Gerson

* Current
* Cub

### Likes

Writing, getting inspiration, brainstorming, playing the clarinet, frozen food, Griffinscones, hard work, escargot, camping, spending time with Greg and Gabby, reminiscing his proposal/wedding day/adoption of Gabby, justice, Grandpa Gruff, big notebooks, cookies, lemonade, chocolate milk, playing pranks, water balloons

### Dislikes

Gabby getting hurt, running out of inspiration, creativity blocks, "cliché" writing tropes and archetypes, being overwhelmed, seeing Gabby upset, separation from Greg, Grandpa Gruff being mistreated/blamed for Arimaspi's attack, his editor (sometimes), Grandpa Gruff scolding him for showing his work to Gabby before censors get to it (as some of the stuff he writes about aren't exactly considered "cub-friendly")

### Powers and abilities

* Physical strength
* Martial arts
* Glyph magic

### Paraphernalia

* Fountain pen
* Talkboy

## Biographical information

### Distinctive features

Striped dark blue bandana accessory around neck, three scars on left leg, often seen with a fountain pen behind his ear

### Status

Active

**Gerson**, commonly referred to as **Uncle Gerson**, is an adult Griffon from Griffinstone. He's the husband of Greg, the adoptive uncle of Gabby, and the adoptive son-in-law of Grandpa Gruff.

Because his job as an author requires long shifts, Gerson usually isn't home, leaving Grandpa Gruff to take care of Gabby. However, he still gets to spend time with his niece on weekends, day-offs, snow days, and vacations.

## Personality

Gerson is more level-headed and collected than his husband, but still tends to act like a child. He rarely takes things seriously and is all about having fun, but knows when to settle down and be earnest. He's pretty confident and somewhat sarcastic. He is very cheerful about his marriage and is never embarrassed to drown his husband with cheesy lovey-dovey-ness, even in public, much to the latter's slight flusteration but sure and steady delight. While being free-spirited and energetic, he knows when to act like a responsible parent to Gabby and where to put limits. Like his husband, he's very protective of Gabby, though not as melodramatically as the former (initially). He's very creative as seen when he's typing a new story for his next novel. He also has a tendency to use his husband's credit card without permission, implying that, at least, most of the time he doesn't carry any money of his own.

## Appearance

Gerson has pale, reddish brown fur, dark brown markings around his eyes and underbelly, and fluffy bangs. Gerson's appearance symbolises his family - the cloth around his neck which is the real one that his niece, Gabby, was wrapped in when Grandpa Gruff first introduced her to him and Greg, the fountain pen behind his ear which is one of his husband's supplies, and three scars on his left leg for Grandpa Gruff.

## Background

Like most of the Griffons of the First Pack, Gerson's life before being taken under Grandpa Gruff's care is unknown. It's also unclear whether he has parents and was simply left in Gruff's care or if he was an orphan that was taken in by him, though there are some hints indicating that it's actually a bit of both. This is further indicated when Gerson refers to Gruff as his father-in-law and doesn't appear in childhood family photos (at least initially), implying that he's not part of the Griffon's litter.

He was eventually reintroduced to Greg, one of Gruff's cubs, during a vacation to a caravan park at Silver Shoals, after returning his baseball ball. The two fell in love and soon began dating during their teenage years.

Gerson was the one who confessed his feelings first; after realising he harboured romantic feelings for Greg and the situation finally clicked in his mind, Gerson felt very overwhelmed and stressed to handle it because of his past experiences with relationships and went to Gruff for advice. As he liked to write out words with the letters of his soup, he used them to write a message for Greg to ask him out.

Gerson mentions that Gruff raised him since he was fifteen years old (around the time he and Greg began dating), likely implying that he was orphaned at that age and was subsequently taken in by the Griffon who initially babysat him. During that time, Gerson began learning how to play the clarinet with Gonsod's aid. He initially struggled to play the instrument but Gonsod and Gruff motivated him with constructive criticism, encouraging that while wasn't as good as he wished, he had potential if he kept going. As such, his skills as a clarinetist grew and flourished, eventually winning an award. Years later, he would teach this skill to his niece Gabby.

