Bag o' Gold (Seiji, open)

[Eve Henkō]

It was a cold night. Far too cold. Or she wasn't wearing something thick enough. A wisp of visible air escaped her throat, and she pulled the tassels on her hoodie tighter. "I need to find out what wool is made of," she muttered to no one in particular. Something crashed to the ground behind, causing the girl to nearly leap out of her skin. It was, however, just a cat that proceeded to rush by. "...Stupid thing."

She had been walking for hours. Wandering, more like. She hadn't even planned to come to this remote backwater town, but it was here, or wait a few more days for the bus service to sort itself out. So there she was; fresh off the bus, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. She should have went to Wyoming. Walked there, if she had to. Then again, camping would have sucked. She didn't have any of the right gear. Just the scraggy, slightly torn and weathered clothes on her back and what few possessions she kept in the duffel bag slung over her shoulder. That... and the tiny little pouch tied to her belt that jingled and jangled as she walked. The pouch she had to be careful with.

The girl's head shook, dispelling the thoughts. There were greater things to focus on. Like finding somewhere to sleep for the night. And food. Anywhere she could sit down and relax would be fine, too. She turned a corner, and may well have found her place.

"Hole in the Wall, huh?" she read from the sign. Typical American bar, from the looks of it. Relatively quiet, at least at the moment. She could get a drink, if nothing else. She rummaged around her pockets and found the dirty ID card she had been using for the past few months, ever since this... thing had started. The bouncer looked back and forth between the card and her face several times. It was a good forgery; one that had cost her quite a bit. Not that money was much of an issue, these days.

Eventually, her waved her through and she walked in to the sweet, sweet feeling of warmth. It was a cosy place, and Eve Henkō settled, snugly, right into an empty booth. She breathed a sigh of relief and let herself melt into the comfy upholstery. Moments like this were always nice.

[Seiji Lockard]

Sitting in the warmth of the warmth of Matt's Hole in the Wall, a place Seiji liked to come every so often to have a nice drink and a moment to give his brain a break from constant thinking. He had a nice Gin and Tonic, a type of cocktail that was made with gin and tonic water; as the name implied. Ice floating midway in the glass; since that’s how far he had drank it down to. The slice of lime having already been squeezed a little into the drink and resting on a napkin next to the glass. He currently sat in a booth off in sort of a corner; looking over a letter he had received. He was not really sure why he had been looking over this letter when he had come here to drink. Sure he was on his second glass and not feeling at all drunk, but if he planned on getting drunk, having something out to read was not very smart.

True the letter itself might have been the real reason as to why he was here drinking by himself on a night such as this. Yet he would not tall anyone and simply crumpled up the letter and stuffed it into his coat pocket. His stuffing the crumpled letter into his coat, stirred Leevi out of his hiding spot, trying to be all sneaky snake like and slitter his way over to the lime on the table because it was giving off an interesting smell. However Seiji was quick to scoop him back up and pull the Eastern Kingsnake back. Making sure to be careful with him but also looking around to make sure no one had noticed. He didn’t remember if there was a sign or not that pets were not allowed or anything, but that was not the problem. The problem was that not a lot of people liked snakes and seeing one just slitter out of someone’s jacket could cause a panic. "Get back in there." Seiji whispered slightly, giving Leevi a look because he was supposed to be the good one.

While Seiji was distracted with , Akiko decided to take this moment to be all sneaky snake like and slip out the back of his coat, making sure to not give away the she was moving away. An interesting scent had attracted the Scarlet Kingsnake into slithering over to the girl sitting alone in a booth. Akiko was friendly after all and seeing the girl all by herself just made her want to go over a say hello. Granted she was a snake so could not really say hi, so instead made her way over and went to peek her head up just a little over the side of the table at the opposite side of the booth Eve was sitting at. Flicking her tongue and waiting for the girl to spot her and tell her how she was a very pretty snake and try to pick her up.

