My Atlantis

Phineas Kaplan. Grad Student. Otter Shifter raised by selkies.

[phineaskaplan]

sebastian-mann​:

“So, whose job are you gunning for?” Sebastian asked. He jokingly thought that he would take out the threat if this guy wanted the English professor job. Of course, there are other places to teach, but it was hard to find a position sometimes when people rarely died or retired. Sebastian snorted. His mother would never be caught dead knitting, nor would she ever make him something so sentimental. He sure did wear what she ordered him to wear, though. “That’s cute,” he said with the least condescension he could muster. He wasn’t trying to be an ass. He nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right. Then it could have been taken by anyone. The struggles of being famous,” he joked. It was kinda weird to have a father so well known. He wasn’t embarrassed by it or anything, but he didn’t announce to others his relationship to Professor Mann because he didn’t want them to form an idea of him from his father’s achievements–and personality.

“Oh, I’m not gunning for anyone’s job.” Phineas said, chuckling. He wasn’t really sure where he would end up settling down. Maybe he wouldn’t even teach at all, but move back to the lighthouse and just write books from the island, going off on research trips. The world was his oyster, and he had plenty of time to figure out what he wanted to do with his degree. Maybe he’d just be a student forever. “It’s get on Mom’s nerves sometimes, how much yarn Ma keeps around the house, but she’d never begrudge her the knitting.” Not when the sweaters made with the enchanted yarn were much more durable in his wild youth. Not to mention much more practical when the cold winter months rolled around. And then both their children ended up going to school in Alaska, so there was an even greater need for knitwear. “Yeah. It’s a real struggle sometimes. Not that I’m famous. But my family lives in a lighthouse? And once a month it’s open to the public. It was a struggle when my sister and I were younger.”

[phineaskaplan]

pastrywix​:

“uh not um not here,” Felix said still trying to make himself a little less nervous as he thought for a moment 

“But uh my dorm is nearby or I bet the book store would sell sweats with the school logo on them or something?” Felix offered he really didn’t know what else to do, he could try a spell but with how jittery he was feeling at the moment he was almost certain he would mess it up somehow….no scratch that he was positive he would mess it up somehow. 

“I’d try to fix it but um….well i might accidentally make it worse if i’m being honest with you.” Felix admitted to him as he started nervously fiddling with a button on his jacket sleeve he always ended up playing with when he was nervous. 

“Sweatpants aren’t going to cut it.” Phineas said. It would be one thing if he was just on his way to a class where he was student, but he was assisting with a lecture, and there were certain dress codes that one needed to follow in that case. And his apartment was on the opposite side of campus from the lecture hall.

“Well, I appreciate the honesty.” Phineas didn’t want any magical mishaps. Things were already enough of a mess as they were.

[ciara-abbott]

Ciara wasn’t short, but the bookshelves in the library were tall. She could see exactly the book she needed, The Physiology of Shifting, just above her reach. She turned in a circle to look for something to climb on or use to reach the book, but didn’t see any chairs or poles close enough. You were probably supposed to ask for help, but the student didn’t want to bother a library worker. With a sigh, she braced herself and leapt up with her vampire strength, easily overshooting the shelf and managing to knock down five whole books in addition to the one she needed. She flinched and activated her powers, letting the books fall right through her…and onto someone behind her.

[phineaskaplan]

Unsurprising, considering that he was a history grad student, Phineas spent a lot of his time haunting the stacks of the library. There was a point when he had been tempted to apply for a job, he’d been spending so much time there, and was helping so many students. But then he wouldn’t actually have time to read the books he was always looking for. He saw another student struggling to grab a book from the shelf and he was about to offer her assistance, but then she jumped and got it herself.

“Ouch.” He said, rubbing where the rouge books had hit him. “I was just about to compliment your technique, too.”

