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The Beach Behind Midnight Manor, Saturday Morning

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]

Entry tags:

@park,
jaina solo

The park- Saturday afternoon

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!]

Entry tags:

where: nyc

Jack's New York City Apartment, Saturday Afternoon

It was a nice, chill, not-too-cold and not-too-rainy New York fall day. A good time to be indoors, on a very rare gig- and festival-free Saturday, listen to some music, drink some cocoa, enjoy being alive.

Or to be hanging upside down off the back of the couch, staring at an artsy black-and-white picture of yourself standing on a Chinatown street corner with the words INTERVIEW WITH THE BOXER printed on it in large letters in the corner.

"I really don't know how this happened," Jack muttered, as the blood out of his extremities and into his head.

"They noticed us at Metal Fest last month, called you, came over, interviewed you, then made you stand outside looking serious for two hours while a guy took pictures," Dane called from the kitchen, where he was desperately trying to unwrap a frozen pizza.

"Ha, ha." He squinted at it, at the answer below the opening question - why they'd called the album 'Boxer'. "'I realized, I’m a boxer. I’m the guy who gets knocked down and gets back up. But I’m also the guy who has trouble sharing my feelings - I almost said fee-fees -, who’d rather hit back than open up.'," he read aloud. "Did I actually say that? Space. I sound like one of those internet kids. But pretentious."

"You also told them that you got knocked in the head a lot," Dane offered, "So I feel like you've covered most of your bases."

"And I told them I meditate," Jack muttered. "They're going to think I'm alt metal Enya or something."

"I did appreciate all the nice things you said about me," Dane said brightly. "I'm definitely bundling that mag up and sending it to Lana later, so you can't get out of it."

And just like that, Jack immediately rolled up the magazine and tucked it into his jacket. Yes, upside down. "Absolutely not!"

The plastic around the pizza finally came loose. "It's hilarious you think that's the only copy of Grindstone I got this morning," Dane said brightly. "I already put hers in the mail."

"I hate you!" Jack bellowed.

"You said you were graaaaaatefuuuuuul for me," Dane sing-songed, and popped the pizza into the oven.

"With partners like you, who needs enemies," Jack groused, and pushed himself upright. He stared back at the magazine again. 'Glazed Windows'. It’s complicated to talk about this stuff, right? About being in that place where you can’t go on, but you also know that you can’t stop. Of knowing you can’t fix the former, so you wind up hoping that everyone else around you will finally stop keeping you from stopping. Grappling with that. That’s all I can say about that song.

"I talk too much," he said, quieter. He could feel Dane smiling from the kitchen, but he didn't look up.

[[ open for phone calls, texts, or visits from she who lives near here now ]]

Entry tags:

Over Easy, Saturday

Things were in a bit of a state at Over Easy, what with having to make sure they had options on hand for, oh, any random animal that might walk in the door with one of their humanoid patrons today, plus the staff all having their own animal companions to deal with. Raiden didn't know whose rhinoceros that was waiting outside the back door, and he was a little afraid to ask.

"Look, if the health department shows up just tell them to come back next week, all right? Well if something else is happening then we'll just deal with that next week--Effie! Effie, drop it!" His daemon gave him huge sad puppy eyes around several rashers of raw bacon. "It's better cooked!"

Efthumia spit the bacon out. "Oh, well, if you'll cook it for me..."

"Might as well." It wasn't like they could serve it to anyone else now.

Specials
Peanut Butter & Jelly Pancakes
Brunch Burger
Breakfast Grilled Cheese

Over Easy is open!

Fandom Radio, Saturday, September 20

Lydia: Good morning, everyone! I am of course Miss Lydia Bennet, here to bring you the news of yesterday, and accompanied by, shall we say, a representative of yesterday's news, Mr. Septimus.

Septimus: Just Septimus, dearest.

Lydia: Apparently just Septimus. Let's get on with it, shall we? Beginning with the school, where Driver's Education opted to watch a film rather than find a conveyance everyone's, ah, daemons could fit into. That was perhaps prudent. Weather & Storms discussed the difficulties of changing the weather, and was observed by Dr. Blake. I had no idea he was interested in meteorology.

