Tobias Matthews (Toby) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rockandrollvampire) wrote2019-04-18 10:26 am
rockandrollvampire) wrote2019-04-18 10:26 am
Background
Basically a canon roundup, with some headcanon thrown in to round out who this cynical old vampire is.
The Basics
Canon: Confessions of Dorian Gray (from Big Finish Productions)
Name: Tobias Matthews (Toby to his friends)
Age: 286 (as of the end of 2018)
Hair: Short-ish, sandy blonde, a near constant mess
Eyes: Pale Blue
Height: 6'0"
Key Personality Traits: Cynical, sulky, nerdy, easily excitable
Favored Clothing Style: Relaxed and heavily filled with denim (example here)
Quote that captures the essence of Toby: "Aw, Toby. You're a nice guy, but sometimes you're kind of a dumbass." -Abby 'Absinthe' Summers (cotyledon)
Canon Summary
In 1724, a young, human Toby snuck out of his mother's house to visit a traveling circus that had come to town. He was utterly fascinated by everything he saw that night and by a man named Ivor, who worked behind the scenes and showed the young Toby all the secrets hidden outside of the main tent. When he returned a second night to enjoy the circus and meet his mysterious new friend again, Toby was attacked by what he was told was a bear, his chest torn open before he was left to die. Ivor found him, promising help with a single question, "Do you want to live?" To which Toby quickly replied, "I don't want to die." That was the night that he became a vampire. But after teaching him to hunt that first, Ivor vanished along with the traveling circus before the following night. Toby trailed the circus for the time, but the vampire had disappeared and no one knew where his sire had gone.
Fast forward to the 1980's. Specifically, 1986. The immortal Dorian Gray walks into a party in Whitby, and Toby springs his trap to ensnare the man he's heard whispers of for so long. It takes weeks of chasing on Dorian's part as the vampire leads the man on, but eventually Toby takes Dorian home to tell him his secret. What falls out of a night of heavy drinking and Dorian witnessing Toby's grotesque nature is a relationship neither of them truly expected. The cynical pair became best friends and lovers, completing each other in ways that seemed impossible before. In Dorian, Toby found a companion who wanted adventure and fun, someone who had read at least as many books as he had (even if their taste in authors was vastly different), and someone he could feed on without having to kill. In Toby, Dorian found someone who brought beauty back into his life, not just through his pretty face, but also with the visceral high and expansion of his mind through a vampire's bite - and the intimate connection between him and his lover. The two completed each other in a way only two immortals ever could, but it wasn't quite enough for Toby.
After agreeing, very reluctantly, to allowing Dorian to paint a portrait of him some months into their relationship, Toby's mood changed drastically. He no longer wanted to bite Dorian or to indulge in any of their other favorite activities together. Instead he insisted on a car trip, one without a destination in mind. Dorian of course agreed and the two went off the following weekend seeking adventure. They stopped at a secluded beach to sit and swim under the stars for a time together. That's when Toby confessed that seeing the picture of the dead man he was had reminded him that all around him he saw only decay where Dorian saw beauty. The two lived separate lives beside each other, and Toby could no longer stand by and drag Dorian through that. Devastated, Dorian asked for Toby's last wish, and the two sat up on a cliff to watch the sun rise together for the first - and last - time. Toby turned to dust in his boyfriend's arms, his last words a declaration of love for Dorian.
Then, much to the surprise of both Toby and Dorian, the vampire returned from the dead in the year 2014 when Dorian pulled a mystical tarot card that promised to bring him his Heart's Desire. Dorian was rightfully angry with his former lover for leaving him behind the way he had (his own cynicism had grown immensely in 30 years), but the two managed to work things out. After tearing down Ivor, who had been feeding a siren a human heart (minus Toby's, as Ivor had decided at the last second he couldn't do it to the boy back in 1724) for hundreds of years to keep his traveling circus a success, the lovers reunited over a series of strange events that ended with the destruction of the Lowell Foundation and some of its key players.
