The Power Of Understanding

[Seiji Lockard]

Seiji felt half bad for basically snooping in one someone’s power. He always did. It could not be helped when he had access to the database that held all the information on those at the school and those who had been at the school. He knew names, birthdates, phones number, but more importantly he knew about people’s powers. It was essential for him to know about powers since he was one of the Side-Effect Specialist at the school. It just still felt as if he was digging into someone’s personal life when he started to look into their power.

One person in particular really caught his attention when he saw what mutation they had and he was shocked that he had not noticed it until recently. Intuitive Power Understanding & Power Detection. The power was literally a blessing for someone in Seiji's field and he envied that he had not ended up with a power himself. It was practically impossible for him not to go seek out the woman behind the power to ask her for help. He knew her name; Charity Legrange. He also knew that she was a trainer but besides that he didn't know much else.

Knowing her name was apparently enough as he asked around the staff and was informed that she was currently in the Teacher's Loungue. "Now make sure you are on your best behavior. No sneaking all over a person now." Seiji half scolded his snake. He had Leevi on him at the moment, one that he often carried around. The rest still wanted to mainly stay inside their tanks to just try and sleep this cold season away. "Excuse me; is there a Miss Legrange still in here?" Seiji asked as he entered the teachers’ lounge.

((Tag:Charity Croft))

[Charity Croft]

Charity had been studying the various files of students that had been transferred to her, mostly without her permission or knowledge. Given that Charity was technically the newest trainer and all, she pretty much just had to take what they gave her, especially when they happened to be her father and all. Plus, everyone seemed to be really into taking on additional training sessions and all.

So Charity was nose deep in a file when she heard her voice. She pulled herself up, blinking owlishly behind a pair of reading glasses. She pushed those up to the top of her head and turned toward the voice. "Excuse me?" she called, waving a hand, "were you looking for a Mr. Legrange or a Miss? You know what," she said, setting down her file, "it would be a lot easier with a first name. Are you looking for a Guy or a Charity? Because I'm obviously not a guy," and she had to snort at that, because c'mon, that was just funny.

[Seiji Lockard]

Seiji's eyes went to the owner of the voice that asked the question. He could have sworn he made sure to say Miss, but she was surrounded by books and files. That pretty much explained everything. She clearly was knee deep in work and just miss missed a little bit of what he had asked when he entered the room. Leevi moved a little where he was hiding, but Seiji places a hand on the location to keep the snake hidden away for a little longer. There was someone else in the room that Seiji knew was terrified of snakes and he wanted them to leave the room first before Leevi peek his head out to check out Charity.

"I am looking for Miss Legrange. Charity Legrange, which I feel is safe to assume, is you?" Seiji asked with a slightly nervous smile. He carefully approached her, his eyes automatically scanning over some of the files. He was always so curious so could not help but want to at least get a peek at information presented wherever he was. "You look rather busy, would you like me to converse with you another time?" Seiji asked, now clicking that perhaps she didn't have the time to talk. She did have a lot of files on her desk and she was even what looked to be reading glasses. Of course they could have been her normal glasses, but they had this reading glasses style to them.

[Charity Croft]

Yes, Charity had missed the part where he'd done the appropriate addressing. He at least seemed to be looking for her, which meant that Charity could actually help him with that. She smiled and nodded, answering the question. She noticed his eyes falling to the files and was about to insist that it wasn't a bother when he asked his question, which just made her own segue that much easier to make.

"I'm just doing homework," she said, half-teasing. "They loaded me up with a bunch of transfer students and what have you, wanted to make sure I had plenty to do. I've been reviewing the files and stuff, so it's definitely stuff I can put off. Did you have something you wanted to ask me?"

Charity tilted her head to the side, wondering what he could possibly want with her. She could tell that his power appeared to be some kind of animal communication... but he seemed a bit too old to want her to point that out, so maybe it was something else?

[Seiji Lockard]

When the woman; not completely confirmed to be Charity Legrange pointed out that she was just doing homework, Seiji wondered for a moment if she was in college like him. There were a couple of students that he knew were in college but were also working for the school. He thought it was smart that the school would take them on even in their early years of college since it not only gave the students work experience, it also provided the school with a way to make sure that there was always going to be mutants working at the school. While he didn't have a problem with non-mutants, it just made more sense for those who had power to work with and be around those with powers as well.

