Fitting In

"Aside from the bedroom and Friday herself this is the most important place in the house!"

Jubilee laughed as she nodded looking around. "This is it! The kitchen!" She smiled looking around but trying to stay out of everyone's way... though they all smiled and waved to her. "It's so much bigger than I thought but... it doesn't 'feel' big. It feels homey and comfortable even though as you said it's probably one of the busiest and most important places in the house."

Penny smiled and nodded. "It is and not just because of the importance of the kitchen and the work that goes on in it."

Jubilee raised an eyebrow but nodded as she looked around. "Ahh... I understand. It's because of who is in it."

Penny nodded. "Precisely. It is not just the wonderful cooking staff but the maid team as well. I do my baking in here and help where I can. Walter loves to cook as well as you have no doubt noticed and practically runs on coffee. Neo is often in here filming. Sasha, Nora and Ilulu are often lurking nearby. So many of our important moments and decisions seem to be made right here in the kitchen."

Jubilee nodded. "That makes perfect sense to me! I'd like to help out where I can, if I may... at least until I find something to do permanently if I'm not needed that is?"

Penny clapped and Kali smiled saying, "Nonsense! You're more than welcome here! Even the troublesome lurkers like Sasha, Nora and Ilulu are welcome... but don't let on. It's part of the game." She winked making Jubilee laugh. "Do you have much experience?"

Jubilee shook her head. "Not really... I hate to admit it but I kind of hated cooking before. It was just a chore to me. I didn't realize until I became a mother." She smiled. "Cooking is powerful. It can make such a big influence on the people I care most about! From my baby to my family and friends. The cooking that I do touches their lives everyday, sometimes multiple times a day! Telepathy and mental psychic powers? Hah. Childs stuff! Show me the person who doesn't feel something when they're presented with their favorite meal, especially home cooked! So I'm a bit rough around the edges but I'll give it my all!"

Willow smiled and nodded. "Well said... I am just starting to rediscover that joy for myself."

Kali nodded smiling at Jubilee. "So you've started to travel the path of the wife and mother who cooks. Then we'll definitely have a place for you here... we'll teach you all the tricks that a housewife keeps up her sleeve!"

"Oho!" Penny clapped along with several of the others. "That is fantastic news! Many of us are here for specifically that training, myself included!"

Jubilee blinked. "Housewife?!" But then she nodded slowly smiling and giggled. "Yeah... I don't know if I thought about it like that before but that's exactly the kinda stuff I want to learn! The 'secret arts and powers of housewifelyness'!"

Kali grinned. "Senko? Room for another pupil?"

Senko beamed. "Oh, yes! Anyone who wants it that sincerely is most welcome! Please do come join us, deary!"

Kali winked at Jubilee. "You're in luck! We can all teach you... but Senko here is literally a divine 'housewife' and 'happy homemaker'. If you've got her blessing you'll do well!"

Jubilee grinned. "Thank you all so much! But," she looked at Penny and took her hand. "I think there's something I need to do first." She started whispering into Penny's ear.

Pennt smiled and nodded. "Yes! I am certain we can do that!"

"... and over here is the studio," Manami said.

"Whoa," Gwen said looking around the large and eclectic building. "What do you do in here?"

Neo smiled texting. [For now this is where we make our 'content']

Manami nodded. "Right... but it was originally an art studio Walt built for his wife. Apparently she was very creative! Drawing, painting, sculpting... she even did welding and other things."

There was a picture of her that Manami and Neo had hung up. They all kind of looked at her for awhile. The resemblance to Gwen was more than a bit uncanny, like an older sister, but the smiling woman in the picture didn't seem to mind. She was laughing at something with a smudge of paint or clay on her face.

Neo smiled. [It was hers first so we thought she should still "Be here"]

Manami smiled nodding. "Walter tends to avoid the building sadly. If you go through the paintings, drawings and even sculptures a lot of them are... eclectic. From really odd to interesting. She even had a love of creepy things. But a lot of the classical stuff you can see that he was a favorite model of hers."

Gwen smiled. "I see... he probably has a lot of memories here. Still... he let you all make use of it? That's sweet."

Neo shrugged but nodded. [He said it was what she would have wanted.] She took Gwen's hand and led her to their area. They'd set-up their computers and recording equipment and even a small Soundstage and recording booth as well as-

"Whoa!" Gwen smiled seeing the drumset. "Nice!"

Manami smiled. "They're Walt's. He has a bunch of instruments over there and apparently was quite the amatuer musician but only occasionally plays anything... though Sasha said he's sometimes carrying a harmonica around. Apparently he played a little during a "fishing/drinking trip". Anyway he said you could play with them all you wanted. Want to play?"

