Bethany sits next to the fiery-haired one with a bright smile and watches the video.

Among the human-looking ones present is a little boy with brown hair. He's here with his parents, but seems very shy. He sits on his mom's lap.

Among the different, animaly people, a kangaroo-looking gal with red hair is present. She sits somewhere in a back corner with her back against the wall so she can see everyone.

Among the very different sorts are a pair of plant-looking kids who just sit on the floor with anxious smiles, wiggling their leafy ears.

All of them enjoy the video to some degree, though the kangaroo is hiding her enjoyment.

  Joe finds the collection of visually distinct and sometimes strange compared to his generic self people a good sign.  Because it means the world just doesn't care enough to hate them if it took so long to notice 'guy who is on fire' among others in the world.

  Hey, sometimes Apathy is a good thing.  And sometimes we are reminded that Joe's standards can be a bit off.

  "I'm glad the idea of filming before and after videos of how much less I get hit by cars wearing reflective vests was just a joke"  Here is Joe, Joe hates his reflective veOH MY GOD.  Good thing Joe can survive his face being run over by a truck.  Let's see that again with a reflective vest... See, now he was only hit by a Smart Car!

  OOC: Eli looks nothing like Maverick... Unless that is a shy Maverick in which case OOPS.

Roz laughs like a dying raven at Joe's comment.  Fire-head smiles back and gives Beth an aloha sign.

Joe tends to be depicted as "the cool guy," in the video where it implies "even 'the cool guy' will pitch in with chores like cleaning up after a party."

After the video a friendly looking middle-age man with an eye patch steps onto the stage.  http://ginnodangan.files.wordp...2009/11/fma32-21.jpg

"Hello and welcome to the very first official Citizen's Patrol recruitment drive.  I'm Colonel Bradley, code name Cyclops, commander of the UN anti-terrorism special forces.  My mission today is to help you find the right place within the Citizen's Patrol where you can best contribute to your community with your special talents.

"We have a famous guest helping out today.  The lovely and talented Emerald Haynesworth!"

The crowd erupts into applause and cheers!  After cheering with the crowd, Fire-head offers a handshake to Beth.

"Name's Kevin.  Like, nice to meetcha!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:45, Thu 20 Feb 2014.

Emerald blushes and waves. "I'm not alone. That same Cool Joe you saw in the video is here also!"

Bethany smiles, copies the aloha sign, and then handshakes. "I'm Bethany."

After any cheering done for Joe, Emerald speaks into her mic, "Remember; There is no such thing as a stupid question. Bradley, Joe or I will all be willing to answer any question you may have. We have wifi up and running, so please visit our website's faq before asking questions; your question may be right there! Our site is up on the overhead projection: CP.com"

If Emmy knew Joe's thoughts, she'd be glad he's so optimistic.

Bethany raises a hand that quickly. "How exactly are you going to help us find our place in the Citizen's Patrol?"

  Joe is as surprised as anyone he's being depicted as cool.  But of the average looking people it was that or the twelve year old girl.

  "It would probably involve a boring form, and asking you what you think you are good at, and seeing what we can set you up with.  I'll admit this many people probably goes past the whole 'see what happens as it comes up' method we started out with."

"Thank you, Emerald," Bradley answers, "We have a lot of ground to cover, so we'll be taking questions at the end of the presentation.  Our first topic is how we'll be helping you find your place.  The first tool we use is the ultra-simple, user-friendly form being handed out right now.  I'll be walking you through each field to ensure an accurate snapshot of your potential.  Don't worry about mistakes.  They can always be corrected.  And we understand that there are some things about you that cannot be put into words or fit on a form.  Isn't that right, Emerald?"

The overhead shows a picture of the form, already filled out with a fictitious John Doe's information.

Kevin is super pleased with Beth and he smiles brightly.  "Woah!  Dude!  You a boarder too, Bethany?  Radical!  Love the hair, by the way, babe.  Reminds me of the slopes.  Hahah!"