The next year and some odd months were downright blissful for the two immortals - up until Christmas 2015. After hearing rumor of a hotel that only appeared every year at Christmas called The Brigadoon, Toby talked Dorian into visiting the place for the night as a treat. What they found when they arrived was worse than either of them could have imagined. The hotel was haunted, with the souls of the dead and damned trapped inside playing out various scenarios that were meant to keep any guests from reaching the top floor and leaving the hotel alive. The two fought all the way through to find a manifestation of Lucifer waiting for them. The demon, or whatever it truly was, made them an offer to leave and to return Dorian's lost soul, on the condition that it get a ride out in Dorian's soulless body along the way. Toby begged Dorian to ignore the offer despite knowing they would both be trapped in the hotel forever going forward, but the immortal agreed to the terms in exchange for getting out with his boyfriend and having his soul again as he continued to live as he had since the fateful deal that had bound him to his portrait. But as happens with deals with the devil, things weren't completely as they seemed.
Unbeknownst to the lovers, Toby's return to the world had come with an unexpected bonus: Dorian's soul had been residing in Toby's body since the vampire came back from the dead, a pre-planned gift from Lucifer to make way for this very event. When the pair escaped from the cursed hotel, Dorian reclaimed his soul from Toby, leaving the vampire's body open to possession. Lucifer took advantage of this, claiming a body that didn't need to give consent to possession and stealing off into the night after choking the life from Dorian when the man finally realized that it wasn't his boyfriend in bed with him. There was no more Tobias Matthews, Lucifer claimed, and it was time to rain Hell down on Earth.
**NOTE: Big Finish is releasing a new audio play that follows up with Dorian after the events at the Brigadoon. This version of Toby will not be affected by this as it's been made clear through the synopsis already given that Dorian believes Toby is dead.
Headcanon (to fill in the gaps)
- Toby's father died when he was quite young, and he was raised almost exclusively by his mother and uncles. With boys of their own to content themselves with and Toby's not-so-great health, the young boy wasn't allowed to participate in the usual manly activities of the day such as hunting. Instead he learned to play piano and occupied his time with reading and tutors, as was befitting for a boy born into the lower end of aristocratic society. It wasn't something Toby particularly cared for, and he often found himself escaping into books or sneaking out at night to avoid interacting with his overbearing mother.
- Most of Toby's life up until the invention of the automobile involved finding wealthy patrons - female and male - to latch onto for support. He used them mainly for financial stability, though the temptations of the flesh were never something he passed up once he realized how easy it made getting around in society. He got very good at charming anyone in his path over time, and began to rely less and less on his vampiric abilities to minimize the risk of being caught over the years. Any time he believed he was on the edge of discovery, he moved on from a place, disappearing into the night with everything he could stuff into a bag with him.
- Toby falls squarely in the camp of bisexual when it comes to his orientation, but he's far more interested in men than in women. Aside from his relationship with Dorian, though, he's never once had a true partnership. If he wasn't using them to stay alive early in his life, he was using them to keep himself busy to stave off the boredom and loneliness.
- His life was a nomadic one out of necessity until technology caught up enough to leave him reasonably distanced and abandoned places to claim as his own. When left on his own, Toby has a fondness for abandoned churches for housing. It's in part because of the irony, but also because of how beautiful, well-kept, and isolated they usually are. With the use of only a little charm, he can easily have "helpers" clear away the religious paraphernalia that prevent him from entering (crosses, ugh) and then either help himself to a meal or let them go without any memory of having been in his employ.
- Before he and Dorian met, Toby sought out every rumor about the ever-young immortal he could get. Before he began to personally stalk the man, he often sent people under his thrall to meet with Dorian to learn everything he could about him. This laid the groundwork for the hard-to-get seduction he laid out for Dorian, and why he was so certain it would work without fail - hook, line, and sinker.
