#i like to imagine that he and tugger have a special connection and misto is a lot more open with him than most other people

[the-casbah-way]

tugoffelees is so much better when it's unrequited and i will die on this hill

[faustiancat]

the macavity relationship

+ rum tum tugger, grizabella, freakshows

[ based off of observations from the 1998 film adaption and general imagination ]

in the time of grizabella & gus the theatre cat’s prime, there existed a showcase of magical cats ( similar to the “freakshows” of the 1920’s & 1930’s ) wherein cats of particular talents and rarity display their exquisite nature. it is in this showcase where the majority of the magical cats who bare no relation to grizabella or gus have their ancestry ( quaxo / misto, capriocat & tantomile ). said show was residential to the area in which most of “cats” take place

grizabella, a young cabaret or showgirl legend who toured with said showcase, was skilled and gifted with the magic of glamour ( casting an illusion of confidence, persuasiveness, etc ... ) which aided her in her previous starlet performances.

she worked alongside / adjacent to actors such as gus the theatre cat, who, if he had the memory, would extend his sympathetic paw towards her

grizabella was taken as a mate by an older maine coon, who was powerless but perhaps the show-runner / carny of her associated company. from this relationship she gave birth to two boy kits; macavity and rum tum tugger ( connection drawn here by their being the only maine coones with similar silhouettes and outsider habits ), the former being born with magical powers and the latter not being.

due to macavity’s powers of levitation ( and i suspect, teleportation ) grizabella have him special treatment, putting him up on a pedestal and pouring attention into him which made him so confident and daring whereas rum tum was left to the side, not receiving half as much naturing as macavity did for his powers. this lead to rum tum feelings generally outcasted and desperate for attention, possibly leading him to leaving the environment he was raised in and escaping to the junkyard where he was taken in by munkustrap.

rum tum’s necessity for attention stems from here, as does his perceived aggression and distaste for grizabella which seems far more pronounced than most of the other cats.

macavity stayed in the custody of grizabella, potentially being used as a show piece as a kit where he first began to notice his hypnotic-like powers. due to his odd appearance, he was often mocked and considered off-putting even as a kitten, this mockery marks the budding issue of his rebellious nature. after beginning to act out young into his life, already feeling betrayed and hurt by society and developing a sense of animosity towards his mother for enabling audiences, both he and grizabella were ostracised from the showcase and grizabella, in her sadness, allowed her powers of glamour to weaken. macavity, on the other hand, didn’t allow himself to waver in the slightest, eventually running away altogether and abandoning grizabella.

rum tum is not afraid of macavity, if anything only mildly annoyed that his brother finds it necessary to have to upstage everyone. though aware that he very well could be a danger, he tends to lean more towards the ‘what a chauvinistic dickhead’ angle with it. he knows when he’s coming, and leaves only out of convenience for himself, only reappearing to provide a solution to macavity’s damage and acting entirely un-phased. he keeps it a secret that they are related at all, perhaps having only told munkustraps when they first met.