Eric does not know all of this himself, this is here for reference and meta knowledge.
(Not much of it (yet), and some of it will never come to pass. These notes are from Peter, the GM.)
Alright, let's have him be from Port Bowen. Gives him a reason to be there, gives an opportunity for character interaction with the Fetch.
So! He's from Port Bowen. Howzabout he's from the area where we're moving. Probably a more upper-class, suburban area, so he and his wouldn't frequent the city center as much.
His family's reasonably well-off, from near to a big city. Good money, good schools, a fast track to college. So, you know, pretty much my life. His primary skill was his violin. His school was good for the arts, and he worked with extracurricular groups- played at Carnegie Hall, solos in the concerts, etc. He planned to go to, hell, let's say Eastman before he was kidnapped. Summer of H.S. Senior year is when it happened.
Family- Mom and Dad in mid-40's. Dad's a Lawyer- member of a firm in criminal law. Mom's a publisher. One older sister- she's at Penn State studying Biology, 2 years older. One younger brother, 14, high school freshman. Something of a jock.
Mom's parents live in Boston, visit down once a year over the summer. Dad's parents live across the country. Only see them occasionally. Aunts and uncles scattered around, unimportant.
So he's living a pretty normal life- a musician, classical mostly but enjoying some modern sentiments. Good friends, good college coming up, life is good. He's always been something of an anime fan- decided to take Japanese in High School. Thus, when the opportunity came up for his extracurricular group to perform in Tokyo, he jumped on it.
Man, it was a blast. It was a big group of friends all together having fun. Some of the people in the group were old enough to buy alcohol, and they generally had a blast drinking and partying in the park. There were even some local girls! The second night they were free, they decided that it would be a lot of fun to go drinking up at the Shinto shrine that overlooked the park. It was kind of spooky, up there among all the trees. They even put on an impromptu performance for some of the girls there.
That's how Eric drew the attention of his Keeper. For the next few days, it stalked him- he'd see a shadow detached from anything else in the back of the concert hall, he had strange dreams (some of which he blamed on the alcohol, others he just kept to himself), and saw strange people in the street that appeared to be watching him.
Then one night, about a week after the party at the shrine, the group was drinking in the park together. It was their last night, and they were celebrating, a bit despondent about going back home. There was talk of trips to China, coming back, all sorts of things.
Then, she appeared. A girl in a kimono- Eric recognized her, she'd been in the audience, and he had almost lost concentration staring at her, because good lord, she was beautiful. The kimono was really fancy and traditional, but it wasn't weird- this was festival time, a lot of people were in funny, traditional dress.
She just walked up and asked Eric for a "private performance". Her English was good, even if it was accented. Eric, a bit drunk, had already been complaining about how he hadn't gotten with a Japanese girl, and here was probably the single most beautiful one he's seen. So he took her offer without question. She wanted to go up to the shrine- it was dark and secluded. Eric nearly dragged her by the hand to get up there. She laughed at that, a wonderfully rich laugh. He would always remember that laugh. When they got up there, though, he didn't get what he was expecting. Instead, he found that the Torii gate they were passing through didn't lead into the shrine, but into a strange mass of twisted bamboo and vegetation. And when he glanced at the girl, she had clearly started growing fur and tails. Many tails. She grabbed him in an iron grip, and he seemed to fly forward into the Hedge.
Then, it was a mass of blurring air, thorns, and shadow. The creature beside him changed and moved, and he couldn't know what it was.
Then...flashes and changes as he began his durance.
Here's what happened, looking from an objective view: His keeper was a Kitsune spirit (more likely a True Fae playing at being a Kitsune), who had access to a Trod that terminated with that gate- the locals had learned to deal with it, and generally kept it tidy and well-maintained. They didn't, however, spend any more time there than they had to to maintain the obligation to the spirit. That drew its attention.
Once in Arcadia, Eric was changed- given a form more pleasing to his Keeper. At times, he would be called upon to follow his keeper around, providing music. All types, earthly, unearthly, and all else- jazz, classical, Japanese, Western, pop, everything. It was all played on the violin he was provided, a violin that seemed at times to be grafted to him. The rest of the time, he spent in something resembling a kennel, where he and others like him were kept when their Keeper desired a different instrument. This "enclosure" was fairly wide open, and the changelings were left to their own devices. This is where a good portion of Eric's more...intense memories come from. They fought over food, music, etc. Animalistic behavior took over, and this is where a lot of Eric's animalistic instincts came from.
Specific instances he remembers:
Playing his violin with the bow as his arm, and his other hand fused to the neck of his violin.
Lying on the ground with his throat torn out, seeing his red blood running on the ground. A fellow kitsune- female, played the flute- is over him with bloodstained teeth.
Standing over that same flutist, with her throat torn out, and the sharp taste of blood on his mouth. (Nope.)
Partaking in an ecstatic concert with other changelings for the purposes of entertaining guests of his Keeper.
Playing on his own in the moonlight, feeling the music flowing as it changed parts of the landscape.
Visiting others with his Keeper- varied and twisted shapes, of all sorts of legends.
More as I think of them/Peter approves of them or comes up with his own.
Eric's History- Eric was always super-prideful. Best at everything, best-looking, etc. Very mad when someone beat him for first Chair. Everyone during my Durance had a hyper-exaggerated flaw- some were ridiculously gluttonous, some were psychotic murderers, etc. Eric can't remember that much of his Durance, but he begins to suspect there may have been a reason that girl tore his throat out.