The Luckiest Girl In The World

If you want to show up early, you can grab a paint roller or a set of allen wrenches and help out!

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A combination of cooking, out-of-the-package heating up, and some judicious help from downstairs, they had a decent spread laid out.

ham and gruyere thumbprints, bacon-wrapped potatoes, spicy pork bulgogi rice bowls, a pot roast with roasted veggies and a side of bacon risotto and a harvest salad.

For dessert there was a dessert pizza and a platter of piping-hot bungeoppang

Sit down at their new Ikea table in their new Ikea chairs, both of which had probably just been put together that afternoon, and have a lovely dinner. Possibly while wondering why Kathy keeps looking at the pot roast and then laughing at Raven.

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No world ending! Especially since I'm running around at a larp con and it can't end before I finish my games!

SP warning in effect, at least for me.

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that_oldsaying

Alluka had shown up early! Mostly because... well, because she liked being helpful, she really did. Also she liked getting hugs from Kathy and Raven had been fun on the IKEA trip, so why wouldn't she show up early?

And once she'd been shown how to use a paint roller (she'd carefully stuck Mr. Bubbles somewhere safe so he wouldn't get paint on himself) she was doing pretty okay at helping!

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that_oldsaying

"Fishies are dessert?" Alluka asked curiously.

Also she was noticing the total lack of chocolate on this table, Kathy.

Kathy, that was sad. Not surprising, but sad.

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Ringo had, of course, shown up early to help. After all, there was furniture to be assembled, and Ringo was pretty good with tools.

But now she was scowling at the paper with instructions. "These don't make any sense! How is this even supposed to work?" She built impossibly complicated AirTrek systems for fun and she couldn't figure out what she was supposed to do with all these stupid screws.

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Ringo grinned over at Alluka. "We can always go get some on our own on the way home," she pointed with a little laugh.

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Ringo had firmly claimed the Ikea chair that she'd put together herself. She'd spent way too long wrestling with similarly-sized screws and identical-looking pieces of wood that weren't actually interchangeable not to look sort of smug.

She'd sure showed that furniture who was boss!

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Raven was liberally splattered with paint even by the time the pre-party people arrived. On the one hand, at least her clothes wouldn't stain.

On the other, the latex paint was proving a pain to wash off her scales, too.

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Raven shot Kathy the occasional amused dirty look, and heaped her plate with bacon-wrapped potatoes.

She'd ask Kathy again why the whole menu was pig-based later.

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Raven peeked over her shoulder. "So . . . I get the whole 'not everyone can read the same language' theory, but they could have at least some words, right?"

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Once she'd confirmed that any paint currently on her hands was dry, Raven sidled up next to Alluka, as though hiding a secret.

"Psst," she whispered. "Look what I ended up getting."

And she held up a little stuffed toy cactus.

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Eliot showed up early with two sets of tools and two aprons -- one for construction, one for cooking. Not that he didn't expect Kathy and Raven were perfectly capable of handling either on their own, but, well. ~~It was a dad thing.~~ He liked to be helpful.

"Handyman's on deck," he called when he came in. "Where do you girls need me?"

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"NOPE," Raven said, pointing a butter covered paint brush at him with a paint covered hand. "MY KITCHEN. OUT."

That pot roast was going to be dry as a bone and tough as leather but she was going to make it, dammit. Kathy wanted a dinner party and Raven was going to do her part.

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Eliot set down the cooking tools and apron, raised his now free hand, and laughed. "Yes'm." He knew better than to argue with that tone. "Just -- that roast is gonna be a little --"

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"SILENCE!" The butter covered brush waved in the air. "Shoo! Shoooooooo."

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Eliot watched the butter spatter across the cabinets, shook his head -- and shooed.

It looked like there was plenty to do on the furniture construction side anyway.

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Eliot grabbed a little of everything, making sure to make lots of appreciative noises and comment on the lovely smells and presentation.

He even took a decent chunk of that pot roast. He'd eaten worse.

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Kathy, clad in the oldest clothes she could find, slapped her paint roller on the wall and laughed at the spatters. They'd be covered over by fresh paint in a moment, she wasn't too worried.

"Do you wanna wear an old shirt of mine?" Kathy asked. "I'd hate for you to get paint all over your clothes."

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"Are they upside down?" Kathy asked, frowning over the instructions. "Or--I don't know if that picture is even related."

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"Or at least diagrams that make sense," Ringo scowled.

"And what's this supposed to be?" she demanded, holding up a skinny piece of metal. "How is anyone supposed to assemble anything if this is what they give you to do it? Why can't we get some real tools?"

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"Because if you smash your thumb with a hammer you might sue them?" Raven guessed. "It'd be pretty hard to injure yourself with . . . that."

Not impossible. But hard.

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It was even worse with when Kathy attempted to sneak up on Raven and swipe a paint brush down her back.

This would end well.

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"Eliot!" Kathy wailed from the bathroom. "These fixtures are of the devil!"

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