Name:
Anthony Cross

Nickname(s):
Tony. Almost everyone, including his elders, use it. He doesn't like it when anyone calls him by anything else, and especially hates being called by his full first name.

Role:
Atmokinesis

Age:
16

Gender:
Male

Nationality:
Caucasian American

Romantic Interest(s):
None at the moment.

He once thought he was absolutely in love with this one girl, but- Let's just say it didn't work out.

Sexuality:
Bisexual. He hasn't come out to anyone, both because he hasn't really had anyone worthy of telling, and also because he would rather keep it to himself. It's a touchy subject for him. He isn't sure if he leans more towards males or females, so it's about fifty-fifty either way.



Height:
5'5"

Weight:
110lbs

Hair:
Tony has very average, messy brown hair. It's usually short and irritatingly unkempt if he doesn't bother doing anything about it. Since it annoys him to no end, it's rare that he goes a day without bothering to take the time to straighten it every morning or every other morning before he leaves the house. If he doesn't plan on going anywhere, he doesn't bother. When straightened, it usually reaches the nape of his neck. He manages to keep it well maintained, so it's thick and soft to the touch.

Eyes:
Hazel; two deep pools of brown speckled with all different shades of green. They're his favorite physical feature, one of the few things he actually likes about himself and doesn't have much of a desire to change. While the color is captivating (if anyone were to actually bothered to spare him a glance), he doesn't have the best vision. Rather than 20/20, it would be closer to 20/35, nearsighted, but he refuses to go to an eye doctor or get himself a pair of glasses or contacts, so he can be seen squinting at things that may be further away, like menus or street signs.

Description:
Tony is the epitome of average, both in looks and personality. He's not exceptionally good looking, but not below most standards either. He's not the type to really stick out in a crowd, has never been particularly photogenic unless in just the right light with just the right filter, and he's not someone anyone has ever really bothered to look twice at. Even still, he concerns himself with what others think of him and is careful to take care of his appearance. He would say that it's the only reason he's average, and not borderline ugly. His skin is pale and pasty, his complexion thankfully clear and smooth. He doesn't seem to carry much muscle, if any at all, with his arms being compared to "noodles" pretty often. With the ingredients of having never worked out a day in his life, plus having a tendency to get lazy or simply forget to eat more often than not, he's become quite scrawny over the years. He's light-weight, his cheeks ever-so-slightly sunken, his collar bones more noticeable.

To most others, Tony is the least intimidating person in the world. He's practically invisible to the eyes of others, a walking spirit who ghosts through everyone's paths every so often, never interacting enough to make an impact in their daily lives. Nobody would ever stare at him from across the room, wondering all the best ways to ask him out, or how to get his number, or even to consider what he might be thinking about. People often overlook him, bumping into him in passing, stepping on his toes, accidentally closing the door in his face, or a variety of other annoying things he's learned to deal with. What he thinks of himself isn't very different. If he were asked to describe himself in as little words as possible, he would say, "Nothing much."

Preferred Clothing:
Anything casual, definitely. He prefers loose-fitting, over-sized things. His pants are usually a size or two too big, so, most of the time, he can be seen holding them up because belts are for losers. Catching him in anything dressier than an over-sized T-shirt, a hoodie, and ripped up or faded pants would be a sign of the end of the world. He thinks dressing in things that are too big for him makes him look cooler, or even more intimidating, but really, it just makes his already small form appear even smaller by comparison, achieving the exact opposite of what he's aiming for. He seems completely oblivious to this effect.



Personality:
Tony is the background character of his own life. He's simply a blur behind the scenes, never the best man, never the sidekick, never in the running for anything of any significance. He hasn't done anything big or great or spontaneous, never ran a campaign, or stopped a blazing fire, or fought for what he believed in. He's never really done anything with his life at all. When he was younger, he had plenty of ambitions- But, of course, we all do. He wanted to be a genuinely good person with a strong head on his shoulders, the type of person children would aspire to be, that father's would be glad to shake the hand of, that his parents would be proud of. However, these dreams were doomed to fall away. The colorful world around him faded to a dark, murky mixture of grays over grays.

