fandomtownies | Entries tagged with graham cracker

Today, the Magpie Emporium's best customer was going to be the person who was working there. It was Graham's last day, and he was going to take advantage of it before he left to stock up on all sorts of things he'd been eying. He had a list. He was going to have to go back and get Triumph to help him carry all this stuff back with him. But he had a lot of great plans for his little knightly tabletop group, and some board games for when the guards had downtime (ha! Bored games!), some to bring home to his sisters that he thought they would like, too...

And it was a little sad having to think that his little return had come to its end so quickly again, but he was really, really excited about what lied ahead. Who knew? Maybe even King Edward would like a board game or two, or some shiny dice, or some cute little plushies. If they had a war board, he could populate his ranks with awesome minis!

Finishing one chapter was always a little sad, but the nice thing was that there was always another chapter following it, and who knew what one would find in those next pages?

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

With today being the last day of classes, Graham knew that it was almost time to head back to Daventry and focus on his knight work once again, and he'd been doing a pretty good job of not thinking about it too much, but when he came into the shop that Friday, it was really starting to catch up with him. Granted, he knew that, barring anything unexpected, he could always just pop back every once in a while to see his friends, or pick up new TTRPG stuff, or have Squishies or chat with the squirrels, but what if he ended up too busy? What if something did happen to the portals back and forth? What if....what if this was it?

It helped, knowing that both Amaya and Irene back home also had connections to here that in a way would help keep it alive, especially Irene, since she wasn't originally from their world at all. He was still going to miss everyone, though, and it was a lot harder than he wanted to admit or recognize.

So, instead, he just reminded himself that the last time he'd left, he thought it would be for good, but he'd still come back for one more huzzah, and so you know what? There would probably be a lot more ahead, too!

And with that in mind, he was additionally distracting himself by making himself a list of all the things he wanted to get from the store before heading back to Daventry, and, once that very, very, very long list was finished, going through it and trying to whittle it down to something a bit more reasonable, and a task that hefty was definitely going to eat up a lot of his time.

The Magpie Emporium is open!

noonedecidesmyfate

Belle and Graham had arranged a little ice cream date (meetup? get-together?) for this afternoon. It just seemed like a wonderful idea for the day but ice cream was nearly always a wonderful idea.

They hadn't noticed any influx of children on their way here but then the dorms were a generally quiet place and it was entirely possible they'd had other things on their minds.

Like ice cream. What else? Tsk.

Once they'd settled at a table, having ordered sundaes rather too large for either of their frames (but that had never stopped them before), Belle grinned across the table at her companion.

"I didn't know they had jellybeans as a topping." She'd chosen peanut butter and hot fudge and some of those tiny chocolate eggs on top of her own. "Perhaps they heard you were coming, Sir Knight."

Or maybe Easter was tomorrow. One of those.

[Adorable knight modded with permission, open ice cream shop is open for children and adults alike, etc]

x_wondrous_x

It was the first Thursday of the month, and once Stewart had gotten through all the usual business of keeping the shop running, an activity that he was actually finding the he somewhat enjoyed, he turned his attention to getting things set up for the monthly Open Mic night, and a part of him was wondering why he still even bothered with it. After all, it seemed like it was just the same three people who showed up every month, and while that was still three people, and there have been occasionally others coming to check it out or even perform, it all seemed a bit like he was trying to keep alive a dead horse through the power of his electro-dance remixes and Charlie's more folksy bent alone. Why did he bother? What was even the point?

But it was still something, right? And he did feel like he would regret it, if he'd called it off and stopped, and you never knew, and at least performing for a small (miniscule, microscopic) crowd was better than not performing at all...

So he was setting up the lights and testing the sound equipment and getting a nice loop of Armour Plastique playing in the background, something that still had a bop but was a little softer to reflect his more...erm, reflective mood, he guessed.

Groovy Tunes is open!

pun_king

While it seemed as though the leak he'd reported on radio was taken care of by the time he came in, Graham was still a knight, and that meant being prepared for just about anything!

In case anyone was wondering about the massive stack of buckets beside the counter, ready and raring to go at a moment's notice or even the slightest hint of a drop!

There was even one attached to Little Bot as he gambled around, a precaution that Graham was particularly proud of thinking of.

Saffron was far less impressed by the idea, and the attempts to get her in on yhis bucket action was why Graham needed a moment to tend to a few minor wounds and scratches.

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Naturally, when Graham got into the shop that day after radio and his classes, he was curious about what sort of beach-y board games there were. Apparently, there were more than a few! And so he was working on setting some up as a display at the front of the shop, with a sign that seemed to suggest that they'd be great for anyone not going in particular. They could just bring the beach to them! That wouldn't make them wistful about missing out on the trip at all, he was sure!

Graham himself was terribly distracted, too, by one game in particular that basically seemed like a treasure hunting and inventory organizing game, which spoke to him on a level deeper than he could fully understand.

The Magpie Emporium is open!

throughaphase

When Kitty got married, she'd said she was hyphenating her last name because aside from "Pryde" being a great name, "Kitty Barton" sounded like a madam at an Old West brothel.

Anyway.

WELCOME TO
THREE MINUTE DATES

A couple minutes before 8:00, Kitty interrupted the zombie-played version of "Pony" to take the stage. You're welcome.

"Hello and welcome to Three Minute Dates! Thank you all for coming, whether you're here by accident, here on very purpose, or dragged here by Tino. I know there are other things you could all be doing." Ahem. "Here are the rules: every three minutes you will get paired up on a date with someone. When the gong sounds, it's on to the next date. It's fifteen minutes of your life, and then afterwards if you want to hang out, make friends, have one of Tino's horrifyingly on theme drinks, feel free. I just ask that you please don't have sex in the bathrooms."

