Arty Mercer

Enhanced Speed

Heightened Intuition

Morthos Ea (Paternal Half-Brother)

Edgar Mercer (Adoptive Father)

Amice Mercer (Adoptive Mother)

**Akmenos "Arty" Mercer** is the adoptive son of Amice and Edgar Mercer and the biological son of Therai Ea and Damaia Sigrin. He's a member of the Queensguard's Sixth Division and Slick Spiderbite's Squire.

## Background

Arty is a bastard child and the result of an affair between Therai Ea, the leader from the Underworld’s [reformed] Tiefling city, and Damaia Sigrin, a nomadic warrior from the surface. After being confronted by Damia after the affair, Therai brushed her off and said that being with her was a mistake and that he’d wanted nothing to do with her nor the baby. So, in a fit of blinded rage and sadness, Damia drew her sword and brought upon a swift end to his life.

After the birth of Arty, she left him wrapped in a ragged blanket with a note in a random village [Westercourt] and proceeded to travel as far away from it as she possibly could.

Arty’s life in Westercourt wasn’t pleasant, as the town was very loosely run, poor and still held their prejudices towards Queen Star and monsters. He grew up in the small orphanage that the town had and suffered constant bullying from his peers and harassment from the townsfolk despite not having done anything wrong. Nonetheless, Arty put up with this treatment for years as he’d had nowhere else to go and felt there wasn’t much better beyond the town. Until one terrible night when he was woken up by the other children at the orphanage screaming terrible names into both of his ears and being all-around noisy. Shocked and disoriented, Arty stumbled out of the building and into the night. He quickly found himself tripping over the root of a tree and stumbling into the Mewni River where he fell unconscious.

Fortunately, he’d managed to wash up on the village directly under the Butterfly Queendom and a young seamstress, Amice Mercer, found him and took him in. The two spent weeks with one another and Amice did her best to find out as much as she could about him. She quickly found out about his newfound hearing impairment and took it upon herself to learn Mewman sign language and teach it to him, as well as basic writing. Eventually, she learned that he was an orphan and adopted him and treated him as her own.

## Personality

Arty is a big people person and an optimist. He believes that there’s good in everyone and things, even if it’s small. He’s known for his kind and gentle nature which is why it came as a surprise to many when he wanted to be a knight. Moreover, he’s persuasive and oddly charming and can read people easily and tends to use that to his advantage when in battle or in a debate with someone.

Arty is a bit naive due to the fact that he’s rather trusting of others and more willing to give people second chances when they don’t deserve it, but he isn’t an idiot. He can sense when someone’s being dishonest or manipulative (heightened intuition) but more often than not casts it aside unless he feels like it could but the group or person he’s with at the moment in danger.

## Appearance

Arty is a short boy with periwinkle purple skin, long eggplant-colored hair and yellow/orange eyes. He has two sets of horns coming from the side of his head as well as pointed ears and a sharp devil-esque tail. He’s typically seen in his white knight armor or pale tannish grey shirt and umber brown pants with black boots.

## Relationships

### **Slick**

Arty didn’t know what to think of Slick at first, with most of Mewni’s rumors and stories him were by word and him not hearing about them prior to the incident as no one in Westercourt bothered to talk to him, let alone share any form of gossip with him. So, when he became his squire, he didn’t know what he was getting into, at all. Upon meeting Slick he was rather confused and slightly intimidated and the communication barrier between the two became a rather prominent issue between the two for a while but they managed to overcome it by Arty keeping a blank scroll of paper, quill pen and a small ink jar with him at all times. With the assisted communication and general adaptation to the way Slick seems to work, Arty slowly began to ease up and look up to Slick and the two even formed a somewhat brotherly relationship. While he’s not a fan of his aggressive nature, he does enjoy going on whatever it is his antics lead them to, most of the time. Arty still does his best to get Slick to be more empathetic of others but his suggestions seem to fall on closed ears.

### **Fum**

With both of them being squires and having similar personalities, it’s no doubt that the two clicked almost immediately. Arty was relieved and overjoyed to meet someone with the same amount of optimism as him but the communication barrier became another issue. However, the two managed to overcome it similar to the way Arty did with Slick, except he writes using a stick in the dirt instead of ink, pen, and paper. Either way, the two became close fairly quickly and are good friends.

### **Astro**

Out of all the people within the Queensguard, Arty and Astro seem to have the most distanced relationship. It’s not with malicious intent, but outside of occasional interactions due to him and Slicks’ brawls, the two don’t interact. However, Arty thinks highly of Astro due to his role as Captain and Slick and Fums’ liking of him.

### **Breeze**

Breeze is concerned about the influence Slick has on Arty, mostly because the last thing she needs is another trouble maker within the guard. Arty doesn’t know much about Breeze but respects her as he does everyone else on the guard.

### **Bloom**

Bloom is Arty’s third favorite person and gets rather enthusiastic when she visits her or vice versa. He was naturally drawn to her because of her caring nature and finds being around her to be rather comforting. The two have a friendly relationship and frequently visits the Nymph tribe to spend time with her or learn more about their history of pacifism.

### **Dottie**

Arty and Dottie met through Fum and were indifferent to each other at first. Over time, the two warmed up to each other and are somewhat friends. Arty finds Dottie’s sarcasm and general spunkiness amusing and A skilled and capable young warrior, Arty was chosen as a squire by Slick Spiderbite himself. He is generally well liked by all in the guard, and one of the few who can steer the most reckless of the Calamities away from his more questionable habits. It’s clear to all he’ll be a top notch knight one day, and everyone expects great things from the Teifling.admires her writing skills and thinks that she’s an all-around interesting person.

## Trivia

* Despite his name being Akmenos, he adopted the name Arty because of his artistic nature and the people at the Orphanage not knowing how to properly pronounce it.
* He can read lips very well and only has issues understanding someone if they speak quickly or are far away and can talk but chooses not to (he’ll only do it in dire circumstances). His preferred way of communicating with others is through Mewman Sign Language or writing it down.
* He wants to be the negotiator for the Queensguard one day.
* His deafness was caused by acoustic trauma when he was 8.