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!]

"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."

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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."

It was a lot quieter today at Pizza Planet, and hopefully a lot more likely to withstand an inspection from the Health Department.

"I kinda miss the little guys," Raiden said wistfully. "They were fun--well, okay, yeah, I guess a dolphin would be more inconvenient." Whew, bullet dodged.

Specials
Kale & Pesto Pizza
Prosciutto & Pear Pizza
Brussels Sprouts & Pancetta Pizza

Pizza Planet is open and dolphin-free!

"Welcome back," Anakin said with a wave, "and without any animals we'd have to figure out how to teach swimming to."

Steve, his left arm in a sling, shot Anakin a puzzled look.

"There was a weekend thing," Anakin explained. "What happened to you?"

"I dislocated my shoulder," Steve said with a light frown, "so I can't swim this week. It did remind me about something you should all learn about, though," he added, pointing to the pile of flippers next to him. "Flippers! Now that you have pretty decent kicks, flippers help you add power to your legs and take some pressure off of your arms for propulsion. Put some on, grab a kickboard, and get ready for some laps."

Or one lap, depending on how tired you get!

Look, there was no reason in particular for Vi to break out all the games related to cats and being one (as well as a few copies of Wingspan), but she had. SO that was what the store was like today.

Saffron, of course, assumed that this was all being done to honour her. It was what Snuggle Human was there for after all.

"The loch ness monster," Jon started. He gestured at the picture. "Often called 'Nessie'. This one goes back to the 1930s. Earlier references to some sort of monster in the area go back as far as the seventh century, in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán. It's set about a hundred years earlier, and in the River Ness, not the loch, but refers to a 'water beast' that kills a man but is stopped by the saint. It should be noted, however, that these sorts of stories were incredibly common in tales of the saints no matter where they were set."

( OMG this got long )

Hi all, I sure had one hell of a week last week, and I get the impression I'm not the only one. So! Meme!

As once ordained by not_every_mage and expanded upon by witchoftheflesh...

Ping your character in and people will offer up a pairing with that character, which is used to answer the meme questions. Feel free to answer with single words, though explanations and examples are always fun. Then other people can chime in with how they see that pairing work. Any pairing goes: friends, NPCs, canon love, canon hate, canon indifference, roommates/housemates, and if-Hell-froze-over-and-these-two-characters-got-together, go crazy! Don't forget to check back in throughout the day and see who else has pinged in!

For example:

Who uses all the hot water in the morning? Warren. He's got a LOT more to wash than Karla and when she is in the mood to spend a long time in the tub, she takes a bath with a glass of wine and a book. Also, Warren is the one who leaves the bathroom a wreck because soggy wings leave water everywhere.

( Questions beneath the cut )

But because these things always change and evolve, now there's a whole new set of questions we can ask for details about! Behold ( Domesticity Meme Part 2! )

Have fun!

Good morning, people of Fandom. This is Jaina, coming to you from a house with 100% fewer animals than yesterday, unless eight-year-olds count.

Not much in the way of notes: Rey's coyote got Starbucks treats while she worked, and Don and Thor had coffee and figured this would be over by today. Good call, guys.

And that's all. See you next week.

("Look who sounds confident."

"Well, if the hottest flower in the hothouse likes me, how bad can things be? They're not always perfect..."

"And neither am I, squeaky.")

After a solid month-and-a-half, things had finally settled at home. Harley had fixed whatever multiversal issues she'd been having, the fungus zombies had been laying low, and Pam's stinging side had been gentle on her for several days in a row now. She was going to take that as a good sign - though it had also meant she hadn't exactly been back to Fandom much over the past three days.

She felt guilty about that. The work continued, after all.

Maybe she shouldn't have wasted a weekend celebrating. Maybe Harley made it too easy to pull her away from-- No. She wasn't going to think that way. Harley was important, too.

And so it was with a strange sense of dread that she returned to Pick Your Poison early on Monday morning. Opening the door, sweeping the floors. Vanishing upstairs into the laboratory for long stretches of time.

