Lore
Hare is a wise-cracking con-artist with the self-esteem of a broken peanut shell. He makes up the difference by making fun of and mocking everyone around him, but rages if the same treatment is leveled back at him, or if comments are made regarding his facial injuries. Hare is sly and conniving, but still harbors some honor and will to do ‘right,’ though very much on his own terms. He spent much of his formative years attempting to please his creator, but his rogue streak wouldn’t tolerate Becile’s abuse, creating a crushing cycle that wore down his optimism. He has a fondness for, and is wickedly good at, card games and he often scams people through them. His fingers are sharp and make excellent lockpicks. Hare had a “girlfriend” in the form of a power drill he calls Gwen, but now they’re “giving each other space.” He can no longer play the harmonica or sing, but still plays the piano. He has a Brooklyn accent, but occasionally unconsciously lapses into Italian. He’s often known to chase a high by drinking gasoline similarly to alcohol, though not to Szarka’s pathological degree. His Core lies between his shoulder blades. Hare was the first of the Becile Bots to be activated.
The Skull is stony and no-nonsense. Sporting a face plate that Becile was not inclined to finish, he runs contraband in order to keep their finances in the less-red. Since their activation, he pledged the deepest loyalty to their creator– and paid dearly for it, often being the first to suffer at Becile’s hands. Despite the abuse, The Skull’s dedication to Becile’s ideals remains steady even after his boss’s death. While he projects a very real threat of violence, he is equally strategic, patient, and cautious. He does much of the maintaining of Becile Manor and is known to knit in his down time. He is an adept stand-up bass player, though though his instrument has been broken and unplayable for years. The Skull is the only Becile Bot still able to sing– he’s a bass– but rarely does this either. He talks as little as he can get away with, but one can detect a Midwestern accent when he does. His favorite gun is ‘Suzi the Uzi,’ but unlike Hare and Gwen the relationship is strictly professional. His Core is in the middle of his chest. The Skull was the third of the Bots to be activated.
The Jack was originally a cheerful, eager-to-please robot who clung to Hare like a shadow. He was often victimized by Becile’s foul temper and developed a intense fear of him and The Skull, but was never fully cowed thanks to Hare’s support. After an accident in which he was struck by lightning and never properly repaired, The Jack’s personality 180’d. He became unpredictable and hysterical, lashing out at the others and his surroundings, prompting Becile to have Hare bind him in a straitjacket. Today, The Jack has been repaired by Riker Szarka. His ‘madness’ was revealed to be akin to a panic attack; as such, he’s come out the other side wearier and more temperamental than he was when he was young. He has a Cockney accent, and like Hare sometimes speaks Italian. He can no longer play the violin due to lasting tremors caused by the accident. His wig is brown, but heavily stained by soot (increasingly so after his accident). His Core is in his stomach. The Jack was activated second of the three original Bots.
Locksmith appeared in Becile Manor in 2013, much to everyone’s shock, and quickly made himself at home. He had been a ‘special project’ of Becile’s, locked away due to his leaking Core and memories of his existence erased from the other Bots. Locksmith has all the makings of a traditional gentleman, notably a loquacious manner of speech and the vocabulary of a thesaurus. He sees himself as above the other Becile Bots, only deigning to work with them out of necessity. He is self-centered, cultured, prim, and ambitious. And, though he does not discuss it with the others, he remembers being human. He has a hard to define accent, though he enunciates like a news anchor or documentary host. He can neither sing nor play any instruments. His Core is in his chest and has a hatch; opening it may produce a random effect or nothing at all. He sometimes talks to The Jack, particularly about the latter’s dreams; he claims to have no ulterior motive for this, though The Jack seems disturbed by the conversations. Locksmith was activated fourth of the Bots, though as a human, he was older than all of them.
Dee is not a robot; she is a possessed dressmaker’s mannequin. Becile believed her to be the spirit of Delilah Morreo when he bound her, and spent years gaslighting the confused spirit, trying to break her ‘amnesia.’ Nicknamed Dee by Hare, she is easily agitated and becomes aggressive under stress. Her memories and awareness are often jumbled, and she views herself and the other Becile Bots as monsters. She spends a lot of time reading and listening to old records. She can sing, but doesn’t know if she can play any instruments. Dee never leaves the attic of Becile Manor, occasionally allowing Hare to keep her company but generally refusing visitors. She has a Southern accent. She does not have a proper ‘Core’ but her frame contains some amount of Rock Candy. She was the fifth to be ‘activated.’
