There was a knock on the door, and Mirror returned to open it. Gemma looked up to see Jiri, and she nodded to him, inviting him in.

"Come on in, Jiri" she said, pointing to an empty chair "We need to talk about some things, and we thought you should be here to hear them too."

She knew Alex felt bad about all that happened - killing and chatting both - and she was also angry that no one told him he should not interact with his... fans. Being a fan of a kid, just because he could kill a thug... The Internet was not Gemma's favorite place.

"This is about the online chat" she clarified "You might not have known this at the time, but all the things Alex said... The questions he answered, could come back and hurt his chances during the trial. We need to clear this up before that, and I want you both to undrstand how serious this situation is."

She worded all that carefully. She knew Jiri had his own problems. She would get to those later on.

The door opened, and Maya's possibly-less-evil-twin stood behind it. He was a bit taller than his sister, but he had the same I'm so adult, you best listen up swagger that his sister had. Seriously. What did the two of them do, stand in front of their mirrors and practice? With how similar they looked, maybe they just stood in front of each other and had attitude-offs.

It was an amusing thought for the half-second it took him to enter the room. There was an African woman seated already--the real adult in the room. Miss Taylor, he presumed. 

And Alex was there, too.

Looking worse than Jiri had seen him since he'd been literally dying.

He pushed past the Morris clone, and took a seat next to his roommate. "Whoa. Hey. Are you okay? There wasn't something in the fan mail, was there?"

There'd been a couple things in the mail yesterday, probably more today. Stupid fangirl things: cookies, pink letters with heart stickers, stuff like that. But it had occurred to Jiri, belatedly, that those guys who'd beat on Alex had family and friends. And it was a fair bet that said family and friends had internet access, too.

Alex definitely looked like he'd taken another beating.

Belatedly, the words that the guidance counselor were speaking started filtering in. Jiri blinked, and managed to divide his attention between his roommate and the woman's words. The chat? Well sure, of course this was fall out from the chat. But... not something vile in the mail? That was, like, a better-case-scenario, right?

He... didn't get what they were talking about here that had Alex so upset.

"Wait, what? But he didn't say anything wrong."

Jiri brushed past, but from the half look he gave him Gawain could tell he didn't grasp the correlation between him and Maya.
That was going to be priceless, once they got around to sorting it out.

>>"Whoa. Hey. Are you okay? There wasn't something in the fan mail, was there?"

Jiri showed real concern for his roommate. That was nice, except Mirror was too busy rubbing his forehead.

"... there is fanmail now?!" it came out as somewhat of a low whine.

>>"Wait, what? But he didn't say anything wrong."

"Really." Mirror arched an eyebrow at Jiri, then picked up a couple of printed pages from Miss Taylor's desk. He skimmed over it, then looked back up.

"As much as I would love to sic a Sharknado on Sam, there is a lot of stuff in here that did not need to be out there. And if you are getting actual mail... That means all these people know exactly where you are. And it's putting the whole Mansion at risk. No one ever told you not to discuss a pending trial with... dunno, the entire Internet?"

"As much as I would love to sic a Sharknado on Sam, there is a lot of stuff in here that did not need to be out there. And if you are getting actual mail... That means all these people know exactly where you are. And it's putting the whole Mansion at risk. No one ever told you not to discuss a pending trial with... dunno, the entire Internet?"

Alex shrunk back in his seat, looking every bit the kicked puppy and a touch greener around the gills. He shook his head at the question, not looking up at Gawain. He already told Gemma that nobody informed him of the rules.

And if Mirror looked into his files he would find a history absent of social internet use. He only ever used it for research, wikipedia articles, scientific journals, and where nearby shelters and soup kitchens might be. Hell it had been Mirror that found him in the streets in the first place.

He opened his mouth to comment, ask how to fix this, what they should do, what he could do if anything. But the only thing that came out of his mouth was a distressed sound, akin to some animal caught between aggression and fear. All he could think about was escape, safe routes to take, the nearest bus station, train stations, everything that could take him as far away from New York as possible.

