INFO.

[mantlepieces]

❝ Expect nothing from Reggie Mantle and you'll never be disappointed. ❞

CHARACTER NAME: Reginald "Reggie" Mantle
CHARACTER AGE: Approximately 18
SERIES: Afterlife With Archie
CHRONOLOGY: Issue #9

CHARACTER HEIGHT: 5'10"
HAIR/EYES: Short black hair, with scruffy center bangs; blue eyes.
HOUSING: Heropa #005
OCCUPATION: Personal Assistant/receptionist for Dr. Frederick Chilton



BACKGROUND:

It all began with Reggie Mantle in that indirect way things often do. Riverdale is the kind idyllic small town people dream about; a little dull for teenagers and that brand of wholesome that never fits exactly right because of the boredom and trouble it can inspire. Case in point: Reggie finds himself constantly drawn to Midge Klump, girlfriend of the strong and overly jealous football player Moose Mason, leading to him often getting his ass kicked -- it is after one such occasion Reggie finds himself driving home in a sour mood and, passing Jughead Jones's house, accidentally hitting and killing Jughead's beloved pet Hot Dog.

Reggie drives home and spends the night cleaning his bumper of blood, but meanwhile, Jughead has discovered his dead dog and in his distress seeks out Sabrina (the teenage witch) in the hopes she can invoke some kind of necromancy to bring him back to life. Against her auntie's instructions Sabrina helps Jughead out but is soon found out and punished; Jughead, meanwhile, has a whole new set of problems on his hands. Hot Dog, now a zombie, proceeds to bite Jughead and gets our survival horror properly rolling.

Jughead's best friend and Reggie's rival Archie Andrews stops by Jughead's house the following day to check in on him, since Jughead didn't attend school that day, and notes how ill both he and Hot Dog look. Archie passes on this information later to Reggie at the school's Halloween dance after Reggie attempts but is interrupted to confess to Archie that he hit Hot Dog with his car, and is shocked to hear Hot Dog is apparently still alive. He thus keeps his role in this chain of events quiet for the time being, although not knowing about Sabrina's involvement it's unlikely he knows just how significant of a role he did end up playing. Still, the numbers are there to add up, but Reggie doesn't say a word, even when Jughead arrives at the Halloween dance and devours his own on-again off-again admirer Ethel Muggs in front of everyone.

Predictably people panic, but somehow organize enough to get themselves to Lodge Manor: Archie, Reggie, Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper, Moose, Midge, Chuck Clayton, Kevin Keller, Dilton Doiley are among the core group that heads straight there from the dance, soon after joined by Nancy Woods, Ginger Lopez, and the Blossom twins Jason and Cheryl. Veronica's father Mr. Lodge and their butler Smithers do what they can to make the mansion a fortress, putting it in "lockdown" against intrusion and also assuring everyone there is enough power and food to last them. But still their troubles weren't over.

The group decides to take a swim in Veronica's indoor pool to unwind, but are interrupted when Moose and Midge fall into the water from a window above, both zombies now; Midge had been infected earlier and infected Moose since arriving at the Lodge's, and everyone escapes the water hastily so that the cover can be drawn over the pool to trap the two inside. Reggie's reaction to seeing Midge submerged so is to further seclude himself, acting uncharacteristically sullen and avoidant because of the growing weight on his shoulders.

He hides himself in the Lodge's game room and is soon found by Kevin Keller, searching for archery equipment. Kevin reaches out to Reggie and expresses empathy regarding the Midge situation, saying he understands what it's like to want someone who doesn't want you back and that everyone knew Reggie had a thing for Midge; Reggie reacts with a homophobic outburst of pent-up emotion, shouting at Kevin not to ever touch him again and provoking Kevin to punch him in the face. From there Reggie goes back to the pool area impulsively with the intent to free Midge from the pool but is interrupted by Dilton, who is wandering the house to avoid sharing his room with Jason and Cheryl Blossom. The two of them see through the solarium windows that all the zombies in town have surrounded the house and are trying to break the glass to get in. They go and tell Mr. Lodge that they can't stay there any longer, and Archie, having since left the house to look for other survivors and returned with his mother, suggests a plan of escape. They execute it by shooting off fireworks to distract the zombies and having Kevin and Ginger take the defense with their archery sets for any zombies that still follow before the group of them sets off en masse to leave Lodge Manor and, then, Riverdale itself to search for sanctuary and carry on their wayward journey into the unknown.

