There was a brunch place in town, yes. And it was even a really great brunch place at that! But sometimes it wasn't really in your budget. And sometimes you just wanted the comfort food of a really shitty 24 hour chain of restaurants where the servers will throw hands.

And that was where Riri was this morning, still in the pumpkin onesie, blissfully enjoying these overly greasy potatoes and overcooked eggs.

Life was good!

[open, of course!]

Lydia: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to November! My, the year is flying along, isn't it? I hope no one celebrated overmuch last night, but if you did, fear not, I am here to tell you what you have forgotten.

( It's a dead man's party... )

Would Henry learn what Halloween was this year? Too early to tell.

As it was, he was back at the forge, thinking about the conversation he'd had with Adrian and-- well. No one seemed to have yelled at him for getting the fire going last time.

So there he was again, slaving away by the roaring fire, trying to remember some of the things his father taught him about forging tools.

[[ open ]]

Thor was not dressed in his usual armor today, but rather in a surgeon costume of such pitiful quality that he was regretting not just buying a pair of scrubs in his size. He wasn't sure if this fabric, and he was being generous in calling it that, was going to survive the day.

"Today is All Hallow's Eve, or Samhain, or Halloween, depending on where you are and how you celebrate. It is, they say, the day when the veils between worlds thin, and spirits and monsters come to play...and be appeased with candy, of course. I thought today we could learn about a sort of atmospheric phenomenon, rather than a particular weather event, that is tied to the holiday.

"Will=o'-the-wisps are strange lights that dance in bogs and marshlands, leading travelers, who think they are seeing another traveler's torch, or perhaps light in a house, astray. Throughout history, these were believed to be spirits, perhaps the fae, causing mischief and leading travelers to their doom, but in modern times we know that the lights are caused by natural phenomena, such as the releasing of certain gases caused by the decay of organic matter in the swamps...or are they?

After letting that sit for a moment, Thor added, "Will-o'-the-wisp sightings are relatively rare in the modern era, perhaps due to the draining of large swathes of wetlands. They have many names in many different cultures, but one of them is jack-o'-lantern. For anyone who may be unaware, the carved, lit pumpkins set out for Halloween, meant to frighten malicious spirits away, are also jack-o'-lanterns. The same name for a spirit and the ward against its kind. Interesting, no? Happy Halloween, and be sure to take some candy from the bowl on your way out." He had tried to make sure to provide an assortment of the popular sorts.

When you let Tony and Liliana collaborate on something, you had to know that the results would be fantastic if also potentially catastrophic. Still, Ignis and Steve had finally relented and let the two of them put their extravagant and brilliant heads together and come up with a Halloween party spectacular (while occasionally advocating for one (1) bit of restraint, and for them not to ignore the 'laws of man and nature,' even to execute their grand vision. But still, Fandom could rest easy that tonight's Halloween party would have at least some moral and ethical guidelines. (Even if that had been incredibly rude to necromancers.))

The decorations started outside (because of course they did), sending arriving guests through the creaking, wrought iron gate into a haunted graveyard. The entire area was blanketed in a thick, roiling fog, lit by candles and lanterns, where ghostly apparitions appeared in thin air, wailing and beckoning people to come closer. A skeleton offered guests two options: they could go through the front door and experience the haunted house maze, or, if they wanted to head directly to the party, they could continue through the graveyard and enter the ballroom directly.

For those who dared the haunted house, they would find themselves in a professionally designed and fully staffed maze of ghoulish and terrifying rooms, where they might be chased by scary nuns who crawled out of walls, chainsaw-wielding maniacs, creepy little girls with even creepier dolls, and undead nightmares down hallways of chains, corridors festooned with spiderwebs (and sometimes the spiders themselves), and rooms filled with some familiar faces. (If a resident cares to look, they can find their head amongst the decorations, all of which were welcome to be taken at the end of the night as a souvenir). And it was a real maze, with portals through each doorway leading you to a different part of the mansion. At any time, however, a guest could speak to a staffer and be let through to head to the ballroom, rather than continuing through.

