#I don’t think Angela even really likes him I think she just figured Pony would have her back

[damthosefandoms]

also in case you were wondering. in canon i truly believe pony only starts hanging out with mark after windrixville and it’s because mark reminds him of dallas. but pony doesn’t have any other friends because no one could ever replace johnny.

actually twttin would’ve been much funnier if johnny & dally lived because half the plot would’ve been mark driving bryon nuts by ditching him to hang around ponyboy, not because they’re friends but because mark really idolizes dally and thinks befriending ponyboy curtis is the way to get close to him (he’s truly onto something there)

[marciaownsmylife]

purly hc -“the incident of the sweatshirt”

* in his defence, curly wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, so it’s not like the mistake was completely unexpected

* after curly kisses ponyboy, they have thing going on, neither of them knew what it was exactly but it was thing.

* sort of like a couple but without the commitment or like sickening romance (even if ponyboy is a hopeless romantic writing stories, he has no clue how to apply it in real life)

* they were still best friends, they just got closer

* anywayyyy

* it was a particularly chilly morning and ponyboy and curly were in class, ponyboy had just come from gym class

* and curly was freezing his balls off

* and he won’t shut up about it

* “pony if i sit here any longer i’m gonna get ‘hippo-thermy’”

* “it’s called hypothermia, and no u won’t,”

* ponyboy is actually trying to focus because science wasn’t his best subject

* so he gave curly his sweatshirt from gym to keep him quiet

* curly was fuckin delighted, he looked like a toddler who just got his way, when pony handed it over

* “i hope u know ur not getting this back for today,”

* ponyboy rolled his eyes, but he thought it was cute how curly didn’t stop grinning for the rest of class

* the sweater was huge on ponyboy bc it had been handed down from darry but it fit curly better, it was still big but not too noticeable

* curly didn’t pay any attention to his classes that day, he was too occupied sniffing the sweater. it didn’t smell great because pony had worn it during gym but it still smelled like ponyboy anyway so he didn’t care

* curly returned from school that day, greeted by tim who was watching tv

* “that’s not ur sweater, where’d u get it,”

* curly shrugged bc he knew that tim knew that ponyboys brothers weren’t too keen on them palling around so he didn’t want tim telling him off

* but tim knew he had seen that sweater somewhere before

* and it bugged him all day until he realized, darrel curtis had worn it

* but he thought that cant be right bc then how tf would curly have it

* so pulled out his old yearbook and flipped the pages until sure enough

* “darrel curtis” and there it was, the sweatshirt

* so now tim was worried, he knew curly had messed around with guys before, hell so had he, but the thought of his baby brother fooling around with darrel curtis, who was older than tim, irked him

* so he went to confront curly about it

* “curly shepard you’d better have a good explanation to why you’re wearing darry curtis’ sweater”

* curly looked at him and was like

* “what, no i’m not,”

* “don’t play dumb with me, i know it’s his, i’ve seen him wearing it”

* curly is hella confused bc he doesn’t realize it’s a hand down yet but tim is like really mad at him and he started ranting on about how he didn’t expect this from him

* “tim, tim, tiM-“

* tim looks at his like he’s about to put him in a hospital bed, and he probably would have too

* “i got it off ponyboy,”

* tim like oh-

* he was so relieved, he didn’t even think about how ponyboy wasn’t supposed to be near curly

* “thank god,”

* “did you think i was messing with darry?”

* curlys turn to get mad, the thought was disgusting and he was mad tim even considered it

* “it’s the same sweater, it’s a reasonable theory,”

* curly doesn’t speak to him for a week

* angela thought it was hilarious, she laughed for like 20 minutes when tim told her then went to tease curly about it

* curly gave back the sweater but he didn’t tell ponyboy what happened

* he figured he would save ponyboy the gruesomeness of the idea

* and that’s why curly doesn’t wear anything of ponyboys that looks too worn and big to be his

this is kinda short but yous seem to like the purly shit so imma keep writing lmao

[greasers-stole-my-social-life]

Random gang hcs!

Who would open a mysterious box with cryptic writing and a sign that says “do not open”

So, this is a totally random idea that I had and I had fun writing it so i hope y’all enjoy!!

