#planetcruspy

[mla0]

looks at you. i want to hear about your different iteration things au concept thing for shaun,. blinks eye.

WEEEE

so for the first iteration of the andersens i used the last name warren, so shaun and michael warren because i just like that surname lol. i'm not sure if they would have been in fairmount (probably would've), but either way they definitely knew the mining town four. the clock was ground zero for why they were both admitted, because the mental effects of it lingering around greatly hurt them both and made them act out in their own ways. i think shaun was close with vinny and steph, and michael was close with evan. shaun and jeff are frienemies in the kind of sibling-esque "id kill for you but id also bury you alive for a saltine cracker" way. also it's a personal headcanon of mine that shaun really, really does not like corenthal, and even across iterations that trait sticks even if she doesn't know why (in my personal headcanon, doc gave her preferential treatment over michael and it pissed her off so bad the anger stuck across all the iterations.)

throughout the iterations i think entities like habit would be more in the background, but would sometimes be there, oftentimes to force the two apart. so throughout the generations, you'll see them slowly becoming more and more distant, because habit, the man in the suit, whatever, all thrive off of isolating people as much as possible so they're easier to manipulate or kill later. the two figuring out how to rejoin and work together is paramount, but it gets harder every time.

the other main iteration i focus on would be in the princeton era, and in this one her iteration is named esther. the name means north star, and i think she'd possibly choose it because of vinny for obvious reasons. their last name is korbel, so michael and esther korbel are their names. anyways, in my interpretation she tried to outrun her responsibilities the moment she was old enough, by going off to work in remote and often dangerous places (think oil rigs, firetowers, things where you're far away from everyone else) because her hope is that she can outrun slenderman. she even leaves the country for long periods of time and doesn't really have anyone to lean on, which she did on purpose.

esther and michael in this era hadn't been forcefully separated and were actually really close as kids/younger teens, but they grew apart over time and they hadn't talked in years because esther grew more and more detached from other people. michael took this personally of course and is constantly trying to figure out where she is, but he eventually resigns that she was probably killed by the man in the suit. this isn't the case, though. esther also ended up transitioning when she was away, using the remote workplaces and fact that basically nobody knows her to her advantage. she doesn't care if people are shitty to her on an oil rig, they're too busy getting decompression sickness anyways. she tries to tough everything out but it wears her down more than she'd admit, and has a hard time keeping her resolve and not contacting michael.

it's not that esther dislikes him, quite the opposite actually. kind of like michael in mla0, she has this idea that it's mostly after her or is somehow her own fault, so staying far away from michael will keep him safer. it's self-centered, but michael didn't talk too much about the man in childhood (because he also thought it'd keep his sibling safe) so she wrongly assumes she's patient zero in the family and the two never communicated about this. eventually, something goes wrong at work and she finally starts accepting the situation and meets people like vinny (who i think would be a close friend, i love when shaun and vinny have a dynamic) her and michael see each other again... only for her to realize michael doesn't recognize her after she disappeared and transitioned so long ago. she's terrified of him finding out because this is like, the 1980s, and she doesn't know how michael would take her being trans. even though she's almost entirely certain he wouldn't mind, she still doesn't want to ruin the time they has left, because at this point she's realized they're probably doomed anyways.

she tries to use this to her advantage; she helps michael out a ton without getting too emotionally close. she becomes dangerously obsessed with trying to understand what the entities around her are and what they can do, which only makes her more distant and worries the hell out of vinny as she slips deeper into it. she practically self sabotages and gets more and more unhinged as she dives headfirst into danger with little regard for much else. in the end michael ends up being killed by habit (?) while she's trying to save him, and she makes one last ditch attempt to kill whatever this monster is that she can't comprehend. she puts up a good fight and gets closer than she ever has before thanks to what she's learned, but well, it's habit. she never really stood a chance, and she dies regretting all the things she never told her brother