#olive the pupper

[hoperays-song]

Johnny’s (Headcanon) Backstory

Johnny won the backstory poll I posted a while ago, so here y’all go! This is my headcanoned backstory for Johnny that I use in all my fics. I hope you enjoy!! 

-<3 Gooseless

TW: Mentions of parental death, brief references to internalized homophobia, children struggling with mental health, strained parent-child relationship, and forced moving. 

This is angsty guys. I’m an angst writer. I cannot stress that enough.

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Johnny was born to Marcus and Jia Taylor, a mechanic and piano teacher, in the Bromley Neighborhood of London. He was born early, due to complications, and has a weak heart as a result. They moved to the Tower Hamlet’s in East End London soon after to be closer to hospitals both for Jia, who’s health was starting to decline more rapidly, and Johnny, just in case his heart did prove to be a problem. Despite this, for the first four years of his life, Johnny had a pretty carefree childhood. He went to a daycare at the temple his mother attended and was raised to be fluent in both Hindi and English. His parents doted on him constantly, essentially drowning him constantly in affection. He was taught the piano by his mum before he could even walk, and even though his dad worked a lot, he still always made time to spend with his family.

Things started to turn when Johnny was five and his mother collapsed at work. She was hospitalized for a few weeks and it was reviled to the family that her health was declining much more rapidly than anyone expected. Johnny, being so young, did not understand this and had hope that his mum would make a full recovery, with neither parent having the heart to tell him that they knew that could never happen. Johnny went along to a lot of his mother’s doctor’s appointments over the year, even getting on a first name basis with several nurses. Jia collapsed again, not even a year later, and Johnny was the one that found her. He froze, unable to help or think about what to do. Moments later, Marcus arrived and instructed Johnny to call 999 (their version of 911). While Johnny was able to give the dispatcher instructions and information, he still proceeded to regret freezing for 13 plus years.

His mother was placed in long term care due to how weak her heart and lungs were. Johnny went to visit her daily, finally starting to grasp how serious the situation was. At this point, he also started to develop separation anxiety, not wanting to leave his mother’s side. She died after only a few months, Johnny was only 6 years old, and her last words were telling her son she loved him.

For the months immediately following Jia’s death, Johnny went silent. He didn’t speak, play piano, sing, or anything of the sorts. He just clung to his dad, refusing to be separated from him. At school, Johnny’s social life essentially vanished as he stopped interacting with his classmates. This problem continued for years, resulting in near constant parent-teacher conferences as a result of Johnny’s lack of social interactions.

A few weeks after Jia’s death, the two moved to a cheaper part of the neighborhood and Marcus started a new mechanic job closer to Johnny’s school, mainly in order to give Johnny a place to go after his classes. There, his father met and introduced to him his coworker Stan and Stan’s honorary brother, Barry. The two quickly integrated into their daily life and after a few months, Johnny began to view them as uncles, eventually even referring to them as such when he started talking again several months later.

Around the time Johnny started talking again, his father took him in for psychological testing, due to both his months of silence and Barry picking up on signs that he might be autistic. It turns out that he was and he was also diagnosed with a panic disorder as well. The panic disorder was exasperated due to his heart, occasionally causing him to pass out due to it skipping beats when he panics. Because of this, Marcus, Stan, and Barry all took training to become EMTs (Emergency Medical Technician) and started carrying inhalers and noise cancelling headphones for Johnny. 

Throughout primary school, not much changed for Johnny. He struggled to make friends or have connections with his classmates, becoming the stereotypical “quiet kid”. His family tried different ways to help him, eventually resulting in him being given a skateboard when he was seven, but that did little to help. Johnny did take well to skateboarding though, even going so far as to place in a few kid’s competitions.

However, when Johnny was ten, rent prices all over London started increasing. The family started struggling even more than they already were financially, and this, combined with numerous counselors saying that Johnny needed a fresh start, Marcus announced that they were moving to the United States. Johnny was vehemently against the move, not wanting to be separated from where he grew up or be away from his mother’s grave. He fought with his dad about it for months, and even the news his uncles were coming with them didn’t make him warm up to the idea. They moved that winter, on the last day of Johnny’s school before break, and a month before his eleventh birthday.

Starting school in America, as a kid who started half-way through the year as well as him being pretty small for his age, Johnny was a pretty much instant target for bullying. School was extremely rough for him and his father was once again called into school on an essentially weekly basis. Johnny was able to make friends with the kids who lived next door but they were a fair bit older than him, and therefore didn’t run into him at school. And even after school hours, they all were pretty busy, leaving Johnny essentially with little to no social life. 

