staff meeting;; open to faculty

[Ai]

[Nota Bene: This thread is kind of a continuation of advice goes both ways. Read the first few posts of that first, especially about the newspaper articles.]

Sharpe brought what little of the lunch he had left into the teacher's lounge for the meeting that had been called during their two hour break from classes. Thankfully, he had managed to contact every single staff member - save the college students who were teaching a single elective class or whatnot - asking them to put aside what they had to do in order to make it to the meeting. Classes had been postponed for the afternoon and even he had let his advanced Latin students off without extra homework.

The thirty-five-year-old set the newspaper article clippings down on the table in front of him. These articles were detailing the latest in a string of violence and hate crimes against meta-humans. He was no historian, but this had been repeated throughout history. To him, some of the most shocking news was that the latest hate crime took place in San Francisco, USA, which had a reputation for being one of the most accepting cities in the whole world. Sharpe scoffed slightly; he should have known about San Francisco, as he spent a decent portion of his life less than an hour away from the large metropolis.

Even before anyone else arrived, the staff room was full of tension; Sharpe could somehow sense it and the man tried every tactic in his arsenal to calm himself down. He wasn't normally prone to nerves; in fact, it was quite the opposite, but these hate crimes and the media rumor that the government was somehow involved would have made anyone uneasy. He removed his glasses from his face to clean them, but before he could put them back on, he heard someone entering through the main door.

With a quick thought, he commanded the high-backed swivel chair to turn around so he could now see who had just entered. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found out that it was just one of his fellow teachers.

Putting his glasses back onto his face so he could see clearly again, he nodded towards the newcomer. "If you will take a seat, we shall begin when the others arrive."

[Mookie]

Raiden walked at a steady pace down the corridor, his maroon eyes as distant and as guarded as ever. He had been called, along with the rest of Kosaka’s faculty to the teachers lounge for an important meeting. At least he had come to the conclusion that the meeting was important. He didn’t think classes would have been postponed otherwise.

Pushing open the door to the teachers lounge, Raiden entered the room and sent the briefest of nods towards Sharpe, more of an acknowledgement than a ‘Hello’. Before taking a seat a few spaces down from where the older professor sat. He didn’t bother to acknowledge the other three bodies in the room. He didn't know them and didn't care for them. And whilst he didn't know Sharpe all that well, 'Not at all.' he corrected himself. He was still working for Kosaka at the moment and as Sharpe was Nimah's 'Second' he felt he should at least show a little respect to the older man.

Staring at the opposite wall, his thoughts masked by a serious frown, Raiden noted that the atmosphere in the room felt thick and heavy. This only added to the young Hanyou's suspicions, that this meeting is indeed important and that the possibility of it being related to the up rising crime and conflicts between the human and meta-human races, is high.

A few moments of tense silence passed. In these moments Raiden could hear the door open and close another two times and wondered briefly where the Headmistress was. Shouldn’t she have been here first? Kosaka is her school. Raiden didn’t dwell on that thought for long though, he didn’t quite care as long as the meeting got started soon.

[Silence]

Adela drifted in, her willowy build making the light gray dress flow more around her. As usual, she was making a slight entrance, but that wasn't her fault. Walking in, she waved at her fellow faculty members before taking a seat near Sharpe, but far enough away so the dear collegue would not feel the need to lash out at her.

Of course, he usually didn't like company, and she waited patiently for this meeting to start. She wished to talk about this. After all, she missed her newspaper today, and she hoped that she could get it now.

Despite this, she felt that her disappearing newspaper had something to do with this. "Where's Nimah?" she inquired, her voice still heavily German accented.

She reached up with a lazy hand, and gently touched her leaves that made up her hair. She didn't brush them away from her ears, but she didn't care much about that. 'Maybe I should go get a chess board. Play with someone. Maybe I'll corner Sharpe,' she thought, and managed to contain her little squeal of delight over that.

Adela loved teasing Sharpe, but now was not the time.

