youllneverseeonascreen

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When times were better, Ponyboy would love to get thrown by Darry. Just picks him up and gives a good toss onto the couch or the bed, it started as a general sibling fight until pony waddled back up wanting it to happen again. Pools or lakes especially you need to get out of the way this kids a weapon. It happens less now that their folks are gone and everyone’s so stressed all the time…there’s no time for real roughhousing anymore. Not them anyway.

Soda was more of the traditional wrestle type, he’s convinced pony cheats sometimes. He used to swing him like a clock upside down until he got too big for it.

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When times were better, Ponyboy would love to get thrown by Darry. Just picks him up and gives a good toss onto the couch or the bed, it started as a general sibling fight until pony waddled back up wanting it to happen again. Pools or lakes especially you need to get out of the way this kids a weapon. It happens less now that their folks are gone and everyone’s so stressed all the time…there’s no time for real roughhousing anymore. Not them anyway.

Soda was more of the traditional wrestle type, he’s convinced pony cheats sometimes. He used to swing him like a clock upside down until he got too big for it.

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new darry laundry basket pics dropped for me, darrys-laundry!

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I’m sorry but your headcanon that Darry is an avid reader is wrong. Darry and Ponyboy don’t bond over fiction. Darry doesn’t understand the point. Darry doesn’t like movies because he “thinks his life is enough without inspecting other people’s.” Ponyboy feels misunderstood because he loves poetry and literature while his brother exists on hard tangible reality.

However, I think we can find a compromise that suits both the headcanon and the character:

Darry is an avid reader—

of nonfiction.

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So glad they didn’t let Ponyboy do the shopping for the food supply bro woulda gotten like books and cigarettes ONLY

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inspired by this post

Even after he turns in his essay, he can’t stop. It’s not like he’s never written anything before, but those were the silly daydreams of a little boy with his head in the clouds, who dreamed of movie stars and damsels in distress. What he’s doing now is important. What he’s doing now is necessary.

On the third day in a row that he’s late to dinner—so late that Soda has to reheat his plate—Darry says, “What you been writing about, Pony?”

“Yeah,” Soda says, bringing the plate over and setting it down. “You’re always still up when I try to go to bed. I’ve had to replace the batteries in your flashlight twice now. Are you writing another story?”

Pony shrugs. Suddenly, all the words that pour out of him so easily onto the page get lodged in the back of his throat.

How to describe it to them? The urge—to not forget, to hold onto what was. To wring out the words and distill them into a watered-down version of his friends. Those measly words the only things left of Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston.

“Hey, Ponyboy, what’s wrong?”

Pony blinks, and Soda’s blurry face peers at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Darry scoot his chair closer to the both of them. Both wear matching expressions of concern.

“I just—” He swallows past the lump in his throat. “I just want to remember them.”

His brothers don’t say anything. So he keeps going.

“I—I can’t let them just disappear. They were here. They were real. And now they’re not. And I can’t let what their tombstones say be the only thing people remember about them. They were more than just a date.”

Soda leans over and ruffles his hair. It’s starting to grow out again finally, the natural dark roots beginning to peek through. “Don’t worry about that, Pony. You’ll never forget them. None of us will.”

“Yeah,” Darry agrees. “Dallas and Johnny were family, and family don’t—”

“I can’t remember what Mom’s perfume smelled like,” Pony bursts out. “I don’t remember what her high heels sounded like on the floor or the slight burning smell when she would curl her hair. And I try real hard to remember what it was like waking up and hearing Dad make coffee, but it’s gone. They’re fading. Like they were never actually here at all.” He clenches his fists, and there’s still a faint ache in his wrist. “I’m not gonna let that happen to them.”

