Heroes

Oh, a nice, quiet weekend without any vague spy threats. This has been nice. Aaaand it looks like everyone else also took part in the relaxing. We have only two notes.

First up, Pam ended up closing Pick Your Poison to go have time in her garden instead. And Raiden had an unorthodox brunch at Over Easy that honestly sounds amazing. I really need to wake up in time for brunch more often.

A plan for next time! Everyone, continue to have a nice weekend.

carbsliftthespirit posting in

Raiden had seen something on TikTok, and he was going to make it happen.

Even if some people objected.

"I don't care if crab rangoons aren't 'traditional brunch fare.' Who decides what's traditional? Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people anyway, and besides, you can have crab rangoons for lunch. It's part of the portmanteau. It's fine. YOLO...well, yes, I am immortal, but if I die I'll still be dead. Shut up and eat a crab rangoon taco."

Specials
Crab Rangoon Tacos
Youtiao (Chinese Doughnut Sticks)
Coconut Sticky Rice Waffles with Mango
Tea Eggs

Over Easy is open!

mustbeawitch posting in

Good morning, everyone! It is I, Miss Lydia Bennet, here with a much quieter day's news to report than last week. I hope we are all recovered from all of last weekend's excitement, though I am sure we do miss our absent friends.

Let's begin with the school, where Driver's Education watched a film--presumably an educational one--and Weather & Storms learned about tornadoes and why this country has so many of them. Horrid. Let's see...nothing for the dormitory, but in town, Dr. Quinn was unpacking a parcel at Needful Things, where she was joined by Dr. Isley, with whom she discussed Mr. LeBeau's employment and decorating for Halloween, amongst other topics. Aboard the Cape Rouge, Mr. Crocker and Miss Blake discussed how they had forgotten their 'safe word.' I don't know what that is.

*chittering*

Apparently I don't want to know. Let's see...ah, they also talked about otters.

*chittering*

Of course you wouldn't say Mr. Crocker is an otter. He's a human at present, I believe. I've one more note, which says that Miss Skywalker did a spot of training at her warehouse. And with that, dear listeners, I shall leave you until next week. Farewell!

joan_of_bark posting in

Last weekend had been loud.

It made this weekend feel quiet by comparison.

Pam didn't mind. Not really. What she did mind was that even now, after all this work, her stock of antidote still wasn't-- anywhere near what she needed. "This is hopeless," she muttered to herself.

Then: "No. Can't think like that."

It was a sign, though. So she headed downstairs, turned the 'closed' sign to open, and spent some time in the garden.

[[ open ]]

heroic_jawline posting in

Good morning, everyone, it's finally Friday, and there are at least two squirrels here with the sniffles, which I didn't even know they could get, so--

*pitiful squirrel coughs*

Yes, the weather has been obnoxious. Let's get to the notes. In classes, Zombie Apocalypse learned about finding good cover--and then Liliana held office hours--Food Adventures ate all the things in Vermont, Tony and I had our students make school-lunch inspired food, but not whatever the Brits call a flapjack because those are just wrong. The library gremlins have decorated for Halloween, so I'm sure the Spirit Halloween people are happy to be back.

In town, Liz was back at the spreadsheets, Thor had a good seasonal beverage that Tiny had nothing to do with designing at the Devil's Nest, Duke came back to Luke's to have a moment's awkwardness with their memorial shrine for him, and if I had a nickel for every statue I made weird by showing back up in 2011, I'd have, well, a lot more than two nickels.

And finally, Supper Club went to Taste of Thai, where conversations mostly revolved around their visitors from home last week. And that's everything! Have a great, quiet weekend, everyone.

[OOC: Sorry for short, small child brought home the Head Cold From Hell.]

needsacatchphrase posting in

There was a projector set up at the front of the class today.

"There is something very wrong with the Australians," Cara announced to the class. Look, she'd formed that opinion very early on in her time on the island, and nothing over the years had convinced her she was wrong. "They are not okay."

