She had been to the mansion a number of times but for various reasons had not been able to follow up her appointments. She was starting to question weather she was a workaholic or not but figured if she could question it she must be ok still. Still she really needed to learn to control her powers.

SO she had made an appointment with a woman named Gemma to try and establish just that. SHe really did want to be able to take a shower without having to add a large amount of sea salts. It felt terrible and was costly as well as she need special shower equipment to do so. Baths were easier but the sea salt tended to settle after awhile and she was soon bathing in hard liqueur again.

Dressed in a black blouse and matching pants, she knocked on the door of Gemma. SHe was hoping the mansion could help her. SHe knew she was older then most of the students here but that was fine as long as she kept her powers on the low and did not show off.....which she had once already a few weeks back. "Hello My name is Melissa, Xilx" she said with a friendly smile.

Gemma opened the office door to see the young woman who was her first (and only) appointment for the day.

>>"Hello My name is Melissa, Xilx"

"Nice to meet you Melissa" she smiled, offering a hand. The lady already knew she was an adapted from making the appointment, but Gemma was till ready to step back if she was asked to "My name is Gemma Taylor. Welcome to Xavier's."

Not all people moved in as full-time students. Sometimes mutants just showed up for help, and she was more than willing to spend the time to help them.

"Come on in, have a seat" she said, opening the office door to let her in "Would you like some tea, or coffee?..."

Gemma had a half-finished mug of coffee on her desk. She waited for Melissa to take a seat and name a drink if she wanted to, before they would move on.

"Thank you, mam. she walked into the room without an issue. She did not notice her power being effected. She figured she would feel something when her powers turned off. "Water would be nice thank you"[/color she said as she sat down. Truthfully she asked for it more to test her powers then to drink it.

"Water is normally hard to drink" she explained which was also true she needed a straw and to try and make sure it did not touch her cheeks. She had gotten drunk more then once trying to brush her teeth.

"The schools nice" she said and it was a lovely place it just had way to many children. Still the appointment was needed and she was grateful her power was unlikely to kill anyone directly. The mansion itself was huge and seemed well equipped and its students seemed well behaved. Nothing like how kids acted on the movies or even how she had acted in middile school and high school.

>>"Thank you, mam. Water would be nice thank you. Water is normally hard to drink"

Gemma nodded and filled a glass with water, handing it to Melissa. She knew the general idea behind her power - it had something to do with alcohol - but not the details. She took a seat too, lifting her coffee mug up again, making sure Melissa was within her aura.

>>"The schools nice"

"I am glad you like it" Gemma nodded with a smile "Some students live here, and other just visit, or come for the classes."

She waited for Melissa to try the water before she asked her next question.

"So, you are here because you need help with your powers, right?... Right now, you are close enough that my aura should be cancelling them. Since I don't really know how it all works, if you want to explain, I'll help you figure out a way to control them without having to stay close to an adapted."

She took a drink of water and it was nice not having to worry about it. "Well my powers turn water into liqueur upon skin contact. If i focus i can make the resulting liqueur more potent or less but never non-alcoholic. " she started taking another drink of water. She liked this woman already and she barely knew her.

"With enough impurities the water won't change, usually salt. I take a shower by mixing sea salt into the water, just so i don't smell like an alcoholic after every shower" she said shaking her head slightly. "My power will not turn off. Manifested in collage luckily, hate to think if it had been earlior" she said imagining the chaos she would have caused just by smelling like a booze hound.

"I imagine i will be visiting, as often as needed of course, but I don't like the idea of being around so many children. Police would take my liquor license away the first time them found out i got a kid drunk" she continued. Truthfully her neighborhood sucked right on the edge of a nasty part of town near order territory. "I did mention i run a bar right?" she said unable to recall. She knew she had called from the bar.

>>"Well my powers turn water into liqueur upon skin contact. If i focus i can make the resulting liqueur more potent or less but never non-alcoholic. With enough impurities the water won't change, usually salt. I take a shower by mixing sea salt into the water, just so i don't smell like an alcoholic after every shower. My power will not turn off. Manifested in collage luckily, hate to think if it had been earlior"

Gemma arched an eyebrow and took some notes. That sounded like a difficult power to deal with if it could not be turned on and off. She agreed that it was a good thing it didn't manifest in childhood, but still. It was just plain sad to think someone would not be able to take a nice long bath.

>>"I imagine i will be visiting, as often as needed of course, but I don't like the idea of being around so many children. Police would take my liquor license away the first time them found out i got a kid drunk. I did mention i run a bar right?"

"I think so" Gemma nodded. Now it made a lot more sense. She wondered how profitable a bar would be when you did not have to actually pay to by your liquor stock. "We can make sure you don't endanger the students, though. That sounds managable."

