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polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup · 3 days ago

Note

pez dispenser debris for the fic ask thing? 👀

As much as this is my “kill no darlings you will get EVERY flashback” fic, there’s overarching sociopolitical backstory explaining why Izuku and the rest of class 3A exploded in the public eye that I don’t think I’ll ever fully fit in.

It’s a combination of it being more of a meta analysis than anything and also requiring information from a perspective that I know will never appear in the fic. Like, the fic still gets the different moments that make up this analysis, but there’s no explicit connecting thread to show how they all locked together to create this sort of global cult following of class 3-A. I almost put in a little fake news article opinion piece that was meant to sort of walk the reader through why society is Like This, but I decided it was too heavy handed and deleted it.

Everything that I’m going to reference has already appeared in pez dispenser debris to some degree, and none of it will ever actually materially impact the plot. They may receive a little more detail down the line if they’re mentioned in passing in the fic, so out of an abundance of caution, I’ll stick it below the cut so people can avoid this, but I don’t personally consider any of this spoilers.

Izuku and the rest of the class are famous in pez dispenser debris in a way that’s pretty much unprecedented for students. Canonically, not even all might had a name for himself until after his graduation. Pretty much everyone from class 3A are public figures, with Izuku specifically being considered a major global figure.

In my mind, there was this perfect storm right during their second year that catapulted them into fame. The class personally has varying levels of awareness of why they got so popular, but there was this perfect cross winds of societal unrest and fear that made them household names.

There was an approximately one month span in their second year where they were just hit one after another with a major firestorms of events: The UA Sports Festival, the Sidekick Strike, and the Tartarus Prison Break/Desertion of Yokohama.

The UA Sports Festival is the one that the kids attribute this most to, because so many of the news articles that followed referenced their performance in it. But it probably gave them less mileage than what the other two events did.

What the UA Sports Festival did was showcase their skills to the world in a venue designed to show them off. The public was already on edge. All Might had retired, crime rates kept going up, and people were rapidly losing confidence in existing heroes. Class 2A made such an insane showing of skill in the second Sports Festival that it made the public rave about them for weeks after. It was extremely reassuring to Japan that they had such powerful heroes in the barrel and would soon be on the streets. But that attention probably would have died down had it not been for the Sidekick Strike and Yokohama.

The Sidekick Strike actually had nothing to do with them. But it undermined the public’s faith in heroes at just the right time.

The Sidekick Strike is just one of those things that I have no POV that would even tangentially be involved in it so we’ll get a few passing references in media clips and it’ll never be discussed in depth. Which is a shame because it’s such an interesting conflict to me.

The Sidekick Strike was heavily inspired by the 1919 Boston Police Strike. Effectively, it was the height of the labor rights movement, and police officers got together and went on strike to get the police union recognized. They had tried to negotiate and negotiations failed, and so they all walked off the job. The city descended into lawlessness, the national guard was deployed, it was a whole thing. Famously, Calvin Coolidge fired the entire police force over it on the grounds that there was no striking from public safety.

I thought it would be really interesting if there was something similar that happened with the sidekicks. The thing is that the heroics structure as it stands really incentivizes abuse towards sidekicks. We have a society where there’s a decent amount of heroes who are only in it for the fame. A not insignificant amount of money must come from marketing deals. And it’s a ranked system, so they’re all in competition with each other.

Heroes wouldn’t be incentivized to showcase their sidekicks—they’d be incentivized to take advantage of them and take credit for their work.

Like, think about the work-study experiences. Momo didn’t even officially work for the hero she studied with. She wasn’t getting paid. An adult woman used her for a shampoo ad. Who wants to bet whether Momo saw a dime from it? It’s probably very predatory because the nature of the system incentivizes predation.

I thought the underlying legal issues would be interesting and complex. Who owns a sidekick’s image—the agency or the individual? Who gets the proceeds of their brand deals? This all would be governed by their employment contracts, and sidekicks just starting out have very little leverage compared to big name heroes. And those heroes would want to keep their sidekicks names small and theirs big. The rankings are competitive, after all.

It’s a situation where I do think that like. The sidekicks would have a point in unionizing. The use of their image, appropriate compensation, and proper credit for their busts would all be like, very legitimate concerns in a normal employment context.

I see agencies like Idaten settling immediately with the union and having their sidekicks back on the street before the day is out. In my mind, idaten is considered the gold standard for sidekick jobs already, and their employees mostly did it out of solidarity with the people they worked alongside of. Like, Idaten was already doing most of the union’s demands and signed off very quickly on the remaining ones. If it was just about the Idaten sidekicks, none of them would have gone on strike, but they had a lot of colleagues who they depended on in the field who were in terrible situations. What were they gonna say, sorry, sucks to be you, I got a great gig though so condolences? These were the people keeping them alive. They went on strike because they knew Idaten would publicly settle before the day was out and set an example for the rest of the agencies. Hopefully it would help other agencies follow their lead.