[phineaskaplan]

nicasiacastellanos​:

          When it came to her major, she wasn’t sure what direction she wanted to go. There were several that she was interested in, but she also knew that she had time to choose. “My aunt is the leader of our people, so I’ve been around political minded people my whole life. And fashion is more work than you’d expect. There’s a lot of math.” More math than she liked. At least politics were mostly just people. “I know lots of things about random subjects.” She nodded though. She knew the type of situation he’d grown up in, even if it wasn’t exactly like her own. Nicasia didn’t mind not knowing anything about how college was supposed to work.

          “My parents will not be happy when or if I fail out of college is all.” And that was the truth. She was mostly here for her parents, not herself. “There really ought to be something for us people that weren’t schooled in a traditional sense.” She was doing her best, but she felt, for once in her life, like she was drowning. “When am I supposed to do it then? It’s not like I have that much free time.” 

“Seems like politics is the logical major, then. I grew up in a lighthouse and ended up studying history.” Phineas shared. Everyone told him that it made sense, although he failed to see the connection. It’s not like he was studying the history of lighthouses, after all. “I think that it’s good to know about lots of different things. You’d be surprised how often knowledge of one subject can help you with another. Like how crafters help out historians.”

“You’re not going to fail out.” Phineas reassured her. “There are plenty of people who are happy to help, it’s the counselors jobs, but you have to reach out to them, instead of the other way around. There should be a program to help students adapt, though, where they check in instead of you having to check in. I’ll mention it to someone.” You would think that a school with students with the diverse backgrounds that Katmere had would have some kind of program like that in place, but alas. “You break it up into manageable chunks, and do a little bit of it everyday. Work out a schedule, dedicate a certain amount of time everyday. And maybe organize the rest of your schedule too. See if you’re involved in too many clubs, drop some of them if you’re too stressed out. And there’s no shame in dropping or withdrawing a class.”

[phineaskaplan]

sebastian-mann​:

“Then don’t look so much like an old cooky professor,” Sebastian joked lightly. The guy didn’t look too old–not that that meant much in their world–but the sweater really sold the professor look. And Sebastian would know, though his cooky professor dressed much more extravagantly. “Yes, we must remove all of these. He nodded seriously, hiding that his annoyance was perhaps a bit too personal. Looking closely at the photo again, he tried to make out details around his father. “You have a point, this doesn’t seem to have been taken in lecture.” Maybe someone went through Professor Mann’s Facebook? Dad loved posting on social media.

“They say to dress for the job that you want, right? I feel like it’s the inevitable course that my life is going to take. Besides, my Ma made me this sweater.” Phineas said, looking down at the sweater and smoothing it out. Honestly, he really wasn’t all that sure of what he wanted to do with his degree, once he finished it. But teaching was a good option. Maybe not in Alaska, though. “Great. Happy to help.” Phin said. He leaned closer, so he could join him in squinting at the photograph. “It sort of looks like it was taken at that mixer that happened last month.”

[phineaskaplan]

basilisaacs​:

          “Fun,” he replied with a shrug. Whimsy was for people that were weird and he wasn’t that weird. Not the way that some people were at least. He tilted his head to the side and looked around the fair. No one else was dressed like him, but that didn’t mean anything. “Besides isn’t whimsy unpredictable? I’m at least predictable.” And also he wasn’t much of a playful person either. He knew that he was the way he was because of the way he was raised. He was supposed to be like this, but it made things more fun, he thought. “Anyways, I think I’m fun, not whimsy. All us writers are  dramatic.” He shrugged.

          “Well that’s rude. I’m pretty sure my sister would be grossed out.” But he hadn’t spoken to her in a while and it was awkward. “I would never laugh at you.” That wasn’t in his nature. “Besides, I’d kiss you.” 

          “No! I’m not making fun of you. Really. They look good on you. On me, sweaters don’t look that good. I didn’t pick out my wardrobe. Not all of it, that was mostly my mother.” Back when he lived at home at least. “I only wear blue.” 