Time passes, and soon enough Thanksgiving rolls around, which gives all of them pause to reflect. Archie and Betty, who have already become closer following the death of Archie's father and zombification of Betty's parents, grow even closer still in secret, and Cheryl Blossom impulsively murders (probably) her abusive brother Jason when the two of them are off alone in the woods.

This instigates a quick change in mood, as the group is quickly split by proposing a vote to allow Cheryl to remain with them, or to excise her. Reggie's vote is to keep her, because "everyone's done shit they aren't proud of" and also, "plus who knows, we might have to repopulate the world eventually" because he never stops talking when he actually should, and Archie tie-breakingly votes the same way. Eventually Cheryl extrapolates on what Jason was like to her to the women when they reach an abandoned, Overlook-style hotel for shelter, while some of the men are tormented by ghosts of the past; Archie speaks with Jughead's ghost, who reveals he's tormenting Reggie mentally and in his sleep because he "deserves" it. Reggie, in turn, sees not only Jughead's ghost, but everyone... but perhaps it's just in his mind.

Mary Andrews, Archie's mom, extrapolates a bit about Riverdale's background and the historical relationship, specifically, between the Greendale witches and the Andrews, Cooper, and Jones familes in a way that's not only revealing but suggests that there is perhaps far more to this phenomena than meets the eye -- not that anyone present really knows anything substantial about its origins yet, except for Reggie. While we don't see much of him in issues #7 and #8, what glimpses we do get are already revealing of his increasingly unstable foundations, the cost of his stressful secrets; Jughead's ghost, if he's really there and what he seems to be, may not have to work much at all to lure Reggie further off the deep end. This has all been eating at him, by now for months.

Later, Archie proposes to Betty.


SPOILERS FOR AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #9

Even later, once they have moved on from the hotel and a little past winter, Archie and Betty heroically find an abandoned farm with living horses in the stables -- a game-changer for the group. Reggie resentfully looks on, imagining it was him that found the horses and was lauded heroically, before beginning to reflect on just what makes him so different. He calls up a memory of being in the computer lab with Archie, Jughead, and Dilton, when Dilton brought up an online sociopath quiz. To Reggie's horror, nearly all of his answers fall in line with the "sociopath" responses, until the last two questions redeem him.

"Are you incapable of love?" and "Do you ever feel remorse or shame?"

Reggie explains to Kevin that he does know what love is and that he's felt it: for Midge Klump, whom he was somewhat obsessed about and thought about constantly. While generally she was unavailable and uninterested, Reggie continues on to tell Kevin that Midge frequently turned to him as rebound whenever she and Moose fought, then follows up with confessing to how the zombie disaster is all his fault -- how on Halloween night, Midge had wanted to meet with him to borrow $500 (she is vague about why, though there is certainly the suggestion that she may be pregnant), Moose found them together and Reggie, of course, went on to hit Hot Dog with his car... but on purpose, because he was hurting and wanted to hurt something else, in turn. Reggie worries something's wrong with him and wants Kevin to tell the others he (Reggie) and not some random act of God was responsible for all this, because Reggie doesn't know how to look his friends in the eye and tell them what he did himself.

He goes off into the woods, saying since it started with him he's going off to fix things. Kevin tells him it's suicide but Reggie leaves anyway, prompting Kevin to go and tell Archie, Betty, and Veronica. Only Archie wants to go after to find him, but he's talked down from that idea by both girls.