Septimus: I rather think he's more interested in Lord Thor.

Lydia: Oooh, do you think so? I mean--there aren't any notes from the dormitory, yes, yes, the porg is sad, we all know how this goes, but there are from the town, where Dr. Quinn was fashioning a display of candelabras at Needful Things. Oh! I should stop by; you never know when you will need a good candelabra--and I see that Captain Flint and his--caracara friend...Ti--Tidreles? My apologies if I have mispronounced that, sir--well, they stopped by and purchased a candelabra. At the Trooper Station, Detective Watts was visited by Mr. Grant and his daemons--apparently he's got more than one. Well, who understands the island's little oddities? At her warehouse, Miss Skywalker had some difficulties convincing the local woodchucks her coyote daemon did not plan to eat them, although they may not have been reassured when Mr. Skywalker showed up with a lion. At Stark Tower, Lord Thor and Dr. Blake woke up in--well! I'm not reporting on that! Ah, let us say that they had the situation explained to them by Dr. Blake's daemon, and move along to elsewhere in the tower, where Mr. Stark and Mr. Rogers awoke to--will you squirrels please stop spying on people's bedrooms!

Septimus: If people won't close their curtains, those of us who can see in their windows aren't responsible for what we see.

Lydia: I'm not sure I agree with that.

Septimus: I get the best gossip that way.

Lydia: ...like what? No, no, don't tell me until I've finished these notes. Let's see what I can say. Mr. Stark and Mr. Rogers discovered the daemons situation, and discussed how their daemons are different from when this happened previously, and also building armor for the daemons. I hope they shan't have need of it. Miss Gale was at the park with her daemon, and was joined by Miss Williams and hers. Whilst Captain Flint and Tid--Tidreles? Tidreles were not out shopping, they were at The Ink Spot, of course, whilst Mr. Grant stopped by the Perk, where he was joined by Mr. Sims, who was wearing epaulettes.

Septimus: No, darling, I'm afraid you've read that wrong.

Lydia: Oh! His daemon's name is Epaulette. And here I was hoping the squirrels had finally started taking notice of fashion. Mr. James Stark was also present, and he and Mr. Grant discussed the whole situation with the daemons. It was quite the only topic of conversation yesterday, and I do expect that to continue. The last note I have--dearest, would you like to read this one?

Septimus: I'd love to! Mr. Sims and Epaulette visited the beach. How's that?

Lydia: Splendid.

Septimus: You could have given me a more scandalous one.

Lydia: They can't all be who woke up in whose bed, you know. Now, let's go find some brunch, shall we? I'm sure Mr. Raiden has some nuts and berries.

Entry tags:

The beach, Friday evening

Epaulette might not be a real bat, but her eyes still worked best at night, and after lying on his shoulder for most of the day, Jon imagined she'd want to fly.

So he was sitting on the sand as the sun went down, watching this odd other part of his soul, however that worked, dart around the surface of the water and catch insects.

It was oddly soothing.

[Open beach!]

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The Perk, Friday Afternoon

Steven decided to get a treat of a drink and some snacks to go with the strange day. He worried about going into the Perk with an African Wild Dog and a falcon following him. But then it turned out the people working there had their own collection of animals so rules about such things were relaxed at the moment.

Made for an interesting topic of conversation, though, so took a while for Steven to get an order together. Moreso than any usual distractions he might have.

[open like a Perk post]

Penthouse Apartment of the Stark Tower-ish, Friday Morning

Well, Tony didn't expect to wake up to a snake coiled up in the crook of his neck, tongue flicking out to taste the air.

A dog, sure. A cat, sure. But a snake was new.

"Steve?" he asked as the snake curled up tighter and made an annoyed sound that he didn't know snakes could make.

[for that husband!]

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The Ink Spot, Friday, September 19, 2025

Flint was in the bookshop today, reading about predatory birds of Central and South America. The crested caracara perched on his slightly dusty cash register probably had something to do with the choice of reading material.

