I kinda wanna sleep with you alone

I kinda wanna break up on the phone

I never wanna hear you say goodbye

Toby’s life was defined by isolation and torment long before he ever stepped foot into the woods. Growing up in a deeply abusive household, he was relentlessly tormented by his alcoholic father, while his severe neurological disorders made him an easy target for cruel bullying at school, forcing him to be homeschooled at a young age. His older sister, Lyra, was his absolute anchor—the only person who truly understood him, protected him, and gave him a sense of safety in a world that felt entirely hostile. However, his fragile world completely shattered when a devastating car crash took Lyra’s life right before his eyes. The immense trauma of watching his sister die pushed Toby’s already fractured mind over the edge; his schizophrenia and hallucinations worsened drastically, trapping him in a downward spiral of severe depression, self-harm, and deep, unmedicated paranoia that locked him away in his own bedroom.

The boiling point arrived on a fateful night when the agonizing memories and his father's continuous abuse became too much to bear. In a fit of complete psychological breakdown, Toby snapped, turning on his father and brutally killing him before setting his own house on fire to escape the scene. Trapped by the spreading flames and the sirens of arriving police cars, he fled blindly into the dense forest behind his neighborhood, carrying nothing but two hatchets from his garage. It was deep within those dark trees, surrounded by smoke and despair, that The Operator chose him.

Slenderman intercepted the boy, wiping away his agonizing memories of the fire and his sister's death, and replacing his overwhelming pain with a blanket of mental static. Toby entirely surrendered his mind and humanity that night, transitioning from a broken, abused child into a fiercely loyal, brainwashed proxy bound to the forest forever.

(i genuinely love this version of toby (his design) but i dont support the actions of the game creator at all.)