Chương 894: Day Eight Hundred And Ninety-Two

Dear Diary, On the one hand, I know that Saffron telling me to wait to cast Status is for my own good. She's my wife, my love, my life, and I trust her with everything that I am. But on the other hand I wish my fuckin' anxiety would shut the fuck up and stop winding me up. I'm not sure if I'm going to be better or worse by Yule. I mean, on the one hand I'm doing good stuff right now. The kids helped Marie and I with dinner, not to mention stockpiling our bread reserves.

Yeah, I figure if we keep making two days worth every day, we'll have like a week's worth of bread by the time Yule hits, which will give us a couple days of lazing around doing nothing but eating and playing board games and shit. We've also started cooking some big ass hunks of meat. Like, I think we did four whole turkeys today. Four birds, and bigger than chickens. Maybe they're geese. Maybe they're swans.

I got no clue, only that after slicing up enough to feed everybody, we had like two birds worth of meat left. Speaking of board games, I grabbed a couple for the fam, not to mention more for the orphanages. Othello, Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, Backgammon, Go, and Scrabble. A few nice chess and checkers sets as well. I also got a couple RPGs for Maze, because if any of my girls are gonna get their sisters into that, it's her.

I'm also getting her some books on writing, because while I'm not sure she's been writing, I know she asked me for more ink cartridges for her pen today. So I'll be getting her those, too. David's gonna be surprisingly easy to buy for, I think. She's just had a little growth spurt, not anything next to the weeds that are the kits, but enough that her smaller outfits are on the small side now. So I'm getting her a whole variety pack of super girly clothes.

Like, everything that my mom would have had to shoehorn me into back in the day. Shit, I'm definitely oscillating a little today, probably from suppressed anxiety, because I just made myself a little morose thinking about how much I wish my mom could see my kids. Also, I know Marie is probably making her clothes, too, but her eyes have lit up every time she gets a new dress, or skirt, or fancy blouse, so I'm thinking that's a no brainer.

Speaking of, in the same kinda way I'm getting board games for all the orphanages, I'm also gonna snag a bunch of the same kinds of all weather jumpsuits that I got for the Homestead women last year. A bunch of adult sized ones in varying sizes for the Clergy and temple volunteers, and smaller ones for the kids, because it would just suck if the only reason the kids can't play in the snow is not wanting to lose their fingers. Gloves and mittens, too.

I'm also gonna get some of that fancy thermal underwear for everybody at the Homestead, too. The women, the ladies, the kids, all of them. I'm also gonna bring a bunch of big assed thermal blankets, enough that every room in the Homestead should have at least one. Yeah, I might be going overboard. On the other hand, I'm finally in a place where I can get stuff for everybody I care about and not have to worry about 'will I have food money for later' or 'are they gonna twig to the fact that I'm Mimic'.

Yeah, the really worst part of me wants to get Anise and Felicia partner shirts that say things like 'I'm with stupid' and 'I'm stupid', but that is not the kind of mom I want to be. My sister would get me that kind of present, and I'd get her the same, and we were absolutely bitches to one another. But I'm thinking whatever I get one of them I need to get the other, because whatever Anise does, Felicia finds herself 'needing' to do.

But then they're both pretty active, so maybe I can get them some kind of two player... Wait, that's it! I'll grab a couple gaming tables. A pool table, a ping pong table, maybe a dart board or three, then get each of them their own custom stuff for it. Yeah, there will obviously be some generic 'everybody uses them' pool cues and ping pong paddles, but I'll get each of them their own. Then my only problem will be getting their competitive asses out of whatever room we put that stuff in. Love this story?

Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Y'know, I'm actually feeling pretty good about the whole gifting thing this year. Not only have I mostly managed to have some kind of birthday party for each of my kids, but I've also managed to come up with gifts for all but six of my list. I've even preemptively stolen some of them and hidden them away in places they will absolutely not think to look. Okay, I hope they won't look.

I'm not even gonna say it here, because if I don't say it out loud inside my own head, Menace won't be able to stare into my eyes and read my brain to find her present. Then again, that's a good reason I've left her for late in the list, right? Way better than 'I have no fuckin' clue what to get her'. Seriously, I think it's gonna wind up being another book about animals. Maybe a bunch of them.

Seriously, the Menace is just so much of a 'make your own fun' kind of kid that any toy I get her, she's' gonna wind up playing with the box. Fuck, somehow my most feline daughter is not the one with actual cat bits. Last night as we finished up in the Bath, Saffron quietly thought, Karen. So dictatorial. Saffron chuckled, pulling me down for a kiss as she thought, no, dictatorial was me deciding I go last. This is just me recommending you not argue with Marie about which of you goes tonight and which tomorrow.

Up in the Bedroom... Wait, I'm not really sure if the Bedroom is up. No, I'm pretty sure I put it right above the roof, so it would mostly be up. So at any rate, up in the Bedroom I looked at Karen, who lounged on the Bed idly glancing through one of the romance novels from the headboard. She didn't seem super eager to start, so I asked, "you sure you want to do this?" She blinked, obviously startled.

"Oh, absolutely."

"You didn't really seem that interested just then, though?" She chuckled and reshelved the book. Definitely picked the right present for her.

"Apologies, Goddess. No, I just... I'm not sure..." She paused, then shook her head.

"No, I'm certain I want this. Definitely certain. I'm just at odds about other things." I flopped next to her on the bed.

"What things? I'm supposed to be your Goddess. If I can't outright fix shit, at least I can let you bend my ear about it. I might even have some advice." She sighed.

"I could use some good advice."

"Hey, hey, hey, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I said advice. I make no claims as to its quality; it's not like I've tried it." She laughed, and reached out to wrap her arms around my neck, pulling me in for a kiss. After. Hands and tentacles hovering, I thought, are you sure? So far the typical 'after' response has been needing a nap. After that then. She actually meant that, too.

I dropped her sleepy ass off in bed with Siobhan, with Hailee to look after both of them if they needed it, and headed off to my day of construction work along with everything else I'd been doing for the past few days. Not long after noon Karen showed up carrying some really fancy paninis. Ones which I hadn't made.

"Where'd you get those?" She just stared at me for a second, then barked out a laugh.

"Really, Goddess? Did you forget that your Temple has one of the finest restaurants in Phileo?" Yeah, I shut up and ate. While she talked to me about her romantic difficulties. Like, not getting laid. Shit, if anything she was maybe a bit satiated on that score. But apparently she was feeling some kinda way about not having a partner to sit around snuggling with, talking to, maybe making a home of her own with.

"What about your hairy dudes?" She snorted.

"Well, other than how one of them is married already?"

"Oh. No. Not that. Do you not like his wife or something?" She laughed at that.

"Oh, nothing like that. She's sweet enough, I guess. They all are. But..." She trailed off, and while waiting for her reply we finished up our food, and when I got back to work she joined me. Eventually, sort of out of nowhere, she muttered, "all four of them together might not lose too badly were I to engage them all at once in a battle of wits." I shrugged.

"Do you think they care about that?" She got a speculative look.

"More importantly, do you?" Late in the day, as we were hopping back along lighting all the hearth fires, she asked, "should I?" I laughed about that.

"Yeah, that's one I can't answer for you, Karen. Care about them? Definitely, especially if you're going to be more than fuck buddies. But care about whether they're smart or not? Only you can say if that's a dealbreaker for you or not." She still looked conflicted, until I stepped over to her, took her by the shoulders, looked deep in her eyes, and said, "remember the First Commandment."

"Which one's that again?" I smiled and said, "do as you will." Dunno if there's gonna be another wedding at some point in the future, but she really seemed a lot happier after I said that.