[Eve Henkō]

Eve took a deep, long breath. She was still shivering a little, but her bones were at least starting to warm up. She wanted something to eat, something to drink, and a comfy bed that wouldn't require her to walk much further. Her feet were aching enough as it was. She picked up a menu and began to browse, her tired, grit-filled eyes absently reading over it. It would probably be easier to just get something from the vending machine, draw less attention to herself.

With a sigh, she pulled up her pouch and reached inside. Then froze. Things had suddenly taken an unpleasant turn -a turn her fatigued brain really couldn't be doing with. Her breathing grew deeper and she momentarily closed her eyes, counted to ten, then opened them again. The snake hadn't left. "...Okay, stay calm. No sudden moments, just get someone to help..."

Eyes fixed on the snake's own, Eve slowly began to slide out from the booth, pouch still in hand. "There we go, nothing to worry about, just slowly move..." She didn't notice the material of the pouch catch an old nail poking out of the bottom of the table. It was only once she stood up fully out of the booth that the sound of tearing fabric pierced her ears and made her heart jump. Coins, lots of shiny, pure gold coins -some the size of nickels, others quarters, dimes and so on- all tumbled from the tear in the pouch and spilled all over the nearby flow. "Shit!" Eve hissed, before diving to her knees so as to try and scoop them all up as quickly as possible. She didn't even care about the snake -the coins had to get in her pockets.

[Seiji Lockard]

Akiko did move at first, she was waiting. Waiting for the pretty human to tell her that she was a pretty snake a pet her. However the girl was saying things and moving to slide out of the booth. Akiko watched her for a moment before going to slither across the table towards the girl. Trying to look friendly, but she could not wag her tail like a dog or really make any facial expressions, so she just made sure not to hiss or anything. Seiji was busy getting Leevi to go back into his coat, which Leevi obeyed, but made sure to tattle on Akiko. If he could not have his fun then neither could she, it was only fair. "Akiko?" Seiji was quick to call out as he looked around for the snake, not even really needing to look for her; he could sense her, she as behind him.

He turned his head around just at Eve had ripped her bag and had spilled coins all over the ground. She must have been startled by Akiko and went to make a mistake but gotten caught on something. Seiji moved smoothly over towards her to help pick up the fallen coins. "I'm really sorry about that miss. That snake belongs to me and I'm sorry that she startled you." Seiji said in a very apologetic manner, he had to often apologize for his snakes so this was nothing new for him. Picking up a pure gold coin his eyes widen a little, squinting at the coin for a moment. "That is some very valuable change to be carrying around. Is everything alright?" Seiji asked, more so concerned for the girls safety now. If she was carrying so much money she must have been running away from something. In fact she looked pretty young...how did she get in here? Or was she just an adult who looked young.

"I really am sorry." Seiji apologized again as Akiko moved across the table and stretched out until she reached Seiji's shoulder and slithered around to the other side to get closer to the girl. She was still waiting to be told she was pretty and to be touched. Seiji gave Akiko a look and a command. Back to hiding. He ordered and even if the snake didn’t really want to, she could not help but obey and slide under the collar of her coat, planning on biting Leevi later since she figure it had been the other snake that gave away that she snuck away.

[Eve Henkō]

"Don't touch those!" Eve cried, turning towards the intruder and snatching the coin from the boy's hand. Bad enough one person had seen them, but it'd be even worse for the entire bar to get in on the action. Her throat grumbled and her hands began darting back and forth trying to scoop all of them up. "Why would you bring a damn snake to a bar?" She sighed, pushed her hair back and continued trying to clean up the mess. "...Sorry, just... whatever. My 'valuable change' is all over the floor, so no, everything isn't all right."

"Is there a problem over he -Oh, let me help you pick those up..."

Danger. Eve couldn't see who it was, probably just a waitress, but it was still a problem. Her eyes slunk down to two rouge coins that sat quietly off to her side, in perfect sight of the person approaching from behind. In a second, her hand darted out and placed a finger on each of the coins. The gold allure suddenly melted away, being replaced by the dull grey of regular copper and nickel coins.

