Anthony Cross
"Any pleas for help must first see my donation jar.”
Theme Song

Basics
“I’m a cool guy. No, really. Don’t laugh, you no good, blindsided, mush-faced--”
Name
Anthony Cross. Anthony is known to be a pretty suiting Italian name, and although he might not be Italian, it just...whatever. It worked for him.

Alias
Disillusion

Nickname(s)
Tony. Everyone uses it. He hates people calling him by his full first name.

Age
16

Gender
Male

Romantic Interest(s)
There was one girl Tony was obsessed over for the longest time. Her name was Delilah and she was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. Yeah, it was pretty stereotypical. He was really in love with her. At least, he thought so anyway. He used to follow her around like a dog to a bone. She knew she had him wrapped around her finger and dragged it out as long as possible. See, the truth was, Delilah, in reality, was a bitch. She was using him to get what she wanted. Tony was serious about this girl, though. He didn't see what she was doing, how she was using him to get him to steal stuff for her and her friends, taking the fall for her whenever she got caught doing something bad--he'd do it all for her. All he got in return was a kiss or two when he got her something really nice. A few days before he found out about his powers, he went to find Delilah and found her arms wrapped around the neck of some stringy-armed little pretty boy with blond hair and bright blue eyes. He was enraged. But more than that, he'd been heartbroken. And what made it worse, was when Delilah turned to him, saw him gawking at the two of them, called him a rat and told him to get out of her sight, before turning and making out with the guy. He was furious. He punched the lights out of the guy. Delilah cursed him out and he got out of there before she could see him cry. He was stronger than that. He couldn't cry. He didn't. But, oh, did he want to. That was the only person he'd ever had real feelings for. He thought she got him, but...it was easy to pretend.

Other than her, nobody. Not at the moment anyway.

Sexuality
Bisexual. A few people know about it, but he doesn't exactly flaunt it or anything. It's not a big deal for someone to know, though.

Side
Anti-Hero

Motivation
Tony's in the middle for many reasons. He's not a good guy and has no intentions of being one, so he knows he could never make it as a hero. He doesn't think he deserves to be praised as a hero, anyway. And he's not exactly the bravest or cruelest of people, so he doesn't have the guts to be a villain. He wants to do his own thing without worrying about anything specific. He doesn't have any real goals and even if he did, he wouldn't have the motivation to go along with them, so he's simply in-between.

Accent
Stereotypical New Yorker (3:35)


Appearance
"Yeah, I'm hot. I get it. Wanna take a picture? It'll last yas longer.”
Hair
Tony has messy brown hair. It's short when it's average, usually seen as wiry and unkempt. It annoys him to no end, however, so he secretly straightens it. When straightened, it just barely reaches his neck. It's actually surprisingly thick and soft. He keeps it well maintained, not that he'd admit it.

Eyes
His eyesight isn't the best, but he refuses to wear glasses and he doesn't have the money for contacts. He has nice hazel eyes.

Skin
Tony is lightly tanned, but nothing deep set or mentionable. He's a regular Caucasian, though if his tan went away, with what little of one he even has, he'd be more of a really pale color than a peachy one. He has a clear, smooth complexion.

Markings
Nothing truly notable aside from a few scratches on his hands from his cat.

Build
Tony is thin and lean. He's not exactly lanky, but he doesn't carry any muscle either. He hasn't worked out a day in his life and he doesn't eat nearly as much as he probably should to get proper nutrition. He's not exactly malnourished, but he's a little thinner than he should be, his cheeks ever-so-slightly sunken, his collar bone stuck out more than a normal, healthier person's. He doesn't look like a very intimidating person. He's about average height for his age, maybe a little shorter (every inch off just another point of aggravation), standing at about 5'7".

Clothes
Casual, definitely. He prefers loose-fitting, over-sized things. His jean pants are usually a size or two too big and a lot of the time, he'll be holding them up with one hand and walking with the other swinging casually at his side. Catching him in anything dressier than an over-sized T-shirt and ripped up or faded jeans would be a sign of the end of the world. He's trying to look like a "gangsta" or something, so that's how he dresses. He almost always wears a hoodie.

