[Reha's Concept] Clockwork Wings [critique please][approved]

[Reha]

Character name: Theodore “Teddy” Blackwood
Age: 22
Hair color: Golden, curling around his cheeks and ears. The length reaches to the top of his neck.
Eye Color: Basic brown with round, thin-wire framed glasses for reading.
Nationality: British
Heritage: French and English
Height: 5’6”
Weight: 140 pounds
Sexual Preference: Homosexual, though completely closeted with a currently dead sex life. However, he has developed a twisted sort of attraction to one of his creations, Beatrice.

Appearance: Teddy is a young man with the body of a gentlemen unused to any sort of serious physical labor. The most strenuous activity he partakes in is dancing, and he is not a serious student of the art, so his body has maintained its soft and slightly rounded appearance. He tries walks tall and straight, despite his stature and tries to hold himself in such a way that will make people forget his height.

His face is round, with angelic curls feathering around his cheeks. When he was younger, his curls and round face made him look cherubic. Now, at the rip age of twenty-two, he just looks boyish. His lips are full and his cheeks are rosy. Teddy's button nose is a bit small for his face, with a little upturn at the tip of it. His eyes are round and large, though the color is dark and totally ordinary. He smiles readily, which suits his face; however, that also means when he is angry it is hard to take him seriously with his boyish looks and a face made for smiling.

Personality:

Teddy is a charming young man, if a little eccentric. He spends most of his time working on his various clockwork and mechanical projects and is rarely seen without a grease stain or two and dirt under his fingernails. He truly believes in working hard on one's passions and doesn't see the point in working a job that one does not love. As they say, if you do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.

Teddy has a fear of being truly alone, in the sense of having no family, no friends, or anyone to fall back on should he need it. Teddy needs his support system, even as he goes to strike out on his own. When first joining the circus, Teddy will try very hard to make friends in order to form a new support net under him. However, this does not make him a social butterfly. In fact, Teddy will rarely venture out unless dragged out by a friend. Make no mistake, however, he does have fun once forced to be social. But, he still prefers the company of machines over people.

He has an incredibility short attention span when it comes to his all but his favorite creations; so, at any given moment, he will have at least two half finished items lying around his work or living space. He also is very close with those creations. Teddy was born with the ability to speak, in a way, to metal things. Metal is alive to him and, when he was a child, he was often confused when people didn't understand when he spoke about the feelings he received from machines.

This affinity for and ability to feel metal items has given him a great love for machines over people. Teddy has always said that people, animals, plants, and "living things" are overly complicated. Even the simplest fungi are awash with goals. Living things want food, water, sex, love, money, success, health and a million other things. Machines are simple. They have a drive to work and a passion for it that matches Teddy's own. Teddy often prefers this cold simplicity.

However, there is one sort of living creatures that have wormed their way into Teddy's heart: birds. Teddy's father, an airship captain, owned dozens of birds, exotic and common, when he was a child and passed on that love of flight and aves to his son. The first clockwork machines that Teddy made were birds. One of his favorite "dolls" is a clockwork bluejay that was Teddy's first successful foray into clockwork dolls.

Since then, his ability to make these dolls has wildly expanded. He has learned how to make the birds fly (it is a simple matter of taking gravity and defying it) and how to put a bit of intelligence in them. Teddy controls these dolls through his mind but, to the outside observer, it seems as though they have a mind and will of their own.

It is through these advancements that he came to make Beatrice. By the time Teddy reaches the circus, Beatrice is his most complicated and most beloved doll. She is brass plated, as brass is Teddy's favorite metal to work with, and she is beautiful. Teddy gave her a voice that sounds like tinkling bells and a sweetness in her face that surprised even him when he finished. And, although his preference in humans, much to his embarrassment, tends towards the male sex, he found himself falling in love with her. Teddy sees Beatrice as the perfect companion. She is simple, she aims to please, and she is beautiful. His love for machines has blinded him to the very fact that she is, despite all the cleverness of her design, still a machine and a very cold partner without a true mind of her own. Teddy craves a close companion... a romantic companion and Beatrice is as close as he thinks he'll get.

When he's not birdwatching or working on his dolls, Teddy is probably reading. There was a large library near by his home when he was a child that he often frequented. The librarians were fond of him, for he kept his voice down, never ruined books with his grubby hands and always took their advice when trying to find a new book to read. It was one of these librarians who first taught him bookbinding. Nowadays, Teddy likes to find old books to recover with marbled paper and leather. It is a craft that he does for his own enjoyment when he's stuck on a problem with his clockwork dolls or if it is winter, and there are no birds to watch and sigh over their flight.