“Okay, fine, you’re fun and not whimsical.” Phineas said, although he still felt that whimsy was a word that could be used to describe Basil, at least sometimes. It certainly wasn’t one that could be applied to Phineas. Sure, there were people who would think that growing up in a lighthouse would lead to some whimsy, but that was decidedly not the case. It was a lot of work, and there were schedules that needed to be kept. Of course, he’d been given a lot of free reign to run around and do as he pleased with his sister, there were only so many things that could be done on an island.

“Our sisters are different sorts of people.” They also had different relationships with their twins, and their families. His heart ached for Basil, and his sister, when he thought about the distance between them, and what Basil was going through with his family. Family was everything to Phineas. “I know you would. But it would be gross.”

“Well of course my sweaters wouldn’t look good on you, they were made for me. I will make sure you get a blue sweater that’s made for you, then.”

[phineaskaplan]

vasilvalek​:

        𝐈𝐅 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐈𝐒 responsible for this stupid spell, he’d happily offer to INCINERATE them alive as punishment for the little trick. He’s not the only one suffering the effects—Other shifters with their half transformations FORCED upon them, are having perhaps even a harder time. The scales adorning the skin on his back with the patches on his forearms are ANNOYING enough, but the guy in front of him seems to fall into the ‘having it worse’ category. It wasn’t until said individual calls him out that Vasil realized he was staring. Blinking, the male clears his throat while walking closer, shrugging. ❝ Don’t mind me, I’m just trying to figure out what kind of shifter you are—You are a shifter, right? ❞ That ear wasn’t that of a wolf, certainly, it was too SMALL. ❝ Name’s Vasil, by the way. Dragon. ❞ The platinum blond inserts with an offered hand in greeting.

xx

At least he was attempting to be polite about it. “What, the fur wasn’t give away enough?” Phineas joked. “Yeah, I’m a shifter. Otter.” He said, anticipating his follow up question. It wasn’t something that many folks guessed, his being an otter shifter. “Phineas. I figured you were a dragon, what with the scales.” He said, taking the offered hand to shake, although he didn’t grip it for as long as formality would dictate. “Ouch. Running a little hot there, mate?” He said, shaking his hand out after dropping the dragons hand. He knew that some dragons ran hotter and some ran cooler (and some were more prone to shock you) but he didn’t think it was enough to be noticeably burning like that.

[phineaskaplan]

sageisaacs​:

Sage stopped. It seemed her name preceded her. “Yep, that’s me. I didn’t know I had gotten so famous.” It was such a small world, she couldn’t pin down how he could know of her. Maybe he was a fan of the Ludares team. Disappointingly, she hadn’t stood out much last year, but she was training vigorously to make her mark this year. “What about your name?”

“Oh I wouldn’t say that.” Phineas said, sighing internally. Well, fuck. This wasn’t going to be awkward at all. “Phineas Kaplan.” He said, and then wondered if Baz had ever mentioned him to her. “I’m- uh, friends with your brother.” And he’d kissed his sister. Because of course. I mean, it was just a kissing booth, nothing was actually going to happen between them. But he couldn’t help feeling weird about it.

[phineaskaplan]

nicasiacastellanos​:

          Nicasia wasn’t used to not being able to turn in her assignment whenever she wanted to. She wanted to be able to turn her work in whenever it was finished. That’s how homeschooling had worked for her. If she needed more time, she needed more time. The blonde looked at her homework, trying to figure out what she was even supposed to be doing with it. None of her professors seemed to explain things very well. She looked awful and she knew it, one of these days someone needed to take pity on her. 

          She put her head down on her desk for a moment and then heard someone answer the question. “Um, I haven’t declared a major yet. Maybe politics. Maybe fashion. Haven’t decided.” She didn’t know how to sleep when she had too many classes she was supposed to be focusing on even if she’d taken the minimum. “I was homeschooled before this.” And even that bad been a lot at times. “How am I supposed to do anything if I sleep though?” 

xx

“Politics is going to be a lot more work than fashion.” Phineas said, shifting his seat so that he was facing her more head on. “Hey, I was homeschooled too. Well, it was a bit of a hybrid situation, actually. I grew up on an island, there aren’t a whole lot of kids in the same grade at any given time. But I totally get where you’re coming from. It’s hard to just to being in college after that, isn’t it?” He said, offering her a sympathetic smile.

