Gambit
is a Worm fanfic written by Fantasy Ra. It tells the story of Renée, a New Orleans Case 53 with control over kinetic force going by the name of Gambit, finding herself traveling to Brockton Bay to help an old friend while making sure that her presence there is not noticed. The fact she is there to help on a robbery does not help. And neither does picking a fight with an Empire 88 goon. Along the way, she meets with Danny Hebert and begins to rediscover the truth about her lost past.
Gambit provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Zig-Zagged with Taylor/Renée. While Taylor never went through the almost sadistic treatment the trio put her through, she was forced to live on the streets of New Orleans, as well as fight and steal whatever she needed in order to survive.
- Adaptational Curves: As seen in the art for the story, Taylor/Renée is more busty and muscular than in canon. This is a result of her powers having re-worked her body over the years to be suited for constant movement due to perpetually generating bio-kinetic energy.
- Adaptational Name Change: While Taylor still has her old name, she goes by Renée here out of preference. Her cape name is Gambit (originally Deck) rather than Skitter.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Taylor/Renée is far more confident and extroverted than she was in canon, making her very charismatic. She's also shown to be more flirty and perverted, mainly in her interactions with Clockblocker.
- Affably Evil: Renée is a proud thief, but she lives by a code and makes it a point to avoid senseless violence. She's also incredibly friendly with children and treats the people she works with well. Assault even calls her friendly after having played a poker game with her and some members of the PRT, Protectorate, and Wards are on good terms with her.
- Afraid of Their Own Strength: Renée knows perfectly well she could easily level a building if she wanted to, which is part of why she uses cards since she can't "charge" as much as other objects to fight.
- Angrish: According to Jess, Renée starts to become incomprehensible when she's angry thanks to her accent going out of control. Though this being Jess, they may have been trolling her.
- Angst? What Angst?: An In-Universe example. It sets off a small red flag for Renée when she tells Emma - whom she was told was as close to her as a sister growing up - that she has absolutely no memories of her, and she brushes it off as quickly as she tells her.
- Atrocious Alias:
- Renée felt her original alias, Deck, was this. She'd much rather be referred to as Gambit.
- Danny truly thinks that Capes are really getting out of ideas if there is someone calling himself Two Mauls. One of the readers even called his alias a "crime against English".
- Badass Longcoat: Renée purchases a passerby's coat shortly after arriving in Brockton Bay. It's to help her keep warm in the colder climate and makes her look all the more badass.
- Berserk Button: Gambit gets pissed off at the thought of eating microwave dinner. She takes her Cajun food very seriously.
- Black-and-White Morality: Typically, the heroes who treat Gambit with the most hostility have a very narrow perception of good and evil. Renée even tells Dennis that people prefer to see the world in terms of Heroics and Villainy due to how the PRT and Protectorate set up the system.
- As far as Guppy cares, Gambit is an evil freak that needs to be arrested. He really doesn't care about her side of the story.
- Glory Girl has this mindset, as heroes are good and criminals are evil in her eyes. This leads her to be very hostile towards Gambit, to the point of attacking her in public while both were in civilian identity. She does at least start tolerating Gambit to a degree after their second fight.
- Dean also has this, as he's very distrustful of Gambit, though to a much more minor extent than Glory Girl. He's more angry about her stealing his car than anything else.
- Black Eyes of Evil: The only thing that marks Renée as a Case 53. It is because of how eerie looking they are that people called her a demon. It's also mixed in with Red Eyes, Take Warning, though hers is a nicer case than most.
- Canon Character All Along: Renée being an amnesiac Taylor does not take long to come up.
- Comes Great Responsibility: Renée actually hates how most heroes and society have this mindset. People expect those with powers to become heroes who save and protect them. If not, they tend to be demonized and treated as villains. To Renée, a person is free to do as they choose, and having powers doesn't immediately make them obligated to serving the public through fighting villains. That's a choice they need to make for themselves.
- Composite Character:
- Taylor gets mixed with Gambit (having his powers and personality), as is the main concept of the story.
- Clockblocker/Dennis is mixed with Rogue, due to being Gambit's main love interest.
- Cool Car: Poor Dean. He had such a nice sport car, too bad Renée likes making chases in style.
- Demoted to Extra: Because Sofia and Emma aren't part of Taylor's backstory here, they hardly have any significance in the overall story, and Madison is Adapted Out altogether.
- Easy Sex Change: Jess is gender-fluid like in canon and switches between male and female identities at the drop of a hat. According to Renée, it's apparently the longest running prank in history as they love trolling their enemies with altering identities.
- Ethical Slut: Renée's old roommate, Penny, sleeps around a lot and openly flirts with Danny right after she just finished having sex with her partner, but she is a kind person that Renée openly calls friend.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Gambit is more Affably Evil, so she has lines that she refuses to cross, such as not harming children and avoiding killing her enemies whenever possible, as it avoids escalation of conflict.
