there's a darkness upon me that's flooded in light

Name: Lauren
Age: 27
Contact: laurensmuses@gmail.com | sparks_fly
Characters Already in Teleios: N/A
Reserve: here

Character Name: Dr. Spencer Reid
Journal: numbersnfigures
Age: 31
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Canon Point: After 8x10 "The Lesson"
Debt:

Class A: 3 years (For killing three unsubs in the line of duty. I'll be happy to elaborate if you'd like me to.)
Class B: 1 year (Assault. He shot a man though he didn't die, plus there have been other instances of self-defense.)
Class C: 6 months (Substance abuse. Addicted to Diluadid for several months, also lied to his team/friends throughout the duration.)

Substance abuse.

GRAND TOTAL: 4 years, 6 months

History:
Spencer Reid was born in Las Vegas, NV to William, a lawyer, and Diana, a college literature professor. His parents were both brilliant scholars, a trait that they passed on to their son, who turned out to be a genius with an IQ of 187. His father left the family when Spencer was about 6 because unable to deal with the fact that his wife had schizophrenia. Growing up in Las Vegas, Spencer ended up gaining an appreciation for magic, as well as for gambling and card games.

Due to his massive intelligence, Spencer skipped ahead in school, and ended up graduating high school at the age of 12. Being socially awkward and so much younger than his classmates did not lend him to making many friends. He read a lot - just about anything he could get his hands on. Since he can read 20,000 words per minute, he got through books rather quickly. They became his friends and confidants when the older kids would make fun of him (which they did quite frequently). Pretty much all of what he knows he learned from books.

After graduating from high school, he attended CalTech had earned three PhDs by the age of 21. His PhDs are in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering, and he also has degrees in Psychology and Sociology as well. Due to his interest in human behavior and scientific background, he was recruited by the FBI to work as a criminal profiler in their elite Behavioral Analysis Unit. He's the youngest member of the team, which is based out of Quantico, VA. At first, he couldn't even pass his weapons qualification, but he's grown into an agent that can fully handle himself against the unsubs ("unknown subjects" or the people they profile) he encounters.

During his time with the BAU, he has had to shoot and kill three unsubs, talked various unsubs out of killing themselves/himself/someone else, been captured by an unsub who held him hostage and drugged him, contracted anthrax, and was shot in the knee, which put him on crutches for most of a season. He also developed an addiction to Dilaudid after his hostage experience and was subsequently rehabilitated. He's been clean for 6 seasons now.

When Spencer turned 18, he had to institutionalize his mother because he could not be around to take care of her full time. She resides in a sanitarium in Las Vegas, and he writes her letters every day.

In Season 6, Reid began experiencing massive headaches. While it was never explained what caused the headaches, it was revealed in Season 8 that he received help from a geneticist, though he never met her in person. He and this woman, Maeve, have developed a phone relationship, primarily because she is being stalked by someone and they're afraid to meet in person. For all intents and purposes, she's his "girlfriend", even though they haven't actually laid eyes on each other yet. This plot is still unfolding on the show.

Personality:
Overall, Spencer Reid is a pretty friendly guy. He enjoys talking to others, although not usually about things the average person would want to talk about. He's very into numbers and statistics and comes off sounding like a textbook more often than not. Because he has a tendency to go off on a tangent like nobody's business, he's gotten used to people telling him to shut up.

He's shy when it comes to girls, mostly because he doesn't have that much experience. Being made fun of so much as a child hurt his social self image. Over the seasons he's grown much more confident in talking to women in general. Now he only flounders if some kind of a romantic element is thrown into it.

Spencer's life is governed by logic, not by feelings. Logic makes sense to him. It's based in fact, in science. Despite the fact that he studies human behavior for a living, he feels like human emotions can be erratic, while logic always makes sense. He can give you a million reasons WHY somebody does something, but as soon as you ask him how that makes him FEEL, he's at a bit of a loss. He's not a man who "goes with his gut" very often. Everything must be carefully reasoned out.

He's very curious. He always wants to know why something's happening or how something works or what's going on. Chock that up to his being a man of science. He's not nosy though. He does know when to stop asking questions (eventually).

Like the other members of Spencer's team, he is a master at observation. Little habits people have or statements that they make can be attributed to patterns of behavior that might stereotypically belong to a certain kind of person. With Spencer, he notices behavior and compares it to the myriad of statistics in his head in order to determine what such behavior could be indicative of. For example, he notes that someone has been abused as a child and that 60% of people who were abused as a child (made up percentage, jsyk) become abusers themselves. Thus, since whatever case he's working on has to do with child abusers, he can determine that he's most likely looking for someone who was abused as a child as well. His incredible ability to remember statistics is an asset to his team because it saves the time that it would take to research such information.

