Mus

by Andalite

### Family

King October Leafstorm (brother-in-law)Queen Terasa Leafstorm (younger sister)Autumn Royals (nieces and nephews)Three children (dead)Assorted younger siblings

### **Appearance**

Mus has lightly tanned skin, large brown eyes and small features. She is very tiny, only 4' 8", but can be rather intimidating, as she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go get it. She has shoulder-length, unevenly cut brown hair, and generally dresses in ratty clothes. She has slightly larger front teeth, in addition to her brown mouse ears, claws and tail. Age lines crease her face from stress and work, and she has no shortage of scars and even some open wounds.

### **Personality**

Mus is a very opinionated woman, with distinct values and clear ideals: a better, more healthy, more safe Autumn for all. She will judge each person she meets individually based on their actions, taking everything she heard about them before with a grain of salt before she comes to a decision about them. If she likes you, good. If she doesn't, well, you're gonna hear a lot from her. She is not afraid to voice her opinions loudly and speak for those who can't. Having lost all faith in the crown years ago, she has been trying to take matters into her own hands, helping her fellow East-Siders find food, clothes and shelter and taking care of any orphaned children she finds along the way. Despite her spitfire attitude, she has a strong maternal instinct and will take care of any child that needs it. Quite intelligent for one with such little education, she can't read or count, but is well-spoken and logical in her thinking, as well as confident in a way few other mice are. Sometimes overly outspoken with not much of a filter, picks fights, can be rather rude once she decides she doesn't like you, physically weak, but fast and agile. Very much a tough love sort of person, but if she offers to teach you something, you should listen. She's survived everything the world has thrown at her, and come out of it alive just to spite fate.

### **History**

Mus and Tera (and several, unnamed siblings) lived together for a long time, until most of them died or left for whatever reason, be it to join the gangs terrorizing the East Side, or leave in search of a better life elsewhere.  Mus, who had raised them all since their parents died, ended up left only with Tera.

Mus did most all of the hunting, gathering and bartering to take care of Tera, who was gentler and softer than she.  They were close, once, until the soon to be Autumn King split them apart.

When Tera left, Mus spent some time hopeful that things would get better.  She believed her sister would use her position to bring change to their home, and rebuild the East Side.  She did what she could to keep up on what happened with the royals, and was in the best spirits she'd ever been.

Those hopes were quickly crushed when she heard Tera had changed her name and done everything she could to forget her life in the East Side, leaving the already cautious Mus even less trusting and more jaded in her thinking.

When she realized her attempts at contacting her sister were being intentionally ignored, she broke off all ties to Tera, considering her just another royal, but this time, with more reason to dislike her current rulers, for they knew exactly what was happening beneath their noses, and chose to turn a blind eye.

She took matters into her own hands, deciding that if a change was to be made, she'd have to do it herself.  She spent her days hunting for the East Side - for everyone in it - and teaching the children how to hunt for themselves.

She later saw those same children using what she taught them to get accepted into one of the many gangs in town, harming the community instead of helping it.  Her kindness wavered, and another layer of prickly armor went up.  Still, she tried more.

She eventually found what she believed was salvation in the form of Timor Raspith, a young man who said that they could rise up and be better then this, that they were as good as anyone else.  She was a believer in him, for a time, until the glamor wore off and she saw him for what he really was: a selfish troublemaker, no better then the gangs around the corner.  She stepped back, reevaluated, and left.  Her trust wavers still, but isn't gone.

At a later date, she met a man she thought she loved, only to find she'd been a bit of momentary fun and a meal ticket.  He left her with three starving kids, and a new outlook on life.  She could only trust herself, she could only depend on herself, and never, never believe what you hear, until you see it for yourself.

She adapted.  Three kids and no money, Mus got stronger, smarter.  She could fend for herself as no one else could, she had an iron resolve and a sharp tongue to match, saying exactly what she thought and not sucking up to anyone.  She followed the rules life had given her, and set some new ones of her own.  With two screaming babies on her hip and one in her arms, she looked death in the eye and spat in it's face.

She let her guard down once.  Her children were getting old enough to realize they had no friends but each other, and she allowed them to play outside with some neighbors kids, whome she'd assured herself were not in possession of any weapons at the time.  They didn't get hurt, much to her relief, and were the happiest they'd ever been.

Then they got sick.  Very sick.  She cried as she watched them struggle to breath, soothing them one by one as the life drained out of them, holding her children in her arms and lying to them, telling them they'd be okay.

When they died, she swore never again.  She would not let herself be used, hurt or betrayed.  She would not let herself be walked over, stepped on or put down.  She would not be disrespected, underestimated or ignored.  She was a survivor.  She'd fought tooth and nail to live in this world that seemed dead set on snuffing her out, but she'd live just to spite it, and all who said she couldn't.

When Persephone showed up, the boy who'd killed her children in tow, she'd seen Tera in her eyes and recognized her instantly.  She saw a strength that certainly hadn't come from the girl's mother, and she bristled.

She would not be tricked by fate again.  The universe would not get to her this time.  This girl, this child was not her problem, and she wanted nothing to do with her.  She would not be used against her, another brick in her wall.  When the princess persisted, Mus made a silent vow.

If this girl wanted to learn about her, she wouldn't budge.  But if she wanted to learn about this place, these people?  She would learn. And she'd learn the hard way.  This place wasn't kind to those who were soft, or pampered.  It didn't do to sugar coat anything.

She wouldn't pull any punches.  She wouldn't be kind.  This girl wanted to fix things?  Then she'd have to learn to use her head, because Mus wouldn't give her the answers.  She'd have to calm her temper, because Mus wasn't going to be any kinder than this world she wanted to know.  She'd have to learn to forget her ego, because Mus wasn't impressed, and no one else would be either.  She'd have to learn to get on their level, rather than acting above it - no, she'd have to be lower, because she'd never had to live here, she was a spectator among survivors, a tourists among locals.

She would learn.  Mus would make sure she'd learn.  But she'd learn the hard way, because that was the only way to really understand.

### **Character Relationships**

Queen Terasa Leafstorm

Being the older sister Terasa refuses to admit she has, Mus has cut ties with her and considers the feeling mutual. Any trust she had in the sister she raised is long gone, washed away by years of neglect and unanswered calls.

King October Leafstorm

They knew each other, long ago. Ever since he married Terasa, they have barely spoken and her respect for him has plummeted. Though it is possible there may have been something between them in the past....

Persephone Leafstorm

Mus seems to come off as extra prickely to Persephone, but whether that is due to such an extreme lack of respect or seeing a bit of herself in the girl is unclear.

Amber

After he gave her children the disease that eventually killed them, Mus wants nothing to do with the boy.

Timor Raspith

They have a secret history together and, long story short, she despises him with every inch of her being. Which, admittedly, isn't a lot of inches.

### **Trivia**

- Meant to be a one-time-use npc, she became liked so much in the thread she was introduced in that I had to make her canon

- Mus' kids were named Pero, Reith, and Ieuco

- Mus never told her kids they were related to the Queen, not wanting to get their hopes up