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[Character Information] Canon / Fanon: Billy / Wiccan
This entire page is EXTREMELY work-in-progress. Pardon the randomness of it.
C A N O N F A C T S
- Billy is gay. Canonly. And Teddy is his boyfriend. His series is very up-front and unashamed about this, and so is he. In fact, apparently they only people who weren't aware of this fact in early canon was Billy's own family. As of his canon point, this isn't a factor either, so he's pretty free with the information if it happens to come up. It's assumed that his relationship with Teddy/Hulkling was even publicized in an exclusive interview for the Daily Bugle. There was a point where he would have rather been a mutant than gay, but he's gotten over that. (Young Avengers Special, Post-Issue 8 - a, b)
- Billy is Jewish. Specifically, he and his family are Reform Jews.
- Billy is a mutant. Emma Frost states that he and Tommy are mutants in Children's Crusade, so that is assumed as canon.
- Billy has black hair and brown eyes. Officially. The hair and eye colour tends to fluxuate depending on the artist (eg. sometimes he is drawn with brown hair and/or blue eyes), so his icons tend to vary. His eyes do glow blue when he's casting certain spells, though.
- Billy has a lot of powers. To the point where he is actually kind of hax about it. Here is a list of things he has canonically done to date. Future abilities (eg. what he can canonically do but hasn't done yet at his canon point) are specified, since they're abilities he has to learn in-game.
- Billy does not call the Scarlet Witch 'Mom'. Although he believes her to be his "real" mom, AKA that he exists because of her, it hasn't made him any less Rebecca Kaplan's son. In Young Avengers Presents #3 he does refer to her as his mother, briefly, but when he meets her in Children's Crusade, he uses "Wanda" when referring to her, rather than "Mom", even after Wanda acknowledges their relation. True parentage or otherwise, Rebecca Kaplan birthed and raised him, and he recognizes that. Wanda has to earn the right to be called "Mom", and that hasn't happened in canon yet.
- Tommy is acknowledged as his brother. Contrary to the above, Billy is immediately accepting of his relation to Tommy. They call each other "bro/brother" sometimes, and Billy introduces him freely as his own twin. It's a curious difference between theorizing a relation and meeting the person; it sort of feels like he needs their permission before he can assume that relation - or, in Tommy's case, a lack of refusal.
- Billy has a problem with manipulation. A morality issue, that is. He has the power to alter and remove memories in people, and he attempted it once in YA Volume 1 (with Nate), but this is the only time he's shown actually trying it out. In Dark Reign (#3) when he offers to remove Executioner's memory of Kate's identity, she says "you've always said you wouldn't do things like that". Which means he probably dislikes the unwilling manipulation of peoples' minds. Makes sense.
- Gillen's Meet the Team Essay. An explanation of Billy's mindset at the onset of volume 2. Also some character songs.
- Costume Reference. Short version is the costume is meant to show his new maturity + geekery, and the star pattern is literally tied to the universe, so it shifts as he moves.
- Billy has a sign on his door that says "Billy's Room - Speak Friend and Enter".
H E A D C A N O N
- Anything that does not exist in the Marvel comics universe "IRL" exists in his universe, at least in regards to how I play him. That means that the Marvel comics/movies and AUs don't exist as we know them, but comics and movies about Batman, the Justice League, all that, can, because they're not "real" heroes to Billy. Despite Batman and his cool aloofness. (In "Runaways" it's recognized that DC comic heroes are fictional to them, so I follow that.)
- The assumption seems to have been made of almost any writer of fic involving Billy's family is that his younger brothers are twins. I haven't found any canon to support this, or their names or ages (which are always different), so I'm going against the flow a bit, because there are enough twins in Billy's extended family already. Billy's brothers are named James and Charles, nicknamed Jamie and Charlie (because his parents have an apparent fixation on traditional royal names that their children hate and nicknames with an "ee" sound). They are ages seven and six, good, obnoxious ages, and Charlie is the youngest. They drive Billy up the wall.
- Billy's birthday is February 9th. This makes him an Aquarius! The month was chosen for the sake of sign-matching to personality, and the date (February 9th, specifically) was the publication date of Young Avengers Issue #1. So, basically, the day that Billy the character was "born" as far as publication goes.
- Billy is a New Yorker, but being from Manhattan and growing up in a fairly uninteresting region, dialect-wise, he doesn't have a very strong accent. There's a hint of it that people familiar with the area might notice, but it's fairly subtle.
- His parents make kind of a lot of money. They lived in the area of Columbus Circle (courtesy of Children's Crusade), supporting a family of seven (parents, two small children, and three growing teenagers), and with them both being doctors, their average salary expectations in Manhattan are... pretty substantial. Even if they were on the lower end of the money totem pole, Billy would still be used to a reasonably cushy lifestyle. It's nowhere near Kate's riches, but he can afford to indulge in brand-name clothes, musicals, and make donations to the stuff he supports. He can also spoil Teddy with expensive video games because he fails at making romantic choices for gifts.
- Sunday night back home is The Sound of Music night for Billy and Teddy. Meaning Billy watches the movie and Teddy probably falls asleep on him. Either way it's a quiet hang-out day and Billy very rarely misses a week. This is the cause of Teddy's quiet suffering in CC when Billy chooses the costumes.
- Billy's original Wiccan cape was tattered at the edges as a stylistic choice; originally it was nice and clean at the edges, but the more he used it, the more pathetic it started to look. Eventually he started tearing at the ripped and cut edges because they kept getting in his way, trying to even it out, but it worked out so horribly that he finally gave up and left it damaged. Now he just says it looks cool like that. He enchants it (or tries to remember to) before battle so that it comes loose or fall apart if it gets snagged on anything. This is why the shape/length tends to fluctuate.
