Post by FOREST RIVERS on May 4, 2012 21:57:32 GMT 10
[style=width: 493px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-right: 7px; font-size: 17px; font-family: arial; text-transform: UPPERCASE; font-style: italic; text-shadow: 1px 1px 2px #000000; color: #fefefe; background-image: url(http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s319/XxplaidXisXradxX/BaCkGrOuNdS/88f1a.png); text-align: right;"]forest hunter rivers.
[/style][style=width: 500px; background-color: #7E8B91; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1.1px; text-transform: uppercase; font -family: calibri, arial; font-weight: normal; text-align: center; color: #fefefe;"]N/A | 25 | BURIED ALIVE | LEAD GUITAR | ..STRAIGHT | SYNYSTER GATES
| [atrb=border, 0, true][style=margin-top: -17px; width: 230px; height: 65px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; background-color: #fefefe; color: #272727; font-size: 10px; font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"]NAME: forest hunter rivers (it is believed his mother was on drugs when she thought this was a good idea) AGE AND BIRTHDAY: twenty five, march 7th BAND AND POSITION: lead guitar for buried alive GENDER: SEXUAL ORIENTATION: straight... enough anyway. he's probably done something with a guy but he was probably far too drunk to remember. |
LIKES: tattoos, sleeping in, road trips, food of really any sort (except peas he hates those,) body modifications, cigarettes (specifically marlboro's) loud music, fire, women, mild weather, storms, aviators, alcohol, video games, every season but summer really, snow, strip poker, night time, brunettes, sex, hats, bandanna's, expensive guitars, parties (isn't this a given), fruit juice, dogs, being out late, coffee, peanut butter, driving fast, drinking, pizza, blue eyes, loud music, being able to do what he wants, the weekend, performing, the fans (despite popular belief he values each and every one of them.)
DISLIKES: idiots, peas, close minded people, extremely hot weather, not getting enough sleep, mondays, being woken up (he'll most likely complain and bitch and whinge, or if extremely tired throw things), being tucked in, people who can't get their facts straight, liars, anyone who tries to shove an opinion down his throat, religion, messing up on a song, snapping strings, having to restring his guitar, soundcheck, most of the people on tour, techno music, rehearsals, bad sex, pop music, being broke, getting up early, authorities, being bored, having to have patience, weird people, his family, effort,most of the human population, commitment, losing, silence, cats, hangovers, tea, burning food, red lights, books for the most part, maths, chinese food, yellow, shitty music, scrabble, board games in general really.
HABITS: he's usually humming something, or tapping his foot. whether either of these are unconcious habits or something he does to annoy the others around him, no one really knows. if he's sitting he often bounces his right knee. another thing that he does frequently is bite down on his lip, and he swears like it's going out of fashion. i mean who doesn't do the latter around these kind of tours?
STRENGTHS: his main strength would be playing the guitar. he is a guitarist, after all. over the years he's become really good at it. another talent would be lying, and bending his fingers in weird directions. if those even count. another positive talent i suppose would be the fact that he's good at music theory?
WEAKNESSES: it depends what you mean by weakness, really. assuming you mean flaws in forest's personality - well there's a ton of those. in the interest of keeping this as short as we can, though. he's stubborn as a bull, once he has his mind set on something he won't change it even if he can see he's in the wrong. his father believed changing your mind was weak, and this has rubbed off onto forest himself. he's really not good at spelling, or maths for that matter. this is probably because he didn't listen at all in school. memory is not one of his strong points either. his memory more often than not is like a sieve. maybe this is because of how much alcohol he consumes and the fact he just does not pay attention nor care, who really knows? if you mean weaknesses as in things that are the way to his heart, or make him go weak at the knees for lack of a better term, there's a few of those too. he really, really likes brunettes. he doesn't even know why but he does. if you make him coffee in the morning he'll probably love you... for a few minutes anyway. and girls who can kick his ass at video games - while he hates losing he thinks it's kinda hot.
SECRETS: just like everyone, forest has a lot of secrets. he's not a very open guy, he prefers to keep a lot of where he's come from to himself and deter people from trying to dig and figure him out by being as... asshole-y as he possibly can. anyway, his two main secrets would probably be his upbringing. and this one's a little odd, especially because of the fact that he doesn't like commitment (although that's possibly because a lot of his relationships he's been fucked over) but he really does not want to die alone, even though he knows that he probably will.