But that didn’t happen. Some agencies, like Endeavor’s, fired everyone immediately. And I think a lot of agencies spent a long time picking over every line item in prolonged negotiations. It dragged out.

And that went over fucking terribly.

All Might just retired. Crime is up. And their sworn defenders are bickering over who gets what cut of the action figure line. Like I think the public would have fucking hated this in a post-All Might world. It would have seemed like the only real hero just medically and irreversibly retired and the rest of them are squabbling about whose turn it is in the spotlight.

I also think that the villains would have taken advantage of it.

The Tartarus Prison Break in pez isn’t the one that happened in canon. Here, the League of Villains attacked Tartarus and set everyone loose. In the process, they made a very clear stance: they are going to leave with All for One, and they are not going to attack any civilians. They won’t fight at all unless attacked first.

All of the horrible and sadistic villains they just let go have not made the same promise.

They chose to do this now because of the Sidekick Strike. All their heroes don’t give a fuck about protecting them, so they’re strapped for staffing. So they’re taking back their leader and going back to ground, and the heroes are free to immediately go after and contain all those bad bad villains who just escaped. And those guys are headed to the heavily populated mainland, so better be quick.

The whole world knew that was their explicit reasoning and promise. Because Himiko fucking lived tweeted the escape.

The Sidekick Strike took the hit for a lot of the blame, but I do see all the sidekicks breaking strike lines to go respond to the crisis. But response times were severely handicapped by the fact that most if not all of them were cut off from their agencies. It was just a complete systemic breakdown.

And then there became the question of what crisis do you respond to: All for One’s escape, or everyone else’s?

I mentioned in one of the little fake tumblr posts that the Tartarus Prison Break was seen as Endeavor’s greatest failure. And part of that is because he chose to sacrifice the nearby area, Yokohama, to contain All for One.

I am one of the biggest haters of Endeavor’s later arc, specifically because it required going back on the nature of the abuse he had subjected his family to that was already established in canon, but that’s a different rant. This is not canon endeavor. I hate what they did with canon endeavor.

That being said, I do think that the self doubt weighed on him once he became number one. And this was the moment of his career where it really crushed him.

All for One had escaped. So had every other villain from Tartarus. He should go after the most immediate threats. He knew this. It was basic triage.

But they would never have a better chance to stop All for One.

Prisoners in Tartarus aren’t exactly hitting all their macros and micros or training daily. They are not adherents to the Bakugou Katsuki Fitness Lifestyle. All for One was coming off spending the last few months drugged up to his eyeballs and strapped to a chair in a straitjacket with at least fifty guns pointed at him at all times. The man has not scratched his own nose in weeks. He’s weaker now than he’ll ever be again.

It was their best chance.

If he escaped, and he went back to ground, he’d have the time and space to get as strong as he wanted, and then he’d come back for real. And he’d be coming back for everything.

Stopping him the first time had cost them All Might.

And Endeavor simply was not All Might. And he still wouldn’t be All Might when the next fight came.

It really was the hardest decision of Endeavor’s life. He had to admit to himself that his own inadequacy was going to cost them countless lives. But he thought it was a hard decision he had to make. He was losing the battle for the barest chance at winning the war.

So he made the call that all heroes were to respond to All for One. They had to hit the league of villains now with their full force if they were to stand a chance. They could not afford to divide their already sparse forces. They’d respond to Yokohama when AfO was contained.

He was also the one who made the call to broadcast the warning message that we hear in the Twitter post. He thought it would give civilians their best chance. He didn’t want them to act with the expectation of the heroes being en route.

Of course, that meant that the entire city got fucking sirens going off and a message telling them that the heroes were not going to save them. Which, as you can expect, did not do a lot for public morale.

In my head, Tartarus is like, the equivalent to Gotham’s Arkham. It’s borderline an institute for the criminally insane. You don’t end up there unless you did something super fucked, are super dangerous, and have extreme violent tendencies. It’s exclusively for the most dangerous and indiscriminately violent criminals in the country.

The entire world was watching in real time while the tragedy unfolded. A lot of people were livestreaming after the emergency broadcast dropped, because they didn’t want the government to be able to handwave away how terrible their death was, or because they didn’t know what else to do, or because they just didn’t want to be alone. The full expectation was that it’d be a massacre.

But it wasn’t. Because Class 2-A responded instead.