"Oh, so the file was correct that you are one of the new trainers. Not that I was like reading aspect of your file. Just what was important. Not that I like searched your file out in particular but when the system updated I checked it out and...it’s about your power." Seiji said, going into one of his mini rambles. He did want to ask her something. It was about her power but more specifically if there was any way that he could use her for his research. Better yet, if she could change what job she had for the school and would just work in the field where she would be perfect for.

"You power...its Intuitive Power Understanding & Power Detection. Well you know that but what I'm getting at is your power would be really useful for helping figure out aid in side-effects. I'm the Side-Effect Specialist. One of them. Seiji Locakard, apologies for not introducing myself first and stumbling around a little." Seiji said, trying to get to the point but was still messing up a little bit. How did one ask for someone to help when you didn't really know that many ways to word what you wanted help on particularly. Leevi was already moving to peek from Seiji's right sleeve, which was currently up near Seiji's face since he was scratching at his scruff a little.

[Charity Croft]

Was this what it was like to talk to her? Charity certainly wondered about that, as Seiji sort of stumbled his way through the conversation. She nodded confirmation about her position: yes, she was most definitely a new trainer, just got here. Charity didn't actually say that though, mostly because Seiji didn't exactly leave her a lot of room to slide real words into the conversation. Charity just kept nodding along, then tilting her head as he mentioned her power.

Sometimes people did seek her out because of their power. They were usually younger than Seiji, younger and curious as to what she could tell them about how to "fix" their powers. It was often so difficult to face someone like that and try to explain things. Seiji knew exactly what she did, and Charity was nodding, this time raising a finger to try and point out that was the technical name but, yet again, he'd rambled so more.

"Well, uh," she said, once she finally had a chance, "I'm definitely a new trainer, definitely Charity Legrange, and that is the super stuffy version of my power," she tapped her fingers. "Side effects specialist?" She crunched her brow, trying to remember. "So... you help students deal with those fun little side effects to powers?" Charity sometimes got those too, though it wasn't strictly in her strength. "That does sound really neat and stuff but, like, what does that have to do with me?" Because Charity couldn't quite figure out how she'd really help that, unless he wanted more in-depth analysis? But she'd have to actually study someone to tell...

[Seiji Lockard]

Seiji knew he could ramble and go on and on for a long time if someone let him or he did not catch himself in time. He normally did catch himself but by then he normally said a lot and had already felt like he embarrassed himself. He figured he talk to people the way he did because as a kid he was bullied and often ignored by those around him. So perhaps it was that reason that he just wanted to get everything out there why he had their attention and thus would not keep them long.

It could have also been that he was just really nervous around others and thus talked fast because of it. Another possibility was that his mind was operating too fast, with thoughts, questions, and words being whisper to him by his snakes and thus he spoke fast. Seiji just went with it being a combination of all of them. He was still working on doing better at the rambling thing, but he didn't really have a lot of opportunities to get in a lot of practice. While people were not bullying him and he had made friends, there were still not a lot of people that he would see again after one meeting.

She confirmed that she was in fact Charity, the new trainer, and her power was what he said it was. Right. All things that he was basically sure on, other than who she was until like a few minutes ago when she made it obvious who she was with the whole asking for Guy or Charity. He nodded his head yes at her question about him being the side-effect specialist. Leevi meanwhile was making his way out of his master's sleeve and slithering down to the floor so he could slither under the table that Charity was sitting at. "That is the large aspect of my job, yes." Seiji said with a nod, not paying much attention to what Leevi was doing, because it was what the snake did.

"Well...I actually don't know how to ask you this. It's just someone with your power would be extremely useful for my research. Since you can understand peoples powers; from what the file said, your understanding could be useful in figuring out different ways to treat them." Seiji said as he smiled at the thought of how she could help. "Not that we can completely cure all of them, but there are some that we can help treat to dampen their effects." Seiji added, feeling like that was important to know.

[Charity Croft]

Head nodding, so Charity had been right about the side effects thing. She felt like patting herself on the back for that, and at least settled for a pleased little smile. At least she could pride herself on being somewhat observant and all. He also confirmed that she'd also been at least partially right as to what he did.

Soon Charity was leaning forward with curiosity, listening as Seiji outlined his reason for approaching. "Well, I don't often understand the side effects, though I can occasionally pick those up with enough study," she said. "It's more, like, I can understand how someone can access and use their powers and stuff. Though sometimes it's less how they can use it and more how it uses them. Like," she squinted, "with you, you communicate with snakes, like, not just talking and stuff: you can sometimes see their thoughts or something... but they're still animals and all... buuut, yeah," she winced, "I have no idea what that would do to you."