If the rest of the mansion was a spooky haunted house, the ballroom itself was an ossuary. Greeted by two skeletons in tattered monks' robes, people were escorted inside, The walls, ceiling, and floors lined and decorated with bones, including a bone coat of arms and a bone chandelier. The further in the guests went, however, the less human and more terrifying the skeletons being used as decor became. Especially since they sometimes moved, shifting position to menace people before returning to their still state.

(Fun fact! Tony had discovered a way to grow real bone in minutes! What had started as fiddling with better prosthetics with the armor as a base had turned into a rabbit hole of the biological sciences! But now multiple hospitals had been given a cutting edge medical technology that could help them mend or create bone for patients, and Liliana had been able to craft various horrific bone creations, which she could control via necromancy, but with none of those pesky arguments about 'respecting the dead'.)

Don't worry, Ignis had made sure there were plenty of delicious party snacks (everything neatly labeled for people with dietary restrictions or allergies), along with appropriately spooky cocktails and mocktails to enjoy.

Happy Halloween!

[OCD is up!]

*chittering*

No, I'm not putting on a costume yet. I'm waiting for Liliana and Tony's party.

*chittering*

Of course I was going to mention your costumes! I didn't know they made Trooper outfits this small!

*chittering*

...I do not want to know how you got access to a 3-D printer.

*suspicious silence*

Right. This is Steve Rogers with the news of yesterday. In classes, Liliana's class played hide and seek with zombies while their supplies dwindled, and then she held office hours that were mostly devoted to last-minute party prep. Raiden took his class to Paris, Tony and I pretended we were still in the Maldives with a tropical fruit-themed baking week, and the library was hosting craft day for the gremlins.

In town, Luma was sorting through last-minute costumes at Pixie Dust, Liz worked on month-end spreadsheets, Thor leaned into Halloween-themed drinks at the Devil's Nest, and the Supper Club went to a tavern in Baltimore that was an ode to Edgar Allan Poe, but I don't think any of the participants would immediately know who Poe was.

*chittering*

If I see them at the party, I'll ask. And that's everything for yesterday! I'll see you all at the party!

Harley had gone AWOL for a few days after the vacation. Why and where were none of anyone else's concern, and anyway, she'd come back for the real important bit!

The WE GOT HAUNTED STUFF! sign was still in the Needful Things window, but it had been joined - among all the vintage decorations - by a bigger sign:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Yes, all of those exclamation points were important. Every! last! one!

Also, Bruce was in the store with Harley, and he was wearing a Halloween headband with kitty ears on it. Or at least he would be until he'd eventually decide to shake it off and destroy it. Which would probably be within the first five minutes, but Harley had already gotten a picture so it was fine!

(open!)

Today, the classroom held a truly massive bowl of candy. Because that's what everyone wanted today. That right there. And the teachers knew it.

"Welcome back," Jane said. "We know it's a holiday. And a Friday, so we thought we'd make this easy for you."

"Other teachers might attempt to make the candy a learning experience." Anakin. "But that's boring and judgmental." And Cara knew judgmental.

"So, we'll be playing Mario Kart. With candy." Possibly the best class ever.

"The candy is not prizes." Though Cara had considered that, it feel under making the candy a learning experience. Which defeated the point. Anakin. "We won't stop you using it to win though."

Sometimes Belle was thrilled by gremlin antics in the library. Like today while a group of them were busy making masks. Possibly for tomorrow but you never could be sure.

Another group was watching one of the movies from yesterday and apparently arguing about the merits of it.

Belle enjoyed the movie, herself, and was very entertained by the masks that ranged from adorable to funny to rather terrifying.

Your teachers were much tanner than they'd been two weeks ago. And hopefully so were many of the students. "Hi, and welcome back!" Steve said enthusiastically.
"Made it through fall break," Tony added. "And back to the colder weather. So we were thinking of soothing that with some tropical desserts this week. Starting off with a pavlova of your choice."

