Grandpa Gareth

* Current
* Cub

### Likes

Teaching, learning, reading, poetry, soda, checkers, protecting Griffinstone, telling stories, his grandchildren, spending time with his friends, coffee (especially Frappuccino), Gruncle Gonsod's cooking, helping others, hugs, acceptance, Monday, mathematics, science, solving math and physics problems, giving homework, giving advice, healing wounds and illnesses, mystery and brainstorming novels, crossword puzzles, riddles, sudokus, organisation, being on time, hardcover books, dry-erase boards, humanities — fine arts major, emphasis on creative writing, double plus on psychology and philosophy —, sharing facts, trivia facts, "The Adventures of Shadow Spade" detective novels, unity, equality, peace, dancing, singing, parties, pictures, showing off his skills, diversity, playing buckball and football with his mates, the Blue Moon Festival

### Dislikes

Being a bad friend, his friends upset, hurting others emotionally, anygriff disobeying his medical advice, Gilbert's silliness and pranks, others criticizing his love for poetry, being interrupted, his friends not keeping up with him intellectually, being pressured, gluten (since he's sensitive to it), Arimaspi, Grandpa Gruff being mistreated/blamed for Arimaspi's attack, Guto's disappearance, Griffinstone in danger, The Grand Galloping Gala (as he finds it dull; mildly)

### Paraphernalia

* Agenda
* First responder kit
* Shurikens and Kunais (weapon)
* Metsubushi (blinding powder)
* Ration pack
* Glyph Magic

## Biographical information

### Status

Active

**Grandpa Gareth**, professionally known as **Dr. Grossbill**, is an old Griffon from Griffinstone and one of Grandpa Gruff's best friends, along with the other elders of Griffinstone. He's also the grandfather of Ginny and her little brother, Gilon, and father of his grandchildren's mom, aunt, and uncle. He works as a librarian. Even though the Griffon Library is half-destroyed, until the Griffons collect enough bits to fix the town, that doesn't stop him from working there with his family.

## Personality

Grandpa Gareth is quiet and more reserved than his friends. He does not have Gilbert or Gideon's outgoing nature or ability to make friends quickly, but his loyalty to the friends he does make is considerable. Gareth is a bit awkward in social situations, having neither Gruff's charisma or Gonsod and Gyeong's indifference to what people think. Inventive and detail-oriented, Grandpa Gareth may be the only Senior elder that doesn't mind a little time indoors.

Like the other members of the Senior Group, Gareth is a brave and fierce Griffon, who is committed to defending and protecting the Griffon kingdom, using his experience and skills from previous occupations to his full advantage when in combat, facing a problem, or other situations. His scrupulous attention to detail comes in handy both in the past and the present when he and his friends are on missions and come across obstacles, but, sometimes, his overzealousness leaves others questioning his credibility. He is very wise and his refusal to sit still when there are puzzles to be solved often leaves him restless in everyday situations. Gareth is particularly skilled and is the most intellectually inclined of the Senior Group, followed by Gyeong. Of all of the Seniors, he has devoted more of his time to non-combat oriented pursuits, such as the study of electrology, biology, chemistry, mathematics, and metallurgy. He is also highly trained in psychology and medical care, often tending to his friends' injuries or giving them "diagnosis" when facing problems. This makes him very nerdy, especially in the eyes of Gilbert and, sometimes, Gruff, though they still turn to him when they need psychological advice. Gareth is the 3rd most mature out of all his friends, aside from Gonsod and Gruff, and often is the voice of reason and logic. Having spent decades in the royal guard with his friends fighting off monsters seems to have hardened Gareth, as well as his friends, to an excessive degree, being subsequently more confident and courageous, and less cowardly, to the point where he literally has no fear and isn't afraid of anything that would otherwise petrify others, thus making him unable to feel any sort of fear, terror or even any intense anxiety. Even when he is scared, he is capable of quickly suppressing said fear and staying calm as he normally is. As a result, he's often left utterly unphased when coming across genuinely creepy and horrifying imagery or creatures.

