#medda is their mom

[i-politely-disagree]

Not The Ones They Love

Modern AU

TW: Swearing? Jack hating spot ig

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Jack groaned, using the monotonous voice he reserved for scenarios when he knew it would be best not to express emotions “Really, Race? This guy?”

Race glared, tightening his arm around Spot’s shoulders.

 “Yeah. Got a problem?” he challenged.

Kicking one of Race's stray clothes to clear a path, Jack laughed wryly and motioned to Spot. 

“Um.. I do…it’s Spot Conlon.” He was trying to keep his cool. To breathe. He knew how easily Race was influenced. He knew how easily Spot could influence. And he knew damn well Race knew who he was dealing with. So why? Why the guy who got suspensions basically weekly, the guy who every idiot in school looked up to simply cause he could land a punch and kick a ball? 

Spot took the staring match between the siblings as his chance to leave. He pulled on his jacket and maneuvered his way out, extra careful not to disturb anything. As soon as the door shut, Race spoke up.

“Why do you give a shit who I’m dating?” he began to raise his voice. "This is the happiest I have been in years. You are not messing this up for me” 

“I give a shit because it’s him!” 

Race’s blood boiled; Jack knew nothing. Nothing about Spot's past, the persona he felt he had to put on, and how he treated people he was close to. Feeling Jack's hand rest softly on his shoulder didn't help. Jack was not on his side.

“Look,” Jack spoke, taking a more gentle approach, “I just don't want you getting hurt.” 

Something snapped inside Race. “Hurt?! You think he would hurt me?!” He yelled in disbelief and anger, thankful for his mother's current absence 

“I didn't sa-” 

“Forget it, Jack! I don't need your approval, I can make my own decisions!” tears of anger and frustration threatened his voice with a crack. He may not have said it, but Race knew he meant it.

Jack backed away, hurt by Race's sudden outburst “... I'm just trying to look out for you..”

He looked more worried as he took step after step closer to the exit

“Hurt people hurt people.” He stated like a mother comforting a 3-year-old. 

He wasn’t trying to be condescending; he was trying to gently back up his disapproval, but all Race's ears picked up on was the tone he could only perceive as Jack pitying him. He avoided eye contact, using his peripheral vision to see his brother closing the door. 

Tears spilled down Race's cheeks, falling off his chin, salty liquid staining the hem of his shirt. He brought his legs to his chest, hugging them tightly against him as if the weight of his body was too much for his mind to hold along with the weight of his emotions. Jack’s judgment fell around him, tiny particles accumulating until he couldn’t move, coating the waterlines of his eyes with dust, and falling into his lungs until he was gasping for clean air. 

He was forever grateful for Jack and how much trouble Jack had gotten him out of, but this was going a bit far. Race’s taste wasn’t that bad. Plus, he wasn’t allowed objections when Jack brought Davey over and he hated feeling somehow inferior because of how much control Jack thought he could have over him.

Race wrapped himself in crumpled sheets, his tears spilling and discolouring patches of his mattress. Tears of frustration, anger, lack of validation and vague fear he resented himself for even thinking of. He knew in his heart Spot loved him, even if they hadn’t used that word yet and he knew he had to trust him, trust in himself and trust Jack had no idea what he was talking about.

Hurt people hurt people, but not the ones they love….right? That‘s how it works, isn’t it? You work through the pain together, ignore how you can't fathom anything long-term with them and you stick it out until Jack has a reason to say ‘I told you so’. Feeling his phone buzz under his fingers and wishing his boyfriend had stayed, Race ignored the outside world. All he did was sit with the emotions until they became familiar so he knew exactly what he was bottling up again.

[theres-rue-for-you]

cinema died a little bit when they stopped casting queen latifah in movie musicals

[tipsandtrixx]

If you think of Santa Fe as Jack's allegory for heaven, everything becomes a LOT sadder. Him telling the newsies that he had family there he wanted to see, was he lying or was he talking about his brother and mom? When he told Sarah he planned to leave when the strike was over, to what extent did he want to leave? When Roosevelt gave him the advice that convinced him to stay, did he know what he was talking Jack out of? Was he promising Crutchie something darker than he realized? When he painted the desert for Medda, was he telling her where to find him? Did Jack want escape or did he want death?