- He hates the smell of sour apple. He throws out anything apple-scented because it drives him kind of crazy, and he is not subtle about this distaste at all. If you want to passive-aggressively piss him off use it in shampoo or something. This distaste isn't fueled by anything except a personal preference, and he still eats apples in stuff (he enjoys apple pie or crumble as much as the next person) but the scent is too strong for him to handle.
- Billy likes to wear geeky or really random shirts/sweaters. It's shown in canon; he's advertised sites like Dalit Network and Noise Trade. His favourite outfit is a pair of Levi 527s and a really random pop/nerd culture shirt from sites like Cafe Press or Busted Tees. (eg. this, this, or this, for example.) Kate's always getting on his back about his horrible fashion sense, but thus far it's gotten her nowhere. He knows about fashion (to an extent) he just really doesn't care much.
- He has cast spells in his sleep by accident. It happens only rarely and usually results in comical situations. (One morning he woke up on the roof of Avengers Mansion; another time he set the bed on fire. Teddy was not impressed.) He's been trying to stop himself from sleeptalking ever since.
- Billy has a habit of biting his lower lip when he's really focusing on a spell (and when he isn't chanting for it). He tends to do this when he gets nervous as well, in part because he's honestly wishing he could use magic to get the hell out of whatever's making him nervous.
- Billy loves musicals, and between his close proximity to Broadway and his parents' assumed income, he's been to lots of them. He generally likes the ones where the underdogs win (which is like, most of them anyway), which is why he likes The Sound of Music so much. He's a sucker for sweeping orchestra numbers, and also likes classic rock and a lot of indie music.
- Expanding on the last one: musicals he is a fan of thus far are Rent, Wicked, Heathers, My Fair Lady, Les Miserables, Fiddler on the Roof, Avenue Q, Into the Woods, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Evita, Annie Get Your Gun, and The Producers. He does not like: Phantom of the Opera (too much opera), Jesus Christ Superstar (too religious). He is neutral about: Cats (only likes a few songs, particularly Rum Tum Tugger and Mr Mistoffeles), and Godspell (some of it is catchy, but its basis is Christian parables so it makes him a little uncomfortable). This list may be expanded over time.
- Billy has a thing for social justice and rights/freedoms. In part because he's openly gay and has had to deal with the oppression that often comes hand in hand with it, in part because he genuinely has the heart of a super hero and wants to help the hurt and oppressed. Being a kid with limited resources and abilities before he got powers, all he could do was donate (or harass his parents to donate) money to good causes. Case in point: his t-shirt in the Chapter 8 special supporting Dalit Network.
- Teddy is Billy's first boyfriend. His lack of popularity at school (and the fact that he got beat up so much) is the biggest reason for this. Jimmy Stidham was a canon crush and someone Billy fooled around with when he was discovering his sexual preference in sixth grade, but nothing serious came of it. The singling-out and harassment he received from Kessler prevented him from getting dates, generally. Or male friends for that matter.
- Billy smiles a fair bit, but he can also be overly serious and broods excessively, so he doesn't laugh very often. He's kind of embarrassed of his laugh, as it's not exactly graceful. He relies too much on sarcasm when it comes to humour, which results in more smirks than laughs on his part.
- He's very much a morning person; he sleeps light, he wakes up easily, and he doesn't like to stay up late unless he's doing geek stuff or super hero stuff. Teddy may fall asleep during Sound of Music but Billy's the one to doze off during just about anything else first. And usually on Teddy. He cuddles up very easily and can cling a bit. On the flipside, he is a total caffeine addict. Do not try to separate this boy from the java. He has expensive taste, since coffee is one of the few things he'll spend money on himself for, and his favourite flavours are somewhat exotic and tend to change from season to season, since he follows the trends of most cafes (eg. during autumn he loves pumpkin, at Christmas time all he'll drink is candy cane flavour).
- His established "fandoms" in canon are any and all super heroes (fictional or otherwise), Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Project Runway. I've added anything in the Whedonverse to that, Star Wars/Trek, TMNT- mostly western cartoons/comics/shows. Teddy's slowly getting him into anime and video games. Slowly.
-Expanding on the anime one: his experience with the genre is very limited. He hates watching it subbed because he's too easily distracted by the visual, and misses the storyline; he's an extremely visual kid. Comics are easy because he can take his time and read the words and study the image, it's unmoving; subtitles move too fast. He's only seen some classics that Teddy likes and some choice dubbed shows.
- He likes to make dorky quotes. "Speak friend and enter" on his bedroom door. "Super keen" to Master Pandemonium. "Chaos magic".
- He did yoga with his mom back home. She thought it would be beneficial to his self esteem or some psychology mumbo-jumbo. He hated it at first, but over time he discovered he likes it a lot better than the hockey or karate classes she'd tried with him before, and he likes the idea of being stupidly flexible. Also, it helps with his magic, which also pleases him. Every once in a while he'll try hovering yoga and he finds it amusing when it freaks people out.
- He did ballet for six months when he was eleven, much to his father's chagrin (after hockey and karate and whatnot were total busts); he liked the experience but not the pain that came with it, both during class itself (his poor toes) and when it was discovered at school (when the bullying began to escalate into full-on fisticuffs). He quit soon after meeting John Kessler at the start of the following school year, though quitting didn't help with the bullying situation. Within two years he started doing other styles of dance on his own time, and it's through ballet and dance that he gradually discovered he was gay- not because it's an effeminate hobby, but because all those sexy ladies in tight leotard did nothing for him. (The men in tights and suits, on the other hand...) His favourite dance is the tango, and he loves to watch the waltz even though it's his weakest one.
