Abraham Musser

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Abraham Musser is one of the founders of the Blue Heron Institute.

Personality

He has an interest in movies wanting to make one himself,<ref>Your father talks about a movie he wishes to make, but he takes so few steps.- Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref> a trait that goes back to his childhood.<ref>“What are these for?  Music?”

“Movies, sir.  Opera of the Void.”
[...]
And if he was forsworn there would probably be no games, no friends, no movies, no family- his family would probably kill him.  Or keep him in some dark place to point to as an example.  Or both.
[...]
If he could destroy or replace his Self?  Could he keep just- what did he even want?  If he could obliterate every iota of his Self, except for- except for a kernel.  Just one piece of himself that was happy.  When had he last been happy?

Going to the movie with Timothy. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref> All other personality traits were essentially overridden by his taking over as family head.

As family head, The Musser, Abraham has an extreme force of personality focused on growing his own power and that of his family. This has left him with an extremely authoritarian attitude.<ref>Apparently assholes were something that got [Jessica] talking.  “Musser is a taker.  He takes power, he takes familiars, he takes implements, he takes demesnes.  He takes things people think are safe and he’s very mindful of doing all the while.  Bristow was a collector, an important distinction, because he wasn’t on guard for Alexander taking Tanner from him.  Tanner was an Aware, could read the writing on the wall…”

“Yeah, we got the gist, student guide and everything.”

“Good.  A collector has to be very wary, at all times, because it’s very easy to bring the wrong piece into your collection and ruin everything.  The counterfeit, the cursed, the tricky things and people.  As a taker, same idea.”

“Being careful about what he takes?”

“He’s very unwilling to take shit, to take insubordination, any of that.  He takes selectively, he won’t take just any implement.  He’s always building an image.  He holds himself up as a breed above and unfortunately, we live in a world where far too many out there, Other and human, will see that and go along with it.”-Excerpt from False Moves 12.9</ref> Still he is very socially skilled.<ref>“Depends how young a Musser you mean. But that’s more about who they are than who I am. I don’t think there’s many out there who could resist Alexander’s charisma, if he truly wanted to get on your side, or Musser’s force of will. How Musser could make you feel so privileged to be in his good graces, considered a friend.” - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.z</ref>

Lawrence Bristow

He was a founder at the Blue Heron Institute and Bristow's right-hand man, but after Bristow was replaced by Alexander as headmaster Abe got into an argument with Alexander and seldom visited the school, even when dropping off his kids.<ref name=":1">“Musser was one of the school founders, wasn’t he?  But he sorta isn’t a part of things anymore.  Which makes it sound like he was pushed out by Alexander.”
[...]
“If you want to learn about implements, then you should talk to Mr. Sunshine,” Melody said.  “There’s Mr. Musser, but he’s rarely around and Mr. Sunshine is way more approachable-” - Excerpt form Cutting Class 6.4</ref> When Bristow returned to the school, he traveled a long way to be at his side again.<ref name=":2">“You finish your ritual?” Jarvis asked.

“I did,” Lucy said.  She adjusted the angle of her head.

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

“You know, if you want to make the most of it, you should ask Mr. Musser.  He came a long way to be here for our new headmaster.  I know you were hanging out with Raquel Musser last week.”
[...]
“He invited Musser back.  And Musser hasn’t been back in person since he and Alexander got in an argument years ago.  Doesn’t even drop off his kids, normally.” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.9</ref> However he was considered a guest teacher who had agreed to be there with Alexander in advance.<ref>“Raymond has been serving as a guest teacher for a year while pursuing other projects, but is returning this summer and fall, at the very least. We’re glad to have him. On the topic of guest teachers, I would like to extent my gratitude to Mr. Bristow, Electra Miraz, the Ports, the Crowes, Mr. Musser, and Ms. Lair, for agreeing to come this summer, and to anyone and everyone else who decides they can find the time. To others too numerous to name, I would extend thanks for the loaning of books for the student library.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.5</ref>

Following Bristow's fall, he took up most of his cause.

Anthem Tedd

They're genuine friends. In part due to their similarities.

Grayson Hennigar

Also friends due to their similarities.

