Munkustrap

Family: Old Deuteronomy (father), Desdemona (deceased mother), Fynn (deceased brother), Admetus (brother, believed to be a cousin), Lorien (deceased sister), Rum Tum Tugger (brother), Macavity (uncle), Lucifer (cousin)


Personality:   From a lifetime of knowing that he'd eventually be in a prominent role within the tribe and being raised with only his father had its influence on Munkustrap's personality.  A large part of his personality is Munkus' tendency to take on the archetype of an older brother.  Willing to put the needs of the Jellicles before his own and always doing his best to make time for them and its not unheard of for Munkus to forgo sleeping or rest in order to give his attention and time to others.  Of course there are times that he becomes slightly exasperated with the antics of the younger cats, but it is almost always in good nature.  

Naturally Munkustrap is protective of his own, namely his tribe.  This stems from growing up knowing that he'd be responsible for protecting the Yard with Fynn and implicitly learning the general affection for his tribe from Deuteronomy.  This protectiveness only amplifies his big brother disposition and obviously plays a lot into how serious Munkus takes his responsibility as chief protector.  He also generally makes sure to keep a special eye on the other protectors of the tribe and those training to become one - trying to ensure their wellness so that they can properly protect the tribe as well as his general concern and protectiveness over any Jellicle.  It's not unusual for Munkus to offer to take a patrol to give another protector a rest if needed.  

The job of protecting the tribe and attempting to ensure their overall wellness and happiness is such a large part of Munkus' life and is such a focus for him that he is sometimes oblivious to things beyond that focus.  The obliviousness usually stems from a combination of so much focus on protecting the tribe and sometimes a lack of sleep (generally given up in favour of helping others).

When he manages to take a step back from his duties and actually relax Munkus is rather laid back with an easy going sense of humour that generally consists of dry humour.  He takes a comfort in the happiness of the cats around him and feeds off of that for his own contentment.  

Similarly to his father's approachable nature, Munkus' disposition is rather welcoming and he is always willing to offer comfort to anyone who needs it.  Additionally Munkus is rather tactile, taking a measure of comfort in simple touch and when words fail him as they occasionally do he'll rely on physical touch to convey his meaning.  It is also his gut reaction with offering comfort.

Under all of his protectiveness, contentment, and humour Munkustrap is at his core insecure.  He is absolutely terrified of not being quite enough, fear of falling short of what's expected of him.  This fear is something that has grown over his life; as well as something that he has learned to hide and cover up through his life as well by covering his insecurities and fear with a solid 'confidence' in his actions.  He's a tried and true example of fake it til you make it.  Munkustrap is terrified of letting not only his tribe but also his father down, namely by failing to protect them and that he'll ultimately lose those he cares about.  


History: The circumstances around Munkustrap's birth are rather steeped in grief as his birth also marked the death of his mother his unborn sister (because of this Munkus generally tries to let his birthday go by with little to no fanfare about it).  Despite the less than happy beginning to his life, Munkus has been fortunate to have an overall good and mostly happy life in the junkyard.  And even though he's apparently a carbon copy of his mother Munkustrap never felt like he was a source of sorrow to his father - quite the opposite actually.  He's always felt loved and accepted by his father throughout his life.

As a kit many of Munkus' memories involve his older brother Fynn and are generally either the two of them getting into normal kittenish antics or following their father around the Yard, enamoured with his affection for their tribe and how he conducted himself as a leader.  Then there are the memories of when he got a little brother, and although even from a young age Tugger's disposition varied from his and Fynn's, Munkus still adored his little brother and the adventures that came along with the new perspective and energy of Tugger.  Plus he'd always been amused when their father would have to do damage control because of Tugger.  Through his early life Munkus' life predominately revolved around that, until he began to get more curious about his tribe and the other cats.   Often he'd take the free time - when he wasn't busy with his father learning about being a warrior with Fynn - to wander and explore the junkyard either on his own or with his brothers.  Wandering and exploring their tribe's territory had always relaxed Munkus, letting the expectations and pressures of his knowledge of being the leader's son slip away and simply enjoy the time with his brothers.  As they grew older, Munkustrap's relationship with his brothers grew deeper and more complex although he often felt closer to Fynn than he did to Tugger - predominately because the two eldest had closer personalities and the time they spent together training to protect the tribe.  And occasionally conspiring when they saw their father's interest getting peaked with a queen (they just wanted him to be happy).  Munk felt that he and his older brother carried the same weight of responsibility and was happy to allow Tugger more freedom and allow him to be more carefree.