It's not a question of whether his glass is half-full or half-empty, as his glass was knocked over by clumsy hands. It contained milk and you can bet your bottom dollar he's crying over it. He likes to think he's a realist, but bitter cynicism has hungrily eaten away at that notion. Reality is harsh, he thinks. Reality is cruel. Reality will pull your underwear over your head in the middle of a crowd of treacherous teenagers, then punch you in the face and take you for all the lunch money you've got on you at the time. Reality will promise to come back the next day for more. The light in his life is merely a flickering flame fighting against the heavy winds of a hurricane. He believes he's given up long ago, doubting himself, his abilities, his life from the past to the future. If he isn't any good today, he won't be any better tomorrow.

Waking up in the morning is a chore to a low-life with no life, to a loser with nothing worth giving to the world. Sure, all those people with the big, sappy smiles on their faces can tell him that he can be whatever he wants to be as long as he tries. If he can dream it, he can be it. But that's nonsense. Just because someone can run for President doesn't mean they're going to get the job. Being optimistic like that is just going to set him up for disappointment and he isn;t willing to deal with any more of that. He hates those people. He hates that nobody ever seems to understand him and he hates that nobody has ever seemed to bother to try. Though, he supposes, that may just be another fault of his own.

On the outside, Tony has spunk. He carries the weight of his existence on shaky shoulders, using anger towards others to conceal the hatred he has for himself. He's a fuse lit at two ends. His temper his quick and he could rant for days on end about any little thing, but it doesn't change that he's all bark and no bite. Once the going gets tough, he gets going. While most hardly consider him a bout of static behind the television screen of their lives, his big mouth can bring him to the surface and get him in trouble more often than not. When he's in the right mood for it, he'll puff himself up and demand attention (although he wouldn't exactly go out of his way for it), and if he ever gets it, he never knows what to do with it anyway.

Tony is made of layers, and on the outer-most one is a wall built by lies he's woven together in the hopes that it'll get people to like him. If he thinks he's garnered someone's attention, he won't hesitate to brag up and down about these ridiculous stories of things that have happened to him, like the time he saved twenty kids and ten cats from a fire, or the other time he built a whole orphanage by himself in a weekend. His attempts to play it cool and casual around others just make him out to be more awkward than he already is. At heart, he's not a terrible person. There's a few sharp edges that could be wilted down, his cons may outweigh his pros, but that doesn't make him a bad guy overall. In the end, he's just another average boy trying to make his way through life like anyone else.

Oddities:
☁Ranting. Tony is one of the easiest people on planet Earth to ruffle up. Any little thing could potentially set him off and send him on a tangent. Nobody wanted it or asked for it, but it's going to come out anyway, and he's not going to stop until he either runs out of air or runs out of words. While he can usually be pretty quiet, when something manages to tick him off, he'll wind up like a toy and go off on all those around him, whether the poor things were involved or not. He's like a firecracker with a fuse lit at both ends, and when that fuse burns down to the core, he explodes in an obnoxious array of sparks and loud noises. If someone manages to push his buttons a little too much, he'll go off on an entire spree, saying all the wrong things to land him in even more trouble than he started out in.

☼Making up words. Sometimes he'll make up his own words or insults that probably sound ridiculous, or make absolutely no sense, to anyone else, but seem completely legitimate to himself. This especially applies when he's going off on someone, but is in no way exclusive to those events, as he'll toss in these random words in any normal conversation as he sees fit. It's probably because he doesn't really think before he speaks. It takes some getting used to, but being around him often enough tends to lead to an understanding of his odd choice in words.

☁Hygienic. Although he would never admit to it if anyone started catching onto it or asked him about it, Tony is surprisingly obsessive about maintaining his appearance and overall cleanliness. It very likely stems from his deep concerns of others judging him. He has a whole routine that he follows through with every day, starting with his variety of shampoos, conditioners, and fruit-scented body wash, following with his flowery lotions, and ending with whatever body spray appealed to him most. He applies other things to himself for the sake of skin-care and rarely leaves the house without first straightening his hair so it doesn't stick up like it usually does. He's constantly worried about smelling good, so he goes out of his way to make sure he always does.