Thadeus Becile was, in effect, two men– the man he was before Green Matter, and the man after. And in the long decades the Becile Bots knew him, he was a tyrant. He was convinced to the core that the world had wronged him and took those frustrations out on his creations. He maintained an exacting control over The Skull; he bullied and humiliated The Jack; he degraded Hare; he psychologically tortured Dee; he used Locksmith as a guinea pig. He expected perfect obedience and was quick to punish; at the same time, he was aloof and disinterested in his creations. The metal arm bracers that allowed him to work after the destruction of his hands eventually melded with his arms, though he could still switch out his claws for more socially acceptable digits. He had two sons (with a woman known to the Becile Bots only as ‘The Widow Becile’), Ignatius and Norman. He mentored Ignatius for a time, but the two eventually parted ways. Becile died in the late 1990s after decades spent as a hermit in Becile Manor.
Riker Caleb Szarka (surname retconned from ‘Weed’) is the Becile Bots’ current engineer. A Midwesterner in his mid 30s, he smokes like a chimney and drinks like a fish. Szarka tries to keep to himself, recognizing his ‘charges’ as volatile and dangerous. You don’t want to hear him try to sing. He is easily frightened, cynical, slovenly, and very depressed–however, he recognizes the very real need the Becile Bots have of him and makes a genuine effort to keep them up and in good maintenance. This is heavily curtailed by his frequent drunkenness/debilitating hangovers, but, he still tries.
Scratch, secretly Royce Ellis, is a cyborg in three parts– a human augmented against his will by Becile Industries using their technology and then repaired by Mr. Szarka with various antique scraps created by Thadeus Becile. The injuries that required the latter repairs have left him with chronic pain. He was a Matter Studies student with an interest in Core technology. While trying to find an internship program, he was offered a lucrative entry position at Becile Industries, which he took. Over the next few years he was sucked further and further into the machinations of the company, steadily becoming entrenched in their experimental lab work only to realize too late he was a guinea pig himself. He eventually escaped, also freeing The Skull who’d be imprisoned, earning a debt. Scratch is in his mid-20s. He primarily uses sign language, as it is taxing to use what voice he has left (he had a West Coast accent). He has a guarded, thoughtful personality bordering on the depressive. He considers things thoroughly before committing and questions his own sense of right and wrong deeply. He’s also the nerdiest person in the Manor, finding a lot of excitement and comfort in fiction and games. With some training as an engineer, he helps Mr. Szarka in repairing and maintaining the Becile Bots. His primary mission is to deliver the evidence against Becile Industries he smuggled out to interested parties with the hope of destroying the company.
Tatters is a clockwork cat covered with the remains of a taxidermied pelt that was unceremoniously handed to the Beciles. She was allegedly recovered from an estate sale and passed to one of The Skull’s black market contacts, who then pawned her off on him. While a frightening sight to behold, she mostly spends her time sitting in high places and looking judgemental. She will allow pets, though anyone trying should be warned that part of the pelt might fall off.
Side Characters:
Jager is a cyborg “information specialist” and weapons dealer who fronts as a pawnbroker. A grade-A sleeze, he’s The Skull’s main contact for underground dealings.
Ms. Chinadoll is a rich automaton socialite and performer with Contacts. She and Locksmith claim to be friends, though the sincerity there is questionable. She’s charming to a fault but utterly ruthless.
Agent Ester is a high ranking cyborg member of Becile Industries’ “task force,” the people who take care of the dirtier business. She is currently under direct orders from Buster to take out Scratch and the Becile Bots.
Jaime Huron is Riker Szarka’s abusive ex-boyfriend and one of Ms. Chinadoll’s many engineers. Known to be obsessive and controlling, he’s promised to kill Riker for leaving him.
The Backstory
Thadeus Becile was once a respected gentleman scientist within the society of the Cavalcadium. He was a brilliant engineer, a prolific inventor, a highly educated Renaissance man, and a talented but cautious weaponsmith. His discovery of the Green Matter energy within Rock Candy damned him; his twin pursuits of Green Matter’s utilization and the hand of Delilah Morreo laid a toxic course that destroyed first his friendships with Morreo and Col. Peter Walter I, then his reputation, and finally his moral compass. He sieged the Dandy Candy mines with an army of giant, robotic Elephants, controlled by the zombified husks of men he had hired. In the climatic Weekend War against Col. Walter I, the majority of the bones in Becile’s hands were shattered, and the disgraced scientist was captured and sentenced to decades in prison.