Darry:

he would definitely be interested in it at first

but then he would see the strange writing and he would walk away and act like he never saw it

hes not taking a chance

firm believer in “curiosity killed the cat”

would make it his mission to hide it from the rest of the gang

Ponyboy:

at first he wouldn’t care that much

if someone wanted to open the box, ofc he’d look inside and maybe even help, but otherwise he doesn’t really care

he would probably spend a couple of days trying to figure out what language the writing was in, but would give up and assume it’s just gibberish carved on there to scare people

all of this goes out the window the second Darry says “don’t even think about it”

Sodapop:

he’s trying to open it the second Darry leaves the house

enlists the help of steve

strong believer in “curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back”

he’s so excited about what’s inside that he genuinely doesn’t think of the consequences of opening the box

Steve

while his gut says “no”, Soda says “yes”

even if soda didn’t ask for help, he would’ve bc he’d want to show how unafraid he is

he wants to know what’s in the box, but overall he just wants to be cocky about his fearlessness

low key he’s a lil spooked

Two-Bit:

he would definitely open it

his imagination would get the best of him and he wouldn’t shut up about it until the box was opened

“what if there’s treasure in it?!”

he would be overly optimistic and confident

Johnny:

big fat nope

he would be terrified to open it

he’s seen enough horror movies with Pony and Dally that he wouldn’t even consider opening it

if when Dally opens it, he would watch, but would not participate and would probably be shaking and biting his nails the whole time

Dallas

breaks into it immediately

he really doesn’t even have a reason for opening it other than the fact it says “do not open”

“no one tells Dallas Winston what to do!”

couldn’t care less about the consequences

BONUS:

Tim:

he opens it in a heartbeat

wants to look tuff in front of his gang

plus, he really doesn’t believe anything bad will happen

Curly:

he’s smashing that thing open with a sledgehammer

do u really think a “do not open” sign and some random scribbles are gonna keep him from opening it?

probably damages whatever’s inside

Angela:

nope!!

our girl uses her head and decides that it may not be in her or her brothers’ best interests to open it

she might do it if someone says she’s chicken tho...

[annesfaulkner]

For headcanon thing— Darry and/or Soda! -Molly

Thank you 😘

For Darry:

Realistic: he kinda doesn’t like being the father figure of his brothers. Of course, he wishes he could go to college, but for other reasons too. He always second guesses his decisions and stuff and is having a hard time with it

Funny: he and Tim have meetings every Saturday where they pick one of their houses and kick everyone out and just gossip like middle aged moms. They talk about their kids and “parenting tips” and people they went to high school with and they drink tea (courtesy of Tim) and they light scented candles and stuff

Sad: Since mr and Mrs Curtis died in a car crash, for a while after they died he was afraid to drive and was afraid to let pony or soda drive when they get older which caused a lot of arguments but it took a year for him to ride in a car again and like 7 months for him to let soda drive Again. He was especially nervous for Ponyboy when he started driving because Ponyboy is kinda scatterbrained and got distracted easily.

Unrealistic: dad bod Darry

It would be so fun!! But his job requires lots of muscles so I really don’t think it’s possible

Soda-

Realistic: ADHD SODA!!! I made a post about this a while ago but it adds up. Back in the 60s they didn’t have adhd medicine and a lot of people didn’t even know what it was, so a lot of people didn’t even know what adhd was or how it worked and stuff and that’s why he thought he was stupid, because he was having trouble focusing on school

Funny: he’s hot and he knows it. He 100% knows how attractive he is and he uses it to his advantage. He’s used it to get dallas out of sticky situations with past girlfriends and even get out of trouble with the police, male or female.

Sad: Soda tried to visit sandy in Florida a few years after she leaves so he can see the baby and because he lowkey misses her, but she doesnt want to see him. She won’t let him see the baby. He’s heartbroken, he doesn’t want the baby to grow up without a father, even though it’s technically not his baby. (Idk I couldn’t come up with one)

Unrealistic: Angela and sodapop friendship!! I feel like in an AU where they’re the same age and went to school they would both be super popular because of their looks and that means they just naturally ended up being friends!!

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Still Re-Watch and Review by @wdway

The wonderful @wdway recently did a rewatch of Still and shared it with me and @frangipanilove. I’ve gotten her permission to repost her very insightful observations. I hope you both enjoy it!

@wdway:

My review of s4e12 Still, written by Angela Kang, directed by Julius Ransay. I watched this episode with the commentary by Emily and Julius (E/J) and then the one with Norman and Angela (N/A), as I go through I'll talk about certain things including either one of these couples’ comments rather than go through the episode twice.

Even though I've seen this episode once or twice (that's me being funny) I did have a couple of ummmm moments that were interesting. The episode opens with a view of an abandoned car and the long road all lit by a full moon. 

Am I the only one that has always wondered about the lone figure crossing the road? The way it moves makes it obvious that it's not a walker, maybe it's just a nod to the fact that there are people nearby that our characters are never aware of.

Now for the car I'm going to show you two shots, the first is the car as B/D comes upon it. The second when they are climbing out of the trunk.

In the first one we see that both the engine hood and the trunk are slightly ajar but basically closed 

and in the second where we see B/D getting out from the trunk both the front and back of the car are completely opened. 