☼Spooked silent. When Tony gets terrified or comes under pressure, he loses his voice. It's a matter of psychology, although he's never told any professional about it to get a definite explanation for why it happens. In any case, how often it happens varies on a day-to-day basis, like what he has to go through and what he has to do. For instance, if he has to present in front of a class, he'll lose it, or if someone holds him at gun-point, it's gone. If he happens to lose his voice, it's not gone forever; it's just a reaction he doesn't know how to explain or control. How long this silence lasts depends on a variety of factors, mostly coming down to how badly affected he was by the event that triggered it.

Likes:
☁Good hygiene
☼Philly cheesesteaks
☁Ranting
☼Fitting in
☁Good-looking people
☼Crowds
☁Cash/Gold/Jewels
☼Stealing
☁Cats
☼Internet/blogging
☁Superheroes (Marvel > DC)
☼Video games
☁Music

Dislikes:
☁Ridicule
☼Bullying
☁Fighting
☼Confrontations
☁Blood
☼Pain
☁Getting caught
☼Dogs
☁People
☼Authority figures
☁Work

Fears:
☁Dying. There has been a dangerous amount of times that he's considered it. How often he thinks about the very prospect of death is probably borderline concerning, but any attempts have been swayed by fear. Death is so...unsure. It's dark, blank, bleak, a mystery of the world we live in. Although it often crosses his mind, he hates even thinking about it, running each scenario through his mind of what kind of things could lead to his, or another's, demise. It could come from a pin prick or a drunk driver, any freak accident really. It's so unrealistic, so hard to comprehend. It bothers him. As such, he will go out of his way to avoid getting into a situation that might be deadly.

☼Rejection. It hasn't happened often, but that's only because he will go to extremes to avoid a situation that might end in rejection. It can be anything from asking out another person for a date or to simply asking to borrow a pencil from a classmate. It doesn't matter how trivial it may seem to someone else, how casual a matter it really is, it hits him hard every time. Of course, more often than not, the worst case scenario is the person says "no." But why did they say that? Is it because they simply couldn't give him what he asked for, or is it because he's not worthy of whatever it was? Is he too ugly, too untrustworthy? Would the outcome have been different if he'd only asked with a different tone, or a different variation of words? Did he seem rude or snobby? Is that the impression the person gets from him now? Will they tell their friends? What's wrong with him?

☁Dogs. This one is more simple than the others. When he was little, he was bitten by a dog and they've terrified him ever since. Little dogs are more tolerable, but he wouldn't hesitate to kick one away from him if it ever gave him bad vibes. The bigger they get, the more scared of them he is. It doesn't matter to him if the owner says they're the nicest dog in the world, or if the dog saved an old lady from drowning. He doesn't want anything to do with them and he doesn't want them anywhere near him.

☼Many general things. Blood, dying, death-inducing situations, sharp objects, getting punched in the face, people bigger and stronger than him, etc. It's hard to pinpoint anything more specific because there's a lot of things that scare him in general. It just depends on what it is and what kind of situation he's in.



Skills:
☁Klepto. Tony's got a knack for taking what he wants. He can walk right past a person and steal their wallet right out from under their nose without them or anyone else being none the wiser. He's not really the breaking-and-entering type, so he wouldn't know how to disable an alarm, but he knows a few tricks on how to get into locked places, usually with the use of common, every day items. Obviously, he's not magic, so he can't just take the belt from around someone's pants, because that would be ridiculous, but he does pretty well for himself. If he wants to, he can slip in and out of a place without anyone noticing. He's rarely been caught, and the times he has haven't had a big deal made out of them.

