ArchivedLogs:You Can Help

You Can Help
Dramatis Personae Rasa, Faelan, Jennifer
In Absentia	2013-05-10 A calm Friday afternoon after classes.
Location <XS> Gardens
From indoor gardens to outdoor, though without the protective greenhouse glass the back gardens do not last all year round. Still, the gardens out here are well-tended and well-worth spending time in, as well. The paths wending through the beds of flowers and herbs and vegetables spread out through the school's back grounds, tended by students as a credit class. Benches offer seating and a small pond is home to koi and turtles, as well as a few frogs. At the far back edges of the garden, a droning buzzing marks a few stacked white boxes as beehives. It's Friday, classes are over and a certain young metamorph is restless. Ze has taken to walking around in the gardens, on the hunt for a certain bug master, but as he doesn't seem to be around, Rasa's restlessness grows. Ze is wearing loose jeans, cinched in at the waist by a long belt, both allowing plenty of room for growth, should the impulse hit. Hir arms and shoulders are bare, with hir torso covered in a tank top and hir hands protected by gloves. Hir skin is a mottled type of tye dye, psychedelic colors swirling around hir thoughts, little blue people swimming across hir shoulders, and a funny spider making its way down hir left arm. Hir feet are bare for now, hir brow furrowed, hir movements antsy. Warmer weather causes Faelan to at least somewhat reconsider his normal attire, and he goes with a black teeshirt proclaiming it to be a black teeshirt with white text, and a pair of black cargo pants that still is large enough to wiff across the pathways and grass as he walks. A grey messenger bag over his shoulder has his school work in it, but he's reading as he's walking anyway, and its not something for school work. The title says "Combat Tracking Guide" on it, and he seems fairly engrossed in the text, occasionally looking up to make sure he isn't about to walk into a bush, or person, as he heads for the benches near the pond. Jennifer Walters casually walks into the garden as though she is here to merely enjoy the end of the emotional turbulence this week has presented her; however, her green eyes are keenly observing her surroundings, searching for something or someone. The teacher is wearing a more casual attire - a pair of jeans, comfortable-looking running shoes, and a black cherry T-shirt. A dark brown leather jacket is slung over her shoulder, hooked by a single finger. "Hello, /troublemakers/", comes the loudly announced greeting. "Plotting the great escape from the tyrannical oppression of the faculty, yet?" After shooting a brief glance towards Rasa, Jen leisurely walks over to Faelan to take a peek at the book's cover, although she keeps a certain distance, likely to respect the boy's private space. "Well, if I were, I wouldn't exactly admit to it, now would I?" Rasa raises an eyebrow at Jennifer as she wanders by, turning hir attention to Faelan in the end, frowning as ze tries to read the book cover from afar. Ze looks around furtively and decides to follow Jen over, tucking a stray strand of wavy hair behind hir ear. Blinking at the designation of trouble maker, Faelan frowns. "I don't escape on purpose..." he murmurs more to himself than anything. With Jen checking the book cover obviously, he raises up the tome. "I thought it may be helpful, I mean, it might be at least." There's a little bit of determination that he is not going to be completely useless. "Scott says we can help after all. Well, we can if there are teachers too." He does not say this as if teachers being there for protection is a bad thing at all. "I can go with Professor Wagner or McCoy and make them not stand out so much at least, so they can search with less obviousness." As she comes to stand behind Faelan, Jennifer shoots Rasa both her gaze and a grin. "Or you could admit it and find out I'm an easily swayed teacher." The brief pause that arrives is used to widen that grin. "Yeah, you're not falling for that." "Combat Tracking Guide? Huh." Her eyes flit between the cover and Faelan. "Somehow, I don't think that involves Peter." Digging a hand into one of her pockets, she sighs softly, now equally shifting her attention between the two students. "Scott's right. He probably worded it better than I will, but-- We didn't want to lock you /down/. We wanted to make sure you were safe. And now, well-- Now I am making sure you're aware that I am not an eldritch monster. I am one of the teachers who will gladly accompany you to the city. There will be multiple search parties, and I would be /very/ sad if my Golf was empty." And then an addendum arrives out of the blue, Jen's green eyes on Rasa. "Is Logan okay? Err. Don't tell him I asked." "Well..." Rasa hrms and haws when Faelan describes muting the appearance of mutants in the city and crosses hir arms under hir chest. "Actually, it's probably better if we stand out, to be honest. I mean, no one has anything right now, the police aren't helpful and the scenes, as best as we can find them, have been scoured clean. We're at a dead end and the only thing we can assume is that this is about mutants, likely visible ones. So, if we're going to flush anyone out, we should stand out, right?" A glance is sent in Jen's direction to gauge her reaction. "Granted, it's not a tact that students