ONE LONG DRIVE

ooc information

name and pronouns: Haley, She/Her

age: 19

timezone: CST/Central Time, Texas

ic information

character requested: The Free Spirit

character name: Peter Beach

face claim: Jeremy Allen White

age: 25

gender/pronouns: Male, He/Him

sexual orientation: Mostly straight, but not entirely. He’s never put too much thought into it. 

meet your character

All You Need Is Love!  Peter Beach will happily belt the words to that infamous Beatles song if ever given the opportunity. Peter loves love. It’s what makes the world go round, as the cliche says. Love has been what has defined him for as long as he could possibly remember. In his youth, this was best exemplified in the love shared between him and his parents. Patterson and Victoria Beach were a typical eccentric couple typical to Shadow Creek. Patterson managed to the town library and Victoria was a teacher at the local junior high. They were a happy, settled couple who lived a quaint and peaceful life in their small two bedroom house. They were the ones to show Peter what it meant to live positive. 

His dad was goofy, and silly and liked to take silly pictures of his wife and son. His mother was giggly and fun and she liked to fill their house with her paintings. They doted on their son Peter and showered him with kindness and affection, while also stressing the importance that he do the same. His childhood was filled with fun and games and family traditions. Each Halloween, he dressed up and went trick-or-treating. On Thanksgiving, he rode with his parents to his grandparent’s house for a lively dinner followed by an even rowdier watch of the football game happening. When Christmas rolled around, he dutifully put out the cookies and milk for Santa, even after he had long stopped believing.

This wholesome upbringing plays a great part in why Peter is the way that he is. His most core values are heavily influenced on who his parents are. If you ask him, there is nothing more important than kindness and acceptance. These beliefs paved the way for his time in school and allowed him to collect a bunch of close friends. To those he went to school with, Peter was considered a fairly quiet, but sweet boy. He could be seen around campus using pencils as drumsticks on whatever surface was nearest to him. It was also no secret that he was musically inclined, especially when he became old enough to be invited to high school parties. As cliche and stereotypical as it sounds, he was the guy in the corner that would ask if you wanted to hear him play Wonderwall.

It was at one of these parties that he first realized that he might be falling for Olive Graff. She was beautiful and enticing and he wanted nothing more than to know her. He didn’t know what it was exactly that caused his feelings for her to change. It was like one day she was just his friend, and then suddenly she was the girl of his dreams. He was always too scared to approach her. What if she thought he was ridiculous? What if she told everyone that Peter Beach made an absolute fool of himself by asking her out. Of course, he knew that she was kind and nice and probably wouldn’t, he still couldn’t get his brain to stop scaring him with the possibility. This was a downside of Peter. He cared far too much about what people thought of him. He wanted to be liked by all and loved by many. He was terrified to do something if he thought it would cause him social strife, which meant he often stayed silent about things concerning him, to the detriment of himself.

He never had been the type to rock the boat.

Still, even though Olive had no clue about his feelings, he was still a happy person. She was his friend, as was everyone else, and that was all he really needed. Or so he thought, anyways.

He’d been at the party immediately following graduation. As if the universe were giving him a sign, the day had been exceptionally bad. He’d argued with his mother about college, or more specifically, his lack of. She wanted him to do something with school following graduation, even if it was at the community college. All Peter wanted to do, however, was play music. Obviously, his mother did not quite share his confidence. He broke his phone later that night too, which was why he had been more reserved than usual at the party on that fateful night. Ironically, he had been the closest he’d ever been to telling Olive about his feelings. That is, until he caught sight of her arguing with Bryson. He’d quickly dipped away, not wanting to get involved in something like this and went back to his usual state of being far too cowardly to say what he felt.

It was only a few hours later when he’d heard what happened.

Like everyone else, this absolutely crushed him. Olive, the love of his young life, was dead. As a result of drunk driving too. It took everything in his being to not lash out at the boy who did it. They were friends, but none of that mattered now that Olive was dead. It was only when his mother reminded him to think of all sides and how everyone must be feeling, that he calmed down.

Sort of. It was hard to fit the exact definition of “calm” in a situation like this.

