Character Stats

About

Arroway is a sarcastic, smug bastard. He has a habit of annoying people, but has an even bigger habit of being surprisingly reliable about keeping his word. He's dated around a third of the Caravan by now, and has no intention of stopping anytime soon.

Backstory

Arroway was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1902. His father wasn't in the picture when he was born, and his mother, struggling to find work, always had a difficult time providing for him. His mother was verbally abusive and always talked about how she hated having to feed him everyday, how she wished he would just leave her life and never return, so as soon as he was old enough to do so, he did just that. At seven years old, he left home to live on his own, and grew up as what was known back then as a "Newsie", selling newspapers to people on the streets in exchange for a place to stay.

This was an actual thing that happened in real life history, but in my version of events, the Newsies were way more oppressed than the real world ones. They were forced to get tattoos on their wrists and ankles identifying them as belonging to the organization, and were treated in a cult-like fashion where communication with the outside world was limited to only the conversations they had with customers for fear of the kids telling the press about the harsh conditions they were forced to live under. Most of the kids never tried to leave because they were told horror stories about those who had left before them and died in the cold on the streets with no one else to take them in. Those who joined the Newsies were usually orphans with nowhere else to go, and desperately needed the food and shelter the place provided. Orphanages were replaced with this "Newsies" program in this universe, so they quite literally had no other options other than starving on the streets. It was basically a prison, with allocated waking times, barely enough to eat, a harsh ruleset, overcrowded bunk areas, one set of clothes given to each child, the whole schtick.

All of the Newsies went by nicknames instead of their actual names as a sort of tradition started by the kids before them. Arroway was given the nickname "Bones" by the other kids, both due to how skinny and small he was, and his odd friendship with the black cat that hung around the bunks all the time, which the kids had previously also named "Bones" due to the cat's similar skeletal and small build. The boy and the cat were inseparable, the two being together so much that "Bones" came to refer to both Arroway and the cat as almost the same entity.

Arroway managed to make one other friend at this place, Ernesto Torres. Here's his toyhouse page (https://toyhou.se/5754428.ernesto-ness-torres) but none of the information is filled in, just putting this here so you can get an idea of what he looks like.

Ernesto's nickname was "Ness", being a shortened version of his actual name, and a play off of "kindness", since that was the thing he was best at. Ness was always the kind of guy to give his lunch to another kid, to give up his seat for someone less fortunate than him, always the first person to ask what was wrong when someone looked sad. Arroway and Ness's personalities conflicted eachother so many found it strange that they hung out, with Arroway always appearing to be sarcastic and sharp-tongued while Ness was honest and caring.

During Arroway and Ness's childhood as Newsies, Ness always dreamed of making it big as a scientist, talking to Arroway about ideas about the universe he had, and how maybe one day he'd discover something big that would change the world. The two were extremely smart, but without any money to go to school, and stuck as Newsies, Ness was stuck to sell papers every day. Arroway was happy with this life, liking the routine, the bargaining with people on the streets, the uncertainty each day brought, but Ness was unsatisfied. He always talked to Arroway about getting out of this place, and changing the world. Arroway thought it was ridiculous, but humored him, never voicing his concerns as more than jokes.

As they grew up there, getting older and into their teenage years, Ness began experimenting with the concept of alternate realities. He had set up a makeshift lab in an abandoned building that he worked in during the day, when he was supposed to be selling papers. Arroway would cover for him, his talent in selling the papers always being enough to sell out the stock Ness was supposed to sell. Arroway would even steal materials that Ness needed for- well, whatever he was building. This continued until finally, Ness was done. He had made the invention that was gonna get the two of them out of there.

Ness had created something that was supposedly capable of sending people to other dimensions, using a camera as the base mechanism (Keep in mind, this was in 1923 at this point so this camera wasn't small by any means. Both Ness and Arroway were 21). The idea was that whoever was photographed would be sent to a parallel universe for a short amount of time, and then be brought back in the same location. He was confident it would work, having tried it on multiple small animals and all having vanished and reappeared in a short amount of time. Ness believed that if he could prove that this worked on a human being, that he could sell the camera to the government and earn enough money for the two of them to leave the Newsies and build their own lives. All he needed was to test it on a human being.