Gemma sighed as Gawain took it on himself to play the bad cop. She hated that game. And yet, while Alex seemed positively terrified, Jiri looked like he was ready to defend his right, and also protect Alex. She noted that sentiment.

"I know neither of you meant any harm" she said honestly "And frankly, and I am angry that no one informed you Alex not to discuss the trial. That is something we can use, if it comes to that. You should have been informed about your rights the moment they put you under house arrest."

Not knowing how the Internet worked... Most people would not have even considered that with a teenager. Gemma wished Jorge was around and not away on the job.

"We are not here to blame either of you" she clarified "We are here to figure out how to mitigate the situation. So." she looked at Jiri "Tell me about the fan mail."

As the two responsible adults in the room kept talking, Jiri became very conscious of one fact: they were going to keep talking. And talking and talking. And neither of them seemed to care that Alex was looking worse and worse, that he was hunching in on himself, that he was making a sound like a puppy in a boiling tea kettle.

If Jiri's body language was concerned before, it switched to all out defensive. He unconsciously scooted his chair closer to his roommate's, until they were side by side and physically allied against the adults.

"Okay. First off? Of course there's fanmail. Because when people heard Alex talking, they liked what they heard. He made friends." Creepy internet friends, but friends. "It's just stupid stuff, like cookies and letters. Stuff to show support for him." Support, and questionably healthy fangirl devotion. But that would not help the case Jiri was building.

"Second? You're acting like it was a secret that he was at the Mansion. He's a mutant teen in trouble in New York City. Maybe in the eighties no one knew what that meant, but I bet I could stand on any street corner downtown and ask people 'where are they going to send him?' and they'd be, like, 90%, 'that mutant school.' And don't pretend like this place is in danger because of him, I've read your Wikipedia page. How many times has Xavier's been attacked or burned down or, I don't even know, covered in slime or something, in the past decade? My mom was freaked about me coming here but the courts weren't giving us a choice. Which is exactly my point. So stop trying to make Alex feel bad about it, this place was already a danger zone before he'd ever heard of it." 

He managed to scoot his chair even closer. Now their elbows were knocking. 

"You say you're not trying to blame us but you're doing that adult thing where you say I don't blame you and then you say but you are in so much trouble in the same breath." Mitigate? You can't mitigate if there wasn't damage. He hated when adults did this. "If you want to talk about mitigating, then sure. Let's talk about how the chat helped mitigate stuff."

It was not physically possible to move closer to Alex, and he was not sure that someone making that sound wanted an arm around his shoulders, so he didn't. He ran two very frustrated hands through his hair instead.

"I feel like you're… like you're totally ignoring the fact that the first video was already viral. You know, the one where Alex violently kills a guy in a pretty freaky way? You're acting like the chat makes things worse, but think about what's really worse: him going to trial and the jury having only seen the first video, or his jurors seeing him acting like just a normal teen who was forced into a stupid spot by assholes with knives? He came off really good in the chat. Really good." Fanmail good. But raising that again probably wouldn't help. "I get that you're worried so you feel like you have to do the Talk At Us thing, but now we're going to have weeks of people passing the chat around, seeing it on the news, getting a chance to see Alex as a person before the prosecution sticks him on the stand and tries to make him seem like the boogeyman. That's going to be a lot harder for them to do, now. So maybe the chat wasn't smart, and maybe you don't approve, but it didn't break anything that wasn't already broken and maybe it helped some."

Belatedly, Jiri paused to gulp in some air after that speech, his cheeks flushed.

Also could they please stop freaking out Alex now? Because that seemed to be the main purpose of this meeting, as far as he could tell. Adults sucked when they got like this. 

Gawain could see a tiny muscle twitch above Miss Taylor's eyebrow.

Boy did Jiri had a lung on him... now that he was not using someone else's.

>>"Okay. First off? Of course there's fanmail. Because when people heard Alex talking, they liked what they heard. He made friends. It's just stupid stuff, like cookies and letters. Stuff to show support for him."

