#tangential.

Headcanons Meme: Tarot Cards

The Hanged Man: name a bad habit your muse can't give up.

It's not a habit (not like you'd consider an addiction a habit) but it's definitely a repeated, morally ambiguous activity of questionable benefit: gambling. Or rather, better to say, gaming. Specifically games of skill. It's not the money/winnings that fuel Reid's interest, but rather the risk/reward of pitting his mind against his opponents' (and the house) and coming out on top consistently.

Gifted as he is with the ability to run odds at a speed and with an accuracy that would boggle the average brain, and with the benefit of being from Vegas, Reid got a jump on the gaming racket young. He finds it cathartic and meditative, something he can focus his cognitive abilities on without requiring much else -- i.e., making conversation, maintaining surveillance, etc. Gaming (and the math involved) is a pleasant distraction for Reid, and the harder (or more consistent) the activity the better. He's banned from several casinos in Vegas and Atlantic City, and he doesn't go chasing games, but if there's one around and some time to kill, he'll probably be there.

Game wise, he prefers poker and blackjack, and sometimes gin rummy. When table games aren't available he'll settle for video poker, which (while not as much of a challenge as table poker) is a good chance for him to work out optimal betting & playing strategy.  

A-Z Headcanon Prompts.

Co-Habitate: Do they live with anyone?       What’s “need to know” before moving in?

Reid lives alone, and has ever since he moved out of his mother’s to go to CalTech. This is mostly out of preference. (He’s already an awkward turtle by most people’s definition in normal, day-to-day interactions, and social exposure — while occasionally fulfilling and pleasurable — is sometimes more like work than fun.) Reid doesn’t always know how to deal with people, and the same is true in reverse. He’s always been more comfortable (situationally) with living alone.

But if someone was going to move in? There are rules. Small ones, seemingly nonsensical, but important to Reid nontheless. A matter of habit, of routine. Example: Don’t touch the books. They’re in a specific order (and sometimes that order changes, but just how it changes is up to him) and he knows where each one should be. Further examples: Don’t rummage through his bag; don’t claim his favorite armchair by the shelf, and don’t open the curtains before two or three in the afternoon. Don’t eat the last of the Apple Jacks, and if you make the last of the tea or coffee, replace it. Never, ever record over Doctor Who, and be prepared for spontaneous Star Trek marathons.

For someone more intimate than just a roommate: the closet door should always be open unless it’s time for bed; then it gets closed, as does the bedroom door. The side of the bed furthest from the door (and closest to the window) is Reid’s. He doesn’t snore, but is sometimes prone to insomnia and gets up during the night to read a book before attempting sleep again. 

Jaded:  Do they buy into the “happily ever after” ideal?       What’s their standard?

He likes to consider him a romantic, in the literary sense of the word; he’d also like to think he believes in happily ever after. But the work he does, the people he’s exposed to — it makes it hard to buy into something like that.  (Because he’s seen relationships between people who make each other happy end in so many ways, for so many reasons: over betrayal, or loneliness, or misunderstanding; over frustration or resignation, or untimely tragedies.) Still, that’s not to say he doesn’t believe it’s possible. The happily ever after is a fairytale staple, and Reid firmly believes in the educational value of fairytales.

What Spencer takes from them is this: that if what you’re seeking is a happily ever after, be prepared to take the ups and downs that fill the story before the end; be prepared to fight the dragons, and to risk the darkness of the woods; be aware that you will make mistakes, that you’ll trust the wrong people, that you’ll likely be hurt at some point — and that you can’t ever stop.  

Uncommon Character Development Questions.

#7: How does your character perceive themselves? Positively? Negatively? Neutral?

I’d say Reid’s general perception of himself is fairly neutral, or if not that, positive. He has no doubts about his effectiveness as a profiler, and investigator, or a member of the team, and any feelings of uncertainty regarding his chosen path have (mostly) been dealt with or eased with time. Moreover, he’s grown (or developed) some confidence in himself over the years and though he’s still more than moderately awkward in most social situations, he no longer feels uncomfortable in his own skin for the duration. A lot of that is to do with age and maturity, and with — cliche as it sounds — acceptance. His team embraces him (the good, the bad, the quirky) the way only a handful of others in his life ever have and constant exposure to that kind of friendship and reinforcement had a nurturing effect on him. He’s grown up, a lot.

