fandomtownies | Entries tagged with nina

So.

Like. It had been awhile but Nina didn't feel particularly sorry for that in any sense as she surfaced in her shop, eyed the dust, and then got to cleaning because, like, if nothing else, cleaning was something that needed to be done and...

Well, she had a lot of research to reflect on. And probably more books to special order in to further it because she had ideas but she hadn't yet decided if she was running down the entirely wrong path or if she was On To Something.

(And even if she wasn't, like, she had picked up a lot and also no research was ever truly wasted...)

Once she was done cleaning, and checking her socials (which honestly took longer than the cleaning), both of which were as she expected, Nina contemplated her work and her class options for the semester. Like, sure, she'd taken Ethics before but she was getting awfully close to that ugly, ugly word (graduation, for the record) and it was a chance to hang around Bus Dean...

Hmmmm... decisions, decisions....

The Bookbelt is Open!

[And OCD free!]

firstofitskind

People were disappearing. Which wasn't entirely unheard of, here in Fandom. Buildings disappearing kind of was, though; sure, there had been instances of buildings being destroyed or changed into something else but outright disappearing? That was a new one, at least to Liam.

So he'd shown up today with the intent of going through previous incidents and looking for anything similar.

(Privately, he doubted he'd find it. Repeat incidents seemed to be few and far between. But you never knew.)

Anyway, yes. He was here, if focused.

bookbeltof_love

You know who stress-cleaned? Nina. Though, really, even after a night of flinging herself into work it was still closer to angry cleaning than stress but, like, even that was preferable to dealing with how incredibly, breathtakingly hurt she was about—

Nina shook that thought away, scrubbing furiously at a desk chair that really didn’t need to be deep-cleaned the way she was treating it but that was fine, that was perfect, it was her shop so she made the rules and they couldn’t just, like, change on her without warning and--

She’d have to make her excuses to Professor Skywalker next week but, like, she wasn’t attending her class today because she didn’t want to deal with a teacher right about now in any capacity.

Besides, she was still grimly, stubbornly, going through everyone she knew and re-categorizing them based on if it would be appropriate or not to keep talking to them as if they were her friends.

Because apparently she had a lot less than she’d thought she’d had if it was so inappropriate for her to expect teachers to treat her like she was a friend.

The chair leg creaked alarmingly and Nina let it go before she broke it.

She knew she was being overdramatic. She knew she was probably over-exaggerating how world-endingly terrible this was.

But being angry was better than dealing with the hot, ugly tears that she kept having to fight off, especially now that she was over-tired from not sleeping on top of—everything else.

The Bookbelt is Closed.

[The store is closed, door is locked, but Nina will open the door if it’s knocked on and the post is totally open for calls or texts.]

somethingwithturquoise

You know, even with everything she had going on right now, it was kind of hard to have something like someone blowing up at you in two-point-five-seconds and storming off telling her to go fuck herself not get under Summer's skin and start taking precidence over everything. Because as brief as the encounter had been, there was...a loooooot to unpack there, and she'd witnessed Nina blow up and react to a lot of things in a variety of different ways to know how...sensitive she could be sometimes, and how maybe neither of them really approached the situation in the best way they could have.

But Summer was the adult in the room, so she gave it a lot of thought and decided she should probably do something about it, sent out a text to Nina:

Hey, I think we should talk. Meet me at Chilly Boulder later? My treat, of course

Because if there was one tried and true method of dealing with issues, at least in Summer's experience, it was to do so over ice cream. Because, that way, no matter what happened or how bad it might get, you at least still had ice cream.

So Summer sent the text, and eventually made her way over to Chilly Boulder, where she sort of perused the options idly while waiting to see if Nina showed up, and, if she didn't, well. At least she still had ice cream.

(So much for her pre-party diet!)

[[ clearly, Summer's expecting someone, but it's definitely open for all your ice cream and/or Summer needs! ]]

somethingwithturquoise

Summer miiiiight be getting a little antsy about all her birthday stuff this weekend, which was not great because it was only Wednesday, and all of her distracting stuff was mostly out of the way, but she told herself that that just meant she'd have to take advantage of just taking it easy these next two days and enjoy it while she could, because once Saturday hit, she planned on hitting it hard.

(So much for being scared straight, huh?)

Either way, in whatever downtime she had at the bar that night, she was mostly on her phone, making some adjustments and finalizing a few things and maybe going down a few other rabbit holes of ideas, and then staunchly trying to ignore the string of texts from Tricia Lange asking if her boss was going to be there again this year.

God, Tricia, what the hell??

Wednesday Jello Shot Specials!

First one free to all Wednesday activity participants!

Birthday Cake
Blow Pops Martini
Fishbowl

Caritas is open!

kawaii_complex

This had been going amazingly well and smoothly at the shelter that day. She'd had a small lesson with the vet in taking care of a bird who'd injured his wing, there were some supplies to put away, and just some general administrative tasks that she took up because everything was fairly calm and quiet. It was just when she was finished gushing over a file on a new puppy they'd gotten in that she heard it, a break in the relative peacefulness, the sound of two cats growling and hissing at each other somewhere nearby, amping up to a fight.

Sakaki spurned into action, rushing forward to locate the fray-in-action, and called out, "No! Stop! You don't have to do this!"