She could not stop you from having sex in the bathrooms.

"Have fun! But not too much. Till later. At home."

[The bar | Round One | Round Two | Round Three | Round Four | Round Five | OOC | Regular bar post]

pun_king

Graham's....we'll call it anxiousness...for the week was manifesting itself that day at the Empooooor~rium in the form of him rearranging and reorganizing a lot of things and also personally testing out the roll quality of so many sets of dice just so he would have something to sort of do with his hand and distract him, and then he decided that he would distract himself by rolling a variety of dice combinations and seeing how long it took him to get to certain numbers, especially when he started adding several dice into the mix.

....the two giant pink chocolatey mocha drinks he'd had before even coming in that morning probably weren't helping with that restlessness, either, but they sure were delicious! He regretted nothing! He might have to get another one on the way home again, for that matter! Surely nothing could go wrong with that!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

"Ooooooh," said Graham eagerly, with wide eyes and licking his lips slightly as he saw the latest display of dice that Steph had put up yesterday.

"Awwwww," he said, immediately after, seeing the sign telling him that, no, really, they were not for eating.

And so now he was going to spend all day forgetting that, getting excited, and then sulking when he remembered and then bolstered himself up to feel better and deciding to just bring some jellybeans next time to satiate that tiny little bites iced candy morsel appetite of his better than dice would, anyway.

The Magpie Emporium is open!

x_wondrous_x

It was the first Thursday of the month, which meant it was time for another Open Mic Night at Groovy Tunes, so Stewart had spent the majority of his day in the store getting prepared for it, which, this time around, included setting up a light display in the window around the sign in it advertising the event to flash in time with the beat of whatever was playing on the stereo at any given time.

It took him a few tries, and he somehow managed to shock himself more that once, but after a while, he almost found himself trying to figure out how not to avoid it, but rather to do it intentionally to purposely get that little burst of electric shock running through him again.

You know. Totally normal response to unexpected electrocution.

Groovy Tunes is open!

pun_king

You know what Graham's favorite thing about the new Braille dice was?

The fact that he didn't have any, so it was a good excuse to buy some because it wasn't like anyone could make the excuse that he didn't need them because he had plenty of dice already!

(Just kidding, he would never let something like that stop him from buying more dice ever).

And, of course, there was only one person he knew that would directly benefit from having a set of dice like this, so there he was, occasionally dreaming up a campaign that revolved almost entirely around food....and getting very hungry as a result.

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Of course Graham was picking up a bunch of different model paints from the store while he was working that day! And of course he was sorting through all the minis and trying to find the perfect ones to bring home to Daventry and his knight tabletop group so that he could work on painting them and bringing them back on his next visit to give to them during their next session!

Did....did that count as work, though? For the Empooooor~rium? He liked to think it did! Because that meant that he could demonstrate the product better to customers! Maybe they'd come in and see him hunched over his minis, tongue sticking out from his concentration on such little details, and they'd ask about it and learn so much more and buy a bunch of it for themselves!

There really didn't seem to be that much else going on, anyway, so he figured it would be alright.

The Magpie Emporium is open!

x_wondrous_x

Coming back to Fandom after going home to Letterkenny for the break had been incredibly difficult for Stewart, to the point where he almost didn't want to. To the point where he'd questioned why he'd even bothered. His time there hadn't been bad by any margin of the word, but it had been different and challenging in ways he wasn't used to and, most of all, lonely, something that always sort of lingered there under the skin but became this heavy, palpable thing when he realized how less lonely he was back home. Hanging out in the basement with Roald (and Connor and Darien). The Christmas party at the farm, where Wayne actually got him school supplies and Katy told him she was actually proud of him. Reconnecting with Aly-cat and Bianca-Donk for New Years in the city, and finding out that Gae, of all people, had actually been asking about him. It had been a good couple of weeks, and the only thing that prevented him from pulling out for good and staying was that inevitable look of disappointment on Katy's face if he did.

Unbelievable, what that face could do. Unprecedented. Unrelenting.

Besides, it was the first Thursday of the month. It was the first Thursday of the year. And Katy had thought it was cool that he was getting into his music again, and doing something that involved bringing people into it. So he was back, and he was here, and he went almost straight to the shop to get things set up for that evening, even though every fiber of him wished he was still back in Letterkenny.

But the show must go on. And if he was going to breech an attempt to reach out to Gae, it was not going to be from some darkened corner on a sagging couch in his mom's basement.

throughaphase

It was New Year's Eve, and Caritas was decked out for the holidays. The bar itself was decorated with silver fringe, there were gold, black and white balloons arranged in corners (so anyone trying to hide either couldn't, or they could really hide), silver and gold garland hung from the ceiling, and Tino had even dressed up. Meaning he was wearing a short sleeved t-shirt that looked like a tuxedo. It was the thought that counted.

The zombie band was playing the hits, the bass player dressed in a dashing red velvet jacket for some reason, and Kitty had had fun with the specials for the night.

SPECIALS
Dumpster Fire
Yule Mule
Baltimore Egg Nog
Whiskey Shamash
25th Hour
~~Fergeue~~ ~~Fruerzangble~~ ~~FuerahsksdahdsadhasjdhWTF~~ Flaming Sugarloaf Wine Thing

Kitty stared at Tino when she saw that last one added. "There's a USB-powered menorah because fire and drunk people is a bad combination and you decided to do this?"

