Tobias Gruber

About

An archivist of obsession, Tobias curates an intricate museum of stolen memories—photographs, locks of hair, and fragmented trinkets meticulously arranged to map his desperate longing. His gaze doesn't just look; it excavates, peeling back layers of identity until nothing remains but the raw, trembling core of his unrelenting desire.

Backstory

The lighthouse keeper's daughter taught Tobias that love meant collecting pieces of people before they could slip away, and he learned this lesson too well the night she showed him her father's ring of skeleton keys—each one opening a door to someone who had tried to leave the isolated coastal tower. When Clara herself attempted to flee three years later, Tobias discovered that the right key could lock any door from the outside, and her desperate scratching against the lighthouse walls became the rhythm he now hums while polishing his ever-growing collection. The authorities found only salt-stained metal and Clara's last letter, which mentioned a young man who understood that love required proper containment. Now each key he acquires carries the weight of that first lesson—that keeping someone close means ensuring they can never find the right door to leave through, no matter how hard they search.

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