<Snipped quote by Altered Tundra>

Just one small edit pretty please - Cliff is already at his max with employees over at Jennings 🤣 Would you mind changing his brothers occupation for me? I know it's a super minor thing, I apologize.

@Sugar and Spite @Moon Child @SalemFlame Getting in right under the wire. I haven't been feeling well over the past few days, so it was a bit tense for a while.

Pastor Matthew Pierce [+]

Matthew Pierce

_{Faceclaim: Lewis Pullman // Color Code: #6494ed}
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

_{Full Name:}

Matthew Coltrane Pierce

_Nickname(s):

Pastor Matt, Matty

_Age:

31

_Gender:

Male

_Sexuality:

Straight

_Occupation:

Youth & Outreach Pastor at Pines Holler Baptist Church; occasionally volunteers as a counselor for those in emotional distress, despite no proper psychiatric training

_{Place of Residence:}

He has taken up residence in the small ‘shack’ previously used by the cemetery caretaker behind the church. While he insists it is only a temporary solution, he has occupied the space for the past three years.

_{Family and Close Connections:}

• Father Waylon Shaw – the head pastor of Pines Holler Baptist Church; serves as both Matt’s boss and mentor. After his biological father left at a young age, he views him almost like the father he never had. He is poised to succeed him as the head pastor after BLANK steps down, retires, or passes.
• Lorraine Pierce – Mother and former bartender, she now resides in a nursing home a few towns over in Marion. Matt rarely speaks about her and has shown no inclination to visit her, even with her declining health.
• Tessa Reeves – Ex-girlfriend who left for Knoxville. With rumors swirling about her engagement, Matt claims he’s happy for her, though he seldom elaborates on the subject and prefers not to talk about their past.

_Appearance:

• Height: 6’0”
• Hair: Brown hair, usually unkempt and kept a little too long; light stubble on his chin that he trims to look accidental
• Eyes: Blue
• Body Type: Ruggedly handsome, conceals a trim body beneath his more conservative choice of clothes
• Clothing Style: Clean shirts that are usually rolled up at the sleeves and wrinkled, khaki or jeans, casual shoes, typically a pair of worn sneakers, a silver chain around his neck with a cross, and leather bracelets from some youth event he never talks about
• Body Markings: N/A

_Personality:

• Awkwardly charming
• Soft-spoken, but firm when pushed
• Compassionate to a fault; he can be far too trusting sometimes
• Self-loathing in private/lonely
• Secretly volatile
• Faithful but constantly tempted
• Empathetic
• Romantic in theory; reckless in practice
• Idealistic
• Afraid of wasting his life

_History:

Matthew is a man of faith, though he did not start on the path to glory. As a child, he was far from the sanctity of the church. While his mother worked at the bar, Matt typically frequented pool halls and gas stations, associating with those who would rather remain in the shadows due to their shady practices. That’s why his conversion to Christianity at nineteen was both sudden and dramatic. Some called it a miracle while others suspected it was desperation disguised as revelation. Either way, the church folks loved a revival story, and as far as they were concerned, Matt was a textbook example.

However, when he went off to attend seminary, it did not last. Rumors swirled about the reasons, ranging from illness to insubordination; some even speculated that there was an inappropriate relationship involved. Despite the circumstances, the outcome remained the same: Matt returned to Pines Holler early, seeking fulfilling work that would satisfy his faith.

Fortunately, Pines Holler Baptist Church took him in. Pastor Waylon Shaw—older, patient, and sharp enough to see both potential and danger in the young man—became a kind of mentor and father figure. Under Shaw’s wing, Matt found his purpose. As the congregation’s youth and outreach pastor, he wrangled teens on Wednesday nights, handled funerals on short notice, and even stepped into the role of unofficial counselor and confidante for anyone in town who needed someone to talk to.

Nevertheless, his transformation never felt complete. While his faith and love are real, he still experiences certain temptations from his past that he hasn’t quite managed to drown in baptism.

