#the outsiders Broadway

[ghostface-knight]

Soda tapped his foot against the creaky wooden floor. He glanced at the clock for what felt like the thousandth time. 3:30 in the morning. He had thought surely Ponyboy would come home as soon as he cooled off.

He wasn't expecting Pony to immediately forgive Darry. Hell, Soda himself hadn't entirely forgiven his older brother, who sat, head clutched in his hands, on the couch.

Still, he understood how Darry could have done what he did. When Pony didn't come home, Soda and Darry had thought the worst possible. However, it seemed that Soda's worry had translated into relief at seeing him brother okay, while Darry's had instantly become anger.

The silence of the house was unbearable. It was like the crack of Darry's hand against Pony's face had deafened the brothers to the world.

Finally, Soda shot up from his seat. Darry didn't turn to look at him.

"I'm looking for him." He said simply as he gathered his shoes and his jacket. He realized with a pang in his chest that Pony had run out without a jacket on. He must be so cold.

Darry remained silent.

"What, you're not even going to help me look?" Soda asked.

Darry finally looked up from his hands, and Soda saw tears brimming his eyes. "Do you really think he wants to see me?" Darry said gruffly.

Soda stilled. "No, I... I guess not." He turned on his heel, then walked out the door and shut it behind him.

He shook thoughts of Darry from his mind. Right now, he had to focus on finding Pony and bringing him home.

The first place he thought to check was the lot, where Pony and Johnny had apparently fallen asleep just a few hours prior. He walked across the gravel, softly calling Ponyboy's name. He received no response.

He wandered throughout Tulsa for hours, searching for his brother. The whole east side was eerily quiet.

As the black sky shifted into the pink and orange sunrise, Soda made his way back to his house.

When he pushed the door open and walked in, he heard Darry rushing from the kitchen.

"Pony! Pony, I'm real sorry, I never-" Darry trailed off when he entered the room, and saw Soda standing all alone. "Soda? Did you find Pony?"

Soda shook his head, exhausted. "I'm calling the guys. Maybe he stayed with one of them." Darry nodded, guilt ridden.

Soda called Two-Bit, Steve, and Dally, one by one, and none of them had seen Ponyboy since the drive in. In fact, none of them had seen Johnny either. Soda felt sick with the fear that rattled around in his stomach. The gang agreed to meet them at their house, and help them look.

Once they had gathered, they split up to cover more ground. It was decided that Steve and Soda would keep looking around the East Side, and Dally, Darry and Two-Bit would take Buck's car over to the West side, in case Pony had done something real stupid in his rage and fear.

Soda shuddered as he and Steve made their way around town. They started walking through the park they had played at as kids, when Steve spoke up.

"Little shit got himself into trouble again." He muttered. "He knows Darry don't mean it. He knows you two were worrying your heads off."

Soda felt the need to defend his little brother. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, Pony wasn't wrong. Darry shouldn't have blown up at him. He should have known-"

"Soda." Steve's tone was deathly serious behind him. Soda turned, and saw that Steve had stopped a few steps earlier. He stared past Soda with a look of utter disbelief, his eyes glazing over.

Soda whipped around to see what he was looking at.

First, he just saw the pool of red. Then, he noticed the forms surrounding it.

He wanted to run. But his body felt like it was moving in slow motion. He stumbled towards the first of the bodies -- the one in the pool of blood -- and dread sank in his gut. It was Johnny, lying there, with his eyes open wide and blood plastered across his shirt, spreading from a deep gash in the center of his chest. There was a pocket knife laying still in the pool of blood, and Soda realized with the jolt that it was Johnny's own knife.

That was when Soda set his eyes on the second figure.

He was slumped over the brim of the fountain, unmoving, with his face submerged in the water.

Soda stood very slowly, as if moving too quick could startle the situation into getting worse. He stepped around Johnny's body, unflinching when Steve started yelling at him.

He reached the second body, and grabbed him under his arms to hoist the figure out from under the water.

He was so heavy.

Still, Soda was strong. He lifted the body out of the water, and set it down on the pavement.

Soda sat down beside the body as it dawned on him that this boy was his brother.

"P- pony?" Soda stuttered. He grabbed Ponyboy's shoulder and shook him. "Pony, Ponyboy, wake up." He shook him harder. "Pony, what are you doing?"

"Soda..." he heard Steve call desperately to him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Steve clutching Johnny's corpse. Soda didn't care though.

"Pony, get up! It's not funny, Pone, you can't-- you need to-- just wake up!" Soda's words were becoming increasingly strained, but he was scared to shake him to hard. He didn't want to hurt him.