Anyway. There was also a very easily accessible fire extinguisher on top of the bar if needed. Don't let it be needed.

pun_king

Graham had his shiny new Soda Expert pin proudly displayed on his cloak, and he was feeling very grateful for his employee discount as a small pile of gifts to take with him back to Daventry and Llewdor over the break was slowly getting bigger and bigger as he kept finding more great things to add for this person, or that person, or another person!

And they didn't even have Christmas in his world! But he knew at least Irene might appreciate the nod to a holiday from her world, even if he was pretty sure she and Amaya were spending theirs on Earth.

But he was most excited for the game he got for his sisters.

Yup. Totally for his sisters!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

If anyone ever told Graham that Friday the 13ths were supposed to be unlucky, he wouldn't believe them in the slightest, because he was having a great day. He had on the new Snuggie that the island had so graciously given him, with its pie and capybara print, he got to go to a jello museum, he had a pizza he'd ordered once he'd finished up with his usual daily tasks at the store, he had a party to go to later with a new shirt from his mother to wear, and he had a great idea for a one-shot with his knight friends back home for when he was there during the winter break that he was working on hashing out in his downtime.

That was pretty much all the opposite of unlucky!

And people coming in would only add to that fact!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

imafuturist

The ballroom was done up for the Yule in honor with a particularly unique chandelier at the ready to keep with the theme. There was a collection of trees for the guests to help decorate and a distressing number of mistletoe hung around with care. If you were prone to enjoying that.

The trees ranged from table-sized to ceiling-scraping and a few of them already had decorations on them: one filled with ornaments clearly made by children, one full of Avengers action figures (how were there so many suits, Tony? How?), and one decorated with the natural ornaments traditional for Yule: berries, pinecones, and dried fruit. Steve and Tony had overruled actual candles on any of the trees, but the traditional fire to celebrate the season was flickering from its containment area on the roof.

And it was snowing indoors just enough to be thematic, but melting before it could actually reach the guests and mess up their nice clothing. Because sometimes Tony just needed to flex on the science skills. Sometimes.

pun_king

Between his radio broadcast and coming into work, Graham had made some pretty good friends with those little horses prancing around and, after arriving and taking care of some of the important stuff of the day to ensure it got done, he grinned over at them and gave a nod. There was a little volley of neighing and prancing and then they all congregated up on the counter (with some help from Graham to pick them up and put them there), and he started setting things up so that they could pursue a little tabletop game of their own.

It was, admittedly, a little chaotic, especially with sort of a language barrier, but it was clear that everyone involved was having a great time. There was also some dramatic moments here and there, and, if anyone came in needing help in the shop, then the horses were actually really great about role-playing amongst themselves to further enrich their narrative!

Even a squirrel had joined in on the action, joining the party a little bit later in the game, but turning out to be a really crucial and excellent addition to the party!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Unable to determine what sounded better from his usual food inspiration from radio, Graham was really looking forward to the Pad Thai Burrito concoction he'd put together for his lunch that day! But, in the meantime, he was giving some serious consideration to some of the various card games they did have in the store, inspired by another part of the radio to try and think if there were any that Belle might like to learn about or play in particular.

He didn't know exactly why, but he kept finding himself weirdly drawn into toward one in particular.

Hmmm. Must be all the pretty colors and art and the sense of oddly familiar storytelling and adventure!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Even though Graham had lots of chocolate from his class earlier (not to mention a bunch of other things he'd brought with him to snack on), once he settled behind the counter at the Empoooooor~rium, he did so with a thoughtful frown of concentration and the occasional scratching of his head. He was trying to work out some of the details of the next session with his Daventry friends, and was honestly having a tough time figuring out what to do. He'd based the campaign all around working with a dragon, but now, it would seem, the tides were turning (mostly thanks to Whisper, who else?) against the dragon. And with his own dragon-related trauma and guilt, he really wanted to work a way to convince the party against going up a dragon that they were not even remotely leveled for.

"What if...." he murmured to himself as he jotted down ideas, "it turns out that there were actually ten dragons...."

He was liking this idea an awful lot, but it depended on the party being smart enough to not go up against ten dragons when one dragon was more than enough, but he did not trust his party to do that in the slightest...

"It could," he continued to reason to himself, "be a good learning opportunity, though. A teaching moment..."

He was definitely going to be working on this a lot today.

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Graham couldn't tell if they were there yesterday as well, or if it was just the island's particular current bout of whimsy answering the call of his desires, but when he came into work after classes that day, he found that there were plenty of dice-shaped pillows among all the pillow forts and comfy spots that had sprung up around the shop, and he was absolutely thrilled about it.

So guess who was rolling a big old pillow die to determine all of his action that day!

He made randomized lists of tasks to roll to see which one he did first. He rolled a die to determine whether he would reorganize some games based on color, alphabetically, or by size! He made Saffron roll a d20 to see if she could persuade him to give her a treat!

She rolled a 5, but that was okay.

"You've clearly got a plus Eight to persuasion based on your charisma alone, Saffron," Graham assured her as he pulled out the promised treat, "and the DC was 13! Meets it beats it!!"

Someone was clearly missing his tabletop sessions with his knight friends back home, maybe, just a bit...

The Magpie Emporium is open!

bigdamnprincipal

Hopefully, no one had partied themselves out completely yesterday, because it was time for Homecoming! The park had been decorated... well, it had started to be decorated in a comfortable fall theme because something had to be done with all the extra pumpkins people had, but then the pillow fort showed up, and there was lofi music coming from somewhere and, well, it wasn't a bad vibe, so here we were.

