#like in windrixville??

[positively-peachy-143]

I feel like we don't talk about the gang's funky little whistle enough

[chippedshake]

Reminder that Ponyboy carries a comb around in his back pocket. Everywhere. For no particular reason.

[radarsteddybear]

Ponyboy for the whole dang novel: Darry hates me.

Darry, every time he says anything to Ponyboy: I love you, I love you, I'm scared to death that you'll be taken away from me, I want to give you every opportunity I didn't have, I love you, I love you...

[your-unfriendlyghost]

what’s left of Windrixville

Partially inspired by @dallasgallant’s really cool ghost au which you should DEFINITELY CHECK OUT it’s so rad istg. It’s very American gothic/The Hitcher/…idk spooky road trip feeling. …These ain’t great descriptions, just check it out ok?

(Also along w/ the long hair, I’ve also headcannoned for a while that older Ponyboy goes on wearing Dally’s jacket. Conveniently, c. Thomas Howell wears a similar- albeit different but SIMILAR- jacket as Jim Halsey in Hitcher, so ref pics were easy to find. Did still reference Dally’s jacket though too- it has a kinda uniquely large collar, and it also hangs slightly differently than most similar aviator-type jackets? Idk what the deal is with its fabric, too…it looks sorta suede-y or like soft leather…tangent aside I really want one lol. I definitely don’t need one I have like three leather jackets one of which is an aviator…but man, Dally’s got a tuff jacket.)

[sparklingcid3r]

Something I’ll always love about Soda and Darry is their fire and ice contrast.

Soda, whose love runs so hot it burns. It draws Pony in and keeps him at Soda’s side, craving the warmth and safety that his bonfire of a brother offers.

The way Soda wraps Pony up in his arms while they’re under the blankets and Pony’s anxiety and fear is rolling off his shoulders in waves. After nightmares, it’s Soda’s natural warmth he gravitates to. He’s a sun, and everyone else spins on their orbit, but they’re all revolving around him and his whims.

Soda, who’s one of the best fighters out of all of them. The way he sparks and blazes, quick on his feet and jabbing his opponents with the heat of a cigarette burn.

Soda, whose anger is an eruption of pent up fear and frustration, slow to ignite but a wildfire once it does.

Soda, whose letter was the lighthouse Pony needed to see to start slowly making his way home to his brothers.

Compared to Darry, whose eyes got cold and hard after their parents died. Who doesn’t smile anymore but who’s melted by Soda poking warm fun at him, and who’s shattered by the tragedy that follows Pony from the lot to Windrixville back to Tulsa.

Darry, whose love is a cool stream of air on a sweltering day in June, invisible and unassuming until suddenly it’s all around.

The way he was the iceberg that Soda and Pony found purchase on in the middle of the dark sea of grief, staying firm and upright, freezing himself so that nothing could touch him, nothing could risk breaking him too, not when his brothers needed him. He’d sooner lose himself than the rest of his family.

Darry, who has to wait for someone to step up to him at rumbles and who can take a blow on the chin that would knock anyone else down. And once he gets his turn, it’s hit after hit, kick after kick, a hailstorm that pins his opponent to the ground.

Darry, whose anger is loud and roaring like blizzard winds, but once he gets quiet it’s frigid and biting and permeating every room of the house.

Darry, who hugged his kid brother while he was still covered in soot and ash and doused whatever lingered of the blaze that followed him to the hospital.

Just two brothers who exist so differently yet so similarly, trying to look out for their family the only ways they know how.

[thatonetotaldramaguy]

Hiya gang!!🤩🤩

It’s Pony cutting Johnnys hair back in Windrixville

I hope ya like it!!😎😎

I’m a firm believer Pony sticks his tongue out while he concerntrates

[greasegotahold]

Lots of debate on the timeline of events in the outsiders and ages fitting into that, but according to Hinton Pony was born July 22, and he'd been 14 for about a month (line in the movie) when the main events kick off. That would put the murder during late August, which is exactly when that schoolyear would be starting. They only hide out for 5 days, which would put them at early September when they end up back home.

The rumble, Johnny's death, Dally's death, and Pony's concussion fainting happens the night after they get home.

Ponyboy comes to after 3 days, then ends up on bedrest for another week, where he displays delusional thought.

