"Okay, so wait a minute. They tied you to a stake to reenact the ultimate culmination of your Great Aunt Cornicopia-"

"Calpurnia." Wednesday corrected calmly as Fin observed the conversation, to giddy about Claire having stuck close to care about interacting much with the others.

"Right, sorry." Kazarious apologized before continuing. "To reenact your Great Aunt Calpurnia's ultimate damnation from the puritans as a witch?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"Didn't she enslave a minister?" Chad asked, grinning once Wednesday confirmed it from where they all stood around the bonfire. "Score on knowing Addams' lore!" He crowed before nudging Kazarious, almost making the young man drop his drink. "Lots of crazy cool stuff to remember. April helped me make flash cards!"

"He does quite well with it all. Better than me at recalling details, sometimes." April complimented before Jace piped up.

"Wait, flash cards?"

"Yeah, there's a lot of Addams family members and I was struggling to keep em all straight in my head. One of them was an opera singer!"

"Yes, Great Uncle Etlelooat was a wonderful singer." Morticia recollected fondly, giving a soft smile to Chad. "He could put a banshee's melodious wails to shame. Such artistic inclinations and talent runs in the family, you know. It only makes sense our dear Chad would continue the grand tradition. Speaking of talent...Kazarious, dear? Chad tells me that you are also a most gifted singer. I do hope it won't be an imposition to request a performance from you two fine young men later this evening? Lurch positively adores playing accompaniment for Chad's rehearsals. I'm certain he would be more than happy to accommodate you, as well."

Kazarious's brow furrowed slightly. "Chad rehearses here? Do you have an insulated room?"

"Why of course not! Then we would be deprived of the absolute pleasure that is the artistic process!" Morticia insisted fervently. "Our piano is in the family room, right where everyone can enjoy it."

"Oh. I mean, yeah, I suppose I could perform a piece later?" He offered, looking a bit sheepish under Morticia's keen gaze.

"Marvelous. I'll be sure to inform Lurch." She assured happily before gliding away.

"Opera, huh?" Jace mused. "Never got that scream-singing stuff. But, then again, I don't get heavy metal and that feels pretty similar." He commented with a shrug. "Might just be that I'm uncultured or something. Never got the hype on plays and shit, either."

Fin chuckled softly at the mild horror on April's face at the declaration, knowing well how she felt about theater. As well as being amused at the matching look from Kazarious that had occurred when Opera was compared to heavy metal. In contrast, Chad had perked up a bit.

"Ya know, I wonder if you could do an operatic version of heavy metal and it work?" Chad mused. "Or like a heavy metal opera. Kazarious, maybe we could ask Doctor Everett about-"

"Nope, don't even go there. The man already just about groans when he sees you coming." He warned. "I don't speak French but I've sung enough to know a string of curses when I hear it."

"What did you manage to do to get this one to dislike you, Princess?" Bren chuckled.

"Look, I just suggested we do an experimental piece-"

"He suggested that we perform Pucchini's Turnadot as if it were happening on Greek Row and the weapons were nerf guns."

"We'd get the fun of nerf guns!! Plus it makes total sense to have some dude obsessed with some upper class sorority babe!" Chad insisted "They do weird Shakespeare adaptations all the time! Why can't we do it with Pucchini?! His stuff is public domain its not like anyone could tell us not to do it!"

"Because its a bit insane to torture people and have someone die for not telling you a frat pledge's name." Kazarious drawled.

"Torture and death? This opera shit suddenly got interesting." Jace mused. "Could the sorority chick be a hot redhead? Everyone always makes them blondes."

"I mean I'd be down for a foxy redhead as the hot sorority president." Chad offered, prompting Kazarious to groan while Bren rolled their eyes.

"Please don't encourage him." Kazarious insisted as April, Claire, Purnima, and Wednesday ignored them all in favor of discussing something else. Fin quietly turned from where poor Chad was, rightfully, getting reamed by Kazarious and Bren to settle a bit closer to Claire.

"-and so then I realized I could make the slider a separate piece from the housing and just pause the print near the end so the slider could be inserted, but there wouldn't be any scaffolding to fuss with working out of it in the end like with the single print prototype."

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He smiled softly "Your slider fidget things?" He guessed, seeing Claire look up at him and nod excitedly.

"Yes! I was just telling them about it. I still haven't decided on a preference for the infill." She confirmed.

"Did you decide to keep the slight slant on the sides? Or did you go back to the original rounded edge design?"

"Oh I'm keeping the slant. It definitely makes the grip better in the hand." She pulled something out of her pocket, offering it up to him. "I brought my two newest prototypes for you to test! One has a higher percentage of infill in comparison to the other and I can't decide which is better." She fretted.

Fin readily accepted the fidgets, testing the weights in his hands as he slid the slide function back and forth. "You got them moving smoother, as well. I'm guessing you used that clear oil stuff you were mentioning before." He mused, considering as he swapped hands to see the difference. "I prefer this one." He finally declared, displaying the one in his left hand.