Charity paused for a moment, then smiled. "It does sound neat though, and I'd definitely be willing to help people with it if I can. Err, my power, not yours, though I'm sure we could figure out something to do to use your power to help people... probably..."

[Seiji Lockard]

Seiji would have taken a seat, but as she was talking that becomes not really important as he was focused on every word she was saying. He was practically taking every word in, committing it to memory, and filing it away to be used later on. She didn't really understand the side-effects but she picked them up when she studied powers. She didn't really need to understand the side-effects completely, since that was what he was there for. Still, if he could rope her in having like a part time job in his field then that would have made things a lot easier. He could teach her about side-effects and thus giving her more understanding of them.

Then in turn aid from her in the future when it came to trying to understand powers and what they did to the user of said powers. He then blinked a few times as she started to talk about his power and what he could do passed just talking to snakes. She was pretty much spot on and he could not help but be even more fascinated with her power. His mind was now less concerned about having her help and now more wanting to study her to learn the details of how she did it and side-effects she had to deal with a power like hers. "You were pretty much right on what you said, just having left a few things out." Seiji pointed out, still pretty impressed.

"As for understanding what my power does to me, I've found that if you think about what is involved when it comes to how the power is used, that tends to give an idea to the side effects." Seiji added after a moment, figuring he give her a little lesson there. It was almost as simple as knowing that a telepath used their mind for their power and thus a likely side-effect would be headaches. "Oh, I'm sure you can. Just you understanding what a person can do would be enough by virtue of you telling me. I can figure out the side-effect based on what you tell me on their power." Seiji pointed out, already getting excited. Leevi meanwhile was now making his way up the leg of the chair and making his way to slide across Charity's lap.

[Charity Croft]

Charity smiled as Seiji confirmed that she'd mostly gotten his power right. The "few things left out" probably would have come to her with more study or focus. It wasn't as though she could glance at someone and instantly understand everything about their ability and all. The demonstration apparently gave Seiji enough to sort of understand what she did and make some connections and all.

"Well, not every side effect really makes sense for the power and---" Charity began, even as she realized that she was probably discussing something he already knew. The stop did not come from that realization, however, but instead from something else.

"SNAKE!" Charity shrieked. She threw her folders up in the air and jerked to her feet, taking several steps away and bounding into another nearby chair, standing up on it. "There's a snake! Right there!" She pointed, as if Seiji couldn't see the snake. Charity trembled all over and clearly wanted something done about the clearly menacing, deadly reptile that was far, far too close to her.

[Seiji Lockard]

Charity seemed like she was about to say something regarding how not all side-effected matched up with the powers. That was his guess just based on the fact of how she started her sentence, and of course he already knew this. He knew a lot about side-effects, arguably more than others that had been in his position in the past. No, he could not get as far to brag that highly of himself when it came to his work. It was not like he made any huge breakthroughs other than finding when the mutant gene always showed up on the DNA strand, among other places.

That and he were working improving the mutant test and made more discoveries on how the mutant gene passed in a family. So alright, he made a few breakthroughs but nothing huge in his mind. All of those happened fast, faster than the fact that Charity had paused in what she was saying and then was yelling out snake. He was slightly surprised that she was freaking out when she knew his ability was and then could clearly see that Leevi was now on the chair that Charity had been sitting it. It was always interesting to see how people reacted when they saw a snake. Charity treated Leevi like he was some kind of mouse or something.

Part of him wondered if he should tell her that no matter how high she got, the snake could still crawl up and get her if he really wanted to. "It's okay, he is mine and is not poisonous. I'm sorry that he frightened you." Seiji said as he went over to his snakes and reached out to pick the creature up and hold him. Trying to show that Leevi was harmless. He didn't move closer to her because he knew if someone had a fear of snakes you had to let them be the one to come closer because moving closer to them was likely going to result in them running. He knew at least he could add her to the list of people he needed to keep his snakes hidden from.

"He also apologizes for startling you and just wanted to get an up close view of you." Seiji relayed the message his snakes was telling him. Leevi also nodded his head in a way, as if trying to prove that he in fact had said that and Seiji was not making it up. Seiji was half surprised that she didn't move to use him as something to climb up on because how tall he was. He remembered when someone did that once to get away from his snake. It had been...interesting to say the least.

