>>"I think you look pretty good yourself. You start dressing up I'll have competition."

"Good thing we are gating" Maya grinned, letting Eve go as she glanced sideways to, and flashed the same cheerful grin at the mother who looked about ready to faint, throw up, or both. Their little display had obviously struck a nerve with her. Good.

People started migrating towards the area where the ceremony was about to start, relieved that they no longer had to stand around and look disapproving. Maya let Evelyn go ahead with her drink and stayed behind, glancing over the food, debating what and how much she wanted to steal for later. She only looked up when someone's very feminine and very tense shadow fell over the sandwich plate.

"May I have a word, please."

Well, damn.

As Evelyn walked towards the seating area, she started to feel the first little signs that her drink choice was kicking in. While she had hoped the echoes would get a bit fainter, or fuzzier, they seemed to be doing the opposite. Sharp whispers from up ahead were noted, body language was taken into account. The disapproval around her was very clear, and it made her stomach churn more. She felt exposed suddenly without Maya by her side. But she kept her chin up and kept walking, taking one of the seats at the very back of the group.

[Something in wrong...] Warned the echoes, and they forced Evelyn to glance back. Someone was talking to Maya. Her mind buzzed with activity as she tried not to go back for her. She clenched her drink in her hand, trying to turn and focus towards the front stage. The echoes were everywhere though. [Squirrel, tree, 40 feet away. Estimated number of individuals wearing the color blue: 15. Estimated number of people wearing heels: 92. Average hair color of females with blue dresses and heels--] She took another sip of her drink. Maybe the echoes just weren't drunk enough....

Maya beamed at Evelyn's mother, shorter than her but a lot more threatening.

"Absolutely" she nodded, turning her back of the food innocently and holding her glass in one hand. She had a word for her if she wanted to hear it, in fact, she had quite a few words lined up.

For the first time that she had ever met The Mother-creature, Maya felt like she knew quite a lot about her. She did not need the echoes to guess most of the things, and she was not trying to hide them anyway. Disapproval being on top of the list.

"How can I help you?" Maya asked politely, as if she did not know exactly why she was being pulled aside. She had been a bad influence long enough to know when she was in trouble...

After the initial shock of her daughter's statement, Mrs. Summer's had evidently collected herself. Her face was far too calm, but there was something vicious burning behind her eyes. The smile was too sweet, the poise to collected. It was far too unsavory to confront her own daughter in this manner, but perhaps she could at least rid herself of this 'date' she had brought along.

"I think it may be best that you leave." She started as calmly as possible. She glanced towards her daughter, then back to the other mutant in front of her. She didn't bother hiding her expression of distaste. "While there is little I can do to salvage the social handicap having a mutant daughter creates, allowing her to bringing her mutant companions along..." She said the term 'mutant' like Mirror was a stray dog Evelyn had dragged home. The older female paused, and gave an icy smile again.

"I don't expect you to understand such social graces, so I'll make it clear. You're a stain on this event, an ink spot on a clean piece of paper, and your presence is making Evelyn's own deficiencies stand out. We do our best to keep her condition under the radar, and flaunting it as you two seem inclined to do is creating quite the scandal. I don't know what street she plucked you off of, but I don't approve of mutants, especially when they're 'gender-shifters', whatever that means. But I'd like you to go back there, and stay away from my daughter." The woman hissed. Meanwhile, Evelyn had turned in her seat, eyes locking on the two figures.

The echoes were picking up more than she wanted to. And her face showed a small amount of rage at what she was getting. The ceremony was about to start, and she was uncertain whether leaving her spot or not was advisable right now. But she was about done with this.

>>"I think it may be best that you leave."

Maya arched an eyebrow with a tiny, amused smirk, and waited for the woman to go on, intentionally not getting the hint.

>>"While there is little I can do to salvage the social handicap having a mutant daughter creates, allowing her to bringing her mutant companions along..."

The amused smirk slowly disappeared. Maya was used to people hating on mutants, especially since the riots; but people hating on Evelyn, her own mother hating on Evelyn... that was about to hit a nerve.

>>"I don't expect you to understand such social graces, so I'll make it clear. You're a stain on this event, an ink spot on a clean piece of paper, and your presence is making Evelyn's own deficiencies stand out. We do our best to keep her condition under the radar, and flaunting it as you two seem inclined to do is creating quite the scandal. I don't know what street she plucked you off of, but I don't approve of mutants, especially when they're 'gender-shifters', whatever that means. But I'd like you to go back there, and stay away from my daughter."

Oh yeah. Bullseye.

Maya's eyes narrowed as she stared the woman down. She did not particularly like her before, but now she was downright disgusted, and her disgust matched the older woman's own for mutants.

"I am so very sorry." she said in a slow, cold voice "Did we give you the impression that you had a say in this? I apologize. I don't expect you to understand, so let me spell it out for you." she put her glass down, half out of politeness, half to resist the urge to hit her in the face with it, and she leaned closer, holding the woman's gaze.

