#is Shelly a spy??? is her existence classified?

[iffeelscouldkill]

OKAY WAIT I just came up with a crack headcanon about Shelly

What if even RJ doesn't know who she is?? 😆

Maybe Park mentions her once or twice in passing, and RJ is hoping to glean from context exactly who this is because they feel too awkward to ask 😅 (Park's going to tell them, right? Or does he think they already somehow know??)

And then Park says, "If Shelly calls, tell her not to expect me," and through the dread comes a new realisation - RJ is going to have to talk to this person they have absolutely no idea about.

-- But it must be in Park's file, right???

Cue RJ frantically (and guiltily) searching through their superior (former superior?)'s file only to find out:

Even the IGR doesn't know who Shelly is.

Maybe Shelly doesn't call - or maybe she does but RJ struggles to gather anything from her voice or her references to Park about who she is to him. And it's a really inappropriate moment to go "also, um, who exactly are you?"

Come Episode 10, RJ asks Park, "How's Shelly?" and inwardly thinks am I finally going to find out?? But Park's reply is non-committal and RJ is still in the dark 🙈

(And it's not exactly the most pressing issue, what with the whole "sparing the life of a Dwarnian" and "Park being a traitor to the Republic" and "RJ being a traitor to the Republic oh god")

But then they're on board the Iris 2, Shelly's name comes up, and Park looks stricken, so the Rumor crew obviously decide not to ask. Later, someone (Sana?) pulls RJ aside and asks about Shelly and RJ (in far far too deep to admit the truth) improvises desperately.

"She and Park were very close…" (Surely that can only be true, right?) "Park really misses her…" (Again, self-evident) "I think it's difficult because she can't know what's happened to him…" (That's just part and parcel of going on the run)

Sana nods and doesn't seem to detect that the key piece of information is missing.

ALTERNATIVELY, they're on board the Iris 2 and Shelly's name comes up, and both Park and RJ make confident references to her as if the Rumor crew already know who she is. Did Park mention this? Did Other Violet? It's been a crazy 48 hours, no-one has slept, and later on it seems almost… too late to ask (each member of the crew thinks they're the one who can't remember who Shelly is).

Which results in Park + a ship full of people all desperately trying to pretend they know about Shelly

#TSCOSI #crack #headcanons #Shelly TSCOSI #Jin-Seon Park #RJ McCabe #The Strange Case of Starship Iris #Park may in fact realise and is just waiting for someone to crack and admit they don't know who Shelly is #it's been an impressively long time #but RJ has a terrible poker face #RJ just can't believe that research didn't yield the answer #is Shelly a spy??? is her existence classified? #at this point they have a whole dossier of theories #and Park knows that on some level the mystery being solved would be disappointing #(in which RJ is all of us)