Caisys Nackwea Shortclock

Caisys is a gnome rogue who adventures in Penzavie.

Backstory
Caisys' parents are both a hazy memory and a bit of a mystery. For some reason the two of them had moved to Ilfe, which she came to learn was an odd move for typically rural-dwelling gnomes. Especially forest gnomes, as it turned out she is. She scarcely remembers her father at all, just a vague recollection of a bushy moustache, and she can't recall anything her mother said about her father's fate in general. She assumes he's dead. Her mother is definitely dead, killed by a desperate mugger when Caisys was only 11. Memories of her mother are hazy, but she knows they got along well, and that her mother was a friendly and loving sort in general.

With her mother dead, an 11 year old Caisys had no ability to pay for their tiny apartment, and soon found herself living on the streets. For a time she was consumed with a rage and hatred for her mother's killer, and sought them out for revenge. But they died in a confrontation with the authorities before she could manage it, and thus she found herself without a purpose once more.

Then she met Shaena. Also living on the streets, this affable halfling taught a traumatized young gnome how to love life again, and how to survive in their unfortunate situation. The two were practically inseparable for the next twenty or so years.

By the time Caisys hit about 20, she had firmly realized that something was wrong in terms of how people saw her. They saw a boy gnome, but, she realized, she was a girl gnome. With Shaena's help, Caisys found the potions she needed to change her body to something more appropriate (hormone potions, basically).

At about age 31, Caisys found herself stricken with an irresistible wanderlust, something Shaena could not relate to. Sad to leave each other, Caisys nevertheless made the decision to explore the world, or at least the island of Kiokol. That's exactly what she did over the next ten years, even managing to visit Aquil Island and Milhar, on Summent. She eventually returned to Ilfe, but, try as she might, she was unable to find Shaena. She still to this day wonders what happened to her old friend, and holds out hope they might one day meet again.

Since then, Caisys has tried many different crafts and attempted to learn many new skills, but never worked at them long enough to truly become any good - something she isn't really aware of. Thus she believes herself quite accomplished and skilled, but when it comes to actually listing accomplishments or performing these skills, she has little to offer. For instance, her shirt (not the leather armor, but the shirt beneath) was sewn by herself, and she is quite proud of it. But it is made up of at least three different fabrics, fits very loosely, has sleeves of vastly different lengths, and generally looks... bad.

She had become a bit infamous among Ilfe's shopkeeps, as when she gets focused on particular crafts and skillsets she will hound a particular shopkeep for weeks or even months, trying to learn all their 'secrets', as she calls them. She's proven generally harmless, however, and most people find her difficult to hate, so her presence is tolerated.

When she was younger and palling around with Shaena, she mostly relied on thieving to get by, stealing food and enough money to get by. Since returning to Ilfa, she's mostly left her thieving ways behind, making money by helping the various shopkeeps that she is or has been fixated on. Despite her infamous inability to learn most skills well enough to be proficient at them, she has proved adequate at things like cleaning and managing a shop and fetching things. She is casually employed at several places, but is very infrequent in actually working at any of them, which is honestly what most of her employers prefer anyway. They are capable of managing the tasks they assign to her quite easily, and mostly hire her out of pity. She 'mostly' left her thieving ways behind, but not completely - since her pay is meager, especially given how infrequently she works. She occasionally resorts to stealing from visitors to Ilfa, if they don't look too destitute.

Character Appearance
Caisys is a respectable height for a gnome, with a fairly slender frame, save for a bit of a belly, though it's difficult to tell since her clothes are typically far from form-fitting. She has brown skin, a fairly large nose, and vibrant green eyes. Her hair is also vibrant, but red (true red, not orange), and kept to about shoulder-length. Her bangs are cut to just above her eyes, and both her bangs and the rest of her hair are self-cut with a knife (usually while looking at her reflection in water), so they are far from even. It would be hard to tell the main part of her hair is unevenly cut, though, since it is typically unattended to and therefore rather messy. Her typical choice of clothing is loose-fitting, and her outfit rarely (if ever) matches. She simply is not interested in her clothes, generally, and thus her outfit is usually quite haphazard.

Personality
Caisys is usually pretty warm and friendly, but nevertheless feels a bit aloof to most people. This is probably because she is autistic, though no such word exists to describe her in the world that she inhabits. She doesn't relate to people very well, and the word 'tact' is a mystery to her. This has resulted in a decent number of unintentionally hurt feelings, both her own and other peoples'. If the person she has hurt is someone she cares about, she is quick to apologize once she's realized her offense, but otherwise she tends to shrug it off and assume they knew she meant no harm - an attitude that has put her on several people's bad sides at one time or another.

She tends to develop intense but unlasting fascination in things, and is very unfocused when it comes to anything that is not her current focus. She is described by those who have dealt with her as air-headed.

She has been known to have meltdowns and even occasionally shutdowns, mostly when overstimulated either emotionally or in regards to sound. The emotional thing doesn't happen much, but the sound thing has happened far more often than she's like (which, to be fair, would be 'not at all'). Because of her sensitivity to sound, she often wears ear plugs that don't completely block sound, but muffle it.

She often doesn't understand when people are sarcastic, and once she realizes, she tends to make a big show of it, loudly pointing it out.

She is very stimmy, practically always moving in one way or another, whether it be shaking her hips, tapping her fingers, or flapping her hands. She tends to stim vocally a lot too, often just making nonsense noises.

She is gay. Very gay. When she sees a cute girl she has a hard time not flirting.

Other Aliases
Fnip, Stumbleduck, Ruttella, Goose

Animal Friend
She has a rat named Lilli that's been her pet for... much longer than a rat should live. It's possible there have been multiple rats, all named Lilli, but Caisys refuses to admit it.