"Jesus, Soda!" Steve shouted from right beside him. When had Steve gotten there? "Soda! Soda look at me!" Soda forced himself to make eye contact with his best friend.

"We're going to give him CPR, okay? I'll do the chest compressions, and you'll breathe into his mouth." Soda didn't quite know what was going on, but Steve sounded so sure of himself that Soda found himself blindly following his orders. Soda easily ignored the drying blood on Steve's hands. Johnny's blood.

Steve delivered round after round of compressions, between which Soda performed the rescue breaths. It went on for what felt like forever. Suddenly, Steve stopped. He fell back on his heels beside Soda. Soda gawked at him.

"What- what are you doing? Come on, we need to give him CPR, to save him, remember? Come on!"

Steve finally met his eyes. "He's gone, man. We can't save him."

Just then, it finally clicked in Soda's head.

Gone.

He turned his head back to his brother, in horror, as the sounds of shouting began to echo behind him.

Darry, he thought numbly and he grasped Pony's shoulders and pulled his baby brother's head and chest into his lap.

That was Darry, Dally, and Two-Bit. He knew their voices. Still, he didn't turn around. He just wrapped his arms around Pony's cold body.

Even though he never turned away from his brother, he could still hear every beat of the scene play out.

He heard Darry calling his name between strides, then he heard his big brother crumble to the ground as he tripped over something.

Something that, then, caused Dally to begin screaming and cursing and praying to God.

Funny, thought Sodapop. I've never heard Dally pray.

He heard Darry pick himself up from off the ground, and slowly approach from behind.

"Soda?" He called hesitantly. Soda didn't turn.

"Soda, is that-" he heard Darry choke. "Did you find Ponyboy?"

Soda nodded, even though he knew Darry couldn't see.

He stared down at Pony, clutching him even tighter as Darry made his way into his peripheral vision. Suddenly, Darry was on his knees beside Soda, trying to pry their littlest brother from his grip.

"Pony! Soda, let me see him!" Darry cried, but Soda just held on tighter.

Soda's eyes were open, but they saw no more than those of his brother he held in his arms. Still, he heard.

He heard Darry sobbing and begging to see Ponyboy.

He heard Dally cursing God.

He heard Steve and Two-Bit trying not to cry as they tried to no avail to pry their grieving friends away from the dead bodies of the boys who had been like their brothers.

He heard the voices of neighborhood kids and workers start to crowd around them to inspect the scene.

Soda looked up and saw the last remaining wisps of pink and orange fizzling out of the sky.

Pony always loved sunrises.

How bout Pony dies at the fountain WITH Johnny? Add a little twist, make it fun. The gang is looking for them and stumbles across them in the park or something. (Maybe literally depending on how dark it is and how much angst you want)

[throwing-in-the-towel]

link to the drive folder containing the la jolla script!

*i tried my very best on this for yall so please dont be too critical😭

[girlishwhimsies]

i think about darry being the one to sing the last line of sodas letter so much. how much of that letter reflected not just soda’s, but darry’s thoughts too. do you think they sat at the kitchen table together writing it, hoping maybe it’ll knock some sense into their kid brothers head. darry telling soda not to put his name on the letter cause he knows pony ain’t gonna listen to him or care about what he has to say

[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.

[closetnerd62]

can we talk about how tragic the line from pony’s conversation with soda where pony says “you sound real sad, like how animals get sad” is? cause that shit fucks me up every time i hear it. what do you mean he sounds sad in a way that is so primal it sounds like an animal? that’s devastating. and i will simply never get over it.

[this-hopeless-war]

yk what? I may not be able to change the outcome of this election from my room, but I can listen to GGAH and that's a wonderful thing

[sondheim-girly]

just reminding y’all to please not speculate on actors personal lives. It’s none of our fucking business. Leave them alone.

[walmartbrandwhatever]

Guys hear me out... figure skating au with marbit...PLEASE HEAR ME OUT SOMEONE TALK TO ME PLEADE

[daddyscaddyandliquor]

i think the way that darry and soda mainly refer to pony as ‘our brother’ in throwing in the towel is so beautiful but i don’t know how to formulate it into words. and the hopeless way that darry says “what if they lock our brother away” makes me think that he’s thinking about the possibility of pony turning into dally. it’s unlikely, but the thought lingers because prison does change a person.

