The Butterfly Effect

[Alice Hobbs]

Alice looked at the door in front of her. She had been directed here after asking the receptionist where she could find someone to discuss her ability with. For a while now, Alice had wanted to figure out a way to cover up or get rid of her tattoos without having to constantly wear her wings out. Make-up was too expensive. Especially as the tattoos covered most of her back, ribs and upper arms. That was a definite no. So, here was her last hope. At least, unless she come up with something else that seemed smart at the time being. Right now, Alice couldn't help but feeling slightly awkward about the whole ordeal.

Taking a deep breath, she lifted her hand and gave the door a knock; god, did she hope the guy was in there. It would be such a tedious thing if he happened to be away or busy. Finding this place hadn't exactly been easy. But then again, Alice could hardly blame the guy for that.

Since classes were over, Alice had dressed up in a loose tank top and a pair of yoga pants. She'd rather not have any more of her shirts ripped apart from having to emerge her wings. She wasn't rich after all, and buying new clothes simply because her power destroyed the last ones were... simply put: annoying. To think that the school hadn't taken that into account when choosing the uniforms... Ah well, she supposed it didn't matter. It wasn't like she couldn't control her power. Her wings usually just came out when she wanted them to, and when they didn't... Well, she could worry about that when it actually happened.

And hey, maybe she could have the guy help her out with her dust. She didn't know a whole lot about that, other than it made people go trippy and loopy.

"Mr... Uhm, Lockard?" she called out. "It's Alice--Hobbs."

Tag: Seiji Lockard

[Seiji Lockard]

Seiji had been relaxing in his office around the time that he had gotten the call. Everyone seemed to like giving him a heads up when anyone would ask where his office was. He appreciated that people called him to let him know that someone was possibly on their way but a lot of times people must have lost their nerve and didn't show up. Not that it really bothered Seiji other then he felt a little bad that people did not want to come to him or not ready to come get help for whatever reason.

He was here to help and that was what he wanted to do, especially with how school was over he was able to put in even more hours. Another bonus of school being over was that he was going to be graduating from college soon and would be able to focus on his staff job. He was still debating if he wanted to also take on a teacher job for like a Mutant 101 class, but he still had time to think about that. Seiji was dressed as if he was trying to impress someone, but that was really how he just kind of dressed. He did at the very least have his lab coat resting over his shoulders as he looked over a few papers for another mutant that he was going to be helping out later on in the day.

The knock at the door had Seiji quickly rising to his feet and going to open the door. He had already tucked Sapphire away in a drawer after he had gotten the call, to avoid any possible snake drama. With his luck however, it was likely his guest would end up seeing his snakes. He put on his best smile and opened up the door, liking to personally greet someone when he could. "Hello Miss Alice. I'm Seiji. Please come in and have a seat." Seiji said, already gesturing to the seat on the other side of his desk and then extended his hand out to hers to shake.

[Alice Hobbs]

Looking at the boy with narrowed eyes, Alice gave his dress code a once over before pursing her lips. "A little overly dressed for a lab visit, aren't you?" she mused. She stepped inside, taking a look around as she nodded. "Thank you," she added. She didn't want to come off as rude by commenting on his clothes as she had, but Alice was nothing if not too blunt for her own good. The poor guy would realize that sooner or later anyways, so she'd might as well ease him into it.

"I wanted to talk to you about one of my side-effects," she said, still looking around. Moving towards the seat he'd gestured at, Alice sat down. She put one foot over the other and leaned back. Her eyes then finally rested upon the boy. "I have wings," she began. "Dragonfly wings," she added with a small sigh. "And whenever they're not out, they..." She trailed off and started unbuttoning her coat. Pulling the troublesome clothing off, Alice gestured towards the tattoos covering her upper arms.

"They cover my upper arms, my back and my sides, and as much I enjoy being able to keep my wings from popping out, the tattoos are troublesome on their own." Not that Alice didn't find tattoos attractive, but she'd rather pick them herself, as opposed to being stuck with... this.

[Seiji Lockard]

Seiji looked down over himself at Alice words about him being a bit overdressed for a lab visit. Was there something wrong with his outfit? He dressed like this pretty much every day except Saturday and Sunday. Unless he had some plans to go out on those days, but that didn't really happen all that often with his lack of a large social group. He didn't have to wear a uniform around now but that didn't mean that he didn't like to dress up nice. Even when he was young he dressed up as if he was going somewhere important, side effect of being a rich kid he supposed. "I can change if you like." Seiji offered, not wanting to make her uncomfortable with his clothing choice.

He gave a nod and moved over to take his own seat as she thanked him, noticing how she was walking around and checking the place out. He just gave another nod when she pointed out that she wanted to talk about a side-effect she had. He figured as much because why else would anyone come to see him in general? He already pulled up her file, knowing that she was going to be here after all so could see what he power was and the few details that were noted about it. "Right, Dragonfly Wings and Hallucinogenic Dust is what is down here for your ability." Seiji said, turning his computer screen to show her. He liked students to know that the school did have things noted down on them, that they were keeping track of their powers to best help them out.

When she started to trail off and then suddenly unbutton her shirt, Seiji could not help but to start to blush a little. He of course expected that she was just removing her shirt so she could better show him what she was talking about instead of explaining it. He still blushed of course because well he blushed at that sort of thing whenever any attractive male or female was just showing him something on their body. Of course he was a professional and he was already focused on the task at hand as he stood up and moved closer to get a better look.