- Following the loss of Dorian's soul and control over his own body, Toby was released when Lucifer found a more agreeable vessel (Lucifer noted in All Around The House that there was some extra work required to use Toby in the first place). Lost, and without any place to call home, Toby felt the immense loss of the connection he and Dorian shared while they were literal soulmates following his return in 2014. Grieving, heart broken, and not wanting to risk any further harm to the man he loved more than anything else in his entire, achingly long life, the vampire picked up his old habits of charming people into giving him money and a place to stay, and began to build a new life. He's settled in a small, corner flat in London now, his windows shuttered against all intrusion of light and his make-shift home filled with game consoles, books, and a small electronic keyboard someone left out in his alley with a "FREE" sign on it. It's not much of a life, but he gets his nightly bottle of whiskey for free and has all his utilities - internet included - hooked up without anyone the wiser for it. And until he figures out what to do next, he'll make do with it.
Characters Notes
- Toby, despite his age, is very much a kid at heart. He loves video games, rocking out to 80's music, and "pwning" noobs in every game (usually shooters) he can get his hands on.
- It is canon that an excited Toby will fall down the stairs in his rush to get to something new that he wants/has been promised. Christmas gifts are really exciting, okay.
- Despite how excited and loud he can get about everyone else's goings on, Toby is fairly private person. Part of that comes from being a vampire and not wanting to give away that secret, but it's also a learned habit. Breaking it isn't something he's looking to do. Ever.
- Feelings are Toby's true enemy. He hates having them, addressing them, and talking about them. Prodding him to talk about them earns a very sullen, and often drunk, vampire.
- His romanticism has waned after losing Dorian, but love stories between mortals tug at his heart. Mortals get the whole cycle of life, and he thinks it's beautiful that they can share the experience with others.
- Smoking and drinking are his two biggest vices, but he'd say pizza and Madonna are the next on that list.
- Despite a few years of practice with it, the internet is still really hard for Toby. If he asks about a site called "Instapics" or "Chatter", please know this is as close to "Instagram" and "Twitter" as this old man is currently able to get. At least he knows what they are??
- Know that person who the universe is constantly kicking? Who's always the butt end of a bad joke? That's Toby. Much of his cynicism comes from being fucked over by the universe so much when he's just trying to make his way through his life.
If you have any questions, feel free to send me a DM! I'm happy to answer inquiries about this ridiculous old nerd.
The Basics
Canon: Confessions of Dorian Gray (from Big Finish Productions)
Name: Tobias Matthews (Toby to his friends)
Age: 286 (as of the end of 2018)
Hair: Short-ish, sandy blonde, a near constant mess
Eyes: Pale Blue
Height: 6'0"
Key Personality Traits: Cynical, sulky, nerdy, easily excitable
Favored Clothing Style: Relaxed and heavily filled with denim (example here)
Quote that captures the essence of Toby: "Aw, Toby. You're a nice guy, but sometimes you're kind of a dumbass." -Abby 'Absinthe' Summers (
cotyledon)Canon Summary
In 1724, a young, human Toby snuck out of his mother's house to visit a traveling circus that had come to town. He was utterly fascinated by everything he saw that night and by a man named Ivor, who worked behind the scenes and showed the young Toby all the secrets hidden outside of the main tent. When he returned a second night to enjoy the circus and meet his mysterious new friend again, Toby was attacked by what he was told was a bear, his chest torn open before he was left to die. Ivor found him, promising help with a single question, "Do you want to live?" To which Toby quickly replied, "I don't want to die." That was the night that he became a vampire. But after teaching him to hunt that first, Ivor vanished along with the traveling circus before the following night. Toby trailed the circus for the time, but the vampire had disappeared and no one knew where his sire had gone.
Fast forward to the 1980's. Specifically, 1986. The immortal Dorian Gray walks into a party in Whitby, and Toby springs his trap to ensnare the man he's heard whispers of for so long. It takes weeks of chasing on Dorian's part as the vampire leads the man on, but eventually Toby takes Dorian home to tell him his secret. What falls out of a night of heavy drinking and Dorian witnessing Toby's grotesque nature is a relationship neither of them truly expected. The cynical pair became best friends and lovers, completing each other in ways that seemed impossible before. In Dorian, Toby found a companion who wanted adventure and fun, someone who had read at least as many books as he had (even if their taste in authors was vastly different), and someone he could feed on without having to kill. In Toby, Dorian found someone who brought beauty back into his life, not just through his pretty face, but also with the visceral high and expansion of his mind through a vampire's bite - and the intimate connection between him and his lover. The two completed each other in a way only two immortals ever could, but it wasn't quite enough for Toby.
