[hr][img]http://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/dHRmLjgwLjgwYTlkMS5RVzVrY21WaElGQmhjM1JsY201aFkycywuMAAA/ruthie.regular.png[/img]

[code]Regal Square, Prince-Edfield|[/code]
[sub][@Mr Allen J][/sub][hr][hr]

That wasn't much of a speech. Definitely not the one [i]she[/i] had written.

Andrea had stood off to the side of the rest of the DOVE faculty along with the rest of the minor players. Office workers, interns, and everyone else that played some part, however small, in making this whole event happen. She wore the same outfit, being sure to maintain a professional representation of their organization, only that she wore a black wool peacoat over it to keep warm in the cool weather as the sun gets closer to the horizon. With her, she had a professional looking messenger bag hanging from her shoulder carrying some "much needed" resources, some work-related, some she wished that was. She also stood rather uncomfortably close to her supervisor, who was quite keen on prying the truth behind Andrea's particularly extended absence in delivering the rally papers to their meeting. Not fond of lying, she told the truth - part of it. Helped a man pick up the papers he had dropped - but Andrea wasn't really interested in this show. She suspected, given the skeletons hiding in Baybridge's closet and the director's lackluster speech, neither did he. There were monsters on the prowl and this was just one remedy of many to ease the tension of one disaster before the next one storms in... and there wasn't anything wrong with that. People deserve breaks.

The organization was uneasy though. She could feel it coming off of most of the high-ranking members, like waves of heat emanating from a bed of embers. Security was provided, courtesy of RAVEN, and they were on the lookout for any especially suspicious behavior. Perhaps, unconsciously, Andrea was too. She might even be able to detect them before [i]they[/i] do. This was an odd feeling, as though she were a part of this grand conspiracy without any of the actual participants knowing she's a player, too; but this also wasn't a battle Andrea wanted to fight. It wasn't a battle she was [i]suited[/i] to fight. She figured if she really wanted to help, she can do what she's [i]been[/i] doing, even if the people around her think it's nothing that DOVE should worry about. Andrea believed that the threat of Happiness was very real, even as mundane as it seemed.

Frankly, super-terrorists were more exciting.

Andrea scanned the crowd as they dispersed, quite content to remain where she was and of excitement's way. It appeared as the she was looking through the people as she stared. The number of people who had attended this rally... 1,479. Given the approximate five hundred grand population of Baybridge... carry... nearly 30% of 1%, or nearly a third of a percent of Baybridge's population came to this rally. Not a tremendous number. Even considering the people who had to work today, were busy with something else, or didn't support the organizations enough to warrant coming, or maybe they'll come later for the food and entertainment, and avoiding the crowds and the bureaucrats patting themselves on the backs. Then... ah... oh. Oh no. The guy she ran into earlier today was here. Was he high ranking? Maybe he wasn't and just... then he wouldn't be on the management level... but Andrea was also there - Andrea's glowing blue eyes fixed on him and refocused with an intensity as she dug deeper... deeper... memories of Brazil flickered behind her eyes - no, too deep, more recent. Reassignment...   dropping papers... the meeting. He was there at the meeting, so apparently he [i]was[/i] a big shot, which was enough to put her on edge, but one word kept echoing through her head. Devil, devil, [i]devil...[/i]

It didn't mean anything to her. How could it? It could've been one of any word said at the meeting they had, but it carried enough weight behind it that left a lasting imprint on his psyche. Andrea wanted no part of it. The man earned his privacy, and quite frankly, she wasn't interested in learning any more of the dark secrets RAVEN was keeping. Odd, though. He didn't look Brazilian. More Haitian.

Still, part of her wanted to apologize to the man properly, especially just in case he really did have the power in his hands to fire her. That being said, she also kind of wanted to fade away with the rest of the crowd, but she learned long ago that you can't fix problems by hiding them. She focused on the path in front of her, and muttered a small phrase under her breath.

[i]"Find a path."[/I]

Through her eyes, a number of featureless, ghostly apparitions formed a line - almost like a chain weaving through the crowd, suddenly falling into place, leading Andrea directly to him through a path that would leave her uninhibited. Most people might not be able to find a specific person in a crowd of people, so perhaps he had not seen her coming, but Andrea cut her way through the crowd without having to squeeze by or a single person, almost as though the crowd moved around her. It was one of many subtle advantages of such multifaceted telepathy, knowing almost intuitively where multiple people will end up going and through where.

"Um, hello?" She softly said, tapping the back of his shoulder. "I don't think we properly met."