After the Holiday Bash (All Hammel Staff)

[Yvette Morgenstern]

((OOC: This thread occurs the Monday after "Pilot Ridge Holiday Bash 2015" and is a mandatory staff meeting. As a result, it is backdated.))


Yvette could think of a thousand different ways she would prefer to spend this morning. It was the last week of school before the month-long winter break, the last week of school before the Christmas holidays and the New Year, and the last week of good weather according to all of the forecasts she saw on the news.

However, the news also carried footage and coverage of the unmitigated disaster at this year's Holiday Bash. She and her husband had chosen not to attend, because he had developed a chest cold the night before, and that decision proved the right one.

Unfortunately, the chaos had been picked up by a hundred camera phones and all three media outlets in the town, as well as being carried to Burlington. The police woman passing out, several of their alumni losing control of their powers, and then their school psychiatrist doing...whatever it was that Sean Neville had been doing, which included being shouted at by a local activist and punched in the face.

As soon as she saw the coverage on Sunday morning, she had sent a mass email out to all of the staff, informing them that there would be a mandatory staff meeting tomorrow (Monday), at 7:30a.m. sharp. Despite not possessing super-enhanced perception, she could hear the groans of all of her staff members. That didn't prevent her from expecting them to arrive on time and coherent enough for a discussion.

To facilitate this, she had picked up several Boxes of Joe from a cafe, and two dozen doughnuts paid for from their discretionary fund. Then she waited for the rest of the staff to file in before they began.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

As so often happened, Sean was the first to arrive at the staff meeting, apart from the Headmistress.

He always tried to be prompt, and, more than that, he was a morning person. Even with the chaos over the weekend and the fact that he had managed to sleep late (for him) the day before had no bearing on his ability to wake early for today, to look as though he wanted to be there at 7:30a.m. rather than still being home having breakfast with his partner eating leftover latkes for breakfast (since last night had been the first night of Hanukkah), and to have the clarity of mind to proceed with the meeting.

Yvette had mentioned that she wanted to discuss Saturday’s Holiday Bash. Not that this came as a surprise. Even if she hadn’t mentioned that in her email, Sean couldn’t think of a single other topic of such importance that she would call an emergency staff meeting right before the winter recess, rather than waiting for their last scheduled staff meeting of the year.

So, here he was, with ten minutes before the meeting was to begin, entering the room, nodding and greeting Yvette warmly, pouring himself a cup of coffee, and then claiming a seat on the opposite end of the table.

[Mallory Reynolds]

Mallory had skipped the Holiday Bash this year, in favor of heading home to be with her family for a bit over the holidays. It had been a while since she'd seen her siblings and parents, and it had been nice to spend some time with them. Even if her brothers had once again tried to goad her into getting a biohazard tattoo, or chased her and her sister around with the lobsters that were supposed to be dinner, not toys.

Yeah, it had been fun. But it was nice to be back home.

Even if the first thing she was coming back to was a staff meeting. She'd caught snippets around town of what had happened during the yearly Bash, and it made her honestly glad she hadn't been around for it. It sounded... well, scary.

She showed up reasonably promptly to the meeting, somewhat anxiously twisting a red curl around her fingers as she waited for the others to arrive. At least Dr Neville was there. "Good morning Sean, Yvette."

[Daniel Taylor]

Daniel was trying to get out the door. He frantically searched around his home for his keys. There was a mandatory staff meeting and he didn’t want to be late. The holiday Bash was the past weekend. Daniel didn’t attend the Bash. He had spent the time with his family. The news had covered something about Holiday Bash. Something went down at the Bash. Once he found his keys – they were in his hand the whole time – Daniel headed off to school.

Daniel rushed to the meeting room thinking that he was running late. He took a brief moment to collect himself. He opened the door to find out that he was on time. There were only three people in the room waiting. "Good morning everyone," Daniel greeted as he took a seat.

[Percival Quinn]

Percival had no real interest in social interaction. Any interaction he needed, he primarily got from the individuals who walked these halls far before anyone who existed in them now. To him, they had better stories going on. Better lives. Far less interested in what their boyfriend or girlfriend had been off doing last week when they should have been with them. That was a concept far too often repeated in the relatively cheated walls of this school. But before that, there was something of a flavour to the site. Almost like a type of war. You didn't see that on many of the books.