After agreeing, very reluctantly, to allowing Dorian to paint a portrait of him some months into their relationship, Toby's mood changed drastically. He no longer wanted to bite Dorian or to indulge in any of their other favorite activities together. Instead he insisted on a car trip, one without a destination in mind. Dorian of course agreed and the two went off the following weekend seeking adventure. They stopped at a secluded beach to sit and swim under the stars for a time together. That's when Toby confessed that seeing the picture of the dead man he was had reminded him that all around him he saw only decay where Dorian saw beauty. The two lived separate lives beside each other, and Toby could no longer stand by and drag Dorian through that. Devastated, Dorian asked for Toby's last wish, and the two sat up on a cliff to watch the sun rise together for the first - and last - time. Toby turned to dust in his boyfriend's arms, his last words a declaration of love for Dorian.
Then, much to the surprise of both Toby and Dorian, the vampire returned from the dead in the year 2014 when Dorian pulled a mystical tarot card that promised to bring him his Heart's Desire. Dorian was rightfully angry with his former lover for leaving him behind the way he had (his own cynicism had grown immensely in 30 years), but the two managed to work things out. After tearing down Ivor, who had been feeding a siren a human heart (minus Toby's, as Ivor had decided at the last second he couldn't do it to the boy back in 1724) for hundreds of years to keep his traveling circus a success, the lovers reunited over a series of strange events that ended with the destruction of the Lowell Foundation and some of its key players.
The next year and some odd months were downright blissful for the two immortals - up until Christmas 2015. After hearing rumor of a hotel that only appeared every year at Christmas called The Brigadoon, Toby talked Dorian into visiting the place for the night as a treat. What they found when they arrived was worse than either of them could have imagined. The hotel was haunted, with the souls of the dead and damned trapped inside playing out various scenarios that were meant to keep any guests from reaching the top floor and leaving the hotel alive. The two fought all the way through to find a manifestation of Lucifer waiting for them. The demon, or whatever it truly was, made them an offer to leave and to return Dorian's lost soul, on the condition that it get a ride out in Dorian's soulless body along the way. Toby begged Dorian to ignore the offer despite knowing they would both be trapped in the hotel forever going forward, but the immortal agreed to the terms in exchange for getting out with his boyfriend and having his soul again as he continued to live as he had since the fateful deal that had bound him to his portrait. But as happens with deals with the devil, things weren't completely as they seemed.
Unbeknownst to the lovers, Toby's return to the world had come with an unexpected bonus: Dorian's soul had been residing in Toby's body since the vampire came back from the dead, a pre-planned gift from Lucifer to make way for this very event. When the pair escaped from the cursed hotel, Dorian reclaimed his soul from Toby, leaving the vampire's body open to possession. Lucifer took advantage of this, claiming a body that didn't need to give consent to possession and stealing off into the night after choking the life from Dorian when the man finally realized that it wasn't his boyfriend in bed with him. There was no more Tobias Matthews, Lucifer claimed, and it was time to rain Hell down on Earth.
**NOTE: Big Finish is releasing a new audio play that follows up with Dorian after the events at the Brigadoon. This version of Toby will not be affected by this as it's been made clear through the synopsis already given that Dorian believes Toby is dead.
Headcanon (to fill in the gaps)
- Toby's father died when he was quite young, and he was raised almost exclusively by his mother and uncles. With boys of their own to content themselves with and Toby's not-so-great health, the young boy wasn't allowed to participate in the usual manly activities of the day such as hunting. Instead he learned to play piano and occupied his time with reading and tutors, as was befitting for a boy born into the lower end of aristocratic society. It wasn't something Toby particularly cared for, and he often found himself escaping into books or sneaking out at night to avoid interacting with his overbearing mother.
