Syper was adopted as an infant by Mad Old Hettie, a larger-than-life woman who lived deep in the swamp outside Genji. That’s the only person he’s called family. Hettie provided cures or fortunes to whoever ventured out to her and was willing to deliver whatever she asked for; precisely why she wanted what she did was always beyond him. Hettie didn’t share her magic with him, much; she preferred that he dive into the muck for things people left behind, or go into town to procure whatever staples she needed for the two of them. Being an orphan with a shady past and future did change the way he was treated. The people of Genji never trusted Syper, and knew about his thieving, but as long as they all knew he was Hettie’s ward, they never messed with him.
Judgmentalism is the biggest thing he hates. There’s been too much of that in his life. Also he doesn’t like how he looks in red. Too garish. He knows there’s something terribly off about him. He’s not sure what. Most days, he just chooses to ignore it and hope for the best. He wants to learn more about the occult. He knows that Hettie understood far more about him, but only revealed a few things. Now he needs to know more.
One day, Hettie, clearly agitated, told Syper to rush out into the deep water of the swamp and gather extra eelgrass. He left, dove down, and gathered up a handful when a huge wall of water appeared in a sudden flash flood. The smell of ash was in the air, a sure sign of an eruption of Mt. Ebar. The gushing flood barreled into him and washed him far downstream. Syper wasn’t sure how long he was knocked out, but he found himself on land, and alive. He figured out where he was and rushed back to Hettie’s shack, only to find it completely flattened, with no sign of her anywhere. He went into town, and no one there knew what happened, only that there was flooding damage to deal with. However, once Hettie was gone, it became clear that Syper wasn’t welcome anymore in Genji, so he found a boat, joined their crew, and left. He wears an eyepatch now, mainly to hide his aquamarine hag’s eye.