With Johnny struggling so much and nothing really seeming to help, he was given his father’s old leather jacket, the one his mum had worn a lot when he was young, in an effort for Johnny to feel connected to her and like he had someone in his corner. It seemed to help a bit with his self esteem but didn’t really do much to improve the situation at school. 

When Johnny was eleven and a half, something big changed in his family’s routine however. His dad and uncles started leaving at night, not explaining where they were going, and not showing back up until extremely late or even early morning. They never told him what was going on when he asked and instead, his dad and Stan started training him in boxing and self defense, despite his lack of interest in the sports. Barry started teaching him first aid as well, and even him, his confidant uncle who had never kept a secret from him, was tight lipped on the reasoning. They all just insisted that it was important. 

The training went on for six months unchanged, with the only difference being the increase in the amount of nights his dad and uncles were gone. They sometimes would come back sporting injuries but always brushed off Johnny’s concerns on that matter. It wasn’t until his dad came home later than ever before one night, bleeding out from a stab wound that Johnny himself stitched up that he realized something was very very wrong. 

After that, his family stopped trying to hide the gang from him, but he still wasn’t involved in it. In fact, Johnny constantly argued with his dad and uncles about their criminal activities and whether or not they should even be doing them in the first place, especially when they started having an impact on his daily life. It was because of these arguments that Johnny learned how bad financially the family’s situation was. He tried to help out but, being so young and with the debt being so high, he couldn’t do much. With that, Johnny eased up on his family members about the gang, but was still vocal with his disapproval. 

Later that year, Johnny realized that he didn't like any of the girls in his class that his classmates were talking about. However, he started noticing that the way his classmates described having a crush was how he felt about one of the boys in his study group who happened to be on the football team. Johnny never said anything to him and instead would just pick a random girl when someone would ask him who he liked. It wasn't until his freshman year in high school that he accepted that he was gay, but he never said anything about it to anyone, worried at what his family and others would think of him and if he was wrong for being himself.

As he got older, Johnny started to notice his dad pulling away from him bit by bit. This caused the abandonment issues from his mother’s death to rear their heads, with Johnny starting to hide parts of himself in an effort to be more like his dad to get him to like him for who he was again. Johnny became stressed at hiding everything from his love of music to his sexuality, believing them to be the reason his dad was pulling away from him, and was walking on metaphorical eggshells constantly.This obviously caused Johnny and Marcus’s relationship to become much more turbulent, and the fighting between the two picked up again, with Stan and Barry having to intervene more often than not.

-------- (Following paragraph only applies to human au)-------- 

One of these fights when Johnny was fifteen led to him leaving the garage in the middle of a storm. Wandering around nearby alleys, he found a small puppy, which he brought home with him. His dad was adamantly against keeping the tiny, muddy, flea-ridden dog, and insisted that they were going to be taking it to the shelter in the morning. Johnny spent the night on the garage floor next to the puppy in case she needed anything and that sight in the morning had forced his dad to have a change of heart. Johnny was allowed to keep the dog, who he named Olive. Olive turned out to be a great help with Johnny’s panic disorder, as she seemingly taught herself how to move him out of crowded areas and to lay on him as a form of deep pressure therapy. 

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But, while that was better under control, and despite Johnny doing well in several boxing tournaments in an attempt to make his dad proud, Johnny and his dad still were pretty distant, at least emotionally. Finally, when he was sixteen, Marcus proposed the idea of Johnny tagging along to be a lookout after a particularly close call. Johnny himself as well as his uncles were adamantly against the idea, but Marcus held his ground. Johnny, rather unwillingly, took up the role of the gang’s lookout.

Johnny continued to drift apart from his dad emotionally, despite them continuing to act pretty much the same and doing the normal teenager-parent things like teaching him how to drive. Johnny took to leaving the garage for extended periods of time to practice his singing, and while his dad clearly noticed the change, he didn’t try stop him more than stressing he should be careful. And despite his dad still being there with him, johnny couldn’t help but feel that his father loved the version of a son he projected, not who Johnny actually was. 

This continued for another two years until Sing 1, when all of this came to a rather big breaking point.

[angelwings-crossbowstrings]

Well, I was researching, but now I present to you the reasons chapter 28 is not yet finished.

[warpedpuppeteer]

Why is Oliver so fucking big?? Every time I see him I'm taken back like... he's so MASSIVE. He's like a titan or something. Just a giant wall of a human being. Double door refrigerator ahh type.

