You know, Books, Tv shows, Movies, pretty much all entertainment have always portrayed restrooms as this dirty, smelly place that are only ever used for shady dealings.
Doubly so for schools were they always seem to have bullies lurking about, ready to shove some poor head down a toilet.
And Alex would at least like people to know that that is not true at all. Most School restrooms are actually a lot cleaner than you'd expect them to be.
Do you know how much schools pay for in Janatorial work? Let me tell you, it's not nothing.
Those janitors work very hard to keep their Schools clean. Picking up their trash, cleaning their spills, and wiping off any graffiti people leave behind.
Sure, sometimes toilets get condemned, whether because of clogging or because some dumbass thought it'd be a great idea to use their Quirk to make a whirlpool with the toilet water.
And sure, the smell isn't great, it's a restroom, when was it ever gonna be? Having animal senses certainly doesn't help, but you don't hear him complaining.
He can't, the restrooms are the only place that he can do his shady dealings.
Alex looked over the design one more time.
"OK, I'm done. Go put it under the hand dryer before rolling down your sleeve. And remember, only touch it when you're ready."
The kid, Mat-something, looked down at his arm in awe at his new Sharpie tattoo of a two-inch basic image of the Thinking Man sitting pondering on his rock.
"Ah! Thanks man, I don't know what I'd do if my mom found out I flunked another test."
"Yeah, yeah. Twenty bucks. And tell the next guy to come in." Alex quickly waved the guy off.
It wasn't nice, but Alex had a whole line of people waiting for him and only 15 minutes left for lunch.
Putting the kids' money between the pages of his book, Alex patiently waited for his next customer.
Now, most people would say that using your Quirk to help kids cheat on tests wasn't the most responsible way to use your power.
Alex says that whatever doens't hurt you, ignore it.
Plus its not like they're actually cheating. They're just getting a little help.
See, his Quirk can't add anything that's not already there. He can't give the answers to question 20 on the test, and he can't make someone a super genius if they don't already have the right brain structures.
…Ok, maybe he'd be able to draw a, sort of, smart brain that'd increase someone's intelligence.
But he'd need to know a whole lot more about brains to even have a clue about what he's doing. And even then, he wouldn't know what that'd do to the person he'd be drawing it on.
Nah, too much work. Better to keep things simple.
What he can do, though, is work with what's already there.
The door to the disabled person's stall opened up. Alex waved the next kid in, pointing to the toilet seat in front of him.
"Take a seat, tell me what you want."
Looking at the dingy toilet seat, the kid seemed to grimace at the idea of touching it with any part of his body, clothed or not.
What? Did he think that Alex would be the one sitting there? No thank you.
No, Alex was smart enough to use some of his profit to buy himself one of those nice rolling stools that you see around mechanics. You know, the one with the nice leather cushions and a metal plate on the bottom for tools.
Cost him almost a hundred dollars, but with the money he was making, that was nothing.
And when he's not using it, he can just leave it above the ceiling tiles, that way, no one sees him lugging it around, wondering what he's doing with it all the time.
"U-Uh ok." The kid stuttered.
Quickly sitting down, he started tapping his foot as he waited for Alex to start.
Looking at him for awhile Alex rolled his eyes.
"Well?"
"O-Oh, ah. S-Sorry. I-I need the p-peace one." Nervously, the kid wrung his hands together.
Yeah, he certainly did. Alex thought. If his foot tapped any harder, he might crack the tile.
The Peace symbol was one of his more expensive tattoos, up there with his Thinking Man. Not because of how hard it was to draw, but because of its effect.
At fifteen dollars a pop, the tattoo causes the brain to release more serotonin the more anxious you were. Effectively evening you out. You know, for kids that can't calm down during tests.
The effects last for about 40-60 minutes before the ink starts to fade, and because it's not introducing foreign chemicals, just makes the body make more of it, it's less harmful than most of the anxiety medicine out there.
He just has to make sure that people aren't getting hooked on it.
Thankfully, he only sells his tattoos the week before a big test. And he never sells to the same person twice. Which means if you use it before the test, then Alex isn't making you another. And he's got ways to tell.
Ignoring the common smells of a boy's bathroom, Alex took a sniff.
Looks like he hasn't sold to this one yet, so it should be fine.
Alex isn't that good at remembering faces or names. But he can remember scents.
"Ok, tell me where you want it."
The boy rolled up the sleeve of his hoodie and pointed to the inner part of his elbow.
"R-Right here."
Nodding, Alex reached down and grabbed a deep-blue Sharpie.
Unlike his Jackalope Quirk, his other Quirk required a bit more thought to go into it. Size, color, image, material, knowledge, all of it needed to be taken into account.
Blue was more of a calming color than, say, red, so it worked better for this tattoo than his regular black Sharpie. It'd give the kid a smaller dose of the calming effect as long as it was there, seemed like he needed it.
Hopefully, he never needed this again. Alex didn't want him coming to him like he was his fix. If he did, then he was dragging him to a counselor for professional help.
Taking the cap off, Alex grabbed the kid's arm to keep it steady and started drawing.
This one wasn't that hard to do, unlike the Thinking Man, so it didn't take that long to finish. Complexity didn't matter that much, only how much he could visualize the effects.
Just a few swipes of his Sharpie, and it was done. Last touch, Alex pressed his fingers against the new tattoo, sending in a tiny bit of Mental Energy to finish the process.
Shining for a moment, the Peace symbol armed itself, attaching itself to the wearer and waiting for the moment it was needed. Now, whenever he used it, it'd power itself with his own Mental Energy instead of Alex's.
It kind of hurt his artistic soul to send out such lackluster work. A real tattoo would have been better, it'd last longer to, depending on how durable the kid's body was. And maybe some Ink with some calming gemstones.
But for what he needed, this was fine, he guessed. And at the very least, he was getting some practice in with his second Quirk.
Inked up, a Quirk that lets him bring art to life through his metal energy. Strength and effects varying due to material.
It used to be that having more than one Quirk was an anomaly. A one in a billion chance that could change the world.
But now, thanks to the new Quirk classifications, it's something that's become a little bit more common, Hybrid Quirks.
Hybrid Quirks were a mix between Heteromorph Quirks and any other Quirk. Basically, two Quirks in one. Whether it be something like a Werewolf that could grow metal claws or Bird feet and Wind Control.
People used to think that these were all one Quirk, but a study from eighteen years ago has, in fact, shown the opposite. They are, in fact, two Quirks residing in a single body.
Now, the study went through a lot of stuff. From Biology, to hereditary Quirks, to even the Analysis of past Quirks.
The deciding factor in the study was that the energy for the different parts of the Qurk was coming from different sources.
One of the most popular examples right now was Hawks. The number 3 Hero in Japan. See Hawks Quirk, Fierce Wings, allowed him to not only grow Bright red Wings on his back, but also feel and control the feathers with sniper precision, and if ever they were destroyed, allowed him to grow new feathers.
But in fact, what he had was two Quirks working separately. One that grew his and regrew his feathers, and one that controlled them with his mind.
Their proof, a helmet that hampered Hawks ability to maneuver his feathers, but couldn't stop them from growing back.
Thanks to that study, a whole new category for Quirks was made.
Hybrid, that's what he had.
His Mom's Jackalope Quirk and his Dad's Canvas.
Though his secondary Quirk seemed to be a bit stronger than his Dad's, seeing as he can only make 2D drawings move.
While he…He can do so much more.
"Ok, that'll be fifteen dollars."