Gilbert was always punctual. Wait, that's not right. Gilbert was always punctuation. A period, to be precise. But not your ordinary, run of the mill tiny black dot type of period. No, Gilbert was a wooly, dyed in the rough mountain man of a period. He was a pioneer and sort of a prophet.
You see, Gilbert was the very first period to ever walk the face of God's green earth. He was born in the badlands of Utah, the son of an eclipse and a wooly buffalo. From a young age, he realized he was quite different from everyone else, so he just sort of leaned into that difference and set out to learn his purpose in life. He never bothered to try to fit in to normal society because he knew if would be a strong and incongruous burden upon both them and him.
The thing about Gilbert was - you could believe him. He never put on airs, never cared for deceit or deception. He was who he was and he was fine with that. People came to respect him, to value his integrity. Townsfolk would seek out his opinion and whatever Gilbert said, well, that was the end of it. Period.