Training Shade

[Gambit]

"We could, yes," Gambit nodded. He helped her over the fence, and when they were already in the car, he asked, "so, how'd ya like dis thing?"

[Shade]

Shade fastemed the seatbelt and leant back. "It´s quite nice," she said. "unusual for me to wear something like this but I´ll get used to it. " Truth be told, despite the fact that she felt kind of badass wearing even a half finished costume like this, she knew that it made Gambit feel more at ease. And while this thought was something that surely would have motivated Shade-with-a-full-memory to wear the costume, even Shade right now had enough of an insight into who Gambit was and what he felt for her to know that he would feel better when he did whatever was in his power to make her more safe. Maybe she knew even better than she had.

[Gambit]

"I'll make sho ya will," Gambit smirked. He set the course back to the workshop and after a few minutes' silence said, "So, 'bout dat guy Morph-"

[Shade]

Shade had gotten lost in her own thoughts for a moment while they were driving. Silences between them were usually not awkward, mostly anyways. Never had been before the amnesia, sometimes were after and possibly only for her as she was aware. After all, she was still catching up on knowing him. This time had not been awkward though. The incident at the Hellfire had only been the night before, lots had happened some of which Shade had decided not to tell Gambit to not worry him too much, but she needed to spin those things through her mind. The city, the chaos...and yes, Morph. So far,Gambit had merely hinted at his plan.

"Yes." she said, turning to face Gambit from the side. "You want him to act as my doppelganger on the murder?" It was a guess, partly constructed, partly referring to the short conversation they had had about this. There were still open questions on this she felt. Quite some.

[Gambit]

"In a way," Gambit said. "I want 'im to be put through de system, which we can turn to our advantage if we get hold of and expose our friend Manuel. Den Morph's job is done, however, his ability is a chance for us to make sho ya don't leave a trace in de system."

[Shade]

"Sounds like an offence-is-the-best-defence plan," Shade said, looking ahead and trying to grasp things. She did not doubt Gambit´s skills in matters like these. She remembered enough to know he was good at what he did. But this was something that had to be thought through carefully on her side too. "How would Morph staging as me make Manuel show up and expose himself?" No doubt in her voice, just trying to think the scenario through, trying to see Gambit´s logic behind the idea.

[Gambit]

"He won't show up an' expose himself," Gambit replied. "De police are just gonna go an' get 'im. Basically, he ain't hidin' 'cause he be certain he's in no danger 'ere."

[Shade]

Shade thought about that for a moment. Gambit had told her that he had had a little chat with Manuel. She didn´t know the details but it had apparently ended in a small, uneven fistfight that had maybe told Manuel a bit too much about Gambit but that on the other hand might keep him quiet. It had so far. That, and it had not been Manuel´s description flashing up in the news and the papers. Just the young woman, a rough description of herself. And there was a reason for that. Which lead back to: "I´m the only one who knows Manuel was involved," he said, thinking aloud. "So Morph...could be setting the cops on Manuel? If they believe him."

[Gambit]

"All part of a big scheme," Gambit explained. "It'll 'ave to be woven an' planned carefully an' with all ends an' exits considered an' foreseen. In de end, Manuel ain't got no escape if we play it right. Course, dere be prob'ly just one go to try all dat, so it's a high-risk scenario, which I ain't sho you'd be up to."

[Shade]

It was a tempting thought, it really was. Because, despite of her bad conscience, despite of all the bad thoughts and feelings that had come with the knowledge of having pulled the trigger she had come to the realisation that it had not been her. Something that Gambit had said back in the swamps had stuck with her, had helped a great deal with her coming to terms with that terrible small moment when she had revelled in the fear of her victim: he said said that more evil inside her would have made her torture him, but that she hadn´t. A few seconds, it had not been more, even though that had been difficult for herself to stomach. And it was that thought that lingered, that made her consider what Gambit was saying because after all, even though she had shot, Manuel had been the schemer, the one that had manipulated her. And it wasn´t fair that he should get away with it. He had not just stolen her peace of mind after all. She was still piecing together what he had taken in his stupdity.

