| Remy LeBeau / Gambit | |
|---|---|
 "You know it's a bad sign when I'M de voice of reason." | |
| Canon: | Marvel 616 |
| Species: | Mutant |
| Hometown: | New Orleans, Louisiana, USA |
| Age: | unknown |
| Journal: | bangyoudead |
| Player: | Claire |
YOU'RE SUCH A DIRTY DIRTY ROCK STAR[]
Gambit is a mutant from the main Marvel continuity. Of Creole upbringing, he is heavily accented, very friendly and outgoing, and always up for a good time. He is a thief, a con artist, a super hero, and a valuable chess piece for several super villains. He has saved the world and he has nearly destroyed it, he has called one of the most respected and hardworking hero teams family and he has tried actively to kill them on several occasions. He is a good person who tries to do the right things, but not everyone can be the shining star of every story, and Remy LeBeau certainly never has been.
Canon includes everything up to the beginning of X-Treme X-Men, previous panfandom game history, everything else up to the beginning of X-Men: Legacy, and then more gameplay, detailed (someday) below. Other fun links: polyvore and a playlist.
YOU EAT UP MY HEART & ALL THE LITTLE PARTS[]
Like any other mutant born into the first truly visible generation, Remy's life hasn't been a quiet one. Abandoned as a newborn in New Orleans, Louisiana, Remy was taken in by the Thieves Guild, who had been waiting for just such a child under a prophecy: le diable blanc, who would become a very important figure in their clan. The orphaned child fit the parameters of the prophecy by virtue of his eyes, which heralded his x-gene long before it would develop. With black sclera and burning red irises, there was no question of why he could be called a devil.
Raised by criminals and voodoo queens, Remy's childhood was in no way normal, but still very enriching and attentive. He was adopted by the Guild Patriarch, Jean-Luc LeBeau, and groomed for eventual leadership. This was further cemented by his betrothal to the granddaughter of the leader of the Assassins Guild, Bella Donna Bourdreaux, a union that would, they hoped, settle the conflict between the guilds. Remy got his first taste of the world outside New Orleans when an initiation mission gone awry resulted in the death of his cousin and entrapment by the mutant slaver Pig; his mutant powers manifested and allowed him to escape, but not without cost. Shortly after, he was hired by Mr. Sinister (disguised as Nathaniel Essex) to steal back his diaries from the Weapon X program. After witnessing the man who he would eventually come to know was Wolverine escape from the adamantium procedure, Remy decided Essex wasn't trustworthy, and destroyed the diaries.
Less than impressed by his decision to screw over a very wealthy client, Jean-Luc shoved Remy off to be married. This went relatively smoothly until Bella Donna's brother, Julien, angry about the truce, challenged Remy to a duel after the wedding. Julien was killed in the fight, the truce was called off, and Remy was exiled from New Orleans. Suddenly alone in the world and with somewhat exclusive experience, Remy did the only thing he knew how to get by: he stole things. Traveling the world, Remy – who, as a mutant, had taken the name Gambit – made a name for himself as a professional thief. Unfortunately, disaster seemed to have taken a liking to Remy, and as his skills developed so did his mutant abilities. As a young man on the run with no training and no one to mentor him, he lacked the finesse to control it, and in a tragic accident, killed a theater full of people. Unsure where to turn, and not lucky or upper class white bread enough to be collected by someone like Charles Xavier, Remy was taken in by the villain Mr. Sinister.
Sinister implemented a block on Remy's abilities (via... brain surgery! How fun), but not for free. Gambit wracked up quite a debt, and to pay it off, Sinister made him work for him for some time. While it was never anything good, nothing compared to what was in store later on. He was instructed to gather a group of mercenaries, and then lead them on particular missions. Sinister named them the Marauders, and sent them to wipe out the mutant population called the Morlocks. Genocide was too much for even Gambit's criminal sensibilities and, horrified, he abruptly left Sinister's employ after having failed to stop the massacre (but having saved one small girl).