She rushed forward, eager to halt the cats, their backs arched, their fur standing on end, their fangs bared maliciously toward each other...

...

The good news was, Sakaki had successfully managed to prevent the cats from fighting each other.

The bad (and honestly rather predictable news) was that this was because they'd found a new target instead, and it actually took a surprising amount of time to finally get the cats that had glomped onto her pleading hands to finally let go.

Furnado is open! (And very, very canon).

bookbeltof_love

Nina had, like, no idea how many people would bother to show or whatever, given that she really hadn't planned ahead or anything but it would be on radio and she'd have Dad and her brother at least (and likely Iggy and possibly some Troopers, too, if Dad actually did make them come work) and that was pretty great too.

So, like, bright and early and all the way into about mid-afternoon, there was going to be a lot of bustling (even if a lot of that bustling was magic-fueled, by her, cheating outrageously) to kind of, like, get in an extra session of castle building before Monday, which was technically the due date for their castle and she'd…

Kind of been busy this semester? So it had fallen by the wayside which was, like, tragic and she kind of hated that she'd been so unreliable but ~~real life was rude~~ when she was spying in a different universe it was kind of hard to build a castle in this one. Even for her.

Nina had her tents set up, with snacks and drinks (including Ebony, specially there for Ignis) and she had spent some time even earlier in the morning inspecting what they'd need to do and setting it up. The walls and roof were completed—thank goodness—but they still needed to get the windows in and lay down the floors and install the doors and…

Well, like, there was a lot to do!

Nina sent a text out for people to come build a castle if they so wished to spend a few hours of their Saturday doing something literally constructive and then, after finishing a cup of tea, she bounced to her feet and got to work on one of the windows.

[As per the post this is an informal castle-building session that's open to everyone on the island should they wish to have gotten the text/stumble upon it.]

firstofitskind

So last week had sure been... last week. And then there was the weekend, with its glimpse into possible futures (some more likely than others).

And then there was this week! Which was totally fine and not at all annoying or frustrating. Which was why Liam was totally not taking out any pent up frustration on the Troopers today. They were all just scrubbing down the Station because everyone liked a clean workplace, right?

[ooc: late, but open. boy has today been a day.]

hashtag_chocobro

Prompto knew that picking an ice cream place on a weekend like this wasn't going to be the most private spot for a conversation, but he also knew that this conversation? Was definitely going to necessitate some freaking ice cream. If anything, he figured anyone treating their kids to a nice treat that afternoon (or any kids treating themselves, let's be real here) would be too preoccupied with their own shit to really notice to two adults....well, mostly adults...having a presumably boring conversation in the corner.

So he shot Nina a text to let her know to meet him there that pretty much just said they needed to talk with a sad face emoji to accompany it, then he stood there awkwardly trying to focus on the menu and decide what he wanted to get while he waited, unable to stand stand still while rehearsing his side of the conversation over and over again, despite knowing that once they actually sat down and talked, it would probably come out entirely different.

[[ sure, he's expecting a certain sister, but it's an ice cream shop during kidlet weekend! It's definitely open! ]]

firstofitskind

Some things were almost as inevitable as possible future children showing up the day after Prom, and that was a cryptid-related emergency at the least possibly convenient time.

Thankfully, the situation in Baltimore only required the presence of one Kincaid-Price. Which was good because they didn't know if the kids would even be able to leave the island with all the time-and-dimensional-weirdness involved in bringing them here in the first place. And while time-sensitive, it wasn't time intensive, and they'd wrap up in time for dinner.

Liam was making the most of it, which is why he was at the Perk with the trio, orderng frappuchinos. Nothing with actual coffee in it, just the kind with flavour syrups and plenty of sugar. Was that actually any better? Who knew.

[ooc: opennnnnn.]

bookbeltof_love

It really hadn't been her idea to just fall mostly off the face of the planet. (Multi-verse?)

Like, upon consideration, Nina was sort of surprised it hadn't happened more often, and she didn't mind, but she was also pretty sure that she was due to be scolded by… several people? Probably several people.

Unless, like, they'd forgotten all about her. That was also an option.

(She was hoping it wasn't really an option but, like, she had to leave it open, if only so that she was prepared in case it was…)

Gods, but she was tired. Tired enough that, even though she was wearing clothes that Aine would wear, instead of what Nina would wear, she detoured to the Perk. She was in a weird in-between state anyway.

It wasn't like anyone here would care if Nina was wearing clothes she wouldn't usually.

Not that there was anything scandalous about her forest green skinny jeans, yellow tank top, black jean jacket, and the boots Dad had gotten her for Christmas. Even her hair, currently a pale, washed out brown and then stuffed into a wildly curled ponytail, wasn't exactly outrageous.

But it wasn't Nina.

And it was. Just not here.

Nina wrapped her hands around her cup of tea, letting the warmth sink into her, and watched out the window, idly, her mind a million miles away, troubled and turning over what she'd been doing for the last—

While.

She still wasn't sure what she'd tell people when they asked. Of course, that depended on the person and on what exactly they asked.

Iggy was probably not going to like not getting answers. He usually did when it came to Aine's work.

Not this time. Not for the next good while either.

