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

The Gregson house was a lot busier than it had been for the last couple of months. More cramped, too, or so it seemed. Kate's parents had finally come back a few days ago, and everyone was still settling back into everyday life. Or in some cases, getting ready to settle into everyday life somewhere else. Kate and Bod had secured themselves an apartment, see, a little further away in KCMO. They'd be able to move in a few days. So while they'd hauled their belonging out of the master bedroom and into Kate's, most of the stuff had already gotten packed away into boxes that they'd eventually load into Max's truck to be driven to their new digs. And Kate was still packing.

Except right now. Right now, she was laying down on her back in what had been her bedroom for fifteen years (and on and off again even after that), looking up at the ceiling. She needed a breather.

They were really going to do this. So, was this what being an adult felt like?

[ooc: NFB, but open for calls/texts/the boy! Subject to various paces of SP while I'm at school.]

Inspecting the damage in the mirror, Kate poked at her nose and winced a little when that proved that yes, it still hurt. The slight swelling had gone down, though, and there was only slight bruising on either side of her nose, so it could've been a lot worse and Kate knew that. It'd fade before the interview with the Teach Abroad people next week.

But it was still enough for her to scrap any and all plans of hopping a portal to Fandom right now. Didn't feel like explaining her face to any randoms, and it was still too sore to the touch to cover up with makeup. So, she was going to be staying home, yes.

That didn't mean she wasn't going to communicate with the outside world. She'd ignored her phone for most of the previous night, too shellshocked and tired to deal with words and all that stuff. She was getting around to it now, though. Turning her phone back on, she noticed there were two texts that made her crack the faintest of smiles as she sent back a reply and shook her head a little at Bobby drinking appletinis.

And then, a message to Bod, who she hoped had just assumed she'd gotten distracted in the middle of their texting last night. She knew how he could worry.

sorry for vanishing last night, we had a situation happen. everything's fine now though.

More or less. With a sigh, she flopped down onto their bed, phone still in hand.

[ooc: NFB, but open to calls/texts, even from people who aren't the bf!]

Friday had been pretty spectacularly bad, and the less said about it the better. Saturday, Kate had just laid low and recuperated. And today, today was just one of those days she had to get off the island. It was just a necessity, being outside in the normal world. Not getting yelled at by vampires, not singing things that were better kept silent.

So she'd come here, to this ice cream place. She'd been happy here once, months and months ago, flirting and drawing out some of the very first of those blushes she'd later come to love so much. This was a good, non-crazy place to be spending a Sunday afternoon in.

She had a big bowl of ice cream and her laptop in front of her, and was currently busying herself with following some of Knatasha Knightblade's advice from a few weeks ago by setting up an Amoozoo wishlist for Princess Valhalla Hawkwind.

Picking out things she wanted was like therapy. She'd be here a while.

[ooc: NFB due to being off-island, but open for calls/texts/randomly finding her here.]

It had felt so weird, getting home on Sunday afternoon. Kate hadn't been back in six months, and it hit her hard, how everything was the same as it had always been.

Yeah, actually, she had been back home once after starting at Fandom High, but that didn't count, not really; she realized that now. That time, she'd taken Leto home with her, which meant she'd effectively taken Fandom home with her, too. With him there, Overland Park wasn't the same Overland Park she'd known all her life. With him there, she was looking at everything from a stranger's point of view, trying to imagine how it all seemed to him. And she couldn't even pretend her life was the same as it had always been; one look at him and she remembered all the weirdness.

And she knew it was all real.

There was nothing to do that to her now, nothing concrete to remind her Fandom wasn't just a trick of her mind. She spent all of Sunday feeling unsteady, like she was standing between two worlds, kind of unsure about everything. It was similar to what she felt during Parents' Weekend, thrown off her balance by trying to keep Fandom and her home from crashing together and screwing everything up for her.

But the feeling was fading now. Nearly 16 years spent in her hometown ensured that it was ridiculously easy to slip into that old way of being. Being who she had always been, doing the same things she always did. It was exactly why Monday afternoon found her at the mall, visiting all her favorite stores and just generally hanging out.

She was just heading for the record store and had gone past an elaborate Christmas tree and some benches when she heard a voice call out her name.

She recognized the voice instantly, and spun around before she'd even had time to think about it.

( Cut for meeting the Ghost of Boyfriend Past. ...Or y'know, just running into an ex. )

She got her phone out and sent a mass text to her friends in Fandom.

How's things in Fandom or wherever you are? Kansas is boring.


[ooc: NFB due to distance, but open to texts and calls! If you think you got the message, you got it.

I'm around pretty much all of today, but tomorrow morning I shall flee to spend Christmas internetlessly; I'll be back on Saturday. Happy holidays, everyone!]