Name: Thomas (Thom) Harkin
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Location: Marquette

Supernatural Affinity
Type:

Human, protector

Powers:

White magic - mostly defensive, has started learning some healing, but still tends to rely on regular medicine for that.

Level: 3

Appearance:

Of medium height and build, Thom wears his hair in a shaggy style that his mother is constantly telling him is in need of a cut. He doesn't agree, but usually makes noises along the lines of 'I was going to, but forgot'. Occasionally, she marches him down to the barber and stands over him whilst he has a 'decent haircut' – and then he's miserable for weeks until he's grown it back into the style he likes and the battle begins all over again.

Personality:

Thom is very easy going and quietly smart. He's not one to advertise what he has going for him, and doesn't feel the need to advertise himself. He's an excellent musician, was a good student, picks things up quickly, but he doesn't make a thing of it. He's not exactly modest - he doesn't put himself down. He's just quietly confident, with a capable air. having garndered enough credits already to graduate, Thom takes school very much as a part time thing now. He goes when he has time, and mostly just to keep up with the other people there. And when he's there, he's not interested in running with any crowd. Still, everyone knows him - he's Thom Harkin, he's always been Thom Harkin. The guy everyone knows when he walks down the halls, or down the streets. He's the talent, the guy with something special - just because he doesn't advertise it doesn't mean that other people don't see it. He doesn't need to advertise himself. He just is.

The other side of Thom is permenantly stressed and unsure. He'd always been sure about his life until the day he turned eighteen, and since then he's felt like he's running to keep up. He knows his purpose and destiny in life, and whilst some days he rails against it and wants to scream out how utterly unfair it is, still he buckles down and goes with it. A protector is who he is, and to deny that would be to deny part of himself. Still, he feels a lot of the time like he has no clue what he's doing, or that he's failing, or not good enough, or flat out can't cope. And being Thom harkin, he feels like he can't express any of that. He always feels like he has to Cope with every situation, no matter what.

History:

Thom was born and raised in Marquette, the only son of Ashbelle Harkin – a driven, ambitious woman with seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm. Despite being a single mother, Ashbelle managed to become a senior judge and an influential person in her own right. Ashbelle always had a strong work ethic and an eye towards the greater good and she worked hard to instil these traits into her son. He doesn't really remember his father and his mother has done nothing to aid in that, but then, Thom and Ashbelle don't really talk about personal things.

As he was growing up, his mother was not shy in educating him that giving back to the community was of the utmost importance, even if it meant sacrificing yourself and your personal life and wellbeing. In the early days, however, when he was younger, she made time to tell him that it wasn't that he wasn't important to her, but that it would be wrong if she neglected everything to be with him, not matter how much she would like to. She had a job to do and she needed his help and support to be able to do it. All his life, Ashbelle has treated Thom as an equal and he has responded (most of the time) with more than average maturity for his age. He does occasionally feel that he was neglected by his mother as he was growing up (what teenager doesn't) but when he's not feeling spiteful and vindictive, he knows why it was this way and totally forgives her for everything.

When he was sixteen, his mother sat him down and explained about her family. They were protectors, she told him – an ancient line who were bound to protect others. Specifically one person – a person of their choice. He’d asked her about her protected and that was when he found out about the family curse.

The Harkin line had a curse of silence put upon them. They could not talk about who they were, other than one single conversation from parent to child when they turned sixteen, one conversation to allow the knowledge of what they were to be passed down through the generations. Other than that, they were forbidden to speak of their role. Not to each other, not to the world at large – and certainly not to the person they chose to protect. To do so would mean their death. They could express concern, or friendship towards their protected, but never explain their true motivation.

Thom has grown up a very self-reliant child. A latch-key kid since he was old enough to be allowed out alone, he and his mother are very much ships that pass in the night. They make a point of sitting down together for dinner on a Sunday, where there is an almost ritualistic swapping of the week's news, but other than that communication is generally via messages on the fridge door, which is fine by Thom. He is generally of the opinion that his mother wouldn't approve anyway.