[Charity Croft]

"Kind of already guessed the yours part," said Charity, looking over at Seiji and smiling nervously. She saw him pick the snake up and actually attempted to crawl up the table a little further. She was now effectively standing on it and looked about ready to grab onto one of the lighting features overhead if she absolutely needed to. "And he can just keep being not poisonous and stuff over there," she said, pushing away from her body and swallowing nervously.

And now Seiji was talking to it. Charity swallowed and nodded, willing to just sort of go along so long as the snake in question remained in the general "over there." So more head bobbing ensued, and Charity pulled up a little more as the snake bobbed.

"Shouldn't he be in a cage or on a leash or draped over your shoulders or something?" she asked, gesturing and letting out a nervous laugh. "You know, instead of crawling all over people and stuff..." because that was definitely not fun.

[Seiji Lockard]

Charity pointed out that she guessed the snake belonged to him, but that didn't apparently ease her fear or worry like Seiji had hoped. Sometimes it worked out in his favor that people would understand that the snake was not going to harm them because it belonged to him. He liked to think he was a nice enough guy that people would assume that the same personally carried over to his snakes. Well...'personalities', since many people probably didn't really think snakes had any but his certainly did.

It was likely because of his power that his snakes had developed the unlike normal snake personalities that they did, but he was not thinking about that right now. Right now he was thinking about how to ease Charity's worry over his snake since now she was up on the table. He did pout slightly, not liking to be the cause of someone’s fear or the fact that people were afraid of snakes in the first place. This was part of the reason why he didn't have any friends growing up, so it was not like he was not used to the reaction. "Don't worry. I promise you he is pretty harmless. He just has a habit of sticking his head in places it does not belong." Seiji said, already moving to let Leevi lay across his shoulders for now.

If Charity didn't seem to relax with the snake soon then he would have the snake hide somewhere on his person or in the room until he was done talking to her. He had not expected his snake to get in the way of a conversation. Then again, they tended to always get in the way of a conversation. "They only tend to go in their cages when they are sleeping or eating. Any other time they tend to hang out in my room and at least one of them is always on my person." Seiji said, just telling her like it was since he didn't want to lie to her. Even if it meant now she was likely going to be weary around him.

[Charity Croft]

Great, snakes. Why couldn't he have been a butterfly manipulator or something along those ends? Where were the people with bunny communication or kitten manipulation? No, instead it had to be snakes. Harmless snakes, as Seiji kept insisting, but, still, snakes. "Maybe you should train him not to do that?" Charity suggested, trying to make it sound like it wasn't a question asked in a near panic (and mostly failing).

Seiji also insisted that the snakes didn't really spend a lot of time in their cages. That certainly didn't make things any easier for Charity, but she could also tell that Seiji looked a little disappointed. She bet that this happened fairly often: snakes weren't exactly a cuddly, lovable creature after all. So she tried to take some deep breaths. "Right, well, just, ah, I don't like them, you know," she gestured at herself, "crawling all over me. So if you could just keep them on you," she pointed on Seiji, "That would be... great."

Charity even climbed off the table as a sign of good faith. True, she did just climb down into a nearby chair but, well, baby steps.

[Seiji Lockard]

"I have tried; he just seems to not obey me unless I commend him not to do something. I could do that with him for you. Tell him to never touch you without you’re okay first." Seiji suggested. He normally didn't command his snakes to never touch someone and more so did suggestions then he did orders. There was a few times where he did lay out an order that had to be followed and was. Typically it normally was about not eating, biting, and sneaking into someone’s room. His power might have been absolute with his snakes but they always seemed to be able to find loop holes in what he said. As expected from a snake when you thought about it.

She pointed out that she didn't like them, which was obvious the moment she had yelled and ran away from Leevi. The snake honestly would have been giving her a sad expression if it was capable of showing any emotion. The downside of being a reptile was the lack of expressions and the fact that they were cold blooded. He just wanted to go where it was warm and ladies had so many places on them that were oh so warm and soft. "I can do that." Seiji said, moving to grab a hold of Leevi and let the snake slide into his jacket.

Leevi was pouting so he was slithering a little slower than normal as he went to one of the hiding spots he had within Seiji's jacket. "If you don't want him on my person at all, I can have him hide somewhere else as well." Seiji suggested after a moment. The thought hit him as he took one step closer to her before pausing. He did still have a snake on him and while she could not see it, she knew it was on him. So he was unsure if she was alright with snakes to the point of just knowing it was there.