#don't think he missed that comment about danny's parents | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

0aurelion-sol0 · 3 years

Text

"There's no place like gnome."

Stranger Things 3: The Game.

Gnomes 1-10. 🧙‍♂️

IT'S FINALLY HERE!

It's no secret that the Duffers take a lot of inspirations from Pop Culture. From the most well known movies to the more obscure comics, they are always able to sneak a reference somewhere everytime. And they are also able to make it connected to the story.

I've bragged about how the Stranger Things expanded universe in media is one of the best out there compared to many others. I think that the Duffers, the writers or people in the highest places of the marketing are really paying attention to what comes out of the ST franchise because there is no way to have such content with so many details without someone looking into them.

And ST3: The Game is a very good example of that.

So let's start! The first 10 Gnomes out of 50 that you have to find in the game.

BE AWARE THAT THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW!

"There's elements that could please those who makes metas/analyzes or theories. Especially things related to possible future plot points, easter eggs, references in previous seasons mainly season 3 like unsolved mysteries or unanswered questions and for future seasons such as season 4 like foreshadowing or teasers, trailers or as of lately the sneak peek."

If you have anything you'd like to add, might think I have missed or think it might be referencing something else don't hesitate to share it by commenting or reblogging.

(Say thanks to @hawkinsschoolcounselor for having helped me with some of them. )

_____________________________

Gnome #1: Johnny

"He's here... with an axe."

Overall plot:

"The film's central character is Jack Torrance, an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a position as the off-season caretaker of the isolated historic Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Wintering over with Jack are his wife, Wendy Torrance, and young son, Danny Torrance. Danny is gifted with "the shining", psychic abilities that enable him to see into the hotel's horrific past. The hotel cook, Dick Hallorann, also has this ability and is able to communicate with Danny telepathically. The hotel had a previous winter caretaker who went insane and killed his family and himself. After a winter storm leaves the Torrances snowbound, Jack's sanity deteriorates due to the influence of the supernatural forces that inhabit the hotel, placing his wife and son in danger."

So I assume a lot of you know The Shining by Stanley Kubrick. A movie which was adapted from the novel of the same name by Stephen King in 1977.

There's a lot of things that could have served as an inspiration for ST.

A boy/child who has psychic abilities = Eleven has psychic abilities such as telekinesis. Will has his True Sight which consist in seeing what the MF was seeing and feeling.

Now there's also the theme of family and parenthood that is also a big theme in Stranger Things. Especially abusive parenthood such as Brenner, Lonnie and even Hopper to a smaller degree.

In Shining, Jack tries to kill his family with an axe due to supernatural forces that are in the hotel but there's a difference between King and Kubrick. While King specifically said that Jack was heavily influenced by the Hotel, Kubrick shows that Jack always had that sinister violence in him even before they arrived at the hotel.

It's interesting to draw a parallel to Billy and Will, both characters called William who tried to kill their families and other people while being possessed. But Billy compared to Will was shown to have been abusive even before that. Dacre Montgomery also said that he was inspired by Jack Nicholson's performance in the Shining for his character Billy.

Joyce and Jonathan were shown to get ready to fight the monsters by taking an axe.

It's also interesting to note that Jack dies in the snow while a blizzard is happening outside the hotel. Much like the storm of the Mindflayer who is in the Upside Down, the same Mindflayer who "likes it cold". While in the book, the Overlook explodes and burn.

(Cold vs Fire much like everything Upside Down related not liking Fire.)

Also "Johnny" = "Jonathan", it's kind of similar and Jonathan did wield an axe before. Maybe this is teasing parts of Jonathan storyline next seasons ?

The gnome was also found in Mike's basement, Mike who wants to be a writer when he's older just like Jack.

Let's just hope that Jonathan and Mike don't get the same fate as Jack.

_____________________________

Gnome #2: Christine

"Two bright, beaming lights for eyes."

Overall plot:

"Written by Bill Phillips and based on Stephen King's 1983 novel of the same title, the movie follows the changes in the lives of Arnie Cunningham, an awkward and unpopular teenager, his friends, his family, and his teenage enemies in Rockbridge, California after Arnie buys a classic red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine, licence number CQB 241, a car that seems to have a jealous, possessive personality – and a mind of its own, which has a bad influence on Arnie. After working on a car in a junkyard owned by Will Darnell, Arnie drops his glasses, starts dressing like a 1950's greaser and develops an arrogant and paranoid personality. He than decides to invite and date the most beautiful girl in highschool, Leigh, who will soon become the next victim of Christine."

I was actually quite surprised by how this story parallels Stranger Things a lot.

First off, Christine is very much like The Mindflayer, a dangerous supernatural being set out to destroy anyone who is in her way, the people who tries to take the things that she thinks belongs to her or threatens her. This is very much relevant to The Mindflayer who after being hurt by the Fire created by the Hawkins Lab was upset and attacked everyone he could. Or as Will putted "Not me, everyone else."

This is very much like Christine who tried to kill Leigh because she was taking her place in the life of Arnie. Christine also tried to kill the bullies of Arnie who after a conflit with him, tried to destroy the car which angered Christine heavily.

The Mindflayer has been described someone who views himself as superior to other species and wants to conquer them, even if it's not his real "goal", the description fits anyone who is possessive and paranoid.

Both the MF and Christine are associated with the color red. Red storm = red color of the car.

Arnie ressembles Will and Billy alot. Will is an awkward and unpopular teenager who after being possessed by the Mindflayer became very different and more violent. Billy was shown to be paranoid, jealous, violent and his look even ressembles the one Arnie takes after repairing Christine.

Both of these boys have the same name as Will Darnell, the owner of a junkyard. Just like the boys in Season 1 who takes shelter in a junkyard, or in season 2 where they fight the Demodogs.

Billy dies, killed by the Mindflayer just like Arnie who was completely possessed by Christine who tried to kill Leigh and Dennis, his best friend after they tried to destroy the car when they realised the supernatural nature of it.

Billy's car ressembles a lot Christine with those lights on. Especially with shots like in the Void or at Starcourt during the night.

Chrissy, a new character that will be in season 4, the most popular girl in Hawkins High like Leigh, has a name that is the diminutive of Christine. It is said that under the perfect surface lies a dark secret. Much like the car Christine, while a beauty is actually a dangerous supernatural being. We'll see if the both of them actually connects in the show.

Also it is set in California where Billy and Max come from and has been rumored by many people due to set leaks (The Surfer Boy Pizza Van.) that it is where the Byers went. I won't get into it in this post but this could be a tease or hint of that IF the set leaks ARE true and not fake to mess with people and the fandom.

Arnie also dies in a car crash having been completely possessed by the evil powers of Christine which is something we see in the sneak peek of ST4. It also reminds of Carrie who has a bully named Chris who she kills in a car crash with her boyfriend Billy aka William.

So will someone die from that car crash ? Who is it ? Chrissy, Joyce, Lonnie ? We can only speculate.

The gnome is also found outside the Wheeler's house where Karen lives near the community pool where Billy works and where the car of Billy is located during the first few chapters of the game. Again, a "bad boy" hitting on the beautiful girl in town. (with a lot of creepy subtext all over it.)

_____________________________

Gnome #3: Doc

"Always mumbling something about being late."

Overall plot:

"Set in 1985, in the town of Hill Valley, California, the story follows Marty McFly, a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean automobile built by his eccentric scientist friend Doctor Emmett "Doc" Brown. Trapped in the past, Marty inadvertently prevents his future parents' meeting—threatening his very existence—and is forced to reconcile the pair and somehow get back to the future."

So I don't think I need to explain why this is here given how much it has been shown and mentioned in season 3. But few things are interesting here, the fact that California is mentioned is a big deal for me again. I know you are aware of the set leaks just as I am aware, if we can trust them than this could be a hint of that location.

Next, we have the theme of Time. Now ever since ST4 was announced, clocks and times have been a key feature in the promotion. Who know what this might mean but again, we're not going to develop that in the post.

There is also the whole funny scenes of Robin realising that indeed Marty's mother had tried to "bang" her own son. Now given the nature of the shown, certain images in the show during certain events and certain stories, you know to what it connects and to which theories it connects. Won't develop further on it but it can be used as an element that can go into those theories.

The gnome is also found outside of Starcourt Mall where Robin and Steve talk about "Back to the Future". It is also where Billy has his "Back to te Future" moment with his car going extremely fast just like the DeLorean.

_____________________________

Gnome #4: Indiana

"Master of Adventure."

Overall plot:

"After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by desperate villagers to find a mystical stone and rescue their children from a Thuggee cult practicing child slavery, black magic, and ritualistic human sacrifice in honor of the goddess, Kali."

Fun fact, on Twitter for ST3 promo, a parody poster of this same movie has been posted here of the official ST account.

Jim is obviously Indiana Jones, the look speaks for itself and when he is in the Tunnels in season 2, there's a lot of Indiana Jones imagery.

And of course Kali as 008, a Hindu goddess but as we will see here, it parallels more the Mindflayer.

In 1935, Indiana Jones survives a murder attempt by Lao Che, a crime boss in Shanghai who has hired him to retrieve the remains of Emperor Nurhaci. With his young orphaned Chinese sidekick, Short Round, and the nightclub singer, Willie Scott, in tow, Indy flees Shanghai on a cargo aircraft. While the three of them are asleep, the pilots (employed by Lao Che) dump the fuel and escape via parachute, leaving the plane to crash over the Himalayas. The three narrowly manage to survive by jumping out of the plane on an inflatable raft.

(I wonder if this could be something we see in season 4 with Hopper where he tries to escape on a plane and ends up crashing somewhere or is betrayed by someone who he asked the help of. Now it's a trio and in season 3, Jim, Joyce, Alexei and Murray are the main group that fits this trio. Jim for all the fighting and crazy shit, Joyce and Alexei are kind of like Short Round, they are the sidekicks of Hopper. Murray the role of Willie Scott since she speaks Chinese and him Russian and that Jim just like Indy finds annoying sometimes. Alexei is also kind of like Willie since he kinda goes along with them.

But if we also look at season 2, El is alot like Short Round since she is kind of an orphan too and has a father figure later on. It could also be Will since Hopper is with him a lot of times through season 2. Also Willie did felt out of her element like Alexei because of course he is Russian. Willie in itself doesn't have a lot in common with Joyce but still it's another connection to Will since she has a name close to the one of her sons. Something that does fit a bit more is Jim and Hopper both escaping death, of course Hopper at the end of season 3 but also during season 3 at the farm where he's being shot at by Gregori and than the car doesn't work and explodes and they have to make their way through the forest.

Willie Scott could also be referenced when El disguise herself as this pretty blonde girl in season 1.

Now however, Scoop Troops does fit certain parts of these trio. All the fighting with Steve like Indiana Jones but Robin got his brain because she cracked the code. Dustin and Erica are kinda like short round (especially Dustin who has kind of the same hat as short round.) and are referenced with all the others as children by Robin. Steve doesn't feel in his element like Willie with the three of them who are nerds just like Erica who also doesn't want to accept it. And Robin just like Willie speaks some languages.)

They ride down the mountain slopes and fall into a raging river, eventually arriving at the village of Mayapore in northern India. The villagers plead for their aid in retrieving the sacred stone (shivalinga) stolen from their shrine, along with their missing children, by evil forces in the nearby Pankot Palace. Indy agrees to do so, hypothesizing that the stone is one of the five Sankara stones given by the gods to help humanity fight evil. (It's kinda like Alexei who turns his back on the Russians, for his life of course and agrees to help Hopper close the gate to save Hawkins and their kids before monsters start to appear or may attack one of their kids. Now the stone could be something similar to the promethium or the two keys who opens the gate and is a highly valuable ressource. It also may be the Flayed who are needed to create the monster for the Mindflayer.)

The trio receive a warm welcome at Pankot Palace and are allowed to stay for the night as guests, attending a lavish, but revolting, banquet hosted by the young Maharajah. The officials rebuff Indy's theory that the Thuggee cult is responsible for their troubles. Later that night, Indy is attacked by an assassin. After Indy kills him, he discovers a series of tunnels hidden behind a statue and sets out to explore them, overcoming a number of booby-traps.

(This could be like when Hopper, Joyce and Murray disguised themselves as Russian soldiers but was than discovered by Grigori who attacks them.

The tunnels could be both groups discovering that there is a secret russian base underground and a gate which explains why there are monsters again in Hawkins but it also be the Source, Brimborn Steel Works, where the Mindflayer is lurking underground where he has cult-like followers who makes sacrifices for him to grow bigger and bigger.

It's also like the Tunnels in season 2 who explains why the soil of Hawkins seemed to literally rot. )

The trio reach an underground temple where the Thuggees worship Kali with human sacrifice. They discover that the Thuggees now possess three of the Sankara stones and have enslaved the children to search for the last two, hidden in the palace catacombs. As Indy tries to retrieve the stones, he, Willie, and Shorty are captured. Thuggee high priest Mola Ram forces Indy to drink a potion that puts him into a trance-like state in which he mindlessly serves the cult. (It's very much like Robin and Steve who after discovering the gate are catched by the Russians and than drugged to answer their questions. But also like the Flayed who drinks the chemicals and serves the Mindflayer like a mindless cult.)

