#im 10k words into writing a skylett (with a side of dashawn) oneshot when I decided it's high-time to jot down my notes for this guy lmao

[noahtally-famous]

some Dave family & childhood/adolescence headcanons:

bc I wanna dissect this guy and his mind fr-

(fyi I'm desi (a person of South Asian descent born in another country), and I'm like 99% sure Dave is desi as well, so this is just a note for ppl so y'all are aware that I'm an Indian too! however, if anything at all mentioned below doesn't sound right (and not opinions, though I'd love to hear those too, I mean like actual info) pls lmk!)

uh, also mentions of homophobia, internalized homophobia, and trauma relating to mysophobia

some of these might be subject to change or tweak here and there, but overall, I'm satisfied with what I have!

- his father is a prestigious businessman who was born in Canada—he worked his way from the ground up as his parents (Dave’s grandparents) were immigrants from India; his reputation is everything to him, and he sees his family as a way to enhance said reputation so that he doesn’t lose face.

- his mother is descended from a wealthy family—she likes to say her great-grandfather was a Baron who’d resided on the India-Nepal border—and she was born in London. It was her grandparents (Dave’s great-grandparents) who emigrated from India to the UK. She’s artistic and the lower level of their house is her own studio.

- Dave’s parents marriage was more of an ‘alliance’ than anything. It’s little details that are also glaringly obvious that signified to him that his parents really didn’t love each other in that way—and if they did, it isn’t a priority; things like his mother hyphenating her last name and not fully taking his fathers, the distance in the way they interact, just slight emotional ticks that let him know their love was more of a facade.

- since then, Dave vowed that if he ever found someone, the love they’d share would be real and genuine—ironically, he became a bit of a romantic (okay, a huge romantic). Obv his parents weren’t good role models in the romance department but all those movies he’d watched are!

- anyway back to the family; Dave’s father spent long hours either at the office or traveling for business. Whenever he’s away, their house feels a bit more like a home—his mother unfurls like a flower and her already overprotective nature due to his weak immune system heightens, and Dave let’s himself believe he’s a normal guy in a normal family when this happens.

- but eventually his father returns and the emotional distance ensues, the high expectations, his mother retreating back into her shell, and the reality hits that he just can’t ever be ordinary.

- only one person has brought up the topic of a divorce and it’s his older brother; it’s mentioned half-heartedly too as though he knew she’ll disagree. It’s a funny thing; Dave’s mother does love his father and maybe that feeling is returned, but there’s so much weight and expectations and pressure they’d placed upon themselves that whatever affection is straining.

- his father reacts to this by overworking himself; his mother by retreating.

- (Dave also vowed that him and his lover won’t have a relationship this complicated. It’ll be simple, cliche, normal, and perfect.)

- Dave has Middle Child Syndrome. He has three other siblings and he’s not just the middle kid, but also the kid who doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing (in other words, who doesn’t seem to be able to ‘enhance the family name rep’. He’s just…There.)

- perhaps that’s why he and his father are so distant—more than his siblings are. No matter how hard he tries to impress his father with anything, it goes awry and/or his father never seems to give him more than a curt nod.

- there’s his older sister: she’s graduated from law school, is 25, and is currently an attorney for their fathers business. She goes with him on his business trips, and Dave is so not jealous. She’s strong, bold, and isn’t afraid to look assholes, sexism, and racism in the eye and shoot them down with her words and expressions. She’s like the shield, a mature presence in the siblings’ lives.

- his older brother is second. A double-major in history and business, and 22 years old. At first, he was meant to take on the mantle of their fathers business when the time was right. However, that took a drastic turn when news got out that his brother was fully and utterly homosexual. Naturally the equation in his fathers head was: ‘homosexuality = hate = losing precious reputation’ and the following arguments that spawned between the two of them from this were some of the nastiest. That’s when Dave, listening in keyholes, over banisters, and in other random locations, found out one huge thing: his father is a homophobe.

- (not that that mattered to him. He’s straight, he liked only girls. Right?)

- anyway, their father told his brother to ‘hide his gayness’ and pretend he’s straight. His brother said that’s bullshit and that everything rich ppl do is ‘pretend’. Long story short, his brother moved out. Currently, he lives in Europe and owns an art gallery that his mother sends her artwork to (his father found out abt that once, and that resulting fight was a mess too--but dw she still does it and he can't stop her).

- Dave hates him. He wants to hate him so fucking badly for leaving him behind, for not listening to their dad and pretending to be straight, for being gay in the first place! Bc he and his brother were tight; they were super close and he’s the one guy Dave felt he could rely on and now?? He’s in another damn continent and Dave’s stuck in this suffocating atmosphere and ugh, goddammit he wants to hate him but he can’t bc he’s his brother and he loves him. So yeah. He def has mixed feelings lmao

- (this is also when his internalized homophobia started. He doesn’t care who other ppl love, he just cares who he loves. He’s not making the same mistake his brother did.)

