[Banning] William Kaplan {Excalibur}

General Information

Full Name: William Asher Kaplan

Codename or Alias: Wiccan

Anonymity: Public hero and mutant

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Age: 22

Place Of Birth: Upper West Side, NY

Occupation/Status: Child of Destiny?

Alignment: Goody-goody

Factions: Excalibur, but it's more like a work study; formerly X-Men

Canon Or Original?: Canon

Powers/Abilities:
Reality Warping Magic: Quite similar to his spiritual mother the Scarlet Witch, Wiccan's main power is the superhuman ability to warp reality by manipulating magical energies. Wiccan has no standard spells usually improvising various incantations on the spot harnessing Chaos Magic by only saying what he wants to happen into reality. While generally his spells are very effective, the spells can be degraded by a lack of willingness to perform them or stress. Wiccan can use magic to increase the powers of himself or others for long periods of time. Some notable spells being: sensing locations of others, teleportation and flight, binding, psychokinesis, cryokinesis, healing, and illusion casting. There has already been evidence of a future in which he has fully grown into his Demiurge powers where his reality altering and mystical powers are greatly amplified to near-limitless levels, enabling him to view different timelines, wipe beings from existence, and even quite possibly rewrite the laws that form magic itself across the entire Marvel Universe and create entire new realities and universes.

Weapons/Items: Retrieving an object Billy needs is one of the easiest forms of desire magic, so he rarely carries weapons or equipment with him. He can create just about anything by literally speaking it into being, but for more ordinary things it's less disruptive to the Cosmic Balance to conjure an existing thing.

Appearance


Image:

Physical Appearance: Billy is the quintessential boy-next-door. He has black-brown wavy hair worn with a side part and gracefully sideswept bangs. His face is rather angular, with narrow cheeks and jaw, a bit of a button nose, and full lips. He has expressive golden brown eyes and distinct dark brows. He is fairly thin and, at 5' 8'', about average height. His overall impression is wholesome and non-threatening, though he does have a daringly pierced ear (with a simple, conservative small hoop).

Clothing and Armor:
Civilian - Billy's style is a mix of trendy and preppy. He generally dresses fairly conservatively, though he has some, to quote his mother, "gay flair." In day-to-day life, he generally dresses casually with button ups, tee shirts, and jeans or slacks.

Masked - Billy's costume includes a tattered red cloak wrapped over his shoulders, a black bodysuit with gold sides, and a thick silver headband with geometric patterns. He can conjure his costume using his powers without the need to wear it under his clothing or change into it.

Personality
Sexual Orientation: Gay

General Personality: Billy is, above all else, a nice young man. He is extremely earnest and consistently tries to do what he believes is right. He is quite trusting and a quite terrible liar. An idealist at heart, he wants to make the world a better place. He is far more motivated to help others than to help himself and needs something bigger than himself to believe in and fight for. In his eagerness, he can easily end up biting off more than he can chew. Despite his ideals, Billy lacks confidence in himself and his abilities. He responds extremely well to support and encouragement and is susceptible to taking criticism too hard.

A consummate nerd, Billy is a complete fanboy. He collects comics, plays Magic as a card game as well as a calling, is an avid sci-fi fan, and a bit of a weeb. He did some bit parts on and off Broadway as a kid and has a tendency to dance and sing show tunes in the shower or just when he's home alone. He is sweet, sincere, enthusiastic, and endowed with the best of intentions.

Face/Voice: Vincent Uehara

Character's History

Siblings:
Samuel Kaplan, Medical Student
Ira Kaplan, Engineering Student
Mother:
Rebecca Kaplan, Psychologist
Father:
Jeff Kaplan, Cardiologist
Other Family: Wanda Maximoff (mother), The Vision (father), Tommy Shepherd (twin brother), Eric Lensherr (maternal grandfather), Pietro Maximoff (maternal uncle), Lorna Dane (maternal aunt)

History: William Asher Kaplan is the reincarnation of Billy Maximoff, the magical son of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision. After the Billy and his twin brother Tommy were destroyed by Lady Blaze, they were reincarnated in the newly conceived lives of William Asher Kaplan in New York, New York and Thomas Shepherd across the Hudson River in Springfield, New Jersey. Billy grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan as an ostensibly normal, if nerdy, Jewish boy into musical theater, superheroes, and fantasy. His dad is a doctor and his mom is a psychologist. His older brother is a dick currently in med school and his younger brother is a mutant technopath studying at MIT.

Billy's magic side of the family is more complicated. His mother, Wanda Maximoff was unable to conceive a child until she worked a spell with her powerful Chaos Magic to create two human souls and nurture them to life. The spell was later dispelled by a powerful demon, killing William and Thomas Maximoff. Unbeknowst to either demon or witch, the souls were reincarnated at the moment of their destruction. Wanda's husband and the mystical father of her twins was a synthezoid man called the Vision. Billy's maternal grandmother is Natalya Maximoff, the last Scarlet Witch, and his maternal grandfather is the mutant terrorist Erik Lensherr, better known as Magneto, leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants until his slaughter at Battery Park. Other notable family members on this side include his mother's twin brother Pietro, sometimes called 'Uncle' or 'Quicksilver', and Lorna Dane, known as Polaris and connected with the Mutant Liberation Front.

