was it love or fear of the cold that lead us through the night?
World Info
Lavi's world is a pretty straightforward modern day AU. If you would like to play any of his castmates, I very much welcome that - as he's never actually interacted with any of them in his world, beyond observing them from a distance, I am very flexible when it comes to their backstories and the like. Just ask if you have anyone in mind and we'll talk! <3
Lavi's History
Lavi can remember everything that's happened to him since precisely age three, when he recalls being at a charity orphanage, with no memory of his parents or what happened to them. He's daydreamed of finding them many times in the years since, but never made any real effort, afraid that all he would find was that he'd been abandoned and unwanted.
The orphanage was a nice enough place; the staff was kind, if overworked, and while there were bullies just like any place with many children gathered will have, Lavi had playmates and friends, and was generally known as a precocious, sweet, friendly child. Children were frequently leaving to stay in foster homes, however, considered a healthier and more supportive environment than the orphanage, and eventually when he was seven, Lavi was taken to one as well.
Through the next four years, he changed homes twice, for simple reasons - his first foster mother fell ill with a non-fatal but long illness that made her financially and physically incapable of taking care of Lavi and his two foster sisters, so they were separated and shuffled off to other homes; his second home was with a young couple who shortly after had to move back to their home state to care for the husband's suddenly ailing elderly mother. This resulted in his third foster home, where unfortunately, the carefree, cheerful, brilliant eleven-year-old's life would take a drastic turn for the worse.
He arrived at this house not expecting much; he knew from the stories the other children in the foster care system had told that he had, so far, had quite good luck in the homes where he'd been placed. Part of him was figuring it was about time for that luck to run out, but he was pleasantly surprised when he met Mary and Stephen, a couple in their forties who had recently begun fostering children after their own had grown up and left the house. They both genuinely loved children, and did their best to make their home a happy, stable one... and Lavi thrived there from day one, quickly becoming attached to both foster parents and striking up a friendship with Anna, the nine-year-old girl they were also fostering at the time. For a year it was almost like a real family, and Lavi hoped very hard that they would never have to - or want to - give up him or Anna for any reason.
Then Jordan came to live with them as well. On the face of it, he was a good kid - a charming thirteen-year-old who got good grades, was athletic and popular, and was, apparently, a good example for Lavi and Anna. Lavi looked up to him immediately; a whole year older, he seemed incredibly mature, and Lavi was always thrilled when Jordan would spend time with him playing video games, teaching him how to play basketball in their driveway, or even talking about girls, a subject which had recently started to become interesting to Lavi. Boys were interesting to him too, though he didn't admit it to Jordan, especially since he found his foster brother quite attractive - all in all, he was quite happy with things as they were, and didn't expect or want them to change.
However, he did notice that Anna, who had liked Jordan initially, was finding more and more excuses not to spend time with him, and becoming moody and withdrawn. When he confronted the girl he'd come to think of as his sister, she admitted that Jordan had been bullying her, and that it had grown more and more severe of late; he would steal and hide her things, tear up her completed homework so she'd have to do it over or risk getting in trouble at school, and other small, vicious acts that were making her life painful and miserable both at home and school. She confessed, tears in her eyes, that she hadn't told anyone until now, because Jordan had made it clear to her that if she told, no one would believe her - that everyone liked him better than her, and she'd only be accused of lying if she told.
Lavi, so enamored with Jordan and so unwilling to let anything change the way he idolized his "big brother", did something that would come back to shame and haunt him later; he told her she was being dramatic and exaggerating, that she should make a better effort to get along with Jordan, and that, basically, he didn't believe her.
Two months later, Anna tried to commit suicide, and when Lavi sat at her bedside in the hospital crying and apologizing over and over for not believing her, she would only turn her head away, refusing to talk to or even look at him. When she was released from the hospital, he never saw her again, and neither his social worker nor his foster parents would tell him where she had gone.
Things got difficult after that. Mary and Stephen were struggling to keep their happy household going less one member, while dealing with their own sense of loss regarding Anna - and when Lavi, angry and upset, confronted Jordan about what he had been doing to Anna, the boy he had previously trusted and considered both a brother and a friend turned on him.
Where Jordan's abuse of Anna had been entirely emotional, his abuse of Lavi was both emotional and physical. He pulled many of the same tricks he had with Anna, stealing or destroying precious objects and generally making his life unpleasant, but he had no qualms about hurting him physically as well. At first it was in ways that weren't obvious, but slowly it became worse and worse, and Lavi was too afraid to say anything... until one day, after Jordan had broken two fingers on his left hand and blamed it on bullies at school to Mary and Stephen, the police and his social worker arrived and Lavi discovered that this entire time, Jordan had been secretly and cleverly dropping hints that their foster parents had been the ones abusing him.
Now Lavi told what Jordan had been doing - out of desperation rather than courage, and to anyone who would listen. But it was too little, too late, and he and Jordan were taken away from Mary and Stephen; he later found out that the foster parents he'd loved so much had been charged in spite of his fervent and repeated testimony both at their trial and outside of it, and he was now forbidden to see them.
The Present
Since then, he's been placed in another home, with parents who are kind but have no idea how to handle him; he hasn't spoken since testifying at the trial, and blames himself for everything that had happened, to Anna and to Mary and Stephen. He's taken, too, to writing down everything; he keeps a backpack filled with his journals, never letting anyone go near it or touch it, and writing down each and every detail of everything he experiences and sees. He abhors lying, and makes sure everything he writes is the exact, completely objective truth. He's a target for bullies at school, and gets beaten up often; he doesn't care much, but will protect his journals with his life, believing that he deserves the bullying but that the truth is all he has left.
