If there was anything that Jude could empathize with, it was being a grown up and enduring being treated as a child. He did it, first against his will and finally on purpose so that he could live in his own legal identity. But Evelyn... he was pretty sure based on the few conversations they'd had thus far that Evelyn was not exactly in her situation by choice. His first inclination was to find a power to fix it, but he had no options there. Age shifters weren't that common, and in his experience, they only just affected themselves... and going out and getting a power to "fix" someone was an absolute assumption. What if Evelyn didn't want to be "fixed"? Just respected?

He owed her the biggest thank you possible, so barring all assumptions about her willingness to age, Jude decided to bring her what he was always begging for... intellectual freedom.

Not knowing exactly where the girl lived and not wanting to be a creepy Mansion uncle about it, Jude bribed a kiddo to go check her room on his behalf while he set up shop in the living room. Some kids were playing a retro game that he'd never excelled as while living here, but since he was waiting for Evelyn anyway he figured he'd give it a shot.

He made sure to have the kids explain the controller to him since this was a different game system before he gave Super Fight Siblings a shot, like a proper old man who didn't know anything. Then he chose the electric mouse and did his best to murder everyone... in a not creepy way.

Since returning to the age of seven, Evelyn had found two things mildly annoying. One: the inability to sleep without reliving memories. And two: the lack of access to technology.

The first problem was something she had no solution ready for. From what she knew, these 'playbacks' started at a much later time during her first life. She had plenty of time to dream and be normal before her body started the endless loop of reprocessing information. This go around, she was already facing them. On the one hand, her perfect memory was storing information at an alarming rate, from books, to articles, and even blueprints when she could get her hands on them. The downside was replaying those projects at any given time. Biology of Mutations was a good read the first time, but after facing it three nights in a row, she was wishing she had chosen something less dense to let her brain chew on.

It was like eating toast without butter five times a day. She was burnt out.

The technology issue was a bit more complicated. Ion had offered help sometime, but that forced her to rely on him, much like she had to rely on CS for access to the Danger Room. Again, she wasn't exactly unhappy with it, but she missed the days she could do things on her won without everyone questioning how old she was.

Seven, as it turns out, was not a very big number in the eyes of the world, and she was increasingly jealous of other deaged mutants who had come back at more useful points in their lives.

With these thoughts in her mind, Evelyn had been surprised to hear Jude had come to visit. While the older mutant had probably intended just to locate her, she was one step ahead and quickly made her way to the living room, looking in the door at the gathered group sitting with the controllers.

"Don't let Eevee play. It's not fair. It's worse than going up against the computer!" one of the kids shouted, catching sight of her. Evelyn stuck out her tongue and walked over, standing next to Jude.

"Like I would want to play with you. You only know 3 moves. You're worse than predictable." She was trying not to give a bad impression with Jude here, but their remarks were annoying. Sam had tried to enforce the idea that playing was important, but one or two rounds of games with these kids had been a waste of her time.

Jude, at least, was still managing to kick their butts. That just proved how bad they were. He was only using three moves as well, but managing to rain electric bolts of lightning down on everyone. Characters flew off left and right like shooting stars.

"Yeah it's no fair, he picked Cheapachu."
"Cheapachu can hit the whole screen."
"All is fair in love and war." He'd discovered the second joystick that did the really big hits. In this level of play, it seemed no one else had. If a truly skilled opponent were to arrive— "Hey, Evelyn." —his butt would be astroturf.

"If he's so good why didn't you pick— AH! How do you double jump!?" His downfall was himself, really. Jude tended to jump off the edge and not be able to recover.

Out of lives, he set his controller down and let the kid gloat even though he'd just barely scraped through for the win because of Jude's suicide. Jude weathered it in good humor as he exited the couch area to give Evelyn his full attention. The rabble behind them as they walked away was who got to pick Cheapachu. Apparently, all of them could.

"Hey, so I never said thank you for your help. I brought a couple things." He wasn't sure the best place to give it to her so Jude went to the stairwell and dug in his pockets before he sat on a step.

It was a box, very smooth and tactilely pleasing. He hadn't bothered to wrap it since the box was so cool, but that did mean it was obvious from the outset what it was.

A smart phone.

"Don't let the adults take it from you. I added you to my plan, but I'm not made of money so while there's unlimited texting and calls, you only get 1 gigabyte of data. You'll need to get the wifi password everywhere you go."

