Handling cybersecurity in this day and age, in a building full of mutant teenagers, should have been a full-time job. Alas, no one had been hired for it yet. So, when some overly eager high school junior attempted to sneak onto an adult website, it was Gemma's own computer that got pinged, alerting her to someone using a school laptop for something that was holy sh***t definitely not homework.
(Or if it was, she'd have to have a word with faculty.)

Gemma sighed, leaving her office to track down the kid who'd checked out the laptop. He wasn't in his room (his roommate, however, was, very much occupied with a fellow student), so Gemma headed to the common areas with a growing sense of unease. Her aura must have tipped off the culprit, because before she turned the corner into the living room she head the distinct sound of "OH SH*T", and the patter of scrambling feet heading for the nearest emergency exit. By the time she walked in, the living room was empty apart from one lonely laptop tossed onto the couch.

The webiste in question was some kind of a... live stream?... Camera thing? Gemma picked up the laptop and had half a mind to shut it before she noticed that the video was still on, featuring a... young woman. Now, this was a whole different situation. Aware or not, this was not something an underage kid should have engaged in. Did this woman even know? Gemma sighed, taking the laptop along back to her office, and sat down to investigate.

Ezmeralda was in a giving mood and she was going to blame the cheap lapis lazuli she ate earlier, before she started streaming. It had a way of heightening her compassion and empathy, which always made for a more engaging stream. She sat on her bed, legs folded beside her and a wireless keyboard in front of her. When she picked out the miniskirt and cropped haltertop, she had expected to get some requests to dance early, but so far, it had mostly been just... talking. It was about as wholesome a day as she had as a camgirl.

They were in relationship talks of all things, and it ranged in tone depending on what the audience was willing to share. Some people came to streams looking for instant-gratification, but some just wanted to connect. There was plenty of spice online for those who needed it, but people liked that she was a real person. Some of the audience were not socially-adept. Some were just attention-starved. Thankfully, Ez was in the headspace to help whoever was coming through today. "You're still in your twenties. I know things feel completely derailed, but life puts us down paths. Maybe this is just a time for your paths to diverge. Life's long; maybe they rejoin or maybe you both find new paths. The universe doesn't just lead us down dead ends, and it's a long way to forever."

She saw a thank you and a promise to try keeping spirits up from the heartbroken member of the chat and another followed by asking her if she had a boyfriend on her path. Ezmeralda laughed. "I'm not big on relationships," she admitted when asked. Her voice on stream was smooth and breathy, both to distinguish Charmz from Ezmeralda and because sex-appeal did pay the bills. "I'm still young; plenty of fun left for me out there. Still, I'd be lying if forever doesn't have a romantic ring to it. Whether I believe in it? Well, there are crazier things in this realm."

Looking through the comments for the next person she wanted to reply to, a notification came up in the corner of the screen to get her attention. She offered a full-lipped pout at the camera. "Okay guys, I'm really enjoying our talk today, but I got a notification that someone failed their age verification." She ran fingers into her hair, tousling it. "If I think any kids are hanging in the chat, we're going to switch to a private stream before I even think about dancing. And I want to dance," she purred, "So if you're under eighteen, leave. Everyone else though, talk to me. What's on your minds this lazy Sunday?"

There was definitely an attractive woman in the video which, as Gemma soon realized, was a live stream of some sort. She had a breathy voice and questionable wardrobe choices, which made the guidance counselor feel a lot more uneasy by the minute. Was the student video chatting with some kind of a... en escort? Online companion? What did kids call it these days?

Gemma sighed, running a hand through her hair as she sat down at her desk and stared at the laptop screen. The sound was still on, and it sounded like the young woman was... talking about relationships? And dancing? It was confusing. Was this an AMA session of sorts? Maybe she was a celebrity. With everything that had been happening lately, she was not really up to date on her celebrities.

There was also a chat window attached. Gemma tilted her head as the woman said something about underage people and private rooms. Maybe she had not completely misread the situation, after all. She hesitated for a moment, then typed in a message.

What do you usually do here? Is this an AMA?

Ezmeralda wanted to put good in the world and just as she was given gifts by the Goddess and the Horned God, she could in turn give those gifts to the world and have her offerings return to her threefold. Her sexuality was a gift from The Mother, so she felt comfortable putting it out into the world. Her feelings were mixed on offering this up for money, but that was less about shame and more about using her gifts to enable capitalist greed. Still, she believed the Goddess would understand and wanted her to survive.

