Avve Tokha

Main Character

Bearthing, Avva, Quake

Male

35

Bisexual

Work shirt with the sleeves rolled up and jeans. He ain't fancy.

A number. Heavy.

5' 11"

He has fur, and it's black.

Reddish amber

Ursull (American Black)

He's....built like a bear. He's super buff, but actual STRONG buff, not body builder buff

Ursulls are pretty rare, so he's easy to pick out in a crowd. But for his species he's a little on the small side, most ranging from about 6' to 6'4"
The Black ursulls are the smallest of the three types, with Grizzly ursulls standing at 6'6" to 7' and Polars at 7+

May seem stereotypical, but he's a beekeeper. By hobby and by trade.

He's got arthritis from years of physical abuse, and mild, undiagnosed PTSD.

Avve is a gruff, gentle soul who's been through a lot, and kinda just wants to vibe on his own dime now. He doesn't live with anyone except one aged grizzly who owns the land, and keeps his distance from humans. However, kindness does not equal peacefulness, and he is every bit the big brute he looks. He's got claws for a reason, and is by no means afraid to use them. He's scary to be around, and he knows it. He keeps humans at a distance with bared teeth and curled claws. He's been mistreated by them before because of what he is, and he's hellbent on never letting that ever happen again.
He likes his bees though, and he has the healthiest colonies in his area. He runs his business mostly online, or lets his one human friend Larka take his honey to local farmers markets. But he is fairly active in the local ursull communities. His area actually houses the largest ursull population in America, and he's got plenty of Black and Grizzly friends. Just enough to know faces when he goes to the local bar. He's not at all introverted, but he is quiet and fairly withdrawn. He's the chill, calm, mature one in a friend group, the mom friend, if you will. Out on a Saturday night when the pals being rowdy, he drinks the least, doesn't pick fights, and keeps things under control. (I should mention, the bars he goes to are all ursull bars, and no human would be brave enough to set foot in one. Friendly tussles are a Thing that just happen, and you don't want to get in the way of two 6'+ tall bear-people about to throw down for the fun of it.)

He's mistrustful of people he doesn't know well, even other ursulls, but he's friendly enough, if a little monosyllabic when strangers come down to talk. He doesn't consider people friends easily, even if they've known him for months. To him, friends are people who he feels entirely safe and comfortable around in any situation. However, once you are his friend, you can enjoy his company while he is fully relaxed around you, just casually doing his thing and letting you do yours. He's got a sense of humor under there, and is fiercely loyal to his nearest and dearest. He shows love in small favors and acts of giving. If he sees you need something, he'll more often then not just,,, show up at your house with that thing and be like 'here I spent money on this and I'm poor as shit but I love you so shut up and take it."

However, despite that, Avve is more selfish than caring. When push comes to shove, he values his own safety over anyone else, including Larka, who he sees himself as a protector of. He'll always put himself first in moments of crisis, because he's tired of being hurt. His danger response is flight then fight, in rapid succession. Sometimes both at once, but you can guarantee if it's him or you, it's not gonna be you he chooses. He'll be outta there and you'll have to fend for yourself. Unless he genuinely thinks he might be able to help you without risking himself, then he'll come to your aid. (But only if you're friends)
He's not much of a fixer. He won't go out of his way to help just anybody, he has to care about you. This is part of his arc, where someone helps him, gets caught by the bad people, and he lets that happen. He never goes out to look for that ursull. He's worried about him, sure, but not a friend, therefore not his problem.

Avve also has pretty severe body image issues (and everything image issues tbh), but not really in an 'ugh I'm ugly' kind of way. All the time he spent having to hear Garth degrade him, he looks upon himself as lesser, physically, and the fact that he's bigger and stronger than Garth doesn't matter, because if someone holds an edge over you mentally, or emotionally, all the physical prowess in the world won't matter. He was always lesser than Garth, always had to listen to him and do what he said, and Garth always came out on top, no matter what. Avve looks at himself as generally lesser and inferior to others, a thought process not at all helped by the fact that he is physically smaller than most of his kind. He doesn't talk about, it, doesn't show it, but it's there, and he's fairly manipulatable because of it. If someone came along and his the right triggers, he would fall right back into old habits of not even trying, because it doesn't matter anyway. Garth's favorite tactic to get Avve not to fight back (aside from telling him that if he did, they would be found out and separated), was to withhold some physical object, or attention, or love, and blame it on Avve's actions, thoughts, feelings, or looks. When Avve 'changed' those things, Garth would return those withheld items/attentions. Even though it's been years now, he still struggles with some learned behaviors that were ingrained from years of abuse.

He's a good singer, and can play decent guitar. He likes folk music, and even writes a little bit of his own.

All humans minus 1 are BAD. Larka is fine, but he's special.

