#the motorcycle boy

[your-unfriendlyghost]

i love your matt dillon-se hinton-verse au where dally is tex and mark’s half-brother but i was wondering is rusty-james also a part of this au? (since he’s also played by matt)

Good point. Honestly, I haven’t thought much about that- which is weird cos I really like Rusty-James honestly. Idk, for some reason to me, Rumble Fish feels like a whole other world compared to the one of Tex, TWTTIN, and the Outsiders. I blame the movie for that, since it’s so art house and surreal.

If Rusty-James is in this AU, then he’s the same age as Tex. If they ever meet, it’s at Buck’s place- Tex is there ‘cos that’s where Dally lives, and Rusty-James is there to try and fail at hustling pool. They’re both impulsive rule-ignore-ers with a penchant for chaos- so they get along great.

Meanwhile, Mason hates the Motorcycle Boy’s guts. He’s never met the guy, but he hears what Tex’s weird little hood friend says about how tough the Motorcycle Boy is- and Mason thinks he’s a bad influence on Rusty-James. Who, in turn, is a bad influence on Tex. This hatred is one sided, as the Motorcycle Boy isn’t aware of Mason’s existence.

Idk if anyone ever finds out that Rusty-James is another half-brother. Maybe Dally has a passing suspicion, but he doesn’t think hard about it. Rusty-James has a dad. Dally’s not gonna bother pursuing it. His dad was a whore- if Dally adopted every half sibling he has out there, he’d have enough kids around to start his own gang bigger than any of the gangs in Tulsa.

TL;DR- Rusty-James and Tex briefly are friends, for like a summer maybe. Rusty-James probably doesn’t even remember Tex by the end of Rumble Fish. Tex remembers tho, and sometimes wonders about that kid who looked and acted so much like himself that he hung around with when he was twelve…

If they ever meet again, Tex won’t see any resemblance to himself anymore, and Rusty-James won’t recognize Tex at all. Sorta a bummer, but hey, Rumble Fish is sorta a bummer too (love it tho)

Slightly unrelated random hc- At this time (like 2 years pre-Rumble Fish canon) The Motorcycle Boy is really into local author P.M. Curtis’s book “The Outsiders” and relates a lot to the character ��Dean Marlboro” who totally isn’t Dallas Winston, killed off for dramatic effect. He has no idea that his kid brother is hanging around with his hero’s kid brother.

[mannytoodope]

Rusty James:How come the tank is separated?

The Motorcycle Boy: These are rumble fish. They'd kill each other if RustyJames: Yeah?

The Motorcycle Boy:That's right. These are Siamese fighting fish. Watch this. If you lean a mirror up against the glass, they try to kill themselves.

Rusty James: That's pretty cool.

The Motorcycle Boy: Yeah? - Try it. Right there.

[izaacs-notdeadyet]

The Motorcycle Boy

Total elapsed time: 14 hours and 12 minutes

(Black and white versions under cut, no overlay versions under cut)

I was inspired by that one trend awhile back when people were redrawing the ai picture of the girl and the cat

[hailsbellsl]

Rusty-James and Motorcycle Boy parallels make me want to SOB

[charlie-bonkerz]

if any kendrick lamar and outsiders/S.E. Hinton fans are reading this, know that i am one of yall

GNX is a masterpiece, reincarnated is literally so good i cant yall

ive been listening to it on loop, and after i thought about what it means to kendrick himself, i thought about how similar it is to the motorcycle boy and rusty james. i see a lot of similarities between Rumble Fish and kendricks music.

i started a rumble fish edit a long time ago, with Alright, my personal fave kendrick song. the experimental horns reminded me a lot of those in the actual sound track of the movie. it never went anywhere, and i scrapped it because i got lazy, but reincarnated may make me do another one.

idk this is kind of a yap but i dont see enough people talking about how beautiful the story of rumble fish is. i need to make fanart neow

[noufuturevision]

oh boy finished my 250 page sketchbook. here are some of my faves, pretty happy with this one!!

[vtcyv]

If I hear one more person complain about Rumble Fish being in black and white I'm gonna start tweaking....

The ENTIRE book is a flashback, so it's all according to Rusty-James'. And in the book, he's constantly like "I'm going to be like my brother, I'm going to be just like the motorcycle boy!" And everyone discourages him abt, including his brother who basically tells him "you don't wanna be like me" Still, Rusty-James is determined to be like him.

(SPOILERS)

The night they rob the pet store, the night when the motorcycle boy dies, everything changes for Rusty-James. He points out the fact that everything is in black and white--which is how the motorcycle boy saw things. Rusty-James' hearing is shot half the time--like the motorcycle boys was. And at the end (and beginning), Rusty-James is at a beach, just like where the motorcycle boy told him to go, he runs into Steve. Steve tells him that he almost had a heart attack because he thought Rusty-James looked just like the motorcycle boy. At the end, Rusty-James becomes like the motorcycle boy--just like he wanted to but not how WANTED to.

Sorry for the rant, I got off topic, but the main point was that: it's in black and white bc it's all a flashback from Rusty-James' perspective, and at the end he's like the motorcycle boy, who only sees in black and white...!