Bethany giggles from the insinuation she's a boarder and headshakes as Kevin asks that, but then blushes and gives an endearing awww? expression. "Like the snow? Thanks! I wanted to learn boarding, but never had anyone who knew how to show me..."

Emerald, meanwhile, is more than happy to help anyone who needs it. Bud and Lumin are the kinds of twins who are ALWAYS talking in concert; be it in unison, or finishing each others' sentences. They soon tell they have some really interesting powers.

Ariel:
Power) Kangaroo - Ariel seems to just have all the capabilities of a kangaroo.

Bethany:
Power) Glow - Bethany can make any or all of her body glow, including "dead" parts like hair or fingernails.

Bud and Lumin:
Power 1) Shape changing - Bud and Lumin seem able to change their shape. Though not their color.
Power 2) Regeneration - If given time to sit in some water, any wounds they have will heal quickly enough to be good as new within a matter of hours.

Eli:
Ability) Eli is listed as not technically having any "powers", but is also listed as being a super genius and having total recall.

  Joe makes a mental note, check later just what percentage of Mutations result in people out of a children's cartoon.  The answer could both be hilarious, and useful against doomsayers unable to say 'rainbows and lollipops are ruining our country!'...  Great, now Joe is worried somebody will crush the white house with a giant tootsie pop.

  "Okay, so Eli is on the growing list of 'people I know smarter than me'...  Don't tell my Dad I said that."

  Papa Darkthorne sense is tingling.

“No way!” Kevin answers Beth, “I'll totally teach ya, babe!  Like... any special kind of boarding you wunna learn besides snow?  Skate?  Surf?”

About 3/4 of the way into the presentation, all the power goes off!  The room becomes completely dark with the exception of the glowing person and Kevin's head.

Bethany makes the rest of herself glow so as to provide more light. She looks around.

Emerald says, "Someone open the doors." halfway expecting this to be just a power-outage. However, she does pull out her cell and texts Mittens with "Power outage. Could be nothing. Could be an attack. Will text in 2 minutes." she figures if this IS an attack, 2 minutes should be all it will take for whoever to assault the place and achieve the objective. So if she DOESN'T text Mittens back, then Mittens will know the place is in danger.

The text is, of course, sent to all current core members.

  "Right, next time. Better windows." Joe's mental standard of 'Auditorium' seems to differ from the actual case it seems.

  At least the freakin special forces guy didn't see this coming any more than the rest of them did?

  Doors wise, Joe will make his way towards the nearest annoying alarm equipped emergency exit provided none of the several dozen forms of violent interruption happen.

Nothing violent happens unless the alarm from the emergency door counts.  The door opens to a relatively clean alley.  A gentle rain is falling.  Roz calls the fire department to let them know what's going on.  Emmy doesn't get a reply from Mits.  The crowd is nervous and begins to murmur.  Bradley took a side-step when the lights went out but quickly calmed down.

"Attention!" he hollers, "We are experiencing technical difficulties.  Please be patient while we restore power.  Those seated near Joe who are unwilling to wait for the kinks to be worked out may exit after returning their application form.

"Is there anyone in the audience able to stand in for the PA system?"

Seeing the rain, most decide to stay seated but a few hand in their forms and exit.  Kevin smiles at Beth.

"Woah.  Glow!  Hah!"

Emerald steps over to where she heard Joe and says, "Joe, I'm gonna step out for five minutes. If I'm not back within five, you can assume something went wrong."

Unless Joe objects, Emerald heads out.

Meanwhile, Bethany smiles and nods at Kevin while going around offering people use her as a beacon.

  Joe is impressed the ones who still left bothered to turn around and hand their forms in first.  "More wrong than now, but hopefully less wrong than I am expecting Emerald."

A short man in the audience, less than 5' tall, steps up to the stage.

"I CAN STAND IN FOR THE PA SYSTEM," he bellows in a voice that would rival a sound system twice his height.