OVERALL: some could say that what you see is what you get with forest. he’s an asshole, and there is no more to him than that. there’s always more to a person though. forest is no exception, even though he’d have you believe that he is. first up, though, i’ll talk a little about the image forest has tried to build for himself. it’s quite an intricate one, and no one’s really managed to dig deep enough to figure out why he hides behind it and holds everyone at arm’s length, why he doesn’t trust anyone, why he does half of the things that he does. no one knows if anyone ever will manage to break him though. he’s a very guarded guy, especially about his history.
forest is a guy you’ve probably heard a lot about. he’s definitely the type your parents would tell you to stay well, well away from because he’ll only bring you down to his level. all he wants is one night. he’s that typical party boy who does drugs and alcohol, right? he’s that guy that doesn’t care about anything and does what or who he wants, when he wants. he doesn’t answer to anyone and starts fights just for the mere fun of it, because he absolutely loves to inflict damage on someone else.
most of the sentences in the above paragraph, while there is some ounce of truth to some of them, are completely false. yeah, you should stay away from him – the image he puts up, at least. while often he does only want one night – there are a few girls that he would’ve liked relationships with. as crazy as this sounds, he’s terrified of getting hurt, used, or abandoned. and maybe that’s why he holds everyone at arm’s length and puts up this front. maybe his image is one of a typical party boy asshole – but he doesn’t do drugs. unless you count pot but come on, everyone on this tour’s done that at one point or another. alcohol is possibly one of the only entirely true statements in the above paragraph. he knows he has an alcohol problem, he’s known this for a long time, actually. if you confront him about it though – it’s not going to go down well. like with his history, he’s very sensitive about his alcoholism. maybe he pretends not to care about anything, but if you manage to break him down you’ll see that really he does. and really, that’s the reason why he turns to alcohol. he pretends not to care about his mother but honestly he does, he worries about her constantly. does what or who he wants, when he wants is quite possibly another somewhat true statement. he definitely does what he wants when he wants to, but who he wants when he wants? despite what he’d have you believe he’s not as much of a whore as he makes himself out to be. yes, he doesn’t answer to anyone. but no, he doesn’t start fights for the fun of it. you see, forest has a problem controlling his anger, a massive problem, actually. he has a short fuse and it doesn’t take much to burn out that fuse. once it’s burnt out – you better start running because it’s not pretty at all. he won’t hesitate to try and fuck your face up, or try and rip you a new one. he doesn’t particularly enjoy inflicting damage on someone else like he’d have you believe, in fact he hates it because of the abuse he endured as a child, but once he’s angry he seriously cannot control himself and his actions.
the real forest is someone very few people have had the privilege to see, and forest wants to keep things that way. he holds everyone at arm’s length so they can’t hurt him, and doesn’t trust many people. even if he does trust you – you’ve still got to work damn hard to get to see the real forest. even his bandmates haven’t managed to get through to him – quite possibly only misty and holly have. you’re of course, more than welcome to attempt to get through to him but i doubt you’ll manage. most get quite tired of his defence mechanisms (the most common one being annoy you as much as humanely possible) and plain give up.
forest is really a lot more vulnerable than you know – he comes off as tough, almost indestructible and that he doesn’t care about anything. really, that’s not the case at all. if you get through to him – you’ll eventually understand that the reason he’s such an ass is because he’s terrified of getting hurt. i know it’s a little hard to believe given the vibe that he typically gives off, but it’s the truth. he’s also afraid of abandonment. the first is probably because of a few past relationships, and maybe that’s why he sleeps around so much nowadays because it’s no strings attached so no.. heartbreak when the girl goes and sleeps with some other guy. the second is quite possibly because of misty and well, his mother, even though she didn’t really leave. she might as well have, though. while some aspects of the forest you get and the real forest are the same, for example – he’s still stubborn, he’s still curious. he’ll still never give up, and he’ll still think that he’s top shit, a lot are different too. it’s honestly a shame that he doesn’t bring out his real side more often.
this begs the question, though. how do you try and get through to this guy? that’s a question no one really knows the answer to. you’d probably have better luck if he was drunk, as drunk minds speak sober hearts. although, as a warning – sometimes when he’s drunk he’s easily irritable. you’d need to be persistent, and able to ignore his comments and attempts at annoying you and shoving you away. eventually, if you catch him at the right moment you might be able to do it – although i’m not going to guarantee you anything. all in all, it’s not the easiest task. but good luck if you’re going to try. you’ll need it.
