Stanley Asked for Help: PTA
Monday (day 15)
"OW! OW! OW!"
"And that's twenty strikes, ma'am. Please stop."
Anna lowered her pipe and turned her back on the suspended lump of injuries that used to be Stan's father. She then walked over to Stan and smiled at him.
"How are you doing, Stanley?"
Stan rubbed his eyes before opening his mouth. "There is a lot of dust in my eyes, making them water, but other than that, I'm fine." His smile then widened as he saw Manley Dan step up to bat. "Very fine."
His eyes then flashed open and he sat up straighter. "Oh by the way! Since you're here, I've wanted to talk to you about something. I found a note my brother left about hiding something nearby flowers and kids. Can you arrange a meeting with the PTA or whoever you talk to about finding something dangerous hidden by kids?"
Anna's eyes widened considerably as panic began to set in.
"WHAT?! What did he hide? How dangerous is it? How hidden is it?"
Stan held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Woah there Anna. From what I can tell, it's a notebook of his research. He thought the knowledge inside was dangerous, so he buried it around kids."
Anna slightly calmed down, but not by much. "just because he buried a notebook explaining how to make a nuclear reactor doesn't mean that the book isn't also radioactive!"
"Ford wasn't into radiation, he was studying Bigfeet and Lock Ness monsters! The notebook would have things like where you could find them or how to summon things. As long as the kids don't read it, it isn't a danger to anyone!"
She looked into Stan's eyes with a glare filled with fear. "Are you sure?"
Stan nodded once. "I care about Anna as much as you do. If I had thought for a second that there was something dangerous for her to be around at her playground, I would have told you on my way to dig it up."
That, more than anything else, he said, seemed to calm her down.
"All right, I'll put out the word for an urgent meeting of the PTA tomorrow around 6. Can you bring the note?"
Stan nodded. "Ok, see you then."
Anna gave him a nervous smile and walked off into the crowd, milling about.
Manley Dan then walked up to Stan to offer his own words of encouragement.
Tuesday (day 16) 6 PM.
Stanley sat in the classroom where the PTA was meeting. The head had just let Anna walk up to explain why she had asked for this meeting to be called.
"Thank you, Miss. Biker. Hello everyone, I'm Anna Ramerez. As you all know, my daughter Mary goes to the elementary school. I am also close with Stan Pines." She then pointed to him, which prompted the man to wave at the assembled group.
"He told me he found a note left by his brother that he hid something he considered dangerous around flowers and children-"
"WHAT!?"
"THAT IDIOT!"
"MY BABIES!"
The room then erupted into a mass panic as the adults spiraled. Anna looked on in shock before turning to Stan.
"Was I-"
"Yes."
Stan then got up and pulled out an air horn from under his seat.
HHOONNKK!
The loud sound quieted the room and got everyone looking at him.
"Ok people, listen up! Ford was researching urban legends ancient legends, magic, and other things you would find in the fiction section. He put those findings in a collection of journals, and it's one of those that he hid because he thought the secrets inside were too dangerous. Why he didn't burn it, I don't know.
"The important thing to remember is that the books are only that, BOOKS! Unless you trip over them, hit someone with them, or read them, they can't do anything. All we need to do is find where he hid it before a kid does and we'll be fine.
"Now, here is the note I found."
He then pulled out a piece of dark yellow parchment that was wrinkled and marked with coffee stains. It was covered in cursive writing in ink. There was also a picture at the bottom of the page that the group couldn't see.
"' My life's work is too dangerous to be spread around. There is no one I can trust not to abuse it. I will hide it where no one can find it.' he then drew a picture of some kids playing ring around the rosey with the journal in the middle inside of a cage made of flowers."
Anna blinked before stepping forward and taking it from his hand to look at it herself. While she did that, Stan hoped she wouldn't notice it was a forgery he made with Handwitche's divination in it.
"[Your brother's a idiot.]"
The parents nodded in agreement. Although none of them spoke Spanish, they knew exactly what she had said.
"Ok, so he hid it around flowers near kids. So, he buried it in a flower garden near a playground?"
One of the parents got bug-eyed before jumping to his feet.
"THE CREEPER!"
The rest of the group turned to look at him in shock and confusion. Stan, however, looked at him with a look of understanding.
"You saw a dark figure hanging around a playground at night?"
He then began nodding like a bobblehead. "three weeks ago. He was walking away from the school playground, holding a shovel. I didn't get a good look, but when I brought it up with the gardener and janitors, they said they didn't find anything amiss."
Stan felt like smiling but buried it under a worried look. "Ok, so who do we talk to about looking for something buried around the school playground?"
Miss Biker spoke up. "That would be Ash."
School playground
The head garner was a short man named Ash. He was perpetually covered in mud, leaves, snow, water, and bugs. Ford's notes and pondered the idea of him being a dwarf or nature spirit, but from Stan's interactions with the Denizens of the valley he learned that he was just a human who loved his job a little too much.
Toby Determined on the other hand…
Yeah, he had nothing. There were betting pools in the millions on what he was and where he was from. Stan contributed $100 to it on "crawled out of a mirror and forgot how to get back."
Back with Ash, he carried a backpack as he led the PTA to the playground in the back of the school, using a large shovel as a stave. The playground was surrounded by a short fence, which itself was ringed by a flower bed. It was still covered by snow, but it was starting to melt with the coming of spring. Two large bushes at the corners were as tall as the fence posts. The rest was covered with everyday flowers.
