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professorspork · 11 months

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How did you decide on the roles you did for: Emerald, Mercury, Neon, Robyn, Oscar, Sun, Maria?

OOH LOVE THIS QUESTION

but ough this got long so UNDER THE CUT

Em and Merc

This one was a pretty intuitive one for me. In Newsies, the Delanceys are a matched set pair of pain-in-the-ass bruisers, and their role seemed like the perfect launching point for whatever I wanted to do with the murder kids. the only real question was whether only Em or both of them would get a face turn, as in Newsies neither do and so far in canon only one has. I knew from early that it would be a great opportunity if I included Yang getting framed for Merc's leg, and I knew from early on that Emerald would "catch" them during the climactic printing of the manifesto and choose to let them go. em and merc being Yang's only friends while she scabbed was more of a game time decision that unfolded organically.

Neon

this took some time to arrive at!

my first instinct for who would fill the Spot Conlon role was Nora (as evidenced by the fact that she still gets his dialogue sometimes). this probably could have worked if i'd insisted on it, but I needed Nora too much to be Racetrack and serve as Yang's Best Friend/The Newsie We Know Best to cut her off from the main story like that. giving Nora the "no one hates Neon, she's just a little unhinged" so Blake could be like COMING FROM *YOU,* THOUGH? mostly satisfied that first gut instinct.

the next person I considered for the Spot role was Coco, because of that effortless cool and intimidation factor, but... if I couldn't make myself believe in Pyrrha being a street urchin newsie, there was just NO WAY I could pull it off for Coco. her the rich girl energy is just too strong.

only then did I land on Neon as the next candidate, because she and Yang had that antagonistic relationship and it would be both a) entirely believable for her to be a crater kid and b) shore up the Faunus storyline in foundational ways. even though in hindsight she's kind of the ONLY choice, I resisted it at first because Neon's dialogue felt like a big challenge for me... that sort of gleeful negging and lowkey sexual harassment isn't exactly in my usual wheelhouse. realizing I could translate that combative stance into an entirely justifiable hostility towards humans was the key that made it click, and then she sort of exploded in importance when I was like OH she's my truth to power who gets to say the uncomfortable thing that everyone needs to hear.

Robyn

This one also came with a bit of time and development. someone had to be the Deus Ex Teddy Roosevelt, and Robyn was an obvious candidate... but the other one was Ghira.

(this goes on a bit of a tangent but I think you'll forgive me, lol)

figuring out Blake's (and the White Fang's) placement in the story took some doing. in Newsies, David is new to hawking but not new to New York; the main antagonist outside Pulitzer is Snyder, the warden of the juvenile hall. I knew that Adam's pursuit of Blake had to fill that role narratively, but my initial thoughts were to have a higher level of fidelity to Newsies, too-- that Clover would also be chasing Blake because she's wanted for something Adam did, maybe, and the two would play off each other. in that version, everything was thus very local-- Blake was from Mantle just like the rest of the characters are, and her separation from her family was an estrangement without that profound physical distance.

when I tried to game that out over the long-term of the story, however, having her parents so close by just felt too brain-bending; it gave Blake an escape hatch when I needed her to not have one. even then, I considered Blake writing a letter to her family and Ghira showing up in answer as a potential Teddy solution, but it just didn't hit right.

having given up on Ghira, I turned back to Robyn, and then when I gave her full consideration I realized that I could take the election storyline from RWBY and use it as the inciting incident for the price hike, which would nicely dovetail the two canons and hopefully strengthen both. from there, it was much more natural.

Oscar

This one was pure necessity. Anyone i COULD justify using in the union inner circle, I wanted to, and Oscar-- by virtue of being a conniving, clever, mercenary thinker in canon both for Ozpin-related and crucially not-Ozpin-related reasons, was SUPER useful to me.

creating that inner union core so that way I could get the fic's political and plot-related thinking out through (relatively organic) dialogue instead of in more cumbersome ways was really key. if you go back and read all their conversations, you'll see patterns emerge as they always take on the same roles: Oscar is a rational thinker and an Ideas Guy; Nora's completely gung-ho; Ren is supportive but is also the first to fold when he feels like they've failed; Jaune is the one who asks the questions that keep the conversation going (with BRNZ also doing that or being nay-sayers if they're around). Velvet, of course, was crucial for getting a Faunus voice in the inner circle while Blake was stealth, but even more crucial because she's a big-picture thinker and a compromise-oriented person who could find bridges between two seemingly-incompatible thoughts.

which is a long way of saying Oscar is Oscar so he could voice the Ruby thoughts in the chapters before Yang lets Ruby participate.

Sun

I am ashamed to admit it, but for a long time Sun was not going to be in this story, and in fact I was making a WHOLE BIG POINT of Sun not being in the story.

this is sort of related to the Ghira of it all; I always knew that Blake would need to go somewhere after she ran from the big confrontation where everything went wrong, but at first I wanted her to be able to get back to her parents, like in canon. when I realized that would be a logistical impossibility (having Blake leave the continent mid-strike just wouldn't fly), I didn't know WHAT I was going to do with the Blake Alone chapter.

at first, I swore to myself I wouldn't use Sun in that role because like... the whole point of Sun is that he's Blake's friend first and he makes her feel less alone. I told myself this meant he couldn't be in the Blake Alone chapter because the whole point of it is she's ALONE, and if that were true then I certainly couldn't let him be in the union main friend group squad; the point of them is that they're Yang's Friends that Blake gets to know through her, and if I give Blake more true supports that aren't Yang it gets in the way of the love story as necessitated by this plot outline. which meant NO SUN, SORRY.

and then I thought of that "holy shit you're Blake Belladonna, should I bow?" meet cute and I was like... okay maybe a little Sun.

luckily for both Blake and the story as a whole, by the time i GOT to the Blake Alone chapter it had become very clear to me that it wouldn't be Blake Alone at all-- that it would be Blake With Community, and it would be a healing and rising arc to balance Yang's sharp fall into depression. they couldn't BOTH be miserable or else the story would grind to a halt. and so Sun got to shine (pun intended).

Maria

I'm still a little bummed I wasn't able to find more of a use for Maria than I did; Tukson HAD to be Tukson for book reasons, and Pietro HAD to be the head of the lodging house for Mercury reasons, and the plot just couldn't carry more mentor-types in expanded roles. so I gave Maria ownership of the only other Third Space in the story, even though that meant we didn't see much of her after the beginning.

#newsbees au #rwby #fic what i wrote

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pigeonwit · 10 months

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do you have any javey fic recs for a poor starving child? (the longer the better)

[willem dafoe voice] you know im something of a Javey Connoisseur myself-

i'm gonna try not to name too many of like. The Big Ones since you've probably read those already but. i am probably going to have a few in there. there is a reason the writers in every fic rec list are in every fic rec list you know? (also i have a poor understanding of tumblr boundaries so just to be safe i'm not gonna tag anyone outright. dont wanna annoy anyone) okay then! fic recs under the cut:

when we were younger by @/we-are-inevitable (also we-are-inevitable on ao3) - sentimental backstory: i was wayyy too early to work cause i live in the middle of nowhere and my buses get me there with at least an hour to spare, so i was looking to kill time and found this! and i thought about it for the rest of the day. so technically it is this fic and this author's fault for making me break a sundae glass. it's just the sweetest tenderest fic i've ever read; jack and davey are high school exes who stumble back into each others lives by complete chance, except now jack's a single father. i've read a few 'single parent' javey fics and they're all lovely, but this one stuck out to me because jack's daughter is actually a teenager. which works really well because we-are-inevitable does a wonderful job at capturing davey's Vibe of displacement in his everyday life (something i especially love about davey as a character) so it's really nice seeing him be able to naturally connect with jack's daughter and jack's life as a whole. it makes the moments of everything all coming together for davey - him finally feeling like he Belongs somewhere naturally, in a way that makes sense - it makes it all feel much more wholesome. it has enough angst to keep things interesting but it focuses much more on jack and davey reconnecting and being able to care for one another the way they weren't able to before, all while maintaining this heartwarmingly domestic family dynamic that i just adore. so it's lovely soft reading for a cozy afternoon (or you can just chug it in under an hour at a garden centre cafe if you're like me - but it's much better if you go slow with it and really let all the sweetness sink in :) )

tied together by @/penzyroamin (or PenzyRome on ao3) - penzy has so many BANGER multichaps and my claim to newsies fandom fame is that i actually helped a little bit when she was developing this one!! it's a beautiful and heartwrenching jack character study told through a soulmate/red string of fate au which works just,,, SO well with jack's issues with being seen and loved and loving others. it's also southern! there's farmers markets! and chubby jack/buff davey supremacy. it's angsty and messy and poignant and beautiful and all about learing to love yourself enough to let yourself be seen entirely ,and letting others make the choice to look at you and say 'this is what i want' - but also learning that it's not a reflection on you if it turns out that you weren't what they wanted. if i'm feeling down about myself i'll read the scene where jack and davey reunite in chapter 4 and just,,, Feel It. something about someone seeing the ugliest parts of you and still not wanting to forget you... ough. love it. gorgeous. mwah.

keeping promises by JewishDavidJacobs on ao3 - an FBI au where davey replaces denton at jack's agency, and jack is furious about it. 32 chapters and almost 90k of found family, enemies-to-fwb-to-lovers, recovering from abusive relationships, learning to be loved, learning you're ALLOWED love despite whatever flaws you have, and davey's patented inability to maintain a healthy work-life balance. it's everything i want as a davey stan. it's got a meaty white-collar crime subplot that keeps the conflict and tension going, and really adds to the friction between jack and davey as they navigate their very complicated relationship with each other. it's messy but it doesn't overstay it's welcome on the messiness - you get just as much of davey and jack being a healthy, loving, functioning unit as you do of them being disasters. that being said, be careful with the content warnings; past abusive relationships of both familial and romantic natures, and terminal illness/background character death.

across enemy lines by JewishDavidJacobs on ao3 - davey and jack are in an established relationship, but when davey gets hired as pulitzer's assistant, it creates a divide between him, jack, davey's family, and the newsboy union as a whole. it's VERY heavy on the davey whump and scratches the itch i have as a davey kinnie to make davey suffer as much as humanly possible. it focuses a lot on davey's homelife, the antisemitism he faces every day, his feelings of displacement in all the units he's meant to be a part of (school, the newsies, his family, etc), and again, davey's patented inability to maintain a work-life balance. as much angst and whump as there is, the final few chapters more than make up for it in terms of sweetness and catharsis and all that found family goodness. it also does a really great job of humanizing pulitzer and acknowledging the progressive aspects of him as a person while still being aware that this dude was a wealthy victorian capitalist and not actually some secret good-guy.

lovely bitter water by illinoise on ao3 - fairytale au javid where davey is a fairy sent to help pirate!jack find his happiness, which jack does NOT want him to do. it's got a wonderful stardust vibe that really makes you feel like you're reading an actual queer fairytale, which filled a void i wasn't even aware that i had. it's a wonderful exploration of both davey and jack's self-sacrificial natures and how they clash agains each other in that respect, which creates this fun enemies-to-lovers dynamic where they learn to understand and respect and pine for each other. the world is wonderfully set up and it incorporates the other newsies characters (including katherine, there is SO much respect for katherine in this fic) in really fun ways!

like real people do by @/loving-jack-kelly (AsperJasper on ao3) - now i know you specified 'the longer the better. full disclosure, this fic a oneshot of around 4.5k. HOWEVER, it does such a fantastic job of capturing this otherworldly ambience that makes it feel like the story just keep stretching onwards that i can't NOT recommend it. to summarize, davey lives in a small medievial-esque village and seeks out a fae (jack) to wish to alter his life. the world is so well-defined, and the rules of magic and jack's backstory are all so interesting that you just want to read it forever. if 'lovely bitter water' is a classic fairytale, this is a CELTIC faerytale, and i am nothing if not a devout welshman. it's raw and abstract and poetic, it draws beautifully on davey's desperation to make his family proud while still wanting to live his own life as just Himself, and it actually inspired a little babie au i'm noodling on! highly recommend.

these are the ones i could think of off the top of my head; i didn't want to pick too much of the same or pick too many that you'd probably read already, although it's possible you might've. read all of these already. they are REALLY good. if that's the case feel free to ask for more!! but if not i hope you like these fics like i did :))

#newsies #javid #javey #davey jacobs #david jacobs #jack kelly #anon #ask #fic recs #fic hoard

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transitofmercury · 2 months

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Hi Mercury! I hope you’re doing well. This is sort of random but as I was enjoying all your Katherine Plumber posts, I had this thought and wanted to hear your opinion… Do you think that if Atti and Orla were in a Newsies AU, Atti would be Katherine (they’re both clever, academic, & from wealth/well educated but open-minded) and Orla would be Jack (they’re both scrappy, resourceful, passionate about justice & fiercely loyal to “their people”)? Not to mention the whole diplomacy vs. aggression dichotomy. Katherine & Atti are very much “we can talk this out and reason to a solution” whereas Jack & Orla are more “let’s go rough stuff up” 😂

Hi Acacia!! I hope you're doing well too. Honestly, I sprained my ankle when I was running to catch a train yesterday, but seeing this ask in my inbox once I got home cheered me right up. Thank you so much for this ask because you have accidentally given me an opportunity to talk about how I have a real category when it comes to my faves.

