Lost men gather here

[captfancypants]

💀 Player Information
Name: Ali
Age: 18++++++
Contact: semperparatus
Characters In-game: None

💀 Character Information
Name: Homer Jackson
Canon: Ripper Street
Canon Point: Episode 1x6 Jackson attempts to disarm a bomb one-handed. In canon, he actually succeeds. For game purposes...boom.
Age: Not given in canon but probably late 30s
Description: Jackson is approximately 5'11" with a lean build. He has blue eyes and dark brown hair. He normally has a mustache, some fairly impressive sideburns, and a little soul patch. He'll have some mild scars scattered over his body from the bomb explosion but he's had time to heal from the worst of the injuries. He wears a ring on his left hand, gold with a colored stone, that has his real name inscribed inside the band. He typically wears plaid pants, a green jacket, and a rather sad looking brown hat.
Physical changes: None
Powers: Nothing superhuman/supernatural

History:
A brief overview (because there's no decent wiki):

Homer Jackson was born Matthew Judge, the son of a doctor, in Richmond, Virginia. His home life was apparently troubled because his brother, Daniel, said both boys got as far away from home as soon as they could. He got his medical training at the University of Virginia (his father enrolled both sons but only Matthew finished.) After that, he became a U.S. Army surgeon. He was at Johns Hopkins at some point because he uses the dead room he saw there as the template for the one he has at the Leman Street Station, and he was in New Orleans in 1875 during a cholera outbreak, though whether that was during his military service or not isn't specified.

At some point after leaving the army, he joined the Pinkerton Agency. We know he was in Chicago working with the agency during the Chicago Haymarket Riot in 1886. It was while on the job he met and fell in love with Caitlyn Swift, daughter of a wealthy shipping magnate and the woman he'd been hired to protect. When their love affair was discovered, they were forced to go on the run. Caitlyn's father claimed Judge (Jackson) had kidnapped his daughter and that sent his brother Pinkertons in pursuit of the couple. Jackson killed Agent William Goodnight, a friend, and his men at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey in order to escape.

He and Caitlyn fled the U.S. and ran to London. They settled in Whitechapel because as Caitlyn said, it was the kind of shithole it's easy to get lost in. She was not wrong. Matthew become Homer and Caitlyn became Long Susan Hart, and they did manage to avoid unwanted notice, at least for a while. They've been in White Chapel for about two years at the time the show starts in the spring of 1889, and it's become their home, not just a hiding place. The marriage, however, has all but fallen apart in the meantime. Jackson lives in Susan's Tenter Street Bordello but he has his own room, and more or less free use of the prostitutes. It is, needless to say, a tense situation at times.

When he's not working as a clap doctor, or upping his debauchery game, Jackson works for D.I. Reid at Division H, Leman Street Station. He acts as their medical examiner and as a sort of Victorian CSI. It's only months after Jack the Ripper's little murder spree and his presence weighs on Whitechapel. Fortunately, despite occasionally similar looking victims, the cases Jackson works on are somewhat less sensational. As Reid's official surgeon, he examines both the bodies and the crime scenes and provides relevant scientific information to the police. Jackson also spends a great deal of time trolling Sergeant Drake.

Hell Status: Hell Vet

What Brings Them To Hell: Drinking, gambling, whoring--all the usual vices. Also murder...s, some of which are justifiable, others which aren't so much.

The Pitch:
Homer Jackson is an irresistible mix of highly intelligent, highly competent doctor and a fuck up at pretty much everything else. In fact, aside from the times Reid pulls him in on forensic cases, he's kind of fuck up as a doctor too. Snake oil salesman isn't too far wrong, and in hell, he may be selling you actual snake oil.

This is good news though. After all, who wants a doctor who's going to tell them don't eat this, don't drink that and for Lucifer's sake, don't fuck anything? That kind of attitude just sucks all the fun out of the afterlife. Jackson will not only tell you to go ahead and enjoy yourself, he'll likely be leading the way. And if, after sobering up, you find you've picked up a case of crabs or you're in need of the hair of the demon dog, he's just the man to fix you up.

On the negative(?) side, Jackson, who can be funny and charming (in rude sort of way), is also a man with demons...as opposed to becoming an actual demon. He's almost always just a small nudge away from going off the rails (and onto a bender.) Despite having spent a fair amount of time in less than salubrious circumstances, he hasn't developed a particularly thick skin. Yes, he can be cynical, even callous, but it's surprisingly easy to hurt his feelings.

He's not a bad man but he is--to use a cliché--complicated. You can never be sure whether he'll do the right thing or the wrong thing, or both. He once abstained from telling the truth to D.I. Reid, his employer and friend, in order to protect his real identity. Then he sent a gang of thugs after Reid. Then he sent a gang of vigilantes after the thugs. Then he showed up himself to shoot the thug who was about to kill Reid. So yes, doing both is possible. Ultimately, however, he failed to stop Reid from discovering the truth...because that's just the way Jackson's luck goes.

That's why he's fun to play, and fun to have around. If he were wholly one thing or wholly the opposite, he'd be boring, although possibly still someone you might invite to your weekly poker game/bar brawl/orgy. However, it's his contradictions, his situational ethics, and his internal conflicts that make him interesting.

In the end, however, the most important reason he belongs in Little Hades is that he wears fancy pants. Hell could do with more men in fancy pants.

Setting Fit:
Hell vet: Jackson has been in Hell about six months. He settled into Little Hades with some...a great deal of grumbling but not actually a huge amount of difficulty. After all, he spent plenty of time in the gutters of Victorian England. Hell in some aspects is just more of the same...dialed up to eleven. His greatest concern is that he's no longer alive to protect Susan, completely ignoring the fact that Susan isn't necessarily impressed by his 'protection.'

He's managed to finance a small office on the fringes of the red light district. His living quarters are on the upper level. The lower level rooms are where he maintains a medical practice, Whitechapel Clinic and Apothecary. It's a big name for what is not much of a practice. I mean, let's be honest--it's basically the health care equivalent of a dive bar. He doesn't even keep regular hours. Neither do most of his clients, though, so it works out. He makes enough money to supply his needs and still has plenty of time to indulge his other interests.

And speaking of other interests.... Since arriving in hell, he's fallen back on his usual coping methods of drinking, gambling, and whoring. Because why not? He's already in hell. Things can't get much worse, or so he tries to tell himself. He does spend time trying to learn about all the modern (to him) scientific advances. He's not happy about being dead but the opportunity to learn about things like antibiotics and DNA and CAT scans is some compensation.

Samples:

TDM sample threads