Returning to the far more honest trade of thieving, Gambit carried on where he left off before Sinister had gotten hold of him, and eventually befriended the then-amnesiac and de-aged Storm (Ororo Munroe) in Cairo. They spent quite some time together, and she ultimately brought him back to New York to join the X-Men, impressed with his skill and good nature. Things were always a little rocky – Gambit was outspoken and not, personality-wise, what the other team mates were used to; Wolverine in particular had a tendency to take issue with him. That didn't stop him, however, and Gambit remained a standout teammate for some time. He came to see the other X-Men as family, and even found love with fellow Southerner and former villain Rogue. Their relationship was tremulous and often on-and-off, but they did care for each other deeply.
Gambit stayed with the X-Men through all kinds of complete insanity, from apocalyptic level threats like Magneto and his anti-human regime and traveling to the Shi'ar galaxy to deal with their problems to problems closer to home, like Sentinels, anti-mutant groups, and even the Brood. When the captive Sabretooth began egging on Rogue to find out more about Gambit's then-unknown past, Remy was conveniently kidnapped by the villain Erik the Red (later revealed to be Magneto in disguise). Magneto put him on trial for his crimes against mutantkind, forcing Rogue to kiss him and absorb his memories. Everything about the Marauders came out, and Rogue, heartbroken and fueled by Remy's own self-loathing and guilt, abandoned him in Antarctica.
Now estranged from the X-Men, Gambit returned once again to a life of crime, having a number of adventures along the way, including defeating his alternate reality self, New Sun, and running around with the shapeshifting mutant Courier. When he was brought back to the X-Men it was at Storm's behest, who was upset that she hadn't been contacted when everything originally went awry. He stayed with the team until Storm created her team apart from the core group; he was invited to join, but Rogue protested, stating that their still unsettled issues would too distracting for her. Storm sided with Rogue, and Gambit, understanding but still a little miffed, opted to return to New Orleans instead of staying with the other team.
YOUR STAR IS SO SHARP IT LEAVES ME JAGGED HOLES[]
While stealing fine art for fun and profit, Gambit found himself hopping through a window and into another dimension, quite against his will. He had landed in a world centered around 'the City', an inescapable pseudo-prison full of people from all different realities and timelines. Having reportedly just missed Rogue, he was a little sulky, but got on okay. He came into contact with a very familiar-looking woman named Wanda Maximoff, who insisted she had no knowledge of the Avengers past what she saw on the news, and was just a Transian country girl who had a fondness for language. Remy decided to keep an eye on her anyway, and they struck up a friendship that ended up putting him in a coma: entirely by accident, Gambit triggered Wanda's dormant memories, and in response her abilities temporarily manifested to push him away. While his body appeared to remain in the City, he had in fact returned to the real world to live his life up to match Wanda's own contemporary setting and understand what she'd done.
The psychic backlash of years of his life being ripped through reality in a matter of days put Remy in a very bad situation for a while – his powers were fluctuating without Sinister's block, and memories were attacking him in waves. He settled himself, but he ended up far more grounded than before. It turned out that he did end up on Storm's X-treme Initiative team, but only after quite the ordeal of dying, coming back, losing his powers, training Storm to work for the UN, regaining his powers, watching the decimation of the mutant population at the hands of the Scarlet Witch (the entire point of his coma!), going blind, developing precognative abilities, and then finally getting his sight back. Finally deciding to put their issues behind them and commit, Gambit and Rogue had entered into psychic therapy with Emma Frost, which required Remy to turn off his natural shields and let the White Queen muck around in his head. It didn't go well. None of that compared to what he'd done after, however; everyone had been dying in an apathetic wasteland after M Day, and Remy's method of coping eventually led him to Apocalypse, who offered an alternative path than the X-Men, who were now operating without Charles Xavier, and Magneto, who remained depowered and insane. Angry, isolated, and vulnerable to manipulation thanks to Emma's therapy, Remy became the one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse, Death. He and the others razed the mansion and he personally nearly murdered Rogue. Defeated and cast out from the X-Men (which might have made sense had they not taken in his fellow horseman, Polaris), Gambit ended up back in the last place he wanted to be: in Sinister's debt.
