TOY TOWER AU: LORE DUMP
Alrightyyy folks, I said I would be doing a ramble of one of my AU's and Toy Tower won. Somehow along the way it became a lore dump...but that's okay cause now I have the main bosses art and explanations/descriptions for the major players (...although I did run out of motivation for some of them)! Now for heads up, this is A LOT of information about Toy Tower, as in the art and writing totals to 13 pages, so prepare yourself as if you are reading a short story or something similar. Hope you like it! Defiantly doing this again, but with a larger time frame for myself tbh-
Now, without further adieu, here is Toy Tower!
Peppino Cotton:
Owner of “Peppino’s Toy Shop”, where many types of toys can be found with their own personal stories. Peppino specializes in making hand-made plushies, with most of his knowledge being from his grandmother. He puts a lot of care into his work and makes sure to treat every plushie he creates with the same love and care as if it was his own child. He is very passionate about his craft and is determined to make the best plushies he can. He also values hard work, kindness, and respect as he believes that with all of those combined, anything is possible. In fact, he believes in those pillars of his personality so much that he refuses to curse or use violence as a first method of combativeness, regardless of the circumstances.
Prior to his shop, he and Maurice were drafted into the military, with Peppino working as a combat medic and Maurice as a rifleman. Maurice at one point got severely wounded and it was only thanks to Peppino he was able to survive via care and transport, but Maurice refuses to believe it as he was knocked out and can’t see Peppino as a hero when for his whole life Peppino had always been lower than him. In spite of seeing the report made on him, Maurice concluded Peppino didn't save him; that another nearby medic kept Maurice alive while Peppino drove when the reality was the reverse. Peppino did feel hurt by this, but was glad that Maurice was still safe and alive…even if he is called weak or soft for his new job as a toy maker (which often results in Peppino being pleaded at when holidays come around).
When Peppino opened his store with his friends Gustavo and Mr. Stick, he noticed many people unhappy with the toys made by the large company nearby, “Toy-Time Toys”. He noticed the knock-off appearance and Mr. Stick used it to his advantage when promoting Peppino's, claiming all of his toys are the real deal in comparison. This drew in many customers and gained attention from Toyhead, who sent a mini Toyface to approach Peppino.
Toyface praised Peppino for his success and wished to add him to his list of toy lines, offering to buy his shop in turn for some of the profits. Peppino, aware of the cheaply made toys, denied the deal and told Toyface the products he has do not bring joy to those who buy them and that they have no spirit or care, and that those reasons are what made Peppino popular.
Toyhead, surprised and enraged that someone would dare reject his offer, threatens Peppino that he is willing to destroy the little shop if it means he couldn’t have it, and tries to offer more money into the deal. Peppino still refuses Toyface’s offer, telling him that he himself will go to the tower and tear it down himself if it means his shop prevails. Amused, Toyface gives him a final offer that he cannot refuse: Peppino has one day to arrive at the tower and tear it down without any outside assistance before he sends his demolition crew in. Peppino agrees and goes off, almost in a panic, to keep his shop alive.
Gustavo:
Good ol’ Gustavo. He helps in repairing and restoring old toys, in hopes of giving them a second life. Working at Peppino’s toy shop gave him the best access to broken or trashed toys, mostly by finding leftovers from the Tower, it’s where he found Brick after all. He enjoys the simplicity of the shop also. It may not sell the latest, top of the line toys, but each one he has worked on has a story to tell to a child, and that is all that matters to him. After the tower, he also helps Pepperman when he opens his own shop.
Brick:
Keeping it simple. Brick is a rat-worm on a string, with colorings being gray with a pink tail. When they squeak, it sounds like a chew toy going off. Brick also loves cuddles and can act like a therapy animal if he notices someone is heavily stressed.
Mr. Stick:
Mr. Stick, the distributor for Peppino’s Toy Shop. He helps with putting ads out where he can if it means to make some extra pay. He is also a collector of construction toys (i.e., Legos), which includes him having a room back at his home solely to display his sets. Mr. Stick doesn’t tell no one though because he thinks it’s childish, but can’t help picking up a few pieces and letting his hands work on something. Appearance wise, he is the same from Pizza Tower, just with a darker shade of orange for his suit and hat.
Trinket's:
The Toppin’s equivalent of Toy Tower. They are: A brown teddy bear, a yellow toy block, a red toy car, a silver slinky, and a multicolored tom bowler (big) marble. They act just like the Toppin’s.
Pepperman (Phil Capsin Pepper):
An artist once tied up by his own hubris. Being a skilled craftsman, he used his arts to specialize in making puppets, dolls, and mannequins of various sizes and uses for people of all ages to enjoy, dreaming he would become the greatest doll maker anyone has ever seen. During this time, he caught Toyheads attention as he expressed his wish of grandeur. Toyhead wanted to help Phil, and did so by making a contract. The contract that Phil signed said that if a certain quota of sales was made, he would return to Toyhead and allow him to recreate and sell his creations, with a part of the profits going to Phil as a safety measure. Phil agreed and the quota was quickly met, a new found popularity following suit and put him on cloud nine.
