Thoughts

Lotta people kiss their mother on the mouth.

Hint: Hovering your mouse over [QUOTE]"Blah blah blah..."s reveals what people have to say in-universe...

History of Assault: What We Know

   WARNING: Extensive discussion about CSA and sexual abuse from family members

   I've been in the Outlast Trials community since early this Summer, and one thing that has stuck out to me is how widespread the notion that Coyle was sexually assaulted by his mother during his childhood. It's passed around like its some indisputible fact, how it affects the way he acts in-game, how it explains certain things about his character, etc. From everything I've seen during my extensive research about this character, I can't help but ask: Did the events people spread as fact really happen...?

   There is nothing, anywhere that explicity says he has suffered from any sort of sexual assault as a child. However, I do have the ability to read in-between the lines to understand hidden narratives about his character. While I don't believe people should be spreading this theory as fact, I do think it's a discussion worth having. First, let's go over what the game and surrounding media tells us for sure.

   What We Know

1. EVIDENCE A

   There was a traumatic event with his mother related to bathtime (in which he describes his mother as a "bitch" and was "never right in the head")

2. EVIDENCE B

   He has perpetrated sexual assault as a child

3. EVIDENCE C

   He has defended kissing mothers on mouths

4. EVIDENCE D

   He has paranoia over people using him and leaving him to die

   ...that's it!

What We
Can Infer

1. EVIDENCE A

   This is the #1 culprit I see when people try to bring up "evidence" of his assault. Let's break this [QUOTE]"Wouldn't believe me. Knew from birth I was marked to die by lightning. Momma forced me into the bath, twisted my vittles and shoved me in the water even though she knew the electricity could sneak up them pipes and cook me like a suckling pig. Bitch never was right in the head." - Coyle, unused dialogue up piece by piece.
   1. "Wouldn't believe me. Knew from birth I was marked to die by lightning." | Displaying his paranoia from a young age
   2. "Momma forced me into the bath, ..." | I see this as a mother just wanting to wash his hysterical son. To her, he was scared over nothing (or perhaps believed the myth that electricity can go up pipes as well, and just didn't care) and just wanted to get bathrime over with.
   3. "twisted my vittles, ..." | "Vittles" is cowboy slang for food. According to Urban Dictionary, it can apparently also refer to a "slang word for chubby boy/teen's man boobs." If she did physically touch him, it was most likely a way to physically dicipline him / force him into the bath easier. A more likely interpretation is that "twisted my vittles" is more akin to "twisted my stomach", in that it made him scared to sickness. In either way, she didn't physically "twist" any parts that would constitute as sexual violence.
   4. "and shoved me in the water even though she knew the electricity could sneak up them pipes and cook me like a suckling pig. Bitch never was right in the head." | Did she know for sure...? He could very well be just assuming she knows that. We have to remember that Coyle is a very unreliable narrator. He could also very well be calling her "never [was] right in the head" for any reason he deems appropriate, and we all know how he feels about how women should act. He also contradicts this by referring to her as sweet [QUOTE]"Reminds me of my own sweet mother." - Coyle, about Mother Gooseberry (though, this very well could have been sarcastic given the context of this line).
   
      This cut dialogue seems like a way to show his paranoia and how he feels about his mother, not a way to imply assault. I do believe she could have been physically violent, but to use this as evidence to say that he has been sexually assaulted by his mother is misguided at best, and dishonest at worst.

2. EVIDENCE B

   [QUOTE]"Anecdotal evidence of abuse of animals and secual assault as a child, leading to military academy education" - Clyde Perry, in-game documents
Now this is something we can work with. Children who perpetrate sexual abuse often are victims of it themselves [1][2]. Let's also remember that he displays intense hypersexuality and further sexual assault into adulthood. Knowing this, sexual abuse can come in many different forms, and doesn't even necessarily have to be from a family member either, nor does it even have to be physical. I would take this as evidence that something may have happened to him in some form.

3. EVIDENCE C

   This one is a little strange: [QUOTE]"Lotta people kiss their mother on the mouth." - Coyle. This is assuming he's deriving this from his own experiences, in which his mother has kissed him on the mouth before. I'm unsure what to think of this really. I don't think this behavior is necessarily wrong, especially depending on how old Leland was. The way he says this line is almost as if he's embarassed about it. Maybe he has been made fun of for it, and that's why he's defending it... out of nowhere? He says this line while patrolling the Prison Farm basement, where his other lines in this context are about him gaslighting and threatening the reagents in relation to him getting caught with the Warden. Perhaps in this state of embarassment after getting caught, it reminded him of people critisizing him for how him and his mother interacted? This line could truly mean anything.

4. EVIDENCE D

   [QUOTE]"...catch me sleeping. Some day. They catch me and they'll do with me every filthy and perverse thing their fevered native skulls can summon, leave me broken and ashamed and crying and they'll cut my throat and piss on me while I bleed out..." - Coyle I see this one as him projecting. He's already hyper-paranoid about communists, papists, etc., who's to say he isn't paranoid about these people doing the same to him as he's done to others? This one could go as either paranoia based on some sort of twisted version of guilt or based on past experiences. Or maybe a little bit of both.

    To me, him perpetrating sexual assault as a child is enough evidence that some sort of sexual abuse may have been done to Coyle, or he was just born like this. I don't know why it's become such a widespread thing that he was for sure assaulted by specifically his mother, when the evidence was looking at us right in the face the whole time in a main character document, not some unused voice line from a character we know spouts random bullshit all the time!

   I think it's the autism, but this just really really bothers me. It's absolutely a discussion worth having, as long as people can do their own research and come to their own conclusions.