Thomas Charles “TC” Callahan | Thirty One | Human | District Twelve | Eoin Macken | Availability: NPC
Strengths:
Good Under Pressure: Being a trauma doctor means that, as well as facing challenges in a hospital environment, TC also faces challenges when he is called out into the field. Due to his past as a medic while serving as a peacekeeper, TC is used to working in situations which can be honestly be downright scary. An example of such a situation occurred recently, when TC was almost impaled by a metal pole while trying to free a patient who had been impaled during Alma Coin’s bombing of The Nut.
Fighter: As well as being trained as a medic, TC was also trained to be a soldier - well, a Peacekeeper. When his brother, Thad, went into Peacekeeper training, TC followed, becoming on of the youngest recruits to pass out of the program. TC knows his way around firearms and can hold his own in hand-to-hand combat; something which has come in handy since TC’s drinking has often led to the Doctor becoming involved in brawls during his travels.
Compassionate / Self Sacrificing: To be a Doctor, is to show compassion to your patient; whether this be in a hospital or out in the field, or whether they be friend or foe, TC feels deeply for those placed under his care, and if he is the one to triage you on sight? Chances are that he’ll be the one treating you until you wake up on the other side of any treatment or surgery you may go through. Even if there are other medics who are as equally qualified to take over.
Loyal: TC is a loyal person. When he joined the peacekeepers as a teenager, TC took his oaths to heart and endeavored to be the best in his unit. When the Capitol paid for him to go to med school, TC worked damn hard to ensure their faith in his abilities had not been misplaced. When Thad picked him for his unit, TC vowed not to let his older brother down. But following Thad’s death, after their unit was sent on a raid with sloppy intel and no backup, TC found the foundations of his loyalties shaken to the core. Now a rebel, TC’s loyalties lie with Paylor and the other rebels fighting against Coin and a regime that is built on lies. While his loyalty is not as forthcoming as it used to be when he was a teenager, when TC decides to give himself to a cause, he does follow through. However, don’t be surprised if TC questions orders; he no longer follows them as blindly as he used to, and he will call you out if he doesn’t like what he hears.
Weaknesses:
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Due to his experiences during the war, TC was discharged from his role as Peacekeeper following the death of his brother, Thad. After losing Thad, TC suffered a breakdown that was only made known to his Commanding Officer following a refusal to allow TC to attend his brother’s funeral, led to TC making a rather spectacular scene during a presentation. While he hasn’t been officially been diagnosed as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, TC’s behavior following his breakdown and discharge, all point to TC having the condition.
Alcohol / Gambling: When things get too much for the medic - and when Topher and Jordan aren’t there to keep him on the straight and narrow - TC tends to fall back on old coping mechanisms initially seen following his discharge. These coping mechanisms are drinking too much and gambling away money he frankly doesn’t have. Lucky for TC however, he has a great friend in fellow former Peacekeeper, Topher - who lends him the money to pay back the people he owes… most of the time anyway…
Jordan Alexander: Jordan. The love of TC’s life and his on-off girlfriend for the past decade. TC met Jordan during their medical residency in District Five’s main hospital before the onset of rebellion - back when TC was loyal to the Capitol - and they continued to be close even after TC’s discharge and his decision to join the rebels. At the moment the pair are not together, but TC will do anything to keep Jordan safe. Anything.
Reckless: TC’s levels of recklessness rival his penchant for being self-sacrificing, when it comes to the lengths he goes to helping his patients. One such display took place during he and Jordan’s residency, when TC ran into a burning building during an exercise (without the proper equipment) - only to end up having to be rescued himself after being overcome by smoke inhalation. While he didn’t exactly pass the exercise, that particular act of recklessness led to him meeting Jordan.
Biography:
It would be a cliche to say that, for Thomas Charles Callahan, home is where the heart is. But, the truth is, home for TC is wherever his long term girlfriend Jordan Alexander is. It wasn’t always this way, of course. TC used to have a family once, and an older brother who had looked out for him for as long as TC can remember. But that’s all gone now thanks to the blind following of orders, led to TC losing his older brother and the shattering of oaths he had sworn to live by.