[kellyssfe]

javid headcanons

davey refers to jack as “my wild irish rose” (inspired by the javid fic ‘’My Wild Irish Rose” by lousywithstature)

jack LOVES dancing which is a side effect of being raised by medda, he doesnt like showing it tho so he always makes davey dance with him when they’re alone

when they finally got together race, blink, albert, boots, and a few others gave davey a talk warning him not to hurt jack in any way (who is very unaware they did this)

davey always gives jack his jacket whenever hes cold, which is always 

the newsies call jack ‘mom’ and davey ‘dad’ 

[jackmkelly]

i wish people treated medda as if she was more than jacks mother figure. yes she is that and yes its beautiful that shes willing to be that for him & the fact that he has that support system & safety net is wonderful HOWEVER, shes also a black woman in 1899 who is successful enough to run her own theatre. shes also a woman who was willing to risk losing her theatre or getting blacklisted because she helped those kids and allowed them to hold a rally in her theatre. (in the book she literally mentions the papers have power over her too. if reviews don’t get published her career is at risk). shes an Incredible and mesmerizing performer who can fill seats nightly. shes probably saved a few of the boweries from ending up on the streets. she lets jack come in and get paid for doing art which he just Enjoys. clearly shes just willing to Help people who heed it. shes an incredibleeee character with an enormous heart and while she does love jack she is so so much more than “jacks mom” :’)))

[hexmari]

Okay so we all know and love Medda as Jack’s mom.

BUT THINK ABOUT DENTON AS SPOT’S DAD!

[nyx-thedragon]

i'm hardcore procrastinating doing school work even though i know it needs to be done, but through that procrastination, i have noted down all the changes from 92sies to livesies that I could think of that i want to know the reason for (i watched livesies with my brother earlier, that's what spurred this on). so, here is that list (in order of when i thought of them, pretty much)!

92sies to livesies changes I wanna know the reason for:

1- all the lyric changes - carrying the banner, specifically

2- Denton is just gone. why? :(

3- to go along with #1 - Race didn't say the line about Sheepshead??? literally what was the reason??

4- how they lowkey butchered David's character a lil -> why was he so adamantly against the union/strike and wanting to help with it?? in 92sies he was concerned, sure, but he wasn't as against it as livesies David

5- Seize the Day not being a David song -> he doesn't have a solo song in livesies! Kath & Jack get one, why not him??

6- no more Cowboy Jack. why?

7- Jack's main "character color" is blue instead of red, and David's is...white? also blue? -> starts off with no color pop, has blue towards/at the end -> main characters need separate "character colors", thank yew

8- Spot & Brooklyn don't help out as soon in the story as in 92sies (Brooklyn's Here is a bop tho)

9- Les is a lot more...more? in livesies. why?

10- David has a more prominent accent like the other newsies than in 92sies (you can hear David Moscow, David's actor in 92sies, slip into his actual New York accent when he's talking to Spot Conlon, fun fact (that i saw from an article (?) that someone posted a link to ages ago))

11- Jack's backstory - he's literally just Jack Kelly in livesies, no "Francis Sullivan" being his "real" name. why?

12- the addition of Bill & Darcy (i guess without Denton, the newsies don't know anyone who can use the printing press, so they needed to be there...)

13- Kath going from annoyed at Jack & his advances to actually starting to/liking him happened kinda fast imo - could've taken some more time for that in the script -- too many long dance breaks!! shorten one!!!

14- Kid Blink (and Mush, kind of) isn't there or just isn't named :( [Mush is a named character in the script, but his name was never said in the performance - in the Disney proshot at least]

15- absolutely zero mention of Sarah Jacobs. none. like she never existed. she could've been named at least once by David when he mentioned his and Les's parents

16- Jack is extremely flirty with Kath right out of the gate ??

17- Brooklyn newsies have a signature color, red (maybe that's why Jack's character color couldn't be red...)

