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idiotboyfriendPLAYER STUFF
Name: Mat
Pronoun: te/ter/ters/terself
Email address: thatlovingrainbow@gmail.com
Preferred contact: aim; makethatwork // plurk; preciousidiot
Other characters: Aña Corazon, Clint Barton, Claire Belacqua
CHARACTER STUFF
Name: William Kaplan
Aliases: n/a
Canon: Marvel Comics
Role: Vigilante
Species: Superpowered Human
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Appearance: Billy Kaplan, magical hipster
Seriously though, he's 17 (almost 18!), on the gawky side (he's starting to grow into his body, but he was built skinny) and not overly athletic, though he exercises enough to have some lean muscle. He also, coincidentally, looks identical but for hair color to a certain Tommy Shepherd. Not that he's aware of that.
Origin story:
Billy Kaplan was born into a comfortably-off Reform Jewish family and grew up about 45 minutes outside of San Francisco. His parents are both doctors, he's the oldest of three boys (by a pretty large margin - his younger brothers are still in elementary school and he doesn't really have that close of a relationship with them) and all in all his family life was pretty good growing up. He loved comics, loved superheroes (both fictional and non-fictional), and was generally a really geeky kid. He graduated to internet fandom in his teens, going (ironically) by chaosmage666, a handle he still uses.
He figured out he was gay pretty early on, but didn't really do anything about it. Still, he had no interest in girls, actively checked out guys, and it didn't take TOO long for the bullies at his school to put it together. So now, instead of mocking him for being a nerd, they mocked him for being a gay nerd. He mostly just decided to keep his head down and get out of high school as quickly as possible, planning to graduate a semester early, much to his parents' delight. The bullies started focusing on other people eventually (after Billy got the leader's schedule and started avoiding him), and Billy was well on his way to getting out of high school without any major incidents.
And then, just before Thanksgiving break senior year, mere weeks before Billy graduated, the jerk who'd been bullying Billy was picking on whoever his new punching bag was, and Billy happened to witness it. And even though he didn't bother standing up for himself, he wasn't going to just walk away while this guy hassled someone else. So he told the guy to stop. And when the bully turned on him, Billy let off what seemed like a large electric charge. Almost killed the bully, but not quite, and Billy was left with the terrifyingly awesome knowledge that he had superpowers.
Nobody was really sure what happened, and Billy managed to lie through his teeth convincingly enough that his teachers and parents thought it was some sort of freak electrical surge, and Billy started secretly experimenting with his powers after school.
Not long after New Year's, two important things happened: the first was that Billy realized his powers weren't electrokinesis but some kind of magic. The second was that he moved to LA to get a job and an apartment in anticipation of starting at UCLA in the fall. He's been in LA a couple of months now, working in a comic book shop, and is just trying to get by (while figuring out how to use his weird powers).
Personality:
Billy Kaplan has always been a pretty smart, pretty nerdy kid. He got into comic books (based on fictional AND real life superheroes) when he was like 7, and tabletop gaming when he was still in his pre-teen years. That always set him a bit apart from a lot of his peers, but he never really cared - comics and gaming were fun, why would he want to give those up just to be friends with people he didn't even like?
This sentiment continued as he got older and got into the online fandoms - he's been a moderator and contributer on the CONDOR-sponsored team and Vigilante wikis since he was 14, and is never happier than when he learns a bit of information to add to a wiki page. His lack of need for acceptance by his peers also extended to his sexual orientation when he figured out that he liked guys. While he didn't come out officially at school (or at home), his classmates figured it out right around the same time he did, which made things pretty uncomfortable for him.
There are very few people he has a lower opinion of than bullies, but he's not really one to fight back if he's the only one being affected - he'd much rather just keep his head down and get out of the situation. It's partially just that he doesn't feel like it's important enough to pay attention to, but that's also tied in, unconsciously, to a low self-worth: he doesn't think he's important enough to fight back against the bullies.
When someone else is getting bullied or attacked, though, his self-preservation goes out the window, and he will dive right in. If nothing else, to him, it's better if he puts himself in the situation willingly to give the person who had no choice about it all a chance to escape. This instinct was, unfortunately, what led to the first noticeable manifestation of his powers, and he almost killed someone. He had a brief period after that where he was terrified to use his powers at all, but he is extremely genre savvy when it comes to things like magic and powers manifesting. He knew that a refusal to use his powers ever would backfire one day, so he's working on controlling them better, but he's still not sure what he wants to do with them. Heroism is very tempting, but he's not really interested in joining up with the Trailblazers, partially because he'd rather go to college and hero in his spare time rather than doing the hero thing full-time, and he's not sure he wants to be a lone warrior vigilante.
