"Beginners luck," Jocasta declared loftily as she moved long the table. At each increment she picked up one of the small shot glasses and knocked back the liquor. It was of varying types and ranged from candy flavored to sinus burning rotgut. Jocasta had drank much worse many times. The stills of Navy ships during the war had rendered booze from any kind of carbohydrate, or straight from the hydraulic lines if necessary. Even so it was a significant amount of alcohol. She looked for the bottle she thought had provided the oily licoricey taint at the back of her throat and tossed it through the air to Neil by way of payback.

The smell of hot pizza distracted her from the moment of her revenge however, and she slid open one of the self heating boxes and drew out a slice. Meat lovers. She opened another. Meat lovers. In desperation she opened the third box. Olives, pickles, feta cheese, gara nuts and scardif. She grabbed a piece and popped it into her mouth.

"HOw did you know?" she demanded around a mouthful of pizza. Neil was balancing the bottle on his palm and grinning.

"I didn't, just picked the weirdest combination I could think of and hoped for the best," he admitted as Jocasta fixed him with a glare that would have been more withering if it wasn't over a mouthful of pizza.