Info - wip

[dustyroad]

📓 General Info


Legal Name: Shelley Reiher
Height: 5'11"
Weigh: 160 lbs
Age: 45
Zodiac: Scorpio
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Bi
Pronouns: he/him (honestly doesn't care)
PB: Icons made on Potato Lord's Picrew

📓 First Impressions

🖋️ VISUAL: Looming. Shelley is not an exceedingly tall figure, but he manages to both hide in the background and appear as a looming figure of quiet intensity at inopportune moments. He hunches over like a crane at rest, and quietly flutters on the outside of the action like a moth around a lantern. Fitting with his jokes about the Mothman- which some more rational people speculate only exists because someone had a run in with a sandhill crane that was displaced during it's annual migration.

🖋️ FASHION: Plain. If he could get away with wearing the same clothes every day, he would. He tends to wear clothes that befit an outdoorsman- sturdy pants, boots or running shoes, tee shirts under plaid flannels, and often looks like he just rolled out of his campervan after sleeping in it for a few nights... Which he probably did

🖋️ DEMEANOUR: Disaffected. Tired. Long-suffering. He doesn't want to do the things he does anymore, but no one else who is Responsible will step up. He copes with the madness of the world with absurdist humor, disappearing into the woods, and playing his ukulele which he keeps in his campervan

🖋️ AURAL: Shelley has a rasping voice not unlike the undertones of Claudia Black. He doesn't have a particularly distinct accent, but definitely tracks as someone from the North Eastern USA.

🖋️ OLFACTORY: coffee, paper, damp earth still clinging to his boots after a recent hike.

🖋️ PERSONALITY: Shelley is both Analytical and Disillusioned. He entered his profession in hopes of helping the world be a better place, so people didn't have to suffer before tragedies like he faced in his youth; now he only wishes to help it be less of a cause of suffering for others... and he's not sure how much more he can take.

🖋️ MEDICAL INFORMATION: Years of stress and familial disposition have taken a toll on Shelley. While he to be average in his health and physical abilities, he is distracted enough by his work and life situation that he has not taken appropriate care of himself in manner of eating, sleeping, and other matters. This has caused him to have chronic fatigue issues and blood sugar regulation issues that are autoimmune in basis- basically, adult onset autoimmune diabetes, that have necessitated wearing a device to alert him of his levels being disregulated. The recent chronic high blood sugars have taken a toll on his vision. It will eventually regulate, probably, but for now the world looks like it's being viewed through the lens of an unfocused camera. Details are blurred, lights have halos, letters and numbers look like they were removed through a kaleidoscope. He could handle this fine with the other members of his extended family, but it's harder to deal with when it's in himself.

🖋️ MENTAL INFORMATION: Living in modern society is itself traumatizing, but coming face to face with the worst humanity has to offer has started to run him down. Compounding this is his teenage trauma of his father dying suddenly and violently. He's stressed, jumpy for it, and has a predisposition to run that he's been struggling to keep under wraps.

He's also neurodivegent, but the 1980s didn't care about neurodiversity if you were semi functional in general situations.

🖋️ MAGICAL INFORMATION: Minimal. His recent NDE that necessitated an extended hospital stay has left him able to see ghosts. He doesn't know what to do with this, either.

🖋️ BRIEF SUMMARY:

Shelley is a private detective, and someone who has never stayed in one town for too long due to the careers of his parents. He did cultivate a small group of friends whom he stayed in contact with through his teenage year and adulthood-- the siblings John Lee and Gordon Lee, and their schoolmate Persephone 'Percy' Koulias-- but he was still largely isolated and on the opposite end of the country from besides visits over the summers. After his father was murdered when he was a teenager, he was tempted to run away and stay with this friend group on the edge of Appalachia. He didn't, but their presence, particularly Gordon and Percy, helped him through his teenage years and young adulthood.


He finally stayed in the area for his college years and into his twenties, forming a tight, loving relationship with Gordon and Percy- if the later two were a couple, then Shelley was the more than welcomed third in their unit. John was always present as an outlier- there to participate in all but the most intimate moments, but he had a violently impulsive streak that would repeatedly get him in trouble. Shelley and Gordon had to bail him out multiple times, much to everyone's discomfort.

Gordon and Percy got married and had a set of twins early on. Shelley finished his criminal justice degree and planned to get a job somewhere local... But then Gordon fell ill, in a long, drawn out and ultimately terminal illness. Towards the end, Gordon had asked Shelley to do the one thing that was hardest for him: to stay. This led to a fight, where Shelley then wordlessly fled to Florida for the next twenty years, completely missing the funeral, watching the girls grow up, and everything important.

The frustrations, constant activity, constant change and ultimately the recurrent traumas that he witnessed both in his personal life and in the field have created a man who has no patience left for the madness of the world. He wanted to take care of his family and his community-- this meant putting everything of himself as secondary to the needs of others. He only went back North to Mountains to help take care of his grandparents at the end of their lives, and now does his best to hold together a family that had grown fragmented through uncultivated connections and the sheer passage of time. It hurts, but he is adult enough to know that they all just did their best... and that sometimes, doing the best for others is not the same as doing the best for yourself.

Work as a private detective came naturally for a highly observant loner, and it allowed him the ability to work out of the public eye while also giving him the flexibility to do what he needed to do for his family and his own health. The situation with his family led him to move back to the town he grew up in, Wellspring, and after getting his licenses in order it allowed him to start over.

