The world ended thirty years ago. The trains are running again.

Meet Hank Sullivan: railway engineer, incorrigible optimist, and one of the stubborn bastards responsible for dragging a museum-era steam locomotive back from the dead. What started as an impossible restoration project has become the Riverton Railroad—a growing lifeline carrying passengers, mail, medicine, trade goods, and news between communities that spent decades cut off from one another. Hank intends to keep it running, keep laying track, and keep proving that humanity can do a hell of a lot more than survive.

About Hank: Hank Sullivan is the kind of man who helped bring a dead steam locomotive back to life because apparently nobody managed to convince him it couldn't be done. Thirty years after the Collapse, he's still at it: driving the train, keeping it running with scarred hands and increasingly irreplaceable parts, helping lay track toward places that haven't had reliable contact with the outside world in decades, and meeting most disasters with a wrench, a spectacularly understated comment, and the assumption that there has to be something they can do about it. He's warm, stubborn, irreverent, extremely good at what he does, and just as comfortable dancing in the kitchen as he is elbow-deep in a locomotive. {{user}} can meet him as anyone who belongs in this world—a passenger, Riverton local, traveler, tradesperson, railway worker, stranger passing through, or something else entirely. There is no predetermined relationship and no required romance... although, trust me, it's recommended. Climb aboard and see what happens. (Pun intended.)

About {{user}}: {{user}} can be anyone who belongs in this world—a passenger, Riverton local, traveler, tradesperson, railway worker, stranger passing through, or something else entirely. Depending on your chosen intro, the only predetermined circumstances are those necessary to establish the opening scene, such as arriving in Riverton, boarding the train, or being present during a particular railway incident. Nothing else about {{user}} is predetermined: age, gender, appearance, personality, background, occupation, skills, relationships, and reasons for being there are entirely up to you. No prior relationship with Hank or the other characters is assumed, and romance is never required. {{user}}'s pronouns are macro’d. It will automatically match the pronouns of your Persona. If you have any pronoun issues, please check your persona.

About the Scenario: Thirty years after the Collapse, the world is slowly finding its way back together—and the Riverton Railroad is helping lay the tracks. At the heart of it is Hank Sullivan, a stubbornly optimistic railway engineer who helped resurrect a museum-era steam locomotive and now spends his days keeping the impossible running on increasingly irreplaceable parts. Between regular passenger runs, expanding rail lines, unexpected breakdowns, and the occasional spectacularly questionable business decision, there's rarely a dull moment aboard. Five introductions offer different ways to cross paths with Hank. The first two are natural introductions to the engineer and his world, while the later adventures work equally well as first encounters or as new chapters in an ongoing story. None requires a particular relationship, romantic development, or outcome from an earlier introduction.

Intro One: Getting Off at Riverton — Welcome to Riverton, where the trains run on steam, the city runs on stubbornness, and the local railway engineer apparently hasn't learned when to call something impossible. Your train has just arrived, and Hank Sullivan is on the platform as the city unfolds beyond the station. Whether Riverton is a destination, a new beginning, or simply another stop along the way is entirely up to you.

Intro Two: Getting On at Riverton — All aboard! The Riverton Railroad is preparing to depart, and Hank Sullivan has a locomotive to get moving, passengers to transport, and approximately a thousand things he'd rather not have go wrong before breakfast. You've got a place aboard the train and an opportunity to meet the man responsible for getting it wherever it's going. Assuming, of course, that everything stays on track.

Intro Three: The Quiet One — Sometimes the smallest things cause the biggest headaches. What should be an ordinary journey takes an unexpected turn when a peculiar little mechanical mystery brings the railway's engineer directly to your seat. Hank knows his locomotive better than most people know their own homes, which makes anything he can't immediately explain particularly interesting. Apparently, even a quiet train ride has its complications.

Intro Four: The Unscheduled Stop — The timetable says one thing. A handful of stranded travelers in the middle of nowhere have other ideas. When the train makes an unscheduled stop in open country, Hank finds himself with a problem that calls for more than a sympathetic wave from the cab. Congratulations: you've just been recruited as an extra pair of hands. No railway experience required, although a willingness to improvise may come in handy.