Despite his genius-IQ level, Gareth often tends to over-analyze, overthink, and over-complicate things, ultimately putting too much of a burden on himself and making bad decisions. When he tries to describe or explain a situation, theory, or his part of a plan to the team, his friends often do not understand what he's saying, which can get frustrating at times. Gareth talks a lot in order to describe or explain something in full, sometimes even when in the face of danger which can be a problem. His friends seem to find amusement in lightheartedly teasing Gareth when he speaks in technobabble, who, while showing annoyance when interrupted, isn't very vocal about it, merely rolling his eyes with a flat expression. Though he seems slightly irked when his friends don't understand his explanations at first, he at least seems to appreciate that they *do* understand better once he simplifies what he means.

Of course, there are educational fields that Gareth isn't all too familiar with, demonstrated by how, despite his rich understanding of mechanics and metallurgy, he's a rather poor performer at it. In some ways he's the opposite of Gyeong, who has both a solid understanding of mechanics and the raw skill to brute-force his way through any invention he may be unfamiliar with. He does not let it affect him or his friendship with the carpenter though, as he understands that they're both educated in different fields and thus have learned different skills.

Gareth is not without faults. He is nervous, tense under pressure, easily annoyed and, while not prone to semi-regular bursts of anger like Gruff, he can lose his temper, especially when his studies fail or perform ineffectively. Especially in his youth, there are several instances where Gareth would lash out at his friends (and especially Gilbert) whenever any of them messed with his studies or took away his books in order to "take a break", but it's often verbal rather than physical, showing that he refrains from hurting them physically.

Despite his usual serious behaviour, and while he may worry about getting caught, he doesn't object against breaking the rules once in a while if it means having fun with his friends and generally enjoys cracking jokes and goofing off with them.

## Appearance

Grandpa Gareth has slightly pale red headfeathers, wings, and tail shining against his otherwise somewhat normal-colored Griffon behind. He has dark red markings around his tan eyes and golden brown beak and talons. As an adult, he later gets three scars on his nape. Even in his golden years, he has maintained an ambiguous elderly but fit physical age.

As a young Griffite, he wore big goldenrod circular glasses and a rather timid expression.

Over the course of winter, Grandpa Gareth wears a dark green turtleneck sweater with a row of lighter-coloured embroidered patterns, like holiday trees and stars, on the waist and sleeve areas. He also has a second winter outfit that consists of a similarly-coloured scarf with matching gloves.

## Relationships

### **Ginny**

Ginny and Grandpa Gareth love each other and have a good relationship, although Gareth is a bit disappointed that Ginny has inherited some of his bad qualities*,* such as his temper.

### **Gilon**

Grandpa Gareth loves his grandson dearly and tells him a lot of stories (with Grandpa Gruff's assistance) about his adventures with his friends when they where King Guto's soldiers.

### **Grandma Genevieve**

Gareth and Genevieve love each other dearly.

### **Grandpa Gilbert**

One of Grandpa Gareth's most difficult relationships is with Grandpa Gilbert, as he always loves to pull pranks on him and their other friends. Because of this, Gareth often finds Gilbert very annoying, especially for his silly behaviour. It distresses Gareth how poorly Gilbert views education, especially in their youth, and he often gets irritated when he sleeps against his back. However, despite their seemingly troubled friendship, it remains decent as the two like hanging out together and are able to get along. Gareth always gives Gilbert advice when he has a question and Gilbert always sticks up for Gareth when somegriff bothers him. Gareth considers Gilbert his best friend.

### **Grandpa Gyeong**

They are best friends and agree with each other on almost everything. They both love learning and taking opportunities to share what they know, which often leads to them saying things that their friends don't understand and having to explain. Gareth considers Gyeong his second best friend.

