Touched by The Tinker

At some point, the colossus released Alexy. He could clearly see and feel his body was different. His missing teeth were replaced by various pieces of scrap, metal, and plastic. When touching them with a tongue, they felt like his own. There were materials of different colors sewn into his skin in the places where it was missing. Some pieces of metal were attached to one of his legs and arms. He didn't feel pain and could walk without a limp, but still, it all felt somehow wrong. He felt like he had wool in his head, different than the literal one the giant put in there. He knew some of the smells he lost in one of the Halls during that Harvest Festival was different, but he didn't know which and how.
Once he regained his composure. He decided to go in the last direction he saw the Moonglow Moths that were meant to escort him to the safety flew.

While one of The Inhabitants of Dark Halls, The Tinker is capable of replacing anything that was lost to the darkness with their improvised prosthesis versions, not many people want those things replaced by them. There are many reasons for that. First, the replaced parts might be more useful than the original ones or they could be useless or even hinder one's daily life. Second, while missing body parts might look unappealing to some, the improvised scrap that The Tinker attaches to people often makes them look like some kind of junkyard monster. It isn't uncommon for someone "fixed" by them to be attacked by others just because they were mistaken for the creatures of the dark. This negative appearance, however, has one benefit, as Harvesters never capture people repaired by The Tinker. They'll ignore them or just kill them.
But the worst is the third reason. Anyone Touched by The Tinker will never be able to recover the parts they replaced. And this is incurable in any way, even if one gets rid of their prostheses.

No recovery

Normally, if one ever manages to find something the Darkness of the Hall took away from them inside that Hall, coming in contact with it recovers it - the part disappears from the Hall, making it smaller by the amount it grew by consuming it, and it reappears, once again attached to the body of its owner, like it never disappeared. It is the same for the physical body parts and anything mental, but made physical by the Halls, like thoughts, memories, and concepts, though it is harder to see the reattachment of those.
But when a part is replaced by a prosthesis made by The Tinker, touching the original part won't do anything anymore. It will just stay there, forever a part of the Hall. The owner, or anyone else still might rip it out and use it, especially if it is made out of useful material. But the limbs won't grow back. And when it comes to anything that already was nonphysical, its old owner won't even be able to recognize it as their own. They could look at their most treasured memory and not be able to recognize it.

Origin

Engineered

Rarity

Rare

Affected Species

• Human

Messy thoughts

When it comes to physical parts replaced by The Tinker, it is quite simple - the prosthesis made by them will behave like a normal part, it might have additional or different uses, it might be a hindrance or it might be useless. But when they try to replace anything nonphysical, things quickly become messy and weird. For example, when it comes to memories, the replaced ones could be quite close to the real ones, they could be missing many details or completely change them. Or, they could become completely abstract. And their owner won't see anything weird with that. The same goes for the replaced words, dreams, colors, and sight. Replaced morality or emotions can be dangerous as The Inhabitants, of which The Tinker is one, have quite different morals than humans. And so, something they might see as an equivalent might be immoral or dangerous to normal people.
And there are some replaced things that the owner will notice and they might cause them constant stress and anxiety. Replaced shadow or reflection could be constantly moving or looking monstrous. It could show its owner things they would never want to see.

The problem of return

And then there is the final problem. If humans ever manage to find a way out of the Dark Halls, what will happen to those Touched by The Tinker? Will their prostheses be able to be removed, will they ever go back to normal? Or will they have to live out their lives seen as monsters by others? And what of their memories? Their words?

---

Still in the Hall of Teeth, Alexy was walking forward, hoping he didn't stray away from the route the moths were meant to show him. When crossing one of the teeth-covered hills, one of the mounds drew his attention. He approached it and looked at it closer. Is that? Yeah, some of the teeth the mound consisted of were his own. He just knew it. Maybe then he could recover them. But as he touched them, nothing happened. And he understood that whatever that giant did to him was the cause. And so, he grabbed onto the teeth that once were his own and started pulling. He tried to rip them out, but as he did, something moved from underneath them.
It was one of the molar hermits, quite a large one, that used his teeth to decorate its shell. Alexy had to quickly move back, as its sharp pincer fell right where he just stood. The creature wanted to scare him away, but he didn't plan to run away. It had something that belonged to him and he was about to recover it. The molar hermit was swinging its pincers and moving from side to side, but it didn't leave too far from the spot where it was. Alexy rushed at it and made a powerful low kick to the side of its shell.
What should be a completely bad idea, something he realized since the teeth the crab attached there would start to dig into his leg any moment, came out as a surprise, as the part of the leg that hit the shell had a fragment of the skin that was replaced by The Tinker. As it struck into it, the shell started giving under it, cracking and breaking. And then it exploded in a shower of shards of teeth flying everywhere, and Alexy could feel it hitting the soft parts of the crab. What felt like a really long time between two heartbeats, returned to its normal tempo. Alexy was breathing heavily and there was a body of a molar hermit in front of him. He had to rest a moment, but when he did, he ripped off the crab's pincers. He couldn't expect to hit everything that would try to eat him the same way, so he needed some weapons, even if makeshift ones. He then looked for his old teeth again. Unluckily, his kick crushed all but one of them. Still, he took it with himself.
And then, a light started dancing nearby. The moths have returned. He started following them once again. Alexy could feel like his luck was turning around.