I actually really like Arris as a character. His development from big baddie to "a person" interests me because of the type of person he is. Even if he's capable of reform, he's still not perfect, he's still not a sweetheart. However, his reform doesn't come yet. Right now Arris is dead...how? Let's get into this...
A long time ago, 500 years to be more precise, two young brothers were given extra special gifts by their parents. These children were gods, as were their parents and the rest of their ancestors. They weren't just any gods, they were quite famous gods, in fact. I won't name names, but trust me when I tell you their abilities will sound familiar when you learn about them a little more. For example; their pops was very skilled in wielding lightning as a weapon. Anyway, the brothers were twins and on their shared birthday, their father gave them each a small, fuzzy black beast. This beast was a unique creature with no name, a small ball of fluff with glowing markings. One beast had a simple symbol of a burning red sun on it's forehead, and the other had a blue moon dripping with water - when it was really just a shadow of the sun symbol it's sibling had. The brothers were presented with these creatures and eagerly scooped them up, each instantly having their own ideas for them.
The older twin, named Demos, chose the smaller of the two beasts with the blue markings. He didn't have to think about it, he was instantly drawn to the tiny creature. He cradled the small beast in his arms and handled it like you would a kitten, giggling and petting it. His younger sibling, Panos, his intentions were completely different. The two could not be more different, one peaceful, one firey and rambunctious. Panos scooped up his beast and held it like a doll, bonking it against his twin's twin beast and insisting they make the baby creatures fight. Demos was horrified by the idea of forcing baby animals to fight, so he refused and protected his tiny creature from his brother's firey spirit. Their father then informed them that these beasts were guardians and warriors, demigods that would be by the twin's side all of their long lives to stand by them no matter what and protect them when they needed it. He told them "they're a bit weak right now, but that's only because you have to give them their powers, give them their future. Its all up to you what this tiny life will become and I hope you will take that responsibility seriously."
Naturally, as different as the twins were, they bestowed drastically different powers upon their new companions. Demos happily ensured his beast would be a peacekeeper, capable of healing the wounds of others, claiming his monster would be the kind to bring smiles to people's faces. Panos was so excited about the idea of full creative freedom he went a little crazy. On a rambling rampage, he listed countless powers he poofed upon the tiny critter, overwhelming the beast with power and actually making it sick. His father had to reel him in before he hurt the little thing on accident. "It's not as strong as us yet, you cannot make it omnipotent." When Panos got over his dismay, he would make the final list of powers his beast would have;
The boys named their beasts Nevu and Arris, but right here and right now we will start to maintain our focus on Arris. The day the other gods came and attacked the family's home was the day the future of the small creatures was stirred forever. The home of the family of gods was utterly decimated, the twins were separated from their beasts, Demos would have died trying to get to Nevu if it werent for Panos holding him back and bringing him to safety. Nevu hardly made it out alive, getting severely injured along the way. Arris, however, was build for this chaos. The small beast used it's new shapeshifting power to make an attempt to leave, but when he took flight as a bird he realized he wasn't getting anywhere. He had been captured in a net of magic, unable to break free no matter how hard he tried. While Nevu recovered in Siberia amongst humans, Arris was imprisoned in an underground stone dungeon. When the demigod that captured him dumped him out of the net and into a kennel, Arris acted helpless for the time being. It took weeks until he got an opportunity to do anything about his situation. The demigod who snatched him had planned on keeping him either to ransom off to the gods they attacked, or keep him for themselves to be more powerful with such an attack dog. However, Arris was still a baby, he fit in the palm of your hands! He wasn't quite small enough to squeeze through the bars of his kennel, though...not like this anyway. While nobody was looking, Arris casually transformed into a small roach and scurried out to freedom. It was just that easy, but then just as soon as he felt triumphant for being free, it all came crashing down again. The first glimpse of the world he lived in scared Arris. Nothing but snow, wind, and the sting of the permafrost. Arris was a sun beast in a world with no sun. Arris' first few days were a major challenge, but the fire of his master's personality kept him just as fired up. The determination to be like the god that had given him power kept him warm at night. Being so tiny, he was helpless even with his powers.
As Arris grew up (quite rapidly, in fact, he was the size of a great dane within 2 months) he learned how to cope with his surroundings...by transforming them! The bigger he got, the more heat he gave off, the less snow surrounded him. Eventually, his warmth alone carved out a small haven within siberia, a green paradise amongst the blank canvas of snow surrounding him as far as the eye could see in every single direction. Arris became accompanied with the nearest town of humans, becoming a human to talk to them and learn about the world he found himself in.
One day, Arris stumbled upon a human named Milo. This human wasn't anything special, he didn't look any nicer than any other human, he didn't have any spectacular personality, he was poor and dirty most of the time - but he smiled with such pure joy that it caught Arris' eye. He hadn't witnessed such pure, wholesome happiness before and it drew him in. He spoke to Milo and began following him around, taking interest in everything this odd human did. Milo was a little uncomfortable being followed all the time by this exceedingly weird stranger with the sun mark on his forehead, but he was too polite to say anything to him directly. The two didn't make much progress as far as friendship goes, but Arris decided this was because Milo's quota for friends and family was already filled. Milo had a huge family, a family he clearly adored more than anything on the planet. Milo was never as purely happy as he was with his family. So Arris decided that if he was going to keep Milo in his life, if he was going to get what he wants, Milo had to make room for him. When Arris approached Milo with complete transparency, telling him "Get rid of someone for me!" Needless to say, Milo was rather offended. "I've known these people my whole life and you expect me to just get rid of someone I love? For a stranger? You must be mad."
