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

It was Christmas Day, fucking finally. It even felt like it: there had been some pretty impressive snowfall earlier in the week, so it was a seriously white Christmas, and Kate had really done her best to get the house looking Christmassy (and less creepily than when Grandma Sandy had been around some months before). The living room looked postcard perfect, with the tree in the corner and other decorations all around.

There'd been some Skypeing with Boston, earlier, and even the parentals had been pretty impressed with how things looked, when Kate had insisted on carrying her laptop around for a webcam tour. They were alone again now, though. Moosh was in the kitchen, putting finishing touches on what he had deemed gift-giving snacks, while Kate, in her adorable/ridiculous bear dress, was sitting cross-legged on the living room floor, a camera in her hands. Because a lot of these things just called for being immortalized as pixels.

She looked pretty happy. And sort of bouncy, even though she was sitting down.

"Sorry if I'm all hyper or whatever. I kinda always eat too much sugar over the holidays."

[ooc: NFB. For thems that are here!]

Things had calmed down. Tara and Max had made it to Boston, but they were still getting acquainted with the place. The facility. That was such a weird word, facility. Kate was going to have to get used to it, though. Her mom was going to be at one for months, now.

Kate had just baked muffins just because she needed something to do. Nothing fancy – Moosh had fucked off somewhere, so she hadn't been able to ask for any help or recipes. They were done now, anyway. Cooling on a tray on the counter.

She sighed, sitting down on a chair by the counter and picking up her phone. There were a few people she thought she should get up to date about the recent Gregson goings-on, and she figured she should start now. She also figured she shoud start with the one who'd require the fewest explanations, having already been exposed to Bryce and all, so she picked Luke's number and raised the phone up to her ear.

[ooc: NFB, mostly for Kate's favourite demigod, but open to other texts/calls as well! And that dude who's probably still here as well. ETA: Warning for various dark themes being discussed.]

Over in Kate's universe, two days had passed since the trials of St. Louis. It pretty much felt like one seriously long day for Kate, though, since it had been a blur of flights and errands and then some more flights since she'd had to cover for someone else. She was getting free time now, though, and there was even supposed to be some kind of a dinner tonight at her parents' house, so she'd finally called Luke and told him to catch a portal to the KC international airport and meet her there after her shift so they could be on their way back to Overland Park. And lo, it had happened.

She'd been pretty surprised, to say the least, to find Eddie Izzard her mother's Psych professor hanging out at their house when she and Luke had arrived. But, they were working on a paper on DID together, and the guy seemed okay – dry, sarcastic, and English were not a bad combo in Kate's book – so she supposed it could've been worse. And at least now no one could nag at her for bringing a dude to what had apparently been envisioned as a women-only thing.

While Professor Hattaras was in the kitchen heating up stew prepared the night before, they'd sat in the Gregsons' backyard for a while, surrounded by twinkly lights in the cooling fall evening, with appetizers and wine because Mitchell apparently wasn't the only who'd stopped enforcing the American drinking age. It had been idle conversation for the most part, with a few half-joking allusions from Charmaine that her sister was having an affair with the professor and Tara vehemently protesting that she shouldn't say stuff like that in front of her daughter and her friend. Just your average Mooshless and Maxless Sunday evening on Oak Avenue, really.

It was too cold in the backyard by now, though, and since the good professor had announced that the stew was ready, they'd relocated into the kitchen (following Tara's lead, since she'd excused herself to go inside a few minutes earlier) and crammed themselves around the table. Well, everyone except for Wheels, who was dozing peacefully in her carry cot on the counter to the side, and Tara who was still going around the table, putting stew into everyone's bowls and making sure no one needed more bread before she'd settle down.

( It's a dinner at the Gregson house. Of course it turns into a disaster. )

[ooc: NFB, based on USoT S03E09 'Bryce Will Play', preplayed with the magnificent trickydemigod, and to be continued in the comments. Warning for allusions to past child abuse, and Bryce generally being a creeper.]

The one bad thing about having your long distance boyfriend come over to stay with you during his Spring Break was that however wonderful it was, it somehow wasn't grounds enough to stay home from work. Kate had had to leave Bod at home, doing whatever it was you did when you were an unusual Englishman staying with your girlfriend's aunt and her wailing infant in Kansas. Watching over Wheels in fifteen minute increments, probably.

And Kate had a long day of visiting several Midwestern cities behind her. And since it was one of those days where she hadn't managed to cajole the Green Hornet away from her mom (something about needing it to get to school, blah), she was on a bus. And bored. Looking out the window, absently playing with her necklace while ignoring the drunken mumblings of a dude a few seats away from her kind of bored.

She just wanted to get home. Sigh.

[ooc: NFB. Primarily for one, but open for other calls/texts etc, sure!]

The day before yesterday, Kate had gotten a call and it hd become official: she was going to Japan! She was going to go to Japan and teach English. And she'd been fucking thrilled. No, seriously. She'd been thrilled about it when she'd given everyone the news, she'd been thrilled when she'd gone to bed, she'd been thrilled when she'd woken up yesterday, and she'd still been thrilled when she'd bounced her way across the front yard to go to her parents' house.

( And then a letter messes with her boundless excitement. )

[ooc: NFB and mostly establishy, but can be open if you really want to deal with the weird, weird mood.]

The last weekend was still weighing on Kate, just a little bit. She figured that was unavoidable after you got pretend killed, but she'd been trying to keep herself occupied and distracted because it was probably for the best if she didn't think about it too hard.

This weekend was going to be better, though. Or at least that was the plan she was clinging to. She hadn't told anyone but Charmaine that she had a friend coming over, so she figured her whole family knew by now, because Char was not the greatest at not blabbing. Not that it was any major secret, Kate just would've preferred it if her family hadn't been likely to flock to be curious about her elusive Fandom friends.

But that was for later. As it got to be the afternoon, she wandered out of the house and down the street to where the portal tended to dump its transportees, and kept an eye on the houses nearby in case any neighbors decided to wander outside.

Oak Avenue had its fair share of weird without adding portal sightings to the mix.

[ooc: NFB, and for that guy. Not the usual one. The tall one with the scar, yeah, that one. But can be open for texts/calls before he shows up I s'pose!]

So, after her randomly awkward visit to the library, it seemed there was to be no party for Kate today. Well, not unless you counted it a party that she was wearing her new dress while music played on in the background. Kate didn't. The dress was because for just a moment, she'd considered going into town after all, before she'd realized that would've either meant going to the Devil's Nest and not being able to drink, or going to Caritas and having to face Caroline.

The music was just because.

She was slumped on her bed, playing a game on her phone and wondering whether she should dig out the liquor bottle she knew she had stashed in the depths of her closet. It called for consideration.

Thinking hard on just how pathetic that would make her look, mostly.

[ooc: Mostly 'stablishy, but can be open since I'm probably not gonna go to bed for a couple more hours like an insane person! The door is cracked open.]