12345/Happy Harbor: School's Back In Session!

Happy Harbor: School's Back In Session!
Date of Scene:	23 August 2022
Location:	Central Plaza - Happy Harbor High School
Synopsis:	The first day back to Happy Harbor High School goes off without a hitch! Or anything exploding!
Cast of Characters:	Morrigan MacIntyre, Richard Stadler, Keli Quintela, Colette O'Connail, Billy Batson, Kamala Khan

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Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
First days back to school generally are dreaded and the first day back to Happy Harbor High School is really no different. There are Freshmen that are nervous and not sure if they are going to fit in or if they are going to get to see a super hero that they go to school with. It's one of those days that has a lot of buzz and people can make friends if they are looking to.

Class schedules went out on Friday so that everyone would be prepared for where to go on Monday and so far no one has gotten lost, though there are a few people that have taken a look at the campus and went cross eyed trying to keep track of where to go. Part of the first class time was passing out new laptops to the teens as this was going to be one of the years that they were going to be using laptops to do school work on. Google Class and other software is a godsend these days.

Lunch is when people get to decompress and hang out a bit more. And they get to meet two new teachers. Miss Amira Dalton who is teaching Algebra 2 and a few other math classes along with Mister Daniel Madison who is teaching Geography and Economics. These two additions appear to be fairly normal. Then again a lot of the faculty and students at Happy Harbor seem to be like this at first glance.

Richard Stadler has posed:
It wasn't just freshman or students that were nervous about the first day of school... well, to a point. Richard had been through enough life experience that he wasn't exactly scared to death, and it isn't as if he had /no/ experience with instruction... just those classes tended to be late twenty-somethings with a dedicated need to be there. Teenagers... well, who knew what to expect from teenagers?

So far, however, it had gone... decently. A few discipline issues he had to keep from getting too heavy handed, one tech problem that almost required an IT call... but some very interesting questions in AP Biology from a few go getters who seemed eager enough to learn (or that were the type that lived on the praise of authority figures, and he's have to nip /that/ tight in the bud). On the whole, though, it certainly could have gone worse... much worse, if his contingencies had anything to say about it.

But they made it to lunch, and Stadler was engaged in eating some of the finest engineered gas station food in existance. It wasn't /good/, but it was nearing the end of it's shelf life, and it was certainly food. It's not like he had time to rush out for a slice of Pizza on the bigger island, was it?

He did look up at the two new teachers making the rounds, standing and gripping a hand each. Mathmatics and Economics, certainly related, but on opposite ends of a horseshoe. And at least they both looked normal. Looked. God, at least one of them had to be a Ghost, and the other was probably Batman looking for a change of pace. Given Stadler's own like, he couldn't blame him.

Keli Quintela has posed:
    Keli's glad to be back in school, it gives her things to do besides fiddling with personal projects and heading to outer space. Okay, the heading to outer space to fight villains is /fun/, but so is school! Maybe she's weird. She's bright and inquisitive and eager, probably asking too many questions in her curiosity about pretty much everything. At least she left the gauntlet in her dorm room.

    Given that she didn't leave the school over the summer--not really having anywhere to go home to--the first day for her is less about a return to campus and more about campus being full of people again. This leaves her more nervous than usual, though, so she takes her lunch off to one side of the plaza to eat, watching people quietly and pondering eating quickly and then spending the rest of lunch in the library.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    'Fairly normal' is perhaps not the best recommendation for new staff at Happy Harbor. It just means, as Richard has come to discover in the last few months, that the shock is greater when they discover what they have let themselves in for. However appearances can be deceptive, and Colette, while being perfectly polite to the two new staffers, maintains her suspicions, if only for her personal amusement. Though she does not share her conclusions, she has decided to herself that Amira is a Russian spy, and Daniel is a shape-shifting Durlan mercenary in the employ of the Citadel. She doesn't share these conclusions because they are based on nothing more than idle self-amusement.

    Time would tell whether Richard's guesses or her own were more accurate.