"She's not wrong," Jane admitted. Though she felt bad about it. Maybe as though people she knew were secretly Australian or something.

It was entirely possible there were secret Australians all over the place, which only proved Cara's point. "This problem extends to their cars." And she was not talking about which side of the road they drove on.

"Which has led us to showing you this informative movie." It was not informative, Jane. It was just a movie.

"Pay attention to the gangly one," Cara added. "He's especially suspect."

thatwaslucky posting in

For as much as she loved last weekend, Rey still hadn't made a trip home in a bit, and since she wasn't going to be doing much in the way of training there, she was trying to get it out of her system today. It wasn't as challenging without a droid trailing her and she kind of missed that, but she was a lot less worried.

And when a woodchuck threw a single solitary 4x4 at her mid-course and she sliced it in half while barely breaking stride, she was pretty impressed with herself.

[Open!]

ifwebeworthy posting in

Today, when the students entered the Danger Shop, they would find themselves not in the usual classroom but in flat grassland, stretching for as far as the eye could see in every direction. The sky overhead was a deep, eerie green.

"The storms did indeed dance," Thor reported to his students. "Humberto and Imelda have both dissipated now, but before they did, Humberto pulled Imelda away from the coast of the United States and toward Bermuda." He sounded quite pleased about that, because storm god. Bermuda was probably less pleased.

"But now, let us turn away from the storms of the sea and look to the storms of the land. Tornadoes, to be precise. We are currently in the United States, the country Fandom Island lies within, but in a different part: Oklahoma, part of the Great Plains, and part of Tornado Alley. The United States is the most tornado-prone country on Earth, experiencing more than one thousand per year. Why? Three factors of geography. The United States is a large enough country, north to south, that it experiences frequent collisions between cooler fronts coming down from Canada and the Arctic and warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, which produce storms that may become tornadic in nature. Its mountain ranges tend to run north-south instead of east-west, meaning there is nothing to halt these fronts, or these storms, once they get going. Instead, there are two vast, open spaces: the Great Plains and the Mississippi River and its delta, creating ideal conditions for storms to roll, and roll, and roll."

Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance.

"Tornadoes are fickle creatures. They will touch down, destroy, and then lift off and spare. I have seen a brick building destroyed next to a trailer park left untouched. You cannot stop a tornado. You cannot control it. All you can do is hide, and hope. Next week, we will discuss the best ways to do that."

After a moment, Thor thought to add, more conversationally, "Oh. A green sky does not necessarily indicate a tornado is coming. It has to do with the quality of the light, and the storm having abundant moisture in it. Still, storms with abundant moisture are more likely to spawn tornadoes, so it is not a notion entirely without merit."

totalwildcard posting in

Yet another Friday! Yet more stuff at Needful Things!

Including a delivery of a package of random trinkets that honestly kind of seemed like maybe someone had just upended the contents of their junk drawer into a cardboard box and mailed it off. It was questionable whether it had even been meant for the store in the first place.

Wasn't going to stop Harley from treating it like she was unboxing a mystery box that was brightening up her day, though!

(open!)

noonedecidesmyfate posting in

Had the library gremlins gone to the Spirit Halloween? Quite possibly. Or maybe Constantine had. Or someone else entirely.

Whatever the case, the library was starting to looking spooky. There were horror books and supernatural books on display, naturally. But there were also skeletons (not real ones, Belle was pretty sure). There were fake spiderwebs. There were pumpkins. There were little toy ghosts.

There was even a cardboard standee of the zombie band from Caritas. Who even knew such a thing existed?

heroic_jawline posting in

The 'tent' was once again ready for the bakers to come back around for more ridiculous baking challenges! But the theme this week was honestly perplexing both teachers.

"Welcome back everyone. Today, we're apparently making school treats?" Tony said with a confused little frown. "I'm not sure what that means."

