Clockwocket

In human form, Clockwocket is on the stocky side and a bit overweight, with wide shoulders and a rectangular build. He often comes across as a bit of a klutz, but this has more to do with his not paying enough attention to his surroundings and being more focused on whatever idea he is currently plotting then his balance. He is stronger then he looks, and has a great deal of stamina.

While Clockwocket always maintains the form of some kind of macaw in bird form, his plumage is not limited to that of naturally occurring macaws.  His plumage, particularly that of his wings, often changes color with his mood, bright and cheerful when he is happy, dull and lackluster if he is depressed, deep blood red when angry, etc. 

Clockwocket can also create patterns of plumage that do not occur in nature.  For example, before he was capable of fully transforming himself, he got frustrated because other children were wearing tie dyed shirts, but he didn't wear clothing. So he made his plumage tie dyed.  He often unconsciously creates patterns that pulse in time with the beat when listening to music, particularly if he is focusing on writing. For a costume party, he once made his feathers look metallic, like copper and bronze, and spoke in deliberately stilted language.

As a Warden of the Risen Shore, Clockwocket can sense disturbances in the land with in 10 km of any oceanic coastline.

Clockwocket often dresses somewhat anachronistically, preferring fashions of bygone eras. He often chooses colors that emphasize his allegiance to House Chiroptera.

Clockwocket has a broach with a copper quill coming out of a bronze gear. The lines of the feather are actually micro-engraved literomantic writing making what ever garment or garments the broach is pinned to non-existent to Clockwocket's wings when he is in mixed human and macaw form. The broach was cast with ashes from one of his feathers mixed into the metal, and it will not work for anyone else. Specifically, they could pin it to a garment that they were wearing, but it would still only make that garment non-existent to Clockwocket's wings, which would be rather pointless.

Origins

After the last battle of the first modern word war, the field of battle was a mess.  After all those that could be were Resurrected, and the various members of other Houses had headed back to their homes, House Mollusca set about restoring the area around the area where the battle had taken place.  Many odd things were found, including a large egg.

The Cosmic Kraken, Coffee Quills attempted to contact House Avis upon determining that this was the egg of a literomancer, and one with avian tendencies.  She was unable to so, so gave the care of the egg over to Varkosa, a magical being that took the form of a blue and gold macaw. Varkosa had been summoned by literomancy to assist in the battle and had chosen to stay.  Thus the egg was incubated in a cave deep with in The Zafforza Trench, nestled against the side of a volcano, and regularly rolled, at Varkosa's nagging. 

After about three months, the egg hatched, revealing a baby macaw, although the size of the hatchling was rather large, even for a hyacinth, the largest of macaw species. This suggested that this was probably the child of a were-macaw, not a regular bird. Varkosa insisted that the young macaw be named Efluna Clockwocket, after the gnomish artificer and Admiral that had been her companion during her formative years, about whom the stories that had resulted in Varkosa's summoning had been told. 

Varkosa did not have a very clear understanding of gender based names, and the Molluscans didn't have a very good sense of gendering on birds, so no one objected to the female name being given to the young Clockwocket.

Upbringing

Varkosa fed the hatchling in the manner of macaws, by eating the food then regurgitating it in order to feed the partially digested mush to the young one, beak to beak. As Efluna's feathers grew in, Varkosa undertook teaching him everything Varkosa felt a macaw should know, including human language, weirdness, and basic literomancy. Efluna displayed a love of learning from a young age, and he loved stories even more. His first transformation into a partially human form occurred because he grew frustrated with a lack of hands to turn pages and write with. 

However, although Efluna was quick to learn other aspects of literomancy, full transformation eluded him until about a week into The Second Word War. He had always thought of himself as female, and was a bit confused when the fully human body he manifested was male. He had read enough that he understood the difference, but initially assumed that he must have done something wrong, and this was not his true form.  When he tried to explain the dilemma to Varkosa, he was met with cackles and jokes.  Varkosa was somewhat confused by Efluna's confusion. Through epic miscommunication, Efluna went away with the sense that Varkosa had been laughing at his mistake, not trying to tell him that he wasn't a she to begin with.

Second Word War

Having completed his first transformation, Clockwocket obtained clothing, and sought to be of aid in the Second Word War. Not even two weeks later, he was assigned guard duty of the rocky island that is the only known entrance to the trench from the surface.  Being wet behind the ears, he was supposed to fly patrol at a distance and if he saw anything, immediately report in. Then tragedy struck.

Clockwocket was on guard duty when OncomingShadow of The Undead Horde approached.  He attempted to fly back to the Trench, but OncomingShadow succeeded in blocking his flight path, at every turn.  OncomingShadow did not immediately attack, but instead attempted to persuade Clockwocket to join the undead side, using her shadows to fascinate the naive Clockwocket.  When Clockwocket paused, briefly, considering his chances for escape and an offer to learn shadow magic, OncomingShadow used that pause to use her shadow magic to full effect, converting Clockwocket into one of the undead.

Clockwocket doesn't remember a great deal after that until waking up at the edge of The Warren, having been resurrected after House Lapin and the Grand Alliance successfully defeated the Undead Horde.

