#pansimic

If ever there lived a family that was made up of hard-working, salt-of-the-earth folks, it was the Gleasons. Sawyer Gleason was born on the family farm around the outer limits of Windenburg. The land belonged to Gleasons five generations back and as far as Ma and Pa were concerned, it would always belong to a Gleason.

Sawyer, the oldest, was sunny from the get-go. He spent his days as a boy racing around the warm, ducks waddling after him honking and flapping. He clambered over hay bales, splashed around in the pond, got his hands dirty and held the flashlight over the tractor while his dad cursed and smoked within. 

The twins were born next, two hellion boys that would keep their parents fit by forcing them to chase the two all around the farm. But the youngest, the only Gleason girl, was born with a heart defect. She spent the first weeks of her life in the hospital, visible to her family only through the plastic shield that kept her safe. The twins were too young to understand, but Sawyer would never forget the sight of her in there, too small and always crying. 

Sawyer took his role of big brother on with more seriousness after Jenny was born. If the kids were out in the fields, Sawyer was with them. If the twins were climbing, he was there in case one of them fell. With such active older brothers in the twins, Jenny was always struggling to keep up; it was on Sawyer’s shoulders that she spent a great deal of her youth on the farm.

As far as Gleason boys went, Sawyer was a fine example of a young man. He grew up big and tall, strong and sturdy. Working the fields with his parents made him tough, and his siblings(who would always be smaller than he was) climbed him like their own personal jungle gym. He worked hard, he worked long hours before and after school. But his academic pursuits were less favourable.

The truth was that as strong and strapping and hard-working as Sawyer was, booksmart he was not. A C was a grade worth cracking open the chocolate milk over and his report cards were never favourable. ‘Sawyer works hard but doesn’t seem to fully take in the concept,’ ‘Sawyer needs to spend more time on his homework,’ his teachers cited over and over throughout all of his school years.

It wasn’t until high school that things started to look up(although truthfully his studies never did). Recruited early onto the football team, Sawyer was valued for his chipper attitude, his drive to improve and his eagerness to support his team. What he lacked in booksmarts he more than made up for in spirit, and his rise to popularity was quick.

Surely it helped that he was a handsome farmboy with a country twang and a winning smile. 

But high school doesn’t last forever, and when it was all over he felt a bit... lost. Now a couple years out, he’s still working on the family farm but it feels like something is missing, or like... like he missed a step going up the stairs, his gut dropped out from under him. He clings to his high school accomplishments and the friends he made there, but surely there has to be something more. Surely he wasn’t meant to toil away the rest of his life on his daddy’s farm... right?

Now here the farmboy is, auditioning to be on TV mostly because Jenny thought it would be funny to see her big brother make a total ass of himself on television.

Personality:

Protective. Sawyer looks out for people and has a soft spot for folks less able than himself like his sister was growing up. He’s always looking to lift up the underdog.

Cowboy. YEEHAW.

A little bit of jock brain. As good and warm as Sawyer is, he was definitely a high school jock and that hasn’t changed. 

After doing poorly in the school system for so long, Sawyer’s come to the conclusion that he’s a big dummy(he’s not, but the education system isn’t really his type of intelligence). He tends not to spend too much time thinking and has been known to stare into space like a blockheaded goof.

He has a surprisingly good singing voice, but will only sing country songs. Beware.

Always cracking jokes, but his sense of humour is pretty wholesome. He’s not much of a scoundrel, though he’s not a prude either. Gentlemanly is probably the right word. 

BASICS

- 28. Originally from Willow Creek. Successful science fiction author. Pansexual.

- The first impression Threston gives is often serious - it’s not that he has no sense of humor, he’ll still laugh at a good joke – but he gives life the serious outlook he think it deserves. He’s a little too sober for some people. It’s not a matter of thinking himself above it all, or anything – he doesn’t look down on anyone – he’s just naturally somber. This changes if you can get him drunk, however – he’s a slap-happy silly drunk. He’ll laugh at every 5-year-old joke and dad pun in your arsenal while drunk.

- He’s a morning person, but not without coffee. He likes to start early when everything is fresh and bright, but even he struggles with a proper alert state without at least two coffees. He drinks his coffee with loads of cream and sugar – it’s not coffee unless it’s drowned in the good stuff. He doesn’t know how people drink coffee black.

- He may not give the impression of being fashionably impossible, but one of his best friends got tired of his horrible wardrobe and bought him a whole new one. He just wears what his best friend Caroline hands him, and hopefully doesn’t do it wrong. He has absolutely zero fashion sense.

- When he’s dating someone, he’s an absolute gentleman – flowers, showering compliments, offering to open the car door for you, love poetry – the whole nine yards. He takes a classic view on dating, and wants to treat his sweetheart with the adoration they deserve.

- He’s a highschool dropout who started his science-fiction series young, but had the good sense to hold onto it and edit it as he went into his twenties. He published the first novel when he was 25, and while it wasn’t an instant hit, it did become a cult classic pretty fast. It’s grown quite a bit since then, and he’s released the second and third volumes at this point.

- His parents divorced when he was five, and his dad won custody – they lived poorly for as long as Threston lived there, but they were happy. As soon as he started earning serious money from his books, Threston bought them a new house to move out of the slums.

- He hasn’t dated much in his life. He’s had one serious girlfriend, his highschool sweetheart, but when Threston dropped out they grew apart and eventually mutually broke up. He’s still decent friends with her. He had two boyfreinds in succession that didn’t last more than a month about a year after that break-up, and that’s really the whole of his dating career.

SKILLS

Video Gaming – He games when he has writers block. Which, luckily, isn’t that often, but enough that he’s cultivated some still at video games. He’s still a very casual gamer, though, focusing on story-based games.

Wellness – Every morning after hos coffee, he meditates for twenty minutes to center his brain. He can’t always manage it, sometimes his brain is buzzing with too many ideas, but it’s still good to spend some time doing nothing at all.

Writing – It’s his passion and career after all. His sci-fi series, Spanner In The Works, is his main income and claim to fame, and he’s got three more books of it planned, with a possibility of three spin-off series, as well.

Cooking – His dad worked well into the night through his teenage years, leaving Threston to fend for himself, so he ended up teaching himself a little cooking. It’s nothing to be amazed at, but it’s a skill he’d like to improve – though his omlettes are KILLER.