Stark Industries, Tuesday

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Now that, well, THAT was done with and there were no more monsters to punch on her way to work, Jessica got to Stark's, shook the powdered sugar off her coat, and settled in.

With Kitty being back to normal, Jessica could focus on her main work again and try to finish up the power dampening unit for the jail. Because what could be more festive than that? Look, you had to cut her a break. She may have been generally fine day to day with her continued existence, but the Holidays were pretty rough since they were about family (dead), friends (dead), religion (essentially rendered null and void now that her world was empty space ruled by God Doom), and Santa (countless versions of whom presumably died). So she was going to focus on the work.

Comments

[throughaphase]

Back to normal or not, Kitty still owed Jessica an explanation as to how that had happened, so she stopped by with a hot chocolate with a bow tied on it in ribbon.

"You look busy," she said.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"That makes sense since I feel busy, too," Jessica said. "But i make up my own deadlines, so I camn take a break. How're you doing?"

[throughaphase]

"Better that the island's not terrible," Kitty said, and held out the cup. "This is for you, as a thank you."

She'd have gone with an actual present, but that was slightly harder when she didn't know this Jessica that well.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"I appreciate it and I'll accept it, but there's no need for thanks," Jessica said, taking it. "I didn't actually get anything done in time to help you."

[throughaphase]

"No, but you tried, and that's awesome all on its own," she said. "Especially when it was hard to even get in touch with some people who could've helped. So, you get a thank you."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"I can deal with that," Jessica said. :"So what actually happened? How are you back to normal?"

[throughaphase]

"Well, I kiiiiinda had to die," Kitty said, making a face. "Just a little."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"It happens," Jessica checked. "You've never heard of a chemical called OZ, have you? Never mind. Continue with the story, please."

[throughaphase]

"I have not," Kitty assured her quickly, and she was kind of really relieved that that was the reaction. "When I was on Breakworld, the metal on that world was terrible for me. I got really weak when I phased through it... the bullet I was in was made of it and that's why I couldn't get out. A couple people from there figured out that the metal could also cut me even when phased, and so one of them killed me with it and then used a life energy transference thing to bring me back new."

You know, no big.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"So your body returned to solid when you died?" Jessica asked. "I wouldn't have expected that with the problem you had. This is why science is so hard."

[throughaphase]

"Especially when it's another planet's science involved. I haven't seen the life force thing before. But my natural state, powers, everything came over when I came back," she said.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'm glad to hear it worked. Sorry to hear you had to die for it to work, but that's the way the cookie is resurrected, I guess," Jessica joked.

[throughaphase]

"Thanks. And hopefully if it happens a third time, it won't require bleeding out," Kitty said.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Third?" Jessica checked. "This wasn't the first time?"

[throughaphase]

"I got hit with an energy harpoon when I was phased when I was a teenager," Kitty said. "Dr. Doom and Reed Richards had to fix me. There was no suit back then. Also, I had to walk two miles uphill in the snow."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Do me a favor and try really hard not to get stuck phased again, okay?" Jessica asked.

[throughaphase]

"I'm going to do my absolute best," Kitty promised. "Because seriously. This is somewhere in my top three things that I've done that have sucked."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Should I even ask about the other two?" Jessica checked.

[throughaphase]

"I'm not really a fan of talking about them," she admitted.

One was Ogun, one was her dad dying.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Understood," Jessica said. "Nobody knows better than me how bad things can suck."

[throughaphase]

"Yeah, you do kind of take the cake there," Kitty said apologetically. "But that should also mean you get to have cake."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Oh man, you don't even know the half of it, is the crazy part," Jessica laughed. "If I wasn't genetically predisposed to dealing with crap, I don't know what I'd be doing right now."

[throughaphase]

"Genetically predisposed? I can't tell if that's good or bad," Kitty blinked.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"I think of it as a good thing. Ever meet Spider-Man?" Jessica asked. "I'm a clone of him from my world. I'd have mentioned it before, but it doesn't come up often in conversation."

[throughaphase]

"...Huh. Would not have figured," she said. "Does explain the sass though."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"And the spider-powers," Jessica contributed. "So I'm not technically bragging when I say that he had the highest level of tolerance for dealing with completely insane crap ever, even though I'm basically saying the same about myself. But he had it first."

[throughaphase]

Kitty thought back to M Day.

"Yeah, that all makes sense. And you can tell we're from similar places because that makes sense."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"Next time you meet your Spidey, do me a favor and tell him that his alternate reality female clone says hi," Jessica requested. "I bet you'll actually stump him with that one. Or he'll ask if you're speaking in very coherent tongues."

[throughaphase]

"I'll report back with my findings," Kitty promised.