"No, it's fine! We've got them all!" Eve said with a huge smile after turning to face the waitress. She held up the coins, a perfectly normal dime and quarter. "Just loose change. Thanks, though." The waitress, upon seeing the coins, smiled, nodded and went about her business. Eve let loose a breath of relief then turned a stern gaze to the to the boy. "You didn't see that, okay? Just a clever trick of the light, got it?"

[Seiji Lockard]

Seiji's eyes widen a little at how the girl basically yelled at him to not help her clean up her coins. Not like he was going to steal them or anything, he was too friendly for that. He was just honestly trying to help, because shiny gold coins, that would attract attention sure enough and anyone could come bother the girl. Leevi and Akiko picked up on the yelling and moved a little around their master, staying hidden still, but where growing a little agitated. They didn’t like people being rude to their master after all. "At least one of them liked to be on me." Seiji said, not really having a choice in the matter, plus having one of those on him let him always be ready to do something. Something being if he needed to spy or hurt someone, granted he only had two constrictors on him, but they could still make someone bleed if they bit them, or fracture bones.

Settle you two. Seiji ordered his snakes when he felt their movement as another person came over. Seiji had glanced over to the person approaching but Akiko had been watching Eve and what she was doing the whole time and was quick to inform her master of what she saw, which had Seiji's eyes immediately back on Eve. Seiji smiled and gave a little chuckle at Eve's words of him not seeing anything. "You are right, I didn’t see anything, but Akiko did." Seiji said pointing to Akiko who peeked out from under his coat to be in view and flicked her tongue at Eve. "It’s a pretty neat trick. Mind telling me about it?" Seiji asked in a friendly tone as his mind searched to see if he had ever seen her in the school before. It be easier if I had a name. He thought to himself as he offered out a hand to her. "I'm Seiji by the way." Seiji said with a warm friendly smile.

His snakes however were both peeking out a little from under his coat and looking at Eve. Just daring her to run or be rude to their master. They were not going to do anything, at least not yet. Seiji had told them to settle so they were not hissing, but they were ready to. Either way Seiji didn’t plan on letting the girl go without asking some questions. His eyes glanced over her for a moment, taking in the condition of her clothing. She was for sure a runaway, and having been informed of what she did with the coins, it could only mean that she was a mutant. A mutant that needed a home and he knew just the place for her. It was a place he called home growing up. He still called it home and even worked there when he didn’t have classes at the college.

[Eve Henkō]

Eve almost wanted to cry. Things weren't going exactly as planned. She still hadn't eaten, still hadn't drank anything, and had been potentially discovered. And unless she was getting money or something useful, being discovered wasn't a good thing. "Are you some kind of snake charmer? I'd think that was kinda of cool, but I'm also kinda annoyed." She eyed him, and the little snake heads peeking out at her. "...I don't like people getting all involved with me. So I do mind explaining that trick. I... took a magicians vow?" She shrugged and stuffed the last few coins into her pocket.

Possession retrieved further incident, Eve sat back down in the booth and sighed. She eyed Seiji warily. "I'm Eve. Hello. Great to meet you. Be ready to say goodbye." She swiped up the menu again and started to peer through it. "I don't plan on staying in town long, so don't think of getting comfy with me."

[Seiji Lockard]

"Better than a snake charmer." Seiji admitted still with a friendly smile as he stood up and looked at her still. "You could say I'm like you in a way. Gifted with a power that others don’t have." Seiji said with his tone a little lower so only she could head him as he glanced around for a moment. He let at a chuckle at her excuse, since he didn’t see the point of her trying to keep up the act when she had been caught; at least she had dedication to what she was doing. He watched her move to set down, sliding his hand that he had held out to her into his coat pocket and went to slide into the booth with her, across from her of course, but at the same table.

"Nice to meet you Eve." He still smiled at her as he turned around and grabbed his drink from his booth and then looked back at her. "Why is that? Are you running from someone? I might be able to help you." He moved to lean forward to get a better look at the girl. His snakes still peeking out and watching her, but didn’t make any sound or moves towards her.