He can pick up well on little behaviors and idiosyncrasies. However, he is not a psychic. He cannot determine someone's entire life story based on the fact that they bite their nails. He can make assumptions, based on statistics, but people have been known to defy even statistics. There might be a concern with the mods that I will automatically make him able to determine everyone's deep dark secrets or that I might use OOC knowledge ICly in order to help him do that. Assuredly, I will try my best not to do that. If some character has a deep dark secret that they don't want anybody to find out, I would not have Spencer reveal that. I might have him suspect things in his mind, but I wouldn't want him to be such an annoying character that automatically knows everyone's secrets. IF a player wanted to have Spencer find out their secret, I would definitely plot that with them first.

Despite appearances, Spencer is actually extremely brave. He uses his wits to survive, and once kept a criminal from killing him by talking long enough for help to arrive. He takes his job seriously, and he's not afraid to do what he has to do in order to bring about justice, even if it's shooting and/or killing someone in the line of duty. Spencer doesn't like to have to do these things, and he'd rather not dwell on them, but in the moment he doesn't blink.

Spencer's also resilient. He's snapped back from a hostage/torture situation, a drug addiction, anthrax, and being shot in the leg. With his brain, he could have chosen to be a scientist and work in the private sector and make a ton more money than he is. Yet, he still does this job because he loves it and he loves the fact that at the end of the day, he's helping people.

Overall, he's pleasant, hardworking and a sweet human being who also happens to be a major geek.

Powers/Abilties:
Spencer is a genius. His IQ is 187. He also has an eidetic memory and can read 20,000 words per minute. There's little that he doesn't know something about, unless it's something in popular culture. Then you'll find that he's pretty clueless. Unless it's Star Trek.

Spencer's weapon skills are moderate, though he has improved vastly over the 8 seasons of the show. During the first season, he could not even pass his weapons qualifications test, which is something that bothered him greatly because it made him feel inadequate as an FBI agent. He's put to the test during a hostage situation with an unsub and (through the magic of television!) manages a perfect shot to the unsub's forehead. Reid is not a man who is quick to use his gun. His best weapon is his mind and his words - his ability to persuade people to not harm themselves or himself or others. However, Reid is not afraid to shoot if he feels that his life or the life of somebody else is being threatened. Like many law enforcement agents, he walks the line of preferring NOT to have to shoot anyone, but being willing to use it at a second's notice if it is absolutely necessary. Short answer: he can shoot.

His biggest weakness is probably socially. As with most highly intelligent people, he has trouble reading social cues. He'll say things at inappropriate times, or not understand that people really don't care about traffic patterns in Chicago during the month of June. He has a problem with emotions and feelings too. He tries to let logic govern his life, not feelings, so sometimes he has some issues relating to others.

He's also afraid of the dark. :)

Appearance:
Spencer is tall (about 6'2") and very thin. He's got large hazel eyes and brown hair that used to be long, but is now cut closer to his head. His cheekbones and jaw are well defined, and he sometimes wears glasses. Spencer's preferred style is dress or corduroy pants with button down shirts and cardigans or vests.

And here he is in his sexy geek glory.

Samples:

Actionspam Sample:

http://dear-mun.dreamwidth.org/5710908.html

Prose Sample:

Spencer's first thought when he opens his eyes is that he's freezing cold.

His second is that he's outside and this isn't DC.

Instead he's in a dark forrest, gazing through the clearing in front of him at a huge building that looks like a fortress lit with candle light. This can't be right. The last thing he remembers was lying in bed talking with Maeve on the phone. Neither of them had wanted to hang up, so she had ended up talking about a complex form of genetic mutation and Spencer, being exhausted after just getting back from a case, had inevitably fallen asleep while she spoke. That could make this a dream. But no. Everything is too vivid. Too many senses are engaged. There's too many stimuli. He's somewhere and he's corporeal.

But somewhere can't be Washington because it wasn't snowing when he went to bed. The scene around him indicates that this snow is well-packed and constitutes at least 20 centimeters. Conclusion: it has been snowing for some time in this place, and the temperature is cold enough to keep snow. He had noticed that right away, actually. Despite the fact that he's still wearing his cardigan and his tweed jacket over his clothing, he's shivering, mostly likely due to the fact that the only thing he has on his feet is a pair of mismatched socks. He'd taken his shoes off when he had lain down on the bed.

Spencer knows he can't stay out here because frostbite and hypothermia are likely to set in fast, so he does what he thinks is his only option: heads towards the building in front of him. He wishes that his gun was still strapped to his belt, but no luck. He's going to have to hope that whoever or whatever is inside this building has a phone that he can use to call someone on his team and get this sorted out. Every step through the freezing snow in his wet socks forces a shiver up his spine.