“Well, you either decide when to sleep and take a break, or your body is going to decide it for you, and it’s going to be at a really incontinent time.” And put students that were already overwhelmed deeper into the hole that they were desperately trying to claw their way out of. It wasn’t pretty. Phineas, despite barely knowing this student, decided that he wasn’t going to let that happen to her. “Part of it is that you shouldn’t be doing everything all at once.”

[phineaskaplan]

sebastian-mann​:

“It’s blatant misinformation and conspiracy, for one,” Sebastian defended, turning to the newcomer. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be one of the faculty to get him in trouble for removing flyers. Or maybe most of the faculty would find his little moth dad funny. He held up the poster so the other could see it. “Also, some student had to really be creeping to get this photo of Professor Mann.” Mann wasn’t looking directly at the camera and it seemed candid. At least Sebastian hoped it was a student who did this. Oh he really hoped Dad didn’t post this stupid joke.

xx

“That’s a piece of garbage.” Phineas agreed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you think that you were in trouble or anything. Do you want help looking for more?” He offered, feeling bad that he’d upset someone who was just doing the right thing. And it really was an awful flyer, and now that the knew that they were posted around campus he felt like he should help get rid of them. “Maybe, but it also could just just been from the background of another photo. Not that I agree with it!” He said, holding his hands up when he realized how that might come off.

[phineaskaplan]

dragonwithnodungeon​:

That was a fair point, there really wasn’t a point to cocoa without Marshmallows, Rosie shrugged a little bit she only ever really got cocoa when she was home withher mom.

Rosie smiled and took his hand “Rosie Marina-Manx,” Rosie introduced herself as well 

“and i’m afraid not, more into business and agriculture.” Rosie explained to him with a shrug “Mom’s a florist, dad’s the head of a jewelry empire, so I figured didn’t have much choice.” Rosie explained though she did enjoy her classes mostly, playing around with business knowledge and how to run a shop and have a better understanding of what both her parents did.

xx

“Well it’s been a pleasure to meet you, Rosie, even if these circumstances are less than ideal.” Phineas said, with a grin. “Oh yeah? We always have a choice, but there’s nothing wrong with following in the family footsteps, either.” A florist and a jeweler. That was certainly an interesting pair. “You might know one of my buddies then. He’s a giant by the name of Nicky, he’s a botany grad student, practically lives in the greenhouse. He’s hard to miss.”

“My parents run a lighthouse. So I guess I’m sort of taking inspiration from my parents for my studies, too.” Not that Phineas was studying lighthouses, but growing up in one had certainly been a factor in his fascination with history.

[maxbegone]

TK STRAND IN EVERY EPISODE → (15/?)

[phineaskaplan]

“Can I help you with something?” Phineas asked, turning to look in the direction he’d felt the stare coming from. He was rather something to look at right now, he knew, stuck with the partial shift like he was. He’d been avoiding mirrors and reflective surfaces as much as possible. He was well aware that there was a patch of fur on the side of his face, going up to his ear, which wasn’t his human ear but his otter one. (And man was he getting a headache from that hearing difference)

[phineaskaplan]

sageisaacs​:

Sage smiled as she pulled back. That was pretty good for a kiss under such conditions. She wouldn’t mind seeing him again, if he could get past the sad puppy dog vibe. “Welp,” she said, popping the ‘p’, “thank you for your time.” She started to walk away backwards with a wave. “Oh, and I’m Sage, by the way.”

xx

Sage. It couldn’t be. Could it? It wasn’t a small school, but it wasn’t exactly a large one, either. Now that he was looking more closely at her, there was something familiar in the shape of her face. Fuck. “Sage. Not Sage Isaacs?” Phineas asked her, leaning forward a bit as she was starting to walk away and he could not let that happen. Not before he got answers.