Another passion he discovered during that time was writing. He got his inspiration for his first few stories from the bedtime stories Gruff would read to the younger cubs, listening alongside them.

According to Grandpa Gruff, Gerson has been misspelling the word "questionnaire" since he was little and would often fight with him about it. From then on, he would purposely misspell it out of sheer stubbornness to get back at Gruff.

Years later, Greg went to veterinarian college in Cloudsdale. During that time, he began feeling homesick, so Gerson and the rest of Greg's family sent him a care package to cheer him up; Gerson's gift for him was a hand-crotcheted scarf. Gerson went to a neighbouring college some time later. After graduating, the two Griffons moved back to Griffinstone and eventually proposed to each other. Shortly afterwards, Gerson became an author and the pair married. At some point, Gerson began his mystery novel series *Detective Conundrum Collins*. For a few years following their marriage, they dedicated their lives to traveling and each other.

Six years later, after a series of events, the couple began assisting Gruff with the caretaking of orphaned/abandoned cubs, which soon enough led them to want a child of their own. They decided that they wanted a *baby* Griffon; they wanted to watch their cub grow and wanted to be there for it from the very beginning. Seeing small Griffons of all avians and felines at the daycare, one caught their eyes right away, that they named Gabriela in honour of Gerson's late best friend (and Greg's adoptive brother).

After having Gabby, Gerson's recently gone back to his job working as an author and juggles this with raising his niece.

## Relationships

### **Greg**

He is shown to get along relatively well with his husband. Gerson commonly tries to calm Greg down when he gets too emotional. The couple are shown to have similar hobbies and enjoy each other's company, rarely being seen without each other. They love each other dearly, as shown by their numerous pet names for each other and how Greg always looks to Gerson when he needs help.

### **Gabby**

Gerson and Gabby are relatively close. He treats Gabby like the best thing that's ever happened to him and cuddles her as such. He loves his niece dearly and is very proud of the fine Griffon she has turned out to be.

### **Grandpa Gruff**

Gerson loves Grandpa Gruff unconditionally, even if his scolding for showing his novel work to Gabby before censors get to it - as some of the stuff he writes about aren't exactly considered "cub-friendly" - tends to frustrate Gerson no end. He, along with his husband, Greg, both love Grandpa Gruff as a father and a teacher, also considering him their friend, and view the old Griffon as a part of the family, with Gerson even pulling him in the shot of every family photo, including their first picture with their niece, Gabby. Greg and Gerson do not care about Grandpa Gruff's past as the town's thief. When Gruff is pinned the blame for the damage from Arimaspi's attack and the passing of numerous of his other wards (amongst them Gerson's best friend, Gabriel), the couple flat out cancel him out in one line and don't blame him for anything. Even after Gruff's slight change of attitude, which causes him to become rather cold and grunpy, Gerson and Greg still think the world of him and trust that he is a sweet Griffon deep down that would never do something to hurt other Griffons.

The two husbands also express gratitude for the elder for taking care of them since their youth, helping them raise Gabby, and finding each other. In addition to the former, after seeing Grandpa Gruff having grown attached to Gabby and knowing his other misfortunes during the accident, including Gallus' disappearance, they're more than happy to share her custody with him, claiming that the little fledgling will need ALL of her paternal figures. The old Griffon is looked up as a fatherly figure and mentor by both Greg and Gerson, who, along with Gorge and Gunnar, often refer to themselves as Gruff's sons and to him as "master" and "father".

Grandpa Gruff is the caretaker of Greg and Gerson and has raised them since they were babies. Like the rest of his wards, Grandpa Gruff sees Greg and Gerson as two of his sons and loves them dearly, affectionately calling them "boys", but, much like his other older cubs, doesn't seem to have processed that they have grown since he first started looking after them, threatening them with time-outs and allowance cuts, and often referring to them as "kids" and "children".