The Juvenile Court hearing presumably occurs shortly after that bedrest, as Pony is still not considered fit to testify on the murder, placing it squarely into the month of September.

It's not super clear how long the depressive episode lasts for Pony, but it's long enough that he is failing his classes and Syme is offering to bring him up to a C. Recalling my high school days, overall grades for fall semester were usually evident by like mid October, so I would give Pony 2-3 weeks, maybe a full month before Syme reaches out.

However, we also know Pony was procrastinating on his assignment, it's part of Darry's nagging iirc, so that + the theme being a final project for the semester, it was probably due mid-late November/maaaayyybe early December.

This is where ages come in bc some of the ages we have from the TV Show Bible don't align with the story's events happening in August.

However.

We know that we are reading Ponyboy's theme. It ends cyclical to the beginning, and there's also evident effort on Ponyboy's end to avoid writing profanity into his recollection. He's 14, been to Hell and back, and also procrastinated on his essay. That is to say, I'd believe it if the argument was made that for some of the surviving characters, he just mentioned how old they were at the time of writing.

Side note, too, that the musical does corroborate the main events happening in late August imo, as it explicitly ties the Curtis Parents' deaths to Darry's birthday; Darry was born January 5, and they died 8 months before the story took place; 8 months from January is obviously September, technically. However. Looking at the calendar year for 1967 (the musical is bumped up 2 years), Darry's birthday fell on the first Thursday of January. If Pony's birthday is July 22nd and it's been a month (not confirmed in the musical to have been a month, but confirmed that he would be 15 next July), the Friday Night Drive-In encounter would have been August 25 (literally the first week of school), 7 months and 3 weeks after the crash; technically not 8 months, but extremely close. If we want to push it closer and move the events a week later, then the drive in would have happened September 1.

In conclusion, my proposed book timeline, cross-referenced with calendars and given school start dates:

Tuesday, January 5, 1965—Darry's Birthday, potentially also the death of Curtis Parents

Thursday, July 22, 1965—Ponyboy's 14th birthday

Thursday, August 26, 1965—Pony gets jumped

Friday, August 27, 1965—Pony goes to the drive-in, Johnny kills Bob (technically this happens in the wee hours of Saturday, but the jumping that led to it was a consequence of the drive in so I'm lumping them)

Saturday, August 28-Wednesday, September 1, 1965— (technically the actual time of Bob's murder) + Windrixville hideout + fire + Hospital reunion

Thursday, September 2, 1965—Rumble + Johnny's death + Dally's Death + Pony's concussion

Friday, September 3-Sunday, September 5, 1965—Pony in feverish delirium

Monday, September 6-Sunday, September 12, 1965—Pony on Bedrest

Monday, September 13, 1965—Juvenile Court

Tuesday, September 14, 1965-Depressive fugue begins

Monday, October 11 or 18, 1965—Mr Syme alerts Ponyboy of his failing grade+presents semester's final project in the form of a personal theme.

Mid November, 1965—theme is written

[alittlebitofloveliness]

Darry Curtis hc because this day is shit and he's my comfort character

-Does that thing where he kind of dances/shimmies to music unconsciously. Steve made fun of him for it once, and ever since Darry’s tried to tone it down, but never really succeeds. (Steve never bugged him about it again because Sodapop got so mad at him for it)

-Doesn’t laugh often but when he does it’s the kind of laugh that’s completely contagious. Surprisingly Ponyboy’s sarcasm and Johnny’s dry quips end up making him laugh more than any of the rest of the gang’s bawdy or situational humour

-Makes the best scalloped potatoes known to man. Both Soda and Ponyboy practically beg him to make them for their birthdays or special occasions

-Ponyboy went with him to the gym once after windrixville when they were trying to find an activity to bond over and it ended with Ponyboy attempting to keep up with him and Darry having to practically carry him to the car. They decided Darry would teach Pony to drive as a bonding activity instead

-Was up for a promotion to foreman at his job that would have had a decent pay raise and didn’t tell Soda or Ponyboy about it. He made it to the final round of interviews but ultimately didn’t get it and was SUPER crushed. (Same Darry, same)

-His eye twitches when he’s pissed off but trying not to show it

-Sometimes when Ponyboy is out with friends or goes to bed early, Darry and Soda will have a mini conference where they discuss whether they think he’s doing ok because Darry is terrified of messing Pony up and needs the reassurance he’s doing a good job as guardian

-Taught Pony to shave and it was actually a really emotional time for him because their dad had taught both him and Soda how but wasn’t there to teach Ponyboy. It hurt even more because Ponyboy was so excited about the fact he finally HAD enough facial hair to need to shave and Darry was kind of punched in the chest remembering that Ponyboy is only fourteen, and that he’d had so much less time with their parents than he himself had.

