#1 Principal Bump fan

1.

Her mental health was already on a steep decline before joining the navy- though one can argue that she found some sort of belonging within the crew even if it didn't fully "cure her". getting a little personal here but Gummy Squid is a direct reflection of my own progression of mental health, granted my decline is (fortunately) not as steep n deep. Still bad but this ain't about me/j

Touching up on the second question real quick, it wasn't so much that there was a BIG major event. There probably was some stuff sprinkled up but if you asked her to her face if there's anything that's happened to her she cannot give you any examples. It's not that it didn't happen, it's more likely that she hasn't realized how bad it was + hasn't remembered. If I forget and remember later then so does she/j

...I had more but honestly the rest of that part is better suited for question 2!

2.

I wouldn't say Gummy Squid was an overly bubbly or energetic child, but she was happy given the circumstances. Unfortunately, due to my self projection, her decline really starts in her teens. Hormones and body changing, generally not having a big circle of friends, on top of that she's a middle child and the younger sibling is a handful- so she kind of... just didn't want to be a nuisance. She never really seeked out help and by the time she REALLY needed it she just. Didn't have the energy. There were several wrenches being thrown in and they were tossed in HARD

She was a shy kid but nothing that was concerning at the time. It was just one of those things that spiked and spiraled out into social anxiety (more like general anxiety tbh), and all sorts of other things. Canon event of suddenly unlocking weird mental stuff that doesn't get addressed for years and thus a good chunk of your life's trajectory and your development gets a bit skewed.

With that being said, even after everything- I don't think she's beyond "saving". I don't think anyone is beyond that when it comes to mental health. Honestly as fucked up her backstory and lore is, I do want to emphasize that I do want her to recover and find something that works for her. She won't ever be able to shake all the bad stuff off, but she doesn't have to ache forever. I'd imagine her support system would really start piping up because after the parasite she can't... exactly hide in her books. Kind of hard when the thing rats itself out and partly blabs to people it thinks will help you that you need a friend. The concept of a deep sea parasite gaining intelligence and aching alongside its host. Honestly I can go on about the parasite itself too but I may save that for another post.

Going back to before joining the crew stuff- It doesn't help that, on top of everything else, she doesn't exactly know what to do with her life. Mix that with the unaddressed disorders and such going on, as well as the burnout she kind of... didn't jump into anything after getting done with her schooling. A gap year turned into two and she simply... sank deeper.

Which bleeds into---

3.

Her dad's an alcoholic, and while he's not violent he IS checked out and it can be argued that he's emotionally neglectful- he's... an okay dad when he's sober but he's so.... Gummy Squid really is her father's daughter, she just doesn't drink. Her mom on the other hand- who by the way!! belongs to @insomni-frog !!-- is kind of running around supporting everything.

The only real thing Gummy Squid had going on between school and the navy was that her dad ran a small restaurant-- which honestly is probably falling apart thanks to his own spiral but we can talk about that the other day. She helps, still does between being sent out to sea.

There's not much on her older sister; and honestly she's her own underdeveloped mess. The run down though is: she got pregnant right out of school, and while she's stable NOW it was really rough when it first happened. Her younger sibling as mentioned is a bit of a rebel and they've been getting worse with age. Not evil, just a teenager who doesn't know they're an affair baby but that's also another thing for a different day. Family therapy never stood a chance for that entire family.

With a home life like that it was no wonder Gummy Squid kind of slipped through the cracks. She was quiet, didn't hang out with guys nor start trouble. She was just... there.

Obviously things get bad. She has nothing going on for her and she doesn't know what to do and it's killing her- metaphorically and literally.

I think I've mentioned before that she journals, in fact that actually becomes a major thing after she gets the parasite because it reads what she put down- that's mostly how it figures out about her and what she was like. And there's a lot. She still has good days but the deeper the pages go it becomes more evident that there's something deeply wrong. Not that Gummy Squid would ever confide in someone, even after joining the crew. Which is just.... so bittersweet because even before joining the navy there really was a handful of people who wouldn't know what to do if she acted on what's written in her journal.

As awful as it is, she might have wanted to go into writing or some other related field if she just. Got the support she needed before everything got awful.

As for how she joined the navy... one of her long term childhood friend's grandparents, Steller, is already part of the crew. It was his idea to drag her into it- he figured it would give her something to keep her busy. Make her get out there and away from the house- everything really, even if he didn't have the full scope of how bad things were getting. He genuinely had the best of intentions and it ACHES because I know Steller would feel so guilty once all the parasite stuff is exposed. "It's not my fault but I brought her here, this wouldn't have happened if she stayed on land. I already feel terrible about the initial fall, now there's something burrowed up inside her?"

Terrible stuff.

Steller's friendship with Gummy Squid's family is mostly spawned from her own friendship with his grandson, Kelp. He also eventually joins the crew later on, alongside with the third in their small group- Sea Grape- but honestly this post is getting long as fuuuuuuuuck so I might save that for another day