Shelley ended up as the inheritor of a large parcel of land that was forgotten about for years, and the deed for the parcel resurfaced as his family was sorting through his grandfather's affairs after his death. The land contains a not small acreage of undeveloped woodlands and a spring that was used as a swimming area in the 1950s before it was shut down due to danger and forgotten. The spring had become a place for people wanting to hold secret parties over the years, and a number of missing persons in the surrounding area drowned in the depths of the spring.

Having spent much time in the outdoors with his grandfather in his youth, Shelley was listed as the conservator of the property. However, it was a parcel of land that Shelley didn't know how to manage, secure, or even deal with.

The combined stress of sorting through the bad blood that resurfaced in his own family over the intergenerational mismanagement of resources, caring for his aging parents, and lack of ability to cope were starting to take their toll. John Lee heard about the struggles that Shelley was quietly dealing with and surfaced with an offer of aid. Recent years had seen him become a real estate manager in the area, and John had been making plans to buy a parcel of undeveloped land to turn into a legacy for his teenage twin nieces, Phoebe and Junco. They were barely legal adults, and John planned to be their guide and show them how to make the most of the trust that they were inheriting-- and how make it work for them. Shelley, however, was aware of John's reputation as an impulsive man who had an uncanny knack for making problems 'disappear'-- including an inheritance dispute between himself and his brother Gordon years before that resulted in Gordon dying by unknown means-- not related to his illness-- and staunchly held his ground in the little cabin he had taken to residing in on the property.

The two fought over this, at times aggressively. Given Shelley's situation, wasn't it more rational to just take the money and run? It was a rare instance where Shelley clung to the emotional appeal of a decision; he didn't want his family's legacy to be used, abused, and ultimately forgotten.

Kicking John off of the property, Shelley stormed out into the foggy woods to clear his mind. The sounds of the quiet wilderness had always been a welcome reprieve from the madness of society, and for a few moments Shelley found that peace by the rocky edges of the abandoned spring off of the unkempt dirt paths that cut through the woods. While out there, he found that the metal barrier protecting people from the depths of the wellspring was unlocked. Someone had cut the chain, and recently. Shelley, curious, went to investigate-- and found something in the depths that shocked him.

It was a woman, with long, dark hair that reminded him of Percy, who had been missing for days... dead, floating face down in the spring.

This was the last straw. Life's challenges were heavy, and he couldn't keep holding them up. Dizziness took him and he slipped into the frigid depths as well-- and, blinded by the fine silt that had been kicked up by the commotion, Shelley nearly gave into the welcoming darkness... until a strange girl caught his hand and dragged him back to safety.

The girl called herself Loveday, and she said that she lived nearby and had seen a lot of the recent troubles. She offered help... and Shelley passed out while holding her hand.

In the depths of unconsciousness, he met with a strange woman- ageless, unworldly, impossible to read by normal means, who explained that she had a task for him: help her daughter; find the answer about who would desecrate the spring and why.

He awoke in the hospital, connected to various wires and drips and unable to see anything with any clarity... except the girl- or maybe a bird- sitting at the foot of his bed. It was the girl who pulled him from the water, watching him in rapt curiosity.

Shelley knew his life would never be the same again.

The girl, whom Shelley dubbed Lola after an old song, insisted on being Shelley's assistant while he navigated his recovery and stayed in the old cabin against the wishes of his mother. He couldn't fight her- but they needed to forge an identity for her, and quickly if she was going to be noticed. In the meantime, Junco- one of the twons- appeared at his cabin without invitation and offered to hire him to help her going her mother. Her twin sister Phoebe wasn't acting normal, and she was scared- but she remembered seeing old yearbook photos with Shelley and hoped that her intuition about trusting him was right. Guilt ridden about his flight years ago and haunted by the woman he found in the well, Shelley agreed to help. Suddenly, he had two clients... Both for what was effectively the same case.

It all circled back to John in the end- his impulsiveness, his addiction to high stakes, his greed for the family wealth that was denied to him and passed onto the twins. They were snowed in, power cut, and at the mercy of a desperate man who at this point would do anything to stay out of the legal system- even if it meant killing everyone who found out. He got ahold of Shelley's gun and shot him, then went after Lola and Junco who had fled into the weather to look for help. There was a point where it looked like he would kill the girls- but Shelley, bleeding from a non fatal wound, reclaimed the gun in the confusion and shot John instead.

In the end, help did arrive- because of Phoebe and her mom, Percy. The woman killed was a cousin of Percy's, and Percy herself had at that point gone into hiding to try to deliver justice herself if needed. Junco bringing Shelley into the picture was a surprise- and both Percy and Shelley reconciled as EMS and Law Enforcement arrived on the scene to restore order and see that justice was delivered.


📓 OOC

🖋️ BACKTAGGING: Always!
🖋️ FOURTHWALLING: Sure! If there's anything to Fourth Wall!
🖋️ PHYSICAL AFFECTION: Go ahead. Just don't expect reciprocation
🖋️ PHYSICAL VIOLENCE: I'd prefer a warning, but Shelley can defend himself
🖋️ RELATIONSHIPS: Totally open, for men, women, and everyone in between. Let's just talk first if you want anything involving smut. Shelley has next to 0 thoughts on romance, but anything is possible.

📓 EXTRA

If it's easier to AU, I can easily AU. Shelley has been an OC of mine since 2010 and has existed in multiple different forms over the years.