Jim Sterling

*This article is about Jim Sterling, the fox character from The Smoke Room. You may be looking for Jim Hendricks, the father of Carl from Echo, or Jimmy Fisher, another fox from The Smoke Room with a much smaller role.*

## Physical Description

### Species

Vulpes vulpes (Red fox)Breed: Canadian marble fox

### Sprite Artist

9Klipse

**Jim Sterling** is a character in The Smoke Room. He is an assayer for the CSCG mining operation and the fiancé of Holly Byrnes, the elder sister of Murdoch.

## Appearance

Jim is a marble fox with snow-white fur, as well as black ears and gray markings around his eyes and on his tail. He has yellow eyes. The fur atop his head is slicked back in a debonair manner. He wears a button-up shirt with the top buttons undone, and a pair of black pants with black suspenders. He also ties a dark blue ascot loosely around his neck. In more formal settings, Jim swaps this ascot for a black tie and buttons his shirt up completely.

For his bachelor party, Jim wears a suit with purple accents over a white dress shirt, along with a black bowtie and cummerbund. For his wedding ceremony he wears a dark blue tuxedo with a black waist coat over a white shirt, as well as a dark blue tie with white stripes and a white flower boutonnière tucked into his lapel.

## Personality

Jim is self-confident and smug. He tends to be crass in his cockiness and is often condescending, expressing both a disparaging attitude toward women and a sense of superiority over the people of Echo. He is extremely performative in the company of those he wants to impress, such as his fiancée's parents or his friends from the big city, and seems to rely on an exaggerated sense of bravado to secure societal approval.

Beneath this veneer, Jim is shown to be conflicted about his same-sex attractions, and fears what potential exposure could mean for his reputation. He is largely driven by upholding his upper class persona, which makes him self-conscious regarding any behavior that could serve to diminish his standing among his peers. According to Murdoch, Jim is more tolerable when in private settings where he does not feel the need to show off, and unlike many of his contemporaries he is willing to accept people with "new money" into upper class circles.

## Story

### Before The Smoke Room

Jim hails from a "big city," where he attended college and received a degree in geology. He has various friends in the city who are high-level professionals in their fields, including Neil and Reubin, a politician and doctor respectively.

Jim works as a geological assayer, a job which frequently causes him to travel to various mining operations across the western side of the country. Jim is currently posted in Echo to assist CSCG Mining Operations, working indirectly for James Hendricks and Gregory Briggs. Much of Jim's role involves analyzing ore and soil samples from the mine, requiring him to operate partially at night in order to avoid the work of the miners during the day. Apart from his job, Jim has little love for Echo and eventually wishes to return to the city when his contract is up.

Four years prior to the start of the story, Jim became acquainted with Holly Byrnes, a teacher at Echo School, and the two began dating. At some point Jim proposed, and the two are set to be married in July.

Through Holly, Jim became aware of Echo's paranormal nature and the apparently impossible happenings that occur as a result. While doubtful of these claims, Jim gradually noted various odd qualities to the mines that he surveyed including irregular layouts, natural gas emissions occurring without clear sources, traces of gold veins that lead to nothing, and an unnatural amount of quartz. While Jim still seems to have reservations about paranormal influences being responsible for these observations, he does realize that his fiancée is genuinely scared of the town and takes note of such occurrences regardless.

Despite the outward happiness of his engagement however, Jim grew restless with Echo's small town ways and unhappy with the prospect of heterosexual monogamy. At some point Jim expressed this to Holly, while also opening up to her about his sexuality. To secure their engagement and keep Jim's attention from wandering, Holly quickly conscripted her brother Murdoch to help Jim sate his "needs,” but did not inform Jim about this. From Jim's perspective, Murdoch suddenly propositioned him based on a long-held attraction. With Holly's blessing, Jim now routinely engages in trysts with Murdoch, without realizing that his future brother-in-law is actually a reluctant participant in an arrangement that Holly has pressured him into.

In addition to seeking sex from Murdoch, Jim also regularly visits The Hip's brothel and is one of Sam's clients. It is unknown whether Holly is aware of Jim's patronage of the Hip.

### Murdoch's Route

After his first day working at Red's General Goods, Sam returns to The Hip for the night and has an appointment with Jim, though neither party is aware of the other's connection to the Byrnes family. The next day Jim and Sam are formally introduced to one another by Holly during the picture day festivities held at Echo School, much to their mutual surprise and embarrassment. Sam quickly excuses himself afterward.

