Willem
Lieutenant Willem "Rebound" Price
Kevin McKidd
Kevin McKidd as Willem Price
Name: Willem Price
Alias: Rebound
Age: 27
Hair & Eyes: Coppery hair & blue-grey eyes
Faction: Air Wing
Position: Viper Pilot/Butt of 100 Jokes/Lieutenant
Colony: Libran
Play Times: Varied, I work odd hours.
Timezone: Pacific

Biographical Info

History

You don't always get what you want. One of the most dependable principles of the universe is just that. Despite your best intentions, hopes, and dreams, you may always end up doing something other than what you planned on doing. This happened from the dawn of time when early man first looked up at the sky and saw a bird soaring, when he was busy foraging for food and wondering what it would be like to fly.

The difference is, Willem Price, son of Morgan and Althea Price never once thought he would be the one doing the flying when he was young. His father was a Colonial Fleet Major and second-generation, for that matter, Morgan's own father Ross was a Colonial Raptor pilot who died in the last days of the Cylon War. His son survived, though, on a support ship and had a solid but unglamorous career with the reputation as a just and rational man. Althea, his mother, was a journalist and writer for the Libran Gazette, and known for having a level-headed stance on almost everything and a firm committment to facts, the truth, and had a certain religious zeal about the trade which probably took the place of a certain degree of religious faith that their family lacked. In short, Willem was luckier than a lot of people with a stable, responsible home life and parents who treated him as a 'little adult'(he was an only child) from a very young age and taught him to critically think, tolerate, and try to understand the worlds around him. A wordy kid, he had his mother's gift for rhetoric and historical and political context. It seemed a no-brainer that he would sort of follow in her footsteps, in some capacity.

Of course, not everything was completely perfect. While being perfectly conversational, and even a kind of 'gifted kid' Willem was a little out-of-step with his peers and didn't have the easiest time socializing while young. He wasn't an unpopular punching bag necessarily, and could hold his own amongst the few bullies that would bother him, he just drifted through life making very few strong bonds but a number of accquaintances through school. In middle school, early adolescence he did start drifting off, and hanging out with the "bad crowd" which at the time consisted of listening to loud, angry music and pissing off his parents with petty troublemaking. As a side note, when he was 14 his first date was the daughter of a family of poor repute(you know, low-to-mid-level guys in leather coats and hats that show up at your door telling you it'd be a "real shame" if someone frakked up your store). Instead of sinking further in this lifestyle, he was pulled out of mainline school and sent to Chalkideon Academy, a high school run by the Brothers of Hermes and Sisters of Athena. A strange move for a pretty secular family but they did have a reptuation for academic rigor.

This practically saved him, in a way. These were the types that encouraged questions, and learning, and although they were rather strict they did so in a way that usually avoided talking down to young people and pandering to them. After getting a firm grounding in classics and literature, they turned to history which extended to recent history. Right up through the Cylon War. It was this time that Willem began to really discover his own roots. While his father was often absent due to his duty and closer to his mother, he was able to sort of bond with the man from afar by learning about his own military career, and that of his grandfather. It instilled a certain sense of quiet patriotism in the young man. Not the jingoistic, zealous, or exclusionary kind. The kind that declared that service to the Federal system was a price for a stable government and rich society. It was better than any recruiting line the Colonial Fleet could have given him.

In short, Willem began absorbing what knowledge he could of military history, technology, tactics, wargames, and the like as he began to absorb a narrative of military service that maybe was tinged by a hint of idealism. He would scour books, vids, whatever source material he could. This, along with his more holistic humanities education, and a budding, if-secondary interest in the creative arts(he had an instinctive grasp of music theory and a respectable singing voice, not that he ever focused on them beyond an amateur/student level) all rounded out his interests as a teenager. If there was any flaw in this, he glossed over the negative elements - inherent jingoism, bad food, and maybe the mistakes the Admiralty made down the line which could have contributed to one huge impending mess later. Still, youthful idealism is what it is.

It was to change his direction forever, down the road. He attended Silanus University on Picon, where he majored in Journalism and minored in Military History, a slightly odd but not altogether hard-to-understand choice he made. Three-and-a-half years of hard work broken up by occasional partying defined this time. His first semester nearly resulted in a drop-out until he finally got ahold of himself and convinced himself that he was responsible for his own work ethic. The rest of his academic transcript though, was solid. He graduated with a thesis on comparative news media study from before the Cylon war and after. In this work were some inherent warnings about Colonial society's growing lassitude towards communications technology, and security. He also managed to dig up his grandfather's old service records and found out that he may have died a hero, but lived a lousy father and husband, and a disorderly drunk who might have been court martialed if his Raptor hadn't taken the hits it did(One would have to understand, Willem's dad didn't exactly -discuss- this much).

Upon graduation, he discovered that his grades and his work, although good, weren't good enough to make his immediate dreams come true. His application to a prestigious grad school was not denied, but waitlisted due to headcount restraints. Impetuous and unwilling to sit around and 'find himself,' he was thumbing through his paperwork and clippings one day at home on Libran and a worn photo of the since-destroyed Battlestar Pericles was staring him in the face. He'd been wrestling with the idea before but there was always some block, some hesitation that kept him from becoming one of the people he so loved to study. That very same week he enrolled in the Colonial Fleet Academy thinking, 'why not?' It was another in a series of lucky breaks that he really should be thankful for. Reflexes, vision, and a sort of situational awareness aided him in his testing and one could imagine his enthusiasm when he found out(it also involved a lot of SCREAMING INTO THE PHONE at his parents when he told them the news) - He was accepted into Flight School. Throwing himself into this new life, his general 'nice guy' quality enabled him to bond with his fellow Nuggets, even if he was the butt of a few jokes.

