SUDDENLY I FELT FINE INSIDE A MIND FULL OF GHOSTS... the darkest nights mean you see the stars the most
--- ABOUT SAGE | TIMELINE OF LIFE EVENTS (tba) | NAVIGATION | WANTED CONNECTIONS
SONG CHARACTER IS BASED ON: dreamers by k.flay FULL NAME: sage robin carson DOB & AGE: december 15, 1991 / 30 years old GENDER & PRONOUNS: cisfemale, she/her
OCCUPATION:
waitress at groove diner ( currently working to get a job teaching again )
member of the breakneck broads roller derby team
HOW LONG THEY’VE BEEN IN PARTON: sage grew up in parton and left for college in 2009 ( university of california santa barbara, but came back every summer ) and lived in los angeles until october of 2021 when she moved back to parton A SECRET OF THEIRS: sage is still in love with her ex, alex coleman. it was a realization she came to over the holidays, and it’s only made things worse for her – considering the fact that he’s in a relationship with someone else, and she is trying desperately trying to figure out how to be just his friend. knowing what it’s like to have someone pull apart your relationship, she’s keeping her distance and respecting that he’s moved on… even if the sight of him and his long time girlfriend is nothing short of painful. QUICK NEED TO KNOWS: trigger warning: mentions of death and miscarriage.
sage is from parton, born and raised!
she spent the entirety of her childhood there, and only left when she got into college. despite that, she came back each summer and break to visit home. once she got married to brad (her now ex husband) after college, the visits became less frequent and closer to once a year, or just for the holidays.
her divorce was finalized in october 2021, and sage moved back to parton by the of october from los angeles, california.
sage has always been very much the classic “good girl”. she was a girl scout, cheerleader, and babysitter as a kid, raised by strict parents and hardly ever got into trouble. she has a heart too large to fit on her sleeve, and is deeply empathetic and emotional -- especially when it comes to the people she holds close. she has a warmth and innocence about her, even now, and is an absolute social butterfly -- if she’s met your character, she definitely remembers their name and probably considers them at the very least, an acquaintance.
*she was married for 6 years to a man named brad donoghue (npc, zac efron fc LOL), and divorced him after her admitted to cheating on her for years. the two were once happy but quickly fell in love as time went on. she feels like she lost herself in her marriage, caught up in what brad had wanted her to be, and tried to mold her into. now that she’s fully divorced and completely cut ties with him (all the way down to getting her named changed back to carson), sage is trying to start over and ‘find herself’, for lack of a better term.
*in an attempt to save her marriage, she thought having a kid would bring them back together -- that a child would bring a newer deeper connection between them. unfortunately, it didn’t, and sage miscarried due to ‘cervical inefficiency’. she’s not sure if she’ll ever be able to have kids given how high risk she would be if she got pregnant -- but it’s a hope she still holds on to. there are few people who know about the miscarriage, and sage plans to keep it that way.
sage’s mother still lives in parton and is an er nurse. she and her mother’s relationship is complicated, and the two don’t speak much right now. her mother doesn’t understand why sage would “throw away her marriage without trying to fight for it”.
her secret is that she’s still in love with her ex, alex coleman. there’s more about that connection below -- but they had a secret relationship the summer after her first year in college, keeping things between them as to not upset bea (his sister, and sage’s best friend), or her parents. they broke up almost a year later thanks to an insane case of miscommunication, but sage has always held unresolved feelings for him. the night before her wedding to brad, sage slept with alex and nearly ran away with him. she was left with the horrible decision between two men she loved -- choosing the route that felt like what she was ‘’supposed’’ to do and married brad the next afternoon, rather than meet up with alex and skip town. it’s something she still feels regret for, especially now. at one point in her marriage (in 2017) she showed up at alex’s door, ready to leave her husband, with a speech about how sorry she was and how much she loves him -- only to have alex’s girlfriend answer the door. instead of professing her love, sage took it as fate: they aren’t meant to be together, clearly, so she returned home and tried to repair her marriage. when sage moved back to parton, the two had an Adult Conversation about everything -- laying everything out on the table, so that they can try to start over and be friends. that worked for roughly a month, before sage realized the terrible truth: she’s still in love with alex.
sage is currently living with her childhood best friend, bea coleman. (there will be a wanted connection for bea asap :) ) the two have been best friends since they were eleven -- think a combination between illana and abby from broadcity, and meredith and cristina from grey’s anatomy LOL
right out of college, sage worked as an art teacher at an elementary school in los angeles. brad convinced her to quit her job after they got married, so that he could ‘take care of her’ and she could focus on making art of her own. after she quit, sage spent years (and still does, though she hasn’t really done much now that she’s in parton) doing commission work based on word of mouth -- anything from canvases, murals, sketches, etc. that being said, she always held a love for teaching, as well as art/art history. her ultimate goal is to get a job at parton elementary school as an art teacher, but right now she’s working at groove diner to get herself back on her feet.