The Class 2-A defensive efforts were discussed in one of the silly little fake tumblr posts and in the fake twitter post. In those, we find out that 1) Class 2-A, along with Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire responded to the scene; 2) the entire class rolled out of Mirio’s fucking mom van and tamaki and nejire’s cars like they were fucking clown cars; 3) the HPSC claimed it was a legitimate operation blessed and coordinated by them; and 4) a lot of people think this was a lie, in part because videos leaked of Aizawa bitching them all out in the street afterwards. We also see Izuku’s green lightning at the end of the twitter video, showing him responding to the scene just as the first villains hit the mainland.

This fight has a lot of names in the backstory that lives in my head. It’s called the Tartarus Prison Break for obvious reasons. It’s also been called in some circles the Desertion of Yokohama, because of the call Endeavor made.

But it’s also called the Battle of Yokohoma. And it’s ranked alongside the Battle of Kamino as one of the finest acts of modern day heroics. And that’s because of Class 2-A. If it hadn’t been for them showing up, it would have gone down in history as the Massacre of Yokohama.

Like. It kills me that I can’t include the full details of what happened, but there’s just too much to make in a flashback. It’s a fic in and of itself. But it really was the fight that made Class 2-A.

It was the first fight where they were really the only heroes that could be counted on. Granted, they’d had to fight for their lives alone, but this wasn’t just their lives. These were thousands of terrified civilians who all thought they were going to die.

It was the first true test of them as heroes in the world. And they actually rose to the occasion. They didn’t just fight the villains—they realized that they needed to get emergency services working throughout the city if everyone was going to make it. Momo and Tsuyu conducted a mildly hostile take over of the emergency call center so they could coordinate relief. They had fucking Tokoyami and Dark Shadow single-handedly holding the line on the hospital while Kaminari, Shoji, Jiro, and Sato all learned to drive for the Very First Time while commandeering the city’s fucking ambulances. They were fighting and containing villains, performing emergency aid, putting out literal fires, everything. It was the hardest fight of their lives.

There was a hot second where Class 2-A was The Moment. Like. The entire world was watching them during this fight, and they had no fucking idea until it was over. People lost their minds when the first footage made it out of Yokohama of a bunch of teenagers showing up and immediately throwing hands with S-Class villains.

It was global news. Think of the kind of media attention that was received by the search for the Titan, the Tham Luang Cave Rescue, the Suez Canal getting blocked by the Ever Given (rip queen you will always be famous to me), that kind of thing. Class 2-A was fighting for their fucking lives and then found out three days later while they were all still in the hospital that there was a prayer vigil going on in Portugal for them during the battle and CNN had 24 hours live coverage of the fight that had so many viewers it outnumbered the population of Finland. Like what do you even do with that information.

The world expected a massacre. They didn’t expect a bunch of footage of high schoolers kicking the shit out of superpowered murders and personally ferrying the injured to the hospitals they were also defending.

The other part about this fight that really made them permanently part of the public consciousness is that it was not lost on everyone that every single person who responded to that fight did so at the risk of their license.

All of them had provisional licenses, save Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire, all of whom went AWOL from the explicit directives ordering them to respond to the fight against All for One. The operation could not have been less authorized. They had to steal their gear and jimmy the UA fence to even get out. The explicit plan was to steal one of the UA buses and have Bakugou fucking drive them to the fight (he also did not know how to drive but he seemed the most likely of them to break literally every single motor vehicle code to get them there but still be naturally talented at it enough to not kill them) but Izuku told Mirio what bullshit they were up to and Mirio, who was with Tamaki and Nejire when the news broke, immediately decided he would be on that bullshit too and pulled up in his mom van.

In my mind, there were strict rules around provisional licenses and how they could be used, and they broke pretty much all of them to respond to Yokohama. It would have been grounds to revoke their provisionals and permanently bar them from heroics. Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire could have all lost their licenses for helping them and for going AWOL.

The HPSC fucking fell over themselves to legitimatize the entire operation. They knew they were utterly fucked if they didn’t. These kids already had murals being painted of their faces in other fucking countries. There was a little old lady in Kyoto livestreaming herself working overtime to embroider Iida’s face onto a cushion because that lovely young man saved her darling granddaughter from *checks notes* horrible and painful death directly caused by the failings of the current HPSC administration. There were multiple trending posts online agreeing to fucking riot if those kids got in trouble for this.

Every single actual hero in the immediate vicinity of this disaster had responded to fight a villain who wasn’t actually attacking anyone. And then they fucking lost. They publicly broadcast a message saying Good Luck Champs Because We’re Not Going To Save You. It was an actual PR nightmare that they had a bare chance of salvaging if they just latched onto these kids like an aggressive parasite and that is exactly what they did.

They totally knew. Actually, it was a joint operation coordinated by and between UA and and the HPSC. Why would the kids be in trouble?? They had responded because the HPSC told them to.