[[ open ]]

You know, Jesse hadn't appreciated how comparatively quiet some months could be. Whenever the island acted up, paperwork wound up on her desk. And right now, sitting in her office chair, she was staring at a lot of paperwork.

"Why do we even need this?" she asked, holding up the 'registration of temporary soul-animal form'. "For every single one of them? Does anyone expect me to send these out to people? They're already gone."

Nina shrugged, from where she was organizing stacks of paperwork in the corner. "Mayor Sum--"

"--mers thought it was a good idea," Jesse finished. "Why is that always the answer?"

"It isn't," Nina pointed out. "Sometimes the answer is 'mayor Swanson had us throw out the form that goes in between the first form and the last form and now none of it makes sense anymore'."

Why was Jesse always stuck cleaning up the messes of her predecessors, no matter the universe? Sigh.

[[ open! ]]

Ifa, please don't eat the squirrels!

Hi, sorry. It's been a long weekend, full of new animals. As many of you might know. How should we begin... Okay, Raiden had his new friend, Effie, in at Over Easy, looking for bacon. Stark showed up for brunch with his new friend, Virginia.. Jaina and Sula were relaxing at the park with her kids when Anakin came by to share how their households were holding up to everything on his way to get coffee. Marc and a hawk were on the beach behind the boarding house, which scared off the squirrels beyond letting us know that he and Watts compared animals and if they fit each other and Steven or not.

But, on that note, I'll be heading back to keep Steve from being completely overwhelmed with dogs and eagle. Have a good one!

Don really wasn't sure what to make of all this.

On the one hand, he could understand it. Animal representations of people's souls were appearing. Humans were animals, if higher-order ones. He was intrinsically linked to Thor's soul, and Thor was a higher-order being than a human. Don even had his own daemon, currently crawling on the sugar packets and decrying artificial sweeteners, so it wasn't as if the universe was treating him as less.

On the other hand...

Thor sat down across the table and slid Don's drink toward him.

"It won't last," Don told him. One of them would snap back to the void eventually.

"No," Thor agreed. "If the pattern holds, this may be the last day. Perhaps tomorrow. But that does not mean we cannot enjoy it while we can. Drink your coffee."

Don picked his coffee up and took a sip.

Apple.

He raised one eyebrow at Thor, and Thor just smiled at him.

(Open Perk is open!)

Even with Varlo tagging along with her, Rey had to go to work. It should be a chill day for both of them, it'd be fine. He didn't even spook the gremlins, who, realistically, had probably seen this before in some capacity.

And he got his own pup cup so he was having an A+ day.


[Brain. You know? Anyway, open!]

The advantage of having a beach behind your home was that if you had an African Wild Dog that might want to run around outside, you had a great location for it.

Which was why Marc was on the beach watching Ziv - because of course that was Steven's daemon's name - run along the sand and splash her feet in the waves as they lapped on the shore. Would they need to worry about tracking sand and the smell of wet dog into the house? Eh, whatever.

Selene - because of freaking course - sat on Marc's shoulder.

"You can fly around if you want," Marc told her.

"I'm aware," she said, with that accent that was exactly like Khonshu's (because of course).

Marc shrugged the shoulder she wasn't sitting on. No business of his if she wanted to hang. Considering the talons, it was surprisingly comfortable for her to be resting there.

Marc hooked his thumbs in his pants pockets and watched over everything. On his shoulder, Selene did the same.

Minus the part about the pants pockets, of course.

[open. Conversation with Harley NFB please]

The amount of times lately Jag had called and probably been very glad that he was not there...

Jaina's daemon, a lioness named Sula, ruled. Jaina loved her. It was a little weird for a lion to be in the house but they rolled with it.

Harder to roll with was the fact that in addition to Sula, they had the twins' daemons. One was an otter, fine, the other was a horse. Not even a pony, a horse. Horses did not belong indoors. Dax was sleeping in the living room because they weren't dealing with stairs.

So they were spending the afternoon at the park. Maybe the whole day. The boys got to run around, while Jaina and her badass lion were going to sit and watch.


[Open!]