{CO} Some Official Statements

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

It felt almost strange, being surrounded by people. They were mostly female people, female people and Quinn. Again Zoe had to feel sorry for her fire-breathing friend, and she almost felt like she should be waving to another male friend to try and balance out their number a little more. Surely Quinn wouldn't want to be surrounded by girls, at least three fourths of whom also happened to be lesbians (or bisexual in Riley's case). Not that they were contagious or anything, and Quinn was probably the meanest one of the bunch but, well, okay, maybe Zoe was just overthinking things. Again. As usual.

The introduction came and Zoe clapped along with everyone else, looking over to both Riley and Valerie as she did: they were fairly new after all, before turning to look at the rest of the crowd. Then she'd started raising her camera again, getting ready to take more shots of the head as he spoke and the crowd and everything.

Then the announcement happened. Zoe actually froze in position, hiding behind the camera for several seconds. Had... had that actually happened? Had the local group of seemingly quite nice individuals just... just outed all of them? On the news? Zoe could hear the crowd moving around her, and she turned to look at her friends for confirmation. "Did I hear that correctly?" she asked, looking from Valerie to Riley to Erin to Quinn, hoping that someone, probably Quinn would correct her, tell her that she hadn't, that they weren't about to be outed. Though Zoe kept her composure, kept perfectly calm and properly British about the whole thing.

[Elsa Bellefonte]

Clapping, listening, pretending like this was both boring and horribly interesting at the same time. There were just so many levels here, a few subtle digs at how things had been run over the past year, promises of changes to come, both major and minor. Elsa knew they'd have to hurry to stay on top of things, though she was growing to like her role as a sort of organizer behind the scenes, pulling strings without having to stand up there and actually talk to anyone.

Then the news came in. Elsa's brow furrowed and she pulled out her own phone, scanning the news. They could alter footage, but if the news was reporting it like it was fact, that meant it would soon show up in print. And then there would be people out there to see, and Elsa was willing to bet that the people there wouldn't be shy. She'd thought they were Inherited for a while now, and this seemed to really prove it. Her head rose to look over the crowd, remembering that they happened to have their own trained Inherited on the Security Squad.

those fucking hippies

The thought drifted into Elsa's mind as if someone had sent it. Right, Vera and Roxana were there. She saw Franck too, looking pained. Get clear she sent to him, we'll talk later. She wasn't even sure he'd pick up the message; she hadn't tried sending to him, though she knew his mind enough.

Be ready she sent, first to Vera, then to Roxana in an echo crowds might panic; we'll need to be ready for security. We're also going to need to try to figure out how to handle this, contain it. They certainly would have a mess on their hands now...

[Adam Castle]

When the robot dragged him out of the bar and into a cab after smacking him furiously to wake him up and forcing him to watch the news with headphones on as they drove through Kalispell, Adam got the gist of what was going on and sobered up a bit. Apparently, his species was in danger. The cause? A group of hippie mutants with more mouth than mind. He was as furious as he was drunk.

The cab pulled up just outside the woods that led upwards to Bellefonte, and the cabbie gave him a weird look as the duo leaped out. Guess he'd heard too. Adam stumbled through the trees and up a hidden path as fast as he possibly could to avoid both hippies and potential quick moving individuals with criminal intent, and got to the area as his companion directed, panting furiously.

It was a nice setup, this little gathering. The head looked a little less imposing than he would have imagined from the description given by his humanoid friend; the aide was even worse. His nose was having a conflict of its own - the wretched odour emanating from the owner of said nose, and the remnants of food that lingered about the grounds.

Eat first, ask questions later. Or, why not both?

[Selina Taylor]

    Selina nodded to Seiji with a warm smile, "Of course I will," she assured him. He was so sweet to her, and far kinder than she ever thought he should be. She adored him for it. Whn he spoke of being used to such reactions, she was about to respond that he shouldn't be, when the speaker started talking again. Selina then turned and sighed as he was going on again about boring affairs that didn't much concern her, when the speech was interrupted. She pad more attention when a hippie showed off is power to a reporter. What a smart one he was.

