While she could understand how walking through mirrors felt, shifting genders was something she could never relate to. And if she ever could, that would take a bit more processing to deal with. She felt a slight smile for a moment, then relaxed in Gawain's hold. She shrugged slightly at the question.

"It takes...sorting. I have to learn to listen to what's the most important. It's like seeing. While you can see a street and cars and people walking past, and objects on the sidewalk, things in the sky all at the same time, you aren't really looking at all of it. You let yourself focus. If you're crossing the street, you glance for cars. If you're talking to a friend, you focus on their face. The echoes just need to be focused. You train your brain to 'look' like you train your eyes, I guess." She chewed her lip wondering if that made any sense It wounded a lot better in her head.

"The echoes are...messy, I guess. They take a lot of information and dump it all in my head. It's my job to keep it pushed into piles or boxes and deicde what to pay attention to." Easy in theory, harder in execution. The echoes really wanted her to know the foxsquirrel had knocked her color pencils off the desk. She had no intention of cleaning them up now.

Gawain listened to the explanation while the echoes kept chattering in the background. They were not a constant flow now, more like scattered batches of information here and there. Seemed like as Eve relaxed the information got more scarce too.

>>"The echoes are...messy, I guess. They take a lot of information and dump it all in my head. It's my job to keep it pushed into piles or boxes and deicde what to pay attention to."

Gawain nodded, trying to relax both his body and his brain. He was still rattled from the playback and the sudden appearance of echoes, but relaxing did seem to help.

"But they are not my echoes, are they" he muttered "They are still yours. It's like... I'm listening in a police broadcast, isn't it?"

It was hard to explain, but he could tell that the echoes were not exactly talking to him.

"So... it is still your ability. Amplifying your echoes so others can hear them, or something like that?"

"But they are not my echoes, are they" he muttered "They are still yours. It's like... I'm listening in a police broadcast, isn't it?"

Evelyn considered his question, then finally nodded. While she could exactly hear his end of things, his explanation seemed to make sense. It would sound different hearing echoes from her perspective verses having them from his. It was like taking a picture from two different viewpoints. "It would make sense. You saw my memories through the playback. Maybe you're just picking up the 'feed'." It seemed like a good way to describe it. She pushed her hair out of her face.

"Amplifying it sounds a little more forceful than whats happening though. Maybe it's more like it's creating a conduit. The information isn't lessening or changing in anyway when you're there. It's just sharing it with you." She considered.

>>"It would make sense. You saw my memories through the playback. Maybe you're just picking up the 'feed'. Amplifying it sounds a little more forceful than whats happening though. Maybe it's more like it's creating a conduit. The information isn't lessening or changing in anyway when you're there. It's just sharing it with you."

"Well, we do share a lot of things." Gawain chuckled. He was still shaken by the experience, but now that there was a logical explanation for it, it seemed a lot less scary. Evelyn seemed more calm now too, and he hugged her close despite the insistent nagging of the echoes "So, you think the... conduit, is it like, based on you touching me, or is it a mental link?... Do you think others could be hearing them too?"

Because, you know. That could get weird. People hearing Evelyn's echoes from the next room or something.
Gawain felt his cheeks heat up. Awkward.

Evelyn started to reject the idea of the echoes being caused by a mental link, but then the whole scenario rushed through her head and made her cheeks burn even redder than Gawain's. Having people in her head was terrible by itself, but randomly sharing her thoughts to someone next door...

"If they ever get to that level I am camping out next door to the guidance counselor, comma risk or not." She shuddered at the though. "No, I'm pretty sure it's just touch... I mean, it didn't seem like they stayed on once I moved away, right? For now that seems to be the only on/off switch. But maybe I can train and control it more... I don't know... it hurts my head to consider it." The echoes picked up on the creak of someone walking down the hallway, and migrated back to Gawain. After thinking for a few more minutes, she fished for one of the blankets and pulled it around her.

"Do you hear them now?" She asked, waiting to gauge his reaction. It was weird learning about her powers without really knowing what they were doing. Gawain was really the guinea pig this time.

>>"If they ever get to that level I am camping out next door to the guidance counselor, comma risk or not... No, I'm pretty sure it's just touch... I mean, it didn't seem like they stayed on once I moved away, right? For now that seems to be the only on/off switch. But maybe I can train and control it more... I don't know... it hurts my head to consider it. Do you hear them now?"

"Kind of" Gawain nodded, helping her wrap the blanket over them "Not as bad as the playback was. I guess you are right... I hope you're right" he chuckled, still slightly embarrassed about the other possibility "We should make sure though before we broadcast private thoughts to underage kids in the Mansion..."

That was a possibility no one wanted to think about.

"We'll figure out a way for you to control it" he promised "You have been doin' well so far. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna stop touching you because I might get the echo cooties."

Even with the joke, Evelyn grimaced slightly and sighed. "It's not the echoes I'm worried about... A few voices here or there won't hurt anyone, but the playbacks... It's impossible to sleep as it is without worrying I'm going to drag someone through my memories with me. Maybe I could should stay back at the apartment for a little bit... until we know for sure." Not that she wanted to be away, but anyone around her risked turning into a guinea pig if things got worse.