-Doesn’t talk about the gang or his brothers at work. Not because he’s ashamed of being greasy or anything (a lot of guys on his work crew are east side guys) but because work is his only escape from being a leader/grown up and having to take care of everyone. In fact, he’s one of the youngest full time guys on the crew, and because of that he gets a lot of ‘shut up and listen to your elders’ kind of jokes from the guys in their thirties and forties, which he finds ironically funny on good days, and gets lowkey pissed off about on bad ones

-Has skipped meals when money is tight so that his brothers have enough food

-Didn’t regret fighting Paul at the rumble even though they’d been good friends in high school, because after the Curtis parents died Paul told him to let Pony and Soda go into care and to look out for himself and not ‘kids who aren’t your problem Darry’ and Darry never forgave him for it

-The gang and his brothers think he doesn’t have time for girls, and he doesn’t, not really, but he goes to the same diner during his lunch break each day to flirt with one of the waitresses there- a girl he went to high school with who was also meant for bigger things but got stuck in Tulsa just like him.     (listen I’m multiship trash who also has a soft spot for tarry but this idea lives rent free in my head ok)

-His way of dealing with issues when he’s unsure is to just ask himself what his dad would do and if he doesn’t know what his dad would do he panics

-Is TERRIFIED of the dentist and so its the only thing he’s kind of lax about with Pony and Soda because he refuses to be a hypocrite and not go when he makes them go, but also…he’s terrified

[damthosefandoms]

On one hand, fuck the whole “Soda dies in Vietnam” concept (which is literally confirmed to not even be canon), and glorifying war is gross, and that whole part of history was Very Very Bad and I want that on the record.

But on the other hand, say there’s a timeline where Soda did get drafted, had to fight, and came home and the thing is that Soda was always the one to understand his brothers, not really the other way around, and now the roles are reversed for him and Ponyboy. He’s the one nobody wants to let sleep alone because of nightmares. Soda’s the one no one wants walking anywhere alone, less because they’re scared of him getting jumped and more because they’re scared of him getting lost or getting hurt because they barely got him back last time. And then there’s the implications of the doctor giving it a name for what’s going on with Soda—shell shock, because that’s what they called PTSD back then—and Darry realizing that that’s gotta be what Pony’s been going through since Windrixville. And now Pony’s going to college and Darry’s going to be alone with Soda and for the first time ever, Darry thinks dealing with Ponyboy was easier, because when it was their parents or what happened to Johnny and Dally, they all felt it, but this isn’t something either of them can relate to, and Soda’s different now, he’s not the “easy” brother to work through things with anymore. Darry remembers how Soda wore their dad’s dogtags (from when he went to Korea when they were all so little, before Ponyboy was even born) around town back after their parents died like they were a security blanket and now, Soda wears his own, one of them dented by a bullet that probably should’ve killed him but he got lucky. He got lucky and he came home and he’s never gonna be the same happy-go-lucky kid ever again. And his brothers and their friends who are still around are going to take their sweet time accepting that. Soda used to be a fighter because it gave him something to do, he liked the adrenaline. Now when a couple of socs corner him on the street after a year or so of being a soldier and fighting in a war more hopeless than even the rumble in the park after Bob’s death, he’s going to stand there and tell them “it just ain’t worth the fight” and they’re gonna be so confused by his sudden change that they leave him alone. But Soda kinda gets it now what Johnny meant when he was dying and he said fighting was useless.

And I think that concept is worth exploring in some way or another. Not “Soda gets drafted” but “Soda comes home not wanting to fight anymore even though that’s all he used to know, and his brothers have no idea how to handle it, and he just wants to be a person again instead of that lucky kid who got to come home when so many people didn’t.” but he left a part of him there that he’s never going to get back.