DISLIKES: idiots, peas, close minded people, extremely hot weather, not getting enough sleep, mondays, being woken up (he'll most likely complain and bitch and whinge, or if extremely tired throw things), being tucked in, people who can't get their facts straight, liars, anyone who tries to shove an opinion down his throat, religion, messing up on a song, snapping strings, having to restring his guitar, soundcheck, most of the people on tour, techno music, rehearsals, bad sex, pop music, being broke, getting up early, authorities, being bored, having to have patience, weird people, his family, effort,
HABITS: he's usually humming something, or tapping his foot. whether either of these are unconcious habits or something he does to annoy the others around him, no one really knows. if he's sitting he often bounces his right knee. another thing that he does frequently is bite down on his lip, and he swears like it's going out of fashion. i mean who doesn't do the latter around these kind of tours?
STRENGTHS: his main strength would be playing the guitar. he is a guitarist, after all. over the years he's become really good at it. another talent would be lying, and bending his fingers in weird directions. if those even count. another positive talent i suppose would be the fact that he's good at music theory?
WEAKNESSES: it depends what you mean by weakness, really. assuming you mean flaws in forest's personality - well there's a ton of those. in the interest of keeping this as short as we can, though. he's stubborn as a bull, once he has his mind set on something he won't change it even if he can see he's in the wrong. his father believed changing your mind was weak, and this has rubbed off onto forest himself. he's really not good at spelling, or maths for that matter. this is probably because he didn't listen at all in school. memory is not one of his strong points either. his memory more often than not is like a sieve. maybe this is because of how much alcohol he consumes and the fact he just does not pay attention nor care, who really knows? if you mean weaknesses as in things that are the way to his heart, or make him go weak at the knees for lack of a better term, there's a few of those too. he really, really likes brunettes. he doesn't even know why but he does. if you make him coffee in the morning he'll probably love you... for a few minutes anyway. and girls who can kick his ass at video games - while he hates losing he thinks it's kinda hot.
SECRETS: just like everyone, forest has a lot of secrets. he's not a very open guy, he prefers to keep a lot of where he's come from to himself and deter people from trying to dig and figure him out by being as... asshole-y as he possibly can. anyway, his two main secrets would probably be his upbringing. and this one's a little odd, especially because of the fact that he doesn't like commitment (although that's possibly because a lot of his relationships he's been fucked over) but he really does not want to die alone, even though he knows that he probably will.
OVERALL: some could say that what you see is what you get with forest. he’s an asshole, and there is no more to him than that. there’s always more to a person though. forest is no exception, even though he’d have you believe that he is. first up, though, i’ll talk a little about the image forest has tried to build for himself. it’s quite an intricate one, and no one’s really managed to dig deep enough to figure out why he hides behind it and holds everyone at arm’s length, why he doesn’t trust anyone, why he does half of the things that he does. no one knows if anyone ever will manage to break him though. he’s a very guarded guy, especially about his history.
forest is a guy you’ve probably heard a lot about. he’s definitely the type your parents would tell you to stay well, well away from because he’ll only bring you down to his level. all he wants is one night. he’s that typical party boy who does drugs and alcohol, right? he’s that guy that doesn’t care about anything and does what or who he wants, when he wants. he doesn’t answer to anyone and starts fights just for the mere fun of it, because he absolutely loves to inflict damage on someone else.
most of the sentences in the above paragraph, while there is some ounce of truth to some of them, are completely false. yeah, you should stay away from him – the image he puts up, at least. while often he does only want one night – there are a few girls that he would’ve liked relationships with. as crazy as this sounds, he’s terrified of getting hurt, used, or abandoned. and maybe that’s why he holds everyone at arm’s length and puts up this front. maybe his image is one of a typical party boy asshole – but he doesn’t do drugs. unless you count pot but come on, everyone on this tour’s done that at one point or another. alcohol is possibly one of the only entirely true statements in the above paragraph. he knows he has an alcohol problem, he’s known this for a long time, actually. if you confront him about it though – it’s not going to go down well. like with his history, he’s very sensitive about his alcoholism. maybe he pretends not to care about anything, but if you manage to break him down you’ll see that really he does. and really, that’s the reason why he turns to alcohol. he pretends not to care about his mother but honestly he does, he worries about her constantly. does what or who he wants, when he wants is quite possibly another somewhat true statement. he definitely does what he wants when he wants to, but who he wants when he wants? despite what he’d have you believe he’s not as much of a whore as he makes himself out to be. yes, he doesn’t answer to anyone. but no, he doesn’t start fights for the fun of it. you see, forest has a problem controlling his anger, a massive problem, actually. he has a short fuse and it doesn’t take much to burn out that fuse. once it’s burnt out – you better start running because it’s not pretty at all. he won’t hesitate to try and fuck your face up, or try and rip you a new one. he doesn’t particularly enjoy inflicting damage on someone else like he’d have you believe, in fact he hates it because of the abuse he endured as a child, but once he’s angry he seriously cannot control himself and his actions.