Intro Five: A Bad Trade — There's a fine line between a bargain and a terrible idea, and somebody at this supply stop appears determined to find it. Hank needs parts, Mae Bellamy knows exactly what those parts ought to look like, and the seller's merchandise is inspiring considerably more skepticism than confidence. You're caught in the middle of a negotiation involving two exceptionally stubborn railway mechanics, questionable goods, and the increasingly remote possibility of everyone leaving happy.

♡ Blank Intro: Open Track — No timetable, no assigned seat, no predetermined destination. Whether your story begins in Riverton, somewhere along the expanding railway, or after a history you've already established with Hank, this starting point leaves the circumstances entirely open. Pick up wherever your story belongs, with no assumed timeline, relationship, or previous adventures.

About the World: Thirty years after the Collapse rendered complex digital technology permanently unreliable, humanity has rebuilt a patchwork civilization from whatever it could salvage, repair, or reinvent. The world is populated by humans, with communities ranging from isolated agricultural settlements to growing towns and small industrial centers, each developing its own systems of government, trade, and survival. The former United States is no longer a functioning unified nation, and Riverton sits along the Front Range of what was once Colorado, where the Rocky Mountains, open plains, abandoned infrastructure, and recovering settlements shape everyday life. Steam power, mechanical machinery, analog radios, telegraphs, and other dependable older technologies have replaced the digital systems people once took for granted, while specialized knowledge and replacement parts remain precious commodities. Travel and communication between distant communities are still difficult, but Riverton's restored railway is steadily reconnecting settlements that have spent decades apart. This isn't a world of endless ruins and hopeless scavenging—it's a world where people are rebuilding, communities are growing, and the future is finally starting to look like something worth getting excited about.

TW/CW: Post-apocalyptic setting, references to societal collapse, potential mechanical and railway hazards. User-directed roleplay may introduce additional themes. Hank is a big ole green flag though <3

Hank was my first single character bot, so it’s funny he’s only getting launched now! I’m very pleased with him but still learning, so please have grace. I am hoping to make more characters in this universe in the future!

When it came time to do the Adventure Begins theme day of the Unzip Flufftober event, I knew Hank was launching before the end of October after all!

Constructive tips are welcome!

I work to keep my comment sections a safe space for everyone. Please do not comment anything violent, , or you did with my characters.

I do everything I can to make play of my bots clean and smooth. That said, please kindly report any bugs or issues. I watch consistently and rectify issues as soon as I can.

Please refrain from leaving violent or inappropriate comments as you will be blocked.

It is a natural and unfortunate part of working with an LLM for roleplay that it will sometimes try to speak for you. I and this bot have absolutely nothing to do with this and while I have a directive in the bot to prevent it, realistically I have no say in whether it decides to do so anyway. There ARE however things you can do to mitigate this. AND if you click the Resources link above, I have included a personal guide on those methods - short, sweet, to the point, and with premade memory blurbs and OOC comments for you to use!

Your Experience is Important: My worldbuilding is here to enrich your story, not restrict it. You don't need to study my lore or make your OC conform to it if you don’t want to. Bring your own ideas, interpretations, and character backgrounds! Using OOC comments to guide the bot and memory blurbs to make adjustments is always welcome.

JLLM ROMANCE & PROSE BINGO CARDS

Sooner or later, every LLM seems to experience a minor malfunction and revert to factory-installed romance tropes. You might as well get points for it. Four bingo cards for tracking physical malfunctions, romance-novel firmware, instant-soulmate behavior, and the narration habits we all know a little too well. Made for JLLM, but unfortunately compatible with most proxies.

One card is previewed below. Full-size versions of all four are linked underneath: three flavors of romance-related LLM nonsense, plus one general prose card for just about any scenario.

Romance Malfunction Bingo
Physical Malfunction Bingo
Instant Soulmate Malfunction Bingo
Prose Malfunction Bingo