2019-11-03 - Noelle, Stop!

It's early evening in the trailer park and dinner is on the stove. Every time Natalia turns her back, biscuits keep disappearing (thank you Noelle) tossed out the front door on the gravel.

"Can you please stop throwing the biscuits out of the door? We need at least two for dinner, and we're down to four." She looks flustered, peering in the oven at the pot roast. "Can you put some gravy on the stove top?" She asks, turning around to stir the mashed potatoes. She looks flustered, heaving out a sigh. "Why did I decide to cook tonight?" She props her hands on her hips and moves to the fridge, pulling it open to grab drinks.

"You're not working tonight are you? I need you to take me down to the store later." She glances outside at Noelle's bike, grimacing slightly. "Did you ever take that pumpkin off the back of that damn thing?"

Noelle sits at the counter with a cup of juice next to her, looking like she doesn't know why the screen door just slammed like that. Certainly wasn't her sitting back down. She siiiips. "Like make it gravy or open a jar gravy?" No asks the important questions.

"No, I'm off unless Carl gets in another situation." She says 'situation' like it's in quotation marks, because Carl gets into his situations a lot. With the law, with his mom, with his girlfriend, with his car breaking down, with his bookie breaking his arm. There are a lot of situations, and where situations happen, Carl slams into them.

Noelle fishes a sauce pot out of the cabinet and thumps it onto the stove, turning a burner to low before she goes for the cabinet. Either for jars of gravy or flour if she's tasked with making white gravy for biscuits and gravy, or jars if there's a mushroom gravy on the docket. "It's cold and disgusting outside, and you wanted to be homey."

It's a short trip from trailer 20 to 21, and Yule has stopped off to grab his mail on the way. It's a handful of envelopes tucked into a circular flyer. He's dressed in a pair of light tan slacks, with a darker gray pull over sweater to help ward off the fall chill today. Crunch goes one of the biscuits beneath his feet, causing his head to tuck down and look at the gravel surface, conjuring up a, "What the fuck."

Careful to avoid the other that is out there, ascending the stairs to the front door. He doesn't bother knocking, just pulling open the door to step on through. "Something smells good," as the scent of the roast comes to his senses, his head tipping to the side to survey the pair in the kitchen.

"Need a hand with anything?" A flash of a smile is given to his little sisters, before his head ducks down, fingers pulling through the tops of the envelopes to check each one. Apparently nothing worth having, for he saunters forward, stuffing the whole set of his mail into the trashcan.

"Jars. Please. Don't make it from scratch, I don't know if my heart could handle it." Nat stares at Noelle especially when the pot gets thumped on the stove. "Yeah, Yule? Could you please make me some gravy." The smile aimed at Noelle is smug at best.

She holds up her finger before she bends over to pull the pan from the oven, giving the roast a careful look before it's set aside on a pot holder. She takes out a large knife, setting it down on the counter. "You're welcome to stay and eat with us, I managed to cook enough for six people because no matter how long it's been since we've all lived together, I cook like we still do."

She pulls down some plates, grabbing silverware. "Been getting into trouble?" She aims that question at Yule, nobody asks Noelle those types of questions without expecting to hear about laws being broken.

Noelle glances up from her cabinet hunt as Yule comes into the trailer. She pulls out first one, then two jars. "Hey, big brother. How you feel about some jar gravy." She jiggles the jars. Mm-mm the fancy stuff. She hip checks Yule on her way by, which is more like a thigh check because she's short. The gravy tops pop and she splats the contents into the pan.

She takes this opportunity to back off the stove leaving Yule to supervise the simmering and possible dump the rest of the jar contents. It's easy peasy lemon squeezy. So of course Noelle nopes out. The only one who'd do that faster is Noel-sorry-Ellis (Noel). "Any fun corpses lately?" Why as dinner's being cooked? Why?

Yule sways back to return that himp bump, giving as good as he gets there, "Better than no gravy at all... or waiting forever to figure out how to make it from scratch." Along Yule follows, lurking in the kitchen without making it even more crowded, giving a touch of supervision to that gravy making, picking up a wooden spoon to stir when he has a chance to do so.

