#{🌿} tom salvatore ; headcanons

[painofhumanity]

Despite his first name being Stefan, hardly anyone ever calls him that. When he was two or three, his parents started to refer to him almost exclusively by Tom or Tommy. The only time Stefan came up was when he was in trouble, but then his parents were saying his full name. Damon is the only person who still uses his first name; Tom lets it go because it's his "brother".

#{🌿} tom salvatore ; headcanons

[painofhumanity]

Even when Tom learns the truth about vampires and Damon, he still refers to Damon as his older brother. Admittedly, part of this is because he still has the memories Damon compelled him to have of them growing up together. But the bigger part is that Damon was his big brother from the time he was twelve; he didn't just say it, he acted like it. And despite the betrayal he felt at finding out that was a lie, Tom still feels that connection.

It's not until Tom finds out that Damon lied about his parents being abusive and neglectful, and that they were actually good people, that he starts to question their brotherhood. Even then, his anger eventually fades, and Damon is the only family he's got left.

#{🌿} tom salvatore ; headcanons #{🌿} tom & damon

[painofhumanity]

Favorite way to receive affection?  ( for stefan. )

Soft Sunday meme (still accepting!)

It's a toss up between words of affirmation and quality time. Tom loves hearing that he's loved and appreciated, thrives on the verbal confirmation that he's as important to the people he cares about as they are to him. Tom also loves just spending time with those he loves, despite being an introvert; that's actually what makes it so significant to him, because the people he's closest to don't drain him the way most people do, and it's nice to spend time with someone who makes you feel comfortable.

#{🌿} tom salvatore ; asks #{🌿} tom salvatore ; headcanons #queenxvixens

[painofhumanity]

Tag Drop;; Stefan Thomas Salvatore 🌿

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[painofhumanity]

Tom is still kidnapped and tortured by the crypt vampires, but this time it's purely to hurt Damon. They torture him, heal him, then start all over again. When Damon, Elena, and Alaric save him, he relapses because everything that's happened has become too much for him. It starts with pain killers that Damon gives him (with genuinely good intentions, because he really doesn't get how bad Tom's addiction is, not being in Mystic Falls for the worst of it, only hearing about it from Zach), and it quickly spirals out of control from there. Not wanting to send him away for yet another stint in rehab, Damon and Elena lock him in the basement to force him to come down from the high. He still gets out, still with the intention of dying--because this Tom feels things too deeply, too, just like his predecessor--Elena finds him at the edge of the quarry, ready to jump and let the water take him. This is when he admits to Elena that he was the one who saved her, and also the one who failed to save her parents. Elena still manages to convince him to live, and brings him back home.

#{🌿} tom salvatore ; headcanons #drug abuse tw #suicidal ideation tw #suicide mention

[painofhumanity]

Damon manages to keep Tom in the dark about the part of the compulsion that altered his memories about his parents for a while after everything else comes out. It's actually not until Elena finds out about her own complicated parentage that something close to (but not quite) guilt gets him to tell Tom the truth.

He tells Tom that Giuseppe and Lily were bad parents, and that he and his Tom had been abused throughout their human lives. Then, he confesses that, from what little he knew of Tom's parents, they'd been good people. Damon gives him the defense that Tom had been so devastated before, but the compulsion had pushed him through his grief, and that it was easier to get over the deaths of awful parents, than loving ones.

When Tom rightfully demanded Damon remove the compulsion, Damon refused for a lot of reasons. He thought it would do more harm than good at this point, that it would set Tom back in his grief, that he wasn't even sure if he could anymore, because of how deeply ingrained those memories were in Tom's mind. Tom was furious, but he couldn't make the vampire do anything, so he resigned himself to never remembering his real life. It took months for them to get back to anything close like the relationship they'd had before.

#{🌿} tom salvatore ; headcanons

[painofhumanity]

Tom would still be a ripper if he became a vampire, because he's an addict, and that part of him would be as amplified as his empathy and compassion. The only difference is he wouldn't have decades of blood on his hands, and he'd have far more people in his life who would want to help him learn control and keep him from going off the rails.

#{🌿} tom salvatore ; headcanons #{🌿} tom salvatore ; wishlist #//stef would never choose to be a vampire #so i'd love to explore a scenario where someone did it either to hurt him or because they thought it was the only way to save him

[painofhumanity]

Tommy gets along better with girls. He just does. Which is funny because, after his parents died, he really only had Uncle Zach, and sometimes Damon. But he has often found it easier to make friends with girls than other boys. He's sensitive, and quiet, and old fashioned, and guys his age usually make fun of him for being a moody loser, while girls tend to see him as a sweetheart.

#{🌿} tom salvatore ; headcanons

[painofhumanity]

Tom's dad had told him the vampire stories from Mystic Falls, but always framed them as just that: stories. When he moved in with Uncle Zach, he started learning the truth behind those stories, but the twelve year old still mostly brushed it off (which is why he didn't take vervain consistently, and why Damon was able to compel him).

With all this in mind, Tom didn't really buy into any of it until he was confronted with the truth of it at seventeen. Though finding out vampires were actually real wasn't nearly as horrifying as finding out his older brother was one, and then later learning Damon wasn't really his brother, and that most of his memories were altered. Though even then, Tom still often refers to Damon as his brother, simply because he doesn't know what else to call him.

#{🌿} tom salvatore ; headcanons