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Fandom Radio, Wednesday 9/24

I wonder if I do find a dog to bring home if that will help keep squirrels away…
Anyway, I’m here so let’s talk about yesterday.

3 classes at the school as usual. Ghanima took her students to relive their childhoods at an orchard with apples and a corn maze. Diplomacy practiced Thanksgiving with in-laws. That’s…nevermind. And we watched a movie in my Trauma class.

*chittering*

We just did. Movie days are fine.

Nothing from the dorms maybe someone ought to play a movie for the porg. I do have town notes.

Ignis was at the diner where there were vegetable debates. All right. Unsurprisingly, Liliana arrived to interrupt and discuss hunger and that’s enough of that. Prompto was at The Photo Hut seemingly distracted and doing some pacing. Gladio found a lot of jerky at the gym and I’m sure it’s best not to ask more about that. Jon helped Gladio locate his meat sticks…really? That’s what you wrote? And Nell came in with honey and then made plans to have Gladio help her at her old home.

Before that, Nell was at Plant Parenthood with her honey from her bees.

Charlie was singing a song about a lizard and Billie came in and they both played music on imaginary guitars? All right.

And finally, Tino was being himself at Caritas early and Kitty made him sweep. A lot. That seems only fair.

That’s all I have from yesterday. Enjoy your Wednesdays, I suppose.

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Pick Your Poison, Wednesday

Adrian was in a good mood. Adrian had been in a damn good mood ever since 3MD. And Parents' Weekend was coming up and he didn't know for sure that it meant that his mother and aunts would be visiting, but they also hadn't said they weren't, so Adrian couldn't help but be hopeful that they'd show up again.

Boston, of course, was hoping that Kitty would once again show up. He was sitting in a sunbeam, once again grooming himself methodically. After all, he needed to look his absolute best for the weekend. Just in case.

Adrian wasn't sure whether Kitty would be returning for a visit and honestly wasn't sure which would be worse for his peace and quiet.

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library

Fandom Library, Wednesday, September 24th

Yeah, Arden had come in and immediately had to break up a fight between gremlins, which was a truly harrowing experience. Aggressive gremlins were bitey gremlins, and Arden was not interested in wandering around thinking she was a Southern belle again. Or whatever weird hallucination her brain and gremlin venom might cook up together.

After a couple of very close calls between her flesh and gremlin teeth, she'd finally discovered the reason behind the fight: they'd been fighting over whose music was going to be played while they were in the library today. Arden was pretty sure the answer was supposed to be be 'nobody's music, it's the LIBRARY' but there was still the fear of biting.

So instead, she'd come up with a different option and that was why the library was hosting its first ever (probably?) Silent Rave. She'd managed to scrounge up enough phones, mp3 players, walkmans, discmans, and even cassette players (okay, people REALLY needed to go through the lost and found more often) and had handed them out to all the assembled gremlins, so everybody could listen to their own music without bothering anybody else.

And hey! She got to listen to music while tidying up the library, so...bonus!

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2nd Floor Common Room, Wednesday Morning

Having a roommate was fine and all well and good; it wasn't as if Henry had been used to more, prior to being elevated into Sir Radzig's service a bare few days before coming here. But he hadn't anticipated the difficulty of his nightmares - now when he woke up in the middle of the night, he could no longer spook through the hallways. He had to lay there, staring up at the ceiling, and avoid waking Erasmus up.

At first light he finally escaped the room, and, after an hour or so of restlessly moving up and downstairs, he settled back into the common room. Two large bags had appeared as if out of nowhere, containing those odd round circle-shaped buns. He picked one out that had a great deal of meat on it, and settled into a seat.

Tiredness was beginning to set in now. It made him heavy.

Still, Henry sat there, and ate, and stared at that big black box that made all the noise if you touched the wrong thing. Perhaps he'd wake up at some point, after all.

[[ open ]]

Dealing With Other People's Trauma, Tuesday 9/23, 3rd period

"Movie day today," Stark said.

He was looking a bit rough this morning. Why? Don't worry about it. He just got that way sometimes.

"A movie about dealing with things. At least that's what it's meant to be about? I think?" No, he hadn't watched it first.

He shut off the lights and pressed play on ~~meta for~~ What Dreams May Come.

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parents weekend

Parents Weekend Classifieds

Need someone to play that wayward friend or family member? Post your help-wanteds and help-offereds here!

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parents weekend

Parents Weekend 2025!

It's tiiiiime!

Yes, Parents Weekend is approaching: the one weekend every year where parents, guardians, siblings, friends, and other guest stars from the lives of Fandom's students, teachers and townies can come to the island to frolic around with their nearest and dearest's nearest and dearest! This year, we'll be running September 26th - 28th.

( Woo family drama! )

Questions, comments, offers of pie? Comments will be screened to keep guest stars secret if you want (and will be unscreened for questions and such). Classifieds are here!