☼Quick reflexes. Okay, so quite often, he can be pretty clumsy or screw things up, but you can't be good at pick-pocketing without some quick reflexes, and after getting smacked in the face with a door and elbowed in the ribs often enough, he's learned to dodge. He can react surprisingly fast to new situations, especially if something's being hurled at his face or headed straight for him. He might not catch it, but he'll probably be able to avoid it altogether. Aside from his reflexes, he can also run pretty quickly. He can sprint away like a mouse from a cat, but his stamina is low, so long distances don't fare well for him. He can be fast when he needs to, but he'll be panting and heaving by the end of it.

☁Blending in. It's a fate he's come to accept. He's just another color in the crowd, a smudge of gray in a world of blacks and whites, forever condemned to follow the straight line of average. If he were stuck in a room with one other person, the two of them could probably sit there for hours on end without the other person realizing he's been there the whole time. He gets bumped into a lot when people pass by him simply because they never took notice that he was there. It's annoying overall, but in some cases, it can work in his favor.

Weaknesses:
☁Scaredy-cat. Tony might talk tough, but once the situation gets really serious, he'll be out of there quicker than anyone can ask him to stay. He's a wimp by the very definition of the word, an absolute coward, a sheep not only afraid of the wolf, but other sheep as well. He's not the type of person who stands up to people who are bigger, badder, and stronger than he is, but the type who turns tail and runs away. He'd be the guy who would rat out his friends without anyone even needing to put a gun to his head or a knife to his throat. Just shoot him a scary look and he'll be peeing his pants and telling you about the time he called his teacher "mom" in third grade.

☼Weakling. He's not a fighter, not by words and most certainly not by fists. Even if he thinks he might be able to take a person, he'd rather not take the chance. If the time came down to the point where he'd need to start pulling punches, he'd chicken out, and even if he tried, he wouldn't do much damage, so either way it's a losing situation. The only time he would actually try attacking someone would be in the rare event that the person made him lose his logic, but that has yet to happen. He doesn't fight for himself and he doesn't fight for others.

☁Insecurities. He's got a lot of them. Whenever one of them has been brought up, he'll shrink into himself, try to make himself disappear. He can't stand up for himself very well, so all he has is his denial, and if that's challenged, then there's not much else he's able to do. If anyone were to call him out on any of them, on every little thing he honestly feels is wrong with himself, he would likely break down and give up then and there, losing any spirit he may have had.

☼Attractiveness. He's a total sucker for a pretty face. Just like most other teenage boys his age, it doesn't take much to turn him into an awkward, blubbering mess around people that are on levels that are way above his own. If anyone tried to flirt with him, or even bother to feign the slightest bit of interest in him, he would be willing to give them the world, or whatever it was they were asking for. Or, at the very least, they could easily distract him, even if the situation is a dire one.

Powers/Abilities:
Atmokinesis

To put it simply, Tony can manipulate the weather at will. All the same, he can stop weather from happening. He can cease the rain or cover the sun in clouds. There are four main factors that his powers can be divided into. Starting off, he can make the wind whip around him, carve them into twisters both small and large, both weak and strong, that can carry away all in its wake. However, once the twister leaves his range of ability, it would left to follow its own, natural path. This would be quite dangerous depending on the area, seeing as how easily a small twister can quickly become a hurricane with the right amount of precipitation.

Next would be lightning. However, lightning is the most unstable of all his abilities and he is unable to directly control or manipulate it. It's highly dangerous and definitely not the right tool to be used by an amateur. Lightning can crash and crackle behind his storms, and since they're "man-made," they would be more likely to hit people or things on the surface of the planet. So in this case, lightning can most definitely strike twice in the same place.

Third, the temperature can rise or lower in the vicinity that his range reaches. This ability is the easiest to control, as it doesn't consist of any more physical factors. Simply enough, regardless of whether he's inside or outside, Tony can make it as cold or hot as he pleases.

Finally, probably the most general of all, is the actual part of creating storms. There are all sorts of storms in natural existence and he has the ability within him to bring them all to surface at his will. He can determine if he wants the storm to be big and strong, or light and small, if it should bring rain or snow, lightning or twisters.