Willie is prepared for sacrifice, while Shorty is put to work in the mines with the other children. Shorty escapes and returns to the temple, where he first frees Indy and, later, the Maharajah from the effects of the potion. Indy saves Willie and retrieves the stones. After freeing the children, Indy fights a hulking overseer and leaves him to be killed by a rock crusher. (Basically Dustin saves Steve and Robin. Willie being prepared for sacrifice is kind of like El prepared for sacrifice by Billy in 3x08 but also frees Billy from the effects of the Mindflayer by making him remember his mother, a pretty blonde woman like Willie and sacrifices himself. And Hopper fights Gregori, a "hulking overseer" and kills him.)

The trio escape from the temple, pursued by Thuggees, and barely escape Mola Ram's attempt to flood them out. They are again ambushed by Mola Ram and his henchmen on a rope bridge above a crocodile-infested river. Indy cuts the bridge, causing several of the henchmen to fall to the crocodiles and leaving the survivors to hang on for their lives. As Mola Ram and Indy struggle, Indy invokes the name of Shiva, causing the stones to glow red-hot and burn through Indy's satchel. Two of them fall out; Mola Ram tries to catch the third, but burns his hand and falls from the bridge and into the river, where he, too, is eaten by the crocodiles. (This can be connected to all the kids fighting in Hawkins with the Spider Monster. But the bridge could also fit for the key in the secret base where Hopper and Gregori fights. The gruesome death of Mola Ram is similar to the gruesome death that Gregori has.)

Indy catches the stone safely and climbs up just as a company of British Indian Army riflemen, sent by the Maharajah, arrive and open fire against the Thuggees to drive them away; the surviving Thuggees are soon cornered and arrested by more soldiers. Indy, Willie, and Shorty return safely to Mayapore with the stone and the missing children. (While it may end well in the movie, we know Billy and multiple people die, the Thuggees unlike the Russians have been captured while the Russians where all able to flee before the US Army arrives and Hopper is presumed dead. Only the children in both stories are alive but are probably traumatized for life.)

All in all we can see that this movie might have had a big influence on the plot of season 3 through many characters and more. It may have some hints about possible events for Hopper in season 4 or even beyond but that's about it for. It's a nice package of comparaisons and references though.

The gnome is found in the Hawkins Community Pool where Billy is. The same Billy who obeys mindlessly the Mindflayer and sacrifices people to it. Just like the Thuggees with Kali.

_____________________________

Gnome #5: Chunk

"Posed in some odd dance maneuver."

Overall plot:

"In the film, a band of kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, attempt to save their homes from foreclosure and, in doing so, they discover an old treasure map that takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. During the adventure, they are chased by a family of criminals who want the treasure for themselves."

So first, let's get this out of the way, Sean Astin who play Bob Newby, our beloved who plays a character named Mikey.

The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure comedy film co-produced and directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus, based on a story by executive producer Steven Spielberg. In the film, kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, attempt to save their homes from foreclosure and, in doing so, they discover an old treasure map that takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. During the adventure, they are chased by a family of criminals who want the treasure for themselves.

I wonder if this might hint at some Season 4 plot right here. The Hawkins gang faces the threat of Hawkins becoming a literal ghost down and might need to find something to save it. Also Willy like William, again Will is still there.

The Goonies include optimist lead Goonie Mikey Walsh, his older brother Brandon, the inventive Data, the talkative Mouth, and the overweight klutz Chunk.

Rummaging through the Walshes' attic, they come across a 1632 doubloon and an old treasure map purporting to lead to the treasure of legendary pirate "One-Eyed Willy", believed to be located somewhere nearby. Mikey considers One-Eyed Willy to be the original Goonie. (It kinda reminds me of Mike who got mad at Max in season 2 and told her they didn't need another party member. And he mentionned Will first right after him.)

The kids overpower and bind Brandon and make their way to an abandoned restaurant on the coast that coincides with the map; Brandon soon follows alongside Andy, a cheerleader with a crush on him ( there has been cheerleaders that have been reported in season 4 such as Chrissy.); and Stef, Andy's friend. The group quickly discovers the derelict restaurant is a hideout of the Fratelli crime family: Francis, Jake, and their mother. (Maybe it is both a reference to the Russians in season 3 who have a hideout under the mall who have many restaurants. Or the Lab who OBVIOUSLY does a lot of illegal activities. )

The Goonies find a tunnel in the basement and follow it (like the tunnels made by the Mindflayer in season 2), but when Chunk flags down a motorist to go to the sheriff’s station, he gets abducted by the assailants and imprisoned with their hulking, deformed, younger brother Sloth. (This is obviously like Dustin who befriends Dart in season 2, a literal Demogorgon in the making.)

The Fratellis interrogate Chunk until he reveals where the Goonies have gone, and begin pursuit. Chunk is left behind with Sloth, but befriends him. After Sloth frees both of them, Chunk calls the sheriff, and both follow the trail of the Fratellis. (This is very reminiscent of Hopper in season 1 who gets interrogated by Lab agents or Steve and Robin by the Russians.)

The Goonies evade several deadly booby traps along the tunnels, while staying ahead of the Fratellis. Finally, they reach the grotto where Willy's pirate ship, the Inferno, is anchored. (Will also has a ship, the rainbow ship he drew for Joyce, also Inferno literally means Hell just like what Hawkins has been called.)

The group discovers the ship is filled with treasure, and they start filling their pockets, but Mikey warns them not to take any on a set of scales in front of Willy, considering that to be their tribute to him. As they leave the ship, the assailants appear and strip them of their loot. They start to bind the Goonies and make them walk the plank, until Chunk arrives with Sloth and distracts the assailants long enough for the Goonies to jump overboard and swim to safety. (It's the opposite of the season 2 finale, where Dustin has to distract Dart so that the other could pass through the tunnels.)

The Fratellis proceed to grab all the treasure they can, including those on Willy's scales; this triggers another booby trap that causes the grotto to cave in. With Sloth's help, the Goonies and Fratellis barely escape.

The two groups emerge on Astoria's beach, where they reunite with the Goonies' families and the police. The Fratellis are arrested, but Chunk prevents Sloth from also being taken; he invites Sloth to live with him, which Sloth accepts. ("Unfortunately", Dart compared to Sloth probably died.)

As the kids describe their adventure to their parents, the Walshes' housekeeper, Rosalita, discovers that Mikey's marble bag is filled with gems he took from the ship and had not been seized by the Fratellis. Mikey's father triumphantly rips up the foreclosure papers, declaring they have enough money to negate the foreclosure. As the Goonies celebrate, they see the Inferno, having broken free of the grotto, sailing off on its own in the distance. (Could it be hinting at a possible happy ending for Stranger Things ?)

So Fratellis, is similar to fratello which means "brother, fellow, neighbor" which perhaps could be a reference to the Mindflayer who is kind of our neighbor since he is basically in the same places but in the Upside Down. The Mindflayer also has been paralleled to Billy and other abusive father figures. Billy who is the brother of Max. He has also been paralleled to Kali through his anger and him attacking people who hurted him or might hurt him. Could in itself The Mindflayer should be taken or seen as some sort of family figure ? Maybe him being always associated with Will The Wise especially in 2x04 or someone who has the name Will like Billy is a connection. The same Billy who also parallels Russians who just like the Fratellis have secret hideouts.

Though the Fratellis are more motivated by greed which fits Brenner, Lonnie (who tried to use his son's death to gain money.) or Russians most.

Now Willy, Willy is a captain. Maybe it could be hinting at the fact that Will has more importance to the story than we think. There's also Inferno, "Hell" which is Hawkins but also the name of the ship. And Will has a rainbow ship... Could Hawkins be the ship of Will where his adventures are taking place ?

As for the dance... well as you've seen upper in the post: it's the "Truffle Shuffle Dance". It's something that Chunk has to do before entering Mikey's house. It's similar to what Dustin do at the beginning of season 1 to the bullies when he makes his bones crack due to his medical condition, cleidocranial dysplasia.

As for where this gnome is located, it's in Weathertop where Cerebro is located which is fitting since Dustin has a lot of Goonies as inspiration for his character.

_____________________________

Gnome #6: Elvis

"He's not dead!"

"Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known simply as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy." - Wikipedia.

It is a lot known that people in the 80's thought that Elvis Presley was still alive due to his status and the aura he had as a celebrity. However, no matter how appealing this myth may be, he died of an excessive usage of prescription drugs which reminds me of Nancy who said she thought Tom was on drugs when he fired her and Jonathan while he an the Flayed were drinking chemicals. He also died in 1977, the same year "Heroes" by David Bowie came out which is a song that was used two times when we thought a character died when he was actually alive which are Will and Hopper. Will and Hopper both have a lot of rock in their Spotify playlist.

Also, I personally think that Steve has kind of an Elvis Presley aura to him especially in season 1. After all, Steve has a nickname "King Steve" and Elvis Presley is often nicknamed "The King" and both were popular with girls.

Fun fact: Dacre Montgomery who plays Billy who literally becomes the new "King" of Hawkins will play in the biographical music drama "Elvis" about Elvis Presley where he will play a character called "Steve Binder".

Also actor David Harbour also got married with singer Lily Allen by Elvis in Las Vegas.

It's also found hidden behind bushes near the Public Library. Maybe indicating that Elvis is still out there in the world and hiding.

Which also may be a reference to Brenner who has a similar haircut but also about the novel "Suspicious Minds", a prequel of ST taking place in the Lab when Brenner was doing his sinister experiments which is the same title as one of the songs of Elvis. Like Elvis, Brenner is still out there, hiding in Hawkins.

_____________________________

Gnome #7: Jack

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull gnome."

Again another reference to Shining. So what you are seeing here is a proverb, it means: "It means that without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring."

In Shining, it represents Jack's slow descent into madness. But it could be a reference to Joyce, Jonathan and Nancy who all work their asses off and don't take a lot of time for themselves and so don't have the time to explore anything else than work which also cause for them not to be there when Will got kidnapped. It may also represent Jonathan's words to Nancy in season 1 where he "called out" the boring life she will have and that she will live like her parents so in this case the proverb becomes about societal norms.

Mike just like Jack is an aspiring writer, Mike just like other members of his family falls into these societal norms that are expected like work and overworking in this instance which makes them boring in the eyes of people like Jonathan. "No play" may also reference D&D which Mike started to ignore in season 3 and worried more pointless and superficial things.

Again, hope it doesn't foreshadow anything for these two characters.

This gnome is found in the Library which is fitting considering Jack wants to be a writer.

_____________________________

Gnome #8: Flynn (Flynn Rider from "Tangled" (2010))

"Looks like he rides well."

Overall plot of Tangled (2010):

"The film tells the story of Rapunzel, a lost, young princess with magical long blonde hair who yearns to leave her secluded tower. Against her abusive foster mother's wishes who kidnappee her when she was young, she accepts the aid of an intruder to take her out into the world which she has never seen."

This story is literally what the boys was arguing about at the end of season 1.

1)The lost knight...

Flynn Rider is actually the son of a king and queen that were from a kingdom that got destroyed by a powerful opal. He was evacuated and placed in an orphanage. He made his reputation as thief.

So Mike and El both parallels this guy, well Mike is a palladin in D&D and he is the son of a wealthy family so he is basically a night. El however also lost her parents like him and has more attributes of a knight in season 1 than Mike.

Flynn is arrogant, which Mike can be a bit sometimes but the both of them can be extremely courageous and care a lot about the people they care about though they are not very strong, nor athletic. Maybe Flynn a bit more.

Also fun coincidence Flynn = Finn, the name of the actor who plays Mike. (almost the same name).

Both him and El run into each other in the woods. Just like Flynn who discover Rapunzel while trying to enter Rapunzel's tower but is knocked out by her who is none other than the...

2)The proud princess...

Well first Rapunzel = Eleven. Both of these girls have magical powers and are used by an abusive and evil parental figure who needs them for their own interest, Mother Gothel used the powers of Rapunzel to stay young forever (like an addiction, a drug) and Martin Brenner aka "Papa". They are both locked away somewhere. El in the lab and Rapunzel in the tower which they both seeked to escape out of. Both believed that these parental figures loved them while it was not true. El also has long blond hair in season 1 like Rapunzel. And both quickly form a relationship with a boy they just met. Both don't know who their real parents are and wants to find them. While Rapunzel has long blonde hair, El had a shaved head.

Also in season 2, El is locked in a cabin in the woods because of Hopper because he believe it is not safe out there which is exactly what Mother Gothel tells Rapunzel. Just like her El disobeys and seeks to discover who her true parents are.

Rapunzel seeks to know what are those floating lights that always appear on her birthday, it is actually her parents who are the king and queen of a kingdom not so far away that do that every year hoping one day she will come back to her. She is a "lost princess". It is very similar to Terry Ives who was communicating through the lights to El.

Rapunzel's power comes out of something that is also connected to something famous in ST.

3) Weird flowers in the cave...

Rapunzel's power come from a flower called "Sundrop flower". = Sunflower which is said by Terry Ives.

This flower can pretty much heal anything including mortal wounds. The Queen got pregnant with Rapunzel but was also terribly sick so she took this flower to heal herself and while doing so, Rapunzel got this ability.

This is very reminiscent of Terry Ives who was pregnant with El and took part in the MKUltra experiences that gave her these powers including certain drugs. She is also "ill" in a way as she is now stuck in a loop. At least from what we saw.

