought, a bit, and was trying to find it once more.

“So…I suppose that's a good topic? Things like the island changing you, or someone else. How do you deal with that? How do you help others deal with it or at least not make it worse? Some of you may have had your first experience with this last week…did you learn anything from that? Would you do anything differently now? Things like that. That seems like a reasonable thing to discuss. Were you warned about things like transformations before you first experienced them or was it a shock? Would you warn someone else now?”

Entry tags:

diplomacy

Diplomacy, Tuesday, September 9, 2025 [2nd period]

Today's classroom was set up like a cocktail party with a bartender on each side of the large room filled with generic wall art and a table full of snacks in the middle. The drinks were non-alcoholic but the food was real because your teachers weren't monsters. There were, however, some landmines on the table for a party where you are standing and talking: brownies that could get stuck in your teeth, broccoli that could get stuck in your teeth, chicken wings that rendered your fingers sticky, something with a sauce begging to drip on your shirt, and so on.

"Today we test what you remember from your interactions last week," Anakin said, "or what you can make up in a bland yet plausible way about your colleagues."

"Remember, you're all here at this function because you're representing a larger organisation," Ahsoka added. "What you say and do also reflects on them." So make sure any truly outrageous lies couldn't be traced back to you, basically.

"Do not get fake drunk and make a scene," Anakin said, nodding, "unless you are planning to quit, get fired, or leave the planet never to be seen again."

"Or you're participating in some kind of double bluff where you need to appear disgraced in order to accomplish a larger goal." Which was a very specific scenario that you sounded far too familiar with, Ahsoka.

Anakin nodded. "But that's a more advanced class." Because they'd definitely done that.

More than once, even.

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

Class had been ~~handwaivly~~ notified to meet outside the front door of the school. Upon arrival, students would find that Ghanima was coaching Trebor through tying his shoes.

Was he only two? Yes. But her culture had children wielding knives at this age, so, she did not think it totally outside his capabilities to learn how to make a bunny-knot with enough practice. "I hope you brought your walking shoes," she said, looking up at all of them. "Because today, we are off to the zoo!"

"In particular, the San Diego Zoo."

"It began with a collection of animals left over from the 1915 Panama–California Exposition that were brought together by its founder, Dr. Harry M. Wegeforth. The zoo was a pioneer in the concept of open-air, cage-less exhibits that recreate natural animal habitats. It houses over 12,000 animals of more than 680 species and subspecies, and it is one of the most visited zoos in the United States."

"The reason I've selected the San Diego Zoo, over the many options, is both their wide range of exhibits, including multiple aviaries," was that private apology for Arden after last week had made her visibly uncomfortable? Yes. Absolutely. "--and because the zoo is active in conservation and species-preservation efforts. Its Institute for Conservation Research raises over a hundred and fifty endangered species and has helped increase populations of endangered animals worldwide, both in captivity and in the wild. As a result, they have reintroduced more than thirty endangered species back into the wild, and have conserved habitat at fifty field sites." Ghanima beamed at the assembled class. "I have a particular interest in wildlife conservation, and so you must all suffer."

After all, what good was teaching if not to force your special interests on impressionable students?

The Portalocity portal blinked into existence behind her, and Ghanima stood to begin distributing physical tickets to everyone, including tickets for the Inside Look and Animals in Action, and two gift cards -- one $25 card good at any restaurant in the park, and another $25 card good for the gift shop.

Ghanima was an Empress who almost never dipped into her royal stipend. If she wanted to use her salary to spoil her students all semester, she was allowed.

"I paid extra for a 'time skip,' so if you want to stay at the zoo all day, you will still make it back in time for second period," she laughed. "So have fun! Take pictures, sketch, explore... all I ask is that you go into the experience with an open heart and mind, and learn one new thing -- about the world, or about yourself."

She waived towards the portal. "Let us depart!"

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The Perk, Tuesday Morning

Don wasn't disappointed that the gremlin Starbucks in Stark Tower didn't have that apple coffee from last year. Don't be silly. Okay, yes, he was rather partial to apples for reasons he chose to leave unexamined, but apple coffee? Weird. He definitely hadn't come to the Perk hoping they still had apple coffee, and for sure wasn't mildly sulking over the pumpkin spice latte he'd allowed himself to be talked into.

Really. He swore.

(Open Perk is open!)

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Caritas- Tuesday

Kitty was getting the place ready for Three Minute Dates Saturday, including stretching butcher block paper over the bar to make the sign. Would they need glitter? Of course not, it was still all the hell over from the weekend and would be there always.

Tino was doing his part by trying to come up with themed drinks, and Kitty had had to spend a lot of time already nixing the idea of jungle juice so good luck to you all.

[Open!]

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The Photo Hut; Tuesday [09/09].

Now that they were really entering in that home stretch of when they'd be welcoming the next little tiny Argentum into the fold, Prompto figured he should really step it up to help with some of the more administrative things with the shop so that Liz didn't need to worry so much about them and could focus on just taking care of herself and the baby. And he was already regretting it, letting out a faint groan as he realized he messed something up and already had to go back and fix it.

Look, Prompto had always been a little bit of a technophile. He loved coding and programming and tinkering with computers and weapons and cars and stuff.

But budget spreadsheets?

UUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

But it was for Liz, and so he was going to try and stick through it, even if he did just spend a lot of time pouting at his computer screen and trying to think of ways he could maybe gamify this whole process to make it slightly more bearable.

Forget potty training. Maybe what they really should be teaching Noctra at this stage in her development was accounting.

(Hey, at least Iggy would approve!)

The Photo Hut is open!

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Atlas Gym; Tuesday [09/09].

Inspired by someone's love for Ants on a Log (the peanut butter and celery with raisins snack, not actual ants on a log, a very important distinction to make), there was a small, friendly debate going on among the staff at Atlas that day about the best workout related or workout adjacent snacks. Anyone working out that day ran the risk of getting polled about what their favorites might be, as well, to be compiled into data, and maybe might influence what was made available there, but there was definitely one person they didn't need to poll for their answer.

They polled him anyway.

And Gladio just looked at them for a moment.

"Come on, guys," he said, giving them a dubious look, and that was all they needed.

He just hoped that, when they wrote it down, they remembers to add the ^TM.

Atlas is open!

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Luke's Diner; Tuesday [09/09].

Ignis was feeling rather contemplating that Tuesday, leaning back on the counter over his mug off coffee while waiting for customers. Rather hard not to be, really, sandwiched as he was right then between reflections of the past and visions of the future. Even without having been fourteen again last week to reflect over how much he'd changed over the past twenty years, there would also be Three Minute Dates ahead this weekend reminding him of how much more he'd changed over even just the past two. And then beyond that, even more changes in the two years to come, and the years after that, and after that...

So, yes. An awful lot to contemplate over coffee on that quiet Tuesday morning in the diner. At least once contemplating what to put on the board for today's recipehs had been taken care of, anyway.

Today's Specials
Breaded Pork Cutlet with Tomato
Buffalo Cauliflower Sandwich
Strawberry Crisp

Luke's is open!