Enjoy your comfy carnival everyone!

pun_king

Even though there was always plenty to do during a school trip, Graham came in that Friday after his classes for his shift thinking about what games might be particularly good for traveling or while you're on a trip. After all, as much as there was to do, there was still always a little bit of downtime, as well, and sometimes some travel. Card games were a clear choice, but there were also some travel versions of classic games, and those sort of 'questions' games that were just excuses for being social.

And there were books, too! Filled with other sorts of puzzles and games and trivia, and so he was sort of putting those in focus today, while also complimenting Saffron on that new jack'o'lantern bed of hers that she was not using.

He was pretty sure he saw a squirrel sleeping in there earlier, which Saffron seemed to take offense to, but, hey, if you weren't using it, little lady...

The Magpie Emporium is open!

afraid_of_marshmallows

Yep, Arden was still out on the roof, bundled up on a nest (ha!) of pillows and blankets and cushions. It had been several days since the...everything...and she had to admit she wasn't doing much better. The healing Alastair had given her had done her a lot of good, but she wasn't getting better. She was still pale, still drawn, pretty much anything physical was a chore, even eating and drinking left her exhausted. She knew she was still running a fever, from the way she went from sweating to chills. And she was doing her best baby fawn impression every time she had to go downstairs to shower or change, legs trembling, balance shaky.

Arden hadn't really ever been sick before. Othersiders healed faster than humans both from injury and what few illnesses were transmissible. The first time she'd been punished with bronze, it had taken her awhile to heal from her physical wounds but, ugh, at least she hadn't had a fever. They were the worst. But she was hydrated thanks to the Khans buying a truly absurd amount of Gatorade and she even had a huge care package from Raiden made up of donuts and more cheese than she knew what to do with (yeah, that wasn't true, she was gonna use whatever she hadn't already eaten to make a mean macaroni and cheese when she was finally better, that's what she was gonna do), and she felt a little closer to huma--to normal for a bit.

So, despite the books and magazines and the presence of her laptop that Cal and Kamala had brought for her, Arden was feeling a little bored and a little antsy. Maybe some folks wouldn't mind coming to visit for a bit...?

Pulling out her phone, she started sending texts.

[Open! If you think you got a text (or maybe you heard through another source), you did!]

pun_king

Graham knew that Acorn and Whisper were going to visit him for Parents Weekend and he told them he was going to be at work, but that was fine! They could swing by and they could do a little bit of a one-shot while they were there! He was a little sad Kyle and Larry couldn't make it, so that their whole Knight DnD group could be together again, but it was fine! They would still have fun, and Kyle and Larry did have a little extra work on their plates with Graham back at school.

So when he came in after his class, pockets loaded with SPAM and tacos and Bloomin' Onions, he set about his usual tasks so that he could get them done nice and quick, so he could spend the rest of the time picking out shiny new dice for them for the occasion and considering some of the modules to potentially run that evening when they settled in to play. Did he want to do scary vampires? Something futuristic and tech-y that would really throw them through a loop? Good old fashioned dungeon crawl??

It was so hard to decide! He might just end up smushing a bunch of ideas together and creating his own mega-home-brew one shot.

Somehow, though, he was feeling like it needed to involve throwing chickens, for some reason...

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Naturally, after his class, Graham had to swing by the Perk to satisfy that craving for a latte that he'd had since radio, and, having heard the radio, too, the baristas, offended that they would even suggest such a (completely true, not the point) thing as them giving him decaf without his knowledge, doubled up on the espresso.

Which meant that Graham began the day with about a million unfinished projects around the store, from cleaning and organizing, to checking out a few new games, getting distracted with shiny new dice, realizing he should really buckle down on his notes for his next session back home with the Knight Crew, oh Saffron! He should play with Saffron! Didn't Saffron want to play? No? Wait, what was in the cabinet? What was under these shelves? He should really color-coordinate all the dice. No! He should color-coordinate all the games! He should alphabetize all the books, not by title or author but by theme! Where did he put his cheese? Oh, no, he should definitely find that cheese...

...and then, by the second part of his shift, he was crashing. He was crashing so, so hard, he was practically trying to fuse himself into the counter as he slumped over it and wondered if he could get away with a nice nap....

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Graham did not forget about his class this time today, and so it was a bit later and not directly after radio that he was coming into the shop that day. And you'd better believe that, after radio, he was coming in with plenty of cheese!

And Coca-Cola!

Careful not to get any cheese from his fingertips onto any of the merchandice, he then thought to look around and try to find some cheese related games to feature that day, as well as wishing he'd brought more crackers with him, too, so that he could make a cheese chessboard!

At some point, he just sighed happily as he admired the piece of cheese he was about to pop into his mouth.

"Oh, cheese," he said, "why are you so wonderful?"

The Magpie Emporium is open!

throughaphase

Caritas sort of looked like a Party City threw up, because Tino had offered to do the decorating. Of course there were balloons, streamers, glitter though it was hard to tell where it was supposed to have come from, confetti on the tables, and a butcher block banner up over the stage with "THREE MINUTE DATES" written in what was maybe paint? It sort of looked like puff paint but that had to be way too much work, right? Right?

A couple minutes before 8:00, Kitty took the stage with the zombies playing her on, and she shushed them to stop. "Hello and welcome to another Three Minute Dates!" she greeted them. "You know how this goes, unless you don't. Your names will be called into pairings every three minutes. You get together, you talk, the buzzer sounds, you go to your next table. If three minutes isn't enough time, maybe hang around a little, scope them out at the bar. And if you hate it, you just have to last five sets of three minutes, I believe in you."

She wasn't sorry if Tino signed any of you up. She was sorry for the letter banner he'd strung up over the bar reading "Have Good Banging," which was terrible English and odds were excellent that it did not stay up all night.

