Thomas Jenkins

[Thomas Jenkins]

Thomas David Jenkins

FACE CLAIM: David Rees

---------------------------------

AGE: 43

GENDER: Male

ORIENTATION: Bisexual

POSITION: local - humorist

POWER: none





HEIGHT: 6'2''

HAIR COLOR: Gray & dark brown

EYE COLOR: Blue-hazel



MISC: Fashion sense is modest and varying in formality; tell him he looks like Anthony Bourdain if you think he needs a haircut.





PERSONALITY: Thomas is intense; very smart, funny and passionate by nature. When he becomes interested in something, he throws his whole self into it, often to the detriment of his personal relationships. Despite a wealth of intellectual confidence and moral conviction, he's often selfless to a point of self-sabotage, willing to help others entirely more than they might deserve, and so being pulled down along with them when they fall. His humor is hard for some to grasp, a tangled mess of honesty and absurdity to a point where it's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. He tends to make poor first impressions, being that he's socially awkward and bad at small talk. He takes pleasure in mentoring others, particularly those who seem to really need guidance in their lives.



Tidbits

- left-wing

- atheist

- has a philosophy Ph. D

- is sometimes known as Dr. Pencil

- has had a remarkable online presence since 2001

- drives a 1982 Chevy Caprice station wagon, light blue, which he calls the American Death Machine

- operates an artisanal pencil sharpening business

- likes karaoke

- made a mashup album called Aphex Swift over the summer of 2014

- wrote and performed a song about Law and Order with a couple friends

- is what salad bars see in their darkest nightmares

- has strong opinions about Keurig coffee makers and their ilk

- also has strong opinions about mechanical pencils (content warning: audio, language)

- likes cliff diving

SECRET(S): He was a bully during many of his school years. He's admitted as much publicly, but it's hardly the first thing he'll say about himself. Thinking of it fills him with shame and regret, but he tries to forgive and be fair with himself. Otherwise, he's honest about himself to a fault, often in ways others would never dream of.





FATHER: Gerald Jenkins (living)

MOTHER: Katherine Jenkins (living)

SIBLINGS: Younger brother, Warren Jenkins (living)

WORTHY MENTIONS: Thomas is friends with many prominent entertainers.



CHILDHOOD: Thomas enjoyed a privileged upbringing in New York's Hudson Valley, born to working, Episcopalian parents. His mother was a librarian and his father taught religious studies at a nearby private school. He did well in school, placed in the local public school system rather than his father's place of employment. His parents felt that decision would result in a broader, more enriching life experience for him.



Despite always being 'off' in a way that was hard to put one's finger on, Thomas made friends easily. He had always gone through life with peculiar intensity, taking feverish interest in a variety of things and being unafraid to say whatever came to mind. That intensity afforded him a certain charisma, drawing some and violently repelling others. This is a theme that would persist throughout his life.



He was a thin child and would remain slender throughout his life. He engaged in normal childhood activities, such as tree climbing and playing hide 'n' seek, but shied from those requiring physical aggression. As such, he was never one to get into fights.



ADOLESCENCE: As he came into himself, around the age of 12 or so, he grew keenly perceptive. Having an analytical mind, he became very good at pinpointing others' vulnerabilities. There's no saying why he used this ability to bully others, as he was raised with a strong moral constitution. That was exactly what he did, though. He was quick to zero in on what others hated most about themselves and come up with pithy barbs with which to wound them. However, this was done with a certain boyish cluelessness, rather than true malice. He failed to realize that his victims wouldn't look back on it and laugh, but were truly hurt by his treatment and considered him a special breed of asshole even after graduation.



He was not such a virulent bully that it took up much of his time, though. He maintained old friendships and made new ones, such that, despite his eccentricity, he was rarely bullied himself. He must have had a reputation for cutting others down that the school's big bullies didn't want to fuck with!



In high school, he discovered political punk rock, taking special interest in the Minutemen. This would be the first step in abandoning his religion, as he discovered that the morals and politics he'd been raised with could be expressed in a context that spoke to him in a way religion never had. Pursuant to this, he formed a number of bands with his friends of which he was usually the leader and main songwriter, despite shifting roles between singer, guitarist and drummer.



ADULTHOOD: Having done pretty well in school, he had a few choices of college. He wound up attending the Oberlin liberal arts college in Ohio. Lacking any particular ambitions, he majored in philosophy, as it struck him as the most appealing and broadly enriching option.