the real forest is someone very few people have had the privilege to see, and forest wants to keep things that way. he holds everyone at arm’s length so they can’t hurt him, and doesn’t trust many people. even if he does trust you – you’ve still got to work damn hard to get to see the real forest. even his bandmates haven’t managed to get through to him – quite possibly only misty and holly have. you’re of course, more than welcome to attempt to get through to him but i doubt you’ll manage. most get quite tired of his defence mechanisms (the most common one being annoy you as much as humanely possible) and plain give up.
forest is really a lot more vulnerable than you know – he comes off as tough, almost indestructible and that he doesn’t care about anything. really, that’s not the case at all. if you get through to him – you’ll eventually understand that the reason he’s such an ass is because he’s terrified of getting hurt. i know it’s a little hard to believe given the vibe that he typically gives off, but it’s the truth. he’s also afraid of abandonment. the first is probably because of a few past relationships, and maybe that’s why he sleeps around so much nowadays because it’s no strings attached so no.. heartbreak when the girl goes and sleeps with some other guy. the second is quite possibly because of misty and well, his mother, even though she didn’t really leave. she might as well have, though. while some aspects of the forest you get and the real forest are the same, for example – he’s still stubborn, he’s still curious. he’ll still never give up, and he’ll still think that he’s top shit, a lot are different too. it’s honestly a shame that he doesn’t bring out his real side more often.
this begs the question, though. how do you try and get through to this guy? that’s a question no one really knows the answer to. you’d probably have better luck if he was drunk, as drunk minds speak sober hearts. although, as a warning – sometimes when he’s drunk he’s easily irritable. you’d need to be persistent, and able to ignore his comments and attempts at annoying you and shoving you away. eventually, if you catch him at the right moment you might be able to do it – although i’m not going to guarantee you anything. all in all, it’s not the easiest task. but good luck if you’re going to try. you’ll need it.
FAMILY: cheyenne rivers, potentially deceased (quite frankly forest doesn’t care enough), mother.
unknown, unknown, biological father.
holly rivers, fifteen, half-sister.
misty rivers, twenty seven, believed to be his only full sibling.
phoenix rivers, twenty, half-brother.
zane rivers, fifteen, half-brother.
dakota rivers, twenty three, half-brother.
ANY OTHERS: marcus costa, one of his mother’s many ex-boyfriends.
gavin monroe, again, one of his mother’s many ex boyfriends.
bandmates.
PETS: lucky – lucky is not specifically forest’s, although he was responsible for finding the dog. he was wandering on the streets one night, maybe sixteen or seventeen. why he was sober, is anyone’s guess. but as he was wandering the streets, he found a box. being the curious little fucker that he was, he went to said box, and looked inside, finding one lone, clearly malnourished puppy. something in him wouldn’t let him leave the poor little puppy for starvation so he picked up the box, brought it home, his mother far too gone to even care. everyone in the family was pre-occupied with other things, aside from five year old holly who like forest was on the curious side. she kept nagging until forest showed her the little puppy and even let her feed it. it remained their little thing, until forest left home and left the dog in the care of his sister.
