Antonio "Tony" Marcello

Antonio "Tony" Marcello is a character roleplayed by TheFallenAcolyte.

General Description
Antonio "Tony" Marcello is an officer within the Los Santos Police Department. Tony is most well known by his white hair and prominent New York-Italian accent. Tony take his job extremely serious and pushes to make the streets of Los Santos safer every day. While off duty, Tony enjoys spending time with his friends and getting into wacky adventures throughout the state of San Andreas. Whether it's exploring the peak of Mount Chiliad in a lifted F-150 or exploring the darkest corners of Blaine County, Tony is always up for the next adventure.

The Beginning
Antonio Marcello was born on May 10th 1995 at NewYork-Presbyterian hospital in Queens, New York to Gabriella and Vincent Marcello. Vincent was a detective in New York Police Department’s 106th precinct and Gabriella worked as a server at Dino’s Pizzeria. Life was going great for the family, Vincent was exactly where he dreamed of being in his career and Gabriella was able to spend a lot of time bonding with her firstborn son between shifts at Dino’s. Life was pretty great for the new family of three. Vincent and Gabriella gave Antonio the nickname “Tony” in the hospital while celebrating the birth of his first son.

Tony is second generation Italian-American on both sides of his family and grew up heavily influenced by his Italian-American neighborhood of Ozone Park. This meant every Sunday night Tony’s extended family always gathered for seemingly a feast of the most delectable Italian dishes at Tony’s grandmother’s house. These gatherings could be anything from fifteen to twenty people, sometimes more, but Tony’s grandmother would cook more than enough for an entire small village. When they weren’t feasting, everybody in Tony’s neighborhood looked out for each other. That is if they weren’t busy with screenings of Goodfellas, The Godfather and My Cousin Vinny.

When Tony was four years old, his father Vincent was adamant about teaching Tony how to play his favorite sport, baseball. Vincent would tell Tony that one day he’ll be hitting grand slams in Yankee stadium with Vincent cheering him on as his number one fan. Tony was inspired by his father’s passion for baseball and practiced as hard a child his age could. Tony’s dedication made him the star of his little league baseball team, the Ozone Park Meatballs.

In school, Tony’s social skills seemed to just click. If Tony enjoyed being around somebody, it would be his goal to befriend that person. It didn’t matter if somebody was into video games, sports, or rode horseback upstate on the weekends, Tony could get along with everybody.

The Twins
The only thing Tony wanted in life was to be an older brother. Shortly after his 6th birthday Gabriella and Vincent sat Tony down and gave him the news that not only was he going to be a brother, but they were expected twins. Tony was over the moon with excitement, he couldn’t wait to teach his new siblings everything that he knew. From sports, to food, to his favorite tv shows, Tony was thrilled to be an older brother. He would bug his mother daily asking when his siblings would be here and would always offer his input on preparing for them to join their family. In January of 2001, Gabriella gave birth to a baby boy, Vincent Jr., and a baby girl, Lucia.

Tony took the role of being an older brother with the utmost importance. He was eager to help his parents with all aspects of raising Vincent Jr. and Lucia, even giving them his own nicknames “Vinny” and “Lucy”. He helped with everything from putting them down for naps, feeding the twins, and generally taking some of the stress of newborns off his parents back. Tony had everything he could ever ask for in life, and more.

The Hand of God
All the while, Vincent Sr. had been working on the biggest investigation of his career. He was on the tail of a serial killer with a cult following within Queens, later identified as “The Hand of God” Maximilian Stone. Maximilian would use his silver tongue to persuade desperate people of faith into believing he has been sent from God to deliver “Divine Judgment” to sinners. His followers would help contrive elaborate plans for Maximillian’s murders and would act as scapegoats for his escape. Maximilian went on for 8 confirmed murders before Vincent was finally able to get the upper hand. Vincent was able to plant two undercover officers within Maximilian’s following. One officer was found out early and murdered, but the other worked his way up into a trusted position under Maximilian until he was finally able to set up the final sting operation against Maximilian. Vincent’s plan could not have gone better; Maximilian was apprehended and in turn was given 8 life sentences. Vincent was on top of the world and he had everything you could ever want, the perfect loving family, an incredibly decorated career, and a community around him that genuinely loved him.

