#personal rambles

So I've had a long running theory since pretty much the second game, that these schools are specifically for children with additional needs. Children with mental health issues and disabilities and troublesome home lives. Every single character has at least ONE quality making them unique and fitting to the game.

Cindy being the most obvious example. I can't stand it when people say they HATE Cindy, or call her a bitch. I feel like sometimes this fandom forgets she's literally FIVE. Her behaviour is very blatantly copied from what she sees at home, and yeah, it's incredibly messed up. A five year old doesn't recognise that. They aren't going to think "wow, this is problematic. I am going to heal despite all odds and grow as a person". They're going to think it's normal and they're not going to look too deep into the issue. The same can be said for Buggs, who often talks about his deadbeat dad being an alcoholic. It would not shock me at all if his dad was also violent, hence why Buggs is like that.

And Nugget. Nugget is so explicitly autistic oh my god. And I love that for him! But as an autistic person who was once an autistic kid, he would NOT do well in a posh neurotypical school. Don't get me wrong, he's shown in multiple occasions to be actually quite smart. Even Ms Jigglytits can admit to that! Nugget is very very weird, but he's clever. He's the only other kid from the original class who can actually read and write, he's creative at writing riddles, he understands a LOT more about his surroundings and the things happening around him than the other children do, he's trusted to handle important tasks by Billy and Lily and does so with great success, etc. But he isn't neurotypical. He's unapologetically odd, and it makes sense that despite everything I just mentioned, he would still end up in a school for troubled kids.

While the second school appears to be more like a regular school, just with a 'special' class (I fuckin hate that term--), the students there have issues too. Penny, namely, for... obvious reasons. But also the Huxley twins. Felix and Teddy aren't subtle about their home life being less than ideal. While their family is rich, they're placed under a distressing amount of pressure and neglect, to the point where they feel the need to kill each other and other kids just to earn affection from their father.

Also, talking of the second school, one thing to note is how all the students from the first school are just sent off to a new one the very next day after their principal was attacked and killed by a MUTANT he was experimenting on underneath the school, where he also experimented on children and gave kids pills. Yet none of the parents seem to worry about that. They just send their kids back the next day. Even Jerome's mom does! Which kinda backs up my point that a lot of their home lives are shitty.

"But Corpse," you ask, "what the fuck has any of this super obvious and unoriginal rambling got to do with Kevin?" I'm getting to it.

We finally move on to my son. Kevin. Granted, there's very little content regarding Kevin in the game, but if you're autistic like I am, you can gather up enough dust to form lint.

We all know the story by now. Kevin was underneath the school the whole day, from even before you step into the grounds. The fact he's sleeping in a tiny patch of hay already implies he spent the night, which yeah, that checks out, he's been missing for days. Although I do find it odd how he's left with other things in that cage. Alice's diary for one, perhaps intended to be torn apart as some kind of chew toy, to destroy any evidence Alice left behind, AND to keep him entertained for 5 minutes. Also, the goo core. I find it weird how Regis would keep an explosive power source IN the cage with Kevin. I'll get back to that in just a second.

There's one thing I picked up on in particular. Specifically in The Grate Escape. When Nugget has "gone full Kevin", as Regis describes it, the nurse explains how the breaking of bones speeds up the process greatly. And what's the first thing we'll find out if we step on the hay around Kevin? His claws are INCREDIBLY sharp. But... they don't actually look like claws. On the previous mutants we saw, they actually had full on claws, like mantises. Even on Regis, we see he has clawed hands. But Kevin's are more jagged and asymmetrical.

Personally, I think they aren't claws at all. They're bone. They look very splintered and uneven, as though someone had broken both his arms and left the bones poking out of his wounds. Knowing the breaking of bones greatly enhances the transformation process, I really, really wouldn't put it past Regis to snap Kevin's arms just to get faster results, AND prevent him from having hands he can use to escape.

Which brings me back to the goo core. If it's moved out of place, it will explode. It seems stupid of Regis to actively keep it there with a large irritated mutant, but actually, I think it's a power thing. Kevin is smart. VERY smart. He memorises the code to the gate. He calls out to Nugget once he realises he can hear him, likely because the goo listening goes both ways. He recognises you as a friend immediately after a token of respect, so much so that he trusts you with a remote he can't use due to a lack of hands, to free him with it. He knows what door Regis comes from, and immediately goes to it to ambush him, because he knows Regis will shoot him if he doesn't use the sneak advantage. He understands when Regis tells him to stay, and doesn't try to escape or attack even after Regis moves away to put in the code, because he recognises that it won't work. As the other mutants don't really show this level of awareness, I'm going to assume it has something to do with his undeniably unique mutation, and the fact he looks more human than any of the others.