The thing about my Newsies obsession and my (current, technically I've been obsessed since it came out) Horrible Histories: The Movie obsession is that they actually started around the same time. Maybe a month apart, but basically the same time almost exactly three years ago. So my interest in both has developed together and I definitely do think that if I were to put Atti and Orla into a direct Newsies AU, Orla would be Jack and Atti would be Katherine, both for the personality traits that you pointed out and where they exist within the power structures each story is about. But I also think that I'm interested in Katherine for a lot of the same reasons I'm interested in Orla - they seem so different on the surface but there are some common themes there.

Orla and Kath are the basis for a category of characters I've been calling my pseudo-nepo-babies lately, not quite what you imagine when someone says 'nepo-baby' but it still feels like they have a strange distorted form of nepotism behind them. Before this category was expanded to include my medical drama fave, I just called them the historical daughters of powerful men club. Which doesn’t even really cover it. The thing that really draws me into Katherine is her relationship with Pulitzer. While Atti/Orla is the main factor in my obsession with the HH movie, Orla's relationship with Arghus is probably the reason I gravitate more towards her. Ages ago, I made a post saying that Orla & Arghus and Katherine & Pulitzer are on complete opposite ends of my Slipping Through My Fingers by ABBA to Never Love an Anchor by The Crane Wives sliding scale of historical father-daughter relationships, and I stand by that. So there's that element: something about imperfect and complex and even outright unhealthy (in the case of the Pulitzers) family relationships and weird-nepotism is the common denominator across all my faves.

I guess I also think they're both quite a lot like their dads in some ways, as well. I talk about Katherine being like Pulitzer a lot, because my version of her is secretly proud to know that she’s the most like him out of all her siblings (and is a bit doomed by that pride). I don't talk about it nearly as much with Orla and Arghus because it's harder to explain exactly what I think, but some of Orla's best traits are ones you can also see in her dad yet I don't think she is proud of it at all. Orla loves her dad but she wants to be like her mum and I guess the best way to describe what I think is happening there is that Orla knows she is too much like her dad to be able to be enough like her mum, and she doesn’t like that. I don’t have the brain power to expand on it right now, and it would absolutely derail the post into me talking about my headcanons about Orla’s parents, but that’s how I see it. There's also something in there with them both doing the same 'jobs' as their dad's, but Katherine and Pulitzer both chose to go into journalism while Orla and Arghus were both born to rule the tribe. So there's that element of characters being more like parental figures than they would like to admit.

I think stuff to do with culture is also a big part of how I see them even if canon might not focus on it so much with Katherine - Orla as a part of the first generation to grow up under Roman rule and Katherine as a second generation immigrant. Loyalty and betrayal comes up a lot. This is nowhere near everything I could say, but there are some themes that show up across a lot of my faves in very different ways, and the things I focus on about Orla and Katherine are often the extremes of how those things could show up. They're so different but I like them for similar reasons so they exist in the same category of character in my personal interpretation of them.

Anyway, to finally actually answer your ask, despite them being a part of this same category of character I've invented, I do think that Orla has more in common with Jack and Katherine has more in common with Atti in terms of their personalities and how they approach things. Also, with Newsies' focus on class and the HH movie's focus on the Roman Empire, I think they are in more comparable positions within those systems - Jack and Orla are as the people struggling under/against them, while Katherine and Atti unwillingly benefit from the systems. Of course, there are plenty of ways that Katherine (as a woman) and Atti (as an un-Roman Roman) are limited within these system, and ways that Jack (as a man) and Orla (as the daughter of a chief, specifically within Celtic society) have power in them, too. Another thing about Atti and Katherine that I've just thought of: the way they would use writing. I imagine that as Katherine gets older she just gets more and more involved with writing articles about workers' rights and working class struggles. Similarly, the longer Atti spends in Britain, the more he realises that some Roman accounts of Britain aren't quite fair or accurate and he begins to write down his own experiences to try and set the record straight.

I don't know how to wrap this up now because so many things are in my head: I totally agree with you, I also have a real type of character I like to obsess over, thank you SO MUCH for giving me an opportunity to ramble, and I hope you didn't mind getting such a rambly response too much!

#sorry for the rambly response #i will take any and all opportunities to compare members of my nepo-baby trifecta #wheres that venn diagram i made?? lol #katherine plumber pulitzer my beloved #orla my beloved #answered asks

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dolokhoded · 3 years

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I feel the need to tell you that today has been not awesome and you being chaotic is a light in the dark. That said if spromeo had superpowers (whether the rest of the gang does or not is up to you) headcanons on what would happen

!!!! i'm rlly glad to hear my 3am dumbassery has lead to some good :) i hope tomorrow goes better for u, i'm always here if u need a virtual headpat

as for spromeo!!!!!! y'all y'all y'all!!!!!!!!!!!

idk if i've posted about this au here but i actually have an au where everything is the exact same except all of the newsies gave superpowers and it actually started out with spromeo

but that was two years ago so i think it's time to get into that again

i'm doing modern era this time, just for a change from the old one

SO SPROMEO,,

ok let's take it from the top

romeo's power is charmspeak

because of course it is

he actually shares that power with mush and kath but they all use it differently

kath can make any lie she says seem believable and mush is pretty good at the traditional witchy-type hypnosis, while romeo can just mess with people's minds and emotions a little

and obviously he's especially good at making people fall in love with him

well, not really, it's just a temporary infatuation but it feels like they're in love with him

does he use that to get out of conflict like every three days uhhhhhh perhaps

which specs just goes "no ❤️" on because SURPRISE SURPRISE

specs' power is literally just being galaxy brain

and he's also touched up his glasses a bit so now they may or may not be able to shoot lazers

but that's besides the point

the point is, romeo's still learning

which means he cannot mess with specs' big brain power, nor understand him

and this also creates a contrast between them because romeo, being able to manipulate people's emotions can also feel them way more intensely

while specs, using the biggest part of his brain for logical thinking does not perceive them that well

and also they constantly made him feel like this was the only part of his brain that made him valuable so he never thought paying attention to anything else was worth it but anyways

now in canon era they'd still live in the lodging house and no one would know about this

but of course in modern era people would look into that stuff way more so all of those children are under training so none of them like,,, turn evil and start the apocalypse or something

and by these children i mean all of the newsies, i've thought out all of their powers but this ain't about them this is about spromeo

finch is dead

specs and romeo didn't get along at first

which was expected, they thought very differently and once got into a huge argument when finch died

romeo wanted to skip training after what happened, specs insisted that it just meant they should train harder so that nothing like this happens again

listen,,,,, specs isn't a bad person. but he didn't really understand empathy at this point.

so when romeo opened up to him mid-argument about how he felt about literally the death of his friend,,,,,,,,,,, specs may or may not have said "i don't care"

and then everyone got mad at him and he was like "ok hm let's see what we have here social experiment"

"why are you all mad at me?"

",,,,, specs are you insane?? because of what you said to romeo"

"so romeo should be mad at me"

"we're mad because you made him feel bad, and we care about him"

"bad? so he's, like, angry?"

"no, not angry, specs, have you ever felt an emotion?"

",,, irritated?"

he learns

he just needed some time to do it

but in the end, he learns

and of course who better to help him through this than romeo

at first he did not like it

"isn't he, like, a genius or something, let him do it himself! why do i have to deal with him?"

"you're not dealing with him, romeo, he's our friend. specs doesn't know how to interpret emotions and you do, i know you've had your issues but this gives you a chance to talk all of that out too"

"f i n e"

so slowly, they find out what brings out emotion in specs

romeo helps him realize what makes him happy, what makes him sad, what he's scared of, and specs technically knew how brain chemicals worked but he never actually knew what it looked like in practice

romeo will tell specs what he's feeling out loud so specs can identify it easier in other people

oh!! romeo is neurodivergent bc of course he is, and that combined with his powers means he stims pretty often

and one day specs asks him about it

"why do you do that?"

"what?"

"that shakey thing you do, is it a feelings thing?"

"oh, yeah, kind of. sometimes when something good happens i get overwhelmed, and i just do it, i guess. or when i get, like, bad overwhelmed."

"and how can you tell if it's good or bad?"

"well, from context, i suppose. and i'll also look uncomfortable if it's bad. but if it's good i'll look happy"

"so now you're happy?"

"yeah."

"oh. good. i like when you're happy, ro."

romeo's really proud of the progress he's made

specs is doing pretty well, he's literally had to teach his brain to feel human emotions

and OH BOY WHEN SPECS REALIZES HE HAS FEELINGS FOR ROMEO

specs.exe has stopped working

normally he talks to romeo about these things but he had no idea what this is so he goes to race instead cause we all know race is th king of chaotic emotions and he's currently feeling a very chaotic emotion

and race fuckin McLaughs at him

but in a good way dw

"specs you're gay."

",,,,, you're gay."

"yes, i am, but you're a little gay too."

",,,,,,,i have gay feelings for romeo?"

"i'm afraid so"

now specs didn't know he could have gay feelings

so his first thought it "romeo used his powers on me"

so he just fuckin

marches into the bunk room walks up to romeo

"you are unbelievable

romeo has literally no idea what's going on

"wh,, what did i do,"

"we agreed we wouldn't use our powers on each other, and you did! why would you do that?"

"specs, what are you talking about?"

his power is literally mainly to make people fall in love with him

but he can't use that on specs?? even if he tried?? so he's confused for a second

mush is having an aneurysm in the back

and then this bitch realizes,,,,

"holy shit specs did you just confess to me?"

"i- wh- that doesn't count! you did that!"

"i did not! dude, you know i physically can't use my powers on you, right? your brain's far more developed than an average human being's!"

specs just stares for a second

",,,,,,,,,so these are real gay feelings"

"yup"

"well this is embarrassing"

romeo just smiles at him and his chest starts doing the gay feeling again

"you know, for the smartest person on earth you're really fucking stupid. i like you too. with real gay feelings."

and specs just kinda

"o h"

mush is still losing it in the back

"KISS HIM YOU FOOL"

so he does

💞they kith💞

and they're rlly happy together

and do all the cute superpower shit

specs will lecture romeo on being more careful every time he gets hurt on some mission while he's patching him up and romeo just sits there only half listening and looking at him like

they're in love

#spromeo #they're just in love ok <3 #nothing bad even happens to spromeo #newsies #specs newsies #romeo newsies #newsies hcs

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bounce-a-coin-off-your-witcher · 4 years

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Press X to Fall in Love

so back in Ye Olden Days when I wrote for the Newsies fandom on fanfiction.net (this is pre-Broadway show, mind you...like OLD Newsies fandom) everyone did self-insert fics involving time travel or something similar

I wanted to do that for the Witcher as an homage to my roots, and this is the opening scene.

thoughts, feelings, opinions? Would you want me to write more?

---

Jaskier huffs and tosses the game controller to the side. His roommate gives him a gentle kick in the ribs from her end of the couch and scowls, “Hey! That one was mine, be gentle.”

“Sorry, Essi.”

“I told you that you’d get frustrated halfway through and give up.”

“It’s not the monsters that are hard to beat, it’s the fucking storyline! I care about getting Ciri back, I’m rubbish at Gwent, and there’s no romance options for Geralt and Dandelion! What’s the point of playing if I can’t get the bard and the Witcher to fuck!?”

“Stop projecting so hard onto Dandelion? Maybe just project onto Triss or Yennefer instead?”

“Bullshit,” the college student huffs again. He hits his dab pen with frustrated determination and lets the slow roll of a high move through his nervous system. He settles back against his arm of the couch, pressing his cold toes under Essi’s sweatpants and watching her glare back at him. He pouts and picks up the controller again, “I just wanna fuck the Witcher, goddamnit.”

“Perhaps someday,” Essie sighs dramatically, both teasing and playing along. “If you wish hard enough, maybe the developers will think about it next time.”

“This is the last game they’re going to make about Geralt.”

“Well that’s lame.”

“Super lame, in fact. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to stop gazing at such a gloriously beautiful face.”

Essie gags dramatically. “Do you need me to leave you two alone for a moment?”

“No,” he retorts, “Or my toes would get cold.”

“Fuck you.”

“I would offer, but I prefer men.”

Essi rolls her eyes and goes back to watching her episode of Castlevania. “At least we both have a very clear and distinctive type.”

“Long pale hair, dumb as fuck, good with swords?”

“Mhm.”

