Barley

Barley is not the child of the Scarecrow from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels, but just so happens to be his successor.

Barley is rather excited about his destiny, the brains that he'll acquire, and the adventures that will come with it. Admittedly though, beyond the obvious getting-a-brain bit, he lacks a thorough understanding as to what his destiny is going to to like in the first place.

While he's rather uncomfortable with the idea of his future companions not wanting fulfill what their destiny, he doesn't seem to mind (nor necessarily care) if others go against the tide. Barley isn't too fussy with Oz-related story divergence either, as long as it doesn't affect his longing to  travel outside of Munckinland too much. Although he doesn't really care about Royal/Rebel shenanigans, he proclaims to be a Royal due to his self-centered thinking in regards to his destiny (read: he really wants that brain of his), lacking sensitivity towards his story mates' feelings on following their predestined fate. This is also a result of having misconceptions on what a Royal even is, given his guileless nature.

Portrayal
Were Barley to be voiced on the show in English, then his voice actor would most likely be Mitch Grassi because the creator of this page is Pentatonix-loving trash. Barley's creator is heavily debating though, so this paragraph is for the most part filler.

In live-action, Barley's portrayal would definitely be DeAndre Brackensick, given his fitting looks and vocal acclaim.

Personality
Upon first impression, one may notice that Barley tends to express a set of seemingly defined traits: curiosity, optimism, and a wee bit of naivety. Understandable given he's fifteen (months old) and a relatively new student, his excitability can come off as quite overwhelming to some if his peers. His lack of life experience may be something of a setback, but whether he's meeting new people or reading scholarly articles on the MirrorNet for fun, the next Scarecrow of Oz expresses an eagerness to learn that goes often underestimated by the brain-having populace.

Being both impressionable and literal-minded as he is, Barley doesn't always trust his intuition, even in scenarios where he happens to be right in the first place. He's used to others basing his intelligence on misconceptions of his tale, and that makes him all the more determined to receive the brains that play a key role in the previous Scarecrow's story arc. In a way he's rather dependent towards the role, as though taking it away from him would rob him of the benefits of an otherwise fulfilling life. Due to living with the farmer who (accidentally) brought him to life, Barley would rather fulfill his destiny than live under a constant, neglectful cycle of being the Munchkin's 24/7 bird-scarer.

To stray off his yellow-brick-destined path and have his own adventure seems tempting, but what good would rebelling do if the road that's paved for him yields more opportunities than the only life he's known? And who wouldn't want to have a guaranteed Happily Ever After surrounded by friends, helping to settle disturbances in the land he calls home? Barley can be quite heedless, and isn't all that mindful of why his more fortunate-fated story-mates wouldn't want their Happily Ever Afters to be set in stone.

Not that he has the mind to admit that he's lonely, but that may be his ditzy-genius tendencies getting in the way a pinch. In the meantime, Barley remains upbeat and candidly fascinated by the customs, culture, and pretty much everything that the land outside of Oz has to offer.

Appearance
Barley has somewhat lanky calves and forearms sculpted from wooden stakes, with the rest of his legs, arms, and torso made from worn, Munchkin blue farm clothes (trousers and a long-sleeved blouse) that are generously stuffed with straw. He's taller than your average Munchkin, but is relatively short in height for a student his "age" at 5'1. When he isn't wearing any outer accessories, one can easily see the rope that is bound and tied around the joints of his arms, legs, waist, gloves, and the knot that keeps his head attached to the rest of his body.

His medium brown, earth-toned sack of a head is also stuffed and is stitched atop with coarse, straw blonde-brown hair styled into twists, and his face is painted on with a triangular brown nose and a lopsided smile with stitches serving as dimples. His button, navy blue eyes, while both the same size, are slightly mismatched, as while one of the blue buttons is bulbous and threaded through its back, the other is flat with notable outer stitching. Barley's hands and feet can be attached, detached, and replaced easily with straw for basic stuffing, with wads of cotton to fill in small gaps such fingers, and rope to keep them from falling off.