That being said, everyone has good days and bad days in their line of work and Spencer Reid is no exception. There are days when the cases don’t go as well as they hope; days when it seems like they’re always two steps behind the UnSub and victims are showing up in dumpsites all across the city; days when they don’t save the kidnapped child, days when the serial rapist turns out to have been a lifelong victim of abuse and the victory seems a little more hollow. There are days when Reid feels the ghost of Gideon’s cynicism creeping up on him, or when he’s agitated and on edge and not sure why until he realizes he’s had four cups of extra-sugary coffee. He has bad days, like anyone else.

But they’re the exception, not the standard.

#19: If your character was suddenly challenged, would they rather: run away, or stand and fight?

For Reid, it depends on the battle or challenge in question. He deals in logic — it’s by far his strong suit — and that big ol’ brain of his processes a whole lot of information and weighs a multitude of factors when he gets in a tight spot. As Reid himself said, he does some of his best work under intense terror.

So, evaluation:

Is this challenge a verbal / mental one? Is someone making incorrect assumptions or disseminating false information? Is a correction necessary / helpful, or will it just make for more trouble, maybe even confrontation or hostility? Or, is this challenge a physical one? Is someone threatening physical harm on himself or another he feels responsible for / duty-bound to protect? Is he (or someone else) in danger? Is this a fight he’s likely to lose? In either scenario, what is gained by resistance/staying to stand and fight, and what could be gained from compliance or from running away?

There’s no straight answer for this question; the answer is both. Reid is a profiler, he’s a thinker; he’s logic and probability and educated guessing (gambling). He’ll do whatever he thinks is best at the time, given the situation at hand.

But of course (to play the devil’s advocate), failing the ability to think objectively, instinct prevails — and for Reid, his instinct is almost always (in a physical altercation) inclined toward non-confrontation. That doesn’t necessarily mean running away however, so much as it means finding a way to stand and fight that doesn’t actually include standing and fighting. Back him into a corner in a verbal confrontation, however, particularly about something he doesn’t want to talk about, and he’s likely to be cutting, sharp, and to the point. I’ve said it before: two of Reid’s best weapons are his intellect, and his mouth.

#23: Do they prefer romance or affection? What is the quickest way to your character's heart?

While Reid is a romantic at heart, he doesn’t necessarily trust romance. This is both a professional and a personal hang-up. In their line of work, they see romance (or a reasonably deceptive similitude of it) used as a ploy, as a ruse or an opening strategy; they’ve seen it transformed into monstrous mirrors of itself, used as a motive or a manipulator and they’ve seen it (in so many forms) as the root or cause of a stressor. Romance as most people experience it today would seem to be (from his professional standpoint) less of a genuine expression of growing/expanding feelings of warmth toward another and more like a certain set of sociological norms that are an expected prerequisite to an intimate or sexual relationship. And, inevitably, with time or exposure, the need for that level of attention fades to a thin veneer, and then disappears altogether. Relationship statistics bare that out (as do divorce rates).

But that’s his intellectual viewpoint on the matter.

On a more personal level (on a more private one) he associates romance — real romance — with medieval poetry and Shakespearean sonnets and love stories that blur the line between fact and fairytale. This is his mother’s influence; it’s her voice, reading whole passages of witty courtship saga from Chaucer, or verses by Neruda, that stick in his thoughts. The grand medieval ballads about true love and star-crossed love and epic romance formed his initial impressions of the concept, and Spencer holds them close to his heart.

The quickest way to Reid’s heart is affection — because affection stems from a genuine (and usually unforeseen) liking of a person, which might seem like a pretty rudimentary and negligible distinction but really isn’t.

Affection — honest, real affection — can’t be faked for long; it’s an abiding interest in someone, in their personality, in their quirks, in their person; it can’t really be calculated either. When someone grows into an affection for someone else, it’s unexpected and not intentional. You can’t force affection; it’s not about putting on airs, or a show; it’s about the things that are felt but not necessarily said. It’s the easy smile and the softer glances that say, bemusedly, you’re a dork but I’m fond of you. And while romance is always a stepping stone to a relationship (or the intentions toward one), affection can lead anywhere and be anything. And that’s important to Spencer. 

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