The Luckiest Girl In The World

Last year, Dante had surprised them all but good with his Roseapalooza and decision to make breakfast. Kathy wasn't quite that crazy - that was reserved for Christmas, with minor bleedthrough for Thanksgiving - but she wasn't going to let this year go without a return volley.

Which meant baking. In a tiny red pinup apron over never-you-mind and heels definitely not intended for use in the kitchen, but still...baking. And, you know, a bit of tempering and molding chocolate, too. But by that afternoon, she had a two dozen roses for Dante and two dozen roses for Anders.

And a couple extra each for herself because she wasn't stupid thank you. She loved them, but the boys were bad at sharing.

Food, anyway.

It took several days (and several nights' worth of nightmares) for Kathy to face what she really needed to do. It wasn't LA that she was hoping she'd find alive.

It was her family.

She knew that there were other versions of her that existed elsewhere. There was Lady, in Limbo City, and every time something weird happened on Fandom. Maybe there would be one that existed here, too. Maybe she'd see her family, alive, one more time - just verify that they were safe, and happy, and doing okay. That was all she needed. Then she could collect the guys and her dog and go home to Limbo City. That wasn't too much to ask, was it.

They'd called Dante that morning to join them on their last day in the city and then, after lunch, she'd left them and Ronin behind to finish this one last task. This was just one of those things, she had to do alone.

( It was uncanny, how much it looked like home. )

Kathy left several hours later, carrying a reusable shopping bag full of banana milk, various blends of tea and several jars of kimchi. More importantly, she also had a recipe for kimchi. Not just any recipe, either. Her mother's recipe, shared with Mrs. Park one winter day the first year the Lis had moved in. That alone was worth the trip.

And...her family was out there. Somewhere. They existed. Somewhere, there was a Sarah Li, brash and sassy, finishing up her last year of high school. And there was a Kathy Li, hopefully spreading her wings at a college some where, learning to be her own person. Mrs. Park didn't have - or wouldn't share - their contact information, but honestly? That was enough. There was another world with her family in it, neither bitten by zombies nor summoning demons, living and laughing and loving.

Today, that was enough.

[Mooostly establishy? But also for those guys she's with. And, surprising no one, I wrote a goddamned book.]

( The ex that had once been known as the superhero Banzai shambled along the overpass of the highway. )

Decision made, it didn't take long to turn 'plan' into 'action.' She'd made rounds of all her bug-out bags recently, checking to make sure they were still stocked and ready to go whenever the guys had been out of the house. It took just a second to grab the one under her bed, add Ronin's paperwork, and sling it on over her shoulder. Portal was faster than flight, plus they made less fuss over dogs. And weapons.

Yeah, okay, portal to Los Angeles based on nothing but bad dreams. Sounded like a great idea.

[For that guy who might have concerns]

Breaking into the small building that the 'After Death Fellowship' had taken for their own was child's play for anyone with a lockpick and a reason to get inside. Anders and Ezra had both. The unassuming exterior was matched by the interior as well; the front door opening to small entryway and the entryway led to a pair of double doors at the back. The building had been used as cheap seminar space, back when the Mount had still been Paramount Studios and things like 'seminars' still existed.

The doors at the back were slightly ajar, showing a large, open room that was not quite big enough for the hundred metal folding chairs crammed inside of it. The chairs were lined in ten rows of ten with only a narrow space down the middle to serve as an aisle, all of them facing away from the doors and towards the back of the room where the floor was raised about four or so feet up to make a little 'stage'. On that stage stood a podium, from which Christian Ngyuyen was addressing the congregation.

"When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth," she said, delivering that line with all the fervor of a Southern Baptist preacher delivering some fire and brimstone to the damned, rather than quoting lines from Daybreak of the Dead. From the scattered clapping and calls of "Amen!" and "Preach," she had apparently found a willing audience.

The whole thing would be absurd, if it wasn't for two key details. The first was Kathy, standing in a white nightgown, roughly two sizes too big for her, staring past Christian's right shoulder in horror.

The other was the zombie, handcuffed to a radiator, its jaws clacking continuously in a sermon of its own.

( Zombies. Why did it have to be zombies? )

[Finale 1 of 2! Many thanks to the amazing team of not_every_mage and smilestopscars for all their hard work and compelling writing for this. <3 I can't fangirl everyone in this plot enough, omg. NFB, NFI. Previous post Next Post]

Max had waited until all of Kathy's friends had been tracked down and brought to the war council chamber. His nominal reason was because he figured they'd have a vested interest in knowing the timetable had moved up a lot, since they were the ones with a way out. Kathy was pretty sure that both he and Stealth were coming up with ways to convince the Fandom contingent to stay and help out.

Kathy wasn't sure how either of them hoped to pull that off. Neither Stealth nor Max had made a great impression the last time they'd dealt with anyone in Fandom.