- his younger sister, 14-15 years old, going into high school. Unlike the rest of their siblings, she doesn't want to be bogged down by office work or business drags. With a foot in every sport imaginable and an expert breakdancer, she's already got her sights set on making it professional in the sports category or becoming a famous dancer (maybe both, depending on how good she is, and she is good). She may only be in 9th grade, but words already spread that she's been scouted to go pro. She takes self-defense classes, helps coach soccer and softball for the younger kids during summers, and basically whatever her siblings didn't do in the athletic field, she's making do with flying colors.

- so yeah. After all this, you can see why Dave feels as lost as he does. Whichever way he turns, there's one or more of his siblings achieving great things, and he's just there...doing nothing...not being recognized because he's good at nothing. Just average. At every goddamn thing.

- normally he'd be fine with that, considering that's what ordinary ppl feel and that's what he wants to be, but it goes at odds with the side of him who wants to impress his father, make his mother proud, also stay at the same level as his siblings are.

- he's just so confused, he doesn't know what to do, and he's too scared to take a step forward. He's just some sheltered rich kid who doesn't understand/know cues in society, what good is that?

- onto his childhood/adolescence; boarding schools. That's basically all he's known. And ofc it has to be fancy boarding schools that the parents of other rich kids send them bc despite Dave being so average, his father will be damned if he sends him off to some middle-grade school.

- boarding schools left their own respective impressions on him as well. He used to be made fun of, teased, and even bullied bc rich ppl are nasty and they don't hold back—even to one of their own (especially to one of their own). One stark incident that left a huge mark on him was when he was eleven and his bullies took things a bit too far--you can't put a bunch of kids whose parents are competitive maniacs in a harsh cooperative and/or political world together and expect nothing crazy to happen; this was one of those crazy incidents. Long story short: some older kids took advantage of the fact that Dave has a weak immune system, lots of dirt was involved, a near burying-alive incident, lots of name-calling and taunting, and, as a result, on top of his immune system problems, he developed mysophobia too—which added more to his germaphobic tendencies.

- Whenever he's in a situation similar to the one that triggered this phobia, he falls into a panic. Those first few weeks, months, couple of years, it was horrible; only his siblings (mainly his younger sister and older brother bc his older sister was away a lot) and his best friend at the time would make any headway pulling him out of that trauma. Overtime (and the only time Dave was actively determined to do smth) he forced himself, his mind, his body reactions, to tune in with his thoughts so that if he ever got into a panic, he'd have a greater chance of pulling himself out instead of relying on someone else.

- but yeah. He has mysophobia, is a germaphobe, and has a weak immune system (smth his father considered a weakness) so him asking if smth is unhealthy or dangerous or "of questionable origin" isn't just him being a hypochondriac.

- that wasn't the only thing he went through in boarding schools. But, before we get to that, imma just say after that incident, he learned his lesson—he learned that rich kids are nasty pieces of shit and he's not gonna get anywhere the way he's being right now. So he excels in the art of people-watching, of careful observation that over time just becomes a habit/instinct—scoping out the opposition. He knows who's the assholes, who're worth interacting with, what to do to stay under the radar. Like magic, the lack of bullies dwindles once he starts doing that, and he finds out that everyone rlly does have something to hide—but he's not a blackmailer, he just observes, gives a mental nod, and moves on with his life.

- he often fluctuates with what his father would expect of him, and what he expects from himself; one of them is the lengths to go to stay on top. For example, despite knowing he's not a blackmailer, he'll still hesitate bc it's "what his father would've wanted".

- anyway, he's switched boarding schools twice—the first bc of the dirt incident, the second bc that's when he got his sexual awakening:

- his best friend in that boarding school—the only person he lets loose around—ends up also being someone he, to his horror, gets a crush on. Why horror, you might ask? Simple: his best friend is a guy.

- see: Dave's internalized homophobia. My dude already has fluctuating feelings abt impressing his dad, if he comes out as liking guys, he just knows that's not gonna be well-received. Literally, the one thing he thought wouldn't ever happen does. So he reacts in typical Dave-fashion: he panics, and does what his mum would do: retreat. He basically runs away from the problem lmfao, he ignores his best friend—which he still feels guilty for to a degree bc the one person who accepted him for who he was and supported him, and he just...stomped on him bc of a sexuality crisis lmao. And that's not the worst of it: he actually nails the head in the coffin by asking his dad to switch him to another boarding school bc his roommate is gay. (And yeah, ofc, they were roommates lmao).

- not his best moment, everyone's well aware.

