Gender/Role
Male, but doesn't stick well to masculinity
Occupation
Apothecary shop worker, just a shelf stocker
Birthday
Age 20, born 12 February
Power
Reed works with paper charms, just doing rudimentary spells. These incantations work on ink and paper, sometimes with a verbal chant, but are generally basic. Every part of his charm casting is important, from the paper used, to the ink used, to his brush pen, comparable to a wizard's wand. Reed isn't necessarily secretive about his abilities, but doesn't flaunt it to every person who walks by, and they're subtle enough that people assume him to be one of the few non-magic folk in town. Reed's difficulty with his magic lies with the mass amount to learn, and his own shortcomings as a magical being. Considering everything to learn, most of charm casting is just learning how to make these things, plus the verbal spells, so Reed spends a lot of his time just learning more and more about his craft. His problems with magic also come from his the lack of ability he inherited. His parents weren't magic, neither were his grandparents, or even his great grandparents, and he's only marginally related to anyone with any charm abilities, so his power is generally weak. His favorites include a good luck charm, and a confusion charm.
Appearance
Reed's most notable physical feature is his bright red hair, prompting the nicknames he's heard all his life, with some people just settling to call him "Red" instead of Reed. He's always had a babyface, so even at the age of 20 he's commonly thought to be a 16 or 17 year old, his big brown eyes never helping him. His jaw is well defined, a bit angular, with a little bit of scruff always there. He's always joked that he would look good as a satyr. For clothes, he likes to keep it simple, black or khaki pants, button up or Band T Shirt (usually white with a black design, bands being The Growlers, Modest Mouse, Shlohmo, or Grimes) and his big blue military flight jacket. He also commonly wears beanies, holding back his mane.
Sexual Orientation
Bisexual
Personality
In general, he is a very shy person. Funny, silly, friendly, but very shy. He can almost never start a conversation, especially with strangers, and even sometimes with friends. This really only affects him outside of work, though, inside of work he feels more comfortable, able to be around things he's knowledgable, confident that if someone needs something he can probably point them in the right way. Once a person gets past this wall of shyness, he's friendly and talkative, funny with a deadpan, odd sense of humor.
Honestly most people just kind of dismiss him as a dumb stoner, which isn't completely incorrect, but he's not stupid. He's thoughtful, especially if it comes to other people. He's an eternal optimist and always happy, because he thinks his times worth more than just being a mopey bummer. Despite his herbal preferences, he's very driven, and always wants to learn things, which is why he has an abundance of hobbies. While most people get really toned down and spaced while completely stoned, Reed tends to get overly driven, and even a bit more outgoing with other people. It's because of this he isn't blazed constantly, he's always anxious of what he'll do, and if he'll make a fool of himself.
Fears
He has a bit or a paralyzing fear of accidentally letting something loose ancient-magical-beast type onto the streets of Ashwald, but he's pretty careful. Other than that he doesn't feel very comfortable being a social person, but he can do stuff like hang out at parties (the few at are in town) (as long as he doesn't have to be with people the whole time, and gets to wind down afterwards)
Dreams
Currently Reed's a bit dreamless, unsure of what to do with himself, he doesn't necessarily want to leave Ashwald, but he's been in town since he was a little kid, and is itching to get out. At the same time he's found himself a nice job, a nice place to live, a friend or two, things aren't going bad so why would he want to leave.
His main point, is just that he wants to die feeling like he lived his life the best he could with his given circumstances. He worked hard, enjoyed himself, and wasn't an asshole to other people. It's a bit of a vague dream, but it keeps him from going adrift.
Hobbies
Most of Reed's time is dedicated to learn more about his craft, but outside of that he's a fan of music and movies. He's always been an adequate musician, but only at playing what's given to him, or writing very simple stuff, naturally he went straight to bass, and loves it. In High School he and Kat started a band, which was on a hiatus for the time she went AWOL, but it's back now, and they practice often. He tries to play drums sometimes, but really can't. when it comes to movies he's much more skilled, but he hardly has time to work on anything movie related. He's filmed music videos for his own, and various other bands, and owns a moderately nice camera, but hardly ever finds work. His favorite movies include Tekkon Kinkreet, Heathers, and Holy Mountain, and his favorite Directors are PT Anderson, Edgar Wright, and Wes Anderson.
Bio
Reed has always live a relatively normal life, and his parents have lived out theirs as perfectly normal people, if not a bit hippy-ish. At the age of 5 he was moved from their old Southern California home to Ashwald for reasons Reed has still never figured out, but is happy with the outcome. He still has the surfer boy slang that he somehow got at the age of 5, and some of the character quirks, but other than that feels at home in Ashwald. Growing up in the town he had accidentally learned about Ashwald's mysterious population by accident, stumbling upon someone being healed at the scene of a car accident.
As someone with normal parents, Reed was always a little bit ostracized from the groups he would've preferred to hang out with, and came out of it a little bit more self-conscious than he would be without the hard time he had socially. He wasn't too popular in High School, and often a bit bullied, but he got over the childish revenge seeking attitude with his favorite musical genre, Punk. One of his favorite bands, Bad Brains, taught him his mantra, PMA, Positive Mental Attitude.
During his senior year of High School, on a trip to Grammy's house a few towns over, Reed was told of one of his ancestors, something like his Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother. She was a powerful witch, working with Paper Charms, eventually to be burned at the stake. Excited and horrified, Reed began to investigate paper charms, and though it's been hard and difficult work, he is able to do simple charms, and always carries a few with him.
Reed now finds himself a 20 year old without plans, but a good little life surrounding him.
Theme Song
The Purple Bottle by Animal Collective
