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Run Rabbit — Description

Emerald trotted back towards the funeral hall, opening the door like she had done so many times over the years. The day was grey and dreadfully cold, making her shiver under her funeral dress.

"Things are all set over there, now we just need to wait for the coffin bearers to-..."

The young teenage mouse froze, her voice trailing off.
Mortimer Brown had always been a lousy mentor. He had taken her in as an apprentice when she was five and freshly orphaned only because he wanted a servant. It took four years of studying on her own by reading books at the local bookshop and practicing on corpses in his back before he finally started to actually show her the ropes. And once she was able to take care of bodies by herself around thirteen years old, he had just let her do all the work for him, only appearing during funerals to keep up appearances.

Mice and rats of the neighbourhood respected him. Believed he was the guardian of their deceased loved ones. They didn't know him like Emerald did. The alcohol, the short temper, the laziness... but it seemed even she hadn't known about all the vices of her mentor.

Both hands inside the casket they were supposed to send out for burial, the rat was trying to take a gold ring from the deceased mouse's finger.

A heavy silence fell upon the hall as Mortimer glared at her with a mix of rage and panic.

If word of his acts ever came out, his crimes would be discovered. Years of stealing from the dead under the nose of the families and friends, no one ever suspecting anything... He would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Mortimer couldn't allow it. He had worked too hard to let a lowly orphan girl ruin everything.
Emerald took a step back upon seeing his expression. Mortimer had hit her before, but this time felt different.

He lunged, claws out, ready to do what needed to be done.
On Emerald's character sheet, I talk about the incident that gave her both her physical scars, and her selective mutism, well here it is! I do need to modify a thing or two, because lore tends to shift over the years >.>
Mortimer (previously named Arnasio but I wanted to change it) was well overdue to get his own design, and I admit it was tricky to decide what to make him. I didn't want another rat with a Ratigan build (not that I have anything against those, I'm just trying to give rats variety in universe), I didn't want him to be attractive either and I struggled a while for his fur as well. In the end, I decided to steal the fur color and patterns of Cluny the Scourge from the Redwall cartoon xD
I think it's pretty fitting, Arnasio is just as despicable as Cluny!
I do struggle to write also, so I'm happy I managed to do this little story bit, even if it's not the most pleasant story to tell, but hey, sometimes you get fluff and sometimes you get traumatic backstories x)
Hope you like it anyway!
The title (and the drawing as a whole) was inspired by "Run Rabbit" from Mollie Elizabeth, which talks about growing up in an abusive home, I thought it was fitting, and the song itself is an absolute bop x)
Artwork, Emerald Belladona, Mortimer Brown (c) @Misstykata (me!)
Great Mouse Detective (c) Disney/Eve Titus