Reggie backtracks seven hours to find the zombies, assuming that they'll tear him apart and put an end to the chasing and the horror, since in his mind this began with him. However, the zombies don't touch him, and even once he finds Jughead and Hot Dog it's an apparition of Sabrina that he sees before him. She says that this was meant to all end here, but that their Master rewards those that serve Him and would like to offer Reggie mercy: the offer that he can have what -- or rather, who -- he wants back, they can make Midge whole again, if he goes back to his friends, begs their forgiveness, then murders their "hope" Betty Cooper. Reggie agrees.

He will arrive from this moment, emotionally jarred and raw with all his wounds and realities from home brought back fresh to his mind, and while having the relief of a confession off his back will change things for Reggie a bit upon his return, so will the promise and task presented to him by Sabrina: he'll finally have to contend with being anxious to go back, but also relieved to still not have to face his friends yet.

PERSONALITY:

Reggie Mantle is not a tortured soul; he is a selfish, arrogant, impulsive, devious one. Archie describes him as a "fratboy" whose favorite night is Halloween because he can trash mailboxes and steal candy from kids, suggesting the personality that most longtime Archie readers would recognize. He's a conceited jerk, a prankster, and that's acknowledged in Afterlife even though we've mostly only seen his serious side so far. Reggie is also emotionally repressive, usually acting out in want for attention due to not receiving much from his family -- and what he does receive is often critical of his inadequacies, making him act out more so that at least those inadequacies are deliberate -- so his ego doesn't come from being spoiled, not solely. It's when he doesn't want attention that it's more to his favor to stay quiet, but that's a rare occasion -- he's a born spotlight stealer with dreams of fame and fortune, so if he's seeking the shadows instead you know that something's wrong or that he fucked up good.

The thing about Reggie being an asshole is that he knows what he is, and usually either can't help himself or doesn't mind it; he might get his ass kicked for it, but the enjoyment he gets from the moments before -- the moments of -- tend to create a reoccurring blindspot to whatever consequences he'll have coming. That is part of what leads him to frequently flirt with and pursue Midge despite her romantic unavailability -- or perhaps because of it -- though the extent of his feelings beyond that he tries to keep a secret; he's both contradictory and contrary, wanting what he can't have yet detesting any form of narcissistic injury, and it's these behaviors and mistakes he repeats over and over, unable to resist pushing boundaries when he suspects there is even a chance of getting away with it. His ego makes him overconfident and is easily exploitable in that way; it's not that he's an idiot, but his common sense is not all the way there and it takes him numerous rounds of trial and error to get when he should really be calling it quits or if something was a bad idea from the get-go -- he's the king of self-sabotaging compartmentalization, yet more than willing to fight dirty if that's what it takes... because all's fair when you're playing to your strengths. It's things like this, his narcissism, impulsive behavior and frequent disregard for boundaries and other social consequences, that's led Reggie to fear that he might be a sociopath after it was brought up by his friend Dilton; he meets some shallow criteria, at least according to an internet quiz, although Reggie considers himself capable of both love and remorse, even if the latter only in more extreme circumstances.

Still there is a lot stewing under the surface with Reggie, some genuine and sincere emotion he hides under his heartless, philandering persona, but unfortunately to him the circumstances of a zombie apocalypse may force him to face those feelings sooner than he's ready to. He's not an incurably bad person -- nor does he want to be -- demonstrated for instance by his attempt to come clean to Archie about killing Hot Dog, but he is also a self-centered coward and thus concerned heavily with his own self-preservation. Still, he's capable of knowing between right and wrong, bad and really bad, or as he and Archie put it, "terrible" versus "fully next level terrible," someone selfish enough not to be trusted but that can be relied upon to do the right thing if he really has to... probably. He's not completely heartless or fundamentally cruel, but happily plays the part in order to cover up his insecurities (of which he has plenty) and isn't shy with rudeness, insults, or crass misogynist/homophobic/what-have-you commentary to seem like he cares about people less than he does, or to preserve his own ego by playing the bad guy rather than admit to fault. Or, sometimes, just to see what happens. Basically, he's especially bad at socializing and relating to other people, and that extends even to people he purportedly likes -- he can be defensive, though also obsessive, perhaps dangerously so -- but also can recognize which side his bread is buttered and if it's more advantageous for him to lose or kiss ass, which he'll do in that case, ego or no ego. On the flip-side, he can be his own biggest critic as well, because it's not as if he's truly ignorant of his flaws and failings; it's a willful ignorance he enacts to cope with said failings, a literal confidence game.