Evelyn started to tell Jude how to double jump, but in the end, he lost anyway. It was for the better, she decided. Resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at the other children (she was too adult for such nonsense) she followed Jude out of the room.

[Object, right pocket. Electronic. Smart phone.] The echoes rambled as the gift was given and Evelyn's eyes widened.

"Can I really have this? And of course, William and I figured out how to connect to WiFi in the building, so I know the passwords, that won't be a problem. I just, won't it cost you money?" She was trying to read his face. She would know right away if he was hoping for something else in return. The gratitude was there though, and that was important. Her expression softened.

"Zaid seems to be doing a lot better though, and that's what matters. I don't normally get to do things that have any positive impact... At least this time, I didn't screw everything up." She wasn't sure why she felt so embarrassed around Jude. Normally she didn't care what adults thought. She would blow things up in this building left and right and just accept the consequences. There were only a handful of people she regarded with respect, and Jude was one of them. He had been the first to see her as who she was, and not just as an annoying kid getting in the way.

"And the adults here couldn't even keep me from taking jet fuel from the hanger. Do you really think I'd let them take my phone away?" Evelyn held it tightly, a look of stubbornness on her face. She would make someone listen to the entire Websters dictionary through a playback if they so much as reached for her knew gift.

He took her questions very seriously. "It's yours." He confirmed. She had to understand it was a gift, even if the cost was ongoing. It was important to him. "Yeah. It does cost me money, but not so much that you should feel bad. I couldn't have found Zaid without you. This is nothing in light of that." It helped that he'd gotten a little pay bump recently. He was worried for a beat that his explanation didn't pass muster, but eventually her face softened. It must have helped that he meant every word.

"Yeah, it was good in is own way, huh?" Jude stretched his legs out in front of him. The stairwell wasn't the most comfortable place to chat, but it was public enough to not be weird, but still private enough to not be overheard. "I'm not used to doing "good" things, per se. For a long I was just doing what I could to get through... now I'm legitimately approaching the age I was before I woke up young, when I started all over again." It was like his life was finally getting to start. He wasn't sure he'd ever explained that to Evelyn properly. No doubt she'd surmised anyway. Not much got past her.

"I screwed up a bunch." Simple facts. No judgement. "It's easy to do when nobody understands where you're coming from and what you're trying to do. Don't let that stop you from persevering."

And he had to snort at the jet fuel thing. "And I fired the x-jet missiles at the pool." And then held up his hands in his defense. "Not that it's a competition. I somehow think you'd win. Just pointing out that the adults can't spend every waking moment surveilling you and you reeeeally don't want them to. So maybe find a way to self-regulate if you want to keep your phone off their radar."

Evelyn didn’t have anyone she cared about the same way, but she could still understand how important the bunny boy had been to Jude. The echoes seemed to read emotions and translate them even when she had no current understanding.

In some ways, she felt she still had the capacity for things she felt as an adult. When she met Sam again she could have sworn she had missed him without remembering why. Some things translated when memories were gone, and grief had been a feeling she felt even her mind could not forget. If they had not rescued Zaid, Evelyn could have only imagined what would have happened. The place they visited said enough, and the horror Zaid had shown during the brief moments before she comforted him would be burnt into her playbacks.

The phone was a gift, a thank you. That she knew carried weight she would not take lightly.

Evelyn considered the concept of “good”. She made a face and sat, ”Everyone told me I was a good person in my last life. But, I feel as if I diverged from that. You had a similar experience, I assume. I don’t know how, or the details, but at least you remember. For me, it’s all just starting, but the expectations are already there. Someone I was but am not now.”

She looked at the phone, trying to put the words in place. ”I told someone once that it’s like the multi-verse theory. This time, this me has already branched from the old one. I don’t feel like a good person here, but, not really a bad one. Do you think that’s okay?” she liked Jude because he wasn’t entirely perfect. She liked that he seemed haunted a little too by expectations he couldn’t fulfill.

Evelym smiled about the jet, and then nodded to confirm the safety of the phone. ”Sam has been teaching me to throw Sai, and I am good at it. I feel like my brain already has the coding there and it just, falls back into place. But my muscles aren’t strong enough yet.” she complained.

Interesting. "It sounds like it's similar, but not the same. I definitely remember. But I woke up one day and it was like ten years I lived just didn't happen. The things I did in that time? Gone. The people I knew? I've only ever met two who remember. I was-" confused, depressed, hopeless, angry? All those things. But he settled on the more palatable tac. "I was powerless, literally, and so frustrated.