Basic Summary
We all know the tale, or at least so it seems: A little girl from Kansas gets swept away to a magical land and goes to seek the titular Wizard, meeting three quirky companions while defeating not one, but two Wicked Witches all by accident. Of course, including plenty of differences between the books and a certain renown film, there is plenty more to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz than Jade Encrusted Bugs cares to describe.

Because the creator of Barley assumes that the readers care more about gangly stuffed teenagers than being infodumped, the Scarecrow's character shall be summed up in a rudimentary nutshell: after getting his fake brains, he's temporarily crowned as the ruler of the Emerald City and Oz near the end of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as mentioned at the beginning of the article. In The Marvelous Land of Oz, General Jinjur and her Army of Revolt kicks his straw butt off the throne because she's a strong, independent Ozian who'said sick and tired of all these male rulers, insert-stuff-here, yada-yada, more filler, and as also mentioned, he becomes Princess Ozma's third in command, among many more details that would take a whole page and more if Bug were ever to accurately sum everything up. For everyone else's convenience, it's better to read the original Scarecrow's wikipedia page for those interested.

How Barley Ties Into It
Although one would think that he would synthetically create his own offspring, the Scarecrow of Oz for a time was somewhat skeptical of the idea that the Land of Oz would cease to exist under certain circumstances. That said, he was expected to create a child for the sake of appeasing to a certain impatient Headmaster, and began the painstaking process of gathering the ingredients to create The Powder of Life (a substance introduced in The Marvelous Land of Oz).

The process was slow and quite frankly, as a result of his lack of progress, many of the main Ozian teens had already moved up into their freshman year and beyond. So one day, sometime in the middle of that time-gap, a rich Munchkin farmer decided to take things into his own hands. Having already acquired the Power of Life via unexplained means, he used it on a scarecrow that he’d helped to construct with the farmer who owned the cornfield nearby. Said cornfield-owning farmer meant for the aforementioned scarecrow to be used to scare the crows targeting the field in question, but it wasn’t until the day after that he noticed the (presumed inanimate) life-form struggling to slip out of the post that ‘it’ was tied to.

But of course, the now living scarecrow did not like being called an ‘it’, and that was exactly how Barley came to be known.

Family
Currently speaking, the Scarecrow of Oz acts as more of a mentor than a father to the straw-stuffed teen. It was even Barley's decision – based solely on seeing his creator/the farmer as a potential parental figure – to live with the field-farmer, with the original Scarecrow taking the time to check in on him and the farmer’s family a few times a week (whenever Barley is back in Oz on break, at least). Little did the straw-protege know, his assumption couldn't have been the furthest from the truth. Visitations aside, Barley more often than not dwells upon the same, shoddily propped up post in the middle of the cornfield, the very post he once tried to escape from. Although the young scarecrow considers the cornfield farmer his dad, said farmer wants nothing to do with him.

In fact, anyone with enough sense would question Barley’s logic. Really, most would wonder why a man who uses scarecrow-duty as an excuse to ignore his “kid” would actively want to raise him. A man who doesn’t particularly care that said “kid” is not too fond of staying outside at nighttime and would rather seek shelter than dangle on a pole with nearly no means of escape.

Meanwhile, Scarecrow remains unaware of the neglect and abuse Barley faces under such circumstances, as the farmer and his family put on an act to save face in front of the Ozian figure. While one would wonder why the farmer didn't reject the proposal in the first place, the Munchkin man preferred being under the good graces of the Scarecrow to make himself seem more esteemed, albeit at the expense of exploiting the stuffed man's young protege. This may also have been a strategy to better his chances of survival through important Ozian connections upon the chance that the new Wicked Witch takes over Oz, and for the time when the next witch/warlock/magic-user eventually melts to their death.

Sometimes Barley wonders if the farmer would consider treating him like family if he were to ever have a brain; to have qualities of a "real" person, considering how the farmer treats him as an object.

Friends
Barley is quick to trust most anyone and considers many students, Ozian or otherwise, to be his friend  – whether they want to be or not. His excitable demeanor can be quite a bit polarizing, but he's all the more eager to form friendships nonetheless.

