anderson

Some backstory to the backstory headcanon:

When I read Imagine me and I understood that we were going to be spending a lot of time with Anderson, I was stoked. Finally, would we be getting some backstory to him?!

Then we got to this bit:

“My mother used to force bleach down my throat. Ammonia. Whatever she could find under the sink. It was never enough to kill me”, he says, […] “Just enough to torture me for all eternity.” […] “You might say that I lost my appetite.”

It horrified me (and kind of excited me, because ANGST). It reminded me of The child called ‘It’ (which is a completely made up story apparently, in case you didn’t know, but still pure nightmare fuel). I didn’t really think about the implications though. I made Anderson put a padlock on the cupboard beneath the sink in all my contemporary fics. That was it.

Then, in 2023, there was a child abuse case in the news here in Sweden. The short version is that a young girl had been forced by her parents to drink vinegar. The strong kind. The damage was so severe her stomach has had to be surgically removed.

And that’s how I found out how truly horrible this injury is. In case you didn’t know (And I'm warning you again, real life medical horror): If you drink acid (what have you, bleach, vinegar), it can literally melt your esophagus all the way down to your stomach. And if you survive, you don’t get a new one. Instead, you have surgery to have your small intestine connected to your esophagus. Apparently people can usually eat normal food after recovering, but in small portions and more often.

So here’s what I came up with for Anderson:

Paris Anderson is raised by his single mother. He has two siblings, one older and one younger. The eldest, a sister, is favorized by the mother the point where she abuses Paris and the youngest sibling, but thinks the eldest is perfect in every single way possible.

Paris' mother forces him to drink bleach and ammonia regularly. At first, it doesn’t hurt him enough to require a hospital visit. At school, his symptoms can be passed off as a cold. But one day, Mrs. Anderson goes too far, and Paris is rushed to the ER.

It’s there that the years of abuse come to light. His esophagus and stomach are so badly damaged that he needs extensive reconstruction surgery. (That’s what I talked about further up.) He’s placed into the care of social services and never sees his mother or siblings again.

Paris grows up in foster care, bouncing between homes for a while. Eventually, he ends up with a strict foster father—let’s call him Johnsson. A military veteran who runs a bootcamp for all the boys in his care. Unlike some other foster parents, Johnsson treats Paris no differently than the others despite his medical condition, and Paris thrives. He loves the routine, the discipline, and the way he and the other boys are constantly pitted against each other. Paris isn’t the biggest nor the strongest, but he is fast and calculating.

When he turns of age and is forced out of foster care, Paris, following Johnsson’s advice, applies to the military. Training is the only life he knows, after all. But his medical history gets in the way, and he’s rejected.

Undeterred, Paris applies for an experimental study aimed at improving transplant success rates. (They clone organs. That's it.) It’s there that he meets Maximilian, a PhD student in genetic engineering from New Zealand, who’s in the US because of the country’s more lenient laws regarding experimental treatments. As they work together on the project, they become close—arguably best friends. (But Paris would never admit to that…!) Thanks to Max’s genius, the treatment is a success, and Paris receives a new esophagus and stomach.

Paris doesn’t give up on his military dream. With his new body and renewed determination, he reapplies, excels in training, and rises through the ranks. He makes the right connections and becomes an elite soldier.

But despite his success, Paris hasn’t confronted the trauma of his past. Now that the physical marks of his abuse have healed, he finds himself turning to alcohol. In a strange moment of reflection, he realizes that the burn of alcohol on his throat reminds him eerily of the ammonia he was forced to drink.

He keeps his relationship with Max, and is soon allowed into the world of the RE, where he quickly proves his worth by finding the classified files of the military. He becomes their attack dog, taking care of anything (or rather, anyone) that will stand in the way of the success of the RE.

It doesn’t take long before he is matched/eloped with Leila Warner. They have a son, Aaron. They allowed the baby to be genetically modified by Evie. (Which is why, later in life, Paris is convinced there’s something genetically wrong with Aaron. That Evie somehow programmed him to fall in love with Juliette.) Paris is ecstatic. His son will never experience the hardships of his own childhood. No, Paris will make sure he is strong.

However, something is still missing from his life. Paris wants to be loved. He doesn’t love Leila. She’s a means to an end: a son; an heir. Somehow, somewhere, he meets Ms Kent (I like to name her Catherine in my fics). The romance is intense. Finally, Paris feels completed. Ms Kent is his other half. He doesn’t want kids though, because as it was decreed from his own childhood: You cannot love more than one child. – Because at the end of the day, Paris does think that he loves Aaron. In his own twisted way.

We all know what happens once Ms Kent dies. Paris goes off the rails in grief. He becomes an alcoholic. - Before he drank to cope with his childhood trauma, but Catherine's death sends him into a new kind of darkness. - He starts abusing Adam. Continues his work with the RE and they get into office, then once Juliette accidently kills that child Paris orchestrates the most dramatic love triangle known to mankind.