Personality: Danny is a nice kid who tries to go out of his way to be kind to people. It's not always out of the kindness of his heart, mind. It's a defense mechanism. He believes the nicer he is to people, the less likely they are to try to hurt him.
Danny loves art, despite not being too incredibly talented at it. He's quite good at copying the styles of other people, but not inventive enough to come up with something himself. If he could be anything at all he would be an architect because creating buildings just seems like contributing something so permanent and solid. People get to use them and enjoy them. Unfortunately his lack of creativity will likely mean he won't make it, but shhh, don't tell him that. That'll be a surprise for future!Danny. He's bright enough to get through all of the other requirements too.
Most of his friends are younger than he is, and that is just fine with him. He finds younger people less threatening. Most of Danny's personality is about self-preservation, but beneath it all he really is a sweet boy. If he's relaxed enough he'll laugh and joke and tease just like everyone else. It's getting him in a situation where he's relaxed enough that's the true hurdle. Danny doesn't really like to be touched either, and it takes a long time before he will even let someone hug him.
History: Danny has a lot of childhood trauma regarding his uncle who was (is) an incubus. Those experiences led to PTSD and night terrors which still plague him. He has a very hard time falling asleep or staying asleep, and thus he suffers from terrible insomnia. When he IS asleep, sometimes he'll wake up in different places because he sleepwalks. He'll be ripped awake because of absolutely terrifying dreams and he wont be able to move at first. It's all quite horrible and it's been going on for a decade.
He was raised by his mother (the uncle is her half-brother) and a mostly absent father who took Danny for occasional weekends until Danny was seven and started wetting the bed. His father didn't care what reasons there were behind it, he didn't want to deal with it. Danny hasn't seen his father since he was ten, though the man still pays child support and Danny's tuition to London College.
Danny had an older sister who died in the London College shooting as well, and those memories don't help the nightmares at all. He remembers hiding under a teacher's desk as shots were fired everywhere. In the chaos of the aftermath he went searching for his sister and when he found her, she and the two people beside her were dead and it as hard to tell whose arms and legs belonged to whom. He thinks she died trying to get to him to protect him, as her body was in the hallway, and he still blames himself for it. He has stayed at LC because he doesn't want fear to rule at least one part of his life, and his friends (pretty much just Dylan and Lydia) are at LC. He refuses to be pulled away from them.
Danny's mother tries her best for her son. Since they are the only ones left in the family now, they are very close. She worries intensely about his health and she has taken him to specialist after specialist and tried treatment after treatment. When she found out what her half-brother was doing to her son, she called the police immediately (the brother disappeared though) and cursed herself for not knowing when she let her brother stay with them for months. She did research on how to help him through it and joined support groups. Now she runs a support group for mothers who have been where she is and Danny loves her for it. He doesn't think there is anyone in the world he could ever love or respect more.
Lately he's been trying to encourage her to date because he knows she's lonely, but she spends too much time worrying and working to do anything like that. She doesn't trust many men around her son either, which never helps matters. She reckons they're okay when it's just the two of them and while Danny wishes he didn't make her life so hard, he has to agree.