#it doesnt track for them either because both of them are nb in some way 🔥HELP

[metaldevilll]

gender fluiding

[nastyburger]

Is Freakshow/Circus Gothica/Control Freaks going to be a part of your reboot? And if that is the case, are there any differences compared to the series?

it is! i do want danny to have a sorta grim reaper type of vibe associated with him so i feel that episodes pretty integral to that lol.

i havent put too much thought into how i want the events to play out in that episode yet, but one change for sure is that freakshow doesnt know danny is a halfa. he just thinks danny is a ghost whose “gimmick” is appearing human/having a human disguise (so he has no qualms with actually kidnapping a human child to be in his circus lol he literally just doesnt know). he merely goes to amity because he heard rumors of an influx of ghost in the area and decides to go round up some extra performers, danny just so happens to be one of the ghosts that gets picked up.

(rest of post under cut because this ended up being long as hell lol)

freakshow is, however, manipulated into keeping danny’s secret identity after the fact despite not fully understanding it. ghosts in the nasty reboot abide by certain honor codes sorta preprogrammed into them from the moment they form. halfas are a little out of that jurisdiction and dont get that same preprogramming, but the ghosts generally agree that revealing danny’s secret is a no go.

a ghost’s death is a bit of a sore subject, you wouldnt talk about it in any way the ghost doesn’t want you to (which is usually not at all). danny’s secret identity technically falls under this umbrella, he doesnt want humans to know he’s (half) dead and still lives among them. therefore, don’t reveal to the humans that he’s dead and jeopardize his situation! its not quite the same as a ghost momentarily pretending to be human to fulfill something (like spectra or johnny), danny’s human identity is directly tied to his “death” and would be even more so if its revealed so its off limits. the situation is definitely a bit unfamiliar to the ghosts, and its something sorta more “learned” than the usual “i just know not to do this” instinct but they still do their best to up hold the honor code for danny!

freakshow doesnt have the same “ghost envy” as canon because i think thats dumb, but he does still want to play by ghost rules for one reason or another so danny telling him about this rule is more than enough to keep his mouth shut.

one last thing is how the control staff affects danny. danny in the nb boot has a lot of themes of “figuring himself out” in terms of both what it means to be a halfa (in that larger than life where his place is in the world if it isnt with either the living or the dead type thing) and who he is as a person (in the more down-to-earth he is literally an adolescent changing as a part of growing up type thing). one big recurring moral to this character arc is that NO ONE ELSE can tell danny what to be, he has to figure it out 100% on his own. he can have help, and he can have nudges, but it all has to come down to what he decides for himself and what he learns about it. he cant listen to his parent’s biases and what their theories for phantom and what he is, he cant listen to the ghost for what they think is best for his biology, hell he cant and shouldnt even listen to what vlad says about them being halfas most of the time because they have completely different experiences.

danny shouldnt be completely influenced by outside sources when figuring out who he wants or needs to be. the staff in this episode is basically just a very big obvious focus plot point in a very literal sense for this exact moral.

danny does sorta still have free will while being controlled by the staff, and i do mean a little beyond the usual “easier to break out of the spell” kind of thing. i believe monotype-on-phantom had an analysis similar to what im describing here, but basically danny is not a mindless zombie while controlled by the staff. he carries out orders and does freakshow’s bidding for sure, but he still has half a mind and probably carries out orders with more intelligence/thought than a ghost blindly following orders.

for example, freakshow could tell danny to rob a bank and he would do just that. but danny, without orders, would also try to hide his tracks, actually try to steal discreetly as to not get caught. something the other ghosts wouldnt think to do because they cant think! in canon, it seems that he even actually commands the other controlled ghosts in these robberies like a leader. its likely that he wasnt prompted to do this with a command, thats just his leftover free will allowing some of danny’s personality to shine through in the tasks. even though danny would obviously not rob a bank on his own accord, if he did, it would likely be exactly how he carried it out while controlled by the staff.

danny very much has leftover feelings after being controlled, he could vaguely remember making decisions and going through with them. some regrets, some satisfaction, its a whole mess of things intertwining with what he did want to do and what he didnt want but kinda did but also kinda didnt. its all about influence and how especially powerful it is when someone still impressionable is subjected to it like say, a fourteen year old child.