### **Grandpa Gruff**

Grandpa Gruff is one of Grandpa Gareth's closest friends. Gruff loves Gareth as a best friend and the feeling is mutual, but like the rest of his friends, gets really annoyed when Gareth starts acting like a know-it-all and starts talking in super-smart techno-babble. Their relationship can sometimes be strained as they argue quite often and Gruff likes to make fun of him as a geek, though he genuinely praises Gareth for his sharp mind. Despite this, Grandpa Gruff doesn't tease Grandpa Gareth nearly as much as he does Gruncle Gonsod and Grandpa Gilbert, though Gruff did tease Gareth for his crush on Genevieve in their youth. Gareth can get pretty annoyed with Gruff's temper and despises his aggression and sarcastic comments. Nonetheless, the two love and care deeply for each other and find ways to get along. As best friends, they try to protect and look out for each other. Gareth is also the one who taught Gruff how to alleviate the symptoms of a panic attack.

## Cause of scars

When Grandpa Gareth and his friends were in their late 20's to early 30's, they got into a brave bar fight with their frenemies, Grandpa Garvey, Grandpa Gillan, and Grandpa Gino. During the fight, Gillan scarred Gareth's nape using his claws and a rum bottle, though part of it happened accidentally.

## Skills

**Martial Arts:** Though he is often portrayed as being more focused on his studies than martial arts, Gareth has shown himself to be a very capable combatant. Like his friends, he is an exceptionally skilled fighter and is very agile, able to leap over rooftops and avoid attacks from enemies, including gunfire, weapons, and punches and kicks.

**Healing Power:** Much like his friends, in addition to his natural martial arts and ninjutsu skills, Gilbert eventually developed the strong innate ability to heal via an enchanted mantra known as "the healing hands." By chanting the incantation and making the right hand seals, Gareth is fully capable of revitalizing his inner strength and counteracting even the most lethal of poisons and venom of "the healing hands." He managed to develop and utilize it, and attempted to use it while tending to Gruff's wards along with Guto to save them but failed. He and his friends show great gifts as healers and being at the edge of their life has given them "a power that few martial artists can tap."

**Glyph Magic:** Gareth was trained as a cub alongside his friends in studying the art of magic. While he possesses passive forms of magic, such as firebreath and cloudwalking, like other Griffons, he lacks the same magical anatomy that ponies have, and therefore can't actively perform magic on his own; instead, he casts spells by drawing glyphs found within the spell circles unicorns tend to use.

**Kyusho Jitsu (Pressure Point Combat):** Along with his friends, Gareth has mastered another martial arts maneuver known as Kyusho Jitsu. By hitting the specific nerve-clusters/pressure points, Gareth is fully capable of incapacitating an opponent and rendering them temporarily unconscious or incapacitating them through uncontrollable spasming without causing unconsciousness. Aside from combat, he uses this technique to subdue his friends' quarreling without harming them.

**Shurikenjutsu (Shurikens and Kunais):** Gareth's signature weapons are Shurikens and Kunais. Gareth can throw them both with remarkable accuracy and is able to cleverly determine what surfaces to bounce the weapons off of and strike multiple enemies using his mathematical calculating ability. Along with being meritoriously good at using Shuriken and Kunais, Gareth has mastered the respective martial arts style.

**Enhanced Strength:** Gareth possesses an adequate level of strength. He and his friends have had years of training under a grand master of martial arts over the course of their recruit training, so their strength has been amplified as a result. He is notably a lot stronger than an average Griffon.

**Enhanced Speed:** He can run fast enough to avoid fire from Arimaspi's breath and is able to move at great speed, able to free run on rooftops without losing momentum. He can also make complex calculations in his head at enhanced speeds, such as while in battle.

**Fire Breath:** He has the normal ability of a Griffon to breathe fire.

**Stealth:** Like his friends, he is stealthy, can hide in the shadows, sneak around without being detected, and use hand-to-hand combat.

**Stamina and Endurance:** Due to his martial arts training, he has a great deal of stamina. A good exhibition of his stamina is seen when Guto and his guards fight Arimaspi. Like his friends, Gareth survives and tolerates heavy blows that would normally kill the average person in real life and emerges unscathed (if not, only a few minor injuries like small cuts, scratches and scars).

**Healing Factor:** He was able to withstand numerous attacks from Arimaspi and the Hydra, seriously injuring himself, and was still able to fight.