But Rapunzel also parallels another character.

Will Byers. Will could communicate through lights to his mother, just like the parents of Rapunzel and Terry Ives.

The weird flowers could be referencing the sort of vines that entered inside of him in the Upside Down which gave him his "now-memories".

Both had abusive parental figure that would lock them somewhere for whatever reason. (Lonnie with Will in his trunk.)

(Also Hopper may have tried to separate Mike and El but he wasn't like what a Lonnie or Brenner would have been. This is why yes, the situation in season 2 parallels but Hopper truly wished good for El while Brenner and Mother Gothel didn't care for any of these two.)

Same is for Lonnie, he doesn't care about Will.

Since Will is a cleric, both him and Rapunzel have the same time of power. Powers that El doesn't have:

To heal the sick and injured

To revive the dead

To work as a shield

Given this story, it may hint at the fact that Brenner and Lonnie may try to take El and Will for their own greed and purposes.

Since Rapunzel parallels both Will and El, you know what that means for Flynn who parallels Mike.

Flynn in the movie is stabbed by Mother Gothel and dies before cutting the hair of Rapunzel killing Mother Gothel in the process. Rapunzel mourns him and one of his tears heal him.

If Flynn parallels Mike, than something bad could happen to him. If Will does have powers and has feelings for Mike, a supposed death may reveal his powers.

And if he has the same powers as his cleric role, than he could heal those who get hurt or even bring the dead back to life.

If Lonnie sees Mike around Will, given he is homophobic. He may try to hurt him so that he doesn't go near Will again which could lead to him being in grave danger.

Of course all of that is just speculation.

This gnome was found on the parking lot of Starcourt where El decided to break up with Mike and we saw Will smiling in the background.

Also I don't know but... "Looks like he rides well", I mean there's certain undertones to that which are... I don't know how to process that but from what you've just read, Mike apparently rides well. I mean I have nothing against gay sex jokes but still...

Even if it's unintentional, it's how it'll sound on the internet.

_____________________________

Gnome #9: David

"At 399, he's the oldest gnome around."

So this gnome was already in the first ST official mobile game. And this reminds me a lot of The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit but also and of course; Dungeons & Dragons.

The World of David the Gnome, originally titled David, el Gnomo (also known as David, the Gnome), is a Spanish animated television series based on the children's book The Secret Book of Gnomes, by the Dutch author Wil Huygen and illustrator Rien Poortvliet. The series was originally created in Spain by BRB Internacional (who were also responsible for the Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds franchise (Like Dart in season 2 and Mike, Lucas and Dustin where very much like the Three Musketeers in season 1.) and other cartoons such as Bobobobs and Around the World with Willy Fog)

The series presents the gnomes as a kind species, of 15 centimetres (6 inches) of height, and between 250 and 300 grams (8 and 10 ounces) of weight depending on gnome body mass. According to their habitat, different types of gnomes are distinguished: the ones of the forest, the ones of the garden, the ones of the farm, the ones of the house, the ones of the dunes, those of Siberia (David = David Harbour = Hopper = Hopper is in Russia), and nomadic "gypsy" gnomes (commonly looked down upon by other gnomes). A gnome's lifespan is usually 400 years, though there is one example of a couple in the Balkans living 550 years.

Gnomes such as the main characters live in pairs in comfortable caves or holes under trees [kinda like Hobbits] (in their case in the company of a pair of mice and a cricket). Their diet is mostly vegetarian. They are helped by the animals of the forest (kinda like Radagast who is the password to Castle Byers who is located in the woods) when travelling long distances or when they need to arrive quickly at a specific location. Gnomes work in various ways to repair the damage inevitably caused by humans. They also have the power of telepathy and mind control. (kinda like El or the Mindflayer, or even Galadriel in The Lord Of The Rings.)

Their main enemies are the trolls, malevolent and clumsy creatures who always make trouble for the other inhabitants of the forest, as well as gnome poachers. They have supernatural powers that are really strong but they have a weakness, if the sunlight gets on them, they turn to stone.(could be referencing all the Upside Down creatures who don't like sunlight and everything hot.) [Also very much like the Hobbit.] Also one of the trolls was voiced by someone who had the name Henderson, like Dustin Henderson. I also think it references a comic where some bullies attack Will and Mike calls them trolls.

Here are the most important characters:

David is a gnome of the forest. David is 399 years old, making him the oldest gnome around (since gnomes live no more than 400 years exactly, except Franklin, the gnome from the west, who lived 550 years), although he possesses exceptional constitution. David is a doctor, and he uses his knowledge of many fields, such as hypnosis and acupuncture, to heal his patients, usually animals, such as his faithful friend Swift the fox, or other gnomes. David also befriends a bird that, when he whistles, immediately arrives to quickly transport him to wherever necessary. For longer trips, he sometimes travels in a basket attached to the neck of the bird. (It may be a reference to clerics who are known to heal their allies and travelling with birds reminds me of Gandald who sometimes has the help of Eagles in some stories.)

Paul is David's twin brother. Not only does Paul have a normal moustache in contrast to David's handlebar moustache but his jumper is a darker shade of blue, he has a bigger nose, his gnome hat is dark blue whereas David's is red, and his trousers and boots are an inverse of David's: David's trousers are brown and his boots are beige, while Paul wears beige trousers and dark boots. (Of course this is a reference to Will and El who have been compared a lot of times throughout the show and who a lot of people in the fandom consider them siblings and twins, Will has a lot of Red in his wardrobe while El has a lot of blue.)

This gnome was found in a secret Russian base underground in Weathertop where Dustin discovers the Russian transmission coming from their main base located under the mall like a cave (like where gnome lives.). There are also gnomes in Siberia and having the name David, the name of Hopper's actor creates a connection since right now Hopper is in Russia. It may also be a nod to the group of kids who are all little gnomes running around the forest with their magical powers.

_____________________________

Gnome #10: Baskin

"Robin's favorite gnome."

Now this is a funny one.

This is a reference to the famous Baskin-Robbins which is a chain of ice cream restaurants that did special ice creams for Season 3 because of Scoops Ahoy. It is Robin's favorite gnome because they literally share the same name.

Baskin could also be a reference to the film of the same name where Five police officers, Remzi, Arda, Yavuz, Apo, and Seyfi, are dining at a restaurant, during which they have a discussion. Their meal is interrupted when they receive a distress call from Inceagac, a town known for being the focus of strange rumors. During the trip Seyfi has a terrifying vision of a bloody figure and accidentally drives their van into the water. Stranded, the officers eventually make their way to Inceagac, where they find themselves in an abandoned building (back in the Ottoman days, this used to be a police station), captured by cult members and are subjected to a number of increasingly bizarre and surreal scenarios. In the end, they realize they have all inadvertently wandered into Hell.

It has alot of similiraties with stories like Silent Hills or Hellraiser, two stories that inspired Stranger Things especially Hellraiser for Stranger Things 4. And it fully embraces the satanic imagery and themes which is something we are going to see with the satanic panic and also has the theme of time, dreams and visions.

We'll see how much season 4 decides to use those sort of elements in the show.

Well this gnome is easy to find. It's in the Scoops Ahoy parlor next to Robin. USS Butterscotch seems to be very popular there

_____________________________

Gnomes 11 - 20 coming soon.

56 notes · View notes

lexiklecksi · 3 years

Text

Barbed wires

His eyes are fixated on the fence. “I can do it. This time, I will make it”, he reassures himself. I try to disrupt his intensive stare with waving hands. “Tyler... please don't. What about the barbed wire?” He licks his lips like a lizard. “What? Ah don't worry, I'll be fine.” So stubborn! My brother has always been a pighead. “It will rip off your skin!”, I shout, loud enough for others to hear, but we're alone in the forest. Finally, he looks in my direction. “Shut up, Lizzie! Do you want to alarm the guards?” We both turn around, but don't see anyone. We're just two lost kids near the outer border. “I wanna know what’s behind that fence, don't you?” Momma always said we shouldn't ask too many questions if we don't want to end up like Danny. Though I could never silence the “what if?”s in my mind. What if there's a chance to escape this shithole? What could be beyond the world as we know it? A better world?

“I don't know... what do you think is behind the fence?” He spits out his answer: “Maybe there lies a place which isn't covered in poo and poverty.” My stomach aches as if somebody punched me in the gut. “Ty... can we please go home? I don't want to miss grandpa's good night story.” His black brows furrow in anger and resentment. “How dare you call that shitty shed a home? It's merely a place we have to exist. We deserve better. Remember that skirt with flower prints we once found, hanging from the fence? You said you wanted something so pretty.” How dare he? “I won't risk my life for a skirt, you stupid dickhead!”, I scream angrily in a high-pitched voice, but he just laughs it off. Before I can get near enough to hit him, he turns serious again. “Look, Liz: there must be a way out of here. And it's right in front of us. We just have to climb over that barbed-wired fence!” We both turn our heads to face the fence again. It’s towering over us, several feet above our heads. There are small holes where the rats have eaten through the wood and the weather has worn them out. “There's no way you can climb to the top and not get hurt”, I remark. “Watch me!” And before I can get a hold on him, he runs towards the fence and jumps up.

In horror I shut my eyes, but quickly reopen them to witness my brother hanging off the fence, one hand clawed in a hole. “Get down!”, I scream anxiously. “Get up!”, he shouts back with a wide grin on his mischievous face. Has he gone mad? Has he forgotten what happened to Danny? I'm torn between running back home and telling Dad to come rescue him and dragging him down to the ground with my own hands. But he is too far up the fence, his feet are dangling out of my reach. “This isn't one of our games, Ty! Come down to safe ground. Please? I promise I won't tell our parents about it.” Shaking his head, he ignores my efforts to talk some sense into him and reaches for the nearest hole to climb even further up. While I'm still debating in my mind if I should fetch our parents or any other adult, he climbs five feet up. Now there's only one foot between his curly hair and the barbed wire. I can't watch him getting hurt but it's too late to get help, so I just stay frozen in place. “I'll see you on the other side, Liz”, he whispers and leaps over the top of the fence. “No!” Too late. It's too late. He escaped. I stare at his ripped hoodie, torn to pieces by the barbed wire and crumble down in a puddle of tears.

Written for @flashfictionfridayofficial and inspired by this photo I took on my way home. It's just a quickly written stupid story but I hope you'll still like it.

Word count: 655. Tag list under the cut.

Never miss a poem or a short story I write! Comment if you want to be added or removed from my tag list.

@opes-magnas @dg-fragments @silversynthesis @heartofmuse @scatteredthoughts2 @rhapsodyinblue80 @alaskaisnothere @stoic-words @september-stardust @wordsforsadpeeps @writingitdown @intothevortex @aubriestar @rearviewphilosophy @silent-steals-the-night @warriorbookworm @raevenlywrites @alex-a-roman @artsymagee @giantrobocock @theheightofdepression @writing-is-a-martial-art @beautifulimposter25 @cirianne

#flash fiction friday #barbed wires #flash fiction #short story #my writing #writeblr #writing community

23 notes · View notes

gerrydelano · 2 years

Note

ouuhuhuhuhu new chapter!!!!! ewwww martins mom. god she’s awful. ohhh is martin irish? 🤝🤝 HIIII LEO… beloved … hell yeah irish dance!!! i was soooo bad at it but good lord is it fun. martin’s trying so hard with her it’s physically painful to see her shut him down. “there’s something wrong with him” hello???????? that came out of left field .. she doesn’t look at martin???? god.. “she found it easier to look at me. so i made it harder.” augh “i used to be kind.” “i think you still are.” JESUS.. hiiiii gerry! god the feelings……….. pharos??????? they’re at that one part…… this means!!!! CALLUM!!!!!!

howdy!

deirdre dearest? no. deirdre detested.

he sure is! tagged it and everything, have mentioned his very brief childhood history with the dance lessons ^^ he's not really in a family that would do something like that Frivolously, yfm? would have had to be parentally imposed imo, so voila! irish-scottish mum. blackwood is her maiden name 😊

oh danny boy the pipes the pipes are calling,

i miss it honestly :-( ! my ankles don't though

okay to be fair to deirdre just this once, there actually IS something wrong with danny! that man is SUPER haunted! she spouted it when she did because he got far enough away that she could Process that something felt wrong. even her comment about martin needing to shave was honestly her going "uhhhh shit i'm staring i need to say something uhh uhhhhhh Face, you have hair on it, get rid of that. nice save." and no it's not a nice save but danny WAS messing with her focus for a while there LMFAO

danny is a fantastic outlet for how much i love the concept of "monster tenderness" okay he's doing his BEST. his best happens to be CREEPY and sometimes a little MEAN. but it's still his best.

make way for the yearning brigade

yes! surprise! pharos extended a very kind olive branch to tim by handing him that memory very clinically but because he knew gerry would want to. gerry's been fading into the background a lot, hasn't he? wuh oh.

callum baby boy i am so sorry this happened to you 💀 just get him a juice box he'll be fine (lying)

#thank you for reading!!!!#asks #oliverbanks #pbr tag

4 notes · View notes

wolfjackle-creates · 7 months

Text

Bring Me Home Arc 2 Part 16

Happy WIP Wednesday everyone! Sorry I missed last week, but I think I should be good to get back on track going forward. Finished making most of the baby things I want to make for my soon-to-be nephew, so I'll be able to spend more time writing than crocheting again.