"Your daughter does not have a 'condition', she is gifted. She is the kindest, smartest, bravest person I know, which is kind of a miracle since she comes from such a sh*tty family as yours. Luckily, she is a grown woman, and she can make her own decisions without having to please you, or your husband, our your pretentious, stuck-up nazi friends."

I am so gonna regret this later. Sam's gonna kill me for ruining X-men PR...

"She should be loved, and not tortured. Every day, I live in a school full of kids, great kids, who have been scarred for life by horrible parents, but let me tell you, so far you take the cake. So while we are talking about what's good for Evelyn: I'd like you to get back to the swamp you crawled out of, and leave. Evelyn. Alone."

It was definitely not a request.

Maya held the woman's gaze a moment longer, then leaned back and picked up her glass with a smirk.

"And by the way, gender shifting means I can be a boy or a girl any time I want. And no, your daughter never had a problem with that. I think she likes it."

Choke on that, witch.

Evelyn couldn't read lips, but there were times she really wished she could. As the ceremony started and the two figures faced off, she tried her best to point the echoes that direction. But they were impossible. She now had inventory of every shoe color at the wedding, dress designs, cost estimates. She was pretty sure the echoes were trying to count how many chairs there were, which was hard because she was so focused on Maya and her mother. Whatever was happening wasn't good, but their body language said a lot. Hostility, anger... She started to move to walk over when the tide shifted though. Mrs. Summers nails clenched into the palms of her head, the color vanished from her face, and that angry poise evaporated.

The bride and groom met at the podium and the preacher started his speech. The echoes tried counting sequins on the bride's dress. She pivoted again to watch behind her. Her drink was empty. It was probably a good thing. Gradually the echoes smothering amount of information was getting a somewhat murky sound.

[Rage. Disgust. Irritation. Humiliation.] Her mother's eyes fixed on the silver haired mutant and Evelyn decided it was time to step in. She slipped from her seat, the crowd focused back on the ceremony and no one bothering to look back at their confrontation. She hoped she was walking steady. It would really ruin things to fall on her face when she was trying to look tough.

"Is there a problem here?" She said icily as she approached, looking at her mother. She set her empty cup on the table and crossed her arms across her chest, stopping next to Mirror. The older woman glared darkly.

"There is. You two. I tried my best with you Evelyn, I did. I tried to keep you involved, salvage what social standing I could, but you're just determined to throw it all away. You could have got away with it. But you had to insist on being one of them. You were normal enough, when you just kept your mouth shut."[/color] She glared from one girl to the other. She wasn't standing down, or leaving back towards the ceremony. For someone as focused on keeping up appearances as she was, Mrs. Summers was neglecting the wedding and her friends. She was focused on the problem in front of her. And she seemed determined to get rid of it.

"Well I have no intention to keep my mouth shut." She said sternly, raising her chin a notch higher. The words didn't sting like they might have before. She could feel the drink in her veins giving her courage she might not otherwise have had. The echoes were hard to deal with, but she was suddenly grateful for the choice. Especially at the words that followed.

"Then I have no choice. Let's see how you do without your father and my support. You want to hang around with riff-raff, you might as well be some." With that, she turned and stalked back to the party, and the words buzzed in Evelyn's head. She pushed a hand through her hair and exhaled deeply, trying to keep her hand from shaking.

"Well...Looks like the parties over." She mused aloud.

>>"There is. You two. I tried my best with you Evelyn, I did. I tried to keep you involved, salvage what social standing I could, but you're just determined to throw it all away. You could have got away with it. But you had to insist on being one of them. You were normal enough, when you just kept your mouth shut."

Maya's eyes flashed at the woman, she was really pushing the boundaries of decency, and she made Maya's hand curl into a fist. She never hit a woman without good reason, but the lady was working on her nerves really hard.

>>"Well I have no intention to keep my mouth shut."

Evelyn held her chin up, and her answer made Maya grin. The mother, on the other hand, snapped.

>>"Then I have no choice. Let's see how you do without your father and my support. You want to hang around with riff-raff, you might as well be some."

Uh-oh. Maya started to realize this might have gone too far.

>>"Well...Looks like the parties over."

"Yeah" Maya muttered, pulling Eve close and kissing her on the forehead "I'm so sorry. Let's get the hell out of here."

Evelyn flashed Maya a reassuring smile, trying to ignore the momentary churning feeling from her gut at her mother's response. She knew things couldn't last forever how they were, but she had always hoped eventually her parents would come around. It was clear, at least from her mother's point of view, however, that there was no way they would see 'eye to eye' about her mutation. Evelyn was learning to accept who she was. Unfortunately, she didn't know if they ever really would.

Slipping her hand into Maya's she gave it a squeeze and shrugged her shoulder. "It's been a long time coming. They've never approved of my mutation, and I'm done ignoring it for them. The echoes are glad you stood up for me though." She smiled slightly, and snatched a few cookies off the table. "Can't read lips but I could sure tell what she thought of what you said." The echoes buzzed with activity and she glanced back at the party, teetering ever so slightly as she did. Too fast... The alcohol was defiantly settling in now. She was getting advice on which cookies had the most chocolate chips.