[brat-pack-it-up-boys]

Ponyboy that was then this is now headcanons

• I’m a big believer in ponyboy continuing to dye his hair blonde after windrixville for sentimentality (also I fuck with the character design aspect)

• so his hairs died blond but it’s also grown out, its the late 1960s and greased hair is becoming even less of a thing than it was before, so his hair is choppily cut above his shoulders and it has the worst grown at roots

• he is the KING of hand me downs, more so than in the outsiders because he fits into more of the clothes that darry and soda actually saved, soda’s flannels, pants, shirts, Darry’s old jackets, he owns his shoes and that it

• okay this one goes more into the au where sodapop is drafted and killed in the Vietnam war because it technically lines up with the twttin timeline. But ponyboy would wear soda’s dog tags literally every day

• more reckless than he was in the outsiders, partially because he’s grown up and partially because of his friends and the people he surrounds himself with

• his friendgroup basically consist of the remainder of the gang, curly and Angela, mark, scout, and two bits sister Brenda I guess

• on the topic of Brenda, ponyboy basically reacreats his and Johnnys relationship with dally with her, they’re so siblings you don’t understand, the brother and sister ever

• very unpopular in school, not in a way of getting bullied but in the way of a lot of kids in his grade being scared of him

“that Curtis kid who helped kill someone”

• the beef Bryon has him is entirely one sided to the point that Ponyboy doesn’t even realize it exists

• despite not having the best reputation he’s finally grown into his looks and if it weren’t for the events of the first book he would be pulling

• Him and Cathy start dating a little bit after twttin, Cathy had been at boarding school during the entirety of the first book so she didn’t have the same stigma against him that the other kids at school

• he actually gets pretty into the Beatles after he starts dating Cathy because they’re her favorite band, he likes the please please me album

• he also adopts M&M into his little gang with Brenda (pushing my M&M and Brenda as best friends agenda)

• in the end all that really means is that he helps M&M with kids picking on him (his reputation from the whole bob incident makes him pretty intimidating), M&M and Brenda also get to tag along on some of Pony and Cathy’s dates to the movies

• honestly I could talk about him and Cathy for hours but as the youngest him dating her and realizing how much she has to do as the oldest makes him gain more of understanding for darry

• also him and Cathy’s song is definitely Do you want to know a secret

@izaacs-notdeadyet because you mentioned you wanted to hear them, sorry it took me thousand years to actually get around to posting this

[johnnycakesswitch]

hiiii🩷 do you have any hcs for the gang being physical and affectionate with each other? (sorry that came off sounding SO weird but i feel like these boys are all grounded in touch??)

Sure let’s see if I can do this before my phone dies lol <3

• they’re all very touchy even if they don’t think they are- they’re always just having an arm around someone’s shoulder or playfully shoving them or messing with their hair

• Soda shows it the most, he literally will sit on anyone or wrap his arms around them or jump on their backs

• Dally and Johnny show it the least but they’re still really physical. In the movie we see Johnny comforting Pony in a very physical way, hugging him, wrapping an arm around him, etc. As for Dally, his little ways of showing affection are kind of seen as roughhousing like he’ll shove people or elbow them but in like a gentle, not actually trying to hurt them way

• Two-Bit is pretty physical, he’s always starting play fights and ruffling people’s hair, especially Ponyboy and Johnny

• Darry is physical in a reassuring way, his touch is always grounding. If something is wrong with someone, he’ll put a comforting hand on their shoulder or squeeze their arm

• Steve isn’t as physical as some of the others, but he can be. It comes out the most with Soda, but like when Ponyboy got back from Windrixville for example, he was clearly happy to see him and gave him a hug and stuff

• overall, they’re all fairly tactile and it’s their way of showing love without saying anything

[l0stfoster]

“I think Death is quite kind,” Johnny had uttered once, a glint in his eyes that made it easier to believe, even if we thought he was spewing nonsense; he always seemed to do this when he was real tired

“I just hope that she’s willing to show the same mercy that she had shown me once. I know some of us will need it.” He added, and nobody had the guts to ask him what he meant.

A few months after Windrixville, he’d said something about it again, and Dally had gotten this look of clarity on his face. I didn’t ask him why, but he didn’t look like he wanted to be asked either way.