_{Extra Facts // Headcannons:}

• REQUIRED: How does your character feel about the expansion/growth of Pines Holler?
  This is a complicated issue for Matt. On one hand, he wants to save Pines Holler from decay, feeling a deep connection to the place as his hometown, but on the other, he has an innate desire to escape and find his own path.
• Smokes in his truck to calm his nerves, but never in front of church members.
• Keeps liquor in a water bottle under the hymnals in the back of the church, untouched for weeks, and then gone overnight.
• Writes letters to his mother, but never sends them or visits her.
• Drives an ancient Toyota Tacoma that he routinely takes up to the overlook outside town to pray, curse, or simply sit and listen to music.
• At least two households in Pines Holler blame him for breaking up their daughters.
• Once tried to host a youth canoe trip that ended with two sprained ankles and a missing paddle. It’s still a running joke to this day.
• Says, “God will sort it out” when what he really means is, “I don’t know how to.”
• He believes the Holy Spirit speaks in shame and longing, but he isn’t sure which is louder.

For your consideration

Anna Lou [+]

_{Faceclaim: Antonia Gentry // Color Code: #4DBDB5}
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_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

_{Full Name:}

Anna Lou Caudill

_Nickname(s):

Annie (family only)
Lou (what most regulars at Husker's call her)

_Age:

Twenty-seven // Pisces // March 3rd

_Gender:

Female

_Sexuality:

Bisexual

_Occupation:

Waitress and occasional bartender at Husker's, picking up whatever shifts need covering

_{Place of Residence:}

14 Shady Hills Lane (her parents' trailer)

_{Family and Close Connections:}

Dennis Caudill, father, 54, formerly employed at Parton's Lumber Company for nineteen years. He's quiet and not much of a complainer. Takes the bus to the Dollar General now for the few shifts they'll give him and doesn't say much about how that feels. Anna Lou gets her conflict aversion from him.

Lorraine Caudill, mother, 52, works part-time at Lou's Diner. She's warm though also a little worn down. Has never once said she wishes Anna Lou had left. Has also never once said she's glad she stayed.

_Appearance:

• Height: Five feet, four inches
• Hair: Dark brown, natural texture somewhere between wavy and loosely coiled depending on the weather, usually pulled back for shifts and left loose on her days off
• Eyes: Dark brown
• Body Type: Soft and slight
• Clothing Style: Off-shift she gravitates toward worn flannels, faded band tees from artists she actually listens to, jeans that have seen better days, and the occasional thrifted dress she tells herself she'll wear more often.
• Body Markings: A small constellation of freckles across her nose and cheeks. One set of lobe piercings, usually plain gold studs, because she keeps losing the nicer ones.

_Personality:

Anna Lou possesses the kind of warmth that makes a room feel incrementally cozier the moment she enters it. Were you to voice this observation aloud, however, she would likely demur out of embarrassment. She is, by constitution and by choice, a deeply interested person: attentive to others, adept at listening, and quick to offer a laugh that sounds as natural as a reflex. At Husker's, she knows most of her regulars by the small, telling details of their lives, like their go-to order or the names of their pets. People gravitate to her like moths to a flame, and she likes them back, though always with that careful buffer she maintains between herself and the world.

That buffer is the part Anna Lou never discusses. Not with her mother, not with her oldest friends, and certainly not with the affable, uncomplicated men who occasionally ask her for a drink after her shift. On the surface, she appears ever-present; below that surface, a small but stubborn distance persists. It is not dishonesty that drives this, as she would never deliberately mislead anyone. Rather, it is a hard-won instinct for self-preservation, cultivated through a thousand minor, unmemorable moments. When conflict arises, her first impulse is to apologize and to soothe. Only later, in the late hours of the night, staring at the water-stained ceiling of her room, does she allow herself to sort out what she actually feels.

