Meet the others
The Toy Machine
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By day, the Toy Machine is a stage .Flo, Wilt, Holo and the Sitting Ducks are stacked within the machine, bright lights in front of them, waiting to be chosen.
Coins drop. Buttons flash. Children point. They are
the prizes.
High above them hangs The Claw, silent, mechanical,
watching.
The Claw, also known as Fate, decides who
gets lifted into the light… and who falls back into
the pile. It appears without warning. Lifts hope into the air.
Then, sometimes, lets it slip.
By night, everything changes. When the arcade goes
dark and the crowds disappear, Flo, Wilt and Holo climb
down beneath the machine, into the Deep Universe
below, where they live.
A hidden world under the wires and metal. A place where they are
more than prizes. A place where they can think, question, dream.
But above them, even in the dark, The Claw remains, unseen.
unmoved. in control.
Personality: Cold. Unpredictable. Indifferent.
Role: The unseen force that governs who is chosen and who remains.
Symbolism: Chance. Control. The randomness of life.
Sitting Ducks
The social antagonists: The sitting Ducks are the most ordinary prizes in the machine yet they're the ones The Claw always seems to choose?
Simple, multiple and replaceable, they drift through the pile with quiet confidence, but their constant wins wind up our forgotten trio.
Personality: Indifferent, ordinary, a little smug.
Symbolism: Unfair advantage and the frustration
of being overlooked.
The Spirits drift quietly through the machine, appearing when Flo. Holo, and Wilt need comfort or direction.
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Gentle and mysterious, they share faint memories of the outside world: sunlight, shelves, bedrooms, and hands that cared.
They never give clear answers, only soft guidance, reminding the forgotten toys that being chosen isn't the only kind of happy ending.
Personality: Kind. wise, dreamlike.
Role: Emotional guides and messengers from beyond the machine.
Symbolism: Hope, memory, and the unknown future.