Sinister was the only person outside the X-Men who had the ability to turn Death back into Gambit. For his help, Remy once again lead the Marauders, this time to go after Destiny's Diaries and the first mutant baby to be born after M Day. Gambit's Marauders fought the combined forces of several mutant teams to a standstill, while Gambit and Sunfire managed to distract and manipulate Cable into doing exactly what Gambit wanted him to do. Ultimately, Gambit maneuvered Cable into possession of the child, destroyed the diaries before Sinister could get them, saved Cannonball, and led the X-Men to Sinister's headquarters. Wolverine tortured him to the brink of death for his betrayal, but he was mysteriously healed the next time he was seen – meeting up with Mystique, who had killed Sinister in his absence. (Somehow, Remy managed not to care.) Depressed, Mystique nearly succeeded in convincing Remy to touch a comatose Rogue – whose sapping abilities had gotten so severe that she could no longer touch anyone without permanently absorbing their entire psyche and killing them instantly. In the end, she used the child the cure Rogue, despite Gambit's protests that Rogue wouldn't want to use someone innocent for her own gain. Rogue let Gambit go without turning him over to the rest of the X-Men, but told him not to follow her.
Which is the point at which Remy was returned to the City – guilt ridden but hiding it, he took a more proactive role in being hero-like, working with other vigilantes and keeping an eye on younger would-be heroes, as well as continuing his (sometimes questionably close) friendship with Wanda. When Wanda's memory returned, he helped her work through the reality of things like Civil War, which she had missed in her self-imposed exile in Transia.
totally innocent :3
In a terribly anti-climatic fashion, Remy woke up one day at home, as if his adventures in the City had never been anything but a hallucination. There wasn't time to dwell on it, however, as a hit list with Charles Xavier's name on it showed up from the Assassin's Guild, and Remy set off to deal with it and make sure his former mentor didn't end up dead. They succeeded, and Xavier asked Gambit to go with him on a quest for something he should have done ages ago: find Rogue, and help her overcome her deadly ability. She had exiled herself in Australia, and Xavier knew that if she was going to talk to anyone, it was going to be Gambit. Unsure, Remy took some time to think about it, and with his awesome luck, ended up in yet another alternate dimension. Thankfully, this one had doors back home.
It had something else, too: Wanda, who also remembered everything that had happened in the City. She had found a few other of their friends from that place, and her theory was that they'd been ejected from the place for meddling. Remy wasn't inclined to think too hard on it, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one – he needed somewhere to hide out and Wanda could use the company, so he stayed. He told himself it had nothing to do with Wanda herself, and maybe they even believed it, though their housemates certainly did not. In between jobs for Xavier – who was growing impatient with his indecision concerning Rogue – Remy got dangerously comfortable living with Wanda and Donna. On a 'vacation' to New Orleans while Remy handled Guild business, the trio was spotted by Remy's former teammate, Bobby Drake (Iceman). Having just spent some time dealing with Mystique, Bobby was furious to see Gambit, someone who he'd never particularly liked, fraternizing with the woman who'd decimated the mutant population of earth. There was a near-altercation, but they bolted before anything could go down, deciding that it was more important to get Wanda the hell out than defend anyone's honor.
Enjoying a Cerebro-misleading layover in Paris, the two mutants shared a kiss – and then never spoke of it again. Remy personally resolved to ignore it entirely, particularly since Clint Barton (Hawkeye) had heard through the rumor mill that someone had spotted the Scarlet Witch with Gambit and was sending out decidedly unsubtle feelers to try and find them. Wanda had other ideas, however, and they ended up deciding to give this whatever-the-hell thing they had a shot. For Remy, that meant also finally dealing with Clint's desire for a confrontation, as well as going to Australia with Xavier.
Now, Remy exists back and forth in between Wanda's house in the Nexus and Charles Xavier's headquarters back home. His relationship with Rogue is over – while there was a potential for rekindling when he helped her finally gain control of her powers, it was made clear that Gambit was not welcome back with the X-Men, and being a member of the team was more important to Rogue than he was. Remy is not fine with this, and for reasons that go far beyond former romantic entanglements – he will always care about Rogue, but the decision was something he's at peace with – but he doesn't have much of a choice. He works for Chuck, he works with Wanda, and he tries to get by without his unblocked powers destroying anything.
Someday he might even mention that to somebody.
I MAKE MYSELF SICK JUST TO POISON YOU[]
Gambit is a human mutant, member of the faction of humanity called Homo sapiens superior. His primary ability is bio-kinetic energy manipulation, which causes a number of smaller side-abilities. He is able to "charge" matter with explosive energy. Gambit traditionally utilizes his ability by charging small objects and using them as projectiles, usually playing cards, though he is also known to use knives (he's even used chewing gum, in a pinch). The energy within him affords him peak speed, strength, and agility. He has the ability to subtly (or not so subtly) "charm" the minds of others. It's not mind control, but a form of hypnosis that he has to work for.