While he's a generally dorky, upbeat kid to the people around him, Billy often struggles with depression, without realizing that it's something he could be getting actual help with - he sort of figures it's just a normal part of growing up. When he messes things up, or inadvertently hurts someone, or if he even THINKS he's messed up, he can fall into a hate spiral that ends with him not going out and blaming himself for things ranging from "actually his fault" to "he had no impact on this whatsoever". This also contributes to his low self-worth, and the anxiety he sometimes gets caught up in over whether or not he made the right choices in his life thus far.
In the end, Billy's mostly just a kind of screwed-up kid who wants to do the right thing and help people, however he can. He's just not sure if that means being a superhero or not yet. (It's really tempting, though. It'd be literally a dream come true...)
Differences from canon:
-He grew up in California, not New York
-He was 17 before his powers manifested
-He hasn't met either of the in-game Young Avengers
-In fact, he's never been on any superhero team
Power level: D in practice, high A in eventual potential, with time and training. (canonically, he'd be X-level potential but uh YEAH NOT GOING TO EVEN TOUCH THAT WITH A TEN FOOT POLE UNLESS IT'S REQUESTED BY THE MODS FOR PLOT REASONS)
Powers: Chaos magic reality manipulation stuff. He's not really sure what it is yet, though. It first manifested as lightning so he was under the impression at first that he was electrokinetic. He's since realized that it's more magical in nature. He's not really sure how to use it.
Team affiliation: None
First person sample:
Hey, jaybird2, it's chaosmage666, one of the moderators on the (un)Official Vigilante Wikia. I'm just getting in touch with you in regards to the strikes you got this week on the site. We've got multiple instances of page vandalism and a handful of people who forwarded abusive messages, all from you/an account registered just this week, realredhood, that traces back to your IP.
Look, man, you've been on this wikia and forum for a couple years and I know you've never done anything like this, but other than acting totally off the walls nuts, there's no sign you've been hacked. I don't know what's going on with you, and you're totally welcome to shoot me an email or whatever if you need to get something off your chest, but you can't keep this up and stay on the site.
A couple of the newer mods wanted to ban you outright, but we're just giving you a 2 week suspension. Get your act together, we'll be fine, okay? Like I said, shoot me an email if you need to talk, but when you come back after your suspension ends, you gotta cut that shit out.
Take care of yourself, man. I hope whatever's going on gets sorted out.
Billy (chaosmage666)
Prose sample: voicetest thread with Dick Grayson
Name: Mat
Pronoun: te/ter/ters/terself
Email address: thatlovingrainbow@gmail.com
Preferred contact: aim; makethatwork // plurk; preciousidiot
Other characters: Aña Corazon, Clint Barton, Claire Belacqua
CHARACTER STUFF
Name: William Kaplan
Aliases: n/a
Canon: Marvel Comics
Role: Vigilante
Species: Superpowered Human
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Appearance: Billy Kaplan, magical hipster
Seriously though, he's 17 (almost 18!), on the gawky side (he's starting to grow into his body, but he was built skinny) and not overly athletic, though he exercises enough to have some lean muscle. He also, coincidentally, looks identical but for hair color to a certain Tommy Shepherd. Not that he's aware of that.
Origin story:
Billy Kaplan was born into a comfortably-off Reform Jewish family and grew up about 45 minutes outside of San Francisco. His parents are both doctors, he's the oldest of three boys (by a pretty large margin - his younger brothers are still in elementary school and he doesn't really have that close of a relationship with them) and all in all his family life was pretty good growing up. He loved comics, loved superheroes (both fictional and non-fictional), and was generally a really geeky kid. He graduated to internet fandom in his teens, going (ironically) by chaosmage666, a handle he still uses.
He figured out he was gay pretty early on, but didn't really do anything about it. Still, he had no interest in girls, actively checked out guys, and it didn't take TOO long for the bullies at his school to put it together. So now, instead of mocking him for being a nerd, they mocked him for being a gay nerd. He mostly just decided to keep his head down and get out of high school as quickly as possible, planning to graduate a semester early, much to his parents' delight. The bullies started focusing on other people eventually (after Billy got the leader's schedule and started avoiding him), and Billy was well on his way to getting out of high school without any major incidents.
And then, just before Thanksgiving break senior year, mere weeks before Billy graduated, the jerk who'd been bullying Billy was picking on whoever his new punching bag was, and Billy happened to witness it. And even though he didn't bother standing up for himself, he wasn't going to just walk away while this guy hassled someone else. So he told the guy to stop. And when the bully turned on him, Billy let off what seemed like a large electric charge. Almost killed the bully, but not quite, and Billy was left with the terrifyingly awesome knowledge that he had superpowers.
Nobody was really sure what happened, and Billy managed to lie through his teeth convincingly enough that his teachers and parents thought it was some sort of freak electrical surge, and Billy started secretly experimenting with his powers after school.