I had never really noticed that before and this time I realized that it must mean something, because everything has a meaning and it seems very deliberate now that I'm aware of it, I just not sure what that meaning is. Any thoughts?

After B/D strips the car Daryl looks at Beth in a dead stare. I have always thought that was him looking at her like "a dead girl.” He turns without a word (because she's dead) and walks down the road. Beth pauses and then follows, foreshadowing Daryl thinking she's dead and leaving her and her later moving down the road basically by herself and Daryl unaware that she's following.

We next see Daryl hunting and his arrow breaks, and he then kills a snake with his knife (not really Norman). You'll especially like this part @Frangi. Norman and Angela's discussion here, Norman mentions that the snake that was killed actually had a rat in it that it had eaten. We see Beth setting up camp and E/J laughingly talk about how during the shooting this scene Beth was refer to as MacGyver Beth.

We are then shown Daryl skinning the snake (that sounded dirty) Beth watching from afar. I don't know how many times I've watched this episode before I realize that this was again a possible foreshadowing of Daryl (TF) being watched.

B/D eating the snake, both E/J & N /A talk about how it was eel with teriyaki sauce and how Norman almost got sick from eating so much of it. We see Beth take Daryl's knife, this is the second time we see her take his knife, the first was in Inmates. She goes off alone and we see her hide from a group of walkers and mislead them with noise from throwing a stone (hear no evil) turning around Beth sees Daryl who has been watching from afar, again foreshadowing anyone? Another little note I missed above was that AK at one point talked about how it was Gimple's idea coming into the writing room for season 4 about the groupings after the prison fell to put Daryl and Beth together and how surprised the other writers were. To me, just emphasizing that Gimple had Beth and Daryl paired from the very beginning and knew exactly where he was taking the storyline with them. He left clues, eggs, hints behind so that when we went back and re-watched they would stand out to us, just like this shot of Beth where she has a dirty little smudge exactly where she is shot in 5e8 Coda, you know the one where her being shot was a last-minute decision. (Me being funny again.)

@frangipanilove:

Wow, I never noticed the figure moving across the street in the beginning of still. I had to go and see for myself, and you’re right, there is something there. No way to tell what it is though. I really have no idea. The part about the hood of the car being open is something I’ve noticed, and I don’t have a great explanation of it. Also, the dead body by the car has changed position during the night. I don’t know what tptb mean to communicate by doing so, but I feel that it’s sort of then underlining that this sequence is symbolic, that it’s sort of detached from realism. Sort of them saying that Beth and Daryl’s journey together is something out of the ordinary.

Oh, and something I came to realize while I was doing the tree/three/trunk post; the name of the golf club is “Pine Vista”. Pine is a type of tree, and vista means view, or looking at something. It’s an eye/vision reference combined with a tree reference. I thought that was interesting. I didn’t include it in the post because it was already long enough, but it shows how tptb consistently uses this type of symbolism around her.

It’s something I’ve thought about because in 6x15(?) Eugene mentions golf clubs when discussing the route to hilltop. Then a few moments later he says “serious as a coronary thrombosis”. So, a Sirius mention near a golf club mention. In my opinion it qualifies as a nod to “still” in combination with a Sirius mention, which means return/coming back. Also, the choice of the words “coronary thrombosis” is interesting, because 1) it could be a nod to “slabtown”, where we saw a machine that treats deep vein thrombosis 2) corona is one of the most well known brads of beer in the world 3) someone suffering from thrombosis/blood clots would be treated with heparin, right?

@twdmusicboxmystery: I’d noticed the figure crossing the road before, but I guess I always assumed it was a walker. Obviously, I never paid much attention to the movements. Now, it’s being coupled with a half moon. The open car hood strikes me less as an open trunk reference and more as perhaps a battery reference. I’m not sure about the movement of things either. I’ve never studied it in depth. I know when the camera first pans over the bodies, there are some obvious forehead injuries, and isn’t one of them laying with their arm out, the way Beth’s fell in Coda? But that’s all pretty obvious foreshadowing. I’m just now thinking that, plot wise, it’s the walker horde that moved everything around as they passed through and around the car. So maybe that has to do with what they’re trying to symbolize. Like, TF left her behind and when they went back after the horde had gone, her body had moved. Meanwhile, car, trunk, and hood open. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I always love when you bring up Eugene’s line from that episode, @Frangi. And I agree: no way the coronary thrombosis thing isn’t connected to Slabtown. That’s just too specific. @frangipanilove​: There was that Sirius mention when Beth and Daryl play the drinking game. I had somehow erased it from my memory, and had a real facepalm moment when that clip was released on social media the other day. It comes when Beth suggests that Daryl has been in jail. Then she says “I don’t mean anything serious”. It comes in combination with a mention of “jail” which actually qualifies as a cop/police reference (making it a “blue clue”), and that whole sequence became even more filled with symbolism. I already knew it was an important sequence, with the mention of pet ponies, frozen yoghurt, Santa clause etc. And with a Sirius mention in the middle of it, it just got more significant!