Mandatory meetings were just that; mandatory. It meant he had to be there. It meant he had to show himself, even if it were to remain silent in the background and just wait for whatever it was they wanted to talk about to be over. There was a roster of students who needed their own regime built by himself, especially for those who didn't want it. So he didn't offer a word as he walked through the door behind people he didn't recognise. He spared a glance to the proverbial boss with not even a nod in his head; to him, eye contact was acknowledgement.

He didn't sit as he turned his back to pour coffee into a free cup. He didn't look again as he placed a doughnut square between his teeth to keep his mouth preoccupied against whatever rambling this still silent room would give. He left the rest of the chairs free and chose to lean against the very back wall of the room, instead.

[Josie Raines]

How hard would it have been to just skip the Bash? That's exactly what Josie has done the year before, clearly it was possible. But nooo, she'd wanted to go and make nice with her colleagues in a sort-of-sophisticated setting like a mature adult, and what happened? All hell had broken loose. There was nothing mature or sophisticated about hiding under the buffet table, plotting your escape with no aid but a plastic butter knife, nor in slinking away when it calms down and you realize how fucking ridiculous you look.

Sunday had, naturally, been spent holed up in Josie's apartment. There was no missing the headmistress's email, nor any need to guess what could be so urgent. With nothing better to do than dread the next day, Josie had attempted an early night's sleep.

Attempted.

When Josie slouched into the staff room, she offered a nod to Yvette and made a beeline for the coffee and doughnuts before grabbing herself a chair that wasn't immediately near anyone. Not a hard trick, when so many of the staff still had yet to arrive. Josie nursed her coffee, planning to stuff the doughnut in her mouth as soon as talking was apparently required.

[Adam Deulane]

Adam had expected some kind of meeting this morning. Events that made Nory text him six times in a row were usually followed by either a reply saying "cool" or a major administrative event. She had texted him at ten on Saturday night asking if he'd been trampled or stabbed. Adam was equally in the dark about how she had found out about it so quickly and why she'd thought he would be there.

Adam was used to meetings, and accepted them with calm resignation. He arrived on time, nodded to a few of the other STEM teachers, and sat down closer to Josie than anyone else. She didn't look chatty.

[Midori Hawkins]

Midori hadn't attended the holiday bash this year for the simple reason that Tory had been running a fever and had a runny nose in the days before it, and though he'd been improving, she hadn't wanted to run off to the party and leave him, even if it was with Eli. She trusted her best friend, but she didn't want to saddle him with a sick child.

As such, she'd missed the drama, but she'd heard about it. Half the town seemed to have heard about it, and now it was hard to tell what was fact and what was fiction as things got told and retold.

She'd received the memo, and she'd arrived a little early to get her workspace organized for the week before heading to the meeting. Grateful for the coffee and donuts, she quickly made her way over to adopt one of each before finding a seat.

[Kirney "Ash" Hudson]

Ash had gone home for the break and was mostly unaware of what had really happened. Besides the millions of texts he got from his friends and colleagues; even from a few students. At first, he didn't think much of it and chalked it up to someone's meta powers going on the fritz because of being drunk. Not that he blamed anyone, if the was even the case. Not being a Meta, he made sure not to judge the occasional accidents that happened. He knew from experience that sometimes things just happened. Even non-metas had accidents from time to time, so who was he to judge.

Since he returned home to a notice about a staff meeting, he figured something important must be going on. He marked the date on his fridge and in his phone, but still almost forgot it. In fact, he was running late and try to slip into the room with no one noticing. Much like a student would do. Flopping down in the nearest seat to the door, he leaned toward the person next to him and whispered, "So, what did I miss?"

[Andreas Pruitt]

Andreas was possibly the only person in all of Pilot’s Ridge to have not heard of the events of the Holiday Bash, having not attended because a rehabbed alcoholic and parties tend not to mix well. He hadn't checked through social media or honestly looked at the news throughout the weekend except for the occasional weather forecast. This meant the Welsh man had a perplexed feeling when he had received the email from Yvette about the staff meeting.

Andreas counted himself lucky that he was an early riser, even for a teacher, and had already eaten and had coffee as he stooped to walk through the door into the room. “Good morning everyone.” He said rather cheerily, unaware of the cause of this meeting, before he took a seat near a woman he recognized as being part of the janitorial staff, and a male staff member he didn't know.