"What sort of name is Tidreles, anyway?" Flint finally commented.

"What sort of name is James?" Tidreles retorted, pecking at a piece of paper.

The book store was open! Maybe you also need research material?

Entry tags:

steve rogers

Fandom Radio, Friday, September 19, 2025

Hello and welcome to Friday. I'm Captain Steve Rogers, and if you were keeping track of how many normal days we've had, well, it's time to reset that clock. The daemons--am I pronouncing that right?--are back.

*soft mutterings, followed by eagle screeching and terrified squirrel noises*

Scout says I'm close enough, so we're moving on to classes. Tony and I supervised bread baking in our class, and we're looking forward to trying a braided loaf for next week! Raiden took his class to explore the amazing food of Rome, and zombie class had a movie day, and it was cold in the library.

In town, Liz was at her usual shift, Watts and Steven had their usual lunch, and Thor mixed it up with pumpkin spice latte brown ale.

*long pause*

Yeah, I'm gonna agree with Eric and pass on that one. And finally, the Supper Club went to Cafe Fina. Rey and Lydia talked about how Lydia has to learn to braid bread before next week, Flint and Lydia talked about their dates last Saturday night, and Flint expressed his suspicions of sentient dishware, a concern Henry shared. He was also still shaking off being a pony, so maybe I'll check on Henry while the daemons are around.

And that's everything! Have a good weekend.

Entry tags:

Friday afternoon: The Park

Charlie was taking advantage of a really nice afternoon to sit on a bench in the park and play her guitar. Jaq was perched on her shoulder, fire lizard tail wrapped gently around her neck, bronze scales gleaming in the sun.* Occasionally he would chime in with a haunting harmony, which just tickled Charlie to no end.

"Let's try some Celtic stuff," she said. "Those have some kick-ass harmonies!"

Open park is open and Charlie is absolutely willing to be distracted!

[*I think I'm so funny. IYKYK]

Weather & Storms, Friday, Second Period

Thor was accompanied to class today by one Dr. Donald Blake, who they had discovered this morning could not be terribly far from Thor. It was an acceptable compromise: at least they both existed, now. If one were to look closely at Dr. Blake, where he sat in the corner of the classroom like he was merely observing for the fun of it, he was carrying an antique cane rather than his usual walking stick, and there was a leafcutter ant riding shotgun, as it were, upon his shoulder.

Thor did not have any animal companionship, but then, Thor wasn't human. Probably that was all.

"Last week," Thor told his students, "We discussed how small events can lead to larger ones: a rain shower to a hurricane, a bit of dust stopping that hurricane from ever happening. And one of you brought up charms, to change the weather, which is what has led us to today's class, which may sound strange coming from a god of storms: you must be very careful in attempting to change the weather. Humans have been attempting such for centuries, first through magic, and now through technology--although they have not gotten very far with that. It is most understandable. They wish to bring rain to end a drought. They wish to turn or disperse a hurricane, so that it does not bring devastation upon them. Someone like myself can do such things easily, but--what then? What further effects are there from the changes you have wrought? Do they lead to something yet worse for someone else, sometime in the future? Remember this above all things: everything is interconnected. Nothing happens in isolation. Not even a lightning strike.

"Now. Does anyone have any questions, or thoughts to share?" 'Where's your daemon?' would not be entertained.

Entry tags:

@warehouse,
rey

Rey's warehouse- Friday afternoon

Rey thought the daemon thing was pretty cool. You know who didn't? The woodchucks, who were hiding under a part of the obstacle course where they thought Varlo couldn't get at them.

"He's fine," Rey said, trying to coax them out mostly because she felt bad. "He's not going to hurt you."

"I could still get in there," Varlo said.

"Unhelpful," she told him.

It was really her fault for bringing a coyote in here.

[Open!]

Driver's Ed: Drive Fast [Friday, Period One]

There were animals with your teachers today. That might have been why a movie was set up instead of any sort of practical driving practice. Because fitting a wolf into a car meant to go on the streets of Fandom was... less than likely.