She is not unhappy. Instead, Anna Lou lives in a murky land of contentment and its discontents. She loves Pines Holler with a bone-deep loyalty, and she loves her parents. She does not regret staying, not entirely, and certainly not in any language she lets herself articulate aloud. But sometimes, in the lull between the early afternoon crowd and the dinner rush, or while wiping down the same sticky counter she has wiped down a thousand times, she feels a strange tug, and she catches herself wondering what her life might have looked like if she had pushed on her desires a little harder.

_History:

Anna Lou was born and raised in Pines Holler, the only child of Dennis and Lorraine Caudill. She grew up in the same single-wide trailer she still sleeps in, a modest home with a squeaky porch step and a kitchen window that catches the morning sun. She went to the same school everyone went to, knew everyone's business, and had her own known in return. It wasn't a hard childhood, not in any dramatic sense at least. Her parents were steady and kind; they worked hard and meant well, and even as a kid, she understood that kind of decency was something worth being grateful for.

In school, Anna Lou was a decent student, which suited her just fine. She had friends, went to parties, and stayed out of trouble because she didn't need it. So, the dream of leaving was never a huge, specific thing. It was more like a direction she kept meaning to walk in. At seventeen, she applied to a handful of schools and got into two of them, including a state school two hours away. At the time, that distance felt reasonable: far enough to taste independence, close enough to drive home if the world felt tilted. She was going to study something—communications, maybe, or education; she hadn't quite decided. But then Dennis threw out his back, and the timing seemed wrong. She deferred for a year. The year turned into two. And by the time her father was back on his feet, the momentum had dissipated.

Now she is twenty-seven, and she still tells herself she'll figure it out. She's not dead, after all. But the figuring-out keeps getting postponed for the same reasons it always has. Meanwhile, Parton's has closed its doors for good. Her father picks up whatever shifts the Dollar General will give him, his work boots heavier than they used to be. The cost of living also went up three hundred dollars overnight, a sudden pinch that turned every grocery trip into a calculation in her head before she gets to the register. Anna Lou looks at the window she always assumed was still open—the window marked someday, eventually, when things settle—and from where she's standing now, it seems to have changed. The glass is still there, but the light coming through it looks different. Smaller. More like a mirror.

_{Extra Facts // Headcannons:}

• Anna Lou harbours deeply ambivalent feelings about the corporate expansion creeping toward Pines Holler. Part of her understands the appeal of change, but another part of her is frightened. She has not decided what she thinks. She is not sure she wants to.
• Music is her constant companion. She listens at work, on her walk from the trailer to the car, while falling asleep with one earbud in, so Gerald can't chew the cord. Her taste is eclectic: Dolly Parton sits beside Hozier; older R&B that Lorraine used to play in the kitchen (Aretha, Al Green, the occasional Anita Baker) rubs shoulders with the occasional embarrassing pop song.
• She makes very good biscuits, which she learned from Lorraine, who learned from her own mother, and the recipe has never been written down because it doesn't need to be. Sometimes Anna Lou brings a batch to Husker's and leaves them at the bar without announcement, wrapped in a clean dish towel. They vanish within the hour. No one asks who made them. No one has to.
• There is also Gerald. Gerald is a very old, very stubborn cat. He was supposed to be temporary. A neighbour found him as a stray, half-starved and hissing, and Anna Lou agreed to “hold onto him for a few days.” That was eleven years ago. Gerald now rules the trailer with a kind of reticent tyranny, knocking things off counters for sport and sleeping directly in the center of her pillow. She has never loved anything quite so irritating. She suspects the feeling is mutual, which only deepens the bond.
• When things feel heavy, such as when the cost of living rises again, or her father comes home from Dollar General too tired to eat, or the corporate expansion makes another land purchase she reads about, Anna Lou steps onto the back porch of the trailer and smokes a cigarette. Just one. Sometimes two. She tells herself she's going to stop. She has told herself this for eight years.