And then everything started happening in different ways. I wanted the timeline to be different. I'm glad it's different. But for me it was still a lot of repeating stuff I'd already done." Maybe that was why he'd done things like run away or throwing parties on the X-jet. They'd all been new experiences. And if he woke up tomorrow having to do his life over again, he might choose even more outrageous things next time.

And wow. He had not meant to start talking feelings and stuff. Jude mussed Evelyn's hair as she took a seat next to him because he couldn't take the heavy atmosphere. "Nothing really changes if you take a macro view. Up close, nothing stays the same. If we're a product of our experiences and you lost a chunk of your memories? You're already a different person. It would be crazy to expect the same."

As for the 'okayness' of it all? "You've got time to be who you'll be this time. Just... don't count out the good totally. You don't have to be Mansion good. You can just be Evelyn good." He'd given X-men good a shot and ended up not being good enough. Now he was just Jude. That would have to be enough because he didn't have anything else.

"I don't know if you're interested..." And he was totally fishing here, "but I registered BlacTac as a community service option. Qualified applicants only." That was one thing that had truly turned his life around... finding a place to fit. "It's a hell of a bus ride from here, though."

Evelyn wondered what it would feel like to wake up and your life had not just rewound, but was gone. For her, the world still knew who she was, but she didn’t. The ignorance was the salvation. Some days she hated it but if Jude was speaking to the alternative, this wasn’t so bad.

She was a polite listener much like he had been. The final phrase resonated though. She could be her own level of good. Like, Sam and Jude, and the adults she respected. They weren’t perfect, and she appreciated all the little pieces that shaped them. ”That helps,” she admitted. [Awkward. Uncertain at direction of conversation. Attempting to relieve serious atmosphere.] She gave him a rare smile. ”Sorry, I didn’t have much chance to talk with you before. It just felt nice hearing from someone who understood.”

He dropped the next piece of the reward. At least, to her it was a reward. ”BlacTac? Could I really? I don’t mind the commute! I have plenty of time to read and they don’t really like me in classes here. They say it’s not fair to the other kids because I’ve memorized the textbooks...” she blinked so she wouldn’t get sidetracked, and tried not to look too hopeful.

”When could I go? What could I do? Do I need to fill anything out? I mean, legally I’m an adult if it helps. My date of birth didn’t change even if I did.”

It was nice to find someone who understood, even if the situation wasn't the same.

As for the job situation... It was tricky. Very, very tricky. "I registered with the Mansion for community service so when you get in trouble, you can serve time at BlacTac instead of doing detention all the time." That was definitely a when, not if. "I need somebody to do what I used to do, actually. Reload magazines, fill out paperwork, keep schedules. The more I get out of the office, the more the office itself is being neglected."

He eyed her as surreptitiously as he could, but so far it didn't seem like that had talked her out of anything just yet. Not that he was trying to. Just that office work wasn't terribly glamorous. Neither was kissing butts in order to drum up more work or renegotiate purchase material prices, but it was something he was okay enough at.

"You can really." She was full of ideas to make the commute suck less, but until she lived it, Jude was going to dismiss the enthusiasm. He'd been living the commute for only a week-ish and already he was sick of it.

"That's good about your ID. That means we can do paperwork and compensate you for you time. That makes me feel less yucky about child labor laws." Not that he'd had any qualms whatsoever when he'd been the child under 10 demanding proper compensation.

Jude shifted on his stair tread. "Why do you live here? If you're not doing class and they won't let you do anything?" Jude's ID issues were the opposite of Evelyn's, it seemed. He'd had to come back and do the whole school charade just so he could live his name with legal ID. Evelyn, though... Her problems were merely aesthetic.

The premise of the situation was to exchange detention hours for time at BlacTac. Honestly, that seemed like it could be all the more reason to get in trouble, and she almost wondered if that was a flaw in the plan. It wasn’t like she made catching stuff on fire a regular occurrence. She just skirted around rules when possible, or when they were too meddlesome. Although, she did get into a fist fight the other day when a kid mouthed off to her and made fun of her echoes. That one had earned some trouble...

Maybe she didn’t need to try very hard to earn time to help her new friend.

Why did she live here? Good question, actually. ”I am utilizing resources for the moment. I own an apartment still, and I’ve made arrangements to keep it, but the school does have things I couldn’t get on my own. A chemistry lab, for one. The ability to train in the danger room, also. The library was useful but I think I’m reaching its limitations.” that made the promise of the cell phone so much more exciting. She could research without being limited to what texts the school had.