18- Jack doesn't try to break Crutchie out of the Refuge

19- Mayer Jacobs hurt his leg instead of his arm ?

20- Jack mentions how Mayer didn't have a union to protect him from being fired -> goes along with David being so fucking adamant about not going through with the union/strike (David mentions his dad not having a union to protect him in 92sies, not Jack)

21- no real explanation on why Jack's dad isn't around. is he dead? in jail? (all that's mentioned of him is that the streets of New York "sucked the life right outta" him in Santa Fe (Prologue)) -> also, his mom isn't mentioned at all

22- David has no clue how buying papers works ??

23- Les doesn't know about orphans ? (Jack: "ya got folks, huh?" Les: "doesn't everyone?")

24- why was Medda's last name changed from "Larkson" to "Larkin"

25- Les yelling at the person who throws them out of the World building instead of Jack

26- Santa Fe feeling more like "i'm gonna kill myself if i don't get out of here" instead of yearning for the freedom of the West (there's still yearning, but not as much)

27- Jack starts to have second thoughts about the strike earlier than in 92sies

28- Jack talks to Pulitzer about the deal before the rally instead of after -> and he doesn't get arrested at the rally (this one goes along with #27)

and that's the end of the list! less than i thought there would be, but more than what i mentioned while watching it. anyway, if there's any like, explanations for any of these changes, let me know and link the article or interview or whatever where they're explained, if you can! i am genuinely curious about all of these and have been for a while, actually.

anyway, that's all for this post! have a great day/night, and stay warm! :3

(p.s. i tried something out with coloring the character names, kind of color-coded based on their character colors - Jack is red, David blue, Kath and Medda pink, the other Jacobs family members are purple, Denton is orange (his character color is tan/brown, but i don't have that here, so orange will have to do), and any other characters are green because they don't have character colors. let me know if you like it, or if it's too confusing; i'm totally fine changing it if y'all think it's too much)

[i-got-poisenality]

MODERN NEWSIES HCS NO ONE ASKED FOR

Sarah Jacobs

she/her

raging lesbian

transferred to the same high school as the rest of the newsies with Davey from a private school

joined the debate team 80% because she’s gay for Katherine(captain of debate team) and wanted to get to know her better and 20% because she likes to argue

raging feminist and will fight terfs because terfs aren’t real feminists

has absolutely beat up people who bully Davey

on a girls rugby team and absolutely kicks ass

besties with Romeo, no i don’t take constructive criticism

Jack Kelly

he/him and bisexual disaster

also beats up people who bully Davey

javid <3333

has been through a bunch of foster homes

head of set design for their schools drama program

paints sets for Medda’s theater outside of school

most of the newsies have him saved as “cOuNtRy BoY 👅” in their contacts because of that vine

drinks way too much coffee and usually can’t sleep

his favorite movie is Indiana Jones and some newsies call him “Indi” as a joke

terrified of spiders, will shriek with more fear than you’ve ever heard at a spider sighting

none of his clothes are free of paint

paints and draws on his clothes on purpose sometimes

senior superlative is gonna be most artistic

Crutchie Morris

he/him or he/they (transmasc)

gay and ace (he’ll fight you if you i infantilize him and so will i)

uses forearm crutches as opposed to one crutch because i thought thatd be easier for him (disabled people correct me if i’m wrong)

currently in a really bad foster home but is gonna get adopted by Miss Medda at some point so he’ll be ok

bad at math but good at english

in choir and has gotten a couple solos

in detention a lot but not as much as Jack or Race

dating Race, crutchtrack forever

insane upper body strength and people are always surprised

Miss Medda helped him get his first binder but he’s very bad about binder safety and forgets to take it off

physically incapable of not petting every animal he comes across and has a job at a local animal shelter

has broken peoples kneecaps with his crutches (no seriously, he sent Morris Delancey to the hospital by whacking him so hard after Morris made a jerk comment)

