Welcome to Gaia! ::

Name: Ƞarcissa "Cissa" Ƚucania
Team: Ѻmega
Location: Lounge
Thinking: Not another crybaby snowflake....


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Narcissa was trying to quell the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose as a gangly little street urchin started prattling on about…Absurd, and vaguely insulting gibberish. His appearance, and rather smug facial expression told her that for some reason or another he was…Insanely pleased with himself. Though to her credit, the sun goddess remained still on the couch—Cold eyes unflinching at the sight of the private jet that had gone down into the Pacific so many years ago. The photograph from CNN was grainy…The little, weeping blond girl in the rescue team members arms striking chords for her… Somewhere deep down, it pulled at her heart strings. Pulled at a very painful memory. Yes, somewhere deep down…She felt that pain acutely. Somewhere, very, deep down.

Things she hadn’t thought about that particular incident since coming to the Academy. When it resurfaced…She pushed it away. Of course, who would want to remember that she’d likely killed the only people that had actually loved her the first time her powers showed themselves… She felt disgust well within her, at the sight of this overconfident…Child… Using the photograph as some kind of bargaining chip.

As if he had a right to.

“Ladies, meet Hax.”, she introduced them with a bored wave of her hand…There was always at least one self-important upstart every year. And for some strange reason, hell bent on trying to make her lose her cool. It was a waste of time, really. All one had to do was ask.”He’s apparently known for his intelligence… Which the Headmistress thought would prove useful to my team. Though today, he must be feeling under the weather, because we are greeted with sheer idiocy at its finest…”

She drew her hands together as Orchid laughed, and clapped lightly at the performance—The pads of her fingers ever so slightly tapping her palm. It was cute, in a way. Almost flattering. Kerrigan, for the time being was ignored….Not out of disrespect, but simply because she knew what the woman was trying to do. After years of bending to her, simply out of personal affection…She knew when she was being handled. “Unless I’ve confused your power with someone else… That would explain why a green sixteen year old—Who, from the sound of your voice, hasn’t hit puberty yet—Would come in here, spouting such tripe.”

This was one reason, Narcissa had been thoroughly against sixteen year olds joining the teams… In her experience, they were just too young. Too stupid. And twice as likely to get themselves killed.

Narcissa leaned forward as the Alpha’s filed out of the room…Waiting for them to leave. Isabella always had a way of trying to scold her, when she didn’t like her tone of voice. Not for the first time, she felt like the parent, explaining something to a petulant child… Things like, Why they needed to brush their teeth… And, Why they shouldn’t take candy from strangers… And why they should look before crossing the street. It was for their own damn good. As the last Alpha filed out her expression changed… Her eyes that of a frozen, barren wasteland… She removed the indulgent parent from her façade, and replaced it with the Omega leader—Just as easily as one would wear a mask.

“You’re new. So I’ll understand this lapse in judgment once… And only once. This is not a business arrangement. You are placed in my care. To make it simple, I own you. Don’t wage a war, you cannot hope to win. Your place on my team in a privilege—Not a right. You don’t care about that? Fine. Your place on any team, with access to any piece of techno-crap that might get you off—Is a privilege, not a right. Let’s catch up the rest of those in the room so we’re not being rude…”, Narcissa spoke coldly, every inch of her seeming to have sharpened. She’d gone from deliciously relaxed, gorgeous, debutante to a harsh militaristic leader is seconds.

“Hax thought it prudent to hack into the schools server…I was made aware, that an unauthorized user had pulled a good chunk of my file. What he gave me a glimpse of, on his laptop was a still from a news feed from several years ago—Where my parents were killed in a plane crash. The police state that there was a bright flash of light before the plane went down…They think there might have been some kind of bomb on board… But what I know, that they don’t—Was that the bright flash was me.”, she explained easily…Almost breezily, as if the topic didn’t at all bother her. There was not a facial tick, not a flinch, not a quiver in her voice… She was perfect.

Her eyes flickered back to Hax… Again falling silent. Her admission of the situation would benefit her…Far more than it could ever benefit him. She leaned back in the soft couch once more—Fingers lacing in her lap demurely, as if she were settling in for afternoon tea and biscuits. “How concerned you are…About the fires burning outside of this School… When you’ve no idea of the match you just lit.”