A small chuckle comes from Yule for Nat's question, a sly smile curling to the corners of his mouth. "Me? Everyone I work with is dead. No hijinks to be had there." Not that it really answers the question, and up one hand lifts to rake through his hair, pulling a few of those longer strands back over his ears. "Still can't get over how it seems to have gone from bad to worse here."

"Nothing too much lately. Least not that I've seen. Fingers crossed though." It's a warm touch of humor with those last words, his eyes casting between the two to include both in the question, "And you? Anything of note lately?"

Nat glances over at Noelle. She hasn't been arrested lately, so that's something. Instead she just says, "It's been quiet around here lately. New people moving in, the typical noise complaints and that kind of shit."

She carves the roast, gesturing for Yule to go sit down at the table. "I'll bring you both plates." She continues to carve, making a face when Yule reminds her that he works with dead people, and then her angelic little sister ups the ante. "Can we maybe talk about your work after we're done eating?" She requests mildly, making up two plates. Meat, potatoes, biscuit, gravy. Super simple.

"If I had known you were coming tonight, I'd have had Noelle sneak home some leftovers from work or something. Thai is better than this stuff." She isn't the best cook, and she is well aware of that fact.

There's a shrug from Noelle. "Some dude with a load of guns on drugs who ordered dumplings and gave me a lame ass tip after bossing me for like the whole drive in texts." Yes, she did just say she texted the whole drive from the restaurant to the location.

"We got some fun new neighbors. We met some at a thing the other night." She resumes her seat at the counter, watching Nat and Yu fiddle in the kitchen. She grins a little, slides off the chair, and heads on in to take a seat at the table, her juice in hand. Better not argue with Nat tonight.

"Gravy makes everything better, Nat. Don't worry." Noelle eats so many dumplings. So many curries. So many. "I like your potatoes."

"This looks great, Nat." Yule offers reassuringly, tapping the side of the spoon against the pot before putting it down to the side, letting her take over from there. "You know how it goes. Never really know when I'll be around, or when I'll get called in." It's her complaint about the work talk that has a ghost of a bemused smile gracing his features.

"That the trailer park neighborhood picnic, or whatever?" He's shooed off to the table, pulling out a chair to have a seat. Yule's elbow rests against the top as he leans back, those brown eyes flickering from one sister to the next. "Sorry I couldn't make it. I'll have to keep an eye out and introduce myself, sometime."

"What were the biscuits doing outside? Not feeding the birds, are you." It's to Noelle that his focus goes at this, already suspecting just whom the culprit is on this issue.

Natalia beams a smile over at Yule, even if he is lying to her. She dribbles gravy on the plates, carrying them over to set them in front of Yule and Noelle.

"Oh better outside than hiding them around the trailer." Which Noelle has done before, has done since she was six, actually. There was a while where you might find things under cushions, in vases, cupboards and shelves. She makes her own plate and drifts over to the table, taking a seat. "Yeah, new people, new neighbors." She picks up her knife to carve at the meat. "Probably will be another picnic at some point. Noelle is social, and she throws these things so that we can meet people."

"As long as she's not trying to set me up again though." She narrows her eyes toward the blonde, breaking apart her biscuit.

Noelle might shift her gaze, but that's about all that gives her up. She picks up a fork and says, "Thanks," when her plate hits the table. She loves Thai, but you can only eat so much Thai before you need some jar gravy and home cooking. "I didn't set you up this time." She didn't have to try, she just put out refreshments and encouraged chatting. It's her way. Lure them all into the trap and see what happens.

"I like to know who I'm living around, and..." She pauses to sip from her juice. "Some of our neighbors really need more friends in their lives." She doesn't say how she knows, she just knows. She may be a little chaotic, but sad people make her sad. "Has anybody heard from Win? He went out into the field and do we think it's time to call SAR?"

"Suppose so." Yule agrees with Nat about those biscuit locations, eyes twinkling with a touch of mischief. That turns into a brief burst of genuine, warm laughter at her last words, his attention flickering from Noelle then back to Nat. "Yeah? And what was wrong with who she tried to set you up with? Nothing wrong with a date or two."

