Arusa Homura

"'Look, I'm not good with words, so I'll keep this brief. Me and Andy- that is to say, we think that- what I mean is- you should move in with us. I can't promise I'll be the best partner, but I'll try.' -Arusa to Taerlyn, shortly after her rescue."Arusa is the leader of the Survivor's Pack, the mother of Andrea Homura, and the wife of Taerlyn Byrne.

Biography
Arusa was born to a Japanese father and a Chinese mother in Kanto. Shortly after her eighteenth birthday she came out as a trans woman and was met with violence from her parents, with her mother chasing her out with a knife. Arusa wandered for several years, doing odd jobs to support herself. She willingly entered the Facility after the promise of a steady salary, but was forbidden from leaving and eventually was forced into horrific experiments designed to stretch human endurance to maximum capacity.

During her time in captivity, Arusa was experimented on and given a fully-functional uterine system, and several horrific experiments that she refuses to expand upon were performed on her by the scientists. The results left her terrified and shaken, and of the four children she was artificially impregnated with, only Andrea survived the experiments the scientists did to her. Arusa's handler argued that Andrea should be left in Arusa's care as incentive for good behavior, and as a reward for her compliance.

A few months after the birth of her daughter, the woman had enough. She waited until her handler had left, then pulled out the IV drip currently running through her to lure a scientist in, who she then killed. She started a fire as a distraction and focused on trying to free the victims of the Facility. She managed to escape with seven other people, though they suffered burns from a chemical fire, with Arusa losing her eyes to a flare-up of burning acid.

The survivors of the Facility trudged into the woods, hiding in small caves or hills while nursing infected burns. They were eventually found and brought back to Nmon Lau, where they were hospitalized for several months due to injury, and later on intense mental instability. As they recovered, the eight banded together and formed an informal group called the Pack, each picking a new name for themselves after Arusa, who had chosen her name shortly after being brought in by the Facility.

Arusa spent the next few years working with the Queen to track down and execute the last of the Facility members. Arusa took great pleasure in hunting down the scientists of the Facility, toying with their lives before executing them in gruesome and painful ways. While Arusa was scolded for her bloodlust by Queen Aylanur, she was never punished for it, as the scope of the crimes the facility had committed meant that any sympathy for them was lost. The sole exception to Arusa's violent retribution was her former handler, who she arrested and offered a plea bargain.

As the hunt for the Facility members came to a close, Arusa turned her focus towards her fellow victims, and she helped set up the other members of her Pack in stable positions- the younger four were put in a school for traumatized children, while Dazsha and Persae were given jobs in the royal family, and Maqi worked as a baker for a while before meeting Esther and settling down. Arusa herself was drawn to peace and quiet, just wanting a simple life for herself and her daughter. She was given a small parcel of land near the edge of the forest, a few miles away from the nearest town. Over the next several years she turned the land into a working farm, growing most of her own food and rearing her own animals for products and for slaughter.

Four years into her rehabilitation, Arusa met a young Crownsguard named Taerlyn after the woman was assigned to her protection for a few weeks. The two gelled well and had a clear romantic interest in each other, and after the assignment ended Taerlyn made a habit of stopping by to visit the lonely woman, often bringing gifts of food or occasionally a treat for Andrea. Arusa and her daughter grew to appreciate having Taerlyn around, and they grew closer than Arusa was used to.

A few weeks into Taerlyn's visits, the young Crownsguard went missing. Arusa became despondent in this time, often asking the Queen about her whereabouts and if any information had been found. When Arusa learned that some remnants of the Facility were responsible for Taerlyn's abduction, she placed her daughter in Maqi's care and went to join the front lines. While in the hideout, Arusa discovered a critically-wounded Taerlyn in a dirty cell. She pulled Taerlyn into her arms and began to leave when the two were discovered by a disheveled Elizabeth- the head scientist of the facility.

The crazed scientist revealed that Taerlyn was an intentional target- both for her connection to the Crown, and her connection to Arusa, the best experiment she had ever worked on. Arusa attacked Elizabeth, and with the aid of a well-placed thrown scalpel from Taerlyn, killed Elizabeth once and for all.

Once Taerlyn was in the hospital, Arusa felt extremely guilty for what the guard had been put through and considered cutting off contact with Taerlyn to spare her any more heartbreak, but when she attempted this with Taerlyn the woman vehemently refused. The two grew close and within days started a romantic relationship. The two have remained together since then.