"This was the result of the anti-communism project of the 50s. The principal of the time thought that if you made a public works project that everyone would collectively own and benefit from equally, they wouldn't succumb to the evils of communism."
Stan just stared at Ash. "Um, isn't that-"
"Yes it's in the values of communism, but no one in town at the time knew what communism actually was."
When he reached the flower beds, he stopped and put down his backpack. When he opened it, he revealed several trowels.
"Ok, everyone take a trowel and start moving the snow off the flower beds. Let me know if you see any evidence that the ground has been disturbed."
Anna was the first to grab one and asked a question as she did so.
"What do we do if we don't find any?"
He then shrugged. "We carefully dig up the entire flower bed and hope we get lucky."
Stan grinned as he picked up his. "My money is that he just dug up one of the flowers, removed some of the dirt under it, put in the book, and then just replanted it. Quick, easy, and effective. The only risk would be when the flower died and needed to be replaced, and even then it could be awhile if it's a perennial."
That's what he did when he needed to hide something. He learned about using perennials the hard way.
The gardener then looked like he got a lightbulb over his head.
"Flower, or bush?"
The group then shifted their eyes toward the four bushes at the corners of the playground.
They then all moved to one of them and began to remove the snow from the bushes and the bases to search for any signs that it had been disturbed.
"Hay, I think we got something!"
The rest of the parents got up and wandered over to where Stan was pointing at the area around the bush.
"All the other bushes have mulch under the branches and piled around the trunk. This has only some mulch and lots of dirt."
Another thing Stan learned through experience.
Ash looked at the base and nodded.
"He's right. It looks like someone dug this up without adding new mulch. Get your towels and start digging. Be careful, though. I want to see if I can replant it."
The group then began to dig up the bush. With all of them together, they had it removed in 5 minutes and placed to the side. Ash examined the roots and sighed in relief.
"Good news is that the bush was freshly planted so the roots are still in a large clump. Ford digging it up didn't damage it. It should be healthy when I replant it."
Stan wasn't paying attention, instead focused on digging down into the dirt. Eventually…
THUNK
HE hit something.
"I think I found it!"
The rest of the group helped him dig more, eventually revealing a small chest covered in a cloth.
It took some finagling, but they eventually got it out of the hole and placed it to the side.
"Well, I'll give Ford credit for making sure it was in a chest. I'm still mad at him for burying this near kids though."
Stan nodded before unwrapping the cloth.
Inside was a small chest with a word carved into the top and 12 gemstones embedded surrounding it. There was no visible latch or hinges.
Stan was looking at it in confusion, while Anna groaned and faced palmed.
"It's a puzzle box. He hid his journal in a puzzle box and buried it next to the kids! Your brother was smart enough to make a box that requires you to solve an intricate puzzle to open, and dumb enough to bury it next to kids! How can he be so smart and so dumb at the same time?"
Stan shrugged. "He has a bit of a complexity addiction to show off how smart he is. As for the kids, the riddle was probably one he thought they wouldn't be able to solve."
He looked up at the phrase.
Unlock
Upon closer inspection, the gems surrounding it were Beryl, Citrine, Jade, Kunzite, Lapiz Lazuli, Moonstone, Nephrite, Opal, Pearl, Topaz, Unarovite, and Vanadium Beryl.
He was really glad that his interest in treasure and his dad's pawn shop jewelry business led him to study gemstones. It was one of the few pleasant memories he had about the man: looking at gems with his little eyepiece, identifying the gemstones, and telling them apart from fakes.
"I'll take it home and see if I can-"
"If you think we are going to let you solve a literal riddle chest we helped dig up on your own, you are out of your mind!"
Stan looked up in surprise at the group. They were all nodding in support.
"Come on! You can't tease us with that box and not expect us to be curious about it! How can any of us sleep at night wondering how this is supposed to open?"
Stan sighed and nodded.
"Alright, but can we at least do this inside?"
The others nodded, and Ash helped Stan pick the chest up. The group then migrated into the school proper and proceeded to commandeer the closest classroom.
"All right. Do you have any ideas on how to open it?"
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Riddle: It was a small box with 12 gems surrounding the word "unlock." Stanley identified the gems as Beryl, Citrine, Jade, Kunzite, Lapiz Lazuli, Moonstone, Nephrite, Opal, Pearl, Topaz, Unarovite, and Vanadium Beryl. Beryl was at the top, going alphabetically clockwise, with each gem at one of the 12 clock points. Further examination revealed that they could be pressed down like buttons.
The first person to figure out the answer gets to request a 30-minute or less episode of any series for me to do a fanfic info dump on. The contest ends when chapter 22 is posted on Fanfic, AO3, and Tumbler.
I have decided to cap this series at 29 chapters, that way it will end with the year. I am not 100% happy with the in universe pasing and how I have been jumping from one idea to the next with no break, so when I do this again, I plan on setting up a timeline and outline from the start before writing my first chapter.
I have them all written up, and the final chapter is over 6k words.
I have a if you want to support me and my New Year's resolution of posting one fanfic of 2k words or more weekly. This is also being posted on , AO3, and Tumbler.
Remove all the spaces from the URLs to get them to work.
: : / / w w w . user?u=10132890
. c o m : : / / w w w . s/14051718/1/luz–appreciation–week–2022–from–1228248
AO3: : / / works/52823413/chapters/133608991
Tumbler: : / / w w w . blog/brianedner
I am also doing fanfic info dumps, like wiki articles that go one episode at a time, with some compilations at the end on specific topics sorted by episode.
Fanfic info dumps here: : / / w w w . 1228248/gallery