UA gave it a week of dead silence and then issued a short statement praising the bravery of their students in a recent HPSC approved mission, and then they never said another word about it. They didn’t have any choice but to go along with the HPSC’s story. If they contradicted them, all of class 2-a would find their licenses pulled by the end of the day, and lord knows they wouldn’t wait for the court of public opinion to work its magic and would just all go out and become fucking vigilantes, because why not. Aizawa has aged 100 years since he got this class. Every single day he thinks of how it was a 50/50 shot between him and Vlad.

No one in the class is fully aware of just how famous they were in the immediate aftermath, because the school bent over backwards to try and shield them from it as much as possible. Like, they have an idea, but none of them saw the full explosion firsthand because of just how hard the school worked to keep it from them. Aizawa confiscated the internet router and told them it was punishment for whatever the fuck they did to the buses (thank god Mirio was just as crazy as them because they were NOT GOOD at hotwiring cars) but really it was to try and insulate them from it a little bit. Like. Japan’s Imperial Family wanted to do an official visit. The White House offered to host them. They received interview requests from every major talk show on the planet. Buzzfeed wanted to do a puppy interview with them.

Right now, Aizawa’s terrified for Midoriya’s graduation, but in the aftermath of that, he was breathing into a paper bag about all of them. Society had sort of latched onto them like they were the last life raft on the titanic. All for One was back, and All Might wasn’t, and the heroes had publicly broadcast a message saying they were useless, but don’t fucking worry, fifteen year old Iida Tenya is on the case. Society will be upheld by Kaminari Denki, currently viral for driving a real life city ambulance one hundred miles per hour down the street while screaming “WEE WOO BITCH.” And don’t forget the pillar that will be Mina Ashido, who rushed over to him earlier that day to show him her extra sparkly pink nails. And if you have a major fight that needs to be won? Don’t fucking worry, just send out bone-breaking boy wonder Midoriya Izuku and his equally reckless brother Toogata Mirio, because their dumbasses managed to take down an S-Class villain team that only All Might could defeat the first time around. Don’t worry about the multi week hospitalization they needed after, because that’s an acceptable burden to put on children.

When Aizawa started this job, he promised himself he would never send a student out to die. Some of them would die. But it would be tragedy, not damnation. He’d have given them their best chance. Part of the reason why he made that promise was because he sort of felt like his teacher sent him out set up to die, and it’s only luck that he made it through his first couple of years.

He has gone to the funeral of every single student he has ever had who did not make it. He goes back to their graves every year.

He was fucking petrified after Yokohama that society would push these kids too far too soon. Every single one of his classes before them had gotten the benefit of being practically unknown their first few years. They didn’t have the world talking about them like they were already the top heroes. He was terrified they wouldn’t have the space to learn and grow when they started.

A lot of teachers would have tried to mine the notoriety of Yokohama to hard launch their students’ careers. Aizawa told Nedzu point blank that he would quit tomorrow if he did not help him quash this thing as much as possible, and nedzu agreed.

This world killed its real heroes. It sucked them dry and left them like All Might, and he just needed fucking time. He needed fucking time to let them be kids and maybe they’d survive.

Izuku ended up being the one who escaped the aftermath of everything the least. His Quirk was too much like All Might’s for the world to let go of him easily.

And then Stain got fucking dogpiled by idaten in the aftermath of the Tartarus prison break and implied he considered Izuku the only true hero in the absence of all might and everyone started asking super inconvenient questions like “how does stain even know you exist” and “no really he called you by your actual legal name how does he even know that” and it just. It didn’t help things. Izuku’s suffering.

So yeah. There was just this absolute collision of a total lack of faith in current heroes combined with a huge swell of public trust in class 2-a that led us to being in the landscape we are now. All of the currently licensed heroes said that they wouldn’t be there to save the public, and then Class 2-A immediately hit back that they would be there. Actually, they’ll risk everything to be there. They’ll die to protect the public and they’ll risk the entire future they had been trying to build and they will fucking be there to save them.

There’s a lot of people that never forgave the heroes for deserting Yokohama. And there’s even more people who have absolute faith in Izuku and his classmates because they didn’t. That’s why the world is watching them so aggressively. These kids are the most trusted heroes in Japan right now.