@wdway​:

Episode Still continued. Moving on to the clubhouse E/J talked about the scene that was cut out and how Beth didn't drink because of Hershel and the mention of the red cups. B/D goes into the clubhouse dining room, there are 3 people hanging. The fact that there is three now seems significant especially since I believe that there are 3 bodies in the dog Trot room floor.

Of the two women hanging one is in a green flowered shirt (Alpha green dress) the other has on pearls, which is odd since she's wearing very casual clothes. We will see pearls again with the rich bitch, I think these may be an ocean/water symbol since pearls are found in oysters in the ocean. I also want to note in the shot of the dogtrot room to the right a green bean can and towards the center on the top shelf is a tomato can.

Did I ever tell you that it was the clubhouse scene that made me realize water was a Beth symbol? We were discussing fire and how we believed that was a symbol for Daryl and the question was, was it also a symbol for Beth? I was thinking about all the fire extinguishers, the fire pulls in the clubhouse that were around Beth, when the light bulb came on that these are actually water or coolant symbols. Even though Beth is a water symbol, I believe she is also a single flame symbol, a small fire that can light a large fire. She is the candle flame at the end of a long dark tunnel, the single match that starts a shack a blaze in fire.

The reason that I bring up the fire pulls and the fire extinguisher is that I consciously went through and counted them in the clubhouse segment. At first glance, they don't appear to be a large number, but when you think in terms of for each one, they were seen multiple times in different angles with either one or both characters within a scene. There are 5 fire pulls, there are 3 fire extinguishers (one silver two red) a total of 8 (these numbers look very familiar) this is a large number when you realize that the club house scenes couldn't have been more than 10 minutes (another familiar number).

There's two other items that I watched for and counted in the clubhouse. We have seen them in the seasons after Still, but I don't think we saw them before. Tomato sauce cans and green bean cans. As far as tomato sauce, we see them instead of actual tomatoes because there wouldn't be a feasible reason to see tomatoes in this abandoned club house, but we can see a picture of tomatoes on the label.

Years ago, I followed a wonderful TD'er weburythedead (unfortunately he no longer posts) but back in the day he wrote about Beth and Daryl and tomatoes. He felt that we could group tomatoes and strawberries together as a symbol for Beth and Daryl because of the color, also their abundance of seeds a fertility symbol also both are quite sensual and juicy.

The green bean cans well what better remind than the white and green can with the word GREEN on it to help people to think of Beth Greene and we even heard and we Daryl refer to her as Greene later in this episode. Throughout the seasons, we're reminded that Maggie is a Rhee and that Beth is the only remaining Greene.

We see 4 cans of tomatoes and 5 green beans cans. There are also 5 cans where we cannot see the label but let's look at one of these that speaks to me and made me quite excited when I realized what I was seeing.

Daryl with a can with a green rim at the top and a red rim at the bottom. A can of Greene and Dixon haha.

In the closet where Beth reaches for a bottle of cooking wine there are 7 cans alone. 2 clearly are tomatoes, 3 visible green labels and 2 labels not readable because there at odd angles. Along with cans in the kitchen area and also remember there is a green bean and a tomato can in the dogtrot room.

We have seen a lot of tomatoes and green bean cans through the seasons. We've seen them in the AZ pantry. The last time I remember seeing the green and white can the label read, Chunk, but it's similar to the green can so much so that I don't believe it's a coincidence, especially since there is a grouping of candles on top with a single flame burning from each remember Beth = single flame. This was s8e7 How It's Gotta Be.

I have a few things to add before I close out the clubhouse review. These are things mentioned in the commentary that I want to point out. I will have a ramble about the commentary in general when I do part 3 of Still, that will cover the shack. AK said that Gimple is the one that wanted the dog Trot on the wall in the clubhouse. Julius said a lot of was discussed with the grandfather clock, the time and the correct number of chimes.

Something I forgot to mention the other day that happened at the beginning of the Still re-watch, Julius the director said the car that they used was a Lincoln Continental. @Frangi, it proves your car model skills are awesome! I also remember in the after bonus scene of TTD the director came on and mentioned it then also. Imo emphasizes that tptb wanted us to be aware of that car model.

This is in the shack I want you to notice the can on the shelf above /next to Daryl. I talked so much about cans last time I just want to point this one out, we don't see a label on it but since it's red it could be several things, another type of tomato, cherries, strawberry filling?

