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Mar. 23rd, 2025 07:18 pm
THOMAS JOPSON
— THE TERROR —
my aim's fine, mr. hickey. i've shot smaller hawks than you.
Other Physical Traits.
Jopson is almost always wearing some version of an 1840's Royal Naval uniform. He is very good at blending into the shadows and popping out when people least expect it.
IC Permissions.
Background.
THE TERROR is a fictionalized retelling of the Franklin Expedition: in 1845, the HMS EREBUS and HMS TERROR sailed from England to find and chart the Northwest Passage and were never seen again.
Jopson is the steward (servant/personal assistant) to Captain Francis Crozier, the captain of the TERROR. Originally from central London, Thomas is the son of a tailor and grew up pretty hand to mouth poor. He joined the Royal Navy in his 20's. He first met Crozier in 1839 when he served as his steward on board TERROR during the Ross Expedition to Antartica.
When they returned to England in 1843, he discovered his mother had become addicted to laudanum and tried to help break her of the addiction, but she died during withdrawal. He later helped Captain Crozier overcome his addiction to alcohol after the ships were frozen in ice and Crozier became commander of the expedition.
After several of the officers on board TERROR and EREBUS died, Jopson was promoted to third lieutenant. In a post-canon, rescue AU, I tend to assume he gets to keep his promotion and continues to work under Crozier.
Personality.
Jopson is extremely good at and proud of his job. He's very skilled at remaining unflappable, polite and focused, and does not like being vulnerable or letting people think he's anything but perfectly competent and steady. He's fiercely loyal to Crozier and is a very caring, attentive person to those he considers friends or family. He's also a little nosy - he knows pretty much everything going on on the ship at all times - and can be very judgmental of people he thinks are incompetent or not contributing.
Other Details.
OPT OUTS
The Terror includes depictions of cannibalism, starvation, British imperialism, alcoholism (via Captain Crozier, who Jopson nurses through cold turkey withdrawal), corporal punishment, suicide, euthanasia, other assorted violence, and period typical racism.
Jopson's personal history also includes opioid addiction via his mother and alcoholism via Captain Crozier. Please feel free to let me know if this is something on your hard no list and I can avoid it coming up in threads.
SHIPPING & SEXUALITY
I play Jopson as being on the ace spectrum, so he would be flattered by but not interested in anything shippy, even with canonmates. Very into platonic father/son bonding with Crozier and platonic pals with folks like Bridgens, Little, Goodsir, etc. though!
ALTERNATE UNIVERSES
I love a good rescue/fix-it AU! In a modern AU setting, I like to adapt the crew as being academics studying polar exploration based in either the UK or Canada, with Jopson as Crozier's PA or TA grad student. In an AU with daemons, Jopson's is a Chartreux cat named Ada.