He enjoyed being able to meet and learn about all the cats in his tribe, and despite being the middle of the three boys was the one to give off much more of a big brother type of vibe between him and Fynn.  Because of this, between the three tom kits Munkustrap often connected better with cats that weren't wholly accepted by the tribe.  The earliest example Munkustrap has of this is his cousin Lucifer.  He hadn't allowed Luce's parentage to sway his perception of his cousin, after all that would be a tad hypocritical in his opinion since Macavity is his uncle and had managed to bond with the other tom.  Luce's habit of sticking to his side whenever he wasn't training never really bothered Munkustrap.

While Deuteronomy never explicitly put unnecessary pressure on Munkustrap with his training and guiding, he still felt the weight of his responsibility to the tribe and strived to be the best and most effective protector he could.  To him this included not only the physical safety of the tribe but also their happiness and prosperity.  Naturally with wanting to be able to protect his tribe also brought the fear to Munkustrap that he'd fail, that he wouldn't be good enough and it'd be his fault that someone got hurt when he could have prevented it.  He'd always been aware that the future of the tribe would be influenced by him, it was the reality of being a child of their leader, but as he grew older and the bonds to the cats and tribe grew and deepened Munkustrap was more acutely aware of that knowledge.  So he made sure to stay focused as he learned and to try and pick up on the same emotional cues that his father could, as well as making it known (usually through body language the the occasional verbal reassurances) that he would always be willing to listen and try to help any tribe member whenever and however he could.

Much of the pressure and insecurities of failure were from Munkustrap's head and the general abstract knowledge that he could very well fail and that he knew the potential consequences.  However the first real failure that shook him was when suddenly his cousin Luce no longer wanted anything to do with him, confronting him on his lies of affection and how he wanted Luce gone.  That jolted him because all Munkustrap was able to think about was how he'd had less time for his cousin with training to be a better protector and he wouldn't listen to Munkus' attempted reassurances and he'd hurt his own cousin, he hadn't protected someone he care about from getting hurt.  And even though Lucifer yelled at him to stay away from the other tom, Munkustrap still keeps an eye out for his cousin.  Only now its at the distance he'd demanded.  

The trauma that has most effected Munkustrap in his entire life however is the day Fynn died.  From the trauma of losing his older brother and having to carry him back to the junkyard has serious affected his memory of the day, blurring the memories into an indistinct mass in an attempt to cope with the tragedy.  All Munkus is able to remember from that day is an ordinary morning and the two brother leaving the Yard together, he can't confidently say whether or not the two remained together or parted ways at some point in the day.  The next memory is of him staring at the body of his brother - pale, not moving and not breathing.  Then panic.  Panicking over trying to get him to breath again.  Munkustrap can't even remember if there was blood or not.  He should have been able to help.  Fynn's death was his fault.  Returning to the yard with the body of his brother seemed like an eternity during the trek, filled only with an odd keening sound and his own muffled sobs.  Suddenly there's faces everywhere, endless faces asking endless questions that he can't quite comprehend and none of it makes sense because his brother dead so young doesn't make sense.  

The next few days were a blur before Munkustrap had to come back to himself, obviously his father and younger brother were grieving too and they shouldn't be going through that because it was his fault.  He'd grieve, but the tribe continued on and now the mantle of leadership was Munkustrap's to take up when Deuteronomy passed it and he'd always put the tribe before himself.  The well-being of the tribe had always been partly his responsibility.  He'd have more to learn.

Some form of small redemption came in the form of Buck.  Of course he'd known of the slightly younger tom with his tendency to start fights with other toms in the tribe.  Munkus had broken up a pawful of them himself.  Despite that, when Munk found him alone and crying in a thunderstorm there was absolutely no way that he could simply walk past and finish the last little bit of his patrol.  Carbucketty was part of the tribe, therefore Munkus cared.  So he'd done what he could to comfort the other tom and made sure keep an eye on him, even managing to actually and legitimately befriend the tom.  Suggesting him for a protector had been an attempt to put his anger to good use as well as to further acclimatize Buck to the yard and to the tribe itself.

The events of the Ball though continue to weigh on his mind and his conscience.  Naturally Munkustrap blames himself for his perceived failure by allowing Macavity to get away with his actions.  For him it validates all of his insecurities and fears of failure regarding his safe keeping of the tribe and his ability to be a future leader.


Notes: Munkustrap is actually bisexual, however his sexuality is super repressed due to Munkustrap's insecurities about not being enough and his responsibility to the future of the tribe and having heirs to lead after him.