BoM/TWS Message Forum

So, if you've read the current chapter, you'll know Will ended up as Bailey... very shortly after having the utter crud kicked out of him by her.

This is me, as an author, fed up of Will usually getting his way when surprising someone with a mask. It's creepy as hell, and it's only fair that it doesn't always work as easily as he'd hope. In this branch, Will makes a number of mis-steps, so having him get punched and kicked by a girl who has some fighting chops only seemed fair.

As for the identity... I was initially planning on exploring one of the guys of Xavier's, but the general comments here seem to hint you guys wanted to see Will as a girl again. I didn't go for Ophelia Wilmot purely because I ran out of options in that branch (I'd listed them alphabetically, and I can only do 3), so that left Bailey or one of the choir - who could literally be anyone. The lower forms have been almost entirely unexplored at St. X (we have a slither of information about Gail Lattimore, we have the names Sherri Watson and Hope O'Malley, and we have a gaggle of weird Brits including one with an indecipherable accent, which I know is a very thick 'scouse' accent from Liverpool), so there was an opportunity to do that.

But I can leave that to other writers. That left Bailey. She was another blank slate, with all that's known about her is her hair color (I think? I hope I'm remembering that right - if not, we can assume she has dyed it and it's fading) and that she was girlfriend of Sean Ince. As she's a local boarder, I needed a reason for that, and decided to tie her in with Fort Suffolk. The US Armed Forces are pretty good at giving talented kids financial assistance, so it made sense that Bailey's parents could afford the school with the military's help. What does Bailey's dad and mom do? What are their ranks? I'm tempted to have them senior NCOs, probably as specialists in a particular project at Suffolk. This explains the regular absence; they are always going around other bases (including overseas) training troops etc.

Anyway, Bailey was your choice, so let's see how things go.