#kitty mutants

Name: Billy

All of them are Billy. Don't try to distinguish them with Billy#1, #2, etc. No descriptors like Spoon Billy, Leaf Billy, etc. It's just Billy. That's Billy. That's Billy. That's Billy. All Billy.

Gender: ???cat???

Pronouns: Billy talks about Billy in the third person. So pronouns between Billies aren't a thing. However they/them is appropriate for other folks discussing the Billies as a unit.

Height: 4 foot (1.22m) including ears. Smol.

Species: A single (1) NYC feral alley cat

Age before mutation: 4 or 5 months. Gangly, hyper, confused. Curious. Bad ideas abound. However, could hunt, groom, hide, and fight (badly) as a cat.

Age after mutating: It has been about 3 months since Billy became sentient.

Skills:

A+ scavenger! Billy likes soft things, shiny things, food things, and stuff that goes boing.

Digging! Billy lives with Sgt. Billy (and sometimes Billy and Billy and Billy) in the hidey hole that leads to the Billy Base beneath the tool shed behind the children's museum in Brooklyn near the skate park.

Making Billies! You could call Billy a copycat. There's only one mutant: a single cat named Billy. However, Billy's mutation lets Billy make duplicate Billies. Which is good, because Billy gets lonely.

The problem is that all Billies share one Billy brain. So the more Billies there are, the less braincells they all have.

One Billy is about as smart as a 12 year old. Two Billies are an argument between 9 year olds. Three Billies are 6 year old gremlins. Four Billies are a complete disaster. Billy has never hit five Billies.

The default number of Billies is 2 because Billy likes being with Billy. Buddy system.

Appearance:

All Billies are Billy. So all Billies are physically identical: solid black cat, thin and noodly due to their age and diet, head too big to pass as a normal cat. The longer a Billy is out doing Billy things, the dirtier and scruffier their fur and clothes will look. Grooming is not something Billies do in public. Not safe! But grooming at the Billy Base doesn't last long since the only exit is a hole in the dirt. So Billies are just messy.

Folks don't get to see Billy body, though. All Billies wear many layers of clothes for maximum pockets. For camouflage. For having spare clothes when there is another Billy. And for the safety of seeming bigger than they are.

Mismatched hoodies and cuffed up sweatpants under basketball shorts and scarves with hats and once Billy found a tool belt, which had so many pockets but kept get caught on things. Billies are little waddling heaps of clothes.

Friends/Family:

Billy is learning to be a people from commanding officer and currently homeless veteran, Sergeant Billy Coleman. Sgt. Coleman needs far more help and resources than he's getting, but he's coping with his situation as best he can. He lost his right foot to a cartridge trap in Vietnam and uses an old prosthetic below the knee. He self-medicates with alcohol and self-soothes talking about himself in third person. He identifies heavily with stray animals and will split food with them when he has it.

The Billies, freshly mutated and frightened by suddenly having higher thought and multiple versions of themselves, fell into Sgt Billy's orbit for the food. Their eventual bonding as a family unit is a whole story that deserves its own post.

For his part though, Sgt Billy Coleman has never had kids or pets. However, he had soldiers in his command. On his best days, he teaches the Billies like the army taught him: how to take care of yourself and your squad and to stay alive. (Also to swear. Because soldiers.) On days when Sgt is struggling, the Billies scavenge food and water for him and act as lookouts so that their Sgt stays safe. When he is too sick, they bundle him in blankets in the Billy Base beneath the shed. It's dark and small, but the Billies keep the rats out and the warmth in. And they're making it bigger...

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This character(s) was written for a TMNT 2012 role play set in season 2 or so where the main characters are still reasonably untraumatized but weird krang stuff is happening.

I think the Billies as a concept would be adaptable to just about any TMNT universe. I would only vary how realistic their father figure's troubles are. In a more lighthearted universe, for instance, the Billies wouldn't be hearing combat-experience-based bedtime stories. That's more of a 2012 thing.

But yes. These are my beloved trash-children, the Billies.