after the loss of her daughter, sage adopted a fat orange tabby named pepper. pepper is incredibly rude and will scratch or bite anyone who comes near her, though she tolerates sage after she spent months getting the cat to warm up to her. for some reason, the only one pepper is openly affectionate with is alex coleman.
there’s more about it below, but sage is part of parton’s roller derby team, the breakneck broads!! i’ve got more info about them on my connections page, and i’ll be sending in a formal wanted connection form about them to the main soon -- so if you’d like for your character to be part of that, please let me know!!!!!!
*there’s more about these headcanons below !!
HEADCANONS FROM THE APP:
i. bill carson and candace thompson hadn’t expected to end up being parents at 17, but managed to make it work. they married at the local courthouse, moved into bill’s mother’s basement and worked day and night to stay afloat. they manage as best they can, even years later they remain together for their daughters sake rather than out of genuine love for one another. bill goes on to become a teacher, having spent the last 15 years as the principal of parton high school until his death in 2019, and candace works as an ER nurse at the local hospital. despite managing to land themselves what is supposed to feel like “the american dream” (the home, the family, etc), both still harbor visions of the life they could have had — in candace’s case, she lives vicariously through her daughter, sage. it’s a fact sage hadn’t caught onto until she was much older, but her mother tries to live the life she felt she was “denied” by being a teen mom through sage — which ultimately lead to their falling out after sage’s divorce, further complicating an already immensely complicated relationship. her father, on the other hand, takes a fearful approach, hoping strict rules and intolerance will keep her out of trouble. sage knows her parents always meant well — she’d like to think they had a decent relationship, but it was never a question that their love felt conditional, and would only be received if she was able to keep to the ideal standard they held her to.
ii. sage is six years old when her mother signs her up for the local competition cheer team, something her mother had loved as a kid but had to five up when she became pregnant – so it only seemed fitting for her daughter to carry the mantle. thankfully, sage takes to cheerleading like a fish to water, enjoying every single minute of it. she lives for the adrenaline rush, her competitive nature the perfect outlet. it surprises no one that she sticks with it, joining her middle school’s cheer team before making it on the high school squad – eventually landing the spot of captain. through her years of hard work, sage makes it onto the cheer team for the university of california santa barbara, with a full ride thanks to an athletic scholarship.
iii. bea coleman comes into sage’s life at the age of eleven, when the two arrive at cheer camp. they were an unlikely duo — but by the end of the week sage was happy to call bea her best friend. the two are pure opposites, yet somehow bea is one of the few people who knows sage in and out. bea brings a certain sponenaity to sage, constantly pulling her out of her comfort zone. it’s something sage has always been grateful for, something she’s always admired about bea – her excitement for the world around her, regardless of what will happen next. they’ve maintained a sisterly bond for nearly twenty years now, remaining just as close at thirty years old as they were at eleven, despite the fact that sage has spent the last decade across the country from one another. bea is one of the few people sage trusts completely, often the one talking her into things she never would have done on her own – mostly, because she trusts bea to never lead her astray, just into something that’s entirely out of sage’s comfort zone. bea is the reason sage moved back to parton, reminding her that their small town in new york has always felt more like home than los angeles. getting back on her feet after the loss of her daughter and in the wake of a messy divorce is all thanks to bea coleman – someone who’s never failed to save sage from herself.
iv. at the age of eleven, sage didn’t like bea’s older brother. he’d been someone in the background everywhere she went, becoming an actual friend of hers once the two hit high school and landed in the same art class. friendship follows quickly — with common ground found between her and alex (outside of just their mutual connection to bea), he becomes someone she calls a close friend with far more similarities to one another than she anticipated. something shifts after her freshman year of college, though – sage can’t quite pinpoint just what it was, but what it led to ended up meaning more to her than she could have anticipated. she falls hard, not expecting to find herself in deep with someone who was technically considered off limits. between her parents and bea – she and alex spent the summer sneaking around, keeping their relationship exclusively to him coming through her window in the middle of the night, and the two parking somewhere secluded so they won’t get caught. it only takes a few short months before the realization hits her like a freight train – she is in love, the kind that inspires poets and songwriters. it feels natural, words in the back of her mind telling her just how easy everything would be with him. they never define their relationship formally, but there’s no question that she falls in love with him – sage never tells him that, though, and an argument about going public with their relationship inspires a string of miscommunication that ultimately leads to their demise. heartbroken, sage manages to move on, finding love with someone new – even if alex remains at the back of her mind, unable to shake thought of what could have been.
