Gemma has the sinking, horrible, nauseous feeling of not being in control at all.

She was not supposed to be, not all the time, not with all the X's around. And yet, she felt the weight of all the responsibility, and none of the gratitude. She was the guidance counselor, after all. She was supposed to be helping Mansion residents.
And yet, while she blinked twice, one of the students was on house arrest, awaiting trial for murder... and simultaneously flirting on the Internet.

Gemma drank deep from her coffee mug. This was going to be a long day.

She wasn't alone; the young team leader, Mirror, was also in the office, representing the team. She was the best Gemma could rustle up with others off on a mission. She was sure she could not hold everything together alone, not with the digital world spiraling out of control.

They waited in silence for Alex to make an appearance. He should be well enough to walk around by now (God knew he was well enough to be all over the Internet), and Gemma asked him, politely, to come to the office for a talk.

It was going to be one hell of a talk.

Gemma may have asked him politely to come to the office. But some animal instinct in his brain knew, just knew, that he was in deeper trouble than when he arrived back to the mansion. If that was even possible. How was that possible? The only thing he had really done of note was interact with a chat group on the internet. It couldn't have been that big of a deal right. He just talked...on camera...

He had a sudden realization on the way down to Miss T's office that maybe that hadn't been such a good idea. He did worry a bit after the fact that the little chat had been recorded by somebody. But who would want to listen to him blabber on about topics that were brought up in the chat.

It wasn't like he was famous or anything and his face was already out there. He had no control of that first video so he thought some clarification would have been helpful.Apparently not...

Arriving at the counselor office, he knocked on the door frame to get her attention. "Hey Miss T, you wanted to talk to me?" Mirror was here too? He hadn't really talked to them since arriving...last year? It seemed like forever ago and the X leader always seemed busy. So he wondered just how bad things have gotten.

Gawain waited in silence, folding his arms over his chest. This was an intervention, clear and simple. Alex was in a world of trouble, and while the mirrorwalker firmly believed that the murder was justified self-defense - that was pretty clear - the whole stunt with the Internet was very much less so.

Also, he was not sure why on earth would Miss Taylor put Jiri in the same room with Alex.
That was just a disaster waiting to happen.

Gawain leaned back against the wall, nodding to Alex as he entered. He would let the counselor take the lead, for now.

>>"Hey Miss T, you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes, we do" Gemma nodded "Please take a seat."

What was implied: This will take a while. Also, Alex was probably not fully healed yet.

"I am assuming you know what this is about" she said, not willing to waste time on guessing games "First off, I wanted to see how you are doing, with the house arrest and the pending trial. I wanted to let you know what we" she glanced at Mirror, who nodded "... believe that it was justified self defense, and will do all we can to keep this from turning into something ugly. You have our full support, in any form you need it."

With that said...

"... with that said, we need to talk about that... conversation you had on the Internet the other day. Because it went viral."

Alex slowly sunk into the offered seat, nervously glancing from Mirror and back to Gemma. Every bone in his body roared for him to run away. Though he knew that the adults in the room wouldn't attack him, that they were still on his side. He couldn't help but feel that he was being put in front of a firing squad.

He listened though, nodding his understanding to the first part. He was grateful that he had their support as far as the trial went. That he wasn't going to be abandoned outright. But then the topic of the chat came up and...honestly he was shocked. Viral? Again?! What about him did the internet seem to love so much?! He didn't understand it.

"Viral?" He let the question hang there. He only just learned the concept from a nurse who talked about the video of him killing his attacker while staying at the hospital. He could see the appeal of the first video. But the one with him just talking? It didn't make any sense. The look on his face was probably enough to tell Gemma just how out of his depth he was.

>>"Viral?"

The kid sounded confused. Gawain glanced at Gemma, then back at Alex. He did not seem like he was entirely familiar with the concept. Or the Internet as a space. That made Gawain suspect that there was something else behind the casual chat as well. After all, he had put information out there that he might not have shared, had he known...
... known how 'viral' worked.

"You made yourself sort of a celebrity, because the Internet is creepy like that." he sighed "They see you use your powers, especially... against someone, and they want to know everything about you. Believe me, I've been there."

Courtesy of Maxine. She had yet to raise her head on this one. Maybe the house arrest slowed her roll.

Alex seemed uncomfortable, scared, and most of all confused. Not knowing what viral meant confirmed Gemma's suspicion: The online chat was probably not his idea.
Which raised a whole new series of questions she did not want to ask right away.

She waited for the X-man to finish his piece before she took over again.

"The point is that you shared information online that can come back and... be used against you in the trial. For one thing. It might also jeopardize the safety of the Mansion, or other people who live here. Or your safety, most of all. People will be looking to find a hold on you, and the more you share, the easier it gets for them to twist your words. Or your opinions."

Because the Internet is dark, and full of creepers.

The thing that caught most of his attention was that he had put the mansion and the people who live here in danger. His own safety he was fine with risking, he had been doing it most of his life. But the safety of others, of this place that had become his home. Now that made his stomach turn.

He tried thinking of a solution, he knew that the internet like to spread the data out to multiple sources. If it worked that way with research he'd look up, it probably worked that way with videos. Meaning there was no simply taking it back. He couldn't think of anything to fix this. The internet was not something that he had really used in a social sense. The first and only time he had done it was before he had run away the first time.

"I-is there some way I can fix this? I just, I didn't want the only thing people knew about me was that video. I was just trying to correct them." He ignored the fact that he was sound terrified, panicked, because he was and he just wanted this to be fixed. He thought he had done the right thing by talking. He didn't think talking could be bad.