Children

Reid Musser is his son,<ref name=":0">Reid Musser
Reid takes after his father, a school founder, but does not necessarily follow in his footsteps. He has been traveling the world since he was fifteen, studying in its various forms. Reid keeps a collection of nine Implements and two Familiars, Blackhorne and Drowne, a trick that owes to close-held family secrets. He attends Advanced classes and helms one special project in the workshops. - Bonus Material: Student Guide</ref> but was mainly used as a tool. Abe banished his other son Donovan.<ref name="fam">“Money rings hollow. Your wife keeps track of the various relationships, doesn’t she? Meets with Adelade, Ursanne, Richard…?”

“Yes. You’re thinking of marriages?”

“They’re putting a lot at stake to help bring this to pass. Let’s let them feel a part of the success. What better way than to bring them into the family?”

“If only it was that easy. There are only so many bachelors and bachelorettes. I was talking to Duchamps the other week, and we talked about arranging for a ten year old to marry a ten year old, six years from now. That’s thin, even with oaths, but we’ve still exhausted most of our youth in that manner. How much further am I to go? I insinuated to Wye Belanger that if he got a girlfriend pregnant, there’s a Musser child on the way. Children not even born yet. What chips do I have?”

“Your father banished members from the family. You have as well. Donovan? Billie? Bring them back in?”

“There would be angry mutterings when I wasn’t in the room, in the various Musser properties. And I would have to mind the mutterings of those who were banished and brought back. They wouldn’t necessarily repay me with gratitude.”

“A knife in the back, instead? I could see it.” - Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.z</ref>

Raquel Musser is his niece, but he raised her after her mother was cast out of the family. As a result of their weaker connection, as well as gender issues within the Musser family tradition, she's been disfavored.<ref name="ew">“It’s my job to keep these two from puffing themselves up too much,” Kass said, indicating the other two on her bench with a swish of her thumb.  “They talk fancy and dress nice but they lean too much on the family name.  You aren’t defined by the family you come from.”

“You’re a little bit defined by the family you come from,” Raquel said.  “If you try, you can be the best bits of it.”

“You’re going to have to try awfully hard, Raquel,” Kass said, sitting back against the bench.  “You’re not a boy, and only boys get the best of what the Mussers have to offer.”
[...]
“Was it your dad that was a school founder?” Avery asked.

Raquel looked over, still clearly very pissed, and pissed in a way that made her look hostile even as she turned to Avery.  “Uncle. But he raised me, more or less, after my mother was removed from the family.”

“That’s pretty heavy,” Lucy said.

“You aren’t lying.  And, I’ll say this, there’s way more to things than gender, like me being a niece, and not his actual kid,” Raquel said. - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1</ref>

Commenting on Elise Norwood's age, Musser stated that she looked "young enough to be my illegitimate child." This unusual choice of phrasing may indicate that he has one or more natural children born out of wedlock.<ref>“You look young enough to be my illegitimate child,” Abraham said.  “Oh, this is going to be a shitshow, isn’t it?”- Excerpt from False Moves 12.a</ref>

He sees his extended family as commodities for political maneuvering,<ref name="fam"/> his nephew Sullivan Fletcher was put in situations where he could have died to prove Abraham's resolve.<ref>Sullivan Fletcher, of House Musser.  Nephew to Abraham Musser.
[...]
“Guaranteeing loyalty,” America added. “Sullivan here goes somewhere as a show of trust to someone else. If Musser screws up or betrays them, they get to at least off his nephew.”

“I’m prepared to contribute to the family,” the little boy announced.

- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.y</ref>

Lighthouse

He knows Gerald Haris and has a non-aggression treaty with the Lighthouse, they don't go after him in exchange for Bristow providing them with Aware. Since Bristow's removal, they've fallen behind on their agreement.<ref>“We have arrangements with the Lighthouse.  Nonaggression pact.  We supply you with Aware.  The building in Winnipeg.”

“Surely you can name the person in charge of ‘the building in Winnipeg’,” Elise said.

“I can.  Bristow?  He was a colleague.”