“We are Omega. And I do not have time for dissension, or a sneaky little rat working against me. There are enough of those on the other side. This isn’t some high school game… And if you think is, perhaps you should tell Emma you aren’t up to it. The lives of your teammates depend on you being focused and dependable… I won’t let your ineptitude jeopardize our chances of survival. We expect the unexpected and we do what must be done—No matter who crawls out of the woodwork to face us. No matter the price...”, she explained, in the same monotonous voice… Hax could choose to wave her off, ignore whatever he liked… But it didn’t remove the fact of it.

“The only side available to any Omega—Is mine. None of you have to like it, but you will suffer me. Insubordination is grounds for me to dismiss any of you. For me to assign punishment as I see fit. Or worse, as Emma, see’s fit.”

She stood up from the couch then, picking up the small glittering clutch from the coffee table…Moving to leave the room, before she paused, “Oh… One more thing.”

A ball of screaming light left her hand, smacking into the laptop bag Hax had brought with him—The smell of melted, molten metal filling the air. The offending picture, for the time being, erased from his possession. No doubt he’d made copies. Though she was careful, not to scorch the brat in the process—Pulling the excess energy back to her, once she was sure the laptop was mulch.

She did not harm her own. Until they no longer, were her own. But she could make life a living hell.

“Oh goodess gracious… I think my fragile emotional barriers must have gotten the best of me!”, she chirped out in a decidedly valley girl tone., her still glowing hand coming to cover her lips with mock shock, before her expression went flat—Eyes filled with a particular surety and confidence that could not be considered egotistical…It was merely earned.

“Here endeth the lesson. Welcome to the Omega’s…I’ve a Danger Room session to plan for.”, she spoke coolly, before taking her leave from the room—Heels clicking on the tile.

"They don't know...
What I know...
They never seen this side of you...
They Know the lies, I know the truth

Code Name: Siren
Team: Alpha
Location: Outside - Bleachers
Ability: Sound Manipulation
Singing: Desnudate...

She was gladdened to hear that Leonardo was fine, and she nodded her head faintly to show that she’d heard, murmuring an equally secretive, “Good.” The Alpha leader tended to mother her brood…Far more than the Omega leader ever word. But she felt responsible for each and every one of them… What kind of leader would she be, if she didn’t grow to care for them?

Isabella sat with her skirt tucked down on the bleachers, to avoid any kind of wardrobe malfunction—And sighed rather happily at the feeling of sunlight on her face. She missed the hot…Desperately dry weather of home. She’d been born, and for the most part raised in Columbia. Snow had been confusing to her upon arriving at the Academy so many years ago…Something from Hallmark cards and children’s stories. Smiling happily at her new recruits, she looked thankfully to Alexandria as she stopped the high winds… They because a far more gentle breeze after that.

Though, it still looked as if it might rain the next few hours…Bella could smell the ozone in the air.

She noticed that the girl had used her powers easily, and liberally. That was a good sign for an Alpha… They couldn’t be afraid of their powers. Hesitation wasn’t something they could afford…How Isabella wished that weren’t the case. Truly wished that they could all do as they pleased… But with the way the media had been pushing things as of late…With the way politicians were fighting over mutant-human laws… She knew that it was a sound idea to bulk up their ranks.

Even just to keep the school safe.

Even with their security…They couldn’t afford to be taken by surprise. There was a whole group of elementary school children that lived here, too young for the teams—But unwelcome in human schools. They had to be prepared for any threat.

“Trust me, Lexi…Gideon is right…Twice a week will soon be more than enough for you.”, she chucked as she spoke to the aerokinetic. The Siren smiled , and tilted her head at Tsukino’s question about a Danger Room session… “Soon, mi amor—Soon.”

It was a cryptic reply, one that she made potentially even worse with a teasing smile. Isabella was hesitant about danger room sessions with new recruits to the Alpha’s.

They didn’t always turn out well.

Though her usual dazzling smile fell a notch, just slightly as she saw Reggie backing away—Pale as a sheet…For all the world, as if she had seen a ghost. It wasn’t hard…For the songstress to put two and two together. As team leader, she knew the majority of the Alpha’s personal history… And likely some that they wished she didn’t know. But she didn’t acknowledge it, didn’t speak of it—Unless they had a problem that demanded it.

Everyone had a history…Everyone had a past. But the Siren decidedly looked beyond any indiscretions. They were X-Men now… They were brothers, sisters in arms. And she would care for them all equally.