Story Summary: Tim and Danny are both neglected by parents who care more about their work than their families. They deal with this by spending too much time online and find each other playing MMORPGs. They keep up their friendship as Tim becomes Robin and Danny becomes Phantom and don't bother keeping secrets from each other.

First, Previous

Word Count: 1.4k

-----

An hour later, all eight of them were ensconced in the theater in Sam’s basement with a few pizzas and salads spread around them. Wulf again refused any and the rest dug in.

“All right, Tuck, we need to figure out what Walker’s up to. Can you ask Wulf?”

Tim watched as Tucker asked and Wulf responded. Then Tucker burst out laughing and slapped his knee.

Tim’s eyes narrowed. He wouldn’t.

Sam scoffed. “You have no idea what he said, do you?”

“Not a clue,” Tucker admitted.

Tim groaned.

Bart cocked his head. “Give me five minutes, I’ll be right back!”

Before Danny could even finish asking, “Where are you going?” Bart was gone.

Conner grabbed another slice of pizza and said, “He’s off to learn Esperanto. Hang tight and he’ll be right back.”

“How can he learn a language so fast?” asked Sam.

Tim swallowed. “He’s a speedster. His normal is faster than our brains can comprehend. He slows himself down so he can interact with us mere mortals. He’ll be back.”

Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, Bart was back among them. He repeated Tucker’s question. This time, when Wulf responded, the ghost was understood.

“So, Walker is pissed at Danny,” translated Bart. “And he totally wants to ruin your entire life and drag you back to his prison in the ghost zone. Apparently he and his guards are overshadowing a bunch of the people you’re close to in the town to trap you in their web of lies.”

Danny groaned and buried his face in his hands. “How do I fight against that? I can’t just soup them all! I don’t even know who all is overshadowed!”

Cassie butt in then. “We know some of them. Dash and your classmates are definitely overshadowed.”

“Your reputation improved thanks to the other night,” commented Conner. “That might help mitigate Walker’s plans.”

“Doubt it,” said Danny. “Most people think I’m a menace. One night of good publicity won’t turn them around. Especially not with my parents there to dirty my name.”

“Let’s prepare a press release,” suggested Tim. “I bet the Young Justice team could get themselves on the local news. And if we speak up for you, it might help.”

Danny exchanged looks with his two friends. Tucker shrugged, “Couldn’t hurt, dude.”

“Fine,” bit out Danny. “What else?”

Conner looked at Wulf curiously. “Bart, does Wulf know how we can get his collar off?”

“Oooh, good question.” Bart asked, but Wulf shook his head as he answered.

“Will he let me look at it?” asked Tucker.

“I might be able to help, too,” added Tim as he stepped closer and reached out to touch.

Before he could actually touch the collar, though, Wulf snarled at him and jumped back several feet. Tim held up his hands in apology and took a step back himself. “Sorry!”

Bart grinned at him. “He said don’t touch it.”

Tim grimaced and nodded. “Think I got that.”

Tucker was already typing away on one of his devices. “I’m gonna try something. Might help.”

And that’s when Wulf screamed out in pain and fell to the floor clawing at the collar.

“Shit!” shouted Tucker as he rushed forward. He managed to plug his device into a port on the collar. Electricity arced back along the connection, causing Tucker to yelp in pain and drop his PDA.

But a moment later, there was a beep and the collar fell to pieces.

Wulf looked down in shock, then up at all of them. “Mi libras?”

“You’re free, dude,” said Tucker.

Bart added something in Esperanto.

Wulf grinned at them, sharp teeth shining in the light. “Mi libras!” Then he turned and disappeared as he jumped through the wall.

Conner groaned and collapsed backwards. “Jerk couldn’t even stick around long enough to help us after everything we did for him.”

Tim sighed and sat down as well. “Well, we’ll figure it out ourselves. Just like we always do. So, operation Fix Danny’s Reputation. We’ll start with talking to the press. What else?”

“Can we write up op-eds describing what really happened in some of his ghost fights?” asked Cassie. “Set the record straight?”

“What if we make you easier to reach?” added Tim. “Get a number the police or the mayor can reach you at so you can show them you’re willing to work with them instead of just on your own?”

“Do you think that’ll work?” asked Danny.

Tim shrugged. “Worked for Batman. Don’t see why it wouldn’t help you.”

Danny sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

“Great,” said Tim. “I’ll send out some emails asking for interviews. And then we can start working on the op-eds. How about we split into three groups, Danny and me in one, the rest of you can split up how we like. Then we can go over the major ghost fights that have happened and write tell-all articles that don’t run the risk of spoiling Danny’s identity.”

Conner shrugged. “Sam, wanna work with me?”

Sam grinned. “You betcha.”

Bart disappeared and reappeared next to Tucker. “Tucker and I will work together, too!”

Cassie moved until she was next to Conner. “I call working with Sam and Kon.”

“Great. Now, Tuck, do you happen to know the best contact info for local reporters?” Tim pulled out his laptop and powered it on as he spoke.

“Give me five minutes and I’ll get it for you.”

Fifteen minutes later, Tim had sent out a dozen emails asking for interviews. As he and Tucker were working, Danny and Sam had gone through which ghost fights would be the best to write about and divided up the attacks between the three groups.

Once he was ready to start on the articles, Tim sat down next to Danny. “So, what are we starting with?”

Danny grinned. “We’re going to go over my first fight. The one with Lunch Lady. She wasn’t bad, but caused a lot of clean up for the school and wasted a lot of resources. Most people still don’t even know that was a ghost attack.”

“Great, let’s get started.”

Tim had heard about most of Danny’s fights before, but being next to him in person definitely made a difference. They were sitting with their arms pressed against each other so they could both see the computer screen and add or delete bits as they went. It was nice.

They’d been working for a few hours when Sam’s parents came down.

“Children!” called her mom.

Tim wasn’t the only one to hide a grimace at the term.

Jeremy Manson continued, “The mayor has instituted a curfew for the city due to all the ghosts. No one is allowed out on the streets after nine PM.”

Pamela Manson giggled. “And it’s nine PM now! So looks like you’ll all be staying here. Tim, dear, be sure to tell your father how seriously we took your safety. I don’t want any of you leaving the house until morning.”

Tim turned on his gala smile. “My dad is in a coma, I’m afraid. But I’ll be sure to tell Bruce just how considerate all the people of Amity have been.”

Jeremy let out a forced laugh. “Of course, our mistake. We wish our best to your father, as well. I hope his prognosis is good?”

Tim blinked at him. “He’s been in a coma for months.”

Pamela giggled again. “Of course, we knew that. Right, dear?” She smacked her husband lightly on the arm.

“Sure did!” he agreed. “Well, I hope to hear news of his miraculous recovery. I’m sure he is getting the best of care.”

“Of course he is,” agreed Tim. “I wouldn’t put up with anything less.”

A few more giggles and well wishes, then Pamela and Jeremy made a hasty retreat.

Once they were alone, Conner looked at him with concern. “Tim—”

“I’m fine, Conner.”

Before anyone else could try and say anything, his email beeped. Tim took the excuse and read it over. The most popular morning radio talk show wanted to have the Young Justice on. Tim grinned.

“We’re getting up early, guys. Radio interview at six AM.”

Cassie laughed. “I can do that, can you?”

Tim shrugged. “I just won’t go to sleep. Easier to stay up that late than drag myself out of bed that early.”

Conner shook his head. “You and your family are insane, Rob.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get back to work.”

-----

This is where I definitely go off the rails of what happened in the show. But that's half the fun of an AU! Hope you like it.

I no longer tag for this fic, but if you want to be notified of updates, please check out the Subscription Post.

Scroll down to the next post on my blog to see the really cool birthday comic @stealingyourbones made for me!

#dpxdc #tim drake #danny fenton #will they be able to repair danny's rep before walker enacts his plan?#wait and find out!#there absolutely wont be any long term consequences to whats about to happen #nope #none at all #*evil laugh*

208 notes · View notes

fureliselost · 2 years

Text

I posted 797 times in 2021

355 posts created (45%)

442 posts reblogged (55%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1.2 posts.

I added 1.169 tags in 2021

#danny phantom - 280 posts

#danny fenton - 236 posts

#dp - 139 posts

#art - 96 posts

#eli art - 86 posts

#eli fics - 76 posts

#sam manson - 68 posts

#vlad masters - 64 posts

#eli rants - 63 posts

#fanart - 61 posts

Longest Tag: 125 characters

#danny: *remembering that dash shoved him inside lockers three times today and pushed him down tbe stairs on the way to class*

My Top Posts in 2021

The biggest irony in Danny Phantom is that it's a show about death but never once is death actually spoken about closely nor is the main character ever indicated to have dealt with death/loss (not even his own).

572 notes • Posted 2021-07-23 23:25:59 GMT

Yo, I've been thinking about Danny's grades. Because, like, most of the DP fandom writes ff with Danny being one bad grade from flunking out 'cause he can't fight ghosts and keep up with the school work.

But, like, is that really accurate tho? (And let me make it clear that I've only watched DP once and that was in Feb, so I could have some information missing here)

Cuz on the very first ep Lancer tells Danny he has basically nothing bad on his record (whereas Tucker had some transgressions).

And I can only remember Danny's grades being mentioned 5 times in the entire show (on One Of A Kind, Teacher Of The Year, What You Want (?), TUE, and, obviously, Mystery Meat — there is Vlad's mentions of Danny's grades and Danny's dream in Frightmare, but I'm not considering those).

On One of a Kind, he gets a D in his biology — which, from the way he said it, it sounded like he never got a grade that low — but he managed to raise his grade.

On Teacher of the Year, he fails his English (?) exam — not because he was occupied with a ghost, but because he was obsessed with playing Doom (let's also remember that, on One of a Kind, Tucker literally says Danny's problem was time management) — but then he was able to retake the test and got a 91%.

On What You Want, he mentions he's a C student.

And, well, everyone knows what happened in TUE: Danny says he isn't prepared for the CAT 'cuz he didn't get to study throughout the year because of ghost fighting (which IG is where the whole fanfic thing comes from).

But, like, was Danny actually not able to study because of ghosts? Because I can't actually think of a time where he was actually stopped from getting his homework done by a ghost fight.

But you know what does come up in my mind when I think of all of that? "Poor time management skills"... Oh, wait, that's already Canon!

Before I get into the time management skills, lemme bring up again Vlad's comments, Danny's A grade on his dream on Frightmare, and Danny's comment on What You Want (as well as what he said in TUE).

Guys, the educational system sucks. In 2004 it was worse. Teachers also suck in that respect (do I need to explain that I don't hate all teachers, only the sucky ones?).

There are teachers who humiliate you in front of the class for having a question they believe you shouldn't have, I'm pretty sure everyone has been in that situation or knows someone who has. Some teachers shame you every time you get a bad grade instead of offering solutions — that affects people, it doesn't even have to be that explicit.

I spent 'till my senior year of highschool thinking I was a terrible student (because teachers told me I was every time I got a bad grade). That only changed when I was calculating my GPA to see which colleges I had a shot at: my GPA was 3.6/4

Now, take Mr Daniel Fenton. Youngest son of a family of geniuses. His older sister got the highest ever CAT grade and writes Theses for funsies. His parents not only where accepted to appear on genius magazine (Jazz may have done the application for Maddie, but she wouldn't lie on it knowing that they would do at least some fact chacking — meaning that she probably picked accomplishments of Maddie's and used only the ones she approved of, meaning that they had accomplishments other than the ghost related ones) but they also built a freaking portal to another dimension.

Not to mention that Tucker is a top notch hacker and doesn't get good grades because he doesn't want to (which doesn't matter because he changes them anyway) and that Sam never shows any concern towards her grades and, being from a rich family, she probably has to get good grades.

Take Danny, who wants to be an astronaut — the literal hardest job to get on the face of the Earth, which also requires a degree in the STEM area (which Danny is admittedly not the best at). Now put him in a place where his grades dropped a little — Maddie, his mother, literally told him he had to get good grades because "Fentons get As" or whatever.

Is it that hard to think that a lot of Danny saying his grades are so terrible and he's not prepared for the tests is because that's just how low he thinks of himself academically?

Lemme get back to the time management skills.

So I've already established that the educational system sucks and it wasn't any better in 2004.

It was even worse at recognizing and dealing with neurodivergent kids.

And I'm pretty sure that, like, 70% of the fandom sees Danny as Neurodivergent-coded — autism, ADHD, anxiety, depression, etc.

The thing with being neurodivergent is that sometimes ND people suck at some executive functions/have executive dysfunctions.

Do you know what is an executive function? Time management skills.

When it comes to studying, I personally have a lot of trouble with distractions and getting myself to start the assignment. That problem is usually solved if I have someone to do it with me — and by that I mean that the person usually just sits nearby and sometimes helps me with processing an information, which tends to consist in just me talking.

Which is basically what Lancer did with Danny in Teacher of the Year. Which,,, Lancer, my beloved, yes! When he found the problem, he tried to find a solution and his frickin solution worked!

Anyway, this is all I wanted to say: the educational system sucks, Danny has a warped view of himself, Danny is neurodivergent, and Lancer should've been portrayed as an awesome teacher since the start because he was awesome.