[OCD ~~coming!~~ is up, AHEM
Before the dates | Round One | Round Two | Round Three | Round Four | Round Five | OOC
After the dates bar

pun_king

Sure, sure, sure. Graham was officially a Knight of Daventry and didn't really need a job while he was here on the island to finish up his schooling, but when your name on the island was at the one, the only Maaaaaaaagpie Empoooooor~rium, why wouldn't you want to return to the old stomping grounds? He was thrilled and excited to be back, and he could tell that Saffron and Little Bot totally were, too!

First things first, though, his burger breakfast that he'd picked up after he'd finished doing radio, sighing contentedly at the counter as he looked around fondly at how it felt nice to just be back, and then, once that was finished and he was sure there was no lingering burger grease on his fingers, he was going to spend most of the time pursuing the shelves for new and interesting things to get excited about, which meant that his day was likely to fly right by, but that was okay! Because he'd be back again to do more of the same again next week, too!

A little bit into his shift, though, right around the beginning of second period, his phone pinged at him, and he took a moment to dig it out of his pockets and then his eyes widened.

"Ah, zards! I forgot about my class today!!"

Frowning slightly, Graham considered what to do, looked around the shop, and then sighed as he tucked his phone back into one of his pockets.

"Next week," he vowed to himself. "I'll remember to start here later next week."

Boy, he sure hoped he wasn't missing anything too good for that class! It was probably just introductions, it would be fine!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

special_rabbit

Well. This was it, Amaya supposed. A few weeks ago, Graham had stopped into the shop on some official business from King Edward himself, and, even though someone didn't get around to actually writing out that that business was, it had been an offer that Amaya couldn't refuse.

Well, she could refuse it, actually, but she didn't necessarily want to. Apparently, Edward was so desperate to have her back behind the forge in Daventry that he not only wanted to offer he an official title as Royal Blacksmith, but that he was willing to pay an awful lot of shiny gold coins to for the privilege. An awful lot. And she would have thought the old codger was full of it if it weren't for the fact that he finally paid her back (and then some!) for her work during the last Tournament of Knights.

And there were few things Amaya loved as much as she loved the call of shiny gold coins.

But there was someone she was pretty sure she loved more than the call of shiny gold coins, and she wasn't well too happy about being put in the position of having to actually acknowledge that fact.

Which lead her to do something truly wild and absurd and ridiculous.

She actually talked to Irene about it. And wouldn't you know it? Painful as it was to actually get some of it out, it had actually been....a good thing? Because if they hadn't...taaalked about it, then Amaya might have never known that, apparently, Irene was actually two steps toward packing up all that fancy luggage of hers to go with her when Amaya admitted that she was tempted to take the offer.

Fast forward, then, past all that stuff, to today, as Amaya stood at one of her worktables, surrounded by boxes slowly being filled up with things, and taking a look at this forge that she'd built with her own two hands, with its two anvils and the greenhouse upstairs, and the...what was it? Six? Seven years? of memories tempered into every nook and cranny.

Now, Amaya wasn't really a nostalgic pers--

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa--!"

**CRASH!**

Amaya closed her eyes for a moment, pressing a hand to the bridge of her nose, as the groans from Graham emerged from beneath the giant shuriken he'd just tried to pry off the wall in his effort to help her with her packing.

"S-sorry!" he said, and a thumbs-up emerged from underneath the massive throwing star. "I'm okay! But zounds, this thing is way heavier than it looks!"

There were a few more struggling grunts, and Amaya reluctantly went over to lift the weapon off of the poor nearly-crushed knight and held out a hand to help him back up to his feet.

"How about you let me handle the rest of the weapons wall, eh, Sir Knight?" she offered. "And you go upstairs and babysit the lobsters for a bit, make sure they stay out of trouble, got it?"

"Right away!" Graham stood up straight as can be, darting a bladed hand to his forehead and releasing it in a salute, before grinning dopily at Amaya as he added, conspiratorially, complete with waggling eyebrows, "O Royal Blacksmith."

She gave him a withering look. "Can it, kid," she said, hitching her thumb toward the stairs, "and get your skinny butt up there before I send it back to King Edward in a box just like the rest of this stuff!"

She didn't need to tell him twice, and he hurried up the stairs to the apartment, leaving Amaya alone again, leaning the shuriken against the wall and half-wondering if she should leave that behind as well, just like the anvils.

The Forge is...no longer open.

[[ but the post sure is! More than likely my last post for Amaya on the island now that I finally have the time and energy to send her off properly, but she'll still be around and supporting Graham in all his questing endeavors, just from Daventry now! ]]

slothbabyproductions

The sun had just dipped below the horizon, casting a warm glow across the beach as the first notes of music from Arden’s playlist filled the air. The waves gently lapped at the shore, creating a soothing backdrop to the area. Tiki torches and string lights were set up around the party area, their flickering and colorful light adding to the atmosphere.

The aroma of North Carolina barbecue filled the air, with a long table set up with all the fixings—pulled pork, coleslaw, hush puppies, and more. For those with different tastes, vegetarian and vegan dishes were also thoughtfully provided. Sweet tea was the main beverage, but for those craving something colder, Squishies were lined up next to the drinks cooler. The centerpiece of it all was a giant cupcake that Graham had brought all the way from Daventry for the occasion.

Games were scattered around the beach: volleyball nets, cornhole, frisbees, and even a few board games for those who preferred to sit back and relax. A bonfire crackled nearby, with cozy spots to sit and chat, perfect for those who wanted to enjoy the evening at a slower pace.

