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Post by Shade on Oct 18, 2007 6:11:50 GMT -5
Shade looked at him with a frown, for a moment unable to sort in what in the world Gambit was talking about and whatever sense that was supposed to make. She glanced at her glass, it was almost empty. How quickly had she drunk that? Faster than usual that much for sure. And not because she had a dry throat. Then she remembered something. "You think I said that because my powers are exhausted? And sugar supports them?" Sugar was a sort of energy. They had discussed this a time back. It could make sense. Shade focussed her thoughts on that idea; it took her further away from her fear.
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Post by Gambit on Oct 18, 2007 6:16:19 GMT -5
"I don' t'ink so yet, jus' makin' an observation, mebbe it's connected," Gambit said.
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Post by Shade on Oct 18, 2007 6:22:08 GMT -5
Shade nodded, then from impulse leant her head against his shoulder. She was feeling better now but her fear had gone deep. Her mind was rewinding what had happened over and over again. "I thought it would get me." she murmured. "I have no idea how I made it. It was so close." She did not want to scare Gambit with details, she just felt she had to rewind things a little in order to make sense of them.
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Post by Gambit on Oct 18, 2007 6:29:23 GMT -5
Gambit was pretty sure she simply got lucky, whether rescued by the location or by the presence of people around. "Dat be good," he said. " 'Least now ya know ya got a chance against it, not jus' in a trainin' simulation." He didn't want to point out the fact that such a chance might be useful again in the near future, now that the Sentinels were actually out there - she would very well be aware of such possibility herself, no need to focus on it, at least not right now.
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Post by Shade on Oct 18, 2007 6:32:54 GMT -5
Shade almost let out a bitter chuckle. Her chances were just in sheer luck it seemed. That and something else, speaking of the simulation. "If we hadn´t done the training" she said. "I would´ve just vanished and cowered down." She would not have run, thinking that her usual strategy of vanishing-means-unseen worked.
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Post by Gambit on Oct 18, 2007 6:38:27 GMT -5
"One of de reasons we've done it," Gambit agreed, stroking her shoulder softly.
The waitress, finally noticing his presence, walked over asking if he wanted anything. He ordered another coke for Shade plus a cup of tea and a slice of chocolate cake if she wanted any some time later; he wasn't hungry, but didn't want to leave the café just yet.
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Post by Shade on Oct 18, 2007 6:41:31 GMT -5
Shade gave the waitress a false smile before the other woman left. Earlier, on the phone, she had been totally confused and hectic, but she remembered something about that phone call now. Gambit had wanted to warn her of the sentinel, it had been in the city before it had chased her. "Did you hear about any others?" she asked. After all, she knew quite a lot of mutants. Many of them were friends of hers or pupils. "YOu said the sentinel had been around earlier. Did you hear of anyone hurt... or captured?"
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Post by Gambit on Oct 18, 2007 6:51:25 GMT -5
"Hard t' say," Gambit replied. "De police are clueless, dey got several injured humans on deir hands dat can't say anythin' yet, 'specially not how dey even got injured, an' dere been some witnesses, dat 'bout it."
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Post by Shade on Oct 18, 2007 6:57:07 GMT -5
Shade didn´t reply to that for a moment. That sounded like the whole city was in an uproar and no wonder. She had not paid attention to other people but a huge robot must have caused panic. What if someone she knew had gotten in the sentinel´s way? She felt fear well up inside her and tried to fight it down. There was nothing she could do about it at the moment. Still, it was a typical thing for her; fearing for others more than she feared for herself as soon as she was out of danger. But what did this out of danger mean. It was temporary, most likely. With what she knew about Wideawake this could only have been the beginning.
Several things to say were racing through her mind. ´There will be more, won´t there?´, ´I´m so scared, what am I to do?´.
"Is this how it starts?" she finally said before judging her own words. It was a strange and gloomy thing to say, referring to the situation mutants were in having changed drastically now. "Don´t they even stay in hiding any longer now?"
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Post by Gambit on Oct 18, 2007 7:04:35 GMT -5
Gambit considered the situation. He knew about the bank robbery and its outcome; he knew how much money the Wideawake got away with; he had no idea how much it cost precisely to make one Sentinel, but the sum was definitely enough to make a few. That meant they were to expect either continuous one-Sentinel outings every now and then, or the Wideawake was accumulating means for a major strike. Either way, the answer to Shade's question was 'yes'. He didn't see any point in lying to her.
"Yes," he said, "jus' don' get desperate. If anythin', ya can always move t' Switzerland," he added in a joking tone.
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Post by Shade on Oct 18, 2007 7:10:10 GMT -5
Shade chuckled a little, but it didn´t sound too humourous, just an acknowledgement of his attempt to sound a little more cheerful. She did not know enough about Wideawake to know what would happen next, but this situation bore resemblance to so much she had read about. If there were such things as patterns of hatred in human behaviour this meant that things were getting worse from now on; that percecution would not stay limited to just that one incident. Good thing however was, that Gambit had spoken about police. Having the authorities against these madmen meant that the state was not supporting this. At least something good.
"And wear funny clothes and yoddle?" she said with the hint of a smile placin a hand around Gambit´s waist. She needed him close and she didn´t even want to consider the dangers that lay ahead. But she knew she would eventually have to.
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Post by Gambit on Oct 18, 2007 7:56:28 GMT -5
"You'd prefer a wooden kimono?" Gambit wondered.
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Post by Shade on Oct 18, 2007 13:40:05 GMT -5
Shade gave him a glance, smiling slightly. His typical joking way of talking felt so familiar and soothing because it was famiiar. It was part of the world she was used to. A sentinel chasing her for reals trying to bring her down wasn´t. She reached for Gambit´s hand absently knotting her fingers through his. "Wooden kimonos?" she asked stressing the first word. "Whereever do people wear that?"
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Post by Gambit on Oct 18, 2007 14:16:13 GMT -5
"Slang for coffin," Gambit said.
The waitress brought the order, placing the glass, the cup and the cake on the table, caught the last word Gambit said, gave them both a weird look, not quite getting why a hugging couple would be talking about coffins, and left.
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Post by Shade on Oct 18, 2007 14:28:10 GMT -5
Shade noticed that she might have gotten the ambiguous meaning on her own. Maybe would have had she not been in the nervous and still slightly panicky state she was in now. Sitting, with Gambit there to hug her she felt safe, but the thought of getting back to the street was uncomfortable. However, she wondered whether that feeling would become a constant one. She didn´t like the thought of permanent hiding, maybe also because it shouldn´t have to be like this.
She nodded slightly, biting her bottom lip. This was a serious threat. One she had never thought she would be facing. Had Pietro indeed been right with his pessimism? She stubbornly insisted on not heading into that direction. "What can we do?" she asked, her voice low. She didn´t like the thought of being helpless. She had always hated that feeling most of all. "This is the States, damn it. What about human rights and all that?" Her words were an expression of that helplessness, her tone not maching the words. She refused the thought that the only way of coping would be to hide somewhere like the animal they were seen as by those madmen.
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