700 notes • Posted 2021-06-11 09:10:12 GMT

Mr Lancer: Where is your homework?

Danny, absolutely exhausted out of his mind after an all-nighter chasing a ghost and had no time to do said homework: A ghost ate it.

Lancer, realizing that's a plausible excuse: *sighs*

The rest of Casper High's student body, also realizing it's a plausible excuse: It's free real estate.

837 notes • Posted 2021-11-23 02:47:00 GMT

Someone explain to me why Wes' immediate reaction to finding out the truth about Danny is "imma expose that mf".

Like, 1) not only is that a jerk move (and none of Wes' fucking business), but it's also basically outing him; 2) is he stupid? 'cause Danny can literally lift a bus and he could, like, kill Wes v easy; 3) if he's really so adamant about posting it online because he's an amateur reporter or "the truth must be heard" or whatever other shit, why does he never think about talking to Danny to get the whole truth? Like, is he that incompetent?

1067 notes • Posted 2021-04-28 07:06:39 GMT

Valerie: Where is Danny?

Sam: Not that it's any of your business, Valerie, but he's busy.

*Danny crashes on their table as Phantom*

1068 notes • Posted 2021-06-23 03:02:09 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #q1 #dp consumed me this year

4 notes · View notes

allonsy-yesiwill · 3 years

Text

Tis The Season: A Family Divided

WC: 2900 ish

Pairing: Dean x Y/N

Warnings: a little bit of angst (read is an orphan but it didn’t happen till she was an adult and hit of crap parents) torwards the end but mostly just fluffy goodness

A/N: I tend to treat the English language like a garbage bin, in public I pronounce gym phonetically cause it makes people mad, and me smile. So please if you are an English teacher just pass on all of this... cause my tenses are timey whimy to say the least. That being said if you want to Beta, let me know I could use all the help I can get... hmmm, I guess that’s just a general statement about my life really..lol.

Get caught up here

The next morning Y/N woke up and packed everything up, she just had a bad feeling about the day and she couldn’t bear to ruin the holiday for the rest of Dean’s family.

“Good morning cheer, you ready for the big Christmas eve brunch,” Benny hollers from the other side of the door.

Y/N opens it with a sigh, “Please Benny, brunch happens at 11, this is breakfast. It’s still 9 am.” She laughed a bit, “Hey Benny if I ask you to do me a favor and not tell Dean could you do that?”

“Well it depends but probably,” he smiled.

“I don’t think today is going to go well and I don’t want to destroy the actual holiday for them, and by them I mean Mary, Jess, Sam and Dean. John can go fuck himself. I packed my bags, can you just put them in the car just in case?”

“Yes but I don’t like this, I know Dean’s not the best at standing up against his dad but he’s trying.”

“I get it and I see it. I don’t love him any less for it. It’s just not going to change. I know I had a similar relationship with my parents. And to be honest with you I don’t even think this is about Dean anymore. It’s about my own unchecked baggage with my parents,” Y/N let out with a sigh.

“Okay cheer, but please promise me you won’t leave the state without him. It would break him.”

“Agreed.”

As Y/N walked into the kitchen Dean stood up and pulled out the chair next to him. Y/N looked around the table and noticed that John was missing as Dean pushed in her chair giving her a kiss on the cheek. “How did you sleep babe,” Dean asked. “Well I am pretty sure it was more of a passing out thing after all of the whiskey,” Y/N said softly noticing that the family in the room was looking at them smiling.

“Well if you need a hangover cure, I make whip you up something that will make you feel better,” Sam laughed, “I’ve done it for Dean more than once.”

“I am not listening,” Mary smiled.

“No Sam I am good, some fresh fruit and some OJ should do the job. Do we have a nap time scheduled today? I will probably need one of those as well,” Y/N smiled. She couldn’t believe how welcome she felt, no judgement about her words last night. She was sure the family would take John’s side.

“We can probably arrange for that sweetheart, right mom,” Dean said, giving her hand a squeeze.

John joined them after about 20 minutes later, stateing that he just finished a business call and wanting to know the days plans where. John did not say a word to Y/N. Didn’t look at her, didn’t acknowledge her presents. He did however make comments on the events happening, stating that they were family only.

“Well if you excuse me, I will let you get back to your family planing,” Y/N said standing up.

“What’s wrong Y/N, the hangover got you feeling less than humans,” John asked with a laugh, “Ladies don't drink like you did last night.”

“No sir, I feel fine however I know when I am not welcome and I don’t want to make thing more uncomfortable for the rest of the family. As far as the lady comment, well I don’t really want to be a door mat for men to wipe their shit on. Thank you for the hospitality and breakfast,” Y/N got up and walked out of the room. Dean was calling her name and he began to stand up, however John grabbed his arm. “She’s not worth it son,” he said.

“How do you know, you haven’t even given her a change. All you do is cast your stupid prehistoric views on her,” Dean let out.

“I worn you son sit down or else.”

“Or else what, you will disown me like Y/N parents did to her? I know you ran a background check and I am sure you think I don’t know about her history, but I do. I know everything thing she has done, how she has made the world a better place. That’s 1000 times better than any of us sitting round this table, with the exception of Jess.”Dean smiled looking at Jessica.

“I am sorry Mom, I am going to go make sure my girlfriend is alright,” Dean said while exiting the kitchen.

He didn’t have to go far to find her, she had stopped around the corner when she heard Dean speak up. His heart broke when he saw she was crying, “ Baby I am so sorry, come here.”

“Dean I am not sad, did you mean all of that. Like really or was just to make your dad mad?”

“Of course I meant every last word of it. I should have stood up last night but I didn’t I am sorry.”

“Dean no one has ever stood up for me like that,” Y/N said as more tears fell on her face.

Dean wrapped her in his arms whispering, “I love you so much.” When they broke apart Dean took her hand and asked, “So pool house, Christmas movies. I don’t maybe Die Hard and Elf.”

“Oh Dean Winchester you know the way to this girl's heart.”

It didn’t take long before Y/N feel asleep on Dean as he continued to watch christmas movies enjoying the close space they shared. Before the movie was over Benny walked Mary in, “Bother, someone is here to see you.”

Well if it’s John tell him he’s not welcome and we if we need to leave we can,” Dean said louder than he intended.

“Can I join you,” Mary asked.

“Yes of course, sorry mom.”

“You know I like her. She’s strong and feisty, just what you need. You also seem happy, and that makes me happy.”

“Thank you, where’s dad.”

“He went to work, I don’t think he wanted to be here. After you left Sam laid into him pretty hard about how he didn't like Jess when she first started coming around. That she just distracted him from the work. Give him time he will figure it out and if he doesn’t well I will come see you,” Mary smiled softly.

“Yeah, I should have done this the frist night. I am an awful boyfriend.”

“Son we all have our issue and she gets yours. Don’t feel bad about it, just make sure she knows you love her. Ah the Griswolds, should we make a bet that your father will cut off knob on the top of the stairs or that he will have to cut down a tree from he front yard.”

“Ha, well let’s hope it’s neither. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.” They both laughed.

“You know Dean, most families are like the Griswolds, they want everything to be perfect for their children and it’s impossible and not because we all have a cousin Eddy. There is no perfect in real life. Hell there isn’t even a normal, well outside of the setting on the dyer.”

Mary stayed and finished the movie with them. Y/N woke up before the ending with both Mary and Dean making jokes about sleeping beauty. Mary let Y/N know that she fully excepted her at the family dinner and to be part of the family photo tonight, a Winchester tradition. Mary also let her know that a dress would be delivered for her an hour before the dinner.

“Dean, please stay in the guest house for the rest of your trip. I know John will be less than pleased, but seeing your smile I just couldn’t say no.”

The day was peaceful for both Y/N and Dean. It was the perfect christmas eve. When they hear Benny knock on the door they both sighed knowing dinner was close.

“Alright kids, so Mary let me bring two outfits. However we talked and we really think both of you should go with this one,” Benny let out hand over a garment bag.

“Oh my god what is this,” Y/N laughed.

“Mary and I talked about it and it’s fun and joyful, that’s something she seemed to think you were Y/N and that she knows Dean is. She might have used the world childish.”

“Ha, well you’re not wrong, I love it.”

“Hey now, same team,” Dean laughed.

The outfits where a matching over the top christmas print. Y/N dress and Dean’s suit were both a dark green, and decorated to make them look like christmas trees.

Looking in the mirror Y/N admired their reflection, “ We look perfectly horrible, I love it,”

“Well I think you got the perfect part right babe.”

Before dinner the gathered in the living room around the tree. While John had yet to show up Mary insisted on taking pictures. Everyone loved Dean and Y/N outfits, Jess and Sam even suggested next year they all coordinate.

As John walked into the room it was clear he disapproved of Y/N sitting on Dean’s lap. Lucky Ellen walked in around that time announcing dinner is ready. They all sat down a the formal dinning room table, Y/N was nestled on the corner next to Mary and Dean, far away form John.

“Alright family, John will lead us in grace and it looks like you Sam are going to be the frist to say what you are most thankful for this year and what you look forward to in the next year,” Mary said.

As Sam started speaking Y/N’s mind went off the rails. She was most grateful for Dean, but could she say that. But she had to say it, it’s true. There were a few other things on her list but Dean was on the top. She took a deep breath and listened to everyone speak before her it was her turn.

“Honestly, I am so very grateful for Dean. Even when we were just friends he alway made me feel valued and that’s not something I am used to. It was also because of Dean’s help that was I able to mentor two homeless youths and help them get off the streets and be productive member of the community.”

“That’s amazing Y/N,” Mary let out.

“Was that Kyle and Abby,” Dean asked.

“Yeah,” she smiled.

“I, I didn’t know they were homeless,” Dean said with a sad smile. “Alright I guess it’s my turn. So I am most grateful to running into this quirky little bartend in NW Portland. I asked her out on a date more than once, she always said no. Then I started to hangout with her as friends and she showed me a world I didn’t know about. And how she was making the world a better place, also how I could make the world a better place. Y/N you inspire me to be a better human and I hope I can have a fraction of the impact you have had on this world.” When Dean finished he look and Y/N, and kissed her deeply and passionately. John said nothing.

Sam’s boys went next and then it was John’s turn.

“Well I love and I am also grateful for my family. But right now I am more thank for our private investigator Azazel. Because of him I know that Y/N over there is a gold digging whore. 10 years ago she was in a relationship Dick Roman and when that relationship ended he had to giver her 25k to get off the hook. It looks like her father set them up on a date, them being business associates and when it was all over her family disowned her. So clearly she’s just a whore looking for money. If Mr Roman couldn’t make her happy, I don’t think you can.”

“Are you done John or is there more,” Y/N asked.

“There is more, I knew your mother before she died. I didn’t know till well Azazel found it but I remember her. I remember her talking about her freeloading daughter that never did anything to help the family succeed. She was ashamed and disappointed in you 15 years ago and I think she would still be today.”

“Well clearly John you believe removing me for the picture is more important than your family's happiness so you would probably be a good friend to my mother. My father actually negotiated a deal for me to marry Dick. I wanted nothing to do with it. At first he was respectful however after a year that all changed. There was physical abuse and he would bring in his own medic’s to patch me up, there was rape that no one would believe when I went to the police. The only reason I am probably alive is because Dick’s lawyer saw what was happening and offered me a life line, Crowley. The first time I met Crowley my eye socket was shattered. Crowley has all of the evidence, the pictures of everything that happened. I just wanted to be free, Crowley got me my freedom and a lump sum of money. He is the only one who keeps that evidence incase something where to happen to me. When I was at Crowley’s my parents came for me multiple times and I didn’t understand why. It was then that Crowley found out my parents had pretty much sold me to Dick and Dick was coming after the money he gave them. Crowley helped me disappear into a bar in Portland where no one I know would find me. And with that I think I am done for this evening. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Eve,” she said standing up and walking out. The dinning room was quite. Not a word everyone taking everything in. Dean new about Dick but not the physical abuse, she just told him about the mental and that Crowley got her off.

The staff was never far off and Y/N was hoping that Benny would be right there, she wasn’t disappoint. “You’re bag is still in the car, would you like to go.”

“Yes, please, “ Y/N said as tears fell down her face. There was no noise form the dining room. Nothing. Y/N figured Dean would need some time to over come his anger. She never told Dean about the physical abuse or rape because Dean is an accquatice of Dick’s and that would never end well.

“Cheer, I don’t want you to be alone tonight, Jo has the night off and Ellen will be home soon. Can I take you there. Bobby will be over before the night is over.”

“I would rather be alone but I don’t have any money on me right now so I am at your disposal.”

“Y/N, no you aren’t. If you want a first class room in this town I can get you that. But we do like you and I am worry. Dean’s going to be worried. If he finds out I left you alone I would get a beating, cheer.”

“Okay Benny, Jo’s it is.”

When Benny showed up a Jo’s place he messaged Mary letting her know where Y/N was and that he wouldn’t be coming back tonight. Mary was grateful for the news and insisted that Ellen and Bobby go home early to spend time with their family. When Ellen walked in she brought a few more gifts into the house with her. Mary had a feeling that this might happened so she had packed a few extra gifts for Y/N and let Bobby know.

“Well this is wonderful,” Ellen walked in to the room seeing Jo’s arm around Y/N while Benny sat on the floor beneath them while It’s a Wonderful Life played on the TV. “I have pie who wants some?”

