Paragons The Hero Killers: The Gambling Queen Crescenzia Di Vincenzo

Luck.
Luck is a fundamental element of every universe.
Whether a thousand omniscient Dragon-Spirits slightly altering events in your favour.
Or an all-penetrating will of a mysterious force in the galaxy.
Or a Goddess looking out for you.
Or some magic potion giving you subtle pushes.
Or some bacteria enhancing your brain by forming connections only telling you which choices to make and not how you got there.

Luck is the path the world takes.
Through probability and around improbability.

Luck is another name for probability.
High luck means getting the desired probabilistic result a non-reasonable amount of time.
Low luck means getting the non-desired probabilistic result a non-reasonable amount of time.
Crescenzia Di Vincenzo is the luckiest person on Earth. Everything she makes an attempt for works in her favor. However, there two catches: She is absorbing the luck of those around her, and anyone who tries to profit from her luck, even with her help, is met with the worst luck immediately.

Her parents died when she was six, on the way back home when she scored an impossible goal during a soccer game. Her coach said it was unlike anything she had seen before. A one in a million chance, even. So was the fact that she managed to escape the fiery heap of metal as her parents burned to death.

As you would expect for a six year old, that caused her a lot of issues. No amount of therapy could really fix the horrible images seared into her brain. She just couldn’t comprehend how she survived but her parents didn’t. Her aunt and uncle, bless their hearts, told her it wasn’t her fault but a little part in the back of her head disagreed. Even before she truly understood what happened, she knew.

It was a while before the next accident. It was 9th grade, and she was making news around the school. After all, no one expected the twig-thin, socially awkward girl to audition and actually get the lead role in Phantom Of The Opera over the seasoned seniors. Hell, even she was surprised.

But things were finally looking up for her. She met new people, gained friends, and my confidence soared to unprecedented heights. Everything was looking up for her. And then they had their first performance.

Needless to say, she learned that night that she should never tell anyone to “break a leg” because they may take it literally. And fracture their spine. Spencer never walked again after stepping on stage.

Again, she was washed over with another wave of condolences. She blocked it all out. She was starting to make connections. Yet, She still didn’t quite understand the extent of her power. She had to experience it a few more times to realize how destructive it could really be.

Crescenzia got into the college of her dreams, only to see the dorm burn down the day she moved in. Four people died.

She also had to chance to work in the law firm she'd been vying for. Right before they went bankrupt.

But when she met Amy, Crescenzia was convinced that she could turn things around. She was different than anyone else. The lady had grown into a hermit over the years but she snuck her way into Crescenzia's life, and without any tragedy. Every day with her, Crescenzia held her breath, waiting for the unlucky moment that would separate them. But a year passed. Then two. And before she knew it, she was proposing to her, effortlessly smiling for the first time in years. Crescenzia was truly happy.

But like always, her luck had to run out. She got the call only a couple months after their marriage. The coroner said something about an especially rare case of an aneurysm or something like that. Almost completely undetectable and highly deadly. Crescenzia was, naturally, too hysterical to really understand what she was saying. She just took Amy’s purse and left.

It took a week to even get out of bed, memories of all the pain she'd caused surfacing and blanketing over her like a sudden snowstorm. She was numb, awake from a lofty dream to finally see her own foolishness. Crescenzia knew, perhaps always knew, that she should have let her go. She loved her, yes, but always knew the risk. She didn’t deserve her. She didn't deserve to die so young.

The pain only hurt worse when Crescenzia finally opened her purse. Nothing was particularly special except for one thing. The lottery ticket she'd given her earlier the day she had died. Amy hated them but she kept it, just for her. She always said she was her lucky charm.

Turns out, maybe it was too much. The numbers matched. 320 million dollars, just for one slip of paper. After that, it’s a blur. Crescenzia began losing herself in a haze of alcohol and cards, no longer caring what happened to those around her, always finding money on the floor or winning promotions, lotteries, and raffles. But even the games seemed too easy. Like they wanted her to win.  One tournament win after another and years later she was found in an underground club, playing for millions of dollars with some of the best and most ruthless players of in the world.

Crescenzia won. Again. Her opponents died in accidents shortly after the game. Crescenzia collected her winnings and moved on with a life of absolute luxury. She didn't have anybody living with her. No staff. They all died anyway.

A team of hitmen were hired to kill her but they only succeeded in getting themselves killed. She didn't even look up from her novel.

 Crescenzia continued her descent into underground gambling, risking life and limb just for the chance at a rush. She always emerged unscathed while her opponents would end up dead or maimed. And then dying.

And slowly, a darker aspect of her personality began to emerge as she watched all of their cunning strategies, all of their clever tricks and cheats fall apart against her and their mental breakdowns began as they were mutilated. What she didn't truly realize however, is that when her opponents lost a game, regardless of whatever they tried, their bodies would force them to go through with their end of the bargain, regardless of their own will.

