I'm gonna move to the southwest, and, I don't know...

"Hi, there! You've reached Turtle & Canary, but unfortunately, all our employees are hard at work at the moment. Please leave a message, and we'll try to get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks!"

There had been a lot of things Summer had been thinking about, thoughts that she frequently pushed to the side to focus on one distraction or the next, but were still no less present there in her mind. Some of those thoughts had already been pretty front and center last night, even before Atton went and poked at them and stirred them all up into pretty much a bubbling froth. But then there was the conversation she had with Rey at the bar when the island was doing its truth thing, and even before that, with Dean turning her down, because it just felt like a shitty thing to do to Stark.

She'd been thinking about it a lot, actually.

To the point where she didn't really sleep well last night, even as tired as she was from prom and post-prom club hopping, her brain just going over things and examining them and disecting them and just trying to figure them out. She did manage to doze a little bit, but, for the most part, she was back out of it way too early, and listening to the steady rhythm of Stark's breathing and his heartbeat as he slept and thought about how he always did sleep better when he was with her.

And how, for an absurd amount of time, she had it right in the palm of her hand the ability to give him the one thing he really wanted, and she'd just dangled it over his head to see how high he could jump to try and get it, and then just kept raising the bar higher and higher, and god, what an absolutely shitty thing to do to a person, especially one you claimed to care about and love...

What absolute Rick Sanchez behavior, tbh.

And one thing in particular that Atton had said last night just kept ringing in her head: Give it another six months and I'm sure he'll be shaped exactly like your perfect boyfriend.

But what even was that? What sort of impossible standard was she setting for him to meet, that he wasn't already? She sure as hell didn't know. Rey had suggested that she take some time to just 'be single,' but she'd tried to do that, and it all just kept leading her right back to Stark.

He'd definitely put in the time. And it wasn't like they practically weren't already there in everything but an official sense, to the point where even some guy who'd barely known either of them for a week was, even under the influence of island-induced horny pollen, was just all nah, man, there is a lot going on there already.

Maybe she really should stop being such an asshole coward about it and actually give this a serious shot.

And the timing....well, could it be any more perfect? Because today was the Highest of Holy Days for Summer, and she'd already planned on celebrating in her usual epic fashion. But now? Stark would wake up, they would talk, she would finally activate that one thing that she knew would make him so fucking happy he might just throw up, and then they could ride that emotional high into an actual high and just exist all wrapped up in that bubble all day while trying to come up with some of the most absurd and ridiculous flavor combinations to satiate that inevitable demand of needing to nosh....

It was kind of perfect, actually?

Like, what could possibly go wrong?

[[ and you know who it's for. ]]

On the one hand, having to move over to this janky-ass theme hotel after getting only just a taste of the luxury hotel she'd been planning to have this party in was a real kick in the teeth. But, on the other hand, this hotel definitely did make Summer feel like she was returning to the roots of the vibes of what a room party should be, making the most with what you had just to slip away from responsibilities to enjoy a few beers and some jello shots with either your fellow students or your fellow teachers. There was a charm to it, a certain humbleness, quaint, really...

...At least that's what she was telling herself.

She'd done small room parties before. Some hotels just didn't have the same space or amenities or cool features as others, and it was fine. There might need to be some spill over into the hallway, and the lines between students and teachers were getting so blurred anyway that it didn't really matter about keeping a bunch of kids out, because most of the kids these days were all nerds pretty quiet and chill anyway. But there was a problem with space of the room, and even that was handled by hiring Gladio and Amaya (it was good to have other characters friends with impressive....lifting capabilities!) to move the bed out of the room, into another one for the time being to give more floor space, and, really, with the bed removed? It wasn't too bad. Cozy. Intimate!

...At least that's what she was telling herself.

Of course, there were moddable snacks on a small table against one wall; beer and soda were chilling in the sink in the bathroom filled with ice, and, of course, there was a table with some liquor and even some local wines she was able to lock down along with the main feature, the infamous jello shots. The pride of the offerings was the ones she made with the Doritos booze Stark had gotten her, fancily dusted with a Doritos crumble, but there were also your expected space themed shots, including a space jello punchbowl. And, of course, she'd also taken inspiration from the island (wistfully, piningly) by securing a few local fruits and whatnot for a series of inspired shots there. You know, things like mai tais and pina colada and mojito, but, you know...more space fruit-y.

A part of her wondered if she should take inspiration from the Astrotorium, too, and that was how she wound up with cotton candy, cinnamon roll, and corn dogs.

