Answered a request for a SWTD + ISM crossover and, I’ve thought about it before, but not in much detail. And so, I present to you, the detail! (more or less :/):
The events of swtd would take place around the same time as the events of ism. Like, as Desmond’s in the CU, Caz is going through it on the rig.
They escape around the same time as well, with @milestonekestrel ‘s (so sorry for the @) Caz survives AU occurring in correspondence to the everybody lives AU. (If that’s alright of course :O)
Desmond goes back to working as a therapist, in part so he can help monitor the remaining effects of Agent Rainbow, as Lucas, Rosemary, and the rest of the gang do their own parts in helping everyone heal from the event (whether the people affected are aware or not).
The Caz survives AU happens as normal (though things might change depending on if the thing with Billy, Addair, Finlay, all that stuff, happens here). At one point, they end up in America (for whatever reason), in Washington, and, of course, Milton Haven.
Caz is still not doing so great, even with Suze’s (and maybe Billy’s) help, and so, after hearing about Dr. Wales from one of his other patients (in other words, one of the gang figuring out that something’s Not Right with the new guy in town and trying to send him Desmond’s way via his clearly worried partner), Suze gets Caz to give the man a call and see about scheduling an appointment.
And so, Caz ends up in Desmond’s office, and decides, what the hell right? Everybody in town already thinks he’s nuts so why not play into it? It’s not like there aren’t any weirdos in town already, like that lighthouse keeper who talks to shadows, or the girl with long hair who keeps staring at him, and getting mad when he stares back.
Caz tells Desmond everything, and I mean everything. That morning, in the canteen. Getting fired. The helipad, and the drill hitting something. Raffs in the bell, Finlay telling him about Gibbo, his brief encounter with the man, or what was left of him. He talks about the Infected, how they seemed to talk like themselves, knew things only they did, like Addair’s kids, or Trots’ lover on the mainland. He talks about all of it, expecting to be laughed out of the office, or sent away to some looney bin with all the other crazy people who rave on about the monsters of their friends, and colorful goop that twisted their vision, and seeing their dead friends in the corners of their eyes years afterwards.
What he didn’t expect, was a look of sympathy and understanding. For his therapist to call someone mid-session, and for that someone to be over in less than 5 minutes, and bring along the Park Ranger that everybody says is a lunatic.
That someone’s name is Rosemary, a scientist, and the Park Ranger is Lucas, a veteran that’s experienced something very, unsettlingly similar back during his time in the war. They ask him a shite load of questions, like, what did these monsters say (nonsense ramblings), what color was the thing that did all of it (every color, really), what did the monsters look like (they looked… I… w-why am I being interrogated? Who are you?! And who the fuck is that creepy purple cunt in the corner!? He’s - it’s - he’s mocking me!).
Eventually, after a lot of not-explaining and promises of more answers, he goes with them to their base of operations (Lucas’ cabin) to discuss the matter further. The burst of confidence Caz had when he’d gone to Desmond’s office that morning has left him, and he doesn’t really want to recount the details of what happened in the rig. Lucas, Rosemary, Desmond, and the seemingly random people they keep calling seem reluctant to talk about whatever the hell they went through as well. Apparently the government is involved somewhere?
By all accounts, their situations seem to be the same, more or less. Apparently, Lucas had been infected by the thing years and years ago, and Desmond had recently been through his own adventure with it. With his limited information, Caz is able to deduce that Rosemary wasn’t infected, but she’s been working around the Shape for years, until a few years ago. The people they’re calling have all had their own encounters with it.
And suddenly, Caz (and maybe Suze and maybe Billy) isn’t alone in this. There’s a whole group of survivors - hell, a whole town, even if they aren’t aware of it, and they know how to deal with it, to an extent. They’re all infected, this whole damn town is infected, and they’re all more or less going about their normal lives, almost unaffected. At least, the majority of people are almost unaffected.
Desmond, Lucas, the lighthouse keeper Allen, the weird girl Virginia, and an angry, lowkey parental man, Max, they’re all working to mitigate the effects of the Shape in the townsfolk. At least, that’s what Caz has gathered from their half-conversations and their very specific questions.
On the flip side, holy shit, Meyer was a lot more widespread than they thought. Not even Rosemary knew about this, and she was the head researcher at one point! And the poor man’s crew, all killed in an experiment gone horribly wrong (or right, if you ask Meyer, probably). Lucas relates to him with the loss of his platoon and the disbelief from those around him, Desmond relates to him with the long, near hopeless fight for his mind.
Eventually Caz goes home, tells Suze (and maybe Billy) everything (her reaction depends on how far into the Caz survives AU this is), and keeps in touch with the gang (reluctantly). He continues to go to therapy, which, despite the new revelations, is actually helping. Slowly, but it’s helping. Suze (and maybe Billy) are ecstatic, because Caz is getting help and making friends (also slowly). Until the Shape comes knocking once more.
Things change a lot here, depending on where I go with this. Is the Shape really connected with Agent Rainbow and vise versa, or are they separate, yet similar things? Is this farther into the Caz survives AU, or is it not? Either way, someone is getting stuck in the CU, and people are gonna get Infected. Caz and the others are going to have to fight the Shape (again), and they’re also going to have to fight Agent Rainbow (again). And people are going to get hurt.
Bonus points if ghost Finlay is here, and can see and interact with Desmond’s Agent Rainbow. Extra bonus points if Caz can also see him, and Desmond can see Finlay (though that’s mostly if we’re going the "Shape and AR are connected" route). Finlay and AR are always at each other’s throats, and it’s funny (though if AR is "good" or not, is up for debate. Really depends on your definition of "good".).
Even MORE bonus points if Fin and Tonia become support animal besties. Tonia would absolutely hate the pupper at first, but eventually warms up to him. In the CU, she’s just complaining to Desmond about Fin, and Desmond is like okay please let me focus on not going insane during my visit here.
Mega post from me, but oh my cheese mold this is fun to think about. Back when SWTD was just something I half-watched Eddie play on yt, I thought about an AU where it’s the ISM crew going through it on the rig, but now that I’m in the SWTD fandom, having it as a crossover is so fun.
I wanna make more fanart of this, oh man I really do. I usually hate putting my blorbos from separate universes in the same space, but like, an exception can be made here for this.
