#frank vanderboom headcanons (mine) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

escapetothelake · 1 year ago

Text

vanderboom relationship headcanons

focus characters: albert, rose, frank, and leonard

warnings: a little swearing, angst, death, abusive tendencies, albert

quick timeline dump: leonard was probably between 2 and 4 years old in 1895 (when his parents married), marking his birth between 1891 and 1893. this made him between 11 and 13 when his parents died in 1904. when rose was born in 1909, he was between 16 and 18, and when he went off to war in 1914, she was 5, ad he was between 21 and 23. frank was born in 1885, meaning that he was 11 when his mother died in 1896. he was freed in 1924 when he was 39, rose was 15, and leonard was between 31 and 33. all of this is canon.

anyway, after the deaths of his family members, albert absolutely PURGED the vanderboom home of any evidence of its old inhabitants. he locked away emma's paintings, got rid of toys, and boarded up entire rooms. much of the deceased vanderbooms' belongings were either destroyed, or left collecting dust in one of the many locked rooms of the home. albert kept the house very heavily restricted, and it was very hard for anyone residing in the house (leonard and rose) to end up somewhere he didn't want them to be.

i don't see a lot of people talking about this, but albert raised leonard for ten years, and there's no evidence that they had any sort of close connection. however, albert kept him alive, and he didn't seem to harm him directly, so there's that. my headcanon is that he used leonard as something of an errand boy/servant, using him to help build the machine that would bring rose into the world, all the while keeping him in the dark about everything.

leonard could have been a very good influence on rose. he was always a really cheerful child, fond of music and stories, and he would have imparted that onto her. he lost some of his cheerfulness after the deaths of his parents, but he was still kindhearted and passionate. however, albert did not like leonard and rose spending time together, and he quickly became jealous of any affection his young daughter showed toward his nephew. eventually, albert's jealousy became too intense, and he made excuses to keep leonard away from rose (chores, etc). as such, the two children spent very little time together.

however, leonard left his mark here and there. he made some paper flowers for rose when she was little, which ended up decorating her room later. when he wasn't busy helping albert somehow and he had a moment to himself, he would sneak out to the woods behind the house (where he'd hidden the family record player and some records before albert cleared the house out) and dance his heart out to the songs he used to listen to with his parents. rose would later find the record player and keep it.

rose was only five years old when leonard left for the war. it wasn't hard for her to forget him and supress most of the memories she had of him because of how young she was, and albert was quick to hide most of the evidence that he had existed.

i think i should take a moment to further specify just how sheltered rose was. canonically, we see no friends or family (other than her father) in her life until much, much later. i believe that albert was an extremely loving father towards rose (see this post + he calls her birth "the greatest achievement of [his] life" in TPW), but he was definitely an unhealthy parent, and i believe he tried to "protect" her in his own way—by keeping her away from the ignorant and cruel outside world. hell, when leonard was younger, he was allowed to go to the city and play with the local boys and stay with them, but he was absolutely forbidden from even sharing any of that with rose. her father didn’t want him “tainting” her mind with stories of the outside world.

side note, the isolated nature of the vanderboom home makes me wonder if rose ever even saw any sort of settlement or city before she was an adult. i imagine that one would have to row across the lake to pick up food/groceries/other necessities, making me think that albert would make a monthly trip and return with a bunch of goods. this will be important later.

regardless of all of this, albert and rose were very close. she acted as his assistant for much of their time together, and he cherished the presence of the first person who truly seemed to unconditionally love and understand him. he would often give her animal bone/tooth carvings, some of his sketches to decorate her room with, and taxidermy butterflies in boxes (yes, i will do more hcs of these two. lmk if you want me to tag you in my hc posts).

anyway, according to the game, leonard returned home in 1918?? so i guess i have to work around that. leonard came home heavily drugged on painkillers, and albert fixed him up. he spent much time in isolation in a small room downstairs, recovering from his lost leg and the visions he had. these visions triggered a mental breakdown within him, and left him reevaluating much of his life. leonard (now between 25 and 27 years old) asked about rose, and albert made it very clear that he was not to go anywhere near her. realizing that the situation was hopeless and wanting to be as far away from that awful place as possible, leonard packed up and moved to the city. rose had no idea that he was even alive at this point, and she wouldn't find out until much later.