When did she have the time and how did she get the resources to pull all those off? Don't ask, she had her ways. Just come in, enjoy the party, try not to bump into too many people in the limited space and or party in shifts, maybe? Either way, there was so much jello, there was some good tunes pumping through her portable speaker, and it was time for the traditional Wednesday Night School Trip Room Party!

[[ open party is open! And flying OCD free because I have had a week, y'all, and it's only Wednesday, and I cannot be bothered to ]]

There had been a handful of oh-so-handwavey flyers popped into the most obvious spots, but Summer was relying heavily on the age-old method of massive group texting (and general word of mouth) to let everyone know about Stark's birthday party tonight at his apartment because it really was just going to be a super chill, lowkey, casual sort of fling this time around.

She'd spent the majority of her prep work in splashing the apartment with decorations (blue and gold and black again) and bmaking a variety of different jello shots in pie and cupcake and other dessert-like forms, so, needless to say, she definitely ordered out for the the cupcakes themselves.

Other snacks and drinks were also available and moddable, and there was also a very moddable but totally curated, for real, music playlist, and she'd even dusted off the karaoke machine from the GxG birthday party years ago and dragged that up, just in case anyone was feeling up to getting that going.

Definitely not exactly her best, most extravagant party, but, hey, not all parties could (or even should!) be epic. Sometimes, they could just be kind of quiet and cozy with a lot of cupcakes. Which just suited the birthday guy better anyway, really.

[[ open party is open! as always, feel free to mod having gotten a text, seen a flier, been told by Summers or squirrels or ghosts of parties past or just swing by to borrow a cup of sugar, i don't care, I'm not your boss ]]

Summer had been about to step out and actually go do stuff for the day, but Pancakes was acting a little funny when she went to the door, all tense with her hackles raised and yowling out a warning, with a few hisses thrown in for good measure, which put Summer immediately on the defensive. She checked the peekhole, but couldn't see anything out in the hallway, but the cat was definitely acting like there was something not good on the other side. So, half-wondering if she should go grab a vase or a hammer or one of her many, many, many laser guns first, she cautiously turned the doorhandle and pulled the door open just a little biiiit....

....and quickly slammed it back shut again, just in time to catch a squirrel colliding head first into the door after a failed attempt to dive right through the crack.

"Dammit, Leroy!" she said. "I know it's mistletoe day already! It's not gonna happen! That was a one time thing and it was practically six years ago, you little creep! You and your mistletoe can just go jump in a fucking well!"

She expected to hear whines and complaints, but there was actually silence on the other side of the door. Cautiously, she opened the door again to find that it had actually worked? She looked up sto make sure he wasn't, like, ninja-ing it up in the corner on the ceiling or something, and she blinked and thought about it...

And wondered if she should text Travis to warn him about any calls he might get from squirrels stuck in wells today in particular.

Also, she wondered if it was too early to start drinking. Or maybe just getting high...

[[ open! ]]

So, last night, Stark had come over with a box of cookies from J,GoB, and it had completely ruined her entire day. Well, okay, not really, and, honestly, she would be the first to admit that she kind of deserved it, but there was no way anyone was going to show up to her place with Santa cookies that tasted like pumpkin and turkey-shaped cookies that tasted like peppermint and not suffer some kind of consequences.

The rest of the evening, then, was spent plotting her revenge (well, not entirely, but anyway), so in the morning, when she got up, she was ready to return the favor, gave him a kiss on the cheek and announced that she wanted to go make breakfast, but she wanted it to be a surprise. Naturally, Stark was immediately suspicious of this and asked if it was going to be a gross breakfast, but Summer just shrugged and batted her eyes sweetly at him and told him he'd have to wait and see.

A good deal later, after Summer had finished with the final touches and cleaned up a little to get rid of the evidence, and made sure there was some coffee ready, her voice called out with a sing=song, "Okay, Stark! It's ready!"

And then went to go grab the Eggo Sippin' Cream, because what was 'breakfast spaghetti' without a little boozy waffle drink to go with it??

[[ obviously for that alien who was horrifically modded ]]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Queenstown, allegedly an adventure capital of the world, but it was Wednesday, so once everyone'd gotten their adventure on, it was obviously time to swing by Summer's room for her traditional School Trip Room Party, to get wasted on all sorts of moddable booze and jello shots and have at least a few regrets the next morning, if you were doing it right.

So there were snacks. There were beers. There was, okay, okay, even some wine because there were some snobs in the crowd she expected and also, she liked to keep it local and New Zealand did do some wines or whatever. There was a curated playlist, of course, and Rosa and Gladio were reprising their traditional roles as bouncers, although Summer wasn't entirely sure how that was going to play out now that the school was catering to an older, more party-aged demographic, but she supposed maybe that just meant they were to be arbiters of making sure nothing got weird? It was new territory! They'd figure it out!