Then we have these two cans on the table. One we definitely know is a dog food can because that particular label has been seen other times and then the other the label appears to be torn off so we just don't know, but I want to emphasize the fact that in the shack there are 3 cans.

For this last segment I'm not going through the episode because we all know it's so well, instead I'm going on a long ramble about the commentaries. This was the first time in the series that tptb had dual commentaries for a single episode and we could talk about the importance of that, but I'll leave it for another day. I went into this moonshine shack segment review with a couple of questions I wanted to take a close look at and ended up finding side tunnels to my delight. Listening to both EK/JR and NR/AK commentaries back-to-back was the key to the main points I found. 1) that there were certain dialogue moments tptb wanted us to hear. 2) things they wanted reinforced by talking about them with their paired partners. I even wonder if part of NR/AK's commentary was stopped and later sound mixed in order that we would hear the dialogue in a scene. I first want to go over some of my notes from EK/JR that doesn't overlap NR/AK. JR talked about during the argument, it seemed that other members of TF were intimidated by Daryl but Beth didn't seem to understand that she should be intimidated. She was standing up for herself and calling Daryl out on his bad behavior and his feelings. JR talked about how 4 of the producers were crying during the porch scene. In particular, the part where Beth talks about her wish, her hope for how her dad would live out the rest of his life. Sometimes it felt as if JR was checking off a list of things he was meant to mention especially at the end when he said that there was a toy cycle and a real motorcycle somewhere in the yard and was a nod to Daryl's motorcycle. It just seemed as if he was trying to just get that mentioned and it came out a bit odd. JR talked about how Beth almost seemed resigned/come to terms to her death. This was when Beth says "I'll be gone someday," he used the word die or death I can't remember which. Both NR/AK and EK/JR had several mentions that were so similar to each other but I want to point out a few. I first watched EK /JR commentary, a reminder that we hear them but see the episode play without sound unless the commentary stops and then we both hear and see the episode. When it got to the part where Beth hesitates to take a drink of the moonshine, EK/JR stop talking. I paused the DVD to take a note and when I continued it was so long that I wondered if I had somehow turned the commentary off when suddenly they started talking again. I went back to check and it was a full minute and 29 seconds of dialogue that included, going blind, Daryl telling her to drink lots of water, (a water reference) the pink bra, and Daryl's old man's dumpster chair (a dumpster reference). Both the mention of water and dumpster never meant anything to me until I watched it this time.

[@twdmusicboxmystery: I have to insert here that I totally never caught that “dumpster” reference before. Linked to Glenn’s dumpster and how he survived his fake out, if you’re confused. Awesome catch! ;D Okay, back to @wdway.] If you are wondering if we heard the dialogue about moonshine making you go blind during NR/AK's commentary the answer is kind of. AK was talking and NR started to speak, and it just trailed off as Beth said her line and Daryl mentions "drink lots of water," and then Norman finishes his thought. This is what I'm mentioned earlier about maybe there was a sound mix by tptb because the way it trailed off just seemed suspicious if you realize that if he had continued his train of thought we would have not heard the comment about "moonshine making you go blind."

NR then talked about taking the turtle shell for Emily, which is strange because this is where Daryl is talking about his dad's place and how similar it is to this shack. The turtle shell story, while being very nice, just kind of came out of nowhere. I think he got ahead of his to-mention list. AK ask Norman if he had heard of Bethyl and he said yes, Bethyl, Caryl and Rickyl. On both commentaries the couple's stop talking in time for us to hear Beth say "serious." When B/D have their argument outside we hear the Michonne, Carol, Maggie speech. NR talks about the hug from behind and how it must have meant for Daryl to fill her supporting him. When the porch scene starts, Emily mentions the turtle shell and tells a short version of the story. During the NR commentary he again notes the turtle shell in the scene, which makes sense of mentioning it then because we can actually see the shell. A couple of things that EK mentions, we will hear mentioned again by either or both NR / AK. Emily says she loved the porch scene. Just 2 people talking. She spoke about that B/D were being honest during their talk. During EK/JR commentary we do hear Beth says, "I'm not blind." We don't hear it in the other commentary, but I think it was because of what AK was talking about ended up being more important.

Next, I'll jump in with what a AK's response to Norman's honesty statement (below). Just know that this takes up quite a bit of the scene of D/B including when Beth says "I'm not blind.” It really would have been noticeable if AK had stopped abruptly in the middle in order to hear Beth.

AK: "It's not comfortable for Daryl to be intimate with someone, not even romantically but in terms of sharing who he is because there is so much shame. Not so much what you bring to the character or how you've played him. Shame about who he was. There's something about Daryl that's so real and honest. He just is who he is and Beth is kind of the same way, so that even though they're different characters, there's sort of a core kindness and sweetness about them that they can just talk about their real feelings in this moment."