I wish I could fit in more about what happened, because I love this backstory so much, but 1) some of it absolutely requires POVs like Endeavors, which we won’t get in pez dispenser debris, 2) there’s no one POV that could tell the full story via flashback and 3) it’d just be too long of a divergence. Like. It really is a whole fic of its own. I’d love to write it one day but I probably won’t have the time

#pez dispenser debris #bnha #the sheer drama of the battle of Yokohama #you know the fanfiction battle that lives in my head lol #it’s SO dramatic to me and I’m obsessed with it #when the footage first leaked of class 2A responding people fucking rioted #people all over the world stayed up all night to watch them fight #like They Were The Moment #it was one of those really unique moments of humanity where the entire world held its breath at the same time #and it was just them all really coming into themselves as heroes #there’s so many fucking dramatic moments of it #Izuku had the exact same analysis of all for one’s escape as endeavor #he knew he’d never get a better chance to stop him than right this second. and he also knew that all for one would be coming for him.#no one knew it would one day be his fight. endeavor didn’t know. but Izuku saw afo’s escape and realized that if he went and tried to end #him now it would be his best chance at surviving to adulthood. he picked Yokohama. he doesn’t regret that.#there’s this dramatic moment where all might finds him when they’re breaking out of the school and tells him he’s proud and then lets him go #there’s this huge dramatic fight between Izuku and Mirio and a villain team that wrecked havoc over Japan for nine months until they were #stopped by all might and sir nighteye. there’s TikTok edits of the end of the fight between them and All Might/Nighteye and the end of the #fight between them and Izuku/Mirio. there’s TikTok edits. I’m sick in the head over this fanfic battle I’m sick over it someone sedate me #the entire world is kind of obsessed over this fight but class 3A doesn’t like to talk about it. they were all sort of scared out of their #minds. like no one was coming. it was just them and some of the worst villains alive. everyone close enough to respond was responding to afo #and everyone else was too far away to make it. and like. the UNSPEAKABLE relief the heroes felt when dawn came and Yokohama was still #standing. Aizawa was one of the first to respond to Tartarus before endeavor made the call otherwise he would have been awol too. he got #news mid-battle that UAs class 2A had responded to Yokohama and he spent the entire night terrified that one of them would be dead by the #time he got there. and then he made it and his kids were bloody and exhausted and in shock but they were fucking alive.#he nearly kills yagi in the aftermath what do you MEAN you KNEW THEY WERE DOING THIS and HUGGED THEM GOODBYE #there was also this entire HPSC document leak that happened that I’ve referenced a few times but that was months later so it wasn’t part of #the perfect storm during the twoish weeks surrounding their second sports festival. like what a time. Aizawa has never been more stressed ou #in his life. except for maybe right now when there’s two Izukus and both are in crisis.

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broareweabouttoviberightnow · 3 days ago

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begging you for more picky eater dallas!!!!!!

AOUH!! I've gotten like four asks for this one!! I hope I did it justice!! fic under the cut!! TYSM for the ask AGH!!!

The second Dallas walks into the Curtis' house he turns his nose up. Somethin' simmerin' in the kitchen 'n stinkin' the whole place up. For a moment he considers just spinnin' right on his heel 'n beatin' it outta there.

"Oh good, just in time Dal." Darry appears from the hall, rollin' up his sleeves, 'n ducks into the kitchen. "I thought I was gonna hafta hunt you down."

Dallas scowls, flips him off the second his back is turned. Darry's been on a bit of a one-man mission lately to force them all (but really just Dallas) into eatin' better. Apparently, a person could only make so many a nutritious dinner of three cigs 'n a sleeve of swiped Chips Ahoy jokes before Darry's goddamn mother-hen instincts kicked in.

"Not like you gave me any choice." Dallas mutters, toes his boots off 'n figures it's too late to make a break for it now.

"Nope!" Darry pops the p cheerfully 'n Dallas glares daggers at his back. "Now c'mere 'n stir these."

He drags himself into the kitchen, the record player spinnin' through The Beatles Help! album. Dallas rolls his eyes, mostly on instinct rather than actual dislike, 'n takes the wooden spoon Darry offers him.

He has to fight the urge to not cover his face with his sleeve, the smell alone turnin' his stomach. He settles for leanin' as far back as he possibly can, stirrin' the pot with his arm extended as far as it could go. Darry quirks an eyebrow at him, opens his mouth, but before he can say anythin' Pony slides in on socked feet, nearly trippin' 'n fallin' straight on his face. He scrambles for a moment, slippin' on the tile before Darry reaches over to deftly grab him by the shoulder.

Soda's right behind him, slammin' into Pony when he stops abruptly so there's no savin' either of 'em 'n they both go straight down in a heap on the floor. "Sodaaa!" Pony whines, kickin' at his older brother's tangled limbs.

Soda grins, kickin' Pony back for a moment before somethin' catches his attention 'n he sticks his nose straight up in the air like a hound dog. "Darry! Are those mama's collards?"

"Soda!"

"Sorry, sorry!" He finally disentangles himself from Pony, with one final whack to the shin on Pony's side, 'n pops up, divin' for the pot on the stove.

"Ah, you can wait for dinner like everyone else." Darry turns, quick as quick, pops him once on the back of his outstretched hand 'n Soda wails like he'd been shot, collapses into Dallas' arms like he'll get any more sympathy there.