"Good," Bradley says, "Just relay to the audience what I say and we can continue with the presentation, lacking only overheads."

"Tech support says it sounds like our equipment tripped the main breaker," Roz relays to Joe, "They say we need to unplug everything then go to the breaker to flip it back.  How 'bout you take one of the light-maker people to flip the breaker while I pull the plugs."

She offers him the phone with tech support on it.

Emerald sneaks outside and puts her training in stealth and hiding to good use, looking for anyone or anything out of place. When it comes to dark places, she is sure to STILL use cover in case someone has a mutant power that lets them see in total darkness, and she uses her ears to listen for anyone. Outside of that, she is sure to use all senses.

Bethany, meanwhile, is excited to help when she finds out she can be useful. She jogs in place with a bright (haha) smile on her face!

  "Thanks Roz.  If I'm not back in ten minutes, assume gremlins or some other ridiculous problem of the sort us glorified crossing guards have to keep dealing with."

  At Bethany's enthusiasm, Joe decides to keep Mr. Keychain Flashlight (keys sold separately) pocketed for now.  "Thanks for the help, sorry you have to deal with a hassle already."  That said, Joe shall head forth for breaker box puzzle segment... Or just flipping some switches, this is an Auditorium not an Umbrella Corporation building.

Emerald finds some weird looking smattering of mud leading down a concrete stairway to the basement of the building like someone had carried a large object dripping in mud down the stairs while somehow managing to not track any mud with his shoes.  Perhaps whoever it was came down before the rain started.  She notices a light approaching through the glass window in the door.  Soon she can see Joe and Beth entering the basement from the inside.

“No telling how much clutter's down there by now,” the maintenance guy on the phone says, “But the fuse box should be somewhere on the opposite wall from where you're standing.”

It's a big basement.  And very cluttered.  It'll take a while to get to the opposite wall.

Meanwhile, Bethany follows Joe and says, "You know? This is kind of exciting. I mean, it's sad that some people decided to go home, even in the rain. But this is different and adventurous... and maybe the others'll come around."

Emerald meets up with Joe and says, "I found some mud tracked on the steps leading from outside... they also go into the building from here. Odd part is, it's not like the person had muddy feet. More like they were holding something that was dripping mud. So there's a chance someone did tamper with the fuse box."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:45, Tue 08 Apr 2014.

  Joe nods to Beth, "I figure if they wanted to do this sort of thing, they'll come back later."

  He takes Emeralds explanation like any rational person would.  "Right, if it turns out we're dealing with mud people then we are just turning around and the fusebox can go screw itself."  Or was that Irrational?

If it's mud people, they're chihuahua sized judging from the small diameters of the mud smears.  As the group approaches the halfway point they can hear the familiar buzz of a transformer.  There's the sound of a small spark and the far end of the basement flashes briefly with white light.  The smell of smoke and ozone becomes gradually more pronounced.  The far wall begins to glow slightly with a dim, flickering, yellow light.  Something shuffles about in the clutter behind the group.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:59, Wed 09 Apr 2014.

Emerald turns and says, "Come out. We won't hurt you unless you intentionally try to hurt us."

Bethany turns around, curious what could be going on.

  Mud Midgets sounds more like the sort of things they would end up dealing with than Mud Man, yeah.  Also Mud Vertically Challenged doesn't sound as good, okay.

  "Am I the only one more concerned with the fact it seems like the place is about to catch fire?"

The rustling stops.  When the maintenance guy on the phone hears Emmy, he tries to assure, "It's not uncommon for a stray cat to..." but stops himself when he hears Joe mention a possible fire.

"Fire?!  S-stay c-calm.  There's p-probably a fire extinguisher right next to the fuse b-box."

Emerald says, "You're not alone, Joe. But you won't need my help with that. I can barely hold a fire extinguisher as it is. So I'll keep tracking down Mystery Mud while you all take care of the fuse box and smoke."

And with that, she heads off.

Bethany continues glowing and looks around for an extinguisher.