Reclaiming Your Childhood, Tuesday, Period 1 [9/23]

"It's a beautiful, sunny day in Connecticut," Ghanima said cheerfully once everyone had arrived, Trebor eagerly wiggling next to her. "A little warm, perhaps, for apple picking, but better we go now, than wait for the weather to turn and lose the chance."

"Today we're heading out to Lyman Orchards. Started in 1741 on thirty-seven acres, the orchard is not just known for their fruits... they were heavily involved in the Underground Railroad and vocal opponents of slavery. While they are renowned for their apples, it's also the correct season for peaches, pears, pumpkins, and, should you feel adventurous, the corn maze is currently available."

"Today, the farm spans almost 1200 acres, and it is considered a star attraction in the area."

The portal blinked into existence, and Ghanima picked up Trebor. "Let's go!"

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Caritas- Tuesday

Kitty did come in every day in the daytime. There were things you buy and unload, bills to pay, paychecks to sign. It wasn't like she was absent.

So when she walked in today, and the place looked like fall had exploded. Things were covered in gourds, it smelled like potpourri, there was a Pilgrim banner, which... way too early, but also no.

"When did you even have time to do this?" Kitty asked. "...are these real leaves on the floor?"

Welcome to Caritas! Today was for sweeping the hell out of the bar!

[open!]

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diplomacy

Diplomacy, Tuesday, September 23, 2025 [2nd period]

"There are holidays approaching that promote time with extended family," Anakin began from where they were all seated around an ornate dining table where an older woman and man also sat, dressed up. "These are my in-laws," Anakin explained. "Well, copies of them. I didn't kidnap them from Connecticut and make them attend class today. They are a very particular type of relative, though: the sort that will deliberately misunderstand everything you say."

As if to prove Anakin's point, the woman looked deeply insulted. "It's fine that our son-in-law doesn't want to spend time with us."

"Exactly," Anakin said, with an "I told you" expression to the rest of the class. "But dumping cranberry sauce on her head and stomping off, however momentarily satisfying, doesn't actually fix a long-term problem. I will have to see her next Thanksgiving, too. And the one after that."

"No need to sound so excited about that."

Ahsoka, who had been watching all this with great amusement, cleared her throat. "Situations like these require a delicate touch," she said. "Calling out such behaviour will likely make it worse, with them viewing it as an attack. But going along to get along runs the risk of using all your emotional energy to soothe theirs, because you will never be able to abase yourself enough to avoid their bad faith."

"And that just ruins the pie," Anakin said, nodding. "So today we will practice disengaging."

"Thy will be looking for a response," Ahsoka told them "So do your best not to give them one."

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Tuesday: Plant Parenthood

Nell was here and quite cheerful as she worked with all the plants today. The weekend had been, well, rather different, but ultimately fun.

Today she was focused on finishing up paperwork and then tackling all the things that needed to be done as the growing season was coming to an end. There were a lot of things to do. But at least yesterday she had done her big honey harvest for the fall. Her bees sure had been busy!

Which meant there was lots of fresh honey today!

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Tuesday: Groovy Tunes

Charlie, who was absolutely here every Tuesday, was here today and really missing her little fire lizard. So, she might have been making up a little Jaq the fire lizard song as she while away the time here at the store.

Fandom Radio, Tuesday, September 23rd

What up island? It's me, ya girl Arden Finch, still missing my baller kestrel friend Jaxus from the weekend. And from these notes, it sounds like I'm not the only one.

School started with hot air balloon rides in Flight and Flying and it was so awesome. Cryptozoology talked about Nessie and...paired frog time machines? I've got absolutely nothing for that. And How Not To Drown experimented with flippers which, from the note, sounded like nobody's friend.

No Dorms and no surprise there, but Town had Mayor Faden was in the Town Hall filling out paperwork for the 'registration of the temporary soul-animal form'? They have that paperwork? Why?

*chittering*

Apparently, Mayor Faden was asking that, too, so at least I'm not alone. Dr. Isley was working in Pick Your Poison's laboratory and am I the only one wondering why there's a lab there? Or is that one of those 'better to not even ask' questions? Yeah, I think we all know the answer to that one. Magpie Emporium featured games about cats, and Raiden and the rest of the Pizza Planet staff were missing our daemons. Except for the dolphin. Wait, is that a hypothetical dolphin or a really for-real one?

Honestly, never mind.

Daemons were also the topic of choice at the Trooper Station, because Officer Calvin apparently had a very uncool one. And also also at the Clinic, where everyone was showing off pictures of theirs. Mr. Northman wasn't talking daemons at The Devil's Nest, mostly because he was too busy micromanaging Mr. Tiny's drink-making.

That seems like it would be very unsettling.

Anyway, that's all for today's notes, so this is ya girl, Arden Finch, signing off and wishing everyone a great rest of their day. Enjoy this new banger, Timeless, by Sam Tinnesz and Danger Twins. Bye Fandom!