Drawbacks:

Most notably, as it stands, Tony's powers seem to be heavily connected to his emotions, and being as unstable as he tends to be, his powers will follow suit. Whenever he feels downtrodden, rain pours down from the sky. (Talk about carrying around a dark cloud everywhere you go.) On the other hand, when he's pleased, content, or happy, the sun will be shining overhead, and when he's been deeply upset or angered, storms will rage on until the situation is resolved and his emotions have settled. The same follows with the temperature when he's feeling more subtle or subdued emotions. For instance, it tends to get warmer when he's embarrassed and colder when he's feeling left out, lonely, or bitter.

When it comes to manipulating the lightning, it's hardly usable. In fact, he probably won't be able to use this ability at all without the risk of severely hurting himself or others until he has a much better handle on his powers overall. And even then it might be too dangerous. For the time being, lightning only appears during his more dangerous storms.

While he can raise or lower the temperature within his range of abilities, he hasn't developed anything protection against them. So when it gets hot or cold, he can feel it just the same as anyone else. When it rains or snows, he can't make it so it doesn't pour over his own head. He'll still get wet just like everyone else. Maybe if he gets better at his powers this fact will change, but it would be very tricky.

Weapon(s):
The only real weapon he ever has on him at any given time is a small pocket knife, but he tends to forget it at home more often than not. Honestly, he probably wouldn't be able to use it in his own defense even if he needed to. He just keeps it around to help with simple things, like breaking locks, or cutting off price tags. Although they don't really count as weapons, he also carries around a thin, metal card and a couple bobby pins.

Fighting Style:
He doesn't really have one. Tony wouldn't call himself a pacifist, per se, but he doesn't exactly go around fighting people. While he may stir up trouble from time to time, it's usually resolved when he runs away from the problem, or when the other people involved poke fun at him and end up leaving him be. He doesn't stand up for himself or defend what little honor he may or may not have. He doesn't even go to the aid of someone else. More often than not, when he sees someone in trouble, he turns a blind eye to it. It sounds bad, but what would getting involved accomplish? Then there would just be two people in trouble instead of one. His method of fighting is turning tail and running away, hiding to avoid any confrontation if at all possible. If not, then he simply waits it out and deals with what he has coming until it passes.



Family:
Mother | Nora Cross
Deceased
There's not much to be said about Nora. She started her family at a young age, just barely out of her teenage years when she married her high school sweetheart and planned out a future together with him, complete with a white picket fence, stable finances, and which college their future kid would go to. Unfortunately, the road to success wasn't as easy as she hoped it would be. It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to scrounge up enough cash to move out of her parents' house and in with her husband in a house of their own. It was hard for her to keep a stable job for one reason or another, and in the end, her husband told her that she should take a break from the stress of getting job after job, so they settled down and had a child. From the moment he was born, she had his whole life planned out for him. However, her dreams were once again shattered when she was diagnosed with a terminal illness just a few years later. She died before she could ever see her son through Elementary school.

Father | Jayson Cross
Alive
Jayson was rarely the type to take anything seriously in his youth. The one thing he'd ever stuck with was his high school sweetheart, but all else was meant to be reserved for fun and games. Once he married, he put his preferences to the side for the sake of pleasing his wife, but he never truly felt happy. As more days passed by, the more he regretted giving up what he had in order to be a proper adult. He never had the chance to go to college and rarely had time to spend with his friends, all of which he ended up losing contact with over the years. But he loved his wife. His love for her weighed more than his regrets, so he convinced himself it was the life he would grow to enjoy. It would just take time. At the prospect of having a kid, he was delighted, knowing that it would be more responsibility, but also considering it an excuse to get in touch with his more youthful, fun-loving side again. He loved his son as much as he loved his wife, but when the latter passed away, he lost a part of himself. The spark in his life faded to a dull, painful glow. Next to the stress of losing the love of his life, the bills quickly began piling up, and in order to give his son the life he thought he deserved, Jayson took to burying himself in his work. In reality, maybe there was more too it than that, as if work was a way of burying the demons of his grief, and avoiding the face at home that looked just like the love he'd lost.

