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[exitpursuedbyabear]

User Name/Nick: Karin
User DW: finalprogramme
E-mail: lingeanare at gmail dot com
Other Characters: A bunch of retired characters

Character Name: Patrick Sumner
Series: The North Water (primarily the AMC TV series but with additional details from Ian McGuire's original novel; where the two contradict each other, the TV series will be given priority)
Age: 28
From When?: Right after shooting Baxter, near the end of episode 5

Inmate/Warden: Sumner is one of those damaged, salty wardens who could conceivably get demoted with the wrong provocation. Life, and specifically all those aspects of his life ruled over by rich, powerful men, has shat upon him from a great height, and he doesn't have a whole lot of optimism left, but he does have a loathing of injustice and an essentially compassionate heart. He has done a couple of murders, but those murders were not unjustifiable—one was absolutely in self-defence and removed an extremely vile rapist/murderer from the world, and the other was the amoral rich man whose machinations led to the deaths of two entire whaling crews. He's an interesting case in that he doesn't fit neatly into either warden or inmate categories—he's essentially a warden with a lot to learn on his own.
Item: An amulet made out of carved walrus ivory, in the shape of a bear's head.

Abilities/Powers: The latest medical knowledge as of 1860, a good shot.

Personality: Patrick Sumner started out life with a certain amount of idealism, having been more or less adopted by a surgeon and educated to follow in his steps. The world has beaten that idealism out of him, leaving him embittered, rageful, and with a nasty laudanum habit that he managed to kick only because the laudanum disappeared. He is profoundly traumatised by his experiences in India and the Arctic and is not exactly a model of healthy coping skills.

And yet: he still has the capacity for compassion and tenderness, and when confronted with a suffering human being, will do everything he can to alleviate that suffering. He seeks justice for a cabin boy's violation and murder; he performs a risky surgery to save the life of a dying priest. As exhausted and wrecked by the world as he is, he still believes that there is some kind of objective good that a man can do, and he's trying to do it.

He is ferociously stubborn—a "dogged little fucker" in the words of Henry Drax, and that stubbornness only grows when he's certain of being right. When he senses that a wrong has been done, he'll hammer away at it until he finds a way to set it right. Often he thinks he's given up, but he rarely ever does. As a surgeon, he has a gentle, businesslike bedside manner, and has a way of quietly asking questions to draw people out and win them over. Despite his weariness, he's never callous with the people he's treating.

He's intelligent and well-read, with a dry sense of humour. He has a certain amount of latent ambition and a desire to escape the poverty of his youth and his second-class status as an Irishman in England, although that ambition has taken a beating along with his idealism. He believes he deserves better out of life, not so much in an entitled way as in a sense that he has worked his arse off, tried to play by the rules, and gotten smacked down for it again and again, and it's not bloody fair.

All that said, his tolerance for cruelty and avariciousness is essentially nonexistent now. He's seen too much death and injustice, and is more than capable of killing if provoked. He's slow to anger, but when that anger is unleashed, it's powerful and potentially murderous. He's not going to go vigilante on someone out of hand, but if someone badly hurts him or someone he cares about or is invested in the safety of, he could easily lose his shit in catastrophic fashion. He could also fall back off the laudanum wagon if things go poorly for him. The possibility of a demotion may not be all that far off.

Barge Reactions: Sumner is going to be at once curious and detached when he first arrives—interrogating the mechanisms of the place while being hesitant to get too close to anyone.

Deal: Sumner's deal is simple: one inmate redemption for a chance at a new life somewhere else, anywhere, anywhen, he doesn't really care. He just wants to draw a line under the horrors of his past and try to be the surgeon he intended to be from the beginning.

History: Sumner was born in County Mayo, Ireland. His parents died of typhus when he was a boy, and he was taken in by William Harper, a surgeon who saw to his upbringing and education. He enlisted in the army as a surgeon, where he participated in the siege of Delhi in 1857.

Toward the end of the siege, he and three other surgeons were sent by their commanding officer to investigate a treasure hoard reported by a man who brought his injured child for help. They did find the treasure, but they were ambushed and only Sumner escaped with his life, with a fractured leg that left him with a permanent limp. He was helped by a young Indian boy who he promised to protect, but the boy was shot by an English soldier before Sumner could intercede.

Sumner's commanding officer ensured that he was blamed for the deaths of the other surgeons—in the official accounting, they went off-piste without permission. Sumner was cashiered (dishonourably discharged), which ruined his career and left him with few other options besides taking the position of surgeon on the whaler Volunteer, sailing out of Hull.

Then all this shit happened.

Sample Journal Entry:
My name is Patrick Sumner. I am a surgeon, certified from the Queen's College of Belfast, and I am now a warden here. Until such time as I receive my orders with regard to the man or woman who is to be my charge, I should like to make myself useful in whatever way that I can. It is my understanding that there is an infirmary aboard, and I am willing to put my skills to use there—though I am from the year 1860 and I gather that I have a great deal of education before me before I can properly assist. As well, I have lately returned from a voyage to the Arctic on which I had little to read but the Iliad, and I would be grateful for directions to anywhere that I might find a selection of books.

Sample RP: Test drive thread

Special Notes:
Sumner's canon includes reference to rape and murder, including that of an underage boy. He didn't do it, but he was the one who discovered the crime and tried to find justice for the victim. Lots of other potentially difficult subjects as well. There is an opt-out for anyone who doesn't want that content.