He's grumpy, he's mean to humans, he's cold-shouldered to almost anyone he isn't friends with, and he's fairly paranoid. He keeps an axe at hand nearly constantly when he's out at his farm, and he always assumes the worst in people. He's troubled by his aching joints and pent-up aggression that he never lets out properly, and literally cannot sleep unless his axe is nearby.
He's been a smoker for years now, picked it up when he was 19, and never has stopped. He's not super super addicted goes through 6 packs a day or anything, but he's fairly constantly lighting one up, and has a pack and a lighter on hand at any given time. He can feel the toll it's starting to take on him, but he's not showing any signs of stopping. There's no real point in his eyes.

Safety. His safety, specifically. Asides from that, his bees, and the few very genuine friendships he has.

Kinda hard to beat a good burrito, tho, fr.

He has a stuffed Loche Ness Monster that he's had since he was six. That, and his parent's wedding rings are the only possessions from his youth he hasn't sold, had stolen, or lost.

His axe. Or his teeth and claws. Either work well enough.

He likes horses, and they like him. Gost has a super aged pony, and he gets along with her just fine.

Beekeeper/In home caretaker

Larka: A young human who ran away from the Parade with Avve. The two have been friends since Larka was 10 and Avve was 19.

Gost: A great big Grizzly. She owns the farm Avve lives on, and lives with him. She's elderly, and the deal was that as long as he cared for her until her death, the land would be his when she passed. She is the closest thing he has to a mother.

Lector: A Black male ursull who frequents the local bar, the Haybeer Stand. Lector was one of the first friends Ave made, and they've been close buddies for 8 years now.

Dorsal and Graft: Two Grizzlies who work at the Haybeer. Dorsal servers tables, since he's a little smaller and can slip through the crowd easily, and Graft bartends. She's easily one of the best bartenders the place has, and usually buys Avve his drinks wink wonk

Turst, Able, and Ev: These are his usual hang-out crew. Turst and Ev are both Black ursulls, and Able is a Grizzly-human. Turst came from a similar situation as Avve, and also has no love for humans. Ev and Able are just buddies with everyone, and are the local extroverts.

Atheist

He only has one ex, who is a human named Garth. Garth used to work at the parade, and was incredibly mentally and emotionally manipulative and physically and sexually abusive, and one of the reasons it took Avve as long as it did to leave the parade.

Currently he's single, but let's face it, Graft doesn't buy him drinks for nothing. The two flirt all the time, and most people think it's only a matter of time before they get together. They also agree with this statement. Graft doesn't have time to commit to a relationship, since she's full-time parenting her younger siblings, and Avve is busy taking care of Gost and the land, and is hesitant because of his past relationship traumas. But in the meanwhile, they can flirt all they want.

He's pretty uninvolved in human politics. Ursulls aren't allowed to vote anyway. And Ursulls don't really have one unified political ideal. Since he lives in the biggest population, he's close to thier version of politics, which is basically "we have no way of establishing leadership, and we kinda think we need one, or some of us do, so we're gonna argue about it."
He's of the opinion that they don't really need one.

Beekeeper

Blue.

Avve was born to a pair of homeless, wandering ursulls, which, to be honest, is the usual for ursulls. Few of them find housing, and few of them feel safe staying in one area long unless they find a community of ursulls to live with. They had no money, no jobs, and pretty much nothing to thier names except a few special pieces of jewelry, a nice watch that had been his great-grand-father's, and some basic things like bedding and clothes and such. They had a super beat up camper they lived in, and traveled near-constantly. Despite all this, they were pretty happy. They had each other, and though Avve's mother had to steal gas for thier camper, they really didn't get into much trouble or drama. Avve went to whatever schools were around, or, if there were none, he was homeschooled. He was bullied in almost every class he entered, but his parents insisted that he needed to get an education. When he was 10, he finally found a school with a very accepting policy towards ursulls, and he actually began to make friends. He was devastated when he had to leave that place a month later, and his new friends threw him a huge going away party. They gave him all sorts of gifts that were great treasures to him for many years, and he even managed to keep up with a couple as pen pals, but when he turned 12, all of that changed.

Avve was orphaned after his parents were killed in a trolley accident of all things. While the conductor was never charged with intentional killing with racist intent, she was open about the fact that she felt no more remorse than she would upon running over a wild animal. And with his parent's criminal records, thier case was pretty much dismissed. Since there were no resources for parentless/homeless ursulls, he ended up just living on the street, stealing what he could to survive.

That's when the parade came along and picked him up. Of course, they made it seem like he had a choice, but they offered him food, shelter, and a place to escape the constant hatred from the humans around him. All he had to do in return was walk in the parades they threw as they travelled across the country.
What 12 year old would say no?

What he didn't realize is that the parade was essentially a cleverly disguised freak show, and he was a spectacle. These parades operated because they insisted everyone involved was there of their own free will. Which technically is true. However plenty of abuse went on behind the scenes, and most of the people there only stayed because they were either convinced they had no other options, or they were manipulated into thinking the parade had some legal right to thier presence. For years, Avve lived there, travelling across the country and being shown off to spectators in the big cities who had never seen an ursull before. He really didn't have any friends at the parade, the other performers kept to themselves, and the staff who mainly dealt with him were brusque and down-right belittling in behavior. He grew up a very lonely, sad person who didn't understand why the people who claimed not to hate him didn't want to be his friends.