On May 11th 2002, one day after Tony’s 7th birthday, Vincent Sr. was set to be rewarded with a medal of honor for apprehending Maximilian Stone. The NYPD held a special event to honor Vincent at NYPD’s headquarters, One Police Plaza. Vincent Sr. brought Gabriella and Tony to witness him accept the medal. Everybody within NYPD’s command teams was there to attempt to recruit Vincent to a higher position outside of 106th precinct. The commissioner took to the podium to award Vincent with the New York City Police Department Medal of Honor. Vincent humbly accepted the award while stating it was a team effort and he couldn’t have done it without the rest of the 106th precincts help. Mid speech a sudden a single gunshot was fired in the room. Officers within the room see behind the podium was an officer with his duty pistol drawn that had just fired still aiming down his sights. In a state of confusion the officer was tackled and subdued. A splatter of blood rained down upon the suddenly unattended podium. Vincent Sr.’s body fell limp with a bullet through the back of his skull. Tony screamed in horror from across the room as his mother and family friends rushed him out of the auditorium. Vincent Marcello Sr. was pronounced on May 11th 2002 at 8:35pm.

It was later discovered that Vincent's murderer was an estranged follower of Maximilian’s that served as a NYPD officer.

The Promise
The days following Vincent Sr.’s death Tony was in complete shock. He had no interest in baseball practice, helping around the house, or his social status in school. It was like Tony was just “going through the motions” for the first time in his life, instead of capitalizing on every day. Tony was absolutely destroyed and didn’t know what to do with himself.

Later that week was the most dreaded day of Tony’s life, his father’s funeral. Tony was showered with love and affection from his family and friends but didn’t see the point of any of the positivity. When it was time for Tony to say his final goodbyes to his father, he proceeded to have a panic attack and ran out of the funeral home. Tony sat against a wall of the funeral home weeping for his departed father. His perfect family was broken. Tony was broken.

When arriving home from the funeral, Tony’s mother put Vinny and Lucy to bed for the night and cuddled up with Tony on the couch. She promised Tony that everything would be alright and how she needed him to be strong, not only for her but for Vinny and Lucy as well. Tony nodded his head but words could not leave his lips through his tears. His mother sat there in silence comforting Tony for some time until she got up and grabbed a DVD from a sleeve of DVDs with words written with a marker on the face. The face of the DVD read “Tony’s sixth birthday, May 10th 2001.”

Tony remembered his birthday fondly. His father surprised him with a brand new Derek Jeter jersey and tickets to a Yankees game against the Twins at Yankee stadium. His father then surprised him with his favorite hibachi restaurant to finish off the perfect sixth birthday. When they got home from dinner, Tony and Vincent Sr. relaxed on the swing on the back patio listening to Tony’s favorite album The Very Best of Frank Sinatra. They sang along with “Come Fly With Me” and “New York, New York” as Tony slowly faded off to sleep leaning against his fathers chest. That’s where Tony ended the best birthday he’s ever had.

Gabriella placed the DVD in the player and the video opens with Tony asleep on his father’s chest. Tony hears his parents joking back and forth while his father runs down the details of their day together. After a little while of talking, Gabriella announces that she’s going to grab herself and Vincent Sr. a drink and places the camcorder down facing Vincent Sr. and Tony. Vincent Sr. begins to speak to Tony’s sleeping body telling him how proud he is with how he’s done with his baby brother and sister and helping his mother around the house. He follows that up by telling Tony when he can’t be present, he trusts that Tony will protect and take care of the family as the protector of the house. Tony began to sob then turned to his mother, choking back tears, and promised her that he would always protect her, Vinny and Lucy.