    Selina rolled her eyes. He reminded her of a damn kid who got too excited to show off a new toy at show and tell or something. What the hell was he thinking? Selina couldn't force herself to care all that much about the news, since it had really only been a matter of time before this type of thing happened anyway. She was surprised mutants had stayed a secret this long actually. Some of the students here weren't exactly known for subtlety. Apparently it was quite a shock to some though. "Seiji, can you take Akiko back? If Security is needed for anything, I won't be able to take care of her at the same time as I'm taking care of the students or whatever else. Or at least not as well," she amended with a grin. 

    She saw some of the students panicking and could understand a bit why, but she still found herself slightly exasperated by them. She just hoped this wouldn't set off some of the more volatile students' powers. That would be a mess. 

[Akeem Ten-Amen]

Akeem was not really interested in the speech and would have happily skipped it had they not been kindly forced to attend. He looked around the gathered crowd for a familiar face. He could also just stand there, near a door, ready to dash out the moment they could, but he wanted to make sure a certain blonde girl would be nowhere to jump at you. It was how he found Elsa and despite the speech going on, he joined her. “You should be careful, green doesn’t look so good on you,” he told her with a small smirk. He might not have known when he returned of all the things he missed but he had been quickly filled in and knew that for a short time, it was this girl who had been up there, addressing to the students like that.

The applause was more for the form and surely it was the same for her. Akeem was just waiting for it to end, those magical words that would send this dense mass of people all over to resume whatever they were forced to interrupt to be here. Only that didn’t came. Something else did instead.

Akeem never paid much attention to these hippies. Why should he? Yet now... “What the hell is that?” he let out and that was most certainly the most polite way he could have brought it because his thoughts were more along the lines of what that little fuckers thought doing this in front of a camera. The last thing he wanted was for people to know he was a mutant. Because then they’d ask to have a list of everyone’s power. And no one would ever let him be a lawyer then. His future might just be ruined by some weirdo who couldn’t get his two brain cells to think together before acting. The Head was trying to get everyone’s attention. Good luck with that. But Akeem was not panicked like he feared some would. He could easily hide his power without everyone to know about it. He was mostly angry to be outed like this. If they wanted to tell for themselves, why did they have to mention the school too?

[Valerie Law]

After the applause there was a bit more talking before.... A hippie? Both Valerie and Riley blinked, sharing a look that seemed to communicate all their thoughts in the span of seconds. Basically the summary was: What the hell? But then their gaze was drawn back forward as the hippie displayed his powers and basically outed the entire school. Riley was pretty shocked, and glanced over at her girlfriend when she noticed Zoe had frozen. Instantly she was concerned, considering the last time human knew about mutants had been when Zoe got shot.

Valerie, on the other hand, was definitely worried. Yet she remembered that she was part of the security squad too. Now isn't the time for hesitation Val! Her father's words rang in her head. Sure, it wasn't for lifting, but the advice still applied well to the situation. So Valerie took a few deep breaths before glancing over at Zoe when she spoke. "I... I think so." She said, trying to keep her voice steady. Then she looked at Riley and nodded. "I'm going to have to contain the panic if there's any since I'm part of the Security Squad." She said, just a bit sheepishly. Riley just blinked but nodded.

"Alright. I'll see you later Val." Riley said. Valerie nodded and flashed the rest of them an apologetic smile before she headed off to basically do her job and try to keep chaos from spreading.

[Erin Hackett]

There was no way that Erin was going to over and be an extra wheel with Zoe and her girlfriend, and that other friend. That was just stupid and Erin liked to think and knew for a fact that she was not stupid. That was why she dragged Quinn along with her, because then she would at least have someone to talk to; if she decided to even talk. That and well in case Zoe and her girlfriend started to get a bit too close to one another, then she could casually move off with Quinn and it not be that big of a deal.

One could not forget that fact that Erin still didn't know-know Zoe like that so felt far more comfortable around Quinn did she did around any of these other females. "H-hi." Erin responded, and then she was going to fall into silence after that. She already knew about Riley; since she had looked up the other girl when looking into information about Zoe, but the Valerie girl was an unknown. An attractive unknown, but still an unknown. All the same, she didn't really feel up for talking at the moment.

Even if she was next to someone she knew and closer around the area of another person she kind of knew, that did not help fully calm her down. She didn't want to be here. Not like there was a need to talk anyways, since they were supposed to be listening. She was focused on doing that, keeping a hold of Quinn the whole time. There the announcement was made, not even the announcement but the reveal of people in the area knowing that mutants were real in this area because of those hippie people. Really? All those years of keeping and a group of hippies would be the ones to give them away? "I...I got to go." Erin managed to mumble out.