As the pie was handed being finished Ellen starts to hand out gifts.

“What’s this,”Y/N asked, “I don’t need anything.”

“Well no one needs anything, but you deserve it,” Ellen said, “We all open one gift Christmas Eve for a reason and I think you will find you’re very useful”

As everyone opened their gift she could see they were all christmas pj’s and Y/N smiled. “ These are the best, but how did you know I would be here Ellen.”

“I didn’t, these are actually from Mary.” And with that Y/N couldn’t hold the tears back. Mary had gotten her a gift incase she wasn’t there. There is so much thought and work, money makes it easier but she had never felt so love in her life. Ellen held her that best a mom could and let her cry her tears of joy.

After presents there were more holiday movies and finally eggnog and a red wine hot coco. Bobby and Ellen didn’t have much room but Y/N was more than happy with the sofa. After the family when to bed, Y/N drifted off to sleep watching the fire die down wondering how she got so lucky and hoping that Dean was okay.

Next Part (will be out Christmas Day)

You can entertain yourself over here with my other stories

TAGS

@akshi8278

#dean winchester #dean x reader #Dean x you #dean winchester au #dean x reader au

2 notes · View notes

ghostbustermelanieking · 7 years

Text

shadow demon; part one: october 30, 2017

s11 spec. based off a prompt by @firstofoctober: Mulder and Scully find themselves wrapped up in an unexpected case at a Halloween carnival when a teenage boy asks for their help.

happy halloween!

Another hotel room, another state. Wyoming is surprisingly chilly for October, and Scully has bought bulk in jackets for Mulder that she will inevitably steal. The suitcases they bought in a Walmart in Tennessee still have the tags on them, and they have black zip-up bags full of rolls of cash in the glove compartment. They keep their guns on their waist and their car keys in their pockets. They've lived like this before, except for one notable difference: before, they were running away from their son (running away from his memory). Now, they're running to him. If they can find him.

They didn't tell Skinner where they were going. They needed his help, but they didn't trust him. Don't trust him. They don't know who they can trust anymore. A night with bullets flying through their living room, guns to their heads and cold metal around their wrists as they were shuffled out to a car together, chains clinking between them. The close escape, the stumbling run into the woods. Deciding to disappear as she picked the lock with a piece of wire while Mulder rubbed her thumb with his. Meeting Skinner in the parking garage. They lied, told him they went to Massachusetts. They've been heading west. They're looking for their son.

Scully is sitting on one of the beds of the hotel room, trying to hack into public records without setting off about a million alerts to their location. They've barely made any progress on searching for William because of their fear of being caught. The new Syndicate seems to be more tech-savvy than the old one ever was; they found them last time because of a search on fucking Google. Langly taught them how to set up a private, untraceable connection. (Years in a bunker had taught him a lot of new tricks.) Mulder's running out to pick up dinner, and she's trying her best to distract herself until she gets back so she doesn't panic, doesn't think too much about what could be happening. Her fingers click-clack over the keyboard, the blue of the screen lighting up her face, and she's so concentrated in what she's doing that she doesn't hear the pounding footsteps outside until the door bursts open.

She jumps, eyes widening as a lanky kid bursts into the room, Mulder on his tail. “Mulder, what's…” she starts, uncertain.

“It's a long story,” Mulder says. His hand is on the shoulder of the boy and he nudges him towards the bed gently. The kid is trembling, so pale that Scully can count all of his freckles. “This is Dr. Scully,” Mulder tells him. “She's my… my partner.”

The kid nods, seemingly distracted, hands balled up in his jacket pockets.

“This is Jackson,” Mulder says evenly. “He's, um, he saw something.”

Scully blinks. “Saw something?”

“It was the carnival,” the kid croaks. “There's something evil in there, I swear. I saw it. I barely escaped.”

Scully reaches out and feels his forehead with the back of her wrist. He's freezing, covered in a cold sweat. “I'm going to get you some water, okay, sweetie?”

Mulder squeezes his shoulder again. “Stay here, we'll be right back.” The kid, Jackson, nods, staring at his knees. Mulder follows her into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

“Mulder, what… who is that? What's going on?” Scully hisses, taking a paper cup from the counter and filling it with water.

Mulder gulps, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was at a convenience store, putting groceries in the trunk of the car,” he says. “And this kid comes running out of the woods, looking scared out of his wits. He was sprinting, Scully, he had a baseball bat in his hand, he almost brained me with it when I stopped him. He said something was chasing him, he said it took his friend. He flipped out when I offered to take him home or to the police station, said it wouldn't help anything. He said his parents weren't even home in the first place, and whatever it was would come for him if he was alone. I couldn't just leave him there, Scully.”

“Where the hell did he come from?”

“He said he was at a carnival or something.”

Scully chews her lower lip nervously. “It's good that you helped him, but, Mulder, we can't do this right now. I think we need to take him to the police if someone's gone missing…”

“We can't,” Mulder says. “They'll never believe him, what he saw. Besides that, it's a teenage boy and everyone always likes to say they've run away.”

“That doesn't matter. If there's been a disappearance, the police need to be notified. Besides we're supposed to be low profile, and we don't even know if he's telling the truth!”

He motions frantically for her to speak quieter. “He's telling the truth, Scully. I saw… it.”

She’s strangling the paper cup a little in her fist; she sets it down, sitting down on the edge of the tub. Her head hurts a little at the prospect of another X-File; after the doppelgangers in Idaho and that case with the fucking statues, she'd hoped their bad luck had run out. “What is… it?” she asks wearily.

“It's a demon.”

Mulder turns away from her, revealing the kid standing in the doorway. Jackson. His face is flushed, dark hair hanging in his face. “Or… something,” he adds. “I'm not sure what, exactly, but it… it followed me. It took Danny and it followed me.”

Scully swallows. “Danny’s your… friend?”

Jackson nods solemnly.

“Here, let's talk out there.” Mulder motions Jackson out of the room, hand on his shoulder. Scully follows quietly. Jackson sits on one of the beds and they sit across from him on the other one. “Tell Scully what you told me,” Mulder says encouragingly, squeezing her knee. “She may seem skeptical, but she comes around most of the time.”

Scully might’ve slugged him if it weren't for the circumstances, the nervous kid shifting on the bed across from them. He rubs the back of his neck nervously, says, “Okay.” He gulps, chews his lower lip. “Okay, um. Danny and I went to this traveling carnival thing. They're new in town and all, right? Mom and Dad are out of town and I was staying--am staying--alone, so I figured, you know…” He shrugs. “Thought it'd be fun. So we went, and we hung out, and we went through this haunted house thing. And that's where it was.”

He's quiet, knee bouncing frantically. Mulder squeezes her knee again. “What's it, Jackson?”

“I dunno, I don't…” The kid is shaking his head. “We went into this room, this really dark room. We couldn't see anything, no one jumped out at us. We were just kind of walking through this room when we heard laughter, this awful hysterical laughter. Not cheesy movie laughter. Danny had kind of been making fun of the whole thing, making snarky comments the whole time. So he yells, he yells, um, ‘Where the hell’s the scare?’ or something like that. And the laughter stopped. The laughter stopped, and uh, I felt this scratch on my leg.”

Jackson leans down and motions to his leg. Scully looks, too, and sees a long scratch along his leg, right through his jeans, coated in dried blood. “Oh my god,” she says, horrified. “You need to get that looked at.”

Jackson waves his hand impatiently. “It's not a big deal. Danny is the one in trouble. He's the one they took. I was trying to figure out what had scratched me and he made this awful gaspy sound, almost like… almost like he didn't have time to scream. I just, I looked up and he was gone.” He gulps. “Just gone. And I have no idea where… no idea what… I yelled his name, I whirled around looking for him, but I couldn't find him. I couldn't see the exit but I could see the entrance, I tried to run away but I couldn't, someone grabbed my ankle and yanked me to the ground. The door slammed shut. And then I heard the growling… I felt this awful, cold feeling, and something's hot breath on my face... I screamed and screamed, but no one listened. Everyone's fucking screaming in a haunted house.” The kid shudders. “I thought I was a goner until someone opened the door. The thing was gone, just like that. I don't even know how it happened. I got up and ran out, and I told the attendants that Danny was gone, and they helped me look for him, but he was gone, too. They thought he was playing a prank on me, they didn't believe me. But I stuck around to try and look for Danny. I looked through the entire carnival, but I couldn't find him. And that's when I saw it watching me… watching me from the shadows.” He chews his lower lip, picking at a thread in his jeans. “That's when I ran.”

Scully gulps, looking at the long wound along Jackson’s leg. Something definitely scratched him there, got him good. She can't say what it is. But she can tell that the kid isn't faking; the tremor in his voice, the haunted look in his eyes speak volumes. She's seen that look on Mulder's face again and again through the years. She addresses Mulder: “And this is what he told you?”

Mulder nods solemnly.

“He said you were FBI,” Jackson says suddenly, eagerly. “FBI agents who work on paranormal cases. He said you could help.”

Scully bites her lower lip, considers. He might be lying, her rational side reminds her. And he very well might be. But she isn't getting that vibe from him. He's clearly distraught, clearly hurt, and if he's telling the truth, then another child is missing. In danger. Mulder says he saw something, and whatever he saw (a human killer or… otherwise), it could be pursuing this kid. She can't just leave him alone.

“Yes,” she says, even though the words feel clunky in her mouth. “We can help.”

---

There is some friction at first. Scully insists that they need to notify, if not the police, at least Danny’s parents. Jackson insists that they can't. “Danny’s parents are out of town, too, they're best friends with my parents and they all rented a cabin together… they left Danny and me alone to, like, test our responsibility or whatever,” he says, flapping his hand dismissively. “And you can't tell them; if you tell them, they'll freak out. It's better if we can find him without them ever having to know.”

“They're his parents,” Scully says insistently. The thought at the back of her mind is her son--her son, who would be about the same age as Jackson. Her son, who she'd hate to think about being pursued by a monster or murderer or whatever without her knowing. She wishes she knew he was safe--she wants to give these parents that advantage. “They need to know that their son isn't safe, and so do yours.” She thinks the police need to be involved, too, but selfishly, she wants to keep this under the radar, at least until they know how serious it is, how much danger this child is in. For their sake, for William's. “I'm fine with leaving the police out of it for now, but your parents need to know.”

Jackson looks from her to Mulder eagerly, like he hopes Mulder will be on his side. To Scully's astonishment, Mulder is nodding in agreement. “She's right, kid,” he says gravely, and she wonders if he's thinking of Samantha. Or William.

Jackson looks nervously between them before sighing. “All right.” He pulls a cell phone out of his pocket. “But let me call them, they'll freak out if a stranger is calling from my phone.”

Scully nods her assent. “I want to talk to them, though. And as soon as you finish calling them, you need to let me clean up your leg, check it for infection.”

Jackson nods, standing. “I'm going to take it outside,” he says, grabbing the baseball bat. “So you guys can, like… figure out a game plan or whatever.”

“Be careful out there,” Mulder says quickly. “Stay close to the room, and we'll be right inside if you need us.”

Jackson looks at the guns on their waist, nods. The door creaks horribly when he exits the room, the bat thumping against the door frame.

As soon as he's gone, Scully turns to Mulder. “Tell me exactly what you saw,” she says quietly.

Mulder nods, catching her hand against his chest. “It was right after I stopped him. He was explaining, practically babbling, and I looked over his shoulder and I saw a… a clown in the woods.”

“A clown?” He nods seriously. “I knew seeing It was a mistake,” she says dryly.

“Well, he wasn't in the sewer and he didn't offer me a balloon, but it was definitely a clown. In the trees, right where Jackson came out. Staring right at me.”

Scully considers. “That puts the possibility of a human perpetrator into the mix,” she says. “If it was a clown… they were in a haunted house, he could've used the advantage of darkness and sound effects, he could've cut Jackson and abducted Danny…”

Mulder is smirking at her. He pats her hand as if comforting her. “Nice try, Scully, but your theory doesn't fit with how quickly Danny disappeared, the fact that Jackson saw nothing. Or the fact that I saw the clown disappear.”

“What? You saw him disappear into thin air?”

“Not exactly,” Mulder says, hesitating. “He was… he sort of melted into the shadows.”

Scully blinks at him. “He melted into the shadows,” she repeats in a deadpan.

“Exactly.”

“He couldn't have just… stepped into the shadows and used the advantage of darkness to hide.”

“No, definitely not. I'm telling you, Scully, I saw him, he saw me, he smiled at me, and then he melted into the shadows. It was like he became part of them.”

“That's impossible, Mulder.”

“Not if it was a demon, like Jackson said. A demon could take on different forms like that. A shadow demon, maybe…”

Scully suddenly remembers the teenager on the other side of the door. “Jackson,” she says, dismayed, letting her breath out with a whoosh. “What are we going to do with him? We can't leave him alone, but we can't take him with us while we look for his friend… I don't even know where to start looking for his friend, Mulder. What do we do here? It'd be better if we could call the police…”

“You know we can't do that, Scully.” He slides his fingers through hers and squeezes. “As soon as we make that phone call, or use our badges, the Syndicate will catch up with it. Cancer Man will find us, him and his new little lackeys. And we can't just turn him over to the police because they'll never believe him.”