Not long after New Year's, two important things happened: the first was that Billy realized his powers weren't electrokinesis but some kind of magic. The second was that he moved to LA to get a job and an apartment in anticipation of starting at UCLA in the fall. He's been in LA a couple of months now, working in a comic book shop, and is just trying to get by (while figuring out how to use his weird powers).
Personality:
Billy Kaplan has always been a pretty smart, pretty nerdy kid. He got into comic books (based on fictional AND real life superheroes) when he was like 7, and tabletop gaming when he was still in his pre-teen years. That always set him a bit apart from a lot of his peers, but he never really cared - comics and gaming were fun, why would he want to give those up just to be friends with people he didn't even like?
This sentiment continued as he got older and got into the online fandoms - he's been a moderator and contributer on the CONDOR-sponsored team and Vigilante wikis since he was 14, and is never happier than when he learns a bit of information to add to a wiki page. His lack of need for acceptance by his peers also extended to his sexual orientation when he figured out that he liked guys. While he didn't come out officially at school (or at home), his classmates figured it out right around the same time he did, which made things pretty uncomfortable for him.
There are very few people he has a lower opinion of than bullies, but he's not really one to fight back if he's the only one being affected - he'd much rather just keep his head down and get out of the situation. It's partially just that he doesn't feel like it's important enough to pay attention to, but that's also tied in, unconsciously, to a low self-worth: he doesn't think he's important enough to fight back against the bullies.
When someone else is getting bullied or attacked, though, his self-preservation goes out the window, and he will dive right in. If nothing else, to him, it's better if he puts himself in the situation willingly to give the person who had no choice about it all a chance to escape. This instinct was, unfortunately, what led to the first noticeable manifestation of his powers, and he almost killed someone. He had a brief period after that where he was terrified to use his powers at all, but he is extremely genre savvy when it comes to things like magic and powers manifesting. He knew that a refusal to use his powers ever would backfire one day, so he's working on controlling them better, but he's still not sure what he wants to do with them. Heroism is very tempting, but he's not really interested in joining up with the Trailblazers, partially because he'd rather go to college and hero in his spare time rather than doing the hero thing full-time, and he's not sure he wants to be a lone warrior vigilante.
While he's a generally dorky, upbeat kid to the people around him, Billy often struggles with depression, without realizing that it's something he could be getting actual help with - he sort of figures it's just a normal part of growing up. When he messes things up, or inadvertently hurts someone, or if he even THINKS he's messed up, he can fall into a hate spiral that ends with him not going out and blaming himself for things ranging from "actually his fault" to "he had no impact on this whatsoever". This also contributes to his low self-worth, and the anxiety he sometimes gets caught up in over whether or not he made the right choices in his life thus far.
In the end, Billy's mostly just a kind of screwed-up kid who wants to do the right thing and help people, however he can. He's just not sure if that means being a superhero or not yet. (It's really tempting, though. It'd be literally a dream come true...)
Differences from canon:
-He grew up in California, not New York
-He was 17 before his powers manifested
-He hasn't met either of the in-game Young Avengers
-In fact, he's never been on any superhero team
Power level: D in practice, high A in eventual potential, with time and training. (canonically, he'd be X-level potential but uh YEAH NOT GOING TO EVEN TOUCH THAT WITH A TEN FOOT POLE UNLESS IT'S REQUESTED BY THE MODS FOR PLOT REASONS)
Powers: Chaos magic reality manipulation stuff. He's not really sure what it is yet, though. It first manifested as lightning so he was under the impression at first that he was electrokinetic. He's since realized that it's more magical in nature. He's not really sure how to use it.
Team affiliation: None
First person sample:
Hey, jaybird2, it's chaosmage666, one of the moderators on the (un)Official Vigilante Wikia. I'm just getting in touch with you in regards to the strikes you got this week on the site. We've got multiple instances of page vandalism and a handful of people who forwarded abusive messages, all from you/an account registered just this week, realredhood, that traces back to your IP.
Look, man, you've been on this wikia and forum for a couple years and I know you've never done anything like this, but other than acting totally off the walls nuts, there's no sign you've been hacked. I don't know what's going on with you, and you're totally welcome to shoot me an email or whatever if you need to get something off your chest, but you can't keep this up and stay on the site.
A couple of the newer mods wanted to ban you outright, but we're just giving you a 2 week suspension. Get your act together, we'll be fine, okay? Like I said, shoot me an email if you need to talk, but when you come back after your suspension ends, you gotta cut that shit out.
Take care of yourself, man. I hope whatever's going on gets sorted out.
Billy (chaosmage666)
Prose sample: voicetest thread with Dick Grayson