[whiskeyswriting]

Let’s cleanse the thirst with Pupper and Gato

(Espresso and Oliver)

[fairycosmos]

whenever reblogging mary oliver poetry starts getting the same reception as saying stuff like heckin pupper i am still going to be reblogging mary oliver poetry in all earnestness. because i'm free

[emiplayzmc]

here have a picture of my dog having a bath and an addicule drawing my friend made for me because it cracks me up every time

also a screenshot from smiling friends because its funny

ps listen to Cult Of Dionysus even if youve heard it before listen to it AGAIN (<has been listening to Cult Of Dionysus on loop for like 3 days send help)

BLUE IS JUST A STICK I'M SOBBING I LOVE THIS 😭😭 Also YIPPEEE the pupper has been wetted and cleansed :D

I HAVE BEEN DEBATING SEEING SMILING FRIENDS IS IT WORTH THE WATCH?? All I know about it is the 'I love kids' clip, Oogly Goo, and that one CG character in it that goes 'OuGh OuGh OuGh' and likes creamed corn (ps: Can't stop watching that scene)

You'll never guess what I've been listening to on repeat......

Also in return for doggo picture, a picture of Oliver :DD

[little-earthquakes-rp]

gonna be that person! if you don't want to answer all, any that you find the most intriguing!

[ cherry ] what is one thing you love about yourself? [ canary ] do you have pets? if yes, how many and what? [ emerald ] bonus round: coffee or tea? morning or night? extroverted or introverted? hot or cold? fruits or vegetables? sweet or salty? [ olive ] what gives you the most inspiration for your muse(s)? [ azure ] is there a specific character or type of character you want to write but never have? why? [ fuchsia ] bonus round: angst or fluff? one-liners or paras? plotting or winging it? memes or starter calls? single muse or multimuse?

[ cherry ] what is one thing you love about yourself?

I've always been an extremely empathetic person even as a small child. I assumed I'd eventually harden as I grew older, but I'm still a complete marshmallow. The ability to empathize is a measurement of one's humanity so I consider it an important character trait.

[ canary ] do you have pets? if yes, how many and what?

Unfortunately, no. We lost our beloved fourteen-year-old boxer in April of last year. I know all dog owners say their pupper is the best, but Belen Blue was the most lovely pet companion I had the pleasure of knowing. She was 80lbs of pure muscle but a complete silly clown that loved to run around in circles and play chasey-chase. She was everyone's friend whether it be a dog at the dog park or a stranger she'd met on a walk. Despite her advanced age, she doted on my toddler. She was brave and smart and so loving. My husband and I are still not ready to bring a new dog into our family because the grief is still too fresh.

[ emerald ] bonus round: coffee or tea? morning or night? extroverted or introverted? hot or cold? fruits or vegetables? sweet or salty?

Coffee...I do love tea but let's be real it's not as glorious as slightly sweet and creamy coffee. Just to be clear though espresso trumps coffee. I shifted to a morning person a few years ago because my daughter likes to wake up with the sun. Introverted I need to recharge after being in social situations. Cold is preferred. I assume body temp and I rather have to bundle up than sweat. Fruit. Is someone going to say they prefer vegetables to fruits? I'm not sure what to think of someone who would. Sweet if it's between the two although salty sweet is an amazing combo.

[ olive ] what gives you the most inspiration for your muse(s)?

Probably plotting and chatting with mutuals. I've difficulty keeping things going if there isn't any communication. I also love reading others' bios and world-building trying to figure out how the muses could intersect.

[ azure ] is there a specific character or type of character you want to write but never have? why?

Honestly, no. I've written across the spectrum of tropes for the most part. I've been around for a while and have been fortunate enough to formulate and develop muses that have bubbled up.

[ fuchsia ] bonus round: angst or fluff? one-liners or paras? plotting or winging it? memes or starter calls? single muse or multimuse?

Fluff all the way. I'm such a nerd for it, but angst is pretty amazing as well especially when it comes before the fluff. Paras, I just can't do one-liners there's not enough substance to keep me interested. Plotting because it feeds the muse. It's a tie between the memes and stater calls because I enjoy both a lot. You typically get a smidge more depth with starters, but every once and a while the perfect meme floats into the inbox. Multimuse is my preference because I like to explore different ships (kin/romantic/platonic), and build a world with an overarching plot.

[sparkymalone]

How is Olive

She's good, just being a rambunctious little pupper!

This is how she sits, what a goober.

[laf-outloud]

I’m sorry if this is too personal, but your pupper is so cute!

No worries, anon! Mostly because it's not my pup! Oliver belongs to my parents... I just happen to get to dog-sit every once in a while! And yes, he is an absolute cutie! But you have to watch out for surprise licks!