Arroway, not quite believing that it would work, or that alternate universes even existed offered. Ness initially refused, it was far too dangerous, but after not being able to find any other test subjects that would consent, he reluctantly agreed. Arroway stood against a white sheet to be photographed, but at the last second before Ness took the picture, Arroway's cat Bones ran into the picture.

The machine glitched out, having photographed two entities, it didn't know how to respond. Unfortunately, this ended up as the cat getting somewhat merged with Arroway, him gaining the ability to shapeshift into it at any time and having more cat-like tendencies. He found himself waking up in an exact replica of the world he was in before, except this one was devoid of people and was entirely in shades of black and white. He found himself turned shades of black and white too, and quickly freaked out, realizing he was able to shapeshift into this cat. He remained alone and stuck in this universe for an amount of time that he couldn't tell, as the sun was eternally frozen in the sky. He scavenged food and water from the now empty buildings of his home town, alone. He had no idea what Ness's fate had been. Dasdd 

After a while, this is where the Caravan found him. Having no other option other than being left alone forever, he was recruited as a leader for them and this is what he does to this day under Caustic's control. He is now the leader of a rank called the Scouts, whose job is to seek out information on a universe before destroying it. This information usually includes but is not limited to, functions of the universe, major government powers, people of interest to be recruited, possible obstacles the Caravan may encounter, places of interest for battles to be fought, etc.

His job itself includes usually persuading world leaders to either temporarily work with the Caravan, being the Caravan's spokesperson in meetings, organizing information given to him by his subordinates and relaying it to the other leaders, etc. This includes a mixture of both field work where he has to physically break into places to talk to people, and paperwork he has to do in approving new members to the Scouts, relaying information, etc. He rarely is involved in combat scenarios, and if he is, is trained to either defuse the situation with his words, or to get away as fast as possible rather than fight back.

powers

Arroway has the ability to shapeshift at will, able to take on other people’s appearances, clothing, and voices. The accuracy of this shift depends on how familiar he is with the physical form his he taking on, and he needs to study a person thoroughly to be able to correctly mimic them. The fastest and most efficient way he’s found to do this is by sleeping with them, leading to his entire very flirty persona. This isn’t required, however, and he can take on someone’s appearance by visibly studying them for a long time. This takes longer, however, so he uses it less. He is able to shapeshift into animals, but he has the unfortunate circumstance of being unreasonably hated by every animal he sees. The only animals that like him are cats for some reason, so the form he takes most often other than his human one is that of a black cat. Shapeshifting takes more energy the less familiar he is with a particular form, like flexing a muscle for a long time. He is so familiar with his cat form, however, that shifting into this requires no energy at all, and he basically uses it as a second body. The only way to tell the difference between Arroway and the person he is shapeshifted into, is that Arroway’s colors will always be slightly more pale and desaturated. This is barely noticeable however, and isn’t much of an issue for him.

Items

Arroway's hat is the article of clothing which contains the Caravan symbol, but he can mask it if he shifts into another form. He doesn't carry much, not being one for personal belonging.

Universes

Arroway's universe is called Captcha, and is actually a pocket dimension that exists inside an enchanted photograph. 

Moodboard

Trivia & Notes

• Arroway has a photographic memory.
• When sleeping, his dreams play across his skin like a miniature movie. They're often... disturbing.
• Bones is not Arroway's actual name. Only Burns knows his real one, and she seems very adamant about not revealing it for some strange reason.
• Being the Caravan translator, Arroway knows THOUSANDS of languages. Name it, he knows it.
• The more intense emotions he experiences, the more likely you'll find him in his cat form.
• Even though Error still had influence over Caustic, he subconsciously recruited Arroway because he likes cats.

Relationships