CONNECTION TO VANESSA: At first, Eddy knew her no more than any of the other schmucks he runs booze for, connected by a friend-of-a-friend or whatever other arbitrary connections get a highschooler their liquor hookup. To Eddy, she was just another smiling face mumbling pleasantries and handing him a wad of twenties in exchange for a few handles of Tito's Vodka. Eventually, booze running became idle chatter became real talks became drunken nights around Crestwood Hollow, forming inebriated half-memories with Vanessa and her friends that Eddy wouldn't trade for the world. And then, as quickly as it had started, it was gone.
She was gone. Eddy finds himself spending a lot of time in the local Magic Shop lately, looking for that one secret trick, covered in cobwebs and tucked behind all the other boxes, the one thing oozing with
real magic. The one trick that could cheat Death himself.
PERSONALITY: Eddy is a trickster, a charlatan, a no-good piece of work. If you highlighted every infraction on his behavioral assessment it'd look like a goddamn Christmas tree. He doesn't mean anything by it. Really, he doesn't, but he figures that scheming John-What's-His-Face out of some pocket change never
really hurt anybody, right? He always leaves them with enough for the bus fare home anyhow, and the lunch ladies would never let a kid go hungry, right?
He tries to sell a brand of disaffected youth, someone tired of the 'system' and the people that live in it. He wants to be a leather-clad cool guy riding his cherry red motorbike around the quietest, queerest parts of the Hollow, preaching the words of Jimi Hendrix and Woodie Guthrie like the word of God, mixing with older kids and street rats and showing them some nebulous truth that the world and the system are designed to get them, man.
In reality, Eddy's more of a wonderstruck goober with a two-speed bike that's been banged up a few too many times, looking for whatever little bits of magic he can squeeze out of the good old Hollow. He's always looking for some new trick or a new angle, something he can say or an illusion he can pull with his hands that'll make somebody's eyes light up. Maybe something about this same-old town that'll make his eyes light up, too. In some part of his heart, he believes that there's real magic out there. Something ephemeral that flows through all the out of the way, reedy creeks in the world, and in kid's hearts when they see something that honestly and truly fools them.
In Eddy's mind, real connections are for rubes and lovesick idiots. They're avenues for people to make you buy whatever they're selling and for them to turn your whole world around before you even have an inkling of what's coming. Unfortunately, Eddy finds himself the rube more often than not. He falls in fast and hard for those relationships that he believes in, those kids that seem genuinely interested in him and the art and practice of his grift, but he finds himself burned more often than not. An over-excitable tool that gets
way too jazzed about Hindu Shuffles or Sy Stebbins Order or whatever the fuck he's babbling about today. This burn has happened with more people than Eddy likes to think about, misreading the pleasantries and how-do-you-dos that you have with your beer hookup as something real.
BACKGROUND:Eddy's grandfather died before he was born, summoning what dregs of the Walsh clan there were back to the grip of Crestwood Hollow. Eddy's dad always said the town was it's own little whirlpool, always sucking them back, no matter what misfortune befell them. That left Walsh Liquors in the hands of Eddy's Dad and his then-girlfriend from out of town, to keep the store and to fight off whatever squabbling arguments the siblings had over the pittance of an inheritance dear old Dad had left for them.
Eddy was born on a grey, unremarkable day, as the sole child to a quickly failing shotgun marriage. Growing up, Eddy tried not to let the on-again-off-again nature of his parents 'marriage' bother him. Sometimes you stay with Dad, sometimes you stay with Mom, and sometimes, special times, they'd all have a spell together. And this was the way of things, squeezed together in a two-bedroom apartment over the Liquor store, leaving Eddy in his free time to watch the traffic roll by on their little stretch of pavement and dream about what adventures The Hollow might hold for him beyond it.
Eddy's days mostly found themself filled up by TV, most other parents weren't interested in having their kid around that much alcohol that early on. Didn't want to leave a bad impression on their little brats, of course. That left Eddy to books and Dad's old Hendrix stuff, plus whatever re-runs of Doug Henning or The Amazing Randi the TV deigned to show. Eddy found himself absorbed by it, always wandering down to the local Magic Shop, murmuring the words to 'Foxy Lady' while he perused an endless selection of tricks, gags, and illusions.
By now Eddy found himself master of the Magic Shop, beyond whatever tricks and parlances it could offer him, beyond the convenience of a nice part-time job, when he wasn't pulling duty at the family store, anyway. More and more his Dad has kept him there, encouraging him to keep his head down and focus on school, so he could escape this dead-end town one day.
Eddy was never so much concerned with escaping it. He always wondered after it, exploring what nooks and crannies and out of the way vistas he could discover. Small town magic. But that aside, if there was anything that his time in the liqour store has taught him, it was the value of liquid charisma, and just how bad High Schoolers want to get it. With his parents none the wiser, Eddy has set himself up as the principal distributor of all manner of liqours, wines, spirits and beers to the general population of Mather Memorial. No matter what little tricks he pulls, suspensions he earns, or social flubs he commits, that at least will always find him work.
HYPER-HUMAN ABILITIES:Pocket Dimensions (or, as Eddy will like to call it,
The Doors). Eddy has an innate connection to another, well,
space in spacetime, which Eddy will think of as his own personal clubhouse. It is a white, featureless room, about the size of a studio apartment, with no apparent way in or out. With a touch, Eddy can manifest portals to and from his clubhouse at his leisure. He can establish up to three of these portals at a given time, each the size of a standard doorway. Further, Eddy can activate and deactivate these portals at will.
In terms of applications, Eddy could theoretically use his portals to travel great distances by, say, establishing a portal in Tijuana and another in his bedroom, and then taking a short jaunt through his clubhouse. Further, he can use his clubhouse to store all manner of things. Once he discovers this ability, he will likely begin populating it with assorted lawn furniture, as gas generator, and liberal amounts of alcohol.
As far as potential goes, Eddy may find himself able to increase the size of his room, and modify the size of his portals to his liking, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, or big enough to squeeze a car through. Additionally, he may also be able to subdivide this space, separating the room out into multiple sub-rooms or 'sub-dimensions' he could use for various purposes.
In terms of weaknesses, establishing a new portal takes a burst of concentration. Eventually, he could likely overcome this weakness with sufficient practice, but at the moment, he couldn't portal himself out of sticky situations unless he'd established a door in advance. Additionally, Eddy is only human. For whatever cute tricks of movement or quirky items he might produce from his room, Eddy is a vaguely out of shape teen who could be bested by a pack of middle schoolers.
SKILLS AND TALENTS: A trickster, thief, and all-around bastard, Eddy is very skilled with his
hands. Since he was young he's had a fascination in magic -- stage illusions, ball-and-cup trickery, cardistry, and even run of the mill scams have piqued his interest. As a result of endless hours of study, Eddy is supremely gifted in all manner of sleight of hand and pickpocketing, not to mention that he's got a hearty helping of guile. He has a real way of misleading you, cheating you out of everything in your wallet, and making you walk away thinking you were the
real winner there. He has familiarity with just about every brand of scam in the book, from Three Card Monte on, and he more than knows how to make you
see one thing while something else entirely is going on.
4x Laugh
