I'm not a hardship. I'm awesome.

From: [email protected]
To: (Srsly, if you think there's a chance you got this, you got this. Friends, acquaintances, former collegues, everyone. [email protected])
Subject: TWENTY ONE TWENTY ONE TWENTY ONE

Hello hello hello! GUESS WHO'S GOING TO BE A REAL LIVE ADULT TOMORROW?

Me. The answer is me.

To celebrate, there's going to be a party tomorrow night at Mr. Northman's fine establishment (that's the Devil's Nest if you're unfamiliar with Uncle Eric) (Devil's Nest is on Black Swan Drive in Fandom, in case you're unfamiliar with the club) in my honor! Come one, come all! No gifts necessary, but I won't decline if you get me something. I fucking love presents. Or just being told happy birthday.

Also if you're under 21, sorreee but there probably won't be any booze for you due to venue policy. But! The selection of fancy foreign sodas is amazing. So, don't let that stop you.

So to recap: Kate's birthday bash, Devil's Nest, Wednesday 1st of October, 2014. Be there!

- Kate

[ooc: NFB, but open for emails/texts/calls and the like! Party post happening tomorrow with the much appreciated co-operation of justlurkinghere.]

Kate had turned twenty two weeks ago. Bod would do the same in a couple of weeks, and so not only was today almost the midway point between their two birthdays, it also happened to be their two-and-a-half years anniversary. Yes, Kate was about as astonished by that fact as most other people might have been. (Her own fifteen-year-old Fandom newbie self from a little over four years ago would have been flabbergasted, for sure.) And it was a cause for celebration.

It had taken some saving and a bit of luck with regards to deals, but they had a suite for a couple of days at Hotel Pershing Hall in Paris (Kate's choice, they hadn't been since that time Fandom was next to Disneyland), near just about all the good stuff as far as Kate was concerned. And that was before she'd seen the inside of the hotel, because holy shit.

"Holy shit."

Way to look like an American tourist right after dragging your bags in the door, Kate.

[ooc: NFB, and for the boy, and massive SP!]

Tara and Max had been spending their holiday weekend in a productive way, by finally cleaning the garage and sorting out the crap that had been accumulating in there for almost two decades now.

And long story short, after a quick trip to OP, Kate was now sitting on the bed safely back at the apartment going through a big box of stuff she hadn't seen in years and years. "Ohhh my God."

A diary from when she was five? Priceless.

[ooc: NFB, but open for the guy and calls and texts and stuff!]

After the grad brunch on Sunday, Kate had hopped a portal to a certain New York because Cinco de Mayo was just the perfect excuse to drag Hannibal out to have fun. So she'd done that. And then hung out with him yesterday, first nursing their hangovers, then out on the town where they'd made some great purchases and some even greater decisions involving permanent body art. Because you couldn't leave them together unsupervised. Not now that they were finally getting back into almost their pre-vampire days swing.

So Kate was pretty happy, coming home right now. Sure, she'd have to go to work in a couple of hours, but whatever. She was wearing some pretty spiffy new pants, and she had a bandage on the inside of one ankle. Things were pretty good.

Kicking off her shoes at the door because ugh, she just wanted them off, she called out into the apartment proper, "Honey, I'm hoooome."

[ooc: NFB, but open for that guy and texts and calls, yes. Dear dropped Hannibal modded with kind permission. Even if I was told I couldn't give him a tramp stamp.]

Days off for both Kate and Bod at the same time didn't come around every day. (Which made sense, because if they had, it would've probably meant they were both out of a job.) But once they did, sometimes you had to take advantage, by going out and doing something silly. Like going to see a local attraction! You know, like the Hallmark Visitors Center. Kate's choice, naturally.

She hadn't even realized the place was a thing before looking up possible attractions to visit, earlier today.

She was already heading for the gift shop about as soon as they were through the doors, though. Impatience would have been her middle name if her parents hadn't decided to go with Michelle instead. "I need to check out the cheesy card selection like right now."

[ooc: NFB, for the boooy.]

Kate had stayed the night in Fandom. Then she'd grabbed the earliest possible portal back home. Then she'd gone by a flower shop to get purple roses before actually going home. And she hadn't explained a whole lot to Bod, just dragged him along to the car because there was somewhere they needed to go today. A certain place back in Overland Park.

And they were on their way now. Almost there, in fact, because it wasn't that long a drive, even if Kate still kind of drove like a little old lady, sometimes.

"Wait, fuck, I always get confused around here. Is the next turn to the left? I think it is."

It would probably have been helpful if she'd actually told Bod where they were going.

[ooc: NFB. For the boy I just modded, omg.]

Christmas had come and gone. So had Marshall who'd joined the holiday festivities (and stayed at Kate and Bod's place) for a week or so, but was already back on the eastern coast. His friends wanted him for New Year's. Charmaine, Neil and Wheels where intending to spend the turn of the year with Tara and Max since they'd been in no rush to get back to Texas after Christmas. And Kate had no idea what her personal plans were.