- Evil Is Petty: The reason Jess/Circus wants to steal Max Anders' piano? Because he parked his car in the spot Jess usually park theirs, and they want to drop the piano over his car in vengeance. Renée was not amused.
- Expy: Renée is one to, well, Gambit.
- Fantastic Racism: Renée talks with Dennis about how people with powers are dehumanized by the term "parahuman". She also brings up the Bad Canary case, where the fact that she was being stalked, harassed, and that what she did to her stalker was accidental are completely brushed aside just because people are afraid of her powers.
- Friend to All Children: It really caught the PRT off-guard finding Gambit playing the Girl Scouts.
- Gaslighting: Gambit jokes that she nearly did this to the Undersiders by moving everything in their lair three degrees to the left. Tattletale is not amused.I would have shot you. Twice. Do you have any idea what that would have done to me this morning?
- Gender Flip: Taylor/Renée is essentially a female version of Remy/Gambit.
- Gratuitous French: Renée occasionally speaks french, but mostly speaks English, albeit with a Cajun french accent and some french words mixed in. Jess finds it annoying.
- Half-Hearted Henchman: Danny ends up helping Renée because she's his daughter, but doesn't like the whole criminal aspect. Renée dispels this by telling him that he's a minion since henchmen are expendable, but minions aren't.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Penny, Renée's roommate, being a prostitute and her closest friend. She's also ecstatic when Renée discovers her father and is happy that she was able to find her family.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: This is Renée's opinion about referring to people with powers as "Parahumans" and that labeling powers is just as dehumanizing.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Yes, Jess is a foul-mouthed asshole who antagonizes almost everyone they interact with, but they do go out of their way to help Renée and even taught her to survive on her own and they even show genuine concern when she went off to New Orleans to confirm her parentage (albeit in a passive-aggressive manner).
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: As all other Case 53 (though she doesn't identify as one since the changes were extremely minor and she doesn't even have the tattoo that others always have), Renée can't remember anything before waking up in an alley.
- Lovable Rogue: You know Gambit is one when even Piggot is accused of liking her. The Wards also tend to be lenient and friendly with her, with the only exceptions being those with a very strict Black-and-White Morality.
- Making a Splash: Guppy, one of the New Orleans Wards, has hydrokinetic abilities.
- Noble Demon: Bonus points for sometimes being called a demon by certain people. Renée is an open criminal who steals what strikes her fancy, but she operates within a strict code and has a soft spot for children.
- Open-Minded Parent: Danny's either this or apathetic to his daughter's criminal activities after finding out the truth. He doesn't mind her inviting other villains to his house to gamble or piss off the Wards. Generally, the most he'll do is enter "I'm so done with this shit" mode and get exasperated.
- Psychic Block Defense: Thinkers have a hard time using their powers on Renée if they can at all. This is part of the reason Dean doesn't like her.
- Purple Prose: Gambit can occasionally use these.Gambit: Alas, I'm afraid I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request.
[The Wards just stare blankly at her]
Gambit: Means 'no'. - Reasonable Authority Figure: Both Director Simmons and Director Piggot tend to be more lenient with Gambit than they are with other criminals. Simmons even accuses Piggot of liking her! It also helps that Gambit herself is affable and polite with them when the more zealous Wards and heroes aren't going after her.
- Refuge in Audacity:
- Danny accompanying Renée to the PRT building while wearing one of the uniforms from Lustrum's gang and calling himself Minion counts. Director Simmons thought Piggot was kidding when she told him.
- The very next day after a robbery in which no evidence was found out, people found Gambit giving out "gifts" to the homeless that looked suspiciously like the reported stolen goods.
- Scoundrel Code: Jess gave Renée 30 rules for both how to act on the work and life lessons. She was never sure what rule 10 has to do with anything though...note
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Jess can't seem to end a sentence without at least swearing once.
- That Man Is Dead: Renée makes it very clear to Danny that his daughter (Taylor) is dead, but that he could see Renée as his daughter too.
- Thieves' Guild: Renée is the leader of one in New Orleans. Danny is quick to point out that it is basically an union for thieves.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: One of the rules Jess, Renée and the people of her guild lives by, since they know that killing someone will just escalate things and make everything worse.
- Villains Out Shopping: Danny was not happy to find villains (and Assault) having a poker night at his house.
- Villain Protagonist: Gambit is a proud thief and is opposed to the heroes most times, but she's a downplayed case since she's polite, courteous, has lines she refuses to cross (such as killing), and also helps people every now and then.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Guppy sending Two Mauls to an "innocent until proven guilty" bystander (Gambit), is not taken well at all.
- Willfully Weak: Gambit uses cards to make use of her powers because she knows that she can destroy entire buildings with ease if she cuts loose and wants to avoid escalating battles.
- Younger Than They Look: Renée is the same age as Taylor was around the start of canon, but she looks more like an eighteen or twenty year old college student than your average teenager.