So far the distance has meant that he hasn't had to admit that he has no interest in attending an Ivy league school and then going onto law school when he graduates from high school; or that he'd much prefer to become a professional musician – a conversation that he knows he's going to have to have at some point, but currently he's hoping a meteor will hurtle down from outer space and destroy Marquette so he doesn't have to bring it up. He's kinda scared of his mom at times –somehow a determination to be his own person and not what she wants him to be is harder to actually go with when he's in her presence. All his front about who and what he's going to be and do with his life seems to disappear when she actually talks to him. Ashbelle is determined that her son should be something more. She holds herself out as an example that just because someone is bound to protect another, doesn’t mean that they can’t have a life of their own. Thom – thinks that all sounds far too much like hard work.

Thongs haven't changed much since the world started to go to hell. Thom let his mom know that he was dropping out of school. Not officially - he was staying on the role so he'd graduate, but she agreed to support him in not going to class all the time. She doesn't know that he's taken a protected, at least, he hasn't been able to tell her, but he figures she's worked it out. And then there's his protected herself - his next door neighbour, his best friend's little sister. Kaysen St James. All sixteen year old, short tempered, bad attitude, undealable girl that she is. So far, she's been hard work, and Thom doesn't expect she'll get any better. And she has no clue what he's given up for her. His mother's dreams that he'd go to college, his own dreams that he'd become a rock star. Girlfriends, a life. he knows it's not her fault - she never asked for any of this. But some days, it's all too much. Some days, he wishes he was someone else.

Affiliation:

None

Special abilities and skills:

Plays guitar, piano and harmonica. Makes a mean lasagne. Has been taking self-defence and martial arts classes since he turned sixteen. Highly skilled in first aid - started taking classes at fourteen and has kept up with it since.

Weaknesses:

He tends to sell himself short. He knows that in certain circles he’s very definitely known as ‘the son of Ashbelle Harkins’ – a fact he hates. He has a determination not to live in his mother's shadow unfortunately often that means that he makes life hard for himself. He's very wary of taking help from anyone, in case the person offering is only doing so because of who he is. He's always suspicious that people – especially anyone older than he is – are only trying to curry favour with the judge by cutting him some slack, and he won't take that. This makes him self-reliant to the point of paranoia and he often pushes people away because of it. He's an isolated personality, but by design rather than any real wish to be so. He has trouble trusting people who show interest in him for no apparent reason and he's very guarded until he gets to know people. He's the guy who eats lunch alone on the back steps of the school, watching everything else that's going on.

He's not very good at letting other people do for him. He's grown up being used to having to do everything for himself. He finds it very hard to let go and trust other people to be able to do anything, which means that when push comes to shove, he's like as not going to be the guy who's trying to do a thousand and one things himself all at the same time and running himself into the ground. He simply doesn't trust that anything he leaves to others will be done at all, never mind properly.

As much as he holds himself apart from people, he does give a shit and will go out of his way for people who need it. He just can’t not do that. And no, he’s not going to take ‘no’ for an answer. Kaysen will always be his priority, and if she needs him, then everyone else gets left by the by - but otherwise, he can't stop giving a damn about the people around him and he unconsciously tends to take people under his wing.

The family curse: Thom cannot talk about being a protector, or about his protected as such. He can’t explain his motivations, to either Kaysen or anyone else. He cannot even tell his mother who his protected is – he can’t talk to Ashbelle about being a protector either, he can’t ask for help, or advice, though she can teach him some of the spells she knows, as long as she does so in advance and doesn’t try and tailor them to any given situation.

Strengths:

He's incredibly self-reliant. After all, he near enough raised himself and he's used to the fact that at the end of the day, there's nobody there for you but you.

PB: Robert Schwartzman (Carmine)

Other Information:

Family: Ashbelle (NPC)
Protected: Kaysen St James

Intranet Profile

Character Status: Hiatus