Her orders were straight from the King and the only people she answered to now were King Regis, Clarus Amicitia, and Cor Leonis.

Part of her loved it.

More of her was, and would keep on being, worried. Things were moving in the silence of the war and she couldn't see the shape of it yet.

Nina hated that.

[Open, yes!]

bookbeltof_love

This evening, rather than be waiting for her class to show up at the tent, Nina was already up on the new scaffolding she'd ordered into being. What? Put it up normally? Psh, no, never going to happen when magic made that way easier.

Besides, it was pretty exciting that the walls were high enough to need scaffolding. Who could blame her for being up on it and not waiting for everyone?

"Goooooooooood eveeeeeeeeeeeeeniiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she announced, grinning down at her class. "Look at us, getting walls up so that they look like walls instead of just fences with aspirations!!!!!!!!!!!!"

She was bursting with pride about it all.

"Get geared up and get up here!!!!!!!!!!!!! We've got a castle to build!!!!!!!!!!!!! And starting now it's going to take a lot of climbing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

While bringing blocks up too! Nina had brought some up already (with magic) because she wasn't entirely a monster but, like, that wasn't going to last the whole class…

Everyone should just be glad the blocks weren't as heavy as they ought to be until they were stacked into place.

firstofitskind

A watermelon plant had replaced the water cooler, today.

When Liam questioned it, all he got was a shrug from Ralph and an explanation that he couldn’t make it work in his apartment.

“Where do you even live, anyway?” Liam asked. “Any of you? I don’t see your information in the directory.”

Ralph and Calvin just shrugged, and Hugo sidled out of the room, muttering something about going to catalog evidence.

[ooc I have very little work to do today. so open!]

bookbeltof_love

She was finished!

Okay, like, she'd ignored all considerations of sleeping last night and had pushed through to finish at like three in the morning which was technically not Wednesday but, like, Dad and Prompto visiting had thrown her schedule off a bit and then there'd been the whole thing where Summer just kept… disappearing?

Sure, Nina was willing to look after Pancakes (though she thought it was more Pancakes looking after her) but given that she and Summer had been basically temporary roommates it had been a… weird feeling worrying if she was to blame for her disappearing… even though Summer had seemed to have no problems with Nina being there…

Well, either way, she wasn't there now. If it was her fault, Nina was finished with her work until Saturday so, like…

Whatever, right?

Okay, it wasn't going to stop her from being concerned (because if she was causing people problems she, like, liked to know about them at the very least…) but at the very least today all she had on the docket was working at her shop (which looked a lot like just curling up in one of the reading chairs with a book and her diary today) and just… chilling?

Sure, that just meant she was working on fewer things at once than other people did but, like, that was basically the same thing, right?

And, okay, she was also texting Iggy.

The Bookbelt is Open!

[And OCD-free today!]

bookbeltof_love

So……..

Like. Construction when she was already really tired and close to eyeing the caffeine was probably a bad idea, right? Right?

Too bad, because that was what she was doing today!

Besides, like, physical activity would be good for her after most of a week spent exercising her brain and her magic. Something physical would be, like, nothing at all…

She was still considering her life choices here.

"Gooooooooood eveeeeeeeeeeeeniiiiiiiiiiing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she chirped since, like, no matter how tired she was, she was going to be happy. "Look at how well the walls are coming along!!!!!!!!!!! It's starting to really look like a castle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It wasn't, yet, but Nina was nothing if not willing to enthusiastically exaggerate for her class.

"Today is, like, more of the same---------sorry, but walls take a good while to get up, even with our cheating--------but there's hot drinks and pastries in the tent and remember to follow the yellow lines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And she… she was going to have a muffin and a hot chocolate and then get a wall up.

Mostly because she was too stubborn to, like, take it easy.

bookbeltof_love

It was, like, deeply tragic that she'd gotten side tracked by one of her many jobs and hadn't been able to be out and about nearly as much as she'd wanted to over the weekend because, like, the weekend radios were a treat.

Alas.

She still wasn't sure, honestly, if the mice had been impacted by the weekend or not and, really, it didn't matter—she'd gotten a super cute hair style out of it and had spent time with her dad and those were the things that really mattered.

"Goooooooooooood eeeeeeeeeveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeniiiiiiiing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she said brightly, beaming at everyone that showed up down at the construction site for her class. The spectral blue outline of her castle looked really great against the night sky, in her opinion.

"Hot drinks are in the tent and, like, otherwise today we're finishing what we didn't get done of the foundation last time and then we'll be getting started on the first part that will make it really feel like we're building a castle!!!!!!!!!!!! The walls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Remember to follow the yellow lines and if you can't remember the spells, just let me know and I'll walk you through a refresher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gear up and get to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

somethingwithturquoise

Summer had missed most of the weekend, as it fell on one of her weekends back home, but she'd caught the tail end of it, a little bit, and was relieved to find that there were no ghosts in her apartment, that seemed to definitely be a Stark thing, but Pancakes was talking. Which was great the last time that happened, but when Summer got all excited about them getting high together again to contemplate the universe or whatever, because that had seriously been the best, Pancakes got all offended and spent the rest of the evening lecturing Summer on proper behavior and being a lady and even having the audacity to tell her that pink really did clash with redhair.

