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Evelyn realized how long winded she had gotten with the conversation when the echoes picked up on his distracted movements. She followed his gaze towards the bird, and noted the almost catlike behavior he seemed to display. Like a predator preparing to prowl after it's prey, he watched it, and she decided it was probably a cause worth abandoning. School just wasn't a conversation he seemed to want to deal with. Other than flammable kitchen products, it seemed.

Her observations were confirmed as Carrick launched himself into the air, and she watched his movements with a bit of admiration. Flight seemed like such a useful ability compared to the echoes. It took minor adjustments of his feathers, strong muscle movements, and control to master the loops like he did. She always envied birds, and he seemed to have a useful cross with one. The echoes noted the was his tail moved almost like tail feathers, a rudder to steer with, and tried not to stare as she watched. It was cool, in a way. But he probably didn't need the ego boost so she resisted remarking on it too much. Her luck she'd just make him feel awkward.

She listened to his advice as he started talking again, and gave a little shrug. "I think it's easy to not care in theory, but I don't know exactly how to teach myself to do it in person. My powers make forgetting things impossible, so I feel like things are harder to just forget and get over." She admitted to the younger mutant.

Then at his last remark her cheeks turned pink and she ducked her head, hair falling across her vision. "It was accident, guy thought the room was empty and let himself in through my window. Don't think it'll happen again, and I certainly don't expect anyone to try to sneak in through my window, let alone a boyfriend! And I'm twenty four." She added firmly, although she felt much younger than that. Her awkward nature made her seem less like an adult and more like a teenager at times.

Without the echoes, Evelyn was quite certain she would have had trouble keeping up with Jasper. He was friendly, and outgoing, but for the socially awkward female he was a little over the top. Her smiles and laughter kept feeling delayed, and she worried he would eventually get offended by his behavior. But somehow, he managed to keep smiling. He was laughing enough for the both of them. She smiled, regardless, and shook her head slowly. "I can't say I've ever seen Jensen do that. I think he was always a fan of using real guns over his arms. Maybe you can challenge him to an arm wrestle sometime though." She pushed her hair from her face and shook her head as he remarked about his thumbs. Most people didn't brag about finger dexterity, but he didn't seem to be most people.

The offer to visit the arcade had her considering. She glanced down at her watch, considered the time, then felt herself slowly give a nod. "You know, I think I can take you up on that. I haven't visited the arcade, and I'm always up for trying something new. Not sure how good I'll be but hopefully it'll be entertaining one way or the other." She shrugged, and gave a slight smile.

Evelyn shook her head, trying not to think too much about Gawain's garbled statements. Probably for the better. The last thing she needed was dealing with scrambled echoes right now.

Unfortunately, the dragon seemed to have other plans.

As Evelyn turned to toss one of the stars over her shoulder, it roared and a bolt of electricity jolted at the object. With a zap, it hit her would be weapon, and Evelyn yelped, dropping it in surprise. A rush of electricity zipped through her arm and made her feel like she got punched in the chest. It wasn't strong enough to be damaging, but it had a rather nasty side effect. Much like a blow to the head, the zap managed to set her brain on reboot, which sent a wave of playbacks through her mind.

"Ugh..." Evelyn stumbled, trying to keep up with Gawain but her senses were overloaded by the influx of information. For a fleeting moment, there was a sense of satisfaction as the vase on the beside table shattered. Shards of colored glass clattered against the wall, sprinkled the carpet, and landed close to the mirror she had started to aim for.

She saw the tail of the beast lash out, uncertain whether she managed to stumble to the side or if she was yanked that way. Her hand tingled with the relived sensation of pain.

She was back in school, arguing with another girl with dark brown hair and a massive amount of freckles on her slim face. The cold eyes glared at her, and the girl crossed her arms firmly across her chest, her skinny little legs spaced evenly apart like a barrier from the rest of the lunch room.

She shook her head, as if she could shake free of the playbacks and tried to focus. She felt her mouth moving at least, and she was still on her feet which was a good thing. "I don't think my powers like electricity much. Playbacks are on, like my brain is on reboot..." She squinted and threw a star, the little object clipping the monster on the shoulder. Focus... She told herself. She flinched as another playback sent ghostly pain through her back, then breathed deeply to root herself in the more present images of clouds and the dragon.

Clouds. The echoes started arguing about the impossibilities and she threw the star with more blind panic and less accuracy. It clattered above the animal's head, knocked into one of the stars, and both clipped the dragon on the head as they flopped back down.

Nothing's predictable...

Evelyn couldn't resist the laugh that bubbled up from her mouth, and she muffled it with the back of her hand as she shook her head. "I think I learned that lesson first time I met you. There was nothing predictable about being attacked by Sesame Street." She resisted remarking about Gawain's less than impressive tree climbing at the time. That would be an image that would forever bring a grin to her face, and Mirror would be forced to occasionally hear about it, whether he wanted to or not. Never forget meant it never faded into the past. She threw another star, but the dragon's tail flicked up fast enough to knock this one away. Her accuracy was still fairly decent, considering her lack of training. Using her echoes to analyze a battle felt strange, but somewhat more invigorating than when she was just trying to organize paintings on the walls at work.

