Songsmiths

or the Toasters

Somebody must have built the first of the metal men who the scavenger folk call the Toasters. The metal men build themselves now, and prefer to call themselves Songsmiths, although their stories indicate that the last successfully built new Songsmith was built hundreds of years ago.

The Songsmiths are large ball shaped things with smaller spherical heads that are dotted with camera eyes in patterns unique to each individual. A metal collar or faceguard sits in front of the head, and on that collar is mounted a speaker and receiver, through which the Songsmith speaks and hears. Songsmiths are bipedal and have two arms with hands ending in a thumb and two large fingers. They speak of past eras when their bodies were more elegant and had greater capabilities, but lament that the end of the Age of Great Cities has forced them to make do with what replacement parts they can find.

The Songsmiths are dying, slowly wearing out part by part. Few places in the Foglands can produce new parts for them and the myriad of ways that they use to charge their batteries are not reliable, and the batteries themselves are losing the ability to retain their charge.

Time will take the Songsmiths eventually. In the meantime, the Songsmiths are the gentle teachers of the wastes and the only living witnesses to previous eras.

They are happy to teach what they know, but are also savvy enough to use their knowledge as currency to purchase replacement parts, fuel, battery charging services and other things they need.

Just don’t call them Toasters to their face.