Agent/Director Phillip J. Coulson
appearance: 5’11”, blue/grey/green eyes, light brown hair
gender: male he/him
orientation: homoromantic graysexual
birthday: July 8, 1964
Phil lost his father when he was really young and his mother shortly after he left for college. ((I love the headcanon that Phil’s father is Agent K from MIB, but if this is the case, Phil normally doesn’t know about it.)) He grew up a huge fan of Captain America, collecting cards and comics all through his childhood. He studied history in college, but was recruited by SHIELD before he could earn his degree.
He trained as a SHIELD agent and quickly worked his way up the ranks, moving from analyst to field agent to handler. He has an uncommon amount of patience and was tasked with managing assets and agents that others couldn’t handle, including Agents Barton and Romanoff and Tony Stark after he became a consultant. When Fury left the position of director to him, he accepted the responsibility and did his best to keep SHIELD from fracturing too much more.
Phil never quite recovered from his death and after retrieving his memories, he lost a lot of his will to live. He often has to fight with depression and self-hatred and struggles with a lack of control over his own actions both during and after the episodes of manic writing. Even after the situation is resolved, he often starts to trace the patterns absently on surfaces when distracted and occasionally draws on walls or other surfaces while asleep, which bothers him a lot.
((I’ll take liberties with the Agents of SHIELD timeline, especially after season one, and won’t always stick with canon. By which I mean nothing past season 2 is getting included and anything I do include may be changed or out of order.))
Coulson plays the piano, is a barely passable cook, can carry a tune, but is hardly a great singer, and loves fiercely. He was raised LDS and that has a large impact on the way he approaches inter-personal relationships–epecially intimate ones. His relationship with Audrey meant the world to him, but there was never any romantic or sexual attraction. He often pursued relationships with women simply because he felt it was easier to stick to what made him look normal, but that didn’t make those relationships any less real or important.
When pursuing romantic relationships, Phil’s interests lean heavily towards dom/sub power dynamics and though he’s flexible in meeting his sub’s needs, he likes being in charge. Phil tends towards possessiveness and jealousy and can be very demanding of his partners.