Through his experiences here, and after some wrestling, he stopped believing in God. However, he appreciates the moral environment he'd been raised in and acknowledges that the Episcopalian faith was a large part of that. For that reason, he bears no specific malice toward the faithful as a group, becoming critical and sacrilegious only when that faith is used as a weapon.



As he'd known all along, his bachelor's degree in philosophy afforded him few particular privileges after graduation, and absolutely no direction. He wound up supporting himself with series of temp positions at office jobs, first in Boston, then in Brooklyn. Being both very productive and very bored, it was here that he began making comics.



It was a lot of work, and though he was a competent artist, he didn't enjoy drawing very much. He was much more interested in writing. One day, while building a presentation he cared nothing about, he found himself looking at clip art and imagining what the dull, uninspiring figures might be saying to one another. Usually it was something with a lot of profanity.



Recognizing he could create comics by adding speech bubbles and nothing else to these images was like getting a license to print money. He started out sending these to friends and coworkers, but occasionally printed them out and tried to convince comic stores to sell them. First came My New Fighting Technique Is Unstoppable (content warning: language), set at a karate dojo frequently visited by an ambulance. Eventually, he started making My New Filing Technique Is Unstoppable (content warning: language), for self-evident reasons.



Finding that, although his printed efforts made him little money, a lot of people seemed to enjoy the clip art comics, he decided to do something more serious with them. The first book of the acclaimed Comic Philosophy series was created as he worked a soul-sucking office job. It, and the subsequent two books in the series, was a mixture of serious philosophical material explaining a variety of philosophies and crude, profane comics pertaining to that material.



He was able to get the book published and, while it didn't explode in popularity, he made enough money on it that he no longer needed to work temp jobs. This was no luxurious lifestyle, though; he lived in an apartment with roommates. The second book proved more lucrative, inspiring him to go back to school and pursue his Ph. D, which he was able to pay for without incurring significant student loan debt.



When 9/11 happened, he was living in Brooklyn and working on the third Comic Philosophy book. Though he was lucky enough to lose no one in the attack, he was as shaken by it as anyone. To say that he did not appreciate the response to these attacks would be an understatement. He was fiercely skeptical of the war effort and of the blind patriotism that followed the attacks.



Finding that no one seemed to be writing about these issues in a satisfying way, he took it upon himself to fill that gap. Thus was Get Your War On (content warning: language, black humor) born, an utterly brutal satire and critique of the issues following 9/11.



He shared these comics with his friends via a private link on his website but, quickly, they were being shared all over the internet. Some time after the release of Comic Philosophy 3, the comics really gained traction. He was able to make a living as a paid political cartoonist.



This was, initially, amazing, a testament to the freedoms enjoyed by US citizens. He made enough money to buy himself a modest house in the Hudson Valley, where he'd grown up. He met and married his wife during this time. As the Bush presidency went on, though, it became incredibly exhausting. Doing it was no longer optional; he was obligated to read through all kinds of journals and, somehow, make the most hideous stories funny. It was taxing on his emotional and mental wellbeing and he definitely hadn't signed up for two terms!



He threw a party the day the final strip of Get Your War On ran, finally free of something he no longer found rewarding. Problem was, he hadn't thought of a backup plan. His books, while initially popular, didn't have much endurance in the market and were largely out of print just a few years after their publication. If he didn't find a new source of income soon, he was going to lose everything. He already felt like he was losing plenty, the quality of his marriage dwindling until it was finally euthanized, at his wife's gentle insistence.



He survived mostly through the generosity of friends and family, as well as some creative credit maneuvering. A prominent news site commissioned an animated version of GYWO through the election cycle, but this was more of a project than a real job; it didn't pay enough to actually support him.



At his friends' suggestion, he began working for the US census as an enumerator. One of the first things done, after being hired, was sharpening the #2 pencils needed to fill out the forms. He hadn't done this since childhood and felt a swell of pleasant nostalgia. Realizing that he actually enjoyed sharpening pencils, he wondered if he could actually get paid to do it.



Thus was his artisanal pencil sharpening business born. He'd made a number of friends in various creative industries during his years as a satirical cartoonist, and these friends afforded his business exposure he wouldn't have gotten otherwise. They made him promotional materials, they set up events and promoted his business on social media.



Somewhere during his census work, he came down with a really terrible-looking case of shingles, so all parties agreed that that was the end of that job. He actually made more money sharpening pencils than anyone had expected, but did need the help of friends and loved ones to support himself, and took on a room mate so he could continue paying the mortgage.



