AU HISTORY: [CW: HISTORY CONTAINS ABUSE]

At the beginning, Reed's mother had complications with the pregnancy, but decided to carry him to term. Within a few short months after giving birth to Reed, the mother passed away. With how close the death was to Reed's birth, his father perpetually blames him for the death of his mother. For the first couple of years, Reed's maternal grandmother moved in to help raise the child and the father neglected Reed almost entirely.

The grandmother passed away from old age and natural causes when Reed was at the age of four. That was the time that Reed's father turned from negligence to verbal and emotional abuse, letting Reed know exactly how he felt about the death of Reed's mother. And as time went on, the words got more and more harsh, up to and including the poing of calling Reed useless and a murderer. Of course, with Reed being so young, he came to accept these words as the truth. And when the physical abuse began at the age of eight, he accepted it as a form of punishment for being the murderer his father claims he is.

Due to his father's temper, he grew up often hiding in the corners of the house to try and avoid his father's fury. He hoped staying out of sight would alleviate his father's wrath, if he went unseen and heard, maybe he would be forgiven to some degree. And, because of that same temper, Reed learned quickly to hide his bruises thoroughly. His father told him to never show them to anyone or to tell anyone that he was beat. In trying to fulfill that order, he can be seen wearing long sleeves even when it's hot out and similar behaviours. He won't roll up his sleeves when his arms are covered in marks and is very careful to keep the abuse hidden. In order for anyone to see these bruises, they have to catch him by surprise. Such as when he's sleeping, or to walk in on him when he's changing clothes.

As he grew, he also would take to hide outside from his father's temper, when he was able to be without supervision. From staying in the park at all hours of the day, including sleeping in the park (and getting in trouble for curfew if he stayed out too late), to opting to hang with friends. And, with more recent years, he will show up on people's doorsteps, after he's met them a couple times, asking to be able to hang out for a while or stay the night, with the excuse that he forgot his key and his dad won't be coming back from work for a while.

In addition to appeasing his father, Reed opted to take up cleaning the house and cooking around the age of ten. His father snubbed these attempts, though, disregarding Reed entirely for his efforts. Still, even if it was thankless work, Reed chose to still do it. It didn't end in him getting beat or yelled at, so he figured it still had to be appreciated somehow. So he keeps up with the housework daily, keeping the house as spotless as he can. With the more recent years of Reed holding down a job, Reed keeps portioned leftovers of his cooking in the fridge for his father to pick at as he so desires, which seems to work pretty well in Reed's favour. When Reed isn't present, his father will eat the cooking, which admittedly makes Reed feel like it's all worth it in the end.

Reed grew as a rambunctious, clumsy child, often falling on the playground. Which he figured made a suitable excuse for any time there were marks he could not cover, such as having to cover marks on his face with bandages. He was not afraid to climb all over in places he shouldn't be and playing outside was his most favourite thing to do. He went out of his way to make friends with all of the other children, no matter who they were. From trying to bring shy types out of their shells to having lively fun with more extroverted children. He developed into a class clown early on and has quite the trackrecord of being sent to the principal's office for misconduct. Needless to say, this often did not bode well for him when the school would call his father to report this behaviour pattern. However, it did not deter him from wanting to have all of the attention of everyone around him in the attempts of desperate friendships.

They moved to Recolle when Reed was fifteen, when his father got a job offer and a transfer to go with it. Due to the sudden lack of any physical interactions with his friends back in his hometown, Reed felt even more isolated and insecure, which causes him to act up even more as the class clown to try and get anyone's attentions, desperate to get the attentions of new people and form new friendships.

When it came to highschool, Reed managed to excel in his classes. Even though he never pays attention in class. He would get the assignments off fellow classmates and then study hard at home to the point of collapsing. As a side result, he would get A's and B's, done in the attempts to not infuriate his father for being even more of a failure. Though, he truly thrived in craft and home economics classes, but he discovered a real passion when he entered auto-shop class. At the age of sixteen, he immediately jumped on an internship at a car repair shop and made it an official career at the age of eighteen.

Even though he makes enough money to move out and support himself, he chooses to remain living with his father, hoping to someday appease him and make up for his mother's death.

AU PERSONALITY:

On the surface, Reed is very happy-go-lucky and always willing to tell a joke or cheer someone up. He literally goes out of his way to make friends with anybody. Are you the grumpy sort of person? Reed believes you just need a good laugh and maybe some ice cream to turn that frown upside down. He absolutely loves to make everyone smile and will go out of his way to cheer someone up. If he sees anyone, stranger or friend (there's no such thing as enemies to Reed), having a bad day, he will do anything to distract you from your pain - from cracking jokes, to dragging you into a game, or use him as a punching bag. So long as it brightens your day, he's here for you. In concordance with his humourous nature, though, he does love to pull pranks as well, and may go to extremes to accomplish them. He means no harm, though.