    "Another Madison," Colette whispers to Richard when Daniel Madison is out of earshot. "Do you believe in nominative determinism? Think he's going to be as much trouble as Madison Evans? We may have to ban him from talking about Star Wars in the staff room."

    It is inevitable that the teachers will, at least at first, be paying more attention to the new teachers than new students. This year's intake of students is of course much larger than the intake of staff, but the staff are the ones you're going to end up having to work with, and you can't give them detentions. Nonetheless, there's a whole year's worth of new students, small, fast moving, noisy, and taking up space, like a herd of rodents. It'll be a while before they cease to become an undifferentiated mass and become actual individual human beings in the eyes of their teachers. Which will turn out to be the good, dedicated students? Which will be the troublemakers of the new batch? It's impossible at this point to say.

    Which is not to say that Colette, as is her wont, is not already mentally sorting them, in her own favored manner. Which is to say that she's looking over the horde and deciding to herself which ones are the Slytherins, and which will be Griffindors. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are generally less troublesome.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Declan and Delia have not been sticking together as much as they used to, which is probably for the best. The twins were too attached at the hip on the best of days, but now that they were getting older and having different likes and friend groups, they were finding more time apart. She's sitting with a small group of students and going over schedules with them, seeing if anyone has anything that's close to hers.

Declan and Tyler are together, sitting off to the side and talking quietly as they eat lunch. The two new teachers have found themselves a spot to sit with their lunch as well. Because this day was already feeling long. Thankfully the school lunch is pretty delicious!

One of the Juniors that have joined this year, Veronica Jensen, looks like she's found herself into a bit of a pickle. Apparently it's hard to balance books and a lunch tray. "Alright. You've got this." she mutters to herself.

Richard Stadler has posed:
If it wasn't for general politeness in nosing into other people's business, Stadler was certain they could get a betting pool going. The fun kind where you could blow fifty dollars guessing 'one of the lizard people that governs the earth'. There had to be at least one of them down there scheming and plotting. As it were, though, polite smiles and hand shakes all around before the gossipping with Ms. O'Connail. "Oh, no, names are in the wrong place. Reversed, so he'll be milquetoast as they come. But Star Wars is a popular property, I'm sure half the teachers would gush about it, given the chance."

Nevertheless, Colette was an excellent wealth of information for a neophyte. He had his own thoughts on discipline, of course, but previous employment did come more down on the draconian, and that was hardly the best way to handle the nation's future. But...

He gives O'Connail a bit of a nudge. "Your three o'clock, that girl... blast, I don't think I have her name. Overloaded. Something to intervene for or just let things play out? Always tough in trying to decide when to jump out and help or when not to."

Keli Quintela has posed:
    There's a whole bunch of students that seem to know each other, having been here longer, and Declan and Delia and Tyler are part of that group. Weird things happen around them, and it's interesting, but Keli's never managed to make much sense of it all. Still, Keli at least had her eyes on Delia and Tyler, because the last couple of times Weird Stuff happened, it was those two, and that's... entertaining, at least.

    She munches on an apple, talking to herself under her breath. "I wonder how you /see/ ghosts anyway? They must be made of something if you can just... see them. But what? Hmm." She swings her legs, glancing toward the library again. If nothing manifests shortly she might just head over to see what she can find about ghosts in the stacks.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    It's not just new juniors. Every now and again an older student transfers in from somewhere. They're normally just as quiet and reserved as the new junior intake on their first day, but not always. One such student, an Australian on a year's exchange by the name of Bradley Martin has already marked himself out by having a voice that carries over the noise of the busy plaza, and Colette has her eyes on him as he enters into a suspiciously more hushed conversation with one of his new classmates.

    Colette tears her eyes away from Bradley to glance where Richard urges her, at Veronica. "I'd say let it play out for now, but watch," she suggests. "These kids are entering a new environment, where they're going to have to solve their own problems more often than they are used to. A low-cost lesson early on can be good for them. So long as you think she's not going injure anything more than her pride it's probably better not to intervene, and if she manages to fix her own problem it might give her a little confidence boost for the rest of the day."