Gwen grinned. Her fingers twitched. She really wanted to try them out but- "Maybe in a little bit. Right now I want to see what it is you guys do "creating content", if that's okay?"

Neo grinned and Manami pulled out her camera. [Let's do both!]

Gwen blushed but then laughed. "Yeah, ok! That works! One drum solo coming up!"

"...And that brings us to the gymnasium," Pyrrha stopped and looked at Jen. "What's so funny?"

Jennifer Walters laughed. "The damn home gym is a fullsize gymnasium! But honesty I expected nothing less after the obstacle course, shooting range and everything else!" She waved her hand in the direction that they'd just come.

Nora laughed too. "It IS a bit much, ain't it?!"

Pyrrha blinked then giggled. "Maybe so! But it's not like there isn't room and long, long ago apparently there were tons of people living and working here. Quite a few Starks were builders and architects and even more were athletes, warriors and soldiers. They trained hard, played hard, fought hard and-"

Nora nodded sobering up looking towards where the Stark family cemetary lay. "Died hard, too. We took a jog up there once to check it out... damn there's a lot of stones up there going back ages. Apparently there's bunches of old war journals and campaign notes in the library. Lawmen, soldiers, sailors, explorers, adventurers. I'm not one for old books but reading some of those stones makes me a bit curious. There's one up there where the 'date of death' was scratched out six times before the seventh one finally took! Musta been a real wildman."

Sasha smiled. "Or a real hardcase... or both! What a large family it must have been... how sad it eventually dwindled down to one." They all were quiet for a moment looking around ranch... as if they could peel back the veil of time and see countless people working, building and going about their lives. The main family, the branch families, the workers and ranchhands. Sasha shivered. "Sometimes when it's quiet and I look at some of the old photographs around I almost feel like... nah, forget it! If there's any ghosts they ain't shown themselves to me so they must be happy we're here. C'mon! Let's go in!"

Ilulu blinked as the others went inside the gym. "Huh? I guess they don't see them... oh, well. It's not like Sasha's wrong." She smiled and joined the others.

Jen chuckled. "Yep. It's what I figured. Overkill." She took in the large gymnasium. There was a plethora of space and exercise/sports equipment but it looked like a large area had been recently cleared and- "what the...? Are those-?"

"Wheee!" Ilulu ran towards the stripper poles and grabbed one to play around. "So fun!"

Nora laughed, Pyrrha blushed a little but Sasha shrugged. "Yep. That's what they are."

Nora nudged Pyrrha with her elbow chuckling at her blushing friend. "Can you believe it they were this ones idea? But Ilulu's right they are pretty fun!"

Jen blinked. "Wait what? You did this? Not Walt?"

Pyrrha sighed and nodded watching Nora run of to join Ilulu. "Yes... Walt still has no idea. He generally gets his training in at the base so we have the run of the place."

Sasha nodded. "And boy howdy we watched some of his training not to long ago. Guy's a beast for a reason. Anyway we been practicing dancing on a semi-regular basis. Some of it's... well, that kind. But we've also been studying all kinds of dancing. Waltzes, tango, folk dances and modern stuff. Honestly I thought it was a bit nuts but you were right, Pyrrha. My balance has improved and sharpened significantly! And it's nice to keep up with Walter. He's an incredible dancer!"

Pyrrha was still blushing but she smiled. "Thanks, Sasha!" She laughed. "Honestly that was my original intent as an athlete... I didn't know what the others were talking about with 'exotic' dancing but when I said I wanted to learn they promised to teach... and honestly it's all been fun!"

Jen smiled and nodded. "Yeah... Walters not the kind of guy who'd insist on making you all learn exotic dancing. He really has no idea?"

Pyrrha giggled. "It's been fun for us thinking how much it'll surprise him! I am sure he knows we're practicing dancing but he hasn't caught on to all of it yet. Friday even had retractable poles installed at various places in the house. Someday we'll really surprise him!"

Jen laughed. "We sure will! I'm in! I have to admit it does sound fun! I bet Gwen and Jubes will be as well!" She did pause. "This is for his private viewing though right?"

Sasha nodded. "Yeah. There are some working up a 'dance routine' and Neo's been up to scheming something. But nobody's being made to do anything they don't want to do or show others. It really has been fun on a lot of different levels and a great bonding experience. In addition to our 3S classes we told you about."

Pyrrha nodded. "It really has and we kind of decided to start doing other things together as well. Like practicing for Shogo and learning cooking basics, we decided we might start trying to play some games. We have access to various sports courts and fields as well as equipment. We can try new things and activities together and have fun doing them."

"Like skydiving the otherday!" Nora said hanging from one of the poles upside down showing of her sexy, legs.

"That was so fun-ack!" Ilulu tried doing the same thing but her enormous tits smacked her the face. "Dang it!" She said her voice muffled, waving her arms comically. "I keep forgetting it doesn't work quite the same for me!"

