Reese Kelly

* Wed
* Thurs
* Monster

## Gallery

Reese Kelly is childhood friends with Stella and Kaneeka, and is also one of the five main romance options.

## Description

### Personality

Reese has a rather nihilistic view of his life, but has come to terms with his unknowable future. As he says it, "I've done my mourning. My best years are behind me. My future is unknowable. But one day I'll wind up in a pine box, just like everyone else, and I'm okay with that."

### Reese's "Condition"

As Reese describes it: "I can barely keep most food down, my skin always itches like there are worms crawling underneath it." As Dr. Kelly describes it: "He has a combination of genetic diseases that give him a fragile immune system, among other things." It is also suggested that Reese has factitious disorder, with the implications that Dr. Kelly is poisoning her son. However with the reveal in Chapter 4, Dr. Kelly was indeed giving her son dosages of ricin from castor beans to suppress his other form.

Reese's transformation starts with thickened nails, sharp teeth, and elfish ears, and his personality becomes more energetic and he has greater physical strength despite his body mass. Upon full transformation, he grows a tail, his shoulders become more broader and slightly hunched, his hands become more gnarled and claw-like, he grows webbed skin between his arms and torso, his ears become more bat-like, his head taking shape to become more towards a distorted equine skull with sunken in eyes and overgrown incisors, and also gains a forked tongue. His jaw is also capable of unhinging like a snake. Reese is also able to control his paintings and can use them to subdue others or block doors.

Dr. Kelly initially proposed that he could be some kind of werewolf although he didn't quite follow the full moon or silver rules. Many dialogue options also suggest he is vampiric.

According to a Reddit AMA, Reese is his own thing, and though he does draw from elements of folklore and a variety of creatures, he does not strictly align with any particular creature from real life or mythology. Some of the creatures used for vague inspiration were: "the way he moves and particularly the mobility of his facial bones are snakelike (mammalian skulls are fused whereas reptile skulls have mobility to them, hence their ability to unhinge their jaws.) There are some equine influences, as well as entelodont (Hell Pigs), especially for his big teeths.". As for the folklore side, it is mentioned that the entries available in the Appalachian Cryptids Book (including ones available to Book Smarts trait) were all intentionally chosen.

A few principle concepts to Reese's design: his bones and muscles are always shifting, but his skin just stretches to fit his new frame, so the skin of his face doesn’t take on any animalistic features but is instead his human face stretched across a much more animalistic skull.

Many hints were given to Reese's secret:

* Many of Reese's paintings hinted towards design elements of his transformed self.
* Gretchen found Reese off and didn't like his smell. Animals also didn't tend to like Reese either. (Talk to Animals)
* During dinner, Dr. Kelly seemed to be guarded towards Reese, with the seating arrangement to be particularly of note (Keen Eye)
* Reese's skin is capable of stretching unnaturally and shows it off in one of the available dialogue options.

### Reese's Art

Reese's art pieces are especially personal to him and he doesn't make art for other people. However, he does host sparsely-populated, late-night livestreams of him creating his art, though he doesn't care for pursuing more in social media. If <insert name here> has the Book Smart trait, they relate his art to Francisco Goya's black period and a bit of Zdzisław Beksinski, though Reese isn't very familiar with classical art history.

Though Doctor Kelly doesn't completely understand a lot of his pieces, she recognizes his skill and is proud of his work, as seen how many of his paintings are displayed across the house, even childhood drawings.

## Biography

Dr. Kelly wasn't seeing anyone when she had Reese. According to her, she had just woke up one day pregnant, though she kept having weird romantic sleep paralysis episodes, she insists they were just dreams. When she found out she was pregnant, she was terrified, and didn’t know if she was ready, but Reese made her love being a mom.

Reese grew up with Stella and Kaneeka, being in the same K-12 school their whole lives. The three would have many little projects ranging from videos, crafts, and animal rescues. Stella would eventually create a youtube channel with the two in middle school. Due to his condition, Reese stays cooped at home, creating art in the basement. As such, he isn't quite aware of what happens in town and relies on Stella and his mother to let him know whats happening.

Reese's condition was discovered a little after he hit puberty. The transformations prompted Dr. Kelly to treat her son, with Klonopin at first, and then Ricin when it was suggested by Sybil when Reese was about fifteen. Dr. Kelly saw it as her duty to protect her son, as well as protecting the world from her son. However, this caused her to become incredibly strict and controlling over her son's life, resulting in Reese's outbreak in Chapter 4.

Reese's fate at the end of Chapter 4 has a variety of possibilities: Reese is tranquilized and dragged into the safe room, Tabitha shoots Reese enough times to give them a chance to burn him to death, Reese kills and eats Dr. Kelly, and Reese is convinced not to kill his mother and runs away.

## Trivia

* Reese is a fan of horror movies. Posters can be seen in the corner of his room, such as Hellraiser. His first recommendation is Shi no Chi: Death Blood.
	+ <insert name here> and Reese can watch Shi no Chi if they choose to wait out time in the basement. Two different movies can be seen as well if it is not mentioned beforehand.
* Reese's favorite food as a child was liver. Nowadays he tries not to think too much about food anymore.
* Reese has always been into art.
* Reese's love language is drawing.
* Reese has a playlist created for him by Abby Howard. The playlist was listened to while workin on Episode 4, particularly the Reese parts.
* If Reese and the Princess from *Slay the Princess* met, they would quickly make each other worse.

## Reference

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tumblr: Scarlet Hollow Episode 4 Concept Art
2. ↑ Reddit AMA 12/09/2022
3. ↑ Twitter Mar 2022 AMA: 2
4. ↑ Twitter Mar 2022: 3
5. ↑ Twitter Mar 2022: 4
6. ↑ Tumblr: Reese Playlist
7. ↑ Reddit AMA 12/09/2022