I just love this so much. This is AK defining Daryl's character and I feel she has held true to it through the seasons. We've seen and heard a restating of this especially the last two seasons. But this explains why Daryl will always love his friend Carol but that need of being who he is at his core, honest and kind doesn't align with Carol's guarded, driven way of being and I don't see his qualities being things that Carol admirers or truly understands. I think she sees these as weaknesses and not admirable. Bottom line is she cannot be honest with him. How many times have we heard him this season state that very fact? This speaks to his core, being honest with yourself and the people you care most about.

Connie has many of the same qualities as Daryl but we saw early in the season her asking him to lie for her group or at least not tell. It may seem on the surface to be a small thing but for Daryl, I think he would question if it is a one-time thing or not. It speaks of him not really knowing her Is he drawn to her for who she may remind him of or who she truly is?

I do want to point out that in both commentaries, they talk about the song that Gimple wanted at the end of episode. Norman tells the story of wanting a different song but doesn't go into why he wanted the song that he did. This review has taken much longer than I thought it would, but I hope I was able to uncover a few things that helps in our understanding of tptb and the characters we love so much.

@frangipanilove​

Loved your ramble! Totally agree with you, Daryl is honest to the core, wears his heart on his sleeve. And I think you articulated it beautifully when you said he doesn’t know if he’s drawn to Connie because of who she is, or if it’s who she reminds him of. And we sometimes disagree on Carol, but we’re in complete agreement when it comes to how awfully mismatched they would be as a romantic couple. It is only Beth that has been a romantic love interest for him. I am unsure of how far tptb will go in exploring the relationship with Connie.

However, no matter how they write it, I believe it will always be Beth for Daryl. The Connie situation is interesting though, because tptb HAS written a close relation between Daryl and Connie, and they have written it in a way that the GA will recognize as “potentially romantic”. Of course we, TD, also recognize that they have written Connie as a Beth proxy, so it’s all very interesting I think. But I’ve had enough of “interesting.” I’m ready for Beth now.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Thanks so much to @wdway​ for doing a re-watch for us and pointing out so many great insights. There were lots of things here I’d never considered before, or simply hadn’t thought about in years. Hope you all found something interesting in here!

[airheadandco]

The Curse 01

It rained a lot that afternoon. A weather fitting Airhead's mood. Completing her project under a bright, sunny, summer day would have just been... incongruous.

The depths of the inner library had changed a lot since Atlas had discovered them. The rubble had been cleared out and the bookcases were now carefully organised and aligned in perfect order around its centre. It even had magical illuminations in case anyone would want to explore its mysteries, which was usually just limited to Airhead. But on this afternoon, there were unusual numbers of persons walking the dusty stone floor.

Airhead did not notice, busy as she was, looking at a hole in the centre of the library from which multicoloured lights emanated. At least, not until the figure was just a few metres behind her.

"What are you doing?" the mysterious individual said, getting closer to the unicorn.

Airhead didn't turn to face him. "I thought I got rid of all of your clones..." she said, ignoring the question.

"Apparently not... What are you doing?" he repeated, getting closer.

"Finishing the project of several lifetimes."

"You're not going to answer are you?"

"I like to think it arouses the curiosity of immaterial watchers spying our every action," she said, going toward the strange source of light. "Your original like musical acts, I thought you'd be more receptive to this kind of things..."

"Well, I'm just a clone... I guess... so what are you doing?"

The mare watched him intensely. There was something strange about her, something spooky. And that was not only her tone or attitude. There was something different, physically different, about her and her gaze, something he could not put his finger on. After a few seconds, she stopped and the clone let out a breath he had not realised he had kept. "It will be easier if I show you," she declared.

Airhead's horn glowed and a set of heavy stone steps appeared in the hole, going into its depths in a gracious spiral. She made a sign to her guest to follow. He did not need to be asked twice.

The sight bellow was breathtaking.

The room was filled to the brim with enchantments and runes that were either drawn, carved or simply conjured into existence. They were in every corner of the room, from the floor to the ceiling... the place was saturated with magic.

In the centre of the area, three Twisted Tonics were actively working on alembics, flasks and other potion-making instruments with careful concentration. The clone got closer. He didn't need to know much about potions to know this would not be any ordinary brew. He watched them work in silence. It didn't last long. Whatever they had been doing here was almost finished. The result was a grey-brownish potion, with the consistency of custard and the metallic reflects of mercury. One of the Twisted gave it to Airhead and stood back in silence, apparently waiting for further instructions. "What is it?" the clone enquired. "A Potion of Essence. Purified several dozen times. At its most basic form, it gives the pony who drinks it one or several characteristics of a chosen species. For instance, a pony could breathe fire like a dragon or dig holes like a diamond dog. With this formulae, I can pick a very specific set of strong points of one or several /individuals/." "This sounds both incredible and dangerous... What do you want to do with it?"

