Theodore Fallon

Teddy
Known Associates	Kemetic Solutions
Guild	Balimora
Physical Description
Gender	Male

Teddy is an employee of Kemetic Solutions who worked to open a door into the magical world.

Personality

Teddy speaks with a Southern accent, often slowly and with emphasis. He works with Kemetic Solutions in retrieving and experimenting on magically adept individuals, suggesting that he has few moral qualms. Despite this, his personal logs indicate he does feel some sense of remorse towards his subjects - noting that he hopes to "do better by" Aether than he did an individual from his past.

Biography

Phase Three

Teddy first appeared in Fragment Ten in a video altered by Aether. Recruits could hear him calling Aether and requesting to meet, then him asking Aether to use magiq to peer into his phone's camera. At some point Teddy told Aether, "I believe you could find a family with us. A family, Aether. Perhaps for the first time in your life. No, we have no interest in changing your mind, but with your mind, we will change everything." He then kidnapped Aether and took him to Kemetic Solutions' underground facility where he tested Aether's magiqal abilities. Using the materials from Fragment Four - Brandon Lachmann's path to escape to the magiqal world - Teddy hoped to open a door into the world of magiq.

Aether's Escape

On April 27th, in an experiment in which Teddy asked Aether to use his mind to envision a door and to tell him about it, Aether attempted to escape. Using his power to manipulate technology, Aether was able to leave his body behind and enter Kemetic Solutions' computer systems, much to Teddy's fury. While inside of the system, Aether leaked some of Teddy's experiment logs.

The logs revealed more about Teddy's motivations. He was obsessed with following the path of Brandon Lachmann, who opened a door to another world. After an ancient Etruscan arch had been uncovered, he became obsessed with opening it in the hopes of following Brandon's path. To do so, he transferred all of the captured adepts to the project. Using a magiqally powered chair, Teddy attempted to strengthen the adepts' powers so he could manifest the door, an act which harmed the adepts while failing to produce any results.

During Fragment Eleven, Teddy was obsessed with tracking down Aether's digital form and return him to his body. During Aether's escape, he said “Aether you remember what happened last time don’t you?” indicating that Aether had tried to escape before. Although Teddy was hot on Aether's trails while he attempted to gather information, he was unsuccessful in bringing the boy back to his body. Because of this, he devised a plan involving Whistler - an employee at Kemetic Solutions, by manipulating them into believing they had been in an accident that led them to break out of their mind control.

Kemetic Solutions Escape

In Fragment Twelve, Teddy allowed Whistler to think that she had some autonomy, having her contact the Mountaineers and pretend to be an informant who had been freed from Kemetic Solutions' mind control after an accident. In reality, Whistler was Sacha and this was a ruse to lure Martin Rank to the headquarters so he could capture him and use him to lure in all manner of magiq. Martin was a well and would be extremely useful to Kemetic Solutions. The danger to Portencia and Aether was a risk Teddy had made to bring Martin to him and the palace made of doors. While Teddy was talking to Martin, he believed that Sacha had helped trap Aether in a firewalled cell. However, Martin revealed that Aether had never gone with Sacha, he was still in Martin's earpiece and had been using the past ten minutes to transfer gigabytes Kemetic Solutions' data to a secure location. The transfer had caught the attention of the Storm, which Teddy realized as he began to panic. The Storm arrived, causing untold damage to the building and its inhabitants.

After the Storm attacked Kemetic Solutions, Teddy's fate was unknown.

Teddy's Logs

After hacking into Kemetic Solutions' systems, Aether was able to retrieve some of Teddy's logs.

Phase Four

After the Storm had attacked Kemetic Solutions, Martin revealed that the Silver had done a complete cover-up of the organization's destruction. Locals in the area believed that the building had been vacant for several months, but the company had moved offshore when a flood had destroyed it. Within the surviving files from Aether's data dump, several years before the events of The Monarch Papers, Teddy had brought in his own son, Nate Fallon as "Wanderer." In addition, he not only knew about the Storm, but was researching it. Believing Fallon held the secrets to defeating the Storm, Martin took a flight to pursue him, on a tip from Benefactor about his location. Fallon was in a building north of Boston.

Arriving at Teddy's estate, Martin was able to gain entry by pretending to be Dr. R.K. Adler. Adler was revealed to be a world-renowned therapist specializing in cognitive rehabilitation, brought in to treat Teddy for his sudden memory wipe.

