Male | 31 | Homosexual ππ£π£πππ₯ππ‘ππ
βββββββBilly Halford stands at an impressive 6β2β, though with his tendency to slouch, he usually appears a little shorter than he actually is. Itβs mostly out of laziness, and his posture is terrible; shoulders rolled forward, hands stuck deep in his pockets. Pretty much the only time he grows to full height is when he feels threatened, and has been known to be truly terrifying when he does so. Fortunately, however, this side of him is not something people see very often.
Turquoise green eyes always seem to glimmer with something akin to amusement; and these days, Billy can often be seen chewing away at tabs of gum in an attempt to break a near-lifelong smoking habit. While he used to be a tad insecure about a crooked front tooth, heβs long since gotten past it. He likes to keep his dirty blonde hair cropped close in a messy undercut, though it inevitably grows out into a loose shag when he forgets to pay a visit to the barber. While he prefers to stay clean shaven, he often gets lazy and gives his scruff free rein. Upon closer inspection, one will also find a light smattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose and cheekbones. Other than that, he does have a few notable scars. One of which is an inch or two under his right eye, stretching from the top of his ear, and another, smaller one cutting vertically through the eyebrow. Both of them were from a fight heβd gotten into a couple years back, where he ended up with the pointy end of a broken bottle to the face. Additionally, the surface of his skin is peppered by a maze of tiny battle scars, most of them souvenirs from past altercations.
That said, heβs not super built, but still pretty solid, and itβs largely due to his genes rather than trips to the gym. Heβd almost have a swimmerβs physique, but lately, itβs been softened by one too many Big Macs, though he likes to think his latest part-time gig as a mover keeps him fit enough. His voice, as is befitting of his appearance, is a deep, rumbling timbre, but Billy doesnβt quite sound like he used to, after years spent away from his hometown. Most of the time, his accent can be described as generic - bland, even - a monotonous mix of North and South. In times of extreme emotion, however, he reverts back to the lazy, slack-jawed inflection characteristic to a native of the Appalachias.
βAccidental Hipsterβ is probably the best way to describe Billyβs non-existent fashion sense. He doesnβt put much effort into keeping up appearances, but somehow, still has a knack for turning his dΓ©shabillΓ© to his advantage. When it gets chilly, he resorts to heavy flannels and/or ugly woollen sweaters. Paired with his positively ancient jeans and work boots, the whole aesthetic almost seems to scream βlumberjackβ. On warmer days, well, he dresses exactly the same - except instead of hideous, moth-eaten sweaters scavenged from the thrift store, itβs ratty, old t-shirts and wifebeaters. Billy also seems to wear a lot of jewelry for a guy, though itβs mostly leather and beaded bracelets, steel rings on his fingers, and of course, those douchey seashell necklaces.
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βββββββBilly enjoys a bottle of whiskey on the weekends, loves his dog a little too much, and could probably do with seeing a barber more than once every six months. But for all his tactlessness, he really does mean well. When he asks a question, he really does want to know the answer, and when loves, he loves pretty ferociously. His sense of humor, however crude, will never fail to bring a smile to peopleβs faces, and even if that doesnβt work, his laugh is deathly infectious. Billy is one of those guys you hate to love, and he knows it well. Even so, he can be unpredictable, adamant, and dislikes making commitments, especially those he is not sure he can keep. But whatever one might be led to believe, heβs an extremely passionate, and emotional person. When he truly takes interest in something (or someone), he puts all of himself into it, and momentarily forgets about everything else.
This, however, means that he is very bad at relationships β really, really bad. He often comes as pushy and overly aggressive, in both his work and his life outside of it. One of Billyβs defining traits is his volatility, though heβs mellowed out a little with age. No longer does he get into barfights (well, less than he used to, anyway), but he still makes a point of saying what he thinks, and will rarely sugarcoat his words to win people over. Heβs never uncomfortable; in fact, his boldness often verges on brash and crosses into downright crude, thanks to his lack of a filter. If he likes something, he'll let you know it, and if he doesn't, well, he's never been shy about voicing his opinion in that matter either. Try as he might, Billyβs never really had the best poker face in the world, and it tends to give him away, more often than not.