TC was originally born in District Twelve during the height of Voldemort’s reign. The youngest of two children, TC’s odds weren’t the best to begin with - especially considering the Callahan family resided with the Seam - but TC proved to be a survivor from the start, and he continues to prove it now. With a father who was a coal miner, and a mother who had been sickly for as long as he could remember; TC was more or less raised by his older brother, Thad, who was nearly four years TC’s senior. To a young TC, Thaddeus J Callahan - or “Thad” for short - was the best brother in the world. Thad ensured TC had enough food, went to bed on time and went to school everyday. It was Thad who was there when TC suffered nightmares after having a too-close encounter with a dementor; and Thad who taught TC how to fight when he found out that TC was being bullied. As the two brothers grew into teenagers, the Callahan brothers were considered to be inseparable by those who knew them; and this would prove to be invaluable when the boys’ parents died when TC was fourteen, and Thad convinced the authorities not to throw TC into foster care when he could look after him.
When Thad decided to join the peacekeepers at nineteen years old, following an incident which led to the two brothers being brought up on charges by a visiting peacekeeper from another district for selling goods on the black market, a sixteen year old TC followed suit when it was made clear he could either enlist as a peacekeeper or be sent into the arena. Entering Peacekeeper training, TC and Thad stuck together as they had always done throughout, until TC’s penchant for field medicine was made known to the officer in charge of overseeing Peacekeeper training and he was given the opportunity to study in Panem’s best medical facilities in District Five. It was the first time the Callahan brother’s had ever been separated, and the transition from always having Thad by his side to not having him there at all, was a rough one. TC proceeded to fall into his medical training; focusing more on his studying than making friends. However, this single minded focus changed when he met fellow resident, Jordan Alexander; who treated him following an exercise in emergency response led to TC suffering from smoke inhalation and the borrowing of a pink sweater, and the pair soon struck up a friendship that would evolve into a relationship during the pair’s last year of residency. Upon the completion of his medical training, TC returned to The Nut and to Thad who had since obtained the rank of Captain. Returning to his duties as Peacekeeper, now under the role as his unit’s medic, TC continued his relationship with Jordan, despite being separated by districts - and Thad would accompany TC several times while on leave to meet the woman who had won his little brother’s heart.
For the first time, TC felt that life was good, despite the near daily threats from routine patrols on the streets in District Two; but that all changed when rumors of Rebellion broke out. With the threat of an uprising, Peacekeeping units were dispatched from the Nut, out into the Panem districts to uphold law and order during a time of potential civil unrest. It would be on a raid on a suspected rebel safehouse, that TC’s world would be turned upside down, when Thad was seemingly killed by a young rebel boy who didn’t look older than twelve, right in front of TC. Frozen, TC could only watch as other members of the brothers’ unit killed the boy; before snapping out of his shock and attempting to save Thad. He was unsuccessful, and Thad died beside a burning house, his blood on TC’s hands. Recalled to the Nut, TC discovered that the unit was sent into the house with sloppy intel on the Capitol’s part, and this,combined with his new Commanding Officer’s refusal to allow him to attend Thad’s funeral in District Five, pushed TC over the edge, leading to his discharge from the Peacekeepers and his return to District Five, where he was reunited with Jordan. As the rebellion reached it’s height in Panem, Jordan was left trying to pick up the pieces of a now broken TC. A year after his move to District Five, as both rebels and Death Eaters alike were sent into the Second Arena, believing he was doing her a favor due to his lack of progress in getting better, TC broke up with Jordan; leaving both sides bitter but giving TC the push he needed to try and fix himself without the risk of hurting Jordan anymore than he believed he already had.
Leaving the safety of District Five for the first time since coming back after Thad’s death, TC eventually found his way to District Two, just as the Rebels he had heard stories about during his time helping with the relief effort in District Seven returned to Panem from South America. While finding his way to the Nut had been mere coincidence - wanting nothing more to do with the rebellion or the capitol after what had happened with Thad - TC found himself taking a job within the mountain he had been trained to fight those he now lived amongst, facing the unexpected challenge of a capitol manufactured virus along the way. TC also reached out to Jordan during this time, and the two began to maintain a level of regular contact the pair had lacked since their breakup; TC sharing his thoughts of joining Paylor and the rebels as he began to gain more of an insight into Panem’s new president, while Jordan offered stories of shared friends back in Five and her own short lived relationship with a surgeon, Scott Clemmens. With the bombing of the Nut bringing with it flashbacks of the day Thad died, TC - who managed to escape the bombing and safely relocate to Terminus - is battling old demons, as memories of the day Thad was shot (that have been seemingly locked away), slowly resurface after years of being forgotten.