Accessories
He has two earrings in his right ear. He never leaves the house without his headphones, omnisciently hanging around his neck when he's not fighting or dealing with 'super' stuff.

Weapons
It doesn't really count as a weapon, but he always carries around a thin, durable metal card in the exact shape and form of as a credit card and a couple bobby pins.

Uniform
Uh... Well. Tony doesn't really have much in the form of a uniform, per se. He wears his regular clothes, maybe a different colored jacket aside from what he'll normally wear just to keep his identity safe. He'll usually wear a dark base-colored jacket normally, but when he's being 'super' or out around town using his powers, he'll wear a black jacket with yellow stripes. As for keeping his identity a secret, which he fully intends to do because who knows what kind of creeps might try coming after a guy like him with powers, he wears a gas mask over his mouth, covering the lower half of his face. He can still talk, although his voice is usually a little muffled. There's no practical purpose to the gas mask, it was just the only thing he had laying around and he thought it'd look cool; y'know, throw people off.

Powers/Skills
"Oh, yeah, great. My powers are just as great as a bouquet of daisies, let me tell ya.”
Power #1
Illusions. Simple as that. Okay, let me elaborate. Tony can create illusions from thin air. He can make anything his imagination can think up anywhere he likes. The only issue is his range. He can't make his illusions stretch further than about half the size of a football field's distance. He can appeal to the senses, however. Although his illusions are not real or tangible, he can make them seem that way to someone who doesn't realize it yet. He can create a muffin and make it smell like blueberries, but he wouldn't be able to eat it because it'd just fade away before he got it in his mouth. He can make instruments that emit sound or snakes that hiss. The most he can do when it comes to sense of touch, however, is just a light, feathery sensation. If he created a rock illusion and had it fling into someone's head, the most they would feel is some very, very light thud, as if someone might of hit them, but they're not completely sure. If he created a bunch of spiders and had them all attack a person, the person would just feel a light tickling sensation, probably not even enough to tickle anyone. His powers are good for tricking, but they're really not all that great for practicality or, well, anything at all once someone figures out none of it's real. The items can be picked up, but they don't carry any weight. Just a feather's weight, maybe. If he created a brick, it'd weigh the same as a feather. If he threw the brick into a wall, it would just disappear by the time it made contact.

Power #2
Something to be unlocked at a later time.

Natural Skills
-Quick reflexes. He might be clumsy sometimes or screw things up, but, if you see below, he's good at pick-pocketing. That doesn't come along with someone who moves slow. To get something from someone's pocket without them knowing, you gotta be fast with it. Tony's got it naturally.

-Blending in. In reality, he's really not the most noticeable guy around. It may not seem like it at first, but if he were stuck in a room with one other person that he's never met before, the two of them could easily sit there for an hour without the other person even noticing his existence. He seems to get bumped into a lot in the halls because people simply didn't take notice to him there. It's annoying, but in some cases, it could work out in his favor.

Learned Skills
-Pick-pocketing. Tony's got a knack for walking past someone and stealing their wallets right out from under their noses. He accidentally bumps into a girl? Now her coin purse is gone. He can't do anything unreasonable, like take a belt off a guy without him knowing, but he's only been caught once or twice in his entire life.

-Breaking and entering. He can break into nearly any place and get in and out without hardly anyone noticing. If he's not caught, that is. He knows just the tricks to use to get into a high security area and just the items he needs to do it. He can't hack, so don't get the two mixed up, but he can definitely break into a place or two, low-tech style, without setting off any alarms.

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 a total wimp in those types of situations. When faced with big, bad guys that are obviously bigger and stronger than him, he’s not going to be the guy to stand up to them, he’s going to be the guy that turns tail and runs away. He’d probably be the guy that would rat out his friends if he ever got put in that sort of situation; nobody would even need to torture it out of him. Just shoot him a scary look and he’ll be peeing his pants and shooting out more than you need to know.

