The Luckiest Girl In The World

Last week, Kathy had been an utter lump, eating ice cream and playing sad music and watching a lot of TV while she got used to life without the guys. This week wasn't actually much easier, but Kathy's tolerance for her own moping had run out and left her needing to do something that wasn't just dwell.

Fortunately, it wasn't like she was lacking in options. With the guys gone and Raven spending most of her time out in the woods, the house was just too big and full of memories. So she was moving back to the apartment above Luke's - along with Raven, at least nominally - and this week she'd really gotten her ass in gear when it came to packing. Most of the upstairs was packed, even if those boxes were still mostly stacked downstairs, and now she was just cleaning out their old rooms of the detritus the always seemed to accumulate under furniture and in corners.

Like this old credit card bill of Dante's from...April of 2017. Kathy snorted and rolled her eyes, preparing to toss it into the bin that was half-full of junk when she noticed that one of the items on there was in Hangul. Wait. Had Dante been learning stuff in Korean?

Wait. 김치 크림 파이. Was that a-- Kathy grabbed her phone and did a quick search and yep. It was pretty much exactly the kind of website she'd been expecting with a name like that. Definitely didn't have to do with desserts, that was for damn sure.

"Oh." She wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, especially since that was back when everything had still been really...rough...between them. They'd been friends, in a tentative kind of manner, but no more. So then why...?

"Hi, Portalocity? I've got a portal scheduled to Limbo City for later on this evening, but I was wondering, could I bump it up to earlier than that? Something this afternoon would be good, yeah."

[Open for calls, texts, and visitors before she goes, and LC folks afterwards!]

When Kathy had woken up as herself on Sunday, there'd been a letter waiting for her--a letter she'd remembered writing the night before and six years younger.

( Snipped )

Kathy had read that letter a number of times over the last day, smiling at the old email address she'd used faithfully for years--hell, her original Tumblr handle had been GymnastFlower--and awash in nostalgia. On the one hand, no wonder Sparkle had nicknamed her Mouse; it felt like all she'd done as a kid was apologize to people and blush. On the other hand, it was interesting to see her life now through the eyes of herself then. She'd laugh herself silly if someone told her that she had her life together, but she could see where her younger self had gotten that idea.

If nothing else, it put some things into perspective, which was sometimes hard to come by these days.

[Open for visitors and calls, but with the caveat of 'after I wake up again!']

Kathy was half-inside the cooler when it happened, appreciating the blast of cold air on her skin while she debated whether she should get a Coke for the road or stick to water. The tiny convenience store had been surprisingly busy when she'd stopped to gas up her bike and grab a snack; her EMT course didn't get out until after midnight and yet she'd passed two kids with skateboards on her way to the back and the door had jingled again just a moment ago.

( Snipped for crimefighting )

It was a lot later than normal when she finally got home, her fingers still smudged with fingerprinting ink. She let herself in as quietly as she could, planning on heading into the kitchen to make some tea. She was exhausted, yeah, but she had a lot to think about.

[Establishy, but up for housemates if they're awake for some reason? Based on this video, which might be fake but is still pretty awesome]

From the minute the calendar had flipped from November to December, Kathy had been getting ready for the holidays. Quite literally--at midnight exactly she'd hung up the first decoration over her bed so she could fall asleep under it. By the tenth day of December, the public spaces in 33 apocalypse were starting to resemble a gingerbread house, lacking only a Christmas tree to hit maximum Christmas spirit.

So it was entirely possible that when the magic strings of Christmas lights appeared (in very unusual places, like inside closets and around the fridge and festively illuminating the shower since most other places already had strings of lights put up), it was entirely possible that it would have shorted the power even without the island's impetus behind it. Kathy tried flipping the breakers three times before just giving up and lighting a bunch of candles instead.

Though she'd just finished mixing up a batch of cookie dough which required an oven to bake. Maybe one last attempt to get the power working before giving up on electricity entirely?

[Open]

It was October, even if the weather didn't match Tumblr's expectations of the month, and Kathy was getting into the spooky spirit. She'd decorated the living room with some window decals and a small stuffed bat for the cats to play with, there were a chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven and a bowl of ganache cooling on the counter for chocolate monster cookies, and two gallons of apple cider sat in the fridge, waiting to be mulled or spiked with cinnamon-flavored booze.

Now she was sprawled on the couch, playing through her repertoire of songs she'd learned on the guitar, and trying to figure out if she could learn to play Bad Moon Rising before it ceased being relevant. Hmm, maybe she should try to play something off of the Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads instead.