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thenarwhalgal · 21 days

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Alright so this is possibly the dumbest idea I’ve ever had. But like somehow it holds together almost too well.

Stranger Things crossing over with The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee.

Please let me explain, this is a long one I’m sorry:

If you don’t know, the 25th (what I’m going to call it from now on) is about 5 strange kids from mostly broken families (and Chip) competing to win a spelling bee. It’s a great and really funny musical about trauma and innuendos and just how strange both spelling bees and the kids who compete in them are. Also it has 4 randomly chosen audience members come up to actually participate in the spelling bee itself (pretty cool).

Now here’s why the characters line up almost perfectly. (At least in my understanding of them all, if I’m wrong please argue with me lol I invite it.)

Let’s take the two main leads, Olive Ostrovsky and William Barfée. They line up stupidly well with Nancy and Jonathan. Olive is a pattern seeking brainiac whose only friend is the dictionary with incredibly negligent parents and a very strong desire to escape, which mimics Nancy’s need to hide herself in solving mysteries and finding stories to avoid her own trauma and the complete lack of anybody to ever stick up for her. They both bury themselves in gaining as much knowledge as they can because the worst thing that can happen is to be left with their own thoughts, Olive is also the emotional center of the show. Barfée is a pretty witty and weird kid who pushes everybody else away and holes up into his own little world but also has a heart of gold, mimicking Jonathan’s… well everything.

These two in the 25th end up with a really sweet friendship (and maybe romance?) by the end of the show, both finding understanding in each other for their mutual strangeness. Just like Nancy and Jonathan do. (Barfée is usually double-cast as Leaf’s dad).

Okay but what about the other 4 kids? I’m glad you asked!

Robin makes a wonderful Logainne (Schwartzy) SchwartzandGrubenierre. A very self-loathing loudmouth anxious perfectionist who is a constant disappointment to her parents but has really large dreams. Oh yeah, she also runs the gay-straight alliance at her school. She’s mocked by classmates and at one point during the show goes on a two minute (improvised?) rant about something to do with politics because she finds the bee unfair and wants to run for president one day. And she famously is the one who manages to annoy Panch enough to literally break him. Logainne really just wants happiness for the people around her, despite having a panic attack at the thought of losing she doesn’t want anybody else to lose either. I don’t know if I need to explain why Robin fits here lol but I will if pressed. (Double cast as Leaf’s mom usually.)

Steve! This one is somehow the best fit and I love them both for it. Steve makes a hilariously good Chip Tolentino. Athletic Boy Scout and the reigning champion of the spelling bee. He’s the most outgoing and social and least strange kid in the show but loses in the first act because and I’m not joking, he gets a boner. He sings a whole song about it actually. As he says, life is random and unfair. And he has a strong rivalry with Barfée (Jonathan) to the point they almost fight on stage and in most productions I’ve seen, is weirdly cordial with Leaf Coneybear. Again don’t think I need to explain this one, just change the girl he’s into from Leaf’s sister to Olive (Nancy) and we’re golden. Can’t go unmentioned that Chip’s actor is usually double-cast as Jesus fucking Christ.

Speaking of Leaf Coneybear! Who else but Eddie, like really? Who else but Eddie. Leaf is absolutely the one character confident enough in himself to jump up on a table and make a speech, he’s also totally the type to DM Dungeons and Dragons. Wears a cape he made himself, talks with a sock puppet sometimes, is friendly with everybody but also… is seen as a weird and stupid problem child by both his family and presumably everybody else at the Bee (Which I mean doesn’t fit his uncle but it does fit the town). He doesn’t win his hometown spelling bee and is only there because the two who placed above him had to go to a bat mitzvah. He worries he’s stupid and doesn’t belong there but finds peace in himself by the end. This delightfully mimics Eddie’s coward complex despite the fact he isn’t a coward??? And the fact he almost exists above social rules, uncaring of who anybody else is and usually judging them on character alone. Eddie and Leaf thrive in being strange. Leaf is also the sweetest character in the show you just can’t hate him. (Double cast usually as one of Logainne’s Dads).

This is probably the least good fit unfortunately, anybody who could fit Marcy Park fit in better elsewhere (Robin def would sing ‘I speak 6 languages’ and Nancy is very much the ‘best in everything but broken inside finding happiness in not winning’ girl). But Barb fits fine. She’s got that cold exterior somewhat disappointed in you never really happy with the fact she’s forced to fit in a box but does it anyway vibe. And would definitely purposefully lose and then celebrate like Christmas came early. Like it’s not perfect but it does work if you squint. (You could maybe cast Marcy as Chrissy Cunningham instead? They both do cry in bathrooms and feel trapped in their lives, happier letting go of expectations, Barb is just an easier character to characterize).

Now for the adults!