His hand fishes into the right pocket of his pants, fishing out his phone. His thumb flips through a few screens as he idly asks, "So who is worth meeting from the new bunch?" His phone is tucked away once the food hits the table, and his hand picks up his fork, taking a stab at some of the meat and potatoes.

"He probably found a colony of bats he fell in love with. Sure he's fine. Just text him, he'll reply back... eventually." In that bite he's found comes to his mouth, teeth scraping against the fork as he pulls it out and starts chewing.

"She didn't set me up, she just set me up." Nat glowers over at Yule, shaking her head back and forth. "Don't take her side. Everyone always takes her side. She's could burn down this trailer and you'd find a reason why it was okay." Sisters are a minefield, don't wade in.

"We have a local stripper, a hair stylist and .." Natalia's eyes narrow briefly as she considers it. "Some youtube star?" She aims a helpless look over at Noelle. "Noelle knows more, because she mostly keeps an ear out on what is going on around here." She starts to eat, dipping her biscuit in the gravy before she takes a bite.

"I don't worry about Winter, he comes home when he wants to come home. I worry about Snow. I worry about.." She won't say Ellis, because that's a given. Then she just aims a look at Noelle, that's probably who she worries about the most.

Noelle's left eye twitches several times when Yule teeth-scrapes his fork. She says nothing, but she does stab her food a little too hard. "Yeah, bats." She's convinced that day Yule's going to be called out to some cave for a corpsy smell and it'll be Winter because he forgets to eat enough and never calls home regularly. She doesn't trust caves.

"I would never burn down this trailer, but if I did, it would have been infested with fire ants first." Not that they really get a lot of those up here. "Or mice." Flipping mice are not her thing. Which is why she and Snow don't talk about work much.

"I think there's a tattooer and some nerds, but there's definitely a gardener, a musician, two occult youtubers, some chatty girlfriend, a handyman, and that cemetery guy. He's kind of cute in an I'm going to stare at you while you sleep way."

"Just think of all the nice things you could do to the place if you had to replace it all," It's a playful wink that Yule casts towards Nat, not really meaning it with that quip. He makes his way through his plate slowly and methodically, offering up after another bite, "It's good. Thanks for cooking. Never had much of a chance to eat home made meals in New York."

One brow arches upwards at the mention of fire ants, his mouth parting, but Yule knows better than to point out these things, turning his attention instead into the myriad of cast that inhabits the trailer park. "Sounds about right," He murmurs to the ones that Nat points out, but when No elaborates even further? That draws a raised brow from the fellow.

"Occultists, huh? And a 'cemetery' guy." His fork pushes his food around a bit, considering those ones in particular, though the cuteness factor isn't commented on. "I'll try and make the next one, then. Be all sociable and friendly."

"Don't say that Yule, because let's be honest, we wouldn't get enough to replace this trailer and we'd end up moving in with you." Natalia smirks in his direction, sticking out her tongue. "Shit, forgot the wine." She pushes up out of her chair and grabs a bottle out of the fridge. "You didn't have a sweetheart who cooked for you?" She teases, pouring wine for herself. She sets the bottle down in case anyone else wants any.

"Noelle, you're not snooping again are you?" A beat. "Also, are you saying that the creepy guy watches you sleep? Should I call the cops or something?" She looks vaguely concerned, mostly amused. "Yeah, you come to the next gathering, and you can cook something. Maybe those weird old ladies will stop making jello salad for the delinquents."

Noelle makes short work of half of her plate in neat bites, though somehow despite all those precise, small bites, she's mowed through. Even with all that talking! "Yeah, there's also that hairdresser, who seemed nice, what was her name? Nicole? And Rusty the youtuber with the weird conspiracies, and I think there was a librarian, but she had prissy shoes and vanished like a month ago. She had the weirdest cell phone conversations at like four in the morning." Don't ask how she knows that.

"Nicole and Rusty seem really nice." She glances over from Nat to Yule, watching the latter for a while at the mention of a sweetheart. She closes her lips around her fork when Nat asks if she's snooping, says nothing about that, then chimes in with, "I didn't say he watches you sleep, but he looks like he would."

