#aspen

I think Aspen's story in the Outlast universe, by necessity, is very different from the universe they're from. In their initial story, Aspen is particularly gifted at a certain skill, and is taken away from their family and isolated from them to be trained as a gifted child because i have opinions™ on gifted and talented programs and what high expectations do to a bitch and i wanted a character who resented the title of gifted as much as i do/did.

In the Outlast universe, I think Aspen was likely sent to a boarding school of some kind for gifted children, a really prestigious academy of some kind, but they hated it. They were constantly panicking and felt so dumb every time they opened their mouth. They were a genius back home, but around a bunch of other geniuses, they felt like an idiot in comparison. (I'm not projecting my college experience onto my high school oc why would you say that-) So they decide one day they're going to run away. It's the late 50s, it isn't too hard for a 15 year old amab child to find a good gig. They'll be fine.

They, in fact, were not fine. They escaped, ran far enough away that they couldn't be found, but landed themself in a big city with no references and no definable skills. Gifted programs tend to focus on puzzle solving and book knowledge, they dont tend to teach you many practical skills like how to socialize with other people or not be brown.

I don't have any strong ideas for Aspen's actual race, I never gave it much thought, but I've always depicted them with lighter brown skin and naturally black hair that they're forced to dye white by the people in charge of them so they'd look more mysterious and interesting to onlookers. Probably has some dumb purity shit behind it too from the people making that decision for Aspen in universe, although that was never my intention when I made that design choice. I just thought white hair looked cool when I was making them for the first time, and then years later I went "what if that isn't their choice, and when they break free of that system they cut it all off and let it grow back naturally black to show how they're living for themself now?"

In the outlast AU it's the opposite way around, their appearance changes more and more as they lose themself in the facility, and the white hair is a design decision on Easterman's part to make them look more striking. They get their white hair as they finally break and become a prime asset, to prove they are no longer truly making their own decisions, their mind is broken by Murkoff and the old Aspen, someone who craved escape and freedom and revenge on Murkoff, is gone. They're just an angry, bitter husk now. They have a very "if i can't leave, none of you get to either" mentality once they're made a prime.

Outside of the facility, Aspen has an older half sister that they used to be really close with before she was kicked out of their house. She's very rebellious and if there were any chance for Aspen to survive this AU, it would be because she got into the facility Amelia style and combined forces with Calypso to rescue Aspen and finally escape.

Aspen is 15 when they get to the facility. They lied about their age on the paperwork they submitted, and while Murkoff knows that, they didn't particularly care. "They said they were an adult how, were we supposed to know?" type deal. Calypso, Aspen's love interest in every universe, is 16 in this AU. I always felt like Calypso is a little older, and I would make her 17, but 15 and 17 feels a little weird to my brain. 15 and 17 year old me were very different people. a bigger age gap feels more appropriate when they're young adults in their regular story, i picture like 3 years, but when youre a teenager that's a HUGE difference in maturity.

Aspen's first encounter with Gooseberry in the intro is immediately different. Gooseberry immediately clocks, peaking out from her curtain while she holds Aspen's wrist, that this is not an adult. Aspen has MAD baby face. She and Dr. Futterman exchange a bit of a look, and suddenly back off a bit. Weird, but Aspen was worried they were about to get a drill to the face, so they aren't complaining. The part where Gooseberry talks about children "growing up before their time' is much more pointed than it already was. Aspen feels immediately anxious. How does she know? How much do the people in this facility know?? Then Aspen escapes. Gooseberry is her normal aggressive self because this insolent child won't LISTEN. gosh. kids these days.

Next is Coyle. Coyle is also pretty observant, and immediately clocks that Aspen is too young to be there. Aspen is also racially ambiguous enough that racist Mr. Coyle assumes they just have a farmer's tan that's my excuse for why he doesn't call Aspen slurs. Anyway. Coyle doesn't really pull any punches, kid's gotta learn somehow, but he does make everything he does a "learning opportunity", more directly than Easterman's intentions. "See how you left yourself open there, kid? Close that gap, keep your damn head on a swivel. Never know where the next swing's gonna come from!" He doesn't think of himself as being particularly parental, but it is something he had kinda hoped for if he ever found a wife worth the effort. He always wanted a kid to carry on the family name, although he has very complex feelings he refuses to unpack about it all.

Franco doesn't immediately clock that Aspen is a kid, but Aspen luckily encounters him for the first time during a prime time event in Gooseberry territory, and Aspen has already been found and grabbed by her and is being smothered in weirdly violent affection. When Franco tries to intervene, Gooseberry immediately gets mad and scolds him for "being so cruel to another child". Aspen shoots Franco an embarrassed look, and Franco connects the dots. He decides from then on to make it his life goal to piss off Aspen as much as physically possible. He always wanted a snot-nosed little sibling to push around.

The Kress twins clock immediately. Of course they do. They're both extremely intelligent, and they also kinda already knew about Aspen's whole deal before they were made Primes. They'd never seen Aspen themself, but they'd heard there was a spunky little teenager running about the facility. Arora is immediately fond of them and their stubborn behavior. She wants to train Aspen like a beast, after all that's really all children are when you boil them down. Otto is skeptical at first, but grows fond of Aspen's cleverness after encountering them a few times.

Liliya knows immediately as well, and feels very strange. She has of course always felt protective of her flock, but this one... She almost sees herself in Aspen, the way they only crave survival, they fight tooth and nail, sometimes almost seeming as feral as an expop, desperate to live through the danger in a way Liliya is all too familiar with. She knew this place was sick, but this... She still does her job, but she is deliberately much more gentle with Aspen. The pain brings them closer to God, but she won't be excessive.

Aspen tries several times to leave or escape the trials, but they fail every time. After enough attempts, they break psychologically, and Easterman takes that as an opportunity to make them a Prime. Aspen, as a prime, is angry, aggressive, and sadistic. Pretty normal stuff.

I think their trial environment would be a boarding school, and they would serve as a screwed up student council president. I was originally going to say a hall monitor, but not only is that kinda encroaching on Coyle territory, it is also a niche that could be better occupied by expop, especially the new biters (whom i love and adore).

The purpose of their trial would be to kinda push this narrative that A. Not even children are off limits (the orphanage and funpark kinda already do that), B. children have no place advocating for themselves, and must be disciplined for doing so (Because that seems like a very Easterman thing to do. He'd probably justify it further by making the comparison of reagents being his children and him being the adult they need to listen to.) , and C. Adults should never cave to the whims of unruly children.