Evelyn never expected to have much in common with a skeleton, but that just went to show you what could happen around here. She chuckled, putting her own book back as she did. "My own enjoyment of them developed in much the same way. I've pretty much been an insomniac since my powers developed, so art and reading are good ways to kill time. Unless someone else happens to be awake during the oddball hours, in which case I've dragged a few people to playing card games with me. I bet you have quite the poker face..." Inwardly, she only vaguely remembered her last game of cards, but that was attributed much to the fact she had been hungover during the duration of it. Few memories in her head were fuzzy, but that was one day she could definitely consider 'distant' in her memories.

"I don't enjoy tea quite as much as I probably should. I like it, but I don't drink it very often." Evelyn remarked. She tilted her head slightly as the pop culture reference was sent her way. Had she watched titanic, the movie quote would have sent a bright tint of red to her face. At the moment, she only seemed mildly confused until her brain processed the phrase. Slowly, the pink appeared. "I'm actually quite un-informed of most cinema and television culture. While I get the occasional reference I haven't spent nearly enough time watching movies and the like. The echoes tend to get into arguments about the flaws in what they watch, so that has some unfortunate drawbacks." She admitted. As the skeleton man started posing, a giggle resounded in her throat and she covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh, you don't need to pose. I can.... I've got a perfect memory, remember? I usually just look at something long enough to get an idea of what I want to do then draw from there. Almost like taking a mental photograph....although that sounds awkward now." Her face flushed more and she turned back to the shelves.

It sounded like she was admiring his body and wanted to draw it.

That was awkward in so many ways, even if he wasn't a skeleton.

"I'm not sure not offending you is as difficult as you think. You're fairly laid back about the whole being a skeleton thing. I've talked to kids who just about broke into pieces when I pointed out their mutation. Tact takes a little time to learn, surprisingly..." She said sheepishly.

“My pokerface is rather impressive” Clay accepted this fact with his usual grace and modesty. His head tilted into amusement. “A photographic memory, a love of books, a natural detective and a card player too? You my girl are amazing.” He turned back to the books and replaced computers for dummies. “Poker night is every other Thursday at my office, your welcome any time. Well, that is if you don’t mind playing with a group of ghosts and with a ghost deck. I should warn you though most of them cheat...”

Clay looked up seeing her mild confusion and then her pink tinted cheeks as she turned away from him. He felt a little guilty he hadn’t wanted to make her feel uncomfortable. “And so my carefully researched knowledge of pop culture is once again unappreciated. Ohh well. I'll just have to stick to a book of 21st century jokes.” He takes one off the shelf and opens it to a random page. He cleared his throat and read aloud. “ A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says, 'That’s the ugliest baby that I’ve ever seen.' The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her, 'The driver just insulted me!' The man says, 'You go right up there and tell him off, go on, I’ll hold your monkey for you.' ” Clay looked up over the book. “There, is that better?”

He hung his suite jacket up on the corner of the bookshelf and pulled off his left glove then his cuff-link and stuffed them into a pocket. Clay rolled up his shirt sleeve to the elbow and then with a cracking popping sound detached the radius and ulna from his humerus. Clay's body stiffened for a second in pain, then he relaxed. He placed his lower arm and hand down on the shelf in front of the books she was pretending to examine “There s no need to be embarrassed for the sake of curiosity as you say I'm laid back, if i was anymore laid back I'd be dead... oh wait, ignore that. Look, learn, draw and memorize. If you want to see anything else I wont mind. If you find out how it works let me know. Because it frankly baffles me too.”

Evelyn tried to imagine playing cards with a bunch of ghosts. It sounded a bit impossible considering she would have Clay as the only person she could read, and he was less than revealing himself. "As amusing as that game would be, I think being unable to see or hear my opponents would put me at a disadvantage. Unless the echoes learn to read the undead..." she trailed off and shook her head at the silly image. The compliment kept the color in her cheeks though.

"And don't take it personally Clay. If you visit the mansion more often I'm sure someone would appreciate your pop culture references. You just happened to find the only person here lacking the appropriate knowledge to enjoy your well placed humor." She grinned sideways, smile breaking into a chuckle with his joke. "Thanksfully the echoes haven't deprived me of a sense of humor. You made me smile which accomplishes what you intended anyway."

The echoes jerked her attention to his arm and her face gave away an expression of surprise as he removed his arm and plopped it down in front of her. Well, that image would certainly be burnt into memory. She blinked and covered her mouth breaking into a fit of giggles. "I suppose making any reference to you 'giving me a hand' with things at this point would be drifting from humorous to punny. Never mind, I've seem to have accomplished that anyway. Does it hurt to do that? Or does being dead afford you with the luxury of lacking pain as well?" She glanced down at his arm, then up to where the bone had been 'removed' from. The action made little sense and made the echoes spin in confusion.

The skeleton chuckled at her reaction. Much better than the scream or shock he'd half expected. And now she wasn’t embarrassed which was a plus. He waved the question away with his remaining hand. “Pain tells us that we're alive Evelyn. I'm not so dead that I cant feel pain and suffering. Dislocation hurts a little but only while its happening, its not really a big deal. And I haven’t had any serious breaks yet so that’s good.” He paused thinking about that and changed the subject. “You should see me when I wash. It was getting annoying so I bought a industrial dishwasher last year. I just pop most of them in there and sit around reading while I wait. It feels tingly.”