Dallas catches him, shoves the spoon into Soda's hands 'n spins him back to his feet at the stove. "Since you like 'em so much you can stand here 'n stir 'em." Soda pouts a lil', jams an elbow into Dallas' ribs he doesn't manage to fully avoid, but turns back around to the stovetop.

"Fine. Then Dallas, you 'n Pony can come over here 'n pull this chicken."

Pony whines wordlessly 'n Dallas scowls, mutters, "Didn't know you only invited me 'round so I could do all you're housework," at the same time Pony huffs,

"I'm pretty sure there's child labor laws against this shit." Darry rolls his eyes at them both, reaches back 'n unties his apron.

"Hush, both of ya before I make you do the dishes too." More glarin' 'n draggin' ass but they both throw themselves down at the kitchen table to diligently start on the chicken. "Good." He ruffles both their hair, turnin' to give Soda the same when he pouts.

"Where're you goin'?" Pony narrows his eyes accusin'ly as Darry ducks out of the kitchen, comes back with the keys to the truck, laces up his shoes.

"I gotta run down to the corner store. 'N don't you go gettin' mouthy with me 'cause I'm only goin' to pick up Pepsi for your ass." Pony relents, shrugs a shoulder by way of apology, 'n returns to the chicken. "I'm gonna pick up Two on the way back 'n then dinner should be all ready."

He palms his wallet off the counter 'n is halfway out the door before he turns back, points a condemnin' finger at both Pony 'n Soda. "'N y'all better not eat any of it before I'm back, y'hear?"

They don't even give him the decency of waitin' for the door to swing shut before Soda has a heapin' spoonful of collards in his mouth 'n Pony has a handful of chicken.

Good. Dallas thinks, dryly, when they turn implorin' raised eyebrows to him, less for me.

...

The dinin' room table is full to overflowin', probably only really made for four they've managed to squeeze the seven of them in. All elbows, 'n knees 'n kickin' each other, accidently 'n intentionally. Reachin' hands 'n glasses crowded together in the center like refugees on an island so nothin' got spilled.

Darry hmms vaguely to himself, drops Pony 'n Johnny's plates down in front of them 'n neither wait for any other promptin' to dig in. Soda howls at somethin' Steve says, goes to knock his ankle 'n misses, jarrin' the whole table.

"Jesus, Mary, 'N Joseph Soda." Dallas reaches out 'n grabs the can of Pepsi 'n glass of water that pitch to the side in a motion he's done probably a thousand times. "Cool it."

"Well, maybe I wouldn't have to turn the table up if Dar'd hurry up with dinner." He teases, grinnin' wide when Darry fixes him with a look over his shoulder.

"Maybe it wouldn't take me so long if I didn't have to fix all your plates, huh?"

"Aw, Dar. C'mon, how old d'ya think we are?"

"Well, lemme think. Last time I let y'all get your own dinner Pony ate half a pan a mac 'n cheese on his lonesome, Two didn't have nothin' on his but chocolate cake, 'n Dallas had a cigarette for dinner." The offendin' parties let out indignant noises 'n Darry promptly twists around to ignore them. "The only one a y'all I can trust to serve his damn self is Johnny. You would think I have a house full a toddlers."

"Aw, Dar. Don't be such a stick in the mud! Cake is a well-rounded meal-" Two grins, puts his elbows up on the table, drops his head into his hands, 'n blinks up at Darry.

"Save it." Darry knocks his arms off, slides both Dallas' 'n Two's plates in front of them. Two pouts for a half second before tuckin' straight in, half standin' to snatch the barbeque sauce from in front of Steve.

Dallas scowls down at his plate. Half of it covered with mushy collards whose smell is enough to put him off everythin' else. There's coleslaw shoved up into the corner thanks to Steve's insistence, the chicken takin' up the leftover space.

Jesus Christ, Darry had really gone for it.

Johnny accidentally elbows him in the side but the bench seat probably was never intended for three people so he really couldn't blame him. Dallas glances up to Johnny's big, dark eyes studyin' him quizzically. "What, you ain't hungry or somethin'?"

His voice is all quiet so his question slides right under the vehement argument Steve, Pony, Soda, 'n Two are holdin' regardin' whether you could put barbeque sauce on pasta.

"Naw, it ain't that." (It's got tomatoes in it! It's basically marinara!)

Johnny raises an eyebrow when Dallas picks his fork up, pushes the coleslaw back 'n forth on his plate. (What the hell does that hafta do with anythin'? Next you're gonna be tellin' me you can put ketchup on pasta 'n it's basically the same.)

Dallas glances over, Darry's back still turned as he finally gets his own dinner together. (Well...) Johnny's already housed most of his, but he always ate like a man half-starved. (EW! My God, I'm arguin' with a savage.)