Like, the nerve!

So this talking Pancakes was way less fun than the last one, and Summer was incredibly relieved to be woken up to the insistent sounds of meowing instead of words, even though Pancakes had woken her up to be fed despite the significant amount of food already sitting in her food dish.

At least she knew things were back to normal, right?

So it was off to the store to take care of things like normal, get a few stories from Apu about what she'd missed, do a major restocking of the alcohol section with plenty of bottom shelf options, because...yeah, yeah, pretty big driver lately there, for some reason...and generally just sort of contemplate some of the things that had been brought up in the counselling session with Dr. Wong that weekend, a few perspectives on things she hadn't really considered before that needed some major consideration.

Today's Squishy Flavors
Apple (Not Poisoned!)
Rapunzel lettuce
Red

Turtle & Canary is open!

knife_bender

Diego's arm was well on its way to being healed but he still couldn't work out like he usually did. It was supremely annoying to have his routine screwed up like that. He went over to the Perk during his usual gym time hoping that would do something to make him less annoyed.

Spoiler alert: It did not. It just made him caffeinated and annoyed.

[Open! First day all week work hasn't been a nightmare]

bookbeltof_love

Oh, but Nina was excited for this class!

Okay, like, sure—it was the start of a lot of hard work but it was going to be so worth it! She'd let everyone know they were meeting at The Spot, which was now absolutely teeming with carefully organized construction supplies. The tents she'd had up last week were up again, though pushed back a little further from the site so they weren't in the way. One was for refreshments and was, well, really a warming station should anyone get cold.

(It also doubled (tripled?) as a first aid station, should anyone not want to be healed by Nina.)

The other tent had their blue prints laid out, as well as further whiteboards to make alterations as they went.

"Goooooooooooood eeeeeeeeeveeeeeeeeeeeeeniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she said, once everyone who was going to show was gathered around outside of the blueprint tent. "We're working on the foundation today, so I hope you've all come prepared to get your hands dirty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

She was. She was also still wearing a dress because fight her she could totally build a castle while looking like a lady!

Albeit a lady wearing a hard hat, steel-toed boots, goggles and gloves.

"I've got safety goggles, hard hat, boots, and gloves for everyone," she said firmly. "These are non-negotiable and none of you are going anywhere near the construction unless you're wearing them!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A beat. "If you have your own and they're up to par in terms of quality, you may wear those however, just check with me!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Because she was totally willing to let people wear their own things if they had them.

"While you're working, pay attention to the lights---------I've outlined the blueprint in magic on the ground!!!!!!!!! Follow the yellow lines!!!!!!!!!!!!! Red means you've gone out of bounds and we'll have to fix it, while blue is just there so you can see what it will look like!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It had been a lot of fun, actually, creating their blueprint for the base castle and then turning that into a shimmering, blue-outlined 3D rendition of it to scale.

"Questions???????? If not, gear up and get to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

bookbeltof_love

"Gooooooooooood eveeeeeeeeeeening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It had been a little weird waking up at Dad's and Miss Verity's place that morning but, like, given that Miss Verity had also been a child and she had a weekend full of memories of Dad being, like, the best dad ever (not that she had much else to compare it too) Nina was… actually doing really great.

And the book Dad had bought her was now one of her greatest treasures but, like, that didn't really impact class or the fact that she was the queen of the castle they were going to be building.

"Everybody grab a hot drink and come with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she ordered, grandly, waving with her scepter. Because, indeed, hot drinks were the only things in the community center class room tonight.

Once everyone had a drink, Nina led the procession grandly through town until they came to a spot where she'd set up several tents and a perimeter glowing brightly even in the dark. Right about here.

"Welcome to the future location of our castle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina beamed. "We can, like, adjust our castle plans now and finalize the main design of it before we begin construction next week!!!!!!!!!!!! Inside that tent," she gestured with the scepter, "you'll find both our notes from last week as well as my compilation of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Take your time to survey the area outlined in light," which seemed to be coming from absolutely nowhere, "and consider what you'd like to see in a castle at this location!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Once you're ready, come on inside and work on the design!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[~~Wait for the~~ OCD is up, up, and away!]

thatwaslucky

It was interesting how Rey never even questioned why she never turned little on these weekends. She was just always vaguely good with that, and more interested in seeing other people as kids anyway.

Today there were a bunch of different toys that needed fixing. For some strange reason. And given the kind of weekend it was, Rey was pretty intent on getting them done pretty fast so they could actually be used again.

She also kind of wondered how many would end up back here by the end of her shift...

[Open!]

firstofitskind

So the thing about being married to a cryptozoologist whom Fandom occasionally saw fit to transform into a tiny cryptozoologist in training?

Meant that Liam's day today was mostly spent 'training' - which, as far as Verity was concerned, involved things like hide and seek (though she was disappointed by the lack of pit traps), finding random things that could be used as weapons (Liam's pockets were overflowing with rocks, sharp sticks, and one actual ninja star he was pretty sure belonged to Beau), and just plain running off only to do something like drop down out of a tree and ambush him.

Now he was in the park, with a cup of tea (his third, today, because the caffeine seemed sort of necessary), and Verity was... somewhere. He wasn't too worried. It was a small island, she didn't run off for long, and if it came down to it, she did have a tracking device he could use to find her.