Paul had found it really weird the first time he’d heard Johnny say anything in the same vein and before he’d adjusted; but after his jumping, he never said anything about it again.

..I think this is a good way to kick off October?? :D

I couldn’t decide on a title for this post so uhhh. You got a little bit of writing because I couldn’t figure out what else to do.

I’ve got a very mini post regarding Death in Cursed that’ll be out sometime soon (sorry the lack of replies to questions btw, been struggling with some stuff irl and haven’t had the energy to type answers) but I wanted to do a little drawing of how both Dally and Paul perceive death the first time they meet.

The general idea is that if a character is ‘supposed’ to die but still has a slim chance at being saved, they meet Death.

Death holds more of Johnny’s characteristics in Dally’s eyes, while Paul’s remains featureless for the most part; that’ll change later down the line. Johnny also perceives Death in a physical form sometimes, but it changes very frequently for him, so I haven’t drawn anything yet.

[qprpbj]

i wanna hear ur thoughts on the pony dying at the fountain au thing :)

THANK YOU FOR ASKINGGGG. this entire thing is delusional yap central and 95% johnny based so. im so sorry in advance btw.

well. first. so i think johnny wouldn't have had the instinct to run the way he did trying to protect pony and go to dally's — i cant really remember it tbh but i once saw an interpretation of johnny where he was like. his instincts and actions (stabbing paul without a second thought) were compared to that of almost a child (due to abusive parents and neglect etc etc) when put in the worst case scenario so he makes snap judgements without using his head, whereas pony thinks decisions through and mulls over shit maybe more than he should, which is why johnny just yanks him away and gets them to dally's place. i think johnny wouldn't have had that drive in him bc deep down he knowssss pony's gone, knows there's nobody that needs protecting, so he just. sits. at the fountain with pony in his lap. possibly for hours till the sun comes up, most likely in denial trying to convince himself pony isn't dead. doesn't know where to go or who to tell or what to do, esp bc this kid is already so heavily traumatized as is, he simply doesn't make the best decisions sometimes. just how it goes

then like. i assume someone finds them sitting there eventually, johnny can't even talk, whether it be the gang out looking bc they didn't show up last night or this morning or idk a stranger on a walk or literally idk. but. either way. the sheer difference in how pony's death were to be treated vs bob's?? there's no investigation done even though johnny says it was the socs, it wasn't a suicide, they got jumped and pony got killed. he lists them all by name, says exactly what happened, but there's never gonna be justice for pony bc nobody cares when it's a greaser who gets exploited or tortured or hurt or killed. (justice for tulsa scene where the cop shines a light on two-bit getting jumped and turns a blind eye....hmmm).

i thinkkk soda and darry would take johnny in. i won't harp on how torn up they'd obviously be — think soda's letter but about eight hundred times more nauseating ykwim. they just don't get along right without ponyboy. they lost their parents and they lost their kid brother and nearly johnny too — and nobody ever gets justice. so, it's darry who calls war & it's him who calls the rumble in pony's name. :)

johnny probably stays w them for a while but entirely collapses in on himself — literally rots from the inside out with guilt, bc he had a blade and he didn't use it. whether it be bc he chickened out or he was restrained too hard and wasn't strong enough or whatever the case, he takes on guilt heavyyyy for it. withdraws from the gang, from the curtises, saves up whatever little money he can and runs away to windrixville alone — bc hear me out. i think both him And pony def feel some type of way about bringing grief and sorrow and death wherever they go canonically in some type of way. esp him like..staying with pony's brothers now, probably sleeping in his old bedroom trying to keep pony's memory alive. idk idk. the guilt just goes CRAZYYY so. johnny runs away to an old church dally once suggested to him if he ever needed a place to go to run away — esp bc johnny literally canonically has considered running away before.