[thefandomchaos]

I need Brody Grant singing Santa Fe pls and thank you

[cutthathair]

i fear cherry and bob would have been INSUFFERABLE when they first started dating. the honey moon phase went crazy. like hanging all over each other constantly and side-eyeing people in the school hallways together. don’t play. during football games bob would wave to cherry or throw her some sort of signal/head nod from the field. she’d cheer so loud with her pom poms after a touch down and blow bob a kiss. calling each other pet names (mostly bob, but every now and then cherry would throw in something cute). i feel like after so much pda to get the fact they’re in a relationship out, the went more private with everything.

[wassupmygays]

do u have any hc of the significance of pony and soda in the musical having jewelry/necklaces they play w a lot but darry not having any and i noticed when i saw brent is v still when he speaks but soda and pony fidget a lot

i am always fascinated and in awe of the ways actors use physicality to portray so much about the character, and this show is no different. you can definitely look at this both from canon facts and hcs of the characters.

darry, for example, we know through ponyboy's eyes as this rock of a man that doesnt give in to anything. ponyboy is seeing this through his young, upset eyes and just thinks darry is so stuck and strict bc he doesn't like ponyboy. but i also think that is just . darry coping. and trying not to break. brent has said in multiple interviews that he plays darry very still on purpose. partly because, thematically, he is the rock of the family. he is the pillar holding them up. he has to be still and strong. i feel like if he thinks if he lets himself fidget nervously too much, he'll break, and he just cant have that. the only fidgety character choice i know brent does is biting his nails during stressful scenes, which in my heart is a trait darry and pony share (pony does it in the book a bunch)

sodapop, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. i think if he settles down for a moment too long, that is when he breaks. jason understands soda as a character SO WELL every time he talks about how he plays him im just like yea. youre sodapop. anyways he regularly talks about how when soda allows feels emotions, he experiences them in Big Ways. he cries for days, he feels everything so completely. but he cant let himself do that all the time, so he bounces around. he deflects with a laugh. he busies himself with making everyone else feel better so he doesn't have to focus on his own emotions until he can get the time to let himself let it all go. headcanon wise i think he especially fidgets with his dad's dog tags whenever hes gotta try and hold it all together. he's also an adhd king, so even if he isnt trying to distract himself, hes not staying still.

and finally, ponyboy. i think he is a nervous fidgeter. hes also a 14 year old kid, with all of this pent up emotion about his family and his world and wanting more somehow. he has so much inside of him that he just doesn't understand. i don't think he's as hyperactive about it as sodapop, but its still there. hes chewing his nails, hes tapping his fingers, hes playing with his necklace, or hes running a hand through his hair. to me it feels like hes a mix of his brothers; he can't stay still at all, like soda, but his movements are smaller, like darry. him and darry share a lot of the same motions. and also i think writing, movies, and daydreaming is where he gets out a lot of his energy and feelings.

anyways. that was really long. i love you if you read all of that. as you can see i have So Many thoughts about these characters, so thank you thank you thank you for this ask and im sorry it took some time to answer dkfjdkjfkjf. i will always take more asks to talk about these characters and this story <3

[throwing-in-the-towel]

the cast album is officially nominated for a grammy!

[every-single-day]

Y’all I cannot make this shit up 😀 So a call comes in at like 3:15 right? When I tell you that was the bloodiest mess I’ve ever seen !!!!!! It was a lone boy left for dead, there was no one else around :( I checked to see if he was still alive but his body was cold and his eyes were wide open :/ his face was all twisted too like he was in surprise or something….

[damthosefandoms]

one of the biggest fights darry & soda have ever had—and i like to think they fought like cats and dogs as kids, the sibling rivalry was so so strong between them, and that’s brotherly love—was whether or not to bury their parents with their wedding rings. and then pony was on darry’s side, wanting their parents to always have a piece of their love for each other, but soda wanted that piece to himself. to remind him how much his parents loved each other, and so one day he could show somebody that love too—so soda either 1) slipped them off and pocketed them during the wake or 2) made up this whole story about how he was going to go get them polished before the burial and got mugged on the way there and lost them. but they’re hidden beneath the floorboard in his old bedroom and soda’s gonna use them to propose to sandy one day. and then when sandy leaves, he cries for days to the point where darry’s eye is twitching and he snaps at soda to get over her and soda blurts out that it’s not about sandy, it’s about the fact that he secretly kept their parents’ rings despite his brothers’ wishes so he could marry her, and now he can’t undo that they’ve been laid to rest without them, and it’s making him sick. and still some part of him doesn’t regret it, because he likes having a piece of them and never wants to let it go.

[girlishwhimsies]

something about sodas letter gets me bad. soda doesn’t confront his emotions in the musical except in his breakdown and imo in this letter. he’s confronting how scared he is, how he wants pony back, how shaken up everything is. soda takes the time and effort to write that letter and put those emotions and worries to paper.