    Her eyes go back to watching the potential issue forming around Bradley, but she keeps talking. "Talking of Madison, she's not here today and I see Quintella sitting on her own. Not sure she's made a whole lot of good friends yet, and that /is/ something to keep an eye on."

Billy Batson has posed:
     There was a certain level of group watching going on, especially with the Seniors watching wide eyed deer in headlights freshmen.

  Billy Batson happened to be one of those, holding a bag of Takis and munching idly on them while commenting. "The Freshman, new to his environment freezes as he realizes the scope of being in High School. Watch his knees shake in fear." Crunch-crunch. "The Seniors, highest on the High School hierarchy watch on whilst relaxing, and earing junk food."

  The red shirted young man continued to make his best David Attenburough impression, which was not that good. "The freshmen will have to wait their turn to feast." Cruuunch.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Duncan Mallory, Morrigan's assistant and stand in Director when it was needed is on the sidelines today. Given Morrigan's sight is still an issue she's been stuck in her office with talking to people and dealing with some late delivery of lab equipment to the school. The tall blonde man has moved over to talk to the two newest teachers to welcome them in his own way, which means bringing them treats!

Sweet tooths were apparently a thing that was easy to find. He joins them at their table and engages them in quiet conversation at the moment. Making sure they have everything that they need for now.

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala Khan doesn't really excel at High School.

She's not built for it... Awkward, high energy, active imagination.

IN HER HEAD
The halls of Happy Harbor, which more closely resemble the cannibal infested deserts of Mad Max... look there a Senior actually devouring a young Freshman openly next to a banged up Locker where another young student pleads helplessly to be released from captivity. Who can possibly save these poor, beleagered, youngsters from the moors of disparation and depravity?!

Kamala enters wearing tire armor, fists on her hips... cape gently bellowing in the wind.

IN REALITY

Kamala stands there in the school uniform, with her fists on her hips.. Grinning like a doofus.

"Get out of the way, I need to get in my locker." Someone says to her, bringing her out of her imagination... awkwardly, she shuffles to one side, "Weirdo."

Richard Stadler has posed:
Collette gets a bit of a nod from Stadler as she passes along wisdom, speaking quietly to her, less any of the students get the gossipping is about them. "That's what some of the classes taught... And I can certainly understand what that's like. Though these days it's hard to even imagine I was ever that young." He notes, scanning the room for the rest of the people around where they were staking a blind. "I certainly understand providing them with confidence, and that's not going to be something they gain with a teacher micromanaging them. Still a bit tough..." He says, moving to where she's indicateing Keli.

"Oh, that's something familiar right there. You can practically see her willing she'd teleport to the library... yeah, it's in that direction, right? Same place she seems to be looking. I know the feeling. You don't get into the sciences without being a bit of a nerd. Socialization though, right? Just how much we should nudge, that's a question." He says. "Didn't know if we're the ones to play matchmaker."

Keli Quintela has posed:
    Keli, overhearing Billy's monologue, rolls her eyes. "The Seniors clearly haven't learned what's good for actually getting them through their classes. You're just gonna be sick later. Try an apple." She has an extra one, which she tosses toward Billy with a grin.

    Regardless of whether or not he catches the thing, she gets up to take the remains of her lunch over to throw away. She doesn't seem to have much problem with navigating the flow of people; she just looks somewhat out of place, not part of any of the groups or anything, moving around and between people without really connecting to any of them.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Whatever it is that Bradley is up to has Colette quickly leaping to her feet to go over and accost the new student. Words are exchanged in hushed tones, and Bradley's body-language speaks of rebellion. The tones become more hushed, the words spoken more urgently, and Bradley's body language slowly starts to shift. The conversation continues a little while, and by the end of it Bradley looks cowed, though not beaten. It's his first day. There will be other days, when people aren't watching. Perhaps not when Colette is watching, though.