He hit pay dirt - He secretly felt he was maybe surpassing both grandfather -and- father by qualifying not as a mere Raptor pilot, but making it behind the stick of a Viper. He graduated not at the top of his class, but maybe in the respectable 75th percentile. He had to work a bit on some of the physics portions as he had never specialized in hard science but managed to not make the same mistake twice and ended up serving at a garrison at Tauron at the start of his career as a Viper pilot. Yes, the so-called "Tauron Cops", hunting troublemakers who were always of course smugglers, pirates, and the like. There was a real difference in reading about heroes and being a hero, right?

Something happened during that posting that changed him. Something he basically never talks about and inquiries into it are generally met with a surly stare, raw silence and/or change-of-subject.

He was awarded the callsign "Rebound" as part of a two-fold joke, one was in reference to his comically unsuccessful attempts at dating several Tauron girls while on leave (this happened a couple times. He had some unfinished business there, but, uh, it's finished NOW - thanks Cylons!`), and a famously unsuccessful landing attempt three months in where he apparently thought his plane was made of rubber. The Deck Gang was hammering the divits out of the deck for a couple days afterward, but in any case the name stuck. Also, this was his one real screw-up while in service.

Despite this, he otherwise has served admirably and received a promotion to Lieutenant JG and was reassigned to something slightly more interesting in the process four and a half months before Warday - The 51st Fighter Wing on the CEC Kharon. It's no Battlestar, but his parents were proud. And a hero's life is never easy, right?

The poor bastard had no idea what was in store for him.

Family

  • Morgan Price (Father) - Major, Colonial Fleet, posted on the Colonial Frigate Andrastos
  • Althea Tamoyan-Price (Mother) - Columnist for the Libran Gazette
  • Willem Price (Grandfather, Deceased) - Lieutenant, Colonial Fleet, Raptor pilot serving aboard the Triton, KIA in the Cylon War

Education

  • High School : Chalkideon Academy on Libran (Operated by the Brothers of Hermes and Sisters of Athena)
  • University: Silanus University on Picon, Bachelors, graduated with honors, Major - Journalism, Minor - Military History
  • Colonial Fleet Academy OCS, Flight School

Reputation (or Mil. Service)

  • Tau Garrison, Tauron - 2 years and 3 months
  • CEC Kharon, 4 and a half months prior to Warday.
  • Both Willem and his father, Morgan, tended to have better aptitude scores and performance reviews than than their more mediocre postings would suggest. General consensus is that Morgan committed career suicide by marrying a rather public media firebrand who had a tendency to spout controversial views criticizing Colonial governmental policy as well as occasionally saying things the Admiralty didn't like. This poor reputation probably rubbed off on Willem. He was good enough for a Battlestar but got handed Garrison duty. The Kharon was a fluke in this trend, given the general calibre of personnel assigned there.

Distinguishing Features

  • Self-deprecating sense of humor. Self-deprecating in general. An affectation can turn into a habit. It occasionally spirals into him being openly down on himself which is a very unbecoming trait as a pilot. It never happens in the cockpit or generally on-duty though.
  • Idealistic. Very much so.
  • Makes a habit of being painstakingly polite - on a certain level. Can utter strings of profanity mixed with praise.
  • Not a mean or angry drunk, but when things get stressful he may crawl into the bottle just a bit more than he should.
  • Clueless with women. Usually makes bad choices. EASILY BEFUDDLED.
  • Tattoo of a single black feather crossed with Hermes' staff on his shoulder. Isn't visibly religious at all, though. That's subject to debate.
  • The Fall of the Twelve Colonies has hit him pretty hard. He's not curled up in a heap about it but the psychological damage that it wrought is mounting and he's only sometimes in denial. Reminisces a bit too much.
  • Love of Colonial culture — history, writing, pulp noir novels, games, music.

Trivia

  • Was "awarded" his callsign back on Tau Garrison after he made of a hash of a landing attempt(Planes are not made of rubber!) and had several disastrous attempts at dating local Tauron girls while on leave.
  • While on said Garrison duty he was involved in a single live fire combat incident that he basically never talks about. Just bringing it up usually earns a ticket to ride the Awkward Train. However, he must not have screwed up too badly as he made Lieutenant JG shortly thereafter.

Skills

  • An accomplished amateur writer and almost became a journalist instead of joining the Colonial Fleet
  • Surprisingly good singing voice, musical sense
  • Knowledge of military history, tactics, sims.
  • Strategy games. Hey everybody needs downtime, right?

On the Grid

Known Associates

"Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone."

— Jorge Luis Borges

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Timeline of Events

Quotes

  • "That's the problem, right? You say you're a patriot, but loving your town, city, Colony, or way of life always means hating half the people you share it with. No, that's not your problem. That's my problem. That's -our- problem." - A snipped from an arguement as an Ensign that almost got him in deep shit.
  • "Our actions are the purest expressions of what we are." - From a conversation with Captain Marek regarding hypothetical second chances that don't exist.
  • "You just got Spider'ed."
  • "I don't think the Gods are listening, necessarily. But they're laughing. Maybe at me. Yah. Laughing."

Misc

  • History, philosophy, politics.
  • Literature. Often the ancient variety.
  • The occasional drink. Or two. No no, maybe th…Ok, I'm cut off. I got it.
  • Figuring out how the frak we're going to survive it all.
  • Speed. The phenomenological experience of flight, in the air or in space. It's, well, calming.
  • Ethics, as a study.
  • The Colonial political process. The unified Colonial civilization, as a whole.

Gallery

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