Todd

Todds are facilitators and handlers that have an human trapped in an inebriated Aware state,<ref name=NOC> Their old leader was a ‘Tod’. Tods are goblins specializing in befriending and managing a perpetually inebriated human (or Othered human, through drink/drugs) as their imaginary friend. This human (referred to as a ‘Barney’) was a way for their group to launder money/handle simple tasks/and pay rent. - [8.a Bonus New Other Correspondence #1]</ref> that when it does end leaves the human innocent and generally unaware of what happened when they 'blacked out'. The Barney is not meant to be reusable.<ref name="pa9.2"/>

They tend to stick with one barney for a long time but can change around as they wish and can work in teams with more Todds and Barneys.<ref> - BARNEYS & TODS</ref>

Appearances

Tend to be the cuter types of goblin, which isn't saying much.<ref>Tods are goblins, but maintain somewhat more cartoonish appearances, and may have animal features or bold colors to their bodies. They maintain cheerier attitudes (at least on the face of things) and often wear human clothing or accessories, sloppy and often matched to the Barney; loose ties, boxer shorts, misbuttoned tops. Their appearance and nature is often by natural selection: scary or ugly Tods will scare off or depress a potential Barney and won’t easily help them reach their full potential. - BARNEYS & TODS</ref><ref name="pa9.2"/> They tend to be the thing that could be written off as having been an hallucination after whatever binge their barney was on wears off. There's a reason they can be known as pink elephants or blue mice.

Art & Abilities

Theirs is a symbiotic and easily be a parasitic relationship between Goblin and temporary Other.

Any potential Barney will be in such a position that getting a goblin "best friend" for an indeterminable amount of time would only be an improvement.<ref name="pa9.2">“Ahem, my wheelhouse, I suppose,” the stout goblin replied. “Some goblins partner with humans who’ve had enough drink to tip over into being Other, at least temporarily.”

“Otherness can be temporary? Super cool,” Verona replied.

Lucy tapped Verona’s side with her elbow.

“It requires a special case. A stint of drinking that tests and pushes human limits and severs connections to all things. A goblin can hop on board to be the imaginary friend, the pilot, the remover of roadblocks. It’s an art form, a partnership meant to be, where the goblin pilot, the Tod, is nothing without its Barney, the Barney a fleeting mess without its Tod, but together they spin legends.”

“The goblin’s an enabler?” Avery asked.

“My dear, by the time someone’s prepared to leave humanity behind and become a Barney, the idea of enabling as you understand it is a bridge that’s been burned and long forgotten.”

“I’d like to think there’s always a way back to health.”

“Indeed, yes. Sometimes that way back starts from rock bottom, and sobering up at the end of a Barney-and-Tod binge is a special kind of rock bottom. In another country, retracing steps from blacked out days, weeks, or months, learning you had, ahem, dates with a string of washed-up celebrities, tipped the initial domino in felling an international drug cartel, and seeded a new religion, with one or all events commemorated with brand new tattoos. [...] Toadswallow added, “Once the Barney sobers up, they don’t go back to whatever they were imbibing. The Tod must find another. Biscuit here wants to learn to become a Tod, so we’re looking.”

Biscuit was a goblin not all that much bigger than Cherrypop, and weirdly on the not-offensive-looking side of goblindom, with makeup on and clothes possibly stolen from dolls. She looked pretty hyper at the prospect. - Excerpt from Shaking Hands 9.2</ref>

They have to be skilled at managing their charges, it takes roughly three weeks to get a barney really going, and tend to have one use items that can get the Berney going again if they run down.

The Todd usually relies on the Barney to fight, a human combining Otherness and Innocence is a formidable opponent.

Known Todds

• Shitface<ref name=NOC/><ref>Gogglegrog. It’s made of eye icky-rous and diabetic urine, fermented. It’s my first try.”
  
  ...
  
  “It’s a special beer goggles effect. It’ll get you so drunk, and it’ll make everyone pretty. Even Cherrypop!”
  
