Dwight
From Changeling Venue
| Seeming | Darkling Gravewight and Razorhand |
|---|---|
| Court | Spring Court •• |
| Freehold | New-New Amsterdam |
| Player | Matthew Darby |
Contents |
Keeper: The Surgeon
Real Name: Used to be Dwight Johnson. Now it's Dwight Light.
Seeming: Darkling
Court: Spring
Virtue: Faith
Vice: Envy
Concept: Yes, he has big scary claws and a creepy smile. But he's really a nice guy! Honest!
Mask appearance: Dwight is about fifty years old, pear shaped, balding. His nose is broken at the bridge.
Mein appearance: Dwight is still about fifty year old, pear shaped, and balding. In addition, both hands are completely mechanical, and the fingers (but not the thumbs) are razor sharp knives. His nose is a metal splint over an empty hole. His skin is sallow and droopy.
Character Livejournal: There's a few stories here
History
Pre-changing
Dwight was born in 1988 to a 14-year-old named Melissa Johnson. He grew up thinking that his mother was his sister and his grandmother was his mother. He didn't meet his dad before his abduction.
In September 2003, his best friend died in a car accident. Dwight was left alone with the corpse in a church the night before the funeral. He was horrified by the fake peaceful expression that the embalmers had shaped his face into. He grasped the cheeks and forced them into a scowl. When he couldn't get the expression he wanted, he began hitting the corpse with his fists, and ended up mutilating it with a church candlestick. People display their grief in different ways. Dwight stalked out of the church and into the hedge, where The Surgeon grabbed him, bound him, and dragged him to Arcadia.
Time spent in Arcadia
The Surgeon likes to create centaurs out of horses and humans and mermaids out of people and fish. This kind of surgery requires that, not only the bodies, but also the souls of people and animals be cut in half and joined together. Dwight was constantly forced to cut open the bodies and souls of living beings as they begged for his mercy.
As Assistant Surgeon, Dwight learned how both the body and the soul work, using scientific concepts that haven't been learned outside of Arcadia. He wasn't allowed to cry because his tears would drip in the wounds. Dwight's responsibilities included having spare parts and instruments of every kind available for The Surgeon. Consequently, Dwight was a regular customer at many goblin markets. He gathered animals and people who were wandering around the hedge. He would bring them in alive if he could; otherwise he would kill them. If he didn't have the right part available, The Surgeon would take the part from Dwight's own body or soul. Jack lost his nose and his right arm this way. He also lost various bits of his soul, but the soul is more flexible, and grows back when it is injured.
Fortunately for Dwight, his master did not pay continual attention to him. Sometimes he left him in the charge of an Ogre, and sometimes Dwight could wander around Arcadia at his leisure. He befriended a Wizened who made him a mechanical arm and a metal nose. The Wizened told him legends of humans escaping their Fae makers.
About forty years passed. One day, when The Surgeon was gone, Dwight struck up a conversation with his Ogre overseer. Thanks to his training, Dwight was able to see the Ogre's soul, and knew that it was full of sadness and wrath in equal parts. After a few hours of highly therapeutic soul-searching (and remodeling), Dwight convinced the Ogre to let him go.
More the horror of what lay behind than the promise of what lay ahead gave Dwight the courage to push through the hedge. Without a goal, he eventually realized that he was walking in circles. After hours and hours of walking, Dwight passed the same rock for the eighteenth time. He sat down on it and could not get up, the lethargy of the hedge binding him as securely as any rope. What was the use of trying anymore, only to fail yet again?
"Your story can die here. Or you can have courage and live," offered a deep voice.
That was Dwight's first meeting with Alexander Delapore. To navigate the hedge you must navigate your own self, taught Alexander. To navigate your self, you must acknowledge your fear. More than anything, Dwight hated himself for destroying his best friends corpse. And so, motivated to confront his own fear of responsibility, Dwight found his way out of the edge and into his own worst nightmare.
Return
Dwight returned the very instant he had left. His fears and the pursuit to overcome them led him, with Alexander by his side, to the entrance to the church. Dwight saw himself walk out of the sanctuary, covered in the embalming fluid and body tissue that he had beaten out of his best friend's body. Except the boy was not him, but someone else. With a shock, Dwight realized that he had made his own fetch while he was in Arcadia. In fact, the boy was his most recent creation. Dwight knows, even if he won't admit it to himself, that his escape had been foreseen by The Surgeon.
His fetch looked looked at him with a mixture of confusion, recognition, and wonder. "Go on if you can," whispered Alexander. "Say hello." Dwight did. He took his fetch into his arms and cried over him for a while, then lead him into the bathroom to wash off the ickiness. Dwight told him to go meet his mother (grandmother) who was waiting in the car.
Dwight then went up to the body in the sanctuary, hoping to put it back to rights. But he didn't have the right tools, and Fae magic doesn't work as well outside of the hedge. Dwight's tears dripped on the corpse. As he was messing with the body, the preacher walked in on him. "I did it!" yelled Dwight, flinging the corpse filth around the sanctuary. "I did it, and I can't fix it!" The Darkling fled into the night.