She smiled a little wider at the compliment, trying not to feel too proud of the action. There was no telling how the rest of the fight would progress. Last thing she wanted was to have a moment of pride then to need saving again. She was a little thrown off by her boyfriend's next remark though. She tilted her head and ducked the tail that zipped over the top of her head.

"I'm not following..." Evelyn was still fairly clueless as far as dating went, but whatever idea popped into Gawain's head seemed to make him nervous. Her next star hit the dragon in the ear and it snapped at them unhappily. She brought the echoes back to the fight, and tried not to get too distracted by whatever Gawain was thinking.

It was about a week after the riots, and New York was finally starting to look normal again. Roads were getting repaired, stores reopened, and Evelyn took the opportunity to explore the mall on her day off from work. After loosing some of her belongings during the riots, and having half her clothes damaged in the scuffles that resulted, it seemed like a good day to shop, so she caught a taxi into the city and tried to relax.

It felt odd, living at the Mansion now. No Jensen, on her own, and trying her best to figure out where the future went from here. She was trying to take self-defense lessons in her free time, but that had resulted in more problems than solutions it seemed. Perhaps it would just take time.

Time just seemed to be something there was never enough of though.

Evelyn started her shopping trip in a few of the higher end clothing stores, buying some jeans and t-shirts to replace the ones that were damaged in her wardrobe. While she usually went with second hand options, the sale rack was generous and she felt less guilty about splurging a little. A new hat and some gloves later, she wandered on to the next store, bag tucked lightly on her arm. The high priced tank tops weren't worth the price, and she resisted getting anymore skirts, dismissing most of the clothing options. Another store down, she picked out some shoes, browsed some jewelry, then found herself drawn to a music store in the middle of the mall. Most of the patrons here were busy listening to music or browsing, so it was audibly quiet, but the echoes had plenty to say. Quiet was always relative for her.

Adjusting her purchases on her arm, she wandered the aisles and skimmed the titles, looking for anything new she might like to listen to. Music was one thing she enjoyed, but it took a bit more effort than art to appreciate. A good movie soundtrack was hard to get into when the echoes were busy commenting on things like key changes, and identifying instruments in the various solos. While she seemed like a classical person, rock music moved faster and allowed her to enjoy the sounds more without interruption. She flicked through some of her favorites (Within Temptation, Eluveitie) and paused, reading the title tracks on one of the new releases. She recognized one or two, but nothing stood out immediately. While she considered the new titles, the echoes noted another figure entering the business, and she glanced up momentarily to see who it was. Recognition flickered across her face moments later, and she slowly blinked in surprise.

Shopping had suddenly got more interesting.

Evelyn felt less useful in this simulation. It was hard to push past the echoes and try to think, which made her worry a little when Gawain didn't have a plan. They were on the clouds, there was nothing to use or throw or...Then Gawain grabbed the stars, and she blinked slowly. She shook her head in disbelief. "I'm not sure whether this program is incredibly creative, or just really chees-" She started to remark. The sentence wasn't quite finished when Gawain yelled out.

Turning, Evelyn saw her first glimpse of the cloud creature. It had a scaled body that glimmered with electricity, a slender neck and a face that seemed like it was a cross between a bear and a snake. It's forearms ended in talons, and when it snarled, electricity raced through the clouds in bolts like ribbons. It was just the danger room, but it still made her hair stand on end a little. The dragon--considering that was the only real word she could think to describe it at the moment--had dark golden eyes that focused on her possessively.

It was a good time for running.

She started to move, but the creature was wicked fast. A taloned foot lashed out and caught her on the back, flattening her into the clouds. The initial contact stung, but as she was dragged backwards, spitting out clouds, she didn't feel the tingle of electricity. Apparently, closer to the dragon somehow kept the effects at bay. Who was she to question the logic when Mirror was holding stars?

She opened her mouth to yell at Gawain and got a face full of clouds as she squirmed. The dragon snarled, turning it's head towards her and snapping it's teeth impatiently, then lashing it's tail towards Gawain. Her ego was getting more damage at this point than her body, but the simulation effected her echoes like trying to read a cell phone in bright light. She could barely make out her surroundings, but still scrambled to grab anything to help by herself loose with.

Evelyn blinked. The guy was energetic, and she wasn't quite sure whether to consider him forward or just overly friendly. She pushed her hair from her face and stopped the echoes from analyzing the situation too much. Then she blushed at little when he laughed about her handler.

"Oh, Jensen's not a boyfriend. He's really a handler. Like, a bodyguard, escort, parental figure all sort of mashed into one. He's been working for my family for longer than I can remember, and my family hasn't quite caught the memo that I'm old enough to not need someone hovering around 24/7..." Handler...horse. She wasn't sure whether to laugh or feel embarrassed at the image. She ended up somewhere in the middle.

"It does sound fun though, I don't spend much time anywhere other than museums anyway." She tried to remedy the situation before it felt awkward. Maybe it was just her feeling that way though. She never was good at talking to guys, and having a bodyguard around never made it easier. She resisted glancing at her watch. She was socially awkward to a fault and didn't quite know how to deal with someone so outgoing.