“Was is the operative word,” Haris called out.- Excerpt from False Moves 12.a</ref>

Spouses

He's been married twice, the first time shortly after the founding of the Blue Heron Institute and the second time more recently to a significantly younger woman named Carolyn.<ref>“Which time?  The first marriage was about three years after Lawrence and Alexander founded the Blue Heron.  The second was only a few years ago.  More peaceful.  Carolyn, my second wife, was nineteen, but she’s risen nicely to the occasion.  Manages the house and finances, sets up events, sometimes with her sister’s help.  I can send her to meetings to speak in my place, and trust that if the subject turns to things she doesn’t have the power to answer, she’ll end things without breeding any bad blood.” - Excerpt from Fall Out 14.z</ref>

Appearance

Tall, with wavy brown "Musser" hair. Wears gold-rimmed glasses with no arms, a necklace of glass beads, and several rings. He dresses expensively but casually and carries a lot of stuff in his pockets. His body language gives off a vibe that he's dangerous, and he moves as if he's carrying a lot of weight but is accustomed to it.<ref name=":3">They stopped at the door, talking to a tall man. Because the man was in the doorway, the lights from either side of him made his features clearer. He wore a white t-shirt under an open black blazer, matching slacks, and a necklace, and he had brown hair with a dense wave to it, like the locks of hair had been stretched under one finger, over the next, under the next, and so on.  He wore glasses that had no arms stretching from the edges to the ears.

The look didn’t really make her think ‘teacher’. It made her think, like, an agent for actors or musicians, striking that look that was both casual and expensive, and very deliberate. The look in his eyes, the cast of his mouth, and his posture made her think that if he were one of those agents, he’d deal with a stalker fan of one of his clients by contracting some guys with baseball bats and ties to organized crime.

The hair made her think of Raquel and Reid.

Mr. Musser?

Now that she had a guess as to who he was, she could notice other things: he had a way of standing and moving like he was carrying a lot of weight, but he’d done it for so long that he’d gotten used to it. One hand gesture in the air, to punctuate a statement, and it felt like it had enough weight to knock on the air.
[...]
Musser followed behind the group, and pulled off his jacket, casting it aside. It fluttered briefly in the wind, then disappeared. White t-shirt that probably cost more than a hundred bucks, necklace, watch, rings, and the glimmer of things at his pockets that suggested he couldn’t even put his hands in them. They weren’t overstuffed, either. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.2</ref><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" />

Abilities and Art

Basics

As a Musser, as the Musser, he is a specialist in claim and able to speak with authority on it,<ref>I would like to remind you, claims are something my family has always emphasized.  You are, in essence, on my battlefield. [...] As I said before, I’ve studied claim all my life.  I was raised with claim always in mind. I am fully confident I could handle these arguments you’re making, but that takes time neither of us have. - Excerpt from Wild Abandon 18.1</ref> giving his arguments regarding claim more weight - even in the face of Judges.<ref>“Nonsense.  Three days is the precedent, I speak as a student of claim, backed by the Musser establishment, with no less than two hundred and twenty rituals pertaining to claim under my belt.  Three.  I must insist.”

“This is what you wish to stress, with all of that?”

Musser shook his head.  “It is only its own establishment.  We have worked with the rules, we know the rules, we, Musser, in no small part, are the rules of claim.  We are internationally known and can sway interpretations and influence results.  Three.”

“Three it is,” the Alabaster said.

“What bullshit is that?” Lucy asked.  “Sorry, what?”

“It is his prerogative, by right of establishment,” the Aurum Coil said, coiling some at his high spot by the window.

“So the powerful get to interpret the rules?  And get more powerful?” - excerpt from Wild Abandon 18.1</ref> An extension of this is his ability to steal the results of Defining Rituals from practitioners.

He is knowledgeable about Implements,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> owning fifteen of them himself; he also has four Demesnes and ten Familiars and likely has a similar level of knowledge about them.<ref name=":6" /> These all derive from a Rapacious family practice that let him steal them from their rightful owners.<ref name=":6">I, Abraham Remington Musser, war mage, patriarch, Lord of many, keeper of fifteen Implements, minder of ten Familiars, holder of four Demesnes, hereby make my claim.- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.9</ref><ref>I know how you get some of those implements and familiars, from people who think the kind of power that makes you great makes you good.”

