Eliza mostly watches movies and hands out candy. She loves the old Universal Monster movies like The Wolf Man (1941) and Dracula (1931) and has a marathon every year. When she's older, she'd do a lot of volunteer work with kids and is always happy to dress up for a Halloween party if it makes the kids happy. She makes an excellent Ariel (and knows exactly where to find the perfect Eric).
Cataleya usually ends up looking after her younger sisters for Halloween. She loves dressing up to go trick-or-treating with the younger girls and is always happy to match their costumes. When she's older and living in the city, she loves auditioning for the Halloween ballet! She's very excited to finally be dancing the lead role in the production of Giselle.
Nate prefers to spend Halloween with his brother. He and Swifty have a tradition of decorating together and watching the happier, feel-good Halloween movies like Hocus Pocus and Beetlejuice before going out to watch the Halloween parade. This year, Nate has been roped into taking Swifty, Bumlets, and Skittery through a haunted house. He's not entirely sure how they talked him into it.
it’s been such a fun year in the oc community and i wanted to do a fun little project to commemorate the fake ppl in my brain! let’s hope next year is even better than this one!
I see a lot of myself in Jack, especially my teenage self. I've struggled with my mental health for pretty much my entire life and seeing such an accurate depiction of a scared, depressed kid really clicked with me. On a lighter note, I definitely related to Jack's mild dramatic tendencies (him yelling during the chase with Snyder when he jumped to the lower part of the roof like he actually fell <3) and I definitely had a mild "horse girl" phase when I was younger!
👔 Favorite Newsies Outfit?
I couldn't choose between Bumlets and Jack so you get both!
Like most of the boys, Bumlets starts in a more "dressed-up" version of his outfit with a hat, vest, and properly fastened buttons and clasps. By the end of the movie, he's ditched the hat and vest and has loosened up, for lack of a better phrase.
What I really appreciate about his outfit is all the little details! He wears leather suspenders as opposed to fabric ones like the other boys have and he wears knee-breeches instead of trousers! Knee-breeches back then were pretty much always used for athletic endeavors and not everyday use, so the fact that he wears them despite that tells me he values being able to move around comfortably over wearing conventional attire (it also tells me that Dominic Lucero's choreography was probably taken into account because I can imagine some of the stuff he did would've been more difficult in trousers).
And this is a tiny little thing, but I like the blue-gray color of his shirt and I'm choosing to believe that blue is one of his favorite colors!
Bonus!! I like his jacket and his smile here so I'm including it!
And for Jack, I love absolutely everything about his outfit! It has so much personality! The neutral tones mixed with the little pop of red from his bandana! The fact that he managed to get a hold of a cowboy hat! His lasso that he uses as a belt! It all makes such a great ensemble and it's so great for him as a character! Jack "Cowboy" Kelly my absolute beloved!
💭 Any Headcanons?
I have so many headcanons so I'll just give you some of my favorites!
Bumlets has six younger sisters, including a twin sister, and even though they were separated as kids, he tries really hard to maintain a good relationship with them and is saving up to buy a train ticket to go upstate and visit them
Bumlets and Sarah become best friends after the strike and I will die on that hill! They're both such compassionate people and really care about others and I can see them bonding over that
Skittery is a lot smarter than he gets credit for as a newsie and is extremely well-read. David is pretty sure Skittery would absolutely excel in school if he had the opportunity and tries to encourage him in not-so-subtle ways
Swifty has an older brother who, despite only being 4 years older than him, is very much an Old Man in spirit. One of Swifty's favorite things to do is drive his brother crazy and just generally be an annoying little brother, much to Nate's (affectionate) irritation
Specs is a dork and a bit of a chaotic goofball sometimes so you wouldn't really know that he went through hell before ending up at the lodging house. He's shockingly well-adjusted and has accepted that he can't really change the past so he focuses more on the future and what might come from that
And since I'm a Jarah shipper: it takes Jack and Sarah a while to actually figure things out, but once they do, they are an extremely solid couple. There are still ups and downs like in every relationship but they care about each other and work hard to be good partners to each other
I mentioned earlier that I feel like Swifty (and the brother I gave him) both like baseball so I thought I'd make a little post about it!
This all started when @vnewyorku sent me a Library of Congress link for a New York Journal article from 1899 about a Chinese-American baseball team (thanks again for that). I got to thinking and since Swifty is known for being fast (it's all in his name after all) and he has that kind of build, why not make him a baseball fan? And since I created that older brother for him, why not make it a bonding thing for them?
So yeah, Swifty and his brother are both big baseball fans and play together whenever they have the chance! They even tend to rope the other boys into playing with them!
A/N: This Newsies OC is Nathaniel "Nate" Liu, the older brother of Swifty the Rake. He's 22 at the time of the strike and a very protective older brother.
Nathaniel had been four years old when his baby brother was born. He didn’t remember too much of the day, but he remembered his father leading him back into the bedroom to meet the newest member of their family. His mother had looked exhausted when he saw her, but her smile had been warm and her eyes bright when his father lifted him into the bed.
“This is Wesley, angel. This is your baby brother,” his mother had murmured softly, looking back and forth between her sons with love in her eyes. Nate had been curled up next to her, watching the little bundle in her arms and searching for similarities in his little face. He hadn’t yet known what she’d sacrificed for love, hadn’t known how strong she truly was. But she was his mother and that was everything to him. And with his father on his other side, tears of joy in his eyes, he'd never felt more content.
