Bushroot redesign for my AU story which can be found here -->
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/715449.....ew-the-Bassist

Poor Reggie, he just plain doesn't wanna be here lol. Not that I blame him, I do horrible things to him.
Not much change on this one either but I gotta admit I majorly missed drawing Bushroot ❤ Coat is a smidge awkward but I wanted to draw it open for once since he always has it closed. Also I'm kinda stupidly in love with how his signature came out. Hooray for pointless details!

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A man of few words, Reginald Bushroot has been a troubled soul from the very beginning. A complicated birth ended his mother’s life and left his father with a resentment for his son that only escalated as the boy grew. At first, Reggie’s father dealt with his distaste for his child by trying to mold him into what he could consider an acceptable son and something worth the loss of his beloved wife. Accelerated schooling and hours of private tutoring would only prove to make Reggie miserable. Only his music classes would offer a source of relief for the young mallard.

From the beginning Reggie struggled. His socially awkward and timid nature made his already difficult schooling even more trying. Reggie’s inherent strangeness and inability to connect with his classmates only made things worse. The constant bullying began to break Reggie’s fragile emotional state. Several mental breakdowns and hundreds of dollars in therapy later, Reggie’s father had all but given up on his son. The bitterness grew and festered eventually turning into physical abuse. The painful treatment ultimately left Reggie with a fear of physical contact that would prove all but impossible to get over.

The harsh expectations and continued abuse soon led the young mallard to detest the only family he had. Reggie’s wavering mental state caused him to start lashing out at his father, finding every way within his power to rebel against his wishes. The young teenager eventually began to spend every moment of his time locked away in his room with only the sound of his bass for comfort. His father had always viewed Reggie’s talent for guitar as a worthless gift, and every vibration of the metal strings only made his anger grow.

The defiance shattered what little grip on reality that the bitter man had left, causing a final confrontation between father and son that nearly ended Reggie’s short life. The final push sent Reggie off on his own with nothing but the clothes on his body and the bass on his back. For several years he wandered in solitude, music and nicotine offering the only relief for his misery. Within the second year of his new life as a runaway, Reggie came into contact with something he never expected to have: a friend.

The lively and carefree orphan quickly came to view the moody mallard as a younger brother, taking it upon himself to teach Reggie what he needed to survive on the streets. The two set off on an aimless journey that would last for years, hitching rides from city to city mostly by train. The idea of home was such a retched concept to Reggie that he found the travels oddly soothing: an almost tangible way for him to run from his own past. What the two couldn’t afford for their own survival they stole, when they reached a dead end they turned and went a different way, when life pushed them down they got back up and wandered on. To Reggie, it was a strangely perfect existence.

Although he could never admit it to his oddly matched companion, the time he spent with the other mallard were the best years of Reggie’s life. But life had never really been kind to Reggie. His health soon began to deteriorate forcing him rely even more on his friend and making it exceptionally difficult when a particularly traumatizing event forced the two to part ways. Now struck with a deep depression and resentment for the world, Reggie quickly learned to hide his feelings behind an uncaring mask; a futile defense against his own emotions.

The devastating loss left Reggie all but impartial to his own existence, wandering on his own in an attempt to recapture the sliver of happiness that his companion had provided. Despite his waning will to live, the despondent mallard continued on, moving absently from town to town working in a variety of strange vocations as he went. But no matter where he ended up things always seemed to turn out badly for Reggie compelling the mallard to run continuously from his problems. As the years passed, the harshness of his life was soon reflected in his mannerisms. His constant slouching and a tendency to chain smoke horribly were among some of his more common bad habits. Despite the growing tendency for Reggie to exhibit self-destructive behavior, he carried on, his face an emotionless guise and his demeanor hunched with the weight of a hundred painful memories.

Reggie’s final years of drifting turned out to be among his most turbulent. An extremely close brush with death finally prompted the mallard to move one last time, carrying him to the twisted confines of St. Canard and a destiny that he could have never imagined.