[Ai]

Sharpe nodded towards Raiden as he entered. Over the past few months as the staff members had grown accostumed to working together, he was forced to admit to himself that he rather enjoyed the company of the auto shop teacher. A few more teachers arrived, including Aislynn Celeste, who took a seat near the furthest end of the table she could find.

His eyes were on the look-out for Nimah, as she was the one who needed to be at the meeting. If he was to run the meeting, all the staff members might as well count on the briefing being a pessimistic and blunt run-down about what had been happening lately; the specific news as to the who, where and when had not pleased him at all.

The professor could have hardly kept himself from skimming the surface thoughts of any other faculty members, but he could tell by merely the looks on their faces that they were as troubled by the news as Nimah had been earlier that morning. The entire day had been tense and one of his Latin students had approached him after class, asking why he didn't assign homework to them; he did not say the exact reason, but he had the instinctive feeling that many of the students knew what was going on better than they let on.

When Adela entered, Sharpe nodded a quick acknowledgement towards her. He neither liked nor disliked the tree-like professor; they had spoken on brief occasion before and their conversations had always been kept short and concise, just the way Sharpe liked.

"Nimah should be arriving in the next few minutes." The professor's voice was oddly curt, even for him. It was true that he enjoyed the company of the Angel Headmistress, but she did have a tendency to be on the late side to meetings. He reached a hand into the pocket of his lab coat - he was still wearing it from a demonstration he gave to his physics students earlier that morning - and pulled out an old chess piece from his old chess set.

"Until then, I shall be assuming you have heard the news." With a wave of his hand, the newspaper section with the article went flying over towards one of the teachers, landing on the table. "If you have not had the chance to read it yet, I suggest you do so now." His other hand was still wrapped around the chess piece he carried around with him: a black king.

[Silver]

Nimah knew she was late. Knew it. Why couldn't she get a grip on this punctuality thing. It had always been one of her worst faults, loosing track of time. And though she was never drastically late, she was usually late by some length of time. And then she wasted more time apologising for her lateness which cut into meeting time.

As she made her way along the corridors trying to keep as compsed as possible she knew that all the other teachers would be there already. They have arrived, and would be sitting, all drumming the table in annoyance waiting for her. Then she would arrive and they would glare and no doubt someone would tap their watch in a condescending way at her. The she would smile sheepishly, cower at the head of the table, start babbling, and inwardly continue to wonder why she'd been given this job.

She was not fit to be a Headmistress. She didn't have the authority. She could get angry, but not really. So punishing students was proving difficult. She was a complete push over, the students knew it and so did the other teachers. Which was why she was grateful for Sharpe being her unofficial second in command. Most, if not all the students feared him in some way. And the other faculty members had far more respect for him than they ever would for her.

Then again, maybe she was taking her time because of the nature of this meeting. What it was to be about was not the most wonderful of subjects, and it made Nimah extremely uneasy to talk about it. But it was necessary to address the case, and get it dealt with as the threat of attacks to meta-humans concerned everyone at the school. Teachers and students.

Once she reached the room, Nimah pushed the door in, breathing in deeply at the same time to steady herself. As expected Sharpe was already there. And two other teachers. Professor Stern and also Raiden. So she wasn't the latest teacher. Which was a plus. She smiled sheepishly as she knew she would and went to the top of the table, remaining standing as she faced the other faculty members.

"I'm sorry I'm late." Nimah said, her voice a little higher than usual. "I was catching up on some reports." She cleared her throat for a moment and then shifted her weight from one side to the other. "No doubt you all know why this meeting has been called. Some may not, so I'll fill in the gaps when the other staff members arrive. In the mean time," Nimah opened a file she'd been carrying and placed a newspaper, open on the desk. An article have been circled in red pen. "I suggest you all read that article to stress the severity of this situation, while we wait."

((I'll bring Frick in in the next post. Mm'kay.))

[Silence]

"You don't need to be curt with me Sharpe. I was just asking. But it's good to know she'll be here soon," Adela stated, giving Sharpe a small look before going back to her thoughts.