In order to recover his lost memory, Recruits suggested that he attempt the Consolatory Teatime for Misplaced Memory spell on Teddy, like they had done previously on Augernon. The spell was successful and, at first, Teddy believed that Kemetic Solutions had won and that Martin was trapped in his custody. The two argued over his involvement with the Silver, with Teddy stating that they did what they did for the greater good. Martin asked about Wanderer - Teddy's son, Nate - and asked Teddy if what happened to Nate was a good thing. Teddy responded that it wasn't the Silver's fault, it was his. Teddy informed the Silver that his son was an adept and, while they were interested, they didn't ask for him at first. During this time, Teddy and his wife, Ava, were seeking the sixth novel of Saverina’s Canon. Nate, wanting to help his father, retrieved the book from another period in time, but at the cost of accidentally 'unhooking' Ava from the current timeline. Weeks later, Nate was able to retrieve his mother from the past, but she had already died, alone. At that point, Teddy surrendered his son to the Silver, who told him that Nate could be 'cured' of his adeptness by extracting the powers and that they would use Nate's gift to cure others. The Silver ha lied to Teddy and, in reality, they killed Nate to feed his powers to the Storm so that they could steal magiqal artifacts from the past.

Teddy told Martin that he knew why he was really there - to find a way to stop the Storm. He argued that he didn't have a choice, that people either worked with the Silver or they were destroyed. Martin argued that it wasn't true, that there was another way, but it required not being afraid. Teddy ultimately told Martin what he knew about the storm - that the Silver told the part of Nate that still existed in the Storm stories about lost artifacts so that Nate would retrieve him. The remnant of Nate thought he was making his father proud. However, a part of the storm, the eye, had told Nate that it couldn't remember a way for it to be stopped, except if the entity controlling it told it to destroy itself. After Teddy told Martin what he knew, Teddy's aides walked in and said that they didn't know who Martin was, and that the real R.K. Adler was supposedly a "she." Teddy said Martin was an old family friend who was just leaving, and sent him on his way.

The fate of Teddy after the destruction of the Storm is unknown, though it likely had no impact on Teddy's mind.

