Six Months Later -- The New Mutants

[crawler_kid]

It had been a very strange six months for the New Mutants.  With everything that had gone down with the X-Men, they had reaped some of the benefits of being associated with them, experiencing a surge in popularity, albeit on filtered through the still somewhat unstable and FOH harboring New Jersey climate.

Angel was also damn certain someone was following Sara and her around on campus.  She hadn't yet had to teleport them into one of the campus fountains or anything like that, but she was certain it was close.

Her own life was falling into order well enough.  She'd shifted her major, applying her gen eds and some of her other courses into a theater major.  She natural flair and presence helped considerably, and theater folk were largely some of the most accepting she'd known.

Not too bad a time to be a mutant, all things considered...

Comments

[sonoflongshot]

Aiden took the paper from Sara's hand. As he read it over, his hand holding the paper started to shake. He licked his lips and swallowed.

"I... no. I can't... I can't do that." He shook the He blinked and pushed back memories of Mojo's cameras following him.

[summersspawn]

"Of course we won't do it. Ohmigod, "Dear Mutants"? Are they serious? What were they think..."

Sara's phone buzzed. She glanced down at it, and her eyes went wide with that deer in the headlights look when she saw the name on the caller ID.

"Ohmigod. I think it's them."

She swiped her finger across the screen.

"Hello? Yes... no... I mean, NO! How did you get this number, anyways? What? There's a directory for that? Ohmigod... no! We are not, and how did you manage to stick that letter in the door without getting cocooned by the security system? Really? Just like that? What? No. I mean, yeah, ok, I can kinda see your point about good publicity, but, no. Who'd want to watch us doing boring stuff, anyways? No, no, ok. I'll tell them what you said, but no promises! And don't call back! We'll call you if we change our minds."

She hung up, and looked at her teammates.

"He says it would be great public relations for mutants. And for Angel's career in the theater... he knows about you changing your major. He said he wants to feature Aiden's band, maybe make a video and help them get signed. And they used a really long selfie stick to get past the security."

[pyroprincess]

Stephanie hadn't anticipated quite that strong a response from Aiden. Stephanie had heard about some of the stuff that had happened with Mojo in the past, but hadn't experienced any of it first hand. She started looking at the contracts in hand.

"It could be effective public relations for mutants. I think it is an option that is worth exploring, though I cannot commit to anything ridiculous like a full season, or can the rest of us.

However, I think it's vitally important that we agree on this unanimously. If we don't have a consensus, it's no good.

And as for who would like to watch a show about us?" She raised an eyebrow at the company. "Let's be honest about ourselves. We're all young, extremely attractive and dynamic people. We all have qualities that would be very attractive to a reality television audience.

Instead of wondering why they're interested, let's figure out what we're going to do about it."

[crawler_kid]

Angel moved over and put her arm around Aiden, pulling him close to her.

"Ah'm a little concerned they've got that much information about us," Angel said. "Ah think we need to look into these folks some more, see if they're legit. Not because we're takin' them up on anything, but because we need to know if they're some kind of threat."

[sonoflongshot]

Aiden leaned against Angel, trying to clamp down on the small trembles happening through out his body.

"My band would..." It was tempting to try to suck it up. Make something work for his band. He knew videos and other promotions were coming if they wanted to make it big.

But he remembered running along a beach and bullets ripping through his body as cameras followed him. The war movie had just been the start of the slate of features.

He shook his head. He tried to blink back the tears gathering in his eyes. "They're no better than Mojo. I can't. I'm sorry if you ladies want to, but I can't."

[summersspawn]

"I could see mayyyyyybe doing an interview for them. I don't want cameras following me around, and I sure don't want them filming us here at home. We don't need any more weirdos or FOH types showing up."

Sara looked pensive.

"I should talk to Ray. See if they've heard from this bunch at the school."

[pyroprincess]

It was obvious that Aiden was deeply, deeply upset by this. Stephanie moved carefully with the next obvious question.

"Aiden ... would you feel all right with doing an interview or a television special with a different network? Someone who is less openly exploitative?" Stephanie knew some people who knew people- if this network was sniffing around, maybe someone else could be convinced to do something less invasive.

"I cannot say that I relish having cameras following me around on a regular basis, particularly the way those shows are generally edited. They'll create drama if none exists. Not to mention that our work is dangerous. But maybe we should consider our options for interviews?"

[crawler_kid]

Angel gave Aiden another tight squeeze.

"Ah'll talk to some folks in the theater department. See if anybody there's heard of 'em too."

Another squeeze. "We ain't gonna force you into nothin', Sugah. Ah'm ready to kick them to the curb right now."

[sonoflongshot]

He pressed his lips together and rubbed the back of his neck. Today's plans had not included falling apart in front of his teammates.

"I can, maybe, do an interview. Just... not by myself. Gomen nasai."

He rubbed at his eyes to try to push the tears back into their ducts for later. It didn't work, but he at least had a hand with an apple in it in front of his face.

[summersspawn]

Sara squeezed Aiden's shoulder.

"Not by yourself, and not at all, unless you're really ok with it."

She looked up, talking to everyone now.

"That is, assuming we even do an interview. None of us really want to, and we've got resources to run this guy off if he keeps pestering us. Stephanie has scary lawyers. I have a scary telepathic sister. Aiden and Angel are, like, ninjas. And I could even talk to Bruce, see how the Reality Network likes it when spooky people in anonymous black suits show up asking about their phone records."

[pyroprincess]

"Perhaps we should take a little time and think about it some more?" Stephanie suggested. "We have no need to rush anyway- if they start harassing us over this, we'll simply outright refuse. And if they persist, as Sara has so helpfully pointed out, we're able to retaliate with shocking effectiveness.

But tonight, I don't know about you- but I think we'd all benefit from shelving all this unpleasantness and doing something fun. Like getting pizza. Or rooting out the forces of evil."