“A plurality of demesnes too,” Musser said.- Excerpt from False Moves 12.a</ref><ref>

• Rapparee practitioners are bandits, waylaying targets to take prizes off them. Unlike typical magical duelists who claim prizes from the defeated, the Rapparee utilizes tricks and ploys to take far more and forestall the karmic penalties and other balancing forces… sometimes by leaving their targets in a state where they can’t assert their claim. - PACT DICE: Rapacious</ref>

• Familiars include:
  • Abbas the Stormchild,<ref>Abbas, one of his father’s Others, a Stormchild, was standing by the railing upstairs that overlooked the main area, eyes and hair faintly glowing.- Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref> provides raw elemental power<ref>Abbas was another such safeguard.  The Stormchild was a point of light in the modified church, with its marble walls and columns, and its statue in the back, floating up near the point of the ceiling.  Here and there, Abbas floated, making the shadows slide around the space.  A battery of raw power, and a means of dealing with raw power.
    [...]
    The fire was another thing entirely.  The flames didn’t act quite as normal ones should, and they reached toward him, setting his surroundings on fire, limiting his movements.
    
    Abbas was his insurance.  The Stormchild hovered high above, and drank in the flames before they could reach Abraham.  Light and shadow moved as the Stormchild did.  The heated air didn’t even reach Abraham. - excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>
  • Nova Aquila the Icon<ref>Nova Aquila was one of his father’s Others, an Icon.- Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref> - beautiful, provides healing.<ref>Of his ten familiars, several had been chosen for reasons that had nothing to do with the ability to win a fight.  Nova was gentle on the eyes, capable of healing injury, though he’d accumulated a surprising few so far, an icon, a statue imbued with divine breath.  A limited reservoir of healing power.  She sat at his feet, book in her lap. - excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>
  • Rabbit Killer<ref>His father addressed him, “Rabbit Killer is telling me there’s an enterprising young woman who can shrug off his influence.- Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref> -has some way of dealing with Innocents,<ref name=":02">His father addressed him, “Rabbit Killer is telling me there’s an enterprising young woman who can shrug off his influence.  I’m going to intervene to prevent any child services workers or officers from thinking too hard about the fact we were left in here alone with a girl they’re not sure we’re related to.”-Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref> and his shadows carry overwhelming violence.<ref>The skinny young man with black hair, black shirt, and black jeans reached out a hand, and his shadow lunged out in four or five segments, diagonally across the lot, a section for the head, for the reaching arm and fingers, for the bend of his leg.
    
    One of the larger, plump raccoons was tossed into the air as the shadow lanced beneath it.  Shadows rippled, arched off the pavement lot, and manifested teeth, reaching up.
    
    The raccoon was bitten in half.  The raccoon’s upper half bounced once on ground before hitting shadow, falling into the darkness as if there was no ground there, only a hole.
    
    Shadows withdrew like elastic bands snapping.  The second of the large raccoons was hauled to him with such speed and force that limbs bent the wrong way, back snapping audibly from where Lucy crouched, the length of a skating rink away.  The head went straight into the man’s mouth, even though it was too large to rightly fit inside his mouth.  He beheaded it, tearing with a jerk of his head.
    
    The pups were already in hand, one dead, the other fighting.
    
    Lucy itched to do something, because they were just animals trying to get by, but-
    
    Before she could he killed the survivor, biting around head to the neck and tearing head from body.  He took the head of the other, then stood there at the end of the lot, blood coating chin to throat to the neckline of his shirt, a beheaded adult raccoon in one hand, two beheaded pups between the fingers of his other.
    
    The second adult raccoon was gone, the only mark it had been there a single ‘splat’ of blood on the end of the parking lot.- Excerpt from Summer Break 13.4</ref><ref>Within those shadows, Rabbit Eater lurked, lunging out to catch two of the Dog Tags that had circled around.  The way they’d hurdled the pews had suggested they’d hit the ground on the other side and stopped there while the flames roared above and past them, but they’d clearly been moving from the moment they hit ground, keeping low.
    
    But Rabbit Eater was there, slender, dressed in black, wearing a spiked belt and spiked collar.  His shadow extended out, sweeping toward them, two sets of pews falling into it.
    
