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Aiden did his best to withhold judgement when the other trainee stopped to wait for him, but she continued onwards once he was reasonably close, and didn't seem especially intent on ruining his life. Or staring. Lack of both were definitely pluses.

"Mhmm," he agreed when she confirmed who he was. Because so many other people would be wandering around a cordoned off area in an X uniform without being instantly recognizable as one of the senior team members. So her name was indeed Juliette. Not that he could be surprised; he had actually paid attention when Cafas had mentioned the newest recruit. "Is this your first mission?

Mirror had dragged him halfway across the city through a series of mirrors on his. He didn't remember it especially fondly.

"Extra hands to help clean up. That's all I know, really." He was still getting a feel for the full extent of the -er, the very nasty tangle - still spinning through the city. It felt like how the senior X-Men described the city before the riots that had ripped through the streets shortly before he had joined the team. The riots that had featured so heavily in his own trial.

He pulled on one of his gloves a little bit; they weren't actually part of his uniform, not really, but were more to help with the whole hauling bridge debris around job; they had reinforced palms and thick ridges against the backs of each finger to protect his hands without sacrificing grip.

New clothes were awkward enough. He hadn't worn a uniform in years, and he'd barely been used to it before then.

"Staying alive has its perks, but a little consistency would be nice too." Or even more information. Less nightmare fodder. "Why don't you just get Doc Prof to help with that anyway? Or do you just pretend you haven't to mess with people?" This was Sam. He did mess with people rather often.

And asked prying, unanswerable questions when he wasn't outright messing with people. Aiden sighed. "Problem? How about getting stranded in the middle of nowhere, or constantly reliving something you can't explain but everyone asks about? I could probably fill a book with the attempts without even just falling back on 'I don't know.'"

He leaned back in the chair and sort of distantly wondered at how much he was talking.

Sleep. Yes.

Probably not right here, nice as that was seeming in the moment. Public places were not good sleeping places. Not that he was exactly sure where would be better. Maybe he should leave that to Cafas -

"What are you doing?! Between surprise and exhaustion, it took him a bit to actually even start to realize what was going on. He was not in the chair anymore. He was rather rapidly warming up. And he was nope never mind.

And then he sighed and just folded his arms. Mostly. He didn't have a whole lot of effort points left over after sulking. Or awake points. He was really, really in the negative on awake points. In the future, he should not get to this point of exhaustion. It was not good.

"You are a pain," he muttered, eyes already mostly closed again. When did that happen? He'd probably have to try to figure it out later. When he wasn't both over-warm and exhausted.

It was a... dangerous... combination.

But he was back, so it wasn't a sort of danger he had to worry about. Not right now.

"Yes," Aiden agreed, grateful for Maya's translation. He'd find a consistent, accurate way of explaining and describing this eventually, he'd have to, but for now it made him feel a lot better about the whole mess if Maya could piece together the little bits he could manage and bounce them back as a more cohesive chunk.

And then he could expand on that. "Zero control. Control's never really been a factor with my mutation. It's always just done what it does when its requirements are met, and the only control I have is to do or avoid those requirements." How he moved, basically; he gave one arm a sort of swooshy gesture, graceful enough for a handful of snowflakes to wink into existence behind its path and drift around before they fell against his chest and stuck there, and then gradually faded as more snow failed to follow.

Another careful breath, but he felt pretty much back to normal now. Aiden pushed himself back to his feet, and didn't wobble. "I could feel more of me with this than before. Before, there wasn't anything to me, nothing physical. I couldn't move because there was nothing to move. I think." Well, that was a lot of talking all in one rush.

Something still felt like it was missing, though. He couldn't put a finger on it, literally or mentally, but there was definitely something somewhere. He tapped the fingers of one hand against his other elbow, arms crossed as he tried to suss it out.

Nope, couldn't catch it. All right then. He looked back up at the roiling cloud of Maya. "Can we try again?"