[Westward North]

Being a member of security, West always tried his best to be early to things like this and today was no exception. He was a bit too early though so he busied himself by making sure everyone had a place to sit and that everything was set up properly. Though someone had already taken care of it. West tended to get bored easily, so he liked helping whenever he could during things like these.

Okay, so maybe he was also a little jumpy from what had happened to cause this meeting. Sadly, he wasn't there so he didn't know all the details, just what he'd seen, read, and heard. After checking to make sure everything was okay, West found himself a seat by the door and greeted everyone as they came in. Bouncing a little in his seat because he hated to sit still.

[Eliza Stevens]

When Liza entered the room they smiled politely at anyone who made eye contact and then headed straight for the coffee. She was generally a morning person, if they had a cup of joe.

Liza sat down in one of the last available seats next to a man who seemed to bounce in his seat. Everyone seemed to be a bit on edge, minus a couple people who Liza suspected might not yet be aware of the exact cause of this meeting. She hadn't attended the event but had heard much about it through the news and her neighbors. This wasn't going to be a fun meeting that was for sure.

[Josie Raines]

"Morning." Josie nodded at Professor Pruitt. She didn't remember seeing him at the Bash disaster. Granted, it had been too chaotic to take full stock of who all was there, and crouching under a buffet table didn't provide that great a vantage point. But her money was on those who were more gloomy or subdued today, and the guy fell pretty clearly on the other side of that split.

[Yvette Morgenstern]

((OOC: There will be no post order, so feel free to reply after Yvette. Additionally, if you have not yet posted with a staff member but wish to do so, please feel free but make sure to post that they have been sitting there, rather than entering the meeting late. Now that people are all present, I will be picking up the pace.))

Yvette greeted all of the assorted faculty members and support staff as they entered the conference room, pointing them in the direction of the coffee and doughnuts. Once everyone had their pseudo-breakfasts and were seated, she started on the business at hand.

“Thank you all for coming in early.” One had to be polite, and this was far earlier than first bell, which meant that for all but the most morning of morning people, it entailed waking up early in order to accommodate one’s daily routine.

“I trust that everyone received my email, and so I’ll spare you all those basic details. In light of the events at this past weekend’s Holiday Bash, we can expect press interest and potential online articles and videos about the event, beyond what already occurred on our local station. As usual, our technical team will clear any information leaked online that involves Hammel, but this will be the least of our problems.”

The Headmistress looked around the conference room at the faces of her staff; concern was etched into her expression and apparently in her eyes. “For right now, I don’t want anyone to speak to the press until I’ve had time to discuss everything with the Board of Trustees, and, in turn, to speak to anyone who might be approached. If you were present that night, say nothing to anyone else.” With that, her eyes settled briefly on Sean, since his presence had been obvious in the coverage.

She lifted a piece of paper for everyone to see. “I want everyone who was present that night to write down their name on this list, so I can set up meetings with you individually. And for those of us who weren’t there, I would appreciate it if you can share with the room what you saw and experienced, so we can all be on the same page going forward.”

[Dr. Nik Kenjutsushi]

Nik had been sitting in one of the chairs for only a few minutes, and had to stifle a yawn with her coffee. The pale woman had been scheduled for the overnight shift last night in the infirmary, and thus had been running on nearly twenty hours with no sleep. She was grateful for the coffee and sugar, and nodded when various people came into the room, aware that her white hair was mussed and her coat rumpled from sitting at a desk all night.

The Holiday Bash was something she had not attended this year; her children needed attention, and going out when it was unnecessary for her to do so was... not really in the cards recently. It had meant many skipped parties, dinner requests, and nights out. Though, in this case, she was somewhat grateful for having missed the majority of the event in question. She had enough trouble with those injured during the party stopping by the Infirmary the next morning, and really only rumor and misconceptions to go off of.

Hence, while she was not delighted to attend this meeting, the doctor certainly was appreciative of the information.

Stifling yet another yawn, Nik straightened in her chair. "Some of the students are frightened," she started. "I've heard some who thought it was an attack from PUSE, and others who think it was some knockdown, drag-out involving the police. There's so many rumors around, I can't keep track of them all." Especially not at the moment, tired as she was. "It's been hard-" damn, a yawn escaped, "-excuse me, hard to calm them without saying anything else."

Once again, she was thankful that the events were going to be explained clearly here. It would make things easier in the short term, while everyone calmed down and collected themselves.