Calling Reggie out in front of the group would have been poor taste, and might have made things worse… So she let it slide, for the time being. Besides… It wasn’t herself that the girl needed to speak to. It was Leonardo.

She smiled when Aurelie kept the conversation going, and Isabella, seeking to take any curious eyes off of Reggie chuckled…Finding it a little odd that she hadn’t mentioned her ability. “How is it that you lucked out twice in a row with lovely aliases… I won’t even tell you, what my first codename was.”

Oh no, Bella would be taking that to her grave.

Her gaze turned back to Tsukino when she spoke up, and the sweet latina nodded her head—Noting her nervousness. “Barriers are always a good thing to have… You never know what an enemy will throw at you. An old crusty sock…A bomb. Whichever.”, she murmured nonchalantly, again passing a teasing grin… To show for the most part she was kidding.

About the crusty socks. She didn't care to specify about which part though. Bombs, were always a possibility.

An older, but familiar face popped up—Though Bella heard Eli coming long before he arrived. “Eli…Meet some of the new Alpha’s—Sit Sit…”, she encourages with a smile, having mostly forgotten what had transpired on Catalina between them.

Briefly, she went over their names again for him.

Rob seemed like an interesting character, so he liked to be called—And whereas some might have felt discomfort…This was orientation for the Alpha’s… These would be the people that would be working with them elbow deep in danger. It would be imperative, for them to know one another. Marcel have his power, and codename, and the songstress nodded to that as well…

So many new faces… How she would manage to keep them all straight, was going to be a miracle.

“All right…Danger Room sessions will happen. However, we may have some other team related exercises before we attempt that. Many of you are newer to this kind of team… Where as some of you are not. So you will all need to help one another. If you have any problems, you can always come to me…It doesn’t matter what it is. There are a few rules…”, she trailed off with a faint grimace, knowing of course, that rules never went over well. “One... Is that you must have your comm link on you at all times. Alpha’s can be called in to fight anytime…Even in the middle of the night. On sanctioned missions, uniforms are required…Due to the…Political unrest, if you are to leave the base…Scott asks that we do so in pairs… And that you shoot me an email before you go. Be sure, to keep your ability use to a minimum outside the school. You don’t want to attract any undue attention.”

Her head tilted then, and she smiled for perhaps the millionth time… “I forgot… Just in case any of you were curious… My ability is related to sound manipulation. And on the field, my codename is Siren.”

She paused, taking a deep breath.

{“My name is Logan, and I wear pink and watch Hello Kitty with Emma on Saturday mornings.”}, Isabella spoke aloud—Though it was not her voice that came from her lips, but Wolverines. Chuckling at herself—She shook her head. “It’s mostly good for parlor tricks.”

So… That was a gross understatement. But the new Alpha’s would find out eventually.

“Other than that… Is really all I have for you at the moment. You’re all free too leave and do as you please… I’ll wait here, awhile, incase any of you need anything. You can always reach me by comm... Or just, ask for me out loud.”

This would also break the fragile thought that there were actually secrets in the academy. Oh no, not when she could hear a mouse crawling around two miles away.

The idea of Jacen breaking the diving board seemed a pittance compared to what she’d broken and was still paying back with her monthly “allowance” at the school. However, the idea of just how he could have done that was amusing enough.

“At least Alexander…Arctic…isn’t active anymore. I mean imagine if you’d slammed into a solid block of ice because someone had set him into a hissy fit again,” Shandra commented softly from atop her perch on the counter. “I still think…even over the bathrooms that his – well I mean when he kind of froze over Antonio’s hand shows the lack of whatever it was that he had. I mean at least a bathroom can be fixed – elixir is just a godsend we have here, not everyone has someone as skilled. Think about what would happen if everyone had to resort to only using regular medical attention without the use of healing mutants.”

When had she gotten to mouthy and talkative again?

Shandra’s eyes flickered over to Roland as he first entered the kitchen. It seemed that the academy’s kitchen had once again become the hodgepodge of people who had nothing better to do once again. And it might have been because of this that she slipped off the counter where she had previously been sitting and took to standing with her hands behind her back, at an angle with the counter instead of being on top of it.

“Thank you,” Shandra felt oblidged to say, despite the fact that she didn’t have any dishes that needed washing this time around, when Roland offered to do them.