She didn't even hesitate to let go of Quinn and go run of, moving with great speed as she made her way through the crowd with ease. If they were saying anything to her, she didn’t hear them. She was not going to stop running until she got away from the crowd and would then head to her room where she would call her dad and let him know what was going on. That she needed to be pulled away from here, that they had to leave, that they had to get away.

[Casper & Jasper Emory]

Neither of the siblings were really paying attention to what was being said, they were too busy giving one another glances every so often. It was clear that they did want to make up with one another, but Casper was being the stubborn one right now. He didn't want to go over there, not when Franck was over there, not when Franck was the problem. Casper felt bad for viewing Franck as the problem, but it was true. If Franck was not going out with his twin, if Casper had no single, then maybe things between them would be okay. Casper would not feel the way that he did now that was keeping him away from his other half.

Then words about how the town knew that mutants were out were revealed. The twins personally were not bothered by the news. In fact they were likely the only people not panicking since with their ability they felt like they could blend in with no problem. They were just slightly better than Olympic trained athletes and sure enough the sports world would put good use to them. It was not like anything about them gave away their ability, so they were not worried. However; they did wonder if this meant that they would be able to go home now. Jasper felt his hand being grabbed and squeegeed, causing him to look over to Franck.

No doubt his boyfriend had to be taking this in a bad way or at the very least having to deal with all the emotions of the crowd. Jasper was actually surprised Franck had made it this long just being in a crowd in general. He only hesitated for a moment before moving closer to his boyfriend to assist him in getting away from the crowd so he would not be picking up on all the other emotions. Jasper still looked for his brother, hoping he would come back to him now that there was a small crisis. "I got you. Let go over to that tree, should be a far enough to help you out." Jasper suggested as he would help his boyfriend over there.

[Seiji Lockard]

Seiji enjoyed seeing Selina smile, and as well as pretty much everyone smiling and being happy about life. So of course he was nice to her for more than just having a habit of being nice to everyone. He would shoe her that she could trust him and that it was in fact okay to at least trust one person in her life. Not that he was going to think too much about that, since there was someone talking to them now. He had to pay attention, as it was polite to look and listen when someone was talking to you. Everything seemed to be going smoothly with nothing out of the ordinary until the confirmation that those that had settled near town had now given away that mutants were real.

It did not seem like it was something that was known on a world-wide scale, but at least those that lived in town certainly knew about it. "Oh dear." Seiji said, sounding incredibly worried. His mind could not help but to think back to when he was bullied and how that that it was officially out, he feared how bad things would get for him. Things had started to make a turn around and they had a moment of peace, only for this to happen. Were they destined to suffer and not know peace for long? It felt that way. "Oh...yes." Seiji responded, being pulled from his thoughts when Selina asked him to take back Akiko. Selina did have a job to get to and he had to get ready for anything that would be expected of her.

Seiji didn’t hesitate to take the reptile back and allow her to rest around his neck. For now he was ready to assist in trying to calm any students down and was almost ready to head to his office. No doubt such information was going to shake some people to their very core and result in some power use and that meant that he was going to have to be ready to deal with kids suffering from their side effects. "If you need anything Selina, please let me know. It was again nice meeting you, Kyle." Seiji said with a polite smile before he moved off to get his lab coat and some of the basic gear he would need to help out the students.

[Roxana Strix]

Roxana remained where she was, standing still, and silent as she had been trained to do even if she had no need to be at her best at the moment. She just felt and knew deep down that she had to always be at her best. This meeting didn't really hold any interest to her, but she was here for the sake that she had to be and it would be good to report back to her organization about the matter. Things seemed to be going well enough at it were and she was not bothered by Vera and her girlfriend being close to one another. That was their things and Rox so no problem with them showing their affection with one another.

As long as Vera did her job and Devyn listened to what she was told to do, things would be fine. Then that announcement was made. She knew it and hated the fact that she had not pushed to get The Inherited moved or to be on a heavy watch. Had she not been expected to be here, she could have been down there and prevented this off. A sick feeling came across Rox, and not the feeling that was with her healing from her prior sickness a few days before this event. Roxana heard Vera's words, even felt the thoughts coming from Elsa, but she didn't pay them any mind. She knew what was expected of her at this moment but she also knew what her organization expected of her now as well.

