The conversation had taken a less than amusing turn, and Evelyn crossed her arms, facing the teen. His remark struck a nerve, and she straightened up looking less like another student and more like an adult who was tired of taking lip. "Have I ever actively tried keeping my mind off something? I don't think you really listen. At all. My powers don't shut off. I have to keep my mind off something constantly. You know what it's like having powers that point things out? It's like having someone with ADD following you around gossiping about everything. You know, it's one thing to worry about people judging you. It's another to know when they are, and have someone constantly pointing out other people's opinions. Especially opinion's you care about."

She had faced that more than once, feeling the sting of her parent's judgment, the snobbish opinions of her peers. She felt the rejection, amplified and unforgettable. It wasn't that she thought his own emotions and own feelings weren't important. She felt for him, really. But his dismissal of what she suggested had a judgmental prickling to it. Oh right, what did she know about his situation.

Dumb students. Dumb sunglasses. Dumb powers for making it so irritable. She exhaled from her nose, keeping her temper in check, then turning back to the books sifting through the titles. She was silent for a moment, then walked a few steps, yanked back the books, and pulled his sunglasses from the shelf, plopping them on one of the reading chairs. "Go ahead. Keep hiding." She said, then turned back to the shelves.

Aiden might not be a social genius, but it didn't take very many points in that category to realize he had screwed up bad.

It wasn't hard to realize exactly where either, although Evelyn was making that very clear. Now would be a very good time to have a mutation that would allow him to just melt into the floor and stop existing. Wait, there was an abbreviation for that. KMN. Yes. Very appropriate to this situation, and it was entirely his fault.

By the time she stopped, he wasn't quite cowering, but there was definitely a certain meekness to the way he hung his head and shrank in on himself. Hopefully that was a big enough sign screaming 'sorry! sorry! sorry!' since there was no freaking way he was going to interrupt her right now.

He held still for a few moments after Evelyn moved off, more than a little terrified that she was going to start off again. He'd deserve that too; he in no way doubted that. He wasn't completely sure that his sunglasses deserved to get thrown around, but pointing that out would be quite obviously bad. Why couldn't he think ahead like this before he messed up like that? Come on. At her last words, he hesitantly crept forwards to reclaim his sunglasses, but just held them for a moment, slowly flipping the arms open and closed. "I'm... sorry," he said quietly, now not making eye contact for a completely different reason than before. "I.. I didn't think. I, uh.. I forget that there are a lot of people with things worse than me."

Evelyn was trying really hard to tune out the echoes coming off Aiden at this point. Her annoyance made her desperate to hear anything else, but in a quiet library, distractions weren't as numerous. She could let the echoes list every title on the bookshelf, but that would probably only succeed in making her more unhappy.

[Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.]

Well, if that wasn't clear enough...

Slowly she glanced back at him, body language still on guard but echoes slowly getting receptive again. He flipped his glasses open and closed, and his body language was submissive now. It felt odd, in a way. Usually she was the awkward one, but this time the tables were turned. Her brain processed what he was saying slowly, and she leaned against the shelf.

"You don't have to apologize. Just...try to make the most of things here. No one has it easy. We can't change who we are. Can't change, the past, can only change the future and how we handle it." Well, wasn't she making the inspirational speech now... She picked up another book and flipped through it. She didn't care what it said, she just wanted the awkwardness to fade away again.

He... he didn't have to apologize? What was she talking about? Of course he had to! He messed up big time! Apologizing was what normal, rational people did as soon as they realized that they had done something like that. He might not be normal by most standards - social or species - but he did hope people considered him at least a little rational.

He was trying really hard to not mess up again, though, so he kept his mouth shut about that. "I.. I am trying," he offered carefully. "I mean, that is why I tried out for the x-men." He flipped the sunglasses around a bit more, and then shoved them into his pocket. "Um... if you don't mind my asking... how.. how did you hear about that anyway? It's not like it was all that long ago or anything..."

Were people really talking about him already? That was worrying. He knew that more people would know more about him and all, and he'd (mostly) come to grips with that, but actually talking about him to each other? What were they saying? Were they laughing about all the ways he'd messed up, or the giant gaping holes he needed to work on? Like being able to do more than poke things, and probably having a mental breakdown if he had to actually hit a real person and cause damage. It had been bad enough learning to spar with people.

Aiden was doing a little bit better watching what he was saying. It was a start. She looked up from the pages of the book at his question though, and blinked her eyes once when she realized the news was still probably new.