OVERALL: to say forest was born into a good family would be the lie of the century. of course, he would never tell you this. there is nothing in this world he is more sensitive or guarded about than his history and where he came from. why? no one really knows. he never talks about it, and if asked frequently lies or opts to tell whoever’s butting into his life to fuck off.
forest rivers came into the world at 2:22am on the 7th of march. typically when a mother looks down at her child, it’s supposed to be a look full of love and the wish to protect the child, or something along those lines, right? that couldn’t be any more different from what actually happened. the look cheyenne gave her child was one of utter distaste. forest was apparently her second or third child, although only one of forest’s older siblings stuck around in his life. when forest was born, cheyenne was only twenty three years old. all of her children have been in some sort of attempt to trap men into relationships with her, using the whole guilt thing. if there’s anything cheyenne hated, and still to this day hates, it was being alone, and undesired.
forest’s mother has gone through more boyfriends than he can count. she had a new man pretty much every week, only a few stuck around, but eventually left like the rest. as cheyenne’s last effort, she would get herself pregnant, and hope like hell that the father wouldn’t leave her. to say she’s not… completely there would be an understatement. drugs and alcohol constantly clouding her mind and better judgement, she made a lot of silly decisions, neglected her children. one might ask, though, why she didn’t just opt for an abortion. cheyenne might have been as low to try and trap men into lasting relationships with her, but she was not low enough to kill her own child, her own flesh and blood. when carrying forest, she went to the abortion clinic but she just could not do it.
throughout his childhood, forest remembers misty arguing with their mother, supposedly trying to get her to go to some sort of rehab, get some help. what she was doing was not only affecting her but the whole family and misty had put up with it for long enough. their mother would never listen, however, and misty felt like she’d have better luck trying to talk some sort of sense into a brick wall. eventually she gave up, letting her mother go through boyfriend after boyfriend and give into her addictions further. there was nothing she could do there, instead she tried to keep the family afloat. she cooked, cleaned, made sure homework was completed and everyone got to school on time. in a way, she took on the role of a second mother.
somehow forest managed to survive. that was until marcus costa came along. he stayed longer than most. at first, he seemed fine. he was rich, would pay the bills, and treated his mother like gold. he was also the one who got forest into playing the guitar. but then, that all stopped. to this day no one really knows what happened, but marcus changed almost overnight. suddenly, forest would lie in bed at night and hear his mother’s screams. this went on for weeks, his sister strictly instructing him not to interfere.
one night, however. forest got sick of hearing his mother’s screams and just leaving her be with marcus. he got sick of doing what his sister wanted him to – he was maybe twelve at the time? and quite possibly that was when his rebellious streak started. but anyway, that’s not the point here. doing probably the stupidest thing imaginable in that specific situation, he burst into his mother’s room and tried to stop marcus. although, that really didn’t do much. a twelve year old against some guy that worked out at least five times a week? it was stupid, and in hindsight forest can see that. it wasn’t worth the trouble that ensued but at the time he hadn’t been thinking and went with his instinct. this instinct of his resulted in not only marcus beating his mother for reasons still unknown, but forest for intervening, and basically anyone else in the household he could get his hands on. dakota frequently avoided the house, only really coming home once every few days. and then there was misty. she was willing to take the beatings, hoping that maybe if she did then marcus wouldn’t be so harsh on everyone else. holly, phoenix, and zane were hidden away, not very well but forest and misty hoped it would be good enough.
after eight long months, marcus finally left. eight months was long enough for forest to begin to hate his mother. it was her fault that they were all in this mess, her fault that she was a shitty judge of character. after that, thankfully it was nothing too dramatic. she would pick out idiots, or guys who only wanted her for sex, but no one like marcus. but after that, she was never the same. no one was.
it was her next boyfriend, gavin, that possibly had the most effect on forest and who he is today – an alcoholic. gavin, while perfectly nice during the day and even encouraging of the things cheyenne’s children decided to pursue, things like guitar, art, writing, acting, and making a difference in the world – he had his fair share of problems. no one really knew what they were, no one ever dared to ask for fear he’d snap one day like marcus did. one of his ways of ‘solving’ his problems was alcohol. it was a few months into the relationship that he began drinking, and bottles began to litter the ground. forest, still curious as ever, decided one night he was going to find out what all the fuss was about alcohol. only fourteen at the time, a lot of his friends had tried alcohol and thought it was great. he never had though, but once he did, he finally understood. he understood why gavin would turn to it. he understood why his friends loved it so much.
