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@chemicalcyan
Cryptage was always MY Heated Rivalry…
I know it would have to be one hell of an AU but the concept is very funny to me, so walk with me for a second here. Imagine you have Ponyboy being pursued by not only Angela, but also Curly, Cathy, Mark, Johnny, Dally, AND why don’t we also throw Randy in there while we’re at it. And the poor kid is obviously too busy painting soulful watercolors of horses and reading his little Bildungsroman novels to notice how his aura is literally tearing families and friendships asunder across the greater Tulsa area
Modern day Sodapop who has to confront Darry after he found his Grindr account on the 2017 Galaxy tablet they all share.
the concept of mark/ponyboy/curly is hilarious to me just because of how bryon feels about ponyboy. like imagine being bryon and this random ass kid you’ve talked to like twice pulls not only TWO of your ex-girlfriends, but also your ex-girlfriend’s BROTHER, and YOUR brother
Okay so I finally read TWTTIN for the first time and let me just say I laughed out loud at Bryon being all “I HATE Ponyboy, thinks he’s so good-looking, ALL those Curtises are so fucking conceited” bc what did Sodapop and Darry ever do to you, big boy
I'm telling you, modern AU gang would be able to pool all their zyn points to get the cool bigger prizes like an air fryer or a home theater projector, you know smth that they could all enjoy together.
I put There’s Something About Mary on for background noise and was then shaken to my core by the appearance of Matt Dillon, who has a surprisingly big role in the film as a sleazy PI and one of the protag’s main rivals.
Anyway, isn’t it so fun to imagine the AU where Dally grew up to be a scammy loverboy with a questionable mustache and not smth (predictably) worse?
(Also selfishly fits into my “greaser gang who investigates Mysteries” agenda)
The brothers ever
Just some small doodles
Baby Ponyboy had bright red hair, a tooth gap, and was pretty much happy all of the time. No one can convince me otherwise.
He also probably loved showing Darry and Soda anytime he lost a tooth. Like he'd rip out a tooth that wasn't loose enough yet just for the soul purpose of feeling proud when he showed it off to Darry and Soda.
Probably brought Darry or Soda to show n tell days at school because he didn't really have much else. He was probably like, 'these are my super cool older brothers.' And he'd show them off with a beaming smile on his face.
He probably also had a stuffed animal he snuggled with EVERY NIGHT until he lost it or something and then he'd cry until he found it.
Soda used to play pirates, knights, hide n seek, etc with Ponyboy all the time. They'd tag-team against Darry and try and beat him at every game. Darry usually won but they all had fun and laughed so hard.
I feel like The Outsiders fandom doesn't take enough advantage of Pony being a good liar. We see him lie to Soda in the first chapter, then on page 73-74 we see him lie to that farmer, and he says that Soda said the ability to lie comes from all the books he reads, further proving that canonically, he is a good liar! Now obviously Pony isn't the most reliable narrator, but if he were a bad liar, Soda would have no reason to lie about it, and he certainly wouldn't have fallen for Pony saying he's cold in chapter one, no matter how tired he was.
Now, I've seen people use Pony being a good liar for chaos reasons, like him starting a gang (on accident), or breaking Darry's rules, or sick fics, but what I really wanna see is how his lying can be incorporated into his canon dynamics with the gang and his family.
Ponyboy thinks throughout the entire book that the gang only tolerates him because he's a Curtis, and because he knows when to keep his mouth shut. Throughout the story, even at the end, Pony is unsure if Darry loves him as much as Soda. That kinda thinking doesn't develop over night. Imagine, 8 year old Pony feigning disinterest when Soda invites him to play with everyone else because he already knows that the older kids will just think of him as an annoyance.
9 year old Pony waking up screaming from a nightmare and telling his parents to go back to bed because 'he was scared but he's okay now,' because he doesn't want his parents to get sick of him the way the other parents in the neighborhood seem to be sick of their kids.
10 year old Pony lying to the cashier about getting cigarettes for his parents because he wants the big kids to take him seriously, and smoking seems like the only way that'll happen.
11 year old Pony lying to his parents about what he ate at school so he can save up the lunch money he gets every day, in hopes that one day he'll be able to support his family.
12 year old Pony acting unaffected when Steve pushes him and yells at him for always chasing after Soda, because he thinks that if he just handles Steve's cruelty he'll one day respect Pony.
13 year old Pony refusing to cry when his parents die, saying 'I'm fine,' in hopes that no one will see how badly the loss actually hurt him.
14 year old Pony telling his brother he's cold after he got jumped because he'd rather die than admit weakness.
14 year old Pony asking Two-Bit not to tell his brothers he's sick because he needs to fight in that rumble, only to end up passing out.
Ponyboy, who would rather lie than be himself because he was taught that being himself is bad.