Katherine Plumber Pulitzer

she/her and demiromantic sapphic

has two last names because her parents are divorced and her dad wouldn’t let her get rid of his last name so she jus added her mom’s

so much daddy issues

president of the school paper and captain of the debate team

also president of 20 other clubs

in the running for valedictorian alongside Davey and Race

besties with Davey

so many APs and has straight As

very vocal about issues in the system and will not hesitate to write about them

english teachers love her

can write an essay in 20 minutes

very intrigued by Sarah and her argument methods (this just turns into gay feelings once they’re friends)

Albert

aromantic asexual

always in detention

mostly only liked by foods teachers because that’s where he applies himself the most

cooking is one of the few things that actually bring him joy

on the soccer team and dances sometimes

pretty good at math

fell asleep in english while his class was reading Romeo and Juliet because he thought it was dumb

tired and angry

gets in fights pretty regularly

steals stuff from his friends for fun

(if you wanna know any more, please please please send me asks)

[superg1rl-newsiesnerd]

JACK KELLY RANT!!

Tw: eating disorder (kinda), su!c!dal thoughts, SH, PURE ANGST (kinda projecting onto my baby)

Can we just talk about how HORRIBLE Jack Kelly’s life has been. My baby. My baby. MY BABY!!!

The fact he says “I’m dead if I can’t count on you today” in Santa Fe, it’s been widely spread (possibly canonical) that that’s implying suicidal thoughts.

And he’s had these thoughts probably ever since his father died. But he didn’t give in, he COULDN’T give in because, he’s the leader of the newsies and they’d fall apart if he died. He’d be at fault if he died. He couldn’t leave them because he had to steal and provide for them. That was his purpose.

That also took over a lot of his thoughts. Is he anymore than just their way of living? Their leader? Or was he actually meaning something to them? He always though of himself as just their provider and they never cared for him as a person (which couldn’t be more wrong)

Back to the suicidal thoughts, it doesn’t help that he lives on a ROOFTOP. Some nights when it would get really bad and crutchie was asleep, he’d just sit and cry and look over the edge, contemplating the jump.

And those thoughts didn’t help anymore when crutchie got sent to the refuge. He got really bad after that. He spent his whole time ever since he knew crutchie making it his goal to NOT. LET. CRUTCHIE. GO. TO. THE. REFUGE. The place he has so much trauma from. But he does, and it makes him feel so completely and utterly useless and like such a failure. He would’ve been gone if it wasn’t for Medda letting him into the theatre.

But then davey came along. (By no means when I say this do I mean davey doesn’t have it hard, he IS poor.) davey who was used to three meals a day and eating normally, seeing Jack, who gives his food to the newsies and barely ever eats a crumb, and was just so, so skinny. It triggered something in him, that this boy wasn’t okay.

He would start asking him “have you eaten today sweetie?” Or “what did you and the newsies have for dinner? If you didn’t get anything for yourself I’m gonna take you home with me and shove the food down your throat” /j or “come over to my house for dinner tonight. Okay? Mom’s a great cook, she’d love to have you.”

And then slowly Jack starts to realize how much he had been putting on himself. He starts realizing how bad things are.

But davey, oh davey. Davey makes him feel LOVED. he makes him feel like more than just a provider and leader. Like a human being he deserves love.

And slowly, he gets healthier and slowly, he gets happier with himself and life. And eventually, he’s happy for once.

…can you tell I rewatched newsies

[i-politely-disagree]

Y'all I'm trying to write something but uh....I'm not sure how i feel so ima just put a bit on here

(modern au)

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Jack groaned, using the monotonous voice he reserved for scenarios when he knew it would be best not to express emotions “Really, Race? This guy?”

Race glared, tightening his arm around Spot’s shoulders.

 “Yeah. Got a problem?” he challenged.

Kicking one of Race's stray clothes to clear a path, Jack laughed wryly and motioned to Spot. 

“Um..I do…it’s Spot Conlon.” He was trying to keep his cool. To breathe. He knew how easily Race was influenced, He knew how easily Spot could influence. And he knew damn well Race knew who he was dealing with. So why? Why the guy who got suspensions basically weekly, the guy who every idiot in school looked up to simply cause he could land a punch and kick a ball? 

