Thomas "Tom" Swift

[Grim Wolf]

Name: Thomas "Tom" Swift
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: George Hunter High
Hobbies and Interests: Creative Writing, Speech and Debate, Music, Reading, Video Games

Appearance: Tom is Caucasian and pale even for his ethnicity, burning extremely easily in the sun. He has light brown hair, freckled cheeks and shoulders, and round-frame glasses over his hazel eyes to correct his near-sightedness. His soft jawline is defined by perpetual stubble, and his crooked nose sits askew in his oval, acne-marked face. He has broad shoulders and a faint gut, but is in reasonably good physical shape. He tends to wear button-down shirts and blue jeans regardless of the weather, rarely acknowledging the cold except to throw on a jacket or a coat. He stands at 6 feet even and weighs 181 lbs.

Biography: From an early age, Tom Swift has been a thoughtful, attentive child eager to help his family. This may have something to do with his home life: his parents, Michael Swift and Lisa Patton, eloped from grad school after only a month of dating, much to the displeasure of their respective families. Their disapproval proved prescient: Michael and Lisa stayed together just long enough to give birth to their two children, Thomas and Margaret, before their marital problems escalated into an ugly divorce and a bitter battle for custody. By the time Tom was 4 and Margaret 2, his mother had won custody with Michael only allowed visitations, and his parents were no longer on speaking terms.

As a result of this childhood instability, Tom has always felt that he has to take responsibility for his circumstances and for the people in his life. Though not an unhappy childhood—Lisa moved to Chattanooga in large part for the support of her parents, who helped raise Tom and his sister Margaret while Lisa finished her nursing degree—it was an unstable one, with both parents working long hours and some simmering resentment preventing easy visitations.

Tom's grandparents, Eli and Elena Patton, took up the burden, taking care of the kids and using their vacations to drive the children back to Missouri to visit their father. Eli was a music teacher who taught at multiple schools in Chatanooga; Elena was an English teacher at a high school on the outskirts of town, infamous for being a difficult grader and an eccentric disciplinarian, indifferent to cursing in class and pushing for suspensions if anyone talked back. Both were kind and attentive, but through most of Tom's early childhood they were busy with their own work. Tom spent as many afternoons and nights beneath their roof as he did beneath his mother's, and learned to take of himself and his sister so as to help take off some of their burdens. He learned to make sandwiches for himself by pre-school and cooking basic meals for the family by second grade, also insisting on doing dishes and laundry regularly.

This unstable home life prevented much in the way of social interaction, but Tom learned to entertain himself. Though hardly friendless, Tom was a relatively introverted child, preferring reading dense fantasy such as Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia or playing sprawling RPGs like Final Fantasy, Dragon Age and Mass Effect to going outside. Even when his home life stabilized, Tom still preferred indoor, stationary activities to outdoor, active ones. As a result, Tom was not particularly fit as a child. The problem grew worse when he hit puberty, where he put on weight thanks to his preference for soda and fried foods combined with his sedentary lifestyle. The accompanying bullying for someone of his weight and introverted tastes made him withdraw further inwards, cutting out almost all extracurricular activities.

The one activity he kept up with consistently has been his writing. Even in pre-school presentations about what he wanted to be when he grew up, Tom has always answered that he wanted to be a writer. He wrote short stories throughout his time in elementary school, and completed his first fantasy novel by the time he was in 5th grade. Tom constantly has stories bubbling at the back of his brain, and carries a moleskin in his pocket (Eli buys new ones for him as he needs) in case he needs to jot down ideas before they escape him. For his 12th birthday, he received a laptop from his mother, preferring the tactile sensation of the real keyboard over similar accessories for iPads and tablets. He has rarely been without a laptop in one form or another over the years that followed, though this partially contributed to his withdrawing from the world. With the internet and computer games close at hand, Tom rarely felt the need to engage.

Tom's lack of engagement also extended to his schoolwork. His math grades tended to stay around a C (bouncing wildly between high scores on some tests and low scores on others, based almost entirely on whether he found the subject matter fascinating enough to study). His English and History grades were consistently at the top of his class, while his grades in science subjects such as Chemistry, Biology, and Physics are consistently near the bottom. As a result, Tom rarely arises above a C average, and while this has been the source of some fights between him and his family, they are usually forgiving given the other responsibilities he takes on, especially since Margaret requires more time and attention.

In 9th grade, shortly after his grandparents' retirement, Tom joined the speech and debate team at George Hunter High. Perhaps because of the intensity of his parents' fights, Tom became fascinated by human psychology at a very early age. This fascination demonstrates itself in both his writing and in his abilities at speech and debate: Tom delights in taking on positions or perspectives opposed to his own and trying to understand them, to find the most persuasive and compulsive version of a person's worldview and present it as best he can. Tom quickly grew into a fairly talented Lincoln-Douglass debater, usually ranking at tournaments and having advanced to the State level in both his sophomore and junior years. His empathy and insight also helped him win friends among his peers. Speech and debate was Tom's first steady contact with a group of similar-minded, excited, intellectual nerds who shared many of his interests. With a community of his own, as well as a chance to flex his writing skills and his intellectual muscles, Tom began to open up to his peers, and with a handful of them started his first band.