But, most importantly of all, there was a wide variety of jello shots on display for the taking: kiwi two ways, layered with melon or straight up but served in kiwi cups; honey lemonade made with local mānuka honey, sweet potato cinnamon, chocolate covered cherry using Whittaker's Chocolates of course; and a variety of just basic flavors but adorably in the shape of sheep.

Look, the other option was a jello shot with actual lamb in it, so consider yourself mildly lucky.

So looks like now all she needed....was people to show up!

Sure,it was going to get pretty crowded in this room once they did, but honestly? That gave it the best classic room party vibes to have a bunch of people shoved into an otherwise cozy room.

[[ open for all trip-goers, of course! Faculty members got a special, handwaved mass-text invite, too! No OCD, just go hog wild, and please to excuse my inevitable flaky SP because I got a LOT going on right now omg, but The Room Party(TM) must go on! All predicated on the assumption that wherever we'll be will in fact be conducive to a room party, but if not, it may be edited to suit ]]

Even if Summer had thought it would be a good idea to leave Stark alone for a bit while she went to work, she would seriously be way too tired to deal with anything, especially whatever random holiday Apu was celebrating, and you know what? That was fine. She was the boss now, she could do whatever she wanted, and if that meant doing orders tomorrow instead of today, then so be it. Because Stark was definitely not doing much better, and she hadn't gotten hardly any sleep for all the nightmares and screaming, and she eventually gave up and just went into her kitchen to make herself some coffee and cling to the mug with a thousand-mile stare at the backsplash tile and thinking of maybe writing a strongly worded email to the multiverse to maybe stop throwing in shit to give the guy she slept with horrible night terrors that were making no one in this apartment right now happy, the cat especially included.

As she sipped her coffee, she was also staring at that backsplash tile and idly wondering if she should maybe redo her kitchen.

Her brain had been through a lot lately, shut up.

[[ open! ]]

So, Summer's loser ex-husband had shown up for a Parents Weekend, again. She didn't know why, she didn't know how (although she had some theories), but she did know that it was the last thing she wanted to deal with right now. Ugh! This was supposed to be a nice, carefree PW with no guests except other people's so she could just reconnect with previous visitors and maybe meet some new ones, and not have to deal with that one guy she married when she was seventeen because it was the apocalypse and her parents were getting a divorce.

Unfortunately, Hemorrhage knew where she lived, so she couldn't just hide out in her room all weekend, either. She'd have to find somewhere else to go, and the next possible thing that came to her mind was exactly one floor up and with a lock that she could practically pick in her sleep.

(She should maybe get her own key one of these days, but locking picking was a good way to work out some of her frustration).

And so now, in Stark's apartment, she was pretty much wearing out a line in his floor with pacing back and forth and trying to think of how best to take care of this situation and this asshole with a penchant for ruining her Parents Weekends.

Honestly, at this point, she'd almost wished she had gotten Rick instead.

[[ apartment modded with permission, and for he who lives there and his guest! ]]

Summer had sent Stark out earlier that morning, to get some fresh air, to give her some space, and to maybe pick up a few things, but now he was back and had attention demanded of him by Pancakes, which lead to them both falling asleep together on the couch. Which was fine by Summer, because she had a lot to do in the kitchen, between the brownies and getting things started on the utterly ridiculous recipe she'd stumbled across that she'd been absolutely dying to try.

She'd gotten the brownies going while Stark was out, so when he came back, he was definitely coming back to an apartment infused with chocolatey goodness. And while he was napping, she got started on the chicken, so the now it was definitely more that savory barbeque. Baked it up, shredded it, then meticulously layered it with the tortillas and cheese and went to let it set in the fridge for a bit until it was time for the next steps.

Which meant she was now at a little bit of a conundrum. Sleep had definitely been a tricky thing for Stark still, although it was getting better, so she was a little reluctantly to actually wake him up. She should let him get in as much sleep as he could. But, on the other hand, most of the time, that sleep was inevitably interrupted with a nightmare. And she had the opportunity to help him wake up in a much more pleasant way that also involved a lot less screaming and crying, which was better for her, too, and didn't annoy the cat.

So, bringing over the plate of brownies to set on the coffee table, she then leaned over to give him a soft kiss on the cheek and a gentle nudge.

"Hey. Sleepyhead. Wake up, or else I'm eating all these by myself."

She'd huffed and entire K-Zax Array before. She'd be fiiiine.


[[ for the brutally modded alien on the couch, unless anyone else wants to get in touch, and CW for recreation drug use, y'all. ]]