#geraskier #essi daven #jaskier #the witcher 3 reference #game geralt/jaskier #game geralt #maybe show geralt appears? idk #modern au #sorta #not for long #bouncey's ideas #bouncey's endless au collection #firefly conlon ftw

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allsassnoclass · 3 years

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Hello everyone! Today is the one year anniversary of my favorite fic I’ve written (so far), Puzzle Pieces! I thought I’d give a full length director’s commentary to commemorate the occasion.

Spoilers for the fic below!

The idea for this fic stemmed from a few things. I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of a soulmate au where colors appear on your skin when you first touch your soulmate(s). I think I initially encountered this in a newsies fic that I’ve since lost track of that was heavily focused on platonic soulmates. I liked this convention because the possibilities for multiple soulmates are endless and I like the idea of colorful splotches on people. I also think that identifying soulmates via touch rather than the first sentence they say or some sort of other identifier gives a lot of opportunity for relationships to grow and develop before they know that they’re soulmates. I am always a little bothered when soulmate aus have people fall right into a relationship and kissing and intense emotions right away when the two people don’t know anything about each other. This seemed like a way to combat that a little, but I’ll speak more on that later.

The Beginnings

The first record I have of this fic is a message I sent to Helen on May 8, 2020. The fic was very much only in the idea stages then, as I took over three more months to write it and wrote Too Close to See during that time. A google doc for the fic wasn’t started until July 20, 2020, and it was titled “soulmate colors au.” My method for writing is going in order these days, and for this particular fic there wasn’t a specific scene that I started with in mind. I really was just going or it and making it up as I went, chugging along and seeing what happened.

The Colors

A pretty significant part of this fic is the colors. When I figured out that colors would appear on people when they touched, I knew that figuring out who had what color would be very important. Initially I was going to have each pairing have their own color (so for example cashton would both leave blue on each other but malum would both leave green on each other) but I quickly decided that I didn’t like that and that each individual should have a color that they leave, instead. I sent a message to Bella asking what colors she thought the boys would be, but I can’t find that message anymore and know that while it was similar it wasn’t quite right. Here’s some reasoning behind each of the boys’ colors:

Michael: I went with red not just because of the iconic red hair, but because it’s a pretty loud and brash color. Michael (especially when he was younger) doesn’t really filter things, wears a decent amount of his personality on his sleeve, and first reaction that said red to me

Calum: Calum has always been forest green. This is partially influenced by the empahty hoodie, even though it’s a bit brighter than the green in my mind for him here, but I also think green is a very dependable, stable color. (I used that color symbolism in one of my fall out boy fics years ago lol) It reminds me of pine trees, and I think Calum can give off that same sense of reliability in weathering the seasons. It’s a quieter color but can really pop next to another one. It also worked out nicely that Calum and Michael’s colors were compliments

Luke: Luke gets gold because he is a sunshine boy! Luke actually was the person I had the most trouble with, because I was flipping between gold, a lighter blue, or pink. Pink ultimately was too close to red to make me be able to visualize what the marks looked like on each boy to my satisfaction. It just looked ugly and clashing. I went with gold because there is a lot of outward brightness in Luke. He’s the kind of person where if he’s happy everyone else gets a bit happier, and gold also seemed fitting for the eventual shift into a rockstar and the amount of talent he has

Ashton: Ashton gets purple, but a deeper purple. Dynamic but still relatively stable, has a lot of depth. Purple is a secret color, but it’s still beautiful and it draws people in. When I visualize it it ends up being a really dark shade, but in reality he’s probably more of a royal purple than a plum purple. I feel bizarrely passionate about his color specifically. I don’t know why that is.

The colors didn’t have any sort of influence on the fic, but they were deliberately chosen.

The World of the Fic: Chosen Soulmates

So here’s the thing. I feel very strongly about love being a conscious decision that people make over and over. It takes work. It takes a deliberate commitment.

Soulmate aus kind of negate that.

So, how do you fix this? Well, I did that by having these marks not necessarily indicate soulmates. The way that the marks are described in the fic is that they indicate how easy it should be to love someone and how compatible two people are. It doesn’t automatically mean that you’ll adore them forever and never leave their side. You still need to put in the work. (Luke shows this early on when Michael asks if he loves Calum and he says “I don’t think I know him well enough for that yet. I know I will, because the colors say it should be easy and I want to, but not like you do.” He has made the decision to work toward loving Calum, but he knows that just having the colors doesn’t immediately make them love each other.) In that way, it almost isn’t a soulmate au, at least not in the traditional way. Things aren’t inevitable. There is still an element of choice.

This was also shown with Ashton. I don’t remember when I made the decision to give Ashton a Tragic Background with his dad, but I know it was relatively early because by the time I wrote his introduction I knew that would happen. I wanted to give a bit more of a reason for his hesitation to let them touch him, which I was already including because Ashton has always been the least touchy of the band, and I saw this as another opportunity to show that necessity of choice. It’s sweeter to me for the boys to choose each other rather than to just be stuck with each other, and if Ashton hadn’t actually been a soulmate of theirs then I wanted there to be the assurance that they could still love him just as much, because all love is chosen.

In the end, having a broken soulbond in Ashton’s past was a good way to accomplish all of that. It’s heartbreaking to not be chosen despite the fact that it should be easy, but once Ashton accepts that Michael, Calum, and Luke are vehemently choosing him with or without the soulmark, it makes his acceptance of their love very sweet to me. He’s saying that he trusts them to put in the work to love him. The scene where he talks to Michael in the car and the scene where he accepts their touches and soulmarks are probably my two favorite scenes in the fic.

The World of the Fic: Touch

In a world where the first skin-on-skin contact can indicate whether it’ll be extremely easy for you to love someone, how common would touch be? Would we greet people with handshakes still? Would gloves be more common fashion accessories? Would touching someone be a Big Deal?

Hence, the First Touch was born!

I figured that, with touch possibly being a lot more significant in this world, people would be a lot more careful about whether they make skin-on-skin contact. Kids would be taught that it’s impolite to try to touch someone, to a more extreme degree than they are now. Handshakes simply are not a greeting anymore. Instead, sometimes the first contact people make is considered a big deal, seeing as it can indicate whether two people are soulmates or not.

I figured that Luke especially would enjoy important first touches, because he’s a sentimental sweetie. Of course, his first touch with Michael ended up being special simply because it was with each other :)

This also let me really lean into Ashton being touch-adverse. Now on top of not liking touch, he also has another reason to avoid it, which makes every cuddle moment after the first touch even better, because he’s definitely touch starved. The band cuddles him so much once they share the colors.

The World of the Fic: Platonic Soulmates

Guys. GUYS. I love platonic soulmates. I love them a lot. I feel very passionately about them. Romantic love is not the pinnacle of human love, and as someone who cannot at this point see myself with a romantic partner I really wanted to ensure that platonic soulmates were a thing. Given that information, it’s a no-brainer that I included them in this fic. Part of the appeal of this type of soulmate au was that it gave opportunity for more than one soulmate and more than one type of soulmate. As such, platonic, familial, and romantic soulmates could all be indicated by the colors. I also really liked that there wasn’t any sort of differentiation between the types of soulmates. One type of love isn’t hailed over the others. It’s an even playing field here.

That was one of the things that immediately drew me to this type of prompt, actually. I wanted to write a fic about Michael parsing through his emotions and figuring out what he feels for Calum. The difference between platonic and romantic love has always been very interesting to me, because I find that the line can be pretty blurry personally. The best way to do that was to give him a set of soulmates who he cares about equally but in different ways.

The following excerpt really is the theme of the story to me: “Calum is an old, comfortable sweater, but Luke is like a favorite pair of shoes. They both fit him perfectly. He feels more at home when either of them are around, and although the love he has for Calum is different, he thinks he could love Luke just as much.” Each of us love everyone we meet a little differently, because everyone is a different person, but different doesn’t mean unequal.

While the fic is about Michael figuring himself out, it’s equally a love story between all four of them. The moments where Michael finds out he’s soulmates with Luke and Ashton were just as important to me as the moment he and Calum get together, and I really wanted to be sure that each relationship had it’s time in the limelight. That’s ultimately why the idea of puzzle pieces became a theme (that I added on editing). I like the idea of all of them coming together to create something bigger than themselves. They fit. They click. They are better for it. The first time someone referred to this as an ot4 fic it threw me off, because only malum is romantic in it, but I really like that classification for it, because it is.

Asexual Representation (Accidentally)

I didn’t know I was writing Michael as ace until about 4 days before I posted the fic.

Looking back, that’s a little bit ridiculous, because I was brainstorming this fic for three and a half months and actively writing it for two before I realized. I believe there was a conversation in the discord about ace rep in fics (Bella and I think Heath were part of it, I can’t remember any other participants), and I thought to myself “hey I’m ace and like ace rep, Michael in the soulmate colors au could probably be ace.” Lo and behold, he already was. All I had to do was add a few sentences and finish the fic (I hadn’t written the scenes in England yet).

My asexuality definitely influenced the way I had been writing Michael’s confusion over his feelings for Calum. Part of the reason I myself see the line between platonic and romantic as so blurry is because I’m ace and so much of romantic love in media is tied in with sexual attraction. When you don’t feel sexual attraction, that can get confusing, especially since most strong feelings of love are depicted to be romantic.

While Michael and I had very, very different paths to figuring out our sexualities, I drew on my own experiences of ace-ness to write him. This was a bit more apparent in the sequel scene Bedroom Activities, but it ended up becoming a core of the story. I genuinely don’t know how I didn’t realize that’s what I was writing.

As an ace person, ace rep means a lot to me, given how little of it is in popular media. I’m glad I explored it so early on in my 5sos fic career, and I’m proud of this one.

Miscellaneous Things

The process of writing this story was, as I stated before, pretty linear. I went from the start to the end without a lot of planning. I specifically had no clue what was happening at the Hot Chelle Rae afterparty until it was happening. The kiss came out of no where. However, I want to point out that initially I thought this fic would be 8k. It is now my third longest fic ever written. I have never learned to correctly estimate how long a fic I’m writing will be.

I have a few various favorite lines, but one repeated theme I love is Michael craving Calum’s touch. I say he’s touch-starved for him twice, once relatively early on and once at the end, and I love that Calum’s touch has been a constant for Michael. They had their first touch accidentally and became best friends immediately in the way that little kids do, so Michael has always had him as a constant, tactile presence in his life. That’s why losing him to Luke scared him so much and why then gaining Luke and Ashton as soulmates is so good for him.

I really like referring to Michael, Luke, and Calum as a triangle. I first did it in this fic, but it’s now my tag for the three of them. Idk I just like how equally distributed a triangle is, all sides touching, no one left out.

Branching off of this, one of my favorite lines is when Ashton and Michael do their first touch: “The dark purple reminds him of spilling grape juice on his clothes as a kid, and when he collapses into Ashton he feels like they could have known each other at that age, too.” There is something so charming about meeting someone later and feeling like you’ve known them your whole life, and that was significant here because Michael has known Calum and Luke since they were younger (although Luke did come in the picture when they were tweens/young teens instead of kids). I wanted to be sure that although Michael, Calum, and Luke are the triangle, Ashton is an equal part of their soulmate group. He doesn’t have the same history, but that doesn’t matter because it feels like he does.

Luke’s obsession with soulmate statistics is a convenient plot device and partially a result of his mom being a math teacher. Above all things, it’s a manifestation of his desire to be loved. The guy just wants to be loved!!! and he wants others to be loved, too!!!

This is by far my favorite fic that I’ve written. It’s not perfect (there are for sure two lines that I would change, and I think I could’ve done things differently with the very slight OCD I gave Michael that manifested in his hand washing), but I love it dearly. It’s the type of fic that I would’ve loved to read, and the response to it has been wonderful. Thank you to everyone who has read it and special shout out to everyone who has made it to the end of this very long director’s notes <3

#my writing #puzzle pieces #soulmate colors au #director's cut #y'all i love this fic i just really do idk what to say #i could've talked a little about the possibilities of a sequal #since i do have some ideas for one #but i don't have drive to write it right now #and idk if adding on would take away from the original #it wouldn't be michael's story anymore. i feel like puzzle pieces told that rather well #it would be ashton's story this time #anyway that's neither here nor there i have many other projects first

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inkblotsandpapertrails · 4 years

Text

Heart of Stone {R.H.} [Pt 3] (The Medda Interlude)

Warnings: none

Pairing: Racetrack Higgins x Reader

Description: You didn’t agree with your brothers much. You didn’t like how they treated people or handled emotions and etcetera. But you could all agree that the Delancey’s were a proud family. A strong family. You didn’t get close to people, you didn’t show emotion, you didn’t let anyone have power over you, no matter what, because that made you weak. Except for the pretty newsboy with the foghorn voice and smart jokes, apparently.

A/N: okay. okay. so i know i have been MIA for a while but i have a good reason!! i’ve been working on a lot of WIPs and trying to perfect this next update. the first part of this update was very quick and easy while still having some decent character development (in my own personal opinion) however, the next part turned out to be crazy long and difficult to write, so i decided that instead of forcing you guys to wait another long while for an update, i may as well give you a quick little Medda interlude, considering this first part didn’t really fit in well with the rest of the chapter. hope you guys are okay such a short update after such a long wait. next update is on the way!