He doesn't wait a moment more, pushin' his plate against Johnny's 'n scrapin' a decent helpin' of both the coleslaw 'n greens. So, of course, Soda picks just that moment to take a break from the heated debate 'n slap a palm against the table, grabbin'.

"Hey! If we're sharin' slide some my way!" Dallas kicks him under the table, hard. Soda yelps but it's already too late.

Darry turns, plops his food at his seat, rasies an eyebrow over at Soda, then Dallas, fork still hoverin' over Johnny's, plate slid up shotgun.

"Dallas Winston." 'N Darry's got that scoldin' tone in his voice he usually saves for Pony. Or Two. "Eat your food or so help me I'm gonna make you have double."

Dallas scowls down at the table, can see Pony lean forward to peek around Johnny, Steve 'n Soda sharin' a confused look. "I dunno what y'all are lookin' at." Darry cuts in, mercifully drawin' the group's attention away as fast as he had focused it. "Also. Barbeque sauce can't go on pasta. 'Cause that's real vile." He says with finality 'n Two 'n Steve both jump to argue.

Dallas pushes the coleslaw around. Goddamn, he didn't know how people could like this stuff.

Here's the thing. Dallas wasn't picky. Picky was for toddlers 'n Pony insistin' for an entire summer that sweet potatoes were disgustin'. Dallas would eat anythin'. Or at least he used to.

"Can I have s'more Dar?" Pony 'n Soda have both cleaned their plates thoroughly enough it looks like they licked 'em. Hell, they might've.

"Go for it, kid." Darry idly glances over, raises an eyebrow at Dallas, nods pointedly, goes back to whatever he'd been shootin' the shit about.

He sighs, comes to terms with the fact he ain't gettin' outta this. The chickens probably his best bet so he sighs, sticks his fork into it.

"Goddamn, no sauce Dal?" Steve cuts in 'n Dallas rolls his eyes, lets out an aggravated scoff.

"Can't a man do a fuckin' thing around here without gettin' the peanut gallery?" Dallas shoves the bite into his mouth, flips Steve off when he just grins haughtily. "Also barbeque sauce tastes like shit so-"

"Woah woah woah! No need to start throwin' around insults!" Two cuts in with an indignant wail.

Dinner goes on like that for another twenty minutes or so. Soda 'n Pony damn near come to blows over the last of the collards, Johnny polishes off the rest of the chicken when no one's lookin', Steve's got the whole bowl of leftover coleslaw in his lap, 'n Two's waitin' as patiently as he can for Darry to cave 'n pull out the chocolate cake.

Dallas has managed about six more bites.

"Jesus Christ, Dal. You gonna finish that today or...?" Soda eyes the mushy, untouched, cold pile of greens like a five-dollar bill on the sidewalk.

"Glory, y'all are like vultures. Take your cake 'n go put on Mickey. You're crowdin' up my kitchen." Darry shoos them out, dumps an arm full of dishes into the sink. Two shoots straight up, balances the whole heapin' cake in his arms 'n a fork 'n vanishes into the livin' room, Steve 'n Soda hot on his heels. Pony 'n Johnny linger only long enough to help Darry stack the cups up 'n then follow.

Dallas shoves his plate away, goes to get to his feet. Darry's hand comes down hard on his shoulder, pushes him back into his chair. "Nuh-uh. Not you."

"What the hell, man." He makes to twist away 'n Darry easily holds him in place. "You can't make me fuckin' finish my dinner like I'm four."

"Naw, I can't." Dallas turns to glare at him over his shoulder.

"Glad we've come to the same conclusion. Now got offa me." In one smooth motion, Darry pushes his chair back in, pulls Dallas' plate closer to him.

"I wasn't done. I sure can't make you eat 'em but I can make you sit here all night. Choice is up to you." Darry grins, turns to flip the tap on. Dallas' glare bores holes into his back.

"This is bullshit. I ain't a kid." Darry hmms vaguely to himself, lifts the record needle 'n starts the album again.

"Really? Coulda fooled me." Dallas grits his teeth, grips the chair til his knuckles are white.

They lapse into silence, Darry washin' the dishes, hummin' absently to himself, Dallas scowlin' down at the table, then turnin' his fork around 'n around, then resortin' to draggin' it across the plate so it shrieked.

Darry pointedly ignores him, reaches over 'n crankin' the volume. He goes on for another minute before a throw pillow comes careenin' through the doorway, beamed at Dallas' head.

"Can you keep it down in there? God damn!" Steve hollers 'n Dallas shoves his chair back, squealin'. Unfortunately, Darry's quicker.

"Y'all know you have a volume dial on that TV, right?"

"But-"

"Good Lord, don't make me kick y'all out." Darry crosses his arms 'n Steve, after a moment's glarin', backs down.

