faesphere | [Character Application] William "Billy" Kaplan / Wiccan

Character

Name: William "Billy" Kaplan, AKA Wiccan
Fandom: Marvel Comics, "Young Avengers"
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Time Period: Civil War Volume #4, after being sent to Prison #42
Wing Color: Blue, patterned like a blue jay's wing
History: Wikia, Earth-616 Continuity

Personality:

"It's okay, Mom. We're super heroes. I meant to tell you."

Billy is the twin son of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch, soul-transferred into becoming the biological petite 16-year-old gay son of two ordinary Jewish folks living in the west side of New York. Already his life is overrun with Issues.

First and foremost Billy is, at the core, a nice kid. He's sweet, he's kind of sensitive, he's cheeky, and he has a great sense of humour. Sometimes he can be overly serious, but in general it's a situational thing; for the most part, he's right alongside his teammates making snarky commentary even in the middle of a battle. They really are exactly as advertised- Young Avengers. Bunch of teenage fanboys (...and girls) trying to be superheroes. And sometimes they even succeed!

"Okay, this completely violates Growing Man continuity."

Billy is one of the more fanboyish of the fanboy squad- he hero-worships the Avengers and many other superheroes of the world, speaking to them with respect and sometimes even awe, often making quiet "aside" comments about how he can't believe this is actually happening, or his teammates won't believe him, or how awesome it is. He is a superhero geek to the very core. He's a geek to the point where you could compare him to one of those walking-dictionary comic convention panelists. (The kind people just want to punch sometimes.) Often times in battle or when the team is facing off against a hero or villain they haven't met before, Billy is the one to recognize the person and in some cases state their significance to a degree that ought to be worrying. It comes in handy on occasion, though. He's also a Norse mythology geek (his super-alter ego was originally based on Thor, after all), and is almost certainly into comics and video games, too. For a character who is normally rather dry and sarcastic, his geekdom is one of the things that gets him really enthusiastic and passionate about.

"Your mom died protecting the one person she loved more than anyone in the universe. She was a hero... just like her son."

The geek side comes hand in hand with the fact that he's kind of... well, sensitive. He cries, he's sometimes easily offended, and he loves to touch people. He's the first to set a companionable hand on someone's shoulder or to offer an encouraging word, and it doesn't take much invitation for him to try and get close to someone. He likes musicals and cozying up to his loved ones and holding hands and- okay, he really is the epitome of bully fodder in high school. But he's not a pushover either, even if you were to ignore the superhero powers. He'll use logic and clever thinking to avoid a conflict if it's possible, and if it's not, then he'll face the problem head-on and deal with it. So what if his hills are alive with the sound of music when the costume comes off?

"They're not your people. They're not even people."

As a contrast to the above, Billy can be really insensitive at times when it comes to the feelings of other people, and it shows through some of the careless remarks he makes or the dismissal of the concerns of his friends; when Teddy attempts to save the Super Skrull during the invasion storyline he angrily brings up the fact that the aforementioned Skrull murdered Teddy's adoptive mother. He's quick to backpedal, of course, but it doesn't change the fact that he doesn't always think about what he's saying before he says it. He even slips in a little racist commentary with phenomenally bad timing, eg. saying the Skrulls are "not even people" to Teddy, who is half-Skrull himself. It's not to say that he is intentionally racist- he's later shown to say that Teddy's half-Skrull heritage is "cool", but even so: careless remarks are not unusual, coming from him. He also has a pretty lousy temper and a tendency to rage quit when he hears something he really doesn't want to hear. Very few people can get him to stop and think about what he's doing beforehand, Teddy being one of them. He's also pretty sarcastic, making the occasional snippy commentary even at the most unfitting of times.

"Let him go, or yours will become a suicide mission."

He is very protective of his teammates and the people he cares about, and he's not afraid to use his rather extensive powers to keep them safe and alive when he's around. Case in point: stopping a nuclear explosion and putting twenty people in a coma with a single thought when Teddy is injured by one of them. (...Actually a lot of his more volatile reactions stem from Things That Happen to Teddy. Don't screw with an overclocked mutant in love.) He follows the Avengers moral code of "don't kill" as well as his own values re: taking a human (or even alien) life, and the one time he does threaten to kill someone, he's very shaken up by it after the fact. Murder or even killing in the name of self-defense is something he keeps in mind almost constantly while in battle, particularly because he's packing a lot of power.

"Please don't worry. It's not like I'm planning to invade Latveria, confront Dr. Doom, and rescue the Scarlet Witch tonight. At least, that's not the plan."