Just... Don't let her touch their drinks.

"So... a couple of questions. You said your power activates on skin contact. If you were to... hold your hands under a tap, would that effect the water pouring down, or would it turn all water in contact into alcohol?..."

She hoped Melissa understood what she was trying to ask.

"Also... you said impurities cancel your power out. Does that mean your powers don't affect... uh, soda, for example?"

She was glad Gemma seemed to understand her worry. SHe nodded as Gemma seemed calm and confident they could prevent an issue. It certainly had been a key reason she had stayed away from the place as much as she had. The riots had not helped much either having cost her quite a bit in damages over the time it lasted. She was glad she had built her bar in such a sturdy building.

"Whatever water directly touched my skin would transform. Anything that did not contact it would not change. So holding my hands under the faucet, with the sink plugged, you would end up with watered down beer, from the water that touched my skin and that which never made direct contact. I...." she paused a moment looking a bit guilty. "....use my powers for work...of course and often used plastic kid pools. What i mean is when i do it, i have to keep the water moving so it all touches my skin" she actually did that to speed the process up but she was hoping her examples made sense.

"It seems things have to be mostly water to work. Soda would not change but rain water will. I am not entirely sure where the limit is. Once i learned what i could do, i took what was left of my collage fund, found the city with the highest concentrations of mutants and then found the two points the mutants seem to flock, here and Sanctuary and put the bar almost at the middle point"" she said pretty sure she was rambling at this point.

"I can for example add say apples into the water and when i change it, the resulting alcohol will take on an apple flavor. Ice won't change though, unless it melt's" she said not sure if this was helpful but trying to give Gemma the best idea she could of what she could do.

>>"Whatever water directly touched my skin would transform. Anything that did not contact it would not change. So holding my hands under the faucet, with the sink plugged, you would end up with watered down beer, from the water that touched my skin and that which never made direct contact. I...."

Gemma nodded and made notes. It was going to be a lot easier to keep the students safe from Melissa's abilities if she was not capable of turning the entire plumbing system to alcohol. Good to know.

>>"....use my powers for work...of course and often used plastic kid pools. What i mean is when i do it, i have to keep the water moving so it all touches my skin. It seems things have to be mostly water to work. Soda would not change but rain water will. I am not entirely sure where the limit is. Once i learned what i could do, i took what was left of my collage fund, found the city with the highest concentrations of mutants and then found the two points the mutants seem to flock, here and Sanctuary and put the bar almost at the middle point"

The girl seemed a bit nervous. No wonder, she was talking about being a literal halfway point between the Mansion and the Sanctuary. Gemma was not about to judge an adult woman on her choice of occupation, and yet she made a mental note to keep in mind she knew people from the Sanctuary. Just in case.

>>"I can for example add say apples into the water and when i change it, the resulting alcohol will take on an apple flavor. Ice won't change though, unless it melt's"

"All right" Gemma nodded, taking some more notes "All of that is good to know. Thank you for sharing. Figuring out how to control powers usually starts with figuring out how they actually work. You seem to be very well aware of your strengths and limitations. That is a good start."

She smile at Melissa.

"So, on the short term: As you know, I am an adapted human; my aura cancels out mutant powers. Are there any short term things that I can help you with, while we figure out how you can control your powers on your own?"

"Well it might be odd to ask or maybe you get this a lot, but a normal shower would be nice. I normally have to put salt into the water in order to take a shower which feels a bit gritty." she said wondering if it was a bit to personal to ask the woman she had just met but it was one of things she really wanted to be able to do again. It had been since collage she had last been able to do so.

"Yea i have practiced using it when i could but i have only been able to suppress it to turn water into beer. " she explained not recalling if she had mentioned it before.

"You must be very popular among mutants whose abilities keep them from doing normal everyday things" she commented considering some of the mutants she had met in her life. Some would have loved to have a woman like this to help them out.

>>"Well it might be odd to ask or maybe you get this a lot, but a normal shower would be nice. I normally have to put salt into the water in order to take a shower which feels a bit gritty... You must be very popular among mutants whose abilities keep them from doing normal everyday things"

"I am" Gemma chuckled "That is one of the reasons I work at this school. While not every mutant is thrilled with having an adapted around, I figured my aura could be useful to some people."

She nodded at the girl's request; she knew it was probably not easy for her to ask something so personal. At the same time, she could also see how her abilities would cause problems with water-related activities.

"And yes, if you are comfortable with it, I can definitely help you with the shower situation" she smiled "My aura is about six feet in radius, so I don't have to stand uncomfortably close. And I am happy to help. We have some rooms here in the Mansion that are unoccupied, and have a bathroom attached. I can allow you to use one of them whenever you need."