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lightsinthewaterPlayer name: Gels
Journal:
bitnotgoodAIM/Plurk: gelise @ plurk
Email: See my contact info!
Other characters: John Watson, Sir Percy Blakeney, and Petronilla de Vilers
Character name: Sheriff Tom Underlay
Age: Mid-late forties (though his new body's only about nine years old...)
Canon: Invasion
Canon point: Tom's taken from the very end of the series, when he brings Larkin Groves to the water after she's been shot. He gets beaten up by Larkin's husband and decides to wait on the beach when he falls asleep and wakes up in Limbo.
In a bloody shirt.
Totem: Tom's totem is his sheriff's badge. During a fissure the Dade County seal in the center of the badge will disappear.
Weapons:
Abilities/powers: Hybrids are humans who've been taken by strange creatures in the water. They're dragged into the water, where they're essentially replicated, killed, and then given new bodies. They keep their memories, but their DNA and anatomy have been changed to include some part of whatever these fish-alien-creature things are.
And Tom is one of these hybrids.
All hybrids have a weird, special sort of connection with the water. There's a high concentration of hemoglobin in their blood, which allows Tom to hold his breath for up to an hour underwater. But there's more than that - Tom's drawn to the water; it sort of calls to him in a way. He's just as much at home in it as he is on land. And while water isn't a magical cure-all, hybrids are shown to be calmed and even rejuvenated by a good swim (or even a bath).
Tom has the ability to heal super quickly. Most serious wounds barely even leave a scar on him, and he possesses a strong immunity against illnesses, diseases, and infections. This doesn't mean Tom or any of the other hybrids are immortal though. Like their human counterparts, if they're injured and don't receive immediately medical attention they will die, though their healing is accelerated by that special hybrid blood of theirs. Human blood is poisonous to hybrids, and vice versa, so a blood transfer between the two species isn't possible.
Tom's strangest abilities have to do with his hybrid instincts. Some of these won't apply to limbo, but I'm going to list them anyway BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW. While humans have trouble telling who's been body snatched, hybrids can easily pick out other hybrids from the crowd. Male hybrids also seem to have a sort of possessive/protective instinct about their mates - Tom doesn't always know where is wife is, but if she's in trouble he seems to have no problem hunting her down. They're also able to sense when hurricanes and storms are approaching, and at times seem to have a keen sense of the future. Though this foresight is usually no more than a strong gut feeling about certain things, Tom's premonitions are usually a bit more specific. Tom just seems to know a lot of things: about his wife, about his kids, about his community, about the impending invasion. It's an adaptation that's kept Tom alive when all the first hybrids were unable to cope with the changes. Again, this probably won't apply too much in Limbo, but it won't stop Tom from saying unsettling things or sounding overconfident about the future.
Location: Tom will be bringing in a section of the Everglades. The area will appear as it did during the aftermath of the plane crash that took place there in 1996 - a large area, almost over an acre, will be blackened and charred, and various bits of debris will be floating bobbing about in the water. At night you might be able to see lights swimming around in the water, but they'll quickly disappear before you're able to get too close.
Personality:
Tom wants you to think that he's an everyman. He's charming, responsible, authoritative, has a good sense of humor, loves his family, his community, likes to unwind with a beer after work, and cringes when anybody mentions the Miami Dolphins (oh, how he misses the glory days of Dan Marino). But Tom is not an everyman. In fact, Tom isn't even the same species as everybody else.
Tom is really very good at his job. As Sheriff of Homestead Tom is efficient, keeps calm under pressure, and knows how to delegate. Because of his tireless service to the county he's earned the loyalty and respect of his deputies and most of the important people in town. Tom is a man who knows how to make and keep allies, and he's especially adept at getting people to listen and take orders from him. There's always a sense of finality to his orders too, as though no one in their right mind would ever dare question him.
Part of the reason Tom's so well respected, aside from his insane work ethic and obvious love for the job, is because he's so damn charming. Seriously. The guy's one smooth motherfucker. He's at ease around people, and knows exactly how to endear himself to them. He's a natural born leader and knows how to talk his way out of a tough situation, though at times Tom can be a little unsettling with the things he says. In fact, as charming as Tom can be, there is something decidedly off about him.
Which leads to the other reason that Tom has managed to become so essential to the community: he's a master manipulator, and a fantastic liar. Tom has a lot of secrets, and he likes to keep them that way. Usually instead of outright lying he prefers to artfully omit the truth, but he's not above concocting some fib or false story to cover his tracks. He likes to be in control, in fact he believes he needs to be in control, and he has a very Machiavellian way of going about this. The ends always justify the means for him.
Which isn't to say that Tom's a villain, though he certainly has his moments where it looks that way. Tom is just a man on a mission, and sometimes he can be ruthless in order to keep his plans from derailing. He does have moments where he doubts himself, especially when his well laid plans begin to unravel, but he lies and manipulates the people he loves with an ease that most people would find a little morally reprehensible. He believes he's acting for the greater good, for his community and for his family, and he doesn't let much get in his way.