"Lifting a curse."

"What kind of curse requires all that?" he exclaimed, showing the room for emphasis.

"The very big ones," she whispered before taking a sip of the potion. The effect was immediate but short-lived. The unicorn's fur glowed brightly, static electricity created arcs of energy around her, her fur raised all of a sudden... then it stopped. "Did it work?"

"I think it did... I just need to figure how to use these powers..."

Her face was contorted by the effort and the concentration the exercise apparently required. Her horn lit slowly, growing from a faint glow to a blinding light as more and more magic gathered in it. The spell gained in strength, electricity started to gather around the appendage, a heavy wind rose around her, stronger and stronger. The clone started to have a very bad feeling about all this.

"Wait..." he shouted to be heard despite the wind, "whose essence did you take?"

A small circle of energy appeared in front of the horn. It was no bigger than a coin but it was slowly growing.

"Veves's and yours, Maine," she said softly. For some reasons, despite the fury of the elements, her voice was perfectly audible.

The racoon was really worried now. "Airhead, what are you doing?" "I will correct a mistake I did centuries ago, and free Zalea from her curse. I thought this was obvious at this point..."

The circle was the size of a pizza now. The racoon could see something inside. Something that did not look like the library.

"Airhead! Stop! You can't do that! There are rules! Time does not work that way!" "I don't care." "Airhead this won't work!" "I don't care," she said, finally opening the portal through space and time. The wind stopped, the magic around the horn faded. THE portal was open. "Airhead there will be a heavy price to pay..." "Maine... what kind of monster would I be if I let that stop me?", she said, turning briefly to face him. Then she was gone. Without giving him time to answer, she passed the portal. "I never said you'd be the one paying it..." he whispered to himself before he followed her. ~

It rained a lot that afternoon. A weather fitting Zalea's mood. She wanted to chill inside the library and the sound of the rain on the roof made the experience all the more pleasant.

Her new room was everything she could want. It was comfortable, it was spacious and it permitted her to read and play at her ease. But most of all, it was correctly connected to the magical and electrical grid, contrary to the previous one. This meant that she could use her different video games without requiring the presence of a unicorn or steal from the neighbours. Not that she felt any guilt about it, it just required too much effort. Needless to say, she was spending even more time in it.

This was thus where she was when she heard the entrance door opening but she was too lazy and too engrossed in her entertainment to go and check who it was. "Anypony home?" Atlas asked from the entrance.

"Yeah, I'm there," she shouted.

"Hey, Zalea!" "Hi." The unicorn knocked after a few seconds and Zalea told him to come in. He'd been away for a while, busy looking for a companion or something, leaving Zalea all alone in the library. Seeing the expression on his face there had been interesting results to his quest.

"Found what you looked for?" she said distractedly.

"One could say that. Tell me, how do you feel about p-" He stepped inside the room and stopped immediately. "Is that a Super Famipone?" he asked pointing the console plugged to the TV. "Yeah."

"Is that Seiken Densetsu 3?" he continued, pointing the screen.

"Yeah."

Atlas was sat next to her so fast she wondered if he had not teleported.

"What's your team?" he probed enthusiastically

"First pick: Kevin. Then Angela and Carlie."

"I prefer to main Duran or Angela personally, but y choice is more aggressive."

"You wanna play?" she asked out of the blue, presenting him a pad.

Atlas hesitated two full milliseconds before accepting. "Of course!"

He extended his arm to take it but it fell out of the zebra's hoof before he could catch it. He picked it up his magic.

"Already weak in the hooves?” he laughed. “How long have you b-"

He didn't finish that sentence. Zalea had fallen out of the bed and was lying on the ground, breathing with difficulty. Atlas immediately crouched at her side to help her. To his horror, his hooves went right through her.

"Zalea?" he tried. "Are you okay? What's happening?"

"Wh-where?" she tried painfully.

"What?"

"Where?"

"Where's what?"

"Wh-where... is... Airhead?"

Featuring @maine-writes, @chance-of-chaos, @the-mini-monoceros-pony and last but not least @jewel-atlas

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[littlewolfdiaries]

a business trip | dallas, johnny

the first time dallas winston vents to johnny cade ——

It was around four o'clock in the morning, moon barely visible behind cotton clouds, when Dally realized he had no place to go.

He’d always have options; he’d be an idiot to not, but he wasn’t sure he was welcome anywhere he went. Normally things like that didn’t bother him, but in the darkness all by his lonesome it weighed down his shoulders like a sack of heavy bricks.

Buck’s was packed with too many people. The cops would look for him there, it’s easily accessible information that he practically lived at the place.

