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Len knew he’d made a mistake when matching grins greeted him at the door with a psychedelic bowl of… something. It smelled fruity and looked white and mushy, so hopefully, it was ambrosia salad.“Happy Conquest and Genocide Day!” said Axel.Len closed his eyes and breathed as he moved so they could come in. Coco, Lisa’s cotton ball dog, wagged chirped her own greetings and subsequently got lots of pets from Axel.“Map!” Miguel, Lisa’s Scottish fold, wasn’t as enthusiastic to have even more people stuffed into the place: one of the fancier, communal safehouses they used for gatherings such as this. He glared at Len like his human uncle had betrayed him, then rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrred when Len moved to pet him.The demon cat only liked other animals and Lisa, as far as anybody could tell. He got along alright with his sister, Ratwave née Axl, Annie, Jump, and Cannon—although he didn’t like how Coco took Lisa’s attention away from Lisa. They left plenty of the other rooms open for him to take refuge just in case.Miguel hissed when James almost kicked one of Hartley’s rats: Annie, the gray one. She rolled away in her ball.Len frowned, seeing the gears churning in the elder Trickster’s head to turn pet toys into mischief.Len’s attention was suddenly torn away by Mick yelling at some sorry soul to “STAY OUTTA MY KITCHEN”, so in order to make sure they didn’t do all the work this year, they let folks bring stuff. In addition, they weren’t allowed to do any of the dishes, “So help you, Snart, if one of these yahoos breaks the fancy china!”Placing all the food was a Tetris nightmare. Shawna and Axel would set one dish down, and nope, there were five more that needed room. Len shooed them all away and showed them how the master worked.He thanked them for their applause.
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“Anybody have anything they’re thankful for?” Lisa smiled once everyone had sated their initial cravings.Hartley piped up, “No one’s being racist, queerphobic, or misogynistic.”Everyone toasted to that!“And everyone’s happy to here,” he continued with a hysterical breath. “This is the best Conquest and Genocide Day ever!”“Speaking of acceptance,” Roscoe nosed Sam, “I’m thankful I can be myself around my partner in crime.”“And I’m thankful that my partner in crime trusts me enough to let me meet him,” Sam nosed him back.The others made various awwws or gagging noises. Miguel rumbled. The rats continued rolling around and occasionally bumped into each other. Coco wagged her tail, more focused on nabbing some turkey.
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“Let’s eat it!” Axel held up a Tide POD.“That’s what all the cool kids are doing!” Mark said. Everyone at least knew he was joking. Jury was out on Axel.Shawna plucked the POD from Axel’s hand, “Does it go colorful side up or white side up?”“Just throw it in there,” said Lisa.Sam closed the dishwasher and pushed some buttons then placed his hand at the small of Roscoe’s back as Roscoe sipped some of the wine they’d brought over, “I think we got it going. Ours only has two buttons on it, so we have a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right.”Lisa slapped a CLEAN magnet on it to let everyone know its status.Shawna and Mark got started on the dishwasher unsafe dishes while Roscoe, Sam, Hartley, and the Tricksters cleared the table and organized leftovers.“Mick, sit down!” she wasted no time saying when they ambled in.Mick grumbled and rolled, “Imma drink more beer.”“Good,” Lisa said, exasperated as she checked the Tupperware cabinet, doing her best to catch the ones that fell. “Len! Why does none of your Tupperware have matching lids!?”“Cuz you’re sibling-in-law keeps giving them away.”“That’s not what they said.”“I spent $65 on fancy Tupperware—dishwasher safe and everything—”“We know it cost $65!” Lisa groaned, petting Coco as she toddled by to soothe her exasperation. “You have one job: find matches!”It was like finding matching socks: one match for every two mismatches.
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Now that the chaos had subsided—as much as it ever did when multiple, let alone all, of the Rogues congregated in the same area—Len made himself a cup of coffee, enjoying the relative peace with James and Miguel. Both men knew Miguel wasn’t supposed to be on the counter, but they weren’t going to risk life and limb to correct him.“I’m in a food coma,” Shawna had her feet in Lisa’s lap and her head in Mark’s.“Ahm junk,” Hartley groaned against the floor that the felt so good against his throbbing head. It took him five minutes to say ow when Jump bumped into him.Mick belched, patting their belly. Ratwave was on their chest, they were on round five, and the pumpkin pie tasted just like Mama Rory used to make it. Good times.