so this is going to be rambly and probably will not make sense but stay with me. here's some facts/background info about danny and lee!! but first: there's their designs since i. never shared those.
mentions of bullying, homophobia, absentee parents
(created with this picrew bc i was too lazy to draw)
NOW onto the lore *explosion*
- real name is "daniel sawyer," though he's most commonly known as danny (or dan)
- the 3rd of jodi's brothers & the closest to her in age.
- he and jodi were inseparable as children.
- he's also the closest one of her siblings to her in general. he and jodi spent the most time together (since there was a greater age gap between their older brothers & them)
- danny has rbf & constantly gets asked if he's angry or upset (he's not. his face just looks like that) however, the only time he genuinely smiles is when he's around kent & lee (more lee than anyone 🥺)
- you probably guessed this from context clues but danny is a closeted gay guy (the only people who danny WILLINGLY told this are lee, kent, and jodi.) [his earring is also an homage to this & is a reference to the 1970's concept of the "gay ear" where having a certain ear pierced to allow other people to understand your sexuality. typically it's the right ear, however it looks like it's in his left because of the way the image is oriented]
- prefers "cool" colors (like green/blue)
- has stubble along his chin/lower half of his face & has more "angular" features & a straight nose along with prominent worry lines between his eyebrows
- he's almost constantly worried (and with good reason, have you met kent and lee??) and often prefers to keep himself
- sharing the "middle child" role with his older brother, danny and said brother were often over looked & this caused danny to become very self reliant (and even one of the main care takers of jodi when he was old enough)
- danny has a strong sense of justice & feels a need to stick up for the "underdog" - it's how he made both of his friends.
- however, when danny first arrived at the army camp, he didn't have anyone looking out for him. everything was going fine until the usual changing routine occurred . danny was immediately embarrassed and turned a bright shade of red. unfortunately, his stammering was noticed by none other than ray & (this behavior was typically frowned upon publicly at the time) received some very nasty comments - most of which were taunts & jokes relating to him being a quote unquote "penis sniffer" <- rays own words btw . he could handle the jokes and would simply shrug them off. what he couldn't handle, however, was the influx of slurs that seemed to follow.
- since this incident, danny made it his life's mission to leave the soldiers quarters before everyone else so he wakes up extra early & changes to avoid more embarrassment or harassment.
- when new recruits joined & began receiving similar awful treatment from ray, danny stepped in & put an end to it.
- by the way the "last time" danny refers to in the chapter about kent's arrival refers to lee's arrival (ill touch more on that later)
- danny lived in the city his entire life & likely ran into kent before they officially met, though neither would remember it.
- real name is "vincent leegland" but he's most commonly known as "lee" or "leegland"
- is named after his father, whom he dislikes, and absolutely hates being called "vincent" or any variation of the name
- his father left when lee was about 5 years old, leaving lee in the care of his mother (and later his grandmother once his mother remarried.) lee doesn't have the best relationship with either of his parents & was primarily raised by his grandmother.
- he has faint vitiligo & it can mostly be seen around the corner of his mouth & the entirety of his right eye
- he has a broken nose (from being incredibly clumsy) and it's permanently crooked because it never set properly. lee is self conscious of this fact & often wears a bandage to cover it.
- chronically late & the clumsiest person on earth. covered in more bruises than you can count.
- lee arrived a week after danny & a year before kent.
- his arrival was quite similar to kent's, with the taunting and whatnot, but lee had attempted to write to his grandmother (whom he calls his oma due to her german heritage) & ray was not having it. so, danny decides to step in, and essentially tells ray that harassing other people didn't make him "more manly" and ray responded "like you'd know anything about that" to which danny replied "oh yeah? if you're so big and manly, then kiss anyone in this room" (<- room full of other male cadets) and ray went so pale and was like fine i'll leave him alone just get away from me.
- lee is a social butterfly btw . he loves people & he loves making friends.
