6659/Don't Sweat It

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Don't Sweat It
Date of Scene: 25 February 2019
Location: New York Public Library
Synopsis: During a charity concert, Mason starts sweating his mutant nature. Andrea and Erika are there to raise alarm.
Cast of Characters: Mason Steele, Rage, Souvenir




Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason Steele's most recent tour just came to an end. It was a success in some regards. He managed to get away with only one of the demanded fluff songs his manager wanted. He also managed to attract a new crowd, expanding his popularity a little.

    He returned to New York, and already had been booked to perform for a charity. The NYC public school system asked him to perform at the Library as they were encouraging children to read more. So here he is. Though it may be cold outside, that's certainly not the case inside. The room set aside for the performance and speech from the Superintendent is large, but it wasn't intended for the 3000 kids who earned their spot by reading over 200 books in the school year so far.
    Of course, Mason let his fellow students at school know, and was able to get them involved as volunteers to help herd the kids from 5th grade down to 1st grade.

    The result of so many in such a space is one hot and sweaty mess. The air conditioner is working overtime, but it's still pushing 85 degrees in here, and hotter on the stage.

Rage has posed:
    Getting involved with kids is right up Andrea's alley. She was on board in a heartbeat, that and she hasn't seen Mason for awhile and so this was almost like a date for them. When you're both celebrity working professionals hop scotching the world every few months, it makes for long and lonely stretches of time.

    Of course, her being here as a volunteer brought another type of excitemen to Mason's concert As much as she tries to make sure that none of this is about her, she gets roped into a few selfies and autographs for crossover fans. Her jacket from the cold weather outside has been long abandoned, leaving her in a dark martoon t-shirt with a gold heart painted on the front, with the word: Everyone, in the middle, skinny jeans and fluffy boots. Now that everyone seems to have been herded and seated, she is off to the side with a smile, playing with her phone and planning to record some of this for a memory.

    Taking in a deep breath, she wiggles her fingers to a young girl who keeps peeking at her, giving her a warm smile. Though the school has it's share of stresses, this is one of those moments where she feels /normal/ and at peace.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir is herding and directing up a storm, doing all she can to get kids into the space. Some kid too young to have boundaries asks about the gloves and gets "I hurt them and they look yucky now". She whews! and looks around for her other helpers.

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason gets up on the stage, spotting both Erika and Andrea as they work with the younger children, and receives a high pitched scream of cheer from the young voices. He starts playing, extolling the virtues of reading. Complete hypocrisy, he avoids reading anything that doesn't have notes in it whenever possible.

    "Hey everybody, I wanna say first great job on your reading club!" he announces. "You're all here because you have read over 200 Books! That's amazing!" He goes on with the prescribed script he's supposed to deliver, pretty typical for this type of event.

    He starts his first song, getting cheers from all the kids. It's not as volume intensive as a normal concert, given both the audience and the location, but it's loud enough to be certain.

Rage has posed:
    Giggling at the sight of Mason taking the stage and the kids screaming for him, Andrea looks as proud as can be as she gives a round of applause as well. She is most likely his biggest fan, no matter where he is in life and she always gets a rush by watching him perform.

    As she watches, she will sing quietly along to heself with the lyrics that she knows, even to his new stuff that she immediately rushed out to buy and listen to. Rocking back and forth on her feet, she is just another fan on this grand stage, watching him have his moment in the spotlight. She records as well with her phone, capturing his success.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir looks around. Wow, this place is crowded. If I were a pickpocket.. And I am, but I don't want to steal anything.. This would be juicy. Not that grade schoolers have much... But they have phones and stuff, so still.. She looks around, pondering how she might work the crowd of kids, and checking to see if anyone is actually doing that, mentally reviewing how to feather a pocket and how she learned to dip a cellphone.

The first song is one of Mason's cheerier ones anyways, so it's not too distracting. Souvenir is trying to get used to thinking like a thief again. At a kids concert. This strikes her as messed up somehow, but what can you do.

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason continues the concert, kids screaming, the latest toys that are the bane of teachers' existence are thrown out as prizes from the stage into the crowd of kids. As the half hour concert continues, though, something is a little...different looking about Mason. He's sweating, which might be expected, except the sweat is a little darker than it should be. a slightly earthy tone to it. Maybe it's makeup...but...he's not wearing any for this performance.

Rage has posed:
    Darnit. Why did Scott have to train her to be always on guard and perceptive? As Andrea watches, she glances down at her phone at times, then zooms in on Mason after a bit. Her eyes widen, then jerks her head upwards as she starts to tap along her screen quickly, sending a text off to Erika.

'Hey! I think Mason is sweating mud. This is not good. We need a distraction to get him off the stage. Can you pull the fire alarm? I'm going up there to get him soon as the song ends'.

    She pivots off her foot, starting for the stage in a wide berth, trying to catch Mason's eyes, her own face riddled with concern. She's beelining at a quick walking pace.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir takes some note, but isn't quite sure if it's bad lighting or what. Then she gets a message.

Crap. She gets to be the party thief. Welp.

She glances around, taking note of the very few security cameras, then wanders through the crowd casually, taking note of the few delinquents. Alas, no great opportunities. And her with no tricks up her sleeve. She looks at the fire alarm.. No crowd there. Good. So she casually walks past and her hand lightly brushes over it. There's no shortage of reasons it might go off in an overcrowded room after all. She immediately blends into the crowd again and reacts with everyone else.