"Apologies Vera, an important family matter has come up. I trust you can handle this situation. You are in charge of both squads and if you need extra help contact one of those on security. Do not put any of the members in charge. They are not ready yet." Roxana said after she reached out to place a hand on Vera's shoulder to get her attention. Once that message was passed on she gave a slight nod of her head before moving to head off. She did hesitate for a moment as she looked to where Elsa was. Apologies. Rox sent the thought and with that she walked off. Easily making her way through the crowd and headed to a secure and solitude area so she could make a phone call. That countdown had now begun.

[Devyn Solway]

Devyn enjoyed Vera in her arms for a moment, but she didn't hold onto her for long since they were both in uniform and Vera was with her partner. She didn't want Roxana to think that Vera was going to be all about her and not about the job. Devyn also needed to focus on the job as well, even if that just conceded of just standing around for the time being to hear a guy talk about stuff he could have just posted up somewhere. "Maybe. I know what I want to lay on right now." Devyn said, whispering the words into her girlfriend’s ear as she would give it another nuzzled.

Before she could fully pull away, Vera's lips were meeting hers in a quick kiss that Devyn of course returned. She loved kissing her girlfriend and would never get enough of it no matter where the two of them were. Then she tried to listen to the guy speak but for the most part she just kept a hand on Vera and nuzzled into her girlfriend every so often. Her green eyes giving Roxana a look from time to time but for the most part Roxana would only look at her when she would stare before looking forward. Such a robot. Devyn thought to herself, snickering a little before things started to get interesting.

Interesting in a bad way as the guy up front had another guy coming up and making an annocemtn that had Devyn letting out a low growl. Was this real? This had to have been a nightmare. No way did those hippies let the town know that they were mutants? Were they crazy? Did they want to be shot up like what had happened at the school? Devyn was already moving closer to Vera again, pulling her closer in a protective manner. "I'm not letting you out of my sight." Devyn said to her girlfriend, already pulling shadows closer to her but she remained in control and did not allow herself to shift just yet.

The Roxana girl was then walking off which didn't help Devyn's mood at all but also she did worry about the other girl. "Do you need to call your family?" Devyn asked, wondering if Vera's family was hearing about this since they were close bye, sort of.

[François Laffont]

Franck managed to hear something. He was not really able to tell where that came from but that sounded a lot like Elsa, like she was telling him to go. Maybe it was just his imagination though. She was over there, away from him. He was in no state to get she was using her power. His was on overdrive right now. The crowd earlier was loud but with so many different emotions that it made it very hard for Franck to pick any in particular. That is, any that did not come from his boyfriend. Now however, it was as though they all screamed the same thing at his ear and it was hard for him to keep it all under control. He needed to be out of there before he’d start panicking more than anyone else around him. He doubted seeing him panicking would calm those around. It would more have the opposite effect and didn’t want to cause that.

Jasper apparently understood what he was talking about. Franck tried to focus on Jasper. Normally, touching someone made it easier for him to read into someone’s emotions. But they were pretty loud and panic would only further grow if they don’t do anything. Not to add that while walking away, he would risk touching them. He nodded as Jasper suggested they leave for a tree away from the crowd. He had no idea in what direction said crowd would go if they wanted to leave but it made more sense they would mostly go inside the school and stay out. “Y-yes,” he said but he was not sure Jasper managed to hear him. He wanted to run to that tree but he didn’t want to push the crowd himself. It was better for him if he stuck next to Jasper on this one. Even if it was clear Franck started to lose control of the emotions he was getting. Anger, fear, confusion. Yes, that was panic alright.

[Vera M. Solway]

Before the news was blatantly spat out by a bunch of hippies, she could hear her girlfriend's words whispered, dancing near her ear. A soft smile crept on those plump lips of hers before she whispered back, "Behave." Vera was madly in love with the girl, she was; but also knew where they were and the last thing she needed was for Elsa or even Rox to tell her she wasn't focused.

She was... sort of.