"Oh, that. Well, I mean, I tried out too, and overheard mention of other trainees on the roaster... Perfect memory kinda keeps names in mind." Evelyn shrugged. Probably talking about dating one of the team leaders might be a grey area in this situation. She felt the feedback of echoes from Aiden starting again though, and quickly continued. "It's not like anyone talks about how we did though. That'd kinda such. But if we're working on the same team we're gonna figure out who we're working with one way or the other."

She was really bad at this socializing thing.... The book seemed much more approachable at this point....

"You tried out too?" Well, that either made him feel way better about trying out himself or reeeaaaalllly insecure. It kind of stretched his brain almost to the point of hurting to try to figure out which. He should just go with feeling better. He wasn't the only one, right? And from what he knew about Evelyn (despite her totally terrifying outburst a moment ago, which would totally freak any run-of-the-mill villain into surrendering immediately, no question about it), she wasn't a particularly combative person, so it wasn't all about beating things up.

Not that he had really thought that it was, but he had his worries. Occasionally. Possibly frequently. Or maybe constantly. Oh, she had a good point. "Yeah... I would kind of rather know who not to accidentally insult ahead of time," he said with a fairly well-balanced mixture of meekness and attempted humour. "Since being hated or dead doesn't really help with, er, teamwork very well." Not that he was a team player, or ever had been, but it was better than nothing.

>>"You tried out too?"

The question didn't have a negative ring to it that time at least. Considering most people seemed to think she was going to get herself killed being an x-men, that was reassuring in a small way. There was more curiosity in his statement then anything, so she relaxed a little and let the book in her hands slide shut again. "Yeah, I guess here at the mansion's the only time I've felt my powers could be useful for something more than working at a museum. Figured if I can do something good with being a know it all..." she gave a half smile then a shrug that faded quickly enough. His attempt at humor brought it back though, and she chuckled as he put the book back.

"Unless I have a pair of sai in my hands I don't think you have to worry. It's not like I can talk anyone to death. As for the teamwork, we're going to make a pretty anti-social team..." She shook her head at the mental image. Hopefully in battle they wouldn't have so much trouble having a conversation.

"Yeah..." Aiden abruptly coughed. "Being useful. Not working at a museum." He was delightfully eloquent today. Might be a personal best.

... Actually, it might be. Ouch.

"Hey! I always thought that know-it-alls were people who only thought they knew everything and shoved it in everyone else's faces. You don't do that, so how can you really be a know-it-all?" Nice going. He didn't sound like a braindead, utterly naïve little kid at all.

.... Evelyn could use sai? .... back to being the most useless person around, instead of just being tied for least combative. And he was pretty sure people could be talked to death, if only by talking so much that you drove them insane or distracting them from something lethal. Like some comically large, heavy object on a set trajectory. Because those were so practical unless you monologued at someone until they went splat.

Aiden wasn't really doing so great with words right now. Then again, Evelyn didn't really know him to be that well spoken. Quite, meek, somewhat intimidated and struggling with his self-esteem maybe... She pushed her hair from her face and then blinked at his next remark.

"I guess....Maybe I'm not exactly a know it all? Just a know....some stuff? I don't know. Turn of phrase I guess. I never forget though so I do know a lot...which gets annoying...." Now she was the one rambling, great. This conversation was starting to feel incredibly long again. She needed practice being social, but she wasn't sure this qualified anymore. It was just like, two people being anti-social together...

"So....how's your training gone?" She made one less chance to have a somewhat normal interaction with the younger mutant. It was a casual enough question, but the echoes were still screaming awkward awkward awkward....

Somehow listening to Evelyn ramble made Aiden feel quite a bit better. It was a lot more awkward being the only awkward person around... and it was a lot less likely that the un-awkward person would make things infinitely worse by intentionally pushing on sensitive issues for whatever reason entertained them the most at the time. At any rate, his expression had lightened and he'd relaxed.

Oh, training. Aiden shrugged. "I spend a lot of time working with Cafas. Do you know him? Aussie with pink hair, does weird stuff to metal." He should probably try to find a better way to describe him, but those were the most glaring characteristics to come to mind... Mentioning that Cafas also had a history of hitting his roommate probably wouldn't be too helpful (or polite, really), and most of the other things he knew about the man weren't quite specific enough to use as descriptors. "It's probably going to start getting a lot harder now, though. I'm... not exactly useful to the X-Men right now, even if I did pass."