  ...
  
  “I’ve also got this one, it’s called Skull. Gotta drink it quick, it’ll make you want to die, and you’ll be such a mess erryone will think you’re dead. Then bam! You get up! Not dead! They can pull you outta the river where you’ve been floating face down for the last hour and you’ll be alive!
  
  ...
  
  “Hair of the dog for some fightin’ fury?” Biscuit asked. “Never made it but I could. Time Travel Juice? Even our ol’ goblin gangboss Shitface couldn’t make that one, but I could try!”- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.4</ref>
• Biscuit (tentative)<ref name="pa9.2"/>
• Fuddy<ref>Tracee, in her early teens, was just young enough to hold onto some wisps of believing in fantastical things and imaginary friends, but old enough to be a teenager and join the very fringes of her older cousin's friend group, who partied and got trashed pretty regularly. Irresponsible older kids pushed her to her limits and over the course of a spring break, motivated by a desire to fit in and not be the odd one out, she went all in. And then she kept going.
  
  Fuddy found her and began to play along with her, giving her ideas for crazy stuff to do. Somewhere along the line, egged on by her new friend, Tracee wandered away from the party on what became a seven day and seven night quest through the bad end of town to find a cute boy she saw. In the process she stole a motorcycle, crashed a motorcycle, and raided a pharmacy for sugar and things to amp herself up. Realizing she needed bus fare, she snuck onto an armored truck that was loading ATMs, and when she tried to fight her way free, her bag and pockets stuffed with bundles of bills, she got pepper sprayed. In the struggle, she managed to turn the spray back on the security officer, before escaping. She gave bundles of cash away to homeless people, got alcohol to numb the pain, and gathered a small army around herself. She reached the point of not needing to eat, drink or sleep, instead striking balances with different quantities of foraged substances, helped and encouraged all the while by Fuddy.
  
  The bender ended after about a week, when she coincidentally stumbled on the boy, vomited on him, and the spell broke, leaving her in another continent with about thirty thousand dollars. It's been eight years since then, and she knows things are weird...
  
  Tracee doesn't heal normally anymore, and life is hard. If she gets hurt, she feels the hurt for a while, and the pattern holds. Drugs and drink are much more effective on her and very easy for her to find, and have beneficial effects well beyond their usual, including strength, sustenance, and healing. Further, when she imbibes, she feels more of a connection to the fantastical, to Others and practices, stumbling on them more easily. It's a dangerous threshold she stands across, where life is dreary and painful, everything a struggle, and the fantastical so wild, alluring, and even powerful. - Wildbow on Discord</ref>
• Tag Team Todds<ref>Scrunchie is a 56 year old triple divorcee nicknamed for a hair tie he borrowed from a woman to tie his hair back before beating the tar out of a roomful of younger dudes. His veins run with piss, vinegar, and a blood alcohol level high enough to transfer from skin and kill most kids if he were to bump into them on the street, and that was before a duo of Todds found him. The bender began like many others- well, not really, since it involved a lot of people being punched- but it quickly derailed when they left a drug storehouse with two duffel bags full of the coke meant for sale to the whole county and came across a group of Fae in human guises.
  
  Long story short, Scrunchie was steered after them and proceeded to wreak havoc, break Fae noses, and follow them into the Fae wilds, where he continued a stream of wanton destruction. He faced down a Fae noble but was ultimately foiled by a young Fae child, who tricked him into leaving.
  
  Scrunchie is off limits for Todds now. There was a whole thing, but he's Aware now, and a pattern has taken hold. The supernatural naturally gathers close to him, building up in pressure, plans, systems, finding it karmically easy to do what they do in his neighborhood. But when he slips from his sobriety, not helped by the cumulative stress of noticing more and more echoes, possessing spirits, fae, and whatever else, never being believed... he becomes a wrecking ball for all plans, practices, schemes, and whatever else the Others and practitioners may be building. - Wildbow on Discord</ref>

Trivia

• The editors of this wiki in no way endorse intoxicants.

References

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