sometimes u just gotta raise ur arms in abjection

I think it's both! I think Tommy came there out of real desperation, and yes—he was looking for absolution, but Tommy does believe in stuff like curses and second sight—he has a certain level of fear/respect associated with it. For example, he takes Tatiana's little "joke" about the sapphire being "cursed by a gypsy" very seriously, and he doesn't question Polly's claim that she knows Aberama wants something in 4x02 because she can "see it in the air" around him. He believes her and uses the info provided.

I think Tommy genuinely hoped that when he handed Madam Boswell the jewel, she'd immediately go, "Woahhh there's something very wrong with this thing," and that's why he asked her about the jewel in the way he did. He didn't straight away tell her he thought it was cursed—he handed it to her and invited her to tell him what she sensed about it. When she didn't sense anything off about the sapphire at all, he knew it wasn't cursed and he'd just been carrying around false hope that she might be able to absolve him.

so convinced that he deserves an unhappy and lonely life devoid of pleasure that he decides to use his prized possession as a means to kill himself because even in death he cannot have nice things for long;

a guy who genuinely seems to believe that his lack of wife/kids/pond is a moral failing on his part and some indication of deep rot inside himself that makes himself inherently unloved (despite the fact that he is clearly loved by his coworkers, by duke, and even by janey & jake even if the pittfest shooting has damaged that);

I got a comment on a fic that is less than a year old and it was mostly an apology for being a comment on an "old fic" and how late they were in commenting.

Fandom is not trends.

Fandom is a cross between a library and having a slumber party with your friends.