Office #7 [Tuesday afternoon]

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Irene had holed up in her office today with the intention of doing some research for this week's class, which -- as usual -- meant that she was browsing things that most people probably wouldn't consider especially safe for work.

...and maybe she was taking a few pictures of herself and uploading them to that site that could guess her age, just when she had breaks. She'd gotten 22 last week; if she could get it to go lower, she'd be quite pleased.

[door and post open, la.]

Comments

[throughaphase]

"Am I interrupting?" Kitty asked from the doorway.

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"Only indulgences of my vanity," Irene said, glancing up. "This marvelous website told me I look your age earlier! It's great."

She was of course ignoring the time it had said she looked 38. That was obviously some sort of error."

[throughaphase]

"Is that that thing where you take your picture and it told me I look 14?" Kitty was not as pleased with looking younger, no.

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"Technology is occasionally fallible," Irene acknowledged. "You don't look fourteen."

And Irene didn't look twenty-two, but she was ignoring that.

"Are you even allowe here, Ms. Non-Teacher?" she added, teasing.

[throughaphase]

"I can phase through everything. Technically, I'm allowed everywhere," Kitty said, even though that wasn't technically true, and came in to take a seat.

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"I feel like you're really missing an opportunity to rob a lot of banks," Irene noted sadly. "Oh you, with your right-side-of-the-law thing."

[throughaphase]

She could take that opportunity if she ever went through the Axis event where she actually did rob a bank! But she wouldn't, because that event was stupid.

"I know. Stupid conscience," she said. "So how are you doing?"

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"Decent. I have a wee little class again, which is fun," Irene shared. "Freaked them all out about dental dams on Friday, which I think I'll have to make a semesterly event." If that was even a word. "You?"

[throughaphase]

"It's been a depressing week, and I'm trying to snap out of it," she admitted. "Please don't freak me out about dental dams."

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"Wouldn't be any fun to do it to a depressed person, anyway," Irene said, though she grew a little more serious. "What's going on?"

[throughaphase]

"One of the other teams back home got attacked," she sighed. "Which among other things, means the Clint in my world didn't make it. So pretty much right after the party last week I had to go home where we were on high alert most of the time, and then I got back and Clint had a bad weekend when he went home, and so I'm trying to shake it off."

Mostly because Clint had totally earned whatever mood he wanted to be in after all that, and that was more important than Kitty being sad over someone she barely knew.

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"Wait, your version of him died?" Irene asked, eyes wide. "Oh, god, how...horrifying. Even if he wasn't your Clint in particular, that's still...I know I'd be upset."

[throughaphase]

"Oh, yeah, that'll mess with you," Kitty said with a wry smile. "And it's sort of weird to cry at your boyfriend because another version of him died. And then there was really no way I could bring him with me because that would be terrible..."

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"So you're left supportless at a time when you'd probably most like to have it," Irene noted sympathetically. "What happened to your Clint? Awful timing on that, by the by."

[throughaphase]

Kitty paused. "Wait, which Clint are we talking about?" Oh, alternate realities.

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"Fandom Clint," Irene clarified, sighing. "Alternate realities make things more complex than they need to be."

[throughaphase]

"You have no idea," Kitty sighed. "He ran into some trouble back home. It's not really mine to talk about." Between the SHIELD stuff and the fact that he hadn't even wanted to tell Kitty... "He's okay, just pretty banged up."

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"As long as he's all right," Irene said, nodding. "Though it's incredibly strange for both of you that you're mourning another version of him, kind of. Talk about your existential crises."

[throughaphase]

"I'm not sure mourning is the right word," Kitty said thoughtfully. "I didn't really know him that well. We ran in the same circles but I don't think we've ever even talked. Which kind of makes it all weirder. Especially when I'm positive he knew I'm with another version of him."