The pencil sharpening business got enough publicity that he was encouraged to write a book on the subject, which he found he was happy to do. It was thoroughly researched and, where research wasn't possible, thoroughly descriptive. He'd been collecting old how-to manuals for some time, and based the book's style on a ship fitter's manual from the 50s, peppering it with strange humor. Without any competition, it became the book on sharpening pencils.



It sold moderately well and was advertised on a few cable channels late at night. He went on a promotional tour for the book, hosting pencil-sharpening seminars that were, sometimes, curiously well-attended. Of course, he'd maintained an internet presence ever since Get Your War On, so he had a certain number of fans who'd followed him ever since. This probably explained why he was able to make a living this way.



That same philosophy of examining things normally taken for granted informs his presently-running TV show, Going Deep. The episode on making ice was shot and shopped around, then the rest were created after the network agreed to pick it up.



It proved divisive, as the pencil sharpening business proved divisive. He was either an idiot or a genius, depending on who you asked. It wasn't controversial to a point of getting very great ratings, though, despite the best efforts of his moderately more successful friends.



It was during this shooting stage that the world at large learned of mutants. Thomas was fascinated, rather than afraid, in a general sense. His logic was that, if he hadn't known about them before, they couldn't actually be that dangerous. Something didn't start killing just because it could suddenly be seen! Not to mention that some of the powers on display were really cool.



Not all the world agreed, of course, and this inspired Thomas to dip his toe into political cartooning again. He pitched a strip called Get Your Mutant On toward that same news site, which satirized the environment of panic and bigotry some groups and figures tried to foster relative to mutants.



A few months after the announcement, he joined the number of humans who moved to Kalispell to be nearer to the largest known mutant population in the US. Despite having deep roots in NY, he felt it was important to be close to these new developments. He believed that mutant abilities could help with many and varied advancements in the world and enjoyed the idea of being right there in the action.



As for his TV show, the network didn't pick it up for a second season, so it needed to be shopped around. A smaller network did pick it up, as it didn't require an especially big budget, considering there was no need for a studio; many of the segments were shot in Thomas's house, which he decorated to match his previous home for the sake of continuity.



He has no plans to make his living as a satirical cartoonist again, having decided that the demands were too rough the first time around. The cartoons are sold in batches, made when the spirit strikes him, and the unpredictability of their arrival online is part of their charm.



The second season of his show finished airing at the end of 2015 and its future remains uncertain. As he waits for word on its renewal, he's focusing on other projects, as yet unspecified.





SAMPLE: Long overdue for that, the most flattering of photographs, Thomas had submitted that he must brave the tribulations of the local DMV once more. Most of his hair was still dark brown in that picture, after all. The same could no longer be said, as it was now mostly silvery gray with black-looking streaks running through it. He was lucky, though, in that his parents had blessed him with a persistently full head of hair. He'd once been accused of dyeing it! The gall!



Really, he was in fine spirits when he arrived at the DMV building, because it reminded him of one of those Native American longhouses he'd learned about in school. Unlike so many other people, he remembered those days fondly, even felt a little swell of joy every time his brain lighted on another fact he hadn't considered since childhood. He wound up sitting in his car for a few minutes, looking over the structure through his windshield, before he reminded himself that the place wasn't open all day and he needed to get his shit together.



Once it came time to go inside, he paused in the entrance way, holding the door fully open and staring into the room. The outside had always struck him as awfully deceptive. There was nothing charming about it. It looked like any other fucking DMV in any other state. Big tiles on the ceiling. Fluorescent lights. For shame. Shaking his head at himself, he marched the rest of the way inside, dropping his hand and letting the door shut behind him.



All it took to sour his mood was this basic betrayal of expectations, putting a subtle curl to his lip and making his steps too tense, too hard on the floor. Needing to stand in a line afforded him the opportunity for self-reflection, though, and he gradually relaxed. Virginia had never owed him shit; he had to get over himself. Shoving his hands into the pockets of his straight-fit jeans, he locked his posture like a man who was in it for the long haul. He was going to stand the fuck out of this line.



USERNAME: Somniloquist



AGE GROUP: 29



EXPERIENCE: 15+ years through chat and IM services; a few sporadic months through forums.



WHERE DID YOU FIND US? FuzzyFemme pointed me here on RPD!

[Deleted]