-Weakling. He’s not a fighter. If he thinks he can take the person, he might give it a try, but when the time really came down to when he’d actually have to start pulling some punches, he’d chicken out. He could probably be considered a pacifist. The only time he’d actually honestly try attacking someone is in the rare event that someone made him mad enough to lose his logic over it.

-Insecurities. He’s got a lot of them and he doesn’t like talking about them. If anyone figures them out and started calling him out on every little thing wrong with him, he’d probably break down and give up then and there. He’d lose any spirit he might of had.

-Attractive people. To put it simply: he's a total sucker for a pretty face. He's totally awkward around people that are on levels that are obviously way above his own. He'll turn into a stuttery, shifty, awkward mess and can probably be convinced to do anything for one. It's actually kind of an amusing sight to see.


Mentality
“Yeah, well, we ain‘t all perfect are we, losah?”
Quirks
When he gets mad or upset about something or someone, instead of saying it to their face, he'll go off and find someone else to rant to about it. Sometimes he'll make up his own words or insults that probably make absolutely no sense to anybody else, but makes total sense to him. It's takes some getting used to. Although it probably wouldn't seem like it, he's actually pretty hygienic; he uses hair care products for his hair, makes sure he smells okay before leaving the house, and puts on lotion to keep his skin soft. Not that he'd ever admit to any of this if anyone asked.

Likes
-Personal hygiene. Tony, like mentioned above, likes to keep himself well-maintained. It definitely doesn't seem like it by the way he acts or the clothes he wears, but he takes good care of himself. His appearance makes him paranoid, so he tries looking his best as often as possible.

-Subs (the sandwich). Dude, give this guy a good philly cheesesteak sub and he'll do whatever you want him to do. If he could eat this for lunch and dinner every day of the week, he would.

-Ranting. Not to the faces of the ones he wants to rant about, of course, but Tony enjoys venting to others (anyone who'll listen, really) about other people or things that tick him off in general.

-Fitting in. He has an issue with fitting in, so every chance he gets to be part of something or part of a group, he enthusiastically takes the chance without a second thought. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it makes him feel like a normal person with real friends that like talking to him for once in his life.

-Good-looking people. 'Nuff said. He's a guy. A bisexual guy. If you've got a pretty face, a curvaceous body, or a well-toned body, or are well-endowed (if you get what I mean), then he's a sucker for you.

-Crowds. It gives him the sense that he's part of something whole. He likes just wandering through the crowds of countless amounts of people, just blending in and being apart of them, even though he's technically just one outcast piece of the puzzle. He doesn't think about that, though.

-Cash/Gold/Expensive stuff. Oh, yeah, anything shiny and worth a pretty penny he wants. If something catches his eye, he'll go out and get it. Simple as that. Or he'll get someone else to do it for him. Depends.

-Stealing. Just like the above thing says, if he wants something, he'll go out and get it. He enjoys doing it, though. He loves the excited rush he gets from taking things that don't belong to him. He's a total kleptomaniac.

Dislikes
-Ridicule. It happens more often than he'd like and it honestly bugs him more than anything. Yeah, he's heard the phrase 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.' This doesn't apply to him. Sometimes, words hurt worse than any sort of physical pain. Sometimes, they strike right to home. He hates it. The feeling he gets from being called names or being mocked or being laughed at... That feeling of hate and rage and misery and frustration and the feeling of knowing there's nothing you can do or say to get away from it. He really hates it.

-Bullying. It's not something that's really happened all that often to him, really. He's been tripped here and there, but Tony just hates bullying for the mere idea of it. The thought of some big-boned jerk beating up a kid just because they're weaker or because they're different really pisses him off.

-Fighting. He doesn't care if other people fight. In fact, watching a good fight is pretty entertaining. His issue is being part of the fights. He might talk a lot of smack, and maybe at the time, if he's got enough pressure to, he might provoke a fight, but once it's time to throw down, he'll be backing out.

-Blood. The stuff makes him feel nauseas. Whenever he sees it, he goes weak in the knees and his head starts to spin. If it's enough, he might even throw up or pass out.

-Pain. This should be pretty self-explanatory.