The Protector
From that point forward, Tony had a total change of perspective on his role within his family and took on the role of protector with the utmost importance. He did everything he could to help his mother take care of Vinny and Lucy while she attempted to figure out how she would manage the impending financial burden from the loss of her late husband. Gabriella’s job at Dino’s Pizzeria paid well short of what she would need to sustain the family's lifestyle and it stressed Gabriella out more and more every day thinking about when the savings account and life insurance would eventually dry up. Gabriella put up a facade for Tony and the twins and assured them that everything would be alright moving forward.

Over the following four years, Tony continued working hard for his family and shaping Vinny and Lucy into well behaved children by the time they started school. In school, Tony continued to be the hot-shot amongst his classmates that everybody wanted to be friends with; while maintaining his role as the star of the baseball team. The lead up to the summer of 2006 was everything Tony could ask for; short of having his father back, of course.

The Change
During the first few weeks of summer vacation, Tony made plenty of time to play with his siblings and do fun activities while he maintained a good social life with his friends from school. That continued until June 22nd 2006 when his mother sat Tony down privately and explained to him the financial situation she was in. Her savings account was drained, all of the life insurance from Vincent Sr was gone, and her credit cards were close to being maxed out. To top it off, she explained that the bank was foreclosing on their home and they had until the thirtieth to move out. Tony was taken aback and for the first time since his father’s death he was in complete shock. Once again, his perfect life was crumbling right in front of his eyes. His mother explained to him they would be moving into an apartment on the other side of Ozone Park. She also explained come fall Tony would be transferring to a different school closer to their new apartment. Tony not only was losing his home, but seemingly his friendships and spot on the baseball team as well.

In fall of 2006, Tony was in complete shock while walking into his new school to start his sixth grade year. Everybody looked at him like he was an alien and he had a much tougher time at meeting new people. Tony also found out later that day that his new school did not have a baseball program. After the first day at his new school, his mother asked him how everything went. Tony replied about how much he loved the opportunity to meet new people and how he was looking into other sports in school to participate in. Tony was lying but he knew that his mother was dealing with far bigger problems and did not want to burden her with his. Going forward Tony planned to keep up his grades and focus all of this extra time at helping around the house. And for the following years, that’s what he did.

By Tony’s 15th birthday, he started filling in at Dino’s Pizzeria to bring in extra money to support his family. He was always charitable with the money he earned, giving most of it to his mother for bills, and some to the twins to support their hobbies. There’s a lot of words you can use to describe Tony, but selfish has never been one of them.

Things were relatively quiet for Tony’s high school years. He had got used to his new life, and even though they had been struggling financially for some time, Tony and his mother tried everything they could to give the twins a normal upbringing. Tony maintained a nearly 4.0 average in honors classes throughout high school and kept a relatively small group of friends around him when he had time to socialize. Leading up to graduation, a number of colleges had contacted Tony about scholarships and his mother always tried to talk him into going to one but he declined to respond to all of them. In Tony’s mind, there was no option to leave his family behind and go to college, so he never entertained the idea. At graduation Tony was honored with being the salutatorian of his graduating class, but his mind was on the availability to work more and continue providing for his family. The evening of his graduation, Tony started training for his second job at his uncle’s business, Ozone Park Tech Co. Tony was working sixty hour weeks between his jobs but never complained about it once. Within 6 months,Tony became the store manager at Ozone Park Tech Co. and brought sales up three-fold.

The Assailant
On a cold December’s night in 2018, Tony woke up to a crash followed by a scream coming from the twin’s bedroom. Tony leapt from his bed and grabbed the first thing he could find, his signed Derek Jeter bat his father gave him for his seventh birthday. He rushed across the apartment and stormed into the twin’s bedroom to find a scene of horror. The first thing Tony noticed was the bedroom window opened then Vinny incompacitated against the dresser next to it with drops of blood coming from his mouth. Tony didn’t fixate on that long before seeing Lucy being held down by a deranged older man in raggedy clothes. The man had a knife to Lucy’s neck and a hand over her mouth. Immediately, as if it were instinct, Tony shouted “Get the fuck off of her!” while swinging his bat with all his might into the head of his sibling’s assailant. Blood splattered across the wall followed by a thud as the assailant’s body fell still on the floor next to the bed.

