Asko
Legacy Name: Asko

Some mice are content to nest in any human hovel for the sake of a stale crust of bread or the occasional puddle of spilled gravy. Asko is not just any mouse. He is the sole rodent resident of Charlie Cheddar's fantastic mansion. He is also a cheese fanatic.

Legend has it that the King of Culinary Cheese Cuisine built the eighty-seven room house to please Matilda Meltaway, CEO of Melty Snax. Every room in the house is done up in shades that bear names like Very Gouda, Cheddar Crisp, and Swiss Serenity. The furnishings are varying shades of yellow, orange, gold, and creamy white. Even the swimming pool is shaped like a wheel of cheese with an entry stair that forms the missing wedge.

Asko has made a study of the members of his adoptive family. Charlie is a culinary genius who knows how to pair all four hundred odd varieties of cheese found on the planet with other ingredients to make original dishes that are delicious, nutritious, and all-around cheesy. He makes your more traditinal main courses and appetizers but he is also not afraid to find new and exciting uses for cheese in salads, beverages, and even desserts. To date, he has created over thirty recipes of cheesecake.

Matty's business started out small, turning out boxes of crisps with grated cheese baked onto the top and expanding into specialty candy, biscuits, cookies, and flaky melt-in-your-mouth cheese pies. She holds the world record for most cheese-based snack crackers, her line of Melty Crisps boasting twenty-seven unique flavors.

The children each have their preference of cheese type. Eda is a snob for Swiss, Chaz makes his motto "the more cheddar the better" and little Motzie will try anything, including stinky blue, as long as it can mask the taste of the veggies on her plate.

Asko peers at them from behind cabinets and tiny holes he has nibbled through the golden oak panels that decorate the ceiling. He hears every family squabble and the laughter that follows when they all come together once again at meal time. On those rare occasions when he gets the urge to socialize with the other mice of the neighborhood, he brags about his humans and what a lovely nest they've made.

He does most of his scavenging during the day, taking advantage of the maid's weakness for midday snacks to snatch small samplings of those cheeses that are running low in his personal supply. He very nearly got himself trapped in the fridge once but managed to leap to safety just in time.

He's made a sort of fridge of his own in the open wall space behind the mirror in the master bathroom, using chunks of ice from the dispenser to keep his collection chilled until he gets around to eating it. Three times a month the appliance repairman comes to scratch his head and mutter curses at Charlie's dispenser, yet he can never determine why the unit insists on clunking randomly in the middle of the night. Charlie is a good sort who laughingly says on each service call that the good fellow of Leeky's Appliance Repair deserves a second chance...though he's up to about his fifty-second at this point.

Asko takes turns nibbling at his cheeses, doing his best to make each portion he takes last for as long as possible. He likes to combine flavors, such as the spicy kick of pepper jack with the sweetness of mascarpone or the mild delight of provolone with the more powerful kick of aged Colby. He has yet to encounter a cheese that he dislikes and if there is one game that gives him pleasure, it is gaining the satisfying treats from the pad of a trap without ever triggering the spring.

Credits

Profile Code and Design by Ringo | Cheese images from Freepik | Pet art by Ankoku | Story by Pureflower