Thanks to his grandfather's influence, Tom has always enjoyed music, but had never had much chance to use that skill. However, he shared his musical interests (and disinclination to join the school's band) with other members of the speech and debate group. His grandfather taught him the basics of piano, keyboard, and synthesizer when he was young. When his grandfather found out Tom was interested in making music, he gave him an old keyboard, and Tom and his friends started their first band: Band II: The Reckoning. Over time, membership in this band (as well as its name) has changed (alternate names including Much Much More and Seize the Fish). Tom's interest has always been in creating compelling instrumentation accompanied by soaring vocals, and he considers Queen, Deathcab for Cutie, The Decembrists, and Muse to be his ideal form of music. The band's style has varied as much as its name, and in the process of adapting Tom has learned a little bit about guitar and bass, as well as written songs that he sings. The band's current name is Steamy Wonder.

Expanding his social circle led to him meeting girls he was interested in, which made him more self-conscious about his body. Tom wanted to get fit, but hates exercising. His solution to this problem was to organize what he called "Gamercize" groups, where at least twice a week he and his friends organize large games like zombie tag, dodgeball, and what he calls "Full-Contact Stratego," which is essentially capture the flag but with everyone wielding nerf weapons. Getting physically active helped him to lose weight and improve his self-confidence, which made it easier for him to try dating.

His life was looking much better by his junior year of high school, with his grades steadily improving and his video game and reading habits in balance with the rest of his hobbies and interests. However, this hard-won balance was disrupted when his grandfather was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer of the prostate and stomach. Tom had to pare down heavily at school as he helped drive his grandfather to appointments and take care of his shaken family. Tom began to regress a little at this time: though he still found time for band practice and debate tournaments, he devoted less and less of his time to anything else, instead reading science fiction writers like Asimov and Herbert and playing video games.

This regression was further complicated by his introduction to opioids. Following the removal of his wisdom teeth in the spring of his junior year, Tom was prescribed Vicodin in anticipation of pain. He suffered very little in the aftermath of the surgery, and so had enough pills to experiment with them in secret one weekend when his mother and sister were out of town. Having enjoyed his experienced, Tom has begun taking the pills recreationally while playing video games. Tom is rigorous and careful—he uses the pills sparingly, saving them for times when his family won't be home to notice and when he has no responsibilities, and tries to make sure he has a ready supply, buying from trusted friends. However, he began resorting to the pills more and more often to cope with the stress of his family situation.

Tom serves as something of a pillar of stability to the rest of his family. He drives his sister to her various after-school activities, giving his mother and grandmother time to take care of their own work and his grandfather; he spent more and more time at his grandfather's beside, as his condition deteriorated; he could be relied on to keep his peace when the rest of the family fell to squabbling, whether it was about his grandmother spending too much money on homeopathic cancer cures, his mother attempting to adjust Eli's medication over his objections, or his sister feuding with their grandmother. Tom had always been seen as the reliable one in his family, but as his grandfather's condition deteriorated, the pressure on him grew, and as he struggled to meet their expectations he kept retreating further and further to his private outlets.

His father, recently remarried with children of his own, has been a distant but positive influence in this troubled time. Although visitations have been erratic and irregular, Michael Swift has always been engaged with his children, frequently paying for their trips and extraccuriculars and even taking impromptu road trips to attend performances and events. The recent death of his own father (who Tom was not particularly close to) gave Michael insight into his son's struggles, and Tom has relied more and more on his father's support as he feels unable to confide in his family in Chattanooga.

The death of his grandfather sent Tom into a spiral of depression that also saw him increase his opioid usage. Over the past several months, Tom has displayed troubling signs of addictive behavior, especially since his use of painkillers prompted him to start drinking when his research revealed that drinking amplifies the effects of the pills. In more recent months he has had to increase his dosage as his tolerance has increased. He is aware of the potential negative consequences of his behavior, but cannot bring himself to stop. Nor is his family aware of the problem: since Tom only uses when his family is unavailable or unlikely to investigate, since they themselves were shaken by grief, and since it's had no impact on Tom's supporting his fellow family members, neither his mother his grandmother, or his sister have any reason to suspect him. His father is concerned about his regression to his old unhealthy habits, but is unaware of the opioid usage, as Tom never brings the pills with him when he's visiting his father.

Tom's grades, which had improved steadily from their C average his 9th grade year to a semester GPA of 3.8 for the Fall Semester of his 11th grade year, have begun to slip again. He still plays in Steamy Wonder and competes in debate, but of late has begun devoting more and more time to his old habits, with the new addition of pills and alcohol to soothe his troubles. Whether this will mark a new depressive period in his life or is simply a brief response to a stressful time remains to be seen.

Advantages: Tom is analytical, physically fit, and empathetic. He is able to make friends and establish trust quickly, and he is a persuasive speaker, which may allow him to win friends and avoid enemies during the game. He will also try his best to understand whoever he's speaking to, which will prevent him from making knee-jerk decisions.
Disadvantages: Tom has little to no experience with the outdoors, given his indoor hobbies. While physically fit, any combat experience he might have is limited to games played with friends. He is not well-known outside of his circles at school, so if he encounters someone hostile with whom he is unfamiliar, what advantages he has will not count for much, especially since Tom will likely try to reason with someone who may be actively violent. If Tom continues escalating his opiod use, he may suffer debilitating withdrawal symptoms during the game, and his recent spate of depressive and addictive behavior may make him more prone to take risks or entertain suicidal thoughts.