Once everyone had been fetched and gathered, Max stood up again to explain why their situation had grown so much more dire with Josh's escape. For once, he didn't seem to be putting on a show for those benighted souls less educated in the ways of sorcery than he was; he seemed geuinely concerned about them understanding what was going on. Honestly, that worried Kathy a lot more than even the things he was saying. Max Hale hadn't done solemn even in the midst of the zombie outbreak. For him to do it now was chilling.

( What do you do with a problem like a Cairax )

[Many thanks to all my beloved preplayers! NFI, NFB. Adapted and improved from Chapter Twenty-Three of Ex-Communication by Peter Clines. Previous post, Next post]

Last night after finally exiting the tower, they had made their way back to Dante's place in Limbo City. Kathy had been half-tempted to get a portal back to the island, worried about Eliot, wanting to be home, but she'd been too sore and exhausted to do much more than look at her phone before letting it fall back to pocket.

At least her texts to Raven had gone through, even if she probably seemed like a madwomen in them.

Exhausted as she was, she didn't manage to sleep much past sunrise. Too many thoughts, too many memories, too many feelings crowding close to keep her asleep. She got up, limping a little unevenly downstairs, scrounging to see what kind of breakfast she could make from the remains in the kitchen.

The answer was apparently coffee, so she set that to perking and went to sit in front of the big window, staring out at the street, eyes blank and seeing very little.

[For them who are in Limbo City with her! SP for forever because BDE and also brain.]

Kathy knew they were going to have to fight demons. She had yet to go to Limbo City and not fight demons. But she'd at least expected the fighting to wait until they'd gotten to the damn tower first. ( Demons were rude like that. )

[Preplayed with the lovely not_every_mage and rebelseekspizza! NFB, NFI, but OOC is always love! Comes after this]

For a moment after her alarm went off, Kathy had no idea why she'd even set it. It was the weekend, she had neither work nor class today, she could sleep late if she wanted to. And, slapping blearily at her beeping phone, Kathy very much wanted to. She was warm, lying in a tangle of bodies, still more than a little tired from the night before, which had included a much better resolution that last year's prom.

Oh. Right. Prom. The wheels in her brain started to slowly turn as she put two and two together. Alarm. Unlocked front door. Day after prom. Yes.

"Get up," she said, poking at whoever was closest. "Kids are probably coming. C'mon, get up."

She wanted to be dressed and making breakfast by the time the inevitable horde descended on the house, dammit. But she wasn't going to be doing it alone.

"Get up or I swear I will send the first kid who shows up to come and wake you up proper."

Kathy that was just mean.

[Open to boyfriends, housemates, AU children of all varieties, and guests!]

It had been a really long time Kathy had gone on patrol, but her body had immediately fallen into the old rhythm. It felt like warming up muscles that hadn't been used in a while and Kathy was pretending she didn't notice how easy it was--or how good it felt. She was also ignoring the real reason she was out here, goaded into action by her conversation with the AlternaDante yesterday.

Whatever. Forget him. These slugs were gross as hell and they needed a good killing anyway.

She picked through the trees, keeping her eyes open for any signs of slugs, the nebulous 'danger' that AlternaDante had warned her against, and, most importantly, of Raven. She wasn't stupid enough to think that her bestie couldn't handle herself out here and probably do so better than Kathy herself, but that didn't mean she needed to handle it all herself.

And thanks, Fandom, way to ruin her plans of spending the weekend getting a Christmas tree. Dammit.

[Expecting two, but open!]

Kathy hadn't cooked much since the housewarming party where she'd discovered just how really not okay she was with meat. Heating up leftovers and microwaving pre-made meals didn't really count and yet, here she was trying to make a meal that wasn't too spicy (Anders), or too vegetable-y (Dante), but that she would be okay with eating, too.

In the end, she ended up making a bunch of dough, prepping a bunch of veggies (and fetching some meat from downstairs, though she made the staff prep that), and getting some jars of pasta sauce. First, she made some dim sum to eat as hearty appetizers while they all pitched in for the main course:

Personalized pizzas with a variety of handwavy toppings. Everyone could make what they wanted and nobody was stuck eating anything they didn't. One day, Kathy would like to make a real Korean dinner, complete with banchan and everything, but baby steps. She figured tonight would be better if she just kept everything as simple as possible.

Okay, the dessert of a strawberry-covered chocolate mousse cake hadn't been simple, exactly, but she knew her audience. She figured they'd appreciate that kind of complicated.

Now just to wait for them arrive. Hmm, what paired well with pizza? And also soothing jangling nerves?

Ah right. Dark and stormies. Kathy went to fetch the ginger beer and limes while she waited for the guys to arrive.

[For they what know and up early for SP!]