Gawain grunted at that one. Cookies? Letters? Friends?
And he thought giving teens the Talk was the most awkward duty in the Mansion. Apparently, they needed another kind much more. About another kind of safety.
EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET LIES.
Before he could make a comment, Jiri marched on his rant.

>>"Second? You're acting like it was a secret that he was at the Mansion. He's a mutant teen in trouble in New York City. Maybe in the eighties no one knew what that meant, but I bet I could stand on any street corner downtown and ask people 'where are they going to send him?' and they'd be, like, 90%, 'that mutant school.' And don't pretend like this place is in danger because of him, I've read your Wikipedia page. How many times has Xavier's been attacked or burned down or, I don't even know, covered in slime or something, in the past decade? My mom was freaked about me coming here but the courts weren't giving us a choice. Which is exactly my point. So stop trying to make Alex feel bad about it, this place was already a danger zone before he'd ever heard of it."

Whoa. Kid missed the point by a mile or so. Gawain started feeling the eye twitch may be contagious. Then again, the brats were not the ones out of whose behind Sam was going to take out any mistake in Mansion security.
(Which was spotty at best to begin with - he knew that from Mom - but that didn't mean they needed new holes poked in it)

>>"You say you're not trying to blame us but you're doing that adult thing where you say I don't blame you and then you say but you are in so much trouble in the same breath. If you want to talk about mitigating, then sure. Let's talk about how the chat helped mitigate stuff."

There went the eye twitch. In perfect synchronicity with the word 'adult.'

>>"I feel like you're… like you're totally ignoring the fact that the first video was already viral. You know, the one where Alex violently kills a guy in a pretty freaky way? You're acting like the chat makes things worse, but think about what's really worse: him going to trial and the jury having only seen the first video, or his jurors seeing him acting like just a normal teen who was forced into a stupid spot by assholes with knives? He came off really good in the chat. Really good. I get that you're worried so you feel like you have to do the Talk At Us thing, but now we're going to have weeks of people passing the chat around, seeing it on the news, getting a chance to see Alex as a person before the prosecution sticks him on the stand and tries to make him seem like the boogeyman. That's going to be a lot harder for them to do, now. So maybe the chat wasn't smart, and maybe you don't approve, but it didn't break anything that wasn't already broken and maybe it helped some."

Aaannnd Jiri finally came up for air. Gawains seized the moment.

"Aaaaaall right" he said, stepping forward and looking at the kids, one confused and scared, and one apparently gifted with X-genes in the lungs "First off, you are not being attacked here, Jiri. Neither of you are, and I would like to ask you to return the courtesy and not attack us either. As Miss T said, we are here to help. But."

He gave them a glare that went 10% to Alex and 90% to Jiri, well calculated.

"Let's just establish that you two did a dumb thing. That shouldn't come as a surprise. I have done a lot of those too. We all have."

Probably Gemma too, but maybe a long time ago.
Not the point.

"You can't pretend we are making a situation out of nothing. The moment the defense lawyers see that chat of yours, they are going to go ballistic. And those are just the guys on our side. As Miss T said, it's not your fault you were not told to not talk to the press, but that doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't have. So. We have a situation on our hands in which there is a lot of stuff floating out there that people can seize onto, and twist, and make other things out of. Which we will get to in a second." he added, glancing at Gemma.

"But first, a word on safety: Every bit of 'fan mail' from this point on goes through me, or Sam, or someone else on the X-team. You don't eat any cookies you get, you don't open any letter that arrives. You definitely do not answer any of it. For every cute, starry-eyed teenage girl that wants to fawn over your brooding looks, I guarantee there are two mutant-hating nut jobs on the same online forum, looking for a way to get to you, you specifically, for revenge, and that makes this a safety issue, not a theoretical discussion on Mansion policy. Is. That. Clear?"

Where was Sam when you needed a bad cop?...
Or a drink?...

