Idea 2: Vanessa is great with kids
Contrary to most fics, where "freed" Vanessa acts exactly the same as Vanny, just not evil; I believe that in the pre-Help Wanted era, Vanessa was actually great with children. My reasoning is as follows:
Fazbear Entertainment wants to improve their reputation before the VR game release and the pizzaplex opening.
Decide to make each of their "branches" (companies that work for them) send one of their employees to schools to talk about their job as a way to "be transparent."
Vanessa's job is basically "play/ break video games," so Silver Parasol Games, the company that made FNAF VR in this universe, decides to send her out.
Vanessa finds working with the kids to be very enjoyable. She used to babysit kids when she was a teenager. Her positive and bubbly personality (as evidenced by the cut FNAF AR emails) makes the kids really like her. They are blown away by the idea that they can be paid to play video games.
Vanessa especially likes when some of those kids get that look of "I have found what I want to do with my life."
It's a win for everyone! Vanessa inspires some kids to get into tech, the children get a newfound love for technology, and Fazbear Entertainment's reputation goes up...slightly.
All this just serves to make the whole "Vanny" thing even worse, especially if some of her victims were those same kids Vanessa once talked with.
[I personally see Vanessa as not caring for kids, not hating them, but not loving them. But all of this is really cool to read! I like all the details you have here (I don’t know what’s exactly canon or headcanon, but either way it’s all good!)
Though just because someone is a game tester doesn’t mean they have to be good with kids. I know what you are getting at, but that is something to keep in mind. There are professional gamers out there that break the game and find bugs, who don’t like kids, even if they game they are playing is for kids.
But anyway, I do really like this split contrast between free Vanessa, controlled Vanessa, and Vanny, Makes me think that post-freed Vanessa might be a slight mix between all of them but leaning more towards pre-controlled Vanessa. So she would still love kids and love hanging out with them, but is scared of hurting them, but also has a sour taste in her mouth thinking about kids because of how Vanny influenced her.
Now that influence might not actually be there anymore, as in all the emotions that Vanny felt are now dormant and gone or numb, but the ideas of what Vanny did and how that makes freed Vanessa feel are still something to look at. Her fear of hurting kids would still be there whether Vanny’s emotions are something she can access or not. Her love for kids would still be with her, just potentially not as strong as it was once before. It’s the idea that she might have a small disdain or dislike for kids that could be up in the air.
When living in a very stressful time for long periods of time, out body changes physically and mentally. Vanny would have changed Vanessa’s core over time, causing her to change permanently even after Vanny’s immediate influence vanished. Vanessa would definitely have some trauma, which is where the fear comes from, but after potentially years of hating and killing kids, being deceptive and controlled, I don’t think Vanessa would ever be able to go back to 100% loving kids.
She would have some kind of intrusive thoughts or small inkling of hatred for kids. Even if she would never act on those feelings, and she hates having those kinds of thoughts, it would be something that would pop up from time to time that she would definitely need to work through.]