**Intelligence and Communication:** Grandpa Gareth is an extreme scientific genius in multiple fields. He is a master biologist, chemist, and geneticist, and has often been seen experimenting with chemicals along with Gyeong. He is incredibly intelligent, able to calculate complex equations in his head, help Gyeong create different machines, and handle the creation of medicines and other chemical compounds. During his time as a doctor and physiologist, he developed incredible psychological and medical knowledge. Therefore, he's often the one tending his friends' injuries or giving them "diagnosis" when facing problems. Gareth is also a master of strategy and can assist Gruff as a tactician in many of the more involved and complex missions. Additionally, he is able to use impressively quick logical thinking and mathematical calculations while in combat. For example, he is able to throw shuriken at nearby objects and/or surfaces, in order to make them bounce off objects again and again in the exact directions he predicted and calculated previously. Like the other Senior Group members, it's shown that he can understand the hand signals Gruff uses to instruct the team. As part of their training, all the Senior Group members have also learned to read lips. He can also render, speak, and understand numerous languages perfectly. For example, he is able to understand Gilbert and Gustave's respective hispanic and french sentences right away and much quicker than the rest of his friends without the need of translation and can name specific global battle forms and arts. Additionally, being part eagle, he and the others seem to understand the tweets, chirps, and calls of different types of birds.

## Original Statistics

### **As a Teacher**

* **Intelligence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐** (5/5)
* **Perseverance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐** (5/5)
* **Discipline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐** (5/5)
* **Integrity: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐** (5/5)
* **Experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐** (5/5)
* **Popularity: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐** (5/5)
* **Reputation: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐** (5/5)

### **As a Soldier**

* **Attack: ⭐⭐⭐** (3/5)
* **Defense: ⭐⭐⭐⭐** (4/5)
* **Agility: ⭐⭐⭐** (3/5)
* **Range: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐** (5/5)
* **Speed: ⭐⭐⭐** (3/5)
* **Power: ⭐⭐⭐⭐** (4/5)
* **Lynx-eyed: ⭐⭐⭐⭐** (4/5)
* **Dodge: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐** (5/5)

## Gallery

Grandpa Gilbert with his friendsThe Senior Group and Grandpa Garvey's Gang having a bar fightSenior Group and GalsGrandpa Gareth with his friendsGrandpa Gareth with his friends as Cubs (Snack Pack)Grandpa Gareth and Grandpa Gilbert as CubsGrandpa Gareth and Grandma GenevieveSenior Group Promo ArtSenior Group as Cubs Promo ArtSenior Group (Guto's Soldiers) Promo ArtGrandpa Gideon and Grandpa Gareth using the pressure point attack on Grandpa GruffSenior Group as Cubs Holiday Promo Art

## Trivia

* Part of Grandpa Gareth's personality is based on Bees Meliss' maternal grandfather, whose favourite colour was red.
* Gareth is sensitive to gluten.
* Gareth's middle name Stavros is named after Bees Meliss' maternal grandfather's first name.
* Several times, it has been shown that Gareth is left-handed. He is seen eating his breakfast, writing on his agenda, using the pressure point attack, and wielding his weapons with his left hand. Additionally, when Gareth injures his right arm, he states that he's lucky it wasn't his throwing arm that was injured, and then throws shurikens using his left arm, further indicating this.
* He carries a first responder kit with him in case he needs to tend someone's injuries, in and out of the battlefield. His bag also includes obstetric instruments.
* Gareth has a lot of experience with childbirth, having delivered all of his friends' children, grandchildren, and Griffin.
* In early drafts, Gareth had developed a strange quirk of speaking in poetry at times from having read many literature books, which his friends considered to be his most annoying habit, saying "literature messes with his tongue". In the final project, he doesn't do this.
	+ There's a slight nod to this in his youth as a guard-in-training where it's revealed that he wrote love poems to Genevieve between sessions when they were courting.
	+ Another nod to this is how he always makes cards for his friends with little poems inside each during the holidays.
* He is shown to be very ticklish.
* Once, Gareth spent 7 hours perfecting his answering machine message.