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Astor Jackson Cohen was born on March 13, 1983 to Melissa and Daniel Cohen. He was the fourth child and third son with two older brothers (Gavin and Cyrus) and an older sister (Rosemary). He was an active, imaginative child who picked up music (from his father) at a young age and enjoyed making up stories in his head and drawing pictures (from his mother) to go with the stories. He had a pretty typical life up until he was eight, when his father, suffering depression, committed suicide. His mother entered a downward spiral, and all he could think about was how his father had missed and ruined his birthday. His mother's sister, Joan, helped them move from New York to Philadelphia, also taking up the slack with her niece and nephews. It wasn't fair to her, really, that Joan acted as mother while Melissa seemed to waste away, but that's how it was. Astor took it about as well as Melissa, only instead of shutting down, he started acting out. Little things at first that eventually built up, and the only good thing about it was that, by the time he was in high school, he'd worn himself out on the rebelling for the sake of rebelling thing. Of course, this didn't stop him from doing stupid things. Far from it. It just shifted his motives and reasonings slightly, made some of the things he did a bit riskier and a bit stupider. He even got brought home by the cops once, but, other than a trespassing charge (which he still thinks is bullshit), no charges were pressed. The only things that really calmed him down finally were breaking his leg (he was not as invincible as he originally thought himself to be), Cyrus bitching at him (he actually seemed scared for his well-being instead of just angry at his actions for once), and actually stopping long enough to get a good look at his family, particularly his mother. When he actually stopped and looked at his mother, what he saw scared him. She was like a robot programmed to get up, go to work, come home, and sleep. It scared him, and it angered him all over that his father would just leave them like this. But what could he do? All he could do was try and coax her out of bed with his siblings and aunt, trying not to get disheartened whenever it didn't work (which was more often than not). When he wasn't doing that, he spent as much time out of the house as possible. Mostly, he spent his time at school, finding excuses to stay longer (help on homework, extra credit assignments, joined a club or three), it worked wonders for his GPA but made coming home that much more of a chore. So he got a job so he could stay out more and not feel like a total waste of space, and he kept the job when he went to college. He studied music and English and art because he couldn't decide on a major at first, then eventually settled on English because he liked language. He was going to try for graduate school, but a series of unfortunate events (including the death of his mother) prevented him from doing that. So instead he lives with his brother, Cyrus, and helps out with Rosemary's children (he's very good with children), visits his aunt Joan at least once a week and holds down a steady job at a book store, talks to Gavin frequently enough and debates on the whole going back to school thing. The thought scares him, and he reasons he's happy where he is now so why ruin it? He likes his happiness and where he is right now, and he'd prefer not to do anything that could upset the balance he's finally found.
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