    Flares were thrown at him from five different directions – they’d anticipated him.  It limited how deep the shadow was, but it didn’t stop it entirely, and it slowed how far it reached.  Still, it easily extended below the female Dog Tag that was dressed in black. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref> Personality-wise, helps stop the group from falling into patterns as their most chaotic member, with no firm role.<ref>"The fact he has no clear role is important.  The practitioner that heads that family and the Blue Heron is a commander with a firm grip over those under him.  Yet he allows one to roam more free than the others." [...] “Chaos.  Being orderly means being predictable,” John said.  “He keeps one agent of chaos in his group.  Someone who pokes at bears, who peers behind curtains, and who upsets patterns, so they can’t fall into a routine with routine weaknesses.”- Excerpt from Summer Break 13.4</ref>
  • Farnaza the Daena<ref>“Musser stole a Daena familiar.  A Zoroastrian psychopomp.  When seen by wrongdoers and murderers, she appears ugly, and she condemns them to eternal wandering.  Others she guides as a psychopomp will.”- Excerpt from Fall Out 14.1</ref><ref>

“There’s a woman.  Older teens or twenty.  Old clothes, well worn, plaid-print shawl or cape or something swept around her shoulders, even in this heat.  White, blonde, badly taken care of hair, looks almost like straw, tied into a braid.”

“Older teens or twenty?”

“I think?”

“To me, she’s aged, moles growing out of moles, stretch marks on loose skin, which ranges from dry and flaking at the parts most exposed, to overly moist in the folds.  Her hair is caked with fluids.  Knobby limbs, long.  You could mistake her for human, but it would be hard.”

“Hm.”  Lucy turned on her Sight.  She described what she saw, “Watercolor bleeding out around her.  Very bright colors.”

“You’d know better than I what that means.”

“Tied into the environment?  Or a leaky power?  I tend to only see danger, pain, hurt, and whatever she’s got is bright enough to push into my way of seeing.  Like colors bold enough to make a colorblind person see…”
[...]
At the far end, Musser, hand at his face, glasses broken, shoved the door open.  Two of his Others were there.  The women.

Lucy’s Sight started going crazy as spirits and echoes began to flow in from behind the young-old woman. -Excerpt from Summer Break 13.4</ref>

• • Four-in-one Abyssal kids in a trench coat,<ref>“Uhhh…” She assessed one figure, who was taller than the rest, Musser included, and stood at an odd angle, stooped, as if her back was a bit broken, arms hanging limp at her sides.  Her hair hung down on either side of her face, masking her features, and she wore a long black raincoat, black apron with leather strings, and a surgical mask.  With the Sight, she saw… different things.  The figure was heavily stained, making the black of the raincoat swirl like black water had blacker ink in it- and the way she stood was a little bit clearer, especially with knives and broken blades stuck into the raincoat, making it sit in a different way.  She could see the outline of heads and shoulders, a quarter of the way down and then halfway down.  She could guess, based on proportion and how short the legs seemed beneath that coat.  “I think four child sized Others wearing a raincoat and aprons.  Possibly Abyssal?”
    
    “Abyssal, yes.”
    
    “Bogeyman?” Lucy asked.
    
    “I don’t know.  I’ve been wondering.  I don’t know enough about labels.  Bogeymen lean aggressive, feeding on fear and anger.  They’re often restless.  If she’s a bogeyman, she’s the most docile, least aggressive one I’ve ever seen.” -Excerpt from Summer Break 13.4</ref> name and expertise changing depending on configuration.<ref>Todroyleoren shuffled positions to become Rentodleoroy and severed a limb with a swing of a chef’s cleaver. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref> Primarily provides medical expertise and cooks, but can also fight.<ref>Renleotodroy provided expertise on other subjects, with food preparation being one and medicine being another, to diagnose whether Nova was required.  In a pinch, he could do a fine job in a fight, or for an assassination of the less defended. - excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref> Possibly one of, if not the, most dangerous of Musser's familiars.<ref>“Each ‘head’ with a different capability, perhaps,” John said.  “I think that may be the most dangerous of the four, even if you ignore how versatile they are.”
    
    “Instinct?”
    
    “Informed instinct.  The way they’re treated, the way they move…”
    
    “The fact they’re kinda ugly and he seems to like pretty and neat looking Others?”
    