time passes and she feels like she’s moved on, embracing the new life she’s about to embark upon when brad pops the question – only to find herself in bed with alex the night before her wedding, fully planning to run away with him the next morning. only instead of the grand second chance she’s always dreamed about, she walks down the aisle and marries the man she loves – the man she’s supposed to love. sage tells herself it’s the right choice, though even at her happiest with brad, her mind still wanders to her best friend’s brother. three years into her marriage, when her fairytale begins to fall apart and reality sets in – she finds herself at alex’s door with an apology and a declaration of love prepared, though it falls flat when someone else answers the door. it takes years before she finally makes peace with it all, determined to move on and start over – they’ve both moved on, and her divorce has been finalized, leaving her with the chance for a true new beginning. a new beginning that ends abruptly, with the complicated realization that she still loves alex – and that she never really stopped.
v. brad donoghue comes into sage’s life in the wake of mourning her ended relationship with alex coleman. he’s everything she /should/ want out of a man – he’s a gentleman, studying finance, and comes from a well off family. they meet on a blind date and hit it off immediately, and true sage fashion – she falls fast, and hard. (the heartache she’s still drowning in pushes her to move on and forget how much she misses alex, too) though sage does fall in love with brad, there’s something about their relationship that doesn’t sync up. they’re good together, she decides – and once they’ve finished school and gotten married, he insists on her quitting her teaching job so that she can focus on her own art. he makes enough money to cover both of them and then some, pushing sage into the role of housewife. it isn’t until she’s filing for divorce that sage sees just how much she let herself be chipped away – brad kept control of their relationship, their finances, their home; he made her small as the years went on, through backhanded compliments and manipulative actions; he molded her into what he wanted her to be, but sage never quite filled the role in the way he hoped. They grow distant, near strangers in the same bed – only made worse by the death of their unborn daughter. it’s not until he comes home hammered and looking for a fight that brad admits that he can’t stand sage anymore; that she bores him, that she isn’t the person he married – that he’s found someone new, someone younger, someone he truly /loves./ someone he’s been cheating on her with for the last two years. she files for divorce three days later. after ten long months, it’s finalized – though, everything had been in brad’s name, and thanks to the prenup she signed before their wedding, sage is left with nothing. the day after the divorce is finalized, brad announces his engagement to his mistress, who is 19. sage moves to parton three weeks after.
TRIGGER WARNING this next headcanon includes miscarriage!
vi. sage had always saw herself becoming a mother some day. while her marriage with brad was rocky at best, it made sense to her that a child would bring them back together in the way that they needed – she loved her husband, even if she didn’t like him very much. starting a family seemed like a good way to remind them why they got married in the first place. after a year of trying, they finally get a positive pregnancy test, setting things into motion. only as the months go on, brad remains just as distant, bordering on uninterested. roughly five months into her pregnancy – sage miscarries, left alone in the hospital while her husband is away on a business trip and isn’t answering the phone. left alone to deal with an unforseen trauma, she ends up on the phone with alex coleman, speaking to him longer that night than she has in the last eight years. sage knows she has no right to ask him for any sort of comfort, but he provides it regardless – helping her slow down her breathing and try to remain calm despite the sobs that keep ripping through her. he promises to tell bea for her, the latter getting on a plane within hours of hearing the news. brad calls her in the morning, home by that night. sage never tells him about her conversation with alex – given that the man is a point of contention between the two since brad found out about her past relationship with him – instead choosing to focus on anything that doesn’t include the tiny coffin they’re burying on a hillside one week later. her name is leona, and they bury her in a beautiful cemetery that overlooks the water. sage doesn’t talk about the miscarriage – she’s more than happy to keep leona and her memory between her, her former therapist, and the small handful of people who know just how deeply her grief runs. she hopes to eventually have children one day -- but she isn’t sure how realistic that dream is anymore.
vii. once her divorce was finalized, sage ended up moving back to parton in october thanks to the encouragement of her best friend. it’s strange to be back in the town she grew up in, fully starting over and left feeling like she hit the reset button on her life – no money, back to the same old job she had in college, fully on her on for the first time in decades. it’s hard to not feel like she’s admitting some sort of defeat, landing on her ass despite the fact that she was living the life she was “supposed” to have. at square one once again, she’s working to figure out what she wants to come next – and with the help of bea, she’s found herself in a pair of roller skates, calling a rowdy group of women her roller derby teammates. joining a team called /the breakneck broads/ was something that sage never saw coming, but has helped her regain something she lost over the last few years – herself.