like the rest of the boyfriends, gavin eventually left, although on surprisingly good terms and after trying to teach forest to play the guitar. everyone liked gavin, aside from misty. they never saw eye to eye and she left only a month or two before gavin himself did. where she went, no one knows. it was then that things started to fall apart. forest was now the oldest in the house, his mother out somewhere and far too drunk or high to do much. this was when he really lost all respect for his mother. she was supposed to take care of the family, not him. this was at first his excuse for not taking care of the family. it just wasn’t his problem. he was not the parent, she was. and so therefore she was the one who had to clean up her act and do something. this was the thing he lived by for months. of course, he knew it was wrong. he tried to drown that guilt in alcohol, although that just got him into more trouble, especially with the police. firstly it was underage drinking, then doing stupid things while under the influence – driving, vandalising public properties, specifically his school, scaring innocent passers-by, starting fights, indecent exposure, doing ridiculous dares, just to name a few.
somehow, misty had caught wind of all this. instead of coming home and stepping back in as the parent role, she had a good old chat with her brother. if you call a chat yelling at the top of one’s lungs, of course. somehow she got through to forest, and they decided that he’d kick the little alcohol habit, take care of the family, and she’d come and check in twice a week.
she checked in with her family around seven or eight times. while there was a little progress, forest was taking responsibility for the family, there was no progress with his alcoholism. he’d become just like gavin, when he had a problem, when the stress of taking care of a whole family and his mother not caring and school on top of all that became too much – he’d turn to his best friend alcohol.
to this day, forest is still like that. when things become too much, alcohol’s the one he goes to. not any of his friends or bandmates, instead preferring to drown his sorrows and just keep everyone out. that way they can’t hurt him, right?
it was when his friends, the ones who he’d had since childhood left him, that forest as you see him today began to develop. if anyone was leaving it really should have been him – chase did sleep with forest’s girlfriend, after all. not the other way around. but, they left him and the usual story would be he became a subject of bullying, right? oh, no. that’s far from the truth.
he got involved with another group, people he’d known since childhood however ditched for the other group – and they happened to be musically inclined, just like him. he could play the guitar, they wanted someone to play the guitar. in return they gave him all the alcohol he could ever want, and friends. while it sounds like an absolute recipe for disaster, these guys were the real deal – if they weren’t, then why are they still a band today? if they were fake friends and just using him, they wouldn’t be together, right? they had forest’s back and he had theirs. they sound great, don’t they? aside from feeding forest’s alcoholism, of course.
there’s a catch, though. these guys and girls, happened to be the bullies of the school. you know, the ones that would go through and shove random kids into lockers for looking at them wrong way. everyone knew who they were – and suddenly everyone knew who forest was too. except himself. he couldn’t recognise himself anymore, the alcohol had changed him. and not for the better, either. he enjoyed bullying kids, instead of being on the other side. they say bullies have been bullied at least once in their lives, right? although, these people were also the kids who threw the best parties in the school, and were known for being able to get into the pants of virtually anyone they wanted to if they put in a little effort.
it was the end of sophomore year when he got involved with this other group, the end of sophomore year when he realised that you know, maybe losing his original friends wasn’t such a bad thing after all. guys suddenly hated him, and quite a number of girls wanted to be with him. and you know what? that was more than fine with him.
these kids and the little band they formed are the reason forest is here today. after graduation, buried alive happened to be playing a show. little did they know, some sort of record label scout happened to be there. and while the record label scout was not on duty, he approached the band and wanted to sign them right away. one might argue that their fame was handed to them on a silver platter. whether that's a bad thing or a good thing, no one knows. during his time in the band he's had a few issues with girls, specifically one a year or two ago. apparently he got her pregnant or whatever, and he denied it. truth was that he actually did get her pregnant, but she later lost the child.
[/td][/tr][/table][/style]unknown, unknown, biological father.
holly rivers, fifteen, half-sister.
misty rivers, twenty seven, believed to be his only full sibling.
phoenix rivers, twenty, half-brother.
zane rivers, fifteen, half-brother.
dakota rivers, twenty three, half-brother.
ANY OTHERS: marcus costa, one of his mother’s many ex-boyfriends.
gavin monroe, again, one of his mother’s many ex boyfriends.
bandmates.
PETS: lucky – lucky is not specifically forest’s, although he was responsible for finding the dog. he was wandering on the streets one night, maybe sixteen or seventeen. why he was sober, is anyone’s guess. but as he was wandering the streets, he found a box. being the curious little fucker that he was, he went to said box, and looked inside, finding one lone, clearly malnourished puppy. something in him wouldn’t let him leave the poor little puppy for starvation so he picked up the box, brought it home, his mother far too gone to even care. everyone in the family was pre-occupied with other things, aside from five year old holly who like forest was on the curious side. she kept nagging until forest showed her the little puppy and even let her feed it. it remained their little thing, until forest left home and left the dog in the care of his sister.