Well, not really, she just looked at Sharpe. He pulled out the black king, and she looked intrested. She hadn't known Sharpe played chess, and she let out a soft sigh. 'Now, that would be a fun chess game,' she thought, having excitement run through her mind.

She quickly squished it though, for a better time, when the article went flying away from her. She closed her eyes, and just decided to wait.

When Nimah came in, she just waved, not irritated that Nimah was late. She didn't really care, she was used to waiting for things. When the newspaper hit the table, Adela took it.

With a sad sigh, she passed it to another faculty member. "It's their nature, of course. You don't watch man-kind without learning that. Those who are different get prosecuted. Mostly for the reasoning of being a scapegoat. I once saw boy be killed because of his religion. But, how do we keep the students from reacting violently?" she commented softly.

To her it was a good question. She had seen what violence could do, and she didn't wish for it to happen again. It usually did though.

[Ai]

One of Sharpe's eyebrows shot upwards when Nimah entered, but other than that, he showed very little emotional response. Such was a combination of his training, his mutation and his learning to adapt to the harsh world of people; he had become rather emotionally uneffected by what others did or said - at least outwardly. Had the circumstances surrounding the meeting been different, he would have most certainly said something to her or at the very least chided her with a telepathic message. However, the urgency and the content matter of the meeting needed to take precedence over whatever private feelings any of the teachers might have towards one another; Sharpe was well-aware of the fact that part of the responsibility of being a decent leader was leading by example. To do so otherwise would be hypocritical.

He watched the face of one of the younger professors as she read the news article. It seemed as though half the professors were shocked while the other half were saddened; frankly Sharpe was not sure how he was supposed to feel, so he simply nodded towards the young teacher, his face grave and the depth of his dark eyes saying more than he usually let on. In all truth, he had been saddened by what had happened, but he had tried warning the small group of meta-humans he knew before. Had they listened to him? Obviously not.

Upon Adela's comment about religion, Sharpe placed the black king down on the table. He had been continually fiddling with it in his hand, a habit reserved for when he was most nervous or ticked off or both. There was a slight twitch of the corner of his mouth and with a quick thought, the chess piece toppled over. Checkmate, he thought, sending that thought over to Adela. He knew the human mind was a complicated piece of work; layers upon layers could be opened, but if an attempt to read into the deepest abyss at once was forced, the mind could be destroyed.

It was the same with the game of chess. Black versus white, two armies battling it out against the other that was quite different. For a brief moment, he closed his eyes and hoped that the conflict between the humans and the meta-humans would not come to that. A hand reached up to push his glasses closer to his eyes. His black glasses. Black was evil; black should be shunned. How many times had he heard that? Whether it be in history classes, literature analysis or chess games, there was a general concensus that those who were different - black - were evil. Why was white not considered evil? His jaw locked for a moment as he glanced at Nimah.

Time upon time again, the idea of conflicting purposes, revenge and scapegoating had presented itself. Whether it be in the Holocaust history lessons he remembered from world history, the story of The Count of Monte Cristo that he loved reading so much in English class or life in general - he had experienced quite enough of that to last him a lifetime and a half - he had seen people blamed for being different and others react violently. Heck, even he had reacted violently to the bullying he had been subject to in high school. Well, as violently as a kid with no athleticism and about fifty pounds lighter had been able to react.

"They must be trained to use their powers to help others." Sharpe motioned towards the article. "A decent portion of the problem can be traced to meta-humans who have decided to not use their powers wisely and for their foolish choices, we have all suffered." He reached back out to remove the chess piece from the table and put it back in the pocket of his lab coat. There would be time to fiddle with it later.

[Mookie]

Raiden re-read the article placed on the table. He wasn’t at all surprised or shocked by the news. These hate crimes had been going on for years. He had seen them happen first hand a countless number of times, It came with the job description. Being an undercover agent wasn’t always so great.

He had noticed that as of late, crimes committed by both sides - humes and meta-humes, were now becoming more much public. Whereas in the past any crimes committed by the humes against the meta’s were often covered up by the government, kept in the shadows - under wraps. (The Government didn’t like to think that the human race were at fault.) And crimes committed by any inhuman race against the humans would be all over the media in mere hours.