gang goes crazy over this obviously. search and search and it takes...who knows, days, weeks, to find him. he's got a bit of money stashed and he's not on the run from cops so he can go out to find food and whatever freely but he wants out, doesn't wanna be around the gang. dally shoots up in bed at like 3am realizing he knows exactly where tf johnny must be and collects them all in a car to drive out and find him. they get there and corner him like he's a lil scared animal shining flashlights in the dark and he pulls his blade on them all when they try to approach him up backed against the wall cause he dipped for a reason, damn it, and he doesn't want to be found. dally always runs away and finds success. the implications of johnny pulling a blade on the gang and on dally (out of fear) who gave him it in the first place?? esp when dally prefaced it by when you use this you have to do this with confidence, you have to really mean it, you can't back down when you pull a blade. idk the implications are There. that's literally where this whole thing came from LOL

that's. all i've got lol. thanks for tuning into this absolute monstrosity of a reply i'm so sorry LOL

[dallasgallant]

I never realized it before until recently but it’s so crazy how much and how often ponyboy babies johnny in the book….. always talking about him being the pet of the group (which is true but he really does talk about him like he was a dog or a cat like chill out girl 😭), how much hero worship he has for everyone around him, his stature and soft spoken-ness, pony really seems to preserve him by making him seem like 10 years old even though he describes many situations in which johnny is taking care of him especially in windrixville like staying awake for him on the train letting him sleep on him, his own jacket as a blanket when he goes to buy them food, etc lol I hope you get what I mean I don’t have the book with me rn so I can’t really give off exact examples off the top of my head but—

also maybe that’s why people are often soooo turned off by the concept of J and D being a ship because of how PB describes him, I’ve seen people think that J was the same age or younger than him and so they think of a big brother/little brother dynamic for jally when they actually seem more on equal ground than pony and dally (who in a kind of mentor/mentee relationship) and even pony and johnny (who I’d say are in more of a brother relationship… controversial opinion I know but I’m sticking with it!) in fact I’d say they’re the Most on equal ground in the whole story even more than soda and darry…. but I’ll let you guys figure that out on your own… even though JD only have a 1.5 age difference

okayyyyy so I definitely didn’t mean to make this about the ship dynamics of the book but I guess I can’t not be gay for five fucking minutes 😭😭😭 but it’s relevant to the point !!! idk I just felt like rambling to someone about it because pony really does talk about him like he’s so little and I think that really muddles the perception of johnny even though he’s trying to honor his memory because of the delicate ways he’s trying to protect him after he died :(

johnny cade they will never make me hate you </3

Oh yeah, I definitely think a lot of it is Pony’s recognition of himself as the youngest, as a “baby” and sort of projecting it off onto someone else. However, we know the gang doesn’t just see pony as “the kid brother” so it’s sort of his own issue to work out- as well as I think a bit of a lack of understanding? Or lack of a way to properly explain the way the gang treats Johnny, they take it a little easy on him as he’d been shaken pretty bad (they wouldn’t known/use ‘traumatized’ but they would know he changed a little) but they never really talk down to him.

No but yes I agree! Pony sort of washes over a lot of senecios where Johnny is clearly the older/more mature of the two of them. He’s the second youngest but he’s still 16. He’s still protecting and helping Pony like the rest of the guys and the whole “my fault for dragging a 13 year old kid along” detail…

No you’re right honestly. It’s weird to me as Johnny’s described as soft and close to Ponyboy but he never came across as 14 or that young to me in the book or movie— like there was always that knowledge to him that revealed his age. And I agree… he and Dally are on equal footing and trust. They have something going on whatever way you interpret it…. Personally I find “little brother” INSANE. As where people baby Johnny they over age Dallas… he’s 17 it’s a years age difference. If a friend barely older than me tried to pull that I’d throat punch them 😭 it’s ? They’re trying to make it cute but it feels a little demeaning? Putting the “little” in there. Dal doesn’t talk down to Johnny… honestly he talks up to him, gets mad expecting him to know better etc — trusts him with the gun, money etc everything and taking responsibility.

But no that’s also so sweet that in a way, even if Pony is being a bit off in how Johnny was treated that he’s trying to sort of protect him within his story. Honor him in a strange way. Ough. He was his best friend, you’d want to sweeten that image. Absolve.

