PORTRAIT DONE BY @phantomtoff, I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH, HE IS PERFECT
Avian was born on a particularly bleak day for his tribe, one of eggs from his queen-mother's final clutch. His mother, one of the last settled queens of the flying mudokons, laid him and his siblings in secret before ordering her drones to end her life by feeding her poisoned fruit - an act of mercy to herself and the future of her people. His caretaker was one of her aging drones, and he raised the hatchlings away from the encroaching hand of the ZimZum industrial progress as best he could. Unfortunately, poor conditions and his own health affected his ability to properly care for them, leaving Avian the only member of the five eggs to survive to adolescence and not have his wings clipped for his future safety. The drone believed this was a good thing for him, because he wanted his son to have the freedom his ancestors once enjoyed to the fullest.
During this time, Avian lived in a hidden home above an untouched native settlement. He knew how to fly fast and well, because his father had prepared him to be ready for danger at a moment's notice. When he did have a few minutes to himself, he would soar through the clouds and relax as the wind brushed through his feathers, and he would sing the native songs his father taught him until his voice grew hoarse and the throat sounds were carried away by the gusts.
He was still too young to understand what loneliness could do to the mind of a flying Mudokon, a species that had evolved to rely on the serotonin gained from certain physical contact, who had large and intertwining tribes, who valued community and communication and free will. But he also didn't know what his people were like before the ZimZum industrialists drove them out of their native mountainsides and cliffs, so for the longest time he flew without a goal, traveling place to place and settling wherever he thought was safe enough. Because he had no concept of his own psychology and wasn't getting the things required to keep his brain working correctly, his early teenage years were ones of distress and depression.
Nearing the end of his juvenile years, he came across another flying mudokon that was as timid and cautious as he. What began as a friendship based on survival in numbers became two soulmates who flew together for years, living and hiding in the canyons and ruins where the smell of oil and ozone had not yet reached. They treated each other as friends and equals, and eventually as partners who explored each other's bodies in the way that their ancestors did - something special and slow and enjoyable between souls and bodies, something that is to be respected, something that brings couples (or queens and drones) together and deepens their relationship. These pleasurable moments were what Avian loved the most about their relationship, and they are what caused him to drone out during his early adulthood. Though his partner was a male-presenting flying mudokon (all flying mudokons are androdynous unless they visible mature into queens or drones).
Their breakup was the kind of betrayal that had already become commonplace, something that was ineviatble as long as industrial exotic poachers and persistent hunters existed. They were forced to separate while being chased by one such organization and its employees, and in the days of confusion and turmoil, Avian fled until he crashed into the thick and dangerous branches of a large tree. He ended up tearing his wings badly, and falling unconscious.
He awoke in a strange room filled with the smell of varnish and the aura of things that were physically dead but still around. It was one of the rooms in the family mansion of Mr. Perci Katch. He was half-starved and somewhat delierious, and he learned overtime that Katch was offering him food and shelter in exchange for him staying by his side. It was a difficult period of back-and-forth communication, because Avian could not (and still cannot) understand the Common ZimZumese language or any Industrial dialect.
Living under the man's rule into his now-adulthood, being influenced by what he sees and hears and how he is forced to talk to be respected and heard, he has developed a kind of lisping-stutter. He often apologizes each time he speaks to Katch, though the man only laughs with mock patience and corrects him until he bores of his attempts and sends him away.
He also knows his new life is surrounded by something called "comfort" and "class", but he often wonders if he unknowingly traded both for the ability to fly; ever since he was conscious enough to try, he has realized that his wings are more useful for gliding than anything else. He remembers a time when they weren't always so weak, when he could fulfill the urge his muscles have without any issue. Whenever he follows Katch to his estate in the city, Avian sits by the high windows in his free time. He has a habit of opening the glass to feel the wind brush through his feathers, remembering what it felt like to be free.
On top of missing flying freely, Avian dreams constantly of his lost lover. If he thinks hard enough, he can feel phantom warmth on his feathers where they once touched. In his sleep, his wings sometimes twitch as if straining for the other’s embrace. These dreams are both blessing and tormenting, because whenever he awakes he remembers how alone he now is; though the selling, purchasing, and owning of flying mudokons is prominent between the ZimZum elite, an entire new branch of exploittation that he does not know of, he has not come across another of his kind in all the years he has spent with Katch. He believes that as long as his lover still breathes, and if he ever hears him call for him again, he will answer even if it means falling to his death.