[ooc: so, so open!]

bookbeltof_love

Nina burst through the doors of the bookstore precisely fifteen minutes before she was due to open. Like, sure, she was the owner-on-island and if she was late (perish the thought) no one but her would care (she'd care a lot though) and everything but it was the principal of the matter. If she didn't hold herself up to high standards then how could she ever expect to meet anyone else's?

Because she'd been in earlier in the week to clean, Nina didn't have to do much else but sweep the store with a glance, turn on the lights, get a glass of water for herself, and then she could get down to business. It was fun to set out the new books they'd gotten in, Nina making mental notes for a few that she wanted to read herself, and it was also fun to put in a new order for things.

As the day wore on, though, all of that was accomplished and she was alternating between working on her scripts for Sir Foomy, pouring over what her class had suggested on Monday, and, most interestingly, working on posters for her book club.

Since she wasn't busy enough and all but, like, it was criminal how the island didn't have one already…

The Bookbelt is Open!

bookbeltof_love

Despite this being a construction class, today they were in one of the community center rooms, with tables set up with plenty of graph paper, white boards, and pencils and pens (in all sorts of colours). There was also coffee, tea, and hot chocolate available to drink, should anyone want it, since it was an evening class and people had to come down to the community center for it.

Actually, the hot drinks were going to be a thing all semester because… well. They'd be building. Outside. At night.

Nina herself had an apple cider. Teacher's privilege.

( It's not a Nina class if it doesn't start off with a cut! )

"Once we've been informed as to who everyone is this semester, we'll begin with the very first step of the process of building our new home: designing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[~~Wait for the~~ OCD is up, up, and away!]

seriesofbaddecisions

In their free time, Sabine and Astrid had been working on a commission. A commission that was actually too big and too detailed to work on in their room if they still wanted to be able to do things like move around and sleep.

With it finally being done, and being Christmas week, it was all ready for pickup. Which, Sabine realized belatedly, meant Nina finally had access to the explosives-laden warehouse but that was probably fine.

[For a couple!]

weirderthanthou

Jesse had tracked down the blackboard.

"Okay," she said, making a few quick, sketchlike drawings. "So here's what we know. The school board bought a new weather machine last week. It's circling the island and sweeps by the school between noon and two o' clock."

She made a corresponding drawing.

"It's also malfunctioning. Obviously," she said. "So we need to take it out. Preferably above the preserve or above the water, not... anything important. Definitely not between noon and two o' clock."

She drew something else. "There's apparently deactivation codes?" she said, "But we haven't been able to find them. So that leaves us two options: either we hack into this thing somehow and do some... weird computer stuff to simulate those codes," yeah she had no idea, "or we just shoot this thing out of the sky at the right time. Which will be harder, because we can't see it. We just know roughly where it's going to be."

Beat.

"Any ideas?"

weirderthanthou

"Well, that's the last of what we have about the weather machine."

Jesse stared at the stack of papers in front of her, the handbook perched on top.

"Topside, anyway," she commented idly.

Nina-the-assistant tilted her head. "Hm?"

"There are archives in the basement, too," she said. She looked thoughtful. "Maybe..."

"It's the basement."

"I know."

[[ open ]]

weirderthanthou

A large dome of glass had slid over the island overnight. Jesse had been by to poke at it, but there was just... no getting through it.

Now she was back.

"Yeah," Jesse said, "We have a problem."

She was currently behind her desk, trying to pry a strand of lights from her leg. She'd successfully murdered it - it wasn't moving anymore - but it was definitely stuck.

She rubbed her forehead. "Well, the door's still open," she said to her assistant, "At least I don't think we're going to be alone in figuring this out..."

Her assistant beamed and pushed the tiny cactus towards Jesse.

[[ open! ]]

weirderthanthou

Okay, so an angel made of snow - a creepy angel - had teamed up with one of those candy canes that still hung around and ganged up on Jesse. It'd been-- a while since she'd last had to use her powers on the island. Made her nervous.

And... well.

"Something isn't right here, Nina," she said to her assistant, quietly.

Her assistant shrugged. "Maybe your science guy knows more?"

"Or the magic girl," Jesse said. She sighed. "Right. I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask around."

And so a message made its way onto Fandom's messaging platform: my gut feeling says something is off this week. If anyone has any good ideas or wants to help me pick through some files about advent, you're welcome at town hall.

In the background, Nina decided to get the nice plants out, just in case Jesse needed someone to talk to first.

[[ open! ]]

hashtag_chocobro

Prompto knew that if he left the island to return to Insomnia again after talking to Liam without seeing Nina, he would be in big, big, BIG trouble. But he wasn't going to just come out and TELL her he was here. Where was the fun in that? Instead, he headed right to the park after the trooper station, pulled out his camera, and started snapping some sick photos.

Then posting them to his socials with cute commentary, confident that it wouldn't take too long for certain people who followed him to recognize where his little photoshoot was located.

He was a little disappointed, though, that nothing obnoxiously Christmasy seemed to be going down on the day he managed to visit, if he was honest. But maybe he could swing by T&C, see if they happened to have any duck-sized Santa hats....