-Getting caught. There's not much worse than the crappy feeling of getting caught when you're stealing something. This doesn't happen often, but he hates it when it does. It's a feeling of being trapped. Not just that, but he hates dealing with the lectures he gets for it and the punishment going along with being caught. It's just a sucky situation all together.

Fears
-Dying. Tony’s got plenty of reasons piled up in his unstable little head of his that could push him to commit suicide. He’s contemplated it before. But the one thing that’s kept him from ever doing it is the very thought of death itself. Death is so...unsure. So unrealistic to him. It bothers him. He hates thinking about it. He goes out of his way to avoid getting into a situation that might be deadly. Maybe he’s why he’s such a wimp sometimes.

-Rejection. It’s rarely happened, but that’s only because he’s never let it happen. He won’t set himself up for a situation that might land him rejected. Even if it has nothing to do with asking someone out, even if it’s just asking another person to let him borrow a pencil or something as trivial as that, he won’t do it. He’s afraid the person will say no. If the person said no, maybe because they simply didn’t have an extra pencil, his mind will go crazy. He’ll start wondering why. Was he too ugly for a pencil? Was he not clean enough to be trusted with this person’s pencil? Did he ask the question the wrong way? Did he come off as rude or snobby? Why can’t this person just give him a pencil? Huh? What’s wrong with him? ...things like that.

-Many general things. Blood, dying, death-like 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 situation he’s in.

Personality
Tony is different. He's not the kind of guy anyone would ever exactly look twice at. He's always been known to just sort of fade into the background. He's never done anything big or great or spontaneous. He's never saved a life or ran a campaign. He's never really done much with his life at all. At one point, he just sort of gave up all passion to do anything big or great or spontaneous and decided that the only thing he would ever amount to is a big, stupid loser. He hates sitting in those counselor officers, having the man or woman ask him what his plans for the future are, what he dreams of becoming. He hates when they scold him for never having an answer. He hates that nobody ever seems to understand him and, even worse, that nobody has ever seemed to bother to try.

With all this summed up, Tony is a very cynical person. He believes in looking at reality. Reality is harsh, he thinks. Reality is cruel. Reality will punch you square in your sore spot if you look to the clouds for even a second. He doesn't like reality, but that's what he lives in. Another thing, though. He just doesn't care. He's given up on himself or making himself anything big or fantastic. He's convinced himself it'll never happen and he doesn't want to give himself false hopes only for him to turn up disappointed again. Everything he's ever done in his entire life, he believes, has ended in failure. He used to be the guy that would go into everything with a beaming smile and a headstrong attitude, ready to take on anything. If he failed, he'd try and try again. But what people never tell you is when enough is enough. When do you fail so many times that you just have to give up? You can't do it forever. That's ridiculous. It's unrealistic. Tony gave up.

But this is mostly on the inside. Although Tony truly believes he'll never amount to anything above true failure status, he keeps his spunk up on the outside. He carries himself with a shaky pride, ready to be knocked down at any time. He has a quick temper that isn't hard to set off. One of his favorite things to do is rant, but it's not like he's ever really had anyone to rant to before. Nobody likes to listen to Tony. Nobody really likes Tony in general. He's a rat, a sell-out, a loser. And when he's not any of that, he's nothing. He doesn't exist in most peoples' worlds. The background character. Tony has a big mouth that gets him in trouble with even bigger guys. He'll talk all the smack he wants about a person, but when it comes time to throw down in a fight, he'll back away with his tail between his legs. The 'all bark and no bite' rule applies strictly to him. He puffs himself up and demands attention, but he doesn't go out of his way. If he goes ignored, that's okay. He'll wave it off. He used to it anyway.

Tony will curse up a storm, too. He has spunk, that's for sure. Confidence? Not so much, maybe. He'll brag day and night and bring up these fake, way overly exaggerated stories about things that never happened, and he'll lie even more just to have the excuse of not being able to prove it. He tries to be casual around other people, but the truth is, he's pretty awkward around strangers or people above his status in the looks and popularity department. He's not the type to stand up for himself. If someone bumps into him, he might shout for a second, but once he realizes the guy has he big-looking muscles, he'll back down immediately. He's a wimp. At heart, once you push past all the false cockiness and big-mouthed, tough-guy antics, Tony's really not a bad guy at all. Selfish, definitely. He's learned never to do things for others and rely purely on himself. But sometimes, he has his rare--very rare--soft moments. They don't last long and he tends to ruin them.