"Didn't you ever eat school lunch?" Steve asked.

"Well, boarding school, but I've been told it's not the same as normal school," Tony replied with a shrug.

"School lunch was sometimes my biggest meal of the day back in the '30s," Steve said. "We ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches."

"I don't think I've had one of those," Tony admitted. "But instead we have granola bars to start out! Whatever flavor you want to make."

"We don't care if they are crunchy or chewy, but tell us which one they were supposed to be before we chew on it," Steve said. "And first, let's judge your cheesecakes."

Your stacked cheesecakes. Which was a terrible idea.

"And then for your technical... square pizza? Is that a school lunch thing?" Tony was so out if his depth.

"The internet said so," Steve said, nodding. "So helpful."

betterthanaplan posting in

Duke's staff didn't say anything when he came in. They didn't say anything as he surveyed the kitchen, nodded in approval, and then headed back to his office and the mountain of paperwork that had built up in his absence.

Nothing. No jokes, no well-wishes.

There was a bit of staring, though.

By around nnon, Duke had had enough. "Yes," he said. "I'm back. I was away for months, unceremoniously, again. It's okay. You all can talk about it."

"We thought you were dead," Ali said, shrugging.

"We built you a memorial shrine!" Benji added, pointing to a back corner of the kitchen. A strip of smoked salmon sat on a plate next to a glass of bourbon, in front of the old prom photo of Duke and Octavia wearing onesies.

". . . That's touching," Duke said. "But I'm not dead."

"Are you sure?" Benji asked earnestly. "Only. Since we put the shrine up, things have been going really well."

Duke turned and went back into his office.

Today's specials
Smoked salmon with eggs

Luke's was open.

[OH HEY look who remembered the game exists outside of like. Mondays through Wednesdays!]

mustbeawitch posting in

Lydia had selected Taste of Thai for this week's Supper Club based on a vague sense of 'We haven't been there in a while, have we?' but as she arrived for the evening she was wondering if perhaps she should have just taken everyone to one of the bars instead.

No, no. Surely they were all recovered enough from their guests to not need to drink about it. That was silly. Right? Probably.

Welcome to Supper Club, everyone! Taste of Thai is open!

ifwebeworthy posting in

"Remind me to make you one of these at the end of my shift," Thor muttered to Don under his breath. "I think you will like it."

Why? Don joked. Has it got coffee in it?

"Hardly." Tiny was giving him a weird look, but that was fine. Most of Tiny's looks were weird.

Special
Cinnamon Apple Bourbon Smash

The Devil's Nest is open!

carbsliftthespirit posting in

"All right, folks!" Raiden said once his group had gathered at Portalocity, "We've got a busy afternoon ahead of us, so listen up. We're headed to beautiful Vermont, because, uh...it's fall, and if you can go to Vermont in the fall you should definitely do that. For the unfamiliar, Vermont is a state, part of the United States of America we're currently in, but up north of here, and they are in peak fall color right now, so be sure to bring your camera. Or...your phones," since that was what everyone used now.

"We've got a few stops planned. First, we'll be going to Bragg Farm to learn about how maple syrup is made and try some maple-based treats, before we head to the Cabot Cheese store to try some locally produced cheeses. After that, we'll be going to the Yates Family Orchard, where you can pick and sample twenty-eight different varieties of apple, so you're bound to find your favorite, plus try all sorts of goodies made with them, like fresh cider and fresh cider donuts." A pause as Raiden thought about those donuts. "And then, if we have time and you guys feel up for it, we'll swing by the King Arthur Baking Company bakery, cafe, and store." They might be tired out after the apple picking, but like...Raiden needed some specialty flour. "These locations are too far apart to walk to, and portaling would just be a waste of the views, so I've hired a van to take us around. So let's go meet our driver and get started!"

wrongkindofsith posting in

*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.

flamesburned posting in

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!]

deathsmajesty posting in

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.

thatsmysword posting in