If thereβs one thing he canβt stand, itβs being talked down to. Of course, this isnβt to say heβs all bad, just that heβs hard to like. He does have a few soft spots here and there, even if they arenβt exactly the easiest things to find. Yet for all his flaws, heβs never met a boundary he wouldnβt cross, and heβll go to the absolute ends of the Earth for you if he thinks youβre worth it. Billy is, by nature, extremely impulsive, both in the things he does and says. As far as heβs concerned, lifeβs too short to just sit around and let shit happen. He often states that no one should take life too seriously because in the end, everyone ends up in the same place - even if he doesnβt believe what heβs preaching. At the very core of his personality, Billy is kind of a bleeding heart, and often puts the needs of others above his own.
Not many people know this, but Billy is deathly afraid of horses, courtesy of a rather unfortunate incident during his teenage years. Fortunately, horses arenβt something you see very often in the city. The next oneβs a little less obvious, but heβs terrified of becoming his father, and what heβs going to do if everything with Abracadabra! ends up falling through.
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ββββββββββ French fries
β Dogs
β Coffee
β Warm weather
β Broccoli
β Horror movies
β Vodka
β Horses
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βββββBorn the oldest of three children in rural Kentucky, childhood wasnβt quite as picturesque for the young William Halford as most othersβ. His father, like everyone else in town, was a coal miner who spent more of his free time getting drunk at the local bar than taking care of his son. His mother, meanwhile, managed to juggle two different jobs at the same time. Suffice to say, Billy didnβt exactly grow up surrounded by sunshine and rainbows. But still, that was something he genuinely wanted - a loving, close-knit family, just like one of those obnoxiously American Norman Rockwell paintings heβd seen in the pages of his textbooks. His fatherβs idea of a bond with his son, however, was keeping the women he brought home a secret from his mother, while she thought quality time with Billy was handing him a list of chores to do as she spent her afternoons bussing tables at the local diner, and her nights at the gas station.
It wasnβt long before his father took off up north with a rouged-up tart on his arm. For a few years, Billy, his siblings, and his mom got by. He had to grow up fast, of course, but he never blamed his mother, not even for a second. Carol Ann Halford was a real good parent, if you could look past the fact that she wasnβt much of a parent at all. She was still his mother, and she worked her ass off to keep a roof over their heads. Most days, Billy tried to convince himself that having no father was better than having a drunk, deadbeat loser as one. There were people all over the world who had a hell of a lot less, and Billy knew he had to count his blessings each night and say a quick prayer to whoever it was that listened, if anybody at all. That, of course, left Billy to take care of his siblings while she was away, and he was a good sport about it, too - never fussing, never complaining - at least up until high school, anyway.
In school, he started to struggle, both academically and socially, though if he had to be honest, he saw that shit coming from a mile away. As his grades slipped, his frustration grew, and soon, he began to take his anger out on the people around him. There were too many things about him that could be picked on for his liking, and so he grew louder, more boisterous, and was forever throwing the first punch in a fight. You had to be living under a rock to not know his name, in fact, and Billy loved every second of it, no matter how many times he was sent to the principalβs office, knuckles bruised and bleeding. Everyone was divided when it came to Billy - you either loved or hated him, and oddly enough, he was okay with that. It put him on the map and gave him the attention he craved; the attention he lacked. Back home, his mother was none the wiser, too busy with trying to make ends meet to pay any heed.
At age seventeen, Billy found himself with no real higher education prospects. He was uninvolved in extracurricular activities, uninterested in his studies, and shovelling horse poop at a neighbourβs farm for a few dollars a day. For all intents and purposes, it looked like he was heading down the same path everyone else in town did - that of a coal miner. It was a respectable living, sure, but did he really want to spend his entire life stuck in a dank cave somewhere, chipping away at rocks? But his siblings were getting old enough to take care of themselves, werenβt they? It wouldnβt hurt to take a week out of his life for a short holiday. And so, with what money they could scrape together, Billy and a few friends embarked on a trip NYC, as one last hurrah before they finally settled into a life of mundanity. Once they got there, however, things were a whole lot different from what they saw on TV. By the end of their second day there, Billy and his friends had gotten thrown out of more places than he could count for causing a βpublic disturbanceβ.
Billyβs first brush with show business (if it can even be called that), came in the form of a bespectacled casting agent from a modelling agency. I know what youβre thinking, but however hard it might be to believe, he did use to be the hot, young thing once. Instead of returning home with his friends at the end of the week, he signed a contract with the modelling agency after an audition. For a while, that was what he did - editorials and runway modeling. It was easy enough to stand around and look pretty, but no one ever fell over themselves to book him for a show. Still, he earned enough to get by, and every month, he would send an envelope filled with some money back home. Of course, nothing lasts forever, and when his problem with authority started to catch up, job offers slowly dried up.
