He was born into the lap of luxury, the personification of Americana: His mother’s maiden name is Luciana Ruiz, daughter of a Spanish immigrant. After becoming the successful leading lady in a handful of Broadway productions, her fame doubled after being featured in her first Blockbuster romantic movie Fields of Violet with Harrison Loveless. Their convincing chemistry was fueled by offscreen romance and they married soon after, with every detail plastered on the gossip tabloids. They stayed there through Oscar nominations, memorable controversies, and the birth of their two children– with Arlo being the youngest. Currently, their net worth has easily exceeded the hundreds of millions and their lavish lifestyle has reflected such. Arlo was never taught to budget, why would he have to? There was money to burn, and with the disconnect from the idea of ‘cost’ diminishing each passing year, he’s grown quite fond of the game ‘how much is ____?’ each time he visits the little market at St. Augustine.
His parents are highly involved Scientologists: The organization fed off of rich, eager celebrities like his parents. Millions of dollars donated meant he was treated like royalty at every gathering and his naivete attitude towards the malpractices of its leaders continued up until the age of 14, when he walked in on a disciplinary hearing of a member. From then on, the smiles seemed less genuine and the hologram of pure bliss associated with Scientology began to crack.
He is a paranoid heart and a lonely doll: Because of his parent’s world renowned reputation, he has always been under the paparazzi spotlight. Every social media, no matter how anonymous he’s tried to be, has hundreds of thousands of followers. Scientology has a habit of keeping track of their members as well, wanting to contain them in a snow globe of cultlike utopia. His school was filled with peers bred from Scientologist families. His tutors, his nanny, everyone he’s been in contact with all have some tie to the religion. Because of his status, Arlo grew up friendless– children thought him as vain and selfish while parents were intimidated of allowing their children to play with someone who can bring harm to their spawn with a mindless negative comment. When his parents heard about his loneliness, Arlo suddenly found himself with a best friend– alas, upon his discovery that Leo was planted in his life like everyone else, he became more wary.
His acceptance into St. Augustine was not without protest: Coming from an acting family created a window of opportunity for him to follow suit. His first performance was in a movie when he was three years old. With a few scattered appearances, Arlo has become quite good at faking confidence as an actor from his self conscious real life. At 13, he became fixated with art instead, particularly oil paints. With the pressure of his revelation over Scientology clear in his mind, he applied to St. Augustine for art and Julliard (under his parents’ insistence) for performance when he turned 18. He got accepted into both, but in his desperate plea for independence and freedom, he succumbed to his parents’ bargain of allowing him to study in St. Augustine, but for performance instead.
He is desperate– a songbird who sings praises and a hawk who demands Good: Arlo has already deemed himself as paranoid; he knows he’s a fretful person, and he tries his hardest to hide his fear so he won’t screw up his chances at real friends. Hungry, he called it, hungry for friendship to the point of buttering his words with compliments and little white lies with the purest intentions. Maybe he sounded manipulative, but his intentions are pure and his desire to good will not ever waiver. Arlo’s nervous temper personified itself as a nibbling sense of inadequacy; he doesn’t think he’s worth the trouble, but he desperately wants to be worth something. Sheltered, oblivious and naive– but ready to explore, if not for the forsaken need to take his first step shutting down his body system.
Love; love is all you need: And he craves it. His mother’s films created little snapshots of things that could happen, may happen, will happen. They’ve been quoted by lovesick girls and red eyed heartbreakers and her own son has been captured by the allure. His parent’s love for each other proved the existence of soulmates, but Arlo’s blind faith has been jeopardized by his desire to throw himself into the depths of the ocean and wait for someone to pull him into safety. He anticipates that he will drown, but for now he teeters on cliff’s edge, waiting for the lifeguard to take their seat on their tower before he jumps.
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