Name: Willoughby Clay
Nickname: Will
Age and Birthday: Looks in early 30s
Height: 5ft9
Pronouns and gender: Uses he/him pronouns and their equivalents. Man. But it’s a long story and best boiled down with ‘his gender is performative but whose isn’t?’ and then left alone.
What they are: A kind of wild fae - debatably.
Style and Appearance: Lot of corduroy and knits. Brings a sort of ‘former hippie who became an english professor in a wes anderson film’ vibe to things when out in public. Thick dark hair, typically styled up and back, and at least a few days of stubble growth. Has light hazel eyes.
Piercings and tattoos: None.
Scars and distinguishing marks: None.
Sexuality: Closest human equivalent would be pan or bi. Not got a lot of experience, but is up for trying most things, and is also very open about his lack of experience in all things romantic or sexual.
FC: X
Abilities: Travel between worlds with total ease using the in betweens. Shadows, rivers, bridges, thresholds. Anywhere he wants at dawn and dusk. Physically alter shape and appearance to that of a human. Tough skin, a bit of a resistance to some physical harm but nothing huge. Wicked good sense of smell for all kinds of things, but especially good at finding magic.
Weaknesses: Iron. Perfumes fuck him up, too strong, too much of a chemical feel. Creature brain says you hide when things are scary, so he is prone to spooking and then destroying things to disappear. Seems like a weakness.
Links: Canon - Media - Fun Stuff - Aesthetic - Music - Threads
Other bits and pieces:
As said, the human look is an ability. One he will keep up under almost all circumstances. He knows people who are aware of non-humanoid fae do not take them seriously in their real appearance, and he’s invested a lot into being ‘Willoughby’. It is a physical form.
Comes from the inbetweens. A sort of refuse pocket between realms, where things that get lost might end up, and which exists more strongly within the transitional parts of realms. Sometimes you lose something and it ends up there on its own. Findable by its original owners, or by something else, making it gone forever to the person who lost it. It’s sort of a junkyard.
Sells things he finds in the in between, both in fairy markets and human ones. Stall is always called Lost and Found. A mix of genuinely interesting stuff, and total crap. Sort of a dodgy antique dealer, because sometimes things need some help getting lost before he claims them.
Considers himself a gentleman thief.
Only part of his inhuman appearance that's seen occasionally are the claws, four of them on each hand, two long, two short. For digging and climbing. They can do some harm, but aren’t meant for it. Potentially people might feel a roughness to his tongue, too, which is definitely a normal human length at all times, don’t look any closer, take my word for it.
Has a true name in a fairy sense. A name that has power over him. But that’s a lets talk ooc if you want your muse to know it thing, cause he isn’t someone whose real name would be a known entity. Not important enough to be recorded anywhere.
Temper can show when things don’t go how he wants and expects. Prone to tantrums and outbursts. Petty, vindictive, hissy fit throwing.
Wants to be taken seriously. Sticks to his idea of what is proper and respectable regardless, even though it was informed by literature, and almost exclusively things written before the 1930s.
Actually isn't completely ignorant to a lot of human things, he lives in a world of lost crap after all, he's seen more and read more than what he's latched onto as 'Will'. There are still major gaps in his knowledge though, putting people together through trash isn't the best method of getting a full understanding.
Long form backstory and bio (Least necessary read, you can skip these bits):
Willoughby is just a little creature. Born into a junk pile of lost and unwanted belongings. Not considered a fae by most of faerie, but humans who don’t know better would see him as one. Initially raised with a family, and then isolated over the years. It’s a lonely existence just scuffling around an endless field of trash searching for stuff to eat. Incidentally, part of why they’re so good at snuffling up magic is because spirits that get lost are a staple part of their diet. Usually it’s parts of spirits, full human or fae don’t usually wind up with them.
At some point in the endless repetitive cycle of searching, they stumbled upon something quite unique. A house. An entire home. A large country house at that. Something that could’ve been used as a filming location for a bbc miniseries based on a Jane Austen novel. Maybe it’s not landed gentry, managed by the national trust levels of big, but it was clearly a home with money and worth. Left to moulder and rot for a few decades, totally abandoned and untouched. Furniture, belongings, everything.
Exploring the house brought them to a library full of crumbling and poorly cared for books, hallways of portraits and little bits and pieces to uncover and learn about the people who’d lived there. All subtly covered in the smell of fae magic. Whatever got the house lost, it involved some kind of pissed off fairy.
So they created a character, for fun at first, built from the stories they’d read. Name picked from the pages to fit the home. He became ‘him’, not really having any connection or relationship to human concepts of gender before, but ‘him’ seemed the most fun when it came to stomping around an empty home and playing pretend. Willoughby wasn’t the only voice, he was just the one that lasted, that became more than just play.
He thinks he can duel, swords of guns, that he's a deft hand with a bow and arrow, and an accomplished piano-forte player. Reality might say otherwise. Only having himself to please and impress. Also likes croquet, cross stitch, writing by hand, pretending he knows what horses are and how to ride them,
The appearance of 'Willoughby' wasn't taken from the portraits, they didn't look like the humans and fae he saw scavenging in the inbetween, so he took the softness, delicate features, and incredibly pale skin, to be an art style. It's never occurred to him that his human build and appearance is incongruous with the clothes, the language, the character.
Realizing their opportunity, their position, Will decided to change up how they were living and existing. Why scrounge around endlessly for survival when he could build something better for himself. Sell what he found. It wasn’t unheard of, he saw and ran away from numerous scavengers from other realms looking for goods to sell or use. So he decided to do that. You can find him at antiques fairs, flea markets, car boot sales, bring and buys, anything and everything where he can set up a little stand and sell the crap he’s found.
Overtime, he realized it’d be easier to find stuff worth selling if he could help it to get lost. Using the ability to move through in betweens - shadows and thresholds in particular - to start finding things to make lost, only to ‘find’ them later back home. And sometimes flat out steal stuff, cause it’s easier.
Profoundly, deeply, lonely. Very isolated. Wants to gain connection, but is always acting and playing a part, so finds it difficult because people don’t react how he expects. For the sake of RP, if we’re rolling with pre-established relationships, we can bypass getting through that outer layer, and have a more genuine connection where Will can just be them. Not Willoughby Clay, human.
Even alone. Will stays as a human. Stays as Willoughby. Sure, if completely alone he might dress a bit less reserved, but he will always look human. It is a choice, and a part of him. He started using his hobby/entertainment of a human appearance for work. People don't take inhuman fae seriously in his line of work, even others who also aren't humanoid by nature. Fae hounds, redcaps, cat sidhe, he'd been laughed at by more than one when trying to make deals as himself. Even if they can tell, and not all can, what kind of creature he is, it made a difference to be perceived as humanoid. It got respect.
