Blink Beast

He had never been interested in the life of a Huntsman. To suddenly be thrust into that against his will, and have to deal with the Fall had him panicking basically from the first Grimm attack at the coliseum until him and his team made it safely back to Vacuo.

At the time his only focus was on himself. He was in complete fight or flight mode, wanting to find somewhere safe, which led to a ton of guilt over not helping those who needed it.

The entire trip from the coliseum to a safe zone and from the safe zone to Vacuo, Aris was basically in one bad anxiety attack. He’s an absolute wreck that’s more subdued and willing to do what others say without complaining. 90% of the time he’s just sitting somewhere curled up in a ball trying to ignore everything around him.

Since then he’s had bad nightmares and a hard time sleeping. He can’t escape what happened no matter what he does. With how he did nothing but push people away during his time at Shade he doesn’t feel like there’s anyone he can turn to.

...... let us witness this

gracedly replied to your post “Me: man what if one day aris just breaks down bc of how his team still...”

yes pls.......

He regarded the roses with nothing but confusion at first, wondering who would would have taken the time to deliver them to his room, and then who had the access to get inside of it. Flowers in one hand, the scrawled on card in the other, realization dawning on him within the first few words. Of course it would be Love. It was both impressive and infuriating how he never gave up. The part that looked to have been quickly added at the end got- instead of a scowl or frown- a rather saddened and guilty look, eyes momentarily adverting from the writing and focusing on the roses. 

Aris knew he didn’t make it easy for people to connect with him. It hadn’t been the easiest thing to try to continuously push people away, but he had tried to keep up with it anyway. Make himself miserable, hopefully get someone to see Shade was the last place he wanted to be. 

And still, Love kept trying.

Card found its way into his pocket, roses being carefully examined before being set on Ethi’s pillow. She might know or want to care for the flowers than he did. Flora wasn’t his thing. And, in response to Love, Aris wrote his own little note to be left on his teammate’s bed. 

‘Ty harder if you want the bed.

HIS AIMLESS WANDERING SEIZED  at once upon hearing his name called.  he spun on heel, eyes widening with recognition. ‘ aris. ’ he weakly said.  had he been the one messaging love’s scroll?  the one word was all that love could muster before aris loosed his chastisement.  his biting tone rolled over him,  all frustration and urgency,  but the words themselves failed to penetrate the feeling of love’s hammering heart as his pulse ramped up,  thick waves of shame and guilt crashing in his chest.  of course someone would come searching.  risk embarking into the danger and chaos of vale because love wasn’t responding.  it made another lurch of guilt spear through him.  distracted,  when he brought himself back to the present again it was to hear an expectant pause.  he hadn’t been paying attention.  he stood tense and quiet,  unable to recall all of what aris had just said even when he tried to furiously replay the last few seconds in his mind.  lost.  instead,  love tried to focus on the moment and stared hard at aris in order to ground himself,  wildness wrought in the intensity of his gaze.  he felt mean and inconsiderate for not thinking about anything else but the restlessness still thrumming tight in his body.  selfish for the request about to pour from his mouth now.

‘ i’m … sorry.  i’m not well right now.  i’m fine,  can you go back to the others? ’  even his voice was stiff,  laced with a hint of desperation hoping to get aris to understand.  he didn’t register his own contradiction.  i’m not well.  i’m fine.  what did it say, that his teammate had caught love when he was already coming down from the worst of his semblance,  yet he still acted like this?  blood on his axes.  it was too much to handle all at once:  the tournament,  the fighting,  the state of the city around them.  love took one step back, then another.  it wasn’t very silent now.  or maybe the noise had always been there and he simply hadn’t noticed it until being torn out of his welcome dissociation.  someone cried out somewhere,  the sound pained.  baying calls echoed in the distance too, the pack mentality of rallying beowolves.  love turned to the growling sound instinctively,  his eyes lifting up as if he could peer through the buildings to its source.  yes.  he could fight more grimm.  he could at least help in that way and pretend like he was simply slaking his hunger until the bloodlust faded completely.  he needed to work through his semblance.  aris didn’t need to be there for it and love would be fine,  the rest of olea as well.  it didn’t matter that love’s aura was already depleted,  just a slivered red bar left in the shared aura tracking on their scrolls.  this was when his power came alive.  if he could bleed others then he could bleed himself too for a purpose,  and find a strength more profound than a second wind.

without another word,  love turned and darted around the next street corner.  he ran,  his affinity bolstering his fleetness,  heedless of any objection that might be hurled at his disappearing back.  the streets were largely unrecognizable to him.  the city was still a new and sprawling place left mostly unexplored in the time he had dedicated to beacon and training.  now in the tumult each turn he took was blind,  nothing but an urge leading him in the direction where he heard that call of grimm.

The entire situation made him uneasy, every nerve on edge, every smell and sound ten times stronger and assaulting his senses. It made Love’s stare all the more unsettling. That wasn’t the teammate he had gotten used to. That wasn’t the same Love that seemed to so easily brush things aside and keep a light mood. This was something else, and it caused the terror already in his chest to swell. Someone else should have made the trip out. Someone else better at handling Love should have volunteered to search. Why had he been so stupid? What had he expected when he had finally found his missing teammate? That Love would willingly go with him? 

Maybe.

That’d make the most sense.

But Love had never been someone to follow sense.

