Tom

Tom has a perpetual weight to his face that foreshadows his general prickly demeanor. It isn't quite RBF, but close enough to make you think of the term before disregarding it in favor of just asshole. There is a sense of cynicism and pessimism that hangs over him, casting an aura of unpleasantness and contempt around.

It isn't an attractive look, but hey, to each their own. Too often he is met with thoughts like 'he would look better in a suit', or 'he should shave off that goatee', or even 'he should consider going blonde'. There is only so much a man can take before ultimately giving up on how he looks and focus on how he feels.

On a typical day, Tom can be found lounging around in hoodies and sweats; but being a working professional, he would be seen more often in a dress shirt, slacks and ME coat, with a half-assed tie when the occasion calls for it. If he appears irritable and uncomfortable, it's because he is.

Even after being back in Boston for a few years, Tom still doesn't sound quite local, a tinge of Canadian accent or an odd word choice making its appearance every now and then. The occasional metric system use instead of imperial.

One would think having telepathy and a backdoor into someone's mind would give him insight into being popular and likeable but unfortunately, growing up with his gifts had created the opposite effect in terms of his personality. The exhausting nature of his abilities and hearing the unfiltered thoughts of everyone around him made him prefer solitude and isolation from a young age.

You could even say that he turned out exactly the opposite of what you would expect from a telepath.

Tom is easily the odd one out in any situation. Either from being the brooding Bruce Wayne in the corner outside of the social circle, or for being the wise-cracking asshole who made inappropriate joke a little too loudly and too publicly. It isn't on purpose, Tom doesn't actively try to be an asshole but such is life.

It is perhaps the best that Tom did not end up a "doctor" doctor (as his parents call it), as he does not have the bedside manner that you would want in your doctor. His often abrasive personality and tactlessness often alienating those around him, especially the ones who are more sensitive towards harsh words, dry wit or biting sarcasm.

Tom was born an extremely gifted psychic. Even from a young age, he was able to discern the thoughts of those around him. It began with the abstract ideas and notions, rather than actual words and strings of thought but with age comes experience and growth; and these days it is all he can do to keep them out of his head.

Enter the enchanted watch bewitched to help tone down his abilities and manage the constant cacophony of noise that plagues him. Distance also helps, as does influencing substances that can dull his mental faculties.

As with body language and facial emotions, certain people are easier to read while others are not. He has found that vampires are the hardest to read (and even heard that they are often unreadable to most weaker psychics). Everything feels muddy and murky and for his own sake, vampires are a species that he has not wanted to practice very much with. In fact, he would swear that they are immune to his abilities all together.

Thankfully animals and dead bodies do not speak to him.

A side effect of being a powerful telepath includes an uncanny ability of getting people to do what he wants them to. It wasn't obvious at first, and he put it down to the natural conclusion of knowing someones mind mixed with knowing how to motivate them. Eventually figure out that a physical component was the key. It is a talent that Tom has no love for, too close to mind control for even his morals.

Family:
George Bishop, dad.
Erin Bishop, mom.
Dan Bishop, younger brother.
Elliot Bishop, baby brother.

Tom is the first born, the one that everyone hoped and believed would be the golden child, and a great witch powerful in his magic. The Bishops are one of the most powerful line of witches in Boston after all. Tom was going to be the next generation to carry the bloodline on. That was not the case.

He was powerful and gifted, but he was not a witch. It was obvious from an early age that he was not quite right as his telepathy manifested almost at birth. He learned quickly, understanding intent and purpose even when he was too young to grasp words and actual shapes to thoughts. An easy baby to care for, they were so lucky, everyone always told the Bishops.

But as he grew older, the complications of a gifted telepathic child became apparent. There were rarely any secrets, any private thoughts that could be kept away from Tom. Even the fleeting grievances that were too trivial to air out in public. Without meaning to, there was always a sense of tension around him, mental eggshells to avoid before they grew into grenades to disarm.

Then his brother came to be. Another psychic. And Tom had a front row seat to the encore of disappointment that he knew must have happened when he was born. It was completely different when Erin announced another pregnancy when he was 12. The unexpected surprise brought a new light to the Bishops as their talents in divination gave them insight into what to expect: a witch. Finally. And for the next months, Tom became privy to all the hopes and dreams that had passed him and his brother by.

It wasn't surprising that even as a child, Tom found comfort and solace in inanimate things and hobbies over being around other people. He became the quiet one out of his siblings, the one that would be found hiding in a corner with a good book or his coloring books while the other kids had birthday cake downstairs. He would be the one who knew Jenny's parents were getting a divorce just from passing them at the supermarket. Or that Mr. Galenski at school had a drinking problem outside of school hours.

Following in the shoes of those before him, Tom enrolled in the Belfrey Institute only to find a new group of peers to disappoint just by being himself. He stopped counting how many times he had to explain to non-Bostonians how he was from one of the Old Families of Boston witches and yes he was the firstborn, but no he was not a witch. It didn't help that Tom had a nasty suspicion that he was a more powerful telepath than the instructor - a suspicion that Tom did not hesitate to state out loud. In front of the class.

A month was all he lasted before the psychic ran away to Vancouver, Canada to pursue a different path. Tom insists that the only good thing to come out of Belfrey was getting his grandfather's watch enchanted.

In many ways, the watch saved Tom from destroying his life through alcohol and drugs. The young psychic's powers had only grown and grown as he had gotten older. Experimenting with cigarettes, booze and drugs was only natural, if not an essential lifeline to surviving. On the bad days where he couldn't just lock himself away, they were all that kept him from losing his mind amid the noise.

With the watch, it was as though the music was lowered. Still there ever-present but low enough to be background sounds that Tom could tune out and ignore. His reliance on self-medicating slowly weened off, never being an actual addiction but more of a crutch in his life. He kept the smokes - needing a smoke break was a convenient excuse to get out of anything, and if he was being honest, it kept up his bad boy image and aura of mystique.

Tom found himself in medical school, a choice that was less a conscious decision and more of a chance opportunity that presented itself when the time was right - he certainly had the grades for it. He didn't start out with the intent of becoming a medical examiner, but after eight years of undergrad and medical school in the great Van City, Tom found himself staring down a table full of residency programs he could apply to without much enthusiasm for any particular one. Then several months after a night of bourbons and darts, Tom found himself starting his residency in forensic pathology.

Eventually that lead Tom into the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Boston, and continued to be a disappointment to his parents despite earning a big DR in front of his name. They never said it out loud and hid it as best as they could, but then again they never had to. He was summoned back (or commanded back if you wanted to be blunt) to be the guardian of his baby brother for this final year of high school while their parents had a coven assignment out of town.

What a year.

Tom didn't quite know when it started, but a phone call to help with the City Leadership here, a request to aid the Wardens with an interrogation there, and somehow Tom found himself defaulting into the role of Head Psychic, or as they called it: Psychic Representative. As if the fancier name would reduce his reluctance.