Tony

> It’s not worth the anger. None of it is. Anger is bullshit. Love who you can, while you can...Life's too damn short.
>
> Tony, in Volume IV - "Despair"

## Anthony (Tony) Blake Williams

### Race

Vampyre (Talented)

Anthony (Tony) Blake Williams served as the engineering specialist and a trusted, albeit introverted, member of Kara's Counsel. Tony, abandoning "Anthony," as it was his father's name, was a key factor in the modernization of Aerael in 2007, displaying his gratitude to Kara for saving him through a series of smart and highly technical upgrades to the city's infrastructure. The infirmary (hospital) of Aerael doubled in size, the electrical capacity for the city was increased by a factor of twenty, and the plumbing, HVAC, and lighting was all largely due to his contributions in the few years following his arrival to the city. As such, he was seen not as an engineer by Kara but as a strategist capable of analyzing an existing situation and finding improvement in the unlikeliest of places. Although he was rarely assigned missions, Tony was an integral part of keeping both Aerael and Vanaheim prepared for whatever uses Kara's Counsel may have needed.

As well, Tony is a gifted marksman (having learned at an early age), weaponsmith, machinist, and more. His talents match his intellect, which is reserved in his speech because of the nature of his upbringing. Nonetheless, there are breaking points wherein Tony understands that his input may be necessary in order to see a strategy or plan to completion, and he held the respect of the rest of the Counsel for his insight, input, and unique viewpoint during situations typically deemed straightforward. His work near and at the end of *Despair* showcased his loyalty to the cause of free Vampyres and their mission for a world free of evil.

## History

Tony was three years "behind" his younger brother Eric, who had started school slightly earlier and graduated at 17, while Tony had graduated at 18 and stagnated during the following two years in deliberation of a traditional college education. Even with three years' difference, they followed in each others' footsteps throughout their younger years, each of them chasing the other in measures of success and the profound depth of their own interests. While Tony was always interested in the physical interactivity of objects (seeing clockwork, watchmaking, and other fine mechanical workings as a high form of art), Eric found an early fascination with the concept of computation, often predicting the next step in technology before it happened. The two of them were close friends, with Tony usually opening up only to Eric regarding his personal feelings under the iron fist of their father - a single parent and habitual drunk - with no ambitions to his own life. Their father consistently pressed his lack of success onto his children, berating them for any marks in school below excellence and chastising them for the most fine of details they may have missed on tests or papers.

As their mother had died at an early age and left them a relatively large inheritance, they both endeavored to do well by her in their mutual acceptance to MIT; the university with the highest potential for both of their career intentions. With both students accepted at full scholarship, they prepared for a collegiate lifestyle and aspired to be away from their failing and nihilistic father. Unfortunately, their father drove them both to campus while highly intoxicated and the three of them were involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle. Their father was ejected from the vehicle and killed immediately, while the siblings were subjected to significant trauma from the wreck. With medical care delayed due to the arrival time of the ambulance and the drive to the nearest medical facility, they arrived in a state of significant peril. Tony was conscious, but barely lucid and paralyzed from the waist down. Eric was in critical condition, with life support and a number of surgeries keeping him on the brink of life over the following weeks.

With the events and story of the incident, news and media coverage painted the crash as a tragic accident due to a negligent father, and the story made its way to Alice and Valterius. At the time, they were watchful of news stories covering tragedies with the hopes of rescuing such individuals, and Alice brought her analysis of the situation to Kara. For whatever reason she may have had - taking into account an ongoing and atypical feud with Krystal - Kara decided to take the case into her own hands, visiting Tony in his hospital room. being the only one of the two siblings that was fully conscious, Kara approached the situation cautiously with Tony before he admitted that his situation was leading to kidney failure and only had a 30% expectancy of life after six months. With his brother in a much more dire condition, he agreed to Kara's proposition almost immediately, endeavoring more to save his brother than to prolong his own life. Although he only mentioned Eric in his agreement with Kara, she converted them both and ensured that Alice subtly infiltrated the hospital staff to discharge the pair. They were taken to Aerael immediately and Alice assessed them with a physical and psychological profile.

Alice's testing on Tony led to the first supposition of Vampyre Talents, a more pared-down version of Vampyre Abilities that was dependent on existing knowledge and expertise while the virus enhanced the neurological functions of the brain that specialized in those categories of knowledge. With only Violet having exhibited anything similar to the Williams siblings (in the form of enhanced artistic ability), Alice deduced that Kara's strain of the Vampyre Virus was still capable of making ability-like changes in certain individuals, given that those individuals were already gifted in a specialized realm of study or practice. Although Valterius and Alice themselves were second-generation Vampyres (only subsequent to Schillinger, Kara and Sonya), their conversions of others had never yielded such results, and since Sonya was rarely biologically involved in the conversion of new Vampyres, this discovery was new. Tony hardly acknowledged these results, instead focusing on the concept of "repaying his dues." Although Valterius and Alice (as Kara had only converted them and was absent during their introduction to Aerael) repeatedly explained that the only requirement attached to Vampyrism was loyalty to the free people of the world and their promise of contributing to the greater good of the world, Tony refused to accept that there were no strings attached to such a significant second chance at life.