### **Gabriel**

Gerson was shown to be really great friends with both of Gallus' parents since childhood, though he was notably closer to Gabriel due to their shared liking for pulling pranks and making others smile through silly gags. They also didn't pull away from pranking each other. Once in their youth, after Gruff accidentally added salt instead of brown sugar to the butter for his Griffin scones, young Gabriel tricked Gerson into eating a spoonful, leading the two boys to having a playful food fight.

After Gabriel's death, Gerson decided to name his adopted niece after his best friend to honour his memory.

## Skills

**Combat:** Gerson proved himself to be a capable fighter thanks to Grandpa Gruff's training. This is especially shown when he temporarily disarmed Grandpa Gomez alongside Grandpa Gyeong so that Greg could help Grandpa Gruff get away from harm's way.

**Glyph Magic:** It is implied that Gruff taught Gerson alongside other Griffons, how to use certain aspects of glyph magic as the latter is seen using plant glyphs during the battle against Arimaspi and his minions.

**Playing the clarinet:** Gerson is an exceptionally talented clarinetist. An award and a few pictures that show him performing on-stage are scattered around his family's house. It is implied that Gerson taught his niece Gabby how to play the instrument.

## Gallery

Gerson and his husband, GregThe First PackUncle Gerson and Uncle Greg Promo Holiday ArtGabby with her uncles Promo ArtGrandpa Gruff and Gallus taking a selfie (while Gabby's uncles are in the background)Gerson and Greg comforting Grandpa GruffGerson and GregGrandpa Gruff and Young First PackGabby with her uncles Promo ArtGreg and Gerson as childrenGerson and Greg with baby Gabby
## Trivia

* Gerson’s birthday is on June 8th.
	+ He and Greg have the same birthday.
		- Gerson is a few hours older than Greg.
* In the first draft of The Gruff Family, Greg and Gerson were actually related to Gabby. Also, Gabby's parents were alive and had demanding jobs out of town, so she'd never really see them, and would stay with her uncles while Grandpa Gruff and a few other adults around Griffinstone would take turns looking after her during her parents' absence. Parts of this idea were scrapped a few months later.
* Also in the first draft of the project, Gerson openly expressed wanting to have a baby boy over a baby girl, though he was still over the moon adopting Gabby. In the final project, Gerson doesn't express any feelings of the sorts and feels happy to have Gabby regardless, likely not caring on whether or not he and Greg would adopt a boy or a girl.
* Originally, in the project's earliest development stage, Greg and Gerson weren't part of Grandpa Gruff's family; they were a random Griffon couple he'd run into at the market and had been routinely invited to dinner by. A few years later, during the story going under many changes, they were changed to Gruff's adoptive son and son-in-law.
* His original appearance was what could be described as a mixture between the designs of his husband and Grandpa Gideon.
* It is yet to be shown of where Gerson works, though it is known that he works outside of Griffinstone and is an author.
* He primarily writes mystery novels though it's noted he's written a few children's book, inspired by Grandpa Gruff's stories.
* He put himself through author school fixing boats. It's possible that he taught that skill to Gabby, along with playing the clarinet.
* When he was young, Gerson liked to write out words with the letters of his soup. Learning that, Gruff would buy an extra can of letter soup for just for Gerson to have fun with the letters.
* Prior to dating Greg, Gerson had many boyfriends in the past, including one ex-boyfriend with whom he cannot remember breaking up. Gerson even forgot most of his former date's names eventually. Neither of those romances working out was a major reason as to why Gerson was so nervous about asking Greg out.
* Unlike Greg, who wants to "keep his options open", he isn't sure about having another child as he's worried about the responsibility of raising another one while having their demanding careers being too much to handle and generally feels happy with Gabby as their only cub.