Mr Apples

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"Each life should follow its passion. We know our loves, and tend them on behalf of the Bazaar. This, at least, is an arrangement that satisfies all."

Mr Apples is a darkly cheery and overly familiar Curator who serves as a Master of the Bazaar.

Mr Hearts is its alternate trade name in London.

In the Sunless Skies timeline, Mr Apples resides in the High Wilderness as the Chiropterous Hoarder.

General Information

"Fruits, bread, vegetables, barley, horse mushrooms and so forth... Immortality."

SO SHALL HE NEVER DIE

Mr Apples governs trade in fruit, grain, vegetables, edible mushrooms, and wood. It also peddles immortality and that which is immortal. One of its products is Hespiridean Cider, a drink of eternal life that's sold at the Bazaar for an exuberant price.

Apples sometimes visits the Big Top of Mrs Plenty's Carnival under a disguise and with security. It's quite friendly to those who can stage a meeting, offering them refreshments and gossip.

Mr Hearts' Domain

"Fresh meats! Rich and red!"

A heart.

Mr Hearts controls trade in all manner of meat, especially offal and exotic meats. It's considered the finest butcher in London and its tools are legend among the city's chefs.

Mr Hearts is actually a trade name used by Mr Apples, but publicly they're considered two separate Masters.

The Hoarder's Predicament

"What are you? Why have you come? If you are a customer, I have nothing right now, nothing I want to sell."

In the Sunless Skies timeline, Mr Apples, now known as the Chiropterous Hoarder, resides in New London. It lives in a shop that once sold Hespiridean Cider but its supply run out, so the shop was closed and left disused. Since the Masters were declared enemies of the empire, the Hoarder has to keep a low profile.

Other Names

"Raw meats, ripe and red! No, no wine. Not yet. Here, throw another skewer on the flame. There! The Saint on the Pyre, and the Saint of Flesh. And for my last trick — I'll throw this one in for free: the Paradisal Saint. Here, take a bite."

A feast for all.

Mr Apples is rumored to have been called Mr Barley in the past.

During the Third City, Mr Hearts was known as the Lord of Blood.

During the Fourth City, Mr Apples was known as the Khan of Roots, and Mr Hearts was the Khan of Hearts.

In the Sunless Skies timeline, the Sanctified at Avid Horizon named Mr Apples the Paradisal Saint, and Mr Hearts the Saint of Flesh.

Appearance

"Mr Apples' eyes are pinpricks of diamond-hard light in the inky tapestry of its hood."

"Swaddled in vermillion, it is a lean and spindly horror with the most velvety of ears."

A Master.

As a Master, Mr Apples wears the standard attire of an all-encompassing hooded cloak and gloves to conceal its talons. Only its eyes are uncovered. Mr Hearts is also said to have an "unmistakable bulk."

As the Chiropterous Hoarder, it wears a red cloak that leaves its face uncovered and its bat-like features can be easily discerned. Its claws are also uncovered and its eyes are dark in color.

Personality

"Mr Apples seems delighted to see you. It presses honeyed wine on you and insists you try a variety of preserved fruits imported at tremendous expense from the Elder Continent."

"The Chiropterous Hoarder is initially distrustful of your exposition and then transported at this epiphany. Appreciation without condition! What a winsome novelty!"

Mr Apples has an affable and pleasant personality. It converses freely with its favored citizens of London and it has a warm and familiar demeanor. It has a fondness for gambling, reading, conducting experiments, and tinkering with machinery. While it may be friendly, it is nonetheless aware of its duties as a Master and it may admonish those who overstep.

The Echo Bazaar

As a Master, Mr Hearts views its employment under the Bazaar as one of mutual benefit, as it sees itself free to pursue its passions and interests on the Bazaar's behalf. It also views its work as beneficial to London; in its own words: "London has such stories now! Salted with tears and spiced with the passions of the heart!"

Hearts doesn't seem to have much fondness for its fellow Curators that it once lived amongst. It's aware of its place on the Great Chain of Being, but given its forays into immortality and amalgamy, it doesn't seem interested in respecting or enforcing it.

As the Chiropterous Hoarder, its personality has shifted somewhat. While it is still affable and eager towards its interests, it is also nervous, suspicious, and insecure. It is unfamiliar with friendship or charity, and it views such concepts as puzzling.

Businesses

"Duck under an archway, mind the step, down a corridor, follow the smell of chilled blood. Mr. Hearts' Exotic Meats occupies a dark corner of the Emporium for good reason."

A heart.

Mr Hearts has many businesses and products to its name. Mr Hearts' Exotic Meats Counter is an obscure stall in the Labyrinth of Tigers, best avoided by those who dislike feeling nauseous. The shop sells organs, bones, meats, and blood of an unknown source and grotesque form with no regard for sanitation. Despite these off-putting facts, the meats sold here still induce intense hunger...

After the Great Hellbound Railway arrived at Ealing Gardens, Mr Hearts opened a butcher's shop there.