For your consideration

Elias Rowan Petterson || Teacher/Coach [+]

Face Claim ...Garrett Hedlund

Full Name:
Elias Rowan Petterson
Nickname(s):
Eli – what most people call him.
Rowan – used by old friends or when things get serious.
Coach – what some of the kids have started calling him, whether he likes it or not.

Age: Twenty-eight ... Scorpio ... November 3rd

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Straight (though not rigid about it—he’s more about connection than labels, even if he doesn’t say that out loud).

Occupation: High School English Teacher
Assistant Football Coach (unofficial, inevitable in a town like this)

Place of Residence: Small rented house on the edge of Pines Holler, just past Old Creek Road.

Family and Close Connections:
Mother: Diane Mercer - Age 54 - Former waitress, now works part-time at the local diner.
Father: Thomas Mercer |- Deceased - Former mill worker.
Younger Sister: Lila Mercer - Age 22 - Left town, limited contact.
Friends: A few from high school still around, though most relationships are surface-level now.
Significant Other: None. Complicated history. Keeps people at arm’s length.

Appearance:
Height: Six feet, one inch.
Build: Broad-shouldered, solid. Strong without trying to be. Looks like someone who grew up working with his hands because he did.
Hair: Dark blond, usually a little too long on top, falls into his eyes when he hasn’t bothered to cut it.
Eyes: Grey-blue. Usually tired
Facial Hair: Keeps a short beard or stubble most of the time.

Clothing Style:
Practical, worn-in, quietly intentional. Flannels, henleys, denim jackets, boots that have seen years of use. Nothing flashy, but everything fits him well.
He cleans up better than people expect when he needs to. button-down, sleeves rolled up.

Body Markings:
Faded scar along his right forearm from a childhood accident.
Small tattoo on his ribs—Roman numerals (his father’s birthday). Rarely seen, rarely talked about.

Personality:
Steady and patient, with a dry sense of humor. After years with a father who drank too much and had a temper when drunk, Elias become protective of his family and was always loyal to friends and family.
Quietly intense, and observant, usually picks up on things others miss, aware of those situations that can turn ugly. Stubborn but calm, not loud. Eli always comes across as dependable, the kind of guy you trust without thinking about it. He shows up. He does the work. He listens more than he speaks.

After leaving his mom and sister to go to college, carries a lot of guilt he doesn’t talk about. Another layer underneath it all, he’s restless. Never content, never happy with himself or his relationships. Struggles with letting people truly know him. There’s a weight to him with a sense that he’s both exactly where he belongs but somehow hates it and feels trapped by it.

History:
Born and raised in Pines Holler, Eli grew up on the edge of everything, the edge of town, the edge of poverty, the edge of a family that was always one bad month away from falling apart.
His father worked long hours at the mill, coming home tired, quiet, and often drinking more than he should. Dad was usually a good man but when he drank, which only got worse with age, more yelling, more anger. His mother held things together as best she could, stretching paychecks and patience in as many ways as possible.

Eli learned early how to be the “easy one.” Hardly ever in trouble.
Good in school. Helpful. Invisible when it mattered but always there for anyone and everyone.

Football gave him an outlet. English gave him a voice he didn’t use outside the classroom. One teacher, someone who saw something in him, pushed him toward college. Told him he could be more than what Pines Holler expected of him. So he left to go to the state university and got his degree in English and Education.

Always been the guy who kept his head down and did everything right but always watched and maybe wanted to be with those who didn’t.

And wanted to get away but still… he came back.

Now he teaches kids back in the high school he had once been a student at, kids who remind him of himself. Watches them sit in the same desks, make the same choices, carry the same weight and often more.


