It is extremely important to bear the information from the 'character design preface' in mind when reading all character backstories on this blog. Before doing so, please refer back to the information on that particular post first.
---
The Gambler:
Name: Gabrielle Aquinas
"The professional gambler Gabrielle Aquinas is the only person in Last Chance Saloon who originally comes from money. Her father is an extremely diligent and prolific businessman who completely cornered the market in whiskey distillery, and he now owns several high-functioning distilleries cross-state. Without his impeccable brand, people would still be swilling down ‘gut-rot’ in saloons, camps and riverboats across the nation. Now, the Aquinas name is synonymous with the finest, most refined whiskey seen in 19th century America.
As a result of her exceptionally wealthy background, Gabrielle is used to the finer qualities of life, such as expensive clothing, precious jewellery and a very relaxed lifestyle.
When she was a young girl, her father would have his gambling friends over every week to their grand family estate for a full night of recreation and gaming. He wasn’t addicted to gambling or alcohol, it just came with the culture of living wealthy.
Fascinated by the inner workings of the various games, she would watch as every move was made by the players, as every hand was won or lost, and how each player tried to manipulate each other in order to win. Her father would host games of Faro, Three Card Monte, Poker, Blackjack, Chuck-A-Luck and High Dice, the most popular games of the time. Her keen interest turned into pure enthrallment for the game.
Over her many nights of watching, she learned enough to start playing at the table and always came out as the winner, no matter the game or player. She loved the thrill of winning and the pace of the game.
Because of her high-class upbringing, she was home-schooled and developed an eloquent, well-spoken tone of voice, and was raised to never be arrogant in victory. She also developed good manners and a severe disliking of hand-to-hand combat.
As a young woman, she set out and began trying her hand at gaming in various saloons in towns further and further away from her family estate. However, Gabrielle knew all too well that winning too often was a risky move, as anybody could accuse her of cheating with no evidence and gun her down. She also knew that she had to be quick on her feet, in case somebody wanted to murder her for her winnings after a high-stakes game. She became even wealthier than before, and used her winnings to continually fund her elaborate and expensive collection of clothing.
After spending a long amount of time clearing tables out in saloons, she finally took to her true calling of professional gambling onboard a riverboat for the rich and famous. She set up a table and played a different game each day with the other patrons onboard. She took her profession as a viable and water-tight business, running straight, fair games which prohibited the use of foul language. She encouraged her players to drink but wouldn’t touch any of the stuff herself whilst running a game, and eventually cultivated an unflinching reputation for fairness and honour amongst her players. She almost single-handedly funded the riverboat she rode on and still had enough money left over to fund all the riverboats for several states, and so paid for rent and licensing.
Her many years as a professional taught her to play with her back to the wall and have a pistol ready by her side, in case any snide cowboy wished to cheat her. For a woman who generally disliked violence, she had an extremely quick draw in anticipation of the one time where she’d need it.
However, even she couldn’t anticipate that one sly cheater who managed to get one over on her. From that day forth, she vowed two things: the first would be to track down and force that swindler to give back what they took, and the second would be to never get cheated again."