[[ open for all your parkly or Prompto needs!! ]]

bookbeltof_love

Today, Nina breezed into her store precisely fifteen minutes before it was supposed to be opened. Mostly because, like, she felt if she did that, Liam wouldn't worry about her not sleeping because somehow he would know.

And, like, sure she'd been up a lot of the night, over-excited because the moose had come through for her and now she had graph paper all over her bedroom floor but, like, that was different than up all night because of bad dreams or things troubling her, right?

Right?

She sent off a few sassy emails to Rufus, who was snide back—but, she was amused to note, he always answered right away—and got to work decorating. Like, whatever the island was doing was sort of… anemic this year, though she'd been amused by the random reindeer hanging out on the roof, so that meant…

Well.

That meant by the end of the day, her shop was going to look like Christmas had exploded all over it.

It wasn't even her holiday—though she did pause, vaguely terrified, at the fact that she was going to have to ask her Dad and Miss Verity if there was, like, a family thing? But, like, weren't they going to do their anniversary celebration? She didn't want to get in the way of that and and and…

Maybe she just wouldn't say anything.

Though she was going to take a moment to wonder if she should follow up with Sabine and Astrid for an update on Noct's Christmas gift.

…

… wait. Did she need to get a gift for Miss Verity and the mice too?

Now Nina was decorating and looking up gift ideas for people (did she know Miss Verity well enough to get her something thoughtful? did the mice need one gift or separate ones?) and, well, like... it was honestly a really good day?

If a little panicked. It was already the 10th!

The Bookbelt is Open!

defenderofdesmoines

So the thing about waking up with a single, kind of unsatisfying cookie on your pillow is that it simply wasn't enough. Like, not only was it weird and mysterious as to how the hell a cookie got there, it was also just, like, a single cookie.

Thus, after her workout, Annie had headed into the Perk to get several more cookies, which she happily took over to a window seat with her accompanying peppermint mocha. And while, yes, she was answering emails on her phone (someone at Vought had finally deigned to answer a question Annie had sent over in September), she was also finishing up some last-minute Christmas shopping.

First of all: yes, December 8th was last minute. And really, she was pretty much done, but then she just kept stumbling across things she'd think people would like and adding them to little virtual carts. (Which was how Annie was going to also end up needing to get some more wrapping paper, while she was at it.)

The sheer festiveness of drinking a Christmas drink and eating Christmassy cookies while Christmas shopping had her in a very merry little mood.

[I have been given the holiday gift of an unexpected day off. Open!]

firstofitskind

The eggnog thing wasn't terrible- it meant the barista at the Perk had not only given him an eggnog chai latte for half-off, she'd offered him a second one for free. Not that he really knew what he'd do with an extra cup of tea, but that wasn't the point. The point was, he wasn't terribly inconvenienced by the eggnog in the taps, even if it meant he'd skipped his usual morning run since a post-run shower was clearly out of the question.

What was annoying was Calvin's pouting about not being invited to Rey and Annie's party tonight.

"Come on," Liam said, shaking his head. "You literally never talk to anyone outside of what's required of you for work. You wouldn't go even if you were invited."

"Well, sure, but that's not the point," Calvin argued. "Sometimes it's just nice to be included."

Liam... had to admit that was actually kind of fair.

sith_happened

After Ethics, Anakin and Nina headed down to the junkyard to borrow a ship.

Well.

"Borrow."

Turned out that teenaged Anakin maybe needed to pay more attention in said Ethics class.

"I know how to make that one fly," he boasted, pointing to a familiar shuttlecraft.

(Because it was his when he wasn't being a high school senior. Grand theft shuttlecraft was less complicated when you were stealing your own stuff.)

bookbeltof_love

We're the youngest generation of Prices. …You'd be the next generation…

Nina had done a pretty good job bothering Duke on Sunday and losing herself in flying and attempts at picking locks (she could manage basic ones as a pony—it was a victory that only she really cared about) and then on Monday she'd thrown herself headlong into moping about the lack of wings.

(Which, being clear, was a huge tragedy.)

But by the time Tuesday rolled around, Miss Verity's words, which had stuck and lingered and rolled around in the back of her head had left her sleepless and anxious in ways she wasn't quite sure how to face head on.

( Because Nina had FEELINGS. )

By the time the shop was open, the place was sparkling clean and Nina was reading in one of the squashy, comfortable chairs at the front.

I love you, she texted Prompto, five minutes before she knew his alarm was supposed to go off. She didn't know if he'd answer. He was so busy these days, but she hoped it made him smile anyway.

Then she went back to her tea and her books and the ghosts of thoughts that plagued her.

The Bookbelt is Open.

[That Nina was at the shop early and cleaning is FB, what she was saying is NFB, please!]

betterthanaplan

So. The last few days (few weeks, few years. . . .) had been kind of an emotional adventure for Duke. And as he was wont to do on occasion, he was looking to throw all of that pent up energy into cooking.

Unfortunately, his kitchen staff was nowhere to be found. When he asked a waiter, he was informed that they were deep in the freezer, on some sort of treasure hunt. Duke decided he didn't want to know.

Today's specials
CATCH OF THE DAY
Maryland-style crab soup

Luke's was open.