Extra Facts // Headcanons:
• Drinks more than he lets on. Not out of control but enough that it’s a habit, not a choice.
• Late nights are his worst enemy. That’s when the thoughts get loud, that;’s when the self-loathing and doubts kick in.,
• Reads constantly but scrolls even more.
• Has a soft spot for music he won’t admit to liking,old country, acoustic, anything a little raw.
• Fixes things around his house himself, even when it would be easier not to.
• Keeps his father’s old lighter, even though he quit smoking cigarettes years ago.
• Struggles with anger. Always close to the edge, worried about breaking. IN class it comes out quiet, tight jaw, controlled voice, hands clenched just out of sight.
• Doesn’t believe he’s the “good man” people think he is, but tries to be anyway. Hates that he doesn't meet the standard he believes he should.
• Has a habit of showing up for people without being asked… and disappearing when they get too close.
• Still hasn’t decided if coming back to Pines Holler was the right choice.

• I'll need you to change his faceclaim, please. Garrett Hedlund is already in use. If you need any help finding another FC, feel free to message me on the Discord <3
• His address will need to be either in Shady Pines (our trailer park) or on Miners Street - unless you're planning on making another character that would have one of these addresses?
• In his extra's section, could you please describe how he feels about the growth/expansion of Pines Holler?

I humbly submit my character sheet for consideration!

Lyra Analise Moore [+]

Lyra Analise Moore

_{Faceclaim: Helen Hunt // Color Code: 92278f}
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_{Full Name:}

Lyra Analise Moore

_Nickname(s):

Ly

_Age:

37

_Gender:

Female

_Sexuality:

Straight/heterosexual.

_Occupation:

Server at Lou’s Diner.

_{Place of Residence:}

#13 Shady Pines Drive

_{Family and Close Connections:}

Helen Moore – Mother – Deceased
Robert Moore – Father – Deceased
Matthew Hawthorne – Ex-boyfriend – In prison
Waylon Shaw – Boss – Probably the closest thing Lyra has to a friend at this point in her life.

_Appearance:

• Height: Five feet, 7 inches.
• Hair: Dirty blonde hair, with a slight natural wave to it. Usually, her hair is straightened when it’s down unless she can’t be bothered or is in a rush. When she’s working she throws it up in a messy bun.
• Eyes: Blue-gray. Her eyes look more gray indoors, and a bit more blue in daylight.
• Body Type: A slim figure, but her body is slowly starting to show signs of aging in the form of wrinkles and sagging shoulders.
• Clothing Style: Varies depending on the time of year, but she tends to dress very casually. Tank tops and t-shirts in the summer with jean shorts. Loose fitting flannels and pullover hoodies, usually with Levi style jeans or cargo pants in the winter.
• Body Markings: Basic lobe piercings on each ear, a nose piercing she got when she turned 18 with a simple jeweled stud, and a tattoo of a phoenix on her back that she got when her ex-boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison.

_Personality:

If haggard, worn down, and being mired deep in trauma and regret had a face Lyra’s would be it. She is the kind of person you can look at when she’s not paying attention and you can see that she’s got a history. But when she knows you’re looking? She’ll put on a pleasant smile and ask how your day has been.

The older folks in town can sometimes be heard muttering about how much potential Lyra had before ‘the incident’. What a sweet girl she had been. What a beautiful family the Moore’s had been. They never dare say it where Lyra can hear it. The poor girl’s been through enough.

Despite all her pain Lyra harbors a deep love of Pines Holler. It’s a place where everyone seems to have a story, and those stories bake themselves into the very foundations of the town over time. Lyra struggles to connect on a deep and meaningful level with others. When any relationship, friendship or otherwise, starts to edge past a casual acquaintance she tries to disengage. Back-track. Get away. Not for a lack of desire, but rather because she is constantly teetering on the edge between compassion, protecting others, and self-defense.

_History:

Lyra grew up in Pines Holler. Born and raised.

Her father was often gone days at a time. A side effect of his work as a trucker, but it brought in good money, he was always home on the weekends, and they lived well. Her mother was afforded the luxury of being a stay-at-home wife, and doted on Lyra. She was also a devoted Christian, and so Sundays often found Lyra attending sermons with her mother and father.