Just A Bit Batty

Clockwocket did not return to Molluscan territory after being resurrected, instead seeking the hospitality of first the Warren, and then The Cavern, swearing allegiance to House Chiroptera.  He felt more at home with the bats, as the caverns are well suited to flying creatures, and macaws often live in caves in nature. Further, he found that his creativity flourished when he wrote at night, and that the bats didn't find his tendency to miss blindingly obvious social cues odd, merely something to be noted and taken into consideration.

Upon finding out Clockwocket's actual age, Siobhan the Writer, the then leader of the Chiropterans, insisted that he underwent mental and psychological evaluations to determine his emotional maturity before he was legally granted the status of a full adult or allowed to participate fully as a Tome Knight. Upon her suggestion, he studied for and passed the exams to receive his General Equivalency Diploma.

One of the Missing

Clockwocket responded when Queen Sable Aradia asked for any Tome Knights with mysterious origins to contact her and set up a meeting. While traveling from the Caverns, at that time located in South America, to the Warren, a storm blew up, and he was forced to take shelter in a cave. He woke up, and continued his journey, only to be told when he arrived that three years had passed, and he was one of many who had simply disappeared, not only from the world, but from memory as well.

Queen Sable obtained biological samples to run DNA tests, and he hopes that the results may provide some clues as to where he came from. Otherwise, Clockwocket is still adjusting to the changes that have taken place in the Caverns in his absence. In his quest to figure what happened, he has spent a great deal of time in the library, and volunteered to organize it.

Tourney of Tales, July 2025

Clockwocket participated in the July Tourney of Tales in 2025, and during the month obtained therank of Power Writer. He also participated in the raising of the eastern seaboard of North America as one of the Amazing Flying Sea Bunnies, earning the title of Warden of the Risen Shore.

Clockwocket's gender identity is complicated by the fact that he was raised as a macaw until near adulthood, and had just achieved a fully human form for the first time at the beginning of the Second Word War. Varkosa didn't particularly care about human gender ideals, and as result, he was given the name 'Efluna Clockwocket'. Not being expert at sexing macaws, everyone else involved assumed he was a she. This error in assumptions resulted in much confusion for Clockwocket when he first assumed a fully human form.

After as much soul searching as the crisis of the time allowed, he has decided that he identifies as male, and has changed his name to simply 'Clockwocket'. He also decided that he wasn't particularly fussed about conforming to gender norms.

Clockwocket needs an emotional or intellectual connection to someone to be physically attracted, and doesn't have any preference based on gender or biological sex.

Clockwocket continues to have frequent nightmares about his time as ExLunaShadowocket during the Second Word War, most of which result in him waking up shaking and covered in sweat but lacking any clear memory of the dream.  While he doesn't remember much of this time, he has flashes of memory when he wakes up from his nightmares. One of these is seeing Varkosa's throat ripped out by one of the undead.  He hasn't had the courage to ask any of the Molluscans if this is a true memory, or simply a nightmare created out of his worst fears.  

More recently, the trauma of being told that he had not existed for three years, as far as anyone else knew for reasons that no one knows, has him kind of jittery. He doesn't like being alone for any extended period of time, and sometimes has difficulty going to sleep because he's afraid he will stop existing.

Clockwocket has a strong desire to prove himself a useful, contributing member of his House. He still feels undue guilt at his perceived failure in the Second Word War, and is always seeking to learn to be a better Tome Knight, so that it doesn't happen again.

He feels he has a duty to protect and assist those who do not have literomancy from literomantic threats, and to make the world a better place in whatever way or ways he can.

Clockwocket enjoys reading. He generally prefers speculative fiction but will also read historical fiction on occasion.  He likes a variety of different music, from Simon and Garfunkel to Metallica to Garth Brooks to Abney Park to filk music.

Clockwocket's favorite fruit is cherries. He has a fondness for spinach and Brussel sprouts, and he loves pizza and sweets of all varieties.

Willful ignorance, stupidity, and cruelty are Clockwocket's chief dislikes.  He also dislikes cleaning and meaningless busy work of all forms.  He is not fond of slapstick humor, or humor that is funny at the expense of someone's humiliation.

Clockwocket has a fist-sized, crocheted amigurumi mallard duck, named Sprocket. The small stuffie is often carried with him when he is feeling unsettled or upset in some way. Sometimes he brings Sprocket along because he doesn't want him to get lonely. When he is working on something, and runs into a problem of wording, plotting, or coding, he will often talk it through with Sprocket, insisting the stuffed duck is a wonderful listener and gives good advice.

Although his hygiene is otherwise fairly good, Clockwocket often struggles with remembering that his human form needs to bathe more often then his Macaw form. He dislikes bathing or showering in his preferred mixed form, because doing so makes for soggy, and thus heavy, wings. Further, they don't fit in the tub or shower well. His dislike of being in his purely human form, even when he is alone in a safe environment, often causes him to procrastinate when it comes time for a shower. He is aware that this is a problem, and is working to establish good habits in this aspect of his hygiene, as he doesn't want to attract the attention of the Self Care Mafia.

Clockwocket takes great joy in yarn craft in many forms. He knits, crochets, and is trying to learn to spin yarn. He is also working on learning thread and micro-crochet, out of a desire to make bookmarks.

He also fiddles around with clockwork mechanisms and toys, mostly when he thinks of Varkosa. The strong association between the two for him sometimes makes practicing this hobby feel bittersweet.