It was set up for a perfect evening, filled with good food, great company, and the kind of fun that comes from being surrounded by people. Yes, it was another surprise party, the kind that shouldn’t be a surprise anymore, really. But that’s the point of parties—to celebrate the people you care about. And tonight, it was all about Arden.

[Open to all and any part goers]

afraid_of_marshmallows

Friday had been Graham's birthday! Which meant that they needed to celebrate with sushi from the Sushi Station. Sushi for Graham's birthday had been a standing tradition for almost twenty years now, whether they were in the same place or not. Though since they all were this year, the only possible thing to do was call Sushi Station, put in a reservation that would fit all of them, and then send out a message on the old group chat:

Don't ig-nori this message, because it's tamago out for Graham's birthday! So let's roll on down to the Sushi Station to show him how matcha you care! No gifts necessary, just bring your raw enthusiasm and join us for dinner fit for roe-lty and we'll shoyu a good time.

Also, Graham, this message is your birthday present for the NEXT twenty years.

Hopefully that would be enough to bring people out, because Arden had not pummeled her brain for a good half hour coming up with stupid sushi puns for people to skip out on this, dammit!

[And in true Fandom fashion, anyone with a connection to Graham, Arden, or anybody else present is more than welcome!]

drumsticksandd20s

Look, of course there were dice (bouncy and click-clack-y!) and dice trays in various Pride flag palettes in the store, and of course the display minis were already arranged in a tiny parade formation. Of course there was a huge flag on display in the front window, and freshly made posters advertising the upcoming Fandom Pride weekend. But Steph had also put up all the posters and parade signs she'd ever collected from Portland and Seattle Pride and an informational display, plus a big plaque of a QR code that linked to a useful page of queer history resources.

(Yes, at the bottom of the plaque it said "scan the QueeR code to learn more!" Of course it did.)

And there was, like she'd always had by the Record Traders register back in Haven Springs, a dish full of buttons labeled Take One! A good chunk of them were geek themed, naturally; others were just simple flag stripes, or had pithy and sometimes cheesy quotes. A number were handmade, even, with slogans scrawled in black Sharpie, and those were... a little on the in-your-face side. Most of those had been in Steph's collection for years, made by Chloe in their Arcadia Bay days, and people tended to be a little uncertain about taking those.

If some of them looked like they'd been painted by gremlins that was because there were several gremlins seated next to a box of blank buttons in the mini-painting area, carefully maneuvering a paintbrush as a group. Hey, if they wanted to contribute what was Steph going to do, stop them?

Nah. She was trying to come up with a t-shirt design for the festival, and 'gremlin-bitten' really wasn't the style she was going for.

[OOC: Open!]

afraid_of_marshmallows

With Graham heading out to Daventry in a few days for the Knight Trials (and, if he won, staying there), they were running out of time to give him a proper sendoff. And so Arden had pulled a couple of late nights pulling a quick beach party together. There were tiki torches all around and a volleyball net, some hula hoops, some inflatable rafts and floats, a couple of beach balls...basically, she'd raided T&C's summer aisle for as much as she could scavenge and dragged it all back here and set it up around a bunch of blankets, beach towels, lounge chairs, and big umbrellas for folks who needed to hide from the sun. There were also plastic sand buckets full of sunscreen at various levels of SPF because she didn't want anyone getting sun poisoning at Graham's goodbye party. Seemed like a bad omen.

The most prominent aspect of the party was a hand-painted paper banner that said GOOD LUCK GRAHAM!! Arden was going to try to get everybody to sign it before Graham showed up, so he'd have a banner full of well-wishes from all his friends at Fandom. There were pens, markers, colored pencils, and even paints for people to use.

Okay, so decorations, food, activities, music, drinks, various kinds of sun protections...was she forgetting something? Arden had never once in her life thrown a party before, so she was probably forgetting something... Oh well, too late now. Hopefully if it was anything major, she could run into town and grab it. Or maybe ask someone else to. Were you allowed to ask people to help you with things if you were hosting?

Somebody needed to teach a class on how to throw a party. That was her takeaway from this endeavor.

But okay. This party was as ready as it was gonna be. Now just to wait until people arrived. Which they would. Right? Right.

[Open! Whether you got an invite directly, heard about it on the wind, or just decided to randomly take a stroll on the beach, please feel free to tag in! And, magically, it ends with plenty of time before graduation by the power of sparkles]

pun_king

There was a good chance that this would be the last shift Graham would work at the Maaaaaaagpie Empoooor~rium, and so today was a little bittersweet for him. He definitely wanted to make sure he picked out one last set of dice to take with him, looking for something really shiny and knight-like, and then just spent a lot of time sighing wistfully at everything, and also wondering if knights played a lot of board games or TTRPGs. Maybe, if he did get a spot on the court, he could start up a game, just like he had with some of his fellow students here? That would be a lot of fun, and could also promote creative thinking and good practices for when they went on actual adventures!

Grinning faintly to himself with a proud, convinced nod, he was just going to have to make sure he picked up everything he needed to do just that, just in case, although he liked to think that he'd still be able to make it back to Fandom every once in a while to visit and check in....and probably get even more dice.

He thought he'd mostly be feeling nervous and anxious about the tournament next week, as they started getting close to it, but now, he was sort of just feeling a little melancholy about leaving this place behind....

The Magpie Emporium is open!

afraid_of_marshmallows

It was weird, but out of nowhere, Arden had gotten this abrupt craving for ice cream, one so strong that there was nothing for it but to head over to Chilly Boulder immediately. Maybe it was because she'd been reading outside on her balcony and even with her innate climate control, eighty degrees was still pretty sweltering. On top of ice cream, it turned out she also was really jonesing for interaction, so on her way to Chilly Boulder, she sent out a text to the usual suspects - everyone she went to school with, everyone who lived in Midnight, maybe three or four others, including a few numbers she didn't even recognize, but hey! Who didn't want ice cream on a hot day?

