[hider=Elijah Graham]
[center]

[color=4E4E4E]┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓[/color]
[h1][i]Elijah[/i][/h1]


[color=4E4E4E]┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛[/color][/center]
[COLOR=#6096a4][INDENT][SUP][SUB][H3]Name[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT]Elijah Graham[/INDENT][/INDENT]
[COLOR=#6096a4][INDENT][SUP][SUB][H3]Age[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT]56[/INDENT][/INDENT]
[COLOR=#6096a4][INDENT][SUP][SUB][H3]Appearance[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT]
Elijah is a tall, stocky, hairy man with the physique of someone who gained muscle without trying to show off, or perhaps from a lifetime of labour. He has thick dark hair which he combs back, bushy eyebrows, dark eyes and a prominent mustache. More often than not, Elijah has faint stubble around his jawline, perhaps even the beginnings of a beard if he cannot find a razor. His nose is ever-so-slightly crooked and the lines on his face appear to be from decades of frowning. His hands are calloused but their movements are delicate. His nails are kept short for surgery - he wears no wedding ring and there are no indications that he had ever worn one in the past. He has no piercings and no tattoos, but he does have a few scars on his left shoulder, abdomen and knuckles.



[/INDENT][/INDENT]
[COLOR=#6096a4][INDENT][SUP][SUB][H3]Personality[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT]
Elijah is world-weary. He has seen most of what he needed to see in order to mature, has suffered enough, and consequently has very little time for people who want to make his life harder than it has to be. He has learned how to fight and fight well, but his aggression is held back by his level-headedness and common sense. He knows how to pick his battles and is very aware of his limits. He carries himself with stoicism but there’s a faint warmth to his personality that makes him a little more welcoming than the other farmhands. For Elijah, law and virtue are less of a necessity - you could do anything you like if you could get away with it without being caught. He still operates under his own strict set of morals though, quick to be disapproving or to congratulate people for doing what he saw as ‘the right thing’. 

Elijah does not strike the average onlooker as an intellectual and he certainly doesn’t boast about his book smarts, but they exist nonetheless. When he has some free time, he can often be found reading or studying in his chambers. He appears to be used to multitasking and doesn’t sleep as much as your typical farmhand. Waking up early and working hard from the get-go seems to be ingrained into his psyche. He isn’t the most friendly man you’ll get to meet but once you gain his respect he’s loyal, honest and has a ‘tough love’ approach - he tries to be as amiable as possible with his patients from the very start, however, as it is his duty to look after them.

[/INDENT][/INDENT]

[COLOR=#6096a4][INDENT][SUP][SUB][H3]History[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT]
Elijah grew up on the Graham family ranch all the way out in Kansas. He was the eldest, followed closely by his two sisters - Mary and Jacklyn - and then finally a little brother called Joseph. As the soon-to-be head of the household, Elijah was raised on the farm with the intention of inheriting it. Unfortunately for his parents, his aspirations went beyond the borders of his father’s property. He wanted to follow his own American Dream and take on a high-salary job as a surgeon in one of the big cities, like New York or Chicago.

In order to get his diploma, Elijah had to balance his work on the farm and his revision for his exams at school. This meant long days and short rests, sometimes willing his trembling and blistered hands to write that last paragraph. This life suited him well; he was not so much of a family man but he barely had any friends due to his obligations to the farm, so it wasn’t as if he was wasting his free time mucking around with other boys his age. When he had the chance, Elijah went to the park or the library with the few friends he had left; a bookish irishman, like himself, called Eric and a gangly dark-haired youth named Colton. Time seemed to slip by too quickly for the three of them. Before they knew it, Colton had signed up for military service just a few years before the war and Elijah had his qualifications to study in Jacksonville, Florida.

Whilst he was in the city, he noticed the distinct poverty of marginalised people in the streets. His parents were conservative xenophobes who worsened with the war; Elijah had no reason to concern himself over the jews, queers and negroes who struggled to make a living in and out of the underbelly. Nevertheless, Elijah was an opportunist; he saw a gap in the market. He knew that it was immensely difficult to find a doctor who would be willing to treat homosexuals and people of colour; he knew it was even more difficult for any of these people to become a doctor in the first place. Instead of moving out to one of the bigger cities for work, he decided to start a small practitioner's office in one of the seedier parts of town and, using a small loan from the local bank, bought the cheapest equipment money could buy to set up shop there in Jacksonville. His prices were cheaper than most but his market was narrow; white people could not even tolerate stepping into his GP office for a check-up, meaning he worked almost exclusively on low-income families.