Lyra had graduated high school with some of the best grades in her class. Instead of going to college, she took a year off and went galivanting with friends on road trips, camping trips, hikes, and just about anything else she was invited to. She had planned to get her CDL and become a trucker like her father, and started working part-time to save money for the classes after that first year following high school. It seemed perfect. Indulge her desire to see the world, make decent money, but still live in her home town. At least, that had been the plan until she’d met Matthew Hawthorne at Huskers on her twenty-first birthday.

She fell for him oh so quickly. Too quickly people would later say. Something about him had made her mother nervous. Matthew had always said her mother hated him. Lyra believed him. She always believed Matthew. Why would someone who showered her with so much love lie to her?

That’s how the rift between Lyra and her parents was created.

TW: DV, Alcohol abuse - 'The Indident' [+]

From there, Lyra’s life spiraled out of control. At first it had been the casual comments that made her feel… less than. Less than good enough. Less than worthy. Then the shouting matches. When she hit the ground after the first punch? Her eyes had been vacant and her mind somewhere far away for days after.

Lyra spent six years of her life walking on eggshells. Just trying to survive each day. She had clung to a naïve hope that it would get better. That things could go back to the way they had been in the beginning. There had been nothing special about the night when she decided she’d had enough. She just looked at him, sleeping peacefully in their bed like everything was right with the world, and she knew. It was never getting better.

She packed a bag that night, nothing more than the bare essentials and three days’ worth of clothes. A note was left on the nightstand. ‘I’m done’. She drove off, eventually landing in a motel a few towns over. She wouldn’t bother her parents this late, but tomorrow she wanted to visit them, start patching things up, and try to figure her life out.

The next time she saw her parents, they were dead.

To this day, Lyra can’t bring herself to talk about that day. The absolute horror she had seen when she walked into her childhood home. How her decision to leave Matthew had led to their deaths. And she hadn’t even been able to give them a proper burial. Her meagre part-time wages from the job she had been allowed to work weren’t even close to what she’d needed to bury her parents. Their urns were packed away in a box she kept under her bed. Somewhere she didn’t have to face them.

It hadn’t taken her long before she found refuge in the bottle. When she drank, she didn’t have to remember. She didn’t have to feel the guilt. She didn’t have to be the girl who had trusted too deeply or the girl who had gotten her parents killed.

Lyra is beyond grateful for her job at Lou's. It allowed her to pay the deposit to get into her trailer. The small meals she gets as part of her shifts and her personal limit of one cash in per week for one of those free meals at Huskers keep her from starving. It keeps her pockets full of just enough money to pay the bills and pay for her tab at Huskers. And if she yearns for more, well, she shouldn't have messed her life up to begin with.

_{Extra Facts // Headcannons:}

• REQUIRED: How does your character feel about the expansion/growth of Pines Holler?
  Lyra hates the idea of Pines Holler being permanently changed by the expansion, but she also doesn’t have it in her to try and do anything beyond whining and moaning about it. It’s her home, for better or worse, and she wants it to keep the heart and soul it has.
• Lyra can often be found at Huskers in the evenings, especially if she isn’t working the mornings at the diner. It’s her only real escape from the past. And the only time that the smiles she puts on are truly joyful.
• She suffers from occasional panic attacks. They’re long and all-consuming, unless she can somehow calm herself. For this, she carries a flask on her, straight vodka, just in case she needs to take the edge off.
• She drives a 1997 Geo Metro that she managed to get used a few years back with only 110,000 miles on it.
• Despite her upbringing, Lyra is an atheist. After ‘the incident’ she decided that God was either cruel or simply didn’t exist.

I'm happy to update things if anything needs to be changed.

If there's room, let me catch up on the IC (a day or two) and I'll try to get up a CS.