He doesn’t tell them that sometimes at night, after Soda’s fully asleep and snoring like some dang bear, he sneaks out of bed and into the closet where they’ve kept Johnny’s clothes folded in a neat pile. Sometimes he holds them, brushing his fingers over the ripped jeans; sometimes he can’t bear to sully them. Which doesn’t even make sense because the shirt’s still got some of Johnny’s blood on it so it’s plenty dirty already, but he still feels like he’ll ruin it if he touches them too much or for too long.

He’s broken out of his thoughts by arms wrapping around him. A moment later, another pair of arms joins the first. And then he’s clutching onto Soda’s elbow and Darry’s forearm, and once again they’re all holding each other.

He wonders what this scene would look like to an observer: three boys in a rundown kitchen with grime caked under their fingernails and wearing clothes that don’t fit quite right. Unwanted tears escaping from tightly squeezed eyelids. A forgotten plate of food sitting on the table. No parents or friends anywhere to be seen.

He thinks they would see grief. And heartache and loneliness and pain. But maybe also hope. Maybe also love.

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post canon pony just keeps drawing johnny and dally over and over again. writing in detail about what they looked like, how their laugh sounded, their favorite foods and clothes, every detail he can remember. he's terrified of forgetting them. forgetting that year. forgetting johnny's last words and dally's falling body. the lessons he learned.

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YOU LEARN TO LIVE AND DIE AND THEN TO LIVE

sodapop angst (+ mentions of darry x paul) rating: teen word count: 5k

Sodapop brought the cigarette to his mouth and let the smoke fill his lungs one last time before he flicks the weed down to the water. Hopefully no fish ate it and died. He’d feel kind of bad. The fish probably didn’t ask for death the way he did. Right before he could work up the courage to finally let go and take the plunge, a voice yanked him from the crevices of his dark mind and back into reality. “You’re on the wrong side, Greaser.” Soda knew the voice. It was one of Darry’s old football buddies.

[small excerpt]

“Did you mean it when you said you loved Darry?” Soda asked as he pulled away.

Hesitation filled Paul’s face and he wondered if he’d get an honest answer out of the man. But he knew what the truth was and when Paul slowly nodded, Soda could tell that was what he was getting. “Your brother was my first love.”

“So why did you leave?”

Paul took a step back and averted his gaze, instead, focusing his attention on a rock he kicked with his foot. “Sneaking around like that when you're a teenager is fun. It made what we had feel special, our own little secret. But that type of secret becomes dangerous when you’re an adult, especially in Tulsa. And I couldn’t just shut off how I felt. So the only option was to have him out of my life completely. And, despite all that, I still couldn’t find myself falling out of love with him.”

Soda was silent. It wasn’t lost on him how Darry never brought home a girl throughout all of high school. And it’s not like he didn’t have any options. Darry was a good looking fella on the football team. Even the Soc girls were willing to overlook him being a Greaser. He was real popular. And sure, he spent pretty much all his free time around Paul. But Soda didn’t think anything of it because he was the same way with Steve. Steve spent more time at Soda’s home than his own. He never thought that Darry and Paul could be something more than friends. But he understood why they had to keep it a secret. “I reckon he misses you. I think he’s real lonely.”

[full fic on ao3]

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olympics au ponyboy but set into canon where he just. makes it that far in track. and the world latches on to this young upstart racing in the 100m on international primetime with the stupid name and tragic backstory. “what’re you gonna do now?” he’s asked after he wins gold and becomes the fastest man (teenager) alive. “i’m gonna go home and see my brothers!” because they couldn’t afford to fly out with him and the ‘68 olympics were in mexico. half the east side is crowded around the curtises’ tv cheering him on. johnny said stay gold he said yes sir🫡

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olympics au ponyboy but set into canon where he just. makes it that far in track. and the world latches on to this young upstart racing in the 100m on international primetime with the stupid name and tragic backstory. “what’re you gonna do now?” he’s asked after he wins gold and becomes the fastest man (teenager) alive. “i’m gonna go home and see my brothers!” because they couldn’t afford to fly out with him and the ‘68 olympics were in mexico. half the east side is crowded around the curtises’ tv cheering him on. johnny said stay gold he said yes sir🫡