The bio-kinetic energy housed in his body gives Remy the ability to create what amounts to telepathic static interference in his own mind, able to block out even high class telepaths like Charles Xavier and Jean Grey. (It's assumed that since Jean has been shown sending telepathic messages to Gambit before, that she taught him how to turn it off. This lends itself to explaining how Emma Frost was able to conduct psychic therapy with him, though he would still be very 'mentally isolated' compared to other team members, hence his intense struggle with the entire thing.) This apparently ties in to some degree of psy-skill, as Gambit has deliberately ejected Psylocke from his mind via the astral plane, something that she insisted shouldn't be possible for a non-telepath. The extent of his ability and control in that area is unknown, as he is notoriously secretive about it, and even Xavier has been known to advise people to refrain from badgering him on the subject.
Born an Omega class mutant, Remy underwent an operation at the hands of Mr. Sinister to lower is power level to that of an Alpha class mutant. With the block in place, Remy's charging ability was limited to non-organic matter that he was physically in contact with. Without the block, he is able to charge anything, the only requirement being even vague line of sight and a thought, as well as speed up his own metabolism to serve as a healing factor. Unfortunately, this amount of power is incredibly difficult to control – indeed, a Remy in another reality who had never been taken in by the Thieves Guild did not just destroy a theater, but his entire world. Because Remy cannot be harmed by his own energy, his other self – New Sun - was the only survivor. (Despite this, Remy somehow managed to injure himself with his own power and lose his vision temporarily, during which time he developed an ability to tell the future via Tarot cards. This was retconned out of existence after the conclusion of that arc.)
When Remy became Death at the hands of Apocalypse, he was given additional powers supplemented by the villain's Celestial Technology. As Death, he was able to transform inert materials into toxic substances, ingest diseases and plagues, and other deeply unpleasant death-related things – he was also completely out of his mind and obsessed with making things dead, being, after all, the personification of Death itself. Though Gambit had been able to revert back to his old self thanks to Sinister, the Celestial Technology has not been completely eradicated from his system: a psychic attack caused him to temporarily revert to his Death persona and murder the attacker. It's possible that Sinister left vestiges of this persona in Remy to have something to hold over him in the future – a plan gone quite wrong, as Sinister is dead and Remy has been left with a very dark, very dangerous personality that he is not in control of, as well as being without his power inhibitor.
At the present time, Gambit is an Omega-class mutant with tentative control over his own abilities. He's currently coping with it by trying not to get into any overly stressful situations, because while he knows he's capable of switching in and out of the Horseman of Death, he also knows that said switch can be made against his will. He's doing okay controlling his kinetic energy – the healing ability really came in handy after being gutted by Wolverine – but again, it's something that he's keeping quiet and not actively using for fear of turning into New Sun Redux. He rationalizes that because he's older and wiser he can handle it, but because he's not ignorant of the risks, he's pretending like these developments haven't happened.
Remy's upbringing means he is a master thief (the best in the world, in his opinion), skilled in everything from pick pocketing to breaking and entering to hacking. In addition to being highly adept at hand to hand combat, he is an expert con artist, using his natural ability to charm and fool people to get what he wants without them even realizing it. He's a great actor, fluent in several languages - he can drop his accent voluntarily - and a tactical expert. He plays up his dumb Southern boy image so that he people underestimate him, making it easier for him to distract and manipulate his way to victory. He generally functioned as an auxiliary field member of the X-Men, though they relied on him numerous times to get them out of scrapes in unorthodox ways. His leadership skills are decent but rarely used, something that appeared mostly voluntary. In the rare occasion that he led a field team, the results were positive.
IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU THEN NO ONE WILL[]
(YOU ARE THE ONE THAT I WANT)[]
ladies
(& WHAT I WANT IS SO UNREAL)[]
gentlemen
I'M SUCH A DIRTY ROCK STAR[]
Gambit / Remy LeBeau belongs to Marvel. Nav lyrics are by Marilyn Manson. PB belongs to himself, though all images are photoshopped by yours truly.