Mason Steele has posed:
    As Andrea approaches the stage, Mason notices her, but seems not to. After all, he's on stage, he's performing. As Erika pulls the fire alarm, suddenly the song is overpowered by the ring of the fire alarm. Mason, the expert performer that he is, closes the single stanza, and then smiles as he speaks to the group. "Hey kids, looks like we have a fire alarm," he announces, catching Andrea's worried look a little more directly this time as he glances over. He searches the crowd for Erika, but given her strategy to blend in with the other adults in the area, he's lost her. "You guys remember your fire drill training, right?" he asks, walking to the stool on the stage that holds his towel. He picks it up, wiping his face of the darker sweat. As he pulls it back, he notices the smear on the towel, and a shade of alarm crosses his face for a moment. He wipes more, and then brings the mic back to his face. "So go ahead and find your teacher, line up just like standard procedure, okay?" he says, faking that nothing is wrong. Naturally, the kids have done several fire drills in school, and for them, it's just another drill. The teachers start to take over, each going to their class, having them stand and form a line.

Rage has posed:
    Leaping on to the stage, Andrea reaches Mason and steps in front of him to block the view of anyone else, starting to nudge him backwards to thick curtain behind the stage where equipment and props would be held. "It'll be okay, come on, James is bringing the car around." She says with a concerned voice, though she's in 'Andrea' mode it seems as she nudges nudges him back.

    Once they are free of any lookie loos, she lobs a text to Erika on where to meet as she guides Mason along with her for the rear entrances. "You feeling okay? Is this a new thing?" She asks softly once they step out into the cold air, feeling her arms goosebump quickly as the cold hits her, having left her jacket behind.

    Faithfully, James rumbles into view with the black SUV, bulletproof, tinted windows, coming to a halt at a quick pace. Vroom! At least the heaters are turned on in there.

Mason Steele has posed:
    Only Mason doesn't go. "Stop," he whispers aggressively, reaching out to move Andrea out from in front of him. "We gotta finish this, stay cool," he says in whisper, wiping his face some more. Appearances aren't too strong, the darker sweat was not overly obvious, and it seems clear for the moment. "Just tell me if my face looks like crap," he says.
    If there's one thing Mason understands, it's stage performance. If he managed to keep things together while there was an active shooter at one of his concerts, he can certainly handle a little mud on his face.

Rage has posed:
    "/Mason/. You are sweating freaking mud." Andrea hisses out at him. "You're surrounded by a bunch of kids wtih camera phones. You're here with your mutant girlfriend. Come on. Get out of here. You don't want this on the news. People will say stuff and connect dots." She grunts out loudly. "It's smeared. It looks... just weird... fine.. I guess.. come on, please." She says as she squeezes his hand. "All it takes is one picture."

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir helps herd people out briefly, then... Wait, what the hell is he DOING? She furrows her brow and bites her lip, slipping away from the crowd to go up and 'help with the equipment'.

"Okay, what are we doing still here? Don't you know there's a fire? We need to get out until they clear the building." She frowns. Oh shit, he's seriously going to do this? Here? Eyes scan the room. Exits located.

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Andrea, I swear," Mason says, controlling his expression. "You bring more attention to this..." There's no real threat attached, but he holds the mic up to his face. "Amazing job guys, that's right. Looks like you guys know your stuff. Keep it nice and orderly," he encourages. As Erika helps herd the kids out to the door, they start filing out properly. Mason takes a breath as the room becomes a little less crowded. He steps off the stage, not rushing for an exit, but walking to his water bottle instead. "We go pushing past to get out of this room in front of all these kids, how do you think that's gonna go over?" he asks. Naturally, the kids are exiting from both of the doors into the room to expedite the situation. "They might get scared. School system will be pissed. Manager will be pissed," he shakes his head, taking a drink, then looks at the towel with worry. It's clearly not something he's happy to see, but he's in show mode right now. Priority one is keeping things together.

Rage has posed:
    Opening her mouth, Andrea looks as if she may give him both barrels of attitude. Instead, she sucks it in and walks off, giving a shake of her head. She taps along her phone and lifts it up to her head. "James, I'll be right out. Just going to grab my coat."

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir sighs. "Mason? This isn't going to be a one-time thing, is it? I mean, this is just going to keep happening. So, like, do you got a plan for this, yet? Because, you know. I don't know if you can keep the stage pumping out enough AC for this. Especially with all the lights and stuff."

She frowns and looks around. "Like, what's the plan for right now, even? Because you're acting like you have this all worked out."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "I don't know," Mason answers Erika. "Okay? Kinda caught blindsided, just gotta get through this, then figure it out," he says, taking a sharp breath in. He pulls his phone from his pocket, bringing up the camera to check his face to make sure that the smears are gone. "We'll just file out with everybody else, it's cold, so that should help cool me off, and we'll jump off the next bridge when we get to it."
    He glances over at Andrea, knowing that he's doing quite a bit to piss her off right now. But this is his call, and he's sticking to it.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir nods decisively. "Got it. Totally got your back here. Do you need me to do anything with the equipment or anything? I mean, I'm your crew here." She looks around and points at the tail end of the line. "If we're exiting in an orderly fashion, there's our line right there."

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason nods, wiping his face again for good measure, and folding the towel so the dirt doesn't show. "Okay, let's go on out, after the teachers, so kids aren't tryin' to get my autograph in the middle of the drill."