He watched in shock as Jiri practically rushed to his rescue, pressing as close as the other boy could with out purposely holding him. In that moment Jiri might as have been an angel for how much he was defending him. And he made some fair points. It wasn't like he said anything that could truly ruin his case and if anything the chat with random strangers might actually help if that's gone viral too. Though he didn't know how he felt about him being in the news because of it. That was way more people than he expected to handle in the first place. He might not be able to hide his identity after this.

But Mirror made fair points as well. Apparently he didn't just have one lawyer to talk to but multiple. And their little chat with the internet will be another angle they may have to defend from. He could understand that. He felt bad about it but at least a bit relieved that it wasn't as bad as his panicking brain was making it out to be. It was bad but not end of the world bad. He still wanted to run though. If he could barely handle two adults on his side like this he didn't know how he'd handle a trial.

"But first, a word on safety: Every bit of 'fan mail' from this point on goes through me, or Sam, or someone else on the X-team. You don't eat any cookies you get, you don't open any letter that arrives. You definitely do not answer any of it. For every cute, starry-eyed teenage girl that wants to fawn over your brooding looks, I guarantee there are two mutant-hating nut jobs on the same online forum, looking for a way to get to you, you specifically, for revenge, and that makes this a safety issue, not a theoretical discussion on Mansion policy. Is. That. Clear?"

That was probably the best point made all day and he really couldn't argue with that. "Understood. I don't really care about the fan-mail any way. It was just nice to see people weren't thinking I was just a killer. What I really want to know though, is what should I do? We can argue all day about whether or not it was the right thing to do. But it still happened, apparently there's no taking it back. I just want to know what's the plan? What do I do? Because sitting here listening to you argue leaves me thinking that I should leave. Escape while I still have the chance. So give me another option, please."

Gemma watched Alex's face as Mirror proceeded to clarify the safety situation to Jiri. The kid seemed like he had all good intentions, and he both physically and whole-heartedly aligned with his friend, which was good to see. Once the issue of fan mail was cleared, Alex got a chance to speak again.

>>"Understood. I don't really care about the fan-mail any way. It was just nice to people weren't thinking I was just a killer. What I really want to know though, is what should I do? We can argue all day about whether or not it was the right thing to do. But it still happened, apparently there's no taking it back. I just want to know what's the plan? What do I do? Because sitting here listening to you argue leaves me thinking that I should leave. Escape while I still have the chance. So give me another option, please."

Oh no. Not that.

"Leaving is not an option" Gemma said, with more empathy than determination "Not because of the ankle monitor and the house arrest... Well, those too, running would make the whole thing worse... But because we don't want you to leave, Alex. There is a place for you here, and whatever is going on doesn't change that. You have a place, and you have friends." she added, glancing at Jiri with a small smile "... believe it or not, we are all on your side. So, we will figure this out together."

The only question was, how did an adapted and a bunch of mutant kids take on the Internet?

"... Our main problem is that you gave a deal of information for the Internet to latch on to. A lot of the feedback is positive, which is good, but it will also have a lot of negative attention. You gave a target for people to focus on. Right now, you are the voice of mutant affairs, and I don't think that's a responsibility you should carry. We need to find a way to... distract all those people from focusing solely on you. Divide their attention..."

The Morris twin talked at him. Jiri slouched back in his chair. He didn't cross his arms because that might be construed as an attack, but he did mutter a little under his breath when the man glared at him.

"Just telling the truth." Sorry you don't like it, Mr. Morris. What would his first name be? Micheal? Micky? Something that carried on the alliteration theme his sister had going. He had the same more-reasonable-than-thou-art attitude that she did.

Micky Morris, Mirror Man. 

...What he said made sense. About the defense lawyers and stuff. But what Jiri had said made sense, too. Good thing that one of them was grown up enough to consider the issue from all sides, and consider conflicting opinions. 

He shrugged at the lecture on the fan mail. A begrudgingly agreeable shrug. If Alex didn't care, he didn't care. Alex, like a reasonable person, was trying to take the focus of of what had already happened and turn it to what they could do about it. Jiri nodded along--

>> "Because sitting here listening to you argue leaves me thinking that I should leave. Escape while I still have the chance. So give me another option, please."

