| Details for Bitching over Bacon |
| Summary: | Kat cooks breakfast for Jo and Shelley. A breakfast that ends up in a fight over politics for two good friends. |
| Date: | 1939-01-30 |
| Location: | Katherine's Flat, #7 Lamberth, London |
| Related: | Murder, Murder in the Night Air |
| Characters |
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It's morning, after the Willis' Manor had burned. After three bodies had been discovered in or near the ruins. After Shelley had been questioned, had her wand examined, and had been shipped off to St. Mungo's. After almost the entire Auror staff had been forced to work a rather long night, sifting through the evidence, and trying to make sense of the deaths.
And what does poor, tired Kat come home to find? Shelley and Jo, passed out on separate couches. An empty bottle of whiskey or two, and piles of blankets around them.
It turns out, Shelley snores.
Jocunda has unbuttoned her blouse a few buttons, but otherwise she's pretty much as she is normally, just passed out with her duvet laid over the athletic woman. Her eyes are closed. There's fresh drag marks where the chaise has been brought closer to Shelley, a small table resting between them for the whiskey and half-finished drinks to rest upon
Jo looks peaceful. Probably the first time in a few weeks. Except for when she's drunk.
Even the grumpiness of a long night of work, one where she got to stay in the office and look over evidence being sent back instead of being out in the field, isn't enough to take all of the mischief out of Kat. It is enough, however, to give her a bit of a mean edge.
Taking out her wand she tip-toes over until she's in range of the two couches Jo and Shelley are sleeping on then she points her wand at the ceiling above them. "Aguamenti!"
Shelley is a light sleeper. Whether Kat comes in by the front door, or the floo, or apparates - it does make a sound. She shifts on the chaise, eyes starting to flutter - when she's abruptly covered in water. "What-" She shoves abruptly and awkwardly, falling out of the chaise, and reaching for her wand. Why is- what- "SYKES!" she shouts in protest, with her befuddled gaze falls on Katherine. "What the hell?!"
Jocunda wakes not long after Katrina enters the house, opening her eyes and groaning softly at the idea of being awake. "Shiiii—-" Water. She throws her duvet over her head, and within moments it, and her, are drenched. A few moments pass, before she finishes. "..It. Kat, do you have /any/ /last/ /words/?" The words are the drawn threats of someone hungover. "Or at least /breakfast?/"
Katherine falls back against the wall, laughing lustily. Hangovers, flash-backs? It seems Kat's opinion is that the best solution for either is a good prank. By the time she catches her breath she's slide down to sit on the floor from where she says,"Breakfast? I don't have any but I guess I can be merciful enough to make some. Can you two get yourselves down to the kitchen or do I have to cast some more spells?"
"I can get down to the bloody kitchen on my own, Sykes," Shelley mutters darkly. "/With/ my wand. Please tell me the office caught those murdering bastards already and I'll forgive you /everything/." For now.
"… If I'm not down in two minutes, it's because I'm drowning everything you own." Jocunda mutters from beneath her duvet, tossing the wet cover back and forcing herself to crawl off the Chaise. Sighing towards Shelley, "Surely they would have. You're Auror's, it's not like you've spent the night sitting on your arses staring at the fire, right? Else I would expect marshmallows.
Katherine ignores Shelley's question since the answer won't help anyone's mood. Instead she clatters down the stairs to the flat's ground floor, still giggling to herself. In a few moments the noise of pots, pans and kitchen utensils in use fills the air, quickly followed by the smell of toast, eggs, bacon, and flat cakes.
"I was kinda afraid of that," Shelley mutters to herself, then lets out a sigh. "MARSHMALLOWS it is, Jo. Marshmallows for all." She climbs to her feet a bit unsteadily, making for the water closet. She splashes a little more water on her face, and plants her hands on the sink, staring into the mirror. "I… look like shit," she remarks.