He sat down on one of the armchair littering the room and straightened his tie. He looked down at the end of his humerus sticking out of the sleeve. Clay tutted to himself and made the rolled up the sleeve a little neater. As he fussed he continued. “I can still feel them when their dislocated but I cant move them, and the further I am away the harder it is to keep them together. If you walked away with my arm over there it would fall apart after a few more feet. I guess willpower only extends so far.” He looked up from his sleeve. “So? Any incites? Does your marvelously observant and vocal subconscious see why they stay together? “ He wanted to know but wasn’t very hopeful. But in all thing it was nice to hear a second opinion, to hear information from another way of thinking.

“By the way if you have so much trouble while your sleeping why don’t you do your recall before you go to sleep?” Clay asked curiously. “Perhaps if you exercise you mind by reliving the day before you sleep you wont have as much to deal with while you sleeping?”

Evelyn found it hard to relate to what Clay experienced having his skeleton form. Which was an odd position for her to be in. The echoes had a way of enabling her to relate to others, but this was one connection she felt she would never truly understand. Having one's limbs thrown in a dishwasher was so odd she just had to chuckle and shake her head. "I think I'd prefer just taking a shower."

The echoes contemplated what could be holding everything together. Some sort of 'mental gravity' seemed like it could be possible, but there was no real way to test that. "Maybe you just have your own form of telekinesis. Your body is adapting it's human inclinations to hold itself together and feel things, and so you are getting the mental relays from those habits. It's kind of like with my echoes I can remember pain extremely clearly, even though what caused the pain is long gone. The power of the mind is a strange thing..." She mused, and considered it some more.

"The problem with mutations is they aren't really bound to logic. While having a brain seems necessary to have mental sensations, if your powers have adapted beyond that and contains your 'brain waves' in a less tangible form I guess that could work. I apologize, I'm rambling." She cautiously turned his hand over, more from fear of accidentally injuring it than anything. The skeleton had a strange sense of 'life' to it still, considering how old and brittle it might otherwise be. The echoes continued to debate in the back of her mind.

His next question caused her to ponder, and she rubbed her forehead with her hand. "Maybe eventually I can learn to do that, but right now I lack control over the playbacks. I can sometimes pull up a certain memory when I'm awake, but I still experience the playbacks in my sleep. I think it's like if you have a room and you're piling boxes into it. At the end of the day my brain reorganizes what's already there and makes room for more. It would be hard to reorganize information I'm already using, so there would always be a need to at least sift through that..." She admitted with a shrug.

“Showers are overrated. I was forever scrubbing at the crooks and crannies with a toothbrush. And talk about water in the joints” His head was at that amused angle again and he gave a mocked shudder. “I would squeak at the joints for hours afterwards. It sounded like a group of mice had moved in.”

“So what your saying Miss. Summers, is that I have a magnetic personality. Too true, too true.” He looked at the young woman as she talked. Clay knew she wasn’t really talking to him any more, she was simply theorizing out loud, bouncing her ideas off the walls. He watched as she gently turned his hand over. Clay tried to feel something, her hand, the shelf, anything. But as always when they were disconnected from the majority his bones felt dull and lifeless. Simply keeping them connected at a distance was hard enough. He looked down at his stumped left arm, his arm was still there, he couldn’t see it but he could almost sense it, it was just waiting for something to inhabit. “Don’t apologize, your not rambling. I do the same thing when I'm stuck on a case. Sometimes you just have too get your thoughts out in the open or they just start spinning around and you get nowhere. Never apologize for thinking Evelyn.” He looked up, cocked his head back to that amused angle. “Only dunce's, jokers and skeletons are allowed to do that.”

“That’s a shame... I thought that might work. Talk about a double edge sword of a mutation, but as you say most are like that.” Clay flopped back in the armchair thinking about what it would be like to relive a life over and over instead of dreaming. So many bloody cases and deeds. For him that would be hell. When he spoke he spoke quietly but with force. “Be careful with the decisions you make Evelyn. Make sure there all good ones or you'll regret it. With a mutation like yours...” He shrugged. "Just be careful alright."

Evelyn hadn't thought about it, but it would probably be hard to dry if you were a skeleton. Unless he invested in a blow dryer or something. Then again, what did she know? The dishwasher was probably easier.

She just couldn't imagine sitting and waiting for her arms to finish washing...

Evelyn appreciated his encouragement though as the conversation shifted. She always felt like she thought too much, but Clay's words took away some of that fear. With all the information in her head, 'thinking too much' felt like it was bound to happen. But he seemed to find that ability something beneficial, which countered the remarks she was growing so used to hearing. "I guess I just feel like it's rare when people appreciate my thinking... It always seems like it's getting me into trouble. I guess I just need to learn to think of ways out of situations as well as into them though..." She mused, then watched the shift in the skeleton's demeanor.