He can be really careless about self-preservation sometimes; he's impatient about Getting Things Done and will too-often charge off into danger regardless of the potential consequences (eg. injury, danger, capture, a lecture from the boyfriend). He does have tremendous faith in his friends/teammates, so even while rushing into the aforementioned danger he still has plenty of confidence that they'd come and rescue him if he got in over his head. That faith in people often even carries over into people that he may not necessarily know well, but has a great opinion of: he's quick to defend the actions of the Scarlet Witch despite her mass-mutant genocide, justifying her actions as possibly having been possessed by some evil entity despite no evidence to back up his claim. He also believes in her (admittedly true) claim to not remember any of her history with the Avengers or her crimes. Because she's his mother and favourite member of the Avengers, he doesn't hesitate to think the best of her. On the flip side, he refuses to believe Dr. Doom's self-proclaimed good intentions in regards to the Scarlet Witch, assuming he's brainwashed her or placed her under a spell rather than genuinely loving her. In his mind, "good guys" can do terrible things and still redeem themselves, but it's harder to convince him that "bad guys" can be good.

"I've never really had a problem with being different from other people. It's other people who have the problem with me."

Even though he has a history of bullying and gay bashing from school, Billy isn't meek or easily intimidated. Thanks to the Scarlet Witch's encouragement before he discovered he had powers of his own, he learned to stand his ground even when facing insurmountable odds- not for his own sake, but for the sake of other people that he wanted to protect - and in the process, he discovered that he had the power to really protect people. In a way, it's because of her that he's a part of the Young Avengers now, and he's never stopped being grateful to her. At the same time, however, the accidental misfire of his powers nearly got one of his bullies killed, so he's had to keep that in mind since it happened. He does have a lot of confidence that his morals will carry forward into his abilities- since his spells are created by his wishes, and he believes that he'd never wish for someone to die, he doesn't worry as much as the others that he could be too powerful (or, even worse, end up like the Scarlet Witch).

"Now, would anyone other than the team sociopath care to weigh in?"

One of the most solid things to note about Billy is that there's no pretense about him, no faking, no bullshit. He says what's on his mind, whenever it comes to mind, regardless of who he's talking to. He speaks freely with his friends, his parents, his heroes- he mouths off to Iron Man and Captain America and offers no apologies. No matter whose company he's in, he is himself, and they're stuck with his true self whether they like it or not. He still keeps secrets, of course- he's not a completely open book about everything. But if sometimes comes to mind and he knows that he can say it? You better believe that he will. Consequences be damned. ...And usually apologized for, after the fact. He's not totally callous or anything when he realizes he's done wrong, especially if he belatedly notices that he's hurt someone.

...Okay to sum it all up, Billy's basically a snarky little fanboy with superpowers. God help us all.

Strengths:

Physical: As both a witch and a mutant, as well as the son of the Scarlet Witch, Wiccan has some pretty formidable (and kind of meta) powers in his arsenal. He describes them as "magic powers [that] essentially come from wishing on stuff really hard", but it's technically a derivative of Wanda's reality-bending ability. Most of his more powerful spells (and sometimes the easy ones, if he's not thinking clearly or if there's no sense of urgency) require him to chant his wishes aloud, and the length of time or amount of chanting varies from spell to spell. Almost all of his magic takes the form of a blue energy, forming from his hands and spreading to wherever he wants it to go. His abilities are outlined in detail on his Wikia, but I'll summarize:

Reality-altering = he can change appearance - either his own, or his clothes, or the clothes of the people around him - and can often make things happen simply by chanting his wish for it to occur. Only the strong spells require chanting.

Teleporting = "IwanttogotoNewYork" and suddenly he's in New York. He can teleport other people at the same time as well, though there is a limit on the number of people he can move from place to place. This ability requires chanting.

Generation of the elements = he prefers lighting as a method of attack, but has been shown to use fire, heat, and light too.

Flight = he can fly himself around willy-nilly, as well as grant flight abilities temporarily to others. Woo! Also, he can fly without chanting a spell.

Miscellaneous = force fields, binding spells, location spells, changing a person's size, healing. Whether or not this requires chanting is hit-and-miss.

...So basically he's pretty hax, power-wise. It's kind of unfair that he can basically make up his powers as he goes, but Luceti's limitations should help to keep it from being too god-modey. And there's also the fact that superhero = good and therefore he's not likely to abuse said powers.

Mental: Billy's knowledge of "spell-casting" is in actuality just a collection of what he's learned by reading self-help books. Rather than genuine incantations, he simply wills himself to form the spell. As such, he's got some incredible focus when push comes to shove, generally keeping his cool in dangerous and intense situations, and he's been known to meditate when he believes that it'll make his casting more effective. He's very tenacious too- during his capture by the warden of The Cube, he chanted a constant mantra in an attempt to cast his spells even knowing that they wouldn't work, possibly for hours without stopping.

Emotional: He's very emotionally supportive and caring about the people who are important to him. He won't hesitate to be touchy-feely if he thinks that the situation allows for it, and he bonds very easily with people- case in point: when he discovered that Tommy was his twin, he warmed pretty much instantly to the idea, accepting Tommy as his brother and even loving the idea of it, while Tommy himself had his doubts and took a while to agree that it was the truth. He looks up to the older superheroes a lot and just loves having good role models so much as give him the time of day- not that he isn't afraid of challenging them, mind you...