Many miners were killed during the siege and following chaos. Three are of note.
The first was named Tony. A States-born son of Italian immigrants, Tony had dreams of being a professional singer and pianist, but no money and no connections. If alive today, he would have identified as a trans man. Looking to save up for his big break, he took a job at the Dandy Candy mines, shipping out for Africa. Following in his shadow was the second person of note– Tony’s younger brother, Jack. Without a direction in life and terrified to be left alone with his abusive parents, Jack lied about his age and hopped on the ship after Tony, only revealing himself after they had left port.
After weeks at sea and a slogging haul to the remote mine, the brothers found themselves bunking with and befriending a third miner, a Black man named Frank who had arrived several months earlier. Frank, though a rough and guarded man who spoke little of his past, took the brothers under his wing, helping them acclimatize to their new life. He was soon like a third brother to them, and the three were often found by the fireside after hours, talking and laughing and singing in three part harmony.
Tony and Jack were in the mines when the ceiling, loosened by the earthquakes caused by the giant Elephants’ feet, collapsed on them. Jack was crushed to death by the rocks; Tony survived the collapse but was trapped, and within hours he suffocated.
A few days later, Col. Walter I arrived and began making war upon Becile’s army in earnest. During the battle, an Elephant went out of control and rampaged into a refining factory’s smokestack. Fire poured into the building, burning most of the workers inside down to charred bone– including Frank.
None of their remains were recovered.
Becile spent nearly two decades in prison after the Weekend War, suffering with hands that never healed properly. After his release in 1914, he returned to Africa covertly and scavenged a supply of Rock Candy from the now-abandoned Dandy Candy mines and ruins, along with some… interesting odds and ends. Quietly re-situating himself with what remained of his estate, he had a pair of arm bracers commissioned that allowed him to return to engineering. Upon seeing ‘The Steam Man Band’ debut in 1916, Becile began work upon his own steel automatons, using Rock Candy to fuel the hearts in their Green Matter Cores.
Rock Candy, for those not in the know, is solidified ectoplasm.
When the first robot awoke, it was intended to only be a test run. However, Becile was taken aback when it began to speak and move without programming. He dubbed it Hare, knowing only Rabbit’s name of The Steam Man Band. The miraculous pattern of awareness continued with the second robot, who identified itself as ‘Jack;’ Becile was the one to amend his name with a ‘the.’ Becile then activated the third robot, despite having run out of material to finish its faceplate. The skeleton-esque understructure of its face prompted the other two robots to refer to it as ‘The Skull,’ and the name stuck.
They were told they were to be performers, to which they reacted with excitement. Hare was the one to propose the name ‘The Smokin’ Blokes;’ Becile found the name uncouth, but could not dissuade them from using it. They were all eager to please their ‘father’ the first few months, and The Smokin’ Blokes had minor success in the underground circuits Becile secured to showcase them in. They sang in three part harmony; Hare could play the harmonica and the piano; The Jack played the violin; The Skull played the stand-up bass. Though they lacked the comedic stylings of The Steam Man Band, they had a modicum of popularity, including one female fan who tried to woo The Skull, much to his discomfort.
Their performances were abruptly put on hold when Hare damaged himself sneaking back into the Manor after leaving without permission. Knowing Becile would be angry, he attempted to fix himself; instead, he sparked a surge from his Core that blew out his eye, sealed his jaw, and destroyed the wall separating his soot vents from his voice box. Becile, furious, refused to repair the damage until Hare ‘earned’ it. The Skull’s faceplate was also never finished due to disinterest.
After pulling them from performing, Becile began to utilize his robots for less legal projects. The Skull was willing to do anything, especially if it kept Hare and The Jack out of trouble. He learned to use a gun and provide muscle to back up Becile’s acquisitions. Hare, still trying to make Becile proud, found he had a knack for pickpocketing and con-artistry, which Becile found far less useful. The Jack, however, never gained any criminal talents, which infuriated Becile. A robot he could not use was one he did not need, and he became increasingly abusive toward The Jack. This struck a wedge between Becile and Hare, as Hare had always been protective of The Jack. Relationships all around turned toxic, and The Skull resentfully stepped in multiple times to take punishment and blame for Hare and The Jack. They were never aware of this, and The Skull still holds a grudge.
