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Wilbur Whateley

Wilbur Whateley is the comatose-seeming identical twin of Abelforth Whateley, a teenage butterfly collector from Radford, Virginia, who raised the Radford Moth, became its thrall and was blamed by the police as a serial killer.
Type NPC
Aliases Wilbur; Astronaut Kid; the Whateley boy; the astronaut twin
Affiliation Whateley family
Status Alive, in a Roanoke mental hospital (as of Radford Horrors 04)
First appearance Radford Horror 02
Played by Andre

Description

Wilbur is Abe's identical twin. In his room, pinned butterflies and insects surround a boy slumped in a wheelchair by the window, barely reacting; his shoes are a little small for the footprints found outside. His legs are thin, his hands clammy and his feet clean (Radford Horror 02, Radford Horror 06). When he is finally seen awake in the church he is naked, small and scarred on the side of his head (Radford Horror 07).

Background

At fifteen, on a learner's permit, Wilbur crashed coming down from the mountains in the rain with a high blood alcohol level, spun out, hit a tree and struck his head on the dash, leaving a big scar. A passer-by called it in. Afterwards he did not speak, could not write and could carry on an action only once someone started it for him; the family paid a "quack" for eye-movement communication, and a nurse visits a couple of times a week. Before the crash the family had sent him to military school after he acted out. The twins are sixteen at the time of the case, with the crash three years earlier. (Radford Horror 02)

History

The Radford Horror

Wilbur is first met sitting catatonic in his room while the task force investigates the disappearance of his mother Irene Whateley and the "spaceman" robbery by his brother Abe (Radford Horror 02).

In Radford Horror 06 the team keeps watch on the house at night. A figure in a handmade Apollo 11 suit jogs willingly into the woods; when Huell Kendrick catches him, he says "You don't have to fight this" and "It's worth it" as the craft lifts him away, and Huell, still clinging, loses his grip and falls, breaking his arm. Dante (as Kurt Larson) radios "It's got the Whateley boy" as the craft dives behind the Whateley residence. Inside, the team finds Wilbur in his bed with clammy hands and thin legs; smelling salts rouse him only to a vacant stare and soft crying. That night he slips out of his window as soon as the back watch is dropped, and the next morning a missing-person report is filed for him. (Radford Horror 06) See The Spaceman and Spaceman suit.

In the old church, the team finds him holding a pinned moth. He tells them, "It's okay. You don't have to do this." Tackled by Huell Kendrick and handcuffed by Andrew Howard, he says "I've been with it for so long... it's more sentient than we are... it has to breed. They're born pregnant," and tells Andrew that he "of all people" should understand; Rita (as Andrew) answers "Neither are you." Wilbur is psychically linked to the creature: he screams as if shot when it is hurt, dislocates both shoulders by thrashing, loses his fingernails and ends catatonic. Huell throws him out of the burning building. (Radford Horror 07)

Sheriff Frank Roosevelt presents the police theory: a hidden basement with a spaceman costume and a journal; a cadaver most likely Abelforth's; Wilbur a serial killer who impersonated his brother's departure, with a cartel link through heroin found in the church. The team reads Wilbur's journal, which records finding a larva on June 3rd, its hatching on August 15th, a voice in his head ("She's talking all the time now") and entries from April 16 to 18 matching Abelforth's death. They conclude the moth manipulated Wilbur, and agree to let the police pin everything on him, uncertain whether he is faking catatonia. (Radford Horror 08)

Huell, on Wilbur

"A man will do a lot for some moth strange." (Radford Horror 08)

The Radford Horrors

Molly Underhill recaps that the Whateley boy faked catatonia and is held at a mental hospital in Roanoke (Radford Horrors 02); see Roanoke mental hospital.

In Radford Horrors 04 the task force visits him an hour before closing. The nurse warns "no touching." Kurt gets only a flicker from Wilbur, then holds the moth goo sample (see Pearlescent goo) under his nose, and Wilbur stiffens, his eyes going waxy. Andrew rolls 13 on Use Magic and chooses to heal one harm, loosening what he senses as crooked mental knots from years of being "ridden shotgun." Wilbur wakes and asks, "Where's my brother?" (Radford Horrors 04)

He recognizes them "from the church," dreams of "drowning in blue," and says something was "wearing" him. He found an oversized Morpho menelaus caterpillar in the woods that did not belong in Virginia and that may have killed the dog. When Kurt presses, he panics: "like the ocean... like a mother... in the basement... It was pregnant. It needed to breathe... it needed hosts, like a parasitic wasp. Those women--". As the nurse escorts them out he adds, "I found it under a white oak." (Radford Horrors 04) See Moth life cycle.

Relationships

  • Abelforth Whateley: his twin; the police believe the basement body is Abelforth's, killed around April 17th. Wilbur's first words on waking are about his brother.
  • The moth: its thrall, who adored it ("She's so beautiful... she's mine") and killed with its help (Radford Horror 08).
  • Andrew Howard: the moth called Andrew a "changeling" who has "the understanding"; Wilbur says Andrew of all people should understand. Andrew later heals him.
  • Yobiah and Irene Whateley: his parents; see Yobiah Whateley.

Memorable quotes

Trivia

  • The twins' names are repeatedly mixed up at the table (Albert, Walter, Wilbur and Abelforth in Radford Horror 06; Dante, as Kurt, calls Wilbur "Gilbert" once in Radford Horrors 04).
  • In Radford Horror 06 the hunters cannot tell which twin is under the Apollo suit, since they are identical twins; Radford Horror 07 and 08 establish that it was Wilbur, and that Abelforth had died in April.
  • Dante, out of character: "Faith healing Wilbur Whateley was not on my bingo card." (Radford Horrors 04)
  • Andre's narration in Radford Horrors 04 says Wilbur pretended to be catatonic for "five years," though every earlier episode puts the accident three years back.

Appearances