Her sexuality was present as always, but she liked to believe the Crone granted her enough wisdom and compassion to offer an empathetic ear and some words of support when necessary.

Scanning through questions, Ezmeralda noticed a newcomer. It was a basic question and they probably could have checked her FAQ, but something drew her eye to the guest question and Ez trusted where her instincts led her. ”Oh, a new guest? Welcome,” she greeted warmly.

There was the possibility whoever was dropping in was wondering why she still had clothes on, though the way the question was posed, it seemed more innocent. She hoped this was not some kid who stumbled onto her; this was why she had strict rules about what she did and did not do in public rooms. ”Well, in this public chat, I mostly just relax and hang out. Chat with who’s around. Maybe dance a little if the right song comes on shuffle.”

Not exactly the way she made her rent money, but you could not just come into the channel hot and heavy. The session had its own foreplay, so to speak. ”When I get into the right mood to put on a bit more of a show, I jump behind the member wall. If I’m going to get scandalous, I need to know everyone in the chat has passed age-verification.” Another warning in case the guest was some delinquent looking to get his (or her) kicks. ”And when I’m really in the mood to get naughty, that all goes behind a paywall. And believe me, I make it worth it.” ABS: Always Be Selling.

”Am I your first camgirl, honey? Just looking for a little company tonight? Seems like loneliness is an epidemic tonight,” she admitted, noticing the theme of her chat today. That was what she could do for her fans tonight, right? Help ease that loneliness.

>> ”Oh, a new guest? Welcome,”

The girl saw what she was typing, and responded. She seemed generally friendly, and not overly pushy like someone... paid for certain things on the internet. Maybe she was some kind of a ViewTube celebrity. Those were popular these days and Gemma could not tell one apart from the other.

>>”Well, in this public chat, I mostly just relax and hang out. Chat with who’s around. Maybe dance a little if the right song comes on shuffle.”

So far, it did not seem bad. Lots of people had friends online.

>>”When I get into the right mood to put on a bit more of a show, I jump behind the member wall. If I’m going to get scandalous, I need to know everyone in the chat has passed age-verification.”

Gemma arched an eyebrow. 'Scandalous' and 'age verification' were definitely red flags in her vocabulary. And even she knew enough about the Internet to know age verification was questionable at best.

>>”And when I’m really in the mood to get naughty, that all goes behind a paywall. And believe me, I make it worth it. Am I your first camgirl, honey? Just looking for a little company tonight? Seems like loneliness is an epidemic tonight,”

Gemma frowned, leaning back from the computer on instinct. It was bad enough to be dealing with a suddenly de-aged husband, but now a very, very young Internet person was hitting on her too? Her eyes wandered to the chat room to close it, noting the screen name left to you by the student who'd run away: ShyBoy3456. Oh lord. She thought Gemma was a teenage boy.

Can we talk in private?

Not everyone cared if teenagers were hanging around in their shows. On one hand, Ez could understand not wanting to ward away followers with excessive security measures, and there was always going to be worse readily available on the internet. It did not make her feel less weird about the possibility, and she was doing well enough financially to be picky. It helped when she had no qualms about seizing funds left behind by criminals she judged.

The newcomer had made some earlier comments in chat that were… well, teen boy comments. Men could just be like that on the internet, but she was keeping the stream tamer while she sussed out the newcomer. She intended to switch to an age-verified stream soon anyway, but the most recent question from ShyBoy3456 concerned her.

Teen boys who came to streams like this weren’t generally going to try talking their way into a private show. They usually just lurked and watched, waiting for something to happen. ”Well, I don’t want to be pulled from the rest of the room, and I don’t see ID verified on your account, so no private shows for you, but… well, if something’s wrong or you have something you need to talk about, you can right-click my username and open a direct message.”

She was cautious with DMs because they were private, but if this person really needed to talk about something private, shouldn’t she make herself available? She had resources on hand just in case.

As expected, when she enabled DMs, other accounts took the opportunity to send her messages as well. Even checking the previews, she could guess what some would be like. ”In the meantime, I’m going to grab myself a drink. Feeling… thirsty tonight. That said,” she shifted out of her sultry turn and into a flat deadpan, ”whoever sends me certain unsolicited pics will be both banned and dragged publicly. You’ve been warned.”

Getting up and out of the camera’s line of sight with a little shimmy, Ez snagged her phone and kept an eye on her DMs through her phone app, looking out for one from ShyBoy. Even if this was some kid, if he needed to talk, she wanted to make sure it was nothing serious.