Martin's Interview with Teddy

The Interview

“ M: Of course. T: Tell me what you need from me? Tell me what you need to feel comfortable here. I want you to feel you made the right decision. [He thinks they won. He thinks we’re in KS and I gave in. Have to play it.] M: I did this to know what I’m capable of, not to help you. Not to help whoever’s controlling you. T: No one is controlling me, or you for that matter. They simply want us to explore the world’s potential. All our potential. M: To control us. For their own gain. T: You have no conception of the incredible things that’ve done for this world, while asking for none of the credit. M: Like what they did to your son? What they did to Nate? [Mistake. He’s pissed.] M: I’m sorry. T: What happened with my son was not… Was not their doing. It was mine. Do you have any idea how many people are walking this earth like you? Like Nate? Unaware of what they’re truly capable of, unaware of the wonderful and terrible things they can do? Untrained, unskilled. Unbelieving. You think magiq is some idyllic energy, floating around us like butterflies. I have seen the terrifying things it can do. M: Like the Storm? Is that for the good of the world too? [He’s up, walking around. I’ve lost him. I have to check my own feelings. My anger. It was a lot smoother with Augernon. Somewhere inside him Teddy doesn’t want to tell me anything.] T: Have you ever heard of Saverina’s Canon? M: No. T: Saverina was a very talented storyteller who lived in the 16th century. Her books are the rarest of all mundane works. She was considered la strega because, according to lore, her stories were spells. They had power in them. Though you and I both know that’s entirely possible, it wasn’t true for Saverina. Before her death she published twelve canonic works, and my beloved wife, Ava, and I had collected eleven of them on our travels around the world. That is how we stumbled upon the Silver, as you call them. After finding them, my new work with them became my life, while Ava cared for our son. We never found the sixth book. It was lost to history. But I used to read the other books to Nate. He always wanted to hear about our travels, how exciting it was to find a new book. I was gone for much of his childhood. And as young boys often do, he did whatever he could for his father’s attention. For my approval. My pride. By the time he was five things would go missing from the house and he’d confess that he had “unhooked” them, we thought he was lying at first, acting out… until we replaced the roof on the house, and in the eaves we found a keepsake box, untouched for decades. With Ava’s lost engagement ring inside it. M: Did they know? T: I had to tell them. M: And they wanted him. T: Not at first. But they were curious. It wasn’t until he was nine, when he brought Saverina’s sixth book to me, here, in this office… He’d wanted my attention. He wanted to make me proud. So he brought me the missing book. It was the first time I realized what he could actually do. I’m ashamed to say how many hours passed before I realized what had happened. Where my Ava had gone. It wasn’t just that Nate could unhook things and send them to another time… It was a trade. He could send things from now in exchange for something from the past. I tried for weeks to get him to bring her back. I would’ve given anything. When he was finally able to— [He couldn’t talk. He was trying to keep from crying.] T: She had died, alone, sometime in the 16th century. He pulled her right out of a potter’s field. I had requirements. They agreed he wasn’t to be part of any other project. They told me they’d been able to cure others of their abilities, being adept, while also collecting their power. They said they’d do the same for Nate. Whether it was a lie or an exaggeration, I don’t know. At the end of the day, I knew what could happen. They swore things had changed since the early days. I didn’t understand then why his power was so important to them. I didn’t know at the time that they intended to collect all magiq artifacts. And with his power they could. Even from the past. [He’s staring out the window.] T: I want to say that I brought him to Kemetic to cure him, to try and rid him of this curse… but part of me knew that trying to siphon his power would kill him. Like it had the source of Sweeper, and Stormkeep. All the others… If I’m being honest, there was another part of me that hoped I would finally be free of the pain I felt every time I looked at him and saw her eyes. M: They killed Nate to give his power to the storm. T: To trade for valuable things from the past. M: What is the storm, Teddy? Really? It’s a collection of adept power? T: The modern incarnation, yes, partially. They don’t talk much about how it originally came to be. I heard it was a dark and nasty affair. But they have amended and added to it for centuries. It gets stronger the more minds it pulls into its eye. M: Don’t you worry that it could get so strong that it would be out of their control? Or that they’ll start using it to pick off anyone who knows what they do? Like you? T: I know what you want. M: I want you to realize what you’re helping them do is wrong. T: No you don’t. You want to know who they are, and how to stop them, how to stop the storm. [I didn’t want to say anything.] T: They are so far beyond your comprehension, Martin. This world is theirs. You work alongside them or… M: Or else. [I go to him.] M: I don’t think magiq is all good. It’s like everything else. There’s good, there’s bad. But what they’re doing with it, doing to us… it’s unconscionable. Don’t tell me you would have led your son to slaughter if you’d really had a choice. T: Martin… M: That’s the lie you tell yourself to sleep at night. That you have a say. That you have control. The minute you slip up, you’re gone. You know it. I know it. [I could see his hands were trembling. I had to go for it.] M: Kemetic Solutions is gone, Teddy. They wiped it out. And you. The only reason you remember any of this is because of magiq. And when it wears off, you’ll be gone again. For good. Please help me stop them. T: You can’t. M: We can start with the storm. How do we fight it? T: Fight it? You can’t. That’s the truth. [I could tell in his voice he knew something.] M: Tell me what to do. [He thinks, then throws his scotch back. He turns to me, whispering.] T: I’ve heard them speaking to it. I heard them telling the part of Nate that’s inside it what to search for, what to take. They tell him stories. Like I did. Stories about lost things, and how much it would mean to have them again. Then they send him to things or people that are of equal importance, and he switches them in time. He wants to make them proud. He thinks he’s making his father happy. I couldn’t bear it. I would try and talk to him when they didn’t know. Hoping I could free him, or let him rest. But he’s part of something darker at the core of that thing now. In the eye. The thing there told Nate there is a way to stop it, to let it die, but how exactly has been forgotten or destroyed. It told him it could only surrender to the one who controls it. That’s all I know. Truly. M: It’s something. T: This is all going to go away isn’t it? M: Yes. T: It feels… light. Fading. Like it could blow away in a breeze. The nurse came back with the housekeeper. They asked me to excuse them but Teddy told them I could stay. The nurse said she’d gotten a call from the hospital. And she was confused because they referred to Dr. Adler as “she” and they didn’t know who I was. T: He’s a friend of my son’s. And he was just leaving. That was it. I got in my car and left. And someone must’ve tipped off the Silver cause they sent the storm a few minutes later. There’s one more thing I need to tell you. The last time I talked to Alison she told me what mattered most was Teddy’s son. More than the Silver, more than stopping the storm. I had to learn everything I could about Nate. It’s what she was looking into when they found her. I asked why she was looking but either she didn’t want to say, or couldn’t. It makes sense now. ”