You stayed at Miss Medda’s for about two days. She kept you fed and forced you to stay in one of the spare beds she had for her Bowery Beauties until your wounds were healed, and while you appreciated it, it felt so strange to be waited on and taken care of like that. You felt thoroughly embarrassed whenever she changed your bandages and dressed your wounds, and you wanted to hate it, but you couldn’t help but sink into it and enjoy it a little.

“There you are, sugar.” Medda smiled as she taped some gauze over where you’d scraped your cheek from your fall from the window. You tried not to shy away or push her hand away from you – it’d been the spot Race had gently rubbed with his thumb when he’d rescued you from the fight at Newsie Square, and maybe it was your imagination, but you could still feel the warmth, just a little. “All better.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” You said quietly. You weren’t too sure what etiquette you were supposed to use here – with Wiesel, it’d always been ‘yes, Uncle Wiesel’, unless Snyder or his other friends came to the house, then it was ‘yes, sir’. But his friends had always been men – you’d never been in a situation where a woman held power over you, and in this situation, it barely even felt like she had power on you – or if she did, she was refusing to use it. You wondered if all women were like Miss Medda. You hoped so.

Medda clucked her tongue disapprovingly at you.

“I toldja, kid, it’s Medda. I don’t want any of this ‘ma’am’ business in my theatre, not until I’m good and old.”

You were too tired to fight off the smile spreading on your face.

“So, you’re a newsie?” Medda asked as she lay down a plate of bread and cheese on your lap.

“Oh, I can go down and eat at the table-“

“Nonsense, sugar, your legs are worn right out! You eat here, and then you rest.” Medda said firmly. “I wonder why I haven’t seen you before – I know Jack Kelly like he’s my own son, and I take pride in knowing all his newsies.”

“Oh, um,” You stumbled over your words. “I’m new. I’m, um... I’m a friend of Race’s.”

“Oh, Anthony!” Medda smiled brightly. You blinked in surprise – you hadn’t expected Race to have an actual normal name. You decided to ignore it; Race suited him far better than Anthony. “Sweet boy; a little loud, but he’s got a good heart, bless him.”

Your thoughts wandered back to the way Race had brightened when you told him your name.

“Yeah.” You said quietly. “Really good.”

“Pity you joined at this point, though, what with the strike and all – here, kiddo, have some water.” She pushed a tin cup into your hand, and you almost got whiplash at how quickly she could slip in and out of her maternal nature. “Hope this won’t discourage you from staying. They really are lovely boys.”

You sighed into your cup. You did your best to focus on the watermarks on the metal instead of looking Medda in the eye.

“I don’t really have anywhere else to go.”

“Well, I have to disagree with that.” Medda smiled, cupping her hands over yours. “We’ll always keep a bed warm for ya at Medda’s, sweetie.”

You looked at her quizzically.

“I...” You said slowly. “I don’t... Know you. You don’t know me.”

“I know you’ve been through some hardships.” Medda said simply. “Too many hardships for a kid your age. And I know you’re a friend of Anthony’s. Jack sends the kids he thinks needs personal attention, but Anthony’s never sent anyone here before, so I can only assume you’re a person very important to him, and that he believes you need to be cared for.”

Your blood began to boil in your veins.

“I don’t need to be cared for.” You muttered. “I’m not a child.”

Medda shot you a curious look.

“Well, I’m not too sure what else you are.” She chuckled. “Kid, I don’t know how to tell you this, but... You’re not an adult.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m helpless!”

“No, but it does mean you’re still growing and developing.” Medda said gently. “And if you’re put in the wrong environment, or put in the wrong treatment, you’re not going to develop the right way.”

You snorted bitterly.

“So is that why Race sent me?” You scoffed. “He thinks I’m not growing right?”

“Yes.” Medda said simply. “At least, that’s what I think. I think he knows what you could turn into, and I don’t think he wants that. So he’s trying to help you and show you the kind of treatment you deserve.”

“Why would he do that?” You huffed. “’Cause he feels sorry for me, is that it?”

Medda shot you a look.

“Kiddo.” She said slowly. “It’s because he cares about you.”

And just like that, your walls were stripped away. You looked at Medda helplessly, your mouth opening and closing as you searched for any kind of response. Why didn’t you have a response for that? For being told someone cared about you? Why had that not even registered in your mind as a possible answer? Should it have? Was that something other people were used to?

You’d always thought being soft and letting people in and allowing them to care for you was stupid. It’d make you rely on people too much, and then once they were gone, what would you do then? So you and your brothers scoffed at the idea of being supported. Why would you need someone’s pity when you could just fix the problem by yourself?

You’d always thought you were the ones in the right. The normal ones. But for this whole time, had you actually been the abnormality?

Medda shot you a small sympathetic smile.

“You’re not the first one to come in here without an answer for that.” She said gently. “That doesn’t make it okay, and I’m so sorry you’ve been raised to think no one could care about you. But you’re not the only one.”

You looked at her for a moment, entirely unaware of how to respond to the genuine compassion in her eyes.

“I think...” You said slowly. “I think I’m not hungry anymore...”

Medda smiled gently.

“Why don’t I leave you to rest?” You were almost in shock at how easily she’d understood what you’d meant. With your brothers, they’d scoff at you for being so passive-aggressive and continue to harass you about the issue until you snapped and wound up going to bed with no food and a swollen eye. Medda took your plate and moved it to the bedside table. “I’ll leave this here if you want any more, okay?”

“Mhm.” You nodded. Once the door was closed, your eyes flicked to the half-empty plate. You were kind of lying about not being hungry – having been fighting and running since yesterday morning, you were starving and exhausted. But you hadn’t been lying about not having an appetite. Everything here was so confusing and different it made your stomach hurt. You couldn’t understand why everyone was being so nice, why everyone cared so much, why everything made you feel so warm and fuzzy and...

Now that you thought about it, the bread and cheese didn’t look so unappetising.

You snuck a glance at the door before grabbing the plate again and stuffing your mouth with food. The bread was a little stale and the cheese tasted funny, but it was still the best meal you’d had in years.

---

(tag list: @annabethgranger123 @farfromjustordinary @yxseminx @oswin05 @theater-geek76 )

#again very sorry for it being so short #newsies #newsies x reader #racetrack higgins x reader #racetrack higgins #heart of stone

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ashintheairlikesnow · 3 years

Note

7. What’s a lyric of a song that would stick with them? -- for kauri, chris, and jake!!

So this one was tough because I had to think about what THEIR taste in music is, rather than mine, and what would stick with them. What I came up with is that Kauri probably gets all weepy to Lady Gaga’s “Speechless”, but it’s sort of him talking to himself, trying to say he can be and do whatever if his brain and body will just let him be happy once, even though that very conversation is him denying himself. And I know that it's complicated, but I'm a loser in love - So baby, raise a glass to mend all the broken hearts of all my wrecked up friends. He is definitely the guy in the bar singing loudly along. I think a second one might be Pink’s Just Give Me a Reason: Just give me a reason, just a little bit's enough - just a second we're not broken just bent, and we can learn to love again

Chris, with his deep and constant interest in musicals, was always going to be a musical song. So I considered his and I think You Will Be Found from Dear Evan Hansen is definitely a song Chris clings tightly onto and listens to when he gets scared or starts to buckle under the weight of it all. So let the sun come streaming in, ‘cause you'll reach up and you'll rise again. Lift your head and look around. You will be found. But I think he also, remembering Baldur, connects really heavily with When you're falling in a forest and there's nobody around, do you ever really crash, or even make a sound?

Also ALSO Newsies: Once we’ve begun, if we stand as one, someday becomes somehow - and a prayer becomes a vow

Jake has a rougher-edged taste in music, although of course once Chris develops his own taste he ends up listening to a lot of Chris’s stuff anyway. But even so, I think Pieces by Rob Thomas is a song that Jake listens to thinking about Kauri for a long, long time: Didn't I tell you you were gonna break down / Didn't I want you, everybody wants you / Tell me what you're needing, give into your bleeding / Never any feeling for yourself

As for himself, Jake struggles a lot with internalized anger and a temper - he works hard and is very successful at redirecting a natural tendency towards anger, but he’s always afraid that he’ll turn into his dad and hurt the people he loves.

Jake has spent about half his life trying to figure out how to not turn into his dad, how to break the cycle of violence. So he really connects to songs that make him think about that and give him that sense of connection and emotional catharsis - while he’s never comfortable openly talking to other people who grew up in abusive households, he nonetheless is desperate for a sense that other people have been able to successfully break the cycle and recognize the harm.

I think he has a lot of music Chris calls his “angry songs”. I think especially of Three Days Grace “Just Like You”: You're wrong if you think that I'll be just like you / You thought you were there to guide me / You were only in my way / You're wrong if you think that I'll be just like you

#chris asks #jake asks #kauri asks

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sugarbutterbroadway · 4 years

Note

okay now i’m curious and v interested- tell me about jack and race’s mental health xisdjdjr

Ah shit here we go. Im going to preface this by saying everyone is 100% entitled to their own opinions on the characters but this is just the way I perceive/portray them.

Also this does in fact dive kinda deep into mental health so if that makes you uncomfortable this is your warning

Now for me it honestly all depends if it’s modern or canon time. In my research and experience mental health can either be hereditary—meaning either of your parents or their family deals with mental health—or it can be developed through especially traumatic or trying circumstances.

Now we all know our boy Jack has had his fair share of traumatic experiences.

We see this through his eyes and body language when he talks about the refuge. Now people have different responses to trauma, some people talk about it as if it was a separate part of their lives,some people will openly discuss it in day to day conversation,some people refuse to talk about it and some people have what are seen as dramatic reactions but these are also extremely valid because people process different

Y’all see I went on another tangent?

When Jack discusses the refuge his body seems to tense up a bit(I’m going off the Jeremy Jordan portrayal y’all Im sorry, maybe one day I will watch the 90’s version and deep dive into that too) he holds himself ridgedly and he seems uncomfortable but also like he’s ready to stop talking about it. He never openly discusses the conditions of the refuge but does so through his drawings, one heck of a coping mechanism we got their boi’s.

Jack is definitely without a doubt traumatized from the refuge, there’s no way around it. The things he had to do,the things he’s seen, it was unfair of him as a child to be put in such a situation.

He was basically a child taking care of children.

But he’s also one of the oldest in his borough, and he’s been taking care of people what seems like all of his life. Jack puts himself second A LOT

That’s kind of his thing

So his experiences from the refuge end of taking a backseat for the most, this boy is good at repressing shit

But it’s no magic trick, shit doesn’t just go away cause you want it to and you hope really really hard

That’s just reality

It manifests it’s way in his behavior and the things he does. Santa Fe? That’s a coping mechanism, probably developed from when he was a child because that’s what children in terrible circumstances do. They dream of magical far away lands where no one can hurt them,they can be themselves and most importantly they’ll be safe

That’s Santa Fe for Jack

“Welcome home, son. Welcome home to Santa Fe!”

That line really strikes me when I think of this Santa Fe coping mechanism is because all Jack really wants is a family, and with an ideal family comes the ideal perks

Love

Affection

Acceptance

And once again Safety

I also know I’m not the one who first said Santa Fe was a coping mechanism but I really vibe with it so if y’all know who said it please let me know so I can give them the credit they deserve because it blew my mind when I first read it

But once again I’m losing my train of thought

Im not trying to force labels on Jack or anyone but it seems to me that he has PTSD and even if not PTSD he’s dealt with his fair share of bullshit

But oh my god my train of thought!!

He also has some behavioral problems. It’s not unlike the other Newsies but it doesn’t exempt him from the fact that he lashes out when he’s afraid

You ever heard the phrase “even a worm will turn”

That might’ve been Jack’s case. Growing up dirt poor,an orphan and on the streets of New York isn’t fucking safe for anyone, especially a child

It was probably instilled from him at a young age that kindness didn’t work,that violence was the answer, that you had to scream to make people listen

He only seems to lash out when he’s afraid of something. He puffs his chest up and raises his voice and tries to be bigger than the other person, than the problem

Because he’s afraid

I’m like rapidly losing my train of thought y’all so I’m sorry this is being cut abruptly

And I will definitely do Race at another time and maybe modern au Jack or one of my Jack’s

These are just my thoughts I’ve had on him based off of my own personal experiences,friends experiences and being hella cool with my therapist

Please feel free to add onto this with your own opinions

#newsies #jack kelly #racetrack higgins #newsies broadway #newsies live #livesies #character breakdown #mental health

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a-student-out-of-time · 3 years

Text

Twisted Sister Aftermath Review Part 1

Hai hidey do everyone, it’s your friendly neighbourhood Review Anon here! Another Arc has come and past us and as such it’s time to review it! Hopefully I don’t end up with 5k worth of words here and have three megaton submissions here (and from now on I am not going back to using asks, why the heck I used asks beforehand is beyond me) Speaking of, I have a question, do you want me to go back and review previous arcs? Probably won’t do this until we have any kind of break or hiatus so to not break flow? But that’s enough time being wasted, we have the Twisted Sister Aftermath Arc here, and this review isn’t going anywhere so let’s get right into it!