    “Yes.  I didn’t dwell on that point.”
    
    “So they’re apparently the most powerful-”
    
    “Dangerous, out of this quartet, possibly excepting the practitioner.” - excerpt from Summer Break 13.4</ref>
  • Athena Hillson, perfected ex-human. Serves primarily as an assistant,<ref name=AHillson>Athena Hillson had been human once [...] Athena had been one of six successful results.  She could build and fly a spaceship, given an opportunity, remember the precise location of each word on a page she’d glanced at for half a second, and she was physically an Olympian.  Entirely Other. [...]Athena had been the sole survivor and escapee, had been found by a conspiracy-minded practitioner she was far too good for, engaged in a few smaller, misguided plans, and then she’d been claimed by Musser.
    
    She served as a record keeper, librarian, secretary and event planner, mechanic for his cars, and his sometimes chauffeur.  But mostly it was the record keeping.  Remembering a specific text from years ago.  Normally she remained at one of his properties, managing things while he was gone. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref> and most recent familiar at the start of Pale.<ref>Reid aping the approach his father had taken when he’d let Reid watch the capture of his sixth and most recent familiar.
    
    He mulled over the words, and then decided on, “He was too good for some shabby little girl who can barely practice.” - Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref>
  • Polly the Muse - considered a mistaken choice, but can provide entertainment.<ref>And there was Polly.  A muse, dressed like any girl might, if she’d traveled to New York to make it big, normal to the eye until viewed in his peripheral vision, where she tended to appear as part of a scene, a still image that demanded attention.  A familiar he regretted taking, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself and he hadn’t been able to turn her away after.  He’d set her to the task of singing, even though it wasn’t her specialty, and she sang as beautifully as the best humans could, the acoustics of the building capturing the nuances of the voice. - excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>
  • Entriken the Housekeep - acquired during his Lordship claims. A font of servants and luxury accommodation.<ref>Entriken the Housekeep leaned against the wall.  His only affectation of the Other was the loose shirt he wore, almost a toga, though it could be taken for a designer shirt.  He was a good visual pairing with Nova, with a tumble of white hair that was kept pinned back by laurels, long-lashed, melancholy by disposition.  He was an offshoot of certain heroic practices, a devourer of fallen dynasties that took their power and possessions into himself.  That slight, almost boyish appearance was a container for a hundred servants and a dozen manors worth of construction, furnishing, and decoration.
    [...]
    He’d had an eye on Etriken for years now.  The recent business with the Lordships had destabilized things enough for Abraham to take him from his previous owner.  Besides, after spending weeks on these Lordships, he’d grown tired of sitting and waiting in ugly places. - excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>
  • Two unidentified familiars<ref name=":6"/>
• Demesnes include:
  • Demesnes of the serial killer, it enables him to access it from anywhere at a moments notice.<ref>Learned what I needed to learn about the demesne she maintained constant and free access to, slipping back to it at a moment’s notice to elude authorities ... Then told my father what I’d learned about the demesne.  Matter of days later, I smoked outside while my father took it.- Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref> It works better at night and in a place no one had claim to.<ref>His father drew power, fed the doorway, and opened the shadows around himself.  It worked better at night, away from a territory someone else owned.  Since he had the school, he could use it there now, which was convenient.
    
    And nobody owned this town, really.  No Lord had claim.- Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref> Takes him to a shadowy Abyssal version of whatever area he was in.<ref>He used one of his Demesnes, creating a shadow door to step into.  He was swallowed up by the Abyss, drawn into an area just like the church, but lightless, decayed, and decrepit, with faint muffled bangs sounding as if they were underwater and far away.  Here and there, light flared. [...] But they didn’t call him back and the greater powers didn’t grow too impatient with him, so he had a few seconds to traverse the Abyss, listening for what was happening, before stepping back through, his curved khopesh blade in hand. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>
  • Three unidentified demesnes<ref name=":6"/>
• Implements include:
  • Golden<ref name=":4">Abraham adjusted the angle of his head, peering through the gold-rimmed glasses he wore.  He could assess them, seeing them for their relative worth, power, and whatever else they might bring to the table.  There were three veterans.  Horseman was almost at the point where someone like Hadley Hennigar could take him as a familiar and it wouldn’t be a step down for an older daughter from a well positioned family.  The Dog Tag in black and the one with graying hair were valuable in their own right.
    