Spot took the staring match between the siblings as his chance to leave, he pulled on his jacket and maneuvered his way out, extra careful not to disturb anything. As soon as the door shut Race spoke up

“Why do you give a shit who I’m dating?” he began to raise his voice “This is the happiest I have been in years. You are not messing this up for me” 

“I give a shit because it’s him!” 

Race’s blood boiled; Jack knew nothing. Nothing about Spot's past, the persona he felt he had to put on, and how he treated people he was close to. Feeling Jack's hand rest softly on his shoulder didn't help. Jack was not on his side.

“Look,” Jack spoke, taking a more gentle approach “I just don't want you getting hurt.”

!!THIS IS NOT COMPLETE!!

[fourthwallbroken]

Newsies+Chicago Fan Theory:

Jack Kelly and Katherine eventually get married and start a family in New York. Jack maintains good relations with Miss Medda Larkin and takes his two daughters to the theatre frequently. His two daughters, Veronica and Velma Kelly eventually grow up to perform in the theatre themselves, becoming popular enough to start touring other cities across America, such as Chicago, Illinois. Considering this, it makes sense as to how familiar Velma is with newspaper publications and their sensationalism, as her dad used the press to his advantage and her mom was a reporter.

[tipsandtrixx]

Jack 100% subconsciously calls Medda his aunt. Like all the time. She asks him to grab something and he calls back across the stage "Yes Aunt Medda!" before clamping his hand over his mouth and giving her whatever she needed and running off. Some younger newsies asks who she is and immediately says "She's my Aunt Medda" before stammering and correcting himself. It's like calling your teacher mom but worse because she's legitimately like a aunt to you and you won't admit it because you both have a secret fear of being loved.

[kellyssfe]

newsies 92 headcanons

jack once found a light brown bichon frise dog in an allyway, he named her molly and keeps her at meddas theater. he ADORES her.

davey doesnt know how to swim

crutchy befriended a old lady who is always at the coffee shop near where he sells, he sits there with her and chats so they she doesnt feel alone

blink and jack are the biggest haters you’ll ever know, LOVE hating together 

mush LOVES fruit flavored everything, chapstick, candy, shampoo, etc

jack knows how to do cooking n bake and he cooks GOOD. this was found out when he insisted esther let him help make dinner one night

specs is a PLANT MOM, romeo however is not.. not even close.

[frogmanfae]

Okay so I've seen so so so so so so many fics where David hates physical touch (from everyone but Jack, of course) but hear me out

David Jacobs who wasn't exposed to a lot of physical touch as a kid. He hugged Les, but that was more Les hanging onto him like kids do. He and Sarah went through a phase where one of them decided it was weird and awkward to hug the other and they haven't been able to break the ice yet. His dad isn't in the physical capability to hug him without taking some time to go through a process. His mom hugs him as often as she can but sometimes they all just get swept up in things and it doesn't actually happen very often.

So it's just not something that he thinks about very much. It isn't something that's a part of his daily life. It isn't something that's incredibly important to him one way or the other. He's hesitant about people he doesn't know very well touching him so he thinks he might not like physical touch, but that's actually a normal experience.

And then one day one of his friends hugs him out of nowhere. Maybe he helped Race win a game of poker, he agreed to take a look at one of Buttons's siblings who was really sick to see what kind of medicine might help, he was ranting to Crutchie about something... maybe he had a bad day and swung by the theater to get some quiet and Medda saw how upset he was and just wordlessly opened her arms like she does.

From that moment on, Davey realized he was missing something in his life. He takes every opportunity he can get to hug his friends or his siblings, he bends down to hug his father from his place in his chair he can't get up from too many times in one day, he makes a point to not let business be an excuse to leave his apartment without hugging his mom first, he lays in Albert's lap and mindlessly fiddles with Finch's fingers. He loves physical touch and it's his main love language. It takes a while for him to get comfortable with just doing these things whenever, but it gets to a point where none of the other newsies really pay any mind to it. Even Spot Conlon just keeps on talking when Davey casually holds his hands sometimes.