[your-unfriendlyghost]

Does Bryon have a role in the Dallas mark and Tex (and Mason) au? The end of TWTTIN always made me so sad knowing that mark didn’t see Bryon as a brother anymore

Bryon could have a role actually, valid point. Idk, I liked Bryon. Not like. A lot. But I liked him alright, and related to him in a few ways that make me slightly uncomfortable tbh, and I feel so bad for him-

I think for this AU, we’ll say Mark still talks to Ponyboy, and separately, Bryon talks to Ponyboy too. Not on purpose, initially, because he’s not the world’s biggest Ponyboy fan- but after Mark runs away to Dally’s place, Bryon’s hit with all the feelings he had in the end of TWTTIN. Only this time, Mark’s not in jail. In fact, Bryon’s pretty sure that that Curtis kid knows where Mark’s hiding- after all, he’s in the same gang as that washed-up hood Dallas Winston who’s always up to something. So Bryon seeks Ponyboy out for info. But then it just turns into like. Talking about his feelings about…everything. He’s kept it bottled up for so long that the second Pony prods him, Bryon just sorta spills.

(Design notes- Bryon’s hair’s grown out cos he’s depressed and not really taking care of himself all that well. Sixteen-year-old Pony’s hair, on the other hand, is long cos all the refs I could find of very slightly older C. Thomas Howell had 80s mullets. And yk what that’s kinda funny so I went with it- let’s just say it’s because after Johnny’s horrible haircut in Windrixville Ponyboy can’t risk letting it get cut so short ever again)

(More au rambling below the cut lol)

So now, essentially Ponyboy’s stuck between his buddy Mark, who complains about Bryon constantly, and Bryon, who is Pony’s girlfriend’s ex, and Pony’s friend’s…ex-brother? And both Bryon and Mark kinda talk to each other through Ponyboy, who’s like an unwilling messenger now. Or like the child of divorced parents, trying his damndest to keep the two from hating each other too much. (Mainly just Mark- Bryon just feels guilty)

If I were to make this au a multi chapter fic, I’d give Mark a running gag of coming up with Dr. Doofenshmirtz-style revenge plans against Bryon and trying to rope Ponyboy, Tex, Mason, and occasionally even Cathy and Angela Shepard into them.

I think Dally would be a Bryon hater cos Dally’s one big moral code is loyalty- honor among thieves, yk- and Bryon betrayed Mark. But Pony and Johnny would sympathize with the guy. Also low key I think Johnny would be a Mark hater

[m4sonn]

The outsiders, Aftermath AU (no deaths)

(Thanks to my friend @peachyponyboyy whom I collaborated w/for this and probably will collaborate with for any future works like this)

Basically what would happen after the book/movie, also if johhny and dally didn’t die

Ponyboy: Gets a scholarship into UCLA for literature, When he's finished with college he gets his masters degree and becomes a professor at UCLA.

Sodapop + Steve: (NOT THE 'NAM!!!) Soda and Steve get together, both working as mechanics at the DX, they live in the old curtis brothers house when everyone left, the gang only coming back on holidays to visit steve and soda. Soda would later propose to Steve at a nice restaurant, inviting the rest of the gang to see. (Spoiler alert: the entire gang bawled. Absolutely WEEPED, happy tears ofc) they couldn’t get married legally since it was the 60s but they had a nice little ceremony somewhere nice for the gang. They would later adopt a little red head after finding her on the streets.

Darry: Would move out to give Soda and Steve space. Living in the house across from the two, would settle with a wife and kids, Having a special room just for Ponyboy when he visits from college, His family would always cook the turkey during thanksgiving. Would definitely remodel the house.

Dally: would still be a delinquent, fs. Would sleep in his car if he's not already crashing at soda and Steve's place. He appears every now and then, and definitely joined some weird gang with like 13-15 year olds. NOT aloud near darry's kids without adult supervision, too much of a bad influence. He also says he doesn’t like kids so he would probably end up punching them

Johnny: all the way dating Ponyboy, got into UCLA by dumb luck. Nobody even knows how he got in. He kinda just did, def got into a psychology major so he could help other people like the help he needed when he was a kid/teen. Ponyboy and Johnny live in a decent sized apartment near the university. Definitely don't have kids but have a Golden retriever (goldie, named after the poem nothing gold can stay) and a black cat (windrixville, after the town they hid out at.)

Two-Bit: Still has an obsession with Mickey Mouse, probably lives in an RV parked in the vacant lot near the gang's house. Adopts a mouse he found off the street, probably has diseases but it's ok. Named it Mickey, now searching for his Minnie. Probably sells tobacco to kids and teens out of his RV, somehow hasn't gotten caught yet.