Timothy Clever is said to be a young man with exceptional features. He’s most famous for his ice-blue eyes, so piercing that they’re thought to see right through people, able to discern everything about them. They sit behind narrow specs of clean glass that many think are meant to minimise the impact of his gaze. His facial features are sharp, sleek and almost cat-like, giving him a wisened appearance though he is still quite young. Everything from his posture to his to gait and his pronunciation gives him a refined and outstanding presence. “Wit beyond his years” is how people like to refer to him. He reads a lot and writes a lot and knows a lot. “Wit beyond his years.” He dresses neatly and his expressions are always composed, but if he does smile, it’s always just bright enough, and just modest enough.

But very few people actually know Timothy, yet they always claim that he is most appropriately named. The only person who calls him ‘Tim’ is the uncouth child that has grown up with him: Basil Green; a young man with a ridiculous name and a transparent personality. Nothing about Basil is deemed special and so no one can put their finger on why Timothy, and all of his wit, would continue to spend time with him.

Basil doesn’t understand why people always describe Timothy as someone with “wit beyond his years”; he thinks it’s a very naive and lazy way of them labelling him. To Basil, Timothy is a young man who always has his nose in books because of how slow he reads. Basil inhales reading materials and Timothy is always trying to catch up to him. Timothy writes a lot because he is often completing punishment tasks for always breaking things in Basil’s workshop; Timothy is the clumsiest person that Basil knows. Timothy’s smile is always just bright enough and just modest enough because it’s usually his way of covering up his confusion. He is actually self-conscious of his feline-features because of the way people look at him, mistaking their admiration for intrigue over something strange looking. His posture and pronunciation are to make up for his lack of academic skill when it comes to Basil. Timothy’s fashion sense is also influenced by Basil, refining his tastes and style to gain praise from Basil, who, though he didn’t care to dress up nicely himself, appreciates the aesthetic Timothy carries.

Timothy is thought to work for the Jakob Green, a renowned scholar and Basil’s father. Many are under the impression that Jakob saw Timothy’s gifts and employed him to help tutor Basil, when in fact it is Basil tutoring Timothy. Timothy is employed under Jakob, but it’s as a helping hand in the household, nothing grand. He’s often tried to explain to people that he isn’t as clever as they think he is, but they often run away with their praise of him that he can’t get a word in. Whenever he expresses his concern to Basil, he’s always told to ignore them. Whenever they say “wit beyond his years”, Basil responds with “they don’t even know how to use the word ‘wit’ properly”. Basil often tells Timothy that there is nothing remotely witty about him and it often upsets people. But Timothy doesn’t mind, because Basil is the only one who seems to look at him for who he honestly is.