can take on their own, as it is completely unsafe, but it seems like the tact someone should take." Ze draws in a deep breath and looks from Faelan back to Jen and swallows. "I don't know. I haven't seen him in days. There's no news. It's getting to be a problem - to the point where I'm about ready to volunteer to be GPS chipped and sent out into the city to beg for a clue, with teachers watching from an appropriate distance." Shrugging a little at Jen, Faelan replies "There aren't really many good books to track people in cities. Everything else involves dirt and trees and stuff." Frowning at that he shakes his head. "I just want to be somewhat useful, but ya know, safe." His eyes go wide at Rasa's comment though. "I don't think anybody being bait is a good idea. I mean Professor Wagner can just teleport away if something happens, but for everyone else, I mean. Well they got Peter and the Twins, and they're pretty strong and all. So whatever it is has got to be pretty powerful, or ya know, guns I guess. Killing em and hiding the bodies I guess wouldn't take much." There is much the sadface at that thought, as if he is only just realizing that they might be dead. The jacket that is slung over her shoulder is dropped downward along with the hand that holds it. The teacher continues to clutch onto this particular article of clothing even as its bottom hits the grass. Jennifer listens to the two silently, mulling their thoughts over. "Visible mutants-- I don't know, Rasa. If this is organized hate crime, could be they are hitting up whatever mutants they have encountered in their lives. Maybe this is some sort of sick vengeful plan. Shane, Sebastian, Peter - I am pretty sure there's a lengthy line waiting to make them miserable, which is exactly why we are having so much trouble in the first place. Too many variables and unknowns." Drawing her hand out of the pocket, she gestures at nothing in particular, sans perhaps the point she makes. "No one is going to be used as bait at any point during this whole thing, so long as I have any say about it. Even Kurt can be caught unaware before teleporting to safety. We shouldn't rely on our mutations to do our work for us." That same hand is lifted to tap an index finger against her forehead. "/This/ is going to help us find out what's going on, okay? Well, that and driving around the city for God knows how long until we find Peter's, uh." What were they called again? She squints. "Equipment." Eyeing Rasa, then, Jennifer ponders silently. Carefully, she adds, "I meant more about that whole fiasco of, ah, punching him halfway across the gym." Surely more important than him missing. "I wouldn't be counting on my mutation to do anything but attract attention. I'd be counting on a better GPS tracker that can't just be tossed away to give us a clear picture of where they are being taken." Rasa shakes hir head as hir attention becomes fixed at the grass near their feet. "The offer shouldn't be dismissed so quickly. I believe in this school and I believe in the teachers finding my friends quickly. If I can be a part of that quick recovery, I want to. They are /very/ important to me." There's an air of seriousness to the teen's proclamation, hir skin darkening in resolve, a bronze metallic sheen covering the swirling colors of thought and feeling. "Maybe we can have fake mutants? Like if Mr Jax can do his illusion thing to make it look like someone is there when theres no one. Or like if Sophie projects herself walking down the street or something? So that way nobody is actually there to be hurt, but you can watch it happening?" Faelan thinks, trying to come up with safer solutions. "I don't really know what to do to help really, we don't exactly have classes on how to find missing students." He frowns at this and looks at the book in his hand. "But I guess we don't really expect anything bad to happen here." Jennifer observes the change in Rasa's appearance, which darkens to accomodate hir serious claim. "I'll take this one straight from the books", she notes first, looking to Faelan as well, making sure her remark is registered as being addressed to both of them. "They are lucky to have friends like you guys." Although her tone is as firm as Rasa's, the teacher brightens almost immediately. "And when we bring them back, they are going to be really proud of their friends." It looks like 'if' isn't even considered. Faelan's strategy is duly commented upon next. Jennifer circles around, so that she stands in front of him instead of behind him. "That /could/ work, but we don't know where they've gone missing or what prompted them going missing. Take Peter, for example-- We don't know whether he got into trouble while trying to be a hero, or on the way back to Xavier's. Right now, I think we should focus on finding Peter's webbing guns." "I'll gladly take any student who wants to join me this weekend. My social life can wait. I'll be probably driving the whole day, and you're welcome to join me at any time-- I can give you my personl phone number, if you wish. I /probably/ won't have the same group throughout the entire day, seeing as I don't want to strain you kids. I have plans for the evening, though." Wait. "Not /those/ kind of plans", she corrects herself, furrowing her brows. "I have homework. Ivan's been... helping me with something." Rasa remains quiet and a little disgruntled by Jennifer's