The next morning, Jim attends church alongside the Byrnes siblings and Clifford Tibbits before going to lunch with them in the Hip's saloon. Sam then arrives, and shortly after Jim departs alongside his fiancée.

Jim has dinner with Sam and the Byrnes family the following day, where he agreeably endorses Alfred's assertions about his work, before immediately disparaging Alfred as a "bore" as soon as he leaves the room. During the meal, Sam and Murdoch are strong-armed by Gretchen into serving as ushers for the upcoming wedding service, as well as attending Jim's bachelor party the next day. To get them ready, Jim suggests he escort the pair to the tailor the next morning so they can be fitted for suits matching those of the wedding party.

On the way to the tailor's, Jim cheerfully greets Sam and Murdoch as "boys" and discusses his low opinion of suffragettes, including Murdoch's mother. Jim leaves the pair behind at the tailor's to be fitted and billed under his account, and goes to a nearby pawn shop. After Sam learns that Murdoch feels coerced into his sexual relationship with Jim, he follows Jim and finds him purchasing a wedding ring, nearly at the last minute before the ceremony the following day. While at first taken aback to hear Sam bring up his dalliances with Murdoch, Jim quickly becomes smug and casual upon hearing that Sam has also had relations with his future brother-in-law. Jim lightly flirts with Sam and claims that Murdoch asks him for sexual favors, before Murdoch arrives and the group disperses to return to their respective jobs.

Back at the Byrnes' home later that day, Sam overhears Holly and Dahlia discussing Jim's desire to return to the city after their marriage, despite Gretchen's assumption that the pair will remain in town. From another overheard conversation between Holly and Murdoch, Sam later learns that Holly is in fact counting on Jim's desire to leave, and hopes that moving to the city with him will be a ticket out of Echo for her and her whole family.

At some point after Grandma Rowan arrives in Echo for her granddaughter's wedding ceremony, she tasks Jim with providing her with pure silver in order to make a coin as part of a Rowan family tradition. In return, she promises him her blessing. Jim later provides Grandma Rowan with the silver, which she uses to craft the coin so that he can give it away to Holly on their wedding day as a gesture promising the equal sharing of resources between spouses.

Jim himself soon arrives for the planned bachelor party, along with Neil and Reubin, two of his friends from the city. They are stopped at the door by Gretchen, however, who insists that it would be bad luck for Jim to see Holly before the wedding. She sends them off to the Hip, accompanied by Murdoch, Sam, and Ralph.

Jim, Neil, and Reubin seem interested only in catching up with one another, and make very little attempt to converse with the others. Once at the Hip, Jim mentions his reservation "upstairs" to Cynthia and she tells them to wait a few hours while everything is prepared. Once showgirls take to the Hip's stage and the conversation becomes laden with innuendo, Jim begins to insinuate to his friends that he has booked a male prostitute for them, to which they are at least begrudgingly agreeable.

Murdoch and Sam then excuse themselves from the conversation, and Jim is surprised to see Murdoch reappear on the Hip's stage shortly afterward performing a song that he dedicates to Jim's wedding. Unbeknownst to Jim, this is a diversion so that Murdoch and Sam can sneak off together. Jim does not see them again until hours later, when the attendees of the bachelor party (sans Ralph) all reconvene in Sam's room to have sex. Jim tells Murdoch that they should make it good for each other, since the wedding means they might not be together again for some time. In front of his friends Jim tries to remain nonchalant about the fact that his future brother-in-law will be pleasuring him as he gradually goads Neil and Reubin into both having sex with Sam.

During the act, Jim calls Murdoch beautiful, and his pleasure is shown to largely stem from his belief that Murdoch is enjoying himself. Jim climaxes after expressing what seems to be a display of unguarded same-sex affection for Murdoch. After offending Murdoch with some of his banter, he shoves Jim off of him and leaves the room. His friends pick up on this moment as Jim being shown up by a member of the lower class and begin to jeer at him, snidely speculating about his sexuality. This sends Jim into a moment of panic that punches through his typical smugness. As Jim tries to recompose himself, Murdoch observes that something in the dynamic between Jim and his friends seems to have shifted.

