fake it 'till you break it

general

name: thalia brooke . nicknames: thali, ali . face claim: samantha logan. pronouns: she / her . gender: cis female . sexuality: bisexual . age: 28 . birth date: november 30 . role: pogue . profession: emergency medicine intern .

physical

height: five foot seven . build: lean, skinny . hair: dark, curly hair, usually braided but prefers to keep it natural . eyes: deep brown .

demeanor: careful. always quiet, lingering a step behind with her head down . smile: wide, warm, and absolutely rare . voice: gentle, soft, patient .

mental

positives: dedicated, intelligent, respectful, kind . negatives: closed-off, insecure, resentful . likes: helping others, studying, nice stationary, meeting new people . dislikes: her past, shifts that run too long, cold nights .

birthplace: dallas, texas . education: pre-med (undergrad), med school . career: first year emergency medicine intern . family:

biographical

medicine had never been something anticipated for thalia.

she'd spent her early life playing soccer- competitive as anything, pushing herself hard for the sport, but it's because she loved it. as a kid and young teen, her whole world was soccer- almost all of her friends came from playing on the team, and there was nothing better than an after school game.

soccer wasn't just a sport. her parents fought at home, her dad drank, and money was tight. any soccer equipment she bought was saved for over a year. but it was worth it, because soccer also brought her a community. friends on the team. a coach who mentored her. the support she didn't have.

by high school, thalia was looking at going pro. her coach had become a figure she could look up to, who helped her when things got difficult. soccer was everything to her, and passion had been turning into success. at games, she'd start to notice scouts, get emails from schools with good programs...

she'd assumed that she'd have a future in soccer.

but during junior year, things changed. the money ran out (or, really, her mother finally left her father and took everything but her daughter). she had to quit soccer suddenly, started working somewhere small downtown just to keep herself afloat.

rumors started up quick. the split was her fault. she was caught stealing. she was doping and got caught. sleeping with the coach and admin found out. she was-

she kept her head down, because trying to keep herself going while her family fell apart was difficult enough without her reputation falling into pieces. people whispered when she walked by, and defending herself felt like too much when her friends and her mentor distanced themselves in order to not get caught in the crossfire.

her only goal was to get out of texas.

she found herself at a small college in the northeast. knew she had to find a way to support herself, and medicine seemed like it'd pay off well. and more that, she found herself enjoying it.

the er is busy. the rush is exhilarating, and she doesn't need to be the best- just needs to be capable and competent. she'd found friends up at college, hoped she'd placed roots down during med school.

and then their residency matches came in. every program she'd hoped to land in was close, or at least in nearby states. instead, she'd opened the envelope and saw the words she'd dreaded the most: dallas, texas.

she's been back in dallas for eight months.

people who remember her are still distant. she still keeps her head down, works hard and avoids most people who she used to know. coming back has brought back most of her high school anxieties and insecurities back. she's quieter and just hoping that the time will pass by quick.

general

name: oliver meade . nicknames: ollie (used very frequently) . face claim: froylán gutierrez . pronouns: he / him . gender: cis male . sexuality: bisexual . age: 22 . birth date: february 2 . role: kook . profession: figure skater .

physical

height: five foot eleven . build: lean, athletic . hair: fluffy dark brown hair, parted down the middle with bangs that swoop to the side. eyes: blue . features: light freckles, faint dimples

demeanor: sharp, confident (but sometimes forced), chin up but shoulders low . smile: small, hesitant, and bright . voice: smooth, direct, clipped .

mental

positives: thoughtful, charming, hard-working, perceptive . negatives: competitive, emotionally avoidant, fearful . likes: success, earning his mother's approval, poetry books, orange soda . dislikes: his family, summer weather, failure in any capacity, intense pressure .

birthplace: boston, massachusetts . education: high school diploma . career: figure skating (currently only at the national level) family: elijah meade (father, deceased), mother - tbd.

biographical

the ice has been all that ollie has ever known.

growing up in boston, with his father, elijah, being a competitive hockey player, he spent his early life half at ice rinks, and the other half hearing about hockey from his friends or his family or seeing it on tv. as soon as he could walk, his father was teaching him how to skate and trying to push him into youth hockey.

ollie, a lanky, skinny kid, did very poorly compared to his peers. he could do crossovers and skate backwards like nobody's business- but once you put a stick in his hand, the talent seemed to vanish.

but elijah, determined to keep his son on the ice (whether he did hockey or not), took him to his first skating lesson when he was six. there, something seemed to click. he'd spend every day after school at the rink, and his father's hockey money was spent on new blades and better coaches.

ollie's father died when he was eleven. it broke his family into pieces, and his mother, who had once been happy to be a stay at home mother, found out a few things very quickly: that their lifestyle was very expensive, that the hockey money wasn't as much as she'd assumed, and that she'd need to find a new source of income, fast.

and, with ollie's growing success at local competitions... the answer, to her, seemed obvious.

the meades moved to texas within the year for greater competitive opportunity and access to coaches. they always kept up the appearance of wealth, his mother always acted like it and ollie tried to. pressure from his mother to compete more and place better mounted, because the prize money, the cash the news would give her and whatever sponsorships she could find him were what was going to keep them afloat.

by the time he graduated high school (online, so he could spend more time at the rink), ollie began to resent skating. he was good, sure, good enough to win things and compete across the country, good enough that the sponsorships and prize money is more than enough again, but the joy has been stripped out of it. skating isn't fun anymore- it's a job that takes an endless toll and seems like he will never be able to quit.

ollie moved out two years ago. still keeps contact with his mother, sends her money because it's what he's always done. and he hasn't stopped skating, because it's all he's ever known and it's all he has.

he's twenty two and hasn't been to college (wishes he had, knows he couldn't- he loves the idea if it, though). spent his whole life skating- he's not good at anything else. he's trying to convince himself that he still enjoys it. that he wants to keep skating, but the resentment is building again, even though he can't stop.