just your average woman who can turn into a flaming red firebird. billie loves all creatures, both real and mythological. she has a degree in veterinary medicine, though prefers working with exotics rather than domestics. but by this point, she's what she would consider to be a seasoned cryptologist who sometimes supplements her income with just a lil bit of crime.
personality
+
empathetic. always willing to lend a helping hand. nurturing. loyal. passionate. adaptable. protective. openminded.
human billie is an average-sized blonde woman, with hair that reaches just past her shoulders and very rarely put together. she has a sullen look about her and it would be easy to misconstrue her as being a miserable person. but she also has a wide smile, gap in the top teeth and all, that she lets out when truly happy or entertained by something. her eyes are blue but will sometimes flash orange depending on her emotions. her fashion sense is simple but feminine with plain shirts, jeans, some menswear, and sensible shoes. she does dress up when the time calls for it, but for the most part, she prefers to be comfortable.
in her phoenix form billie is large, resembling an eagle but with the size of a wandering albatross. she has a wingspan of 12ft, with a colorful plumage and a long gold, scarlet, and burnt orange colored tail.
abilities
background
billie boudreaux was born the sixth child and only daughter to a couple from louisiana. her mother ran a small farm and her father owned a swamp & airboat tour company that he ran with his family. everyone in the boudreaux family worked doing something, no matter their age or gender. they may not have been the wealthiest family, but they did their best with what they had and considered themselves wealthy in love.
despite being the youngest and only girl, billie had the same sort of upbringing as her brothers. they may have been just a bit tougher on her just because she was a girl, as they saw it as the only way to ensure that she would grow up tough. this led to a stubborn streak a mile long and a little girl who didn't believe in backing down or limits.
simply put she was an annoying child. always underfoot and insistent on being taken along on all of her brothers' and cousins' adventures. this meant that when they got into some shit, so did she, and when they were getting in trouble, so was she. but she also learned how to do things that she probably shouldn't have. like how to hotwire cars, how to hustle at pool (and later chess), and how to drive way earlier than she was supposed to.
but as much as she liked hanging with her brothers, she also enjoyed doing her own thing. she was fascinated by animals and was always helping them or bringing them home. her family ran a swamp boat tour business and she enjoyed helping out if only because it meant that she got to see so many animals. she was always one of the first out volunteering to round up and move gators, get turtles off of the roads, and bring home wounded animals.
secretly, or not-so-secretly when it came to her family, billie's favorite type of creature were cryptids. she was obsessed with learning about them, where they were from, what they were like, and pretty much anything she could find. she'd spend hours trawling through the swamps and the bayou teche in hopes of finding something and swore she'd spend the rest of her life looking.
funnily enough when she was eleven and on the verge of puberty she found out that there was a little bit something different about her. it started with her body heat rising, then gaining some control over fire (really this meant she was setting things on fire unintentionally), followed by sprouting wings, and finally reaching a crescendo with a full-body transformation into a large bird.
to say everyone was shocked would be a lie. there were stories from her mother's side of the family about members sometimes having strange abilities, but it had been so long that her mother had forgotten about it. it took some coaxing but after a few days, billie's family was able to get her to shift back to her human form, though it took some extra time to teach her how to become completely human again. there was always some pesky problem like residual wings or bird feet.
so the girl with a cryptid obsession turned out to be a mythological bird, a phoenix to be exact. the next few years for her included going through puberty while trying to get the hang of her new powers and not turn into a bird every time her adrenaline was heightened. there were a lot more scorch marks around the house, but she eventually started to supplement the things she ruined by replacing them with new stolen ones.
she was a good student but didn't let that stop her life of juvenile delinquency. as soon as she learned how to drive (at age eleven) she was getting into trouble with her brothers. she figured out how to use her powers for her benefit, which meant doing shit that was illegal and no good. of course, her brothers also taught her how to utilize her size, nimble fingers, and smile for a lot of other stuff, like getting into cramped spaces and charming her way out of trouble. she was never officially caught but her parents knew that she was involved.
unlike her brothers she chose to go to college after high school, surprising everyone even herself. she attended louisiana state and earned her bachelor of science and her doctorate of veterinary medicine.
once she was done with school she did the most logical thing for her, she fucked off. she took the money she'd saved while working odd jobs during school, packed up what little of her shit that she couldn't stand to part with, and shoved it all in her truck. it was time for her to do some widespread cryptid hunting.
unfortunately, there is no school that will fund cryptozoology research, so billie had to go and search out these beings on her own. there was always doubt that she'd find something, but she figured that if she existed then why wouldn't there be others like her out there.
she wasn't always successful in her endeavors. most of these beings were skittish, which she understood. but there were a few times when she managed to get lucky, usually by using her own story as a way to make a connection.
as a way to supplement her income she chose the easy way out. hustling dudes out of their money in rundown bars, picking pockets, and even counting cards in vegas. but unfortunately, she got too cocky and ended up getting into some trouble in vegas. this was a bummer, but hey, it also led to her catching the attention of the adventure society.
she considers the society to be a place that she was always meant to end up at. she does try to not talk to some of the others as if they're just something she wants to study and not actual people. but she's getting better.
miscellaneous trivia
smokes more than anyone should, both cigarettes and weed. a bit jaded about the whole living forever thing.
not a picky eater and will eat almost anything, the exception being squid/octopus. her favorite food is deep-fried apple pie.
always has a variety of lock picking tools with her and claims that picking locks is just a hobby. she also keeps a rare earth magnet, just for funsies.
drives a very old cherry red ford f-150 that is in pristine shape, thanks to years of hard work on her part. she has an attached refurbished airstream that she lives out of.
has had a ton of pets over the years and currently has a pet lynx named morgoth. he's not exactly legal or anything, but she saved him when he was a kitten and he's refused to leave her side since.
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