born as vanja, named by her father. twitch was into a tight-knit group of nomads, a mix of a few adults and their children. her early life was ordinary; her childhood was not one of isolation or hardship in the traditional sense—she had stability in movement, familiarity in the faces that surrounded her. within her own home, however, things were far from harmonious. for all her father's goodness, and though though he was never outright cruel without cause, he was never a good man. his patience was wire thin, his temper thinner, and his disdain for weakness made his affections fickle. despite her name's meaning—god is gracious—she was never the gift they made her out to be, nor could she ever be enough for him. too self-conscious, too clumsy, too skittish, there was always somewhere she fell short.

her mother and family did what they could to ease that burden. they filled the space with an abundance of warmth, quick to dismiss his words in attempt to comfort her, but never would they stand up to him. over time, vanja learned that silence was safer. she withdrew into herself, learned to flinch at raised voices and tense at the mere hint of conflict, bracing for things that may or may not come. she became hesitant, desperate to appease; wired for damage control rather than self-preservation. knowing that no amount of effort would earn his approval and that her family would never intervene, she knew she could not stay, because love, she realized, was not always enough to make people change.

she was only eight months old back then. there was no grand confrontation, only an empty place in the den when they awoke the next morning. she did not know if they came looking—she did not want them to.

the world was not kind to a wolf without pack. she learned quickly how to go unseen, how to take what she needed without asking, how to fend for herself or run for the hills. she was never taught how to navigate people—only how to endure them—and so she learned socialization in fragments, patchworked together through observation and trial and error. mostly error. she made do, she always would.