Let us eat quickly-- let us fill ourselves up. {Harvest Feast}

[lastofthekellys]

WHO: Kate Kelly
WHERE: The Inn
WHEN: 24th November
OPEN TO: E V E R Y O N E
WARNINGS: TBA
STATUS: OPEN

---

Aside from the days when she'd been too drunk or too hungover to get up, Kate's kept a farmer's hours all her life. Even in winter, when the bitterly cold winds that'd come up from the south and make its way through the cracks and holes in her ma's hut, she'd get up, get dressed, do her chores. But lately, it's been harder to extract herself from her bed. Benedict's been sharing her bed more often than not lately, and the chasteness of their interactions does nothing to change how warm and safe she feels. How little she wants to get up, get dressed, go out into the colder spaces of the Inn and do her work.

So, today, she's late getting out of bed - at least, by her standards. She's late getting down the stairs. She's late, so she's hurrying; she lazed in bed, and now she needs to start the fire in the main room. Start the fire, open the shutters, show that the Inn is standing and warm. And welcome, so she moves the -

No, Kate doesn't move the chairs stacked precariously at the front door as a rudimentary alarm of someone, something, coming through, because the chairs are gone. She neither dismisses it as one of the residents not getting the message, nor panics. Instead, she just opens the shutters to let in the dawn light and see if there are footprints, except, no, the snow has mostly cleared. The day is sunny. As welcome as it is, that doesn't help at all. Miss Hoppity jumps down from the foyer's desk to rub her face against Kate's skirt, apparently entirely unconcerned.

Kate eyes the cat for a moment, then approaches the closed doors leading to the main room. Closed, but with light coming through the cracks between door and floor, door and door frame. Cautiously, Kate opens one of the doors and peers in.

Then, she gapes.

The fire is blazing - hot, cheery - but so are the candles. The candles: candles on the unused candlesticks, candles clustered on tables, light up sideboards. Candles bobbing in bowls of water and apples. Candles white, yellow and red, when the village had none. Boughs of wheat, corn, decorate tables and the mantle over the fire, apples and pumpkins and collections of yellow, orange, red flowers seem to be everywhere.

And the food.

Each table is piled high with food. Roasted, baked, cooked on stoves and Kate knows how to cook, she knows how long this would all take, how many people, and it's impossible. What she's seeing is impossible to have done with the resources on hand: even an attempt would have woken up the whole building.

Disbelieving, Kate walks in. For a moment, she's entirely dumbfounded. Miss Hoppity, however, is nothing of the sort. The cat has leapt up onto the sideboard next to Kate and - well, Kate isn't sure what happens next. Just that suddenly there's movement and something large seems to lunge at her. Miss Hoppity yowls and speeds off: Kate screams as she battles something, falling backwards and hitting the floor along with a broken bowl of water, spilled apples and some tiny candles, and her attacker.

Pushing the food-turkey off her, Kate sits up and is, for once, entirely lost for words.

Comments

[thecatinahat]

Cougar raises an eyebrow when Jake starts rambling at him, leaning on him like he's going to pass out soon. He very deliberately pops yet another chocolate onto his tongue and lets it start to melt before he turns his head to thread his fingers through Jake's hair and leans in for a kiss that's intended for two specific purposes. The first is to shut him up, the second is to transfer the chocolate into his mouth. When he eases back, he smirks a little when it looks like his strategy has done its work.

He leans forward and drags another pull of beer before holding out a little turkey for Jake. "Gobble," he deadpans. "They are named for Latin," he says. "Makes sense," he goes on, with a shrug, seeing as he's obviously more than happy when things make sense thanks to the Latin background.

[igotacrossbow]

Jake makes a surprised noise when Cougar kisses him deliberately in the middle of the room like that, his tongue snaking into his mouth...to deposit chocolate there. He laughs as they break apart, licking his lips. "Gross," he proclaims, like he didn't play along the whole time. "That's so unsanitary, dude,"

They've done things that are far less sanitary, but that's neither here nor there.

"Turkey does not come from the Latin," he protests, obediently opening his mouth for Cougar to feed him a piece. "Most scholars think it's because when Europeans first encountered turkeys in America, they incorrectly identified the birds as a type of guineafowl, which were already being imported into Europe by Turkey merchants via Constantinople and were therefore nicknamed Turkey coqs. Because people are inherently lazy, that quickly got changed to just turkeys." He chews for a minute, then swallows. "Unless you were just agreeing with me about cornucopias, then yeah. Latin."

[thecatinahat]

Cougar just smirks when Jake calls him unsanitary, tipping his hat up so Jake can clearly see the look on his face that calls him out on the fact that what he's just done barely ranks when it comes to unsanitary. He feeds Jake happily, though, leaving his fingers in his mouth just a little longer than they need to be, taking the next piece for himself. "I was agreeing about the cornucopia," he clarifies, leaning forward to yank up another piece of chocolate.

Never let it be said that Cougar Alvarez doesn't possess one deep, needy sweet tooth. "You are very lucky," he says. "Because if Pooch or Clay were here, they would not want to hear your turkey facts like I would."

[igotacrossbow]

Cougar's obsession with chocolate has always been vaguely baffling to him, but then again, Jake knows he's not exactly the pinnacle of normalcy, so he can't really judge. Still, he's glad that his boyfriend has managed to find a secret stash here, at least, because they've all got so little when it comes to things that make them happy.

"Oh. Well then, yeah."

He scoffs, reaching out to snag some more food for himself. "My turkey facts are fascinating, okay, they'd love it." Never mind that he's had boots thrown at him for talking too much. That's not the point. "Man, I wonder what they're doing now."

[thecatinahat]

Cougar keeps working to ferret the chocolate into a pile that he can take home and hide, then put in Jake's hands to protect from him so he doesn't eat it all at once. He smiles, though, privately as he thinks about what the others might be doing. "Pooch has a baby," he reminds Jake. "He is being yelled at, by Jolene and the tiny one. Clay is being yelled at by Aisha and making stupid decisions with his dick," he finishes in Spanish with a raised brow, swirling a finger in mashed potatoes to hold it out to him.

"Any facts about these?"

[igotacrossbow]

He fully expects to have to hide the chocolate from Cougar, perhaps in a high cupboard. Being the tall one is useful, sometimes.

"I hope the Poochling is doing okay." He doesn't see why he wouldn't be, with Pooch and Jolene as his parents, but still. Jake loves little kids, and he can't help worrying over the little guy, just on principle. "Clay is just an idiot in general," he adds, laughing. It's probably just as well that he and Aisha fell in together, because they're the only two people crazy enough to put up with each other.

Leaning in to like the mashed potatoes off Cougar's finger, Jake grins. "They're delicious."

[thecatinahat]

"It is sad we can't help raise him," Cougar says, because he'd been intending to teach the little Pooch how to shoot, as soon as he was old enough to hold a rifle. "Clay might be an idiot, but I understand needing companionship," he says, sliding his palm over the small of Jake's back in a protective manner, giving him a fond look. "You are not jealous? Do not wish for someone like Aisha?"

He grins when the potatoes are taken from his fingers, enjoying the feast more and more. He hands Jake the beer in his hand, reaching for a new one himself.