History:
Tony's lived the life many others have already lived before. It's been just as average as any other, complete with a mother, a father, a moderately nice house. They were a good family overall; quiet, kept to themselves. He didn't have any siblings, but he remembered his parents considering it. He always thought it would be nice to have a little sibling to spent his time with, but it never came to be. His parents had his whole life planned out for him from the moment he was conceived in his mother's belly. They knew how far along they wanted him to be in each stage of his life, the college he would go to, the careers that would be best for him, the type of life they wanted him to live, the type of sweet, young boy they wanted him to be.

There were a few issues that concerned them in the beginning. For instance, he never spoke. He babbled as a baby, but as he grew into a toddler, he simply stopped speaking and never did so for a long time. They worried that something might be wrong with him, but the doctors all said he was a perfectly healthy little boy, both physically and mentally, and that it was just a stage he would eventually grow out of. In the end, this proved to be the truth, as he finally found his voice and began speaking again right out of the blue one afternoon. They were relieved, but kept a closer eye on him just in case in happened again.

When he was eight years old, his mother died.

Tony and his father were absolutely devastated. Things never really went back to normal after that. Mr. Cross went from playing the role of a normal, fun-loving, attentive father to a reclusive shut-in only concerned with filling the empty space in his chest with piles of paperwork. He just couldn't look his son in the eye anymore. In Tony, he saw the reflection of the woman he'd loved so much and lost too soon. He loved his son, too, of course, but he just couldn't bare to be around him anymore, and so he dedicated himself to his work, leaving Tony alone when he needed him most. Their place of living became less like a home and more like a house full of dusty memories, filled with an aching loneliness as Tony began to see less and less of his father as the days went by. They communicated almost strictly through sticky notes left on birthday presents and what was for dinner each night, and when they were in the same room together, it was never for very long.

Tony tried anything he could to make life less sufferable, many of them not the healthiest of choices. With drugs, he could never form the habit; with parties, his lack of popularity and big mouth ended in one too many pranks, wedgies, and bloody noses; with hobbies, anything he tried lacked creative inspiration. He wasn't smart enough to throw himself into school, not talented enough to get into sports, not ambitious enough to put himself out there. But there was one thing he was good at. Stealing. He found solace in it, starting small at first with wallets, quickly escalating into a habit he has no desire to shake, a part of his life that he simply refuses to do without. It was all he could to fill his empty heart with all the material desires he could ever want.

His school life was never very good. Kids could be cruel. That was a fact he'd learned at a young age. He used to just be shy, but that grew into a bitter, cautious introversion, a lack of care to be around other people, especially those who would only call him names and make him feel bad about himself. Who needs people like that? He didn't know why it had to be him, but he supposed if it wasn't him, it would be somebody else anyway. He just had that face, that look. So he started escaping to the roof whenever he needed an escape from classes or people for a while. That was when he saw him: Denver Travis, grade ten, not the most popular, but not the worst off either. Or, at least, that was what Tony always assumed anyway. And Denver- He stood on the edge of the school roof looking down through tear-blurred eyes. And Tony watched and knew immediately what he meant to do. Looking back, he would never be able to say why he found it in himself to bother when he claimed never to care, but he did. He gathered all these surprising, mustered-up feelings within himself and talked Denver down, talked to him the whole rest of the day, and when they parted, Denver with a smile, Tony had never felt lighter.

Other:
Tony has a semi-thick Manhattan accent. It's pretty easy to understand and only gets easier the more often anyone talks to him. The accent is kind of whiny, with "-er" words lifting up as "-ah," as well a few other notable differences, such as words with "-ur-" in them being pronounced as "-oi-." While he doesn't have an issue pronouncing mostly anything else, he does have a problem with the word "fork," which tends to come out like "fuck" no matter how hard he tries to enunciate it properly.