Similarly to his former self, he is exceptionally closed off about his personal life and he will resist talking about it at virtually all costs. Although, this his more to just to avoid infuriating his father. If anyone approached his dad, who knows what would happen? Honestly, he just wants to be a good kid, always vying for his father's approval. Although, in contrast to his former self, he will do more than sidestep the subject of his personal life when confronted about it, he will quickly turn the attention onto you. After all, by his experience, almost everyone loves talking about themselves, and it's far easier for him to make you feel more important. Besides, he will be in denial about his life, laughing it off. He doesn't care if he just got beaten bloody for his lunch money, he'll brush it off with an "It's just a flesh wound," mentality. (In fact, he'd probably crack that joke, too.) Either way, he'll insist he's fine. You don't need to worry about him.

Even still, though, if he is cornered and pressured into talking about himself, things will quickly become uncomfortable as he keeps trying to dodge. He'll try to pass by laughing it off, but it doesn't take long before he starts stammering and the happy facade begins to crack. It doesn't take too much persistance on knowing about him that he becomes extremely likely to just start breaking down and crying about it. Though he'll still resist talking about it, with broken sentences of how he's trying so hard being the most comprehensible thing from him at that moment.

He also does tend to think things through, as his former self did. And usually to the point of overthinking. He knows what he's doing at any given time, and is clearly intelligent with his test scores. When something doesn't quite go as he had hoped, he's already recalculating a new direction. Albeit, this usually applies to his relationships with people and how to get them to like him, but it can apply to anything he chooses to do.

Additionally, he tries his best to be as direct as possible. He doesn't want much from others, but will ask for it if it happens to be something he does want. And of course, lies about his personal life, so he has a somewhat similar alternation between lying and being direct from his past life, just not in the same sense.

Semi-similarly to his past life, his age is an uncomfortable subject for him, due to his height. He knows he's small and looks fifteen, but that won't stop him from correcting people the first time they call him a kid. Though this was his height in his previous life, he becomes conscious of his appearance when people call him a kid, and thus reacts with laughing about it but ultimately saying, "No, I'm eighteen." Though he seldom pushes to correct it more than once. He'll probably just sigh every time someone calls him a kid after that first correction.

Reed is also still fairly easy to manipulate, though not in the same sense as his former life. In his former life, it was to save the people he treasured the most that allowed Wide Eyes Snake to take control of him. But in this lifetime, it's his fear of being hated and alone. If someone threatens not to like him anymore, or even expresses disappointment at him for not doing what they want, he can be easily pressured into doing most anything. He never wants to lose anyone if he can help it. He does have boundaries regarding this, but they are shaky at best. For example, he certainly never desires to hurt anyone, especially those he cares about, but he might be able to be pressured into it if the manipulator is insistant, or even presents some form of "solid reasoning" to him, making him believe it's better to obey than to resist it.

This also marks a vast difference between his preincarnation and current incarnation, being so submissive to others in this life. He isn't gung ho about going to war if someone he cares about gets hurt. He would rather take the bullet for you. And in the circumstance that he fails that, he'll just bend over backwards to make you feel better. He most definitely lacks the temperament for revenge like he had in his former life.

Reed is not prone to anger, and it usually takes repeated incidences of someone talking shit about someone else or harassing them for someone to trigger his anger. Albeit, the very worst he'll usually do is just give you a glare and approach you about the situation. After all, you shouldnt do such things to others. Reed is not a confrontational sort, and speaking up when he's upset takes virtually everything he has, but it is something he will do if he believes speaking up serves a greater good than just letting it happen. Of course, none of this substandard applies to himself. He'll tolerate the situations of where anyone talks shit about him or harasses him and smile about it.

In additional contrast to his former life, he's not exactly likely to help people out with their plans, so much as just do the task for them. This is due to him desperately wanting to connect with people, so he's a bit of a doormat when it comes to this.

He's also less likely to intentionally push people's buttons. Not to say that he won't accidentally, but it's not to just get a reaction so much as it is to just feel appreciated and strengthen friendships. He finds people less amusing and more fascinating, and will offer genuine praise.