This is where Avve first met Garth, when they were both 18. Garth was the son of the parade's owner, and started coming down to help out during the evenings. Garth and Avve hit it off immediately, even though Garth was a bit of a bully. Avve was desperate for any kind of friendship, and it didn't take long for them to get together, behind Garth's father's back. Garth's father, a man named Mr. Crocus, would never have approved a relationship between his son and a creature he saw as a lesser life-form, and Garth was sure to tell Avve this, and used it as one of the ways he kept Avve from ever rebelling against the abuse. The threat that Mr. Crocus would separate him from his only friend, or even make him leave the parade kept Avve quiet, and let Garth get away with whatever he wanted. Though it started small, the mistreatment became worse as Garth realized he really could be as mean as he pleased and Avve would never retaliate. Despite Avve's clear strength and size advantage, Garth was able to convince him never to fight back by demeaning Avve, and threatening to reveal the relationship to Mr. Crocus. Garth could be quite violent, and often badly injured Avve, who stayed silent and played off the pain and injuries, never getting them taken care of. This led to early onset arthritis in bones and joints that had simply suffered too much injury and manhandling to be able to recover. But Avve never sought to break off the relationship, because, like the little girl with the little curl, when Garth was sweet, he was very, very sweet, and Avve had no other source of love in his life, and had never learned that this wasn't love.

They'd been together about a year before Larka came into the picture, a young, homeless boy who was tricked into joining the parade like Avve had been. Avve and Larka became friends very quickly, and Avve tried to protect Larka from the worst of what went on at the parade, and in doing so, kind of woke up himself and realized how badly he was being treated.

It would be another three years before they would escape however. Between the toxic abusive relationship he refused to leave with Garth, and the terrible result from thier first attempt to leave, it seemed they would be going nowhere.

That first attempt to leave? Avve tried to talk to Garth about leaving, about a year after Larka came along, and ended up beaten so badly he was out of the parade for a week with injuries. Garth took a metal rod, tied a knife to the end, and proceeded to cut, stab, and hit Avve for even thinking of leaving. This would be the first time he ever forced himself on Avve as well, but not the last. Of course, since his relationship with Garth was secret, he covered for his boyfriend and told everyone he got in a fight with a homeless person on the street. And so he got into even more trouble with the powers that be, and while they weren't physically abusive, there was a lot of mental abuse going on there, and he pretty much shut down until he was able to rejoin the parade to escape the bullying.

Fast forward two years, and Avve is 22, Larka 13. He finally realized he had to get out, for Larka's sake if not his, and he and Larka tried to run off. Only, again, Avve made the mistake of talking to Garth about it first, and when he tried to leave, Garth called the parade security on them, and they were forced to stay. They only stayed one night though, and Avve finally ghosted Garth totally, and the two just picked up and left in the middle of the night. They never went back, they moved as far away as they possibly could, and as far as they're concerned, they are never going back to any biggish city ever again.

They found thier way to the country, and by the time they were 25 and 16 respectively, Avve met Gost, and she made a deal with him that if he took care of her and her land, he would inherit it after she died. He agreed, and she taught him the ins and outs of land maintenance and beekeeping, and he settled in to his new home. It would take years for Avve to open up to Gost about what he had been through, and she finally helped him move on past Garth, and showed him what a terrible person Garth was. Any residual love Avve felt for Garth slowly faded to be replaced with hatred. If Garth ever comes looking for him, he'd better watch out, because Avve would have some claws ready to tear into him.

Larka for his part, went to live in the nearby town, and got a part-time job there while living in a homeless shelter for teens. He didn't stay with Gost and Avve because he had some of his own trauma around secluded areas like the farm. But they're still close, and even years later, now that Larka has graduated college with a degree in welding, they still live not 3 miles from each other.

June 12th

He can read, write, and do everything someone up to 6th grade can do. Otherwise, it's just whatever he picked up at the parade or from Gost. Gost is like a parent to him, since she has no family of her own, and she's taught him a lot about a lot.

Sky is the name of the pony the Gost owns.

Theme songs:
Cocoa Hooves - Glass Animals
Brand New Animal
Monster - Imagine Dragons
HURT - 1800 PAIN
Made You Do - Melih Aydogan
If it's real, then I'll stay - bonjr

Hogwarts House:
Hufflepuff

Element he'd bend:
Earth.

His teeth are just a little too big, and he's constantly biting himself by accident

His nose is crooked from an old break that again, like most of his injuries, never got medial treatment.

Though 90% of his chronic injuries came from Garth, the 3 years Avve and Larka spent travelling, he got into a lot of fights with humans and other ursulls, and got hurt a lot in the meantime. So some of his current issues definitely have to do with that.

Bear-furry? Yes. But is he a furry? No. Leave me alone and let me have my anthros in peace. If you want to picture him a way, he looks kinda like this, but, you know...black furred.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2d/39/e2/2d39e2c5c5f92a8121b8e0e45818f142.jpg
I cannot credit the artist, because I have no idea who drew this.