Cafas... The name was familiar but Evelyn thought it was more through passing conversation than actually encountering the person. Pink hair sparked memories of a passing figure but nothing with a concrete interaction. "I don't think we've met. I've seen him a few times though, and it's a not a huge mansion so we'll probably cross paths sometimes...." She made a mental note to keep an eye out for the Australian though. Not that the mental note was really necessary. After this conversation the echoes would probably keep an eye out for him anyway.

Aiden's concern about training through created a strong sensation of empathy in Evelyn. "Hey, at least your powers can be offensive. I mean, as much as I can train I will still just be basically human. Mirror would be pretty content just keeping me out of battles and on a com. I mean, I've done ok in the danger room but at least when we're in there no one has to worry about me accidentally getting killed or something." She shrugged, trying to shake away her own doubts. "Are we both just silly for trying this?" She wondered aloud.

Aiden wasn't at all surprised at Evelyn not knowing Cafas, despite her whole never-forget-and-notice-everything deal. Probably came from being so antisocial himself; his first expectation with others tended to be that they were as likely to know people as he was. Or sometimes he'd go the other direction and assume they knew absolutely every person around. There were some people who triggered that, what with how they always seemed to know everybody anyway, even if they hadn't necessarily met them before.

Snow... offensive? Aiden blinked. "Well, if I want to take ten minutes to throw a snowball at someone," he muttered dryly. "Being able to notice everything has to be useful, though. If you don't notice something you can't respond to it, so you'll miss things coming or a chance to end things. I just have to hope I don't trip myself." Although being able to recover from injuries was definitely more appropriate to combat.

Not that he wanted to be involved in combat, but, well, that was how things went, wasn't it? He shrugged. "Silly would be not trying to help people who help us," he said simply. "Or... not dropping out when things get stupid and nasty. There is an exit clause, right?"

Ok, well maybe snowballs weren't so offensive. But the general principle seemed legit... "Well, still. Maybe it you get enough of it it can be used to reduce visibility. And snow is cold, and cold can slow movements. Maybe it's not super useful, but there are still things I bet you could do with it. And if it melts, there's water around, which is slippery..." She awkwardly grasped for mental straws to give him encouragement. She felt like she was making it worse though. "And I guess noticing things is useful. I mean, it gives me good reflexes, but I also think faster than I can move right now, so I need to train more to make that work better." She frowned slightly at the thought. Her training so far had been mixed. She wanted to make better progress so she's continue to feel confident in her abilities.

She chuckled at Aiden's remark though and pushed her hair from her face. "It'll work itself out. Somehow they'll make x-men out of us. Every team has tacticians right? We can just let someone else be the brawn..."

Aiden shrugged. "Kills my visibility and footing too, and it doesn't get that cold. At least, I don't think so. Doesn't seem to bother Cafas, anyway. I really can't tell if it's cold, just if it's hot." It was what it was. "I suppose I at least get to worry about getting maimed a little less than you," he said, holding up a scarred arm wryly.

"Still less likely to do the wrong thing by thinking faster than moving. The right reaction tends to have a bit more of a window than any other reaction, in terms of getting the same thing done. More efficient." Plus there was all the stuff about how training people to think better never seemed to work. Definitely better to start out thinking right and moving wrong than moving right and thinking wrong.

Team? Yes, the x-men were definitely a team. Ai, though, well, he'd never really been on a team before. Ever. He only played soccer with Conri and he never joined up with other people, even through the vague anonymity of the internet, in games. Teams had too many people. Being part of a team felt... weird. Teams meant you had to rely on other people to take care of you, and you couldn't let them manage things themselves for an instant. Being relied upon was one thing, but actually relying on other people? Even in games, where dying just meant respawning somewhere awkward and having to run for an hour just to get back where he'd been.

Well, having snow power was loosing it's appeal to Evelyn. Having to put yourself at a disadvantage when you fought others must suck. Although she wasn't quite sure what he meant about getting maimed... She glanced at the scar, and it took the echoes a second to sort out what he was talking about.

His scars matched his eye, in a way. There was almost a snowlike quality to them. At first, she mostly just noticed the odd coloration. But now that the echoes weren't distracted by her emotions they were pointing out the faint glint that they seemed to have. Like there was something reflective about it. If he didn't have to worry about getting injured, snow powers though... that didn't add up. But the way he spoke, his tone of voice seemed to hint that way. She felt the guess working it's way from her mouth.

"Can you heal yourself? Because if you can, I have to admit I'm somewhat envious." She remarked. Getting healed by DocProf was fine, but self-healing meant it was more useful on the field. Getting dragged back bleeding and injured was sometimes more difficult that it seemed in theory...