Jo has enough water. And she's used to looking like shit in front of Kat, anyway. A little unsteady, she gets herself to her feet and ensures she's stable. "Considering what you went through, you're a damned princess. Delay my breakfast and I'll take your inheritance. C'mon." Staggering downstairs.
By the time Jo and Shelley make it to the kitchen Kat has a whole bunch of bacon frying on one pan, at least a dozen eggs being scrambled magically in another and she's pulled out the glasses which she's filling with orange juice, a bottle of vodka close at hand. Hair of the dog and all that. In a bowl nearby batter for flap jacks is being mixed by a magically animated spoon as well. "Coffee too or are Screwdrivers going to be enough?"
"Bloody fuckin' princess of the Auror's office," Shelley agrees. "I'll write it on the name plaque on my desk." She frowns at the mirror a moment longer, then turns to leave the water closet, and proceed down to the kitchen. "/Coffee/," Shelley commands, as if Kat just asked a rather foolish question. "Who you take me for, Sykes?"
Booze. Jocunda takes a screwdriver as soon as it's prepared, and drinks down half of it greedily. Cotton Mouth. Not good. "'ll serve for now." She doesn't have a problem. She just hasn't been sober since she stepped down from Unity.
Katherine does arch an eyebrow slightly at her cousin but doesn't say a word. Instead she takes the eggs out of the pan they've been scrambling in and dumps them all in a big bowl that she brings out to the dinning room table after pouring the first few flap-jacks into the same pan the eggs were just cooking in. Without washing out the pan mind you. On her return trip she flips the flap-jacks and puts half the bacon on a plate so that people that like their bacon floppy have something to eat while she lets the other half get extremely crispy as bacon /should/ be. Once the floppy bacon has been delivered she sets the coffee to brewing. "Did you to sleep well?"
"Are drunken stupors and sleep the same thing?" Shelley asks. She's drinking some orange juice herself - cautiously, carefully - while watching Katherine cook. The floppy bacon she looks at like it's a horrifying and traitorous thing. Who would do that to /bacon/?
Jocunda shakes her head. "Someone asked to stay the night without warning that she snores like the Hogwarts Express in a tunnel." The woman groans softly, taking a small amount of bacon and eggs and beginning to eat. Heroically struggling through poor bacon, like the athlete she is. "… And I think the past week is catching up with me.
Katherine calls out from the kitchen, "No pity cousin. You have a room, you could have hidden. And I have a room I clearly wasn't using you could have locked her in. And drunken stupors do not count and we all know that entirely too well." In a few more minutes she comes out with a tall stack of flap-jacks on a plate in one hand and a carafe of coffee in the other. Behind her comes a little parade of floating objects including the some syrup, jam, the properly cooked bacon, toast and butter. All of which wait patiently in the air until she has a free hand to guide them to their places on the table with her wand. "At least no one was dressed for the circus this time."
"I wasn't in a mood for games," Shelley remarks simply as she slips into a seat. She puts a little bit of everything on her plate, eyeing the small portions she's chosen with a dubious expression. It's not Kat's cooking, of course - it's her stomach. She pokes at the eggs, but then opts to try to pancake first, cutting off a small and utterly unadorned piece to nibble on.
Jo remains tight lipped on that one. Or maybe she's just determined to fill herself - She's used to eating no matter how she's feeling. Plus, greasy food makes you feel better. Bacon, flapjack, syrup, jam, butter, flapjack, knife, fork, mouth, chew, swallow. Rinse with vodka and orange juice. Repeat.
Katherine serves cups of coffee all around before she sits down and piles her plate high with samples of everything. Except the screw drivers. She has straight OJ . "I can understand not being in the mood for games. Hopefully you'll get revenge soon. And Jo, how are you feeling? I read all about your new political stance in the Prophet." She doesn't say it but her tone of voice sounds approving.
Shelley had expressed the same approval, earlier. She takes the coffee offered her, drinking a few gulps of that, before tackling the pancake again. "Speaking off," she remarks. "We got today's copy of the Prophet?" she asks. If there's something about the Willis murders in there… if it says /Prewett/, anywhere… then she needs to visit home.