[I'm a little weirded out by that "Maryland style" soup not having any Old Bay on the ingredient list. It does sound tasty though. . . .]

throughaphase

Well, Fandom, you made it through the two weeks of spooky weirdness and nothing bad had happened! Obviously that meant you were in the clear and it was time to celebrate!

(The time for other stuff would come in about an hour.)

Caritas was decked out for the holiday, with the lights lowered more than usual (but not so much that it was hard to see, Kitty was a pro) to focus on the orange string lights, and certain areas were alit in blacklight to add a creepy feel. Even the zombies were dressed up, and every once in a while Tino would press something that would make it sound like a wolf was howling somewhere in the distance.

SPOOKY SPECIALS
Zombie
Poison Apple
Vampire Kiss Martini
Jeckyll and Gin
Witch's Heart

Enjoy the party! You know, before things get interesting.

[Open party, second post after sundown will be up in a bit!]

bookbeltof_love

Homecoming wasn't actually on Halloween (though it was awfully close) which was why Nina careened into Maeve and Shuri's rooms with the siren cry of 'Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' far, far too early in the morning and managed to wrangle her fellow StuCo people down to help her move tables and chairs for the party.

She possibly managed this feat on sheer enthusiastic punctuation alone.

Then, once that was done, she politely, but firmly, booted them both out and locked the doors with a clarion cry of, "I'll let you in later so we can set out the food and drinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go take a nap or something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", before she settled in for the real work of it all.

It took most of the day—which was why she and Prompto had gotten their work done the night before—but, when Nina was finished, the hall had been transformed.

Quite literally.

The walls had been covered in black sequins, the floors were black marble veined with gold, and the ceiling glittered like a hundred thousand stars were trapped inside of it. Disco balls spun, throwing sparkles down, and strobe lighting danced about, making the shadows darker in contrast.

Each table was covered in heavy black lace tablecloths that were liberally edged in silver and orange glitter (in case you thought you were getting way with a party with no glitter), and candelabrum were spaced out, one on every other table, to add to the ambiance.

The pièce de résistance was… The Bus. Oh yes. Over by where the chaperones tended to linger was The Bus. How had it gotten into the hall? Nina wasn't telling. But she and Prompto had dressed it in a lacy, gothic ball gown and given the front window eyes (green) with huge, curling eyelashes and a pouting red-lipsticked mouth. The windows along the sides and back had been frosted over so that the multi-coloured strobe lighting from within sent refractions of sparkling light leaping around The Bus. A halo of romanticism!

Since The Bus couldn't speak (and all attempts at pulling that off had a) been hilariously horrible and b) been really weird), a huge, elegantly calligraphic note was set upon an easel beside The Bus that read:

Anakin, would you do me the honour of being mine?

Oh yes.

Everything was perfect.

[~~Wait for the~~ OCD is up! Come get your party on!

Maeve, Shuri, Prompto and The Bus all modded with permission!]

seriesofbaddecisions

Sabine had done work, really.

It was just at the moment she was on her phone trying to find something to wear on Saturday (armor was so much easier) while trying to remove tiny clinging roads physically from her person and she wasn't sure which was more frustrating.

[Open!]

bookbeltof_love

Ugh.

So, like, Nina hadn't been on the beach since she'd showed up nearly dead on it but it was, as she knew good and well, the best place to, well... play with fire. Literally.

It wasn't going to stop her from kicking rocks over the spot she'd hit the beach through the portal.

Nina was maybe a wee bit resentful of the whole ruination of long walks on a beach daydream. It was hard to focus on romantic fantasies when all she could think about in relation to the beach was how it had felt to not be able to breathe.

"Rude," she muttered vengefully to the rocks. The porgs were giving her a wide berth.

Nina stood defiantly on the beach and stared out over the waves.

And waited.

She'd shown up early--mostly so she could literally kick rocks--on purpose.

[She's expecting one but open, yeah!]

bookbeltof_love

It was… probably best not to ask just how early Nina had gotten into work at her shop because by the time she officially opened, she'd cleaned the place from top to bottom, put away the new books, submitted her order for more, and gotten Halloween decorations up (the random bowl of candy was actually, like, on point today, though she wasn't eating any of it)…

Then she'd taken up the bulk of her counter space with art supplies. Like, sure she could do things low-key and simple for when she was selling tickets tomorrow but… really… that just wasn't her style.

So there was a ferocious amount of black, orange, and silver glitter being wielded today at the book shop.

All in the name of Homecoming!

Mwahaha!

The Bookbelt is Open! And… very, very glittery.

firstofitskind

Okay, okay, maybe people had a point about the whole talking thing, because Liam did feel marginally better today.

Though he was still gonna do his best to keep busy by working on gathering materials for that handbook Jesse had suggested might be a good idea.

So if anyone needed Liam today, he'd be in his office, surrounded by stacks of paper files that he'd dragged out of the cabinets.

thatwaslucky

Rey thought she'd lucked out yesterday, witnessing Duke's gremlin bite while being spared herself. And she had!

Today, though, she'd gotten to the park to do some drills and a gremlin had dropped out of a portal right in front of her and chomped on the bare part of her leg. ~~Look, you want the legacy, you gotta suffer through all of it.~~

Where had she gotten the schoolgirl outfit? Best not to think about it too much. Where had the autotune on her voice come from? Absolutely didn't matter! The important thing was the concert in the park that was happening. There was singing and dancing and everything.

"Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know
That something wasn't right here?
Oh baby, baby, I shouldn't have let you go
And now you're out of sight, yeah"

[It took me way, way too long to come up with one for her. SO VERY OPEN.]

defenderofdesmoines

Annie had arrived at the end of the causeway this morning, duffle bag slung over one shoulder and fairly sure there was some kind of mistake.

She became increasingly sure that there was some kind of mix-up as she wound through the town, hefting her bag up a little higher occasionally so as not to bump into anything in the narrow streets. When she realized she'd managed to wind back to a spot she'd already been before, it sunk in: this island was, like, not big. And despite the fact that she had left Des Moines with a bright smile and her eyes optimistically forward, she was starting to think she'd made a mistake.

This place seemed like it wasn't even a quarter of the population of Des Moines - Des Moines - which, okay, supported the idea that maybe they only needed one Supe?

Annie took a deep breath, heading into a coffee shop as soon as she spotted it. She needed somewhere to sit and think for a bit - she wasn't going to make sense of anything by wandering the town in circles and trying to piece together guesses about the new place she called home. She gently dropped her bag next to an empty table, got herself a latte, and settled in with her phone to compose an email to her recruiter from Vought.

At least coffee seemed to be the same in Maryland, even if hardly anything else was. Okay, wait, that wasn't fair. It was just different.

She'd keep telling herself that for now.

(And honestly, the coffee was kinda better.)

[open open open!]

throughaphase

It was with no small amount of trepidation that Kitty got to the bar tonight, and began pouring little amounts of hopefully-alcohol, just to test what happened.

Which was followed by a very loud "THANK GOD" because Parents Weekend was not the time.

SPECIALS
BOOZE!!!

betterthanaplan

Duke was quiet today at the diner, which meant his staff was quiet, too. For Duke, that meant going about his business, setting the specials and supervising the kitchen, without saying anything more than absolutely necessary. For his staff, it meant furtive whispering as they tried to work out why their normally loud boss was being so quiet. Was it the argument last week with his girlfriend? The start of a new weird Fandom effect? Maybe he'd been bitten by a gremlin and thought he was . . . someone really quiet?

None of them managed to guess the real reason, that learning how he was eventually going to die had sent Duke drifting down into a full blown existential crisis. Something, it turned out, that he did rather quietly.

And, you know, with comfort food.

Today's special
CATCH OF THE DAY:
Bahian fish stew with coconut and tomato

Luke's was open.

bookbeltof_love

Decorate the island for Parents' Weekend?

Nina was so down for that which was why, after the assembly, she could be found down at The Bookbelt, with an absolutely ridiculous pile of stencils and paint options.

It didn't take long to clean the building and then she white-washed the whole thing.

Nina wasn't much of an artist. Her spell diagrams were certainly beautiful and complex but they weren't the same as having artistic talent. Besides, like hers lay in writing and this was a bookstore.

So around the door she had yesterday is history, in English; tomorrow's a mystery, in German; and today is a gift, that's why it's called the present, in French.

After that, both her quotes and her languages got more varied as she expanded the lettering across the entirety of her shop. A room without books is like a body without a soul was done in Swahili. In Japanese she had: When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. Spanish got: rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book. French and German got their own book-related quotes too before she spent some time using languages that weren't from this universe at all before she went back to English with: Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

Then she went on and on and on…

After all, Nina knew books and Nina knew languages. This was easy. This was fun…

This was going to take a while.

The Bookbelt is Open! But mostly for decorating.

bookbeltof_love

So, like, Nina had about a million things to do (when didn't she though) but today most of her focus was on a) cleaning shop and b) wondering if it would be kind of pathetic to ask Prompto if he was showing up for Parents Weekend.

He probably had more important things to do, right? And it wasn't like they hadn't seen each other quite a bit recently. And she didn't want to be a bother...

... Maybe she'd ask Bus Dean to be her fake dad again. Or Liam.

But what if she was bothering them too? Ugh. It wasn't like Parents Weekend was important...

The Bookbelt is Open!

ohvalleyofpenis

The park was done up with a series of colorful tents to house every stall the festival could hope to host. The weather was a perfect fall crispness for all to get out and enjoy themselves with their lederhosen. Because you know you wanna try out those lederhosen, right?

Welcome to Oktoberfest! We take no responsibility for tomorrow's hangovers.

[~~please wait for the ocd~~ have at ye!]

hashtag_chocobro

A compromise had been made and Prompto had stayed another extra day with Nina, but now he probably should be getting back home before the complaints from Ignis really got started, but there was one thing he definitely needed to do before hitching a portal back to Eos.

Because they didn't have PSL in Insomnia, and you better believe Prompto was going to the Perk go get one last one until who even knew when (Parents Weekend. It would be Parents Weekend), taking photos of the drink not because he was being That Person, but because he was assaulting Ignis with messages about it, because:

seriously u need to get on this bro

To which Iggy just responded in varying degrees of offense that anyone would do such a thing to perfectly good coffee.

[[ open for all your perky or Prompto needs or additional sisterly guilt trips! ]]

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