- Billy is actually very, very good at keeping himself occupied; he's grown up with few friends and very few social outings besides the usual geekfesting. He doodles and tries to draw little comics, he reads a lot, and he'll sit and ponder and chill to music when left to his own devices. He's not antisocial, he just has enough experience with being alone to know how to deal with it.
- Expanding on the last one: Billy learned how to draw because, again, he needed some way to occupy himself while he was busy being a huge social outcast, and has gotten better over the years. He mostly mimics comic book style, and he primarily just does pencil sketches with shading, but he might branch out with this eventually. I take his creativity and ability to visualize from this panel in canon (YA #12).
- He gets nauseated kind of easily. It's not the worst case ever, and he's not puking left and right at the slightest thing, but he threw up the first time he ever flew, and Tommy's vibrating-atom thing got him to throw up in Children's Crusade in under thirty seconds.
- Being a fantasy buff, he tried to get into Twilight, but he didn't get it. At all. He's read Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and other amazing fantasy novels, so when he gave Twilight a shot because it was this ~great epic~ everyone was reading, he had difficulty because it just felt like this big teenage drama, and he lives that, he doesn't want to read it. Bella's immediate acceptance in school despite being a bit of a spazz irritated him as well, because of a lack of realism- he's a bullied kid so that sort of thing resonates with him. He'd bitch about it if asked. He tried watching the movies with his lady friends from school (before the mutant incident, anyway), and he wholeheartedly agreed that Jacob is one sexy bastard. Beyond that he just slept through it, and whenever they poked him awake he'd roll his eyes and say something like, "But nothing's happeniiiiing, come on, let's watch Batman..."
- Speaking of Batman: DC Comics is kind of an anomaly for Billy; at first he picked up a random issue and was confused that it even existed. "We have real superheroes, who is inventing new ones?" But in fact DC had been around since Captain America was frozen; America needed heroes but their only hero was presumed dead. Billy's main passion was always the Avengers, so it was hard to drag him away from that, but the Justice League intrigued him because it was more of the same thing (heroes band together to save the world from villains) except that he didn't know what was going to happen- none of it was based on real events in his history. He started getting into it because he liked being surprised. After he found out he had powers and joined the Young Avengers, he started getting into the teenage groups like Teen Titans and Young Justice, and part of why his costume has a cape is because so many DC heroes do. He thinks it's stylish.
- He has a terrible sense of self-loathing sometimes and he's a real cynic. It irritates him because he normally has a lot of pride in himself and how far he's come, so flashes of the old, "I want to be different" Billy just make him think he's pathetic and backpedaling. Which of course makes him mad because it's self-loathing, and... cyclical irritation.
- Billy doesn't like his ears getting touched, not since the war. He flinches and gets irritable and defensive if anyone or anything so much as brushes up against them, he never wears hats, and will only wear loose hoods around his head when it's chilly. The exception of this rule is Teddy, because Billy pressured him into helping him learn to deal with physical contact a little better post-war. Even with Teddy, however, he can't handle anything more than very light contact.
- Billy has had nightmares fairly regularly in the past. In canon they mostly have to do with the Scarlet Witch and Mephisto. I also believe it's reasonable to assume that he has nightmares about the war, what happened in the Cube, and his imprisonment. He describes waking up as "shivering, filled with dread... with this, like, vice on my heart". Because of the nightmares he doesn't sleep well, but he still wakes up early all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (TO BURY THE SADNESS), so he takes naps in the afternoon, usually after school. This is why he falls asleep on Teddy fairly regularly when they hang out (eg. when Teddy's playing video games).
- Billy's morning routine is as follows: early wake-up, yoga, exercise, shower, breakfast. Generally by the time Teddy (not being a morning person) wanders out from the bedroom or is awakened by Billy himself, Billy's nursing his second cup of coffee. He tends to go to sleep early so he can wake up early, but his frequent nightmares give him sleep issues, so he naps in the afternoon. Actually he sleeps so sporadically he probably looks like a narcoleptic half the time, but the truth is he really just loves to sleep.
- Another thing he loves is showers/baths. Billy is a bit of a germaphobe; he hates being dirty or messy, physically- his room is another matter entirely. He tends to take his sweet time getting clean when he's able to, which often infuriated his mother because she had a full house and lots of children to get cleaned, fed, and ushered off to school. He's limited himself to long showers on weekends only because of this.
- It's stated in canon that Billy has "keen analytical skills", with a "quick wit and sharp mind". Because of this I assume he likes puzzles, stuff like crosswords and sudoku, and over time because of this Teddy got him to play games such as Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton, Ghost Trick, Tetris- mostly non-action types that give him a chance to work his brain. He wound up buying a DS for himself because he never wanted to give Teddy's back. His first video game was a Legend of Zelda one- either Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess (probably TP because it's easier), and he only played with Teddy because a) Teddy's a huge fan and wanted to watch him play, and b) he could solve the dungeon puzzles ridiculously easily but tended to flail and die during boss fights, so he'd bully Teddy into taking over sometimes.
- He is very much a lounger. Rather than sitting up straight, he likes to lie down, or lean on something (or someone), or just flop somewhere. It isn't that he's lazy, he just likes that feeling of contact against an object or another person. Generally he only cozies up against someone he feels close to emotionally, though, so you know you've entered his circle of trust if he's leaning on you. He especially loves the feeling of sleeping on another person, and it's part of his way of showing people that he trusts them.
