While I do write about the Rosier twins and enjoy that dynamic, I actually prefer them as half-siblings, sharing the same father.
Evan is the only son of Henri and Marcella (Carrow) Rosier. I imagine that the couple has 3 daughters, and Marcella always dreamed of having a son, but they stopped trying after their 3rd child. Evan was a bit of a surprise, but a very welcome one, at least for his parents. His sisters, Esme (who was 17 when Evan was born), Sabine (who was 16), and Yvette (who was 14), weren't exactly happy to have a baby thrown into the mix after such a long time, and they resented all the attention their baby brother was getting both as the new baby and as the heir to the family fortune. Before Evan, it was understood that the money, property, and assets would be split evenly amongst the girls, and each would have access to a trust fund upon turning 18. With Evan in the picture, their father decided that he, as the oldest son, would inherit everything, leaving just enough wealth to his daughters to keep them comfortable.
Each of the girls left home immediately after they finished their "basic" education (pre-university, basically) and maintained very little communication with their parents beyond family gatherings, holidays, and the occasional dinner or lunch here and there. By the time Evan was 4, he was effectively an only child, with his parents doting on him, enrolling him in whatever lessons he wanted (horseback riding, piano, sailing, languages, etc), and making sure he always had everything he wanted and needed. Spoiled rich brat Evan is my truth, and you can rip that HC from my cold, dead hands.
However, despite the Rosiers appearing to be just like any other well-to-do family, nothing is always as it seems. If you've hung around here enough, you'll know that Evan's alcoholism is a very important part of how I characterize him, and well, the drinking had to have come from somewhere, right? I've talked about this before, but while Evan's father would definitely be the "cool dad" (ex. lets his children and their friends drink/do drugs as long as no one leaves the house, has a ton of cars, motorcycles, maybe a pilot's license, etc), he's also a MEAN drunk and, like his son, was never really taught to regulate his emotions. Hence, he tends to take all that pent-up rage out on Evan in a mix of emotional, verbal, and physical abuse. Marcella, who herself struggles with addiction (you know how in the 50s and 60s, housewives were prescribed amphetamines, barbiturates, and eventually valium/librium as a way to cope with their abusive husbands, depression, fatigue, and general unhappiness? yeah, that's what happened here. i imagine something similar going on with barty's mom, by the way), loved her son more than anything, but it often became too hard for her to watch the way her husband treated her sweet boy, so she kind of started to distance herself from Evan.
It all came to a head when Evan was 7, and Marcella found out that Henri had been cheating on her and was expecting a child with his mistress. Angry and confused about why her husband would just throw away the life they'd built together over the past 30 years, Marcella decided to leave and begin the divorce process on her own, wanting the marriage to end on her terms and not allowing Henri to have any more control over her and her life. During this time, however, her addiction only got worse, and just before the divorce was finalized, she accidentally overdosed on sleeping pills and died. Evan, who'd been staying with her during this time, was in the next room and was ultimately the one who found her.
Grieving the loss of his mother and confused and upset by the way his father just glossed over her death, chalked it up to a tragic accident, and moved on with life, Evan became very closed off and began to resent his father, similar to how his older sisters did. He hated how his father moved the new woman (Elara) into the house and immediately began making wedding arrangements. Esme, Sabine, and Yvette, by this time, realized how unfair it was to Evan for them to completely cut off contact with him because of a decision he ultimately had no control over, so they tried to rebuild that relationship. They also tried to rebuild their relationship with their father and tried to be cordial with their new stepmother, but this proved difficult, as Elara was MUCH younger than Henri (she was 27 while he was 50), meaning the girls couldn't see her as a "mother" figure because she was only a few years older than Esme. After a few attempts to connect with her, the girls agreed that having a relationship with her wasn't something that was in the cards, and they instead turned their focus to making sure Evan and the new baby would be taken care of.
And this is where Pandora comes into the mix. When she's born, Evan is 7, and he'd already been chewed up and spit out by the world in more ways than anyone should ever have to endure in a lifetime. He's become a sort of ghost in his own home and has learned just how easily things (and people) can be replaced, and suddenly, here's Pandora, a squalling bundle who now receives all the attention he'd once received when his mother was alive. It's clear from the start that she's going to be different than her older siblings. Elara is wholeheartedly in love with her daughter, and Henri melts around her and comforts her in a way he never did for Evan.
Evan, at first, is fiercely protective of Pandora. She's so small and delicate, and as she grows up, he's the one who checks under her bed for monsters, who wipes her tears when she falls, and who shows her all his favorite things in the hopes of building a connection with her. But he's also jealous and, when he gets angry, he breaks her toys, ruins her art projects, and actively tries to get her in trouble. He sees how she's showered in love and affection, and that's where the resentment really starts to blossom. He loves her, but he can't help but feel like she's living the life he should have had.
Given the freedom to be her own person and not held to the same expectations as her older siblings (pre-Evan, the older girls had very rigid expectations placed upon them, but they sort of went away/shifted when Evan was born, if that makes sense), Pandora becomes a truly brilliant child. She loves to read, is always questioning the way things work, and is naturally drawn to science. She wants to understand why the world works the way it does, and when she gets into a project, it consumes her. Her curiosity can border on cruel when she gets frustrated, and she's been known to take those frustrations out on Evan, who still insists on coddling her.
As a child, though, she really did idolize Evan. She wanted to be just like him and could never understand why her brother seemed to always find a way to push her away. By the time she became a teenager, she was old enough to sense Evan's pain, but too young to fully understand its source, and her own desire for independence and wanting to be seen as something more than "Evan's little sister" meant she started to pull away from her brother. She immerses herself in her school, her work, her hobbies, and her friends, ultimately giving up on trying to "fix" whatever is wrong with her brother. In her mind, Evan dug his grave, and now he has to lie in it.
This lowkey spiraled out of control, and I have so many more thoughts, but I think I'm gonna stop here for now. I'll do a post that's more Pandora-centric eventually, but I just needed to get some of these thoughts out. I do have fics in the works that explore this particular dynamic, but those won't be out for a LONG time (if I ever post them...)
