Player Name: Lauren
Player Contact: bluehellgazette
Character(s) in Game: Just this guy for the time being!

Character Name: Irwin Wade
Age: 28
Canon: Saving Private Ryan

World Description: Wade's from our world in the June of 1944.

History: Irwin landed on Omaha Beach with the rest of his company on D-Day: June 6, 1944. Once he and the surviving members of Charlie company made it to HQ, their captain, John Miller, was tasked with finding a paratrooper - the titular Private Ryan - behind enemy lines to bring him home to his mother, as Ryan's three siblings had all died in combat earlier in the month. He took along seven men, Wade being one of them, and they set out to find their "needle in a stack of needles".

After passing through the French town of Neuville-au-Plain with no luck, the squad happened upon one of Ryan's friends, who told them that he was probably in the nearby town of Ramelle to defend a strategically critical bridge. When they set out for Ramelle on foot, they encountered the dead bodies of fellow U.S. soldiers - and then realized that the men had been ambushed by an active machine gun nest further up the hill. Multiple members of the squad expressed uncertainty about the prospect of taking the nest, pointing out the danger and that they could circumvent it without drawing attention to themselves and still complete their objective, but Miller insisted that they take it out to prevent the next soldiers who came along from being ambushed. They all took off their gear in the hopes of moving faster, then charged up the hill, Wade accompanying them in case anyone was injured.

Death: Irwin was shot five times in the abdomen approaching the hill. Wade initially provided his squadmates with instructions on taking care of him, but when he learned that he had an exit wound through his spine and a bullet through his liver, he realized that he wouldn't survive and told them that he could "use a little more morphine" - a request they all understood to mean asking for a lethal overdose, which they provided after a brief moment of hesitation. Scene here - big TW for blood.

What are your plans for this character in-game? Wade doesn't tend toward leadership unless a medical emergency arises or he feels like nobody's stepping up, and he's content in a supporting role - so that's going to heavily influence how he behaves in this situation. I think he's probably going to remain in a medical role - to include accompanying anyone who goes out exploring because he feels it's his duty to do so - and do his best to make new arrivals feel welcome, but he's not going to be leading any exploration parties or what have you. That being said, if someone gets hurt, expect him to start giving orders to anyone in the vicinity regardless of their comparative age/rank/social status.

What aspects of this game and/or its setting are you most interested in having this character engage with? Definitely the mystery of what goes on in the forest/why they're there/why there isn't light. He's going to want answers about the afterlife both because he's there and because he's seen a lot of death - Wade's going to be wondering where all of the people he wasn't able to help ended up, and if they really went to a better place.

How does your character generally get along with other people? Wade gets along with most people pretty easily. He's mild-mannered and not very reactive, so he generally doesn't rise to antagonism and is more likely to just roll his eyes and shrug it off or see it as vaguely amusing. There are instances when he'll shut people down and get outright irate, however - usually involving gross insensitivity (this happens once in the book - when the squad's combatants are debating whether it's easier to kill Japanese or German soldiers and then start asserting that every German is either a prick or a cocksucker - and once in the film, when the men are laughing and making jokes while sifting through dogtags as a unit of paratroopers passes by). Otherwise he's introverted and pretty considerate, and does his best to make people feel comfortable and welcome; Irwin generally places the needs of others above his own.

What is your character's mental state upon entering the game? Cautious and curious. Wade's going to want to scope out his surroundings and check for danger - coming right out of a war zone and having been trained as a ranger, that's what he's been conditioned to do in unfamiliar environments. He's very levelheaded in distressing situations and emergencies, and besides, he's used to prioritizing the needs of others over his own, so he's likely going to compartmentalize the shock of his own death until things have calmed down a bit. He'll be wondering about the guys from his unit - whether they fared okay without a medic once he was gone, whether they completed their objective by finding Pvt. Ryan and bringing him home - and thinking about the loss his own mother will be going through with guilt and a bit of regret about not spending more time with her.

Skills & Abilities: Emergency medicine/surgery, hand signalling, reading/interpreting maps and orienteering, survival (things like making fire and shelter, wilderness medicine, collecting clean water, etc), navigating difficult terrain.

Flaws/Weaknesses: Wade's very impulsive if he feels like he's needed, to a degree that he forgets about himself and fails to consider his own mortality. On multiple occasions in his canon he has to be physically restrained so that he doesn't endanger himself by going out into a kill zone to help the wounded. This extends beyond selflessness and has a real impact on other people - if the medic gets killed, who's going to help anyone who gets wounded in the future? Wade also has trouble disengaging once he's locked onto the decision that he's going to try and help someone - he's good at performing triage when he's not actively working on someone, but once he is, it's extremely difficult for him to drop what he's doing when it becomes apparent that his time would be better spent if he gave up and switched to a patient with a higher chance of survival. Two more minor flaws involve smoking and limited knowledge: Irwin smokes to handle his stress and is on the milder end of the nicotine addiction spectrum; he tends to experience early withdrawal as general crankiness, impatience, and irritability. Upon his arrival in Beacon, his medical knowledge is limited to 1944. His era was before the genesis of major bloodborne diseases like HIV, Ebola & Lassa Hemorrhagic Fevers, et cetera, so he doesn't know just how important it is to wear gloves and splash protection when dealing with bodily fluids.

Personality: Wade's quiet, brave to a degree of near-recklessness, and compassionate, more sensitive to the feelings and thoughts of others than a lot of his peers. While Irwin's not super chatty, he'll strike up a conversation if it means making someone else feel more welcome. He doesn't normally share a lot about himself - especially where his childhood and relationship with his parents are concerned - so when he does, it's a sign of deep closeness and trust. It's worth noting that while he experiences distress and exhaustion like anyone else, he tends to internalize it instead of 'burdening' someone else with it, especially if that person doesn't have a very solid frame of reference. He doesn't feel the need to be entirely emotionless, but he's stoic - in Irwin's eyes, part of a medic's responsibilities is to maintain a calm and relatively unaffected exterior to give the wounded confidence.

After his trial by fire on Omaha Beach, he's unflinching in the face of extreme carnage; it's worth noting that even then his single, explosive loss of composure on the beach happened only after a patient was killed seconds after finally being stabilized. Wade has nerves of steel - he's able to do what needs to be done briskly and calmly even when his own life is in danger, although he's had to be held back in the past so that he doesn't take a suicidal risk to try and get to the wounded. When he's not acting rashly, however, he tends to be the voice of reason in social situations, as well as the person who reminds others to have some sympathy.

Items: One zippo lighter, half-carton of Lucky Strike cigarettes, standard issue wristwatch, bloody tatters of an undershirt, dogtags, combat boots and gaiters, bloodstained trousers.

Log Sample: toplevel #1
Network Sample: area man discovers texting. what happens next will warm your heart (thread)