"So..." she said. "there is the chance that he gets to pay for all this mess he caused. Or the danger that it doesn´t work. What would be the consequences? A new identity for me?" It was no emotional approach so far, she was rather trying to weigh the risks, what was at stake. And if Morph staged as her, he would show her face, even though maybe not give her name. And a face could be remembered better, could be shown around, could be invested about. Trails might lead to the institute and other places. It might causea lot of attention. But then again, nothing of the like had been discussed at so: stakes first.

[Gambit]

"Look, it can go bad, or it can go good," Gambit elaborated, gesticulating with one hand while he was driving with the other. "Case it go good: Manuel's behind bars, your record's clean, no one know it been you, n'est-ce pas? Dey only have de first name, means we got ourselves a nice clean leeway. Morph forges your fingerprints, gives false DNA, whatever he can, he plays his own cards, right?"

The list. There was this tiny problem with the list. He'd work on it later.

"Case it go bad: dere's a court, de court decides Manuel is not quite entirely guilty or no guilty at all, so ya share de blame. Den Morph goes behind bars, too. 'Course we can't let dat happen. He ain't a pawn we can manipulate to our whim, malheuresement, well, not anymore. He's a big public figure now an' he's got a kid..." Gambit made a face towards Shade. "Well, I gotta respect such details when I scheme. So we'll 'ave to get him out eventually or we'll need a backup plan so dat he goes in an' den straight out. But since he's a morph, he might have ideas of his own, I doubt he's as rusty in de business as he says he is."

[Shade]

Shade nodded, considering. It wasn´t that easy to her, it seemed, to wrap her mind around that. She had so far never rejected any kind of help on that. She had let Xavier rummage through her head because she had been desperate for help and because she had therefore had to take the chance of trusting Gambit. She had allowed Tante Mattie to try and work her voodoo magic on her, again trusting Gambit´s verdict of who might be able to help. So far that had worked well, he had not disappointed her. But that was not what irked her right now and as she thought about it, it became clear to her that it was rather something else: the two people they had involved before, Xavier and Gambit´s Tante, had not really been exposing themselves for danger and they had been asked for help and agreed to help. With Morph, she wasn´t that sure. It rather seemed like he was someone who owed Gambit a favour. And that favour did not just mean getting some information or whatever, but it meant pretending to be her. Exposing himself. Getting into the line of fire and attention that Gambit had so far successfully kept her from. She had seen so far that Gambit seemed to be very skilled in any kind of plotting. He sure had his connections. But with Morph, there was something that was a little different.

"How old is his child?" she asked. "Do you know?" Could she do that? Allow it? To involve someone who had a small kid, risking that he was pulled into dangerous stuff? She didn´t reject the thought right away and trusted Gambit in what he said about things having to be planned very carefully, but still. This was something she needed to make sure for herself. How old was Morph anyways? It was possibly hard to tell, his powers maybe made him look younger than he was but if he was as young as he looked, he was around her age (well... she was still getting used to thinking of herself three years older than she had thought), which meant, the kid was possibly still rather young.

[Gambit]

Gambit considered. If the child was the same he was thinking of- "Should be 'bout two years," he replied. "Should it matter?"

[Shade]

Two years, Shade thought. That was still very young.
"I don´t know." she said. "but let´s make sure the plan is not just safe for us but for him as well." Because we´re better than that, she thought to herself. We don´t just pick and manipulate for our own goals.

[Gambit]

"Ya there already plottin' along, eh?" Gambit teased her. "Dere ain't no plan yet," he added. "I'm settin' up de idea of what I want to get an' how I want to get it, as soon as de general outline is fixed, I'm workin' on details, no sooner, though. Might wanna hold your horses of worry, chérie."