Relationships and Reflections

So, when we last left off, Hajime passed out from inhaling too much smoke while saving Tsurugi from the bomb explosion and as it turned out he has been asleep for a good 8 hours! Its Monday but despite that the school is shut, which is understandable given that we had criminals running around and a serial killer attacking the school the previous day, Hope’s Peak seems to be more sensible than my previous school which didn’t shut down even when one of the main buildings got flooded (long story there). But the good news is that nearly all the criminals were captured by the QC and the police and are back where they belong. The bad news is that 3 criminals are still at large. 2 of them are petty criminals that have nothing to be concerned but there is one criminal who IS a big concern. You have 3 guesses who that person is and the first 2 don’t count. Yep, its Maverick Storm alright.

So, time for a bit of a confession here, Maverick as a character…isn’t all new to me. For some of you old timers here there was a blog called ‘Despair Kids’ which started out as Class 78 asking questions and then it evolved into an AU with lots of OCs, so many that it got too overwhelming and I lost interest in it. But there were a few I generally liked, and Kyoji’s and Maverick’s characters really stood out to me. When I started to read the enormous backlog of this blog, (I wish the best of luck to all newcomers and try to not binge it, even if you are a fast reader), and Umeko showed up during the Practical Exams arc, I got a sense of Deja vu, as I recalled hearing that character’s name before. But I didn’t think much at the time, not helped by the fact that Umeko was a pretty minor character in the Despair Kids, even when Maverick was on his self-imposed challenge to kill all of his class, Umeko evaded him by just dimension travelling to another universe, so her character didn’t have much impact. But as soon as I heard Kyoji and Maverick mentioned I thought ‘Oh…OH IT’S THE SAME PERSON WHO MADE THOSE CHARACTERS!’. And as mentioned, I really liked those OCs anyway so that as well as using Another characters really got me invested into this blog. And with all that said, let me reassure you guys that Maverick is a bastard with a capital B. The stuff he gets up to in Despair Kids, where he was a member of Despair, but secretly plotted to overthrow Junko, even the other Mods/Role-players were disgusted by it. Now Maverick is probably going to be going through some changes as the Mod’s OCs in this blog aren’t the same as the characters from the Despair Kids. To give some examples Kyoji’s backstory doesn’t mention Mikan, Kyoji isn’t into Mikan, he’s more into Miaya, Maverick got jailed etc. So, I won’t be surprised when Storm starts pulling shit, probably not as bad as Despair Kids as he isn’t under Junko’s thumb here…but hard to tell at the moment. But yeah, you have been warned, I consider Maverick a villain as bad as Junko and Mikado, and you will soon see why.

But enough about a character who hasn’t officially shown up yet, let’s focus on a reformed villain and that is the new and improved Kanade! I feel mixed upon this new Kanade as part of me wants to love her as in this state she is so sweet and innocent, which is what people probably thought of Kanade when they first saw her in SDAR2, and I did at first, my thoughts about Kanade at the time were ‘It’s almost as if Hiyoko and Mikan are siblings, let’s hope Kanade doesn’t go crazy like Mikan did’ and that statement aged like milk. When Kanade became suspiciously smart and helpful during the Class Trials I was kinda sus because normally with the Trial Point Getters there is normally some logic to why said character is good in the Trails, like Koroko being a Psychologist can analysis people’s feelings and deduce who the culprit, and Syobai’s background means he has to use his brain quite a bit, but Kanade is supposed to be a Guitarist in a Pop band, she shouldn’t be this good. But my theory was she was lying about her talent, because that’s nothing new in Danganronpa, but ho boy was that a mistake. But at the same time as much as I want to hug this new Kanade, I’m also hyper conscious that the mindwipe might not be a permeant solution as well Junko got mindwiped in the OG timeline and we all know how well THAT ended. Then again, the relapse didn’t fully occur until Yasuke decided to kill Ryoko so as long as nobody tries to strangle Kanade, we should be good. It also means that Hibiki gets the little sister that she thought she had back, and you can tell this a new stage of development for her. Hibiki has grown as a person since back in July but while that part of her character development has finished, a new part starts as she tries and rebuild a proper healthy relationship with Kanade because Hibiki wasn’t completely innocent in the reason why Kanade became a monster. Granted, a lot of it was Kanade being twisted to begin with but had Hibiki been kinder and not been a total bitch to her, I don’t think Kanade would have gone fully down the deep end as it seems her psychopathic behaviour is more of a nurture rather than nature thing. Something I believe will be explored a bit more once Junko enters the scene because well…Kanade is basically Junko on easy mode. The real deal will be a lot harder to handle. And naturally Kyoji has offered to take care of her…I don’t know why Kyoji has turned into the guardian of reformed little girls, but it’s a welcome surprise to be sure. I just hope Kanade doesn’t get wrapped up in Storm’s schemes because given that Kyoji is his arch-enemy…

We can make sure Kanade is a good girl now but there’s still the small issue that she escaped from jail and the police are looking for her so one needs to fake her death. This is a joint operation by Kyoji and Nikei as Kyoji cloned some of Kanade’s body parts and left them near where a bomb went off to give the impression that Kanade got killed during the Prison Break, and judging from Tsurugi’s reaction, it seems to have worked. Speaking of Tsurugi, he is resting and due to his injuries is desk bound for a couple of weeks and receiving care from Mikan. Mikan caring for Tsurugi helps in two ways, as firstly being the Ultimate Nurse, she would be qualified to help make sure nothing serious happens to Tsurugi and Tsurugi doesn’t know that Mikan is part of the Quantum Crew and working with Kasugano, so it means someone is near Tsurugi who can relay information to Kasugano and co. That’s two girls with ties to Kasugano that Tsurugi has interacted with and he doesn’t suspect a thing. Okay to be fair with Akane when he first met her, she was an independent force and wasn’t working for Kasugano at that point but my point still stands. Not much to talk about our police boy here aside from Mod confirming that Tsurugi x Kouhei is going to be a thing in this blog. To be fair everyone could see the sexual tension between those two and that’s why people felt funny when Kanade mocked their relationship as they wanted to ship the two but it meant siding with a demonic guitar child. But said demonic guitar child is no more so no need to worry about shipping! And as for Nikei, he is writing up an article detailing Kanade’s demise as to throw the media off Kanade’s scent and then it’s just waiting for all the media hype around Kanade to die down and once that happens, she can be transferred to one of the many care facilities that Kyoji knows. How many does he know at this point? And while we are on the subject of Newsie here, it’s time to discuss a growing friendship, and possible relationship that is developing between him and Akane.

I had my suspicions for some time by their interactions but it was Akane’s and Nikei’s interactions in this Arc which solidified my viewpoint on their relationship. And that is Akane is more or less a foil to Mikado. Think about it for a second. They weren’t founding members of Void, they both grew up in hellish orphanages, got out of said orphanages thanks to Utsuro, ended up meeting the man himself at some point and inherited his Divine Luck at various points, though Mikado only succeeded in a Bad Ending. But at the same time, they both have different motives for going after Utsuro, Akane wanted to thank him for what he’s done for her and when she did successfully meet him, dutifully served under him, even when Junko came and corrupted them both. And while Utsuro had his crippling trust issues and constantly worried if Akane would betray him at some point, the fact that he gave Akane Divine Luck after she took mortal damage protecting the other survivors from Monokuma, showed that at some level he did care for her. Mikado desired the Divine Luck for his own personal benefit, burned down several orphanages to trigger another encounter and upon meeting with Koroko, hatched a horrible plan to ‘revive’ Utsuro, then Mikado would kill him and steal the Divine Luck for himself. Only reason it backfired was firstly because Mikado (both real and AI) didn’t realise Utsuro gave the Divine Luck to Akane, who was then later used to create Sora, and secondly Syobai betrayed him by siding with the Kisurugi Foundation. Their clashing roles can be no better illustrated then with their relationship with Void’s leader, Nikei. We don’t know how Nikei reacted to Mikado initially because it’s still a lot of unknown factors until the Onmake mode comes out canonically, but while wary at first because of how extreme Mikado’s plan was, was probably willing to trust him. And then as Mikado undermined him and usurped the role of leader from Nikei, that relationship quickly soured and a rotting despairing sense of hatred and revenge grew within Nikei, eroding away his humanity (from reading LINUQ’s blog, where he goes into detail regarding the various characters from SDAR2, he states that Nikei used to be a lot more warm-hearted before Mikado came along, but his hatred for the wizard made him much crueller) And it got to the point where the lines between Nikei and Mikado got blurry, and I’ll say that Nikei ended up being no different from Mikado in the end. And thus, he died a broken hateful mess. Now as for Akane, she and Nikei got off on a bad note; she kicked Nikei in the stomach, he responded by almost blowing Akane’s brains out, fun stuff like that. But once the misunderstanding and proof that Akane was good arose, a friendship of sorts started to develop between the two. The first signs we saw of this is *sigh* Oncoming Storm Arc. Among the hot pile of shit that Arc was, one of the VERY, VERY few good parts about it, was that when some Anons unintendedly hit a trigger phrase for Akane, which was mentioning older men, she went into a panic attack and out of all the people who could have comforted Akane during this moment, it was Nikei who did so. And now in this arc, we are seeing that Nikei is a bit more open with Akane then he is with other non-Void members of the Quantum Crew. He’s not taken the news that he snapped back to his old self during the Massacre timeline well, and bemoans that it shows he hasn’t changed, but Akane reassures him he has and that the timeline can serve as a lesson to improve oneself from and mentions she had trust issues initially but thanks to Utsuro, she is very much a people person now. And of course, we get the cute wholesome scene of those two cuddling each other, can someone please make fanart of these two cuddling, we need it. Mikado brought the worst out of Nikei and eventually led to his death, whereas Akane brings out the best in Nikei and would possibly help him into living a full refreshing life. Sora is more or less the third wheel in this relationship.

Annnnddd…I have talked for way too long. That’s part 1 of the review where I talk about relationships regarding all the characters but when we come back its when the plot comes back in when Class 77-B gets debriefed on the truth and a shocking new discovering on Time Travel is revealed. Stay tuned as we won’t be away for long! - Review Anon

#submission #a student out of time #review-anon

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thank-you-phipps · 3 years

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DNFed take on: Pansies by Alexis Hall

I don’t understand. Alexis Hall is very very highly praised by a lot of people, and I really don’t get it.

I started this book extremely pleased. I thought this was the end of a years long dry spell, in which I’ve picked up dozens of books only to DNF them at fifteen percent in because the inner monologue was mind numbing, or the writing was complete wash, or the dialogue was all set ups for punch lines.

Alexis Hall’s dialogue was fresh and dynamic, and the way he set the scene made me feel immediately like I could smell the air and feel the grit and grime of real life. But then, something kept knocking at the back of my head. This happens sometimes with books. I can’t pin down what exactly I don’t like about one, and since everyone else likes it so much I think I actually like it, too, and my subconscious cringes out of my field of perception when something in the writing or character or storyline doesn’t land well with me. Only until after I’ve given up do I realized all that I hate about it.

Tell me, why am I supposed to be rooting for Alfie and Fen? Why why why, I cannot wrap my brain around how anyone would ship these two people. Alfie, way back when, used to bully Fen, going the whole nine yards, sticking his head in toilets and roughing him up, and Fen fucking had a crush on him? Here’s a quote...

“...And it gets worse. I don’t know if it was because of or in spite of, but I really thought I was in love with [Alfie] back then. For all those years. Because he was the only boy who had touched me. He was all I had. His hands on the back of my neck, forcing my head down the toilet... I’d lie awake in bed, terrified of tomorrow, and I’d think about him and want him. And imagine how it would feel if he was gentle with me.” (%14)

Okay, holy cow. I feel like this some messed up shit adjacent to Stockholm syndrome. I don’t understand how anyone could have any room in their heart to even like their bully, let alone have a crush on him. I would understand it if he’d dealt with some abusive shit in his past--some people who have been abused sexually develop dub-con or non-con related kinks as coping mechanisms, but from what I can tell, Fen had a perfectly fine home life. His mummy and daddy loved him, and he wasn’t abused by anyone other than Alfie.

As for “the only boy who touched me,” bitch, I’m nineteen fucking years old and the first and last time I’ve been touched by a boy was in fourth grade when my friend who was a boy dragged me by the hand to get me to hurry up. Don’t give me that touch starved shit. You don’t lose your sanity just because your raging teenage hormones don’t have an outlet. Go rub one out like every normal human.

Alfie is so goddamn immature, I'm too tired to write about it.