Lavi's world is a pretty straightforward modern day AU. If you would like to play any of his castmates, I very much welcome that - as he's never actually interacted with any of them in his world, beyond observing them from a distance, I am very flexible when it comes to their backstories and the like. Just ask if you have anyone in mind and we'll talk! <3
Lavi's History
Lavi can remember everything that's happened to him since precisely age three, when he recalls being at a charity orphanage, with no memory of his parents or what happened to them. He's daydreamed of finding them many times in the years since, but never made any real effort, afraid that all he would find was that he'd been abandoned and unwanted.
The orphanage was a nice enough place; the staff was kind, if overworked, and while there were bullies just like any place with many children gathered will have, Lavi had playmates and friends, and was generally known as a precocious, sweet, friendly child. Children were frequently leaving to stay in foster homes, however, considered a healthier and more supportive environment than the orphanage, and eventually when he was seven, Lavi was taken to one as well.
Through the next four years, he changed homes twice, for simple reasons - his first foster mother fell ill with a non-fatal but long illness that made her financially and physically incapable of taking care of Lavi and his two foster sisters, so they were separated and shuffled off to other homes; his second home was with a young couple who shortly after had to move back to their home state to care for the husband's suddenly ailing elderly mother. This resulted in his third foster home, where unfortunately, the carefree, cheerful, brilliant eleven-year-old's life would take a drastic turn for the worse.
He arrived at this house not expecting much; he knew from the stories the other children in the foster care system had told that he had, so far, had quite good luck in the homes where he'd been placed. Part of him was figuring it was about time for that luck to run out, but he was pleasantly surprised when he met Mary and Stephen, a couple in their forties who had recently begun fostering children after their own had grown up and left the house. They both genuinely loved children, and did their best to make their home a happy, stable one... and Lavi thrived there from day one, quickly becoming attached to both foster parents and striking up a friendship with Anna, the nine-year-old girl they were also fostering at the time. For a year it was almost like a real family, and Lavi hoped very hard that they would never have to - or want to - give up him or Anna for any reason.
Then Jordan came to live with them as well. On the face of it, he was a good kid - a charming thirteen-year-old who got good grades, was athletic and popular, and was, apparently, a good example for Lavi and Anna. Lavi looked up to him immediately; a whole year older, he seemed incredibly mature, and Lavi was always thrilled when Jordan would spend time with him playing video games, teaching him how to play basketball in their driveway, or even talking about girls, a subject which had recently started to become interesting to Lavi. Boys were interesting to him too, though he didn't admit it to Jordan, especially since he found his foster brother quite attractive - all in all, he was quite happy with things as they were, and didn't expect or want them to change.
However, he did notice that Anna, who had liked Jordan initially, was finding more and more excuses not to spend time with him, and becoming moody and withdrawn. When he confronted the girl he'd come to think of as his sister, she admitted that Jordan had been bullying her, and that it had grown more and more severe of late; he would steal and hide her things, tear up her completed homework so she'd have to do it over or risk getting in trouble at school, and other small, vicious acts that were making her life painful and miserable both at home and school. She confessed, tears in her eyes, that she hadn't told anyone until now, because Jordan had made it clear to her that if she told, no one would believe her - that everyone liked him better than her, and she'd only be accused of lying if she told.
Lavi, so enamored with Jordan and so unwilling to let anything change the way he idolized his "big brother", did something that would come back to shame and haunt him later; he told her she was being dramatic and exaggerating, that she should make a better effort to get along with Jordan, and that, basically, he didn't believe her.
Two months later, Anna tried to commit suicide, and when Lavi sat at her bedside in the hospital crying and apologizing over and over for not believing her, she would only turn her head away, refusing to talk to or even look at him. When she was released from the hospital, he never saw her again, and neither his social worker nor his foster parents would tell him where she had gone.
Things got difficult after that. Mary and Stephen were struggling to keep their happy household going less one member, while dealing with their own sense of loss regarding Anna - and when Lavi, angry and upset, confronted Jordan about what he had been doing to Anna, the boy he had previously trusted and considered both a brother and a friend turned on him.
Where Jordan's abuse of Anna had been entirely emotional, his abuse of Lavi was both emotional and physical. He pulled many of the same tricks he had with Anna, stealing or destroying precious objects and generally making his life unpleasant, but he had no qualms about hurting him physically as well. At first it was in ways that weren't obvious, but slowly it became worse and worse, and Lavi was too afraid to say anything... until one day, after Jordan had broken two fingers on his left hand and blamed it on bullies at school to Mary and Stephen, the police and his social worker arrived and Lavi discovered that this entire time, Jordan had been secretly and cleverly dropping hints that their foster parents had been the ones abusing him.
Now Lavi told what Jordan had been doing - out of desperation rather than courage, and to anyone who would listen. But it was too little, too late, and he and Jordan were taken away from Mary and Stephen; he later found out that the foster parents he'd loved so much had been charged in spite of his fervent and repeated testimony both at their trial and outside of it, and he was now forbidden to see them.
The Present
Since then, he's been placed in another home, with parents who are kind but have no idea how to handle him; he hasn't spoken since testifying at the trial, and blames himself for everything that had happened, to Anna and to Mary and Stephen. He's taken, too, to writing down everything; he keeps a backpack filled with his journals, never letting anyone go near it or touch it, and writing down each and every detail of everything he experiences and sees. He abhors lying, and makes sure everything he writes is the exact, completely objective truth. He's a target for bullies at school, and gets beaten up often; he doesn't care much, but will protect his journals with his life, believing that he deserves the bullying but that the truth is all he has left.