Gemma needed to talk to this camera girl person, but she also did not want to do it in front of a bunch of strangers. The last thing the Mansion needed was for it to get out that some of the kids had access to adult content while the teachers were not looking. She could explain herself once they were in a more private setting.

>>”Well, I don’t want to be pulled from the rest of the room, and I don’t see ID verified on your account, so no private shows for you, but… well, if something’s wrong or you have something you need to talk about, you can right-click my username and open a direct message.”

Gemma huffed. She was not asking for a private... show, but it was hard to explain that. She could follow instructions well enough, though. Right click, Direct Message.

Hello.

>>”In the meantime, I’m going to grab myself a drink. Feeling… thirsty tonight. That said, whoever sends me certain unsolicited pics will be both banned and dragged publicly. You’ve been warned.”

Gemma knew what banning was. She was not sure what dragging was. She definitely knew what unsolicited pics were. Hell, even school guidance counselors got those on social media sometimes.
The girl walked out of the frame to go drink. She had some time to consider the message she was typing in.

My name is Gemma. I'm a guidance counselor.

It was not uncommon for people to seek individual attention, and while Ezmeralda understood the desire for that private intimacy, it was also not her business. She was not making optimal money if she was indulging someone's fantasies that she was their exclusively. That kind of service would cost a pretty penny most people were not about to drop in her lap, as nice a lap as it was.

The Hello message came quickly, and Ezmeralda replied with a quick:

Hello back. What's up, hun?

While she waited for a reply, she lived up to what she said on stream and grabbed a glass from her cabinet, holding it under her faucet and turning on the stream of water. The crystal clear glass was full when she saw a new message pop up on her screen.

Well, this was unexpected and not the typical way men tried to get her attention.

With an eyebrow raised, she swiped back a reply on the phone:

That's a new one. ShyBoy doesn't exactly sound like a guidance counselor name. Also doesn't sound like a Gemma, though I'm not here to judge. What's up?

Gemma drummed on the desk with her fingers as she waited for a reply. Was she too direct? Did she scare the young woman away from further conversation? Jorge would have been so much better at this...

That's a new one. ShyBoy doesn't exactly sound like a guidance counselor name. Also doesn't sound like a Gemma, though I'm not here to judge. What's up?

Well, at least she was not doing this in front of all the other people in the chat.

One of my students left the computer open with your video. I am assuming he was here for your show.

Whatever the show was. The woman had mentioned before that ShyBoy seemed like a newcomer, but that didn't mean the student had not been around with another screen name before. And Gemma needed to know just how strict those age guidelines were.

How does one validate their age?

Ez was not sold on the idea that she was dealing with an actual guidance counselor, but at the same time, what a weird f*cking lie to go with otherwise. She was interested to see where the conversation went, because if this was some kid trying to lie to her, she was genuinely wondering how he was going to turn a profit on the guidance counselor line of reasoning.

According to this Gemma, one of her students left the computer open. Maybe the kid was trying to get away with acting like an adult? Nope, made no sense with that username.

Late at night to be catching your students. Assuming you're an upstanding counselor who wouldn't be hosting a student sleepover, I'm guessing boarding school?

Her parents always threatened her with boarding school, but she realized eventually they would not have allowed that little control over her day-to-day life. She was sure they had some privacy-violating access to how and what she was doing in her local private school back when she was still Catalina.

The counselor asked about age verification, which could have been a question for a kid to ask so he could find a way to circumvent the process. Then again, a kid would have accessed it and gone from there. It made more sense that an older woman would ask her directly. New-fangled internet and all.

It's part of this site's hosting service. An ID has to be scanned in and it's checked against a database. I think it's part of a federal initiative for internet security or something? It's not perfect, but what would be, right?

Honestly, Ez's hosting site put way more effort than most into validation, but at the end of the day, if a kid could grab someone's ID, there was not much that could be done from there. Still, a genuine effort was made.

Gemma was just beginning to consider what her questions might be looking like from the other side. The young woman had no reason to take them at face value, and it was too late now to change her username to something other than ShyBoy.

Late at night to be catching your students. Assuming you're an upstanding counselor who wouldn't be hosting a student sleepover, I'm guessing boarding school?

Yes.

She was sharp, this young woman. Also a bit sassy, but not downright rude yet. Gemma just wished they could talk instead of texting. She was much better at spoken word.