Best fit is definitely Mitch Mahoney and Jim Hopper. Like come on, this is the one where I was like… oh I’ve got something here. Gruff cop with rough exterior but a heart of gold who finds himself through comforting a lost kid and could easily be seen as a father figure? Please god that lines up so well with the ex-convict knows how rough the world is and wants the kids to know this isn’t that big a deal but finds being a comfort counselor actually fits him very well. Genuinely enjoying making sure these kids are alright and have a juice box. They’re both straight-up good people who just take a little bit longer than most to find their footing. Also Mitch being there for community service would line up with Hopper being there because Joyce dragged him into it. (Usually double cast as both Logainne’s other dad and as Olive’s pretend Dad).

Rona Lisa Perretti is the ‘could be seen as a mother figure’ counterpart to Mitch moderator of the Bee who sees herself in all of the kids and finds true joy in all of it. Joyce Byers might not line up perfectly but it’s such an easy placement okay? Like I mean, you can really tell she loves these kids, bending the rules for them even when she’s not supposed to. Also you cannot convince me Joyce isn’t the type of mom to sign up to run the school spelling bee her son goes to. (Usually double cast as Olive’s pretend Mom)

Vice Principle Douglass Panch is the only one I can’t figure out. It could be Murray, Bob, Clarke, Owens, Yuri, or even Ted (but please god no it’d fit but no) but none fit him well enough to make a call. Infatuated with Rona, had an incident as judge five years ago but claims to be in a better place now (he isn’t). Panch is a really fun character but he’s also the least mentally stable one. If I had to pick I think Murray would fit the established relationships in this crossover the most, and Yuri would fit his character the most. But again, I can’t make a good call on this one.

For the 4 audience members who fill in the ranks? Well, any ‘teen/young adult’ members of the show fit. Billy, Chrissy, Heather, Vickie, Argyle… take your pick.

— Additional stuff:

This could be easily played as a love triangle between Nancy (Olive), Jonathan (Barfée), and Steve (Chip) which works way too well for both sets of characters. It could also be played as Ronance (my personal pick lol) because Olive and Logainne I mean - if you don’t put Olive with Barfée that ship is like, right there. Olive helping Logainne through her panic attack it’s so sweet. And Olive x Her Dictionary hilariously lines up with Nancy x Her guns.

Again Chip and Leaf are weirdly friendly with each other and they’re also funfact the biggest ship on AO3 for this show which again is almost a perfect line up with Steve and Eddie. I have no words it’s just a funny coincidence. The gay ship between the weird stoner kid and the popular jock kid is universal I guess.

In other non-romantic funny coincidences:

Rona Lisa and Mitch Mahoney I’ve found usually play the good adults in the kids lives who step in and sometimes go as far as adopting some of the kids in many fanfics. Which I mean… yeah that sounds like Joyce and Hopper in the fandom as well.

Logainne has a very pronounced lisp and a tendency to overcomplicate which mimics Robins perpetual inability to stop rambling in front of pretty girls and in stressful situations.

Chip ends up forced to run the bake sale and complains about his ruined mojo, which again for some reason Chip and Steve just are perfect fits for no good reason. What a Little League champion.

Leaf and Marcy are the only two characters to lose and end up happy about it (Olive is a weird case), which is funny because Barb and Eddie are the only two characters here who die! Yay! ):

Nancy and Olive are both seen by everybody around them as the ‘sweet and lovely girl’, but are both intensely broken on the inside.

Marcy (Barb) is the character who gets to literally see Jesus, and Jesus is played by Chip (Steve). You could not have a funnier casting.

Like I mentioned above but it really needs to be highlighted, Chip and Barfée literally get as close to straight up fighting as possible. Chip at one point throws a bag of peanut M&Ms at him which if you don’t know, Barfée is allergic to, and Olive is the one who steps in. You couldn’t line it up better between these three.

The only relationship I can see that sadly doesn’t make it in here… is Robin and Steve . Chip and Logainne just don’t really talk much? I thought about shoving Robin in as Leaf for this reason and it’d work? But not nearly as well. I mean but like… this is my crossover damnit and if I want Chip and Logainne to somehow become absolute besties despite being complete opposites then I will make it happen. Chip really needs companionship and Logainne desperately needs at least one person in her life who supports her, and it’d be by far somehow the most perfect but completely alien from the outside friendship in the show. Which parallels Steve and Robin nicely (The added benefit that nobody would believe they weren’t dating if Robin wasn’t out as gay in this continuity).

————

So like, here’s the thing. I have spent way too long thinking about this, and I had to get it out there. Maybe it works as well as I’ve made it out to, maybe it doesn’t. The point is I think it’d be really funny, and as far as I know nobody has even brought it up so far. Which I get! Like I said, this is possibly the dumbest idea I’ve ever had. But it works way better than it should and I had to make other people understand my vision.

So thanks for reading all of this and please if you want to and have made it this far, give me your thoughts.