Everything seemed grand until Phil saw what was being sold in his name. Phil’s dread grew into horror as now his once beautiful name was tarnished, being nothing more than a title for cheaply made dolls that were no longer unique and did not hold the passion the originals were made with. He confronted Toyhead with his concerns, but was shoved away as he already signed his permissions off, sent to the bottom floor of the Tower with the demands of making newer and more complex designs, forcing Phil to work day and night to the point of exhaustion. He had become unable to meet deadlines. He no longer wanted fame if it meant being a sellout. He no longer wanted to make what he once loved, going through life without a sense of being. He has become a prisoner of his own ambition.
When Peppino arrived for the boss battle, he saw a broken soul being forced to fight and use his words to reach Phil, allowing the two to talk, understand, and sympathize. Phil would become inspired by Peppino to fight after hearing the deal Toyhead made with him, and help in the final battle with Toyhead.
After the tower, Phil would go on a road trip across America to clear his name from Toyhead, expose the horrors behind “Toy-Time Toys”, and later return to open a small shop of his own, which often had collaborations with “Peppino’s Toy Shop” via plush puppets.
Vigilante:
The slime toy of the wild west. He is golden, glittery, and gritty, with a passion for protecting toys from being harmed and broken. He is relatively the same as original Vigilante personality-wise, being fooled by Toyface that Peppino and Gustavo were destroying toys in a mad rampage and needed to be stopped. Once battling them, he saw how he was tricked and was willing to help in any way he could. In terms of weaponry, they are more so used to slow down rather than hurt, these include: a pistol with slime bullets, a glue gun uzi, a paint sprayer, smoke bombs, and a paintball bazooka. After the tower, Vigilante is unsure of what to do at first, but later helps the other residents to make a new tower, with the usage of gnome magic to open levels rather than a curse.
Noise (Theo Noister):
The superhero of his own story, the Noise! He works as an actor for his action packed (Power Ranger inspired) tv show titled “The Pitch Force”, allowing Toyhead to make merchandise for his show if Theo gets part of the profit. He personally loves the action figures, but will promote just about anything that involves him and his show.
Compared to the original Noise, he is more sincere when it comes to his appearance and how he displays himself, but can and will still be a smartass if irked. When away from the camera and in normal attire, he is more insecure due to thinking his tv persona is the one everyone wants to see, not some guy who smokes like a train and curses like a sailor. On occasion, he donates extra stock to Noisette’s playplace where she can use them.
After the defeat of the tower, Noise and the NTV cast go and continue the show elsewhere, keeping the merchandise lines with help from Mr. Stick. Theo however allows the show to be more story driven rather than product driven thanks in part to Hazel’s request, even adding a mini arch telling the story of the tower.
Noisette (Hazel Noister):
Not much to say about her really. She’s the same silly Noisette as in the original, but instead runs a playplace instead of a cafe as well as being a secondary actor in Noise’s tv show. In this AU, she does not know Fakey well, and is warned to stay in her area unless called by Noise or Toyhead.
Fake Peppino (Fakey):
This is a living plushie, once unaware of kindness. Fakey himself is a patchworked beast of fabric, robotics, and enough human DNA to at least have a brain (only God and Toyhead knows what else lies under the stitching). It is not used to interactions besides ones of fear and hostility, which shaped his mindset that others want him to be scary and cause harm. In his part of the tower, unsettling patchmade plushies are found in all manners of care. Some are poorly done, some torn to shreds, and others mixed from different creatures to create amalgamations. The worst (or best if you like horror) part of all of this is that he can make the plushies come to life as he used his ‘living stuffing’ as part of their creation, with broken laughter and cracked squeaking heard in all directions. It is only after the tower and facing Peppino is Fakey aware of other emotions, like kindness and curiosity…even if the others are still freaked out by the living plush.
Toyface:
Toyface is a drone that has AI assistance installed. Mostly just to help assist Toyhead and not much else.
Toyhead:
The head honcho himself, creator of “Toy-Time Toys”. Not much is known of him, besides him being a child actor for many types of advertisements. He was so enamored with toys and with how many there were, as a child he wished to make his own version of everything.
As he grew older, Toyhead invested time and effort in making the latest toy for all the ‘cool’ kids. However, these toys he made always lacked something he couldn’t figure out, giving the impression that they were knock-offs or cheaply made. With failure after failure, he made a make-or-break deal in purchasing a tower, which turned into a success and made him launch a company that now sells in mass, with the levels saving him money in toy production. However, that feeling of fraudulence is still present in his toys, but he now simply makes too much money to care, believing money is now the way to happiness. That was his life until he noticed a small toy shop opening up not too far from his tower and threatening the little toy shop and toy maker into oblivion if he couldn’t have it.
And that's all for now folks! Thank you for reading if you made it all the way down here. I do apologize for the wait from the initial poll, but when I was working on this, my brain blasted off on multiple occasions which also included multiple rewrites of what was initially there. Nonetheless I am glad to get this AU out into the world! Might give myself a break though...then make a new poll on my 3 other AU's.
