Coquine and the Suicide King by Jintian (R)

[apathocles.livejournal.com]

Fandom: X-MEN MOVIEVERSE
Pairing: pre-Gambit/Rogue; gen
Author on LJ: hesychasm
Author Website: The Jinjoint
Why this must be read:

I love this fic for a multitude of reasons, but I guess the main one would be that it deals with the not-so-attractive reality beneath the surface glamour of being a superhero, and does so in a completely believable and sympathetic way. Considering the way in which the X-Men constantly cheat death and come out fine in the end, it's easy to forget that these are real people, with real fears and real mortality – and, in many cases, they're just children.

This story made the characters real for me, in a way in which few other fics have managed. Because 'I don't want to die' is a pretty much universal feeling, and it's not something a person can just override; and yet, it's something that few writers sufficiently deal with.

My other main reason for loving this story is that the characters are so well-drawn. Gambit is someone whom I rarely enjoy reading about in movieverse, given that he's often demonised and over-simplified, existing merely as someone for Logan (or whoever) to win Rogue away from. In contrast, the Gambit here is three-dimensional, neither a womanising bastard nor the embodiment of all perfection and centre of the universe (as is so often the case in comicsverse stories). The other players involved are also far from simplistic; this is reflected in a wonderful moral ambiguity, where no one path is right, and all are equally painful in their own way.

Plus, Gambit's speech patterns are entirely readable, without losing their essential Gambitness. That alone should be reason enough to read this story. ;)

Coquine and the Suicide King