As an infant, Tim still had access to his powers as an Opener, for example bringing imaginary friends like Awn the Blink or the Wobbly to life - and claiming and reshaping Tanger and Crimple, who had already served numerous Openers in numerous forms throughout history. He also unconsciously created thousands of alternate worlds with thousands of alternate Tims. Each of these Tims was a portion of the original, the part that felt particular feelings or suffered particular pain that the original could not cope with, and in separating them, Tim lost the ability to feel those feelings again, leaving him disconnected from his world and his feelings for most of his childhood and teenage years. One particular early trauma was the death of his mother in a car accident: his father was the driver of the vehicle, losing an arm in the accident and retreating into his grief so far that he spent most of Tim's life sitting in his armchair, drinking and watching old films.