Christmas offer

[kawuli]

I am super busy with work again, in the Netherlands after my wonderful-but-busy vacation in North America. So my fic output is basically nonexistent because I don't have the brainpower for planning.

However, Christmas is coming, despite the fact that it is currently 12 degrees CELSIUS and drizzly (low 50s F). Tis the season for giving, so if there's a fic you want (things on my mind lately include D9 in the war, the Giant Killer Octopus thing, postwar divergence as always, and, randomly, Johanna Mason), or a question you'd like me to ramble about (cephalopods and their amazingness, District 9 in the Dark Days, what the hell I actually do all day with this "work" stuff, etc etc etc) post in the comments and I will attempt to answer.

Also, the new Star Wars is wonderful and you should all see it. 

Comments

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

For something more ramble-able, maybe Rokia picking out/arranging furniture etc, for her house in the Two Village?

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

OK, because it's the weekend and I really don't want to work...

The first thing that gets moved is all the shop stuff from Lyme's garage. This takes a while. And is set up quite carefully.

Then it's the basics: A bed. Kitchen table and chairs. Pots and pans and dishes. A dresser for clothes.

Once that's done Rokia moves in...and kind of stalls.

"You need a couch."

"I have a bunch of pillows and blankets?"

"That doesn't count"

Etc.

The thing is, Rokia's never bought any of this stuff. Phillips furnished her Victors' Village house in 6, she lived in a furnished apartment in the Capitol, and then with Lyme. So the idea that she has to go buy nice (expensive) things for Just Her.....takes a while to settle in.

Probably after a few visits Sara is like "yeah okay, we're going furniture shopping." And they do one trip and buy just a couch. The next visit is something else, Sara brings bookshelves from Seven, toys from Three, seashells from Four, badgers Rokia good-naturedly into picking things up bit by bit until it looks more like a home.

It's pretty simple stuff, well-made, no-frills things. Soft comfy couch and chairs in the living room. There's a fireplace, bookshelves (Sara reads a LOT once they open up the libraries of banned books), a TV off in the corner they don't use much. There probably is an actual dining room but it's the last room to be furnished because they eat in the kitchen. I think there's a little table by the windows.

There's a spare room upstairs Rokia uses as an office/indoor tinkering space. It is usually what she would call "organized chaos" and what Sara calls "a big mess." There's a desk, a worktable, a soldering iron and a datapad (probably multiple ones, eventually) and a bunch of notebooks. Usually some dismantled electronics.

The really messy stuff happens in the garage, which has lots of machine tools and is actually pretty well organized except for the junk that collects in the junk corner in case it comes in handy sometime. (Eibhlin would like to know in what world a cracked engine block is going to come in handy and Rokia just glares at her and says "you never know.")

Heaven help you if you move things in either of these rooms without express permission. The rest of the house Rokia doesn't care that much about but "DID YOU MOVE MY HEX KEYS? WHY CAN'T I FIND THE 3/8" SOCKET?"

Some things are important, okay?

Rokia can make edible food but prefers not to bother. Sara usually cooks when she's around, or Rokia will eat oatmeal and scrambled eggs and ramen and sandwiches, or she shows up around mealtimes at Lyme's house like a stray cat and they both pretend it isn't the cutest thing in the world. Actually, if it's been a couple days since Lyme's seen her she will go over and drag Rokia out of whatever project has eaten her brain and feed her and put her to bed. (This happens less often with time, but old coping mechanisms die hard).

Allie brings fresh vegetables, and Rokia will at least gnaw on carrots and stuff because she would feel horrible letting food that Allie actually grew with her own two hands go to waste. Which Allie exploits to make sure Rokia actually eats vegetables.

For a while when Kadi's a teenager she lives with Rokia so she can go to Beetee's polytechnic. This is terrifying to basically everyone, because Kadi is also a tinkering type and they're likely to be up at odd hours in the garage welding stuff and yelling at each other about how it should go until Kadi has to go to class. Sara eventually institutes official meal and bed times when she's around because she gets tired of having to drag her girlfriend to bed at 2 AM.

There are sheep in the back yard, also, but that's in the other fic.

Basically Rokia is a very competent disaster-human and her house demonstrates that. Is that rambly enough for you?

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh yes, it's totally perfect. Thank you!

Beetee probably shudders a bit at the garage (too much mess!), but he won't say anything, and in fact, will give her free access to the parts bins that Eibhlin and Beetee assembled out of the old Capitol spy devices and war equipment that they disassembled and harvested for wires/screws/other components (and now use to maintain the series of outward-facing security cameras in the woods outside the Village walls).

Beetee and Eib are going to love Kadi, I think.

[kawuli.livejournal.com]

Beetee absolutely does love Kadi but tries not to show it too much, because she's already enough of a terror. She pulls pranks at school like spiderwebbing his entire office with string or assembling a miniature particle accelerator in the janitor's closet. So he tries to be very Srs Bsns but doesn't totally succeed.

Kadi's actually a bit overwhelming for Eibhlin I think--where Rokia rolls with just about whatever Eibhlin proposes, Kadi pushes back harder than Eib's used to. So at first she's like "woah there, how do I deal with someone who won't let me be in charge?" but they figure it out.