Hey, heading to Chilly Boulder, people should join me!

Hopefully that would get a couple of people's interest, too!

[open! If you're part of the above groups, you got a text. If you're someone Arden chats with regularly, you got a text. If neither of those apply to you, your number is clearly one of the random ones in her phone. Or maybe you just also wanted Chilly Boulder! ANYWAY IT'S OPEN TO EVERYONE IS WHAT I'M SAYING.]

pun_king

There was a big sigh of relief as Graham, even with a bag full of eggy breakfast sandwiches and hashbrowns to look forward to, came into the shop and immediately went to check on the snacks supplies to see that, while they were no doubt to the levels of glory that they'd have likely been at the beginning of Steph putting them away yesterday, the supply was still plenty bountiful.

Probably not by the end of the day, but it was prom tonight, and Graham wanted to be comfortable in his fancy britches, so he was going to try and be moderately responsible about his snacking today.

Moderately.

And he was going to research more war games and think about his Tactics final and muse about making time to get ready for tonight and wishing he'd thought to bring his project with him to add just a few more finishing touches...

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Graham had swung by the bakery as usual after his radio broadcast with his mind firmly intent on some French toast (and an urge to eat it while in his pajamas, but anyway...), but the fine people at J,GoB had actually done him one better and hooked him up with...

....wait for it....

FRENCH TOAST DONUTS!!

Oh, could there have been a better morning surprise than that? Graham was absolutely delighted and he hurried into work so that he could get set up, take care of his usual opening tasks, and then settle in at the counter with his well-anticipated breakfast!

Of course, a French toast donut, apparently, was just about as messy and sticky as it was delicious, and so Graham was finding himself in a horrible spot of having terribly syrupy fingers for a good portion of the morning.

Good thing the Ask the Roomba sign was still up! He might have to field a few touchy tasks to the Little Bot while he tried to find some more napkins....

The Magpie Emporium is open!

afraid_of_marshmallows

Two days after the eclipse and Arden was back on the roof, enjoying the height and the sunshine. It had gotten warm enough that she was back in her preferred outfit of tank top and shorts, and the decision to splurge on some sushi takeout had resulted in her being given far more than she could eat by herself and a cooler to carry it home in???

(One of the sushi folks had confessed that they made more on purpose, because they got to eat anything extra at the end of the day, and the manager had overheard and made them give Arden the extras, too, and the cooler to boot, which had started an argument, which had then turned into a whole thing about their secret relationship and Arden had fled because wow, overshare much, y'all?)

So now she was chilling on the roof with all the sushi she could possibly want and then some. Clearly the only thing to do was to send out a selfie surrounded by her sushi spread and a text that said, Sushi party on the roof? (Non-sushi options available!) Free for all! to her friends and neighbors.

And if it ended up getting sent to a few other folks as well, that just happened on Fandom sometimes!

[Open for residents and visitors! I'm trying to get this girl out more and making friends, so please feel free to mod getting a text from her whether it makes sense or not, because people, yay!]

single_man_tear

Dean returned to Fandom with a ton of food in his car. While on his trip he had located a small BBQ joint just over the border in North Carolina which had great reviews. They were more than happy to take Dean's money and prep everything for travel along with very detailed instructions on how to reheat or prepare all of the food provided.

So right now the dining room table was covered in good southern food, specifically East Carolina style pulled pork, ribs with a vinegar sauce and pulled chicken. A long with vegan friendly collard greens, black eyed peas, steamed cabbage, sweet potatoes and cole slaw. There was bread if you wanted to make a sandwich and for dessert there was sweet potato pie and banana pudding. For beverages there was a cooler of beer as well as a few gallons of sweet tea.

Arden, who had also been busy, prepared a BBQ version of jackfruit that Dean reluctantly allowed on the table.

Dean had also encouraged everyone to invite friends and sent out a few texts to people he knew on the island in case they might be interested.

[For the housemates or anyone who thought they got an invite. Arden and jackfruit modded with permission]

wildgalegirl

Charlie had had a wonderful week. However, spending your nights doing more interesting things than sleeping took a toll on a girl, so she was here for an extra large decadent coffee. Caffeine was an absolute necessity and while she was at it, a couple of decadent pastries sounded awfully good. She'd certainly burned enough calories to earn them. If she'd worried about such things.

Once she had her treats she settled down at a table by the window to do some people watching.

pun_king

Graham had decided to actually get both a milkshake and some cheesecake for his post-radio, get-settled-in-at-work breakfast, and he probably would have loved to have said the extra indulgence was because all that...reading yesterday had really worked up his appetite, but, let's be real, this was actually pretty lowkey for one of his post-radio breakfasts.

There was just a significantly lower amount of lunch notes this week, and so therefor fewer things to inspire him!

Well, to inspire him when it came to food, anyway.

But hopefully, it would be a fairly slow day, work wise, because Graham was definitely getting distracted and drifting off into his head a lot today, and even the one main work thing he seemed to have to keep doing, which was very pointedly tapping the sign Steph had put up on the Code of Conduct while clearing his throat a lot, just made those thoughts drift into whether or not there'd be someone to pointedly tap the sign for him.

Not, of course, that he would ever! Very unbecoming a Knight Hopeful!

But, you know, there was nothing wrong in just thinking about it, right?