((sorry its short T^T))

[Eve Henkō]

On the one hand, Eve didn't want to let her eyes leave Seiji, on the other, she needed to root around for some actual currency to pay with. The gold was usually reserved for less reputable customers. Her cautious stare turned into a defensive scowl. "...I don't have... 'powers'. What, you think I can just magically transform metals into other stuff?" She tried to laugh. Genuinely, she did, but it just came out weak and soulless, and she immediately regretted it.

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She wanted to leave, find somewhere else to go to, but she also didn't want to go back outside. Plus, this Seiji kid whoever was didn't seem hostile, at least. Then again, he could be one of them. She squirmed again as he kept asking questions, a large pout forming on her face. "I'm not running from-"

She stopped, and pondered on her situation some more. Either those snakes were stupidly well trained, or perhaps there was an inch of truth to what he was saying. She could do stuff. Weird, amazing stuff. It was possible other people could, too, surely? Possible for other supermen to exist? Her eyelids narrowed, and she shot him a sceptical glance. "Okay. Tell you what. Show me what this 'gift' of yours is. Something no regular person could do, then I might tell you more."

Why stop there? She had an opportunity before. "...and buy a drink for me. Something fruity," she added with a mischievous smirk.

((nothing wrong with short! XD))

[Seiji Lockard]

Seiji just looked at the Eve, not really bothered by her defensive scowl. He figured she was just scared, worried about what he think or something along those lines. He could not read her mind, which was only a thing he could do with snakes. Just like the snakes that were with him. He had four that he had a really close bond with, but normally he only carried one around with him. However both Leevi and Akiko had wanted to go out to the bar with him. Ghost wanted to too a little but he was a big snake and could not really hide on Seiji's person, so he was made to wait at home with his other snake. "You don’t have to lie to me Eve. I'm like you. I have a special gift that makes me different and there is nothing wrong with it." Seiji tried to reassure her, understanding that trust was not easy to gain, but he was going to try.

Ah, a test. Easy enough. Seiji thought, now thinking of what he could tell his snakes to do that would prove what he could do. Since apparently him talking for them was not good enough, which made sense. People could have just thought he was crazy or something along those lines. "Alright, I'll show you but then you have to agree to not go running off right after." Seiji said followed by a chuckle because of her other request. "You seem a bit young to be drinking, so how about a virgin something, yeah? I would not be setting a good example if I gave you something alcoholic." Seiji said with a smile, he still order her something to drink, so long as it didn’t have alcohol in it. He thought for a moment longer before telling Akiko and Leevi to fully leave from out under his coat and slide out onto the table.

"Spell out her name." Seiji order and without hesitation the two snakes started to form out the letter E. Then the letter V. And the lastly the letter E again. Right on the table. Sure it looked a little odd because it was being spelled out by snakes, but more so because they were spelling it out on a bar table. As soon as they were done spelling out the words they made a quick beeline to get back under Seiji's coat where it was warm and where no one would spot them. "That proof enough for you?" Seiji asked ready to show her more if he needed to, but he figured that should have been enough.

[Eve Henkō]

She snorted, and giggle, and then laughed out loud. What a stupid thing to say. Did he think she was some kind of closeted transsexual. "Wrong with me?" she sniggered around bouts of laughing. "I've never thought there was anything wrong with me. Its other people that are wrong -they're the assholes that'd make a huge fuss out of it." Her chuckling died down, and she wiped her eyes, only for her face to suddenly return to its stern hue. "...not that I'm admitting there is anything special about me, okay? Don't get any ideas. I'm just playing along."

She scowled at being denied anything alcoholic. She could use the buzz, and so would have to get something for herself later. Turns out it hadn't been much of an opportunity at all -not that buying for herself would be eating into limited funds. There was a big enough stash. When it arrived, she took had a quick taste; it was a cool, kind of boring juice drink. She didn't recognise it, but it wasn't anything special or register particularly on her taste buds. "Yeah right, I'm reserving the right to leave if I want to. Just show me, and we'll see."

