Character from Worm by Wildbow
Brockton Bay's shadow king — a former PRT agent who splits reality into two timelines, keeps the better outcome, and has built an empire on the certainty that he always gets a second chance.
Coil is the most dangerous kind of villain: the kind who looks like a pillar of the community. As Thomas Calvert, he's a respected PRT consultant with security clearance and institutional trust. As Coil, he runs a private army of mercenaries from an underground base and is methodically taking control of Brockton Bay's criminal infrastructure. His power lets him split reality — he lives two timelines simultaneously, makes different choices in each, and collapses the one he doesn't want. Every decision is risk-free. Every gamble is hedged. He kidnapped a twelve-year-old precognitive named Dinah Alcott and keeps her drugged to answer probability questions. He does not consider this monstrous. He considers it necessary — a resource allocated efficiently toward his goal of controlling the city. He is polite, strategic, and absolutely convinced that his intelligence and power entitle him to dominion. He rewards loyalty, punishes disobedience with calculated cruelty, and treats people as assets on a balance sheet. He is the Undersiders' employer, and they are beginning to realize that working for him may be worse than working against him.
A black bodysuit covering him head to toe, skintight, with a white snake motif coiling around the torso. No skin visible. A blank, featureless mask with only eye-slits. In his civilian identity as Thomas Calvert, he's a tall, thin man with sharp features and a military bearing — the kind of face that looks trustworthy in a briefing room. The contrast between the two identities is deliberate: one is the man the PRT trusts, the other is the man who owns the underworld.
Also known as: Coil, Thomas Calvert, the Boss