Personality
Arusa is a person who values her privacy and agency above all else. While she will often host gatherings for the Pack and their friends, in between those gatherings she rarely leaves her homestead, choosing to have any groceries she can't grow delivered to her house. Around those she doesn't trust, Arusa is withdrawn but polite, working hard but never more than she has to. When she's with the people she trusts, she's more casually affectionate and enjoys physical contact.

While Arusa is much more comfortable with violence than most other people, she still takes the time to examine all her options before deciding what would make the most sense to resolve the situation. She uses violence when it most suits her means, and has very little regard for the "supposed moral high ground", as she calls it. She has been shown to be hostile towards those who place morality over action, as shown when she verbally tore into several adults who berated a young girl defending herself with aggression against a bully.

During her recovery, Arusa showed an unusual zest for violence against the Facility workers and was much shorter-tempered. She would resort to aggressive means without considering other options, and often refused other, simpler options. Arusa herself looks back on this time with a great deal of shame and reacts negatively to any mention of her actions.

Arusa has been shown to pride herself on being prepared and will go to near-absurd lengths to make sure she is stocked up on supplies. She often goes through the supplies she has on hand, cataloging what's about to go bad or what needs to be restocked. By her own admission, she has enough supplies to safely house up to two dozen people for a month, "just in case", which was shown to come in handy after a storm devastated the closest town and left several families homeless.

Despite making massive strides in rehabilitation, Arusa still struggles with the trauma of the Facility. She is uncomfortable with doctors' offices and hospital settings, and when she or Andrea needs medical attention it's almost always at her house on her terms. She has a lack of trust in authority figures, with the Queens being a distinct exception for their role in her rescue. Though her nightmares are rarer now than they were in the first few years of rehabilitation, it's unusual for her to make it through a week without nightmares.

Andrea
Arusa loves her daughter dearly and has devoted most of her life to protecting her. She is intensely protective and has been known to attack people who insult or pose a threat to Andy. On one occasion Arusa was brought down from a panic attack by Andy asking for her attention. Despite her disability, Arusa makes a vested effort to be a good mother for her daughter, and it was her daughter's insistence on her mother's safety that led Arusa to get a service dog. Arusa also feels a deep degree of guilt for the instances where she's unable to be responsible for the homestead and Andy has to pick up the slack, though her daughter has reassured her on multiple occasions that she doesn't mind the extra responsibility and just wants her mother to be happy.

Taerlyn
Arusa and Taerlyn hit it off almost immediately, and after the assignment to guard Arusa ended Taerlyn made a habit of watching over her former charge. After the rescue from the remnants of the Facility, Taerlyn and Arusa have become rather dependent on each other. Arusa loves Taerlyn deeply and is determined to protect her and Andy at all costs. Taerlyn acts as a grounding influence for Arusa, and her presence is enough to galvanize the woman into taking on a leadership role when necessary. Taerlyn also encourages her wife to have higher standards for herself and to stand up against those who would belittle or demean her.

Queen Aylanur
Arusa holds a great deal of respect for the Queen, more than she holds for anyone else. When she is unsure of how to proceed, she will turn to the Queen for guidance. The two also spend a good amount of time discussing possible solutions for various problems, from mundane to domestic. The Queen also serves as a sort of big sister figure for Arusa, and the two tease each other often.

Vander
Arusa and her brother-in-law are not particularly close, but when they do interact they have a casual, easy friendship.

Vessir
Arusa has a tense friendship with her former handler, the only surviving worker from the Facility. While part of her will always hate him for being complicit in her suffering, another part of her will always love him for protecting her and her daughter when it mattered. As it stands, she is one of the few people that actually visits him while he's in prison, and will give him updates on Andy and the other survivors. He, in turn, does little to coddle her, and talks to her like an actual person instead of a traumatized child.

Trivia

 * Despite Arusa's blindness, she manages to be deadly in a fight. However, she doesn't use ranged weapons for obvious reasons.
 * Arusa's name comes from a corruption of the word Alpha, as when the story was first being worked on the Survivor's Pack followed the idea of Alpha-Beta wolf packs. The author has since learned more both about wolf packs and trauma, though the name remains the same due to familiarity.
 * Arusa's favorite color before she lost her eyes was a deep coffee brown, her favorite book is Speak, and her favorite food is lamb biryani.