- (and try as he might, his bisexuality (though he doesn't know that he's bisexual yet) isn't "gone" like he hoped it was; it's more so repressed, buried, deep within him, but in a manner that one tilt off-axis will send him spiraling into another sexuality crisis)

- anyway, he's in his third boarding school when he comes across the Total Drama audition flyer online, and decides why the heck not lmao.

- before his younger sister was born, Dave spent most of his early childhood at his aunts place—his mother's younger sister. The utter normalcy of the place compared to what he’s used to astounds little him, and his visits there leave a great impact on him. His aunt, an art teacher at a local school, had a small, modest house filled with sketches, paintings, murals, and the various designs and bright colors were mesmerizing to him. They took him to a world where only colors mattered and nothing else. His aunt doted on him too, and Dave loved spending his days in that house more than his own place.

- Unfortunately, when he was seven, his aunt died—a mundane way to die for a mundane young lady, he couldn’t help thinking; (I'm thinking either getting hit by a car while crossing the street or what is a 'simple viral infection' which turned out to actually be a tumor). As mentioned though, those times left a great impact on him. Made him realize that it is possible to an extent to lead an ordinary life even while connected to such extraordinary. It also made him harbor a love for art—any and all kind of it (except maybe pottery bc it’s messy, as well as the unconventional types like using dirt and the outdoors as tools).

- her death, if I wanna go the tumor route, will emphasize his germaphobic tendencies and his mysophobia. Depending on which road I wanna take, if I do this, the dirt incident at the boarding school won’t have happened, maybe?? not quite sure 🤔

- given all this, it's no wonder he has attachment issues. Usually, he's standoffish, he keeps to himself, he still interacts with ppl but he doesn't trust or get close to ppl easily. But when he does, when he finds someone who he actually vibes with, he sorta just...latches to them bc of this worry that they might leave him, or the other shoe will drop, or smth bad will happen to them. Basically, it's hard for him to let go. He's capable of it, but it's difficult for him to process—heightened depending on how strong the bond is with the other person.

- being ordinary is the center point of this guy's persona—his core existence. it's why when he auditioned for Total Drama, he's labeled as "A Normal Guy". He didn't mention anything abt his family and if he had to, it was the bare minimum; no one knows who his parents are, who he's connected to, they just know him as a germaphobic average joe.

bonus stuff:

- for his last name, I'm thinking Jha??? idk I rlly like it and I think it suits him.

- vegetarian, due to his cultural background.

- hates horror movies, he's the guy to cling onto your hand or arm if you're watching one with him, and def the type to scream at the jump scares and then curse up a storm.

- gore is a no. it's too messy and makes his stomach twist; same with zombies bc uh...the effects are basically overkill for him. (Shawn dared him during one of their scavengings that if he won the show, Dave would watch a bit of The Walking Dead with him. Rip Dave lmao.)

- he can tolerate horror and gory movies, btw, he just doesn't prefer it.

- I've this standing silly hc that he and Noah are family friends; as a desi, let me tell you, we've a lot of family friends lmao. The opposites of his and Noah's home lives only serve to prove that it is possible to lead a normal life where your emotions aren't secondary to the public.

- despite leading a variety of lives, Dave and his siblings are pretty close! When they were little, they used to have tree-climbing contests, which is why, even if his arms might look chickeny, his legs are pretty strong stamina-wise. They might be more distant now with a lot more differences between them, but they're capable of standing together when need be.

- speaks English and Hindi; due to his upbringing, he's fluent in several other languages too.

- obv closet disaster bi; his main fear is someone will find out and his sexuality will be exposed on international television

- likes to garden, but only if he's wearing gardening gloves; he also feels productive when doing so bc it makes him feel strong tackling the dirt to let beautiful plants grow—like facing his fears to let smth else grow there instead. He has several potted plants in his house.

- while he seems standoffish and 'colder' at first, ironically, he also has the tendency to get emotional easily. Especially when it comes to rejection—he's not very good at handling that. Basically he's a mix of nervousness and distant—he can be quick to judge, especially when it comes to ppl who have different quirks like Beardo and Leonard.

- he learned coding bc that’s what his dad wanted him to do. All he got from his father was the usual ‘curt nods’ so he thinks he’s just average at it. Whenever his dad gives him one of those nods, Dave just assumes that means he’s not particularly exceptional at whatever it is he’s currently doing—even if that may not be the case.

- the attachment issues and emotional detachment of his family are one of the main reasons for his snarky self-aware yet also lack of self-awareness (and, at times, rude) personality; I want to say it's like a shield--the snarkiness, I mean--but it's also basically an ingrained habit.

- doesn't like being called David. his father (and his mother, oftentimes) tend to call him that, and hearing the name reminds him of them and the expectations and pressure and everything he cannot be. He much prefers Dave.