This acknowledgement came from a place of distrust rather than goodwill, as he saw the society within Aerael as too superior to blindly seek new members without requiring some obligation from each of them. As such, he developed a comprehensive plan for the reworking of Aerael's infrastructure. Requesting a private meeting with Eric and Sonya, he showcased a series of blueprints that would bring the city - with its haphazardly-designed upgrades to accommodate for more people and better quality of life - up to par with the modern standards of living to which the world above was so accustomed. Placing his supervision under Valterius and Alice, Sonya approved of the changes in Kara's absence and Tony went to work with Eric to increase the potential of the city. Within two years, new and complex electrical systems were implemented, plumbing efficiency was increased, and the access points for the critical pieces of Aerael's workings were no longer exposed to the general public; small alleyways between residential apartments contained main lines and electrical junctions.

In 2008, three years after Tony was introduced to the city, he revealed to Valterius that there were features he could add to Aerael: concepts imagined in his previous designs but ignored due to a lack of trust in the overbearingly good-willed appearance of the city. Since Tony no longer believed the nature of Aerael's people to be a facade, he discussed building a small nuclear reactor hidden below ground in Aerael that would supply their power independently without the need for the complex manner in which they drew power from the surface. Tony was given a small team of Val's trusted friends and Tony implemented the reactor using components Krystal, Sonya, and Kara gathered from overseas as well as electrical designs made by Eric. The reactor was hidden within an unused apartment in the residential area of the city, shielded against any radiation, and maintained solely by Tony in the following years. Although much of the city ran on its power, the generation of the reactor was stored in large battery-based generators, with massive lithium-ion UPS battery systems installed across the city. This served as over-current protection as well as additional power should the reactor fail (its design made it impossible for a meltdown; the reactor itself would have merely "broken" and been rendered inert should failure have occurred).

With Kara's request, Tony and Eric were invited to sit in on a Counsel meeting with Krystal, Alice, Kara, Sonya, and Valterius, as well as Violet in an informal capacity. While the William's brothers weren't aware, Kara had proposed a test of the siblings, creating a false plan for infiltrating a Taliban village. As she reviewed the plan, she requested feedback, and Eric and Tony each caught a number of errors that may have been fatal should the plan have been followed through. With their contributions, the false battle plans became successful for the imaginary scenario, and the two were informed that they would now be a critical part of enhancing and critiquing the strategy of the war against Kilkovf and Schillinger.

Now being fully aware of the war, Tony returned to his distrust, having believed that the only conflict was that of keeping hidden from human eyes and keeping the secret of their virus amongst themselves. Valterius quelled this distrust, ensuring Tony that only certain and few members of the city were aware of the war itself. Tony took this news well, and Valterius ensured he remained a close friend to Tony in the following years. Their bond also brought Eric into the fold of social environments, and they found more of a home within the walls of Aerael than they had in their own upbringing.

## Personality & Beliefs

Tony is a nihilist at his core, although he hides many of his beliefs behind silence. Thankfully, his maturity grows as he is exposed to the various threats against Aerael and the Counsel, enhancing his understanding of why a greater good is required of the world. While he is normally a quiet individual, Tony can be surprisingly vocal in any interactions involving his work, the combat plans put in place by Sonya and Kara, and the overall forward strategy for the Vampyre War. This is displayed most prominently in *Despair,* where Tony takes a more hands-on approach to the strategy of Quantico's direction and guidance, as well as the battlefield and aerospace plans for the Battle at Washington, D.C. Although he would rather remain silent and allow others to come to the same conclusions as he would, Tony interjects when necessary and often wishes that others could see scenarios through his own eyes. He doesn't believe himself to be superior to the rest of the Counsel, but is often surprised when a concept, idea, or flaw is not recognized before he brings it to the attention of those involved.

Tony outright refuses to discuss his opinions of "deeper" matters, such as religion, the concepts of good and evil, fate, or others except with Jared behind closed doors on rare occasion. As they are confidential, Jared maintains the secrecy of their conversations, and as such, Tony's opinions on much of the world are unknown even to his brother.

## Description

Tony stands near Jalix's height at almost six feet tall, although his shadowy persona keeps him away from being the standout in any crowd or meeting. Oftentimes, people forget he is present until he speaks with his demeanor normally being withdrawn and distant from others in a room. His light brown eyes and reasonably muscular build are typically hidden behind business-casual wear and a pair of dark sunglasses (the car accident in 2005 led to minor damage to his visual cortex that went unrepaired by the Vampyre Virus, leading to a sensitivity to light).

## Titles

### *Hammer*

A codename given to Tony so as to maintain his standing within Kara's Counsel as anonymous to others.

## Relationships

While Tony didn't suffer from a lack of company, as the women of Aerael saw him as the "strong, silent type," his social awkwardness led to a lack of significant relationships with women and created a growing feeling of desire for isolation; he often preferred being alone to having company. Rumors spurred in 2035 about a brief fling with Andrea Scott during his time at Quantico, but those rumors were never confirmed.

## Expanded Universe - Epilogues

Tony's status is unknown after the ending of *Despair*, and no members of the Counsel (to include his brother) know of his whereabouts or whether he is dead or alive.