Despite the contradictions in what he was saying Aris focused more on the fact that Love was moving away one step at a time. Again, terror threatened to wipe his mind, leave him stranded in the carnage and destruction that surrounded them. Combat had never been his strong point, and the idea of being alone caused ears to flatten until they could barely be seen against his hair. A step forward, one hand beginning to reach out, some words on his tongue. A plea? A chastisement? It didn’t matter.

“What about this is fine?! The city’s burning! We need to go back to the-” His attention ended up caught by the sounds of someone else, something else answering before either of them could. His head whipped towards the source of the noise. 

Grimm. Beowolves. 

Aris flinched against the howls, shrinking back, hands instantly hovering older the hilts of his daggers. Eyes glanced towards Love once, twice, disbelief dropping his arms to his sides and staring at the retreating form of his teammate. 

No.

No no no.

No no no no no.

He couldn’t be alone. Not now. Not in the middle of all this. Not when he had just found Love. Not with grimm in the area. “Love, goddammit!” Was that a squeak to his voice? Did it matter? It took a second for his body to catch up with his mind, putting a distance between them that only seemed to grow. “LOVE!” His heart hammered away in his throat with every step he took bolting after Love, tuning corners, trying to keep him within his sights. He was beginning to feel exhaustion catching up with him, every step dragging him a little farther behind until he lost sight.

Cookies and Cream: a family headcanon.

His family aren’t the most open of people. They have more than their fair share of secrets to the point that Aris isn’t sure what they do for a living or how they get the money they do. He’s never had a reason to give it much thought, that’s just how it is. They’re polite enough to company, if not a bit distant, but because of how little they actually tell him and how they forced their own wants and desires onto him, Aris doesn’t have the best relationship with them. They believe they honestly have his best interests at heart.

Entangled Mints: a friendship headcanon.

Answered the first one!

There’s no particular place that left him motivated unless you count his hometown. Aris has always been driven to help people, and had a fascination with how the body works and how to go about fixing and taking care of it. His hometown not having more than a small clinic to take care of what they could helped drive him to want to work somewhere he could make a difference and help the most people he could. Being a huntsman was never part of his dream, and he feels like it pushed him away from the path he actually wanted to take. Despite, yknow, there probably being a good demand for huntsmen with field medicine knowledge.

He’s a hell of a lot more intelligent than he lets on. Aris picks up on things pretty easily, and if he actually applied himself he’d get some damn good grades. He comprehends more than he lets on, and easily retains information he reads and visually watches, especially when it’s how everything works together in the long run whether it’s bodies, machines, teams, or anything of the sort. He’s able to take things he learned elsewhere and apply it to other situations without much hassle, taking and using lessons for all sorts of situations. 

Almond Chocolate Coconut: a touch headcanon.

Bacon Ice Cream: a "what were you even thinking" headcanon.

Black Raspberry Cheesecake: a sexuality and/or romanticism headcanon (romantic orientation, sexual orientation, etc).

Cactus Fruit Sorbet: a "this shouldn't work but it does" headcanon.

Cherry Garcia: a role model/inspiration headcanon.

Chubby Hubby: a body image/self esteem headcanon.

Chunky Monkey: a names, addresses, nicknames, etc. headcanon.

Cookies and Cream: a family headcanon.

Cotton Candy Explosion: a childhood/child(ren) headcanon.

Death By Chocolate: an indulgence/guilty pleasure headcanon.

Devil's Food Chocolate: a vice headcanon.

Dulce de Leche: a happy/sweet romantic or queerplatonic headcanon.

Elderberry: a hurt/comfort headcanon.

Entangled Mints: a friendship headcanon.

Espresso 'n Cream: a coffee/tea/coffee-shop (AU)/caffeine headcanon.

Fudge Behaving Badly: a misbehaving/getting into trouble headcanon.

Ginger Crème Brûlée: a gender headcanon (gender identity, gender presentation, butch/femme, gender feels, etc).

Half Baked: a bad idea/poor planning headcanon.

Heartbreak Healer: a sad/angsty romantic or queerplatonic headcanon.

Jasmine Peach Tea: a self-care/self-love headcanon.

Kahlua Almond Fudge: a language/words headcanon.

Kiwi Midori: a creative arts headcanon.

Lemon Angel Food: a virtue headcanon.

Lemon-Lime Sorbet: a sexual/NC-17 headcanon (alt: a secret(s) h/c).

Magic Mint Cookie: a magic/supernatural headcanon (alt: a taste h/c).

Masque of the Raspberry Sorbet: a fear/horror headcanon (alt: a costume(s)/facade(s) headcanon).

Neapolitan: an intimacy/vulnerability (or lack thereof) headcanon.

Orange Pineapple Whip: a kinky headcanon (alt: an eccentricity h/c).

Oreo Cheesecake: a physical health/disability headcanon.

Peanut Butter Plum Cherry: a soulmate/soulmate AU headcanon (alt: an unconditional love headcanon)

Phish Food: a music headcanon.

Purple Daze: a stoner/drugs headcanon.

Rainbow Cream: a nature headcanon.

Road Trip: a travel or escapism headcanon.

Rocky Road: a difficulty or struggle headcanon.

SNAFU (Strawberries Naturally All Fudged Up): a mistake(s) headcanon.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch: a mental health/neurodivergent headcanon.

Tennessee Mud: an alcohol, drunkenness, intoxication headcanon.

Tuxedo Strawberry: a well-dressed headcanon (any headcanon about clothes).

Vanilla Fudge Ripple: a strength headcanon.

White Raspberry Truffle: a weakness headcanon.