"I love pavlovas!" Steve said. Steve, let's be honest, hadn't met a lot of food he wouldn't eat. Supersoldier physiology plus a Great Depression scarcity mentality meant not a lot of food went to waste around him.

"Love pavlovas," Tony agreed with a grin and a sideways glance at his co-teacher. "And then we're going to ask you to make us a passion fruit posset."

Steve loved those too! "But first, let's see--" he frowned. "What did we assign again?"

Tony stared blankly as he tried to remember. "Chocolate! It was chocolate work!"

"Right!" Steve said. "So you need to show us your boxes made of chocolate, with chocolates inside it."

Lydia couldn't really have said why she'd selected the Annabel Lee Tavern for this week's Supper Club. It wasn't a type of cuisine they hadn't tried before, or anything like that, but something about it felt...appropriate.

Look, you couldn't not honor Poe in Baltimore at the height of spooky season. It would just be wrong.

Welcome to Supper Club, everyone! Ravens are not on the menu!

Halloween could hardly be said to be Thor's favorite holiday, but that didn't mean he couldn't get into the spirit of things.

Ha, 'spirit.' A pun on more than one level. A shame Tiny wouldn't appreciate the humor in it.

Specials
Corpse Reviver No. 2
Drunk Pumpkin
Bloody Sunrise

The Devil's Nest is open!

"All right, guys," Raiden said to his students, "Today we're headed to one of the food capitals of the world: Paris, France. Now, people will fight about which is better, French food or Italian, and personally, I think the Italians have got the French beat hell for leather when it comes to dinner--the Italians did invent pizza, after all--but it cannot be denied there are some things the French do very, very well--and we're gonna eat as many of them as we can today.

"For those of you who are not familiar, France is a country in Europe which borders Italy, where we went a few weeks ago. They're separated by the Alps mountain range, and by the north-south European food divide: in France, except maybe in the south along the Mediterranean, you see more butter than olive oil, although garlic and the onion are both enthusiastically embraced, as they should be. France is home to amazing wines and cheeses, some great dishes like French onion soup, beef bourguignon, coq au vin--when in doubt, stew it in wine, am I right? You may also be familiar with crepes, which are a thin pancake you can put pretty much anything in, savory or sweet, and yes, the French do eat escargot, or snails, and frog legs. Hey, if you're hungry, you'll eat almost anything, and don't knock a readily available protein. If you can make it taste good, all the better. France, Paris in particular, also takes their baked goods really seriously, and with good reason. Some of the best bread and pastry in the world are made here, and every year Paris holds a contest with strict requirements to find the best one--the place we're going first won the award for best croissant in 2018!

"Today we'll be going on a tour of some places making some of the most iconic foods you might think of when you think of Paris--some of which are iconic in their own right. You can try everything, and buy things to bring home with you as well, of course. Along the way we'll get to see some sights like Notre Dame, which has reopened after that fire a few years back! And then we'll be heading over to a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower for a proper French meal." And those oh-so-necessary snaps of the Tower, of course. "I hope that sounds good, because it's time for our portal!"

*chittering*

Because you're just not very intimidating, Leroy. That's why.

Moving on, up at the School, Space Pirates, Pirates in Space were asking the important questions about yacht theft and why there wasn't more of it, while Health Education was so sad it had to be written down in all caps. Meanwhile, it was movie day in the Library, which possibly defeats the point.

Nothing of interest happened in the Dorms, while in Town, Prompto had to deal with camera-shy cats at Furnado, while Adrian accepted a delivery for the Perk at Pick Your Poison, leading Pam to suggest he's a bit of a pushover. Over Easy had Halloween themed waffles, while there were posters up for Liliana and Tony's party around town. Finally, Adrian and Rey had a date night.

Since it was the end of the month and Liz was feeling well enough to try and work downstairs for a few hours that morning, she thought she would work on finishing up the end of month reports and finalise the spreadsheets for the month.

She was also hoping to get as much of a head start for November's admin as she could, especially with how close the due date was getting now.