Nowadays
Alexander caught up with Dwight a few blocks away from the church. He took him into the nearest McDonald's restroom and gave him the Hobo's Specialty Paper Towel Bath while Dwight stared forward, semi-comatose. Alexander then took him into his own homes, hovels and shelters under the bridges and streets of New York City. Dwight spent the next six weeks living in cramped apartments and alleyways with Alexander, learning the bitter philosophy of the Autumn Court and the fascinating skill of Oneiromancy. The two would frequently start up conversations with homeless people and panhandlers in order to better shape their dreams at night. These people are so honest about how they feel and what makes them feel that way. One of Dwight's greatest gains from this period in his life is a huge appreciation for the salt of the earth. The Cyclopean Ogre also taught Dwight not to run from the ghosts he continuously sees. He taught that they are entities, people, who deserve just as much respect and attention as any other being on this planet. More than anything else, Dwight took a deep sense of confidence from the teachings of Alexander Delapore.
Life with Alexander, however, was spartan. They lived together in an apartment that could comfortably house a single good-size dog. Dwight might not have minded the claustrophobic environment, however, if it weren't accompanied by continual forays into a philosophy based on perpetual conflict with one's own fears. Dwight could only face himself so many times before saying, "Enough already! They are faced!" When Spring came, Dwight knew it was time to move on.
Six months after returning from the hedge, Dwight finally met another changeling. Erised found him wandering around Manhattan, depressed and embittered by the solitary life he found himself living. When Erised described the philosophy of the Spring Court and offered Dwight a chance to stay at his place, Dwight jumped at the chance. He fell in love with everything he saw. Changelings laughing and playing, recognizing what they are but refusing to see it as a horror.
Dwight found new mentors, Erised and Myo, who taught a philosophy more to his liking. Erised introduced him to Changeling society. Dwight spends more time at Erised's Reverie than he does at his own home. He goes to Myo when he's wrestling with the philosophy of the Spring Court. She taught him that his time in Arcadia wasn't completely wasted because he learned a great deal about medicine. He now puts in several shifts a week at her Clinic. Although the diseases present in Arcadia are different from the diseases on earth, Dwight has studied many medical textbooks and can now accurately diagnose and treat just about everything. He strongly dislikes surgery, however. Too many bad memories.
When things make absolutely no sense to Dwight, and he feels that he can no longer paint the smile on his face, the only one he turns to is Alexander Delapore. Sometimes it's a relief to talk to someone who doesn't pretend to be always happy. Oneiropomp lessons continue as the two meet in their own dreams, and those of others.
Dwight now owns a small pawn shop in Harlem, thanks to Erised's skill in such matters. Dwight uses his intricate knowledge of the soul to help his customers get through their situation. He's convinced more than one bitter housewife not to pawn their wedding ring. More than a few drug addicts have returned their grandmother's TV after talking with old Dwight. Dwight tends to follow his customers into their dreams, encouraging them late at night.
Naturally, Dwight is also a greedy old bastard. If he knows that it would be profoundly better for a person to keep what she has, then lets them keep it. Otherwise he drives a hard bargain. He's certainly not above lying to his customers about the value of the merchandise, purchased and sold.
Dwight keeps tabs on his family. About six months after his return from Arcadia, Dwight approached his fetch again. His fetch ran away. One day Dwight posed as a political activist for a city councilman and knocked on his childhood door. He got into a deep conversation with his mother and learned that she was really his grandmother. With a little investigation Dwight discovered his own dad, who is about twenty years younger than Dwight. They are now drinking buddies.
Dwight can see ghosts. They're as natural a part of his life as anything else in the world. He considers them the souls of dead bodies. In Arcadia he used to put these souls into new bodies, but here he doesn't have the right tools. Instead, he does his best to help them achieve their desires. He rarely makes pledges with ghosts--they aren't usually able to provide adequate consideration--but he doesn't mind doing favors, such as telling family members where wills are hidden and the like. He usually does so through dreams in order to avoid being labeled a freak.
Social Networking
This character is brand spankin' new. Any contacts are welcome!
Erised introduced Dwight to the magic of the Spring Court. He let him bloom after his winter with Alexander. He gave Dwight almost everything that Dwight now calls his own.
Myo is another Springly mentor. Dwight is usually working a shift at her Clinic when he's not at his own pawn shop or at the Reverie Tea House.
Nothing is Dwight's friend. One of the few Winter Court changelings who hang out at Reverie. She has a strange abnormality, though... She eats with her hands.
Hush tends to be there. Always present. Especially where Nothing is. And he's more dangerous than he looks.
Alexander Delapore pulled Dwight from the hedge and provided him with a home for the first few months. Alexander taught Dwight to confront his fears. He also taught him to navigate and manipulate the dreamworld through the art of Oneiromancy. Dwight left the Fachan's tutelage to pursue the ideals of the Spring Court.
Rumors
Inspirations
Alec Guinness playing Professor Marcus in The Ladykillers
Andy Circus playing Smeagol (not Gollum) in The Lord of the Rings
Jack Nicholson playing just about every character that he's ever played
