#ata 1

𝙎𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 1 𝙀𝙥𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙙𝙚 1 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒂 𝒅𝒖𝒐?- 𝑨 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒐

𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘦,

𝘚𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 26𝘵𝘩, 1998

It was a beautiful autumn day, leaves were falling as trees started to die off. The room illuminated with the bright sun as it poured through the window. In the room was a bunk bed, desk, closet, a world map on the wall with a postcard of Big Ben, and an overturned toy box. In the middle of the room were two kids, F/N and Riley Park, cousins at birth but siblings by heart. They two Parks walked around the room as they built with train tracks, placing each track down with precision to create what they deemed the perfect track.

The two talked about what places they wanted to visit on their imaginary train ride. F/N dropped their tracks on the ground and ran up to their world map on the wall. They looked around on the map before point to the Eiffel Tower. "We should go here, Riley! The place of love! I want to find knight for myself like in those fairytales!

Riley who had started to pick up her younger cousin's left over tracks looked over with a scowl. Riley turned the toy box back over right side up and placed the tracks in them. "No! I think we should go to Mexico City. It is much more vibrant there! I want to go to a place where it is bright and fun!

The two Parks started to fight over where to go. They each gave their reason why they should go to their respective cities. Eventually the fight go so heated Riley turned her back to F/N, knocking a postcard of Big Ben off F/N's Map. F/N bent down and picked up their postcard they tapped Riley on the shoulder. "How about here?" Riley turned around with curiosity in her eyes, she looked down at the Big Ben postcard and her eyes lit up. Riley nodded eagerly as the two rushed back to complete their train track.

Once the two were about to finished their train track and go on their adventure, a women called their names. "F/N! Riley! Come down here. There is someone I would like you to meet." The two Parks groaned as they were about to go a wicked adventure to England. The two walked into the kitchen and saw Kate, F/N's mother and Riley's Aunt standing there with a mug in her hand while two other people stood there, one man one girl. "Ok you two, I would like you to meet Sam and Rebecca Colton! Sam here recently adopted Rebecca and I wanted to see if you two wanted to play with Rebecca! I met them at the Library, Sam and Rebecca were picking out some books. You know... Rebecca here really likes playing with other," Rebecca looked at the two with a timid look as she scooted further between her dad's legs. "She may be shy now, but I've seen her at the Library, she is such a social butterfly."

The man named Sam soon spoke up. "Rebecca say hi, it's rude to not introduce yourself." Rebecca slowly inched out from between his legs. She stood in front of the two Parks and gave a shy wave.

"Hi... I'm Rebecca..." Rebecca grabbed a coil of her hair they hung freely from the two buns on her head. She twirled that coil of hair, a habit she picked up when she was nerve. F/N eyes sparkled as Rebecca spoke, Riley then reached out and grabbed Rebecca's hands, clasping them in hers

"Do you wanna play trains with us?! We already have the track set up in F/N's room! We are going to see the Big Ben!" Rebecca's eyes lit up. She had always want to see the Big Ben even if she had to imagine it for pretend. Rebecca nodded and once Riley got Rebecca's confirmation she let go of one of Rebecca's hands, dragging Rebecca to F/N's room with F/N following close behind. The two adults laughed as they saw the girls clicking so quickly.

"They will be good friends, we should schedule more playdates." Sam spoke out to Kate as she took a sip of her coffee. "They will make such great friends, I know it." Kate nodded in agreement. The two eventually started to chat about other things : Kate's job, Sam's new creative project, Kensdale events. In the other room the girls were having a complete blast. They imagined the Big Ben then other placed they collectively decide to go to, Japan, Brazil, New York. After a while the trio collectively flopped onto F/N's bed, giggling.

Riley spoke after a few seconds of silence. "You know Rebecca, I am glad you came today! It has been so much fun with you here! I always thought that F/N and I would be a duo, but you know what's better than a duo?"

"A trio!" The three collectively exclaimed. Once they realized they all said the same thing, they started laughing again. Sam and Kate turned their heads to look at where the sound of laughter was coming from. Realizing it was the girls they both looked at each other with a smile.

"Told you, Kate."

𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵

𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳'𝘴 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦 : First Chapter done! I would like to clarify it says Amanda is born around 1995. This chapter wouldn't really make sense if that was the case. So I am pushing back the year she was born along with Riley and F/N

Amanda : 1993 - making her 5

F/N : 1992 - making them 6

while I don't think every background detail is perfect, let's say this was an intentional choice. It's a pretty wild coincidence that Joanne happened to visit on the exact same day Riley got there.

it's pretty heavily implied, at least in my opinion, that Riley does not live near Kate, and it would have taken time to get there, not to mention the time for things like that to get through legally.

Joanne on the other hand, presumably lives in or near Kensdale, and probably would have taken the action to go to Kates house relatively soon after the events of Kates death.

What if Rebecca sent Riley back in time so they could meet with Joanne?

Ever thought about what these tools are used for in this exact setting? I believe yes, and it's been said many times, but what if we were supposed to understand a different layer of symbolism in it? Hear me out.

These tools are a typical setting for an average 19th-early 20th century neurological surgery. Which is the first confusing thing here. Even if Hameln did operate since 80s or 90s, they would already have way way better tools accessible. Plus we know they needed children's brains intact and fine after the surgery which this specific old set of tools would make hard to do. And we also know that Hameln isn't afraid to use modern stuff at all, in fact they need it, hell they even invented so much themselves.

But if this scene as a display or some kind of metaphor for neurological surgery doesn't really make sense, what else could it be?

Autopsy

The tools exactly match set used for cranial autopsy.

And probably the most telling one out of the three is Satterlee saw: a large thin manual bone saw, used for amputation but also for opening of the skull during cranial autopsy, where damaging of the brain does not matter that much anymore. You can't simply use this tool on a living patient if you want to ensure their brain is all fine after the procedure, it's too risky, just get modern tools, but in case of cranial autopsy, this is irrelevant.

And after so much precisely made lore of ATA, I doubt developers would just throw in any tools.

Could ATA1 be trying to tell us that Marcus really is dead? Maybe this scene is not about how surgeries went with children, but rather all about Marcus.