Training Shade

[Shade]

Shade briefly wondered who would rather be able to tell those subtle changes, Gambit or her. She had noticed little things about herself, her muscles getting a bit more toned and her body gaining more flexibility and better shape in general, not that she had any shape problems before this really.

"Last time I was trying to defend myself, I was wearing a wonder woman costume, I´m sure this can only be an improvement," she remarked. The illusion was faint, like a dream, but she caught herself going through what had remained of it, as if trying to assess whether she had used what she had learned. She came to the conclusion that it was hard to tell, because the machines or soldiers or whatever it had been had been there and upon them far too quickly.

[Gambit]

Gambit couldn't help a short burst of laughter. "Well, definitely," he agreed. "Actually, Gambit 'ere hopes we're gettin' ya de best possible costume for survival in de city. Let's hope it live up to de title."

[Shade]

Knowing next to nothing about what made and what did not make a good costume, Shade guessed with an inner shrug that she would just have to trust the expertise on others on that. "In the city?" she asked. "Not that I have any problem...blending in, but I hoped I wouldn´t have to go unseen there all the time, wouldn´t I kind of...stick out?" No memory of the sentinel stomping its way through the city, quite obviously. No memory of Wideawake attacking the mansion. If she had had that, the idea of wearing a costume like that would not have seemed so unusual to her.

[Gambit]

"Not much," Gambit said. "It can pass for a cool biker costume. B'sides, if ya follow my example, you'll wear it only when necessary. Dere's only dis tiny bit of a worry-" he glanced at her again and then back to the road. " 'Necessary' can reach de city streets at some point."

[Shade]

"Well if that happens, I won´t be worried about whether or not to stick out because I´ll use my powers, too. Not all the time hopefully." They had nearly arrived. "You probably know I´m stubbornly optimistic and hope it won´t get that bad though." However, optimism yes or no, Shade had developed a more careful attitude, less trusting towards strangers, more sceptical and careful towards some things. Plus, she had heard about Gambit´s dreams and she had been part of that illusion. Part of her at least understood the possibility of such a reality, even though she didn´t like it. Not at all.

[Gambit]

Gambit sighed. "Dis some kinda woman thing?" he asked. "Thinking 'bout where to wear your survival gear an' whether it'll match your hair? Look, let's hope ya never get t' use it, awright?"

[Shade]

"All right", Shade said, not mentioning that she had partly chosen the colour of the costume just because she thought black and red would look badass in combination with her black hair.
"You know I don´t really care what I´m wearing in public really and whether or not it matches my hair, I was just wondering whether or not that would make people give me a second look. As in wondering why I´m wearing it." Or to formulate it: whether it would have ´mutant´written all over it for them.

[Gambit]

"S'pose when ya're wearin' it, de whole situation kinda gives people other things t' worry about, such as save deir own lives," Gambit explained, wondering where he was getting all this patience for all these explanations.

[Shade]

"Yeah." Shade said, feeling her thoughts drifting off for a moment, wondering why she was asking raising these questions. She had never doubted the sense behind Gambit training (which didn´t mean there hadn´t been times when she had curse it inwardly...or not so inwardly), it was just that...she thought about it for a moment, coming to the conclusion that despite the talk they had had before bed the night before, she had not yet put things to rest about that completely.

"That city yesterday night," she said. "it´s all blurred now but it was weird and...you know, I told you. It´s just a bit difficult to shake off." It was an explanation to herself as well as to him, herself coming clear what was going through her head and to him to let him in on what she was thinking. Shade with a complete memory would have known that Gambit usually did not demand explanations of that kind. When he needed to know something, he asked for it.

[Gambit]

"I guess so," Gambit gave back. She'd told him a bit yesterday but he hadn't allowed her to go into details since it had seemed to be something complicated and he had decided to let her get some rest first. "Did it feel real?"

[Shade]

Too real, Shade thought. And a lot too much like the stuff you´ve been talking about with Tante Mattie. She didn´t say that out loud and didn´t really know why. Probably because she would reckon it to be a coincidence, wanted it to be coincicence but it might be an entirely different matter for him. She didn´t know everything about him she once used to know yet, but when he had taken her to Louisiana with him he had shown her a side of him she had not known before. And knowing that side kept her from drawing parallels.

"So real the first thing I thought was that something was wrong with my head again and that I had lost another few years." she said instead.

[Gambit]

Gambit could sense she wasn't saying everything there was, but he couldn't guess what her motivation was for withholding it from him. However, he decided it wasn't worthy pressing it.

"But did it give ya an idea dat mebbe what we're doin' makes sense? I told ya, non? - I want ya t' be prepared for anythin'."

[Shade]

"I know", Shade said. She had never really doubted the sense behind it, despite the occasional frustration she had felt and sometimes still felt with Gambit´s training methods which could possibly very well equal that of some boot camp. "Funny thing is though that I was running and hiding and stuff, but it made me so tired. I managed to get away from the machines I think, for a while, but it was like my powers were draining me a lot more than usual." She hadn´t been aware of her stealth, used unconsciously in a situation her body registered to be mortal danger. She had forgotten about that part of her powers and yet had to remember it.

[Gambit]

"Dat sound familiar," Gambit remarked. "A bit like your stealth, non?" he wasn't sure whether she remembered that bit about her powers or not, but he wasn't really going to conceal it from her, so he treated this piece of information casually.

[Shade]

Unfamiliar with the term she had coined herself after first understanding that her powers could switch to a kind of state where they concealed here completely (as far as she knew), Shade gave a small scowl. "No, I was using my powers, what do you mean with stealth?"