But now, now everything was coming to the surface. And because of this people were becoming much more violent.

The news, Raiden decided, made matters worse. The humes and meta-humes were learning of these crimes against each other and because of this were becoming angry, and in some cases -causing them to commit crimes of their own.

It didn’t seem that the Government was trying to make things better at all. If anything they were making matters worse. It wouldn’t surprise Raiden if he were too learn that the Government was indeed behind these attacks. Maybe not directly, but they could have a hand in the matter.

This was only speculation however.

What the meta-human race needed was a Government of their own. Or at least someone to stand up for their rights and their wants and needs. Because they sure as hell weren’t getting any help from the human Government.

Raiden closed his eyes for a brief moment and sighed, he could already feel a headache brewing. Nimah had arrived by the time he had read through the article and passed it on. He remained silent, his expression impassive as Sharpe and another professor spoke.

[Silence]

Adela's eyes flicked when she saw movement, only to see that Sharpe had put down the black king. His comment made her flick some of her leaves with a small smirk before relaxing again. She just took it in stride as well as she could. Hatred was just that, hatred, but it could be controlled. 'Even trees have hatred, it's just not as dangerous. We usually can't do anything,' she thought, not bothered by it.

So long as Sharpe didn't go reading through her mind, she didn't really care. It was easier on Adela to just accept it. It was her personality.

At Sharpe's suggestion, she nodded in agreement. "That is true. Anyone's gifts, whether they be a natural talent, or a special power, should be taught how to use it to help others. There were two men who had this great power of speech. They could influence people just through their eloquent speech. And that's where the similarity ends. One of them used his power of speech to lead a country into killing and destruction, and the elimination of people who were different in any way. The other lead a country into changes that would benefit the society, giving people rights to pursue their dreams, to have an equal share in all the country had to give, no matter who they were. The first was Hitler, the second Martin Luther King Jr.," she added into the room.

After all, the tree spirit had seen hatred in it's worst form. She shuddered slightly from the memory before shaking her head to clear it from their.

[Silver]

Nimah was going concerned moment by moment by the apparent flippancy of this case that some of the teachers were putting aross. She hardly thought now was the time to be teasing one another with chess talk. Surely that could be done in their own time, and not when Nimah was on her last wing.

Picking up the paper with the circled article, Nimah folded and refolded it three times, before gingerly placing it in front of her.

"We're not trying to influence anyone in anyway." Nimah said firmly. "These are students. We can guide them, but at the end of the day they will make their own descisions based on thier own senses. Their own morality. They will draw their own conclusions and decide how to use their powers, or whether they will or not at all. That is not our main concern at this moment in time."

She cleared her throat a little, eyeing each of the teachers in turn. She seemed to be falling into her own stride for the moment. Apparently being in charge of a rabble of seraphim for a century had given her a backbone she rarely used. "The most pressing matter at this moment in time is what we do about these attacks. There is no doubt they will come to Kosaka. It is currently the meta metropolis of the world, and a huge target due to the new generation being here. I like to think that students here are bright enough not to use their powers openly unless sure it is safe. But humans orchastrating these attacks will want them to use their powers, to attack, to fire up more hatred. Its a simply tactic, and it works very well, with very little effort from the antagonists side."

"We cannot keep the students couped up indoors. Its not right for them, nor is it fair. But at the same time, we cannot prohibit humans, with good intentions or not, coming to Kosaka and infiltrating. So I have a proposal. I assume you all agree that we need to find out who is behind these attacks, yes? Discover whether they are purely random, or if they are specific. We cannot send students on this kind of expatriation. So, it will be up to us, as the adults and also as their guardians while they are here, to try and find out."

"However," Nimah inhaled, running her fingers across her temple, "we need to allow the students out. And perhaps get to grip with some... less than welcoming situations, which may or may not come to Kosaka. I would like to suggest a kind of training regime, or programme, where they have graded tasks to carry out." She paused again, and looked at the other faculty members expectantly, "you're all more than welcome to add your two cents, whenever you feel like it."