- Billy wasn't always a morning person! As a little kid he had (and still has, actually) very vivid dreams, so waking him up from a good one wasn't easy or fun for his parents. To cheer him up his mother drew a little smiley face in chocolate on his peanut butter toast, and to this day he still does it - if it's not a smile it's a percentage goal for a test that day, or a stick figure super hero, or sometimes the smile has five earrings on each side. He also doesn't like eating cold food for breakfast; he'd rather have oatmeal and toast than cereal, which is part of a) where the smiley toast habit began and b)why the Kaplans get up early for a bit family breakfast. Since their schedules tend to vary, they aren't always together at dinner, so breakfast is the big family sit-down meal of the day.
- His favourite snack is peanut butter cups, so thankfully his brothers (or Teddy) aren't allergic.
- His greatest fear (besides losing Teddy, leaving Teddy, blahblahsomething Teddy) is losing either his voice or his sense of hearing. He's felt useless before because of that, unable to protect the people he cares about, and the thought of it happening again, permanently, terrifies him.
- Billy used to be afraid of lightning and thunder as a kid - like screaming, hiding-under-the-bed terrified - so his dad started telling him those Norse mythology stories and buying him Thor comics. Before long, any time the lightning flashed or the thunder rumbled Billy would beam and go, "Daddy, Daddy, Thor's talking to us!" His favourite thing to do during storms became sitting in the window ledge and reading comic books.
- Billy has a different excuse for a bruise on every part of his body, and at home has built up a facade of intentional clumsiness in order to make them more believable - first because of Kesler, and then because being a super hero involves a lot more violence than high school bullies. After he told his mother about the Young Avengers, the at-home clumsiness stopped. He's learned to brush off any concern because of his injuries (either by dismissing it or using sarcasm) simply out of habit- as if the more he waves it off the less people will make a fuss or ask questions about it. It usually worked pretty well.
- Billy is really into photography, mostly because he's already so artsy; he's always taking photos, either with his iPhone or with the SLR he had back home. His phone is full of a million photos of pretty much anything ever. He has a ton of photos of his family, friends, scenery, anything and anyone who lets him click away. Particularly memorable scenes include (but are not limited to):
-Thanks to the apparent benefit of growing up with a psychologist mother, Billy's knowledge of the field (and a lifetime of listening to her ramblings and lectures) has allowed him to start helping a few people in his life in lieu of an actual therapist. Because this is way out of his league and his education on the subject, though, he's started to borrow and study from psychology textbooks from the library in his spare time. He's becoming more and more like his mother, it's terrible.
P R I S O N # 4 2 F A N O N
After Billy's capture, he and the other detainees were taken to the nearest portal to the prison in stasis and immediately confined there. Since his powers are not only teleportation but reality-altering, Billy would have been classified as high-risk. The information they'd have on his abilities is pretty substantial, too- both Iron Man's firsthand info, what Billy himself told the Avengers, and what the warden was able to research while he was captured at the Cube. Therefore they'd not only know what Billy was capable of, they'd also know how to disable his powers.
Unfortunately it's not just a matter of deafening him to the sound of his own spells, since he's shown to use simple magic at will sometimes, without any words. Therefore his imprisonment was handled on multi-layers. SHIELD and the Initiative wouldn't take the potential threat of the child of Scarlet Witch lightly.
Layer One was the sound-dampening device the warden of the Cube developed, to mute Billy's own voice while allowing him to hear anything else.
Layer Two is physical restraints. Just enough to keep his arms directed in a way that will make him less-inclined to blast something, eg. at himself or the floor beneath him. It's been done twice before so this isn't a stretch.
Layer Three is a VR construct to keep him occupied and prevent him from focusing his magic. Nothing harmful or painful or even unhappy, though it's shown that the prisoners of the VR machines are aware of what's happening to them, so it probably wasn't pleasant, either. Just some additional security to keep him from destroying the entire prison or teleporting himself to safety or hell, even breaking his own restraints.
Origins of Marvel Comics Entry (In the "Heroic Age: Super Heroes" section)
Young Avengers
Affiliations: Avengers, Runaways
Status: Free agents; identities protected
Captain America's log:
Believe it or not, this team of super-powered adolescents was formed when Kang the Conqueror, one of our greatest foes, traveled back in time while it was still an idealistic teenager and recruited youths identified as possible Avengers replacements to defeat his megalomaniacal future-self. The kids created costumes and code names based on popular Avengers, and the 24-hour news networks had a field day with covering their exploits. At first, I felt personally responsible for any potential harm that these inexperienced young heroes inflicted upon themselves or others, as I believed they were nothing more than reckless thrill-seekers trying to follow my example. However, they have proven themselves to be capable, responsible heroes time and time again - whether during superhuman civil wars, shape-shifting alien invasions, or, most recently, by my side as key allies in defense of Asgard during Norman Osborn's siege. I've come to accept the Young Avengers as trusted partners in crimefighting and have high expectations for their future performance.
(Future performance: ALLY WITH MUTANT TERRORIST, ILLEGALLY INVADE LATVERIA, GET TEAMMATES KILLED...)
Pros: Proven heroes with a genuine enthusiasm for crimefighting that is often absent in older superhumans.
Cons: Despite their good intentions and enthusiasm, there's no substitute for experience.
Power Grid:
power - 8
conscience - 9
altruism - 9
wisdom - 8
courage - 10
determination - 10
free will - 9
vulnerability - 8
C A N O N F A C T S
- Billy is gay. Canonly. And Teddy is his boyfriend. His series is very up-front and unashamed about this, and so is he. In fact, apparently they only people who weren't aware of this fact in early canon was Billy's own family. As of his canon point, this isn't a factor either, so he's pretty free with the information if it happens to come up. It's assumed that his relationship with Teddy/Hulkling was even publicized in an exclusive interview for the Daily Bugle. There was a point where he would have rather been a mutant than gay, but he's gotten over that. (Young Avengers Special, Post-Issue 8 - a, b)
- Billy is Jewish. Specifically, he and his family are Reform Jews.