Cordelia Chopper
Barley met Cora after literally crashing into her upon arriving at school via wishing well teleportation (as described in the Ever After High novels). Despite the crash-and-meet, the odd duo managed to become friends. He admires the girl for her thick skin, generosity, and strong will; meanwhile Cora finds his positivity and quirky mannerisms especially endearing, and though his lack of experience makes him prone to insensitivity, he puts his best effort into being a supportive friend.

Ever since Legacy Day, however, there has been something of an elephant in the room. Cora doesn't look forward to the next Wicked Witch/Warlock/Spell-caster Of The West being destined to enslave the Winkies (among many other things, including the human-to-tin transformation), but Barley doesn't understand her concerns, assuming that having a kick-butt tin body/potentially ruling over Winky Country is more than enough to make up for any losses she may have. Things on that subject have been bit rocky, but the two are still great friends in spite of it all. Fortunately as a result of the events if WtW, things have been staring to patch up.

Airmid Valerian
Albeit out of ignorance, a number of acquaintances that happen to know Barley consider him "brainless." Airmid isn't one of them, and they've both certainly passed that beginning stage of acknowledgement. Along with treating him as a person worthy of her intelligence and knowledge, the next Physician of Death helps to sustain the scarecrow's learning-bent enthusiasm. They're true brotp material companions who can talk to each other on varying subjects without the anxiety that comes with being looked down upon.

Bathilda Waits
When the future waiting-maid came across him, Bathilda didn't intend on having a soft spot for the young scarecrow. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked, or specifically after tricking him into doing her clothes shopping. When the two arrived at a boutique at the Book End plaza, the conversation that followed went something like this: Cue the maid-of-honor, who happens to be a trans girl, trying very hard to maintain her bossy, domineering attitude despite her sudden reason to empathize with a socially dysphoric MOGAI scarecrow. Instead of leaving Barley at the boutique to finish her shopping (as was the plan), Bathilda went in with him and helped to deconstruct his internalized cissexist views. She even offered to buy some cute dresses and feminine-labeled accessories for him and herself. They've made ties ever since, and although Tilda tries to be covert with their friendship (a transgender villain-girl hanging out with a non-binary protag might make the latter a target), Barley nonetheless sees her as something of a role model given that she was the very first person to validate his (lack of) gender. Along with shopping, the two often gush about the performing arts and humanities.
 * Tilda: ~jokingly~ So anything you'd buy yourself?
 * Barley: Weeeeeell, I really like those dresses! But I think those are girls' clothes. Not that I can think, but-
 * Tilda: Well who told you that? :I
 * Barley: Uhh... ~scratches head~ I 'unno. But all the girls wear dresses at school and in the magazines, not the guys. Girls are just really lucky. :v
 * Tilda: Well, don't just believe it just because you see it. Folks can wear can wear whatever the spell they want, right?
 * Barley: I guess so... ~shifts uncomfortably~
 * Tilda: Hey, you gonna go in or what? You look like a guy with th-
 * Barley: Nono, that's it! I know I'm not a girl, and I'm supposed to be a guy, and maybe I am a guy and I need brains to see it, but, ~beat, lowers voice~ I 'unno if I feel like it.
 * Tilda: Hm?
 * Barley: ~beat~ ...Just. Welp. I don't feel like anything. I'm scarecrow and I'm nothing and I really don't like being either or, but, what if it's all me and I'm just too brainless to know what I am? ._.

Deryn Corbeau
Baubles, shiny things, and all sorts of randomly assorted "junk". These are at least three things that Barley and Deryn share an interest in, and neither seem to mind the irony of a crow becoming close friends with a living scarecrow. Despite the crow-girl's skepticism and Barley's boundless trust towards many an acquaintance, the two balance each other out with a supporting dash of shared excitability and enthusiasm. He values his friendship with Deryn very much, though at times he can't help but feel that there might be something more between them. These feelings are quite confusing however given his lack of a physical heart, so for now he keeps these feelings quiet and enjoys her company (whether or not he wants to express them).

