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♑ He got through his trials with no problem, and probably a few victims on the way.
♑ When Gamzee was first hatched, while already somewhat unstable, he only had one personality. Had he been raised in a more populated area with a more attentive and present lusus, he might have not fractured at all, but quite frankly, growing up completely isolated on a beach with no one there but a seagoat who can't even be there all the time is hard on any kid, and especially one already so prone to instability. So eventually it just gets too much and his personality breaks into the two distinct facets we see when he is sober.
♑ One thing to remember for sober Gamzee is that is pretty much the most lonely kid you can imagine. And because he is lonely, he hates everything. He hates the people with lower blood colours than him, because clearly they are not good to be in his presence, and he hates sea-dwellers because they've got the one thing he can have -- fins and gills so he can stay with his lusus forever.
♑ His hatred eventually just kind of melts into contempt when he finally sobers up after Sgrub. Because he is more mature and also, because he is so much more important than any of them could even imagine. They are not even worth of his hatred.
♑ Part of the reason why Goatdad wasn't there much is because he basically couldn't be. He's gigantic (his head is bigger than Gamzee!) so staying in the shallows is actually really hard on his body. Add in to that that there is not enough food for him to find there, and it all leads to him having to be away from long periods of time.
♑ Personality-wise, Goatdad is pretty chill. He and Gamzee never fought, and being near Goatdad is like the one thing that would always calm Gamzee down. He didn't teach Gamzee a whole lot, but the lessons he did teach, he made sure would stick. He took Gamzee out for lots of rides on his back, which is the one way they could really spend a lot of time together. He never enjoyed being away from Gamzee so much, especially because he worries about him, but he is also the type that can accept that it is better to be away from Gamzee a lot than to die in the shallows.
♑ Gamzee found the joker strife deck + religious teaching left to him by his ancestor before he went high. They were left for him on like... an island where old seagoats go to die because Highblood knew that the one troll who'd be able to find that would be the kind of troll who'd be that close to his seagoat -- himself.
♑ Gamzee never knew fear. Growing up alone with no one to challenge him, he just had no need for it. Add into the finding the strife deck, and he just... is not scared. Of anything. That is something that carries over into high!Gamzee too.
♑ Gamzee taught himself to swim. He'd always wait on the beach as a kid for his lusus, and when he'd spot him, he'd just kinda run into the ocean and flail-paddle over. As said, he didn't really know fear so he didn't even think about the danger. He's by no means an elegant swimmer, but for a land dweller that taught himself, he can get where he wants to go in the water.
♑ Once Goatdad notices Gamzee growing really cocky due to having the jokerdeck and losing his respect for the sea etc, he decides to teach him to respect it again... the hard way. He basically held Gamzee under until he learned that the sea is dangerous and you do not fuck around with it. And then he pushed him up again before he could die and brought him to the beach. And that is the story of Gamzee learning to respect the sea! Hey, when you are a giant goat that can't talk, you gotta teach your little troll in some way.
♑ Nearly drowning is probably the only time Gamzee has really honestly been scared. It's what gave him nightmares for a long while. And it was after one of those nightmares that he woke up with a mouthful of slime and accidentally swallowed it and noticed how calm it made everything. And that's when he slowly started eating more and more slime until everything went away, and he became all chill and high and everything was right with the world.
♑ All three facets of Gamzee's personality are at their very core optimistic. It's just that high!Gamzee waits for the miracles to come to him, and Sober!Gamzee makes them happen himself.
♑ Gamzee has a little iGrub that he uses to listen to music while he is sitting on the beach and chilling. The music he listens to when he is chilling is the troll equivalent of Queen and Pink Floyd etc. When he is chatting/hanging around with Tavros, he listens to shitty rap. Actually, he'd pretty much listen to anything, really.
♑ Gamzee eats like a goat. He basically grazes all the time. He doesn't normally eat huge meals, but eats a lot of smaller ones all across the night. He also occasionally suffers from midafternoon munchies. He will also eat pretty much everything and anything, but he does have a bit of a sweet tooth.
♑ Gamzee's face paint is also made of the blood of culled wrigglers like Nepeta's wall paint.
♑ Once he goes high, Gamzee ends up connecting with people over the internet. He meets kindred cult members and they teach him to paint his face. He likes it because it always makes him look like he is smiling.
