Logs:Conflicting Duties
| Conflicting Duties | |
|---|---|
| Dramatis Personae | |
| In Absentia
|
2024-10-28 "I'll wait with you." |
| Location
<XAV> Xavier's School | |
Mondays are always rough, and Monday in the period right before lunch is solidly in the running for the most restless-fidgety-cranky time slot of the week. Halim's classroom is faaar from the only classroom where kids are growing restive, where their attentions are suuuper wandering. It might be the only one, though, where when they foolishly try to sneak a peek at social media on their laptops instead of finishing their classwork, their computers start sassing them about it. Given the time period, and given the teacher, maybe it's no real surprise at all when a snippy message from across the school crops up. Though, it is a little rudely out of character even for Halim that this message prints itself directly on Charles' smartboard, in plain view of the students -- though at least it is in Arabic and not English: {There are a large number of feds just over two miles south of here. I predict they will be at the gates in two minute twenty-eight seconds. I have texted you a list of the most incompetent children on my floor, in case you want to dispose of them before the cops arrive.} Barely a moment later, a tidy list of names crops up in Charles' text messages. "However, as demonstrated by Alice's example, the categorical imperative's indifference to outcome can lead us to morally rigid..." Charles is not facing his board, but his students are, and it's their reactions that tip him off. "...decisions," only comes at a fractional delay. At least the students can't see his pinched expression once he's pivoted his chair around to read the message neatly inserted between "Conflicting Duties" and the somewhat sprawling flow-chart below it. His mind is already reaching out across the grounds, swift and subtle, as he switches the board back to a page with a list of ethical conflicts the students had supplied earlier. He doesn't bother stopping to do so, but keeps rotating his chair until he comes full circle to face his class again, drawing a few snickers. "Now, please go back into your groups and discuss the potential consequences of the decisions you made earlier. I'll give you...five minutes." Scott feels his presence only a split second before he relays Halim's message in direct, instant wordless knowledge. His words, coming on the heels of the infodump, sound calm enough, but he does not bother concealing his worry. << The agents are psi-shielded, but security will try to stall them. I must (see to the students)(apprise the others)(prepare for the worst). Please inform Jackson. >> There's the faintest suggestion of an ellipsis here, an annotation that he does not -- perhaps cannot -- quite articulate. Though his metal fab classes this term were quietly dissolved when the prospect of a long-term substitute who did not know how to weld failed to attract any students, Scott is out in the workshop anyway doing a faintly palliative repair job. His prompt and alert << ? >> is just standard prompt alertness, but << Roger >> has an odd, considering drag at its edges in spite of also coming quite promptly. The surface of his mind swirls, a little too agitated to be at all meditative, before, abrupt and vehement in a way he very rarely is aloud, << Some due process they're giving him, can you let Tian-shin know? I doubt Jax is going to -- >> even incensed, Scott can't bring himself to put this to words, but after a moment he just adds, << but I might. >> Is there any good reason for Mr. Summers and Ms. Briggs to be dropping by the art room? Scott is not coming in, just beckoning Jax to the hallway for a quick teacherly chat -- "I'm going to have Lauren take over here," he says, quiet, "there are feds coming, I'd like to keep them away from the kids." He only barely pauses before, even quieter, "Like to keep them away from you, too, but --" this is just concluded with a small huff. Even behind his glasses there is an obviousness to the searching look he gives Jax, but his voice is just assuming the sterner cadence of command that comes most easily to him: "C'mon. I'll wait with you." Jax has slipped out of the room promptly; as he goes there's a message inscribing itself in cheerfully colored calligraphy on the whiteboard at the front of the class: Patience Please! We'll be back in ___ Minutes. In lieu of a number a bright blue eyeball is drawing itself into the blank, then hovering up and out of the whiteboard to keep a Stern Eye on the classroom as the whiteboard message itself dissolves into blankness. Jax has had a smile, small and polite, affixed to his face for this interruption, and it does not vanish as Scott speaks. The eyeball in the classroom does (probably for the best, because though his actual students have cheerfully been showing it their work, Ms. Briggs is giving it a noticeably unsettled look as she enters.) Jax is pressing, small and tired, at the hollow of his hollow eye as he nods. Then blinks -- a little startled, returning Scott's searching look. He's not smiling, now, and Scott unfortunately cannot see the sudden livelier color that is flooding back into his pallid face, the brightening tinges of illusory makeup lending color to a countenance that's looked ghostly for weeks. Far easier for him (maybe also unfortunately) to observe is the abrupt hug Jax gives him, tight and brief. His head ducks apologetically as he rocks back a step and nods, offers a quiet: "Thanks," plucking his phone from his pocket as they head outside.
Outside he has, though, only an unswervingly gentle evenness for the (many? does it take this many??) feds who have come to cuff him. "Don't know as that's really necessary, gentleman, but. Either way I expect you'll be hearing from my lawyer in --" His head tilts slightly. "'bout ten seconds."
It's not precisely ten seconds later, but shortly Tian-shin emerges mid-conversation on a Bluetooth earpiece. "--get it to you in a few minutes, if the agents cooperate." She doesn't actually hang up before zeroing in on the ranking fed. "Good morning, sir, I'm Mister Holland's attorney." She has a portfolio, legal pad, and patient neutral smile ready. "I just need some information so my co-counsel can get in touch--hey!" She takes one step aside to block the path of the agents getting ready to enter the way she came. "We do not consent to a search." She briefly turns a pleading look to her team leader before re-focusing on the agent in charge. "If you have a warrant I request that you hold the search until I have a chance to examine it." The agent in charge mostly just looks bored, and gives his subordinates a nod to go ahead and push past Tian-shin into the mansion. "I'll show you the warrant, it's all in order." He waves her along toward one of the black SUVs they came in. "Relax, ma'am. If you don't have anything to hide, you don't have anything to worry about." | |