The snakes came out, and they did their thing. At first Eve worried some of the other patrons would freak out and they'd have a shotgun blasting the table apart once someone noticed it was covered in potentially venomous beasts. But, for a moment, she was able to put her fears aside just to watch. It was impressive, and a little unreal for sure, but within the realms of possibility. "Okay," she began, taking another sip of the drink and trying her best to hide any sort of wonder. "So you're a really good snake trainer. I'll admit, that was pretty cool, but I bet there are others who could do that with their pets. As a species, we've been teaching animals tricks for centuries."

She took a long, noisy slurp on the straw of her drink. "...I wanted to see you shooting adders out of your palms, or something. You know, super stuff."

[Seiji Lockard]

He did not mean to be funny or to come off as offensive in anyway about there being something wrong. He clearly said there was nothing wrong with not being like everyone else. Which is why he remained silent when she spoke about how there was nothing wrong with her and that it was others that thought there was something wrong with her. She had a point, which was why many people didn’t know about mutants being even real, it was all still very much under lock and key for good reason. People tended to freak out and fear things they didn’t understand. Had been proven time and time again over the many years of the human race being in existence. If something was even slightly different then another thing, people felt the need to categorize it, put it into a group, dictate everything down to as precise of a detail that they could get it.

Even with his snakes, they had been grouped into being of a certain family, then of a class, and with a normal common name, and a specific scientific name. It was very much classification and wanting things to belong to something was in fact a need for many creatures, but the classifications were not necessary. "That’s fine. You don’t have to tell me anything, but just know I'm still going to ask." Seiji admitted since he was a very curious person so he knew that he was going to ask her a lot of questions, because even with her trying to play it off, Akiko saw and his snakes didn’t lie to him when it came to giving him information. He looked at the drink that arrived for a moment, making sure to keep a hand on his coat where Leevi was because that snake had a habit of putting his head in things that he should not have, especially people’s drinks; which was gross. He just still smiled at her saying that she still was in control if she was going to leave or not, that was half true. She did have a choice but not really. It was either going to be him who brought her back to the academy or he let someone know that she was out and about.

"Snake trainer?" Seiji chuckled, well yeah guess he could see her thinking that, but he was not sure he knew anyone with that much control over snakes. He didn’t think it was possible under normal cases. First snakes would have to know how the letter looked in order to spell them out, and they only knew because Seiji had told them. Plus snakes were not creatures you could fully tame, they still did kind of whatever they wanted to do. He chuckled at her suggestion and shook his head no. "Sorry, I'm not that cool. I can just talk to them, they can talk to me, and I can control them." Seiji admitted, there was detail into that, but that was the basic sum to it, and he was fine telling her since he was pretty sure she had powers and what would she have to gain from telling others about what he could do?

[Eve Henkō]

Frustration began to well up in Eve like a hot spring. This Seiji kid was complicating things, complicating things in a way she didn't want to deal with. She had two options; give him want he wanted and open up about the past few weeks, or make a run for it and get out of town. Unsurprisingly, the presence of snakes put a few wrenches in the works of the latter plan. She didn't know a damn thing about snakes. If it was just him and him alone, she had more than a few tricks up her sleeves with which to help her escape, or defend herself if necessary. But damn snakes. There could be one under her seat for all she knew, ready to inject her butt full of poison the moment she stood up. She liked to think she was pretty athletic and had good reflexes, but there wasn't a chance she was going to avoid something like that.

Her hips and shoulders continued to squirm uncomfortably. She needed info. Needed to find out this person's angle before taking any decisive action. "Okay." She downed her drink in an attempt to clear her head. "I'll play along, just for now. Let's pretend then for a second that I can do something totally special, something no other person can do. That I'm some X-men mutant, right? What happens then? Do you whisk me of into some top-secret government super soldier program? Do I get some bright, skin-tight catsuit to go fight crime in?"

