i want to do a character questions meme but don't really feel like doing the spicy or shippy ones being passed around so AMA for Alan (ic or ooc), i will reply to questions after stream

Alan childhood thoughts?

What is Alan's favorite food. (Coffee does not count.)

(disagree, but)

Alright, so Alan childhood thoughts: What we know about Alan as a kid is him being afraid of the dark, being told the clicker belonged to his ~mysterious~ father he's never known, he's been friends with Barry since a young age, and Alan was a troublemaker and Barry would talk them out of it.

I don't imagine that Alan was a model student, but I do imagine he did fine in school. The distinction here is that he likely wouldn't have sought after academic accomplishments or acclaim however if he happened to succeed and was recognized it, he would have likely reveled in the attention based on how we see his ego manifest in the tv show interview.

I definitely feel like he did a LOT of pranks on people - other kids, teachers, neighbors, whoever. I also imagine whenever not causing trouble he probably sought comfort or escape from his feelings in books, likely spending a lot of time at libraries.

This extends from his early childhood and even into his teenage years imo. The nature of the pranks might have changed getting older, and the sense of humor as well, but ultimately Alan's mischievous scamp energy is still seen from time to time even as an adult so I don't think mischief would have diminished that much over time.

With growing older, I do think we would have seen a greater rise in him struggling to control his temper, especially with processing his feelings regarding his absentee father. Teens can be unoriginal bullies about whatever they can get their hands on so I see a lot of Alan getting into trouble for punching people in high school.

Around this time we also have the canon establishment of Alan discovering Stephen King's work about becoming inspired to become an author himself. Because his earliest known work, Errand Boy, is him projecting his lack of dad issues and maybe even creating a "what if?" scenario if his father decided to suddenly show up,

this is why I think be probably got picked on about this a lot by peers before graduating.

I definitely think he had an embarrassing grunge phase for sure

because of how he mentions his reaction when Alice called his jeans and flannel look grunge and was like "ughhh"

He was listening to way too much Nirvana in high school

There are also few subtext-y comments that happen between Alan and Barry and Alan and Imaginary Barry that make me squint and wonder if they did the whole "teen boys exploring their sexuality and how to kiss and stuff with their friends because they struggle with girls" thing, because they just have a really solid friendship with each other

and things didn't get weird about it being a thing until Alan met Alice

like I am just imagining Alan and Barry at 19 just chilling and holding hands and Alice walks in and is like "um"

And that maybe part of why Alice doesn't get along with Barry is because she thinks it's weird and Barry doesn't like her because she criticized how their friendship worked

wicker stan : anyway those are all my early alan thoughts i have for now

S̸C̴R̴A̸T̵C̴H̵ there is the part of me that wants to look up some super culturally significant food to new york and point at it and the other part of me that feels like he probably loves the fuck out of street cart hot dogs

which i feel like is also a pretty new york experience because hot dog carts are not very prominent in most other places i've been aside from the occasional ones in seattle

All I can think about is the Robert Pattinson hot dog video

Just superimposing Alan over it

incredible

Robert Pattinson Desperately Needs a New York City H...

the video for those that don't know

this is just alan in dark place new york in alan wake 2

alan would just nope out of the subway if someone recognized him while on a hot dog quest, for sure

he would

LMFAO GOD HE REALLY WOULD

Rewatching it now and I'm just...this really kind of just is Alan isn't it

yeah i thought the same lol

esp funny because robpat wrote and directed it himself

Alan after ten years of not talking to anyone

LOL

"You can call me Al, I eat hot dogs"