"When other people's powers change... how long does it take for them to... I don't know... settle I guess? With the playbacks, they just sort of came one day and never went away after that... What about the rest of you? Do they just sort of... turn on and that's it?" She wasn't good at forming questions right now, but the echoes were also funneling a lot of information.

>>"It's not the echoes I'm worried about... A few voices here or there won't hurt anyone, but the playbacks... It's impossible to sleep as it is without worrying I'm going to drag someone through my memories with me. Maybe I could should stay back at the apartment for a little bit... until we know for sure."

Gawain sighed, but didn't argue. She was right about the playbacks, that was definitely a worse experience than the echoes. If those activated by touch too, even though not many people were going to be touching Evelyn while she was asleep (hopefully), it still posed a problem.

>>"When other people's powers change... how long does it take for them to... I don't know... settle I guess? With the playbacks, they just sort of came one day and never went away after that... What about the rest of you? Do they just sort of... turn on and that's it?"

"It depends on the person" Gawain mused "When my mirrorwalking started, it kind of turned itself on... and I could use it any time after that. It took a long time to figure out how it worked, though... get used to the perspective, learn to get in and out... that kinda stuff. Oh, and also, learned the hard way not to be in a mirror when it breaks." he added with a smirk "I think it's not really an on and off thing, it's more about learning the limitations and learning to control them."

He rubbed Evelyn's back in slow calming circles as he thought about the possibilities.

"I mean, y're already in training. This is just kinda like a new addition to your to-do list..."

Evelyn listened as Gawain talked about his own powers, and considered where her's seemed to fall. It wasn't really just an "On" sort of power that she'd seen; the instance with Sylar and this recent one weren't back to back, so there was a point they were "Off". But controlling that? Finding a way to make "off" available for longer? Those weren't questions anyone could answer for her. Sadly, time may be the only thing to reveal those answers.

"I mean, y're already in training. This is just kinda like a new addition to your to-do list..."

She closed her eyes, relaxing slightly and nodded. It would be a little more complicated throwing new powers in the mix, but not impossible. But the images of what could happen in the meantime suddenly raced through her head and she felt her shoulders tense right back up.

"What about other things, though? Sharing too much information with you is one thing, but what if I'm in the bank and the echoes start rattling off someone's personal information, or if I'm at work and they start... I can't control what they say. This could be a security issue if the wrong person can hear what's in my head..." She stopped herself, biting her lip and taking a deep breathe. It was too much to stress at once. She wasn't running to the bank anytime soon, and she wasn't exactly running around town in a bathing suit. The echoes momentarily considered that possibility and her face went an extra deep shade of crimson before she coughed and sent them back to counting the curtain hooks.

"We should train. Training is good." She decided, willing the connection with Gawain to sever, if nothing more than to keep the ever embarrassing scenarios from suddenly invading Gawain's head.

>>"What about other things, though? Sharing too much information with you is one thing, but what if I'm in the bank and the echoes start rattling off someone's personal information, or if I'm at work and they start... I can't control what they say. This could be a security issue if the wrong person can hear what's in my head... We should train. Training is good."

"Shhh" Gawain murmured, hugging her in the comfortable warmth of the blankets "As far as we know, right now it's touch only, right? It's much less of a security threat unless you touch people randomly."

As long as it didn't get worse (or stronger) that is. But for now, good enough.

"And we will train. I mean, you gotta get practice to control it, but at the same time, it could also be useful. How 'bout we focus on that? If you can share echoes with teammates, that's a whole new level of teamwork right there."

He knew for a fact how useful Evelyn's echoes could be, and he was pretty sure not many of the rest of the team did. He had been working with her longer than anyone.

"I mean, I should know, right? I was the one that dragged you into the DR in the first place..." he added with a smirk.

"It's much less of a security threat unless you touch people randomly."

Evelyn still grimaced. "I work at a museum. A crowded museum. Where little kids randomly grab onto your arm asking for you to show you where the bathroom is or old ladies sometimes feel the need to pat you on the head for telling them where the right exhibit is. I can see it now...old lady dies from heart attack after the voices in the mutant employees head transfer via aggressive cheek pinching..." As much as the situation could be realistically horrifying, she couldn't help but giggle awkwardly then groan at what a terrible person she was for laughing in the first place.

"Missions could be easier if we get it down though. At least I wouldn't have to repeat all the echoes information to you. Although I would need to be right there with you for it to work. It would make clingy girlfriend have a whole new meaning."

The memories from the Danger Room made her smile though, and she relaxed against the hug, getting sleepier as the real stress settled for the more comical worse case scenarios. Laughing made it feel less dangerous at least. "I'd say that feels like a long time ago, but echoes... That is a memory I enjoy revisiting though." There was something sentimental about it, although it was strange to feel the emotions she had back then towards Mirror. She never would have guessed they'd end up dating.