Murdoch leaves the room to clean himself up and Jim follows, explaining that he cannot attract a reputation like Murdoch's and asserting that he is not 'subservient.' Murdoch can tell that Jim is more attracted to men than he seems to want to admit and says as much, which leaves Jim uncharacteristically quiet. Reubin and Neil then appear and Jim resumes bantering with them, his poise apparently restored, as the three depart.

When Murdoch and Sam leave the Hip and head back to the Byrnes residence Jim decides to follow them, and arrives in time to overhear Holly berating Murdoch for not staying in Jim's company. This leads Jim to confront Holly about her treatment of Murdoch and, once he receives confirmation about it from Sam, Jim is ultimately blindsided by the truth that Murdoch has been coerced by Holly into having sex with him. In apparent disbelief at both the depth of Holly's manipulations and the fact that he is not as irresistible to Murdoch as he had assumed, Jim haughtily asserts that he is the best thing to ever happen to the Byrnes family. He restates his disdain for Alfred and Gretchen, before concluding from this latest revelation that the whole family has 'screws loose.'

Holly blames Jim in turn for causing the entire situation in the first place with his inability to control his urges, and asks if he loves her. He cannot say, and calls off the wedding because he does not know what he wants anymore. Holly is irate and reveals that she prepared a scheme to blackmail Jim just in case he tried to back out of their marriage, and explains that she has already distributed letters containing pictures of Jim and Murdoch having sex to three informants, to be released publicly unless Jim complies. Jim is appalled and overwhelmed, and tries to convince himself that Holly would not risk outing her own brother by going through with the plan even as Holly assures him that she is serious.

The confrontation is briefly interrupted when Holly is struck by a rock, which she quickly accuses Ralph of throwing at her as he arrives immediately afterward. Upon Sam redirecting the group's attention to Dahlia, who is overlooking the scene from the house, she scolds them for waking up Grandma Rowan and is ambiguous about having thrown the rock, though she suggests that Jim inspect it given his own role as a geologist. After she shuts the window, Jim denies this opportunity.

After a tense period of silence, Jim accuses Holly of bluffing and is frustrated when she affirms that she is being truthful. Jim's concerns quickly turn to anger when she names her informants, as he fears them snooping on the envelope's contents in spite of her assertions. When Sam suggests that the two stage a ceremony without officiating the wedding, Holly declares that she wants a husband rather than a performance. In response, Jim declares that he'll leave town immediately as he'd rather be fired and tried for sodomy than end up married to Holly and be forced to share his money with her.

Using Jim's affection for Murdoch (and Murdoch's apparent reciprocation) to his advantage, Sam manages to convince Jim that it would be better to agree to provide for Holly and lose some of his money rather than have his reputation ruined completely and lose his connection to Murdoch as well. Jim begrudgingly agrees to pay for permanent housing for Holly in the city, though he resentfully declares that he will not be home much. With that said, Jim and Holly agree to be married the following day if only to ensure their respective needs are met. Afterward Jim goes back to the guest house his friends are staying at for the night to tell them not to attend the wedding, stating he does not wish to give them further memories of him embarrassing himself. As he departs, he looks back toward Murdoch one last time.

The following morning before the ceremony, Sam finds Jim and Holly sitting in the front pew of the church looking in opposite directions with Murdoch in between them. After Murdoch and Sam excuse themselves to get Sam dressed for his role as an usher, Jim moves to sit on the floor of the sanctuary out of sight and later smokes a cigarette as he watches Holly and Sam deliberate over Sam's loyalty to Murdoch and her goals as driven by her fear of the town. Jim makes himself known to Sam after Holly departs, acknowledging that although he is unconvinced of Holly's fears he has witnessed odd qualities to the mine. He also affirms that her fear of the town is very real, even if he no longer has any true concern for her.

Sam then questions whether or not Jim still intends to go through with his wedding and reveals that two of Holly's blackmail informants have already given up their envelopes. Jim replies that with half the photo sets still out there that he has no other recourse than to proceed with the ceremony as planned. He makes his annoyance toward Sam's continued interference in his issues clear knowing that he is also self-motivated on behalf of helping Murdoch and reluctantly accompanies him back to the reception.