“They will if it's a human kidnapper,” Scully says stubbornly.

“You know it's not a human kidnapper, Scully.”

“I know nothing of the sort.”

“You're in denial, Scully. Jackson and I both have proof that it was something supernatural, eyewitness accounts.”

Scully sighs, lifting her hand to her temple. “Okay. Fine. Whatever. But what do you want to do now, Mulder? What do you want to do now?”

“Why don't we sleep on it? It's late, and we'd probably get busted for breaking and entering if we went to the carnival this late. And the kid needs some rest, Scully, he's running on pure adrenaline right now.”

She sighs again, takes her hand out of his. “You're right,” she says. “Do you want to just stay here? He could have the other bed.”

“Seems like the best idea. We can't leave him alone, not with a demon after him.”

A thought occurs to her, a particularly unwelcome one. “Mulder,” she whispers, stepping closer. “If you really think a… demon or a monster is pursuing Jackson… how can we protect him? Or ourselves, for that matter? How can we fight something like that off?”

Taken aback, Mulder pauses, chews his lower lip nervously. He opens his mouth to answer.

The door creaks open, and they turn to find Jackson standing in the door, cell phone in one hand and baseball bat in the other, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. “They want to talk to you,” he says, shoving the phone towards Mulder.

“What did they say?” Scully asks.

“They freaked out,” he says. “Just like I said. They want to come back right away, but they're in Colorado so it’ll take a while… especially because of the snow, it snowed the other night… Mom calmed down a little when I told her you were FBI agents, but she wants to talk to you.”

Mulder takes the phone, uncertainly. Jackson is still bouncing, eyes too big for his face, long cut down his leg looking worse in the moonlight coming in through the door. “Why don't you let me take a look at your cut while they talk, sweetie?” Scully offers.

Jackson nods again, in agreement, and comes into the room, closing the door behind him. “Oh, and I didn't see the thing, Mulder,” he says. “The… shadow demon thingy. I haven't seen it since the woods. That's good, right?”

“That's great, kid,” Mulder says, audible relief in his voice. He raises the phone to his ear and says, “Hello? Ma'am?”

Scully leans Jackson into the bathroom. “Can you roll up your pants leg a little bit, sweetie?” she asks. “I'm a doctor, I know what I'm doing.”

Jackson props his leg up on the toilet. On the other side of the wall, she can hear Mulder giving his name and badge number. God, she hates this; if Skinner really is working with the Syndicate, if they catch up with them, they may never find William. Or the Syndicate will find him first. She hates this. She knows it's important, knows they can't leave another child alone, in danger, but she hates this. She wants to keep looking for their son.

She wets a cloth under the faucet and hands it to Jackson. “Here, try to wipe the blood off,” she says, grabbing for the black bag of medical supplies she insisted on bringing.

“No, no, Jackson is fine, Mrs. Van de Kamp,” Mulder says outside. “Danny… We're not sure what happened to Danny. We only know what Jackson has told us.”

“I felt awful,” Jackson says, passing the cloth back to her. She rinses it in the sink and drapes it over the side of the counter. He’s chewing his lip nervously, drumming his fingers on the counter. “Having to tell Danny’s parents… it was awful.”

“Jackson told you… yes, we're here on… vacation, and I ran into him. I wanted to help… I felt like it was my duty,” Mulder is saying.

“I know the feeling,” Scully says. “In our line of work, you have to give people bad news a lot. Here, sweetie, put some of this on the cut.” She passes him the Neosporin.

“I can assure you we are trained for this, and will do everything in our power to protect Jackson and find Danny,” Mulder says, and she hears the thud of him leaning heavily against the wall. “We just want to help him.”

Jackson's shoulders are stiff. “They thought I was lying at first,” he says to the rug on the bathroom floor. “About the thing. I had to swear a thousand times that it wasn't a prank. I still don't think they believe me, that a demon took Danny… they're just panicked he's missing.”

“It's up to you, whatever decision you want to make, but if you're really stuck up there, my partner and I would be glad to protect Jackson and search for Danny until you get back,” says Mulder.

Scully pulls a roll of bandages from the bag. “I'm just gonna bandage your leg, okay, Jackson?” Jackson nods. She crouches on the floor beside him and begins to wind the bandages along the cut. “You and Mulder would have a lot to talk about,” she says. “He has a long history of not being believed.”

“You guys investigate, like, ghosts and shit, right?”

“Something to that degree, yes.”

Jackson snorts. “I'm not surprised, then. I mean… I would've thought this entire thing was batshit a few days ago. I never would've known… until I felt it. I've never felt that before.” He gulps. “Even if my parents don't believe me… you believe me, right?”

Scully swallows, cutting off the end of the bandages. “Yes,” she says, getting to her feet. She doesn’t know if she’s lying to be reassuring or not. “Yes, of course we do.”

Mulder appears in the doorway, holding out the phone. “Jackson? They want to talk to you again.”

Jackson nods, headed towards the door. “Thanks, Scully,” he says, taking the phone.

“Of course,” Scully says, nodding. It feels strange to have a child call her Scully, but then again, that’s probably what Mulder called her the whole way back to the hotel.

Jackson steps outside of the room to take the call. “They're suspicious, understandably,” Mulder tells Scully. “And frantic. But they didn't see any other choice. I think the FBI thing comforted them. They said they're gonna try and leave the mountains tonight. They want us to protect him in the meantime, keep an eye on him. I said he could stay here, and they didn't seem to think there was any other choice. He doesn't have any family in the area or anyone to stay with.”

“Okay.” Scully licks her lips. “Okay, so. They know who we are? Our real identities?” She knows that they do, Mulder wouldn’t have given out his badge number if they didn’t.

“Yeah.” He swallows, shoulders hunched up sheepishly. “I'm sorry, Scully. But it seemed like the best option to protect the kid.”

There are things she wants to say--maybe protests, maybe an agreement, maybe just an acknowledgement. But Jackson appears in the door before she can. “Got cut off,” he says. “Bad signal. But Mom says to tell you guys that they're on their way.”

“That's good,” Scully offers.

“Yeah, um. So I guess I'm staying here tonight?”

“Yep,” Mulder says, in a thickly false-cheerful tone. “Guess so.”

---

Scully sends the kid on to bed after he gets off the phone. (It feels bizarre to be doing this with a stranger. Mulder can't help but wish that it was their son they were spending time with. A look at Scully's laptop reminds him that they are going to find him.) Jackson protests vehemently, wants to go looking for Danny right away, but he immediately conks out when he climbs into bed. Mulder recognizes that kind of furious adrenaline turned to exhaustion. They'll find his friend in the morning, he hopes. If he's not already dead.

He and Scully crawl into the other bed, somewhat awkwardly, actively aware of the other presence in the room. They haven't shared a hotel room with anyone else that they can remember, and it's uncomfortable as hell. Haven't shared a room in general with anyone besides the dog and their newborn son. But Scully must be exhausted, too, because she falls asleep almost instantly, too.

Mulder can't sleep. He tosses and turns for hours, the breaths of a stranger unnerving. He gets up for a drink only to find the ice bucket full of liquid, pulls on his/Scully's jacket and leaves the room in search of ice. The breezeway is empty, save for a paper skeleton fluttering from one of the railings. He walks through the chilly air to the vending machines, fills up the ice and heads back. He is not thinking about demons when he hears it: a sharp scraping sound.

At first, Mulder can't find the origin of the sound. He looks right and left and in front and behind him. He'd be halfway convinced he imagined it if it weren't for the repeat of the sound, a long, drawn-out scrape, metal against metal. It seems to be coming above him. He looks up and hears it again, on the other side of the roof of the breezeway.

Heart pounding, Mulder steps off of the breezeway, onto the lawn, and looks up onto the roof. A girl is crouched there, dressed in a torn white dress and sharpening a knife. A sharp shreet sound, then another. Shreet. Shreet. Mulder almost can't breathe, is too captivated to look away. The girl, bending over her knife, seems to sense someone watching her. Looks up and reveals her obvious makeup, the white and red splotches on her face and body. She looks like an actress in a haunted house. But she smiles at Mulder, and that smile is not human.

She drops the stone, raises her knife. Mulder starts to back away, hand reaching for his gun.

The girl shrieks, a horrible sound, and raises her knife before lunging at him. Mulder staggers backwards, raises his gun and fires at the girl, aiming for an area that won't be fatal in case he is wrong. The bullet makes no impact, only blows the girl backwards onto the breezeway. Mulder steadies himself and aims the gun.

The girl stands slowly, brandishing her knife. She is glaring at Mulder, her eyes as inhuman as her smile. She makes a low growling sound in her throat and steps towards him, but the creaking open of a door and Scully’s frantic, “Mulder?” stops her. Her eyes flicker down the breezeway, towards their room, and blessedly, she doesn't head towards the sound. She instead steps backwards into the shadows and simply disappears, much in the same matter that the clown did.

“Mulder!” Scully is there, suddenly, gun drawn, Jackson right on her tail. “What happened?” she demands.

“We need to go,” Mulder says. “We need to go, right now. Scully, get the car keys.”

She doesn't argue, mercifully; there'll be time for that later. She disappears back to their room. Jackson stays, staring at Mulder in astonishment. “You saw it, didn't you? You saw the demon,” he says knowingly.

Mulder gulps, nods.

---

He tells them what happened on the way to Jackson's house, where they're planning to wait out morning. Jackson starts nodding instantly when Mulder describes the girl. “She was in the house, just like that,” he says. “Sharpening a knife above us, and then she jumps down at you. I think she was on a harness or something. Danny laughed so hard…” He stops, mid-sentence, and some familiar dark emotion flits over his face.

“Jackson?” asks Mulder, hoping to distract him. “Were there clowns in the haunted house?”

“Oh, yeah. Whole freaky room full of white stuff and strobe lights and clowns getting up in your face. Why?”

“Just wondering,” Mulder says. He exchanges a look with Scully, who clutches the steering wheel a little harder, grinds her teeth in frustration, but says nothing.

They get to Jackson's house relatively quick, a charming farm house with Van de Kamp painted cheerfully on the mailbox. Jackson lets them in with his key. “Make yourself at home or whatever,” he says, flipping on the lights.

“Thanks, Jackson,” Scully says as they come inside, into the living room. “Do you go by… Jack or anything?”

“Just Jackson.”

“Okay.” Scully smiles a little. “Jackson, you should get some sleep, okay, sweetie? We'll stay awake. We'll take care of you.”

Jackson shrugs. “I don't want you guys to get hurt.”

“We have guns, remember?” Mulder says, half teasing.

“Oh, right.” He shrugs sheepishly, grinning a little. “I'll be upstairs, I guess. Good luck shooting the demon, Mr. Mulder.”

“Just Mulder is fine,” Mulder says.

“Mulder,” repeats Jackson, waving awkwardly at them before turning and leaving the room, his feet pounding the stairs.

The strangeness of being in a stranger's house only increases when they're alone. Scully exchanges an uncomfortable look with Mulder as she sits on the couch. He sits beside her, close enough that she can feel the body heat coming off of him. “Are you hurt, Mulder?” she asks, shuffling her fingers through his hair.

“I'm fine, Scully. She missed me by a mile.” His shoulder bumps hers companionably. “It was weird as hell, though.”

“Not really,” she says thoughtfully. “I have a new theory. What if the employees of the haunted house are working together on this? They might be trying to scare people somehow… this could be some kind of prank on Jackson, hell, his friend could be in on it… or maybe they're trying to kill Jackson and his friend. Or they kidnapped the friend and don't want Jackson to expose them. Whatever the case, I think the employees are the perpetrators. That would explain why you saw the clown and the girl with the knife that Jackson remembers from the house.”

“But it doesn't explain how they literally melted into the shadows, Scully. Or why my bullet had no effect on the girl.”

“You said you shot at her shoulder? Maybe you missed her.”

“She was blown backwards from the blow, Scully.”

“You could've been seeing things.”

Mulder rolls his eyes, highly exaggerated. Scully smirks a little at him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Well, whatever the case, I'd say this all warrants looking into the carnival tomorrow,” he says, giving in a little. He puts an arm around her shoulders.

“How the hell are we going to do that?”

“I brought our badges, remember? If we can convince the carnival people not to call the local police, then no one will ever have to know outside of the boys’ families.”

“Hmm.” Scully turns her face into his shoulder, her hair brushing against the bare skin of his arm below his sleeve. “And what if someone does happen to let it slip that Agents Mulder and Scully are in small town Wyoming?”

“As soon as the kid is safe, we make a run for it.” She’s quiet, leaning into him. He presses a kiss to the part of her hair. “Come on, Scully, you have to admit that the kid isn't safe.”

“He's not,” she says. “I just… oh, I don't know. I'd feel better if his parents were here. Or the police, or someone who could actually protect him.”

“We can protect him. We might be the most qualified to.”

Scully lifts her head, her blue eyes glinting in the darkness. “It's not a shadow demon.”

“Oh ye of little faith.”

“Twenty-four years together, Mulder. What did you expect?”

Mulder grins, hand running up and down her back. “Follow the evidence, Agent Scully.”

She licks her lower lip determinedly. “I'll make you a deal, Mulder. If it's proven--concrete evidence--that the people or things pursuing Jackson are, in fact, human, can we call the police and let them take charge in this?”

