Song; Towards The Sun by Rihanna.
(With some slight adjustments to the lyrics to avoid as much repeating and make it more accurate to characters in certain places)
Characters; Garvin, Clio, and… Well, technically also the Pirates, Rinny, Mergen, Aries, Nico, Akira, and Briar. Haha.
Context;
Welcome to the songs that contain spoilers. At least kind of. So, funny thing about this one. Uh. Garvin spoilers, basically. Also- You remember how Clio echoes people she cares about? Yeah, Garvin does that too, but he takes it even further by adopting traits or other things too. Like how he got a patch on his coat because, well, the pirates had patches on their coats too. Or things he learns from people, either skills or mindsets or anything else. Chips, Vida, and Vivi are such trauma filled nicknames that Garvin still loves but never expects to hear again. These two are adorable. And definitely part of a dysfunctional found family. Unofficial adoption through the Columba patch that Clio will eventually be given! Anyways, yeah. Garvin's bitter optimism is what this song is, basically. More or less.
Approximate ages won’t be given, because I’m still working out the timeline completely and all, and I don’t want to give you ages for some stuff and not for other stuff.
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*Starting strong, we have Navis! You remember Navis? The pirate? The one that loves constellations? That has two nicknames referencing constellations (Cetus and Argo Navis)? The one that taught Garvin to play the 12-string banjo? Yeah, yeah, him. He’s such a cool guy. Anyways, he’s busy teaching Garvin what’s supposed to be an innocent lesson about being optimistic no matter what you face in life.*
Navis, smiling and ruffling Chip’s hair; “Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind you. Don't look back, just carry on and the shadows will never find you.”
*So, uh, that innocent lesson isn’t so innocent because it’s also a ‘Don’t look back at where you’ve come from, don’t think about the past’ kind of lesson. Which becomes obvious after Garvin almost drowns with the pirates and thus ends up getting sent away. No one is happy about it, but it’s the safest option in the crew’s mind. So, Garvin is sent away and the dysfunctional pirates instate the lesson again. Half for themselves and half for Garvin. Flood watches each step carefully, Jinx tries to smile but keeps looking away, Spade watches distantly with a soft smile and drifting eyes, Phlox Aqua looks away and tries to distract themself, and Navis watches intently while trying to smile. Not that Garvin sees any of that, haha.*
The Pirates; “Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind you. Don't look back, just carry on and the shadows will never find you.”
*And now we get some Garvin street life! Sus gang(literally just a budding mafia, shush), Rinny group, and repetitive nickname gang version. Not in order, haha. Definitely not in order.*
Garvin, while with the sus gang; “Lost in the rock and roll, got lost in a promise of a love I never know.”
Garvin, while with the repetitive nickname gang, referencing the Rinny group; “Shadows chase me far from home, I remember when my heart was filled with gold.”
Garvin, rooftop talk with Rinny; “And you know I've been burned, I've been burned, I've been burned…”
Garvin, talking with Mouse about the time Garvin punched the abusive dad for him; “You've seen me lose control.”
Garvin, last argument with Ford; “It's not worth, it's not worth, it's not worth my soul!”
*And we get to the first echo! Garvin leaving the Rinny group, his face burnt off a picture as I mentioned that one time from a ‘I Don’t Need Your Love’ excerpt thing I did. Yeah. Dude will go to extreme lengths to not have to deal with his trauma. Admirable, if it wasn’t so terrible. Anyways, yeah, it’s a lot more bitter (and depressing) than Navis had first done it. Which, fair.*
Garvin; “Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind you– Don't look back! Just carry on! And the shadows will never find you..”
*Onto the next bit. We get some more jumbled quotes. This time with the almost two years and Andi arc mostly. Some Devery moments too though, but that’s more so ‘the-aftermath-of-almost-two-years-time’, haha. Again, not in order.*
Garvin, to Devery; “Lost my faith and trust, you and I know gold don't turn to rust.”
Garvin, during the Andi arc, trying to keep the spirits up; “I still swear that we can reign like the kings and queens of better yesterdays.”
Garvin, during Andi arc, still trying to assuage worries; “Don't you know I've been burned, I've been burned, I've been burned?”
Garvin, to Devery; “You've seen me lose control.”
Garvin, to Andi during the almost-two-years, tauntingly; “It's not worth, it's not worth, it's not worth my soul.”
*And now for another echo! This time in the aftermath of the Andi arc. Do I have mental breakdowns planned? Yes. Do I also have Garvin hiding said mental breakdowns and just trying to be the same guy everyone knows him as still planned? Also yes. Trauma is heavily ignored by Garvin. Don’t think about it, look at it, or speak of it unless to prove a point, after all. ‘It’ being trauma, obviously.*
Garvin; “Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind you– Don't look back, just carry on. And the shadows will never find you!”
*Now we go all the way to Rinny group time. So, a fun thing with Rinny is that he also liked to adopt phrases, but instead of repeating things word for word he’d change the wording. The way he said it. Basically take something someone else did or said and then make it into something original. And, being as close to Garvin as he was, he could tell a bit better when he was about to run off. Which he doesn’t want to happen, so obviously he’s got to try and convince Garvin to stay. Of course, it doesn’t work.*
Rinny; “Where you gonna go– Where you gonna go– Where you gonna run to? When you get to the edge of the night? It's time you face the sky..”
*Clio arc, before the group leaves. So… While leaving is still just a small idea and not a ‘for sure’ what that group is going to be doing, Garvin is kind of freaking out. He’s never been the one to be in charge of making sure more than just him survives that way, after all, and now the idea of leaving is being passed and with it the discussion of how he has the most experience, of how he knows what he’s doing in a situation like that. So he’s freaking out, and a freaking out Garvin is prone to a lot of different things. Luckily for almost everyone, Clio is here to help. So, while Garvin’s freaking out on a rooftop as he so loves to do, Clio gets to do an echo in order to help! Much less bitter than Garvin tends to be doing it, a bit more desperate and concerned than Navis had been doing it, and instead of trying to get Garvin to leave– She’s trying to keep him around. Very adorable, in my opinion. Very good payoff.*
Clio; “Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind you. Don't look back, just carry on, and the shadows will never find you.”
*So, good news, Garvin’s alright. Well, you know, as alright as Garvin tends to be. Anyways, the leaving group leaves. Clio now has her Columba patch, haha. And she’s leading the echo with the rest of the group as they leave. Much more optimistic in the face of everything happening this time around, haha. Garvin doesn’t join in, more so because of wholesome reasons than angst though, haha. He mostly just too amused and touched by the echo to join.*
The Leaving Group Except Garvin (and minus certain characters you don’t think would do it); “Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind you! Don't look back, just carry on, and the shadows will never find you!”
*So uh… Major fight between Garvin and Irfam anyone? Yeah… Both of them are already injured by the time the fight starts. That doesn’t stop Garvin from fighting him, or from echoing the first half. A little pep talk for himself, basically, ha.*
Garvin; “Turn your face towards the sun, let the shadows fall behind you…”