#do i tag this...

so first let's look at the info we have: mickbell grew up in the slums of kahka brud, which is not a halfling village like the one chilchuck grew up in, so he, unlike chilchuck, grew up around other races (as a sidenote that's not really important here: kahka brud seems to be a dwarven city, but there's at least tallmen, too, since we see one in the flashback where mickbell rescues kuro. so we have a majority dwarfs, but also tallmen and halflings, and since it seems from that to be a city that's not limited to one race we can probably assume people from all races (except elves and ogres and kobolds and the others that are rarer/usually only live in specific places) live there); we don't know anything about his parents; we know he's been alone for what looks like a long time since he's not old, either (he's about 25 in tallman years; 22 as a halfling of course); and we know him and his sister are "permanently out of contact," which could mean a number of things: that they don't talk anymore because they dislike each other, that she's dead, that they got separated, that they simply drifted apart, or things like that.

my first instinct here was to go "this does not sound like she's dead, i think kui would have said if she was dead" and i still think so, but i do think it'd be interesting if mickbell thinks she's dead... though i also like the angle of "they had a bad fight so now they don't talk to each other anymore".

ok, so now that we've got the facts and my initial reaction to them out of the way, here's what i vaguely put together in my head for mickbell's backrgound (again, subject to change):

i think it's very likely his parents were abusive (or at least one of them). mickbell very clearly is not in contact with them anymore, either (they could also be dead, however! but i think that's not as fun; and i think the abuse angle explains mickbell's general view of relationships and other people and also money a lot better than them simply dying), so they're not in the picture. i imagine that they either abandoned, sold, or kidnapped their children bcuz they've always been very poor and they just did not care that much. i also think that mickbell, as an older brother, probably tried to protect his sister as best as he could and tried to feed them both, having only each other; but as i've said, i think the "they had a fight" angle is fun, too, so i generally think they didn't really ger along regardless, lol. but hey, they were still family!!!

this one is a headcanon i mostly developed because mickbell is so weird about relationships (in canon, mostly with kuro, of course), and because i think it'd be interesting for him to be just as weird about sexual relationships and intimacy: i think he probably sold his body to people (mostly tallman; mostly male; which is also why i think he's mostly into tallmen (though mostly women) bcuz it's some way for him to feel like he has control over that trauma) to have enough so he and his sister can eat.

with that all there, what did happen to his sister? genuinely, the most interesting thing to me (the most important person in the universe), is if mickbell doesn't know. if he came home one day and she wasn't there anymore and she never showed up again and he couldn't find her anywhere and he doesn't know if it's because of their most recent fight, or because someone found her and killed her or worse. i think this kind of uncertainty--while still having the distinct feeling of being left behind--would very much explain why he clings so much; why he isolates kuro and freaks out whenever kuro spends time with others, why he seems so, so, so scared of being left out of nowhere again.

so, yeah, those are my mickbell thoughts!!! i think about him a normal amount!!!