Jiffy The Fool

Jiffy the Fool is the resident funny guy of the Divine Conflicters and also the only homeowner in the group. He is known for his street performances, his elaborate costumes, and his fondness for musical instruments.

## Backstory

The first memory Jiffy had was waking up in a cold sweat, but minus the cold part and the sweat part because he couldn’t feel either of those things. In fact, he couldn’t feel anything, because he was just a skeleton. No skin, all bones, and held together by some kind of invisible magical force that just made his body parts float where they were supposed to be. He could talk, see, and hear anything you or I could, but he could not feel the warm soul of a human being inside of him.

The place from which Jiffy struck back into reality was a long wooden box that had been buried six feet under in a very old graveyard. Upon his resurrection, the skeleton kicked his way through the lid and dug out through the solid mound of dirt. When he broke through the surface, he found himself face-to-face with a tall, pale man in dark robes, who was reciting some kind of necromantic incantations in order to raise an army of the dead. All around him, an army of skeletons was emerging from their resting places, coming back to hear the profound speech of their new master. Jiffy, however, didn’t really buy any of it and started to zone out. When he came to, his master and his minions were already marching down the hill miles away, leaving Jiffy alone in an empty graveyard.

Jiffy traveled through the woods for hours until he came upon a bustling town. Though he really wanted to join the common folk, the skeleton had to stop himself because of his own frightening image. Instead, he found a nice sewer to climb down into that didn’t smell to bad and made himself a home. Through the barred grates on the side of the streets, Jiffy watched the magical everyday lives of the people who lived in the city. He would memorize names and schedules, treating the life of the streets as if it were a play put on just for him. His favorite act, however, was the joyous groups of children. He loved to see them play, tell riddles,and joke about. Oh, how he wished he could make them laugh!

After weeks of watching the children, Jiffy decided that he had find a way to come up and join them. Using the schedule that he had memorize, he snuck around the town at night and stole scraps from the craft shops around the city. In his sewers, he sewed his first costume; a brightly colored jester’s outfit with handmade special instruments! None of them worked terribly well, but he used that as part of the humor in his act. When Jiffy finally rose from his dirty cave, the people loved him! His performances were a joyous escape from their bitter lives, and he was rewarded with enough coin to spice up his sewer. Eventually he learned how to improve his acts through magical means, summoning mage hands to levitate objects or unseen servants to saw in half. Occasionally, he would also perform for sick children and heal them through his humorous acts. He was a beloved member of the community, yet for some reason he still felt empty. No matter how many smiles he made or hearts he cheered, he still had no heart or smile of his own to feel. He could never love a woman, bear a child, or even do something so simple as stepping outside of his handmade outfit to let the people see who he really was.

So Jiffy lives on as a fool to the world, providing great happiness in the streets yet chasing the one thing that the rest of us take for granted; our humanity.