He had no facial expressions, but she was picking up a thing or two. His head tilts stopped, and he gazed off in what she could only image was a distant expression. Some thought had caught his attention enough to stop his fidgeting, and he looked more like a skeleton and less like another mutant. His remark made her shiver slightly, and she glanced off to the side. "I try, but sometimes trouble just seems to find me. I do envy others though.... some memories are best forgotten."

"Agreed" The skeleton said grimly. "But on the bright side some memories are a delight to remember. I bet you a have a few of those too." Clay stood and stretched, throwing his arms wide and arching his back. "But lets us speak of better things, better worlds, better people and better dreams. I believe before my magpie of a mind got distracted by this shiny library you were giving me a tour of this rather impressive Mansion."

Clay ambled over to his arm and reached out with the end of his humerus. The bones on the shelf started to slide towards it, slowly at first but then more quickly. Like a magnet to magnet they flew a few inches through the air and reattached with a dull crunching sound. Clay winced and stiffened but the pain quickly passed. He worked at his sleeve and cufflink as he spoke. "Feel free to ask to see it or anything else any time you like. I dont mind and to be honest I'm a little flattered you wish to draw me."He reached for his jacket."By the way. What's behind you?"

Call made faces behind Evelyn's head and then stuck up to fingers to make little bunny ears at the back of her head and wiggled them. She stuck out her tongue at Clay but stayed still behind Evelyn. It wasn't the first time Clay had tried to see if anyone else could see her or another ghost. Call crossed her arms, willing to wait but not for long. As she grew more impatient the space her body occupied grew fractionally colder than the rest of the room. "Oh for god's sake Clay! She can't see me. Now come on, I've found the kid. With no help from you I might add."

Evelyn wasn't disappointed by the change of topic. Talking about bad memories had a tendency to resurface them, and there were several things in her subconscious she didn't want to rencounter. As his arm reattached she politely (or rather, impolitely) starred while it reconnected, the echoes taking note of the behavior and filing the information away. She was certain there would be skeletons in her drawings when she got the time to sketch. She readjusted her sketchbook then paused and glanced behind her.

Evelyn couldn't see the figure behind her, but something about Clay's reactions took aside the doubt the area was empty. There was a consistency to the directions he was looking, and the movement seemed natural, and less like the faked 'pretending to see something' things kids played at the mansion sometimes. And she had seen him talking to the air before... although she was pretty sure there was more there.

"I'm fairly certain there is a ghost behind me, but frankly my echoes have not adapted so far as to seeing spirits... You seem to be uniquely gifted in that respect." She admitted, glancing at the skeleton to watch his response. When scientists studied black holes, they identified them by the light being pulled in, and studied the behavior of surrounding objects. Much the same way, Evelyn had to watch the behavior of her companion to see what her eyes could not.

Clay watched as Evelyn looked around the area where Call stood. He hoped that she might be able to see or sense something which so many others could not with her marvelous powers of observation. She would have passed ghost in the street all her life perhaps even stood in the same rooms as them as they stood and watched. Not everyone became a ghost but there were hundreds in the city. He hoped that maybe, just maybe if she knew where one was standing she might be able to sense something with her mutation. But alas her gaze swept right past Call without a change of expression. Ahh well.

“Why is this girl looking at my breasts? Do I have a stain or something?” Call wondered as she brushed at her bloodstained top.

“I am uniquely gifted in many respects.” Clay admitted with a smile in his voice. “For example once while trying to boil an egg I managed to burn the water. That my friend, is a gift not many in this world posses.” He pulled on his suit jacket and, vain as ever, fussed at it a little. Finally satisfied he walked back over to Evelyn and cocked his head and gestured to her side. “My apologies I didn’t think you would be able to see anything but I had to ask. Curiosity it seems is a vice we share.”

“Enough chatting! Lets leave this place!” Call moaned almost stamping her foot in frustration.

“But curiosity is also one of the many reasons I'm here.” Clay continued to ignore Call much to his amusement and her frustration. “Can I see the rest of the mansion?”

“I am NOT staying for the tour. I'll be haunting the kid.” Call huffed off and drifted through the wall. She stuck her head back into the library. “You know, if you care at all. You skinny moron.” She stuck her tongue out at the two and left.

It was probably a good thing Evelyn couldn't hear Call. Knowing you were accidentally staring somewhere awkwardly on a ghost was just about as embarrassing as doing so to a human, and so far their conversation had avoided many of the social blunders she seemed to fall into. She glanced at Clay though, wondering what the ghost might be saying. His facial expressions didn't reveal though, having none, so she gave up trying for the moment and shrugged her shoulders at his remarks. "Perhaps someday the echoes might adapt to hear them. I think knowing there is something there is a good step. I've learned that while being a mutant few things are ever impossible."

She was talking to a skeleton, after all....

"Where would you like to look first? The mansion isn't super exciting, more like a really fancy house I'd like to think. I mean, there is the kitchen, and outside there is a pool, the living room...I think there is a piano lurking somewhere..." She started for the door, waiting for the echoes to recall the necessary memories of the schools blueprint. She moved mostly on instinct in the meantime, driven by the passive memories.