And Tim Shepard’s parents were off the fucking wall. Plus, Angela wouldn’t be there and Curly annoyed the shit out of him. He was such a brat. When he got put away, Dally felt a little more comfort than he should have and Tim knew it. Needless to say, that made for an awkward afternoon.

Steve would more than likely be at the Curtis house. Dally wouldn’t go anyways; he hated the questions and the stares and pursed lips that came with it.

He supposed he would go to the lot. He really wanted to be alone, but he knew that if he was he would do something he’d regret. That, and if he stayed anywhere other than that concrete lot he’d be caught.

His hands stung real bad. Dally had no doubts broken glass shards were still lodged within them. It felt like he had a million paper cuts.

He’d bled harder dozens of times, but something about the way it hurt made it feel worse than all those other injuries.

Johnny looked tiny and peaceful in his blue jean jacket. Dally knew the second he approached the sleeping figure it would awake instantly, like a scared undomesticated animal, and he was right.

“Dally?” He slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes with both hands. His voice was hoarse. “Dal, is that you?”

“Yeah, man,” the words sounded like sandpaper. Rough, grainy. “It’s me.”

Johnny’s dark eyes doubled in size; he could sense something was wrong. “Are you okay, Dal? What’s the matter? You’re bleeding.”

“Yes, I’m bleeding.”

Johnny wanted the answer to his main question. There would be no more words to pass through his lips until he got it.

“I can’t fucking do it anymore,” the words caught in his Dally’s throat. He was illuminated by the light of the orange fire, it burned his cheeks. They felt plastic or rubber or something other than flesh.

Johnny frowned, patting the ground next to him. “Glory, Dal. What happened, man?”

“I got in fight with some stupid fuckin’ gang, ‘n fucked my hands up. Sylvia showed— the broad was cheerin’ on the leader! That wouldn’t have bothered me before, man, I know she’s easy. But, they’re gonna frame me— I know they are. I can’t even go to cops, either, they’re already looking for me.

And my dad, man. Snook in there earlier, lookin’ for… For stuff of my mom’s. He destroyed it all. He fuckin’ broke everything! My stuff. My old, good stuff— New York stuff. Ripped, stained, ruined. I just can’t fucking do it, Johnny. I feel like I’m empty— there is nothing inside me, Johnny. I’m broken.”

Johnny nodded, his level of energy went from beyond low to skyrocketing once Dallas finished his speech. His eyes, Dally’s, were invisible. The firelight reflected in them. Made a glare. Made them look all white, little transparent.

“Usually, I can, I don’t know, not feel it? But it’s, like, crushing me, Johnny. Forget it. I should go—”

“Dally, don’t you want to cry?” The fire reminded Johnny of the flare in Winston’s eyes. Tonight, it was on vacation. “Why don’t you just cry, man?”

It’d be back, though, the flare. The flame. Johnny was sure of it. It took a trip to New York. Where a dangerous flare was needed. A business trip.

It went on a short, short business trip.

“My friend was killed two days ago.”

“What? Who? What happened?” Johnny let out a puff of air. “It weighs on you, Dally, keeping everything to yourself.”

“I don’t want to lose control,” Dally’s voice cracked. Was he really crying? “But I can’t take it.”

This girl, Pony’s age, vaguely said once that Dally was weak. Pony and Johnny thought she was crazy; Dallas was as tough as nails! Maybe even harder— tougher.

Johnny realized now that girl was right. He knew Ponyboy never should have let her go. She was smart like him.

He wanted to race over to the Curtis house, and tell Pony. Get her to break up with her boyfriend, you deserve her. She was too smart.

Task at hand, Johnny. “Does it hurt for you, too? Inside.”

“Yes,” Dally admitted. Eyes closing. Opening two seconds later, beginning and ending of a cycle. Though, it wouldn’t be a cycle, then. Too short.

“Lay down, Dal. It’s late.”

He hesitated, tugging on his jacket and glancing over his shoulder as though there was something good to look at.

“There’s no blankets, but you won’t get cold. The fire is way too hot for that.”

Dally obeyed, swallowing hard. He almost looked like he was shaking. Not like the shaking you do when you’re cold. A different kind of shaking. It was scary.

“You wouldn’t tell no one about this, right?” The steel boy was choking up again. Only knew artificial tears, he was a tin man.

Johnny liked to think that in this moment his older friend was like Pinocchio. He’d shed his fake exterior for a real boy. It was a far stretch, but he liked it.

Dally cried until he fell asleep.

The rough-turned-smooth material of Johnny’s denim jacket was in the blonde’s cut hands now caked with dried blood the entire night.

In the morning, he’d be as tough as he was before. Maybe even tougher.