[phineaskaplan]

pastrywix​:

“I am so sorry,” Felix told him finally able to form coherent sentences as he stood up “I just- I tripped and- and then Sploosh!” Felix said miming an explosion with his hands almost as he still semi freaked out continuing to emphasize that it was an accident in case they changed their mind about being cool with all of this. 

“so I just- I uh….can I make it up to you some how?” Felix asked awkwardly he mentioned enchanted yarn so hopefully that meant it wasn’t a huge issue other than he was covered in smoothie? Felix wasn’t sure he could handle a dry cleaning bill but he was sure if he called mama angie she could tell him how to clean it.

xx

“Yeah, I gathered that much.” Phineas said, deadpan. He’d watched it happen. It was one of those things that would have been in slow motion, if it was a film or a tv show. But it was real life, and no one had cast any spells, so the whole thing happened in a matter of seconds and Phineas couldn’t do anything but stand there as it happened. He was really glad that Ma had never stopped using the enchanted yarn. Then again, she knew how much he loved the sweaters that she made for him, and that he could be accident prone, due to how he could get lost in his thoughts.

“I don’t suppose you have a pair of pants with you?” He ventured. Not that he thought that anything he had would actually fit on him, but he didn’t have time to get back to his apartment before class, and he’d really rather not attend it covered in smoothie.

[sebastian-mann]

Sebastian stared at the poster tacked to the tree in confusion. BIRDS AREN’T REAL: Wake Up, Katmere! It proudly proclaimed. Below was a picture of a pigeon labeled GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE DRONE. This really was a stretch as far as conspiracy theories went. How could anyone, especially paranormals, fall for such a baseless idea? They’ve lived to see governments rise and fall, and seen birds way before any electronics existed. The worst part of the poster, though, was probably the sharpied in -but Mothman is! next to a sticker of his dad’s head photoshopped onto a shadowy mothman figure. He rolled his eyes and moved to remove the poster, declaring, “This is fucking ridiculous.”

[phineaskaplan]

“What did that flyer ever do to you?” Phineas asked, coming to a stop next to the student. He’d just been minding his own business when movement out of the corner of his eye had caught his attention. He hadn’t looked at the poster before he’d spoken, but now he glanced at the poster and understanding dawned. “Oh.” It wasn’t like it was a flyer for a school sanctioned event, which is what he’d originally worried about being torn down. Honestly, he had no idea what the flyer was on about, but it was clear that it was garbage and not sanctioned to be there.

[nicasiacastellanos]

location: library

time: afternoon 

status: open

          Nicasia was finding that the whole college experience was different than she expected. She went from stressed about classes to bored with classes in a matter of minutes. Was that normal? She wasn’t used to school actually being stressful, since school back home was just her dad. Her hair fell over her face and she knew that she looked like she hadn’t gotten sleep in at least a couple of days, which probably wasn’t far from the truth. “Is all of college like this?” she asked, looking at one of the other library dwellers by her table. “I haven’t slept in like four days.” 

[phineaskaplan]

Phineas had a bit of a knack for spotting freshmen, and it wasn’t just because he occasionally stood in a room full of them. There was just something about the way that they walked around campus, almost as if they were afraid of their own shadow. They lacked the confidence of the students who were more familiar with the campus. Oh, sure, they had bravado, but they were easy enough to see through with a trained eye.

Or, like this student, they were exhausted and struggling with balancing their schedules. He gave her a sympathetic smile from where he was camped out at his own table. “Depends on what you’re majoring it. It does get better, once you learn to juggle everything, but you still tend to lose sleep more often than not. That said, if I could give you a bit of advice? Don’t pull all nighters. Set an alarm and get at least a couple hours of sleep, so that your brain has a chance to process all that information you tried to cram into it.”