OVERALL: to say forest was born into a good family would be the lie of the century. of course, he would never tell you this. there is nothing in this world he is more sensitive or guarded about than his history and where he came from. why? no one really knows. he never talks about it, and if asked frequently lies or opts to tell whoever’s butting into his life to fuck off.
forest rivers came into the world at 2:22am on the 7th of march. typically when a mother looks down at her child, it’s supposed to be a look full of love and the wish to protect the child, or something along those lines, right? that couldn’t be any more different from what actually happened. the look cheyenne gave her child was one of utter distaste. forest was apparently her second or third child, although only one of forest’s older siblings stuck around in his life. when forest was born, cheyenne was only twenty three years old. all of her children have been in some sort of attempt to trap men into relationships with her, using the whole guilt thing. if there’s anything cheyenne hated, and still to this day hates, it was being alone, and undesired.
forest’s mother has gone through more boyfriends than he can count. she had a new man pretty much every week, only a few stuck around, but eventually left like the rest. as cheyenne’s last effort, she would get herself pregnant, and hope like hell that the father wouldn’t leave her. to say she’s not… completely there would be an understatement. drugs and alcohol constantly clouding her mind and better judgement, she made a lot of silly decisions, neglected her children. one might ask, though, why she didn’t just opt for an abortion. cheyenne might have been as low to try and trap men into lasting relationships with her, but she was not low enough to kill her own child, her own flesh and blood. when carrying forest, she went to the abortion clinic but she just could not do it.
throughout his childhood, forest remembers misty arguing with their mother, supposedly trying to get her to go to some sort of rehab, get some help. what she was doing was not only affecting her but the whole family and misty had put up with it for long enough. their mother would never listen, however, and misty felt like she’d have better luck trying to talk some sort of sense into a brick wall. eventually she gave up, letting her mother go through boyfriend after boyfriend and give into her addictions further. there was nothing she could do there, instead she tried to keep the family afloat. she cooked, cleaned, made sure homework was completed and everyone got to school on time. in a way, she took on the role of a second mother.
somehow forest managed to survive. that was until marcus costa came along. he stayed longer than most. at first, he seemed fine. he was rich, would pay the bills, and treated his mother like gold. he was also the one who got forest into playing the guitar. but then, that all stopped. to this day no one really knows what happened, but marcus changed almost overnight. suddenly, forest would lie in bed at night and hear his mother’s screams. this went on for weeks, his sister strictly instructing him not to interfere.
one night, however. forest got sick of hearing his mother’s screams and just leaving her be with marcus. he got sick of doing what his sister wanted him to – he was maybe twelve at the time? and quite possibly that was when his rebellious streak started. but anyway, that’s not the point here. doing probably the stupidest thing imaginable in that specific situation, he burst into his mother’s room and tried to stop marcus. although, that really didn’t do much. a twelve year old against some guy that worked out at least five times a week? it was stupid, and in hindsight forest can see that. it wasn’t worth the trouble that ensued but at the time he hadn’t been thinking and went with his instinct. this instinct of his resulted in not only marcus beating his mother for reasons still unknown, but forest for intervening, and basically anyone else in the household he could get his hands on. dakota frequently avoided the house, only really coming home once every few days. and then there was misty. she was willing to take the beatings, hoping that maybe if she did then marcus wouldn’t be so harsh on everyone else. holly, phoenix, and zane were hidden away, not very well but forest and misty hoped it would be good enough.
after eight long months, marcus finally left. eight months was long enough for forest to begin to hate his mother. it was her fault that they were all in this mess, her fault that she was a shitty judge of character. after that, thankfully it was nothing too dramatic. she would pick out idiots, or guys who only wanted her for sex, but no one like marcus. but after that, she was never the same. no one was.