    Kamala take note: Colette is definitely the Teacher Most Likely to have Guitar That Shoots Jets of Fire.

    Colette returns to her place, sending occasional glares back in Bradley's direction. "Definitely a Slytherin," she mutters. Unfairly to poor Richard, she continues the conversation she was having in her head aloud. "You ever think about the irrationality of the house system in Harry Potter? I mean imagine what it must be like to be a student who's sorted into Slytherin. Your first day at school and a /hat/ writes off your entire future. From that moment on, those students are marked. Probably really hard to get a job. Employers will probably assume that if you were a Slytherin at high school, you'll be embezzling company funds and trying to turn the CEO into a frog."

    Does Richard even /know/ Harry Potter? Possibly not, but that doesn't stop her.

    "Not too overtly," she says, finally addressing his actual question. "But social exclusion has a lot of knock-on effects. Happy students are more likely to actually learn things than unhappy students. They aren't going to want to have adults meddling with their private lives, but at the same time if we can find subtle ways to push them into positions they're more likely to make friends, we'll get better students out of it."

    Her eyes flicker momentarily in the direction of Declan and Tyler. Notorious trouble-makers, though that's largely Declan's fault. "Well, depending on who it actually is they befriend, of course."

Kamala Khan has posed:
IN HER HEAD

Colette rides up to Bradley, who maybe was the student eating another student, on an RV pulled by much larger, mutated, cannibals. "WITNESS ME" she says, then bites off his head in one, comical, sweep of her neck.

IN REALITY

Colette walks up, speaks to Bradley, who was just being a big jerk, and bites off his head in one, realistic, sweep of her intimidation roll.

"This is definitely going to be better than Public School in Jersey." The Pakistani student says in a quiet tone, clutching her books to her chest rather than wearing them in her Captain Marvel backpack. "Nobody has tried to sell me drugs yet, at least."

It's only the first day, however.

Billy Batson has posed:
     Billy catches the tossed apple, though it hardly keeps him from commenting. "A peace offering from the underclassmen, an apple. Worse offerings have been had, he accepts." Biting into the tossed apple, he quickly shows a little disgust on his face. "Yeah...not a good combination."

  But the senior foster kid doesnt give up on the apple, continuing to take another bite. "Better after the first bite, thanks."

Richard Stadler has posed:
Well, wasn't this a master class in how to handle students before things got out of hand. Certainly a command mentality there, and Stadler had a brief thought of standing behind and to the left to provide support; no need in this case, though, as she seemed to have the right words to defuse this sort of situation without it becoming a shouting match between them. That almost happened in one class. And this was certainly... different.

He gives a nod to Colette, before saying something slightly socially awkward. "Ahh... well. I suppose. Truth be told, I never got into Harry Potter when it was out. A bit after my time. I bought a book or two for... someone, but there was... not a lot of a chance for them to get into it." He says, tactfully to himself. "But it does certainly block those who are capable of change; and certainly people are capable of it. Smacks quite a bit of being assigned a destiny to a child, which is... always smacked to me as simply getting canon fodder for some war for greater forces. I think I might be rambling a bit here. It's been a rather long day.

"I'm afraid, however, I don't make a good match maker. Letting them find their own friends seems the best way to go, but I've seen bad crowds and there's so many mistakes kids can make." He notes, looking over to Kamala. "Some of them, though, seem to have a good enough head on their shoulders, and there's just... a vitality here that I'm glad to see."

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Duncan gives a smile to Amira and Daniel before he is rising, "Lunch is almost over for me so I need to get back to see if anyone is having tech issues with their new laptops. So if you guys need an tech support just let me know." the man states. He gives a smile to Colette and Richard on the way by, "Hope the day is treating you two well." he states in passing.

Delia's rising to head off as well, clearing off the lunch tray and seemingly in conversation with someone that is definitely not there.

It's just the ghost. No harm done!