She began to enjoy it. She would make ridiculous and outrageous bets and win every time while her opponents lives fell apart.

Eventually, running out of things to bet on, she jokingly bet her soul against an opponents, both of them laughing it off. However, when she inevitably won the game...something happened. Her opponent began shaking and trembling as his very soul was ripped from him and turned into a playing card in her hand. Even Crescenzia was disturbed by this after everything she'd seen.

After a few minutes of trying to figure this out, she pushed the card back into her opponent's head and it sank in, bringing him back to life.

Astounded by the sheer power at her fingertips now, she began having real fun with it, using her wealth to create The Celestial Oasis Casino Hotel, a massive, sprawling casino so balls out amazing that anyone entering would never want to leave because of all the addictive games, food and other activities, combined with the virtually unlimited money on plastic cards. The hotel causes those inside never to age, while time goes on at a seemingly accelerated rate outside.

People would come from all around the world to see it, to experience its beauty and then never leaving. You could challenge anyone to anything here, bet anything, risk it all or become rich beyond your wildest dreams!

Because the hotel is a nightmare dressed like a daydream.

You are of course, free to challenge her. But Crescenzia never loses. She wins. You lose. You work at the hotel.

She decided who won what games, she decided how long a winning spree would go on for, she made the rules and she decided the fates of everyone inside.

In Here, Crescenzia Di Vincenzo Was God.

At least...until She showed up.

The White Queen is no fool. She has been around for a very long time. The White Queen did not get to where she was now by being foolish. she spent time studying Crescenzia and musing over how to defeat her until she came up with an ingenious solution.

Getting herself all dressed up, she ventured out to the hotel to recruit Crescezia. The White Queen, providing the alias of Annabelle Buckingham, had some fun at the hotel for awhile before getting down to business. She encountered some very interesting forms of gambling at the casino and after navigating through her labyrinth of games, she finally challenged the Gambling Queen herself in a high stakes poker game. The grand prize? A $500 Million Hawaiian Island. The White Queen raised from there but Crescenzia was confident of her victory. She never lost before because she flat out could not lose. Why should today be any different?

However, The White Queen had a secret ace up her sleeve. Fun Fact:  Quantum particles are able to collapse at any location, and will often expand once again after they've collapsed. If someone had enough time control, they could accelerate a quantum particle to the inevitable point where it collapsed at the location required. Effectively cheating probability by giving it infinite rerolls. By controlling her powers in just the right manner in this limited space, she was able to cause Crescenzia's tychokinesis to glitch out. For the first time in her life, Crescenzia's luck was beginning to run out and she was forced to rely on her instincts and skill. But since she lacked experience being on the losing end, she had no real clue what to do. Despite this, a sense of excitement began to rise in her heart. For the first time, she genuinely didn't know what was going to happen in a game of chance and the excitement overwhelmed her. With a big smile on her face, Crescenzia continued the game.

In the end, The White Queen emerged victorious and took home a vast fortune, islands, the casino and most importantly: She took Crescenzia. 

The Queen had a drink with her in a backroom as she excitedly asked the Queen to explain how she won but she kept that secret. However, as they spoke to one another, the Queen began to use her words to win the gamblers heart as she whispered to the darkness that had already infected it, winning her over with her philosophies on the world. What makes this "more than mind control" rather than simple manipulation is that this can still be assisted by magic or technology. Magic forces may be at work, but it's really the despair, trickery, lies, and sometimes even carefully-selected truths, that are thrown in that successfully break the victim's spirit. Instead of the villain forcing a victim to do something against their will, the villain changes the victim's will. It's Deal with the Devil meets Break Them by Talking.

She made a deal with the gambler: Crescenzia worked for her now. She could keep her money and the casino, though she'd be taking the islands, but she kicked up 10% to her. Furthermore, The White Queen had some very big plans and Crescenzia was to assist in them whenever The Organization called on her and otherwise follow her instructions.

Furthermore, since she would be privvy to some very sensitive information, if she ever lost again, especially to someone who wanted to know about her and the organization, then Cres was to put a bullet in her brain.

On that day, the Gambling Queen bowed to the White Queen.

Since then, she's become quite the underground figure, amassing a criminal empire by essentially enslaving other crime bosses via her games and controlling their organizations through them and forcing those closest to them to work at her casino. She can't be assassinated, all attempts fail and she's never lost since her game with the White Queen either.

But that's precisely the problem. She hasn't had that same rush again and she longs for it.

So besides occasionally causing disaster's with her powers or tearing apart people's lives with her games, she's drifting through life.

Ultimately, the youngest son of one of the leashed crime lords seeks out the heroes and requests their help: His parents have disappeared and his older siblings haven't been in touch since they went to the casino. Despite the shady pasts of his family, they still investigate.

This is a case that becomes a story arc in itself as the heroes descend into the underworld of high stakes gambling and a battle of wills with their greatest threat yet.