>>"I-is there some way I can fix this? I just, I didn't want the only thing people knew about me was that video. I was just trying to correct them."

"What's out there is out there" Gawain said. It was not exactly kind, but it was the truth, and he needed a reality check to make sure he would be smarter in the future.

"So here is the question" Mirror added, raising an eyebrow "This was clearly not your idea, and there was someone else with you in the room."

Boxer briefs. Out of all things.

"Is it safe to assume it was your roommate?"

Because it sounded just like the thing Jiri would do. And whoever it was, they also needed to hear what was going to be said next.

"This was clearly not your idea, and there was someone else with you in the room. Is it safe to assume it was your roommate?"

He blinked at the question, biting the inside of his lip in worry. "Kind of, he was just trying to cheer me up and showed me this forum thing. Apparently that first video got me "fans" and I just wanted to correct them on some point. Then they started asking questions and I just...didn't think it'd be a bad idea to answer..."

It was clear he was starting to understand the what exactly he had done. Just how much he may have ruined his life this way. There was not taking it back. Gawain said it himself, once it was out there, it was out there.

"I don't think I said anything that bad..."he murmured, looking at his hands in his lap now. He wished he had the ability to disappear, just shrink or go invisible. Anything but this.

>>"Kind of, he was just trying to cheer me up and showed me this forum thing. Apparently that first video got me "fans" and I just wanted to correct them on some point. Then they started asking questions and I just...didn't think it'd be a bad idea to answer..."

Gemma caught Mirror's tell-tale eye roll. Apparently the mirrorwalker knew the roommate quite well, and was not surprised at all to hear the idea came from him. Nodding to Gawain, she let him know they needed to continue this conversation with the boy present. She remembered Maya's note about him. Another problem kid. Then again, all of them were.
Gawain disappeared through a mirror.

>>"I don't think I said anything that bad..."

"You didn't know" Gemma said "And it's not like you said bad things. You said what you wanted to say. The problem is, and I am sure you have been told, that any of that can be twisted into something else and used against you in the trial."

Of course it was the roommate.

Mirror rolled his eyes, and once he had the nod from Gemma, he headed in the dorm's direction. Thsi was going to get more complicated. Alex was confused, maybe scared, and had a lot on his plate. He did not doubt that Jiri was trying to help...
... then again, he had experienced first hand what it is like when Jiri tries to help. He ended up shooting him that time.
"Him."

Gawain appeared in the dorm room's mirror.

"Jiri?" he called out "You are needed at Miss Taylor's office. Come on, let's go."

Their bathroom was talking.

"Alex?" Jiri popped out an earbud, and turned his head. The bathroom door was a little ajar. He... hadn't heard Alex come back in. Hadn't heard anyone come back in.

...But then, this was a freaky mutant school. Right.

Jiri paused his game, and slid his laptop very carefully onto the bed before getting up. He slipped his head inside the bathroom door, looking in the room like he was on a B-rated horror set and the rest of the cast had just left him alone.

There was a man in his mirror. It really wasn't hard to piece the rest together.

"So. Relative of Maya? No offense, but the last time I got near a mirror with a Morris, bad things happened. I can walk."

He paused, and ducked back in the bathroom. "Is this about what happened with Ghost? 'Cause I don't want to get her in trouble, or anything. She seems like a really nice lady," that he never wanted to see again. "I just figured I could maybe use a counselor. After that."

That.

Oh god that.

Unaware of Ghosty's note, he'd tentatively signed up for a time to see Miss Taylor. It wasn't this time, but maybe she'd had an early opening?

Jiri walked his way to the counselor's office, and knocked on the door as polite as can be.

>>"Alex?... So. Relative of Maya? No offense, but the last time I got near a mirror with a Morris, bad things happened. I can walk."

"Wh..." Gawain started, but th ekid was already gone. He was not about to step out of the mirror and into the bathroom. He hated landing in bathrooms, especially if they belonged to two teenage boys.

>>"Is this about what happened with Ghost? 'Cause I don't want to get her in trouble, or anything. She seems like a really nice lady, I just figured I could maybe use a counselor. After that."

Ghost?... What did Ghost have to do with all this?...
Apparently communication in the Mansion was a hot mess.

"Just get to the office" Gawain sighed, taking the short route back, and appearing in the office just in time to answer the knock at the door.

Alex sighed, watching Mirror go to fetch his roommate. He felt a little guilty for admitting Jiri's involvement. But it wasn't like they had to guess too hard. Jiri was his roommate after all, and the only one of the two of them that had a laptop. Man, he really should have thought this whole chat with the internet thing through. But Jiri seemed so excited and enthusiastic that he hadn't thought that it would turn out badly.

"You didn't know. And it's not like you said bad things. You said what you wanted to say. The problem is, and I am sure you have been told, that any of that can be twisted into something else and used against you in the trial."

Gemma continued and he felt nervous fear clench in his gut. It made him feel a little sick. He's never felt like this before, trapped and panicked with no fix available to him. "I wasn't though, not by the cops, not by any of the staff. They just told me to sit tight till the trial could be arranged. I haven't heard about this until just now! I didn't know that just conversing with the internet could turn against me!"

He bit down on his lip, looking down, quickly ashamed by his panic and raised voice. God it felt like he was going to throw up. All he wanted to do was leave, pack it up and leave. Like he always did. That's what he always did. But apparently the justice system wouldn't allow for self-imposed isolation as punishment.