Billy's mutation first manifested in seventh grade when he accidentally flash-froze his bully in a particularly violent confrontation. He didn't realize it at the time, but it happened just as his grandfather Magneto was being very publicly and horrifically lynched downtown in Battery Park. He was immediately enrolled as a day student at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters to get a handle on his powers. It was at Xavier's that Billy met Tommy, a speedster from New Jersey who just happened to share his birthday - almost down to the minute. Even stranger, the first time Tommy noticed his speed was also on the day of the Battery Park Massacre. Tommy agreed it was weird, but insisted it was some sort of coincidence. Maybe the universe made a bunch more mutants to tell racists to heck off.

Billy is a massive superhero fanboy, comic nerd, and trivia buff. He's on the JL mailing list. He had all the dumb kid hero encyclopedias growing up. He was on the boards. As a result, he knew that the Scarlet Witch and the Vision had been married before his death - and that they'd had twin boys named Billy and Tommy. Tommy admitted that was a big coincidence. Billy also knew that the Scarlet Witch's twin brother Quicksilver was a speedster with silver hair. Tommy grudgingly acknowledged something strange was up, but also literally had parents who very much were not superheroes or mutants.

Billy and Tommy's years at Xavier's School involved everything from planning a dance to battling mutant terrorists. It was a great education - very well-rounded and pragmatically focused. Following graduation, Billy and Tommy moved to Seattle to share a big flat with Cypher and a few other mutants and metas working or studying in Seattle - and often getting into superhuman hijinks in their off hours.

Using magical teleportation and mutant speed, Billy and Tommy set out on an around the world trip to find the Scarlet Witch, who had disappeared after the death of her husband, the Vision. Alone and grieving, Wanda cast a spell on herself to seal away her own memories and all traces of her. She created a new life and new set of memories for herself as an apple farmer in the mountains of rural Romania, having little contact even with the nearby village and removing herself entirely from the larger world. It was here Billy and Tommy found her, feeling the magical connection of family the moment they met, Billy's magic calling to Wanda's and shattering her enchantment.

Billy has decided to give up on trying to have a normal life. Something cosmic always happens. He is quite literally made of magic. He isn't normal. He's extraordinary.

"Are you lost, strangers?" a woman's voice called out in Romanian from within the rows of low apple trees laden with dusty red fruit. "You're a long ways up the mountain."

Billy and Tommy were standing at the top of a half mile long drive which was nothing more than a grassy cart track down to the unpaved road. They both were in their hero costumes, Tommy because he had to in order to use his speed and Billy in solidarity. Thanks to the translation spell Billy had cast when they set out on their global search, he was able to call back in fluent Romanian, "We are not lost, but we are looking for someone who has been lost."

Billy gave a hopeful, beaming smile as Wanda stepped into view, feeling his heart and his magic surge with recognition. Wanda gave a surprised start, looking between them with visible confusion mounting into distraught recognition. Her eyes and skin began to glow with a soft, pulsing scarlet glow which grew stronger with every surge.

"Mom?" Billy asked, eyes and body flaring with blue light in a brilliant burst forming a cleansing magic circle. The light gently faded around both of them, Wanda's expression calming and then falling slack. Tommy zipped in front of Wanda, who looked up as if shaking off a dream. 

He snapped his fingers a dozen times in quick succession and demanded, "Okay, if you're really our mom, which one of us is older?"

"He's going to be insufferable now," Billy groaned, pointedly ignoring Tommy's victorious shouting and leaping.

"This must be why I'm so much wiser than you," Tommy taunted with a delighted smirk. "I'm not just faster, I've been here longer, too."

"This changes nothing!" Billy snapped.

"Totally, totally. It changes nothing. It just confirms the natural order of things and my clear superiority," Tommy said smugly, zooming circles around his brother and mother. Billy was about to say something cutting when he abruptly stopped, attention captured by his mother, whose face was wet with free flowing tears. Tommy followed Billy's gaze and noticed as well, both boys awkwardly falling silent, unsure what to do in response to her tears.

"Oh, my boys. You are practically men and still you are squabbling like toddlers." Wanda reached out and drew both of them into a tight hug. She squeezed them as tight as her strength allowed, feeling the weight of them, the physical reality of their presence. "I never thought I would see you again. I have missed so much. You are already grown." 

Billy and Tommy felt a fresh wave of tears spill down onto them as they shared a long look. Billy felt a surge of gratitude for the years at Xavier's, for meeting Tommy - insufferable though he could be - and for the years they'd already shared together. They'd saved each others lives dozens of times. They'd played video games all night together. They'd fought aliens and won. Just normal Xavier student experiences. Billy and Tommy shared a long look and both started to silently cry, and for the first time, they gave their mother a hug together.

"Don't cry, Mom," Billy ventured hesitantly, squeezing her.

"Yeah, we're really immature," Tommy said. "We still have loads of milestones left."

"Plus there's some stuff we really messed up and should maybe redo anyway," Billy added hopefully, looking up.

"Are you sorry we came to find you?" Tommy asked Wanda, breaking the twins' banter.

"Should we have left you alone?" Billy echoed.

"Never!" Wanda exclaimed, drawing back and holding the boys by the shoulder. "Let me see you. Let me look at you. I don't want to miss anything."