August “Gus” Merriweather
Age Range: Appears early-50s
Build: Broad and solid
Height: Around 6'0"
Eyes: Dark brown, sharp and knowing
Hair: Black with silver streaks, always neatly styled
Facial Hair: Full, trimmed goatee and mustache
Clothing: Dark waistcoats, silk cravats, polished boots, and a silver pocket watch
Notable Traits: Moves slow and deliberate, speaks with calm authority, and has a gaze that feels like judgment. Smells of tobacco, leather, and bourbon.
Backstory
Born in 1835 in New Orleans, Louisiana, August "Gus" Merriweather was the son of a Creole merchant father and an English mother who ran a boarding house known for its "no questions asked" policy. Life on the Gulf Coast was a lesson in subtle power plays and unseen debts, and young Gus learned early that every smile carried a cost and every favor had a price. His father taught him the art of negotiation at the docks, while his mother taught him how to spot a lie before it left a man's mouth.
By the age of 16, Gus was managing his father’s ledgers. By 20, he was running card tables in the backrooms of New Orleans' busiest saloons. Unlike the loud-mouthed gamblers who reveled in their wins, Gus played the long game. He knew that luck was a fleeting mistress, but control — now, that was something a man could own.
After a "misunderstanding" with a French shipping magnate left two men floating face-down in the Mississippi, Gus decided it was time to move on. He left New Orleans under the cover of fog, his only luggage a leather satchel with his initials scratched into the side.
He arrived in Shadewood Hollow in 1868, just a year before the founder of the Black Lantern, Luther "Lucky" Calloway, mysteriously vanished after a stormy confrontation with Monaghan's enforcer, Victor Draven. Gus took notice. The chair at the end of the bar — Calloway's chair — was left empty. No one dared sit in it, not even Monaghan's men. Gus saw the vacancy as more than just a chair. It was an opportunity.
When the offer to "manage" the Black Lantern came his way, Gus took it without hesitation. He didn’t chase debts like Calloway had. He didn’t need to. Small misfortunes followed those who owed him — stubbed toes, cracked bottles, broken wheels. Locals called it "Merriweather luck," but everyone knew better. Gus didn’t believe in luck. He believed in inevitability.
By 1890, Gus Merriweather was more than just the proprietor of the Black Lantern Saloon. He was its gravity. His silver pocket watch never ran slow, his polished boots never scuffed, and his silk cravat was always a perfect knot. He didn’t threaten people. He didn’t have to. One glance at his ledger, and folks straightened up quick.
They say if you sit in Calloway’s old chair, you’ll feel a hand on your shoulder. But if you cross Gus Merriweather, you’ll feel the whole weight of the Lantern pressing down on you — slow, steady, and inescapable.
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