#anywhere

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"Oh good lord, what she's done to the kitchen" Earl looks at the house they will be using at Vassaar, Miriam has had time, and time and a nocker are..dangerous

"...Improved it?"

"This is her kitchen, so... so it will be fine, nu?"

"Tell me this is a gift" He says and pulls out a tea set

And he looks at her

"Oh, how lovely!"

"Very Nockeresque..."

"Until it screams like a factory whistle"

A hiss.

"Right.. let's make sure it doesn't do that" He says 'And... I don't even knwo about this... cabinet set up.. do I pull the red strings for the west wall or the right? or is there a.. . I mean, pull rope tech makes sense but..."

"Well, let's see what they do..." TUG.

Sure enough, cabinets swing open, at least some of them do

"Okay...." Tug again. Then try another cord...

Those close, but then she pulls another, and another set of cabinets open.

"Okay, so far working fine, " earl admits, and tugs another. the cabinets that JUST openeed, close, as new cabinets open

"Well, I don't entirely get the point.."

"Ah," earl blinks, suddenly it seems that one set closes, another opens..." I can't seem to get them ALL shut again."

She raises an eyebrow, and then reaches to manually shut a door.

Stuck.

"hold on, maybe that's the green string" He pulls it, and the others on another wall open

even as those shut

"....Her kitchen."

"How... but we have to use it sometime right?" He pulls another, and some pop up, some close up

He sighs "Why can't nockers ever be... simple?"

"Then they would be boggans."

Zara folds her arms, studying the pattern...

"Let's say that I'm really appreciating Hannah and your dad right now"

"Aye?"

"Simple can be nice" He says

mmm mama.. oh there's a pattern here but... well, she knows what Earl did WRONG. He should have waited until the same string was tugged twice before opening another one

"Like the first set, aye..."

She re-tugs the last... maybe she can walk it backwards?

It takes even Zara, who knows nockers well, to realize that the proper order has to do with the place on the spectrum but accounting for the seasonal astrolonomical drift of the stars

She mutters a bit to herself.

After twenty minutes, she figures out the system and closes them all

Earl sighs "I'm not allowed to toouch those without some sort of class am I?"

"Nope."

"Fine, at least we have the tower" A pleased look

"We do! Oh, want to go up and see? I thought, mayhaps, that is where your easel could live..."

"And the bay window, I could turn into a seat for reading..."

"Ot

"It's why we're here" He gives her a happy squeeze, enthusiastic, and up they go

"Aye. I am thinking we could, mayhaps... oh, no. No, Hehe will insist on the couch..."

"Insist on WHAT with the couch" He says alarmed already

"We can't just get one from a charity shop. EVen if we did, he'll wish to improve it..."

"Oh, that's not a problem, half the furniture at my old apartment is mine, remember?" He opens the door as they enter 'their' area

It is beautiful, it even has cobwebs because it truly has been left alone

Zara smiles, turning a slow circle through the dust.