Have you ever thought about how Darry’s supposed to have those scary icy blue eyes even though he’s up there ROOFING all day every day. Like I hope the poor guy is wearing proper eye protection or else he’d be miserable AND unsafe.
Anyway I actually bring this up bc I think he would find a way to somehow look even more attractive with tan-lines from his sunglasses.
"Steve hates Ponyboy"
Steve, who was one of the first on scene, running to beat the life out of the socs who jumped Ponyboy, breaking his nose in the process.
Steve, who wants to keep Ponyboy from trouble, as he and Sodapop do reckless things & doesn't want to bring the youngest, vulnerable, and impressionable kid with them to do something like drag racing.
Steve, who is there as soon as Ponyboy comes home.
Steve, despite breaking 3 ribs, immediately looking to the door upon Ponyboy's return.
Steve, who watched in horror as Ponyboy broke that bottle and handled a group of socs on his own because he was scared of Ponyboy, the sweetest greaser, being like him.
Steve never hated Ponyboy, he just couldn't show Ponyboy that he cared. — Steve's character is one that I hold dear, as though his anger speaks volumes his actions speak miles. And though he doesn't have a role in the movie, his role in the book allows Ponyboy to sympathize with Randy.
Sodapop and Steve's friendship is a parallel to Randy and Bob, and without that relationship in the book, Ponyboy wouldn't have related to Randy's perspective.
People glance at Steve's character and only see him as a flat dynamic, however his character has more depth and personality than that, it's just we as the reader are in the same perspective as Pony. His depiction in both the movie and musical, though playing small roles, lets us observe the dynamic between Ponyboy and Steve throughout the book, and we observe Steve genuinely caring for the others in the story in his own way.
Steve Randle cared for Ponyboy just as much as he cared for Sodapop and the rest of the Curtis gang. I would go so far to say that they behave like the typical brothers you'd expect to see.
I like the idea of firefighter Darry. It would certainly fit his Superman reputation. Assuming he’s doing it full-time and not on a volunteer basis, it could also be the way he pays for college! I mean could you even imagine how popular a tall, handsome, kindhearted firefighter like him would be? People would bring so many baked goods to his firehouse just to get a glimpse of him. At some point the newspaper has to put out a statement that you can’t just go around setting fires or getting yourself stuck in trees just to have an excuse to be rescued by him.
HOWEVER I think he’d only consider doing it in a timeline where their parents live. At least then he’d know Sodapop and Ponyboy would still be around to take care of their parents if anything happened to him.
I mean, maybe he’d consider it in-canon too, but even if he waits until Pony is 18 I think he’d be too worried about something happening to him before Soda and Pony are properly settled into their adult lives with stable jobs and such. They’d also probably talk him out of doing it the moment he mentions it bc “you know we’re useless without you!”
Some more of my miscellaneous self-indulgent Outsiders headcanons, inspired by my previous post:
1. Have you ever thought about how Darry is to Soda what Soda is to Ponyboy. Not an exact comparison of course bc their roles and personalities are a little different, but like that’s his one and only cool handsome capable big brother!!! And a lot of things would click into place for Pony once he grows up a little more and realizes that.
2. I know Pony is obviously a charismatic intelligent gorgeous boy who canonically pulls in TWTTIN but just imagine that phase where he’s still not interested in girls while starting to get attention from them. Like the gang hears about a pretty girl asking Pony to hang out after school, but he apparently told her that he already had plans to study for an exam. They assume that was his polite way of rejecting her bc she wasn’t his type or smth, but it quickly becomes apparent that Pony genuinely wanted to focus on studying and he hardly even clocked that she was flirting with him. Which just leads to everyone (fondly) teasing him for being such a nerd. Even Darry’s like god if u weren’t my own flesh and blood I’d have tripped you and taken your lunch money by now.
3. Dally (who lived!) and Sodapop eventually get their GEDs together. Even more heartwarming if they’re partially motivated by Pony having just graduated from college, or it’s a little later in life when the gang has school-aged children to do their homework alongside. Ironically Twobit is the one who never actually graduates or gets his GED even if he’s the one who “enjoys” school the most.
4. Matt Dillon’s Dally changed my life in many ways, one of which being that he added a certain physicality to the character that we didn’t get much of in the book. Bc Matt honey ur so right that Dally would snatch stuff out of your hands and play keep-away, he would put the gang in playful headlocks and pat their backs and ruffle their hair and walk or stand so close that they’re constantly bumping shoulders. Even the tipping over in his chair (which was an accident but charming that they kept it in!) has me thinking he’d use slapstick humor, sometimes at his own expense, when he’s trying to get his friends to laugh.
5. The exact style he’d use would change depending on the time period of whatever AU this gets included in, but I think in general Ponyboy would lowkey be a graffiti-tagging fiend. Except he mostly does fuckass inspirational quotes or quick little doodles. And since it’s Pony we’re talking about he’d also find a way to be polite as he can about it. For instance he’s not terribly interested in trespassing or tagging dangerous/hard to access areas, but that can change depending on his teen angst levels. It’s just funny to imagine the folks of greater Tulsa asking “HOW did that horse doodle get up there” once in a while.