Billy eventually turned to various odd jobs to keep himself afloat - moving furniture, mopping floors - he even worked as a morgue technician, at one point. In search of his next meal, he ended up auditioning for a bit part in an commercial. Not exactly the most exciting stuff, but it wasnβt hard to smile, look surprised, and act like the simple act pouring a drink was instead an insurmountable mountain, impossible to anyone but the most nimble of humans beings. The director was apparently sold by Billyβs βblandly handsomeβ appearance, and called him in to do another commercial for some strange, mechanical mop.
Itβs around this time that Billy starts to lose it, his accent; the accent he hadnβt even realized he owned. It flavored his words with an odd, downward lilt that people noticed immediately, their attention shifting from what heβs saying to how heβs saying it. At first, they say itβs charming. That he is charming. That itβs a βquaintβ little accent, like theyβre speaking to a child. After that, they say other things. Things in the ballpark of βuneducatedβ and βunculturedβ, without being so obvious. No one took him seriously. How can they, his housemate argued, when you sound like that? He started to bleed it out after that. Loud, rough words smoothing themselves out into something thatβs a bit more monotone, a blend of North and South that made him sound like nothing at all. As soon as he started doing that, he managed to pull together a semi-stable career as a commercial actor.
During one of the many dry periods in his life, Billy found himself sweeping floors at The Lawrence Theatre. That was also how he found out about Abracadabra!. Come to think of it, they were probably pretty desperate to fill their ranks, at that point. He still doesnβt know what possessed him to audition, but lo and behold - he actually got the gig through an impromptu, acoustic rendition of Knockinβ On Heavenβs Door played on a badly tuned guitar he found in the depths of the janitorβs closet. Truth be told, he didnβt even know that was a possibility. The schools heβd went had been ridiculously underfunded, and any art or theatre programs were but a far-off dream. Well, that was what he had to do now, anyway. And you know what they say - thereβs no time like the present.
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ββββββ Accents - Billy has a real knack for accents. Most acquaintances donβt even realise heβs from Kentucky until they hear how he sounds completely shitfaced.
β Singing - Heβs actually pretty good at singing, just that he still has a bit of trouble with actually projecting his voice across the room. Billy doesnβt like to tell anyone, but he spent a good part of his childhood as a choirboy at his townβs congregation. Billyβs vocal color can be categorized somewhere between a dramatic and lyric baritone.
β Sturdy - Billy handles most of the heavy-lifting in Abracadabra!. Itβs no sweat off his back, really, heβs been doing that kind of thing for a long time. And if he ever ends up getting into a fight, heβs happy to note that he still packs a mean right hook.
β Quick-witted - Billy is quick-witted, able to think incredibly fast on his feet. While his long-term planning isnβt quite up to par (read: terrible), heβs rather good at making split-second decisions that rescue him from sticky situations.
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ββββββββ Untrained - Billyβs never had any formal training in acting, and it shows. In fact, his approach to most things can be summed up with an age-old adage: βjust wing itβ. Itβs been getting him by well enough, but how long that lasts is a question thatβs yet to be answered.
β Tactless - Diplomacy is a huge problem for him, and he makes a terrible habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Try as he might, heβs never really had the best poker face in the world, and it tends to give him away more than not.
β Stubborn - Above all else, Billy values his pride. His facade of confidence is (mostly) unwavering, and he likes to think of himself the alpha dog in any social situation heβs in. Even in the most dire of situations, he rarely resorts to asking for help.
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ββββββββSupporting Actor - Billyβs acting isnβt anything to write home about, but he can still follow stage directions and say his lines. Most of the time, what he ends up doing is more of a glorified bit part than anything, but his skill at accents comes in handy for that.
Stagehand - When heβs not on stage himself, you can often find Billy running around backstage, moving props, setting up lights, and making sure no one gets killed and/or maimed by any falling scenery.
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βββββ Billy owns a 2 year-old rescue dog named
Romeo. He's a mutt, mostly Rottweiler and American Bulldog, but he loves him all the same, because
come on - look at that face.
β Benjamin Coffin III in Rent, or Adolfo Pirelli in Sweeney Todd.