#we've got bigger fish to fry. this guy's doomed.

[transparentair]

chance, basically just by nature of having zero context beyond "drug addict ptsd beserker: symbol of the Great Khans Current State of Affairs" is the oc of anyone who ever tries to extrapolate on him, but anyways my own hyper complicated exceedingly long and incomplete headcanon of his family sitch

cw for divorce and drugs and parental death and the fact that this is just shit i completely made up founded on literally nothing <3

also this was not written in an organised headcanon cluster. it's all train of thought.

mother and father were mercs employed by darion in the age of the new khans. his mother was known to be fairly headstrong and his father was known to be particularly good at cutting a deal.

mother and father were super in love with each other for a time, but after the chosen one wiped out the new khans, his father was permanently physically disabled (got shot in the spine and became paralysed in his lower body) and both of them developed PTSD and it really shook up their relationship

they had chance, not to fix their relationship, but because he was a #happyaccident that also happened to make them feel a bit hopeful for the future. But It Cannot Be Overstated How Much Parenthood Did Not Fix Them

they still went through a very slowburn divorce arc and mutually split after falling in love with other people when chance was approaching his preteens. chance tried to avoid them when the atmosphere was bad, so neither parents were particularly strong presences in his life once he passed toddler age and could be trusted to leave their line of sight without Dying Immediately

his mother did the bulk of the parenting on account of her being able-bodied, though chance's dad did his absolute best to contribute where he could. anything that could be done within the confines of their yurt was his domain (making sure chance got to bed and went to sleep, playing with toys, etc.)

since every single adult in the camp was painfully aware of chance's parents' situation, it was a vague "it takes a village" affair where everyone kept watch on chance but couldn't overstep in the situation. when his parents split, everyone felt bad for chance, but was also relieved and felt more comfortable stepping in directly to fill in the gaps (especially after chance outright rejected his stepmother's care at every turn)

father stayed with the great khans, but his mother left the great khans for the understandable reason of Not Wanting To Constantly Feel Endangered and also the very sad but unfortunately common reason of Not Wanting to Deal With Taking Care of a Disabled Spouse For The Rest of Her Life (While Also Being a Mother While Also Having Major PTSD and a Drug Abuse Problem) but also the reasonable reason of This Man Has Another Lover Who Can Do It So Why Should I Stay

chance was always hyperaware of the strained atmosphere and also confused by the situation, so it wasn't shocking when his mother left, but still deeply upsetting, and even worse when his father's new lover (in chance's view) swoops into their yurt literally before his mother's footprints have faded from the loose dirt on the floor.

chose to stay with his father anyway because he wanted his mother to change her mind and also felt like the great khans were home. and didn't want to leave the very shaky concept of home he had for something he knew nothing about all alone with (presumably, unaware of his mother's lover) only his mother

became emotionally estranged from his father since he blamed him for his mother's leaving. didn't have the perspective or knowledge to realise that both of his parents fell out of love with each other and fell in love with people, so the situation was actually better (for the parents but definitely hard on the kid). never really warmed up to his step mother and only really interacted with her after his father died. they never became particularly close, but he stopped being angry and bitter towards her by the time he was an older teen.

his father died when he was right on the cusp of becoming an adult and everyone was like "you really don't need to worry about initiation you should actually take a lot of time to process and grieve because that's really hard to lose both parents. PLEASE." but he kind of (seemed to) not gaf at all and nobody could FORCE him to not do his initiation.

the necklaces are almost like a family symbol. his mother gave him the circular necklace he wears before leaving and the little bone charm necklace was his from the start. his father had a necklace that his step mother tried to pass on to him, but he REALLY didn't want it.

chance DID inherit a really unfortunate genetic disposition to drug addiction from his mother, but it didn't go full throttle until it was his time to ride in the severe PTSD rodeo

chance was born with his father's darker brown hair but it turned blonde. he takes after his mother slightly more than his father appearance-wise, but he did get his father's incredibly funny resting bitch face syndrome and severe eyebrows. and his blue eyes (though his father's were greyer) but that's not as important. slash j

his quietness (even before he became fully nonverbal) was mostly just from his family situation growing up, but he was noted later on by attentive adults like oscar to have a surprisingly defensive disposition that was fairly similar to his father's when he was younger