"I see, do you mind if I touch them?" Seiji asked and in general he meant if he was allowed to touch her. He was already thinking of several possible solutions, but he had to be sure just how her wings were sticking to her back. Did they dig deep down in, or was it one of those perfect layers like skin that just rested on her back? He had to touch to be sure, but he also had to have permission for that first.

[Alice Hobbs]

Alice's brows furrowed momentarily when the guy offered to get his attire. Well, wasn't that a surprise. She supposed she could appreciate the gesture, even though it struck her as odd that he'd even offered. "No, that's quite alright," she replied sheepishly. Why would anyone go to such lengths to make sure someone was more comfortable? Wasn't there like a golden rule about embracing yourself and stuff? It didn't matter.

Moving on, Alice nodded when the guy said the name of her power. At least she didn't have to worry about that; he already had her file which would save the both of them a whole lot of time, thank god. It would make the whole process a lot less tedious.

As Alice wasn't particularly shy about her body, even she felt a little bit awkward over the way the guy started blushing. It struck her as a little unprofessional, but again, she could hardly blame him. He was still a college student, from what Alice had heard, and well, she sincerely doubted just anyone came in here and started stripping their clothes off. "Not at all," she replied, her head shaking faintly. As long as he didn't start groping her (which she doubted), she didn't have many issues with it.

Besides, he was the expert here, and if touching them meant it was going to help her in any way, she sure as hell wasn't going to complain.

[Seiji Lockard]

When she said that it was fine that he stayed in what he was wearing, he relaxed a little. He did not really want to get changed, but he would do it for the sake of her feeling comfortable. She might have felt odd that he would go to such length to make sure that she felt alright around him, but that was in his nature. Plus it was his job to help students out and if they didn't feel comfortable around him then it would have been hard for them to trust him to help them out. Plus he was pretty sure there had been research done on how you dressed effected the level of someone trusting you.

That might have been a part of why he dressed up as well, besides being raised to dress nice. People trusted those in suits or uniforms; made them official. He did blush, and he hoped he did not make her feel uncomfortable, but it had just caught him off guard. Yet, it was only for a moment and he was already in his professional mode. The blush going away as he moved over closer to her, first just looking at how her wings laid down on her skin.

When she gave him permission he carefully reached out and touched her wings and then her skin. Comparing the two textures before touching where the wings meet the skin on her body. "Hmm, I see. So they do not actually become tattoos, they just press flat against your skin. Very convenient so you don't have to worry about anything getting caught on them when you change." Seiji said as he looked at them. He then walked away to grab a few things, a scalpel, and a petri dish. "I'm just going to scrape a little off of your wings and skin. It's going to sting a little while I do it an after, but should not do any real damage to your skin or wings." Seiji assured her.

He gestured for her to have a seat on once more, so she could be comfortable while he quickly did what he needed to do. Unless she stopped him, because if she said no he would stop in a heartbeat. "I do already have several ideas that could work. I'm guessing you have already covered them up with makeup, right?" Seiji asked. She looked like a girl who would try such a thing at first to cover them up. He didn’t get why she wanted to cover them up, they were beautiful, but it was just his job to help her out with what she wanted.

[Alice Hobbs]

She nodded slightly at his words; she had figured that was what it was. It wouldn't have made a whole lot of sense if her wings suddenly turned into ink anyways. So the fact that her wings pressed against her skin and took the shape of a tattoo made sense. And the stronger her wings grew, the bigger both they and the tattoo got. "Alright," she responded. Thankfully, pain wasn't something that bothered her overly much. Yes, pain sucked as much as the next thing, but to be fair, she wasn't overly afraid of it.

She did as she was told then and sat back down onto the chair he'd gestured towards. "I have," she replied. "It takes a lot of effort and money," she continued. And it was incredibly tiresome too. The pain stung, just like he'd said, but she'd experienced worse. Like that time she'd broken her wing during the IMAC fire. Now that had been painful like a real bitch. This was nothing compared to that.

Hopefully, this guy would come up with a more permanent solution that didn't require a lot of time or money. She remained perfectly still as she let the guy do what he knew best. She wasn't one to interrupt, and instead, she let the guy do his job in peace.

[Seiji Lockard]

When she gave him the alright, he went right to work scratching off a sample from her wings and her skin. He made sure to only take a little bit so she would not have to deal with the pain long, but it would feel like a paper cut did after for a little while. He needed to compare both her skin and wing sample to double check another thing. He was already setting the samples under to different microscopes, and setting them up so he could get a clear and close up look at the skin and her wings. "Fascinating." Seiji said as he looked in one microscope and moved to the next.

He still of course was paying attention to what she was saying as he looked. Right, it had looked like there had been makeup on them at one point, and it also was clear that there was some dust from her secondary power. Do to the way her wings were set up, it made sense that she would not be able to keep them covered with makeup for a long time and add her dust power on top of that. She was just basically going to end up 'shedding' it all off. "We are just going to have to come up with something that only takes time and effort on my part." Seiji said as he chuckled a little.

Seiji was already seeing a few possibilities that would be able to hide her wings the way she wanted them too. They of course were always going to fold down onto her body when she was not using them and if she grew taller or her weight changed in anyways, they were sure to adjust in that manner as well. So it was the wings themselves that Seiji was taking an especially close look at under the microscope. "Can you let them out? As it go ahead and spread your wings out." Seiji said as he messed around with his microscope some more.

He needed to see something else, but he was pretty sure that he had an idea that would work out great for her. It would even be something that would help her for now but she would end up being able to have control over it with time.