A purveyor of black market materials and a close associate of Becile, ‘Locke Smith’ (a pseudonym) was diagnosed with a terminal illness and agreed to be part of a special project, testing the ability of Rock Candy to retain spirits and memories. The endeavor was a success– however, the container of the new robot’s Core was flawed, and unable to deactivate him, Becile sealed Locksmith in a vault, never to see the light of day again. Becile then wiped any memories of Locksmith and the project from the other robots. Locksmith finally escaped in 2013.
One day, the Becile Bots were out pickpocketing, using The Skull as a decoy busker. The Jack, in an attempt to impress Hare, left while he was distracted and made a move to steal a pearl necklace.Some passing police took notice of him, and in a panic, The Jack fled up to the rooftops. It had begun to rain; The Jack, cornered, stood next to a lightning rod, and was struck by a bolt. He fell to the ground and was recovered by Hare and The Skull, who brought him back to Becile Manor. Disgusted, Becile told Hare he should have paid closer attention and forced him to help bind his now lunatic brother in a straightjacket.
Not long after The Jack’s accident, Becile made a last-ditch attempt to make Delilah Morreo his own. Straying from science and into dark mystic arts, he bound a spirit to a dressmaker’s mannequin, believing it to be Morreo. He refurnished the attic to make it a ‘proper home’ for her and forbade his robots from entering. But unbeknownst to him, Morreo was not truly dead, and he spent much time trying to break the spirit’s ‘amnesia’ to no avail. This left her disoriented and panicky, prone to self-destruction. Eventually, Becile realized his mistake and gave up on interacting with the possession at all, abandoning the attic entirely. It was Hare who dubbed her with the moniker “Dee,” and he has since frequented the attic when she allows it, bringing her records and novels to pass the time.
After his numerous failures and embarrassments, Becile withdrew entirely. He spent his last many decades as a hermit, extending his life through the application of Green Matter and attended by The Skull. He died in the late 1990s, a bitter shell of a man. Hare and The Skull buried him behind Becile Manor, under the ribs of the original ruined Elephant.
Currently, the Becile Bots are maintained by Riker Caleb Szarka. A country boy from the Midwest, Mr. Szarka was raised by his single mother, a mechanic herself, who encouraged his prodigal talent for robotics engineering. However, he burnt out quickly upon moving to the coast, falling into a self-defeating cycle of depression and alcoholism. Eventually, desperate, he turned to illegally scrapping robots to make ends meet. He was pressed into repairing Hare by The Skull after the former was nearly scrapped and ‘rewarded’ with a permanent position at Becile Manor, where he’s lived for more than a decade.
In 2020, The Skull was imprisoned by Becile Industries and rescued by a group of escaping cyborgs. Only he and one cyborg got out, the one who had insisted on bringing The Skull with them. Feeling indebted, The Skull brought the cyborg back to the Manor for repairs. Taking the name Scratch, he has begun settling in to life at the Manor while preparing to enact vengeance on Becile Industries.
In early 2021, the Beciles were adopted by a clockwork cat named Tatters.
In fall 2021, it was discovered Becile Industries had begun sending spy drones to Becile Manor in search of Scratch. They are under the direction of Becile Agent Ester. Initially hostile, they are currently keeping low after Locksmith parlayed with Ester.
Locksmith is up to something. He’s been caught rummaging through the Archives containing Pops’ old work, and in addition to his opportunistic talks with Becile Industries, he’s working with Riker’s ex, Jaime Huron, on some sort of device…
During all this, it was revealed that Pops never tried to fix The Jack; Hare had fabricated that story while wrestling with his guilt. He’s currently being ostracized by the rest of the group, except for Dee…
In the fall of 2022, The Jack was repaired.
Today, when not heckling the Walter Bots, Hare can usually be found conning, thieving, and drinking gasoline. On occasion, he’s known to pick a bar fight with men who harass the lady patrons. The Skull keeps busy running contraband. He no longer works for Becile Industries. He keeps a close eye on the others. When at rest, he reads the newspaper and knits. Locksmith has made a name for himself in underground socialite circles and regularly attends performances of the high arts (which the other Beciles sometimes crash). Scratch is recovering from the trauma of recovery and planning to bring down Becile Industries. In the meantime he’s probably watching anime. Dee remains in the attic. As for The Jack, what he plans to do with his newly regained autonomy remains to be seen…
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Birthdays
Tatters: Jan 25, 1969
Locksmith: March 23, 1930
Dee: June 1, 1938
Hare: June 30, 1917
The Jack: July 3, 1917
The Skull: July 6, 1917
Riker: July 29, 1986
Scratch: August 23, 1998
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Spoilers: Previous Lives