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Aiden had had food. That made this a good day. Cafas was standing outside his door. That made this a far more debatable day.

Fortunately for avoiding self-embarrassment, he didn't have any food left. Unfortunately, he couldn't hide behind anything, and was stuck nodding to Cafas and hoping he was just looking for Persi. Things never turned out well when people went looking for him.

And Cafas was looking for him. Hopefully it was short and insignificant and not to make him do something -

Oh. Congratulations? Really? That was awkward. How was he supposed to respond to congratulations? Cafas had his hand out. Okay, he could shake hands. That wasn't too bad. He knew how to shake hands. He did that, and thought that maybe he didn't suck at it too badly. He was aware that it was possible to suck at shaking hands. There were people in his previous school that liked talking about how you had to have a firm grip and be confident or no one would take you seriously. Aiden just tried to not make it look like he had no clue what was going on.

"Oh. It... didn't come up." Very good. Look like he was a creeper who hid things instead of just way too paranoid to let people know things. They were so very different, after all. And Cafas was completely right, of course. A couple of cheap blunt swords weren't exactly useful doing x-men-y stuff, and they weren't the sort of organization who would provide better ones. Plus he had found out exactly how annoying it was to be creative with them. Rapiers did not make good multipurpose tools. "That... would be good," he allowed, while inwardly really really really really really really unsure about agreeing to extra training with Cafas.

"You tried out too?" Well, that either made him feel way better about trying out himself or reeeaaaalllly insecure. It kind of stretched his brain almost to the point of hurting to try to figure out which. He should just go with feeling better. He wasn't the only one, right? And from what he knew about Evelyn (despite her totally terrifying outburst a moment ago, which would totally freak any run-of-the-mill villain into surrendering immediately, no question about it), she wasn't a particularly combative person, so it wasn't all about beating things up.

Not that he had really thought that it was, but he had his worries. Occasionally. Possibly frequently. Or maybe constantly. Oh, she had a good point. "Yeah... I would kind of rather know who not to accidentally insult ahead of time," he said with a fairly well-balanced mixture of meekness and attempted humour. "Since being hated or dead doesn't really help with, er, teamwork very well." Not that he was a team player, or ever had been, but it was better than nothing.

He... he didn't have to apologize? What was she talking about? Of course he had to! He messed up big time! Apologizing was what normal, rational people did as soon as they realized that they had done something like that. He might not be normal by most standards - social or species - but he did hope people considered him at least a little rational.

He was trying really hard to not mess up again, though, so he kept his mouth shut about that. "I.. I am trying," he offered carefully. "I mean, that is why I tried out for the x-men." He flipped the sunglasses around a bit more, and then shoved them into his pocket. "Um... if you don't mind my asking... how.. how did you hear about that anyway? It's not like it was all that long ago or anything..."

Were people really talking about him already? That was worrying. He knew that more people would know more about him and all, and he'd (mostly) come to grips with that, but actually talking about him to each other? What were they saying? Were they laughing about all the ways he'd messed up, or the giant gaping holes he needed to work on? Like being able to do more than poke things, and probably having a mental breakdown if he had to actually hit a real person and cause damage. It had been bad enough learning to spar with people.

Go swimming. Really. That was her suggestion. It was not impressive. At all. Really, swimming. "Have you ever actively tried keeping your mind off something?" he asked flatly. "The more you try to distract yourself, the more you think about it." Personal experience was a wonderfully horrid thing. "I've been there." And it did work eventually, but she didn't need to know that.

Even if he did give in and just do as she told him to do, he wanted to at least have his sunglasses, though. They were safe, and safe was lacking around here. And in the world in general. The world was not a safe place. It never had been, but it did definitely seem to be getting darker and nastier these past few months. Was that just him paying more attention, though? His attention had definitely been stretched beyond his little hometown, no matter how much he tried to keep his head down and just get by in here.

... Did he say something... funny? Aiden blinked at Evelyn. Why was she laughing? Seriously. What was going on?

At least she seemed to be willing to explain. Didn't have to be outgoing and social? Curious. Everyone always said that successful people had to be outgoing and social. There was something specific he could retort to, though. "That's not true," he said quickly. "I can fight without them. I- it's not as obvious then..." he trailed off. Maybe it wasn't as effective an argument as it had sounded in his head. Out loud it sounded pretty sad.

Her suggestion was intimidating enough to distract him, though. "Ignore them? For an entire day?" But... but... how was he supposed to do that? Really? He wasn't distracted enough to keep from wincing at the mention of funerals, though. He knew she was joking.. and she didn't know. Knowing that didn't keep him from rubbing the scar running along his arm, though. He'd managed to stop covering that for the most part, if spurred by common sense about preventing heat exhaustion. Could he extend that?

Evelyn's eyes changed colour? Aiden blinked at that, startled into looking at her again, and for longer. They didn't look unusual to him. He scuffed one shoe against the floor awkwardly. If they did change, though, that would probably mostly explain her reaction. Probably. He wasn't so sure about the sewer people stuff, though. Did people, even mutants, really live in sewers? And he supposed it would be worse to have giant claws than it was to have weird eyes. Harder to hide and harder to do everything; he could just imagine them catching on everything.

"I guess..." Aiden sighed a little. Even if part of him knew she was right, he couldn't just change the entire way he acted or felt about his mismatched eyes. Not all at once, and he wasn't convinced that just knowing Evelyn was right would actually change anything at all. "It's just... well..." He tried glancing at Evelyn again but couldn't hold it. "I just... I don't want people staring at me, and I guess... I guess I'd rather they think I'm weird and wonder why then know why." He shrugged and shifted again. Talking really wasn't his strong suit at the best of times.