David Jacobs hating physical touch is overrated, gimme this once in a while.

[theres-no-escaping-us-pal]

ABOUT THE NEWSIES PRODUCTION I SAW LAST NIGHT!!!

OMG IT WAS SOO GOOD! THE DANCING WAS AWESOME! THE SINGING WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE!!!

MEDDA LOOKED AT ME DURING ‘THAT’S RICH’!!!

WE MADE EYE CONTACT AND I WAS LIP SYNCING AT HER!!

THE CAST WAS SO NICE OMG!!!

THEY WERE IN THE HALL AFTER THE PRODUCTION (as normal with high school productions)

AND ME AND MY FRIEND WERE THE ACTRESS FOR KATHRINE’S FAVORITE AUDIENCE MEMBERS!!!

WE WERE LIP SYNCHING EVERY SONG AND SHE LOVED IT!! SHE WAS SO NICE!!

THE MEDDA’S ACTRESS COMPLIMENTED MY OUTFIT!!! SHE WAS SO SWEET!!

THE DUDE WHO PLAYED JACK WAS REALLY COOL!! HE DID A GREAT JOB!! HE HAD THE EMOTION! HE HAD THE DEPTH!!

THE ACTOR FOR RACE HAS ACTUAL BROADWAY POTENTIAL!! HIS SINGING HIS DANCING HIS ACTING HIS EVERYTHING!! (I might have a small crush on him lol) HE WAS REALLY NICE TOO!!ABD HIS EYES WERE REALT BLUE!! WHICH IS A WEIRD THING TO NOTICE BUT I DID!!

OMG LES WAS SO GOOD!! THEY HAD A GIRL PLAYING HER AND THE SASS WAS REAL AND I WAS HERE FOR IT!!

ONCE AND FOR ALL HAD AMAZING HARMONIES!! IT WAS AWESOME!!

“HEREE THEYY COMEEEE!!” YES RACE!! KILL IT!!!!

IT WAS SO SO SO SO SO SO AMAZING!!!

I’M SO ASKING MY MOM IF I CAN GO BACK NEXT WEEK CAUSE TICKETS ARE ONLY LIKE TEN BUCKS FOR SECOND ROW!!!!

I CAN GIVE MORE DETAILS IF YIU GUYS HAVE ANY QUESTIONS!!!!

[hexmari]

Newsies Beach Headcanons 🏝️☀️

I've been hoarding this draft since the summer and I need to get rid of it…

Jack - Makes the most elaberate sand castles / sculptures. He takes it too seriously and is very sad when they have to stomp it down at the end of the day. He also likes swimming in the ocean.

Crutchie - He brings a chair up to the oceans edge and parks himself there for the day. He finds the waves relaxing, Jack and Race splash water at him when they can.

Racetrack - He’s all over the place, he jumps from beach activity to beach activity and he makes friends with strangers . He also has a super soaker that he abuses. He tells everyone that he doesn’t need sunblock because he just tans. Nobody believes him until he’s five shades darker by the end of the day (Sicilian genes.)

David - Sits under the umbrella with a book. And is shot with water by Race.

Katherine - Sits under the sun with a book. And is shot with water by Race.

Spot - He lays on a towel in the sun with sunglasses on and nobody can tell if he’s asleep or not and they’re too scared to check. Until Race shoots him with his water gun and subsequently Spot drowns him in the ocean.

Les - He challenges Jack to a sand castle building contest and subsequently looses every time. He loves kidnapping sand diggers and whatever little creatures he can find and carrying them around in a bucket. He once grabbed a horseshoe grab by its tail and carried it out on the ocean. He dropped it in David’s lap who subsequently freaked the fuck out.

Albert - He COOKS in the sun. He laughs at Race for not wearing sunblock but at the end of the day he looks like a lobster even after reapplying multible times. Race clowns on him hard.

Medda - She’s the hot mom in the pink bikini enough said.

Finch - He bird watches and is also the reason seagulls try to steal food from people. He will literally give them his whole lunch.