[hoperays-song]

idea: johnny sends marcus a pic of one of things and says "we should get this for [the dogs name i forgot what it was]" and marcus responds "we need that for you, actually"

(alternatively, johnny could be sending it to marcus to show him the cute dog or somethin idk)

*Johnny sends above photo to Marcus, not even ten minutes later.*

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I love this so much!!! Thank you for the amazing ask, you're the best!!! - <3 Gooseless

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Additional Info on Olive for anyone curious:

[angelwings-crossbowstrings]

How can I possibly write with this staring at me?

[what-the-stark]

º ✧ 。 GET TO KNOW THE MUN !

what’s your phone wallpaper : abstract geometric art of a stormtrooper (bit of a Star Wars nerd, unsurprisingly)

last song you listened to : Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Adona)

currently reading : Nevernight - Jay Kristoff

last movie : Avengers: Infinity Wars

last show : Last Week Tonight (Bail episode I think)

craving : vanilla sweet cream nitro sounds amazing

what are you wearing right now : imma be real I wear leggings 98% of the time and rn is no different lol

how tall are you? : 5'9"

piercings / tattoos? : pierced lobes, mandala/eoh tat in process

glasses ? contacts? : both but usually red transitions

last thing you ate? : a donut hole xD

favorite color(s)/shade : steel grey

current obsession : i have a longass commute, so currently slowly listening to every episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Dude is ahead of his time, the writing on that show is next level

any pets : a rescue pupper named Isa

do you have a crush right now?: my crushes on hot fictional superhero types are vast and unceasing, but on the real it'll always be my wife ❤️

favorite fictional character: Iron Man, obviously, though I also have a great fondness for Loki, Spock, Zevran, Fenris, Khadgar and Bard (and I have blogs for them all that I've written on at one time or another)

last place you traveled : Austin, Texas last week, but about to head to Baltimore next week for commencement

tagged by: @blindbastard thank you, doll!

tagging: @bonesrot, @gildinbainas, @intheformofstars, @trust-my-glorious-purpose, @notgonnabesubtle, @deviousmxnds, @normaltothemax, @defectivexfragmented, @redxinmyledger, @stripesofbrooklyn, @bxnnxrxd, @illbringthechaosmagic, @silvertongued-trickster, @evolvingheartisms

[buddieisgoingcanon2024]

Fandoms can be weird. There are some stan accounts I've come across that love a band/actor, but from the shit they post and say, you'd think they hate them.

And with actors in general, they take the brunt of fan hate, even when it's generally something they don't even have control of like the script. That's why O ended up leave twitter.

Most of O's friends early on were mainly her friends outside of the show, so glad he's heading back to the set.

Side note - realgoodrescue posted about Oliver keeping the pupper

Here’s the post about the dogs

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by REAL GOOD RESCUE (@realgoodrescue)

[schitthappens]

Thanks to @rosedavid for the “tag”

ONE: Are you named after anyone?

Yes both my first and middle name!

TWO: When was the last time you cried?

I saw my parents over Father’s Day Weekend and we definitely laughed so hard we cried at some point.

THREE: Do you have kids?

Nope

FOUR: Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Me? Use sarcasm? Never!!

FIVE: What sports have you played/do you play?

I’m that kid that tried every sport and sucked at all of them. Softball, volleyball, basketball, soccer, track and field, bowling, rugby, even a powderpuff football game.

SIX: What's the first thing you notice about people?

How they’re dressed or their hair

SEVEN: What's your eye colour?

Blueish grayish green depending on the day and the light

EIGHT: Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings only please!

NINE: Any special talents?

Not really

TEN: Where were you born?

Midwest!

ELEVEN: What are your hobbies?

Any kind of art I vibe with at the moment, but also fandom (as in reading fic, creating fanworks, and talking to friends online)

TWELVE: Do you have any pets?

I live with a pupper named Oliver

THIRTEEN: How tall are you?

5'7"

FOURTEEN: Favourite subject in school?

Art for sure!

FIFTEEN: Dream job

I don’t dream of labor but if I could just make art for the rest of my life that’d be great!

Tagging: @hullomoon @swiftlythebest @dessertwaffles @schittposting @nontoxic-writes

[lissy-lou]

Art of my original character, Oliver, and there big ol pupper, Bruce! Based on the Lo-fi girl pose because I love it so much.

If I had the knowledge and capabilities, I would totally edit this to look like and actually Lo-fi thing.

[texasbama]

JADE AND BEAR! HIIIIIIIII! Move Oliver! Show me puppers!