It's part of this site's hosting service. An ID has to be scanned in and it's checked against a database. I think it's part of a federal initiative for internet security or something? It's not perfect, but what would be, right?

Well, that at least sounded reasonable. Gemma was not sure how she'd scan her ID, and how long it would take to check. And also, she knew enough not to give her ID out just like that to sites like... whatever this was. She sighed.

I want to make sure my underage students can't get to adult content on this site. That's why I'm asking.

The woman on the other end (who Ez was starting to get more convinced was a woman) took her time answering. It gave Ez time to sip her water and consider how to proceed. She should get back to her stream, but she was dealing with a guardian figure who was clearly concerned about what she had stumbled into. It made sense, being protective of her flock.

The water was a relief, and earned a lip smack and a refreshed, "Ah!" that could be heard quietly from the camera in the other room, she was sure. Just a reminder to the audience that she was still around.

The reply she eventually got was as expected. She could leave it there and perhaps Gemma would walk away, but Ez was feeling too empathetic not to be honest. Damn lapis lazuli.

Well, if you're trying to make sure of that, you'd need to block this site and a ton of others. Seenit, Rollr, Speedigraph. Adult content's everywhere, Gemma, and curious kids will find it. But we try to keep it safe and put up barriers.

It was what drew her to the platform in the first place, but she had the luxury of being picky.

Still, might be worth blocking the site if you have that authority. It's not really on the girls trying to make a living to police what smut kids can get to on the internet. And even my main chat dancing can get pretty risque, though nothing you couldn't see on cable.

Non-main chats, though...

It was completely well and reasonable for a guidance counselor to keep an eye on the media the students were consuming. Especially in a place like Xavier's, where many of the kids did not have other parent figures to take care of this. Gemma had limited time and knowledge to guard all the million portals of the Internet, but every once in a while, she could try.

Well, if you're trying to make sure of that, you'd need to block this site and a ton of others. Seenit, Rollr, Speedigraph. Adult content's everywhere, Gemma, and curious kids will find it. But we try to keep it safe and put up barriers.

Gemma frowned. That sounded patronizing. Of course the Internet would never be completely safe for underage kids. But not all sites were... whatever this site was. She would definitely try blocking it in the future.

Still, might be worth blocking the site if you have that authority. It's not really on the girls trying to make a living to police what smut kids can get to on the internet. And even my main chat dancing can get pretty risque, though nothing you couldn't see on cable.

Girls trying to make a living. Was that what she was doing here? Gemma had worked with many young men and women trying to make a living in various questionable ways. Usually it really was not their fault (or sometimes even choice). Keeping the underage kids away from this place was one thing; blaming the young woman was another.

I will have to try to block it. No offense. I am trying to keep the kids here relatively safe. My husband used to be better at these issues.

It was honestly sweet, to a degree. A guidance counselor caring about her students enough to give a damn if they were looking for adult content. It was also naive in Ezmeralda's opinion, because you could not shield adolescents from the world when they became curious. Particularly if this was a school where students lived on-site, they were going to find content when puberty and self-discovery came calling.

Ultimately, she did understand the decision Gemma came to with 4Devotees in particular. This was an adult site. She just wondered where ShyBoy would go to next looking for a thrill and sexual affirmation.

No offense taken. Like I said, what I do is meant for adults.

She could have and should have left it there and returned to the stream, but something about that last comment stuck with her. Cautiously, she crafted the least invasive way to ask her question.

I'm sorry, by the way. Not having your husband around to help with this must be rough. Did he work with you at the school?

No offense taken. Like I said, what I do is meant for adults.

Gemma was not a prude. Things between consenting adults were nothing to be frowned on. The factor that made the whole thing questionable in her eyes was the anonymity of the Internet: even teenagers could find ways to pass as an adult. And then things got complicated.

Oh well. She would block this site, and maybe spend sometime finding others like it and block those too. Her search history would be a mess, but it was a part of her job.

I'm sorry, by the way. Not having your husband around to help with this must be rough. Did he work with you at the school?

There was a tone of empathy in the question. The same tone the young woman had used before when she talked on camera about people being lonely. In another life she might have made a good counselor of some sort. Gemma sighed. This was none of a stranger's business, but she had been sick and tired for days about holding her head up.

He was with the police.

Damn.

He IS with the police. He helped out at the school. He's been

How did one even explain?

He's been affected with the de-aging phenomenon going around.