The turnout was surprising. Instead of struggling to make a living, his target customers shilled out a decent amount to finally have a qualified doctor look at their wounds, bumps, rashes and infections that they had previously left to heal or fester. Whilst it did mean that Elijah was overworked and had some pretty nauseating patients to tackle, he found his cool shell of prejudice was beginning to slowly crack and falter. He began to see his patients not as exploitable profit, but as people - people who were immensely grateful for what he has done. Before Eli knew it he had a full address book of friends and found himself frequenting many bars and theatres reserved for coloured people. He similarly got his knuckles bloody a fair few times, both defending himself from those who felt he did not belong and giving a couple of shiners to anybody stupid enough to try and torment his patients. As the years passed he acquired enough money to buy proper gear - then another course for becoming a surgeon - then a house in the countryside.

It was around this time, after Elijah had settled into his new home and fell back into his old country roots of agriculture, that he received a telegram from one of his sisters. It was Jacklyn; she said it was an emergency and that she was travelling to Florida to ask for an irredeemable favour. When she did arrive, it was with a little girl in tow. According to Jacklyn, her husband had died during World War One and she was unable to feed both herself and her little girl, Alice, whilst simultaneously keeping a roof over their heads. She promised Elijah that as soon as she was able she would return to pick up the child. Elijah unquestionably agreed to look after his niece.

Elijah had never given romance much thought; the concept was foreign and unrealistic for him. Marriage, and even children, were practically inconceivable - and yet here he was, suddenly burdened with a ten year old girl and next to no prior experience. The first few months were exceedingly tough. Luckily he was able to get in touch with a few of the families he treated in the past for some life-saving tips. However, since Alice needed a stable education he could not afford to return to Jacksonville so he sold his old office, setting up a makeshift GP office out of his shed and taking commission requests in the surrounding villages.

From then on Elijah did his best to be a father figure for the little girl. He attended all of her pantomimes and talent shows, helped her with her homework and even taught her a thing or two about medicine as she grew up. When she decided that she wanted to try her hand at singing and acting, Elijah begrudgingly paid the fees and called in a few favours from his friends in the city. Whilst she was off learning some valuable life lessons, Elijah had the free time to work on his house a little - he started a proper vegetable garden and made himself a patio. Appointments were slow and often had him out on the trains every week but he usually took bookings for patients to visit his house as well to pad out his income. When the Great Depression hit, money was getting harder and harder to come by. He needed a steady and reliable source of income and somewhere to stay with his niece so he could save more money by avoiding all of the supplementary costs of living in his own property. He found a nearby farm, fairly isolated from the rest of the town, and offered his services as a doctor for bed, board, and a bit of cash.

[/INDENT][/INDENT]
[COLOR=#6096a4][INDENT][SUP][SUB][H3]Speech Color[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT] Teal/Gray | #6096a4[/INDENT][/INDENT]
[COLOR=#6096a4][INDENT][SUP][SUB][H3]Traits[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT]
[b]Doctor[/b] - You have extensive experience in more advanced medical operations. [color=green]+3[/color]
[b]Craftsman[/b] - You can build appliances, furniture, and small walls. [color=green]+1[/color]
[b]Quick-Thinking[/b] - You can make use of improvised weapons, such as bottles, broomsticks, and fire. [color=green]+3[/color]
[b]Imposing[/b] - You are good at intimidating others, due to size or some other factor. [color=green]+2[/color]
[b]Learned[/b] - You are literate and have a relatively advanced education, in comparison to the common man. [color=green]+3[/color]


[b]Hot-Headed[/b] - It is sometimes difficult for you to think clearly.[color=red]-2[/color]
[b]Abrasive[/b] - You are rude, and generally disliked for it. [color=red]-1[/color]
[b]Slow[/b] - You cannot move quickly. [color=red]-2[/color]
[b]Loud[/b] - Your movements are particularly noticeable. [color=red]-1[/color]
[b]Heavy Eater[/b] - You need more food than most. [color=red]-1[/color]
[b]Queer[/b] - You are homosexual, which is likely kept a secret. [color=red]-1[/color]

[color=green]11[/color] - [color=red]7[/color] = 4

[/INDENT][/INDENT]
[COLOR=#6096a4][INDENT][SUP][SUB][H3]Inventory[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT]
Medical Gear
Journal
Money
Snub-nosed revolver
[/INDENT][/INDENT]
[/hider]