Taking offense to the fact that Milo didn't take him seriously, Arris kept pushing this on him day after day...until he saw that Milo had fallen in love with somebody. What? A new person? He couldn't possibly make room for Arris but he could make room for this random nobody? No, Arris wouldn't stand for this. So, we have Arris' first severely bad deed. Bad deeds were commonplace in Arris' life, hurting feelings and stealing, etc. But murder? Never. Until now. That same night Arris saw Milo with his new love, Arris would slaughter everybody Milo loved. Every last one of them, even the children in his family. Arris awaited his return that night, displaying the corpses out on the floor of Milo's house as Milo returned with the person that had triggered all of this. Instantly, Arris swooped in and ripped that individual in two, adding them to the death count, and grabbing Milo once and for all. The person he had become so oddly obsessed with was now his and his alone, he wasn't going to let that go. Arris brought Milo home to his green paradise in the frost, a place nobody would dare venture to due to the danger of crossing the white wasteland. As Milo grieved, Arris sat and watched in confusion. He said nothing about the murder of Milo's whole life, he never said a word. But Milo did. Milo said a lot. For the first few weeks, anytime Milo saw Arris he would stand up and scream at him until he collapsed. At first, Arris allowed this, figuring he would "get over it." But Arris has a short fuse, he got annoyed with this behavior rather quickly, he wanted to see Milo's smile again. His method of forcing this was...counterproductive to say the lease. Anytime Milo showed resistance towards Arris, the beast (who would hardly ever show up around Milo in his fuzzy form, only approaching him as a human) would act out in violence, beating Milo into silence. Every time Milo begged for death, to be reuinited with his family, Arris would suddenly take on a kind tone, scoop Milo into his arms and act ridiculously gently affectionate, stating "Why would I ever give you up after all I did to get you? Milo, I will never let you die. I will keep you for as long as I live. And if you do manage to die, I'll just bring you right back~!"
This would be tested a number of times. Milo attempted to kill himself so many times I don't have a number. But every single time Arris found his corpse he would simply sigh, roll his eyes as if Milo was being dramatic, and resurrect him. Following this was a time of gentle yet terrifying scolding. "You'll only annoy me with every time I have to bring you back because of your dramatics." Arris would show Milo strange bursts of affection here and there, something that startled Milo deeply after having been beated by the same monster just hours earlier. Milo was beated into submission, he was unable to stand up to Arris anymore, he became a shell of who he once was. Silent, keeping his eyes to the floor, doing anything and everything Arris commanded him to do. Even if Arris had such power over Milo, he didn't try to be as lovey-dovey with him even if that feeling clearly motivated his actions. He left Milo alone, just bullying him and making him into his minion of sorts.
When Arris discovered Nevu had survived the attack from the gods, he found out that Nevu had become a villain to the humans. Nevu had been eating humans and it terrified everyone. The man eating monster that crawled out of the snow and vanished within just as quickly after taking your family with him. Arris saw this as an opportunity to make humans love him like they were supposed to. Up until then, they were pretty neutral, they didn't know Arris was responsible for the slaughter of 15 people Milo loved (and Milo as far as they knew) so Arris was still cool in their book. So Arris announced that he could kill the man eater. Arris and Nevu would meet shortly after this, clashing and fighting in such an intense and destructive battle they nearly ripped one another apart. Nevu hadn't grown very large in comparison to Arris, in fact, Arris was nearly double the size of Nevu! Arris was clearly stronger in every way. Just like he beat Milo into submission, he defeated Nevu, but didn't get the chance to kill him. Nevu would escape and live to see another snowy day. This sparked the repeated attacks on Nevu that Arris ensured. Arris would even send Milo to poison Nevu and attempt to kill him in various simple ways. Often using new technological advancements! This all changed when Nevu was no longer defending against Arris alone. Nevu made a friend with a winged man named Kleis who had rescued the beast from a frozen tomb after Nevu had fallen into a cravasse and was pinned by a bolder. The next time Milo was sent to attack, Kleis intercepted him. Seeing this pitiful, broken man, Kleis' original plan to kill him was scrapped and he allowed him to leave. The next time they saw Milo, he was on the back of the giant sun beast, clinging to him for warmth in the frozen wastes. Milo was seen as someone to rescue from this violent monster, and this would indeed happen. But first, they had to get Arris out of the picture.
Kleis would finally manage to overpower Arris while they were fighting. Arris was impaled through the chest and while he struggled to take his last breaths he had a small chat with Kleis. He finally voiced his love for Milo, saying he only did what he did to keep Milo forever, and that he kept him alive even when he didn't want to be to "keep him safe from himself." Maybe Arris' intentions weren't evil, but the actions were. Kleis asked him a simple question; "If you could do it all over again, would you make different choices?" and Arris answered "Yes."
Arris would die then and there at the hands of this winged man, the friend of his rival. He struggled not to shed a tear as he died, thinking about how he fucked up, especially when it came to Milo. Kleis mentioned something about "perhaps one day you'll come back and Ill make sure someone keeps you under control." But he assured Arris he wouldn't get Milo back. Ever. The entire event was witnessed by Milo, who was deeply troubled by this news. He didn't know Arris loved him, he could hardly believe that a god would love him. However, this did nothing to make him feel better and his hatred for Arris after he took everything from him in pursuit of selfishness, it was never going to go away. Milo joined the pair of Nevu and Kleis, cuddling up to the fuzzy beast that was far kinder despite still being a man eater. Milo was free of Arris' abuse, but Arris was dead and had no chance for redemption.
Whether or not he gets a chance to prove himself - well - I suppose we'll see, won't we?