She had always hated cleaning up her own mess…took way more time than creating it. But then again, that’s what a lot of work was about generally. It just didn’t mean that she had to care for it.

Shandra’s eyes tilted with her head as she stared at the newer Omega (Roland) for just a moment. She was trying to remember anything she’d gotten from him in the previous month – more over the time in whatever that Nightmare world had been. Had he been the self abusive one? Or had that been Leonardo? Shandra tried to pick at him mentally, but it was like…a fog. A dream that didn’t want to be captured again. She couldn’t actually recall much about him – his name and team and that was about it. And that, by itself, was probably a great disadvantage to her. She was having such a hard time storing information from personal experiences that it wasn’t even funny anymore. Or was it so hard because she had felt like such a bystander and had not personally interacted a great deal with him?

Whatever it was, this lack of being able to grasp at thing she should know was definitely not the most fun thing in the world.

She turned her head over to where Christian seemed to be relaxing or planning something. Omegas were always planning something – it just didn’t always have to be an important or relevant something.

“Do you know if Narcissa has anything in store for us today?” Shandra asked gently.

She didn’t pay mind to the fact that some of her hair decided it didn’t want to stay in the balance it had previously had of being not quite over the shoulder but not exactly neatly behind. Perhaps she was too casual for the liking of their Omega leader, but Shandra found it was much less stress to not worry over the fact that her hair was not always in perfect place. But if they did have something in store for the day, Shandra could already guess that hair-ties and a quick change uniform would be the tools needed to have on hand. Generally making Narcissa wait was not a good thing…generally her patience was not something that Shandra cared to test the length it could go before it snapped back on her like a rubber band. No…she’d learned early on with Derek that you do not test Leaders – you either leave the group or follow step.

Shandra turned her attention, glowing eyes and all, over to Leion as a random thought trespassed on how to keep the leader of the Omegas in a pliable and lenient mood – besides keeping Alphas and fools away from her.

“Do you think you can…I don’t know…make a really good cake or something incase we do have something of a surprise planned?” Shandra questioned Leion, a slight smile caressing her lips.

Shandra did everyday meals in a way that she could eat, which meant that they took a good portion of her time to prepare if she wanted something more than a salad. Antonio took the stage with Mexican (Hispanic, she supposed as a general area) dishes. But Leion used to practice making deserts. She was willing to bet he’d gotten better with them over time…

Now if only they knew what Narcissa’s favorite flavor was – besides tea.

There was a certain casual air to Brayden Callaway as he made his way to the meeting he’d been asked to join by Scott Summers – better known as Cyclops or Boyscout. Of course, this had been after he’d gotten a lecture from good old one-eye on the responsibility of his powers. Which just meant that he was utterly and indiscriminately late for the meeting. With any luck he’d have missed it so he could just blame Summers as to why he didn’t show up on time.

Was it his fault that a girl wanted to see just how potent he could be? (His venom’s potency of course…but his method of deliverance was generally entertaining.) Brayden didn’t think it was - the Boyscout of a headmaster obviously thought differently. Though he wasn’t sure if he was most agitated on the fact that he’d missed two of his classes ‘cause he had better things to do or if it was because he’d made the poor girl faint and miss one of hers. Either way, fact of the matter was that Brayden made himself late for the switch over of the teams that he didn’t know was occurring until…well it had slipped in at some point during Scott’s lecture about personal responsibility.

As he hung into the corner he was turning to get to the bleachers where the alpha team meeting presided over by Isabella the songstress with a kick, he decided it was a very good idea to leak some of his powers out to soften the blow. His powers ebbed out, creating very fine sheen over his skin from the moisture. People in the near by area would smell whatever they found the most appealing scent – kind of like each person getting to pick out their perfume or room scent based on what they instinctually liked the most. It would have been better if they hadn’t been outdoors and had been in a confined space, but beggars can’t be choosers. Of course this was in no way a mental manipulation trick – he just found, and he was certain there was research somewhere that backed it up, that when people really liked what they smelled they weren’t as harsh or cynical about whatever was going on.

“Huh,” Brayden let out as he took a spot on the bleachers, bracing his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, “Now here I thought they braided each other’s hair as they watched Teletubbies. Go figure.”

Oh yes, he loved being the smart a**.

