Tikki-Tick

An automaton designed in Vulpitania, and manufactured to their order in Elfhame. It is the mechanical hostess for SALV Alice Chetsweeks, a scuti.

The toy-makers of Elfhame had long been capable of making toys of varying degrees of sophistication, using tiny metal cards that, when inserted into a toy, could perform actions, up to an including movement and speech. Westersloe Winterbough V demonstrates a number of these toys in "Apparel Oft Becomes the Wolfess."

At the time of the betrothal of Eleanor of Elfhame to the heir of Licksburg, it was felt by one or more furs (their identities have not been revealed) that Eleanor would be lonely without a companion from her homeland. Therefore, Little Toy, an automaton in the form of a minkess, was created. While capable of playing musical instrument, drawing pictures, sewing, and taking care of fawns, Little Toy had a sealed mouth, and thus could not speak, drink or eat. Little Toy was also deliberately made illiterate, so as to preserve secrets. It could only communicate through purring noises, eyebrow or paw gestures, or the drawing of pictures. (As revealed in "...Is In Another Castle," it is also capable of "battle angel" functions.)

At some point after the creation of Little Toy, the scuti known as Alice Chetsweeks became allied with Vulpitania. For reasons not revealed, a living host or hostess was not used. Instead, Vulpitanian engineers designed a very lifelike automaton in the form of a vixen. Construction of the automaton was assigned to the firm of Redbough & Co. in Elfhame. On a number of occasions in "The Ballad of Adler Young," the intricacy and tiny size of her internal moving parts are referred to.

Unlike Little Toy, Tikki-Tick is capable of speech, eating and drinking, and other acts. (There are hints that venery may be within its capabilities; there are also more than a few hints that Little Toy may be capable of such feats, as well.)

Tikki-Tick is capable of functioning at a certain level, in terms of speech and movement, without a scuti. The Wolf Queen and Winterbough, in "Apparel," both put the automaton through its paces. Without a scuti piloting it, Tikki-Tick seems to be a gentle and happy vixen, if one without a brush. Tikki-Tick appears to draw its power from the ambient magicks of Faerie. In "The Ballad of Adler Young," it is taken outside of Faerie, and into Lowfolk Country, which appears to cause a serious malfunction in the mechanism.

In "Apparel," Tikki-Tick is the subject of an attempted theft by another scuti, Lord Mercaptan, which is foiled by the Wolf Queen and Winterbough. Subsequent to this event, King Adler Sartoriousson issued a decree (The Automaton Decree) which banned the further manufacture and sale of lifelike automata. Both Little Toy and Tikki-Tick were exempted from this Decree.