♑ He considers Karkat his best friend because he has probably known him the longest and Karkat always responds when he wants to chat. The fact that Karkat is just yelling at him doesn't really register. Because he figures that if Karkat really didn't like him, he wouldn't talk to him!
♑ Gamzee did not actually meet most of the others in person until playing Sgrub. He has chatted with them all via trollian and whatever chat program they used before that, but he lives too far away to really be able to meet them. And he doesn't want to leave on any long trips in case Goatdad comes home.
♑ He is totally going to revive his lusus now that he is sober again. Because they are the motherfucking messiahs, and the one miracle they should be able to work is bring back the one thing they miss more than anything.
[18/04 adds]
♑ Gamzee loves the troll equilavent of grilled cheese sandwiches.
♑ He never wears socks. He doesn't like the way they feel around his toes.
♑ He cooks with troll betty crocker stuff and he streams cooking shows on his laptop. He can totally watch them for hours.
♑ He does not, perhaps oddly, care about quadrants. He isn't all too steady on exactly what they are and what they mean, but also, he has no concerns about getting culled. He knows it is something that happens to trolls that do not reproduce, but he does not think it would happen to him. Because miracles.
♑ (If Sgrub had never existed, Gamzee would've grown to his first pail day without any fills in his quadrants. And when the drone came knocking, he sent the first back injured. The second one he killed. And after the third they stopped sending them.)
♑ Okay, like, half of the time he goes commando because he forgets to put his boxers on. He is not bright, okay.
♑ He actually has difficulties tying his shoelaces and the drawstrings of his pants. He is shit at making the loopies. so... he does not tie them. Yep.
♑ Nothing was built in his land. Gamzee kinda parkoured himself to the next gate.
♑ The consorts of his land were crows. Mostly because they are also connected to the Wraith CD of ICP. Yeaaah.
[13/07 adds]
♑ Regarding subjugglator face paint; the subjugglators were actually a pretty strictly controlled order. Sure from the outside they looked like a bunch of mindless murderers, but on the inside they had a lot of rules and goals and regulations, and part of that was the face paint. There was different paint for different ranks, so while an outsider wouldn't be able to see who was the leader within a small group of them, they would all know and act accordingly. Similarly things like quadrant status could be given away through the paint design as well. It was all strictly regulated. There was only one subjugglator that was allowed to choose his completely own design and that was the Grand Highblood.
Incidentally, Gamzee's current paint is not a subjugglator design. It is like a child clumsily mimicking their designs.
♑ He is a really bad kisser. God help him, he is going to get better, no doubt. But... don't be surprised if Equius ends up walking about with shredded lips. don't be jealous, Karkat. He ain't into him like that.
♑ He has freckles.
♑ He feels more naked without his paint on than without his pants on. Actually, he sees nothing wrong with not having his pants on.
♑ He enjoys cooking. He is a very instinctive cook, meaning he won't follow a recipe to the letter. He can't even give a recipe to the letter. He just kinda knows what has to go in there and tosses things in until it looks right.
♑ He is double-jointed. Seriously, he could fold himself into the weirdest positions and be absolutely utterly comfortable.
♑ Before the game, before being high, before everything, the only times he ended up interacting with other trolls in person ended in pain. None of his.
♑ Gamzee was always predestined for fragile mental health, but what really set him in his way was the fact that he grew up very very lonely. He was on a beach, pretty far from everybody. Goat dad was gone a lot and it just... broke him.
His first personality was actually the quiet gamzee, who was equal parts fascinated by things and equal parts in contempt. He'd the kinda kid who would hurt someone just to see their blood. What got his personality to fracture eventually was the fact that while he love love loves Goat dad he also hated that old goat for always leaving him alone, for not taking care of him, for not bringing him along, for everything. But he also loved him! And he hated him. And eventually it just got to a point where he channeled all his loud raging hatred into a second, separate personality to deal with all of that.
♑ Gamzee is a strong swimmer but not a very elegant one. He taught himself so he could spend more time with goat dad, but he will never go swimming along. Because the sea is dangerous. any one of those currents could grab you and drag you down. Whiiiich Goat dad hammered home by holding him down a little once and making him experience how deadly the sea can really be.
♑ Gamzee is a cuddler when he sleeps. He really craves physical attention at any time cause he went without it for so long, and at night that just translates into plastering himself all over someone else.