Florence Linden

To describe why Barley is friends with one of the most despicable students in Ever After High is like explaining why SpongeBob can't seem to take the hint that Squidward finds him annoying as hell; it just is. Or maybe the scarecrow simply attempts to see the good in more people than he can actually handle. Whether tricked into waiting in line to fetch Florence tater-tots in the castleteria, being the only person who gets sucked into watching anime reruns with him, or getting caught in the middle of Florence's beef with other people, it's safe to say that Florence is the obnoxious crop-killer to Barley's oblivious cornfield.

Pet
At the the Land of Oz's potential Animal Calling, Barley came across a grackle that had been injured by a flock of crows. The bird had gone blind from their ruthless attacks, so the straw-kid used a spare needle and thread to sew on a pair of blue button eyes in replacement of the ones that had been gouged out. Though Barley doesn't treat him as a literal pet as per Ozian tradition, the grackle was thankful and adopted the nickname "Buttons" Barley gave him while patching the avian up.

Buttons was and still is the only one Barley has for support whenever the Scarecrow isn't in Munchkinland. When it rains or when the coast is farmdad-free, Among other basic necessities, the bird would often sneak the young scarecrow into the farmer's shed and use the man's Munchkin almanacs to teach the teen how to read and write. And because Ozian magic is a rather unpredictable beast, Barley can still understand and communicate to Buttons while in Ever After. This possibly may be result of the buttons sewn onto the bird's eyes, as said buttons were inside the pocket's of Barley's blouse/torso, and therefore are sprinkled with the Powder of Life.

Romance
It's been said once and it'll thus be said again: smarts are better than hearts~

But on a serious note, his love life doesn't take too much priority over his living circumstances. Could it be said that, deep down, that he may or may want some sort of meaningful companionship, thus why he wants to stick to his story? Perhaps. Does it mean that said companionship has to be romantic? Until he finds reason to, not necessarily. Were he to be tied down to anyone, then gender would be of least importance to him in the search for love.

That said, one thing that Barley worries about is not having the heart to form in a relationship. Literally. He's meant to have a brain after all, so wouldn't never having a heart in the first place be off-putting in terms of romance? In the meantime, this is the main reason why he's yet to mention anything pertaining his feelings to a certain young crow.

Basic
Barley wears a plaid, blue and brown dress-tunic with draping sleeves. It ties in the front with pastel turquoise lace and a matching ruffled trimming borders the ensemble. The sleeves are also lined with a yellow brick road motif, which fittingly matches the cornfield designs that line up horizontally above the the trimming of his 'skirt'. To cover the knot of his neck, he wraps it around with a bright green scarf.

His dark viridian gloves match the length of his forearms,  and his pointed gray-green boots reach up to his spindly mid-calves. Gloves and legs both are tied down and secured with deep blue ribbons.

Though Barley doesn't wear it a whole lot, he also has a Munchkin blue hat that matches the base of his stuffed body, a dark green ribbon tied just above the brim. When he isn't wearing any head-covers (which is most of the time), one will notice a set of beads strung along in the twists of his asymmetrically parted hair. While the ones to his left are black, the five beads strung to the right are intentionally colored; light blue for Munchkinland, red for Quadling Country, purple for Gillikin Country, yellow for Winkie Country, and emerald green for the Emerald City.

The next Scarecrow is especially fond of pins. He often picks them up off the ground and pins them to whatever he's wearing. Though he occasionally mistakes an earring for a more ornate staple, most of them tend to be of the safety pin variety.

Legacy Day
[TBA]

Fanfics, Journal Entrees and Other Appearances

 * The Road to Oz Ain't Paved in Gold
 * Honey and the Bee (written by Theelemettes)
 * And more to come~

Quotes
"Hi-hi, I'm Barley! We're married now, does that mean we're friends? This really nice boy said so and said your name but I completely forgot. BUT I know it starts with a 'D' so when I asked for names you were the first person pointed to, so you must be the person I'm married to!"

- Barley upon thinking that he has been married to the random lass he just came across, all while not knowing what marriage was at the time

"Hmmmmmmm, that is a hard one! If I said myself that wouldn't do, because I’m very much animated. But then again not many have seen a living scarecrow before…"

- Barley upon being asked what his favorite inanimate object is

"Well, I don’t have brains so I really can’t answer. It makes it harder to think. Can I thi-? Oooooh now I know, it’s straw! It keeps me moving and well, so why would it not?"

