20 Facts: William Woodrow

1. When he was a baby, his uncle originally kept him as a pet. Liam Woodrow found the small, strange octopus-like creature aboard his ship a month after his brother mysteriously drowned. He kept the odd thing as a pet on his ship until Billy turned two and started to be able to take a more human shape.

2. Billy was home schooled. His lessons generally involved basic reading and math, neither of which he excelled in, and fishing, de-boning, and cooking which he did excel in. He had an insatiable curiosity, and excellent problem solving skills, which generally lead to mischief of varying sorts.

3. He became involved with drugs when he was twelve. Growing up at the docks meant that he also lived in a bad part of the city and he was exposed to shady dealings just by walking to the store. What friends he did make were often older, using him as an errand boy for a dollar here and there. One day, the dealer who used him gave him a tip that changed his life for ever. Ever after, he was constantly wondering what else he could put up his nose to get a high, even if it's flour or dish detergent. He wasn't very bright to begin with, but the abuse he's put his system through has not helped.

4. He became involved in the magical underground when he was fifteen. Along the same path, he eventually was discovered by Montgomery Korey, a notorious underground magician with a penchant for 'collecting' interesting shape shifters.  It was under Monty's wing that Billy grew in fame in his underground fighting rings.

5. He attends regular 'shifter group meetings' by court order. Like other 'inhumans', Billy is victimized by the Conduit, being forced to attend meetings and to be tracked by the Conduit to make sure he is not a danger to society.

6. He met Cecil through these groups. Secretly a scout for Monty at these meetings, he managed to see Cecil's potential as a strong magician when he first moved to the same city, and gave him the idea to get the loan he needed to start his book shop by joining up with Monty's team.

7. He dates his councilor. No one is entirely sure why Eden is so attracted to the slimy part-fime felon.  Some say it's scientific curiosity. Her partner and Billy's main councilor Peter is quietly jealous as a result.

8. He's a follower, not a leader.  Billy has a habit of idolizing strong personalities he admires. Be it Monty, or Raven or Cecil, he loves being in the company of people smarter than him to point him in the right direction for what could be 'fun.'

9. He has a weakness for blondes.  He thinks they're hot.

10. He sometimes vanishes for days, with or without his boat.  No one knows where he goes, exactly, but his friends figure he just goes for long swims to clear his head when pressure gets too high for the cepholopod.

11. He loves fish. They are his favorite thing. Seafood makes up his entire diet- he'll eat red meat and chicken occasionally, but red meat makes his stomach ache and he finds chicken boring.  Nothing excites him more than a raw clam or a can of sardines.

12.  He is a compulsive thief. Shiny things somehow manage to find themselves in his pockets, whether he's aware that he's putting them there or not.  He's attracted to silver and mirrored objects especially, and will sometimes hoard his findings until desperate and then takes them to a pawn shop.  Associates have to check his boat occasionally for missing watches and jewelry and nick knacks before the dumbass sells them for coke.

13. He is able to have up to eight limbs at once, in any combination of leg, arm or tentacle. He finds it more confusing to make multiple legs, and so usually grows his tentacles around his shoulders or form extra arms instead. It still takes a lot of concentration to keep track of his shape, color, texture, and limb location, which is why his friends theorize he's so dim-witted in every other way.

14. He makes most of his money through odd jobs for Monty.  He claims his job is a fisherman, and while he does bring in a good haul of fish, most of his catchings he keeps for himself, or sells to a vender at the local farmer's market but his primary source of income is from money earned from odd jobs for Monty as well as fighting other shifters in Monty's ring.

15. He has a lot of trouble keeping a human shape when in water.  There's just something about it that makes it impossible for him to be more than vaguely human shaped.

16. His mother is really a mermaid. This has been a theory of his for a while, but has yet to be confirmed. Often, his long trips out to sea are a subconscious search for her.

17.  He actually tries to go completely straight edge at one point to try to impress eden. He shaves his beard, cleans himself up, wears his hair back and a polo shirt. This phase lasted only a few days.

18. He usually wears black because it's harder for ink stains. Vomiting ink has it's down sides, like stained teeth and messy clothes. The compulsion to squirt ink is impulsive and cannot be controlled, happening when he's startled or

19. After watching that episode of Futurama where Zoidberg writes a personal letter using his ink to make it that much more intimate, Billy tried this. His friends were not very pleased to receive the product of his efforts.

20. The one thing Billy loves more than his houseboat he inherited from his uncle is his car. He's been rebuilding it from an old junker since he was sixteen. He's the only one of his pals that has his own wheels and finds himself as both Cecil and Filinas's personal transporter.