Denver

- involved in swimming athleticism from a young age, parents got him into it
- to his credit he was really good at it ! won many local competitions, was recognizable in his hometown and other nearby areas
- got kind of egotistical (why am i so goddamn great?) as he grew up, traveled to enter bigger contests
- ended up in Gora Gora, entered some competitions, and WON
- was approached by fellow racers asking 'hey thats so cool! how did you learn to do that?' and basically told them to screw off
- the Gora Gora swim competitions are just to encourage everybody to know how to keep themselves safe ! because the ocean is RIGHT THERE and they want swimming to be a normal thing to know how to do, so the competitions are "hey learn how to do this and have some fun with us, maybe you'll win a cool prize and we'll have a party after to celebrate ALL OF YOU for learning!"
- then Denver rolls up one day and decides to enter but instead of going "yay fun relaxed competition" its "im going to (expletive) win so much, you all suck"
- traveling to the afterparty, bumps into Cass because he's not paying attention. to no one's surprise he's a jerk about it and tries to hit her when she doesn't immediately apologize
- Cass gets mad, pokes him in the hand with her little witch staff. he gets a splinter <3
- shoves past her to go to the competition afterparty, has a decent time and only yells at 2 people
- he dives into the water to leave, and everything burns
- as he launches himself out of the water and frantically tries to dry himself off, he discovers his bones r outside :)
- long story short Cass used the splinter from her staff to curse him so he'd never swim again, the how didn't matter to her; her magic decided that putting his bones outside and making him way more fragile was the best way to do that
- after he sees his bones he freaks out and tries to find Cassandra again, he does find her at the edge of the city and goes WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME
- she's surprised because she didn't think the curse would do that, but she also doesn't care enough to try and fix it. she just leaves (CASS, DONT LEAVE ME HERE, CASSANDRAAAAAAAA)
- Denver refuses to go home because he doesn't want his parents to see him like this
- he goes to Clematis because he doesnt know what else to do, at least its dark there all the time so its easier to hide his bone problem :)
- personality mellows out massively because he has nothing to be high and mighty about anymore. "god im so good" at what? when the rain falls on you too heavy you cry
- cassandra's curse was way more intense than she meant it to be, but she doesnt know that because when he found her after it started he was just yelling and telling her to take it off. she thought the bones just looked weird, didnt know that it actually hurt him to have those touched
- she forgot him a few weeks after she went home
- so now hes kind of sad and rarely leaves his house but hes not an ******* anymore
- he pays Elmendorf to bring him groceries and go shopping for him