FIFTY-TWO CARD PICK UP

Introductory Notes
"...A love story; a story of survival against all odds."
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WRITING TUMBLR . LIVEJOURNAL . F*CK YEAH, ROGUE AND GAMBIT . ALTER-EGO

Of Old Ghosts, Old Haunts, and Old Friends

Lucia de'Medici is the creative extension of one woman, who has been active in several fandoms for several years. Several myths surround this persona, the first being that she suffered heartily the slings of real life, that she died, or that she simply gave up.

These are, by the by, simple fictions for a simple persona.

Lucia de'Medici a nom de plume and an accorded writing style that revels in context, content, subversive narration, staccato shifts in points of view, and the visceral and vibrant: I like description. I like atmosphere. I like literotica and that old dark stuff so many frequently shy away from - that's not to say that I don't dabble elsewhere. I've got a penchant for crude humour, bawdy romance and the palpable tension that frequently characterizes my absolute favourites from the Marvel universe: Rogue and Gambit.

The only truth you require is this: Luce is alive and well, and Luce has some nasty stuff up her sleeve for you, dear reader.

It is my humblest hope that, if you were so inclined to read anything I've written, I'm doing my job right by eliciting a chuckle, a snort, a loud curse at your monitor, or maybe a tear or two. More importantly, if that's the case, you've got to let me know. If only for the fact that I've pissed you off somehow and you feel like threatening me, by all means - any reaction is better than none at all...

It's Coming.

“So what now?”

She hesitates. It stops him cold in the way that hope often does. What a cocktail: one part anticipation, one part expectation, and three parts the knowledge that it was a bad idea to even ask. Dieu, she hesitated like she was considering her options… as if she had options – like he had anything to offer her.

“Ah’m going back with the X-Men. Ah don’t care what you do.”

His heart chooses that moment to restart, and smirking, he smothers its stutter: “Sure, y’ don’t.”

She’ll be okay. He wants to believe it. He wants to convince himself of it, and as if it’d make it true, he gives the words form:

“Y’ will be fine, chérie. You’ve got people watchin’ for you,” he tells her, although it doesn’t have the conviction he’d hoped for. The X-Men have good intentions, but he knows Rogue in ways that she doesn’t quite yet understand herself. It should be him, he thinks. Worse, he wants to be the one at her back, a few paces behind. He’d happily become her shadow if it meant staying nearby, if it meant the bittersweet downturn to her mouth could be turned away with a promise and the press of his thumb.

Her mouth: Remy’s imagination lingers there.

These are impossibilities. Improbable. A terrible idea.

Jean Luc, emerging from the gloom of the bayou, shrouded in swamp stink and satisfaction, appears in the shadows on the outskirt of his peripheral vision. Their time’s run short, all of a sudden. The X-Men are waiting, and Rogue is turning from him. Helplessly, he memorizes what details he can: Its in his nature to inscribe into his brain the jut of her collarbone, the slope of her shoulder, the dimple in her chin… The shy, sweet smile that appears for just a second, that makes him want to forget all about the Family and all about the bitter twist of events that have brought him back to this place.

This is quick desperation, the desire to keep her here a moment longer, and to say more than the things that are possible. (Impossible, this. Them. But dieu, does he crave otherwise…) Impossible, but just in case, he gives her the Queen – pressing the card into her palm on a desperate whim, making it their talisman – a secret passed between them; a little luck that their paths should cross again someday.

If he wants it enough, if she wants it enough…

A Prelude and a Nocturne: News: I have some. Its 2011, and The Ante is back under the knife, on the block, and in production again. Effectively, this means a reboot is in progress (revisions are live, here and on the blog, up to Chapter XIII), and Chapter XXX will be delivered a few weeks after the last of the revision is posted. (Its frakking huge, okay? And, I mean, I know I've posted big chapters before... but this is really pointing out the color of the kettle needlessly. Its been sitting in on my hard disk for the past two years -- unwieldy, massive, frustrating, daunting -- and I want it out there, stitched together and cohesive, for you (gentle reader) to read. So that's it. Hi, how are you? Leave a review. Give me some encouragement; I totally need it right now.

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