//Riptide!!
SPOILERS FOR GILLION LORE (B.L.O.C.K ARC AND AFTERWARDS!!)
Mainly about why he's away from home, which I think came about during the B.L.O.C.K Arc, so if you haven't caught up with that arc, please be wary of potential spoilers !!
I wrote abt this concept on my tumblr and it's still taking up all of my two braincells ;')
So ofc I write a mini concept drabble for it pfft-
It's basically just a what if of Gill getting banished from his home, that if he was able to go to his family, what that'd play out like-
TW// None that I can think of? If there are, please lemme know <3
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Gillion felt his mind race, any coherent thoughts were immediately overpowered by either a feeling of static or other anxieties. Everything was simultaneously so, so loud and so dull, everything both overstimulating him and understimulating him. Gillion didn't feel real. The prophecy, his training, all of the simulations, day after day of trying his best, of getting hurt only to fail and get up again to have the same the following day, ... all of it amounted to nothing but disgrace and failure. His birth, something that had been deemed 'prophetic' seemed to be merely a sick coincidence. He was never special. He was never important.
Gillion Tidestrider was a nobody led to believe he was a somebody.
He had been talking with the Elders just a few hours ago. It was a pretty quick conversation. The Elders declared their decision, Gillion knowing there was nothing else to say or do other than to express his thanks and leave. But when it came time for Gillion to say his thanks and leave, he found that he couldn't move. He couldn't find any words to say, grateful or otherwise. He didn't know how long he had just stood there, underneath their cold gazes, but he did know that it was long enough to the point of being removed by force.
And so now he was left to simply leave his home. Gillion figured the Elders didn't want him delaying at all, but he found even in his disassociative state, he made his way home all the same.
Faint purrs eventually grabbed enough of Gillion's attention to realise the sensation of tears on his cheeks, how his chest was heavy, his stomach matching the weight in his chest. Looking to his side, he saw Pretzel, her eyes huge and filled with worry and sympathy.
Gillion didn't acknowledge her any more than a single glance in her direction.
It didn't take long for Gillion to get home, and as soon as he had his home in his sights, he felt a childish need for his parents wash over him, a need to be held by his sister, to hear her words of security. He started to run, the heaviness in his chest only making it harder to take deep breaths as he ran.
He got to the door, knocking urgently before pushing it open with enough force to send it slamming against the wall. Hand on the door, chest heaving with uncontrolled breaths, Gillion met eyes with his mother, a look of panic painting her features before a look of recognition... before an expression replaced all of this, and it was one he had never seen on his mother's face.
The commotion was enough to summon two more figures, his father coming into the room just a few seconds before an alert Edyn Tidestrider. She looked to see her younger brother, so changed by the years of training since she had last seen him.
Before anything could be done or said, Gillion found his words, though they came out weak and fearful, embarrassment coating his tone as he felt his arm fall heavily to his side.
"I-I have been banished... I... I have failed as the Chosen One. I have failed all three of you... I-I'm so sorry... I'm sorry, I..."
Gillion could only repeat his apologies, though was left unable to as his voice broke off, sobs replacing his words. Edyn gasped, her heart twisting at the sight of her baby brother being so broken and wasted no time in enveloping Gillion in a tight embrace, her voice shaky and tight. She was crying.
"Oh, Gillion. I-It's going to be okay... W-We'll fix this, alright? We'll get them to give you another chance...! O-Or even if they don't! They can find another Champion, a-another Chosen One. I-It's like I told you before, you remember? Y-You're fine just being yourself... You don't have to be this chosen one or champion... You'll do great things as yourself. You don't need any titles...!" Edyn's voice dropped from her optimistic tone to one of sincere desperation, "You can still stay right here, okay? Y-You aren't going anywhere..."
Edyn's voice started to gradually fade for Gillion, even despite being so close to her. Edyn's words, in spite of having felt an urgent need to hear them not too long ago, were not the thing that Gillion had been focused on.
No, instead he had been staring at his parents. He watched as a similar expression to his mother's crossed his father's features at his confession. He watched his father take his place next to his mother. He watched his mother look anywhere but at him. Gillion searched his mother's expression, but as he was unable to gauge why she couldn't look at him, and so he moved on to his father's expression. He met eyes with the man, and there was an unmistakable look of pure disappointment in his eyes.
Gillion's heart sank.
They knew.
His parents had known about his banishment. They had known about his failures. They had known about everything. They just never expected Gillion to return home to tell them about what had happened. Gillion realised that his parents had said their goodbyes to him as soon as they had gotten news of his banishment. He could only assume it had been just a few hours before Gillion was called to meet with the Elders.
In the end, it didn't matter how tightly Edyn had held onto Gillion. After realising his parents' being in the know of his failures, he had taken off running, pushing himself from Edyn's grasp and leaving, not to be seen again by his sister or parents for a long time.
It was after this that Edyn felt a rage build up inside of her, a fire burning furiously in her chest. It brought her to the Council of Elders, people of which she had come to before, begging to be allowed visits to see Gillion whilst he was training. She had been denied.
And now, stood, once again before the Elders, Edyn held nothing back as she pleaded unashamedly with the Elders, begging for their mercy, begging for them to go out and find Gillion, to bring him home where he belongs. That just because they had now been renounced of any responsibility for Gillion Tidestrider, the same was not applicable to her.
Edyn knew her pleads fell upon deaf ears. So she screamed. She screamed at them, cursing and crying. Hoping that the sight of a distraught older sister would bring about the shredded pieces of humanity and sympathy enough to persuade them to hear her, even despite her belief that the Council held no such feelings.
She was ultimately proven right, watching with disbelief at the uncaring eyes watching her, as if her distress was for their amusement. Edyn was soon enugh forcibly removed, just as Gillion had been.
Still feeling this rage burn inside of her chest, she made her way back home, redirecting her desperation to her parents. She screamed more, her voice already hoarse and sore, but she didn't care. She begged her mother to look at her, to help her convince the Council to allow Gillion back home. Her mother left quickly, teary-eyed and silent as she made her way upstairs, a solid slam of a door suggesting that she would not be joining for dinner in a few hours. Edyn turned to her father, pleading for his help, for him to do something.
Gillion had been banished. Why did nobody seem to care but her? Gillion, the young boy who always seemed to be a ray of light amongst the darkness of the Undersea. Gillion, whose heart was dangerously too big for his own good. Gillion, who she had held whilst he cried time and time again, voicing his insecurities about the prophecy and if he was good enough to be part of such a detrimental part of his people's history and mythologies. Edyn never failed to say that he was better than that, that he meant more to her than being a part of some prophecy or destiny. Gillion never seemed to understand just how sincerely she had meant that.
She hoped her words stayed with him.
Edyn retired to her room, eyes burning with tears, though she wiped at them harshly, refusing to allow another tear to fall. She didn't have time to cry. She had to find her brother, had to find a way to get him back home. She knew it'd be reckless to just go out and follow him.
So, she planned.
She watched the Elders as closely as she could. She started to lie, and started spending less time concerned with her studies for school, and more so with research. She started to read books about the Capitol's history, trying to find anything she could of the prophecy and what exactly it was, word for word. She had always been sceptical about the vagueness of such a supposedly 'important' fate for a single triton.
Among all of this, Edyn vowed to herself that she would find out everything she could about the Elders. That she'd get enough information so that she'd be able to make a better version of her home for Gillion to return to. Edyn would find her brother again, and she would never let him get hurt in such a way ever again, no matter the cost and no matter the risk.