- Billy is a mutant. Emma Frost states that he and Tommy are mutants in Children's Crusade, so that is assumed as canon.
- Billy has black hair and brown eyes. Officially. The hair and eye colour tends to fluxuate depending on the artist (eg. sometimes he is drawn with brown hair and/or blue eyes), so his icons tend to vary. His eyes do glow blue when he's casting certain spells, though.
- Billy has a lot of powers. To the point where he is actually kind of hax about it. Here is a list of things he has canonically done to date. Future abilities (eg. what he can canonically do but hasn't done yet at his canon point) are specified, since they're abilities he has to learn in-game.
- Billy does not call the Scarlet Witch 'Mom'. Although he believes her to be his "real" mom, AKA that he exists because of her, it hasn't made him any less Rebecca Kaplan's son. In Young Avengers Presents #3 he does refer to her as his mother, briefly, but when he meets her in Children's Crusade, he uses "Wanda" when referring to her, rather than "Mom", even after Wanda acknowledges their relation. True parentage or otherwise, Rebecca Kaplan birthed and raised him, and he recognizes that. Wanda has to earn the right to be called "Mom", and that hasn't happened in canon yet.
- Tommy is acknowledged as his brother. Contrary to the above, Billy is immediately accepting of his relation to Tommy. They call each other "bro/brother" sometimes, and Billy introduces him freely as his own twin. It's a curious difference between theorizing a relation and meeting the person; it sort of feels like he needs their permission before he can assume that relation - or, in Tommy's case, a lack of refusal.
- Billy has a problem with manipulation. A morality issue, that is. He has the power to alter and remove memories in people, and he attempted it once in YA Volume 1 (with Nate), but this is the only time he's shown actually trying it out. In Dark Reign (#3) when he offers to remove Executioner's memory of Kate's identity, she says "you've always said you wouldn't do things like that". Which means he probably dislikes the unwilling manipulation of peoples' minds. Makes sense.
- Gillen's Meet the Team Essay. An explanation of Billy's mindset at the onset of volume 2. Also some character songs.
- Costume Reference. Short version is the costume is meant to show his new maturity + geekery, and the star pattern is literally tied to the universe, so it shifts as he moves.
- Billy has a sign on his door that says "Billy's Room - Speak Friend and Enter".
H E A D C A N O N
- Anything that does not exist in the Marvel comics universe "IRL" exists in his universe, at least in regards to how I play him. That means that the Marvel comics/movies and AUs don't exist as we know them, but comics and movies about Batman, the Justice League, all that, can, because they're not "real" heroes to Billy. Despite Batman and his cool aloofness. (In "Runaways" it's recognized that DC comic heroes are fictional to them, so I follow that.)
- The assumption seems to have been made of almost any writer of fic involving Billy's family is that his younger brothers are twins. I haven't found any canon to support this, or their names or ages (which are always different), so I'm going against the flow a bit, because there are enough twins in Billy's extended family already. Billy's brothers are named James and Charles, nicknamed Jamie and Charlie (because his parents have an apparent fixation on traditional royal names that their children hate and nicknames with an "ee" sound). They are ages seven and six, good, obnoxious ages, and Charlie is the youngest. They drive Billy up the wall.
- Billy's birthday is February 9th. This makes him an Aquarius! The month was chosen for the sake of sign-matching to personality, and the date (February 9th, specifically) was the publication date of Young Avengers Issue #1. So, basically, the day that Billy the character was "born" as far as publication goes.
- Billy is a New Yorker, but being from Manhattan and growing up in a fairly uninteresting region, dialect-wise, he doesn't have a very strong accent. There's a hint of it that people familiar with the area might notice, but it's fairly subtle.
- His parents make kind of a lot of money. They lived in the area of Columbus Circle (courtesy of Children's Crusade), supporting a family of seven (parents, two small children, and three growing teenagers), and with them both being doctors, their average salary expectations in Manhattan are... pretty substantial. Even if they were on the lower end of the money totem pole, Billy would still be used to a reasonably cushy lifestyle. It's nowhere near Kate's riches, but he can afford to indulge in brand-name clothes, musicals, and make donations to the stuff he supports. He can also spoil Teddy with expensive video games because he fails at making romantic choices for gifts.
- Sunday night back home is The Sound of Music night for Billy and Teddy. Meaning Billy watches the movie and Teddy probably falls asleep on him. Either way it's a quiet hang-out day and Billy very rarely misses a week. This is the cause of Teddy's quiet suffering in CC when Billy chooses the costumes.
- Billy's original Wiccan cape was tattered at the edges as a stylistic choice; originally it was nice and clean at the edges, but the more he used it, the more pathetic it started to look. Eventually he started tearing at the ripped and cut edges because they kept getting in his way, trying to even it out, but it worked out so horribly that he finally gave up and left it damaged. Now he just says it looks cool like that. He enchants it (or tries to remember to) before battle so that it comes loose or fall apart if it gets snagged on anything. This is why the shape/length tends to fluctuate.
- He hates the smell of sour apple. He throws out anything apple-scented because it drives him kind of crazy, and he is not subtle about this distaste at all. If you want to passive-aggressively piss him off use it in shampoo or something. This distaste isn't fueled by anything except a personal preference, and he still eats apples in stuff (he enjoys apple pie or crumble as much as the next person) but the scent is too strong for him to handle.