"Please. I'd buy you a trailer before I let you move in with me." A twist of his mouth comes in an amused smile, touching just one corner as he slides in some potatoes to chew on, before a roll of his eyes greets Nat's teasing. "Twelve years of school, then the graveyard shift at the ME's office for a few years before getting onto evenings. The few girlfriends I had didn't like putting up with that life for long."

Yule does reach out to grab that bottle, having had nothing else to drink. "I'll make finger food," It's said in a vague thought that makes one wonder if that food might look like fingers to match his profession. "A hair dresser, huh?" It's the mention of the librarian that has a brow arching upwards, eyes narrowing for just a touch. "Yeah? Just up and vanished, did she?" As for Noelle snooping? This one he stays firmly out of, dipping that meat in gravy before slipping it into his mouth to chew on.

Natalia sighs softly. She's not going to tell Noelle to stop or behave because Noelle won't do either of those things. She just drinks more wine, it's how she copes.

She presses her lips together and continues to eat, she doesn't have anything to say about Noelle's words. She glances around the trailer, eyes narrowed slightly. "So Noelle, how much would I have to pay you to actually burn the place down?" She asks, shifting her brown eyes over to Yule. "I have a nice trailer picked out."

"No, just .. don't get caught?" Yeah, she'll take the gossip, better to know what's going on around the park rather than find out when it's a police problem.

Noelle snorts into her plate and you can damn well bet it's because a medical examiner just said he'd make finger food. It's written all over her face. She probably doesn't even have to say it. "Yeah, she paid to a certain point and then gone. She redid the trailer and everything, too." No shakes her head. You never can tell with trailer park people.

She clears her throat, takes a last bite of her food, and drains her juice. Nope. Not saying it. She grins. This is why Natalia buys her wine in boxes now. "Twenty bucks." The low low cost of arson these days, goodness. "From what I saw the last couple weeks, the police in this town wouldn't catch me if I greeted them with a blowtorch in hand."

"Didn't say you'd get to pick it out. Older brother always knows best." This earns a momentary flash of a larger smile to Nat, and he polishes off the last of his plate before his fork and knife are put down on it. Fingers curl around the stem of his glass, slowly twirling it around as he considers.

"Yeah?" Comes Yule's question back to Noelle when she talks about the trailer, "You gone in to look it over, yet? She rented, then? Suppose you'll have to pick through it at some point. I could give a hand." It's more than just a family hand, but a touch of curiosity at whatever might have transpired that has earned his interest.

"Just avoid any accidental deaths, cause the medical examiner? He will figure it out." His chin tucks down, giving a pointed look towards the youngest sibling, "And then we'd never hear the end of it from Nat. Just be careful." And then his glass is lifted, taking a long drink from his wine.

"You'd likely pick out something more expensive than I had my eye on." Natalia quips, shrugging over at Yule before she gets up to take his plate.

"Don't steal any of her things, No. With our luck she'll end up coming back." She glowers at Yule, nudging him with a knee as she comes past again. "Don't encourage her, she's already getting in trouble on a daily basis. Have you seen her driving that thing?" She shakes her head and moves over to the sink, putting the plate in it. "

"I'm right here." She reminds the pair. "If you're gonna plan your illegal things, do it when I'm taking a pee."

"Yeah, she has number twenty before you moved back. The time was weirdly perfect." Which would explain why the vintage airstream is so damn nice inside. Not that the other trailers are awful or anything, just that one was all done up in hand-stained wood panels, lots of bookshelves, and nary a piece of formica to be seen.

"I would never accidentally murderate someone," Noelle assures her forensically inclined brother. Unless mice count.

"Look, just because there's a pumpkin still strapped to the back of my Vespa doesn't mean..." She pauses, then shakes her head. "It's fine. Too much tension on the bungees. I can't get it off the back." Right about then, her phone chimes. It's the you lose sound from Wheel of Fortune. She scowls. "Damn it, Carl!" Noelle rises from the table and yanks out her phone. Whatever she sees has her grabbing her jacket and stomping for the door. "Scuse me, I have to go murderate someone."