“Sorry about being late…Mr. Summers held me hostage to one of his responsibility lectures before he told me about the team switch. Which was about,” He looked over to the nearest clock he could find, “ten minutes ago.”

Funny thing was, because he was often late for random things you’d never know that he actually was raised to be extremely time-orientated. And of course Isabella might not know that, so she could just take his lateness to be offensive. The fact that he’d missed her little meeting probably wouldn’t have helped. He’d have tried the “kiss-to-make-it-better” approach but that clawed boyfriend of hers (Gideon) was uptight about anything. Oh the stories that went around the Academy about those two.

Okay, so he admitted it…Brayden was curious about how Gideon himself was going to react to having a scent he found pleasant randomly flood the room. He really did want to watch the metal man do a back flip as he tripped over himself. But, all things considering with his reputation, that was about as likely to happen as Emma Frost going back to the way that genetics and not surgery and make-up meant her to be.

“So what’d I miss?” Everything he was sure which did suck but hey, two periods of free time and a decent kiss were things he wasn’t going to complain about.

Mildly, as people started to leave, he gave them a salutary wave to see them off.

Name: Leonardo "Renaissance Man" Rossi
Team: Alphas
Location: Bleachers
Well, Orientation Seems To Be Over… Scatter!

Like any normal person, Leonardo perked up when he heard his name being shouted. Turning his torso slightly and turning his head the rest of the way to see who it was, he spotted Eli, the magnetokinetic that he had met before the whole Halloween town mess had gone down. From what Leonardo remembered, Eli had missed the entire ordeal with the goblins, ghouls, and flying killer bats… lucky b*****d. Nodding to the fellow Alpha Leonardo gave a friendly wave, saying, “Hey man!” Other than Bella, Elliot was the first person from the Alphas that Leo had had a full blown conversation with. This orientation was different from the last, though… no one had gotten kicked in the balls.

Bella continued to explain what the low-down of being in the Alphas was going to be like, which to Leonardo seemed reasonable. He couldn’t remember how many times he had been woken up in the middle of the night by that horrible witch Nadine Portman to help avert the next national crisis or stop a new mutant from nuking a town. Those were the old days… the S.H.I.E.L.D. days. Besides, Bella was much different from Portman; Portman was cold and calculating, yet Bella was gentle and actually had the ability to laugh. Even though Bella was much younger, Leonardo would pick the songstress’s leadership over the half-faced witch’s any day. Leonardo had to deal with uniforms as well on a daily basis… except he normally just called it his ‘gear’, seeing as how it was merely an outfitting of practical tactical gear modified to suit an unarmed mutant’s needs.

“As long as we have real missions and not teleported to another dimension again, I’ll be fine,” Leonardo joked to Bella, sincerely hoping they wouldn’t have to go through another transformation again.

When Aurelie said the word “telekinetic”, Leonardo was instantly interested. One of his old teammates was a telekinetic… a fairly powerful one as well. Her name was Kelly, and she had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. soon after Leonardo had. After she joined, they completely abandoned DropSuits for the Mutant Operations and Response Team (MORT). Instead, they used her ability of telekinesis to HALO jump out of airplanes and descend safely to the ground. It seemed Aurelie was a flier was well, and Leonardo briefly wondered if she had ever tried to jump out of an airplane… without a parachute. He doubted it; Scott might have been willing to push his little Corsairs to the limits… but that was a bit extreme.

Bella informally announced the meeting as being adjourned, and Leonardo briefly thought as to what he was going to do now. It was Spring Break; he didn’t have any classes, and at the moment he felt too lazy to suit up and hit the Danger Room real quick. Aurelie announced that she was going to go practice, and was quickly followed by Alexandria. Leo saw that Aurelie had briefly glanced over to him, but it was too quick to get any sort of reading. Was it supposed to be some sort of hint? Still, whatever Aurelie and Alexandria were going to do seemed a lot better than the bumming around Leonardo was bound to do if bored.

“I think I’ll go with you guys, if you don’t mind,” Leonardo said to Alexandria and Aurelie, standing from his seat on the bleachers and moving his arms from side to side, loosening up the muscles in his shoulders. He looked over to the west; dark clouds were converging on the Mansion. “Looks like a storm’s on its way… better get inside before we get drenched,” Leo stated, stepping down from the bleachers and onto the soft grass.