They all shared a good laugh... including Ilulu. "I know!" She said hopping off the pole. "Maybe we can all go play a game? I'll call Raven!"

Jen blinked. "Game?"

Pyrrha giggled. "Certain little groups of friends have been forming around certain activities. I somehow became the leader of the "exercise crew" with Nora, Sasha and others which is pretty self-explanatory. Ilulu, Shasha and Nora are in the 'game club' with others including Raven and Neo where they try to play different types of games as well as the... what did you call the snack thing again?"

Sasha grinned pointing at herself with her thumb. "We were calling it the sisterhood of snackers but we're changing it again because we hope Walt will join" and she shot a look at Nora, "and because some still have problems with basic sharing! So we're now the Snack Appreciation Society!"

Nora groaned hoping off the pole rolling her eyes. "What? I totally share now! Besides you ain't that great at it either! You always give me the smaller half of your snack!"

Sasha pointed at her. "At least I give you a "half"! You totally left a slice of that pie for ilulu and I to share the other day... after you ate the whole rest of the pie!"

Pyrrha facepalmed. "Nora!"

Nora shrugged. "What... ? I tried! It was a fresh pie! I'm not made of stone ya know!"

Jen laughed seeing the silly dynamic already. Pyrrha nodded, "Anyway... moving on. Those who hang out in the library have formed a "book club" of sorts. Sasha weren't you breifly a member of that?"

Sasha blinked tapping her chin and forgetting her mock fight with Nora. "Was I? Oh, yeah! I went once. They like to have wine and little snacks and I like both of those things so I asked to join and maybe get someone from them to come to our Snack Appreciation Society... but it didn't work out so great."

Jen was already laughing but she had to ask, "Oh? What happened?"

Ilulu asked, "You didn't eat all their snacks did you?"

Sasha shook her head and thumped her chest proudly. "Of course not! I have some self control when I'm not starving!" But she scratched her head. "But... they were kinda disappointed when I hadn't read the actual book past the first page... then Glynda chewed me out when I told them I thought it was a great book because it was just right for holding down the lid on my instant noodles."

Pyrrha sighed looking at Nora. "I see you have been sharing your expertise."

Nora nodded smugly. "That's right! I figured that out with our text books back in the day!"

Jen laughed and adressed the fourth wall. "I might have to consider joining these nuts just to watch this! Comedy gold!"

Sasha rubbed the back of her neck. "Well... I haven't been invited back since. But it wasn't a total loss... Ahnassi said that maybe if we added drinking to the snacking she'd consider joining or we could just make a circle of friends who enjoy trying different drinks instead. So there's that. She also said Glynda loosens up when drinking and Sienna and several others would likely join."

Nora shrugged. "Wouldn't that just mean we'd suddenly have a bunch a boozers though? Plus the Snack Appreciation and Drinking Society is just SADS, ain't it? That don't feel quite right... and forming a group that likes to drink... ain't that just a circle of drinking buddies?"

Pyrrha was about to point out that's the same thing as a group of friends who hangout eating different snacks but Jen grabbed her arm laughing and shaking her head. Pyrrha smiled and nodded starting to laugh too.

Ilulu cheered ending her call. "Raven said playing some games was a good idea and was super excited about it!"

"Oh, yeah?" Sasha asked. "How could you tell?"

Ilulu blinked then nodded. She grabbed her cloak and put the hood up like Raven usually did but Ilulu seldom did. Ilulu tried her best to make a bored expression on her face and said flatly, "Well that is one idea. *Sigh* I suppose there's no helping it. You probably won't let it go until we actually do it or something even worse. Woo hoo... I'm so excited..." she grinned. "See? She said she was excited! She even said 'Woo hoo'!!"

"Cool!" Said Sasha grinning. "And Jen's strong so I know which game we should play!"

[Walter Stark Penny Polendina F.R.I.D.A.Y Neopolitan Pyrrha Nikos Nora Valkyrie Yang Xiao Long Blake Belladonna Kali Belladonna Sienna Khan Willow Schnee Glynda Goodwitch Zwei Ahnassi Lifts-Her-Tail Senko Sayoko Shinozaki Roberta Cisneros Haruna Sasha Blouse Ilulu Rachel "Raven" Roth Manami "La Brava" Aiba Tsuyu "Froppy" Asui Haruhime Sanjouno Anastasia "The Baroness" Cisarovna/DeCobray Demona Mystique Pirotess Lydia Aela the Huntress Serana Mission Vao Curie Ada PAM KL-E-O Merida Gwen "Gwenom" Stacy Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee and Jennifer "She-Hulk" Walters

Will Return In

Getting Comfortable

Coming Soon]