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Atlas Gym; Tuesday [09/23].

Since Gladio had fit in a ton of extra training that weekend, because, let's be real, when some giant eagle that was basically the guiding spirit of your entire lineage showed up for a weekend ~~no matter how handwavily~~, you took advantage of it, he was going to take it pretty easy at the gym that Tuesday. As a treat. And as a way to also take care of some of the stuff involved in running the place, because that was pretty important, too.

That was the plan, anyway.

But, instead, apparently, somehow, (he didn't want to point fingers, but some of the gremlins were acting a little suss after their aerobics class today), beef jerky sticks (sorry, sorry, some of them were turkey and chicken jerky, too!) had been littered and tucked into various places around the gym, and now Gladio was sort of stuck in the task of trying to locate them all, shaking his head every time he found one and added it to the pile on his desk.

And maybe it was just an old habit that made him think this, but if he didn't get some kind of cool item at the end of this particular quest, he was honestly going to be a little annoyed about it.

Maybe it would be some kind of beef jerky Cup Noodle^TM! That would definitely make it worth it!

Atlas is open!

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The Photo Hut; Tuesday [09/23].

Prompto hated to admit it, but yesterday had been so rough that it felt good to have an excuse to sort of just have to dip downstairs for his shift at the store to get a bit of an escape from it. Because while having some sort of magical talking chocobo show up for a weekend sounded awesome on paper, when Monday came around and that magical talking chocobo disappeared....Noctra had been left absolutely inconsolable. No matter how hard he tried to explain that Fandom was just like that sometimes, her developing sense of connection with her world clashed against the way things were here on the island, and, apparently, while she seemed to accept that sometimes her dad was a puppy or a pony, a disappearing new best friend in chocobo form was a bridge too far.

She seemed better, if sulky, about it this morning, and Prompto was pacing a little and cleaning a bit while his brain tried to think of ways to make it better. Maybe throwing together some sort of fun chocobo photo book? Maybe a trip back to Wiz's, but that had complications that were also troubling to think about, and maybe he could figure out some sort of Build-A-Bear situation with a chocobo plushie with an audio box that could say things when she pressed a button or gave it a hug? That actually might be something workable....He could definitely look into that....

The Photo Hut is open!

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Luke's Diner; Tuesday [09/23].

There was quite the debate going on in the kitchen that day. Ignis was staunchly avoiding participating with his own opinions, but he was rather enjoying the heated discourse between which nomenclature was preferred when it came to calling it an eggplant or calling it an aubergine. Eventually, the debate seemed to have settled down into a compromise that took context into consideration, and, just as everyone seemed to be quite over it and ready to focus on their work once more, Ignis couldn't help himself in gently offering:

"And now what about courgettes?"

There was a long pause, one in which he imagined the other staff members were just taking a second to gauge their fellows' response, before the next debate got started in a spirited second wind.

And Ignis was just going to grin into his coffee while trying to think of the next one to throw into the mix.

Today's Specials
Lemon Garlic Butter Steak with Zucchini Noodles
Vegan Burger with Baba Ganoush and Zucchini Chips
Melanzane al Cioccolato

Luke's is open!

Fandom Clinic, Monday 9/22

The nurses were comparing notes and photos of their animal companions from the weekend. Even Stabby had a picture of himself with someone who looked human but apparently nobody had met them so there was a discussion about whether the photo was faked or not.

Stark was glad for the noise. He'd been feeling quite lonely before he arrived here, missing a presence that had only ever been there for a few days but still left a hole in her absence.

"You've got pictures of the platypus, right?"

Stark nodded and held up his phone.

The clinic was open and everyone was in, just without any daemons.

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The Devil's Nest, Monday Night

Tiny was still in time out for the pumpkin spice beer abomination, so while Eric would never be serving a drink, he was supervising what Tiny was trying to pour.

Marshmallow vodka: "Absolutely not."
Apple Pucker: "No."
Scotch: "We don't serve something that expensive to someone I don't like."

(Sorry, customer Eric didn't like. At least now you knew?)

The Devil's Nest was open! Order something normal.

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Trooper Station, Monday, Sept 22, 2025

After swimming class, the Troopers' conversations about their cool animals (and Calvin's, which was apparently--by group consensus--deeply uncool) made a lot more sense to Steve.

It didn't mean he was going to pick a side in the argument, mind you. It just meant it made more sense.

The Trooper Station was open! Steve was learning about ancient Indian chess sets.

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flight and flying

Flight and Flying- Monday, 1st period

They were back in the Danger Shop today, which had been programmed to look like a large field, with what looked like ziggarauts in the distance. And it was very hard to miss the giant hot air balloon that was nearly full and ready to go.

"We're doing a different kind of flight today," she said, loudly to be heard over the noise. "We're in Mexico here, and clearly you're going for a hot air balloon ride. You don't have to do anything this time. You're just going to get in, let the wind do its job, and enjoy the view."