Interest: Reading, Mechanics and Clockwork, Aviation and Avians, Science
Hobbies: Bookbinding, Tinkering, Birdwatching
Talent: Innate Knowledge of Clockwork Mechanisms, Vibrant Creativity, Ability to "Speak" to Machines
 

[Reha]

Background:
Family: Father (George Blackwood – Deceased)
Mother (Fanny Blackwood – Deceased)
Older Sister (Violet Roche – 32 years)
Brother-in-Law (Owen Roche 40 years)
Niece (Fanny Roche – 15 years)

Most of Teddy’s childhood was spent in the local library, where he was safe and welcomed as long as he kept his voice down and was respectful of the books. His parents loved him, in their own way, but were more often than not preoccupied with their own lives. They showed this same sort of distant love to Teddy’s sister, Violet, as well, but Violet married early, at age 16, and moved to France with her new husband when Teddy was only six and the two of them were never close.

Teddy often entertained himself by speaking to the various machines that worked in their family home. He loved hearing about how they worked and for Teddy, there was always something in them to be discovered, to be recreated, to be improved. His mother never could understand Teddy’s staring at a machine such as the lamps they had for hours before bustling off to make an almost perfect replica with the stash of scrap metal and tools that he started to collect around the age of seven.

The only time Teddy ever felt very close to his parents was when he father let him explore his bird collection. His mother wasn’t always interested, but tended to come along to humor her husband. George Blackwood would tell fantastic stories of the places were he acquired the birds, the Orient and the America, and even a Hornbill from Africa. Teddy would lose himself in his father’s voice and imagine soaring high in the sky on the brass wings of a hawk.

But, his father was an airship captain and gone most of the year and his mother was a woman with more interests than just her child. Teddy spend a lot of his time alone. When he was 13, an older cousin came to stay with him and his mother, during a winter when his father was gone. Ezekiel Blackwood was handsome, funny, charming and unmarried. It was he who really pushed Teddy to experiment with his gift with machines. Ezekiel had a keep interest in technology, though he believed more in the marketability of some of Teddy’s inventions and little dolls rather than their artistry and charm.

It was also he who guided Teddy to the realization that he wasn’t like other boys, that he didn’t want a wife and a family. Ezekiel came to Teddy’s bed often and Teddy was more than happy to accept him. He was truly happy that winter, with someone paying attention to him, someone he could love. Teddy adored Ezekiel, right up until Ezekiel moved on and out of his home and out of his life.

Though, it wasn’t until the warm invitation to Ezekiel’s wedding about a year later that Teddy’s heart cracked, realizing Ezekiel wasn’t going to come back for him. Then, at the wedding, seeing how truly happy Ezekiel was with his pretty new wife, Teddy’s heart finally broke in two. To stop himself from crying, he lost himself in the steady noise of the automated organ that played in the balcony of the church. It did not understand his distress, but was willing to offer what comfort it could.

After that, Teddy thrust himself into his machines and his building, becoming more and more reclusive until only the insistent pleadings of only his very best of friends could make him leave his workroom.

When Teddy comes to the circus, his mother has been dead for four years, his father for three. His father, luckily for Teddy, knew how to save so he has had enough to live on without really having to work other than the odd fix-it job or commission for his talents. But that money is quickly drying out and he is tiring of life in the city. He needs something new, he needs to get away. The circus is the perfect outlet.

World: Victorian Age insofar as social rules, trends and history goes, but more along the lines of a fantastical steam age in terms of technological advancements. Think Airborn by Kenneth Oppel or the Golden Compass movie.  

[Reha]

Character name: To be announced
The Acts: His fist job is in the sideshow, he has just recently completed his greatest work to date, Beatrice and, with his help, she charms the crowd with her voice and graceful movements. She sings for those who make requests and flirts with and teases the male patrons. Teddy walks the circus with her, arm in arm, treating her like a real lady. Every once in a while, she will stop and dance, though the movement is not perfectly graceful yet.

Teddy will also command a few of his smaller dolls, a bird will fly into the audience and snatch a hat when a lady or gentleman is not looking. A small kitten will twist and curl between a child’s legs and a chimpanzee will make funny faces and noises at the crowd. What exactly happens depends on the crowd's participation and how Teddy is feeling that specific day. The chimpanzee, for instance, may snatch a lady's purse before running to hide behind Teddy. In this instance, Teddy would scold his creation and tell it to return the lady's purse with an apology. The chimpanzee would walk awkwardly back and return it with as much chagrin as a machine can muster. Another moment might be directing his birds in a dawn chorus of mechanical bird song.