So she was obviously devoting a lot of thought to that right now.

Or, you know. She was sitting in her pajamas on the couch, eating Twizzlers for breakfast while playing video games. In deep thought.

[ooc: NFB, but open for the bf as well as texts and calls and whatever!]

A lot had happened since Kate had left Fandom and returned to Kansas City on Sunday evening. No, seriously, a lot.

The first odd thing she'd noticed had been that when she'd tried to arrange for a quick trip back to Fandom on the following night, to come and claim her promised drink from the club on the island, Portalocity had listed the connection as unavailable. Weird, but not unheard of, and she'd just given up on fake birthday drinks and gone about her business. And then they'd been busy, just settling into life in their new apartment (a separate bedroom, and a little bathroom with an actual bath, but everything else was one space), their new routines. And because Bod didn't really have too many people he kept in touch with anyway, and Kate didn't tend to talk to her Fandom friends daily or even weekly, it took them some weeks before Kate tried texting Mitchell and it didn't go through. She tried calling Jack. It didn't go through either. Luke, Emma, Hannibal, Bobby, Francine, Puck, Ramona, Leto, even Nathan. A dozen calls and texts, and none of them went through.

She tried her best to dismiss it as a random disturbance in the multiverse.

The weeks dragged on. Bod got a job in a graveyard. Kate got a teeny-tiny raise. Marshall graduated from high school. Charmaine kept sending pictures of the ever-growing Wheels. Kate and Bod had dinner with her parents and brother a lot, and avoided questions about their friends elsewhere. No word from any other universes. The few workers employed at the small Portalocity hub at Kate's airport (past the Kloudklimber Klub entrance, behind the fake palm tree) kept coming to work every day, but they couldn't get through to anywhere else. Kate visited them every day.

The weeks turned into months. The summer was nice enough, and Kate and Bod took to having breakfast on their little balcony. Tara got a part-time job illustrating article for a women's magazine she couldn't stop making fun of. Kate and Bod took Marshall on a Kansan road trip of shitty motels and even shittier tourist attractions. It was probably the best time they had all summer – though whether that was hard for a summer where Kate spent so much time fretting over whether they'd gotten cut off from the multiverse for good, it was hard to say. Eric's shirts were still hanging in their closet. The Portalocity workers kept shaking their heads at her.

Summer turned into fall. They saw Marshall off to a film school on the east coast. Tara and Max started talking about selling the house and moving somewhere better suited for two, but decided not to. (Like Tara said, it was never going to be just the two of them, was it? T and Buck and Alice popped up from time to time.) Kate repainted the kitchen area with her mother's help. There were sunflowers on the wall, now. And not a single sign of life from other parts of the multiverse.

And today, it was finally October first. Kate was turning nineteen. Six months since she'd last spoken to anyone in Fandom and she knew it, so her mood was maybe not the greatest, hard as she tried. She looked at her phone, and found a few texts. A birthday greeting from Marshall, a request for a shift change from a coworker – and a message from one of the airport Portalocity people.

She read the last message.

And then she screamed.

And then she found her words, if not too many of them: "Bod! Bod! Oh my God!"

[ooc: NFB, but open for the boy and calls/texts! Also, she'll be in Fandom again later today. Bouncing around because she hasn't heard from anyone in six freaking months because we are horrible people. Also, Bod modded with permission!]

One moment, Kate was standing in the school with a knife in her hand, practically wishing the last few Loyalists would come at her so she could hurt some more people, like that'd help her.

The next, the knife was gone and it was a very different Kate standing in that exact same spot.

And then she was off and running, scrambling her way out of the school and out the gates and making some kind of a personal record with the way she ran through town to the hotel. They'd had a hotel room, see, her and Bod, before this whole thing had started. And he had to be there. He had to be there.

She ended up repeatedly slamming her fist against the hotel room door once she got there. "Bod? Bod!"

[ooc: Just for the guy about to get cried on!]

It was Sunday morning in Overland Park, even if many a person inside this particular house on Oak Avenue thought it was actually Monday morning. They could probably all agree that it was morning, though. And maybe that last night had been fun.

And as far as their darling hostess was concerned, it had been a success. Kate was thrilled that people had shown up, even if it hadn't stopped being weird to see them all actually in her house. In Kansas. It was trippy, and not just because she'd gotten a little tipsy over the course of the evening. But it had made her so damn happy, and she would have probably tried insisting on staying up all night if Bod hadn't half carried her to bed after she'd started nodding off on the couch.

Things had eventually quieted down, yes, and a comfortable place to sleep had been found for all those who'd stayed over, whether in beds or on mattresses hauled over from the house next door. And now it was morning. Kate was still completely out of it, upstairs in her and Bod's bedroom (formerly her parents' room), of course, but the smell of coffee and crisp bacon was already drifting through the house. And that could only mean one thing:

Marshall was a good person.

[wee ocd up!]