I can't unsee it so I'm going to put it here: Caleb & MC feel like, what happens when a child develops dissociative identity disorder, but is a cosmic entity so is able to split not just mentally but physically as well? What if alters could have their own bodies?
so they are twins, they are the same soul, and Caleb is older, even though MC was born first… These are all true at the same time.
the age that MC appeared in is around the age where DID develops. Medical trauma can cause it. Traumatic experiences that child's mind cannot handle, will split in order to compartmentalize and survive it. Every time she was forced to endure her own explosion, her memories reset. Like her brain formed a new guy to handle it.
when mc thought Caleb was dead, she could barely function without him. Sometimes alters go dormant, and the host can believe that they've disappeared for good. There can be a lot of grief, a sense of loss involved, identity crisis even. And they can reappear when it's least expected — they might have taken a slightly different form. It also seems like Caleb started to wear mascara after the explosion.
so when they split her apart like a planet, she split between herself and Caleb. And Caleb was older bc that's what she needed. An older boy to act as her protector.
In the Death and Rebirth arc, I wondered why Dimitri thought it would kill MC this time when she'd survived it before. But what if they thought, her power was already split in half, and Caleb had most of the strength, of the memory… So it would be easy to crush the shell that remained of her?
I used to think (and still kind of hc) that when MC materialized, Caleb did as well, but outside of the lab. Fell to earth, even, maybe. And made his way to the facility to join and protect mc. Because her soul couldn't fit in one body, bc they are 2 halves that complement each other. I also thought it seemed like Caleb had "guilt and sin" that MC couldn't comprehend because he just appeared outside, and thought he stole the body of some other kid. (and with the materialized DID theory, this is kind of true — Guilt for separating from MC, for taking over a part of her).
Gaia Research Center is an interesting name, considering how Gaia is often paired with garden of eden imagery, how a lot of that symbolism appeared in Caleb, and how this DID theory really makes it so that he is Eve, taken from MC's side…
Anyway, from the lack of information on Caleb in that facility and Josephine's only mention of him (which trailed off but implied his existence) was after the adoption. MC took Josephine's hand and called her Grandma. Caleb seems to distrust her, from the way he said "ugh that means we'll never be alone again?" when she first brought them home to the way Caleb's facial expression and diverting the conversation when MC asked about her after the explosion. Irl, some alters can be very well aware that a family member is unsafe, while others in the system remain in denial for decades.
I believe that Caleb came into existence when the catastrophe struck. He split from MC, when the researchers would not witness it, when it was safe to surface and he took her away to what seemed like a safe place.
autonomy - you are me, my titles and accomplishments are yours, whether I take this gift with my evol or you hand it to me is all the same. He made her airplane fly the farthest, and never seemed to consider that cheating. bc they are 1 person.
Caleb taking care of MC, irl it's common for some alters can handle giving injections and taking pills, while others can't, some don't remember how to cook or do laundry. He cares for her as if that's himself
there's also the selfcest thing. Like it's pretty common for headmates to catch feelings for / date each other.
Caleb is deciding what MC should know, what to cover her eyes from, and he is reminding her of things he remembers from when they were kids. (their interactions rly does feel like he's assisting a regressed headmate at times)
And dgmw, this doesn't mean there are only 2 alters. I can see both of them having more. which would technically make them subsystems but since they have 2 bodies, there isn't rly 1 whole system. unless Caleb and MC were to fuse into one physical entity… which might be possible w the spacium core idk.
Some players point out how different mc acts with different love interests and say that she's a different person entirely, from one LI's cards to the next. I think it's just how anyone acts different with different people, they being out different sides of you… but they can also bring out different alters, for someone with DID. The system shifts, someone else might front with Zayne than with Sylus etc etc.
Caleb obviously acts differently as the colonel and as mc's brother. Caleb mentions her being afraid of his uniform (which feels like, she could have some who are afraid and others who are into it. The outfit could also make it easier for his headmate that scares her to front. But as time goes on they're better at co-fronting).
memory - Caleb is like the memory holder. MC has amnesia regarding their childhood in the Gaia Research Center.
When Caleb first brings mc to his home in skyhaven, he "almost forgot" she graduated from hunter school already — this happened well before the explosion. so I am hc that Caleb lets his memories drift into a black hole (as we see at the end of his lucid dream myth, to avoid them being disappeared by the chip) in his brain. And when he needs them, he'll open another and retrieve those memories. (which sounds a lottttt like headmates passing along memories, and could be a simpler explanation, but why wouldn't they use evol if it is an option?)
There's the visions, the memory flashes that MC gets. Some are from past lives being remembered with Sylus. (I think that the linkage could form between him and Caleb as well, if they were in the same room). But this kind of disorienting thing, finding yourself standing on the street, also feels like DID.
Then there's the dream with Caleb and MC, it rly seems like Caleb is aware of A-01 and X-02 and bringing them to their promised land. DID dreams can also be trippy and weird and insightful about it.
I predict that Caleb and MC will gain the same ability, because she now has the spacium core. Kevi and Mia were able to hide in a secret space with just a fragment of it. so MC could learn to use it similarly to Caleb's black holes. And Caleb's forbidden knowledge thing is even deeper this way — do you really want to be close to me? Do you want to risk awareness of what happened to us? Anyway, it seems that only Caleb knows what's up with black holes. I think he could obliterate, or transport, or store whatever (or whoever) gets sucked into them. If this space connects to the one that MC opens with her new protocore, it would not surprise me. Another pair of twins with their secret base. AND how similarly Caleb and Sylus use their evol — to grab, to throw, to pin someone down, to make something disappear (or appear, I think we will see this with Caleb later). Sylus said "you and me, we're kindred spirits".
also from Viper's world underneath: Caleb, miraculously survived and in a coma, with his mind somehow resisting their 429th attempt within 3 days.
This reminds me of the first time I tried hypnosis — and was prompted to remember some happy childhood memory. What I saw was a TV screen with nothing but static. No images, no color. But some protective alter who can't admit that, because having a bad childhood is somehow evil to allude to, diverted the conversation to this old computer game where monsters eat numbers. Which I hardly remember at all, but held in high regard, and it kind of resembled the blank static screen, so our system let them say it. The hypnotist knew the game, and we moved on.
And the way that Skyhaven seems to resemble common inner worlds or headspaces. They're often on a floating island. Because it feels safe up there.
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