Mostly for silly Undertale AUs shipchildren

Let's start from his dad (which I named Ivan) and his parents, Rurik's grandparents

His grandma was Russian (actually, from the Soviet Union at the time...) and his granddad was Hungarian. But they both moved to the U.S. and had his father there. They met when they were young and emmigrated when they were around 20 years old.

Keep in mind that those grandparents emigrated in the 70s. Which means a very traumatized and probably stressed pair of people who have to claw their way out in a completely new country (there is a reason Rurik's dad can't behave, just saying)

Ivan never had any luck with ladies (he doesn't know he's a repressed gay. Wait who said that) so he ended up a lonely workaholic. He fought with his parents so much in his 20s that they cut ties

Fast forward to when he's 29 working at construction sites (he would be a good architect but never had a chance to go to a good school so he does whatever is related), he gains a new coworker, a businesswoman (let's name her Delia) overseeing a huge project from a client abroad that wants to expand to U.S. They end up drinking coffee every time she comes to check on progress (he's one of the main guys in charge) and they both slowly end up becoming more. Ivan is hiding a lot of things to make himself look better... He tells her she should move to live with him but she's hesistant

One romance later it turns out she is pregnant with his child 🫣 Ivan swears he will take care of them because it's his chance at a "normal, traditional" life and begs her to stay, but when he rushes to the hospital on the day Rurik is born, she is nowhere to be seen. He never gets answers. Nobody knows where she went, or they pretend they don't.

All he gets is a little baby crying alone in the dimmed hospital room

Ivan thought he would at least have something out of the baby, but the mask he kept on for Delia slowly cracked under the feeling of betrayal and anger as Rurik grew older (He has her eyes...)

He kept on blaming Rurik, saying that he made her leave (Rurik didn't even know at what moment she left!) because he couldn't cope with the thought that maybe Delia just saw through his lies (even though that wasn't the truth either)

Now the crazy part, as an adult Rurik finds out that Delia tried to find him later, around the time Palette was born, but she went missing and still is to this day.

Obviously places like this can still have many problems. And it probably did have some (Rurik's possible trauma from those is an entire another topic)

But just for the mere fact of structure and having regular access to food and somewhere to stay. And having some adults actually supervise him for once. He hated rules so much but quickly realized that this way he can earn more, he was good at fulfilling orders and demands but not without making joke of them sometimes or causing trouble

What Lotus couldn't fix (because he was just a kid too) was taken care of there at least somewhat, I do believe there was at least one person who genuinely wanted to help him out or some things that benefited him

Maybe that's even where he first took cooking classes (as a part of education about food and therapy for those who struggled with trauma around food)