Kamala Khan has posed:
Kamala finally makes it to the lunch line, moving steadily through until she's given a helping of whatever they're serving today. Kneeling down to peer at it through the glass, tapping a finger against said display to make certain that the contents don't tap back. This is, however, not Jersey. The food here doesn't try to eat you and probably doesn't cause advanced stages of paralysis when consumed.

But is it culturally sensitive?

Actually, it probably is... come to think about it.

"Something I can take with me-" Since the bell is ringing. She still has a stop to make before heading back to class, someone she'd like to see while there's time! "-is this chicken naturally sourced free-range?" Peering up at the cafateria lady..

IN HER HEAD but also IN REALITY "Can you please move it along, there's other students behind you and you're holding up the line.." There's definitely different tones used, though. Intricate differences. One sounds like it's coming from the Mouth of Sauron and the other sounds like a public worker in, arguably, the worst service job: Providing food to ungrateful teenagers.

"Sorry.."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Is it a command mentality, or is it just that some claim to believe that Colette prowls the streets of Staten Island at night in search of students who have caught her eye during the previous day, to tear out their throats with her bare teeth and swallow their souls?

    It's a very unfair rumor, Colette gave up doing things like that /ages/ ago. It's more the fact that Colette is very young for a teacher, only a few years older than the oldest seniors, and very early on in her teaching career learned that you need to step on any sense students might have that this makes her an easy mark hard and fast. There are those who may have noted that while she can come across as being pretty fierce, she actually rarely doles out punishments. There's just an intensity about her when she's giving out warnings that make most students feel like it would be a bad idea to discover what the punishment would be if they pushed her. That and her strangely featureless dark eyes, iris and pupil barely differentiated, that can come across a little creepy when she's STARING RELENTLESSLY INTO THE DEPTHS OF YOUR SOUL.

    "Harry Potter's a lot of fun," she tells Richard. "But you do kind of have to switch off your brain in places. I mean it's about a school for wizards and witches that teaches literally nothing but magic. It would produce generations of spell-casting idiots who are barely literate and can't count. Also the concept of student safety is hilariously non-existent."

    Colette gives a nod and a smile to Duncan as he passes, and when he's out of earshot she continues "...And they regularly employ teachers who turn out to be totally unqualified, or actually evil. " No wonder she likens Happy Harbor to Hogwarts, even if she mostly does so in the safety of her own head. That is because last time she tried doing so out loud it was to Deadpool, who's mind immediately went to places which this scene does not have a sufficient MPAA rating to discuss. The fact is that while Kamala's mind clearly goes to strange places, her mind is thankfully a lot more wholesome than some.

Billy Batson has posed:
     The healthy fruit had been devoured pretty quickly. There was a reach for his phone, taking a look at the time. "Oh hell."

  Without actually running off, Billy had collected his trash, and tossed everything to the bin. Even seniors it seems can lose track of time. But he won't be late to class! At least he hopes.

Richard Stadler has posed:
Rick had no idea how magic worked; it was exceedingly possible that Colette needed to slack her thirst for the soul of students to Bathory her way through life. Ahh, the way this school promoted diversity in it's hiring! Not that he was going to complain; he wasn't at somewhre boring and genetrified somewhere on Long Island, at least). Still, there was a /lot/ to learn, apparantly, from those who had more experience. In teaching, at least. He would be good goddamned if anyone decided he couldn't lecture about the pherpherial nervous system.

"That's been a bit hard for me to do... the swords and sorcery type, at least... that and Andromeda Strain. The movie, not the book. Lord, that was a mess." He says, rubbing the bridge of his nose under his glasses. "But I assume once it does get out there enough, you can excuse rampantly neglect teachers. Evil teaches, well. I'm certain they exist somewhere, if a few of my professors were of any indication. Unqualified though... Maybe I shouldn't be too hasty with that. I sometimes feel a bit in over my head hear, as it is. Seems like everywhere I turn there's magicians, metahumans, clebrities for teaching the clientle. Oh, certainly, I know what I'm talking about in biology, but I feel there are some other tasks out here... Imposter syndrome, I'm sure."