A lot of what Tom does and doesn't do is because he's trying to keep that secret of his hidden. Tom isn't human anymore - he hasn't been since surviving the plane crash that killed his first wife, and a lot motivates him to keep this change a secret from everyone, including his second wife and daughter. There's a need to control and manipulate, again for the greater good of his community and because Tom needs to be in control, but also an initial confusion about what he was, and a fear of what might happen if he lets the secret get away from him. He deeply fears exposure, expressing more than once his worry that all the hybrids will be rounded up by the government and experimented on, and he hates the thought of losing his family and community to this secret.
Despite all this, the lying and the small dictatorship he's running, Tom is a good man. Deep down. And he does love his family and his town, and he always tries to act with their best interests in mind, even if his actions are less than lawful. Though his job often keeps him away from his family, especially in the months after Hurricane Eve hits, he does try to be an attentive husband and father. He's protective as hell over the people he cares about, which grows to include his wife's ex-husband, his wife, his brother-in-law, and his most trusted deputy, Lewis. Though Tom often clashes with these people - this pseudo-family unit - it's clear that he'd do just about anything for them. In fact, the only time Tom ever loses his temper, and sometimes lashes out violently, is when his loved ones are threatened.
Tom's hybrid instincts also influence a lot of what he does, but he's actually had time to adapt to his body and understand what the hell's going on when he acts certain ways. (Mostly, anyway. His hybrid body still catches him off guard from time to time.) He's the first of his kind to actually survive the transformation from human to fish-alien-thing, and Tom's protectiveness over his community seems to stem from both a gut instinct to take over things and the sort of weird premonitions he has about the future. Tom's a stabilizing force in his town, so instead of mass chaos there's a somewhat peaceful coexistence between the aliens and the humans. Or at least this is what Tom strives for, though it's not often successful.
And while Tom struggles to run the town and the hybrids and people therein, there are aspects of himself that he has to actively fight to keep under control as well. Hybrids can be overly protective and prone to violence, and males are possessive about females and are able to track their movements. Through years and years of careful practice he's mostly able to control this side of him, though it does explain why he only loses his cool when his family's in danger. Unfortunately there are those aspects of himself he hasn't quite figured out yet, and unbeknownst to him at the time he was directly responsible for changing his wife and his deputy.
Ultimately, Tom just wants the two species to get along. He deeply cares for both the human and hybrid residents of his town, though unfortunately as much as Tom encourages coexistence, he did unwittingly lead both his wife, Mariel, and his deputy, Lewis, into the water. Once he realizes what he's done he's rightfully horrified with himself, so it's pretty clear that as much as Tom knows about hybrids and the way they think, he's as much in the dark about the creatures in the water as anyone else.
History:
You can easily divide Tom Underlay's life into two halves: before the crash, and after. Tom isn't the same person he was before the crash - he isn't even in the same body.
There are only a few things worth knowing about the first Tom Underlay. He was in the United States Air Force, stationed just outside a little town called Homestead, and he met his first wife, Grace, there. They were married February 14th, 1986, and their daughter, Kira, was born in 1988. In 1990 he served in the Gulf War. And in August, 1996, Tom and Grace boarded a plane headed for Atlanta to see his sister-in-law.
The second Tom Underlay was the only survivor of the crash that killed hundreds. He was pulled out of the wreckage that was scattered throughout a portion of the Everglades nineteen hours after the plane went down - bleeding, naked, but otherwise healthy and whole. His survival was called Underlay's Miracle in the Mud by local press, as no one could quite figure out how Tom had lived. He lingered in the hospital for a while, dodging the questions of government officials while he attempted to piece together what had happened to him.
Tom had seen lights in the sky just before the plane went down. He knew that he was different, changed in some way, though he didn't know how or why. Even though his wife was dead, Tom didn't grieve for her. Instead he seemed overly preoccupied with thoughts of the future, and trials that he suddenly, instinctively knew were to come. He was also preoccupied with thoughts of a woman he'd just met, Doctor Mariel Varon.
His introduction to Mariel marked a new beginning for Tom. Like with the incessant thoughts of the future, he just seemed to know that Mariel was destined to be in his life, even though she was already married and had a young son. Though he couldn't say why for sure, Mariel Varon gave him hope, and Tom was sure that they'd eventually be together. She had to be in his life - it was the only future Tom could see. Their friendship lasted even as Tom left the hospital and began to restructure his world, with Mariel keeping her distance but showing some interest in her new, very odd friend.
