I’ve been getting back into my sdmi aus. Sorry if this is a little annoying or all over the place (i have chronic insomnia, it’s late lol.)
I have a new idea for a canon divergence au which may be to self indulgent but it’s where:
Everything runs exactly the same until season 2.
Basically, after Cassidy splits off from Ricky she finds out she’s pregnant. Definitely not ideal for her but she’s busy trying to save the gang in whatever way she’s able. So she doesn’t tell Ricky right away. Then Ricky corners her in the hair salon and he does his whole pitch to try and get her back on his side. But instead she’s like “look, I’m trying to protect ALL the kids, including ours.” And now Ricky’s scared that Pericles and Brad and Judy are going to kill Cassidy while she’s weaker than usual so he first tries to convince her to leave crystal cove and when that doesn’t work he’s actively trying to protect her. Which kind of helps fix their relationship because they’re spending more time together with a common goal that doesn’t involve curses or treasure.
Then the gang figures out what’s happening (after they eventually forgive Cassidy) and they find Ricky’s eternal suffering hilarious.
Basically, Cassidy is trying to protect the kids from the evil German bird and the eldritch horror, Ricky’s having a panic attack in the background 24/7 while trying to protect his partner, and Pericles has this weird slapstick routine going on in the background where every time he tries to talk to Ricky, Ricky hits him with a stick and tells him to go away.
BREAKING NEWS: ASH FINALLY ANSWERS HER ASKS!
There are so many reasons I love this idea, it took me a hot minute to figure out where to start.
Humans like to think of themselves as something separate from the animals, but really that’s just our own hubris. I read a fascinating book about evolution once called The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. It was years ago so I don’t remember the whole book precisely, but the very first paragraph makes the following claim:
“We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”
-And using an analysis of Darwinism and animal behavior, Dawkins spends the rest of the book proving his point.
So! How does that apply to Ori’s idea for Scooby Doo fanfiction?
Humans are just survival machines made of flesh and bone, and our monkey brains are always on the hunt for things that activate our happy hormones. It’s the body’s reward system for doing the necessary maintenance needed to stay alive. But we aren’t immortal, and the ultimate purpose our genes created our bodies for is to pass on copies of them to the next generation of survival machines.
I made a post touching on this recently, but Brad and Judy lost their baby and their corruption by the curse didn’t escalate as much as it did until after they returned to Crystal Cove and reunited with Fred. And I think it’s because when they saw their son again, he wasn’t the infant they remembered. And in a lot of ways he had more in common with Fred Jones Sr. than he did with them because that’s who raised him. (Srsly Imagine kidnapping a baby from a pair of scared teens YOU made homeless, and then NAMING THAT BABY AFTER YOURSELF WTF.) Honestly it wouldn’t wholly surprise me if Brad and Judy were a little in denial and that’s why it was so easy for them to betray Fred the way they did. Like in their minds they know that’s their son but in their hearts they see the baby they lost and Fred as two separate people, and they were never able to form a proper attachment to the latter.
Ricky and Cassidy on the other hand would NOT have this happen to them.
If you’ve read One of Us or some of my analysis posts in the past, you know the way I believe the curse of Crystal Cove works. The Entity takes pain and character flaws that are already there and puts a magnifying glass on them. In Ricky’s case, it used the pain of Pericles’ betrayal, his pride in his company, and his greed for the treasure to corrupt him. To the point that it even blotted out Ricky’s love for Cassidy for a while.
But for all of the reasons outlined in Dawkins’ book, a baby tends to change people’s priorities on a dime.
I can imagine it perfectly:
Mr. E’s mind sort of stutters to a halt when the words leave her mouth. “Including ours.”
Cassidy is scared, but she smiles when she sees the look on his face. His hands are starting to shake when she takes his large hand in hers, and gently places it against her belly. She isn’t showing. She doesn’t have a name or a sex either just yet for the welcome accident growing inside her. But she knows it’s there, and the love she feels for it is indescribable.
Ricky doesn’t know either. But he knows Cassidy. And he knows she’d never lie to him - not about this.
That night in the lair last month. We were both so angry at each other when we did it but that has to be when-
Everything he came here to argue with her about doesn’t seem to matter anymore. His heart is pounding in his ears and a new instinct has just awoken in his brain. Something bigger, older than them. Older than humanity. Older than the entity beneath the town. It’s programming encoded by the genes of a prehistoric ancestor, passed through the ages when evolution found it beneficial to a species’ continued existence. Mine! It screams! MINE!
What was he doing? He loves Cassidy. And he suddenly realizes he never stopped loving her, but somehow he’d forgotten he did. How could that be? He loves Cassidy. Every part of her. Including the baby- their baby- Oh god he’s going to be a Dad. His knees feel weak. The room is spinning. He feels like he’s going to throw up. He’s angry with himself. He did this to her! Cassidy was going to be such a wonderful mother but seriously? NOW?! And with HIM?! She deserved better than him. Their child deserved better than him! He’s so terrified and so happy he doesn’t know what to do with himself. But suddenly one thought lodges itself in his mind and that’s the rock he clings to: I’m going to protect you.
This child would never struggle like he did. Like Cassidy had. And Cassidy would not go through what Judy had, either. He would not fail, like Brad did. They would not fail. No matter who they became or what they decided to do, the person this child grew into would be happy and safe and loved for as long as Ricky drew breath.
To Ricky, it seemed like longer, but it took all of about twenty seconds for all of these thoughts to go swirling through his head, and all of a sudden everything else that seemed so important this morning seems quite insignificant.
Far beneath the town, the Entity screams with rage, as every carefully woven string it had so masterfully strung on one of its most valuable pawns snaps.
I was going to just write my thoughts on that, but it ended up a short snippet instead. There is just so much greatness that could happen with this idea and GOD, I hope you go through with writing it, Ori!!! PLEASE!!! 🙏😭
