false pretense

will blackwood. 29. tech team lead.

[solemnmonotonenotes]

[willblackwood]

closed starter for @pippacalloway​ location: downtown salem

It had been almost a decade since he’d last seen Pippa Calloway, a romance that had blossomed and inevitably fizzled during his time at MIT when Boston was his playground. After all those years, he still recognized her as he stopped along the streets of Salem and offered her a smile. “Pippa? Will, hi,” he greeted, attempting to remain casual in his tone. It was a relationship that ended years ago and he had since moved on, what did he have to be nervous about? “It’s great to see you, you look good. Are you moving back to Massachusetts, or just visiting?” There was so much he was curious about: what did she get up to after leaving Boston, what was she doing now, and most importantly, did she find what she was looking for? What Will was unable to give her, at least back in the day. “I’m just on my mid-afternoon coffee run, then is back to work for me. But seeing you... it’s a pleasant surprise.”

[willblackwood]

ofeliaortegaa​:

The sight of him told her that he had been sleeping and if the whiff of Whiskey was anything to do with why he was still asleep she didn’t doubt that he was worse for ware, a little chuckle following at the sight of him. “Oh so we need to get the coffee pot on do we?” She hummed though she did lower her voice as he asked, she didn’t want to piss of the neighbours after all. “Also it’s like 10am at this point, it’s not my fault you’re still sleeping.” Letting herself in she gestured to the pan tray in her hands. “Of course I have food, today we have Italian Style breakfast egg muffins, they’re still warm too.” Ofelia hummed, placing the tray down before she moved to flick on his coffee machine. “You sit I’ll make coffee.” 

.

“I got Nate coffee yesterday. He threw it away,” Will grumbled, as though he expected his cousin to drink the sugary latte he’d concocted. “I’m off work, I can sleep in if I want to. Plus, my mother isn’t coming to see me till later, I have time to get my act together before heading into the city - I don’t know why she insists on dining out in Boston, but not my business.” The fact that he was planning on going to an upscale restaurant was easy enough to conceal when they were away from Salem and the people he knew, so he couldn’t totally rag on his mother for her tastes. “But in the meantime.... I won’t say no to anything you have. Are you on shift at the restaurant today? Maybe I’ll convince Abigail to have dinner closer to home and we’ll come by.”

[willblackwood]

nate-blackwood​:

“Oh, fun,” Nate muttered to himself, though loudly enough that Will could still hear it if he wasn’t preoccupied with the sound of his own voice. Rolling his shoulders in annoyance, Nate steepled his fingers on the makeshift desk as Will entered, his eyes flicking down for only a moment to take in the coffee his cousin had brought him, and resisted the urge to snort. He wouldn’t have drank it, anyway, since he was fairly sure Will wasn’t above poison, but the opposite of his usual order was a nice touch. He’d have to remember to pay him back in kind.

“For six out of seven days a week, Boston is tolerable.” He blinked pointedly at his cousin and then bared his teeth in what he would insist was a smile. “No plans to go back yet, fortunately for your employment status.” Will’s words drew Nate’s attention back to the coffee. “Great idea, William,” he said, sliding the cup towards the edge of the desk until it fell directly in the trash can sitting beside it. Nate’s brows lifted lazily. “Oops. I was so looking forward to that, too.”

.

“It was more tolerable about two months ago,” Will remarked pointedly, blinking as though to see if his cousin caught onto his sarcasm. Abigail Kennedy had been right about moving him to Massachusetts as a teenager to get away from the Blackwoods, but she likely didn’t expect that Nate would also follow suit almost a decade later. “Natey, you know my employment status isn’t in jeopardy even if the expansion fails. You could run back to the West Coast with your tail between your legs, and I’ll find a new job over here. I’ll go back to green tech, I have that company I worked at for four years,” the man drawled, patting Nate’s hand in mock comfort. Granted, him lasting barely a month as a team lead wouldn’t look good on his resume, but Will knew that he had options beyond the Blackwood circle. 

“Ungrateful Nate, throwing away coffee,” Will tutted, shaking his head. “You could just have the instant kind. That seems bland enough for your liking.” Looking around the office - if you could even call it that - Will turned back to his cousin and raised an eyebrow. “Speaking of, when are we getting an office space? I need to decorate mine, and have somewhere for my team to operate. Speaking of my team, you know my birthday is coming up, I’ll be taking them out for drinks after work. We may leave early, just letting you know now.” Of course, Nate was the ultimate head of the company here and could veto anything Will said or did. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t poke the bear a bit.

[ofeliaortegaarchive]

Closed starter for Will | @willblackwood

“Blackwood open up.” Ofelia called as she used her slider covered foot to knock on the door rather than her actual hands given they were currently holding a pan and ladle. This wouldn’t be the first time he had been greeted like this, nor found her in this position outside of her door and it had been that way ever since he had first agreed to try her cooking. Now he had become one of her full time guinea pigs and unfortunately for him he was closest meaning he got this a lot. “Will! You better not be posing in windows and doors again just to end up on the brochure.” 

[willblackwood]

A groan escaped the man’s lips, how early was it for Ofelia to be banging on his door? “Is the sun even up?” he called out, rolling out of bed and pulling on a shirt before opening the door. He had gone to celebrate one of his team members’ birthdays - something he was sure his darling cousin never did for his employees - and may have gone a little too far with the whiskey. He might’ve been a bit too liberal with the spending on alcohol, more so than just an average guy, but he figured that it seeming like generosity was his best bet. “Stop yelling, I have a headache!” he called out as he made his way to the door, trying to not seem too hungover. “I’m okay, I’m okay. No posing though, just sleeping. Like a normal person. Do you have food?”