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olympics au ponyboy but set into canon where he just. makes it that far in track. and the world latches on to this young upstart racing in the 100m on international primetime with the stupid name and tragic backstory. “what’re you gonna do now?” he’s asked after he wins gold and becomes the fastest man (teenager) alive. “i’m gonna go home and see my brothers!” because they couldn’t afford to fly out with him and the ‘68 olympics were in mexico. johnny said stay gold he said yes sir🫡

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if papercut met in college i wonder what soda and darrys first reactions to curly would be (in this au curly wouldnt have grown up in tulsa) soooo hcs for that?

lets say curly was grew up in nyc cause im still rockin w my shepards lore here and many haitians moved to nyc and i will add as many self projections onto these characters as i can, i promise u that much

•ok look I KNOOOWWWW i made a post on what i think all the shepards could get a degree in AND IT TOOK A WHILE TO FIND IT BUT I DID ITS RIGHT HERE IF U WANNA SEE, id def fix some of these a bit but whatever, immmm gonna go w curly as an engineering degree kinda guy

•soda and darry def have way bigger respect for curly, MOSTLY bc they dont know how curly rlly acts and havent grown up w him, but also bc hes acheiving something darry and soda themselves cant, getting a college diploma

•SUPER rare soda and darry papercut shippers perchance??? its not 100% there, but everytime pony comes home they ask about “that boy mate of urs”

•but thats only for the first year of college, the rest of em??? we r getting back into the good ole curtis family and curly dynamic, bc pony tells them stories about what curlys done, plus they can hear curly in the background when their calling pony

•theyve talked to him before too!!!they dint get what hes on about half the time, but hes not THEE worst person theyve ever talked to, they like talking about where curly grew up, his stories r a lil fucked up but they like hearing a different pov!!!

•pony always sends pics home so darry and soda arent too surprised seeing pony grow and its curly who hels take em!! pony feels bad just having him take it thi so chances r they WILL see curly there too and curlys just on the curtis fridge

•thats actually how soda and darry kept catching on that they had a thing for each other, bc the way they were looking and touching each other in those photos??? darry knows that look,,,,,

•curly got bonus points for being pretty family oriented (especially from soda for being the middle child, ts aint easy)

•dare i say,,,,they finally see curly as somewhat as a good influence,,,,its about timmeee🙄🙄🙄, pony mentions how curly makes pony get to class, pony doesnt mention the times curly pulls pony away from his studies however and he never will

•i promise if curly was in college for entomology, theyd thing hes so odd for that, but they cant say much about it bc at the end if the day, hes doin things they aint, BUTTT bc here hes getting an engineering degree, soda (especially again) will ask him a lot if questions about it and how pony tends to surround himself w ppl who build/fix things, they all tease pony for that

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Pov ur Mr syme

I have so many of these stupid things

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What would cause this Soda reaction

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my magnum opus part two

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thinking about “even in the end, even if you win, it doesn’t change a thing. you’ll still be the losers destined to fail, and we’ll be the lucky ones”

thinking about how the greasers won the rumble only for johnny to say “fighting’s dumb. it doesn’t solve anything.” only for johnny to die, looking so small in that hospital bed. only for dally to run and run until he found those train tracks. only for dally to stop running. only for johnny’s mom never visiting the hospital. only for pony to not go to school for weeks, become a shell of himself in his grief. only for the hospital bills to stack up and only for the socs to torment pony at school. only for cherry to still not say hi to pony in the halls. only for johnny and sally’s grave to have no birth year.

they won the rumble. they continued that chain of violence passed down to them. it didn’t change a thing

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Oh btw, sometimes before Darry goes to bed Soda and Pony will hide under his bed and grab his ankles- he screams so loud

(Darry and Soda tried that with Pony once but uhm.. He kicked them both in the face and Soda ended up loosing a tooth 😅)