Arbor Halt [12]

Arbor isn't exactly tall, though he is quite lean with lightly tanned skin and grey eyes. His wavy, dark blonde hair is left shaggy, curling up at the ends so it never quite falls directly in his eyes. He has a broad face with a square jaw that sits atop a fairly thick neck, which serves of practically the only suggestion of strength throughout his whole skinny body. Arbor's large adam's apple is a protruding and distinct reminder that at fifteen, he is already almost a man. At 5'8" Arbor is almost done growing. He is of slim build from never having enough to eat and couldn't tip the scale at 130 pounds soaking wet.

*****

(as of the 60th Hunger Games)The life of a victor has provided Arbor with the food to finish filling out his frame, though only a single additional inch to his height. His vision repaired has added a new sense of resolve to his features, though his face looks hollower than ever. Still too young for the signs of his constant consumption to appear outwardly, Arbor's appearance still hints at boyishness, though while sober his countenance often bears a more serious resolve than anything that might suggest youth. Like much of Panem, Arbor was forced to grow up too fast, and the weight in his now-seeing eyes certainly shows it.

Before the 54th Hunger Games, Arbor had trouble forming attachments to anyone, but this problem was increased tenfold with his victory and subsequent mentoring task. He doesn't trust easily, harboring a vicious resentment for the Capitol that he spends a month or two out of the year visiting. The combination of this immediate mistrust of practically every new person he meets and preexisting difficulty forming attachments makes it virtually impossible for the victor to make friends or meet new people.

While he feels sympathetic for others inwardly, he has trouble expressing this out loud and frequently finds himself overwhelmed by a great sadness for others. He finds his loss for words frustrating, and therefore tries to avoid situations that he knows will just leave him feeling sorry. As many victors do, Arbor finds himself dwelling on the Hunger Games quite often, fluctuating between feelings of extreme helplessness about them and utter apathy once he realizes — as he often does — that he is merely along for the ride and there's nothing that he can do to resist them. These feelings are always augmented by alcohol, leaving Arbor feeling depressed and miserable as he slowly gets wasted.

In the rare moments that he is happy or feeling at ease, Arbor has a wry, teasing sense of humor. However, as he isn't close with many people, he often fears that he goes too far with his joking, which often sends him back into feeling uncomfortable or otherwise miserable. The constant angst might make him difficult to tolerate, but Arbor is an expert at bottling up his feelings — as he refuses to share them — and putting on a brave face to make it through the day.

The youngest and the oddest of four Seam siblings, Arbor had never been able to work in the mines to support the family due to his blindness, though he would out tessera for his two brothers, Cade and Ilan, his sister Tamar, as well as his father Jude, all of whom were already too old to receive food from the government. His mother died giving birth to him prematurely, leaving Arbor blind, as he had been blind for his entire life until his reaping. Despite being unable to see, he's always thought that the Hunger Games have been his biggest curse.

This is all because of Shaw. Shaw was Arbor's first and only boyfriend, and though they'd only been actually together for seven months, they grew very close. Naive and idealistic, Arbor was thoroughly convinced that "'til death do us part" would be entirely true for the two of them. Whether or not they were meant to be as the thirteen-year-old blind boy had envisioned, it was. The 52nd Hunger Games took Shaw Nolan away.

During the whole competition, Arbor had bitten his nails down to stubs and cried himself to sleep at night. His family knew the two boys were good friends and assumed this was the reason why it had hit Arbor so hard, but they never grasped the full scope of it; before his own reaping, Arbor still hadn't told anyone else he was gay, but everyone learned over time to not mention either Shaw or the Games if possible.