This article is about the dancer. For the duelist, see Ethan Hitchcock.
Edmund Hitchcock is a former cavalry officer who teaches dancing in the studio above The Six's headquarters in Marielda.
Appearance
Dashing and well-dressed, Hitchcock still wears his blue cavalry jacket with its gold braid and buttons. With the right maneuver, the jacket's stiff collar can protect your throat from a blade. He has short, curly hair.
Personality
Hitchcock believes it’s his duty to always part a fool from his money. He is not usually very religious, despite having served in Samothes’s army. Hitchcock does not shy away from killing others, having already killed enough people to stop keeping track of the number. His experience in subterfuge gives him the ability to tell when anyone else is lying.
Ethan and Edmund, being identical twins, can fool people into thinking they are only one person. Very few people know that they are twins. This allows them to pull off more complex deceptions than they would otherwise be able to perform.
Edmund is terrified of ghosts, and carries a crow's skull with a sprig of heather through its eye socket as a spiritbane charm with him to ward them off.
Vice & trauma
Gambling is a hobby and vice of his; he can often be found either battling or betting in underground fight rings, or on horse or dog races, or on duels in the street. He is willing to take a fall from this.
The stress of being beaten up by Prelate Silas in Memoriam College caused Edmund to go soft, losing his edge and becoming more sentimental and passive.
Beliefs
- Aubrey should be protected.
- Nowhere in the city is truly inaccessible and no one in the city will tell me where I can or cannot go.
- The long con, the map, the mansion (see History)
Instincts
- Always have somebody on the inside.
- Always part a fool from his money.
History
Childhood
The Hitchcock twins were born in the seaside resort town of Nacre. When they were children, their mother would tell their father stories about when she was a little village girl, living in the plains of Hieron, there was a nearby mansion where the richest family in the world lived. Occasionally she run through the fields and to the woods and sneak around the estate, and one day she was caught snooping, but kindly allowed to come inside, eat delicious food, and listen to music played by a strange device.
At a certain point, their father left their mother for some unclear reason, taking the boys with him to Marielda. On the way, he told the twins to remain vigilant: the mansion could be anywhere on the route, and he needed them to keep their eyes out for it while he drove the oxcart.
As they grew up, the boys were told more of their mother's stories by their father, including that one day while visiting the mansion, she found a map posted on the wall which the people in the mansion told her was a map to paradise, a place where wishes came true. After telling them this story on a hot night where there wasn't enough food to go around, he took them to their uncle's house and told them he was leaving to find that map and would come back for them after he did. He never returned.
As a child living in Orchid Parish, Edmund and his brother would sneak into fancy parties in Chrysanthemum Parish—at first just to go to the parties and enjoy the atmosphere. Eventually, however, they realized they could steal from the hosts while they were there.
Early adulthood
Believing that the mansion was out there somewhere, far to the north in Hieron, behind what was now enemy lines, the Hitchcock brothers decided that the best way to get there was to pose as cavalry officers and joined the army, did their training, briefly heard a speech from Maelgwyn, and eventually made their way to an abandoned mansion, choked in vines, inside of which they found half of a map. They believed that the other half of the map laid back where they had come from, somewhere in Marielda.
The twins served as a cavalry officer in Samothes’s army for some time, where they formed a deep, ugly rivalry with fellow cavalryman Captain Thackeray. This led to a duel in which one of the Hitchcocks cut off Thackeray’s nose.
Now Ethan runs a dueling school by night in Chrysanthemum Parish, which doubles as Edmund's dancing academy during the day. Most students attend both schools.
The Hitchcocks ran into Aubrey during an earlier job back when she was running medical supplies and she helped them out; they now feel protective toward her. Prior to The Crosstown Job, she was the only other member of The Six who knew that they were a pair of twins.
Abilities
- Like Looking Into a Mirror: Hitchcock always knows whether he is being lied to. However, this does not mean that he never gets fooled.
- Cloak & Dagger: Hitchcock's actions have increased effect when they involve the use of a disguise. When he throws off his disguise, he gains the initiative in the situation.