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At first, Evelyn thought maybe the echoes were just making stuff up. Maybe her paranoia was just giving her mixed signals or something. But then there was the branch moving, and that seemed...wrong. She listened, then slowly stood and turned, trying to identify the movement. As cliche as it felt, she called out into the trees.

"Anyone there?" If it was an intruder, it wasn't likely they'd respond anyway. But kids were known to sneak around from time to time, and they usually fessed up when someone caught them. Lack of response or clumsy attempt at a getaway would tell her how amateur the person was. If someone was really there.

Could be a squirrel.

That coma test could still happen...

Evelyn was sort of having a crisis. A people crisis. Not a "people are driving me insane" crisis" or a "I just need some space" crisis. It was more of a "I'm putting voices in peoples head" sort of crisis. Mirror had been pretty understanding about it and tried to keep her from freaking out, but knowing kissing your girlfriend could possibly invade their head with your memories made things a little tense. It had been bad enough the images showed Sylar how scary he was, and sure, there were some training advantages to sharing her brain a little. But she felt like a mental case enough without worrying who she was sharing her brain with. Frickin' echoes. Frickin' brain. Frickin' powers.

So she went for a walk to try and unwind.

As she moved through the trees, she tried to relax. It wasn't so bad, really. She wasn't like, randomly giving kids echoes who walked past her in the hall or something like that. At least she wasn't hearing THEIR thoughts. That would be a whole new level of crazy. But she felt...invasive. She already knew the echoes were nosy, but now everyone else could hear it. When the echoes commented on how someone clearly hadn't done their laundry in 5 days, she wouldn't take it personal. It was just an observation. But heaven forbid THEY hear her thinking that. What was she supposed to say? It wasn't me, it was my powers?

She zig zagged around trees. Goodness knows what other damage they could do. She needed turtlenecks. And gloves. And warning lights.

Twisting the sai in her hands, she looked for something to focus on. Maybe she could train out here and make it worthwhile. Just de-stress, unwind. And best of all, there were no people. No one would be broken by her brain today.

Unless it worked on squirrels....holycrap did echoes work on squirrels?

She sat down and tried to remember to breathe. The echoes continued happily chattering in the robotic manner that clearly said they didn't give a crap how much trouble they caused.

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.

Contagious powers...because that wasn't a terrifying phrase at all. The x-team could all have voices in their heads. While it was true, it could be useful on the field, there was also the risky possibility of putting one of her teammates in a coma or something equally frightening. She barely kept her sanity sometimes, and she lived with the voices. She was scared. Gawain didn't yank away from the physical contact despite all the information she knew he must be getting. She accepted the kiss. trying to smile despite how rattling it was.

"You're dealing with this a lot better than I am... I guess I just...know what's in my head. I don't want to put you through that... Some of the memories are good, but..." A rush of images shot through her head. Getting mugged, the riots, thinking CS was dead. She yanked away from Gawain quickly, breaking the contact before too many of the memories invaded. "I'm sorry, I..." She shut her eyes, focusing on better things. Dates, work, paintings... Anything to clear her thoughts. "If it's going to stay like this, I need to learn how to control it. constantly sharing information would suck... Maybe this time my powers will come with an off switch..." She could hope, right?

Evelyn felt her shoulders sense slightly as Gawain moved and pulled her closer, but he didn't seem to act differently, so she relaxed. She had no way of knowing when or how her powers would do what they did... It was an unwelcome sensation of sharing. Right now it was a playback, but what about the echoes? She knew how to deal with the voices in her head, but she didn't want to see what they could do to someone else. Especially someone she cared about.

"Last time my powers decided to change, I got the playbacks. I find it hard to hope that this could be a good thing..." She swallowed. The echoes were sifting through information casually now: pointing out drawings, things that had moved in the night, some new damage to the curtains her foxsquirrel has created before sneaking off somewhere else.

Evelyn's thoughts were still scrambled from sleep, and the images were still filtering through her head. Fear, panic, adrenaline...it all raced through her body in intense amounts. Gawain's question didn't make sense at first, and she leaned against the wall, trying to smother the fear still trapped inside her.

"What was...?" She stared back at him, and then other memories pushed forward. Sylar's look of horror, commenting on what he had seen. She clung to the wall for support. Her legs felt weak. "What did you see?" She whispered suddenly. The fear from the playback was pinching into a new type of anxiety.

Evelyn didn't know what had happened, but the guilt was wresting in her gut all the same. Somehow, she had shown Sylar how frightening he was, and all her words, all her efforts to comfort him vanished in a puff of smoke. For once, she had cursed someone with an image they couldn't forget. That seemed to hurt more than any injury he had ever inflicted on her. She slowly stepped away, doubting herself. Maybe he was a monster, but she felt like she had done something just as harmful. She looked at the ground, trying to drown out his words.

"I'm sorry, Sylar. I don't know... I wish I could take it back... Of all the things you could have seen..." The fear was gone, and the grief was building. Once more, she caused more trouble than good it seemed.

You need a plan for me...

She shook her head, biting her lip. "I don't want a plan. I now what it looks like, but I can't think of you that way. I can't imagine hurting you. I would never forgive myself... I just...I can't." Her words were becoming disjointed again, this time driven by her emotional struggle. She didn't want to think of this. She hated what was happening.