Dammit, it's that stupid governmental initiative. Peter clenched his fist against the desk, resisting the urge to shake his head at the small print; Secretary of Education, Maria Rosendale, maintains the nation-wide Open For All initiative for the enhancement of students and progressive learning by taking the classroom to the companies.
It's that delightful time of the year again: the Field Trip, and of course it's to Stark Industries because where else would it be with Peter's luck?
Open For All is a Marvel Cinematic Universe fanfic written by JointExisting.
This fanfic can be read on Archive of Our Own here
, and is the first part in the The Stories that Make Us series, succeeded by Open For All: Harley's Playlist and The World Was Wide Enough
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In Far From Home, Mr. Harrington mentions that his wife pretended to be taken in the snap and used it to run away in an adulterous relationship. While the movie has it Played for Laughs, here it had a real profound effect in Harrington and is the reason why he is so harsh with Peter when he thinks he is lying about his internship.
- Adaptational Jerkass:
- While the original comic-book Flash Thompson was your stereotypical Jerk Jock bully, MCU!Flash is portrayed more as a Nerdy Bully who preferred to throw his privileged life around and bother Peter with hurtful comments and name-calling. Here Flash starts out like that, only to upgrade to physically pushing him around when Peter gets sick of his and Harrington's shit and tells them off.Flash Thompson: Learn your place, Penis.
- Roger Harrington in Homecoming and Far From Home was an Apathetic Teacher at his worst, a harmless nuisance at best who tried to be an applicable adult to the students he is responsible for. Here not only does he let Flash's verbal and physical harassment of Peter go on unobstructed, but he actively makes sure that Peter is unexempt from the OFA program and refuses to believe that Peter actually does work with Tony Stark, accusing him of forging his signature and jeopardizing his own future by lying about it. It takes an Armor-Piercing Response from Peter (who is usually an Extreme Doormat) to shut him up, and even then he spends the entire field trip waiting for the shoe to drop and Peter's "lies" to reveal themself, his denial reaching I Reject Your Reality levels. Peter even implies that he gave him detention for no reason when Flash mocked him over his internship
- While the original comic-book Flash Thompson was your stereotypical Jerk Jock bully, MCU!Flash is portrayed more as a Nerdy Bully who preferred to throw his privileged life around and bother Peter with hurtful comments and name-calling. Here Flash starts out like that, only to upgrade to physically pushing him around when Peter gets sick of his and Harrington's shit and tells them off.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Flash and Mr. Harrington draw attention to Peter's "lies" about his internship, Peter (fed-up with everyone's accusations) does a Meaningful Echo of Mr. Harrington's accusatory statement right back at him. Since Peter is never known to fight back, this shuts him up.Mr. Harrington: Mr. Parker, I thought we had this conversation.
Peter: We did, Mr. Harrington[.] So, I guess we'll see come Friday, right? - Artistic License – Politics: Basically all the political stuff in the story. The Secretary of Education, Maria Rosendale, is depicted as having more authority over the education system in the US then what the Secretary of Education has in real life. Rosendale is depicted as deciding things that are reserved for the individual states and local governments in the US to do like funding for public schools and teacher salaries. In addition, any federal mental health programs would be under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health and Human Services and not the Department of Education and thus the Secretary of Education would have no say over the program and would not be able to cut funding for it like Rosendale did. Any funding for federal programs is decided by Congress.
- Broken Ace: Having survived many near-death experiences (the most recent being the battle against Thanos) and suffering the death of the woman that raised him has done a serious number on Peter. Add onto the responsibilities of being the heir to the Stark name, the fear of how it could impact his life once it goes public and the crap he has to put up at school and Peter is left as fragile and glass ready to break at the slightest provocation.
- Cosmic Plaything: With his various hang-ups and insecurities, Peter tries to do everything he can not to be noticed to keep his fried-nerves from going off, even though the universe conspires to make him the center of attention every chance it can. When he tries getting out of the field trip, Mr. Harrington not only makes him attend, but takes the time to accuse him of forging Tony's signature and lying about his "internship." Flash makes it his priority to remind everyone about Peter's claims and mocks him for it, going from insults to physical threats when Peter stands up for himself. Whenever an exception is made for Peter (him using his own keycard, being allowed to have his phone with him in-spite of the security risk), both Dell and Harrington are quick to point it out.
- Death by Adaptation: Aunt May died suddenly and left custody of Peter over to Tony, having engineered in her will to be buried in Italy. Given the fact that she changed her will the moment she discovered her nephew's real parentage and the suddenness of her death, it may have been a preexisting problem she knew about beforehand.