--

Frick was not a stickler from promptness. He never really had been. And today, when a rather sudden meeting had been called was no different. He reached the meeting room long after the meeting had started, and stood outside the door wondering if he should run off and lie, say one of his students needed him when he was on his way. But he doubted that would sit well, or wash, at all, with people like Sharpe. So he simply stood outside the door and waited patiently, listening to the muffled words, until he felt there was a gap he could enter.

It came when he heard the Headmistress pause for breath. He took the oppertunity to open the door and try to slide in quietly which he managed after closing the door with a gentle 'click'. He took a seat at the end of the table, surveying her grey haired woman who was speaking with more authority than Frick had heard her speak with before.

He'd missed most of what she'd said, and was willing to guess a lot of it had been a bit babbling. But he was interested anyway. And decided he'd chip in with his opinion, when he had a better idea of what the Hell was the subject of such seriousness.

((Sorry if this is long...))

[Ai]

Sharpe watched each of the other teachers for a reaction before re-considering his own thoughts, but the bulk of his focus was on how Nimah would react. The angel had appeared out of sorts earlier that morning, but he had thought little of it at the time. The news of the most recent attacks had brought them all a surprise and he highly doubted any of them were ready. He pushed his glasses up with one hand and left the other one resting on the table in front of him, where it had been for most of the meeting thus far.

The professor let out a quiet sigh and bit his lips together. That headache he'd had earlier that morning was starting to return and he knew he could blame a combination of the stress of the news and the fluorescent lights for that. He pressed his fingers together, closed his eyes for several seconds and then opened them. It was at this moment that Frick had walked into the room, late as usual. Sharpe shook his head slightly and mentally decided to chide the warlock... while bringing him up to speed with what had happened thus far.

"Well, well, look what we have here," Sharpe's voice was very pointed, slightly annoyed and sent in Frick's direction. Although he was very well aware that the chemistry teacher was uncomfortable with telepathy, he did not see it necessary to let the other teachers know what he was telling Frick. His messages were sent loosely; even a weak telepath in proximity could pick up on what he was saying mentally. "Harris, next time you plan to be late, let one of us know." This comment was weak and more exasperated than pointedly accusing. Sharpe then proceeded to give Frick a very blunt run-down of what had come to pass in their meeting.

-----

Aislynn Celeste had been sitting fairly quietly through most of the meeting, just listening to what the other teachers and professors had to say. Since she was newer to the school, she didn't know all of the teachers and she was still a bit afraid of speaking out of turn around them. Especially the older ones. But when Nimah asked for opinions, this was her opportunity to speak for the first time.

"Maybe some of us should go out with the younger students to the island?" Aislynn glanced at Adela and Nimah, as they seemed the most likely out of all the faculty to either agree with her or at least disagree gently.

[Silver]

Frick automatically flinched when he recieved the chiding telepathic message from the older teacher. Frick had never liked telepathy. He found it an invasive power, whether the user meant it or not. It just... didn't sit right with him. So whenever he recieved a telepathic message, it gave him cause to react badly.

In reponse to Sharpe's words, he simply grinned impishly and shrugged. He then proceeded to listen as Sharpe updated him mentally and briefly on what had been covered so far. His smile quickly disappeared, and he reached across the table for the cutting which was still making its way around. He read it quickly, and then let the clipping fall back on to the table.

More attacks. This was becoming a bit of a repetative fashion. This was the first attack Frick had heard of. He someteimes spent time surfing forums and boards on the Internet which were a hive of meta-human and human debate or hatred. He had read, a lot, of reports on different attacks, where they had taken place and why. And who was the target. He'd heard one meta-human had been badly injured and refused hospitalisation from one attack. No name was mentioned, but Frick recalled a fact that the victim had basically been a walking electric pylon.

Then the younger maths teacher, Aislynn, piped up. Something about the students. Frick looked a little bemused. He had missed something. Temptation to add in his opinion was there, but he wasn't sure he had enough information yet to warrent one.