He does try to dodge his father's temper, especially since he's legal enough to be out past curfew, and may show up from time to time on the doorsteps of other people he's met, be it a handful of times or a million. He'll tend to ask if he can hang out for awhile, or even crash for the night, though he will avoid giving details as to why. His most common excuse tends to be that he locked himself out of the house or something and his dad won't be home for a while, due to work or other matters. So it's cool if he hangs out with you, right? Be prepared to see him visibly cringe if he gets a call from his father, though. He'll just... excuse himself to take that call real quick. At times like that, he may even not come back after his phone call, with or without explanation.

Some of his passions include the band Green Day and being a mechanic. He has always loved Green Day, and has felt that their songs help him get along in his life. He collects all manner of merchandise from the band - hoodies, t-shirts, posters, all of their CDs, and even figurines. Even at the age of eighteen, he's proud to sport his obsession. And don't get him started on celebrity crushes, he will swoon about Green Day for days. It's not uncommon to see him with headphones in, when he's by himself, jamming out to this band. He'll even sing out loud, no matter where he's at (sorry to the library staff. Really.)

And being a mechanic allows him to meet all manner of people and work with his hands in a way he enjoys. Getting dirty doesn't bother Reed in the slightest. In fact, he finds it hilariously fun (just imagine all the jokes he can crack about it). He is very thorough in his work and will go out of his way to never let his customers down. And if he overhears that anyone is having any mechanical trouble, he'll offer to help you out, often free of charge if he's not in the shop. Just let him have his fun fixing it for you.

He additionally idolises the vigilantes in comic books, even if they don't fall in line with the way he handles things. He figures it must be so cool to be the sort of hero to fearlessly defend what is right and do what it takes to keep it right, often being just what the people needed all along. Even though they're outcasts, Reed can't imagine who wouldn't love a vigilante type of person. They're the coolest sorts of people, and he may idolise people with similar personalities to them.

Overall, Reed tries very hard to be someone that everyone would like, and fails to realise that you can't please everybody. He figures if you don't like him, he's just doing something wrong, and will continue to try to aggressively friend you, determined to find the thing that will make you like having him around. He's hard to piss off and is definitely nonaggressive. He's just here to make your life better, because that's what would make him an acceptible person, right? Being likeable is his biggest life motivation, no matter what it takes.

In the end of it all, it might be possible to convince him to leave his father, though certainly remarkably difficult. The easier process might be to manipulate him into it, if one is willing to do so to save him from his situation. The alternate solution would be that he would have to care for someone on a much deeper level than the superficial approach he has with making his friendships. Essentially, he has to value the way someone else treats him more than the way he values his father.

It is also possible to get him to talk about his true circumstances, though it would certainly take alot of effort on the other's behalf. Making him feel secure enough that he doesn't have to impress you is the primary goal, first and foremost. Then he has to feel that the secret is safe. If both of those criteria are met, he may start to drop hints about what his life at home is like. And start building from there, testing the other's judgment.

A few solid people he's attached to are Kamui (via permissions of foeyay) and Ayano (via permissions of kagepuro). Kamui tends to offer a support system for him, from stealing food for him to kidnapping people to a warehouse for a slumber party, all because Reed didn't want to go home. He's determined to become BFFs with Kamui. And as for Ayano, they met in sophomore year, but weren't really in the same grade level until senior year, and thus only recently began getting more in-depth with their friendship. Ayano's always super friendly to him and it's great.

He has a steady customer in Iwai (via permissions of geckoman). Since he turned eighteen and left his internship, he proved to be reliable for Iwai and became his official go-to mechanic. Honestly, he thinks Iwai's one of the coolest people and enjoys talking with him, even if it's only over the exchanges of payments and papers.

**CONTENT WARNING : THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS OF PERSONALITY COVER ABUSE**

In connection with his former life, Shuuya has a very low sense of self-worth. Because of the constant abuse from his father, he feels that he has upset anyone in any way, he will tell them to hit him. He would rather be hit than hated and it is a driving point for him to accept this form of punishment. He won't tell anyone, either. He has a constant sense of dread of being hated and this is definitely not out of his line of options to appease someone.

Additionally, for the same reasons of fearing hatred and his father's wrath, he has no desire to leave his home or report his father for abuse. Despite being of legal age and able to afford his own way of life. Taking up the mechanic job is the furthest and longest he's willing to stay away, even i, or perhaps because of the fact, his father's temper terrifies him. Just because he escapes the house every so often in the hopes that his father cools off, he doesn't want to abandon him, and still hopes to appease his father someday to make up for his mother's death.

He isn't great at denial when others are persistent, and his reactions to yes/no questions can easily give away something he is keeping secret, especially when it comes to the subject of his abuse. He becomes tense and worried when people start asking the right questions, and relaxes to normal when the question is a wrong one. This makes Reed's expressions very readable, especially when he's backed into a corner.