Personality:
A kind soul, Sandy is always eager to do what he can to help others, sometimes even at the expense of his own safety or comfort. He's the hardworking type, never really taking time off for himself; after all, who could with a job like his? There's always something to do or someone who needs assistance. (He does have a habit of falling asleep at his desk from time to time (or while at camp, while sitting inside his airplane as it sits in its parking space inside the hanger), but he’s always up again within the hour.)
But as nice as Sandy is, he still has something of a mischievous streak. He is just so very good at getting under other people’s skin. It doesn’t help that he somehow always gets put in charge of the PA system. He can’t vocally tell everyone to get up in the morning, so Sandy plays music instead. Most of the time it’s pretty much neutral “get up and greet the day!” but sometimes, when he really wants to ramp up the snark, he’ll play something just for you, you special little person.
Sandy is also, at heart, a protector. He considers the loss of Koz a great failure of his (see below) so he is incredibly defensive of Sera, his adoptive ‘daughter’, and the campers. Sandy will do anything and everything in his power to keep others safe. Being helpless in the face of danger is his biggest fear; not for him, but for those who will suffer due to his weakness.
AU History:
Sanderson Mansnoozie is the only son of his father, a single dad and pilot. Sandy never met his mother, but in the pictures he saw hanging in the walls of his childhood home, he can assume she was a loving and caring woman; she was always smiling, bright and happy, with a laugh behind her eyes and a swing in her step. Or at least, that’s what he thinks. His father was a stoic man, not particularly up for deep meaningful conversations about his feelings. He was very much an “actions speak louder than words” sort of man. When he found out his son was a psychic, Sandy’s father took it very much in stride. What was the point of getting all up in arms about something you can’t change? He supported his son in all his endeavors.
When Sandy was 15, his dad taught him how to fly. This was a seriously formative moment for Sandy; the ability to reach up and touch the stars was there, at his fingertips, and it was the most powerful thing he had ever felt. Dreams could be reality, sometimes. His dad died when Sandy was 20, sitting in the porch swing in front of his house, overlooking the fields of wild flowers and the barn where his plane was kept. It was a good place to go. Sandy still lives in that house, and those wild flowers still bloom every year.
Sandy is a retired Psychonaut, for the most part. He used to be in the field, but these days he does more bureaucratic stuff, making sure everything runs smooth and that everyone can rest easy. He has his fingers in all of the pies. All of them. Due to his easy going demeanor and rather unsuspecting figure, most people actually forget he's a force to be reckoned with. In his day, the man was terrifying. Partly because he, alone, was dangerous but more importantly he and his partner worked like clockwork together. Two opposites who came together to make a great whole.
His partner’s name is Kozmotis Pitchiner.
Things went well for a while. More than a while; they had been close friends since they were introduced. Sandy kept Koz in check and vice-versa, and things seemed pretty hunky-dory until Koz went crazy and attacked his partner in the middle of an important mission. Koz’s attack was both physical and mental, harming both of Sandy's vocal cords while also dealing a bit of brain damage. Words in the written form are beyond Sandy’s capacity now; he can understand them and read them, but actually writing them seems to be next to impossible for some reason. There is just some kind of mental block preventing him from just picking up a pen and putting things on paper. (He has a nice secretary now though; she can understand ASL and is very good at typing and looking at his hands at the same time.)
There was a formal investigation, but no one knows where Koz is now. Sandy doesn't think Koz is at fault, though. He believes someone overtook Koz's mind- something very strictly forbidden and taboo. He doesn’t reference the person who took over his best friend’s body as Koz, however; he calls him Pitch. There was just something very dark and very evil in those eyes when the worst happened. Something that Koz wouldn’t have been able to do; he was an upright and justice driven individual. The potential for great evil just wasn’t there.
After Pitch’s mysterious disappearance, Sandy adopted Koz’s daughter, Seraphina. It was a surprisingly easy thing to do; there are benefits to being a powerful person in the government. The next year was something of a transition period for both of them. They were both learning ASL while he was coming to terms with his newfound lack of voice. Even though he wasn’t very verbal to begin with, the lack of ability in itself was astonishing to the point of heartbreak. Sera, reeling after the sudden and unexpected “loss” of her father, put all of her efforts into helping Sandy adjust to this new way of life. Things were rocky at first; neither knew what to do or say. But things got better. They found hope in each other that they could keep moving on and up. (This year hosted the summer Sandy took off, thus missing the brain-snatching events. Sandy’s more than a little pissed about not being there, but he knew he couldn’t be.)
During his down-time after all the stuff with Koz, Sandy started to create art. He always enjoyed drawing, but he never really took it seriously; after all, he was a Psychonaut, when would he have time for art? Suddenly, when he had all the time in the world, it was really the only thing he could do. Reading was out of the question and music, one of Koz’s favorite things, just hurt too much to revisit. There is a corner of his room at home designated to art that reeks of turpentine and charcoal. (He also always keeps a sketchbook and some pencils on his plane.) What he loves most, out of all the different forms of art he’s tried, is sculpting. Sandy loves to put emphasis on the figure rather than the surroundings to sculpting which is essentially only the figure. The loft of the barn is his favorite place to work. Sera will come up there and read while he sculpts and they’ll just stay there, in the silence, for hours until one or both of them is hungry. He doesn’t take his art supplies to WR, but if anyone ever wanted to have a crafting hour, Sandy would love to be in charge of it.
