Office #26, Wednesday

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell's nerves hadn't quite settled yet, but every day made a repeat visit from Herrick less likely - at least for the forseeable future. So Wednesday found him laying out lesson plans, flicking through books, and only occasionally checking travel books for somewhere safer.

Just as a precaution. He had no real willingness to let his past drive him out of house and home.

[[ open hours! ]]

Comments

[vanillajello]

Kate had handwavily been at The Perk for most of the morning, mainlining coffee. And when she left, she had wanted a little more coffee to go.

Which was why she appeared at the door of Mitchell's office with a ridiculously over-sized takeaway cup of coffee in hand. "Hey," she greeted him. "Spare a moment for a desperate student?"


[Getting this started now, even though I'm pretty much AFK for the next hour.]

[chosehumanity]

Mitchell looked up, identifying both girl and gigantic cup of coffee, and smiled, putting down his papers. "I think I might have one of those lying around," he said, and gestured at a chair.

[vanillajello]

"Good, thanks," she said with a little smile, sitting down. "I really needed to talk to someone. It's been an exceptionally bad day, so far."

As if that wasn't obvious from the huge coffee and the tired face.

[chosehumanity]

"That's why I'm here," he said, honestly.

He always had a soft spot for troubled kids. Don't tell anyone. "What's happening? You look like you haven't slept in days."

[vanillajello]

"Nightmares. When I can sleep from the stress that's causing the nightmares. Last night was the worst," she sighed.

"It's not the alternate universe thing anymore. It's gone past that into... other stuff."

Two weeks of thinking, and she still had trouble putting her worries into words.

[chosehumanity]

He sat up a little, folding his gloved hands together over the desk, and gave her a concerned look. "Other stuff?" he prompted.

[vanillajello]

"I'm not sure I should stay in Fandom. Because I'm scared," she said, looking down at her coffee. "I'm scared that this place is gonna crack my mind. Into four pieces."

She looked up at him again. Yes, she had a reason to be that precise.

[chosehumanity]

"It's a lot to absorb," Mitchell agreed, thoughtfully. "But these kind of experiences tend to settle on you after a while."

[vanillajello]

"Yeah," she said, not managing to sound at all convinced. "It's just that, it only has to happen really badly once for things to get fucked up beyond all repair."

[chosehumanity]

The lack of being convinced as well as that last sentence set off some alarm bells. "Kate," he said, smiling as disarmingly as he could, "Did anything ever-- happen--?"

NFB, thank you.

[vanillajello]

"To me? No. But it might."

She bit her bottom lip, hesitating. Explaining this was always unpleasant, to say the least. And finding the right words was hard. "Do you know what, um, dissociative identity disorder is?"

Re: NFB, thank you.

[chosehumanity]

"Split personalities," Mitchell provided, frowning.

Re: NFB, thank you.

[vanillajello]

"Exactly. Used to be called multiple personality disorder," Kate confirmed, possibly gripping her coffee a little tighter.

"So... My mom has that."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"How come you never introduced me to modeling shows?" Max accused with a grin as he walked in without knocking (of course).

[chosehumanity]

"Because modeling shows are for people with no taste," Mitchell replied, "I thought you'd catch on to that."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"You wound me!" Max did not look wounded. "I thought you knew me well enough by now to realize just how little taste I have."

"Besides, how can you object to hot people objectifying themselves for other peoples' entertainment?" That just didn't compute.

[chosehumanity]

"I have no problem with people objectifying themselves," Mitchell told him, leaning back in his seat, "But I'm not going to stoop to that kind of barbarism when there's quality objectifying right around the corner."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"So youlre going to aue that slow motion makes the objectification higher quality?"

[chosehumanity]

"No, I'm going to argue that the slow motion gets your attention," he said, with a slight snerk to his voice.

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Well, it does," Max admitted with an easy grin. "And what gets yours?"

[chosehumanity]

"Come to one of my classes, and I might tell you."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Don't you teach on one of the days I sleep in, though?"

Oh, wait. That was every day.

[chosehumanity]

"There are days you don't sleep in?" Mitchell asked, shooting him an amused look. "And here I thought you were just a massive Roman sloth."

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Aleran," Max corrected. The sloth part wasn't too inaccurate, though.

"And sometimes I wake up early." If he was feeling frisky and happened to be in bed with someone else who was.

[chosehumanity]

"Oh, really?" Mitchell asked, lowering his head. "When's that, then?"