remark, but nods when she continues. Ze continues to remain stoic, but fidgety as ze listens, lips pursing, hands clasped behind hir back. "I am going to be spending some time with Shelby this weekend, but I will definitely wish to search, so I will need your phone number." Hir entire form is a little stiff now, gaze unfixed. "So we need to figure out where they might have been taken from. We were thinking the fires, since Peter likes to poke into that sorta thing." Faelan nods at that, he's mentioned this to the other teachers, but best to make sure. "But I don't think the twins would be near a fire, so I guess we just sorta guess where it would be easiest to take people with powers from. Like dark alleyways, and using tranquilizer guns. Or tasers. Or I guess, ya know, a baseball bat to the head." He frowns at this and shakes his head. "Too many ways. No wonder we haven't found them yet, CSI makes it look too easy." Just as Jennifer digs into a pocket of her jacket, she pauses and frowns. "I think it would be best if we didn't... try to... visualize /how/ they got into trouble, and instead try to come up with /where/ they could be." her search within the pocket resumes. "Besides, the number of dark alleyways in New York-- It would take us weeks if not months to find the /right/ ones, never mind it relying on the hope that kidnappers will decide to always use the same alleyway every night. And while I am personally convinced they /have/ been kidnapped, we don't even have proof of that." Finally! A single piece of paper is summoned. It's wrinkled and has seen better days. Jen walks over to Rasa and hands over the poor little shred of paper. It does have Jennifer's phone number on it, at least. "There. You're welcome to drag Shelby along, although the chances of her wanting to see me are next to nil, no doubt. Oh, and Rasa? Use the number responsibly, will you?" The redhead looks over to Faelan inquisitively. "I still have four to give away. Would you like to have my phone number, Faelan?" Suddenly, Jennifer snorts. It's hard to tell why. Maybe it's the wording of her question, or the question itself. "Thanks." Rasa takes the slip of paper and puts it in her pocket. "I promise not to drunk call you or try to set you up with skeevy strangers." That is all ze promises. Then, ze starts to turn away and head back toward the mansion. "I will talk to you this weekend. Be well until then. If I see Logan, I'll let him know you were looking for him." Ze gives a little wave as ze leaves. Faelan gets out his school phone at Jen's question. "I can put it in this way, so you can give your card to those who need a card." He is more likely to not lose the phone after all. Looking at the card and squinting he goes through the add a new contact menu till he's done, and nods. "There, now I can just push the button." Shoving the phone back into his pocket, he shoves the book into the messenger bag to have both hands free. "And you are probably right I guess. I mean whoever it was knew to get rid of the phone, because otherwise we could have found them already. " Rasa is given a friendly sneer when Jennifer is told she won't be called or set up with all manner of strangers. The teacher is about to shift her attention to Faelan, except the other teenager's remark about Logan immediately snaps the redhead's attention back to Rasa. "Wait, /what/-- I'm not--! I punched him out of the damn boxing ring, that's the only reason I was asking!" With that huffy exclamation out of the way, she grunts. And then-- Well, then she just chortles and shakes her head. "You kids are worse than /I/ was my age", she admits, accepting the piece of paper back from Faelan. Jen considers something silently for a moment, eyeing Faelan's phone before looking back to her embarrassing pieces of paper. "/Right/. That made more sense. Anyway-- If you'll want to join the search party, you're welcome to join me and anyone else, Faelan. But you have to be absolutely sure about it, okay? You don't /have/ to, it wouldn't mean you don't care." "I know. I just want to help though." Faelan frowns at this, and shakes his head. "Scott said I needed to be more social, and well, everybody is wanting to do this, so I should too." Nodding at that, he looks around the garden. "And I'm for the most part safe. I mean, I wont do something like try and attack people, or go into things that are really dangerous. And I can make sure that if something dangerous does happen then we can get away. Its like you said, that if someone raided the school I would be useful. And well, three students are missing. Thats kinda the same." Jen tilts her head to the side ponderously. "Sort of. It is... slightly different, but at the same time similar. In either case, Faelan, everyone would appreciate your help, myself among them." "Anyway, I am going to go to town to run a couple of errands and then some. I'll see you around the school." The teacher offers Faelan a heartwarming smile before turning on her heels and walking off towards the porch. Nodding at the offer, Faelan gives a slight smile. "Have a good weekend. Please do not get kidnapped." He nods as he says it, then looks around the garden as Jennifer heads off, original purpose forgotten. "I should probably go talk to the others I guess. They probably will want her number too." Deciding this is the best idea, he heads for the dorms to coordinate things.