- Most of Toby's life up until the invention of the automobile involved finding wealthy patrons - female and male - to latch onto for support. He used them mainly for financial stability, though the temptations of the flesh were never something he passed up once he realized how easy it made getting around in society. He got very good at charming anyone in his path over time, and began to rely less and less on his vampiric abilities to minimize the risk of being caught over the years. Any time he believed he was on the edge of discovery, he moved on from a place, disappearing into the night with everything he could stuff into a bag with him.
- Toby falls squarely in the camp of bisexual when it comes to his orientation, but he's far more interested in men than in women. Aside from his relationship with Dorian, though, he's never once had a true partnership. If he wasn't using them to stay alive early in his life, he was using them to keep himself busy to stave off the boredom and loneliness.
- His life was a nomadic one out of necessity until technology caught up enough to leave him reasonably distanced and abandoned places to claim as his own. When left on his own, Toby has a fondness for abandoned churches for housing. It's in part because of the irony, but also because of how beautiful, well-kept, and isolated they usually are. With the use of only a little charm, he can easily have "helpers" clear away the religious paraphernalia that prevent him from entering (crosses, ugh) and then either help himself to a meal or let them go without any memory of having been in his employ.
- Before he and Dorian met, Toby sought out every rumor about the ever-young immortal he could get. Before he began to personally stalk the man, he often sent people under his thrall to meet with Dorian to learn everything he could about him. This laid the groundwork for the hard-to-get seduction he laid out for Dorian, and why he was so certain it would work without fail - hook, line, and sinker.
- Following the loss of Dorian's soul and control over his own body, Toby was released when Lucifer found a more agreeable vessel (Lucifer noted in All Around The House that there was some extra work required to use Toby in the first place). Lost, and without any place to call home, Toby felt the immense loss of the connection he and Dorian shared while they were literal soulmates following his return in 2014. Grieving, heart broken, and not wanting to risk any further harm to the man he loved more than anything else in his entire, achingly long life, the vampire picked up his old habits of charming people into giving him money and a place to stay, and began to build a new life. He's settled in a small, corner flat in London now, his windows shuttered against all intrusion of light and his make-shift home filled with game consoles, books, and a small electronic keyboard someone left out in his alley with a "FREE" sign on it. It's not much of a life, but he gets his nightly bottle of whiskey for free and has all his utilities - internet included - hooked up without anyone the wiser for it. And until he figures out what to do next, he'll make do with it.
Characters Notes
- Toby, despite his age, is very much a kid at heart. He loves video games, rocking out to 80's music, and "pwning" noobs in every game (usually shooters) he can get his hands on.
- It is canon that an excited Toby will fall down the stairs in his rush to get to something new that he wants/has been promised. Christmas gifts are really exciting, okay.
- Despite how excited and loud he can get about everyone else's goings on, Toby is fairly private person. Part of that comes from being a vampire and not wanting to give away that secret, but it's also a learned habit. Breaking it isn't something he's looking to do. Ever.
- Feelings are Toby's true enemy. He hates having them, addressing them, and talking about them. Prodding him to talk about them earns a very sullen, and often drunk, vampire.
- His romanticism has waned after losing Dorian, but love stories between mortals tug at his heart. Mortals get the whole cycle of life, and he thinks it's beautiful that they can share the experience with others.
- Smoking and drinking are his two biggest vices, but he'd say pizza and Madonna are the next on that list.
- Despite a few years of practice with it, the internet is still really hard for Toby. If he asks about a site called "Instapics" or "Chatter", please know this is as close to "Instagram" and "Twitter" as this old man is currently able to get. At least he knows what they are??
- Know that person who the universe is constantly kicking? Who's always the butt end of a bad joke? That's Toby. Much of his cynicism comes from being fucked over by the universe so much when he's just trying to make his way through his life.
If you have any questions, feel free to send me a DM! I'm happy to answer inquiries about this ridiculous old nerd.