- Upon coming up with a conclusion to the question mentioned above

"Is it because they don’t know I’m stuffed? The last time a crow found out they ate all the ears in the field and started pecking at my stuffing. How rude! Maybe they’re nicer at Ever After. Everyone seems nice here."

- Barley on the subject of the rather peculiar behavior of crows outside of Oz~

"Weeeeell, dad gave me this Ozian almanac and it looks really-oh! A-and there’s this dictionary at the library and this one book about sparkly vegans but they don’t look like they eat lots of vegetables. And then there was this book on human atom…anna…anatomy! But it’s confusing because boys are "supposed" to have these wobbly things under their clothes but the girls don’t and it's really cissexist-oh yeah! And there was this one book about…"

- The reason why you should never ask about Barley's favorite book: he can't decide! He does have a slight preference for non fiction works, however

"HeeeEEEEE-Lookitmelookitme! I have a shiny!"

- Upon accidentally saving the life of an oversized insect

"“You know, I feel bad for him. That must have been REALLY uncomfortable, you know? With all that water around, he must have had lungs of nickel-plated tin! No offense to mernurses.”"

- Barley assuming that Freud's wet nurse was a literal /wet/ nurse.

Notes and Trivia

 * Is agender and happily goes by the following pronouns: he/him/his/himself, ze/zem/zir/zirself, or the singular "they". That said, he generally defaults to "he" for the mostime part, but isnot otherwise picky abut pronouns aside from detesting "it" and almost never responding to "she".
 * The future-Scarecrow loves to read, anything nonfiction and informative being his favorite. As Barley cannot sleep, he often spends his evening hours reading lifairy books to himself o looking up random encyclopedic facts on the Mirror-Net (usually under his bed-covers with a flashlight on, as so not to wake up his rather grumpy roommate.
 * Yes, the dress-tunic Barley is wearing in his new basic outfit was in fact bought while shopping with Bathilda.
 * Barley doesn't have a proper last name, perhaps since he never learned his "dad's" surname. Even more so, Barley only received a first name once his "father" had come with it on the spot upon receiving the scarecrow's admission letter. Chances are "barley" was the first word that came to mind, a name that has stuck ever since.
 * Like the Scarecrow before him, Barley doesn't tire and cannot feel physical pain. Although he doesn't realize it, being a magically reincarnated scarecrow and having non-human immunity is his actual magic touch.
 * Also similar to him, he can see fairly well in at night, or at least better better than humans, rendering his phobia of the dark somewhat irrational. He can't see quite as well during nighttime like the original Scarecrow, however, but makes up for it by having heightened hearing.
 * The crows back in Oz, who are not too fond of being fooled with stuffed placebos (and are probably not too happy that the last Scarecrow killed 40 crows under the control of the Wicked Witch Of The West), often tease and undermine Barley for lacking a brain. They have also been known to use his not quite as keen eyesight/exceptional hearing to their advantage, taunting and scaring the wickedness out of him during those lonely Munchkin nights strung above the cornfield. Although he doesn't know it is the crows' doing, this unfortunately is the main reason that his fear of the dark persists.
 * Jade Encrusted Bugs wasn't exactly sure at first whether to make him look like an EAH-styled human with cloth-like skin or make him cartoonishly humanoid, so she may or may not have had Hoodude from Monster High in mind as one of Barley's inspirations.
 * He likes to collects pins. He's especially fond of safety pins. Don't as why, he just likes them. In fact, he just so happens to like many a pin-esque object: earring backs, hooks used on necklaces and bracelet clasps, and the like. He often uses them along with various "shinies" that he finds (read: anything small and sparkly that's broken) to make homemade jewelry in his spare time.
 * For the exception of restyling small pins for his hat/scarves/coats, however, he cares more about making them than actually wearing them. He doesn't think to sell his creations, so he usually has his designs hidden in his coat pockets/stuffed in random nooks and crannies about his dorm room, to the chagrin of his roommate. He has no qualms about giving them to others however, especially when they ask.