It takes him way longer than it should for someone in his early thirties to realize he actually was a horrendous human being in high school, and maybe Fen’s treatment of him is deserved. If there’s any agonizing about his past misdeeds, the writing doesn’t do it justice, and I’m left feeling like Alfie is just a worthless, dense shit-head.

They have absolutely no chemistry. Fen is either annoyed, angry, or brainwashed whenever he interacts with Alfie. In his own words, “When you’re touching me, I have trouble remembering why I don’t like you.” (27%) Yeah, this could sound flirty under different circumstances, but the thing is, HE ACTUALLY DOESN’T LIKE HIM. I don’t get this book.

“He had no idea if things were going well. There were definitely moments when they were, except they were mainly sex moments or laughter moments. All of which was great, but still left a vast in-between.” (39%) And oooh boy, those in-betweens last a very long time and take up the majority of their screen time.

They don’t have anything in common. Fen is a light designer for theatre, loves musicals, and Alfie has in his head the most cliched conception of musical theatre on the planet. You know those people? You can tell the moment they find out you like musicals that they’ve got some image in their heads of can can dancers, and some guy swinging ‘round a lamppost, “singing in the rain.” Don’t fucking give me your opinion on musicals until you’ve heard Santa Fe from Newsies, or Welcome Home from Bandstand, or Where Do We Go From Here from Evita, or No One Else from The Great Comet of 1812, or All I Ask of Youc from Phantom, or motherfucking Losing My Mind from Follies. Go fuck off and give those a listen, and then look me in the eye and tell me musicals are dumb, I dare you. Shit drives me crazy.

He makes I shit go at fixing Fen’s bathroom after they broke the shower rod, and didn’t stop to think that maybe he shouldn’t be having his first go at fucking concrete with someone else’s property? Once he realizes he’s getting in over his head, he literally. Literally. LITERALLY thinks to himself “dad’s favorite saying was, ‘When you’re in a hole, stop digging,’ and it was a good one, but Alfie wasn’t sure that it applied...” (31%) UH... YEAh I’m PretTY SuRe it DOES?!?!? He ends up flooding the bathroom with concrete after he manages to make Fen’s walls look like utter pig shits.

Sorry for the crappy excuse for a review, but I’m tired and I just wanted to vent a bit on here. I’m on Christmas break so my will to live has returned along with a desire to write reviews, but I’m just a bit (a lot) out of it post finals, so I wanted to dip my toe back in briefly.

#books #book #book review #Alexis hall #gay romance #mm #pansies #spires #book series #christmas break #booklr #blog #book blog #rant #dnf

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imagines-dreams · 5 years

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Working at Jacobi’s and Falling for Race - Racetrack Higgins Headcanons

So you work at Jacobi’s Deli, and you see the newsies often

Sometimes, it’s just a handful, Jack and Dave and Les, but sometimes, they fill up the entire store

Race included

Race always flirted with you, alwayssss

He never stopped

Every single word out of his damn mouth was for flirting

And like every server, you just smiled, blushed, and did your job.

Still, you couldn’t help but develop a slight crush on him.

Which was stupid of course

He probably flirted with all the girls

Especially if he was flirting with a waitress he only saw once a week

But nah, that was not the case at all, man

Race was enamored the first time he saw you

He walked into Jacobi’s and couldn’t breathe the moment he saw you

And since then, he couldn’t find any other girl attractive

Sure there were pretty girls, but next to you??? Nothing. They were dull, meh compared to your beauty

So, Race stopped flirting with girls on the street and started flirting with you

He enjoyed seeing you blush and giggle and smile whenever he said something

“Thanks for the water, angel.”

“My day just got better! How are you doing?”

“Highlight of my day, getting some water from you.”

Oh god, the first time he heard you giggle, like Race already was head over heels, but like your laugh was just the killing blow

It was like the gates of heaven was opening up. Like, he thought he died, and as the gates opened up for him and the angelic choir wasn’t a choir of angels, it was you and your shy giggle

Honestly heaven

He didn’t want to ask you out though

He knew that he was putting you on a pedestal

Race knew he had to get to know you

Or at the very least, ask you out when you weren’t working

Cuz thats rude

So he just keeps flirting with you

So he can get that feeling of heaven when you laugh

Then, it becomes his goal to work harder to sell papes faster. Cuz the faster he sells papes, the faster he gets to see you.

He keeps his fingers crossed that one day he will be so early that you won’t be working, and he can actually talk to you instead of just telling you how beautiful you are

Ironically, the first time he finds you off work is when you’re closing the shop.

You were just leaving and locking the door when Race opened the door just as you did, out of breath and flushed from sprinting to get to you

The two of you were so close to each other, and you immediately apologized and stepped away from him.

While Race smiled, even though his cheeks were burning from happiness, embarrassment, and just so many emotions.

“Hey,” he said in such a soft voice

“Hi,” you replied. “I was just, uh, locking up. But, if you want some water-”

“No, no, I’m not here for that.”

Without thinking, you asked, “What are you here for?”

“You.”

That boy’s smirk could melt the Arctic you swear to god.

You blushed and managed to say, “Well, uh, I’m here.”

“Yeah, you are.” Race shook his head. “Uh, can Is walk you home maybe, if ya want to. You can say no, if you wants to.”

Race was just so nervous. He knew you probably just saw him as a flirt, not as someone capable of walking you home.

And you allowed him to walk you mostly there, telling him you weren’t going to lead him to your home

He understood, and finally finally he got to talk to you.

The two of you talked the entire way, and you purposely took a longer route, just to talk to him more

You hoped he didn’t notice

He totally noticed hes a newsie he knows the streets of New York like the back of his hand

But still, he dropped you off a few blocks from your home

“It was, uh, wonderful talking to you, Race.”

“Pleasure was all mine, Misses.” He removed his cap and bowed lowly.

You laughed and curtsied a little and when he left, you went home

It became a routine.

Race walked you straight home after his shift

He didn’t even eat dinner, he would push back dinner to walk you home

When you found out, you were furious and worried.

“What do you mean you haven’t eaten!? It’s so late.”

“Well, I mean, I don’t want to miss walking you home.” It was the first time Race avoided looking at you.

You smiled. “Wait here.”

A few minutes afterward, you emerged from the shop with a brown bag full of goodies.

“Wait, gorgeous, I can’t just take all those from you. Yous got-”

“No, you haven’t eaten.” You held up the bag. “So, we’re going to eat dinner on the way home.”

Race took the bag and peaked inside. “This ‘as gotta cost ya more dimes than the daily run. I can’t-”

“Yes you can.” You pushed the bag to him. “If you don’t take the food, I won’t let you walk me home.” You crossed your arms and watched as Race argued with himself.

Then, he sighed and laughed. “Yous too good for me, aren’t ya?”

It wasn’t true. At least, you didn’t think it was.

I mean, in front of you was a boy who had to work every day of his life just to survive, and he would rather delay dinner after his long day selling papers to walk you home.

So, you kissed his cheek.

And boy, the boy recoiled from you, his entire face was red, and he was staring at you with the widest eyes you’ve ever seen.

You didn’t look too different either.

You felt hot and were blushing everywhere and you were staring at the ground listening to your heart beat in your ears and praying that he wouldn’t run away.

He didn’t.

Race reached out for you hand, intertwining his fingers with yours

“Race?”

“Yes?”

You blinked so many times to make sure you weren’t dreaming. Race was holding your hand and his face was so close to yours and he looked so handsome in the moonlight

“What” -you gulped- “What are you… I…”

“Can I kiss you?”

Without hesitation, you nodded.

And when his lips met yours, oh my god, it was the best feeling

You kissed his back, pushing your lips against his and trying to wrap your head around the fact that that boy, the boy who walked you home for weeks and flirted with you for even longer than that and made you laugh and smile, was kissing you and holding your hand

And oh god the way he kissed you, you could tell that he had been holding back. He had wanted this for a long time, and he was showing it, because not a second into your kiss, Race put the bag of food down and let go of your hand to grab you by the waist and pull you closer to him

You gasped against him, letting out a small giggle, but your lips were together again

Race smiled and pulled away just to say, “Surprise ya, angel?” before kissing you again and pulling you closer, not that you minded, nope you did not mind at all

Suddenly, you were pushed against the door of Jacobi’s with Race’s body pushed up against yours as the two of you continued kissing, your hands wandering to his hair, and your pretty sure his cap fell off, but Race didn’t seem to notice or if he didnt, he obviously didn’t care.

Since Race didn’t have to hold your waist so you were flush against him, his hands went to your cheeks, gently stroking your face and trying to memorize how soft your skin felt against his

It was only when you couldn’t breathe that you pulled away, your hands on his chest and his hands tangled in your hair, and you were still reeling from everything you felt. The happiness, the joy, the nervousness, the heat, the excitement

Race, however, was just acting on the emotions he was feeling, and since your lips were tired, he just kissed your forehead and hugged you close, needing to feel some sort of physical connection to you

You laughed. “That took us long enough, yeah?”

“Us? That was you!”

“Was not!”

“Was too!”

You kissed him quickly. “Was not.”

… Race.exe has stopped working

“Yeah, was not, you’re right.”

You giggled. “Thank you.” You bent down, picked up the brown bag, and handed it to him. “Now, someone needs to take me home.”

Race grabbed his hat and tipped it. “Yes, ma’am.” He held out his arm for you.

You gladly looped your arms through his and walked home with him.

Since then, the two of you were head over heels in love and you weren’t afraid to show it.

Race came by Jacobi’s at least twice a day before you had to close up shop. Once for food and for flirting with you. Twice to catch you on your break and either talk, eat, or make out.

Then it was walking you home, which, depending on how touch starved the poor newsie was, included a small kiss or a heated makeout session in the alleyway by Jacobi’s

You always had a dinner prepared for him, too

You were better off than he was, so you paid for all his dinners

Race was very upset about this, but you insisted

The boy needed to eat more than just the crusts of bread every now and then.

And so, because of this (and because he admired you so much), he started trying his best to save money.

It was hard and difficult to do so, being a newsie and all, but after about a year of saving nickels and finding pennies on the street, he had finally saved up enough to take you out on a proper date.

By then, the two of you had been together for over a year, still being cute, still walking you home, still making him dinner, and some new things too

Like hanging out with the other newsies, being friends with Katherine, and the newsies knowing how touchy feely you and Race were with each other

So, Race asked Jacobi for a favor.

One day, you came into work, but the atmosphere was different. Your boss was being weirdly quiet and secretive, and whenever you asked why, he just shrugged and said how it was going to be a good day.

Also Race didn’t come by during your first shift like he usually did

The other newsies did, so you asked them if they’d seen him

They acted weirdly too, avoiding the question, hitting and shushing each other

Then, when it was time to take your break, and Jacobi insisted you go outside for some reason

You asked him what he wanted you to do, and he just kinda shooed you out of the shop and told you to take as long as you needed

Where you found Katherine with a large box

“Hey!”

“…What’s going on?”

“Something wonderful!” She squealed and pulled you to a public washroom nearby. “Here, look!” She opened her box, and you gasped.

A beautiful dress, like the ones Katherine wore

“What… Is this…”

“One of mine tailored to fit you?” Katherine nodded. “I know you loved this dress, and honestly, I have too many, and you don’t have enough, so I decided to give it to you as a present!” She pulled the dress out to place on top of you and made sure that it looked like it would fit. “And what better day than today!”

You blinked several times. “I’m not even sure what today is.”

“Don’t worry yourself about that.” She shoved the dress towards you and pushed you into one of the stalls. “Now, change!”

You changed into the beautiful dress and couldn’t help but twirl and show it off in front of Katherine and the mirror.

“Look at you!” Katherine beamed. “Oh, he’s going to love this!”

You nodded. “I can’t wait to show Race. Thank you so much, Katherine.” You stared at yourself in the mirror and admired how well the dress fit you and how well the skirt flared when you twirled. “I’ll be sure to wear this next time I have time off.”

Katherine smirked.

“What’s that face?” You pointed at your friend. “Katherine, I know that face. Last time you made that face, you were plotting, and I-”

“Come on!”

“Wait!” You grabbed your old clothes just as Katherine pulled you out of the bathroom. “Katherine, I need to go back to work!”

Katherine pulled you past Jacobi’s.

“Wait, Race never met me for my lunch break! Katherine!”

“Don’t worry about it. Just trust me!”

Soon, you were getting shoved into a restaurant, an actual sit down restaurant where women wore nice dresses and men had to take off their hats.

Everyone stared at you when you got inside

You could feel their stares weigh you down, so you turned around just to bump into someone.

“I’m sorry. I-”

“Aw, sweetheart, wheres you headin’ to?”

You blinked a few times. You gazed up at him. “Race? What…” You turned to look at all the fancier folk before paying attention to your boyfriend again. “Why…”

“Because I finally have enough money to take you to this kinda place.” He shrugged. “Wait here.”

He talked to the host and you were just starstruck.

Your newsie boyfriend didn’t have a hat for once in his life. His blonde curls were out in the open. He was wearing a button up and a vest and actual trousers. The shirt was a tad loose and the vest had a mismatched button, but wow, he looked good. Really good.