Personal Life
"I don't wanna talk about it.”
Housing Status
Tony lives in an average house; not anything big, but not the smallest thing out there either. He lives with his single father. Many times, the house has been threatened to be taken away, but they've managed.

Significant Relationships
Tyler Maze; probably the only guy that tolerates Tony enough to keep him around. That's enough to keep Tony sticking around him, too. It doesn't take much, really. But the two have been hanging out more since they got their powers.

Nose. His pet cat. It’s a male calico with a cute pink nose with a pattern around it that makes the nose look like it’s almost in the shape of a heart, hence where he got the name.

Family
Mother: deceased. Cause: illness.
Father: alive. Tony lives with his father. They don't have the best of relationships, but he supposes it could always be worse...

School
Tony goes to school on and off. He doesn't really care enough to bother, but he likes the feeling of being in class and being apart of something. It makes him feel a little better some days, and others, it makes him feel a lot worse. So it depends what type of mood he's in. He doesn't want social services popping up at his door for too many school absences, though, either, so he keeps up the appearances just enough to stay below the line of suspicion.

History
Tony had a mother and a father. They were normal and they were happy. He didn't have any siblings, but his parents were considering it. They always wanted a little girl, but they were happy with their son. Tony had a lot of things going for him from an early age. His parents had his education all planned out, college, the type of life they wanted him to live, the type of sweet, young boy they wanted him to be. His mother died when he was eight. He was devastated, but it hit his father pretty hard. Things never really went back to normal after that.

Tony's father...well, he stayed the same. Mostly. He just couldn't look his son in the eye anymore. He started talking to Tony less and less. The boy reminded him of his dead wife and the man just couldn't deal with that, seeing the ghost of a reflection of the woman he once loved more than anyone else in the image of his eight-year-old son. He started burying himself in his work, becoming an insomniac and jittery with too much coffee and energy drinks and pain-killers. Tony started seeing him less because he'd always be at work. He's his own manager, so over-time isn't really an issue.

So Tony started growing up a lonely person. He grew up in an empty house with a father he truly believed didn't love him anymore. That wasn't true--his father loved him very much, he just couldn't, and still can't to this day, bare to look at his face or hear his voice. Tony started doing bad things. He tried drugs at one point, but never really formed the habit. He tried going to parties, but he never was a very likeable person, so that never ended well for him (one too many pranks, pulled underwear, swirlies, and broken noses for his liking put an end to all that). He finally found solace in one thing he found he was actually good at: stealing. He started out small, at first. He’d take wallets from old lady’s purses whenever they weren’t looking or bump into someone and knock their stuff over and casually exchange their similar-looking items. But soon all that small stuff escalating into a habit, a part of his life that he couldn’t simply stop or get rid of. He started hiding food or clothes under his shirt or in his pants and started breaking into stores late at night, avoiding the alarm, and leaving with all the cash his heart desired. It’s a great deal. This is stuff he still does. He’s a klepto and he knows it. He loves every bit of it.

As for his school life, however, that wasn’t going as well. He’d take stuff from kids at school, but people thought he was a weird guy. He was shy when he was younger and kids would make fun of him for it. “Talk, weirdo.” He wouldn’t talk. He’d want to, but he wouldn’t. He knew whatever he’d say, they’d ridicule. He lived his entire life being ridiculed. He didn’t know why. He just had that face that people enjoyed picking on, that way of acting or walking that made people want to outcast him. He was just that guy. Or, in his mind, that failure. That no-good, sorry-ass failure. He grew up believing all the things people told him he was. Failure. Loser. Punk. Idiot. Wimp. Go die in a ditch. Go hang yourself. Get away from us, freak. Weirdo. He was just that guy.



Hex Code
Midnight Blue (#2F2F4F)

Notes
TBA