The Apartment Above Luke's, Monday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

The lack of private function space was perfectly solved by the empty apartment above the diner. Kathy had spent the afternoon cleaning and setting up for dinner tonight. Her anniversary dinner, if you would.

A year ago today, she'd woken up in Eliot's house, surrounded by tight, worried faces. Her friends, pretty much en masse, had gone through a portal to LA and fought through hordes of exes to bring her home, in hopes that Nanika could bring her back to life. Or maybe just so she'd stop chanting Kathy's name. For whatever reason they'd done it, though, they'd succeeded. Kathy was alive again and had been for a full year.

A dizzying, challenging, terrifying year.

It seemed only right to hold some kind of commemorative dinner for it, somewhere between a celebration (which she still didn't think she'd earned, exactly) and an appreciation dinner. Not just for what they'd done, but for sticking with her this past year, for weathering the ups and downs, for reaching out and checking in, for reconnecting and promising to be better and stronger friends from here forward.

And, well, even if that didn't all come through, it would still be a delicious dinner cooked by Eliot and would give her a chance to just spend some time with the people she loved best, getting caught up with those she hadn't seen in awhile and offering an opportunity for them to get to know one another better, too.

If nothing else, they could all just stuff themselves silly with whatever delicious things the kitchen downstairs had whipped up and the super, extra, very chocolatey desserts Kathy had promised Alluka in her invitation.

[For those invited and up early for SP. No OCD, feel free to just ping in and around.]

Comments

[that_oldsaying]

Annnnd--INCOMING HUG.

Sorry not sorry, Ringo!

"Ringo," she said, giggling, "Ringo, hi! Guess what I got?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo laughed, catching Alluka and doing a little spin with her.

"Hmm, I don't know. Is it me?"

[that_oldsaying]

"No! I mean, also yes!"

Because it was true, since Alluka was giggling and clinging a little.

"But also no! Something else!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Is it chocolate?" Ringo asked teasingly. "And is there enough for me?"

[that_oldsaying]

"It's not chocolate," Alluka said brightly.

Which was actually kind of impressive.

"Though Kathy promised there'd be chocolate here."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Hmmm. Not me, and not chocolate." Ringo tapped her chin, pretending to ponder. "What else is there?"

[that_oldsaying]

"Lots and lots of things," Alluka insisted, clasping her hands behind her back. "Do you want me to tell you?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo reached out to playfully poke at Alluka's nose and giggled. "Yes, please!"

[that_oldsaying]

"Ringo!" Alluka protested, giggling and covering her nose protectively. "And what I got are maps and travel brochures for my world!"

Piles and piles of them!

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Oh!" Ringo clapped her hands excitedly.

"I want to see, I want to see!"

"How'd you get them all, anyway?"

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka giggled.

"I couldn't bring them to the party," she said happily. "Since it's Kathy's party, not 'look at the travel brochures' time. And, and I got them by asking Portalocity where I was from and then got a list of cities from them."

And then it had been flailing around for travel places and calling people and mailing lists.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, I suppose that's fair." Ringo pretended to be so put-upon, but ruined the act with her grin. "I guess we'll have to meet up in one of our rooms soon to go over them, then."

"Also, that was a pretty good solution. I guess Portalocity can actually be helpful on occasion?"

[that_oldsaying]

"They were very nice to me," Alluka said, beaming. "Though it did take an awful long time for them to figure it out."

Given how many worlds they dealt with, though, that wasn't surprising.

"Does, does this mean we're still on for the trip?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, good for you, sticking it out until they got you what you needed." Perseverance could be hard. At least for Ringo.

"And of course it is!" Ringo shook her head with a grin. "We'd still be on even if we couldn't find any maps or anything."

It just probably wouldn't go very smoothly.

[that_oldsaying]

Definitely not.

"There's a lot of areas that normal people aren't allowed in," she said, having looked at the maps. "It's probably better to have at least a little bit of a plan."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Fiiiine," Ringo huffed, pretending that it was a tough request to fulfill.

But, honestly, she thought planning might be part of the fun.

"I suppose that we can make sure to see all the best places if we plan ahead, huh?"

[that_oldsaying]

"Yes!"

That was going to be tons of fun too. Alluka was also looking forward to the planning.

"Though we'll have to do a lot to figure out where the best places are."

Since she didn't know.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Sounds like we'll have to stock up on snacks if we're going to spend that much time planning."

Oh, it would be so terrible!

[that_oldsaying]

"Ooooh, even just planning for that would be fun, then!"

They could get so many snacks! So many!

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo giggled. "Come one, we can't plan for our planning session. Once we start doing that, we'll have to plan to plan to plan, forever!"

[that_oldsaying]

That made Alluka laugh.

"Okay, not too much planning for snacks, then! But we will need them!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, I'm not going to argue against snacks." Ringo would never do that!

"As long as they're good ones, anyway."

[that_oldsaying]

"I always pick good ones," Alluka insisted.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, you do have pretty good taste." And not just in snacks.

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka beamed.

"You're not bad at snacks either," she said happily.