Olive’s death had a tremendous impact on their small town. Peter watched from a distance as all of his friends scattered across the world. He chose to stay. He worked at the Dairy Queen across from his old high school for six months following that night. He felt directionless and lost. He didn’t feel like he could make it on his own but he drowning by staying. Olive was all that he could think about. He couldn’t stop beating himself up for not telling her how he felt. He felt like a coward, less of man. He needed to grow a spine. It became clear to those closest to him that Peter needed a change.

One morning, just like any other, Peter had headed downstairs for breakfast. He was in his Dairy Queen uniform and was preparing to go and work a double shift. His father and mother were waiting for him and it was clear from the look on their faces that they wanted to talk. So they did. They talked long and hard about Peter’s place in life and expressed their concerns that he wasn’t growing. They told him that he needed to do something, anything.

So he did.

After his shift, he sat down and pooled together every penny that he had. Once he did that, he asked his parents if they would match him. They did.

Scared, confused, but slightly hopeful was how Peter felt as he boarded the greyhound bus that was heading from South Carolina to Alabama. When he arrived, he immediately boarded another bus that took him to Louisiana. One crazy night in New Orleans, and he was on his way to Texas. He arrived in Houston, spent another two nights there, before boarding one last bus to Austin. This is where he would stay for  years to come. It was the live music capital of the world, and he planned to take advantage of it.

Before long, he fell into the city’s culture. He started smoking cigarettes, found himself dabbling in different psychedelic drugs, and ended up in a two bedroom apartment with five other people. A few months later, he started a band with some friends. They named it Indoor Creature. This was Peter’s life. For the next six years, he lived in peace and happiness. Olive was still on his mind. He never had found anybody else to make him feel the way that she did. But he had healed, for the most part.

ooc information

name and pronouns: Kali, she/her

age: 19

timezone: Eastern Time

ic information

character requested: The Squad Leader

character name: Shea Sumner

face claim: Chloe Norgaard

age: 25

gender/pronouns: Female, she/her

sexual orientation: Bisexual

meet your character

Control. She wanted it, she needed it, and damn it, she would have it. The need for control controlled her until she was out of control and her world spiraled into a darkness with no control whatsoever. And then she would wake up and carry on as usual.

Shea Sumner was the youngest child in her family, the only girl, to be exact, with three older brothers whom she loved, but they were great at picking on her. So amazing, in fact, that Shea learned how to stand up for herself. Combined with the fact that school was hell and she’d been living under the diagnosis of “bipolar disorder.”  

She learned to lash out at those who bullied her for her hair color, her intelligence, her bossiness, and her love of nerdy pastimes. And they obeyed. Shea then learned her second life lesson: take charge, and they will fear you, and then they cannot hurt you.  Then a third life lesson: when emotions hit, when your father dies, and when you move away from the life you’ve always known, you’ve got to bury those emotions until you no longer feel them.

Then the remaining Sumner family arrived at Shallow Creek when Shea was eleven. Shea soon became known throughout middle school as the badass who succeeded at whatever she set her mind to. That, and being straight-up terrifying. 

So it was a surprise when she found real friends, ten of them in fact.  At last, all her pent-up ideas for plans could be put into action. They would go down to the creek and have a picnic, then they would go hiking in the mountains. Then a night watching fireworks. Movies, where they would take up the entire row and smuggle in homemade cookie dough.  Oh, and the parties. Shea could plan the best parties. Everyone would receive the most amazing birthday gift from her that she worked on for months, despite having little money.  Her friends were like her own children, and she loved being the source of their fun.  And of course, when someone was crying about a relationship or a dead pet or a bad grade, Shea’s brutal honesty would be the perfect advice.  

Despite this, no one knew about Shea’s struggle with bipolar disorder. It didn’t have to be said.  Quite frankly, she saw it as a sign of weakness, to not even have control over one’s own mind.

And then came the party. It was the anniversary of Shea’s father’s death. She was so drunk she couldn’t think straight, finding herself right in a depressive episode, but she could think just straight enough to advise Olive on her recent breakup. Sure, it wasn’t Shea’s best work, but she was pissed off that she had to be at the party anyway. Then she got the text. Dead. Olive Graff, the only high schooler Shea truly looked up to, dead. And it was all to late to admit her true feelings. Because who has time for that crap, right? Right?

Something had snapped. It wasn’t guilt, it wasn’t regret, but white-hot anger that no mood-altering medications could fix. Olive had been the heart of the group and the first one to reach out to Shea when she had no one. How dare she be gone? How dare the world collapse inwards?