Character design by  tanukibomb

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Sully Character Guide

(All details are subject to revision.)

Full name: Marcus Bradley O'Sullivan
Species: Domestic ferret
Age: 19-20
Gender: Male
Pronouns: He/him/his
Sexual orientation: Gay
Occupation: Assistant to Mr. Underwood

Ref sheet

Life History

Sully, much like his wombat boss, doesn't talk much about his past, but we can say he's had a rough life.

His parents and siblings are either dead, or he strongly wishes not to make contact with them. Whatever event forced him to leave home thrust him into a life of homelessness, poverty and crime.

For better or worse, ferrets make for natural thieves, and Sully was able to survive on this skill indefinitely. Still, his talent for larceny didn't prevent him from ending up in hock to some very bad folks, who demanded bigger and bigger scores from him to satisfy their insatiable demands.

This is, in fact, how he wound up meeting Emmet.

The biggest score in town was the wombat burrow on the edge of it, rumored to house reams of rare and invaluable tech that the right buyer (and there were very interested buyers) would pay a fortune for. However, it was said to be impossible to break into. The wombat's eyes saw everything.

Sully figured out a way.

How he managed to be the first living being other than Emmet to see the Deep Lab is a secret that will remain between the two of them. Needless to say, Sully was caught before he could lay his paws on Emmet's life's work, but the wombat was so impressed that Sully managed to get past his security measures that, instead of turning him over to the police, he gave him a job instead.

At least, this is the story Emmet and Sully will both impress upon you if you ask them. And you will get the sense, at least from Emmet, that you should leave it at that.

It's definitely an interpretation that's generous to Emmet. The old wombat saw a troubled youth and gave him a second chance. But I think that Emmet probably knew who the "buyers" responsible for Sully's breaking-and-entering were, and wished to send a subtle but strong message to them: back off. The kid was under his protection now. The ferret had simply seen too much to allow him back on the market.

At first, Emmet intended to use Sully as a janitor and an errand-boy, but he soon discovered (despite attempts to keep him from meddling) that Sully actually had a genuine knack for machines. He could quickly learn to fix just about anything, and he could grasp the most complex schematics after only moments of study.

Emmet had struck gold in this kid. When he opened his repair shop, Sully was right alongside him the first day.

These days, Sully has a steady job and a roof over his head: a small apartment somewhere in town. It's not much, but it beats sleeping on the streets.

Sully divides his time at the Burrow between the repair operations in the workshop and handling the customers (who much prefer his congenial personality to the surly Emmet's). He's dutiful and resourceful, and has the best quality that an assistant could have: freeing up Emmet to manage the business side of things and focus his time on doing the inventing work that really matters to him.

Which leads us to an unfortunate fact...

There's no doubt that Emmet is exploiting Sully's talents far more for his benefit than the ferret's. Sully earns a salary, and he's received several raises as he's taken on more responsibilities, but it's reaching a point where much of the output of Wombat For Hire, Inc. should reasonably be credited to Sully, not Emmet. But it's still Emmet's species on the sign and Emmet who's counting the cash.

Emmet does feel responsible for Sully. He's never married and has no children of his own (and never will), but he feels a kind of protective paternalism towards the boy. No matter what trouble Sully gets into, Emmet will not allow him to go hungry or homeless. (He will dock his pay when he breaks things, which he does, repeatedly.)

But it does feel like things are slowly reaching a breaking point. Sully has ambitions of his own. In his spare time he is earning his high school diploma (at record pace), and wants to attend university eventually. Maybe start his own business. What will Emmet say when he breaks the news? His fist closed tight when the lad first appeared. Will he let him go when it's time?

Time will tell.

Personality

Sully is an outgoing introvert. He's friendly and talkative and loves to get to know people... and once he has he will go on his way. He has trouble forming deep emotional bonds with people (Emmet is one of the first).

Left on his own, Sully is nearly as private as Emmet. He often spends long nights at the workshop, sleeping there instead of going home, tinkering on various projects of his own. His special goggles are an example of something he worked out when he had a few nights to himself, focusing on nothing but the task before him.

But such single-mindedness is the exception rather than the rule for him. Although Sully is a dedicated worker, he can become flighty and inattentive when stressed—and he is often highly stressed. The workload never ceases, and the customers never stop ringing the damned bell!

This leads to noticeable lapses in discipline, to put it lightly. In a rush to get things done now instead of getting things done right, Sully often misses the finer details... with loud and explosive results. Speaking of, it's unclear whether the tip of his tail is black naturally, or whether it's just permanently singed.

Sully is not without a mischievous, deceptive, and covetous side, and it is a side—almost a split personality that he was forced to develop to survive when he lived on the streets. It tends to come out when he is feeling stressed, sad, or neglected.

