Drunk Tank Barman, Billy Kipling

## Origin

It began in the womb, with twins. The first trimester seemed healthy enough, until one twin vanished between Ultrasounds. VTS is a complication in which one twin absorbs the other, or is rendered a mere smear of skin called Fetus Papyrus. It was on this living parchment that a Faustian pact was written. The dying child was destined to inherit the family curse, a mutant power paid in blood for generations, but a one-way ride to Purgatory was going to ruin those plans. And so its soul, still unclean with original sin, made a deal with a devil to live vicariously through its brother. The cost of this pact? The mother had to die in labour, and the damned twin would forever hunger for a life it cannot have. It would need to feed on life to sustain its unnatural existence inside its brother-host.

Billy had a happy childhood, unaware of what grew inside him. He didn't really miss a mother he'd never known. Puberty changed everything. The inner twin tried to take control, tried to make Billy kill a classmate at grammar school. But even a hated bully wasn't enough to coerce him down a dark path. The inner twin had to bide its time to manipulate its host in other ways: and so the kid became obsessed with Punk subculture, fell in with a crowd of anarchists, dependent on substance abuse. His emerging mutant powers, though mere parlour tricks, made him incredibly popular - and this was an addictive new feeling. Billy was only too glad to spend less time around his increasingly violent alcoholic father, who felt he'd failed his dead wife by raising such a son.

The 15 yo Billy began to see a need for direct action against corrupt corporations and felt frustrated with non-violent 'Anonymous' activism. Unfortunately his need for like-minded rebels led him into the open arms of a cult, called 'Anyone'. He got in too deep, until the fateful intervention of a private investigator called Hannibal King, who was on a case stalking a corrupt Hollywood agent. King, almost purely by chance, prevented Billy from committing an explosive atrocity at a gala fundraiser, attended by fat cat oil execs trying to white-wash their guilt with their vanity charity. Having an epiphany of a sort, Billy saw the horror of what he was about to do, foiling his inner twin's latest plan to lead its host down an unforgivable path.

King recognised the conflict, being no stranger to the unnatural, and recommended Billy go see an acquaintance of his who lives in Salem Centre. Madame TwoSwords read his tarot, seeing the Magician reversed, The Judgement of The World and The Hermit coming to guide him through trials ahead. If it wasn't for Hannibal King's recommendation he'd have considered her a mad old coot, but he took her advice on-board and accepted a book from her about unwelcome occult influences. On his way back to his B&B from her shop, some X-men showed up and practically surrounded him. He didn't take too kindly to their accusation, saying "Who are you calling a mutie?" He thought he was just cursed and had no idea he was mutant, but his proximity to the Institute flagged up on Cerebro pretty plainly. Heeding Madam TwoSwords' words, he let them prove it to him back at their lab, and so began his time at Xavier's Institute for The Gifted.

Three years later he left the Institute without graduating, having 'creative differences' with the staff and their mission for mutantkind. He moved into Salem Centre and found himself odd jobs here and there, soon falling in with the Brotherhood who had courted him away from the Institute with their separatist rhetoric.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Portals ~** Billy has a connection via his 'demonic' twin to an unknown hellish dimension. He can open portals to other places within 1 mile. He can bring others through these and can even 'chain' portals together for longer travel, but this can be quite an ordeal even for those accustomed to his hellish mode of transport. They get flashes of fiendish places every time they step through each one of them. In addition to portals, he can store objects in a safe pocket of this hell-realm for retrieval. It reeks of rank brimstone, so people can't stay there long.
* **Parlor Tricks ~** The ability to do things like light cigarettes with his finger, snap to turn things on and off, or gesture to make small objects fling about the place. He may learn other tricks as time goes on, or with a proper mentor.
* **Prolonged Life ~** By laying on hands, he can literally absorb the years of someone's life from them at 1 month per second of uninterrupted grip. These stolen days feed into his inner twin but also heal up his own wounds. He needs to absorb twice the healing time a wound should take with average medical care. Therefore a year-long crippling leg wound would take 24 seconds uninterrupted. 12 months for him, 12 for his twin. He can't fix lost limbs with this nor cure any diseases modern medicine can't. He doesn't have a hope of healing fatal things like a cut jugular in the middle of a fight. Finally, there's the moral issue of *who* to steal the life from. See below.
* **Skills ~** Lockpicking, Escape Artist, Dirty Fighting: Brass knuckles, Bike chain, Flick knife, Fistful of sand..

## Weaknesses

All normal human weaknesses to injury.

**Addictions**: Glue sniffing, chain smoking, pill popping, booze drinking.

**The Price of 'Magic'**: His inner twin needs to take life to prolong its life, and will coerce him into doing so. In practise he does this by taking time from criminals caught in the act. Rather than report them to get sent to jail, he takes their time for the crime himself.

**Corruption**: His twin corrupts his thoughts and actions into feeding its unnatural life. (though it seemingly can't fully control him, so when he does reflect on his actions he still feels they are his own guilt and responsibility.)