The Magpie Emporium is open!

afraid_of_marshmallows

Well, apparently Graham had gotten some kind of great news, news so good that it somehow even trumped the 'I successfully stood up for myself to a flamingo today' merit badge she'd earned. (Yes, she was aware that that wasn't actually the flex she was trying to make it into. But also, she was getting bullied by birds, just let her have this, okay?) Which meant the only possible thing to do was to celebrate with ice cream!

Even in this sudden cold snap, yes. Look, there were some things too important to let crappy weather interfere with, okay?

She was also gonna send off a quick Hanging out at CB with Graham! text to the group chat, so more people might decide to come join them and also get to hear Graham's good news.

[If you think you got a text, you totally did, and if you wanted a reason to join into the post, you also got a text! Fandom phones are fun!]

pun_king

Graham hadn't realized it until he was standing in line at J,GoB after his radio broadcast, but there was a sudden realization that the almost entire lack of any particular foods being mentioned in the notes meant that he was at an utter loss for what to get for his breakfast! Usually, the inspirations were strong and evident and clear and it was sort of a moment of clarity for him to realize how much his choices had been influenced by the actions of others.

So when it did come to his turn to order, he drew an absolute blank, flailed for a little bit, and just asked them to put together a collection of random things to surprise him with. At the time of it happening, he felt a bit like an indecisive failure, wearing the weight of that on his shoulders as he went to go get the shop ready for the day, but once he finally settled with his mystery box of pastries and treats...

....he realized that the request had actually been brilliant, because sitting in front of him was a veritable journey of exploration and discovery and surprise! He was so excited about that prospect now that he didn't even want to look at them all when he picked one out. He placed one hand over his eyes as the other opened the box, and then dove in, feeling around until he pulled something out and took a bite without even moving his hand over his eyes.

"Oooooooh!" he said, opening his eyes and looking at the pastry with delight. "Chocolate croissant!"

He gobbled that up quickly, so that he could dive his hand into the box again to see what was next.

"Chocolate croissant again!"

By the fourth chocolate croissant, though, he started to get a little suspicious, and went ahead and looked in the box to discovered they were all actually chocolate croissants, and while he didn't blame the staff for just getting a bunch of the same thing, he was back to disappointment all over again.

Briefly. After all, he still had a box of chocolate croissants!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

It was very clear that Graham was making up for lost pie-me in missing Pi Day by having a plethora of pies spread out before him at the counter of the shop today, and as he nibbled, he was looking into a pie-theme game that looked like it had potential.

While being very careful not to get any crumbs in the box, of course!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Graham was not late for work today! How dare y--

--yeah, okay, no, Graham was running just a little, tiny, miniscule bit late for work that day, but he had a good reason! When he went to pick up breakfast on his way between the station and the shop after his broadcast, there were free samples. And they let him try all of them, you guys! Anyone could have lost track of time with that in front of them, surely!

A few of those samples even managed to fall into his cloak pockets, too! Imagine that! So now he had something to snack on, too, as he went about the shop to work extra hard to make up for how not late he was!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Of course Graham Cracker brought Cracker Graham with him to work that day! With the little dressed up graham cracker cradled in his hands, he gave his new bestie a tour of the entire store, introduced him to Saffron and Little Bot, had a near heart-attack in thinking that Saffron might actually try to eat Cracker Graham, or at least tear him apart because he was not very well constructed, but then set him up, hopefully safely, at the top of a dice tower on the counter before getting to work in earnest.

Which, to be fair, there wasn't a whole lot of work to do. He even came in expecting the bouncing dice to still be riled up from yesterday, but actually, they were no where to be found...

...which felt...ominous, and so he was ready, cautiously going around every turn and every shelf with the wariness of knowing they could strike at any moment!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Inspired by both his class yesterday and him mentioning how people should totally come in and buy more dice today, Graham's attention was definitely on looking through to see which new sets he hadn't noticed yet and considering which he would get if he did get a new one and trying to think of which ones he might suggest to people, or even just buy for some of his friends himself, and, man, what was it about these little guys that made them so darn irresistible??

But just as long as he didn't get any of the boxes of dice (especially certain ones) with the box of chocolate-covered cherries he'd picked up on the way in, though, he should be all set!

No one ever introduce him to candy dice. It would not end well.

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Naturally, Graham had gone and stopped by the bakery on his way into work after doing his broadcast (pizzabread, he decided, would be saved for lunch), and he'd picked up some donuts and some pie and a few cookies and was currently making sure Little Bot had plenty to do with cleaning up the crumbs as he tried to think of the best way to make a sort of sandwich out of it all.

"I should've gotten some fruit or jam," he decided, after trying a bite or two thoughtfully, and reporting to Saffron, who was clearly very interested and not at all ignoring Graham in favor of grooming her coat. "It's a little dry, without condiments...."

But he was fine with having to workshop it, because that just meant more delicious sandwich attempts in the meanime!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

pun_king

Clearly inspired by yesterday, Graham had been struck with inspiration after leaving the radio station to head over to work, and not in the usual way, which was that things said in the notes had made him hungry so he needed to pick up a few things for breakfast one the way. He still did need to pick up something (he would not be able to stop thinking about burgers until he got some!), but, once he got to the store and got things situated for the day, he pulled out a notebook and a quill and laid it out on the counter so that he could get to writing.

Because how cool would it be to have a campaign where all the characters were actually horses? And maybe they had to learn some sort of important lesson about....well, friendship, of course! And possibly magic! Definitely magic! And he knew that he probably couldn't squeeze in a campaign with the Tournament of Knights looming so closely on the horizon, but perhaps he could still, at the very least, use the idea for his writing class? Epic equestrian exploits, as only Dayve R. R. Abraham could bring to the table!

This was gonna be great!

The Magpie Emporium is open!

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