it was her next boyfriend, gavin, that possibly had the most effect on forest and who he is today – an alcoholic. gavin, while perfectly nice during the day and even encouraging of the things cheyenne’s children decided to pursue, things like guitar, art, writing, acting, and making a difference in the world – he had his fair share of problems. no one really knew what they were, no one ever dared to ask for fear he’d snap one day like marcus did. one of his ways of ‘solving’ his problems was alcohol. it was a few months into the relationship that he began drinking, and bottles began to litter the ground. forest, still curious as ever, decided one night he was going to find out what all the fuss was about alcohol. only fourteen at the time, a lot of his friends had tried alcohol and thought it was great. he never had though, but once he did, he finally understood. he understood why gavin would turn to it. he understood why his friends loved it so much.
like the rest of the boyfriends, gavin eventually left, although on surprisingly good terms and after trying to teach forest to play the guitar. everyone liked gavin, aside from misty. they never saw eye to eye and she left only a month or two before gavin himself did. where she went, no one knows. it was then that things started to fall apart. forest was now the oldest in the house, his mother out somewhere and far too drunk or high to do much. this was when he really lost all respect for his mother. she was supposed to take care of the family, not him. this was at first his excuse for not taking care of the family. it just wasn’t his problem. he was not the parent, she was. and so therefore she was the one who had to clean up her act and do something. this was the thing he lived by for months. of course, he knew it was wrong. he tried to drown that guilt in alcohol, although that just got him into more trouble, especially with the police. firstly it was underage drinking, then doing stupid things while under the influence – driving, vandalising public properties, specifically his school, scaring innocent passers-by, starting fights, indecent exposure, doing ridiculous dares, just to name a few.
somehow, misty had caught wind of all this. instead of coming home and stepping back in as the parent role, she had a good old chat with her brother. if you call a chat yelling at the top of one’s lungs, of course. somehow she got through to forest, and they decided that he’d kick the little alcohol habit, take care of the family, and she’d come and check in twice a week.
she checked in with her family around seven or eight times. while there was a little progress, forest was taking responsibility for the family, there was no progress with his alcoholism. he’d become just like gavin, when he had a problem, when the stress of taking care of a whole family and his mother not caring and school on top of all that became too much – he’d turn to his best friend alcohol.
to this day, forest is still like that. when things become too much, alcohol’s the one he goes to. not any of his friends or bandmates, instead preferring to drown his sorrows and just keep everyone out. that way they can’t hurt him, right?
it was when his friends, the ones who he’d had since childhood left him, that forest as you see him today began to develop. if anyone was leaving it really should have been him – chase did sleep with forest’s girlfriend, after all. not the other way around. but, they left him and the usual story would be he became a subject of bullying, right? oh, no. that’s far from the truth.
he got involved with another group, people he’d known since childhood however ditched for the other group – and they happened to be musically inclined, just like him. he could play the guitar, they wanted someone to play the guitar. in return they gave him all the alcohol he could ever want, and friends. while it sounds like an absolute recipe for disaster, these guys were the real deal – if they weren’t, then why are they still a band today? if they were fake friends and just using him, they wouldn’t be together, right? they had forest’s back and he had theirs. they sound great, don’t they? aside from feeding forest’s alcoholism, of course.
there’s a catch, though. these guys and girls, happened to be the bullies of the school. you know, the ones that would go through and shove random kids into lockers for looking at them wrong way. everyone knew who they were – and suddenly everyone knew who forest was too. except himself. he couldn’t recognise himself anymore, the alcohol had changed him. and not for the better, either. he enjoyed bullying kids, instead of being on the other side. they say bullies have been bullied at least once in their lives, right? although, these people were also the kids who threw the best parties in the school, and were known for being able to get into the pants of virtually anyone they wanted to if they put in a little effort.
it was the end of sophomore year when he got involved with this other group, the end of sophomore year when he realised that you know, maybe losing his original friends wasn’t such a bad thing after all. guys suddenly hated him, and quite a number of girls wanted to be with him. and you know what? that was more than fine with him.
these kids and the little band they formed are the reason forest is here today. after graduation, buried alive happened to be playing a show. little did they know, some sort of record label scout happened to be there. and while the record label scout was not on duty, he approached the band and wanted to sign them right away. one might argue that their fame was handed to them on a silver platter. whether that's a bad thing or a good thing, no one knows. during his time in the band he's had a few issues with girls, specifically one a year or two ago. apparently he got her pregnant or whatever, and he denied it. truth was that he actually did get her pregnant, but she later lost the child.
MICHAELA | 16 | WHOOP WHOOP TOO LONG STOPPED COUNTING | GMT +10
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