[combustedrat]

Decided to read rumble fish since I got That Was Then, This Is Now, and finally bought an actual physical copy of The Outsiders instead of reading it on my computer.

Guys. this book actually, WOW. It. Omg like idk what to say……. It was so good and yet.. SAD. I watched the movie as well, and boy oh boy….

[broareweabouttoviberightnow]

disjointed first half of rumble fish thoughts:

DIANE LANE GOOD LORD

this choice to film this in black n white I'm intrigued

Comical amount of times they can say either fuck or Rusty James. if u turned this into a drinkin game u'd be dead

how often it sounds like matt dillion is recordin his lines in a closet

"man gangs used to MEAN something!" "rusty james gangs went out when u were ten" "HEY! I was ELEVEN!"

his fuck ass bandana

"wake up ur bein SHIT company" "huh? what time is it? oh shit I gotta go fight someone. brb. heart."

gets stabbed n when his brother shows up to help he immediately goes "are u pissed off🥺"

one cop shows up to break up a fight of like 20 kids. n he shows up late. n berates one kid. who is actively bleedin out n then fucks off. no notes. very realistic.

"how ya been?" "oh I've been around y'know" *screamin wailin writhin in pain* "Yeah? how was California?"

his fuck ass earrin (affectionate)

his brother usin a picture of rusty n him as kids as a bookmark? I'm unwell I fear

*thick ass accent* "Nah nah nah nah nah nah you were WRONG"

[pumpkinsy0]

so. perchance. do u have any the motorcycle boy hcs. he was on my mind a lot a few weeks ago and I had many thoughts Abt him but. I have forgotten. the one I remember however is I think the science teacher I had last year would really not like him. thats all

yea im ngl to u, i havent thought about him in THEE longest time so i dont wanna give u a bunch of hcs cause idk him THAT well BUT ill leave u w the idea that he wouldnt b that good of a father generally speaking, but compared to everyone else around him, hes aight

like maybe if his mom didnt run away he would b good, but bc she did and he was forced to take care of rusty james and his dad, hes just so put off of the idea of kids that he ends up running away for a bit, coming back cause he realizes hes being like his mom and doesnt want the kid to go through that, feels too caged from being forced to stay, then leaving again, its a repeated cycle. if he doesnt straight up run away hes totally doing something similar to avoid his actual life, like working long hours or somethin along the lines

def doesnt hate the kid as their own person but hates what having the kid would change about him

[your-unfriendlyghost]

Is Rusty James/motorcycle boy part of the Dallas Tex and Mark au?

Not really. I talked about it here, but Rumble Fish is so…different feeling from The Outsiders or Tex to me that the idea of them being in the same AU is hard for me to get my head around.

They’re unofficially part of it still, but no one ever knows Rusty James is their half brother too. Well, maybe Dally does/suspects something, but he doesn’t seek out a connection.

Basically, Rusty-James and Tex are friends for a summer when they’re like twelve. Tex notices that they’re similar looking, but doesn’t make the connection that they could be related.

By the time they’re older, like at the end of Rumble Fish when Rusty-James is like…twenty-ish I think, Tex remembers Rusty-James fondly. Meanwhile, Rusty-James does not remember Tex at all because of all the brain damage.

As I said in the other post, if they were to ever meet again, Rusty-James wouldn’t look like Tex anymore. He’d just look like the Motorcycle Boy. Tex would be horrified and sad, but ultimately unsurprised at the way life treated his childhood friend. Rusty-James on the other hand would wonder why this weird cowboy is talking to him, and would probably try to leave.

[oakmann]

I’m about to start drawing rumble fish characters how I imagined them in the book, and this literally what I think Steve looks like

[izaacs-notdeadyet]

Dally or Motorcycle Boy

Dally. That's probably because there's a lot more content for him though, both fandom and book. Rumble fish is Hintons shortest book after all

[thereal-motorcycle-boy]

"Kid. I never got past the river"

"The Motorcycle Boy"

17 years old

"I saw the old lady when I was out in California"

Known for his aloof personality, love for motorcycles, and past involvement in gangs

"It's a bit of a burden to be Robin Hood, Jesse James, and the Pied Piper. Id just as soon stay a neighborhood novelty, if it's all the same to you"

Asks are open! Feel free to interact, I'll mostly reply in character unless asked otherwise

Admin info:

I'm a minor so keep that in mind, blog au is set pre book, and I use he/him pronouns. No boundaries yet I'm pretty chill but this may change

[motorcycle-boyy]

this is a bit of a broad question but how did you interpret rumble fish? What did you take away from the story?

well uh

i am the motorcycle boy !!!!!

anyway its beena while since ive read it; i think the basic rundown of it is that rusty-james was too caught up in becoming something he couldn't, that he didn't realize the effect on himself and others until it was way, way too late he painted a picture for himself in his head of his brother, and ignored his actual advice, which ultimately let to his downfall. he didn't truly want to be like his brother, he wanted to be like how he thought his brother was, or perhaps a younger and more reckless version

[noufuturevision]

rumble fish on the mind