Name: William “Will” Blackwood
Date of birth: September 10th, 1991
Gender/Pronouns: Cis male, he/him
Occupation: Technical Team Lead at Blackwood Industries
Hometown: King’s Head Harbor and Chicago, Illinois
Length of time in King’s Head Harbor: 13 years originally; been back for 6 months
Neighborhood: Bayside Bluffs
Faceclaim: Rege-Jean Page
BIOGRAPHY (Trigger Warning: None)
The spare to the heir, the one often overlooked in favor of the child prodigy. Donovan Blackwood’s entire life was spent living in the shadows of his older brother Raymond. Being from such a high profile old money family in Rhode Island came with a lot of responsibilities, but one perk of being the forgotten child was that Donovan was allowed to get away with way more than the golden boy was. That included marrying a woman who was from a lower middle class background, having grown up in Chicago and working her way up to a doctoral degree from Princeton. His family did not entirely approve of his relationship with Abigail Trent, but Donovan was in love and for the first time in his life, she made him feel like he was worth more than simply being Raymond’s younger brother.
Abigail was determined to have both a career and raise a family, becoming pregnant quickly after her marriage to Donovan and being more than ready to juggle her new teaching position at Brown University with motherhood once William Blackwood entered the world. She had married into more money than she knew what to do with and could have been a housewife, but Abigail knew that she wouldn’t have been completely happy without a career - a value that she instilled in her son, that he should do what makes him happy regardless of what other people may say. While his father wanted him to be more like the Blackwoods so as to compete with his cousin Nate, Abigail tried to direct Will towards finding his individuality and true passions. Donovan, on the other hand, was allowing history to repeat itself and sewing seeds of doubt into Will’s head about Nate and Raymond. And following his father’s example, the young boy did what he was taught: directed feelings of bitterness and resentment towards his older cousin, competing with the Blackwood heir any chance he got and always trying to prove something to anyone who was paying attention.
As Will entered his teenage years, Abigail grew increasingly worried as she noticed how her son interacted with the Blackwood family and had denied it for far too long - that entire family bred toxicity within their ranks, and her husband was no exception when he was around them. She had seen what they did to the man she loved, and she was determined to save Will from the same fate. As much love as they had between them, Abigail and Donovan divorced once they realized their marriage simply wasn’t working out. Before he began his freshman year of high school, Will moved to Chicago with his mother as she became tenured faculty at Northwestern University, while returning to King’s Head Harbor during the holiday months to spend time with his father. Raymond remained the one who called all the shots, and Abigail tried whatever she could to lure Will away from the family business. The Blackwood name came with abundant opportunities, and there was always a hope that he would pick the right ones.
Much to his mother’s pleasure and his father’s chagrin, Will had no interest in studying business like the rest of the men in the Blackwood family and instead pursued a degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering at MIT. Although finances were never an issue for them and he could buy his way into the most elite social circles at the university, he always felt as though he stuck out like a sore thumb. On the other hand, his less affluent peers seemed to be apprehensive about letting someone from such a wealthy family spend time with them. And so Will distanced himself from his family name, creating the ruse that he was middle class and had earned his place at MIT through his own merit. But it seemed as though Will was a method actor, going as far to structure his life as though he didn’t have a trust fund to support him and getting jobs while studying to “make ends meet”. This got him the best of both worlds; he ended up fitting right in with the people he wanted to call friends, while his father’s family allowed him to get coveted internships with major companies and eventually a job after graduation as a Junior Software Engineer at the Boston office of a multinational technology conglomerate.
The job was a great stepping stone into the world of technology after college, but he didn’t exactly feel as though a corporate environment was the best fit for him. After three years and a glowing list of references under his belt, he decided to switch his field to environmental technology and moved to a smaller company in the Boston area that specialized in renewable energy technology with an emphasis on sustainability. It was a cause he actually felt passionate about, and where he felt he was able to do more good than he had been simply working for a company run by a billionaire. He took a pay cut, but it was well worth it to find his purpose in a way. Moving up the ranks in that company over the four years he’d been there, Will ended up getting his own place in Boston, but had grown so accustomed to the lifestyle he’d constructed for himself that he felt far more comfortable living within his own salary and not even touching his family’s money.
2021 was off to a great start for Will Blackwood, with success in love and his career. He was being considered for a promotion at the greentech company, and a new relationship had blossomed into something he felt could end in marriage one day. Far enough removed from the drama in his hometown of King’s Head Harbor, he merely heard of his cousin Nate getting caught up in bribery and collusion, something his own father stayed mum on likely due to a non-disclosure agreement that his own brother encouraged him to sign. But it wasn’t Will’s business – until it was. An expansion for Blackwood Industries, where Nate was at the helm of the ship. As a Blackwood himself, there was a position curated to Will’s skills and expertise waiting for him. He was pretty sure it was to keep the company in the family, as well as Raymond’s desire to prove how important diversity was by having a black man lead the tech department, but something kept Will from declining the offer. Maybe it was the chance to finally challenge Nate, and to prove that he was a better man than his cousin was for the job. To prove that birthrights meant nothing when they favored the undeserving.
Putting in his two week notice at his prior company, Will set up his office at Blackwood Industries and was all too eager to begin working as the Technical Team Lead. And so he encountered his estranged cousin yet again, once again on Nate’s turf. Will is not willing to bend, though. No matter how much his precious mother begs him to put the rivalry to rest and extend an olive branch to Nate, so as to avoid yet another feud between Blackwood men, Will remains adamant that he is doing what is right. But the life he’d fabricated for himself is beginning to unravel, with his friends growing increasingly curious about how and why he ended up in the corporate world yet again, and his girlfriend asking questions about Nate and why there is so much animosity between them. But how can Will convince everyone - and himself - that he’s not like the other Blackwoods when he’s playing the exact game they wanted him to be a pawn in?
+ creative, analytical, charming
- bitter, melodramatic, deceitful