Jim sits at his family's table to receive his parents when they arrive, pouring himself a drink from his pocket flask as he waits. He addresses Holly, Gretchen, and Madam Dora when they question the absence of his guests, expressing some confusion as to why his parents have not yet appeared. When Gretchen suggests that if the pair are late they can pay for their own make-up ceremony, Jim somewhat bitterly assures her that it would not be necessary before departing to practice his vows. He is briefly intercepted by Grandma Rowan, who attempts to offer him the coin she has prepared for him only to be spurned as Jim assures her he does not need it and struts off.

As the wedding ceremony begins, Jim walks up the aisle and goes to stand beside Gretchen, with Sam noting that he is notably sulky. Before the priest can begin the proceedings however, the congregation is interrupted by the sight and smell of the Hendricks' mansion having caught flame. Neil and Reubin then burst into the sanctuary noticeably disheveled despite Jim having told them not to come.

### Nikolai's Route

Foreman Moore mentions Jim indirectly while overseeing an operation to expand a tunnel in the mines, saying that water samples taken by 'the assayer' have predicted that more ore is yet to be found on the level where the miners are working.

Jim then makes a brief appearance while Sam is waiting for Nik to finish his conversation with Yao and Chang on the night before the miner's strike. Murdoch arrives to buy opium from Chang and stops to talk with Sam, which leads Jim to appear and ask Murdoch to hurry up. Upon seeing Sam, Jim briefly freezes up before openly flirting with him, then explains that he and Murdoch are going to take photographs of soil samples from the mine while operations are inactive for the night. Jim also discreetly alludes to his sexual relationship with Murdoch before the foxes depart to finish their business.

As a dazed Murdoch later recounts, their work went normally for a while until they noticed an inexplicable series of doors in the wall of the mine. Jim insisted that they corresponded with the sites of known gas leaks, but he and Murdoch eventually went through one to investigate and found themselves suddenly back on the surface, which left Jim frustrated and convinced that they were being pranked. The day after, Sam and Nik find Murdoch confused on the shore of Lake Emma with the previous twenty-four hours seemingly gone from his memory. It is not clear what happened to Jim during that time, and his whereabouts are unknown.

## Relationships

### Holly

Holly is Jim's fiancée. The two have been dating for four years, and their wedding is rapidly approaching during The Smoke Room. Little is known about the pair's courtship or their private dynamics, but they appear to get along well in public. The couple speak pleasantly about their upcoming wedding, but express little obvious warmth. Despite Jim's biases against the suffragette movement, he states that Holly is different from the usual suffragette and considers her 'sensible.' He is also willing to listen to her beliefs in Echo's paranormal happenings despite not being a believer in the subject himself, acknowledging that at the very least her fear is real. Jim alludes to being a confidant of hers, and has evidently trusted her with the closely guarded truth about his bisexuality. Though Jim loves Holly, he seems to feel that she alone is not enough for him and frequently has dalliances with others to compensate for his 'boredom.'

Once Holly reveals her willingness to blackmail Jim in order to keep him committed to their wedding, however, the love and trust he feels for her is badly shaken. He is furious with Holly for attempting to extort him and taking advantage of the vulnerability her shared with her, to the point that he initially declares that he'd rather be tried for sodomy than give her a single cent of his wages. Though he eventually agrees to the wedding, Jim makes it clear that he is only doing so to protect himself and assures Sam that Holly has "crossed a line with him that cannot be uncrossed."

### Murdoch

Murdoch is Jim's future brother-in-law and his occasional sexual partner. Unlike the rest of the Byrnes family bar Holly, Jim seems to enjoy Murdoch's company and assures him that he is "not boring" like his parents or many of the rest of Echo's residents. Per Jim's account, Murdoch frequently asks him for sexual favors, which he is more than happy to provide. Jim finds Murdoch "beautiful" and enjoys their dalliances greatly, to the point that he has seemingly developed a genuine affection for Murdoch. He smugly comments that "the whole family can't resist him," flippantly teases his relationship with Murdoch in front of Sam, and seems eager to show off what Murdoch does for him to Reubin and Neil. All the while, Jim is ignorant to Murdoch's unhappiness with their arrangement and remains unaware of their relationship being a result of coercion.