---

Nimah silently greeted Frick with a small smile. She was well aware of his constant tardiness, and was generally quite happy he'd managed to actually get to the meeting while it was still going, and not when it was just ending.

She glanced at Aislynn, tilting her head to her suggestion. "I... suppose that could work. The younger students would, I imagine, feel safer with a teacher around. But that would still limit the time they could be out of the grounds and in the town due to teacher's timetables and the like. But its not an idea to write off." She smiled, and looked at the other faculty members.

"Does anyone else have any suggestions?" She observed them, and looked at Sharpe, "Professor?"

[Mookie]

“I’m so sorry I’m late!”

Honey had practically burst through the door and into the room where the staff meeting was being held, looking something like a mad woman. Her glasses had fallen and now sat crooked on her nose and her blonde hair was an unruly mess.

Immediately she went into a nervous rant about her whereabouts and why she was late, unable to make eye contact with either Sharpe or Nimah.

“-I had to take care of a student who had gotten paint in her eye during class and then I was rushing here when another student had fallen down and grazed his knee so naturally I had to take him to the nurse’s station and then I-” her voice slowed to a quiet murmur once she had replaced her glasses and took note of the serious and anxious expressions pasted across the faces of her colleagues.

This really wasn’t the time for crazy rants and explanations, she realised. “..Sorry.”

With her face rivalling the colour of a tomato, Honey stumbled her way over to a seat, accidentally elbowing a professor in the side of their head in the process. “Oh, sorry! I’m so sorry.” She whispered hastily and quickly took the seat besides the now injured professor.

The 24 year old lowered her gaze to the table in an attempt to ignore any annoyed glares or irritated stares she was on the receiving end of. ‘Could this day get any worse?’ And upon reading the newspaper cut-out, Honey came to the conclusion that - yes, it could.

[Silence]

Adela looked up the first time someone walked in late, she just looked at them to see who it was, and watched him. She noticed him flinch, but didn't think much of it. She instead, listened.

Her suggestions would most likely be vague at most, like her speech from earlier. She really felt that all they could do was teach them how to use their powers without abusing them. It would be a hard lesson for them to learn, a hard lesson for any creature.

A sharp jab in her head caused her to blink slightly and look over at Honey. It seemed her drifting had left her open to being 'attacked' by a random elbow. "Quite all right," Adela stated, rubbing the side of her head slightly.

She didn't really mind, but it still smarted slightly. She tried not to flick her leaves away, but she let them be.

((ooc: I hope you didn't mind that Mookie. You just said professor, so I decided to do this. I got some Internet today))

[Ai]

The professor finished giving Frick a summary of what had come to pass, both in the article and in the meeting thus far. By the nature and the delivery of his message, he did not mean for his thought-speak ability to be invasive; in fact, all he was doing was changing the exact words and tone that he would use while speaking aloud and making them silent, choosing to implant them as if the recipient - Frick in this particular case - was simply listening through his ears. Of course, there was a distinct difference that could not be described.

Sharpe was about to send a scathing chide in Lehane's direction about being late, but he resisted and only glanced at her briefly. Such was his unspoken signal that it was time to get the meeting started again and that the world was not stopping for them to babble on reasons about being tardy. This problem was not going to solve itself; nothing did. By the frown on his face, he was deliberating over what had been said; at the moment, he was not about to speak until he was sure about what he thought.

Having the younger students accompanied by a professor or an older student might not be an idea to discard entirely, Sharpe thought, but he kept this private. This would need quite a bit more planning, but with all the violence, it would be a good idea to have another person - one who had both responsibility and good control of his or her powers - to accompany the less experienced students.

He glanced around the table, studying each of the faculty members carefully. Kosaka was a special school and many of the staff had been hand-picked; the administration and the school board had a great influence upon who was working here.

"Not only should we integrate them, but they need to have good control of their powers and a decent knowledge of ethics before they are integrated into society." This single sentence was spoken after much deliberation. Part of the problem seemed to lie within the fact that most people did not believe that metas knew right from wrong... and the assumption they had poor control over their powers.