While Maya worked on the whole zebra/horse thing, Aiden took some time to repackage his stress and even put some bigger locks and chains on the boxes. His breathing eased and his colour, such as it was even with the tan he'd painfully gathered, crept back into his skin.

Okay. That wasn't as bad as what had triggered his nightmares, or even the nightmares themselves. He could convince himself of that. It was just going to take a little bit more work.

"Whatever's more comfortable," he said. Apparently he didn't quite have his air supply properly balanced against just yet. A little bit more intentional breathing. That felt better.

He tried again. "That was... closer than I had expected," he said quietly. He still had to sort out the experience into words. "Just. With stripes?" He rubbed his head. Words were not working right now. "That... it reminded me. A lot. A lot more than I expected. It's not exactly the same, but it's definitely closer than... seeing. Actually using eyes, I mean. This was closer to what happened than it is to everyday."

This was it - nope, now Maya was hesitating. Explanation. Explanations were okay. Aiden nodded his at least theoretical understanding. It couldn't be any worse than when Mirror dragged him through mirrors on his very first mission, could it? Well, the Danger Room could clean up just about anything set loose in it, so there was that.

Incorporeal was a little harder to predict, though, at least when it came to expecting what things felt like. Watching Maya's face rather than where their arms were linked, at first it just looked the same as when she ghosted. It wasn't the first time he'd seen it.

Then he looked down, and while his stomach tilted its metaphorical head in confusion he was struck by the desire to try to draw it. Except his hands felt a bit weird, in a not-quite-there way that wasn't exactly numbness. He shifted his fingers slightly, testing their ability to move more than anything without actually moving them, and then Maya squeezed his arms. He felt that. Okay. Different, but there was still feeling there.

He let out the breath he didn't notice taking in, and found himself relaxing a bit. "I'm okay," he reassured Maya. The hairs on the back of his neck perked up in wariness when she tried to describe the vision change, but he just set his jaw against it. That was kind of the point. Part of the point. At any rate, it had to be done.

It was still both beautiful and horrendously discomforting to watch his arms... dissolve and fade out, degree by degree, and then it changed.

Nothing nothing nothing it was nothing all over again

Except this nothing was kind of two toned, that was something to pay attention to even if he could tell it WASN'T SEEING this was not something eyes did, whatever it was it wasn't sight. Streaks. Patches. Patches of nothing and deep swathes of something. Was he still holding onto Maya? He wasn't crushing her arms, was he? That would be bad.

His head spun through the patchiness, fragments of patterns leaning out at him but never resolving into anything recognizable. He had to let go, he had to let go, he had to let go this was too much the same even if it wasn't the same, it was like a zebra and a horse they weren't the same BUT THEY REALLY WERE PRETTY MUCH THE SAME but in order to let go he'd have to have hands.

He still had hands. Vaguely, but they were there. And his arms, and his legs, and the general vague recognition of overall self.

He tried to rein in his panic before it tore itself free and just made a mess everywhere. He made a dent, but that was all.

Aiden forced his hands open.

Okay, he had Maya thinking. Hopefully she'd come up with something, anything, that would give some shape to this thing. Progress. He wanted progress, progress towards not being a liability.

Not having nightmares would also be really nice, come to think of it. But not being a liability to his team was more the core of his motivation.

"It doesn't completely, always hurt, but I can definitely feel pain." The shadow of that remembered pain, fragmented and so completely unpredictable, settled behind his eyes. He rubbed his forehead again when Maya called for a pause and tried to clear the pressing memories away, but like brushing at cobwebs they just seemed to stick more.

That was definitely an idea he hadn't thought of.

At all.

"If I freak out, it'll probably be more like curling into a ball and trying to pretend nothing's happening," Aiden said after a few moments. Not that he was looking forward to this.

At all.

"If you think it might help, though... Go ahead." Aiden swallowed. His words were a lot more sure than he was, although he was also kind of sure? In a very, very unwilling sort of way.