Upon discovering that Murdoch's courtship arose from Holly's prompting rather than genuine desire, Jim is extremely upset. Though finding out the truth of his relationship with Murdoch and being blackmailed by Holly leaves Jim shaken, he is convinced into going along with Holly's plans by Sam appealing to his genuine care for Murdoch even as he spitefully rejects Holly. Though Jim is resentful of Murdoch's role in Holly's attempts to control him, he is simultaneously aware that Murdoch has been manipulated himself and seems to retain his romantic attachment to him to some degree.

Based on the events of Nik's route, Jim seems to be aware of Murdoch's dependency on opium, which is possibly a secret even from the rest of the Byrnes family.

### Sam

Jim is a customer of Sam's, characterized by the large "messes" he makes when the two conduct their business. Jim is openly attracted to Sam and brazenly flirts with him on multiple occasions, both when they are by themselves and with Murdoch. Jim seems to feel confidently conspiratorial about sharing an attraction to men, treating Sam breezily and even declaring him "one of the boys." Jim is temporarily cowed away from this overt flirtation while interacting with Sam in front of the Byrnes family, but readily resumes it whenever he can get away with it. After his falling out with Holly on Murdoch's route, Jim becomes annoyed with Sam for attempting to "help" him through the situation, as he finds Sam's actions patronizing and realizes that he is only doing so for his own benefit.

### Neil and Reubin

Jim has known Neil and Reubin since at least college, and the three have remained close despite their different professions. The three enjoy trading verbal jabs and share the same libertine openness towards sex, although Jim is implied to enjoy sexual reciprocity and intimacy with men far more than either of his friends, which they begin to judge him for after seeing the way he treats Murdoch. Jim is further mocked for his association with "new money," particularly when Neil and Reubin witness him being spurned by Murdoch and tease him for being shown up by someone of a lower class. Murdoch later states that Jim is "not as bad" when he's not showing off for his friends, and theorizes that the group's "friendship" is largely driven by their fear of being judged by one another. Murdoch further states that Jim's relationship with Holly is an unusual exception to the typical class divides, which likely prompts further judgement from Neil, Reubin, and his other peers.

### Byrnes Family

Despite his relationships with Holly and Murdoch, Jim has a low opinion of their parents. Jim states that he finds Red to be a bore and is annoyed by his constantly changing temperament. Similarly, Jim refers to Gretchen as a "mirthless bitch" and derides her controlling nature and work as a suffragette. As a result, Jim wishes to return to the city and forget about the Byrnes parents rather than continue putting on a polite façade to their faces.

Jim's relationship with Dahlia is unknown, though he attends lunch with her and her siblings presumably each Sunday after church. As such, he may respect her slightly more than her parents or many other Echo residents who he classifies as "boring." He seems perplexed by Dahlia's suggestion to study the rock she throws, and refuses to do so outright.

Jim is willing to collect a strain of silver for Grandma Rowan in order to secure her blessing as part of a Rowan family tradition in which she makes a silver coin for Jim to present to Holly on their wedding day, showing that he is at least willing to tolerate such a request to appease her. Later on, he spurns her gift due to his falling out with Holly, though Grandma Rowan seems unbothered by this (likely as a result of having heard the argument in question the previous night.)

## Trivia

* Real-life marble foxes are not a naturally occurring species; they are a hybrid of red and silver foxes bred for their appearance. As such, Jim's species may be a nod to the connotation of wealth and pedigree typically associated with marble foxes.
* Jim's last name, Sterling, is also the name of a kind of silver. This may be a reference to Jim's work as an assayer for the mines, or may be intended to imply wealth and status along with his species, as mentioned above.
* Jim is bisexual.
* In the game's files, the sprite of Jim with an arched eyebrow and cocky smirk is titled "jim dreamworks" in a reference to the 'DreamWorks Face,' a cliché expression often displayed by smug, confident characters in advertisements for animated films.
* Apart from the main cast, Jim appears in more promotional artwork than any other character.

## Gallery

DefaultConfidentSurprisedEmbarrassedJim wearing his professional attire.Jim wearing his bachelor party suit.Jim wearing his tuxedo for his wedding.Artwork of Jim posted alongside Build 16 of The Smoke Room.Artwork of Jim, along with Neil and Reubin, posted alongside Build 24 of The Smoke Room.Artwork of Jim, along with Holly and (hidden in between the pair) Murdoch, posted alongside Build 28 of The Smoke Room.Concept art for Jim displaying reference art for his fur patterns drawn by 9KLIPSE.