Tom's childhood is mired with instability. When he was six years old, the court of law deemed his mother unfit for parenthood and Thomas was placed with foster parents who had no children of their own. He was adequately loved by them but never lost contact with his biological mother whom had slipped into poverty even before losing her son.

He grew up feeling a great deal of guilt over the fact that he had been unable to care for his mentally unstable, 'born again' mother while he lived a life of relative comfort with his foster parents. As soon as he was at an age where he could start working, he sent his mother every dime he could in hopes that it would help pay her bills. Instead, she'd often give her son's hard earned charity to 'God'; effectively squandering it all on her local churchmen who pressured her to do so.

His guilt over being an inadequate son seeped into all other aspects of his life. He developed a passion for the piano, but failed to pursue it over fear that he was not good enough to do so. He is quick to bend over backwards for the whims of other people in hopes to find some scrap of appreciation from them. Likewise, he's quick to ditch his own ambitions if he feels it might cause him to step on the feet of people he may not even know.

Despite having no love for politics, Thomas found himself herded in as a member of the Inner City's Checkered Court. He was voted into being a sub-Patriarch, and many other court members proceeded to take advantage of his malleable substitute for a spine.

About four years ago, he and his (ex)wife, Alimah Shepherd took on a much larger responsibility, 'adopting' a now sixteen year old runaway Lucid named Mae. He tries his best to play a decent father to her, but leaves a lot to be desired.

Ongoing Story

Thomas recently received a promotion to "Patriarch" after his predecessor underwent a 'sudden disappearance' of dubious nature. He had no intention of accepting the nomination, and found himself experiencing a bit of a catch-22 as the entire court pressured him to accept the position while his wife, Alimah, voiced very strongly against the idea.

The numerous voices of the Checkered Courted weighed out over Alimah. Shouldering his wife's disappointment in order to avoid the disappointment of aquaintances and strangers had been a reoccuring theme throughout their married life, and the ease in which Thomas allowed the Checkered Court to manipulate him was merely the final straw for Alimah. The two are now in the midst of negotiating the terms of their divorce. While she gives him the cold shoulder, Tom distracts himself with whiskey and a quiet investigation into what happened to his predecessor.

Personality

Charming and well spoken as he may be, Thomas is a pessimist who'd fretfully dispute being called such.
He avoids thinking too much about the future and views the past with a rosy tint. Burdened by nostalgia, he is largely incapacitated by his own insecurities (most of which he's not even fully aware exist). He tends to provide an excellent first impression, but finds it difficult to maintain that high esteem throughout more personal, long-term relationships. Thomas sports an acute awareness of the moods and emotions experienced by those around him, and always seems to know exactly what to say in order to provoke a desired response from them. Even so, talk is cheap and words can only take you so far. He is highly sensitive to rejection, but never casts the blame outward.

Sleepers, Dreamers, and Lucids (oh my!)

In this world, there are three kinds of people. Sleepers are those who preceive the world as it is intended to be seen. They see nothing peculiar, nothing "out of the ordinary". Dreamers, on the other hand, see a great deal more. They are often dismissed as having an "overactive imagination" at best, or as "crazy" and "paranoid" at worst. They see things for which there is no "real world" explaination...and often try to find an explaination themselves. "Ghosts", "aliens", "demons" and some wide assortment of conspiracy theories are often the work of a dreamer trying to make sense of the largely unpreceived world around them. What they don't know is that these inexplicable, almost tangible distortions of reality are the work of Lucids.

Lucids make up a small fraction of the human population. They are innately capable of producing convincing illustions, distorting the world around them to their liking. For the most part, these illusions, while convincing, have no effect on the physical world. There are...exceptions...rare exceptions. The extent of physical manefestations seems to be very limited and to a Sleeper observer, may appear as small telekentic feats. You know the sort; bending a spoon, lighting a candle, filling the air with hair-raising static... little more than that. To a Dreamer (as well as to fellow Lucids), the illusions produced by a Lucid can appear so convincingly real that, even though it cannot cause physical harm, it can still pose as a significant psychological and emotional threat. And so, in cities like Nevers where Lucids tend to congregate, a secret governing system is established between them. Exceptionally potent Lucids are assigned roles as Matriarchs and Patriarchs of allocated districts and are granted administrative powers over a localized infastructure designed to police the activities of the Lucids living under their jurisdiction.

All Lucids manifest a perminant, illusionary extention of themselves. These are called Avatars, and will often take on a form that is psychologically significant to its respective Lucid. When a Lucid becomes a Matriarch or Patriarch, it is expected that they "extend" their Avatar to blanket their district. The result being that every district under the watch of a Matriarch or Patriarch will have an appearance unique to the style of its specific overseer.

Thomas' Avatar

Crossing into the Kensington district, you may not even realize that you've walked into a Patriarch's jurisdiction. It's a single city block that merely appears to have been frozen in time. From the quaint Art Nouveau architecture to well maintained cobblestone streets, you might assume that this place is some protected heritage street...or an overpriced, gentrified old neighbourhood where resides Nevers' bohemian-minded yuppies. Perhaps the only thing about this place that might strike you as being a bit strange is the slow, quiet, omniprescent, deep "tick-tock tick-tock" that rumbles beneath your feet. "Oh, that's just ol' Kensington's beating heart", a barista manning the local coffeeshop will tell you. "Today it's steady and barely audible, it's nothing to worry about. You'll know that trouble is afoot if the ticking rumbles like thunder and sets off car alarms."