- Everyone Has Standards: Tony finds the fact that Maria Rosendale uses Open For All to defund underprivileged schools - making it harder for underprivileged children to succeed - to be exceptionally cruel, having used his own personal fortune to fund education for various kids both personal (like with Harley Keener, his sister Lisa, Scott Lang's daughter Cassie and Clint's kids) and abroad.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- The events of Infinity War and Endgame still happened, but Tony survives the ordeal because Nebula was the one who killed Thanos instead.
- Morgan Stark does not exist in this timeline, making Peter the sole heir to the Stark name or at least until Stephen unceremoniously tells Pepper that she is pregnant at the end of Chapter 8.
- Steve Rogers is still young and a member of the team.
- Freudian Excuse: The reason why Mr. Harrington has singled Peter out and gives him such a hard time is because he had developed a hatred for liars after his wife faked her death at the Blip to run off with some other guy, and with the idea that Peter not only got an internship at Stark Industries seemed sketchy to begin with, the idea that Peter could still have his position after being gone for five years and Peter's proclivity to not fight back made Peter seem like the perfect punching bag to vent his angst on.
- Hate Sink: Secretary of Education Maria "Marcy" Rosendale is basically everything you hate in a Corrupt Politician taken to despicable levels. She created the Open For All Initiative as a diabolical means of defunding scholarships and underprivileged schools as a laundering scheme for the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the futures of kids who desperately need it. She has ties to both Hammer Industries and the Roxxon Energy Corporation (and anyone who has been following the MCU will know that both are just different flavors of Evil, Inc.), has committed embezzlement to fund a gambling addiction, voted down a 1% pay-increase for teachers, cut funding for post-Snap mental health services (which led to Peter being abused by Mr. Harrington due to his own unresolved issues) has been found guilty of child endangerment thrice and she forced Peter to come out as Tony Stark's son to the general public for nothing more than to spite Tony. It doesn't help that she was diagnosed with sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies.
- I Reject Your Reality: The lengths Harrington goes to to ignore the obvious (that Peter wasn't lying) gets rather absurd, as Harley lampshades.Harley: How blind are you playing?
Mr. Harrington: I'm not—I'm not ignoring it. But the evidence-
Harley: The evidence? You want the evidence Peter works with Tony freakin' Stark? The sweater? How about that badge?
Mr. Harrington: Badges can be bought.
Harley: Not SI badges[.] Look, I'm not stupid—neither is Peter — I think we both know what you're implying, and that's sick. You better backtrack now, because otherwise we're gonna have problems - and we've got enough of those right now, in case you haven't noticed.
Mr. Harrington: I have every right to question-
Harley: You have a right to question, [b]ut when presented with evidence – which you have been, right? People in this place aren't exactly quiet about knowing Peter, are they? – and you continue to disregard it and, you know what, blatantly allow harassment. Then we got problems, Mr... Harrington. - New Parent Nomenclature Problem: Peter has a problem with calling Tony "dad" and Tony isn't ready for that either, though he would prefer it if he called him "Tony" and not "Mr. Stark" like old times. Peter insists that it is a sign of respect.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
Word of God confirms that Maria Rosendale is based off of Real Life US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and UK Secretary of State for Home Department Priti Patel. - Oh, Crap!:
- Throughout the field trip, Peter's Spider-Sense has been going off in small bursts and it has left him paranoid, worried that this means that the reveal that he is Tony Stark's son (and the various hang-ups that come with that) could be blown at any minute. It is not until Mr. Harrington grabs Peter, flinching at the touch and Happy Hogan noticing this that Peter realizes that the danger isn't to himself: it's the idea of Tony finding out how Mr. Harrington treats him and what horrible fate could befall his teacher when that happens.
- When Harley threatens Flash, Mr. Harrington and Mr. Dell threaten to tell Tony himself how they have been mistreating Peter and explains in great detail how awful it would turn out for him, they realize that he isn't bluffing.
- Pet the Dog: Instead of using his wealth and influence to ruin Roger Harrington's life for picking on Peter, Tony instead gives him a job at Stark Industries, recognizing both that Roger is a victim of Rosendale's cuts to mental health services and voting down teacher pay-increases, and because Peter would not forgive him if he did anything else.
- Related in the Adaptation: Through a paternity test that Bruce and FRIDAY unwittingly perform after Tony and Peter survive an unexplained explosion, they discover that Peter and Tony are biologically related, Peter being the result of a brief relationship he had with Mary Fitzpatrick before she met her husband Richard.
- Space Whale Aesop: Don't be a bully and pick-on the Nice Guy because he is actively trying to keep their obscenely rich and influential parents from ruining your life for picking on them.
- Strawman News Media: When Peter is taking questions from the news, a reporter from The Daily Bugle asks various invasive - and rather accusatory - questions regarding Peter and his relation to Tony.
- Take That!: When Peter begins to take questions from the press, the first is a reporter from Fox News wanting to know his parentage. He jokes that normally Fox News wouldn't be allowed in the tower at all before answering.
- Wham Episode:
