Nick Gallant, a character in The Deadliest Game series, is a famous billionaire philanthropist, the host of the murder mystery party, and the victim of the murder you're investigating. He is first seen in The Deadliest Gambit, Chapter 1.
Appearance
Nick has short brown hair, gray eyes, and light skin. He wears a white suit jacket with matching pants, a white shirt, and a brown leather belt.
Personality
For all his wealth and brilliance, Nick was easygoing, humble, sweet-natured, and generous to a fault. He had a solid sense of humor and was flexible enough to roll with the punches in most situations. He enjoyed a little chaos in his life and tended to surround himself with people who were a bit of a mess. Steve, in a rare moment of insight, characterized this as Nick wanting to help people and therefore collecting a friend group made up of people who needed help.
Nick was a devoted friend who took an active interest in the people he cared for, such as when he pulled strings to get tickets for Seventeen's yet-unannounced tour so Jun could give them to his sister as a birthday present, or when he overnighted an actress's memoir to Dante simply because he mentioned in passing that he enjoyed her work. He never dropped a friend, not even when they grew apart or lost what they'd had in common, as evidenced by him continuing to include Crystal in everything even after she veered hard into new age beliefs.
However, even Nick himself was aware that his loyalty to his friends could be a flaw. He was too indulgent, enabling their worst impulses instead of holding them to account or allowing them to suffer the consequences of their own actions. He hoped that he'd be able to start providing them with real help after he donated all his assets, instead of simply using his money as a temporary patch for their troubles.
Background
Nick grew up poor without ever knowing his biological mother. He began inventing out of his garage and hit it big with a small robot vacuum called the Whoosh, which soon led to him becoming CEO of a billion-dollar company. He achieved so much financial success that he couldn't keep track of how many mansions he owned, but he never stopped thinking of new ways to solve problems or new inventions that might significantly improve quality of life.
Because Nick had no children, he updated his will last year to split his fortune among his closest friends, which was common knowledge to most of them. Unbeknownst to all but Liz and Farah, however, he had recently changed his mind and decided to donate all his assets to charity. Nick had become unable to reconcile the unethical implications of his extreme wealth with his desire to be a good person, and he'd arranged to give up everything as a way of leading by example. His murder mystery weekend was intended to be a sendoff to all the luxury and stress of his tech-billionaire lifestyle before he began a simpler life which allowed him to spend more quality time with his loved ones.
Chapters
The Deadliest Game
The Deadliest Gambit
- Chapter 1: Opening Moves
- Chapter 2: Possibilities
The Deadliest Game
- Chapter 1: A Party to Die For
- Chapter 2: Cold Hard Truth
- Chapter 3: Hard-Boiled Detective (Mentioned)
- Chapter 4: Scene of the Crime
- Chapter 5: Emergency (Mentioned)
- Chapter 6: Red-Handed (Mentioned)
- Chapter 7: The Last Hurrah (Mentioned)
- Chapter 8: Crystal Clear
- Chapter 9: Into the Woods (Mentioned)
- Chapter 10: Lady Luck
- Chapter 11: Time of Death (Mentioned)
- Chapter 12: Let's Play A Game
- Chapter 13: Run, Run, Run (Mentioned)
- Chapter 14: Lights Out (Mentioned)
- Chapter 15: Caught (Mentioned)
- Chapter 16: Falsely Accused (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
- Chapter 17: The Scene of the Crime
- Chapter 18: Whodunnit? (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
- Chapter 19: Closed Book (Mentioned)
Relationships
Your Character
Nick had been your best friend since you were five years old. You attended college together and shared his favorite saying omnia possibilia sunt, or "anything is possible." Although you hadn't seen each other in person for almost two years, you maintained contact through monthly video calls. He spoke of you often and fondly to the others in his social circle, and his enthusiastic appreciation for your books led to several of his friends becoming fans of your work. Nick's faith in you seemed absolute, as he fully believed you'd solve his murder mystery game, and he trusted you enough to ask that you keep an eye on his other guests for reasons he never got the chance to explain.
Jun Seong
Jun had been Nick's bodyguard and near-constant companion for about two years. Most of Jun's previous clients were content to ignore him, but Nick persisted in treating him like a friend. This resulted in a mutually caretaking relationship between the two, with Jun faithfully guarding Nick while also respecting his privacy, and Nick trying to get Jun to loosen up and put his own needs first once in a while. He considered Jun by far the best bodyguard he'd ever had.
Dante Valdez
Farah Sabri
Angelina Dumond
Angelina was Nick's live-in girlfriend. He called you to gush about how cool she was after their first date, and they were still together two years later. Their relationship had recently become distant, although they still seem to care about each other.
It's heavily implied in The Deadliest Gambit that Nick became aware of Angelina's affair shortly after he began looking at engagement rings. He was not angry about it, instead regretting how much they'd both pulled away from each other while coming to terms with the certainty that their relationship couldn't last. He still felt love and affection for her and told himself that her happiness was the most important thing.
Crystal Gao
Liz Flores
Medhani Kapoor
Pete Parekh
Steve Bashir
Gallery
Other Looks
Miscellaneous
Trivia
- He is shown on the cover of The Deadliest Gambit.
- In this book, he is introduced as "genius inventor, philanthropist, and billionaire". This short sentence is very similar to the famous summary of Marvel character Tony Stark ("Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist") from the 2012 film The Avengers, minus the "playboy" part.
- He is the only playable character in this book.
- His character model resembles Francis Somerset from The Unexpected Heiress.
- The name Nick is of Greek origin, meaning "victory of the people". It is a short version of the name Nicholas. In its Greek origin, the name is Nikolaus, what gives rise to call him Santa Claus.
- He shares the same name as Nick Peralta from Home for the Holidays, Nick Bastion from Crimes of Passion, Nick Glazer from Alpha, and Nick from The Cursed Heart, Book 2.
- His crimes include aiding and abetting and smuggling.
References
- ↑ The Deadliest Gambit, Chapter 2