- lee was instantly like woaw.... he's so cool... and introduced himself to danny. danny called him "vincent" and noticed lee cringed & asked him if there was anything else he'd like to be called. lee didn't have any nicknames that didn't correspond to that name (most commonly being called vin or vini by his grandmother) and shook his head no sadly. danny then suggested they take part of his last name (leegland) and eventually the nickname "lee" popped up and lee liked it much better than vincent. it stuck & lee couldn't be happier
- he was grateful to put the name behind him & with it, the memories of his father
- lee looked at this situation as a way to get a "new start" and a way to separate himself from his past.
- we know danny is from the city, but where is lee from? and the answer: he's from calico desert. his grandmother originally owned the oasis (the og "sandy", though it was spelled "sanndi" so to speak) & lee moved in when he was a small child, living there with his grandmother until her unfortunate death when lee was 18
- the death of his grandmother is what actually lead to his enlistment. he didn't have anywhere else to go and was now technically an orphan, so he asked the desert trader & learned about the ferngill republic's military.
- he is semi fluent in german (as that was the language his oma often spoke in when asking him to do things)
now some joint/misc things that i thought would be fun to add in:
- the two instantly became best friends, despite danny's introverted personality
- danny actually realized he had developed feelings for lee in a game of truth or dare:
it was with the other members of cabin five - about a month or two before kent's arrival, so danny & lee had known each other for almost a year at this point
w hen it was danny's turn, it was ray who decided to ask him the question. ray, being ever the bigot he was, decided to remove the option of "truth" entirely and asked danny "dare or dare".
danny protested, saying it wasn't fair, but eventually gave up when it was clear there would be no getting through to ray.
the dare was intended to be another jab at danny's sexuality (he had already come out to lee at this point) and ray ultimately wanted danny to chicken out & leave the game (he did NOT like danny at all)
after making danny choose dare, ray said something similar to the phrase danny had used earlier "kiss anyone in this room. unless you're not man enough, sawyer." & obviously danny was like wtf no??
but he knew that this meant he would leave the game - as they had a "do it or forfeit rule". however, lee wasn't having any of it. lee actually answered every question & did every dare asked of him, and enjoyed playing the game, but he didn't want to be a part if danny wasn't, yk, for solidarity reasons. so, as danny was getting up to leave the circle, a bright idea popped into lee's head.
"hey, dan?" lee asked as he grabbed danny's wrist, stopping him in his tracks before he could get too far away
"yeah..??" <- a very confused danny who was fine with leaving the game
"here you go." before grabbing danny's collar and pulling him into a kiss without thinking. what crossed lee's mind was simply that he wanted danny to have fun & continue playing, no matter what had to happen. lee promptly returned to the game and left a very stunned (and light pink) danny to his own devices.
obviously, having technically fulfilled his dare, danny was allowed to continue the game & lee even convinced them to implement a rule that banned anything like that from happening to avoid any further embarrassment. needless to say, danny was quite confused and also very grateful to lee that day.
- later, danny found himself thinking about it and soon realized his face began to heat up everytime he thought about lee.
- he actually confronted lee about it later, but was met with a wide smile (one that revealed lee's dimples) and a simple "i just wanted you to keep playing. you were having fun, danny. i wasn't going to let ray ruin that!" lee's caring nature & those dimples seemed to captivate danny .
- lee, of course, did not realize this or understand the effects of his action. after all, the only "kisses" he received were smothering cheek and forehead kisses from his grandmother, so lee associated them as "something you do to someone close to you" (lee is also demiromantic, i might add. which is probably why he didn't realize he was developing feelings for danny when he did. he just thought he really enjoyed his company and then slowly realized he enjoyed kent's company, but in a drastically different way)
- lees eyes are brown with green flecks & danny's are greyish blue btw that might be hard to tell from the image
anyway that's all i've got right now. thank u for reading teehee .
adding these bc i thought they were funny 😭