Kevin is definitely smart enough to realise the core will explode if moved. That means he can't touch it or bump into it. Which means he can't go running about in the cage and risking damaging the bars. The goo core is there as a threat to not jump about. It's to keep him sat still. That's also probably why he was given the diary as a chew toy, just so he doesn't go stir crazy. I feel like that's also why there's Linda's water tunnel. Kevin's mouth can't close. The reason we need Linda to get down is because the water is too deep. The water tunnel seems almost like mockery, because Kevin would be far too heavy and disfigured to swim properly, but he would also be constantly inhaling water through his mouth. So while escape is so so close, he can't take it, and Regis KNOWS that must be frustrating.

But another thing I noticed. As the opposite to Regis' cruel and inhumane treatment of these kids, Kevin is truly empathetic when calm. It's ironic that Regis says "it's Kevin who's the monster now" when Kevin is more selfless than he is. Yes, he swiftly attacks us if we're in proximity, but given what we know about the pain he must be in, the fear he must feel constantly, the stress and inability to really move without risking knocking over the core, and the lack of memories and understanding of what's happening, it's no surprise his first instinct is to attack whoever comes near him. Like an abused dog. It won't think, it will just protect itself first until proven to be safe.

There's two instances where we calm Kevin down. The first is in Nugget-o and Liliet, when we offer him some (probably) non-human meat food as a gesture. After all, we DO know he's the one that... disposes of things dropped down the hatches. Once we've gained his friendship, he immediately entrusts us with a controller he's kept hidden from Regis, as he can't use it himself. And the second this abused, injured, traumatised, emotionally broken, forced cannibal child is free from his prison? He doesn't run. He doesn't try to get out and go home.

He stands guard for Regis.

He actively STAYS in the lab as the self destruct sequence kicks in. His first instinct was to make sure Regis doesn't come through that door and hurt him or anyone else, and he fuckin delivers on that promise at the risk of his own safety. He doesn't even try to find the non-Linda exit. He just stays, and sits there by the door with the principal, watching us leave without them, unhurt, and waiting for the lab to explode once and for all.

The second time is in Paging Dr Goolittle, of course. He attacks us the second he leaves the cage, but that's kinda understandable. He doesn't remember the loops. He doesn't know we're friendly. In his eyes, we're just another person waiting to hurt him. And after we hit him with enough cure to revert his mind back? Does he freak out as he regains consciousness? As he regains his memories? As he sees what he's become? Does he get scared about where the hell he is or what happened?

No. Because once again, his first instinct is to be KIND. He gives himself only around 5 seconds to process EVERYTHING, before he's immediately sidetracked with saving the principal. Not because the principal was in active danger, but because he was chained up and distressed, and Kevin immediately wanted to use his mutation to help. It's not until afterwards that he actually sits by himself without doing anything further, just staring into space and likely processing what's happening to him. Again, this child is FIVE. This is all WAYYY too much for a five year old to bear. Yet he's still unreasonably selfless first, which you really don't see often in little kids.

It reminds me of Emmy. How she uses taking care of her plants to cope. How her entire daily routine revolves around tending to them and looking after them, and if anything hurts them, she freaks out to the point of murder. This obsessive behaviour makes me wonder if Emmy is neglected at home, if her parents don't look after her properly. And I cant help but wonder if the same went for Kevin. I mean, considering every other child in the school is troubled in some way, and he takes it upon himself to protect others around him, I wouldn't be surprised. The fact he doesn't even think about going home until AFTER everyone is visibly safe... Man.

Maybe that's how he even got captured in the first place. We know Alice went first, down the slide. Did he go after her to protect her once he realised something was wrong? Did they both mutate in that tube? Did Regis just give Alice, an 'ordinary' mutation, to Penny's mother, while keeping Kevin safe for "HER" because of how unique his mutation in particular was?

My personal theory until proven otherwise is these pills are supposed to cause immortality. These loops are happening in every school using the goo and will only stop when the source and the person in charge is destroyed. It's possible these pills are being used as a way to test a small loop inside a person, reverting their death without resetting the whole world around them. That would also explain how the 3 kids came back to life at the end of the second game, despite very visibly dying, and yet not resetting the entire day. But these mutations are a nasty side effect of this goo. Perhaps that's WHY Kevin was such an important asset. Why Regis refused to just give him up without a fight. Because he's FAR more human than the other test subjects were, both in appearance and nature. He could give a hint to what it'd actually take to keep a person human while also creating the mini loop immortality effect.

Buuut I guess we just gotta wait and see!

Some personal life issues are sucking out all of the energy to draw out of me currently and it's really bringing me down to the point where I'm wondering whether anything I make is good at all :P Not just my technical skill, more about any ideas or whatever I decide I wanna make, commit to.

I don't know, I'm wondering whether there's a future for me where I can keep doing this and be happy and survive (But I guess young people in every field have such questions now, nothing is certain)