[richard-madden]

[willblackwood]

@nate-blackwood

[willblackwood]

closed starter for the inferior cousin @nate-blackwood​ location: blackwood industries office

“Nathaniel,” he greeted, not even waiting to be invited in as he entered his cousin’s office with two cups of coffee. “I hope I’m not interrupting... I actually don’t really care if I am, honestly.” Never one to shy away from the truth, the younger man shrugged carefully so as not to spill the beverages in his hands. “How are you liking Boston? Is it making you want to move back to California yet?” he further prompted, placing the cups of coffee in front of them, ensuring that his dark roast with a splash of skim milk was in front of him. Of course he knew that his cousin drank black coffee - which was why he got Nate a blonde vanilla latte with whipped cream and caramel drizzle instead. “I know how you like your coffee,” he mentioned kindly, placing the handcrafted beverage in front of his cousin. “I know we’re supposed to have ‘weekly check-ins’ with each other, as per our fathers’ suggestion. So I’m here for mine, Nathaniel. Let’s just enjoy our coffee and pretend we talked, yeah?”

[willblackwood]

Hey hi hello, bringing you Will Blackwood, the one who likes to pretend he’s not one of them. So much where he lives as though he’s lower middle class and wants everyone to believe that he is too. I’m tired right now but I have this little blurb below.

BASIC STATS

Full Name: William Donovan Blackwood

Nicknames: Will

Date of Birth: September 10th, 1991

Place of Birth: San Francisco, California

Nationality: American

Ethnicity: White, African-American

Religion: Agnostic

Western Zodiac: ☼ Virgo | ☽ Libra | ↑ Pisces

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Relationship Status: In a relationship with TBD

Education: Bachelor of Science in Electrical & Computer Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014)

Occupation: Technical Team Lead

Height: 5′ 11″

Weight: 170 lbs

Hair Color: Dark Brown

Eye Color: Brown

Moral Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Myers-Briggs: INTJ

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Enneagram: Type 3 - The Achiever

BACKGROUND

Born in San Francisco to Donovan Blackwood and Dr. Abigail Kennedy. Donovan was part of the high profile Blackwood family, being the younger brother of Raymond Blackwood. Abigail hailed from a lower middle class family in Boston and had just completed her doctoral degree at Harvard, determined to have both a career and a family. She shook things up with the Blackwood family a bit, including the refusal to change her last name after marriage, and so did Will when he came along. 

The Blackwood brothers were always in competition, with Donovan being the spare to Raymond’s heir, and that was passed on to their sons. Will often competed with Nate, trying to prove that he was better than his older cousin and that the Blackwood heir was undeserving of the privileges that he had. Every time Nate messed up, Will was there to relish in it. 

Abigail decided to move her family to Massachusetts when Will started high school, with her getting a tenured job at Northeastern University and Donovan being bicoastal between his family in the Boston area and the Blackwood company in San Francisco. She thought that it was healthy to separate Will from the other Blackwoods, as she saw how toxic they could be and how her husband’s bitterness towards his brother was manifesting in Will’s feelings towards Nate.

Will maintained a fairly healthy distance from the Blackwood family, attending MIT and graduating with a degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering. But he didn’t ever feel like he truly belonged among his wealthier peers, so he tried not to. Instead he made some lifestyle changes so that he could relate to his less wealthy ones, such as taking up a barista job in college to “make extra money” and wearing generic clothing. But slowly, it became so much of his reality that it was how he ended up living. He did benefit from his father’s connections when it came to getting coveted internships and job offers, but he chalked it up to pure luck whenever a friend asked. 

After graduation, Will got a job working as a junior software engineer for a major tech company (think Google, Amazon, Facebook etc). The pay was great, but it wasn’t something he felt fulfilled doing. After three years, he moved on to a smaller company, an environmental technology firm with an emphasis on sustainability that was based in Cambridge. It was a cause he felt connected to, and he really helped drive the company forward. 

He was enjoying the life he was building for himself, at the helm of his company and pursuing a relationship with a woman who seemed like a great match for him. He heard news of Nate’s scandals in San Francisco, but was far enough removed to not care - until he wasn’t. Until Nate relocated to the Boston area for a Blackwood Industries expansion. Even more surprising? There was a position in leadership waiting with Will’s name on it. So now he and Nate are working together and that’s going... as well as you can expect.

MISCELLANEOUS 

Hates Apple products

Enjoys a whiskey neat, but also down for beer

Lives in a one-bedroom apartment that is in desperate need of some TLC, but he finds it charming

A regular at Bit Bar, whether to enjoy drinks or challenge someone to arcade games

Trashy reality TV is his guilty pleasure

Surprisingly good at archery

WANTED CONNECTIONS

Girlfriend - I’ll probably put in a wanted connection for this one hehe but it’s a new relationship, they made it official just a couple months ago. She doesn’t know exactly who he is though, and Nate may be a little too eager to get his cousin back for years of tormenting him by sabotaging this relationship and letting this woman “meet the family” in a way of his own... 

Coworkers - Will works in tech, he used to work in greentech and now he works for Blackwood Industries. If your muse may have worked at either place, that’s an option!

Schoolmates - Will went to high school here in Salem, and then to MIT

Idk I’ll update this later