[stonermurphy]

*kicks down door* You should talk to me about NB Connor because NB Connor is the best.

um yes of course i’ll talk about my fave NB kid in the world?? 

ahjdgajhgdjhga this is WAY longer than i thought it would be so headcanons are under the cut 

they’ve always loved doing gender conformingstuff from a very very young age, like painting their nails, wearing skirts,growing their hair out long, etc.,,, theres a ton of pictures of a rly littleconnor murphy running around in skirts and pigtails with their nails paintedall different colors,,, even still they HATED being called a girl, almost asmuch as they hated being told to ‘man up’ and ‘act like a boy’

zoe, their trans girl sister, came out when shewas 6 or 7, causing a lot of jealousy and resentment from connor. Jealousy becushe wished he could be as confident in one gender over another as she is but insteadhe just hates them both,,, and resentment becus their parents know how tohandle zoes situation waay better than they did connors (connor doesnt realizethat’s only because their parents had learned from their experience with them)

after zoe came out they stopped dressing up asmuch,, they didn’t feel comfortable dressing as girl when they weren’t one whenzoe was actually trying to live her life as a girl. They ended giving all their‘girly things’ to zoe as hand-me-downs and even let larry take them to get ahaircut

they realize they’re gay when about 13 or 14,,, havinggrown up hearing a lot of stereotypical homophobic rhetoric (not from theirparents specifically) they half believed the gay men dress up as womenstereotype and chalked up their gender issues to having issues with beinggay. They try their best to put out oftheir head how badly being called a boy or a girl makes them feel and focus onbeing comfortable with liking boys

when they started really go through the thick oftheir mental illness they grew their hair back out (mostly out ofdepression and an unwillingness to get things done) and started painting theirnails again (chipped black that would stay on for weeks,, never the freshlypainted rainbows from when they were young) and went back to questioning themselfon the daily. Im talking staying awake at night thinking “am I actually agirl?? no definitely not being seen as a girl sucks,,,, but I don’t think im aboy?? definitely not a girl and maybe not a boy what the fuck does that mean??”(they know they could probably google shit but their paranoia makes them tooworried someone will find out what they were googling and ask them about it andthey absolutely could not handle that conversation)

after their failed suicide attempt they spendthree weeks in the psych ward where they’re asked whether theyre comfortablewith their gender and sexuality and they lie through their teeth. They’re notcomfortable, they’ve never been comfortable, but theyre not about to tell thatto a strange. Saying theywere comfortable and happy with themselves in that regard felt like a punch inthe gut.

when they get home they have a whole list ofcoping skills and a ‘protection plan’ in place and theyre almost excited to seethings change for the better. they get meds, they get a therapist, and thingsare still really really rough but theyre actually trying now,,, and they wantso bad to rebuild their relationship with their family (mostly zoe, they knowwhat they’ve done to her and have no plans to forgive themself for it even ifshe eventually by some miracle does)

in an effort to actually work towards recoverythey try to figure themself outa bit and go back to doing their hair up and painting their nails differentcolors,, they even go so far as to get themselves some skirts and dresses fromgoodwill (only ever worn when the rest of the murphys are out of the house) andinstead of worrying about what those things mean they let themselves just enjoythe things they used to enjoy so much

zoe notices. she notices how hard they’re tryingnow. she notices how much less frequent their outbursts and episodes are. shenotices them specifically trying their best to be nice to her, to be a goodolder sibling. she notices how relaxed they look when theyre painting their nails, when theyre justfocusing on themselves instead of the world around them. she notices theyre a lotmore like the person she used to know. she also, thank god, notices thesick-to-my-stomach look connor gets when someone confuses them for a girl, andthe hesitation to correct them and say they were a boy. zoe notices all thesethings and they all point her in the direction of wanting to help her sibling,wanting them to know who they were.

·Her absolute first move is to drag connor along totheir high schools GSA,, having already asked alana (the genderqueer lesbian president)to make the subject of the next meeting a discussion on nonbinary genders. shesreally super confident they just need some things explained to them and thenthey’ll at least be on the right track.

Connor gets EXTREMELY overwhelmed at the idea ofso many fucking genders,, like they already hated the two and now theres so somany more for them to rifle through and figure out don’t fit them either. They kindof panic and leave in the middle of the meeting, not wanting to hear any more thanthey already did,, zoe chases after them and they absolutely pour their heartout in one long garbled paragraph that they barely breathe through before zoejust kind of pats him on the back like “you know its totally fine to just,, nothave a gender. Like that’s how a lot of people use the overarching nonbinaryterm, to just mean ‘genderless’” and that,,, genuinely calms them down. likeall those terms were so MUCH but just not having to deal with gender at allsounded SO appealing

and that’s kind of just?? It?? Like they knownow that gender doesn’t really HAVE to be a thing for them at all and they decidethat’s absolutely how they want to live their life so they straight up do,, being gay is the only thing that connects them to gender in anyway and tho that takes time to come to terms with on its own they really are genuinely happier now that theyre not left wondering whether theyre a boy or a girl

they still dont wear skirts or dresses in public anymore, but theyre fine wearing them around zoe and eventually theyre fine wearing them amongst their other friends as well (didnt take too long considering alana evan and jared arent cis either),, not to mention the shift in mood that came with their friends referring to them with they/them pronouns and gender neutral language 

the end, connor is living their best life with friends and a sister who absolutely support them for who they are and are more than happy to help them through their rough days becus theyre willing to the same for all of them as well thank you