Until the unwelcomed news gained more attention from her than anything else. Her chest was tight and it was hard having to juggle so many thoughts at once. She regretted not being able to check the group out when the Council first spoke about it via email. Her eyes closed for a brief second as she felt her temper spike. Fuck! The telekinetic mentally spat, her eyes opened, clearly peeved at the news.

Be ready. Her thoughts cut short, interrupted by Elsa. We'll need to be ready for security. We're also going to need to try to figure out how to handle this, contain it.

I know how you contain it. Her eyes narrowed, not at anyone really but from the thought of the situation. She'd hope Elsa would catch every last thought because Vera knew she currently wasn't in her happy state. You bash a few hippies mouths in. I just can't believe they'd do th-

Her eyes cut to Rox as she felt the girl's hand on her shoulder. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "Yeah... I mean, okay - but this isn't really the best time to-" Her partner had already left but the sudden protective pull by her girlfriend had also caught her attention. The main reason why she couldn't allow herself to panic because she knew how Devyn could get. Turning so she could face Devyn, even loosening the grip around her but still held her hands. "For right now, you're gonna have to." She nodded as her hazel eyes met Devyn's green ones. "You and the others, try to contain and keep the peace. Okay? Almost everyone is out here and you know panic doesn't mix well with a school full of mutants." She licked her bottom lip as she thought about the question, "No." Her uncle would find out, she knew as well as everyone else but right now, "The last thing I need is more stress."

She then hurried to make her way on the outsides of the crowd, she noticed someone running, knocking down a younger student. Vera quickly moved to grab their hand, helping them back on their feet. "Try and keep calm! If you have to leave, don't run. Don't risk knocking people over!" She shouted, to anyone in the nearby crowd of mutants with more than enough that tried to push and shove their way out.

If that lame excuse for a Head is going to do anything useful, cutting this assembly short would be great. Vera figured if she thought it out loud enough that hopefully Elsa could pick it up.

[Elsa Bellefonte]

Well, this certainly was turning out splendidly, wasn't it? At least people weren't panicking so much as they were generally fainting and leaving the scene. Elsa cursed under her breath as she saw both Roxana and Franck pulling out. She could understand the latter, but losing both him and Roxana meant that Elsa had two supports knocked out from her at once. She hadn't seen Ellen, which likely meant the girl was avoiding the whole affair on principle. Which essentially left her with...

someone who wanted to punch hippies to death.

Elsa sighed and put her hand into her face for a moment, eyes closing, feeling her hearing seem to compensate and her power latching onto Vera's thought flow. The damn girlfriend was there, which was definitely not something that Elsa wanted to deal with right now. She'd remained too much to the side for that to change any time soon. It took nearly all Elsa had in that moment not to let something slide, glad that she at least had some experience with keeping her thoughts to herself.

Just get as many security personnel as possible to help with shepherding people out. We can consider this more or less over if we all act and essentially ignore him. He's not exactly great at controlling crowds Elsa already shifted to try and keep the Head distracted, though she took note that a few people were still looking to him. Maybe if the Aide stepped up? Or someone, at the least...

[Callie Montgomery]

Callie was busy watching everyone in the crowd to notice the man getting ready to speak, but when he did it got her attention. She contemplated pulling out her toy, but wasn’t really interested in capturing the man on stage. As the head of the board was introduced she waited patiently eager to know what exactly was going on. To hear him want to welcome everyone yet again was silly, but she joined in with the few people who clapped.
 
The student’s grey eyes were locked on the head when she heard her name. It was her new roommate. “Heya Bubbles.” She said with a warm smile. She only looked at Ava momentarily before looking back to the stage, wishing everyone would stop clapping already. Her eyes shifted back to Ava, and gave a shrug. “No idea.” She said looking at what her roommate what drinking. “Watcha got there?” She asked, clearly the drink was more important at this moment in time. Callie let out a giggle. “It’s good to see ya Sweetie.” She said to Ava as she gave a pat on her back. Her grey eyes were back on the head of the board taking in the details and forms of his face. Maybe she should take her pocket cam out. She moved her hand from Ava’s back and placed it on her back pocket, awaiting the most opportune moment.

Callie went back to playing with the tips of her hair, but when she heard the announcement she raised an eyebrow. “Interesting.” She looked over to Ava. “Well then…” Was all she could manage to say. She was oddly calm about the whole thing, and she wasn’t quite sure why.

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