[The Photo Hut is open!]

Of course Pixie Dust had received a shipment of various costumes and accessories for Halloween last week, to appeal to a quality that the pop-up Spirit Halloween just couldn't achieve, and Luma was finding them all fascinating. Halloween, for her, was an interesting thing, less about candy and costumes and more about it being one of her grandmother's busiest months in soothing the superstitions of the townspeople of Winterport, of the smell of sage and smoke clinging to her clothes for cleansing rituals, of incense for fortune reading, of curiously peering around corners when people came knocking at the door and then being shooed away, giggling, by her aunt Margaret. She never even thought of dressing up until Rhys started going to school and told her about how there were parties where people dressed up, and he, grinning that roguish grin of his, explained how everyone couldn't get over how impressive his 'wolfman' costume was.

(In whispered tones, when he'd sneak into her bedroom, presumably away from Persephone's ears, because if she'd heard about him tempting fate like that, she'd yank him out of school so quickly....)

So while she was technically working today, Luma was spending most of her time dreamily sorting through some of the options and trying to think of what costume she might like to do. The choices were almost overwhelming, if she was honest, but she wasn't quite to the point of texting Eleanor to see if maybe they should plan to do something together.

Pixie Dust is open!

Liliana's office hours were going to be very abbreviated today. Their party extravaganza was tomorrow, which meant that there were am million things to do at home to prepare. However, that also meant that the mansion would be bustling about with various rented staff, decorators, housecleaners, and other assorted hired help. So yes, while she would be going home early, she was not canceling her office hours altogether. She was going to enjoy a nice, quiet, leisurely lunch and then head home to help orchestrate the chaos.

Too bad she hadn't left her phone at home, though.

"What do you mean you can't place the fountain there? Of course you can! Why wouldn't you--the chandeliers are there? Well obviously they won't be there tomorrow night! Then move them you--is Ignis not available? Honestly now, this is ridiculous."

"I apologize for missing last week's class," Liliana said crisply. You can tell she really did, because she actually said she was sorry, and didn't just like, vaguely insinuate it. "I was called away to deal with a fae political issue."

Using copious amounts of violence to deter copious amounts of violence!

"Our last class, we went over supplies, specifically what you were looking for and what you managed to scavenge. And that's good, because today you will not be running around the island. Instead, you'll be playing hide and seek - where you'll be hiding in your various safe places, and the zombies will be seeking you. Furthermore, all of your supplies are on a timer. Every so often, they'll decrease, and that will be the equivalent of one day that you have survived and your supplies held out. Of course, you might not outlast your supplies; it's entirely possible that the zombies will get you first.

"So! You have a twenty minutes to get to your chosen hiding places and fortify it for the oncoming zombie onslaught. Do take notes on what happened to you, and how to fix it, hmm? The individual that lasts the longest wins. Good luck!"

Oh yeah, the time had already started. Better run!

Gray had totally shown up reasonably close to the start of his shift at Over Easy. Totally. He swore. Don't listen to anyone who told you otherwise, and ignore the pillow creases still visible on his face.

Look, he was here, okay? Take the win.

Will It Waffle? Wednesday Specials
Spider Web Waffles
Candy Corn Waffles
Mummy Waffle Sticks

No actual spiders, candy corn, or mummies were harmed in the making of these waffles.

Over Easy is open!

Sure, it was a little last minute to be hanging these up (or, rather, to be watching as someone else hung them up), but while Liliana and Tony had thrown themselves into planning the joint Halloween party with a fervor, it had taken Ignis' dry reminder of practicality before Liliana actually thought to invite people to it.

Listen, by this point she just assumed you all knew what you were doing on Halloween. But anyway...

Liliana Vess & Ignis Scientia,
together with their co-hosts
Tony Stark & Steve Rogers
request the pleasure of your company at their shared
Halloween Extravaganza
Friday, October 31st, 2025
Sunset
The Creepy Mansion in the Woods
All residents and their guests welcome
Costumes appreciated, but not required.