    He could make a tidy profit simply from binding them and selling them to certain families.  The money hardly mattered.  What mattered was that he could earn the political capital. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref> set of Pince Nez<ref name=":3" /> or "pinch nose" glasses<ref>Weakening one of his better Others, breaking his glasses, that would cost Self to repair.  Or whatever he used to repair implements that weren’t his by right. -Excerpt from Summer Break 13.4</ref> that let him see something's value (including Others) or avoid troublesome items.<ref>Toadswallow nodded.  “The glasses, remind me what they do?”
    
    “They let him see something’s value.  Lets him avoid troublesome items,” Zed said.- Excerpt from Summer Break 13.10</ref> The glasses have gold rims and no arms.
  • Khopesh - a sickle-shaped knife that causes any cut made with it to spreads outwards as a line.<ref>Reid’s father held a sickle-like knife in one hand, and left his other empty, wearing the glove...From Elise’s vantage point, it was impossible to see, but the old man’s shirt split, and was followed soon after by a line of blood.  The cut dragged itself from the back of his shoulder to the top, to the front, down his chest, tracing a lazy, traveling line.  The older parts of the cut got deeper, as the line lengthened. - Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref>
  • He took a fingerless leather glove that allows him to grab bullets out of the air.<ref>They kept advancing.  Musser raised his hand, wrapped in a leather glove that left the fingertips exposed.
    
    John fired.  It might have been a warning shot.
    
    Musser’s hand jerked.  The bullet hit him smack dab in the palm.  He flinched, shaking his hand, and dropped the lead.- Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.7</ref> Form-fitting, it allows him to catch even several bullets at a time with superhuman speed, although there are limits to the speed it can grant.<ref>Musser’s hand, in its form fitting leather glove, one implement, caught the bullets out of the air, hand moving as fast as the brief hail of bullets, some bullets hitting others, as they gathered at his cupped hand.  He could feel the heat of the metal. - excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref> Can also catch other projectiles.<ref name="spit"/>
  • An intricate pin which can fly through an enemy, pinning them to the wall by their spine, created by a Dark Spring Binder.<ref>He caught those bullets, then reached out to his collar, pulling a pin free from its hiding place- a needle with a rounded top, carved with fine detail so miniscule a magnifying glass wasn’t enough to see the particulars, the metal of the needle bearing a damascus whorl.  An implement he’d taken years ago.
    
    He flicked it with his off hand, and it struck the airborne dog.  She was slammed into the curved arch of the ceiling on the far side of the church, with enough force her gun was knocked from her hand.  She dangled there, hands at her throat, groping and digging into the pinhole, where the pin had gone in, through, into spine, and attached spine to wall.
    
    From a practitioner of Dark Spring inspired binding arts.  She’d dumped a lot of her excess power into the pin, distilling it in function.
    
    It was a good way to remove one target from an equation – especially one that was in the air and couldn’t easily move aside. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref> He can summon it to his hand and pin another enemy if one should escape.<ref>He saw the nimble one he’d pinned up at the arching ceiling shoot herself in the spine, and drop from the position she’d been dangling.
    
    Not pinned any longer.
    
    Motioning, Abraham called the pin back to hand.  He looked, saw the one with the explosives circling around, and flicked it at her instead.  Similar effect, but closer to the ground.  Attaching her firmly to the wall.- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>
  • A necklace of numerous glass beads, each of which can negate a single curse, gaining one bead a year. They can also passively clear away minor irritants such as smoke.<ref name=":5">Glass beads at his neck absorbed smoke from the fire that Abbas hadn’t eaten, so he could breathe and see without difficulty.  They would also absorb any evil curses, but at the cost of a bead, which would take a year to replace itself with a fresh, clear one.  He had less than he’d ever had since acquiring the necklace – only eighty left, with all the Lordship claims and other nonsense.- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>
  • Ten unidentified implements<ref name=":6"/>

Abilities and Spells

As one of the people who helped bind the blue heron god in his twenties and subsequently become head of his family, he is a very accomplished and successful individual with both Power and Knowledge to draw on.

