#not necessary or invaluable. but she /will/ be okay bc this is not the case. and while it might take a while for ppl to realize how she

[ziracona]

reading your tags on my ask makes me feel super sad for Kate now :(((( idk why exactly but I always felt like she was best friends with David and Laurie and I loved that idea of the fighters being besties, cause none of them are super hardcore people but actually really sweet and compassionate now I really want something for Kate to make her end a happier one :c (though I was glad she didn't end up in a relationship especially cause she was The Hot One) (1/2)

Ah—I didn’t mean to do that—I mean I feel bad for Kate myself, but I don’t mean to make her outcome sound dismal. I think she’s very definitively headed in a good direction at the end of ILM, just she has much less kind of...reached that specific place? Than any of the others. And she absolutely is best friends with David and Laurie! I’m glad you got the sense—she definitely was/is. Just, Laurie isn’t a very demonstrative person, and David isn’t either in the way that say, Meg is, and Kate’s family and her friends growing up were too, and Kate herself would be a very present and demonstratively affectionate person, so she’s actually dear and incredibly valuable to David and Laurie (to the point I wouldn’t even be surprised if a few years post-fic the three of them became a poly relationship or something), just they are similar in ways they show friendship and can absorb it, and very different from Kate, so she doesn’t realize she’s as important to them as she is. Which is sad. Because while she thinks she’s just kind of a friend but not an important one to most of them, she’s actually way more valued than she knows. The poor fool just has always been around (and is herself) the most demonstratively loving & affectionate and extroverted/present people, and straight up can’t tell. 😔 Tbh, I think Jake considers her one of his closest friends too, after like Dwight, Meg, Nea, Claudette, and Ace, it’s probably Kate (or maybe Kate & Adam, now that they live in the same house as Adam 24/7). Kate, David, and Laurie are very, very different people in how they show their core traits, but very very similar in what those traits are, so they definitely did gravitate together and are/were best friends. David went with Laurie to Haddonfield to keep her safe, and Laurie spent a ton of time with just Michael even though he was just across the street—not because he lost value to her, but because the order things had to be done was help Michael first, everything else second. I think/hope it’s evident from her solo sections before she’s hanging out with David again that she wants to and cares about him, and from David’s that Kate is someone he specifically misses, worries about, and considers a kindred soul/the person who most understands him.

Just the way they are by nature, David and Laurie read their affection easier even though it’s more understated and understood than spoken and shown in a constant way, and my poor girl Kate just doesn’t know. And so she doesn’t think she is important in the same way, and tries to be okay with it. David and Laurie wouldn’t like, ever pick up on this, because they (like most people) would expect others pick up cues they would, and Kate wouldn’t tell them because to her that would be like, “Hey Laurie it makes me sad that I’m not as important to you as you are to me,” and terrible and being a bad friend and Kate would never do that. Would be way more understanding than that, and is willing to love people more than they love her be you can’t control if people love you, but that doesn’t make your devotion to them invaluable—which is an incredibly kind and good thing about her. Together the lack of noticing and lack of talking could present a huge problem, but they’ve got like 90 friends and Kate will eventually tell someone, and even if it’s someone with as little context as Joey, that person will talk to her friends, and things will sort out. I truly think she can only be fine after a while post-fic, even if she’s the most rough off at its end by far, because people will find out she can’t tell how they feel, and when they do, they will make sure that changes. (Poor bitch got Laurie [trauma afraid to like anyone dead inside trying to learn to live again], David [I will protect people first & foremost & can’t wait to see my mates again : ( but I’m sure it’ll be great when I do—they know I care : ) and I know they do : )], Jake [if I express vulnerability or too much attachment to another human being I will die], Quentin [im dealing with so much trauma and 16 people want my time every day and if you don’t call me I will never call you bc I will pass out on my bed not bc I don’t care but bc my head is a depression pit trying to fix and it holds 0 storage not being actively called upon by an outside force I’m so sorry I suck im trying I’m trying TnT when do I get to be better again?], and Meg [i am insecure and think other people will always get tired of me, so if I’m not feeling pretty damn assured, I will assume I’m not as important to you as you are to me and be sad about it and worry and try to figure out next steps, probably overthink, and mess up :’-] ] as her best friends. But they’ll work it out once someone has the damn sense to just fkn communicate.

So don’t worry too much about Kate! I feel really bad for her because her whole kind of worldview crisis is rough and she’s going through a lot while feeling very alone, and her feelings are rough to deal with, but she is super valued by her best friends, and I’m not sure how fast it will happen, but someone will talk to her eventually and then people will fix the lack of communication and she will be okay. Might take a while to convince, but she will get there. (Also yeah—if Kate ever dates someone it’ll be a few years post-fic at least & not bc she’s the hot one, but bc somebody just really loves her & she loves them back, and they decide a romantic relationship is what they want that to look like : )