"Also...I don't think my echoes should drink. Unless I really want to know the calculated cookie capacity of my purse, or how many blue shoes are at a party....Or how many squirrels there are...." So much information....It made her thoughts feel slightly sluggish on top of that.

>>"It's been a long time coming. They've never approved of my mutation, and I'm done ignoring it for them. The echoes are glad you stood up for me though. Can't read lips but I could sure tell what she thought of what you said."

"Yeeah... I might have gone too far with some of the things I said..." Maya admitted sheepishly, glancing after the woman who was busy ignoring the two of them "Didn't mean to talk you out of your inheritance..."

>>"Also...I don't think my echoes should drink. Unless I really want to know the calculated cookie capacity of my purse, or how many blue shoes are at a party....Or how many squirrels there are...."

"That's an interesting way of being drunk" Maya grinned, leading Eve away from the tables and the wedding "Are you okay to walk? They didn't have good drinks anyway. Even though I do really feel like getting drunk right now..."

Evelyn felt a laugh drift out of her mouth and she smirked at Maya, eyes twinkling slightly. "With my mother? I think she was looking for an excuse to disown me... Although now I'm curious what you told her... I hope you took her ego and shoved up up her--" The echoes jumped over towards the trees again. The squirrels had stolen one of the guests wallets. She wished she could applaud it.

"And I can walk ok. Just feel like my powers are on overdrive...I really have never drank anything more than a sip of wine before, I wouldn't know what good drinks taste like... Although, I bet my parents have some decent stuff stashed in their cabinet... If you really felt like getting back at them we could totally hijack it...." She felt herself saying, glancing at the mirrorwalker with a somewhat rebellious look on her face. They had probably caused enough trouble for one day...

...The images of her mother's expression replayed in her mind, and the idea looked more appealing.

>>"With my mother? I think she was looking for an excuse to disown me... Although now I'm curious what you told her... I hope you took her ego and shoved up up her--"

"Hey" Maya grinned, picking up some cookies off the table as they left the scene "I'm a lady y'know. I was totally polite... with that said, I might or might not have called her a nazi..."

That was what probably did it. Maya chuckled and linked her arm with Eve as they walked.

>>"And I can walk ok. Just feel like my powers are on overdrive...I really have never drank anything more than a sip of wine before, I wouldn't know what good drinks taste like... Although, I bet my parents have some decent stuff stashed in their cabinet... If you really felt like getting back at them we could totally hijack it...."

"You know, you might not have known it before, but i can walk through reflective surfaces..." Maya pointed out matter-of-factly before she broke into a grin again "I practically got on the X-team stealing booze from Sam's cabinet."

Good ol' days.

"But you should probably not drink too much if it makes the echoes act up. I wouldn't want you passin' out from booze."

>>"With my mother? I think she was looking for an excuse to disown me... Although now I'm curious what you told her... I hope you took her ego and shoved up up her--"

"Hey" Maya grinned, picking up some cookies off the table as they left the scene "I'm a lady y'know. I was totally polite... with that said, I might or might not have called her a nazi..."

That was what probably did it. Maya chuckled and linked her arm with Eve as they walked.

>>"And I can walk ok. Just feel like my powers are on overdrive...I really have never drank anything more than a sip of wine before, I wouldn't know what good drinks taste like... Although, I bet my parents have some decent stuff stashed in their cabinet... If you really felt like getting back at them we could totally hijack it...."

"You know, you might not have known it before, but i can walk through reflective surfaces..." Maya pointed out matter-of-factly before she broke into a grin again "I practically got on the X-team stealing booze from Sam's cabinet."

Good ol' days.

"But you should probably not drink too much if it makes the echoes act up. I wouldn't want you passin' out from booze."

>>"I might or might not have called her a nazi..."

Evelyn raised an eyebrow in mock horror, then laughed and grinned back at the mirrorwalker. "The scandal! I might or might not be proud of you then..."[/color]

She'd probably feel a bit more concerned about it later, but right now she was still enjoying the moment. Like when Jensen left, there was a burst of freedom that came before the settling feeling of concern now that she was on her own.

>>"You know, you might not have known it before, but i can walk through reflective surfaces..."

Evelyn put on her best surprised face, and shook her head. They were almost to the car, and she jabbed Mirror lightly in the side. "I'm telling you, there might be some prime beverages worth liberating in that cabinet of theirs... And who said I needed to drink more? We could stage a rescue mission and you can always have a sip if you want. I've got an apartment to stash it at so kids don't get into it too." She added in a small moment of clearer thinking. The echoes were getting a little quieter, although their information wasn't very useful.

"Did you know there are 17 blue cars at this party..." She mused, momentarily distracted from her plan to seek revenge on her parents.