--the nodding ceased. So did all movements. Possibly even breathing.

"I am going to have to agree with Miss Taylor," he said, trying not to make the same sound Alex had made earlier, and not entirely succeeding. Alex was just about the only sane thing he'd found here at the Mansion. And he was talking about just... walking away, leaving. Going back to a house in the desert to hole up forever, maybe. Jiri didn't look at his roommate, because what if that one look was too much pressure and Alex made up his mind to bolt right then and there--

The counselor kept talking and that gave his mind something else to latch onto, and he was grateful for that.

>>> "We need to find a way to... distract all those people from focusing solely on you. Divide their attention..."

"Flood them." The words slipped past Jiri's lips. "There's got to be more interesting people we can get on film. Then no one would care about Alex's video anymore."

Names jumped to mind, people who had their own subforums on Audubon X: Aura, Isabel, real criminals, the people who made Alex's crimes look like a kid stealing an ice cream cone. On the flip side of the coin, the big names in town, the forces for good in the mutant community: Lori Faust, Ambrose Jaager…

…The Mansion.

“Miss Taylor," Jiri sat up straight, folding his hands neatly in his lap. He tried to keep the grin off his face, but he was pretty sure it was glittering in the back of his eyes. “What an excellent idea. I assume we can count on you and Mr. Morris, as well as the other prominent X's, to help?”

He was willing to offer his complete assistance in this matter. Heck, if they could get in touch with the forum admin at Audubon X, they could probably bring the whole site on board to help promote the videos. A DDoS attack of sorts, covering up Alex's internet presence by focusing attention elsewhere. Nothing like giving a community of X-geeks a mission.

Hell, maybe they could even get Cold Steel v. Sharknado on film. Didn't the Mansion have that crazy holodeck room in the basement?

Jiri made faces, but dialed down the hostility. Gawain took that as a win. Alex seemed cooperative too, and Miss T managed to get most of them to behave and start thinking constructively.
Mirror turned the situation over in his mind. How could they make it less...

>>"Flood them. There's got to be more interesting people we can get on film. Then no one would care about Alex's video anymore."

The mirrorwalked arched an eyebrow. Jiri-not-sure-he-is-awake actually made a point. If you can't erase information in the era of clouds, maybe...

>>“Miss Taylor. What an excellent idea. I assume we can count on you and Mr. Morris, as well as the other prominent X's, to help?”

...

"Wh..." Gawain blinked "... oooh no. Hell no. This whole mess started from people"

Alex

"... getting fan girls on online forums, and now you want to make more of them?!"

Mirror had had his share of media attention to last a lifetime, courtesy of Maxine.
If Maxine knew this, she would be delighted.
That was a red flag in itself.

Gawain rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I mean, I can see where you're going with this, but... Gah, it sounds like it's gonna hurt."

"Leaving is not an option. Not because of the ankle monitor and the house arrest... Well, those too, running would make the whole thing worse... But because we don't want you to leave, Alex. There is a place for you here, and whatever is going on doesn't change that. You have a place, and you have friends... Believe it or not, we are all on your side. So, we will figure this out together."

Gemma was firm in her words. And Jiri agreed with her but he didn't look at Alex, for reasons he could only begin to guess.

He believed her, both of them, he knew that they had welcomed him despite the circumstances he had come from. Jiri was a great friend, a really good guy, even though his power made him a little nuts at night. That was all fine and great, but it didn't detract from the fact that he seemed to bring trouble where ever he went. The longer he stayed in one place, it felt like the more bad things were going to happen. He couldn't help but feel undeserving of their kindness.

He didn't say as much though, letting everybody else speak their minds, turn the conversation away from the still very real possibility that Alex might decide to vanish. It was probably better that way, because the conversation took a very interesting turn.

"Flood them. There's got to be more interesting people we can get on film. Then no one would care about Alex's video anymore."

This wasn't going where he thought it was going, was it. Because if it was, he was totally willing to help.

“Miss Taylor, what an excellent idea. I assume we can count on you and Mr. Morris, as well as the other prominent X's, to help?”