Claire reached out to flip it over, nodding at the sight of the percentage written on the back in what appeared to be sharpie. "Higher infill, then. I'll keep that in mind, though I want to get some more data on preferences."

Fin startled slightly at the other prototype being suddenly plucked out of his hand, looking over to see Purnima analyzing it. After a moment of testing it out, she gave an appreciative hum.

"Huh. Hey Claire, how much are you looking to sell them for?" Claire stared for a moment, suprised.

"Sell them? I mean, its just a fun, silly project now that I'm more comfortable with designing for my 3D printer. I, um, I hadn't thought about selling them."

"Uh-huh. Anyways you have an interested buyer who has a hyperactive little sister that destroys remote backs from absently sliding them open and closed. Also its a quiet fidget for classes that won't be as visually distracting as a spinner. Can you print it in other colors?"

"I-I, um, yeah. I mean, I have other filaments. One has a thermo-reactive color shift-"

"Oh she'd like that. What colors?"

"It, um, it's green to yellow with heat. I've got glow in the dark and glitter ones, as well."

"Oh great, I could get a handful, then, since she'll definitely lose a few at some point. Let me know when you settle on a final design and price point."

"Handful of what?" Fin startled again at Bren's voice, only to frown as they plucked the other fidget out of his hand. "Oooh, whats this?"

"Id like to point out that its rude to just take things without asking." He declared, only for Bren to wave him off.

"Yeah, super rude. I'll reference some etiquette books late-oh thats fun its a slider thing." They mused before turning around "Hey Jace, catch!"

Jace managed to catch the small projectile, looking at it with confusion "The fuck is this?"

"Just mess with it for a sec."

"Oh shit, thats nice. Where'd you get it?"

"Stole it from Fin. Figured it'd be a good alternative to you playing baton twirler with your pencils during class. Hey Fin where'd you get the fidget thing?"

He sighed, but smiled softly. "Claire is in the process of designing them. They're not on the market."

"Oh so they aren't released yet. Can I hop on a pre-order list?"

"What are we ordering?" Everyone startled a bit at Gomez's booming, jovial tone cutting through the conversation before Purnima readily held the fidget out to him. He fiddled with it for a brief moment before his eyes lit up after figuring out the sliding function. "Oh this is an engineering marvel! I'll order a hundred!"

"A hundred?!"

Fin finally looked back over at Claire, seeing her looking a bit pale. Reaching over, he gently gave her hand a squeeze without thinking.

"Im afraid they aren't for sale at the moment, Gomez. They're prototypes, and the product is still in the design phase. Besides, last I heard Claire's just making them as a fun challenge to refine her 3D modeling skills. If that changes, I'm sure she'll let everyone know." He felt her squeeze his hand back, a light warmth creeping across his cheeks at the action as she relaxed a bit after his intervention.

"I...I might can print a few. It would take a while, since I can only print one at a time, though." She piped up softly, Fin's chest puffing out just a bit as she subtly shifted closer to him.

"Well, no pressure, but if you do manage to print a few you're willing to part with just let me know how much you'd like for one." Purnima insisted, then looked around at everyone. "Okay, I'm bored of sitting here. What now?"

Gomez lit up like an electric chair, beaming. "Ah! Yes! I actually came to tell you that Pugsley and Fester just finished setting up some newfangled sound amplifier and Grandmama has brought out some fun additions to make the fire more interesting! One cannot have a proper bonfire without dancing! Right, Cara Mia?" He called, looking over to a smiling Morticia.

"Precisely, Gomez. Pugsley wanted to be sure to give a warning before playing the music loudly."

"Thanks for the warning, Pugs! Let 'er rip!" Bren insisted, getting a thumbs up from Pugsley before the boy reached over to fiddle with something that looked like a few different gramophones Frankensteined together with a beat up sound system. Within seconds, eclectic but fun music blasted across the grounds. Chad hurried towards a more open space with a grin, dragging a protesting Kazarious along with him "C'mon! Let's dance!!"

Purnima laughed, smirking before snagging April, followed by Jace, by the arm and hauling them along to join in on the fun. By then Chad had dragged Wednesday into dancing, as well. The two basically looking like they were having coordinated spasms out there that somehow still looked compelling enough to be called choreography...of an avant-garde varietal, but still. Fin chuckled, enjoying the resulting oohs and ahhs as Grandmama threw something into the fire it make it temporarily change colors. After a moment, he smiled down at Claire.

"Well, I suppose we can't let them have all the fun. Care to dance?" He melted a bit as she smiled up at him, big grey eyes catching the flash of purple currently in the flames behind him and reflecting them briefly before settling back to their usual sweet silver cast.

"Id love to...though I'll admit, I have no clue how to dance to...goth waltz trance?" She ventured, trying to put a name to the unique musical concoction Pugsley had produced.

"I don't know that there is a right way." He mused, keeping her hand in his as he walked them closer to where the others were having fun. Even April was jumping and swirling around with Purnima. Emboldened, he raised Claire's arm, directing her into a twirl that left her giggling before pulling her in closer. "But I'm sure we can figure something out."