In the first issue of the comic, Archie comments that Reggie's sullenness is uncharacteristic, but it's more accurate to say it's simply a face that Reggie rarely has to show his friends. They get the charming Reggie who seems not to have a care in the world beyond getting his way and a few laughs while he does it, but he is not unfeeling. He is capable of some manner of empathy and even learning from his mistakes, but he expresses any insight or understanding carefully, not wanting to show vulnerability or a need for help but rather that he's coming to new conclusions on his own. In keeping with his contrariness, despite the reputation Reggie crafts for himself he also has that deep-seated need for attention, and also praise... there's a part of him that resents, envies, and admires Archie all at once -- Archie and the effortless way people come to like and trust him -- because Reggie wouldn't even know how to start trying to earn that same kind of love himself. That same part of him seems to have a lowkey longing to be the kind of person Archie is, although not necessarily for remotely noble reasons, but ultimately it doesn't matter if Reggie can't or won't muster the effort or will to "self-improve" -- to redeem himself in that way. But despite his antagonistic nature and rivalry with Archie, Reggie does consider the two of them to be best friends, even if in Archie's case Reggie isn't #1 on his list.

... Well, maybe now that Jughead's dead he is.

POWER:

ADRENAMPHETAMINE → When Reggie's body releases adrenaline, it will also produce and release small amounts of amphetamine (within the hormone itself, not separately) so his adrenal reactions will result in an added sensation akin to taking Adderall -- namely alertness, increased focus, increased productivity, better memory and so on, though that also includes common side effects such as heightened anxiety, restlessness, sleep deprivation, dehydration, and so on again. His body will for the most part self-regulate the "dosage" so that per day on average it will stay within or below the equivalent 15-30MG range, and any excess will cycle out of his body via sweat or other body fluids (but to lesser extents) at more concentrated levels. However, it will not be impossible for him to experience symptoms of amphetamine overdose if he were to overexert himself (while exercising, for example) or experience several adrenaline rushes or emotional extremes within a short amount of time -- which, to be fair, is not uncommon for Reggie -- since the hormones would be released faster and in greater amounts than his body's pace of regulation could keep up with. Other appropriate short-hand for this power: "Adrenaline junkie."

MAGNETISM → Reggie's hands will be able to selectively function as a literal magnet, in the sense that at will, he will have some relative control over his ability to "attract" or "repel" applicable metal objects, as well as have the typical "magnetic" effect on data/computers/technology in that while he cannot alter existing data, he can erase it. Extreme emotion can also affect his use of this ability.

To a degree, this ability can also manifest in a more metaphorical sense, although it will take a lot more effort and practice. While Reggie won't be able to "attract" or "repel" people in an emotionally effective sort of way (i.e., like a pheromone or mind control sort of ability), what he can do is make himself either more noticeable or more invisible -- basically attract or avoid attention. The former will make him seem more interesting/appealing/noticeable(/etc.) to affected parties, the latter will do the opposite and turn affected parties off of wanting to approach, interact, or notice him. While this ability doesn't otherwise influence emotions in any way, the effect it can have on other people is certainly one that could create further potential emotional consequences and that is something Reggie will have to figure out how to deal with. Permissions post.

INTERACTIVE VISIONS → In order to keep the reality of "back home" a little more present to him and overall harder to dissociate from completely, with this ability Reggie will be able to create and interact with mental apparitions that can be fully visually, auditorially, and physically real... but with one major catch. When they're real to him, only he will be able to see, hear, or be affected by them in any way, as if they're merely hallucinations... and on the other hand, these creations can very much to exist to be interacted with by others, but only when Reggie isn't around, so fittingly there will always be a layer of separation between the world and people back home, the world and people Reggie's with now, and the world and people he'll be able to affect and create within his head.