- Billy likes to wear geeky or really random shirts/sweaters. It's shown in canon; he's advertised sites like Dalit Network and Noise Trade. His favourite outfit is a pair of Levi 527s and a really random pop/nerd culture shirt from sites like Cafe Press or Busted Tees. (eg. this, this, or this, for example.) Kate's always getting on his back about his horrible fashion sense, but thus far it's gotten her nowhere. He knows about fashion (to an extent) he just really doesn't care much.
- He has cast spells in his sleep by accident. It happens only rarely and usually results in comical situations. (One morning he woke up on the roof of Avengers Mansion; another time he set the bed on fire. Teddy was not impressed.) He's been trying to stop himself from sleeptalking ever since.
- Billy has a habit of biting his lower lip when he's really focusing on a spell (and when he isn't chanting for it). He tends to do this when he gets nervous as well, in part because he's honestly wishing he could use magic to get the hell out of whatever's making him nervous.
- Billy loves musicals, and between his close proximity to Broadway and his parents' assumed income, he's been to lots of them. He generally likes the ones where the underdogs win (which is like, most of them anyway), which is why he likes The Sound of Music so much. He's a sucker for sweeping orchestra numbers, and also likes classic rock and a lot of indie music.
- Expanding on the last one: musicals he is a fan of thus far are Rent, Wicked, Heathers, My Fair Lady, Les Miserables, Fiddler on the Roof, Avenue Q, Into the Woods, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Evita, Annie Get Your Gun, and The Producers. He does not like: Phantom of the Opera (too much opera), Jesus Christ Superstar (too religious). He is neutral about: Cats (only likes a few songs, particularly Rum Tum Tugger and Mr Mistoffeles), and Godspell (some of it is catchy, but its basis is Christian parables so it makes him a little uncomfortable). This list may be expanded over time.
- Billy has a thing for social justice and rights/freedoms. In part because he's openly gay and has had to deal with the oppression that often comes hand in hand with it, in part because he genuinely has the heart of a super hero and wants to help the hurt and oppressed. Being a kid with limited resources and abilities before he got powers, all he could do was donate (or harass his parents to donate) money to good causes. Case in point: his t-shirt in the Chapter 8 special supporting Dalit Network.
- Teddy is Billy's first boyfriend. His lack of popularity at school (and the fact that he got beat up so much) is the biggest reason for this. Jimmy Stidham was a canon crush and someone Billy fooled around with when he was discovering his sexual preference in sixth grade, but nothing serious came of it. The singling-out and harassment he received from Kessler prevented him from getting dates, generally. Or male friends for that matter.
- Billy smiles a fair bit, but he can also be overly serious and broods excessively, so he doesn't laugh very often. He's kind of embarrassed of his laugh, as it's not exactly graceful. He relies too much on sarcasm when it comes to humour, which results in more smirks than laughs on his part.
- He's very much a morning person; he sleeps light, he wakes up easily, and he doesn't like to stay up late unless he's doing geek stuff or super hero stuff. Teddy may fall asleep during Sound of Music but Billy's the one to doze off during just about anything else first. And usually on Teddy. He cuddles up very easily and can cling a bit. On the flipside, he is a total caffeine addict. Do not try to separate this boy from the java. He has expensive taste, since coffee is one of the few things he'll spend money on himself for, and his favourite flavours are somewhat exotic and tend to change from season to season, since he follows the trends of most cafes (eg. during autumn he loves pumpkin, at Christmas time all he'll drink is candy cane flavour).
- His established "fandoms" in canon are any and all super heroes (fictional or otherwise), Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Project Runway. I've added anything in the Whedonverse to that, Star Wars/Trek, TMNT- mostly western cartoons/comics/shows. Teddy's slowly getting him into anime and video games. Slowly.
-Expanding on the anime one: his experience with the genre is very limited. He hates watching it subbed because he's too easily distracted by the visual, and misses the storyline; he's an extremely visual kid. Comics are easy because he can take his time and read the words and study the image, it's unmoving; subtitles move too fast. He's only seen some classics that Teddy likes and some choice dubbed shows.
- He likes to make dorky quotes. "Speak friend and enter" on his bedroom door. "Super keen" to Master Pandemonium. "Chaos magic".
- He did yoga with his mom back home. She thought it would be beneficial to his self esteem or some psychology mumbo-jumbo. He hated it at first, but over time he discovered he likes it a lot better than the hockey or karate classes she'd tried with him before, and he likes the idea of being stupidly flexible. Also, it helps with his magic, which also pleases him. Every once in a while he'll try hovering yoga and he finds it amusing when it freaks people out.
- He did ballet for six months when he was eleven, much to his father's chagrin (after hockey and karate and whatnot were total busts); he liked the experience but not the pain that came with it, both during class itself (his poor toes) and when it was discovered at school (when the bullying began to escalate into full-on fisticuffs). He quit soon after meeting John Kessler at the start of the following school year, though quitting didn't help with the bullying situation. Within two years he started doing other styles of dance on his own time, and it's through ballet and dance that he gradually discovered he was gay- not because it's an effeminate hobby, but because all those sexy ladies in tight leotard did nothing for him. (The men in tights and suits, on the other hand...) His favourite dance is the tango, and he loves to watch the waltz even though it's his weakest one.
- Billy is actually very, very good at keeping himself occupied; he's grown up with few friends and very few social outings besides the usual geekfesting. He doodles and tries to draw little comics, he reads a lot, and he'll sit and ponder and chill to music when left to his own devices. He's not antisocial, he just has enough experience with being alone to know how to deal with it.