Almost every summer since becoming a Psychonaut himself, Sandy has volunteered his summers to Whispering Rock as a telepathy counselor. Being one of the best in this area, it just seemed fitting to pass his skills on to the next generation.
Brain World:
The brain world of Sanderson Mansnoozie is an island covered in golden sands, strewn about in a looping pattern that centered on huge pointed dunes, surrounded by endless blue water.
(You’d find if you decided to sail out into that water, it would eventually drop right off the earth into infinite black skies, dusted with silver stars.) Walking into the towering dunes, there, parked amongst the tall golden masses, is a great flying machine just as gilded as its surroundings. It is inside there that Sandy teaches his classes on telepathy.
Kids are only allowed in the main room (a big open space for big open minds!) but if one were to enter the small door on the right hand side of the room, idly hiding amongst the golden splendor, they’d find a long corridor lined with plainly colored doors. Some doors lead to staircases, bringing you to upper and lower levels, others are dusty rooms filled with mementos of the distant past. If you go all the way up, you’ll eventually reach the hall leading to the cockpit and from there, you can reach all of the important rooms.
In the next adjoining corridor, you see some of the first specks of color in Sandy’s rather monotone world; all the doors leading off of it are different colors and in various shades of disrepair. Each of the doors represents a different person or event in Sandy’s life; a weathered blue for his dad, a springy green for Seraphine, a warm red for North, and a warm gray for Kozmotis among the numerous doors. At the very end of the hallway is a pure black door. All of his memories about Pitch and how Sandy lost his voice are personified in there. He’s covered the door in police tape, all the letters replaced with exclamation marks (!).
Sandy’s censors take the form of mermaids. They usually stick to the water, but when intruders show their ugly mugs all up in his brain, those ladies get scary hella fast. As long as things are peaceful, the censors remain as beautiful and charming as human women. When things get bad…well. Sirens and harpies have nothing on these ladies.
Thanks to his mental blocks preventing him from being able to write, Sandy’s emotional baggage cannot make any noise at all.
Counselor Reasoning:
Sandy has been doing this whole Psychonaut thing for a long time. It has been his only career path, really. Out of all people, he’d be the one to know what he’s teaching. Telepathy is especially something he’s proficient at; after all, it’s how he communicates with most of the world, by putting images in other people’s brains as psychic charades. But beyond that, even, Sandy loves to pass on knowledge and inspire ideas in others. His dad taught him how to fly and that changed his life, so who’s to say teaching these kids how to use their heads might not change theirs?
Counselor's Lab:
The hanger where Sandy keeps his plane (and also where the official Psychonauts air travel options are kept) is Sandy’s designated lab. He likes it because of its spaciousness. Also, it leaves lots of room for the campers getting lessons! Just camp out on the floor and learn. It’s located behind Raz’s lab a ways, basically straight south of it. The inside of the hangar looks a lot like this: link. Just, you know, smaller and more to size. Somewhere in a corner, he’s got some folding screens set up with a cot behind those. He keeps it pretty simple and Spartan during his stays and just uses the communal bathroom.
SAMPLES
Sample 1:
From the first test drive meme!
Sample 2:
A long time ago, Sandy’s father named her Sognare. His beautiful daydream. As a boy, would dream of flight and as an adult, he decided that dreams should become realities every once and a while. Beautiful and sleek, he restored her to perfection and maintained her til the day he died. Sognare was his first love. She was Sandy’s too. Passed down from father to son, she inspired dreams and gave constants to a world fraught with change. When he found out he wasn’t like everyone else, he laid on her wing and stared at the ceiling until his father came out and told him it didn’t matter. When he met Koz, he brought the taller man out to meet her and took her on the best goddamn ride of his life. When his father died, Sandy sat in her cockpit and cried for hours until enough tears had been wrung from his soul that it could drown a bigger man. When he lost Koz, he curled up underneath her between her wheels, unable to even find the strength to climb aboard.
He didn’t touch her for a long time after that. Weeks. Maybe months. She sat in that barn, alone with the swirling dust motes and the whispers of sunshine through the cracks in the planking, alone with her memories of her boy and her boy’s boy. The distance tortured her and the loneliness sent an ache through her steel bones strong enough to shatter hearts.
But then he came back. Along with an addition, a new little one to inspire dreams in and to soar with in the clouds. Seraphina, with the thunder in her soul and the wind in her hair. She fell for Sognare as all those who had before, passionately and fervently, and Sognare could feel herself mending them, her new girl and her boy. He didn’t leave her alone after that. Neither did Sera, for that matter. Always visiting, always touching, always living and breathing with her and keeping her alive and alert.
Her beautiful daydreams, Sanderson and Seraphina.
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mansnoozie