[Open if people want to stop her and talk, will pick up pings later]

The sauce was simmering on the stove, filling the whole cabin with the scent of roasted garlic, spices, and tomatoes. There was also a freshly baked loaf of bread cooling under a dishtowel, and Adrian hummed as he washed up the dishes from dinner prep in advance of Rey's arrival. Bran was also hard at work, sweeping up the floor of the entire cabin - and sometimes bedeviling Boston as it followed Adrian's familiar from spot to spot, cleaning up any cat hair before it had a chance to settle. The fire was already burning merrily in the hearth, chasing away what little autumnal chill Baltimore had managed to accumulate as the sun headed towards setting.

"All right you two, enough playing," he called, ignoring Boston's indignant squawk. "Rey will be over any minute. Bran, do you want to give the greenhouse another quick once over to make sure everything is still clear?"

The broom performed a small circle and disappeared towards the back of the cabin.

"And Boston--"

"Don't worry about me, Adrian," Boston declared with regal dignity. "I have plans of my own this evening."

Adrian was pretty sure that wasn't true, but Forest forbid Boston should be seen as less in demand than his witch. "Of course," he said.

"I'll go keep an eye out on the porch," Boston continued, sauntering out the door with his tail high.

"Thanks!" Adrian called after him. Dinner, cabin, broom, and cat all accounted for, now all he needed was his date!

[For the lady mentioned and for SP as I deal with enjoy guests!]

"I really don't think this is for us," Adrian told the delivery guy. "It's probably for the Perk. You know, the place that sells coffee?"

The delivery guy kept unpacking the items for delivery.

"No really," Adrian continued. "What makes more sense? That that's supposed to say Perk, you know, the coffee place, or Pick, a place that sells bath stuff and cosmetics?"

He could have been talking to a wall for all the mind the delivery guy was paying him.

"Don't you at least wanna call back and check, just to save yourself from coming back here and having to pick everything back up again?"

His handcart unloaded, the delivery guy headed towards the door with an uncaring whistle. He was done for the day. Maybe he'd go and check out that new Tom Cruise movie.

And anyway, that was how Adrian ended up with a stack of pumpkin spice non-dairy creamer by the register, enjoy a complimentary bottle with each purchase!

It was two days from Halloween and rather than try to get the gremlins to focus on books and studying, Arden had remembered that the library also rented movies and other media, too!

So she pulled down the big screen, set up the DVD player, and started playing some Halloween movies from last century. The All Hallow's Eve Tree, naturally, and The Least Good Witch, The Bad Dream Before Yule, and Abracadabra to name some of the classics from the olden days. Hopefully the movies would be able to keep them quiet and entertained and not tearing the library apart looking for candy.

"Before the break, we talked some about the dangers of sunlight, so as the seasons change I thought it fitting that this week we talk about the dangers of not enough sunlight. Sunlight is important. You need to get enough of it for your body to produce what's called 'vitamin D,' which helps build healthy bones. Luckily, if you're not getting enough vitamin D, your doctor can measure that in a blood test and you can get it in pill form.

"The other thing I want you to be aware of as we move into winter is Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. This is a form of depression that's, well, seasonal. Some people's brains don't handle the shorter days and less light well at all, and they may experience symptoms of depression." Don went on to handwavily list some of the symptoms of depression to watch out for. "This will of course more often affect people who live in more northern climes, where the days are even shorter--or nonexistent in some places that experience polar night--but according to studies about one point four percent of the population of Florida experiences SAD, so you can't rule it out. We don't yet fully understand SAD, but light therapy can help, and if that's not cutting it you should talk to your doctor about antidepressants. Because like with vitamin D, if you can't produce your own, storebought is always fine.

"Now, are there any questions?"

Okay, so those five hours in Lana's GFFA had definitely become more than five hours through the joys of Portalocity layovers. Still, Jack managed to make it back to the hotel during ( the ass-end of the night. )

[[ nfb, nfi ]]