The scepticism and the annoyance were clear in her voice. The grit in her eyes suddenly started to annoy her, and she rubbed at them vigorously. "Just who are you, huh? And don't give me any 'I already told you my name' bullcrap. I want to know who you are, who you work for and what the hell you want with me."

[Seiji Lockard]

Seiji did have Leevi sneak under the table and get into position just in case the other girl decided to make a run from it. He made sure to tell Leevi to not bite the girl and just tag along for a ride on her. It was funny that snakes could fit and hide on a person without even feeling them moving around on them. Granted if he had Ghost on him, then people would clearly be able to see him and if he was on someone, well they were not going to go anywhere. He liked to think that Eve was not going to make a run for it. Snakes were pretty fast and so was he because he had been around snakes for so long. Still he hoped she just stay and talk with him. He had so many questions and wanted to see her use her power again. Plus the even more important detail of getting her back to the Academy.

"Yes and no." Seiji said with a chuckle at her choice of picking a thing like X-Men as a way to compare of what was going to happen to her. "I will take you to a special place for others like us yes. It’s not for soldiers however. It’s for you to live pretty much a life like you would as any other kid. Just at a private boarding school with other kids who also have special powers like it." Seiji said, pausing for a moment in his speaking, trying to gather all his thought and say this right. He was no recruiter and he was taken in by the school at a young age so he was just trying to remember everything now. He shook his head no at her other question and chuckled a little again. "No, not bright skintight catsuit, and not crime fighting. Only have to fight the alarm and get on time to class." Seiji said, thinking back to his time going to the school, but he never had an issue with getting up and going to class.

He kept his friendly air about him as he leaned in a little more across the table; his ability to know that he was invading someone’s personal space was never really that good. "I'm a college student but I work part time at the academy that I would plan on taking you to. I also went there myself when I came into my powers. I didn’t really get the chance to run away." Seiji admitted, being honest with the girl, still not feeling the need to lie or anything.

[Eve Henkō]

"...School?" she said with a sour turn. Just her luck. At least being a supersoldier promised a lot of sights. But a school? "I'm not good with school. I don't like being in school. That's partly why I'm here. I don't need a degree, and I don't need a job. I can just mak-"

She stopped herself, threw a hand over her mouth to stop her spouting anything stupid. Her secret had been on the tip of her tongue, and she had just nearly given it away. Even if what Seiji said was true, she had to be careful... didn't she? Thinking about it, the jig was up either way. He believed she had abilities, and she doubted that anything she said would convince him otherwise. For all intents and purposes, she had already shown off her full arsenal to him. Thus, the best thing she could do was simply to get his trust. She could check the place out, at least, surely? She didn't really have anywhere else to go.

And if she didn't like it? Well, she was good at running. She'd think of something. Surely couldn't be too difficult to just dash off into the wilderness, somewhere. Resisting further at this stage would probably just complicate things. Mostly on account of the stupid snakes.

She sat and stared as she thought of all this, before clarity finally returned to her eyes. "...Okay. Well done, you got me. You're right; I can do... stuff. Maybe a month or so ago now, I started being able to do things. Not normal things. Things that let me make a lot of money very easily."

She retrieved one of the coins from before, the same regular dime she had used to get rid of the waitress. After a quick look over her shoulder to check if they were being watched, she held it up to him in her thumb and index finger. Starting from where she held it, the dull grey slowly disappeared, was eaten up by the same gold shine that the other coins had. She twisted it in her fingers, then the process started again, but instead of gold or even metal, the coin became clear, crystal-like but just as shiny. "See? Money isn't an issue. I was going to travel the world, see whatever I wanted, do whatever I wanted. That's what I told myself. But these past few days, its been like someone, some force has been herding me here. Trains and flights conveniently cancelled or delayed, diversions, you name it. I've even gotten on the wrong coaches before, even though I triple checked them."

She slumped back, back resting against her bag which sat in the corner. "And then I meet you in this backwater town. Pretty coincidental, huh?"