”I mean, I guess I don’t enjoy being here, necessarily, but I am limited by my physical age... you are the first person who has been willing to let me be useful.” she admitted.

Jude knew that look. He was that look. And he was gonna do ab-so-lutely nothing to stop Evelyn from making trouble here. She could intern there just as easily, but it was just too perfect to have a get out of jail free card.

A get outta jail free card that she didn't even actually need since she had an apartment.

"There's other places to train. Maybe the chem lab is legit, I dunno. Just seems like where there's a will, there's a way." But he was sensing some bull. Or maybe it was possible that she didn't realize there might be other reasons.

"I'm not advocating you leave. I guess I just want to know that if I ever run across a power to help you out, if you're even interested. I haven't yet, to be clear."

Evelyn considered what he said seriously. It did make a lot of sense in the long run for her to go back to her own place. She had the deed to the apartment, the money to keep it, for the moment. Plus, she did seem to get into a lot of trouble here. Would she do better on her own? It was hard to tell.

"I wouldn't say you don't have a good point. I think since coming back everyone just assumed I needed to be at the mansion and I didn't fight it. You just are the first one to think I could survive just fine on my own."

She smiled at him, a sort of rare genuine expression, and then sort of dipped her head in a way of acknowledging his offer to help. "Being able to help at BlacTac is a start for me. I don't have a full goal yet, honestly, but I feel like I have potential and I just want to find it. If I can help in the meantime, maybe it's a win win?" she looked down at the phone and grinned. "And who knows? Maybe you guys just really needed some Echoes to help with all the paperwork. They are really good at organizing!" she managed to brag.

"I mean, I think you'd get hell taking the subway alone. And unless your doorman knows you, maybe there too. It's not easy to move around freely as a kid. For most kids, that's fine. For the rest of us..." He and Evelyn were not most kids. That felt like a thing that required a fistbump so he offered his first out for the bumping. Someone needed to make holo-parents for kids to walk around more freely. No way that idea could go wrong.

"I'll text you some intake paperwork. And then, when you come in, I'll show you what to do with it on the admin side of things. When do you think you'll uh-" Want to start work? Plan your next shenanigan? Hm. This was a complicated question all of sudden. "When do you think you'll make it in?"

Her offers of organization had Jude chuckling. "Careful. That's dangerous talk at BlacTac. Paperwork is a four letter word." He did get his phone out to make sure the paperwork got sent now, before he forgot. Her phone chimed with a message from it's only preset contact.

"Also there's my boss to deal with. He owes me big enough that I don't think it'll be a problem. Just… I guess hang tight if you sense sparks."

And that was officially everything he'd come to say, now.

Evelyn had already learned getting around the city when you were this young sucked. She made a face and sighed, rubbing her forehead at the memory. "I had to get a frickin' booster seat to use a cab the other day. Do you know how hard it is to be taken seriously like that? Stupid height regulations. At least if I was back at my apartment the subway would be an option. You just need to get the right person to walk there with you. If you look like you're part of a family with other kids, they don't question it." She would never admit such techniques to other adults, but Jude already admitted to blowing up the mansion pool. Clearly, he had decent standards on what was acceptable.

When would she be able to come in? Evelyn mentally counted. Actually, the echoes did most of the counting. "Tuesday. Pretty sure they will find the melted equipment in the chemistry lab by them. Turns out, with enough electricity, things melt. But we made some reallllly cool glass sculptures out of sand." Evelyn smiled fondly at the memory. William had been pretty cool to hang out with too.

At the caution about organizing, Evelyn rolled her eyes and gave him a look. It was probably a very adult look for someone so little. "Paperwork may seem boring to you, but I spent the last week reading science books for fun. Information is...I don't know. Like a buzz. Being able to read things, sort things. I guess I like the feeling of solving problems. Not like, the x-men way of solving them. But, my own way. Problems that involve putting a puzzle together. That's what I like."

Evelyn looked down at the phone and the glowing message that was a promise of something fun. "Oh, trust me, I don't get scared away easily. If I want to do something, I find a way to make it happen." She picked up her prize, and grinned at him. "I'll see you Tuesday then!" She had to go find somewhere to hide the phone anyway before Mirror found her and she got scolded for her most recent crimes.

Giving a friendly wave, she disappeared back the way she had come. Hopefully, Jude would not regret letting her be part of the team.