The Toymaker
From Changeling Venue
| Seeming | Wizened Artist |
|---|---|
| Court | Spring Court •••• |
| Freehold | The Kingdom of Silence |
| Player | John Curl |
Bring me home a toy, daddy...
How many times do we say that growing up?
Do we ever really grow up?
There are always toys we want, always things we lust after. The nature of the toy changes, but not the nature of the desire. I make beautiful things. I make things that people want. I sometimes make things that people will do anything to posses.
I read in the newspaper a few weeks ago that an eight year old child brought his father's gun to school and shot another boy because he had stolen a toy that belonged to him.
I hope it wasn't one of mine.
Contents |
In a Nutshell
Alias(es): The Toymaker, The Tinker, Technician 442
Real Name: William Edward Johns - Eddy to his friends
Age: 39
Concept: Broken Toymaker
Entitlement: Grand Master of The Guild of Makers
Physical description (Mien): Unlike most of the Wizened the Toymaker is tall and broad, however he seems to fade into the background when you're not looking at him. Its as if he becomes part of the decor or perhaps just a bit of old furniture.
He is chubby and often jovial. His fingers are long and nimble, calloused but given to a light and easy touch. His skin is nut-brown, cheeks are ruddy, ears long and pointed, nose prodigious, and his beard is an unruly tangle of brown and red. If one were given to flights of fancy they might even liken him to a younger version of a certain jolly old elf with a penchant for toy-making, but his eyes ruin that illusion. There is the slightest hint of unpleasantness in them, as if he's laughing at a joke you don't get and that joke is on you.
Even when he gives one of his sparkling and ready smiles his deep blue eyes don't share in it. When looking the Toymaker in the eyes you know that everyone has a price and you realize he knows yours.
Physical description (Mask): Eddy looks like any other middle aged craftsman that's had a few too many Big Macs and not enough nights out on the town, but recently his mien is poking through. His fingers seem too long, his nose perhaps a bit too large, and his eyes seem far too blue.
Otherwise he dresses in comfortable clothing and always seems to have a screwdriver poking from a back pocket.
Mantle: When near the Toymaker one is likely to catch a scent reminiscent of a child's memory of their grandfather's workshop. Fresh, fragrant sawdust mingles with sweet pipe tobacco born on a breeze carrying the clean scents of the meadow behind it.
Care to Buy Me Dinner First?
Who He Is
Not every changeling whose lives are stolen by the Bramble and Lash Hunting Society are set to be hunted. Someone must keep the wheels of the game greased, and the hunter's blades sharpened, and such a task is beneath the Gentlemen of this prestigious society. One interesting rumor is that the Keeper of the Games was not his origional Keeper, and that Eddy was lost to him as payment for a bet from his true master. If this is the case, Eddy isn't speaking.
Eddy was referred to Technician 442 by his taskmasters. It was the "contestants" who christened him as the Toymaker. Ostensibly he maintained the automated hobgoblins, traps, and treacheries that plagued the contestants during their training, but now and again he would manage to find a way to slip a little something he had cobbled together out of forgotten parts to one of these ill fated creatures set to be hunted.
The Gentry knew, of course, though Eddy was careful and thought it a secret. They tolerated it because a little unforeseen treachery and the occasional edge only served to make the games more interesting for the spectators and throw a bit of randomness into the TTK calculations.
Eddy's gadgets rarely saved anyone but they gave them hope in their final moments, and once in a great while a contestant escaped. Its no secret that among those that did escape, more than not still carry a rusty collection of bolts given to them by a numbered Technician just before the games began.
How Eddy came to escape himself is a question he doesn't like to answer. He's often seen with a pair of former contestants, but no one outside their motley know if they found each other afterwards, or escaped together.
Who He Was
Prior to his capture Eddy was just a regular guy. In fact the only thing you could say about him was he got good grades in shop. He liked working with his hands. After high school he worked for his grandfather installing kitchen cabinetry. He eventually inherited the business.
It was while he was working late in the remodeling of an old apartment building that he found a doorway to another world inside a kitchen cupboard. If only his curiosity hadn't gotten the better of him and he had closed it and gone home instead of crawling through into the brambles he might never had found himself rounded up by the Bramble and Lash.
What He Does
Currently Eddy runs a small shop in downtown Beaumont. He sells handmade toys and children's furniture. His work is beautiful and expensive. He has a small but loyal clientele and advertises only through word of mouth. He makes just enough to keep the creditors at bay and live comfortably and this suits him, or so he says. He supports the local freehold as much as he is able, so long as they respect his privacy, and he gets on well with most folks. He has a vindictive streak but he's good at keeping it hidden.
One thing his time in the Other taught him was the destructive nature of passions, and he uses it. He makes things. He is equally skilled at working in wood and steel - dreams and desires. He can't help himself at this point. With nary a thought he can draw a man's greatest desire up from his own dreams and put it shiny and new into his hands. He's had a taste of that power. He'll use it when it suits him.
Whatever they did to him on the other side it didn't dim his passion for working with his hands and seeing the glimmer in his imagination made real, though sometimes he is horrified at the things he creates.
Those who feel his mantle are well aware that Spring favors him, though he seems to have no real courtly aspirations past seeing his local freehold prosper in safety and anonymity.
With Friends Like These...
I'm still looking for ties, particularly for an individual that would have been particularly ill suited to the Bramble and Lash hunt, but found themselves there anyway. You know, the sort of innocent individual that might have prompted an old Toymaker to risk everything to personally see them out of the Hunt and through the Hedge.
- Whisper - Do these two changelings work with each other due to similar experiences in the durance, or did the Toymaker help this former magician craft his greatest disappearing act yet?
- Mac Malcontent - Another former contestant in the Bramble and Lash hunt. Did they meet in the hedge? Where did Mac get that fine sword of Goblin Steel?
- Gemma - A fellow artisan with a penchant for found items. One can never have too many friends in the business.
- Wink - An enigmatic mute with a god given talent for creating identities for newly arrived Lost. Eddy considers any time invested helping Wink is time well spent helping the local freehold.
Who Needs Enemies?
Soon enough.
Character Inspirations
Santa Claus
Bob Ross
Machiavelli
Willy Wonka (the Gene Wilder version)
Soundtrack
Put a Lid On It - The Squirrel Nut Zippers
Burning Beard - Clutch
Sinner's Prayer - As performed by BB King and Billy Preston, just a little blues to remember there are things worth going on for.
Rev 22:20 - Puscifer, on the destructive nature of desire.
Fully Alive - Flyleaf
In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson
Over the Falls - Primus
Wake Up - David Bowie and Arcadia Fire
Quotes
"Come in, take a look around. I'm sure you'll find something you want." - Eddy
"Everybody wants something, find out what it is, how you can give it to them, and you've bought them."
- Eddy
Rumors
- Rumor has it that Eddy's got a secret workshop somewhere in the hedge with all manner of things, beautiful and terrible, stashed away.
- Eddy's doing a lot better than that little shop of his would suggest. He's an artisan of the highest order and he occasionally does business with folks willing to pay anything for the items he crafts.
- The Toymaker is more than just a simple tinker. He's a true fey craftsman. He never lost the ability to craft hedgespun garments and tokens of power. For a price he can weave dreams and hedge materials into anything the mind imagines or heart desires... For a price.
- The Toymaker never keeps anything he crafts for himself, but he covets it all.