The years after the crash were spent changing what remained of his old life, leaving behind years of service in the military to instead devote his time to the community that embraced him as hero. He built a house in Homestead, officially retired from the air force, began work for the Dade County Sheriff's department, and little by little began to learn more about his new self. He also pursued Mariel Varon, eventually beginning the affair that he knew had been inevitable.
Mariel and Tom quietly conducted the affair for a few years, taking a break when Mariel learned that she was pregnant once again. Tom was told that the baby was Russell's, Mariel's husband, and he reluctantly kept his distance so that the two could reconcile for the unborn child's sake. Unbeknownst to Tom, little Rosie was actually his child, though the truth was kept from him to spare the feelings of everyone involved. Still, after Rose's birth Tom continued to be close to Mariel, and finally Russell and Mariel divorced in 2001, allowing Tom and Mariel to marry a few years later.
Over the course of those years Tom managed to piece together what had happened to him in the Everglades that day. He was taken by one of the lights - an alien being, or maybe some sort of unknown deep sea creature - and given a new body, one with strange new abilities. But he wasn't going to be the only one to be changed. Somehow Tom sensed others would follow, and that the community would struggle to hold itself together, and so he began to plan for future. He eventually met up with a man named Eli Szura, who had been taken and transformed by the creatures during the aftermath of a storm in Cuba, and the two began to calculate a plan to help others when the lights eventually returned.
In 2005, all the years Tom spent planning were put through the test when Hurricane Eve struck Dade County, Florida. On the night of hurricane, acting on a then unknown impulse, Tom brought Mariel to the water to see the lights. She was taken by the creatures and transformed. She wasn't the only one though, and dozens more after her were discovered naked in the water, hours and hours after their initial disappearance. Though they looked and sounded like their old selves, there were significant changes these hurricane survivors, though only Tom knew what those changes were for certain.
In the weeks following Hurricane Eve, Tom struggled to contain the new species that was slowly growing in number in his hometown, his ultimate goal being the peaceful coexistence of hybrids and humans in the community. He sought out those who had spent the night in the water, encouraging them to join the support group he formed, or sending the more unstable, dangerous hybrids to a work camp run by Szura in the Florida Keys. He also concealed the existence of these new hybrids, fearing widespread knowledge of the new species would lead to government involvement, and worse, the roundup and experimentation or elimination of his people. Unfortunately the number of setbacks in his plans outweighed the number of successes, and after fighting to keep his family - his wife, his children, and those close to him - safe and out of harms way, he learned that his coverup was doomed to fail. Eli Szura was training an army of hybrids instead of reforming them, and worse still, he was working for the military and had been since the beginning.
Szura's plans were more sinister than just forming a all-hybrid army. With the help of Russell, Mariel's ex-husband, Tom learned that Szura planned to invade Homestead using a second hurricane that was going to hit the region as a cover. Once Szura and the army had invaded the town they were going to wipe out the remaining humans, essentially committing genocide, and then continue their rampage from there. Enraged by Szura's betrayal, and quickly losing control of his department and the system he'd created, Tom tried to stop the oncoming army and prevent the destruction of Homestead and the murder of his family, though only narrowly succeeded in preventing the hybrids from killing half the town during the hurricane.
After hunting down and killing Szura, Tom learned that Russell's wife, his brother-in-law, his most trusted deputy, Lewis, and his children were being held hostage by locals with a grudge against the hybrids, and more importantly, against Tom himself. He arrived in time to stop one of the young men from doing something stupid, but in the ensuing struggle the kidnapper's gun discharged and struck Larkin, Russell's pregnant wife, in the chest. Knowing that Larkin was dying and whatever help they received from the hurricane-weary paramedics would come too late, if at all, Tom rushed Larkin to the water to be taken, and hopefully saved, by the creatures.
1st person sample:
[First attempt to contact the outside world...via walkie talkie.
Lewis, can you hear me? Do you read? I must've fallen asleep and the tide -- are you there? Over.
[A Pause. He waits.]
Mar? ....Russell? Who has the walkie over there? Is anybody on this frequency? I think Szura's people --
[Another pause. Maybe he's out of range...but wait. He can hear people coming through. Time to shut up and listen for a while.]
[Second attempt, via his cell:]
This is Sheriff Tom Underlay, of Homestead. That's Dade Country, right outside Florida City. I know someone out there can hear me, because I can hear all of you on my phone. I think I washed up on your shore -- hell of a city you've got here. No cars, no traffic, no people. I haven't seen a single airplane in the sky, and no one's in your stores or restaurants.
So where am I? And where are you? And more importantly, does anyone have access to a phone that dials out?
Notes: I played a cracky version of Tom for Fourth Wall Day, but this isn't that guy. This is his first official visit to Limbo. c:
Also, since Tom is a freak and can hold his breath for an insanely long time, the first thing he's going to try is swim back out in the ocean to get back home. I figure it'd be like going for a wander in the city - it all keeps looping back on itself and leading him straight back to the shore.