Products

"This charming toy says: I love you, kill me. Or: join me in the game of Knife and Candle-Lit Dinners. Or: here is the key to my heart. Or: you wound me. A thousand messages, a single gift!"

A Key-to-Heart Dagger.

Every year, Mr Hearts sends Mr Iron a Key-to-Heart Dagger. Mr Iron quickly auctions them, making them available to the public. It's said the reasons for this practice are encoded in the mysterious Crimson Book.

Heart-Cuts are a product sold during the Feast of the Exceptional Rose. They're various meats cut in shape of hearts and include an actual heart.

Mr Hearts' Deviled Hearts, said to "fill the belly and fire the spirit," are sold at Mrs Plenty's Carnival during the Feast of the Exceptional Rose. Their unique blend of spices may cause a Correspondence sigil to appear in one's vision for a split second.

Dwellings

"Mr Apples keeps its apartments on the ground floor of the Bazaar. You push the glass doors open – your sack limp on your back. Heavy airs unfold around you, hot, sweating and green."

"A broad marble counter is strewn with knives and cleavers and gobbets of gristle. Carcasses hang from ceiling-hooks. The air smells of blood and peppery seasoning. A tuneless crooning emits from a hunched bulk. Is Mr Hearts committing a carol?"

A Mostly Stuffed Bound Shark.

Mr Apples resides in rooms on the ground floor of the Bazaar that serve as both a greenhouse and a laboratory. The room is full of greenery and plants, including a Heart-Taker. In its lab, Apples experiments with immortality, creating oddities like a stuffed Bound-Shark plaque that's still alive, and a near-immortal entity contained within a jar.

Mr Hearts works in a large kitchen with meats and utensils strewn about. Hearts experiments with new tools for its butchery here, such as a machine for efficiently cutting meats or a scrapped mechanism that acts as a spell-checker (somehow).

Empyrean Redolence

"Hell's army grows with each breath you draw! No time to waste. None at all. Right, you're here to help me with my beasts. I'm breeding hunting beasts. To hunt devils! They need to be strong, and vicious, and pious!"

"We have seen your very fine work with the sturdy and admirable Bishop. Such creatures! So salty and moist! In recognition of this work, we offer you a secret. A formulation to make your beasts more delicious than ever!"

In the Fourth Coil of the Labyrinth of Tigers is a breeding facility managed by the Bishop of Southwark. He plans on leading a charge against Hell and wants war-animals for his army. For this goal the Bishop wants to breed creatures from across the Neath with a "wings-of-thunder bat" in his barn, hoping to produce a powerful beast.

Empyrean Redolence

The "bat" in the barn is actually Mr Hearts in disguise! When the Bishop sends it an animal to "breed" with, Mr Hearts apparently eats the animal alive and births a new being immediately after. The reason for this practice is unclear, but it seems to benefit the Masters in some way. To "improve" the beasts produced by this process, Hearts developed a mysterious substance called Empyrean Redolence, consisting of "cinnabar, hydrogen, salts of iron," the "tears of those who never loved," and other unspecified ingredients or steps. As for the Bishop's plan, the Masters are unconcerned.

How Marvellous

"I was very old then. Lived too long, bored out of my gourd. I went to one of the Lords: the Lord of Blood. I beseeched it. Begged it to give me my heart's desire. The Lords, who had themselves grown restless, devised the game: the Marvellous.

The Marvellous

During the Third City, a man from the First City begged Mr Hearts, then known as the Lord of Blood, to grant him his heart's desire. In response, Hearts along with the other Masters devised the game called the Marvellous, finding six other players and using First City Coins as stakes.

As of the Fifth City, Mr Hearts personally supervises the final round of the Marvellous in the heart of the Echo Bazaar. It also oversees the ceremony where winners of the Marvellous receive their heart's desire. Mr Hearts holds the Marvellous to great esteem, but the other Masters do not share this sentiment, seeing it only as a diversion.

From the Skies and Back

"The Wilderness – lush and velveted with so many treasures, so many hungry tastes. There were others with me, yes. But none of them were as clever as me. I know how to make immortality. I know how to make collections that last. And this is why I must be careful, be small now."

A Curator.

Mr Apples, like the rest of the Masters, is a Curator, a bat-like being who roams the High Wilderness in search of treasures for its hoard.

In the time before it was employed by the Echo Bazaar, Mr Apples knew the ways of immortality and preservation, which led to trouble with the rest of its kind.

The Hoarder's Plan

"I tried once to hold immortality in a bottle. The cider. But it wasn't the same. My customers were convinced, but I knew the truth. You can't just drink eternity. It goes away, you see? But this is different."

Albion

In the Sunless Skies timeline, London was moved through the Avid Horizon to the skies. Most of the Masters stayed behind with the Bazaar in the Sixth City, but some, including Mr Apples, followed London to the High Wilderness.

Now known as the Chiropterous Hoarder, it seeks to amass a collection of immortality. Its assortment includes immortal entities and aspirants. To perfect its hoard, the Hoarder wants to become immortal itself, acting as its crown jewel and eternal guardian.