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hawkinsp0st · 2 years

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march 21, 1986.

~~~

mike flops onto his bed in exhaustion. it should be satisfied exhaustion, a happy tired, but it’s just… exhaustion. the game at hellfire tonight was pure excellence. radiance. dustin’s sharp strategy and erica’s pride and eddie’s smile and he sees el tomorrow and—

mike stares at his neatly packed suitcase and the flowers he picked for el this afternoon during lunch. why isn’t he happy?

i miss lucas, mike thinks. i miss the Party. i miss how things used to be. but he swallows down the creeping, crawling thought that even if lucas had been there tonight, he’d still feel like this now. like he’s missing something. like he’s missing… will.

mike grips the sheets on either side of where he sits at the edge of his bed, forcing the thought away, knowing it leads nowhere.

well, nowhere good.

god, he’d been stupid the summer before will left him—left the Party, mike thinks, shaking his head so it would clear like an etch a sketch to correct himself. left the Party. he misses his best friend, that’s it. if he’d spent more time with will before he left, then maybe he wouldn’t be feeling like… like…

like there’s something wrong with me.

he needs something more to do with his hands than twist the fabric at his sides. el’s letter from this morning—he’d hardly gotten a chance to finish it when nancy barged in. he resolves to reread el’s letter, like he often does at night when he’s feeling alone, tracing his fingers over her signature at the bottom. love, el.

he rereads the letter, but he’s got this nagging feeling that he hasn’t finished it, like when you’re reading your science textbook and you keep looking over the definition of “mitosis” again and again and the information just won’t go into your brain.

two lines in the middle of el’s paper feel unread no matter how many times his eyes follow them.

“will is painting a lot, but he won’t show me what he’s working on. maybe it is for a girl. i think there is someone he likes, because he has been acting weird.”

he rationalizes it, tells himself that el seems to have sharpened her pencil at that point in the letter, because the words are thinner, the handwriting cleaner. that’s why he drifts back to it like gravity to the earth’s fucking center.

but he keeps reading it. and reading it. and reading it. he knows he should stop, but he can’t help himself.

he finds his fingers itching to trace will’s name, but his eyes flicker to love, el and he pulls his fingers back because it feels downright…

he can’t find the word, until he remembers the talk show his mom was watching the other day, where a couples’ therapist was interviewing a woman whose husband had cheated on her. “he’s been adulterous,” the host had said.

it feels adulterous to touch that name. with love, el sitting there on the same page… mike swallows hard. he scrapes at a hangnail on the side of his thumb.

what is wrong with me?

mike clutches the sides of the paper like a vice—as though it can help him somehow—wrinkling it before letting it drop off the side of his bed.

mike can’t—won’t—put a single thought to any of these emotions, so he does what he does best: runs down the stairs. to the basement. doesn’t make eye contact with the drawings hanging over the sofa. throws shit.

no, like really, throws shit around the basement. doesn’t think, just kicks pillows. throws darts at the dartboard again and again—none of them stick. they fall and fall and it’s almost satisfying, the rhythmic pace with which he misses the target every fucking time.

he paces, pretending to tidy the place but really just moving things from one wrong location to the other. he even gives his nintendo a light kick, and it gives a thud as it slides into the wall. it shakes the bulletin board over his desk, and he notices there’s papers scattered all around his desk from god knows what. he hasn’t touched any of this, apart from the video games, in 185 days.

he squats down and picks up the miscellaneous papers, messily, not really caring, just needing to move. he finds a math test with a D-minus from last year that he had been hiding from his mom—it’s 6 pages thick—and shreds it and shreds it with his fingers until it’s only tiny pieces. he stands and shoves the chair onto its side, jumping a little at the loud noise as it clatters to the floor. wondering if his parents or nancy woke up but ultimately not caring because—

there’s an old doodle from will under the chair, a little dragon in a wizard’s hat. without thinking, mike picks it up. his eyes burn. he blinks and realizes what he’s doing. he drops the drawing on the desk. he wipes the tear out of his eyes before it has a chance to run.

he steps backward and trips over an empty VHS case. he doesn’t resist, doesn’t try to hold himself up, just falls. he pulls a pillow from the floor next to him and punches it once, twice, three times, again and again, more tears coming, and this time they fall, and he might be waking his parents up, but he doesn’t care, not about anything. he can’t think right now. it could kill him.

he wears himself out and he doesn’t remember falling asleep but suddenly he’s blinking awake and the digital clock on the desk glows 1:45am. he manages to get through two rounds of duck hunt on low volume before going back up the stairs, shutting the basement door gently. he’s got an hour before he has to leave for the airport.

in his room, he stares at the letter from el that’s still lying on the floor. he squeezes his eyes shut when he remembers what’s lying there in the middle of the letter. he glances down to love, el.

that’s what matters right now. he trudges to his closet, rubbing his tired eyes, and picks out an outfit he thinks she would like.

he attaches a note to her bouquet of flowers, writing with careful letters:

TO EL. FROM MIKE.

#he’s so repressed like i cannot emphasize this enough #sorry about the angst he’s so in love he can’t have thoughts about it without his whole world crashing down <3 #byler #mike wheeler i know what you are #byler fanfic #byler ficlet #all i know is mike pov eat hot chip and lie #duffers #if ur the duffers seeing this #i just wanted u to see it bc i felt like i kinda nailed it w the characterization here LOL #like remember when he kicked the little el hideout when will ‘died’

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