- Expanding on the last one: Billy learned how to draw because, again, he needed some way to occupy himself while he was busy being a huge social outcast, and has gotten better over the years. He mostly mimics comic book style, and he primarily just does pencil sketches with shading, but he might branch out with this eventually. I take his creativity and ability to visualize from this panel in canon (YA #12).
- He gets nauseated kind of easily. It's not the worst case ever, and he's not puking left and right at the slightest thing, but he threw up the first time he ever flew, and Tommy's vibrating-atom thing got him to throw up in Children's Crusade in under thirty seconds.
- Being a fantasy buff, he tried to get into Twilight, but he didn't get it. At all. He's read Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and other amazing fantasy novels, so when he gave Twilight a shot because it was this ~great epic~ everyone was reading, he had difficulty because it just felt like this big teenage drama, and he lives that, he doesn't want to read it. Bella's immediate acceptance in school despite being a bit of a spazz irritated him as well, because of a lack of realism- he's a bullied kid so that sort of thing resonates with him. He'd bitch about it if asked. He tried watching the movies with his lady friends from school (before the mutant incident, anyway), and he wholeheartedly agreed that Jacob is one sexy bastard. Beyond that he just slept through it, and whenever they poked him awake he'd roll his eyes and say something like, "But nothing's happeniiiiing, come on, let's watch Batman..."
- Speaking of Batman: DC Comics is kind of an anomaly for Billy; at first he picked up a random issue and was confused that it even existed. "We have real superheroes, who is inventing new ones?" But in fact DC had been around since Captain America was frozen; America needed heroes but their only hero was presumed dead. Billy's main passion was always the Avengers, so it was hard to drag him away from that, but the Justice League intrigued him because it was more of the same thing (heroes band together to save the world from villains) except that he didn't know what was going to happen- none of it was based on real events in his history. He started getting into it because he liked being surprised. After he found out he had powers and joined the Young Avengers, he started getting into the teenage groups like Teen Titans and Young Justice, and part of why his costume has a cape is because so many DC heroes do. He thinks it's stylish.
- He has a terrible sense of self-loathing sometimes and he's a real cynic. It irritates him because he normally has a lot of pride in himself and how far he's come, so flashes of the old, "I want to be different" Billy just make him think he's pathetic and backpedaling. Which of course makes him mad because it's self-loathing, and... cyclical irritation.
- Billy doesn't like his ears getting touched, not since the war. He flinches and gets irritable and defensive if anyone or anything so much as brushes up against them, he never wears hats, and will only wear loose hoods around his head when it's chilly. The exception of this rule is Teddy, because Billy pressured him into helping him learn to deal with physical contact a little better post-war. Even with Teddy, however, he can't handle anything more than very light contact.
- Billy has had nightmares fairly regularly in the past. In canon they mostly have to do with the Scarlet Witch and Mephisto. I also believe it's reasonable to assume that he has nightmares about the war, what happened in the Cube, and his imprisonment. He describes waking up as "shivering, filled with dread... with this, like, vice on my heart". Because of the nightmares he doesn't sleep well, but he still wakes up early all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (TO BURY THE SADNESS), so he takes naps in the afternoon, usually after school. This is why he falls asleep on Teddy fairly regularly when they hang out (eg. when Teddy's playing video games).
- Billy's morning routine is as follows: early wake-up, yoga, exercise, shower, breakfast. Generally by the time Teddy (not being a morning person) wanders out from the bedroom or is awakened by Billy himself, Billy's nursing his second cup of coffee. He tends to go to sleep early so he can wake up early, but his frequent nightmares give him sleep issues, so he naps in the afternoon. Actually he sleeps so sporadically he probably looks like a narcoleptic half the time, but the truth is he really just loves to sleep.
- Another thing he loves is showers/baths. Billy is a bit of a germaphobe; he hates being dirty or messy, physically- his room is another matter entirely. He tends to take his sweet time getting clean when he's able to, which often infuriated his mother because she had a full house and lots of children to get cleaned, fed, and ushered off to school. He's limited himself to long showers on weekends only because of this.
- It's stated in canon that Billy has "keen analytical skills", with a "quick wit and sharp mind". Because of this I assume he likes puzzles, stuff like crosswords and sudoku, and over time because of this Teddy got him to play games such as Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton, Ghost Trick, Tetris- mostly non-action types that give him a chance to work his brain. He wound up buying a DS for himself because he never wanted to give Teddy's back. His first video game was a Legend of Zelda one- either Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess (probably TP because it's easier), and he only played with Teddy because a) Teddy's a huge fan and wanted to watch him play, and b) he could solve the dungeon puzzles ridiculously easily but tended to flail and die during boss fights, so he'd bully Teddy into taking over sometimes.
- He is very much a lounger. Rather than sitting up straight, he likes to lie down, or lean on something (or someone), or just flop somewhere. It isn't that he's lazy, he just likes that feeling of contact against an object or another person. Generally he only cozies up against someone he feels close to emotionally, though, so you know you've entered his circle of trust if he's leaning on you. He especially loves the feeling of sleeping on another person, and it's part of his way of showing people that he trusts them.
- Billy wasn't always a morning person! As a little kid he had (and still has, actually) very vivid dreams, so waking him up from a good one wasn't easy or fun for his parents. To cheer him up his mother drew a little smiley face in chocolate on his peanut butter toast, and to this day he still does it - if it's not a smile it's a percentage goal for a test that day, or a stick figure super hero, or sometimes the smile has five earrings on each side. He also doesn't like eating cold food for breakfast; he'd rather have oatmeal and toast than cereal, which is part of a) where the smiley toast habit began and b)why the Kaplans get up early for a bit family breakfast. Since their schedules tend to vary, they aren't always together at dinner, so breakfast is the big family sit-down meal of the day.