when she turned ten, weird things started happening to rose. she would feel a presence when there wasn't one, and she started to beome even more curious. one day, when albert left to get goods from wherever, she explored.. and found the ouija board and william's spirit, who tasked her with his project.

sometimes rose would try to use the ouija board to communicate with the spirits in her family, but william was always there and would overpower the rest, telling her to find the timepieces or sacrifices. sometimes he’d give her something like “BRAIN”, but she wouldn't know what to do with that. one time, she took the brain of a cadaver her father had and brought it to the ouija board, but william would not accept it.

one day in 1924 when rose was 15, albert left again to get things for the home, which needed some repairs. during this time, she found frank, who was 39, very malnourished, and mute due to the impact of his fall. rose had no clue who he was at first, but curiosity won her over (this was the first person other than her father that she could truly remember), and she took him inside to fix up. frank healed quickly as a result of drinking the immortal dog’s urine (lol), and when rose found some paper for him to write to her on, he explained who he was and what happened.

frank was incredibly knowledge-hungry and intelligent, and he started reading and poking around while rose contemplated all that she had just learned. she was more intrigued than particularly sympathetic to frank's plight, and due to her fascination with this new person in her life, she agreed to help him hide from her father.

this worked for a while. throughout his time in hiding, frank and rose learned sign language. they grew pretty close, bonded by their uniqueness and their fucked up family. however, when rose was around 16 years old, frank saw an opportunity, snuck out of his hiding place, and killed albert.

some complications began here. rose understood why frank did it, and she knew her father deserved it, but she did not exactly condone it. she didn’t stop frank, though. this would obviously put a subconscious rift between the cousins—rose was still young when the man she freed and helped to get back on his feet killed the most important person in her life, so any resentment there is understandable. she didn't hate him, but things were tense. frank appreciated her help and felt a little bad, but he'd do it all again.

rose watched in silence as frank dug a grave for albert in the family cemetary and buried him there. then, the cousins wrote to leonard, who they discovered was still around, and asked him to come. reluctantly, he did, and he was pleased to hear that albert was dead. he found that this was an opportunity to rebuild the vanderboom family and find answers.

frank remembered leonard better than leonard did frank (as he was older), but everything before frank’s fall was a bit cloudy. therefore, virtually their only connection other than blood was through rose and a mutual hatred of albert. still, this was a strong enough foundation for them. leonard did not know sign language, so frank began carrying around a chalkboard to write on while he learned, and rose would occasionally interpret as well.

oof, i don't envy leonard and rose. when they were young, they were the only children around, so they each saw the other as the sibling they never had. but as adults, they discovered they actually were (half) siblings. it's surreal. rose reminded leonard of his mother, but he still felt some uneasiness about her origins. he knew it wasn't her fault, but he couldn't really help it. he instead tried to redirect that anger towards albert, the man who orphaned and then raised him while having the audacity to lie to him the whole time.

leonard went out to the forest to see if his old record player was there. it was, and he and frank brought it inside. rose told him that she found it, and he explained that he had left it out there to keep it safe from albert. they turned it on, and for the first time in decades, the vanderboom home was filled with music.

leonard loved dancing as a boy. however, it frustrated him that he couldn't move as easily as he used to be able to because lost his leg. he was a more bitter man with his injury and the knowledge of albert’s crimes, and rose trying to help him dance initially angered him. however, when he calmed himself down, he decided to give it a try. she had to support him a lot, and they tripped several times, but eventually they managed a steady sway. he was grateful, and he began to improve both on his own and with rose over time. getting back one of his passions helped him heal and made him a much happier man.

frank saw rose and leonard’s connection through dancing, and he got it in his head to offer her a dance as an olive branch. it was kind of her and leonard’s thing, but she agreed. eventually, it became something they could all share together. soon, many nights were spent dancing, listening to leonard's stories of the outside world, and laughing to the dramatic sign language jokes frank did to make his cousins laugh. the vanderbooms were no ordinary family, not anymore (and perhaps not ever), but at least they were a family again in the first place.

#ahh sorry about this it's a mess #i had fun writing tho. i just love these three #rose vanderboom #frank vanderboom #leonard vanderboom #leonard vanderboom headcanons (mine)#albert vanderboom #rose vanderboom headcanons (mine)#frank vanderboom headcanons (mine)#albert vanderboom headcanons (mine)#albert sucks major ass #my headcanons #rusty lake #cube escape #rusty lake roots #tw swearing

47 notes · View notes