“That would be more than responsible, Scully, if humans really are responsible.” She nods, satisfied. “But if they're not human…” he ventures.

“Oh, great. How, exactly, are we going to catch that? We're not the Ghostbusters, Mulder.”

“Oh, you loved the remake,” he teases her, and she gives him a look somewhere between a glare and a prodding: Well? “I'm working on a plan,” he says. “First we need to find out what happened. Establish a timeline. See if we can discern Danny’s whereabouts.”

“And get some sleep.” Her hand is on his cheek. “You look exhausted, Mulder.”

“I'm not exhausted,” he protests, but the fatigue is creeping up on him like the rising tide. Scully gives him a knowing look. “It feels wrong to sleep in a stranger's house.”

“We don't have any choice; we have to protect Jackson, and we couldn't stay at the hotel.”

“What if that thing comes back?”

“Then I'll shoot it.” Scully looks vaguely amused. “I have plenty of practice. Go to sleep, Mulder. Tomorrow will be a long day.”

He concedes, kisses her forehead and curls up against her on the unfamiliar couch. Upstairs, a teenage boy they have inadvertently become responsible for sleeps. “Hey, Scully?” he mumbles, head against her hip. “This is one of the more bizarre things we've done, don't you think?”

“This is more bizarre than the lizard-human?” He doesn't say anything. She sighs, says, “Yes, it is.” They both know why, know what is at the back of their minds. They don't speak on it.

Scully traces lines on his forehead and orders him to sleep. He drifts off slowly, dreams restlessly of knives being sharpened, the sound scraping his ears, and a little boy with Scully's eyes staring up at him.

#happy halloween #i'm mostly posting to force myself to pull this all together tomorrow and post it #but i'm so close!! i can't believe i finished #i have an actual halloween fic thats not a lame sweatshirt joke based off of something that happened to me #this year i'm doing an actual costume so #xf fanfic #i wrote this

62 notes · View notes

dinglesugden-af · 7 years

Note

Do you think Emmerdale are even slightly embarrassed by how easy the fans guessed all of this storyline? From the fact that we guessed as soon as the ONS happened that the Rat would end up pregnant to the fact the Aaron would be there at the birth. Tbh I honestly think they don't give a damn and are proud of this cheap pathetic storyline.

The storyline has been done so many times it's so easy to guess what's going to happen but in terms of this storyline it's probably the most embarrassing. They've got so many stuff wrong with it including medical facts which is shocking considering the amount of pregnancies they've done. It's highly embarrassing for them as a show. In terms of the storyline as a whole they shouldn't be proud of any part of it. I mean the acting besides ryan and danny is shocking it's like everyone involved accept those two have completely given up. Don't get me wrong I hate this storyline because I love robron together and don't want them tied to her but the lack of disrespect within this storyline is probably the worst. The amount of comments regarding Roberts sexuality the media have made from this storyline is disgusting. This storyline is supposed to be someone cheating and two people becoming parents for the first time but besides the fact on screen it's obvious it's about robron the media make it about someone's sexuality. Not only that but emmerdale have failed with it massively. They've had rebecca come into the show chase Robert for months and disrespect his relationship with Aaron then she got him at his most vulnerable moment and she's got away with it. They've let her get away with ruining someone's relationship. When Iain has talked about the storyline he's defended her and that's wrong. Don't get me wrong Robert isn't perfect in the situation but sleeping with someone's partner isn't right and her actions shouldn't be justified because she's "in love" with him. Realistically if someone sleeps with someone else's partner you don't defend that. Especially considering she was sober and he wasn't. As a sober person you should let a drunken person sleep it off and sober up but she didn't. That night the ball was in her court and she went the wrong way about it and she needs to face consequences. But apart from that I think it's pretty obvious this one night stand didn't even happen and this baby isn't roberts. There was no morning after scene of them waking up which normally there is. She left before he even woke up so if it happened why leave? There's been so many hints on screen since the start there's more to the storyline. Even with little lines. I mean if it was just one writer who wrote those things in then fair enough but several writers have done. They don't get told what to write they get an outline of an episode so there must be a reason certain things have been said. It's highly embarrassing we've all guessed what's going to happen. Take us back to the time where soaps left us shocked and we had no idea what was going to happen. I miss those days.

6 notes · View notes

tcportfoliomgj · 3 years

Text

Saturday, 5th of June, 2021

"What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? - Henry David Thoreau (1854/2017)

In high school, I wasn't exactly a great student. Or easy, for that matter. Even in primary school, my teacher would call my parents after the first period. During parent-teacher conferences, they would schedule my mom in the last slot, that way they had enough time. I didn't have my diagnosis back then and I was smart enough to keep up without too much trouble. But I did talk back to teachers, especially when I felt they were being unjust. This only got worse in high school.

Before I got my ADHD diagnosis, my high school teachers thought I had ODD (oppositional defiant disorder). I can't blame them, though, especially looking back now. I was very argumentative, I still am, but I'm not always like that. When I felt like things were unfair, I wasn't able to let that go. I had a lot of very authoritarian teachers, who put themselves way above their students. Having authority is one thing, but that doesn't make you more of a person, or a better person, or a more important person. I didn't do well with those kinds of teachers, especially when they also taught a subject that I strongly disliked.

In high school I had a mathematics teacher, let's call him Mr E., who I didn't get along with very well. I never liked math. I wasn't particularly bad at it, but during the first few years of high school I didn't keep up with it very well, so I was behind compared to most students. Mr E. was the kind of teacher that would say things were easy, while I was really struggling with them. We didn't like each other much, and it kept getting worse over the years. It got to the point where he wasn't willing to help me anymore, and I wasn't willing to work anymore. I remember I once missed a class because I was sick and when I asked him to explain something I missed, he said no. He told me to look it up on YouTube and to deal with it myself. I also remember a time where I wasn't willing to do anything, we got into a big argument in front of the whole class and he sent me away. I packed my back, told the class "good luck in here in hell" on my way out and slammed the door shut.

Now, at teachers college, I often joke that I wasn't an exemplary student, but I don't think people realise how difficult I actually was. In my defence, there are still quite some cases I think I was right. I also don't regret standing up for myself against unfair teachers, I just didn't always go about it the right way. There were a lot of incidents in my high school days. I got sent out of class a lot, got a lot of detention and made quite a few enemies. But I wasn't a lost cause, even if Mr E. thought I was. I managed to pass my math exams, even though I stopped attending my math classes during my last year in high school. I was willing to work for teachers who did try their best for me. I loved English, history and art, and the teachers that taught me were very willing to help me, support me and encourage me. They challenged me and engaged me, and so I was very much willing to put in the effort and go the extra mile for them. I felt seen by them and that's all I really wanted, especially during those years in my life.

Mr E. wasn't the only teacher I had a rocky relationship with. My economics teacher, Mr B., didn't exactly get along with me either. He often got angry with me in front of the whole class when I forgot my books and notebooks. This happened a lot. I felt very humiliated, but I turned that into anger and frustration. He knew about my diagnosis and when I tried to explain to him that I really tried not to forget my things, he told me he understood but that I shouldn't forget them anymore. It infuriated me. I didn't feel understood, or seen or acknowledged. As an angsty teen who was dealing with depression on top of her ADHD, it was really hard.

I think almost everyone knows that I struggled with math this year as well and I will admit, I was part of the problem. However, I didn't plan on things turning out like this. As I mentioned before, I struggle with mathematics because there's a lot of gaps in my knowledge. The math classes here at TC and the PABO is mostly about teaching math and not so much about the math itself. It makes it interesting, but also difficult. Because how do you teach a subject you don't fully understand? Or maybe even barely understand? Janneke and Danny would talk about some math exercises for primary schoolers and I would struggle with them. They would say something along the lines of "they're being taught this in group 5" or "it's pretty easy", and in those moments I wanted the earth to swallow me whole. Because I didn't understand, because I struggled, because I felt really stupid. I didn't ask for help, that's definitely my fault, but I also didn't feel very encouraged to ask for help. Lots of students asked questions by sending them emails, and it often happened that Janneke and Danny didn't respond. I was frustrated, but I did try, even though everyone thinks I didn't.

I was at almost every lecture, which is the bare minimum, I know, but something that was actually very hard for me considering being there made me feel quite insecure. I tried to do the assignments. One of the first big assignments was the one where we had to give our own students some math questions without explaining anything to them. Afterwards, we'd have to analyse them. Giving the questions to my students wasn't hard and I didn't mind doing it, seeing some of their answers was really interesting and fun even (appendix 5). When I had to analyse them, however, I began to struggle. I don't hate math, but what frustrates me is that the class isn't very accessible. If you struggle with mathematics, the class will be really challenging.

One of the basic human needs is autonomy (Ryan & Deci, 2002, in Stevens & Bors, 2013, p. 73). However, in a way, autonomy can be seen as a paradox. If you tell a student to be independent and autonomous, and they obey, then they are in fact not being autonomous because they're doing what you told them to do. However, if they do not comply, they continue to be dependent on you. Mariani (1997) approached this subject very well and explains how teachers can promote autonomy. He explains that we need to challenge our students in order to answer their need for autonomy. We support them in order to answer their need for dependence. He then puts this in a framework.

Figure 2. Teaching Style Framework (Mariani, 1997)

The level of autonomy and dependence need to be balanced. A high level of challenge with a low level of support should be avoided. He recalls a moment where he experienced this himself and explains that "the result [...] was anxiety, insecurity, discomfort, and even aggressiveness - not to mention the long-term effect on my self-confidence" (Mariani, 1997). The ideal is a situation with a high level of challenge combined with a high level of support, this way we can create the zone of proximal development (Mariani, 1997). During the math classes, I find myself facing a high level of challenge with a lack of support, and later I discovered I wasn't alone.

I made the decision to not do the math assignments. First of all, I think the subject isn't relevant for quite a lot of students. When I asked my coach why we had math in the first place, she answered that it was mandatory because teachers college is part of the PABO. This isn't very motivating because knowing that it's mandatory doesn't explain why it is. Second of all, this tells us that it is in fact not very relevant for the students who know that they want to continue high school education instead of primary education. I was also told that they scaled up math since last academic year. This is because students in the craftsman phase were lacking knowledge and struggling. Again, this is not very relevant for the students who choose high school education. I understand that I made a choice to do TC, which means experience both levels of education, but we have a significantly high amount of math classes compared to a lot of other subjects.

Secondly, I think the way math is taught isn't in line with teachers college. This also relates to Mariani's framework. At TC we are taught to be better teachers, to support and motivate our students and to be open-minded. Our teachers also play a part in this. What I experience is that the teachers within the core team practice what they preach. I feel like my basic needs are met. I don't feel the same about math and I decided to create a survey (appendix 6). I asked TC students (of all years) to fill it in and 19 of them did. It's not a lot, so maybe not representative for all TC students, but I decided to stop promoting the survey when it caused some commotion (rumours were being spread that it was a survey to get rid of math altogether). But the results of the survey are still very interesting.

Seven out of nineteen students were TC1 students, the other twelve are TC2 or above. Almost all the higher years indicate that they didn't have any assignments or had small ones, but none that involved their internship or took multiple weeks to finish. Nine out of twelve higher years claim that they didn't experience math as stressful at all. Two students found the classes useful. Only one student felt like they had learned something, a few students are neutral in this, but most claim not to have learned much. Most higher years say they do not remember the theory that was taught to them, indicating that the classes weren't even lasting. When asked if they had further comments, many of them said they didn't find the classes meaningful, that they didn't see the value or that they don't remember much from the classes at all. It is clear that they were in one of the low challenge zones, making it either too easy (a low challenge with high support levels) or boring (a low challenge with low support levels).

Now if we take a look at the TC1 students, the answers shift. When asked what kind of assignments they had, they all answer with big assignments that stretched over multiple weeks as well as in-class assignments and presentation. On top of that, it is mandatory for the portfolio (this wasn't the case for the higher years). Five out of seven students experienced the workload as high, the other two were neutral. Six students claim they experienced stress, one is neutral. Some of them do claim to have learned something, or that they experienced it as useful, but I think it's important to remember that for TC1, my year, it is mandatory for our portfolio and so there's more at stake. The workload that TC1 experienced indicated that we're in the high challenge zones. The stress experienced indicated a lack of support, putting us in the anxiety zone.

What did we, as students, do to change this? At first, not a lot, at least not as a collective effort. I know a lot of students email Janneke and Danny with questions or stayed behind after online class but often didn't get answers or help. They experienced low support. When we did come forward as a class, some of us still did not feel seen, or heard. We had a conversation with Janneke and Danny and I experienced it as very frustrating. Just like Mariani (1997), I experienced anxiety, discomfort, insecurity and a level of aggression, the same way I did in high school with Mr E. and Mr B. I felt ready to throw my stuff into my bag and walk out of that room, but I didn't.

Maybe it's closed-minded to not do the math assignments, maybe it even shows a level of disrespect. At the end of the day, I passed my mandatory math test (wiscat) (appendix 7), I learned and did just as much as the students last year (who also passed math) and I refuse to be put in a zone of anxiety when I'm learning, especially when I'm learning how to be a supportive teacher myself.

🎵 ZITTI E BUONI - Måneskin

#critical thinking #pedagogisch bekwaam #didactisch bekwaam #vakinhoudelijk bekwaam #math #communication #character

0 notes