The Open University (which, Paul muses sometimes, should probably renamed Mansion Education Institute) is entering its last week of classes before the winter break ( Read more... )

Well, it happened. And now, there is no sleeping to be had at the treehouse. Of course, for an Elda, sleep is not quite necessary - it is replaced by meditation, eyes open, and rest. Neither of those things are easy to achieve either, though, with a newborn dictating the schedule ( Read more... )

Melou hasn't been very available recently. The only reason he's had to spend any time in public was that he was looking for Hisoka, and it's been a while since he finally accepted that his friend is gone. He's spent most of the past few weeks either shut up in his room or out in the woods, deliberately avoiding the paths. It meant he ended up ( Read more... )

( Cut for possible spoilage... )

Inter-dimensional travel was never pretty.  Damian had read reports of being sucked into an alternate reality where everything that didn't matter was the same and the few things that did were altered in some key, disturbing fashion.  And considering his line of work, he had always figured it would only be a matter of time until he experienced the ( Read more... )

Riku hasn't seen a calender in a while, but it's obviously high summer and therefore time for the Fourth of July, and time to celebrate with grilled foods and summery salads. He'll put up a poster on the bulletin board in the main room:

Come Celebrate the Summer!
There will be a *Barbecue*
Down by the Lake
Bring yourself and, if you like
Bring your ( Read more... )

The past few days and nights, Riku has been busy, hardboiling eggs and coloring them. And he's also been kindly asking the Plothole to give him several dozen chocolate eggs and plastic eggs full of jelly beans and malted milk eggs. Late Saturday evening, he slips out to hide the colorful treasures in the bushes and flowerbeds and under the trees in ( Read more... )

Since the original notice of Titus's disappearance, Fuchsia Groan has lived in a fog.  She's barely eaten, and hasn't spent much time in her room.

Unlike what many would expect, there have not been hysterics.  Instead, she's cut herself off from everyone. It's not been intentionally obvious, more that she would be next to impossible to find.  She's ( Read more... )

Much has happened at the Mansion - most of it, as Falkor reckons it, is saddening. And the luckdragon, let us be fair, does not like sadness, nor does it believe it should be allowed to go on.

In his view, this may be another attack from the Nothing, even if he is the only self-aware Fantastican about.

And keeping the Nothing at bay requires hope, ( Read more... )

The night is calm about the Mansion. Much has come to pass, and in his sleep, the ageless wizard murmurs. His hands perform a slow dance, a sleepwalk of its own meaning. It is a rare thing - it happens once a year, conjured by the turn of seasons and the alignments of fate.

Slowly, over the Mansion, over the lake, over the cliffs, over the hollowed ( Read more... )