Remy LeBeau

## Personality

With all his Cajun charm and flirtatious politeness, Remy is 100% flash and style. He’s the hottest thing going, he knows it, and he doesn’t mind showing it. Though fortunately there’s just barely enough self-deprecation there to save Remy from being unbearably arrogant. Plus, the fact that he gives the definite impression that he can back up his swagger.

Remy would be the first person to admit that he isn’t a good man. He’s a thief, a con artist and his instinct is to go for an easy lie rather than a hard truth. He is trying to rise above that though. For all that he treats life like a game, when necessary Remy does take things seriously. Though it takes a major issue indeed for him to admit that. There’s more to being a southern gentleman than charm and manners after all. He may be a thief and a liar, but he likes to think he has redeeming qualities. His word is his bond (if formally given, if you don’t make him swear to it, it doesn’t count), and he doesn’t leave a friend hanging. Those are cards he plays close to his chest though. Morals are a liability, and he’s sometimes still iffy about whether he can afford that luxury.

## Powers

Remy’s main power is the ability to charge inanimate objects with kinetic energy. That energy is then explosively released, either by a sharp impact with something else, or after a delay that Remy can instill with a concentrated effort. The larger and tougher the object, and the longer he charges it, the greater the explosive force he can generate. He needs to be touching the object, and this power has no effect on living matter. Currently Remy’s upper limit is about the size of a door. He can’t charge anything larger than that to a noticeable degree without completely wiping himself out in the attempt.

He also has a secondary power, though Remy isn’t aware of it. He constantly generates a low-level psychic field that makes him almost preternaturally charming. The effect is subtle and not particularly powerful. Enough to make people more inclined to do things or him and to go along with his ideas if they aren’t too outlandish. The psychic field also interferes with telepaths and empaths trying to read or influence Remy. The effect is subtle enough that Remy puts its effects down to him just being slick. And stubborn.

## Talents

Remy is a man of many talents, most of them illegal. For someone his age he is a shockingly talented thief in things ranging from simple pickpocketing to circumventing high tech security systems. His nimble fingers also lend themselves to sleight of hand, which together with an excellent poker face, makes him a demon at the card table. He’s also quite a graceful acrobat and skilled in both hand to hand, knife and staff fighting.

## Interests

Remy’s a creature of comfort. He enjoys the “finer things in life”, and enjoys them a lot. Fast cars, fine wines, gambling and luxury. And of course, beautiful people. Remy is a serial flirt, and a shameless one at that. In his quieter moments, he’s usually found keeping himself amused with whatever is closest at hand, though often it’s a quiet passion for card tricks.

## History

Remy has no idea who his birth parents were. His earliest memories are of running away from an orphanage to live the life of a street rat in the French Quarter of New Orleans. His first family was a gang of pickpockets under the “guidance” of a man who had unironically named himself Fagin. It wasn’t a particularly good life, but it taught Remy the skills he needed to survive. Primarily, how to steal and to play his cards close to his chest.

Remy prides himself on only having been caught stealing once. And that was by Jean-Luc LeBeau, the head of an ancient organisation of thieves known as the Thieves Guild. Impressed by Remy’s skill (and his impertinent spirit), Jean-Luc took the boy in and ended up adopting him s his son. Not that that stopped Remy’s criminal ways, it just took him from small time street rat to rising star in the criminal big time. The adoption also came with some political strings though, in the form of the generations long feud between the Thieves and their ancient rivals the Assassins Guild. And Remy was part of Jean-Luc’ plans to end that feud.

Normally Remy would have baulked at that plan, given that it involved an arranged marriage between himself and the daughter of the Patriarch of the Assassins Guild. Not exactly Remy’s style. But when that marriage was planned to be to Belladonna Boudreaux, Remy’s best friend/sworn enemy/first crush/rival for life well…. Remy could make peace with the idea. Belle was about the only person in New Orleans able to keep up with him after all!

Sadly, things didn’t go exactly to plan. When the engagement was announced on the day of Remy’s 15th birthday, Belle’s older brother Julien took exception. Exception in the form of an honour duel. That almost cost Remy his life, and it was only with a mixture of luck and ruthlessness that he managed to beat Julien. The margin was certainly too slim for Remy to try anything fancy. Julien died that day and with him any hope for peace in New Orleans. The Assassins would never accept a boy with the blood of their next Patriarch on his hands, and the feud threatened to spiral right back out of control. It was only through Jean-Luc’s persuasiveness and Belle’s intercession with her father that Remy was spared. Well, spared death at least. Instead he was banished from New Orleans, never to return on pain of death by either guild.

Cast out of his home at age 15, Remy was in bad shape. Compounded by the fact that his powers were growing rapidly too much for him to handle. Instead of charging objects he touched, Remy’s powers started charging things at merely a glance. And instead of requiring effort, it was all Remy could do NOT to charge things. He was essentially becoming a walking time bomb. Enter Nathaniel Essex, aka Mister Sinister. The mutant geneticist offered to help Remy with his problem, in return for loyal service. With little other choice, Remy accepted. If he’d known then what that would entail, he would have refused. One quick brain surgery later, and Remy’s powers were back under his control. Permanently stunted, but controllable. And then he had to start paying off his debt. For the better part of two years, Remy was Sinister’s catspaw, one of the mad scientist’s Marauders. Given the choice, Remy would rather just forget those years.

Eventually it became too much, and during the chaos of one particularly brutal affair, Remy slipped away. There would eventually be a reckoning for that, he was sure. But it was better than continuing to work for a monster. Remy’s plan was to slip away somewhere obscure and re-orient himself. It was at this point that Charles Xavier found him, and offered him a chance to join his school. Remy was never particularly interested in formal education, but he was hardly in a position to refuse help. Any port in a storm. And that brought Remy reluctantly to do his senior year (and a lot of remedial education) at the Xavier Institute.