The blush settled in your cheeks by the time Race got back to you. “Come on, doll.”

You and Race followed the host to your table.

Race pulled your chair out like a gentleman before sitting down across from you.

“Race, what is this? How-”

“I’ve been saving up!” He stood up straighter, so proud of himself.

You laughed. “Race, this is wonderful, but you know you don’t have to-”

“Yes, I do.” Race reached for your hand across the table and rubbed your knuckles. “You’re my partner, my amazing, wonderful, beautiful person, and you get me dinner every single day.” He shrugged. “Plus, I wanted to.”

So, the two of you had a fancy lunch together. With coffee instead of water and pasta instead of bread and dessert to top it all off.

You and Rac fought over who paid for what. He supposedly could afford the entire thing and end up with a few cents in his pocket, but you couldn’t have it.

So, you paid for coffee, he paid for everything else.

The two of you left, happy

Race and you are constantly teased by the Newsies, and while yes, you were shier than your boyfriend, you eventually grew comfortable sitting in his lap during breaks and the kisses on cheeks.

Race loves you, and you love him, and honestly, nothing could ever change that.

#race x reader #newsies #newsies x reader #newsies imagine #newsies headcanons #race #racetrack higgins #race imagine #race headcanons

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wings-of-indigo · 5 years

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So, Waitress is closing and Why I am Happy about that: An Exceedingly long essay Rant about Broadway

Look. Nobody's gonna read this, most likely, but it's 2 in the morning and my brain's been obsessing over Broadway (more than usual, anyway) since communing with my people at intensive this week. So, in the interest of getting some sleep before 8 hrs of dance and shitty high notes tomorrow, here goes.

I love classic, high-school-and-community standard musicals. I love new and experimental musicals. I love Disney film-to-stage musicals. I love institution musicals like Chorus Line, Cats, and Wicked; I even have a soft spot for Phantom. I am eagerly anticipating West Side Story next Christmas (seriously, I have a calander).

BUT.

As I said to one of my fellow dancers during post-class stretch (after noting his insane flexibilty and making yet another resolution to stretch more) I am Sick to GoDAMnEd DEATH of revivals, franchise adaptions, and restagings taking up the Broadway and greater theater markets.

I get why it's happening; I do. Musical theater, even shows that never make it out of Regional productions (Be More Chill, btw, I'm so proud of you bby :'-D ) are REALLY FREAKING EXPENSIVE, not just to stage, but also to develop. Broadway productions nowadays regularly go upwards of TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in costs.

Those costs are more and more frequently being met through funding by large groups of wealthy investors, who can expect basically little to no return on that investment. Only a select few shows that make it to the Great White Way do well enough to turn a profit (let alone the kinds of numbers that Hamilton, DEH, and Wicked continue to make), and more and more shows are closing in defict or once they break even. (Coincidentally, this is probably why we're seeing more and more straight plays on Broadway, especially in limited engagements. They're quicker, cheaper, and still have the same level of prestige.)

It makes sense then to assume that a show linked to an already successful property has a better chance of reaching that break-even mark, or perhaps generating a small return, than a more original idea. It's a surer bet, and we've seen it a lot these past few seasons. Anastasia, Beetlejuice, Pretty Woman, Moulin Rouge, Mean Girls... we get it. We promise. Investors want some security in an extremely and notoriously insecure market before they're willing to lay out the dough.

I get it. Everybody gets it.

And, to be fair, some of those shows are and continue to be GOOD. Tony nominees and award winners, even. But here's the problem: it's boring.

And not because I know how Act 2 ends without getting spoilers on tumblr. Unless they're younger than ten, the population of Broadway-and-musicals fans generally has a good handle on where a show's relevant plotlines are going. It's really not the wanting to know the end that keeps your butt in your overpriced red velvet seat and your eyes on the stage. It's the score, the words, occasionally the choreography, and most importantly the magicians on, off, and backstage bringing those things to life in a new and interesting way.

The antithesis of this, then, is having to watch slavish recreation of iconic scenes, lines, and characters from iconic films, presented Onstage! (TM), now with Bonus Songs! for your reconsumption. (Yes, Pretty Woman, I'm looking at you.)

Hey, I love Pretty Woman the Movie, slightly dodgy messages about feminity aside. I love it as a movie, and I really don't need to watch the knock off version of it, even if it comes in a shiny Broadway package.

Anastasia, and Beetlejuice, on the other hand, work extrodinarily well as musicals because they are NOT carbon copies of the original, somehow miraculously transplanted onto the stage.

Ironically, musicals based on original ideas are actually some of the most successful and well reviewed recent productions. Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Come From Away, and Hadestown this season are all original works, and well, look at them. (Fishy, huh? Coincidence, I think the fuck not.)

Recently I got to see The Prom on Broadway, the day after I saw Pretty Woman. The contrast between shows and my enjoyment of them was well defined. I couldn't look away from The Prom, despite many of the major story beats being as obvious as our Cheeto-in-Chief's spray tan. I and the entire rest of the theater were completely engaged by what was going on onstage, both comedically and dramatically. At Pretty Woman, I found myself checking the Playbill to see how many songs were left for me to make it through and anxiously comparing the size of my thighs to the dancers onstage to pass the time (ah, pre pro Body Issues, welcome back! We all thought you'd retired!)

Three guesses which show I'd choose to see again.

When I read that Waitress was closing, the first thing I did was panic and start marking pre January weekends where I would both be free and possibly have disposable income (I've never gotten to see the show, and frankly I would like too). My second reaction was, yes, to mourn the closure of a wonderful show, but it was mixed with hopeful anticipation. Waitress had a good long time in the sun, and just like a well lived life, eventually it must and should end. It's better, in my humble student opinion, to live with memories and cast albums (and regional productions) than the stodgy life of a show that's jealously clung to its Broadway berth through the tourist-and-date-night trade (*cough*Phantom*cough*). It's sort of like your 40 something mother taking selfies in booty shorts in an effort to prove she's still 'hip' and in her twenties. Cringe.

Ephemera is the nature of live performance, and probably part of its allure. And just like in the natural world, old things have to end so that new things can become. Waitress closing is a vital part of this cycle.

Broadway has a limited number of theaters. That's a hard and absolute fact. Maybe a quarter of them are effectively taken off the market for new shows by productions apparently cursed with immortality. Waitress has just opened up another spot both physically and creatively for a new project- hopefully something we haven't seen before- and I hope to God, Satan, and Sondheim that it doesn't get filled with another franchise spinoff, celebrity jukebox musical, or -Lin Miranda forbid - yet another revival.

Why the revival hate, though? Aren't revivals an major way to revisit the landmark and important musicals of the past and bring them to a new audience?

Well, yes. They are, especially when they're staged and presented with the emphasis on letting the music and words speak for themselves and giving the actors leeway to work with the material, without the typical levels of Broadway Extra (TM) and creative meddling from the producers. (The recent Lincoln Center staging of A Chorus Line is a good example of the stripped down style I'm talking about.) But even if they have their place, once again, revivals (while valuable and cool and all that) are Something We've Already Seen.

Let's take Newsies for example. A show with a huge fan base (mostly teen, mostly girls) who I frequently see wishing for a revival.

Now, I am a raging Newsies fan. Newsies is the show that got me started on attempting to make a profession out of dance and theater. I can sing both the OBC and Live albums back to front. I may or may not have had embarrassing crushes on certain cast and characters that I will take to my grave (I'll never tell and you'll never know, mwahhaha). So, do I love and worship ever iteration of this show? Yes. Do I wish I had been able to see either the Natl Tour or Broadway productions? Hell yes, with all my heart. Do I wish the Gatelli choreography was in any way accessible for me to learn? More than I want Broadway tickets to cost less than my soul, kidney, and hypothetical but unlikely first born combined.

But do I want a Broadway revival? Hell FUCKING No.

It's over, it's done, and it lives on in reinterpretation in regional and junior productions. Good. That, to be quite honest, is where it should belong.

It doesn't need to be rehashed on the biggest stages, and to be frank, neither do most of the ultra popular revivals that have been happening. (Yes, Ali Stoker is awesome and deserves the world, but Broadway does not need Oklahoma. If you need to see it that bad, go find a high school production somewhere. I recommend the midwest.) Broadway does not need 1776 (even though I am looking forward to it). Broadway does not need a Sweeney Todd revival (even though I want one like I want ice cream after suffering through jazz class in an un-air-conditioned studio on a 90 degree afternoon with no breeze. Seriously, I might be making sacrifices at my altar to this cause in the back of my closet).

Broadway needs musicals that are at least nominally original, and if not, come from something obscure enough (Kinky Boots, Waitress, Newsies) that they can make their own way. Barring that, investors, writers, and directors, please have the courage and decency to take established content in a new direction. Please, I'm begging you. I'd honestly-and-truly much rather sit through something that didn't try to shove the better version of itself down my throat even as it bored and annoyed me to tears. If I'm going to pay $80+ to sit through two hours of something terrible (and less engaging than my dancer body image issues) at least let me get my money's worth in unique horribleness.

#broadway #newsies #hadestown #mean girls #anastasia the musical #musical theater #waitress #hamilton #beetlejuice #tony awards

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kageyuji · 4 years

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Can I get a matchup for Supernatural, Sherlock, Friends, Harry Potter, Twilight, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Phantom of the Opera, Percy Jackson, Pirates of the Caribbean, Newsies, MHA, Haikyuu, and Mystic Messenger please? Thanks, sorry about all the fandoms, way more than 8 lol. You only have to do the ones that you can figure out a ship for. I am 5'7, shoulder length hair dyed red, slightly overweight, and I am bisexual. I love to read and write stories. 1/3 sorry about all the fandoms again lol

This took an unreasonable amount of time and I’m so sorry for that! My dad’s been stressed with work, so I was helping him. Also I took you up on your offer and didn’t do all of them, because I couldn’t really choose, sorry about that.

For Supernatural, I ship you with Sam!

Sam was/is a theatre nerd and you can’t tell me any different

He’s not one to sing a whole lot, but he would definitely sing the other person’s part if you started singing a duet

Sam is the quieter of the Winchesters, or of any one is Supernatural really, and would usually rather spend his nights cuddling with you than our drinking with Dean.

He also understands your anxiety. He doesn’t have it bad, but he did have a bit of social anxiety during college.

Not to mention that when he was in the mental hospital, he was introduced to several people with mental disorders and he had a bit of a better understanding for them

Sam likes to stand up for others, not so much himself. But he’d back you up whenever someone tries to pick a fight with you.

He understand if you wanted out of the situation, but if you were feeling a bit more confident than usual, he wouldn’t hesitate to help you out.

Sam is a big teddy bear, he’d never hurt you. He does understand if you don’t want to move too fast, though.

He’d let you set the pace in the relationship, you’d probably have to initiate any kind of affection before he realizes it’s okay for him to do it.

For Sherlock, I ship you with John!

He runs a popular blog, and therefore loves reading and writing

He’d love to read whatever you’ve written, and if you’d be okay with it he’d be fine giving you little tips.

Also, he’d probably ask to be a beta reader or an editor for you, he just wants to help.

On the other side of things, he’d actually die if you read anything he’s written

He knows it’s our there for the world to read, but he doesn’t think you would take time out of your day to read it.

He’s another person I feel is pretty big on mental health and understands you anxiety; after the army and developing PTSD he could never imaging being one of those people who “get over it”

Actually, he was taught breathing exercises to deal with his PTSD and so he does them with you whenever he sees you getting anxious.

He’s very aware of it, always watching you when you’re in crowds to make sure you’re okay

Romance is also a bit of a touchy thing for him, so he always ask before he does anything, even if it’s as simple as holding your hard.

The last thing he wants to do is pressure you or make you feel uncomfortable.

For Twilight, I ship you with Alice!

Such a sweet person oh my goddd

She’s so understanding of...everything really

Alice is really good at picking up on whenever you’re anxious, it’s a skill she’s developed over the years

She’s definitely the type of person to outwardly speak up against any type of aggression — be it that someone is a different race, trans, queer, or disabled — she’s straight up decking all the boomers.

She tries to get you to fight your own battles. Not because she doesn’t care, but because she knows you’d like to defend yourself. That being said, if it gets to the point that you’re backing away, she’ll stand for you.

She is perfectly fine taking it slow with you

She’s a vampire, she has the rest of eternity, so she’s in no rush

Alice is very into communication, she doesn’t want to do anything that you aren’t comfortable with.

So she ask you before doing anything, asking if it’s okay for her to even hold your hand or hug you

Plus, the Cullen’s are pretty closed off. They don’t really talk to people outside of themselves, so you don’t have to worry about meeting a lot of people close to her. Just her family.

For Phantom of the Opera, I ship you with Erik/The Phantom!

