Editing Divine Strife:Anthony Fortunato (section)

=== Appearance and Background ===
'''Gender:''' male<br/>
'''Age:''' 27 years<br/>
'''Appearance and Demeanor:''' [text]<br/>
'''Background:''' Tony is the lovechild of a powerful businessman Benedict Fortunato, a wealthy casino owner with a sketchy reputation and questionable morals. During his youth, however, Tony had very little contact with his father, primarily thanks to his mother, Viola, keeping him as far as possible from the man influence. With little to no support from the wealthy side of his family, money was always tight, but his mom has always done her best to keep food on the table and Tony safe, despite her boy's natural talent for finding and causing troubles.

Tony grew up pretty much as a free spirit, always exploring new possibilities, hopping from hustle to hustle, living off his wits and sometimes, even showing the kind of 'creativity' that would have made his father proud, although always with the aim of helping his mom keep the family afloat. Content with his existence, even when he got into his twenties, Tony found himself unable, or perhaps, unwilling to find a stable path.

Fate, however, already had plans for him.

An unknown party organized a hit on his father and not only managed to take down the man, but also his designated successors. While the police was unable to find the culprit, attributing the hit the many enemies that the businessman had made during his career, the truth had more 'occult' roots. Tony's father was a divinity, in fact, the god of gambling, belonging to the Order of Meksheneth and the assassination was a matter of godly intrigue. Still, regardless of the motives, the act left Tony the only potential inheritor of his bloodline. A prospect that was not exactly enthusiastically accepted by the higher ups of the local branch of the order, whose loyalty to tradition had grown to the point of fanatic reverence, but there was little they could do, unwilling as they were to interrupt a line that has gone unbroken for centuries.

To complicate things, when Benedict's spark was transferred to him the dominion was twisted, making Tony into the patron of gamblers rather than gambling, shedding the more malign and addictive, but useful for running the business, portions of his father original power. 

At first, the young man enjoyed his newfound wealth, generously sharing the spoils with his family and friends and indulging in luxuries that he had only dreamed about being able to afford until not long before.

This was not going to last. It took him only a few weeks to find the rotten core buried beneath all the glitter, how his family business was sucking entire communities dry. When he decided that he wanted no part of it, his handler Mr. House, who had been nothing, but polite before, spoke plainly to him for the first time. To put it simply, he was going to have to play his part in the grand scheme of things, or else... The relationship with his handler has been rocky in the past few weeks, although sometimes, Tony wonders if the older man is just acting out of grief for the loss of his former wards, rather than due to a genuine disdain.

Tony is still young and pretty idealistic, even now that he is aware that he has no other alternative, but to somehow run the family business in the way his superiors in the order had planned, he has convinced himself that he can outsmart his handlers (how hard could it be, right?). Perhaps he could apply a few of the tricks he had learned on the streets in this new world, work from the inside and reform his father's organization and turn it into a force of good. A task, of course, it's easier said than done.


[[Divine Strife]]