Tony rushed Lucy out of the room to call 911 then hurried to check on Vinny. Vinny was incompacitated but his heartbeat was stable. If it weren’t for Tony’s actions, who knows what else would have happened. When emergency services arrived they told Tony that the assailant was deceased and they had been able to get Vinny back up. He had a concussion from a short altercation that ended up with the back of his head being slammed against the dresser. The police on scene kept repeating things like how lucky his siblings were that Tony reacted so quickly and how things could have been significantly worse, but Tony felt tremendous amounts of guilt and fell into shock. No matter how much anybody told him that he was a hero for his actions, the guilt of taking another person’s life was on Tony’s conscience.

The Next Step
Come fall of 2019, Vinny and Lucy were preparing to go off to college at Cornell. With Tony’s influence they had both had excellent high school careers and were given scholarships. Tony and his mother had worked hard to make sure the twins' futures were bright and it seemingly paid off. Tony was happy for them, but started to feel like his purpose in life was coming to an end as he knew it. His mother pestered him daily on planning something for himself for once, but Tony always brushed it off saying that the twins were still here and he isn’t leaving.

Once the twins were at Cornell and staying in their dorms, Tony’s mother pushed him harder to begin working on himself. Although Tony knew she was right, he couldn’t just leave his mother alone. She had already lost her husband and the twins were gone, Tony was the only person left. Tony continued to work and help his mother with the bills, if not for his mother, but because he had felt like he had no other purpose in life.

In summer of 2020, Tony’s mother told him they were going out for dinner one night since they had been off work at the same time for once. Tony didn’t think anything of it and agreed to go. They arrived at one of their favorite restaurants, Vincenzo’s Italian Cuisine, and walked up to the host’s stand. Tony’s mother cut in front of him at the stand and said “Gabriella, party of three.” Tony looked confused and asked his mother why she had said three. She told him somebody was coming to meet them over dinner and it was a surprise. They waited for a few minutes before a gentleman wearing a polo shirt with an embroidered NYPD logo walked up to their table. Tony’s mother got up and greeted the man then turned to Tony and said “You may not remember him, but Tony this is Captain Marks. He was your father’s commanding officer within the New York Police Department.” Captain Marks greeted Tony before taking a seat. Tony was a bit more reserved at the beginning of their interaction but Captain Marks continued to pry at Tony to get him to open up. After a short bit, Captain Marks said that he was here to discuss a future in law enforcement with Tony. Gabriella had told him how much he looked up to his father and knew that it was the right future for Tony. After requesting over and over again, Tony finally told him that he had no interest in being part of the NYPD. What Tony had seen inside NYPD’s headquarters made him never want to step foot in their buildings again. Captain Marks was very understanding, then told Tony that before he was part of NYPD he was a Sergeant within LSPD out of San Andreas. Captain Marks offered to take Tony under his wing and train him until he was ready for academy within the LSPD. Tony was taken aback and tried every excuse he had to get out of it but his mother wouldn’t take no for an answer. She stated that it was time to start Tony’s story instead of being a supporting part of everybody else's. Tony begrudgingly agreed, and Captain Marks told him to be ready for five am to start the training.

Captain Marks taught Tony everything he could in preparation for Tony joining law enforcement. On March 25th 2021, Tony received an email from LSPD’s Assistant Chief Barnett telling him that his application had been accepted and scheduled an interview for April. This was finally it, Tony knew he had to pack his bags and get ready to move to Los Santos. The following weeks leading up to Tony moving were bittersweet. Tony’s mother could not have been more proud of her first born son following in her late husband’s footsteps. On April 12th 2021, Tony boarded a plane with a one way ticket to Los Santos.

Trivia

 * Tony's biggest fear is somebody important to him suddenly leaving him.
 * Tony's favorite food is pizza because it reminds him of Dino's back home.
 * Tony aspires to be the best driver in LSPD and pushes himself to become better every day.
 * In just one night on duty, Tony was shot at on six separate occasions. One of which destroyed his all white cowboy hat.