Psychological traits

In the OCEAN model of personality metrics, Sully exhibits:

1. High Openness
2. Moderate Conscientiousness
3. Low Extraversion
4. High Agreeableness
5. Moderate Neuroticism

He likely suffers from both Borderline Personality Disorder and Partial Dissociative Identity Disorder. Partly as a result of his traumatic upbringing, he exhibits a strong need for acceptance and belonging combined with a persistent expectation that people will betray him. His tendency to take hold of the first hand that reaches out to him has landed him in abusive relationships in the past.

Relationships

Emmet, of course, is a mentor, boss, father figure, and friend (as much as Emmet can be a friend to anyone). There isn't much to say here that hasn't been covered.

It is rumored that Sully has a boyfriend: an otter who lives somewhere in town. He's keeping it under wraps. Emmet doesn't have the brightest reputation among the locals, and Sully has many reasons for wanting to keep work and "life" separate.

Hobbies

Sully has a keen interest in gardening. Somehow he finds enough spare time to tend to a small vegetable garden out back behind Emmet's burrow. He seems to enjoy getting his paws dirty (natural for a ferret). The herbivorous Emmet permits the garden because he gets free produce out of the deal.

He also has a keen interest in fishing, although this is more private. Sully loves to catch and eat fish. So much so that people joke he must be part otter. Hm...

He has a passing interest in musical instruments, particularly stringed ones. No word as to how good he is yet.

Build

Sully's tall for a ferret (and Emmet's short for a wombat), which means that, when standing side-by-side, Sully is about a head (one of his heads) taller than Emmet.

He does have an enormous appetite, but his youth and ferret metabolism mean that he doesn't suffer heavily from it, save for his bottom starting to get bigger. This is slowly starting to impact his ability to squeeze into tight spaces (a highly useful attribute for a ferret assistant). If he ever does quit smoking, this might start to catch up to him.

Clothing / Equipment

Sully's "work" clothes consist of a button down shirt and trousers, with a belt and an engineer's apron, with all pocket space and belt loops occupied with every conceivable tool he might think he needs. Much of it's grease and soot-covered. He protects his forepaws and wrists with leather gloves (with a timepiece strapped to the left one).

Sully's bandana is special. Like everything on his person, it has a practical use (it blocks out dust and smoke from his experiments), but he seems to generally treat it as a "badge of office." He always wears it, even off the clock. Of course, it matches Emmet's, but to the wombat it's just a rag. Sully adopted it patriotically.

His goggles are a self-made invention. They're multi-lensed, and can telescope out to provide up to 20x magnification. They're more than just an engineering tool: Sully is nearsighted, and in slight denial of the fact that he might actually need glasses. Until he breaks down and gets a pair, the goggles help him compensate.

Sully prefers simple and casual (yet somewhat old fashioned-seeming) attire when off the clock, that isn't much different from how he used to dress before he met Emmet: trousers or jeans, an open vest, a flat cap and of course his trusty bandana.

His casual clothes are... often not in the best of shape. They're old and worn out, with multiple signs of patching and stitching. This isn't because he's destitute, it's more his work mindset following him: he prefers not to throw something out if he can repair it.

Speech pattern

Sully doesn't know the meaning of formality. You'd think he doesn't even have a last name (although technically his nickname is derived from it). He introduces himself as simply "Sully" and insists that you call him that.

This helps disarm the customers, of course, who might otherwise be nervous about dealing with the wombat instead.

Sully's accent and dialect follow a US Southern American pattern. In a neutral mood he tends to speak in a slow, twangy drawl, which accelerates to a high-pitched staccato when he's excited or scared. Neither Emmet nor many of the townspeople sound like this, which further indicates that Sully's "not from around here."

Sully has moderated his accent and grammar somewhat since leaving home, although when feeling heightened states of emotion (or intoxication), his accent does become far more noticeable.

In writing, there are usually telltale signs of it, such as g-dropping ("thinking" becomes "thinkin'"), consonant cluster softening ("and" becomes "an'"), and other minor variants ("is not" and "have not" both become "ain't"; "doesn't" is always "don't", etc.). These use patterns also reflect his general informality.

Flaws & Foibles

Sully doesn't smell nice. Let's put it bluntly: he reeks.

Working in a dirty machine shop, Sully has picked up a number of bad personal habits. He spits, scratches himself in places he shouldn't, uses his shirtsleeve to wipe his nose. His outward demeanor is friendly enough that customers can usually overlook his uncouthness (and the alternative is Emmet), but even so... you'd think he could at least take a shower from time to time.

(I don't know how his boyfriend puts up with it. Maybe he gets him to bathe.)

The smoking doesn't help. It's the one vice that his boss can't stand. Emmet can put up with a foul-smelling ferret. What he can't abide are the constant unauthorized "breaks," the cigarette butts strewn about the workshop... and the inflammable things igniting. The biggest cause of a docked paycheck happens when Sully lights up somewhere he shouldn't.

He'll have to quit at some point. His lungs—and his burnt tail—will thank him.