When he has gained enough of a reputation, has improved his dolls and has found enough courage to stand in front of a group that big, Teddy will enter the big top. By this time, he has made a couple adjustments to himself, the way he does to his dolls. There is a clockwork gear or two placed at the base of his neck, nothing big, but he has created them to integrate with himself in order to strengthen the control he has over his creations. Before, he was able to speak to machines and guide them, encourage them to do what he wants. But, with this addition, he can force such things to bend to his will.

In the big top, this makes it easier to control Beatrice and the birds that will form the meat of his act. Beatrice will enter alone and dance for the crowd, her movements now more graceful and beautiful. She sings and Teddy enters, he takes her lovingly into his arms and they dance, he has been getting lessons from others in the circus and his skills at dancing, and thus Beatrice’s, have improved.

At the end of the dance, a cloud of clockwork birds scream out and fly through the air, soaring over the heads of the audience. They land all about the place, on shoulders, next to chairs, and in aisles. Teddy will tap his foot impatiently and call for the birds, who completely ignore him. Frowning, he will try again, louder and more demanding this time. They still ignore him, ruffling metal feathers and running beaks through their human’s hair. Beatrice will giggle her bell sound and sing to the birds.
Immediately, they fly to her, hovering around her in a swarm. Beatrice sings again and they rise higher, creating swirls of glinting multicolored metal in the air, casting light and shadow across the audience. Different colored lights here will add to this effect. Teddy, meanwhile, is pouting at the edge of their area and looking put out. Beatrice tinkles her bell voice in question at him and Teddy announces that he is the creator, not she. Beatrice smiles and says that they are his then. She sings once and the birds flock around Teddy, hanging on him, clutching at his clothing and perching on every available surface.

Teddy makes an ack! noise. Beatrice giggles again and gives the crowd a sweeping bow as the birds leave Teddy to fly again over the heads of the crowd before leaving the tent. Teddy grins and takes Beatrice’s hand and they bow to the crowd before exiting.

Later, when he becomes a main act, Teddy will have made a pair of mechanical wings for himself, as well as a large clockwork dragon that breathes fire. He has grown more mechanical himself, blurring the line between his dolls and himself. The gears in his neck have expanded to wrists and legs, like open clockwork that tick and turn with his heartbeat. They make him stronger but are having strange side effects.

His voice is more mechanical and less expressive. He depends largely now on Beatrice's beauty and more human voice to make announcements and to charm the crowd. His eyes have turned a bright brassy brown for reasons he can't discern. It hasn't effected his eyesight, but it worries him, none the less. And yet, he can't stop the need and desire to become more like the creations he loves so much and will continue to add clockwork parts to himself in an attempt to become even more mechanical.

The act will include the birds and Beatrice, but near the end the audience will be threatened by the sudden appearance of a large dragon, breathing fire above their heads. Teddy eagerly leaps into action, flying into the sky on his clockwork wings. At first the dragon takes no note of him and continues to fly lazily through the air, spraying the crowd with smoke and sparks when it pleases him.

Frustrated, Teddy kicks at the dragon, only realizing his mistake when the dragon turns one large ruby eye on him. Teddy wisely retreats, running comically from the large machine as it chases after him with flame and smoke. Beatrice, beautiful will her new hair that makes her make almost as human as the newly mechanical Teddy, runs after the dragon to grasp it's tail. The Dragon turns and lets out a ferocious roar of fire at Beatrice, who comes out of it unscathed, much to the dragon's surprise. In her bell voice, she scolds the dragon mightily, shaking her finger at it.

Teddy comes up behind Beatrice looking smug as the dragon sinks lower and lower to the ground. Sensing him, Beatrice turns and starts scolding Teddy! for putting himself in such danger. The dragon snickers and smoke comes out from his nose. Beatrice shooks the dragon a dark glare and ushers the two of them out of tent. Both move with sunken shoulders and hung heads.

Turning to the audience. Beatrice throws her hands up in a move that seems to say, "MEN! Ugh!". She takes a graceful bow and exits the tent after the man and dragon.

Act Costumes:

In the side show, Teddy will just wear his brown suit, with brass details and a little clock cog on his collar. Beatrice will be graced with gauzy skirts that swish when she walks and dances but does not conceal her brass body.

In the actual circus, Teddy’s suit will have gotten a few upgrades, he now sports more little details, cogs on his tie and jacket, a brass pocket watch, and a little belt with pouches for, one would assume his tools. Beatrice will have gained a full dress by now, will cogs and brass details to match Teddy’s, though it is again gauzy and lacks sleeves, to allow the sight of her beautiful body.

In the end, Teddy has his clockwork wings added to the costume and Beatrice has finally gained hair. It is only a wig, but it’s full and curled and rich brown, making her more beautiful than ever before. There are also the imprint of clockwork wings placed on the back of her dress to complement Teddy’s wings.  

[Reha]

Concept Art by Demented Kid