Ah, yeah, that's understandable. Yay for Bernard not having too terrible of parents in his life! Lmao

Fair, so, depending on what age you chose for Garvin, most of the work would probably have to be with Akira and Nico, since Ingall and Akira won't have a ton of conflict either.

Nico and Akira's relationship will be a stuggle to fix though, so though it can be (mostly) fixed, it's gonna take a while. Though Nico will for sure pretend like he's totally fine and forgiven everything already. Though Briar forgiving Akira eventually will probably be the actual first step to healing because, if Briar can forgive Kira, so can Nico (according to Nico, lol)

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Glad you like them!

Alright :)

Okay, so, in my quest to decide what age to use for Garvin… I’ve decided to list out each option and the different routes each one could eventually take with everything going on with the kicking out and whatnot.

The ages in question-

16 turning 17

17 turning 18

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16 turning 17 has two different starting routes it could go.

Garvin either panics or he leaves with Briar and Aries. The difference that would end up deciding between those two is… Who’s fronting at the time of the argument.

If it’s someone like Jersey or Jack or overall someone who’s a more confident (or more openly self-deprecating, either one really) persecutor or protector? Chances are that leaving becomes more likely. If Garvin leaves with them though, no way to stop him from having a severe depressive spiral. There’s also the chance that, despite leaving with them, he tries to leave them the first chance he gets as well.

Meanwhile, if the one fronting is someone like Midas or Aspen or Mason or basically any of the littles or most of the sexual protectors or most of the trauma holders— Basically, anyone but the types in the above paragraph. Chances are that dissociating and panicking becomes a lot more likely. And from here, we have two more routes it could go. And it all depends on Bernard’s reaction, yay.

Bernard would notice the dissociation and panic no matter what. But, depending on how long the argument has already been going on for, depending on just how quickly Garvin seems to be slipping, depending on how on edge he is himself- His reactions could vary. Either he’ll grab Garvin and leave the room, or step into the argument. Stepping into the argument also sort of has a variable here, as depending on how on edge he is himself, he may not actually think of his ultimatum. So then when he fails to redirect or calm things down a bit, he just falls back on grabbing Garvin and leaving the room. And, of course, the other route there is the ultimatum. Let’s go over the route where Garvin gets taken out of the room though first.

If Garvin is dissociating and panicking and Bernard takes him out of the room, regardless of how long it takes for Bernard to get him out of there, we get the ‘terrified of getting kicked out’ Garvin. He’ll be trying to make his presence as small as possible. As unnoticeable as possible. He’ll be hiding from people, incredibly quiet, very certain that he’s going to get kicked out eventually, and trying to figure out what he can do to not be kicked out. Hopefully, he goes to Bernard first when he decides that his body is the only thing with any sort of worth enough to keep him from getting kicked out. Being told no by Revan or Akira would be equated to being told he’s getting kicked out, like, right then and there. Not sure about if it were Ingall or Nico first, or how they’d even react, but… Eh. Who knows. Anyways. If he goes to Bernard first, Bernard would handle it pretty well and we get the scene of Garvin breaking down and crying himself into passing out. At which point Bernard becomes the best brother ever. Mediating absolutely every interaction anyone has with Garvin. And, uh surprise, surprise, Stellan would be avoided like the plague. The pirates had kicked him out, remember? And Flood had been the Captain. The one in charge. So. Uh. Stellan, who still registers as very similar to Flood in personality and appearance, is avoided more than anyone. More than even Akira. Anyways, yeah, this route had Garvin terrified of getting kicked out, no clue what could get him kicked out, no clue who could potentially kick him out, and also very certain that he eventually will be kicked out. So, basically, he’s in pain (he does still have chronic pain and fatigue, after all), terrified, depressed, and clinging to Bernard.

Meanwhile, with the ultimatum route, Bernard convinces Akira to give him just long enough to make sure Garvin actually understands why Briar and Aries are getting kicked out. This time, Garvin slips into a depressive episode/spiral, tries to be there for Nico, is still somewhat unsure of how much space he can take up, very against authority (Akira) while in private but quietly following orders in public, and possibly using drugs to try and stave off the worst of all of the above. Which, of course, doesn’t actually do anything, but he won’t be able to tell since he’ll be under the influence. So he thinks it worked. Anyways. He avoids Stellan, falls back on drugs a bit more, and is absolutely confused and conflicted on absolutely everything.

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Truth be told, 17 turning 18 only has one starting route. Garvin falls back heavily onto/into addiction as a way to stave off what’s basically a severe depressive episode/spiral. Kind of. The severe depressive episode/spiral still happens, Garvin just literally doesn’t notice it because of the drugs. He thinks he avoided it successfully. He didn’t. Getting Nico back has him falling into addiction even more. And meeting Stellan would honestly probably cause an overdose within that day with how far Garvin would fall back on drugs immediately after meeting him.

Fun fact about this one though, Garvin and Revan would still end up together. Not sure if it'd last but, uh, yeah!

How? Why? Um. Very angsty reasons. Oops.

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Those are all of the potential routes with Garvin based on which age I choose. Still not sure which one to go with.

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Just realized that I could also technically do 15 turning 16 with the way the timeline falls.

That'd be so horrible for him. Depending on exactly it starts. like- If it's May or mid June, Garvin would still be in the sketchy gang/mafia. And if it's May, depending on if its mid May or late May, Yari could possibly still be alive at first. Which means you could get to see just all of that terrible stuff. Also means the Elemental Elder would get cut by a switchblade instead of a pocket knife, haha. Also would mean that you'd get to see/deal with just the worst July, like, ever. Um.

Also would just mean that Briar and Aries getting kicked out would be taken better and worse at the exact same time. Depends heavily on the type of headmate fronting for exacts though.