"Like leveling any number of horrible curses against several prominent political figures. No stance, Kat. I'm not playing. Cassius'll let people die so he can keep a half-blood by his bedside," Or whatever the hell Rhyeline is; "And his sister's job easy, that's fine by me." Yeah, that might offend some people in this room. "Hope he can sleep without getting brickfaced. I'm not there yet." Jocunda isn't dealing with the fallout from Unity well. She's angry. Although she masks it well, with a face full of bacon.
Katherine chuckles and stage whispers at Jo, "Don't tell anyone but I feel the same way." Which is probably the first direct political opinion either of the two women at the table with her has heard from Kat. Crunching into a piece of bacon she waves the other half around in the air, "But for now, lets talk about delicious meats and other fun things. Early morning, early enough to not even have received the newspaper, is not a time to talk about murder or politics."
Katherine tries to derail the conversation - but it's a bit late. Jocunda opened the door, and Shelley was already in a foul mood. So, yes. It does offend some people in this room.
She frowns at Jocunda, her hand tightening around her coffee. "Glad ya backed away from that Grindelwald nonsense, Jo. But /really/? /That's/ where you go with this? Who cares what the blood-status is of Cassius' fuck buddy? Do you honestly think that's the only thing that motivates him? And does it matter /what/ opened his eyes to the idea that half-bloods, Muggle-borns, and Muggles are just as much people as the rest of us? If not for Alis, maybe I'd be as closed minded and biggoted as some of the other pure-bloods out there. The people we care about change us. They're /supposed/ to."
Jo laughs. It's an unexpected reaction. "I don't care if she's a fucking goblin, Shelley." The girl shakes her head. "He does. He put up a front of a democratic process, when he'd made his decision already. That's why I'm pissed at her. Not because she's a half-blood, but because that's what matters to Cassius. More than the peace he's spectacularly failed to bring." There's a pause. A moment of seriousness. "Y'wanna know what it came down to? Things are turning to shit, and I stood up and said my piece for peace at any expense. Pride be damned. I said my bit for people like Aria, for you, for Rhyeline and yeah, for Alis. Because I'd rather the world fuckin' hate all of us - If the alternative is dying in a civil war. Ideas can change - Especially when you're working from within. Mortality ain't going to."
Katherine taps he knows with another piece of bacon. Bacon which has clearly gotten much more attention than anything else, "Saving lives is what it should be all about and the way things are going staying out of it might be the best way to do it." *crunch* Bacon…
Shelley lets out a snort. "Siding with Grindelwald is the fastest and surest way to bring about war, death, and destruction. Changing it from within is /bullshit/," she asserts. "And you sure as hell ain't siding with Grindelwald for /Alis/. So don't you go invoking her name." She pushes herself to her feet. "Thank you for the breakfast, Sykes. 'n the place to sleep, Jo." The words are kind - but her tone remains a little terse. "I need to go find a copy of the Prophet." That's her excuse and she's sticking to it.
Too hungover. Or not drunk enough. For this conversation. Jocunda sighs, and waves. "Take care, Shelley." Her drink is finished briskly, and then pushes back to Kat. A refill. Yes, this early.
Katherine waves to Shelley. Definitely a conversation that best just dropped so letting Shelley go hunt for a copy of the Prophet sounds like a good idea, "Any time, Shelley. And next time you two could also pull one of the beds that's in storage out for you to use." Taking Jocunda's glass she refills it with vodka and OJ then gets up, "I'm going to sleep. Jocunda, there better be at least half that bottle of vodka still left when I get up." Half joking, half serious. Standing behind her cousin she gives her a quick kiss on the top of her head and the flounces up the stairs to her room.
Shelley nods tersely and wordlessly, then lets herself out by the front door. The door opens again, and she steps back in - retrieving her broom. /Then/ she leaves.
"Don't get your hopes up." Jocunda states blankly. She'll be asleep on a dry couch come a waking Kat.