Arvo began his life in wind reach as a mutt of two half-blood parents he never knew. He figured his mother was a Dek who was, most likely, victimized by some visitor to windreach. He was put into a communal nursery with the other parent-less children. It wasn’t long before the adults working there and even the other children began to notice something was ‘off’ about him. there were little hints. When he was a baby he very rarely cried, As he got older he wouldn’t care when someone hurt themselves, he seemed to miss social cues, he didn’t like sharing anything or being told what to do, he didn’t want a pet bird, and when he got one anyway, he refused to look after it like he should, even thought about killing it sometimes just so he wouldn’t have to deal with it. Arvo just didn’t have the emotional diversity of the average human. He still ‘felt’ things, but never as strongly. The other kids his age tended to avoid him, and the adults in the nursery tended to treat him differently as well. Those of them who were brave poked fun at him for his appearance, and his being a ‘mutt’ of mixed blood. When it didn’t have the desired effect of hurting his feelings they’d intended, they got more violent. There was a general consensus among them that, when he was old enough, he would be sent straight into the Drudges like his mother.
But Arvo was smart. He knew that, if he went on not fitting in he would be cast out into the world of the dek. He saw people as emotional and stupid, but it was easy to blend in with them if he tried. He studied their reactions to certain events, and learnt how to act. He made some ‘friends’, and quite a few more enemies. Even had a romantic relationship with a girl named Kel for a few months before he got bored with her.
The Dek’s disgusted him, and it amused him to see them punished. He liked the idea of becoming an Avora so that he would have power over all those people. So he focused his efforts on archery, tracking and hunting. These things came easy to him, especially because he didn’t care who he had to step on to get what he wanted. He was a malicious kid who knew how to get under a persons skin. He once threatened to hurt another kid’s pet Bluejay if she didn’t stop being ‘better’ than him at target practice. That worked pretty effectively most of the time, and when it didn’t, he would really make them cry.
He managed to land an apprenticeship with a hunter called Isil when he was turning 13. The man who took him on didn’t take any of his bulshit, and was very blunt with him about what he had to do and when he had to do it. Arvo disliked him initially, but shut up and did what he was told for the time being, and in a way, he respected Isil. He learnt how to act like he cared about people when he wanted something from them. He did become attached to the archer who had given him a job, and found that hunting made him happy. It wasn’t a wild emotion compared to what most people would feel when they found their passion, but it got him by and kept him motivated. Soon enough, Arvo achieved Avora status amoung the other hunters, which he though made him their equal.
However, it turned into the nursery days all over again on a much larger scale. Many Inarten hunters disliked him for no other reason than he was ‘weird’ and a ‘mutt’. Arvo got into a lot of fights, sometimes winning, other times losing. The hospital became accustomed to seeing him there for some kind of brawl-related injury. He became a lot darker in his private thoughts, often imagining of ‘creative’ ways to kill his peers. He knew the only way for him to gain some respect was to become an Endal. He visited those birds nearly every day, and no luck. He often imagined shooting one of them out of the sky for sport, of course doing that would be suicide. So, again, he became complacent, and learnt how to ‘act’ like the other hunters.
When he was 18 he met and befriended a half blood named Turrin, and his sister Kaya. He got along with both of them, probably because they were both half bloods, but mainly because they didn’t know him when he was a child, and so didn’t have any reason to dislike him. He developed an infatuation with Kaya who managed to single-handedly disarm him without so much as word. She seemed to see right through his facade, but somehow, she didn’t hate him for it. You couldn’t say he really cared for her, because it was a kind of selfish emotion. He didn’t have to try so hard around Kaya, which is why he liked her.
Problem was, Kaya was already in a relationship with a boy named Levi who’d been giving him shit since he left the nursery. After seeing Kaya and Arvo together, he grew angry. This became the perfect excuse to put Arvo in his place for good. He grouped up with his friends and cornered him. Arvo was no match for six angry Inarten’s. Especially when most of them hated his guts, for something as simple as the blood that ran in his veins. They beat Arvo to a bloody pulp and left him in the streets to bleed, as if he were no better than a Dek. Arvo understood their anger and their intent when they decided to pick a fight, but he didn’t quite understand why they were angry. He’d done nothing in particular to provoke them. Kaya wasn’t his girlfriend, and he’d never made a pass at her. They told him he didn’t belong in the city because he wasn’t an Inarten, which confused and angered him even more. He’d grown up in the culture, what did the race of his parents matter to them? The confusion he felt only sparked his own anger.
after the nineteen-year-old lost the fight, if one could call six vs one a ‘fight'. Gravely injured, his anger grew. It was the most intense emotion he’d ever not feigned, and that excited him a little. He knew what he wanted to do next would mean the end of his time in Windreach forever, or at least for a good long time. He wouldn’t kill all of them, just one. Killing one of his attackers would be sure to send a message. Plus, he was curious: How would it feel to end a life?
Arvo planned it carefully. He convinced his target to hunt with him out in the snow. Whoever got the biggest catch would claim the others pride. He’d wait until they were a fair way from the city before he turned on the unsuspecting Levi, and shot him in the back. Unfortunately, what he didn’t know was Levi wasn’t the only one to leave on that fake hunting trip. Kaya was smart. She knew that Arvo was unstable, she knew he was angry, and she knew he was up to something evil. She tracked him, and watched him. She witnessed him notch his bow, and target Levi. Before Arvo could do anything about it, the arrow had buried itself deep into Kaya’s chest. What happened next sickened even him. He feared for his life, so he used Levi’s shock to his advantage, disarming him and wrestling him to the ground. Then, while Kaya was bleeding out, he beat Levi till he was begging Arvo to stop, in order to preserve his own life.
By the time he was done, Levi had stopped talking, and Kaya was slipping away forever. He looked into her lifeless eyes, and burst into sobs. Arvo stayed there silently until she was no more, and then left. He cried then, not because he knew he’d done a monstrous thing. He cried because, when he did it, he didn’t feel what he was meant to feel. His only thoughts should have been his guilt, but for a fleeting moment he'd felt a kind of rush of supremacy. It was the first time he admitted to himself, that there was definitely something very wrong with him. Still, Arvo reasoned with himself, that he’d either have to accept that, or kill himself. And the latter didn’t appeal to him in the slightest.
So he left Kaya there. Levi would eventually wake up, so Arvo had to be quick. He returned home, grabbed the gear he’d previously packed for travel, and left the city. His destination was eventually to be Sunberth, but he traveled around for a good many years first. Now he lives in the lawless city of Sunberth, where his lack of emotion was an aid to his wellbeing, rather than a hindrance. He made his living as a hunter, selling his catches to merchants to make the money to live. Here he formulated a new goal. He wanted to make a name for himself here. He’d be feared, and respected. For now, he was just patiently biding his time until he’d worked out just how to rise up in this city without being killed.
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