6. Randy and Marcia initially bonded over having medically complex younger siblings who take up a lot of their parents’ time.
7. I know the line in the book is “Maybe Cherry stood still and watched the sun set while she was supposed to be taking the garbage out. Stood there and watched and forgot everything else until her big brother screamed at her to hurry up,” is supposed to be projection on Ponyboy’s part and doesn’t actually confirm that Cherry has an older brother, but I think she actually would have one. He would also be cool and popular which makes her cool and popular by extension. And imagine his name was Laurence which became Larry which became Berry. That and/or it might be cute if she had a little sister whom she loves dearly (nick)named Apple or Clementine.
8. Modern AU Soda would be SO into reality TV. Partially bc their mom was really into it and he was a mama’s boy who would always watch with her, but also Sandy got him into shows like the bachelorette, real housewives, love island, etc. And the gang all clowns on him for being so into it even after he and Sandy break up but when he watches smth on tv in the living room they all end up watching with him. Darry even does the dad thing where he stands right by the TV and swears he’s not watching even though he’s clearly enraptured.
9. Soda and Pony were already sharing a room before the accident and Pony’s nightmares. They took turns climbing into each other’s beds for a while but eventually they just rearranged the room to push their beds together.
10. Modern AU Darry certainly drinks coffee but he’s also a sugar-free redbull kind of guy. Soda makes those heinously decadent and sweet iced coffees with a caramel drizzle inside the cup and sugar cookie creamer and whipped cream with a mocha drizzle just for it to be DECAF. And in my previous hc list I said Pony would be addicted to energy drinks, which I still believe, but also hard agree with all the takes I’ve seen about him being a performative matcha male. Except he genuinely does like matcha for its grassy qualities.
11. Steve, Soda, and Dally invented a game called “Would you know where you were at if you were kidnapped,” a name they refuse to shorten bc they think saying the whole thing every time is funnier, where someone gets blindfolded and the other person drives them around for a bit. Then the blindfolded person has to guess where in town they are. Of course they’d also try to trick each other by taking unnecessary turns or backing up for extended periods and the like. Pony and Johnny don’t like being the ones blindfolded but they’ll ride along sometimes bc it’s funny how competitive it can get. When Twobit plays and he’s the one blindfolded he’ll randomly practice his high-pitched screams of terror, usually when they’re waiting at a light or smth. The looks they get from passersby on the street are golden.
12. Soda may not care about sports but jock Soda is such a fun concept. An unconventional jock as well! Like he’d be the only male cheerleader. Or I think he might even do well on a men’s volleyball team. And he and Steve are so That Duo on the baseball team.
13. This is prob an extremely common take but just saying I concur about band kid Johnny and theater kid Pony.
14. White guy Dally with his long pale blond hair and whitewalker blue eyes, who keep in mind has been rodeoing out in the OK sun all summer, would unintentionally give surfer vibes with how tan he’d get and I don’t think we appreciate that image enough
15. Doesn’t necessarily have to be modern AU, but imagine being able to tell whenever someone in the gang got ahold of a box of hair dye or smth bc like three of them will suddenly be going around with bleached bangs or colored streaks in their hair.
16. Darry acts all embarrassed about it but he lowkey loves when old ladies stop him while he’s out in public with his bros just so they can tell him what handsome/charming/hardworking/well-behaved young men they are.
17. I can’t find the post rn but I saw someone recently talking about MILF hunter Dally. Not only is that the funniest thing ever, but I agree AND I raise you MILF hunter Steve as well (if he weren’t so committed to Evie ofc)
18. Johnny, had he the space and funds, would like to keep a reptile as a pet. Bearded dragon or a snake, maybe. The gang starts a rumor that he keeps his snake hidden in his jacket so that Socs will think twice about messing with him.
19. Whenever Tim AND Curly sleep over at the Curtis house on the couch it’s so goofy and heartwarming to see how they lay with their heads on opposite sides with their legs stacked in the middle. Especially after Curly grows taller than Tim.
20. Speaking of Tim, he and Darry both do that thing where they put their hand on an edge or corner to keep people from bumping their heads on it. You know like if you open a cupboard or crouch next to a table. They just do it without thinking bc their little siblings were always clumsily bashing their big ol’ heads on things when they were small.
Soda outside the Scientology building: Steve! Come back.
Steve at the top looking away in shame: I cant.
So I’m getting back into jigsaw puzzles, and I just finished this one that I got secondhand. It was really soothing to put together, and my favorite part was the sunlight coming through the trees at the top right.
As an extra bit of challenge I didn’t look at the picture on the box until it was done. And idk smth about watching it slowly become a family of five horses tickled the outsiders worm in my brain.