- His favourite snack is peanut butter cups, so thankfully his brothers (or Teddy) aren't allergic.
- His greatest fear (besides losing Teddy, leaving Teddy, blahblahsomething Teddy) is losing either his voice or his sense of hearing. He's felt useless before because of that, unable to protect the people he cares about, and the thought of it happening again, permanently, terrifies him.
- Billy used to be afraid of lightning and thunder as a kid - like screaming, hiding-under-the-bed terrified - so his dad started telling him those Norse mythology stories and buying him Thor comics. Before long, any time the lightning flashed or the thunder rumbled Billy would beam and go, "Daddy, Daddy, Thor's talking to us!" His favourite thing to do during storms became sitting in the window ledge and reading comic books.
- Billy has a different excuse for a bruise on every part of his body, and at home has built up a facade of intentional clumsiness in order to make them more believable - first because of Kesler, and then because being a super hero involves a lot more violence than high school bullies. After he told his mother about the Young Avengers, the at-home clumsiness stopped. He's learned to brush off any concern because of his injuries (either by dismissing it or using sarcasm) simply out of habit- as if the more he waves it off the less people will make a fuss or ask questions about it. It usually worked pretty well.
- Billy is really into photography, mostly because he's already so artsy; he's always taking photos, either with his iPhone or with the SLR he had back home. His phone is full of a million photos of pretty much anything ever. He has a ton of photos of his family, friends, scenery, anything and anyone who lets him click away. Particularly memorable scenes include (but are not limited to):
- Young Avengers practice sessions (both groups) - first photo of Teddy ever is shirtless pre-Hulkling
- Teddy and Mrs. Altman cooking together - Teddy with flour on his nose
- Billy and Teddy's first date - a dorky from-above pic of them both smiling, and it's his pride and joy because he caught Teddy's dimples
- The night of the fire where the YA made their debut - in front of the mansion, smokey and singed and grinning like fools because hey, they saved everyone even if they look a right mess
- Not his photos, but: clippings of every single appearance of the YA in the newspaper, including extra photos
- As many Avengers exploits as he has witnessed over the course of his life, living so close to the mansion - these range in quality from crap (when he was younger) to high quality (when he had better cameras as an older teen)
- A folder labeled "Teddy wtf" which is a compilation of Teddy's (conscious or unconscious) shapeshifts, most of them weird or random
-Thanks to the apparent benefit of growing up with a psychologist mother, Billy's knowledge of the field (and a lifetime of listening to her ramblings and lectures) has allowed him to start helping a few people in his life in lieu of an actual therapist. Because this is way out of his league and his education on the subject, though, he's started to borrow and study from psychology textbooks from the library in his spare time. He's becoming more and more like his mother, it's terrible.
P R I S O N # 4 2 F A N O N
After Billy's capture, he and the other detainees were taken to the nearest portal to the prison in stasis and immediately confined there. Since his powers are not only teleportation but reality-altering, Billy would have been classified as high-risk. The information they'd have on his abilities is pretty substantial, too- both Iron Man's firsthand info, what Billy himself told the Avengers, and what the warden was able to research while he was captured at the Cube. Therefore they'd not only know what Billy was capable of, they'd also know how to disable his powers.
Unfortunately it's not just a matter of deafening him to the sound of his own spells, since he's shown to use simple magic at will sometimes, without any words. Therefore his imprisonment was handled on multi-layers. SHIELD and the Initiative wouldn't take the potential threat of the child of Scarlet Witch lightly.
Layer One was the sound-dampening device the warden of the Cube developed, to mute Billy's own voice while allowing him to hear anything else.
Layer Two is physical restraints. Just enough to keep his arms directed in a way that will make him less-inclined to blast something, eg. at himself or the floor beneath him. It's been done twice before so this isn't a stretch.
Layer Three is a VR construct to keep him occupied and prevent him from focusing his magic. Nothing harmful or painful or even unhappy, though it's shown that the prisoners of the VR machines are aware of what's happening to them, so it probably wasn't pleasant, either. Just some additional security to keep him from destroying the entire prison or teleporting himself to safety or hell, even breaking his own restraints.
Origins of Marvel Comics Entry (In the "Heroic Age: Super Heroes" section)
Young Avengers
Affiliations: Avengers, Runaways
Status: Free agents; identities protected
Captain America's log:
Believe it or not, this team of super-powered adolescents was formed when Kang the Conqueror, one of our greatest foes, traveled back in time while it was still an idealistic teenager and recruited youths identified as possible Avengers replacements to defeat his megalomaniacal future-self. The kids created costumes and code names based on popular Avengers, and the 24-hour news networks had a field day with covering their exploits. At first, I felt personally responsible for any potential harm that these inexperienced young heroes inflicted upon themselves or others, as I believed they were nothing more than reckless thrill-seekers trying to follow my example. However, they have proven themselves to be capable, responsible heroes time and time again - whether during superhuman civil wars, shape-shifting alien invasions, or, most recently, by my side as key allies in defense of Asgard during Norman Osborn's siege. I've come to accept the Young Avengers as trusted partners in crimefighting and have high expectations for their future performance.
(Future performance: ALLY WITH MUTANT TERRORIST, ILLEGALLY INVADE LATVERIA, GET TEAMMATES KILLED...)
Pros: Proven heroes with a genuine enthusiasm for crimefighting that is often absent in older superhumans.
Cons: Despite their good intentions and enthusiasm, there's no substitute for experience.
Power Grid:
power - 8
conscience - 9
altruism - 9
wisdom - 8
courage - 10
determination - 10
free will - 9
vulnerability - 8