"Fine, fine. Don't get your panties in a twist." Darry fixes Steve with one last look before he trudges back to the sink, stickin' his hands back into the soapy water. The moment he's outta the doorway Steve flips Dallas off 'n he happily returns the gesture.

"Dallas. Eat." Dallas scowls, props one elbow on the table, leans down to try to watch whatever Western they had rerunnin' on the tube. Darry clears his throat without turnin' around, the bastard, 'n Dallas sits back up.

He turns the plate 'round. Just do it. Just bite the bullet. He scrapes a forkful of the greens, somehow even mushier now then they'd been hot, together. Lifts it up to his mouth. Pussies out. Why couldn't he just fuckin' eat? Like he used to? Jesus. Back in New York he'd-

The tap flips off 'n Darry wipes his hands on his jeans, twists around to look at Dallas. God, why were the Curtis' always doin' that? Just lookin' at you like they could pick you right apart.

"C'mere." Dallas jolts to his feet, happy for an excuse to finally escape the goddamn table. "'N bring your plate." He makes a face 'n Darry just quirks an eyebrow, puts his hands back on his hips. Dallas kicks at the floor balefully, but snatches the food up, trudges behind Darry out to the porch.

It's a mild night. The kind they would migrate out into once everythin' good had stopped playin' on the TV. Spillin' over the porch steps 'n the swingin' chair. Pony scratchin' away at some drawin' in the low light of the street lamps or readin' somethin' Dallas couldn't make heads or tails of. Johnny wipin' the floor with whoever he could convince to play cards. Darry rockin' all slow back 'n forth. Soda twistin' those bracelets outta the high summer grass. The cicadas hissin' 'n singin'.

But for now, Darry just eases down onto the steps, jerks his head for Dallas to sit next to him. He does, reluctantly, droppin' his plate down between them.

"You don't like it?" Darry waves a hand absently 'n Dallas' stomach twists up. He doesn't sound upset, really. Just curious. But it makes somethin' like sick slide down Dallas' throat.

'Cause Darry's been real good to him. He'd admit it. When he wasn't naggin' him 'n fussin' like an old maid, Darry was a real good guy. 'N it's so stupid 'cause Dallas won't even do him the favor of eatin' his fuckin' food.

"You can be honest." Dallas swallows thickly. Shakes his head. Fiddles with the loose step. "Well, alright."

Dallas whips up 'n Darry just tilts his head, looks at him evenly. "That's it?"

"Well, no." A car passes by, briefly lights up the lawn with its one workin' headlight. "We gotta find somethin' you'll like."

'N it's stupid. It's so goddamn stupid. Stupid that someone cares enough to make sure he fuckin' likes his food. Stupid that Darry Curtis is probably the first person to ever care. "Oh."

Darry turns to look at him, furrows a brow, rests a hand on Dallas' shoulder he doesn't even think to knock away. "I ain't gonna let you go hungry. Not on my watch." Oh. God, it was so stupid. Dallas makes a low noise down in his throat he didn't ask for at all. Darry doesn't hesitate, just hauls him across the step to his side. 'Cause Darry was a good brother. To all of 'em.

There's a moment's pause. The crickets hop across the sidewalk, the street lamp flickers 'n buzzes, the cicadas screech.

"Hey, Darry?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"Do I gotta eat those greens?" 'N Darry blinks down at him once, snorts, chuckles, 'n then dissolves into the kinda laughter that makes Dallas just open his mouth 'n join right in despite himself.

"I'll make you a deal." He grins, catches his breath. "You eat two bites 'n I won't make 'em for a month."

Dallas scowls but he doesn't mean it. Not really. Not at all. "Soda might just die."

Darry smiles, squeezes him once on the shoulder, twists to grab Dallas' plate 'n put it back in his hands. "You know, I think he'll live."

'N they're gross. They really are. But he swallows them back quickly, like a shot. 'N maybe doesn't even mind that much when Darry clears his throat at him tryin' to get the smallest bite he possibly can. 'Cause he cares. 'N that makes it that much easier.

#hmm #food insecurity dallas i am always thinkin about you #i dunno #somethin about johnnys food insecurity makin him always half starved #he'll eat anythin'#n quick like hes always scared of it bein taken from him #n dallas whose food insecurity manifests in him just not bein able to tolerate certain foods n textures #cause back in ny he would eat anythin just to stay alive #n now he cant eat shit that reminds him of that #augh #hmmm #im just always thinkin #anyways!!#i got like four asks about picky eater dallas!!#yall REALLY wanted to see this one!!#im not sure how i feel about it #i think i could do better #but dallas is a tough character to write for #hes a weirdo #MY weirdo but still #anywhosies #the outsiders #ponyboy curtis #sodapop curtis #darry curtis #dallas winston #steve randle #johnny cade #two bit mathews #my writing

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