Weaknesses:

Physical: First we'll tick off the obvious- Wiccan's reality-altering powers are only as powerful as he can tell them to be. He chants his spells like a mantra (ie. "IwanttobeinNewYorkIwanttobeinNewYork" and suddenly he's in New York) so if his sense of hearing is disabled, he can't use his abilities. It's possible that this weakness can be overcome, since at a latter canonpoint he's shown to cast major spells without a word, but at his current point it's still a noteworthy weakness. There's also the fact that since his powers come from his will to make things happen, he can't do anything he doesn't actually want to do- he'll try, but it generally doesn't work. (An example would be trying to heal someone he hates.) He's also pretty inexperienced and in serious need of actual training, so his abilities are very unrefined and experimental- often times he'll just try stuff for the first time and then be amazed after the fact that it works. Because of this he's been known to lose control if his emotions make his powers flare up. Magic aside, Billy is kind of a waif. He's short, he's skinny, and when he can't use magic he's basically useless in a fight. He's also pretty easy to take down- often times it only takes a couple of hits to knock him out, so he relies heavily on his allies to defend him when he's casting. Teddy is basically his meatshield 95% of the time.

Mental: He's really not the most levelheaded guy when it comes to emotional issues. He'll often think that his powers will solve any problem he runs into, and even if he has doubts about such things, he'll just shrug it off and do whatever hair-brained scheme is on his mind anyway. Running away from home to chase after the Scarlet Witch (when her last appearance in the world involved mass mutant genocide), entering Dr. Doom's fortress alone to find her, getting involved in a fight with four (questionably super) villains just because they're looting Asgard... yeah, he's not really big on the "let's think this through" train of thought when it comes to things that he views are important. As mentioned in the personality section, he can be a little too trusting, and that can get him into trouble if he's not careful.

Emotional: This will start to get a bit redundant but I'll start with the obvious one: Teddy. Billy will pretty much go supernova when anything happens to Teddy- at one point during the Children's Crusade he actually has a whiteout and stops a nuclear explosion because Teddy got shot. His power goes into overdrive and he loses control, and it's probably just his strong moral compass that's kept him from killing anyone thus far. I think it's fair to assume that this explosive overprotectiveness would apply to anyone he gets really close to, romantically or otherwise.

Besides Teddy, one of his biggest issues is that he's really sensitive. He cries easily, he takes things too personally (such as the Young Avengers showing concern about his excessive power in Children's Crusade- he interpreted it as a betrayal and chose to ditch them instead of hearing them out), and he can be kind of selfish. He's also been shown to fall into a deep funk of quiet brooding when something particularly upsetting happens, and it can take a lot to drag him out of it again. At the end of the day, even after all he's been through, he's still just a sixteen-year-old boy trying to be a superhero, and he's far from grown up, and whether it's teenage hormones or just his personality, he can be a real emotional rollercoaster.

Samples

First Person:

Okay, this is weird, but... let's give it a try. Hey, uh, whoever's listening out there. I've heard there are people from all over the galaxy, and lots from Earth, especially. That's where I'm from, too. I was wondering, though- are there people living here who'd be considered "super heroes"? Here, or on your own world, I mean. I'm actually-

[Actually... he really shouldn't just announce it. What if someone from the Initiative is here and remembers him when they get back to Earth? Even a slim chance isn't worth the risk.]

...I'm actually a huge fan of the superheroes from Earth! You know, heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-man, the Scarlet Witch. I've been a fan since I was a kid. Though I guess it's not unusual for someone from New York. There's a ton of superheroes living in the city these days.

Sorry for rambling so much. To be honest, I'm just nervous... I've never been to another world before.

Third Person:

"IwanttobeonEarthIwanttobeonEarthIwanttobe..."

Slowly Billy trails off into silence, ending his lengthy mantra with a quiet, uncomfortable sigh and letting his head droop, feeling the magic drain from his fingertips. He'd been sitting in his apartment, cross-legged on the couch and chanting non-stop, for the better part of two hours, and he's pretty well at his limit at this point. It seems that, just as he'd been told, a simple teleportation spell is not going to get him home anytime soon. It's disheartening; barely a day and he's already starting to feel the stress, and it digs in a little deeper every time he feels the wings at his back. Was he really stuck in this place? With no way to get home, no one he can even fight to win back his freedom? He's certainly not about to give up, but many of the residents of the town had sounded pretty resigned to their fates. What does that mean for him?

His stomach growls, and he prods his stiff legs off the edge of the couch with a wince, stretching out before he stands up. Priorities, Kaplan. Flexing his fingers, he reaches his arms out and starts his chant again, though a little differently this time:

"IwanttogototheplazaIwanttogototheplaza..."

Instead of fizzling uselessly from sight, the blue sparks of his magic flare around him, shifting him to the village plaza, close to the fountain. He's tested his magic in a variety of ways, but failing a spell always makes him nervous, so it's no small relief to find himself in a new location. Eventually he'll have to test the limits of his powers in this place, somewhere isolated, where it would be safe to do so without endangering the people living here... but he doesn't want to try and settle into Luceti, either. Back home the war between the superhumans of the world still rages, and his team needs his support. He can't give up on going back.

Avengers don't give up.