"It's another one of those days," Jane said, letting out a little sigh as her owl ruffled his feathers on her shoulder in disapproval.

Cara did her best to ignore Vieno rolling on his back, legs in the air like an overgrown puppy begging for belly scritches. "Given the likelihood your... guests won't improve your driving skills, we've decided to go with a movie today."

"So, settle in for it," Jane suggested. "And hopefully things will be back to normal next week."

"Hopefully," Cara added dryly.

Entry tags:

Trooper Station, Friday

You would think that, being clones, the Troopers would all have identical daemons.

You would be incorrect.

The Trooper Station today was a veritable menagerie of animals Watts had for the most part never heard of before. Well, except for the porg, that was. Who apparently belonged to Calvin? Or Calvin belonged to her? Possibly both?

Look, it was complicated, and even though Jax had tried to explain it, it was a concept Watts was still trying to wrap his head around.

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Needful Things; Friday

The sign was finally gone from the Needful Things window. Perhaps predictably, this was not because Harley had taken it down, but because it had fallen off on its own, and had now taken residence underneath a nearby antique arm chair.

Harley was busy making a new window display out of a bunch of antique candelabras.

After wards, she was looking her set up over with a critical eye, and considering whether she should get actual candles and light them all? Maybe people would be more into buying some fancy candle sticks if they saw them in action, yanno!

(open like a store!)

Entry tags:

survive the zombie apocalypse

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Thursday, Per 3

Liliana was thrilled to have gotten all the way to the third class of the term before being reminded why depending on the Danger Shop could be a very stupid idea.

She was just going to assume that it was making sure Erasmus didn't miss out on any opportunities to actually learn before Nikodemus got him the charm or whatever. That way she wouldn't scream. Probably.

When the class entered the Danger Shop, they would not discover the regular classroom setup. No, it looked like an old-fashioned movie theater, complete with people hawking popcorn and other refreshments. Liliana was trying to not audibly grind her teeth. "Regardless of what I try to do, the Danger Shop has other plans for us today," she announced. "So instead, we will be watching...whatever the Shop has decided it has in store for us."

And once the class had taken their seats and gotten their refreshments, she hit play to begin...the pilot episode of The Shambling Deceased. Because...sure. That might as well happen.

Entry tags:

baking

Great British Bake Off (But American), Thursday, September 18, 2025 [2nd period]

Steve and Tony had a slightly rickety gingerbread version of the Avengers Tower in front of them that they were clearly horribly proud of. "Welcome back, everyone!" Steve said with a bright smile. "Welcome to Bread Week."

"We hope you all had fun with your cookie buildings." Or broke them immediately. Which was possible. "We'll get to judging those while you all start on your first bread with sweet bread rolls of any type you'd like."

"Just make sure that they have enough filling," Steve added. Steve still had opinions about pains au chocolat without enough chocolate.

Tony nodded along with that. Chocolate was important. "Following that, we want you all to make us pita. And, for an additional challenge, a tzatziki and hummus."

"I love hummus," Steve said, nodding.

"And. For your homework... we want you to make a braided bread. But a lot of braids." Really sounding like an expert there, Tony.

"The most braids wins," Steve said, nodding.

Not normally how baking class went, but sure!

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The Devil's Nest, Thursday Evening

"No."

Tiny ignored Thor and kept writing on the specials board.

"Tis an abomination."

Still writing.

"Absolutely not."

Did Thor have any better ideas?

...he did not.

Special
Pumpkin Spiced Latte Brown Ale

The Devil's Nest is open. And seasonal.

Entry tags:

foodie

Food Adventures, Thursday, First Period

"Today we're gonna begin a little bit of a unit focusing on one city," Raiden told his students today. "I know, I know, there are so many great foods and food cities out there, but--well, seriously, we could've spent the whole semester eating our way through New Orleans. But today we're moving on from New Orleans, and we're going to spend some time exploring Rome.

( Italian food: more than pizza. )