It was! Holy cow, it looked like this was going to happen whether the adults in the room wanted it to happen or not. And it sounded like mirror was completely against it.

"... oooh no. Hell no. This whole mess started from people... getting fan girls on online forums, and now you want to make more of them?! I mean, I can see where you're going with this, but... Gah, it sounds like it's gonna hurt."

Well, it wasn't that bad, once you got past the creepiness factor. Okay it was exactly that bad. But still..."This is about divide and conquer right? The more angles we splinter them the better. That way the focus will be manageable. Plus, if Miss T is right and I'm somehow the voice of mutant affairs, people are only getting one perspective. There are so many other mutants who should be able to have their say, right?"

Jiri's suggestion was the logical next step from her train of thought. She could see the disapproval on Gawain's face before he even said anything... but the idea was solid, and she could not think of any that was better.

Alex seemed to agree too, visibly relieved now that they were not throwing blame around.

>>"This is about divide and conquer right? The more angles we splinter them the better. That way the focus will be manageable. Plus, if Miss T is right and I'm somehow the voice of mutant affairs, people are only getting one perspective. There are so many other mutants who should be able to have their say, right?"

"Right" she sighed "All right, then. Let's try this. We need a few ground rules first, though. One, I can't order anyone to do this if they don't want to - and if they are under eighteen, I need to know who they are before they to the AMA. I don't need any more surprises, all right?"

That was not much to ask, when someone was the school counselor, right?...

"Second, there are some questions that should not be asked. We need to work on that. If we are smart enough, we do AMAs that give people a lot to talk about, but not much of substance."

If she got her wish, she would be monitoring all interviews... but she rarely got her wishes anyway.

"Which essentially means I would be trusting you guys to keep your wits about you, and check dangerous answers before they go online. Does that make sense?"

Holy crap, they were actually going for it. The Morris obviously didn't like it, but the counselor was being surprisingly cool about it. It restored his faith in adults, in part--proved they could understand a good, reasonable idea when they saw one. Now if they could have started this meeting by looking for solutions instead of poking pitchforks at Alex, that would have been great.

As his roommate spoke, Jiri crossed his arms, and nodded agreement. "I could not have put it better myself. Divide and conquer, for sure. We can do the X-Men, the staff, I can see if any of the mutant-lead businesses want some PR, and--" and look into other criminals. Umm. Maybe he shouldn't actually say that one out loud; it seemed like the sort of thing that would set the adults off again. "--and get different perspectives, like Alex said. Lots of different people, different mutations. Yeah." Yeeeeah. Wholesome, responsible, Mansion-approved perspectives.

Miss Taylor's ground rules were pretty solid. Jiri nodded. "We can work with those. No more minors without approval, let the internet be silly and distracting, be smart about this. Check, check, and check." 

He wasn't sure how much he agreed with her proposed lack of substance--but actually, yeah, a video of a mutant doing something silly would spread faster than a video about a mutant discussing politics. Fair point. It just took him a moment to think that one through.

"You're pretty smart, Miss Taylor," the teen said, flashing a grin. The Morris clone wasn't included.

Everyone seemed to be very okay with the idea. Even Miss Taylor, although her ground rules were mild in comparison to what Mirror had in mind for them. He also wondered what Sam and Maya would say to all this. But the kids seemed very content with the way things were turning out.

>>"I could not have put it better myself. Divide and conquer, for sure. We can do the X-Men, the staff, I can see if any of the mutant-lead businesses want some PR, and-- --and get different perspectives, like Alex said. Lots of different people, different mutations. Yeah. We can work with those. No more minors without approval, let the internet be silly and distracting, be smart about this. Check, check, and check."

There was something unsaid there, and Gawain was not sure he wanted to know what it was. He would find out eventually anyhow. Possibly during another intervention.

>>"You're pretty smart, Miss Taylor,"

It didn't escape him that Jiri pointedly ignored him in this conversation.

"Fine" he sighed "I mean it can't get any worse, can it?"