Singing? Singing

He doesn’t care how good or bad you sound initially, all you’ve got to do is be nice to him and he’s yours

But he will definitely try and give you lessons, he knows even good singers can get better at their craft

Erik doesn’t have friends. You could count Madame Giry, I suppose. But you really don’t have to worry about Erik wanting you to go with him to parties and such. He hates that type of thing anyway, too many people.

He understands your anxieties, and he’s always there to help you. He can be a little overbearing, always asking if you’re okay, if there was a particular reason you’re upset.

When he finds out you were abused and cheated on in the past, his initial reaction is...anger. Not at you, never at you, but at your ex.

Then he realized that’s not what you need and he goes all soft again.

He takes it slow wether you told him you wanted to or not, he doesn’t want to scare you off.

Plus, he’s new to relationships too and doesn’t want to move too fast, he just doesn’t know what a reasonable pace is.

For Newsies, I ship you with Crutchie!

I mean he loves to sing

Crutchie is such a sweet guy, honestly

He knows about your anxiety, and he’s really comforting

He’ll tell you dumb jokes and make stupid puns to calm you down

He hates mean people too. He’s learn to accept his leg over the years, but he still knows that people with disabilities or other minorities are often attacked for things they can’t help.

Crutchie doesn’t like conflict all that much

Sure, he had to be a little aggressive during the strike, but any other time he’d rather settle things in a more civil way

So he’d be all for calming the situation down if things get too violent

Crutchie has never even thought he had a chance to get a significant other, and so any sort of affection had him forgetting how to function properly

Therefore he has no idea how much affection is too much or too little

So he lets you take the reins. You have to make the first moves for most things.

For MHA, I ship you with Uraraka!

Todoroki was an honorable mention

Another sweetheart

She has anxiety as well, maybe not as bad as you do, but it’s there

So she helps whenever you get anxious, probably makes a dumb joke or two or three

She would love to read your writing! She’d probably ask to edit for you too, but she’s not that great at it lmao

She does to love read with you though and could definitely get behind library or book dates.

She doesn’t have that big of a friend group, it’s mainly just Midoriya and Iida, both of which are pretty chill people

She doesn’t mind if you want to take things slow or fast in the relationship. Just as long as you are not uncomfortable, then she’s perfectly fine

She actually really likes singing, and as much as she would love to just sit and listen to your voice for hours on end, she can’t help but want to do a Disney duet with you.

For Haikyuu, I ship you with Tsukishima!

Kenma was an honorable mention

Tsukki is pretty reserved, meaning that he wouldn’t necessarily drag you to all of his games.

He gets that you may feel uncomfortable, so it actually worries him. He’d be excited if you did come, but he’s not upset if you don’t.

Speaking of reserved, Yamaguchi is the only person he really talks to outside of volleyball, and therefore doesn’t have a crowd of friends you need to worry about meeting

Also he has that same glare, you know the one I’m talking about.

Tsukishima isn’t big on PDA, so he’s fine taking things slowly. Again, you’ll probably have to initiate some of “the firsts” just because he doesn’t want to push you or make you uncomfortable or make feel pressured by him asking.

Tsukishima also has a hate reserved specifically for rude people, and that goes for any kind

He usually isn’t one for reading, but he likes reading your writing

He just thinks that it’s very personal and that you you can learn a lot about a person just by someone’s writing

For Mystic Messenger, I ship you with Yoosung!

Jumin was an honorable mention

He loves music so much! His favorite isn’t classical music, though he doesn’t dislike it either

However, I feel like he also has a small admiration for Broadway musicals, his favorite is probably Wicked.

He’d love to sing with you, he’s a sucker for domestic life and I feel like his favor thing is singing and dancing in the kitchen while covered in cake batter

Yoosung is just a ball of anxiety and bad sleeping habits

So he understands when you get scared in crowds or groups of people, he watches out for it.

When you do start to panic, he make sure he’s there to give your hand an encouraging squeeze and try and get you out of the situation.

He is very much a lover and not a fighter, but if someone tried to pick a fight with you he’s definitely throwing hands

He knows you won’t if it gets too violent, so he likes to protect you however he can

It’s pretty hard for him to open up, too

So he would be pretty slow to open up too, he doesn’t want to rush you and so he fears that if he moves too fast you’ll leave him.

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louisapennyfeather2021 · 4 years

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Newsies/Teen Wolf AU

Title: Riddled

Summary: Race convinces Blink to take him to the hospital to figure out why he's sleep walking to the middle of nowhere and why he isn't in his own mind anymore. Everyone can tell something's wrong, but they can't figure out if it's supernatural or not. Or if they even have a chance at saving Race.

A/N: Hello again! So this scene is from Season 3b, technically episode 18 of Season 3 of the MTV show Teen Wolf. If you can't tell, I'm skipping around a lot and leaving plot holes since this is just random fics and not a series. In this scene, Race is representing one of the main protagonists/ the main antagonist of 3b. What's happening is he's slowly going insane and succumbing to an ancient spirit who thrives on chaos. No one knows this yet, so they think Race is suffering from the same illness that killed his biological mother. I strongly recommend watching the show on Amazon if you get the chance, it's definitely worth a watch!

Warnings: Sad, mentions of death, mentions of mental illness, fear.

***

"They're doing tests on Race all afternoon." Jack has to all but force the words as he walks with Albert through the school towards their last period. Although he knows after Race's disappearance and borderline breakdowns last night renders this necessary, he's still not happy about it. "I was going to go over at around 6:00 to visit. You want to come with me?"

"I should probably just go home." Albert takes a sharp breath, pursuing his lips and gripping the straps of his backpack tighter.

Alright, so maybe the chaotic spaz had grown on Albert. Race was one of the first people in the entire school to actually treat Albert like a human being and not an emotionless brat or a freak. He'd make an imprint on Albert, to say the least.

Albert's brought out of his daze by a locker being harshly, slammed shut. He flinches and sighs heavily once he realizes that he jumped, knowing Jack noticed.

"You sure you're alright?" Jack asks, raising a concerned eyebrow.

Lately, it's like Albert is just a ball of anxiety, including but not limited to being extremely jumpy. Whether it be from the latest death threats surrounding their friends or just the whole concept of being a supernatural creature capable of sensing death, he still hasn't figured it out.

"Yeah, I'll see you later." And with a forced smile, Albert hurries away from Jack and towards his last period. Jack watches his friend hurry off, another weight settling over his shoulders. Albert is good at a lot of things, lying included, but Jack can tell now that Albert is faking being alright. Nothing's alright, it hasn't been since Jack became an alpha.

With Race going completely off the rails and now Albert obviously having something wrong with him, Jack knows whatever "break" from the insanity of the supernatural world he had been given was over.

***

"I'm not sure if I actually know how to pronounce this. Or if it's a misspelling."

"Just call him Race." Blink's stoney expression makes the nurse nod. He hardly flinches when Ms. Medda sighs, shaking her head just a bit.

"Louis, I know you're worried, but don't take it out on the nurse. She's just doing her job." Medda tries to keep her own anxiety over the current matter in check. She's lucky enough to have gotten a break to be with Race during his tests, although she knows it's because she works at the hospital and she's right there if anyone needs her.

"Hey!" Medda and Blink both turn to see Jack in the doorway. "Have they started yet?"

"No, they're still getting ready." Medda offers Jack a warm smile, trying and hoping he'll at least stay calm. "You can go see him real quick, though."

Jack silently nods and slips past Blink and Ms. Medda, the two having already been in to comfort Race.

Jack doesn't say anything as he walks through an open door to a white room with a large machine in the center. Race sits on the machine, his shoulders slouched and his head hanging as he grips the hospital gown in one hand.

"Hey." Jack manages to withhold a gasp when he sees Race's face for the first time since finding him in the woods last night. There are large, purple circles under his eyes that resemble bruises and his eyes are very near to bloodshot. It's obvious he's tired, but there's something else in his expression that sets Jack off. He ignores it though and walks to stand in front of Race. "You okay?"

"You know what they're looking for, right?" Race shakes his head a bit and bites his lower lip before letting out a deep breath. "It's called frontotemporal dementia. Areas of your brain start to shrink. It's what my mother had. It's the only form of dementia that can hit teenagers. And there's no cure."

"Race, listen to me. If you have it, we'll do something. I'll do something." Jack's voice doesn't waiver and he clenches his jaw. He's an alpha now, meaning he can change someone. He could give Race the Bite and he'd be healed. He'd never wish this curse on anyone, but if it saved his best friend's- no, his brother's, life, it was worth it.

Jack nearly breaks as tears well up in Race's eyes and he dies hesitate to step closer and wrap his arms around Race, both of them squeezing each other tight as if they'll disappear if they let go. Jack holds Race for as long as he can, rubbing his upper back and occasionally running a hand through Race's hair to help calm him down. Jack knows how finicky Race can be and it'll only get worse with the noise of the MRI machine.

Jack holds and comforts Race until a doctor comes in to bring him back to the other side of the wall separating him and Race. Jack stands anxiously next to Medda, subconsciously chewing on his thumb nail and bouncing on his toes. Medda keeps calm, years of being a nurse having trained her to do so. Blink paces back and forth along the back wall, a million thoughts running through his head.

Although Jack and Medda heard everything about Race and Blink's parents and had an idea of what happened, Blink still remembers it all vividly. He was a young teenager at the time, so he experienced everything. His mother's breakdowns, her panic attacks because she didn't remember anything, her fear when she'd see Blink and Race and not know why two random children were in her house. Their father would try as hard as possible to help her, but in the end the dementia won. When it took their mother, their father went down with her.

Blink knows they were lucky to have found Medda, but he'd give anything to have his mother back. The woman who knew who he was and who loved him. If he could forget all of the horrible things she said when she didn't recognize him or Race, he would. If he could forget the pain he felt watching her slowly whither away, he would. If he could forget the fear he felt not knowing what would happen to her, he would.

Now that same fear haunts him. He knows it's genetic, he knows very well that him or Race or both of them could develop the same illness that nearly tore the family apart worse than it already was. Now that he has to consider that Race will go through exactly what their mother did? Fear isn't a strong enough word to describe how scared, worried, and utterly helpless Blink feels.

"Alright, Race, this will take about 45 minutes to an hour. Now remember, try not to move. Even just a little bit." The head doctor speaks through a microphone as Race lays down on the bed of the MRI. "You're going to hear that noise now. It's going to be a loud clanging. Kind of like a hammer hitting an anvil."

Race seems to robotically nod and the doctor starts the machine.

As he does, Jack frowns at the ground.

Last night, Spot helped Jack find Race by tracking his chemo-signals. They basically follows the smell of whatever Race was feeling. Spot described the scent as fear and struggle, but said Race had been struggling with himself.

Now, as Jack watches his best friend lay still in the machine, a new thought comes to mind.

"I need to find Spot, I'll be back before his test is done." Jack whispers to Medda. She squeezes his shoulder and nods for him to leave, knowing Blink is too preoccupied with his pacing to notice.

***

"Jack, what are we looking for? Just because I share some family secrets with you, doesn't mean you can drag me out in the middle of nowhere." Spot hesitantly follows Jack through the local preserve, stepping over fallen trees and trying to get an answer out of Jack.

"I think he was trying to protect us." Jack suddenly stops near the place they found Race. Spot raises a confused eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. "I remember when he called me, he was completely freaked. He kept saying someone else was with him, but he wouldn't tell me where. It's like he wanted to, but he couldn't."

"So he was held hostage?" Spot looks around, as if looking for any signs of kidnapping.

"No, I he couldn't because he didn't want us to get involved. I think he was protecting us from himself." Jack sighs, one of the many weights lifting off his shoulders like he just solved the crime. "I don't think he was struggling with himself like you said he was. I think he was struggling not to do something."

"What, do you think Race would really do something violent towards-" Spot stops as Jack's phone starts ringing. Jack frowns in confusion and reaches to answer. He briefly checks the time before seeing it's Medda.

"Shit, Race's tests must be done." Jack quickly answers, guilt settling in his stomach. "Medda, hi, I'm sorry I'm not back yet. I promise-"

"Jack, something's happened." Jack stops talking and meets Spot's gaze, knowing he can hear Medda too.

"What do you mean?" Jack can hear the slight tremor in Medda's voice, but he can also hear Blink yelling and arguing with someone in the background. Jack's heart drops as he registers what Medda says next.

"Race is missing."

***

Hello everyone! This is another drabble of sorts and I know it's confusing if you haven't seen the show because 1) I'm not providing much foundation and 2) There's a lot of plot to each season. To sum it up, basically Race has been possessed by a mischievous, vengeful spirit from Japanese folklore known as the Nogitsune. It's disguising itself as the frontotemporal dementia that was mentioned and it playing games with Race to try and make him go insane. No one knows of any of this yet, but that's the basic plot line of season 3b.

I hope you liked this, if you want to see more please feel free to send me a message or an ask! If you have any scenes you'd like to see, just ask and I'll try my best to make them good!

#newsies memes #newsies imagines #newsies broadway #newsies imagine #newsies #newsies au #teen wolf au

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