He's capable of using augury to look back in time.<ref>The area around Musser was becoming nighttime, and that area was growing.  Lucy could see snow, and she could see the blood on the ground.-Excerpt from Summer Break 13.4</ref>

His movements have a palpable weight to them.<ref name=":3" /> He was immune to Kevin Noone's Evil Eye.<ref>To Lucy’s Sight, Kevin’s gaze was a stain, subtle but vast, spreading over everything around him.  She could tell when he stopped looking around and started focusing on Musser.  The droplets of darkness beaded on Musser’s face and front, then slid off to the side like droplets on a windshield, over the top and sides of his head, and the sides of his neck and body. - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.2</ref>

He was able to See or sense which items Goblins had messed with.<ref>“Watch out!” Musser called out.  “He left things behind!” [...]

Mr. Musser walked forward, toward the destruction and mess. He bent down to pick up a plank, throwing it back atop the pile. He kept only half an eye on what Hadley Hennigar was doing. He looked up as something fell over, glass breaking. [...] Mr. Musser answered, “He laid traps. The bigger one did some obvious things, like the slime box. The small one did something to this stack of wood. Something to this box of nails.” - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.2</ref>

He's familiar enough with War to be able to bind defeated Dog Tags to his "service".<ref name="spit">“I bind you, Elvis.  I am acquainted with War, enough to know she who birthed you, and would conscript you to my service.”
[...]
Contempt. The Dog spat at Abraham, and Abraham caught the spittle in his palm. With hand slightly slick, he forced the Dog Tag’s head down, and grabbed at the necklace.

“Grandfather,” he said.

“Fuck yourself.”

“Be bound.  I, Abraham Musser, know War intimately.”

“You know duels and bullshit.  You’ve never been down in the muck.”

“You’re right, but many an architect of War has never known the muck.  Those selfsame individuals are often the ones commanding the warriors.  Your lot.  Be bound, Grandfather.”

The man disappeared.  Only the tag on the necklace remained.

The last one. - excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>

Chronology

Before

Scion of the Musser clan, he grew up in a very patriarchal and thus misogynistic environment that he eventually ended up perpetuating.

As a child, he attended a boarding school for Practitioners, but failed to excel as his family expected. Made to swear on threat of death to reach the top 1% of the class, he felt forced to murder his best friend in the school (Timothy Crowe) and use Practice to steal his academic skills - the first of several individuals he would feel forced to kill in order to live up to his name.<ref>Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>

When his teaching style got his apprentice to lash out at him Abe made sure to turn him into a Vestige.

Was part of the group that bound the Blue Heron God.

After besting his siblings, he was named head of the Musser family, and took on their mantle - a vast number of the Heroic spirits of his ancestors, granting him their knowledge, memories, claim, and so on. This changed his personality.

Summer Squabbles

He came to the Blue Heron Institute with Bristow to help him take back the school.

After learning that John Stiles was responsible for Alexander's death he and his allies visited Kennet, whilst there he was attacked by a group of Lighthouse Witch Hunters.

Tried to field a candidate for the Carmine Contest but failed and decided to leave.

He picked up Bistow's plan for regional leadership and undertook a campaign to establish lordships through out the ontario region.

Invasion of Kennet

He attempted to declare himself Lord of Kennet<ref>- Gone and Dont It 17.9</ref> but had to withdraw after a newly divine Maricica threatened to challenge him.

While he said that he'd return in a week He later called and out things off to deal with The Bloody Lords, which he had trouble doing as he was losing allies during those weeks.

Finally coming back to Kennet to try and negotiate for the lordship in his campaign against the Exile he was finally rebuked for good and earned Durocher's ire.<ref> - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.z</ref>

Things effectively fell apart for him since,<ref>“Musser is out, he can’t get the foothold he once did. He’s a broken man. There is very little standing in that Carmine’s way. Mass exodus of practitioners, even Others are moving out or, if violent enough and willing to bow to the Lords and the Judges they’ve put on top, they’re settling in. - Excerpt from In Absentia 21.6</ref> his family discusses now when to replace him.

References

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