your off-the-wall POI AU for the day
Apr. 13th, 2019 12:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
enemyofperfectSo there's this great tumblr post asking if monsters that live under the bed have to share the under-bed if their humans are sleeping in bunk beds, and I just... I mean...
It's got to be Root and Shaw at science camp, right? And they're the odd ones out even in a gathering of socially awkward geeks. Root probably still crushes on Shaw instantly, but I'm pretty sure she also reacts to that by bristling defensively and assuming a pose of elaborate disdain. (It's so much harder to be socially confident when you're a teenager and you haven't gotten to kidnap the object of your affections even a little bit!) It's too bad that the act backfires on her: Shaw's literally just here for the lab experience and possible explosions, and if her bunkmate wants to stay out of her way, that's great news.
As for monsters, I figure in this universe they're a reflection of some aspect of their humans' subconscious. (Which isn't to say that they're created for the purpose: they could be summoned out of their home dimension by telepathic resonance or something.) Maybe for more well-adjusted or conventional kids, they represent fears and terrible fates, but Root and Shaw are both pretty comfortable with shadows, aren't they?
Root's shadow is Harold. Like most adults, he's a little ineffectual; but unlike the human adults in Root's life, he can keep up with her intellectually. Maybe at first she saw him as an idealized authority figure, someone who could recognize her specialness and point her towards her bright future, but over time he's slipped into more of an anxious uncle role, constantly brimming over with all the inhibitions she lacks. She doesn't exactly believe in him anymore -- maybe because she doesn't exactly need him -- but she does take a sort of pride in the fact that the monster under her bed was always a little scared of her.
Shaw's is Reese, and he never tries to hold her back. She does that for herself, when it needs doing: it isn't hard to figure out that some things are frowned on when she does them, even if boys get away with it all the time. So she gets good at judging the moment and deciding whether it's worth it -- but there's still something satisfying about having a second self who could get away with anything and never be told no. And he listens to the things she doesn't say, the things she doesn't even feel as more than irritations; he's always there, and he understands without needing to make a production about it.
I feel like there'd have to be some kind of plot scaffolding over which to drape the doubled arc of gradual prickly bonding, although I have no idea what it would be. But just! Root giving up her pointed distance and getting all in Shaw's business! Shaw pushing her away when she got annoying but getting increasingly comfortable with her presence the rest of the time! Reese's amusement at his new neighbor introducing himself as Mister anything! Harold's completely baseless insistence that Shaw was in any way a bad influence on Root!
I wish I had a monster under my bed to write this for me.
It's got to be Root and Shaw at science camp, right? And they're the odd ones out even in a gathering of socially awkward geeks. Root probably still crushes on Shaw instantly, but I'm pretty sure she also reacts to that by bristling defensively and assuming a pose of elaborate disdain. (It's so much harder to be socially confident when you're a teenager and you haven't gotten to kidnap the object of your affections even a little bit!) It's too bad that the act backfires on her: Shaw's literally just here for the lab experience and possible explosions, and if her bunkmate wants to stay out of her way, that's great news.
As for monsters, I figure in this universe they're a reflection of some aspect of their humans' subconscious. (Which isn't to say that they're created for the purpose: they could be summoned out of their home dimension by telepathic resonance or something.) Maybe for more well-adjusted or conventional kids, they represent fears and terrible fates, but Root and Shaw are both pretty comfortable with shadows, aren't they?
Root's shadow is Harold. Like most adults, he's a little ineffectual; but unlike the human adults in Root's life, he can keep up with her intellectually. Maybe at first she saw him as an idealized authority figure, someone who could recognize her specialness and point her towards her bright future, but over time he's slipped into more of an anxious uncle role, constantly brimming over with all the inhibitions she lacks. She doesn't exactly believe in him anymore -- maybe because she doesn't exactly need him -- but she does take a sort of pride in the fact that the monster under her bed was always a little scared of her.
Shaw's is Reese, and he never tries to hold her back. She does that for herself, when it needs doing: it isn't hard to figure out that some things are frowned on when she does them, even if boys get away with it all the time. So she gets good at judging the moment and deciding whether it's worth it -- but there's still something satisfying about having a second self who could get away with anything and never be told no. And he listens to the things she doesn't say, the things she doesn't even feel as more than irritations; he's always there, and he understands without needing to make a production about it.
I feel like there'd have to be some kind of plot scaffolding over which to drape the doubled arc of gradual prickly bonding, although I have no idea what it would be. But just! Root giving up her pointed distance and getting all in Shaw's business! Shaw pushing her away when she got annoying but getting increasingly comfortable with her presence the rest of the time! Reese's amusement at his new neighbor introducing himself as Mister anything! Harold's completely baseless insistence that Shaw was in any way a bad influence on Root!
I wish I had a monster under my bed to write this for me.
