Name: Fancypants Platypus (formerly Francis Platypus)
Age: 36 at the time of the series
Residence: California, USA
Origin: New York, USA
Occupation: Fashion designer and later social media influencer
Orientation: Gay (like really, really gay)
Significant other(s): No significant ones but many flings
Fancypants Platypus is the third eldest son of the Platypus family. He’s catty, condescending, and self-centered. Like his other siblings, he was brought up in wealth, is a former Bean Scout and bullied Edward, the youngest, mercilessly. He’s a bigshot in the clothing design world, and his new status as a social media influencer has made him a household name. The latter, ironically, has humbled him somewhat and he has since become the only son to make peace with little Edward.
Biography: Canon and Headcanon
Francis Platypus was the third son born to Tony and Susan Platypus. From a very young age he had a keen eye for art, colors, and making himself favored. Tony, who owned and ran a very profitable construction company, had hoped this meant the newest boy would mature into an architect beneath him, but it wasn’t to be. This disappointment (that Tony and only Tony set himself up for, but he’ll never admit it,) would be the first bit of bad blood between them, but it simmered beneath the surface for decades.
For quite some time, Francis was the youngest child, after Chas (aka Cheesley) and Alfredo (aka Alpine.) Francis was the subject of bullying himself from them for his effeminate nature and comparable physical weakness. They took to calling him “Sissy” and “Nance,” and the minute he turned eighteen he spitefully changed his name to “Fancypants Platypus,” by which time he had fully embraced his queerness and was apprenticing in clothing design. They thus couldn’t mock him as they had without complimenting what was shaping up to be a meteoric rise in wealth and stardom of his own. (That’s not to say Tony respected Fancypants becoming self-made and openly gay. Far from it.) When Philip was born, the tradition of the youngest brother being the family punching bag seemed to pass, which made Fancypants secretly very angry at the unequal treatment.
But before that, the Platypus brothers went to Camp Kidney on the other side of the country, in Prickly Pines, California. Tony had gone to camp there himself as a boy, and he got a kick out of sending his materially spoiled boys “to that fucking dump” for a few summers. Only the three eldest boys went at the same time, for Philip and later Edward were too far apart in age. Although Philip went alone, the Platypus brothers’ reputation followed him, and no one messed with him. (Edward wasn’t so privileged with this association when his turn came.)
At camp, Francis was, individually, helpless. He couldn’t make fire, he flinched at the ball during sports, and he found the uniforms drab. He had no option then but to tag along with his brothers for support. For one reason or another, Cheesly and Alpine suddenly forgot to bully Francis and instead made him their rookie when it came to causing grief for other campers. Under their tutelage, Francis gave plenty of wedgies, threw many uniforms into rivers, and even beat up a few campers whom Cheesly and Alpine held down for him. He regards this as the low point of his life.
Five years after Philip came Edward, and at once the tradition of bullying the youngest brother came alive again. Intoxicated by being able to belittle others with his brothers’ help, Francis (and when the name change happened, Fancypants,) partook gleefully. They called Edward every name in the book. They slapped him awake with hands full of shaving cream. Every time he tried to make friends, they found some way to turn them away. And there was, of course, “tetherball.” Tony encouraged all of it, hoping it’d made Edward fight back (and somehow make him a construction company heir, it’s all he thinks of, yeesh.) Susan stayed on the sidelines as much as she disliked what the boys were doing, if only to not get sucked into conflict with Tony.
Edward, doted on as much as he was with gifts and money, was still totally alone and very tired of the whole world. By some act of God, the other brothers never found out about his Veronica doll. Fancypants only found out years later once they made peace, and even then kept it dark from the others considering he had written them off anyway.
From age 18 and on, Fancypants was unstoppable. He worked his way to the very top of the Design Department at the clothing company he worked, becoming its chief by age 30. He had pots of money he had made without his family’s help, was well-liked, and was openly gay. Tony and the other brothers were starting to lose patience with him. He was carving his own path in a way the other brothers, (Cheesly the owner of a chain of gyms, Alpine an NBA all-star,) hadn’t: without fawning over his father and his company in public. This was considered disrespect, and Fancypants rightly refused to stop being his own person. It wasn’t long after the events of “Edward’s Brothers” that Fancypants did indeed break away from the family. They may have hoped that going back to camp to pick on Edward “like old times” would help, but it didn’t.
Fancypants once again was the family black sheep, and he didn’t mind a bit. He even marketed a line of “Black Sheep Woolen Turtlenecks.” That’s just the kind of petty he is. In this new, low-attention span digital age, Fancypants found another avenue for money and fame: social media influencing. He uploaded videos of himself designing, comparing various clothing brands to his own, makeup tutorials, etc., and had millions of followers virtually overnight.
This also exposed him to much online nastiness, and it struck a chord with him. (A very late wakeup call to be sure, but whatever.) He “found” Edward online, and discovered he was out and gay too. At once, Fancypants realized what a jackass he had been, and immediately he set out to find his little brother and make amends if possible. Edward accepted, after first letting Fancypants grovel a bit, and after a bit of awkwardness they’ve since become very tight.
They bond over tea parties, talking smack about their brothers, other people and their fashion choices, having sleepovers and playing tennis on Fancypants’ own personal court at his mansion, and even play dolls together.
Edward’s favorite way to tease Fancypants is to call him a “queer elder.”