Nate had been scared when his mother moved Wesley into his arms, even with his father helping support him but looking into his baby brother’s hazel eyes (their mother’s eyes), he’d felt what he later knew as a surge of protectiveness. This was his little brother and it was his job to take care of him. Maybe he wouldn’t be perfect but he’d certainly try.
how does nate like swifty friends? ( i cant remember if you talked about it before or not)
So in this post here, I jokingly said that Bumlets has a bit of a crush on Nate, which I maintain is true because the "crush on best friend's older brother" trope has endless comedic potential that is often wasted. Nate has absolutely no idea, but he'd definitely be flattered if he knew. Unfortunately for Bumlets, Nate has him solidly in the "little brother zone" with no hope of leaving it.
As for Nate's opinions, he really likes the kids! He used to be a newsie and since Bumlets, Skittery, Jack and probably a few of the others got to the lodging house when he was still living there, he thinks of them as his little brothers, too. He looks out of them as best as he can and he's very protective of them.
He doesn't know Bumlets and Skittery as well as Swifty does so he doesn't know that they either dare him to do stupid stuff or help him do stupid stuff, but that won't really affect the overall positive view he has of them outside of making him go "Jesus Christ there's three of them."
When he hit his growth spurt and started bulking up, he would carry all three of them at once, one in each arm and one hanging around his shoulders. He can probably still do it now that they're older, but he really doesn't want to drop them.
Swifty downplayed a lot of what was going on during the strike, so when Nate finds out that his brother and the other boys got beaten and arrested by adults, he sees red. Swifty made him promise not to do anything stupid (because he loves his big brother and wants to keep him safe), but when Nate finds out what the Delanceys did to Jack and the Jacobs siblings? All bets are off.
He's known Jack for years and while he may not know Sarah, David, and Les yet, beating on a child and a teenage girl before going two-on-one with a teenage boy is not something he tolerates. Especially from people who also beat up his little brother. He didn't hit the Delanceys when he found them (he made a promise after all), but he did lift Oscar clear off the ground by his shirt, so it had a similar effect.
When he got more details about what happened (Sarah punching one of them, the "best part of your family" comment *gags*, and Jack saving the day), he bought Jack and the siblings lunch at Tibby's to tell them that they did good and he makes sure they know he's there if they need him.
As for other boys, he's really fond of Crutchy, Itey, and Mush because of how nice they are, and he thinks Specs and Dutchy are hilarious. Blink reminds him a bit of himself, so he tries (unsuccessfully) to keep him levelheaded. Blink does appreciate the effort, even if he doesn't quite understand why he does it.
He's really busy now with his job, so he doesn't see the newsies as much as he used to, but if he runs into one on the street or Swifty brings one on one of his visits, he's always happy to see them.
Apologies if you've answered this elsewhere, but what does Nate think about Swifty's less-than-legal activities? Also I'd love to hear anything else you want to share about him.
Potential trigger warning for racism:
He has very... complicated feelings about Swifty's stealing. The way I have it set up is that their parents died when Nate was twelve and Swifty was eight, so Nate's been taking care of his little brother for a long time.
Nate very much sees Swifty as his responsibility, even after he leaves the lodging house. No matter how nice Kloppman is and how much he respects the man, that's his little brother. It's his job to keep him safe. Especially with everything going on around them.
Nate and Swifty are two biracial Chinese boys living during the height of the Chinese Exclusion Act and in an era where, if they lived anywhere other than New York, it would be illegal for them to exist. And while Kloppman and his boss don't care about that, he knows other people do.
So when the little brother he loves more than anything starts picking pockets and lifting jewelry off of people to make more money for himself, Nate's at a loss.
He remembers how hard it is to be a newsie and he knows his brother doesn't have a lot of money, even with the little bit he shares from his paychecks. So when he finds out that Swifty stole a coin purse or lifted a pocketwatch to sell, he gets it. And if Swifty occasionally uses his extra income on the theater or a night at a dance hall with his friends, he gets that, too. Swifty's young and deserves to have fun.
The problem is, Nate knows there's a chance Swifty will take the wrong thing or steal from the wrong person and get caught. And that terrifies him. And it's not jail or the Refuge that scares him, though he hates the idea of both. It's what he knows certain people would do if they caught up to a thief and realized he was Chinese.
He knows he can't protect his brother forever, no matter how much he wants to and his worst fear is something happening to Swifty somewhere he can't get to him. So while Nate understands why Swifty steals things, he really wishes he wouldn't.
Note and another potential trigger warning for allusions to violence under the cut:
I haven't decided exactly what happened to their parents. I was doing research into death statistics for Chinese immigrants at the time because I wanted to pick something other than "illness" and "carriage accident," but I had to stop because the results were very, very dark and I'm not sure if I'm ready to commit to something like that. The history really is just awful.
If you're still doing them, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Madrid for Nate?
I'll do these for as long as people want to ask, so no need to worry about me stopping! Answers under the cut!
Los Angeles (What would they change about themself?)
He wishes he weren't so angry all the time and it's something he's actively working on. He's been through a lot despite only being 22 and internalized a lot of anger and resentment about everything that's happened to him and especially to Swifty. He used to get into a lot of fights, especially in the first few years after their parents died and had a bad attitude with everyone except for Swifty.
But Kloppman managed to redirect most of his frustration toward the punching bags in the lodging house and built up enough trust between them that Nate felt comfortable talking to him about his feelings. He's still angry a lot and he'll still throw a punch when he thinks it's warranted (usually in the defense of someone else), but he's gotten better and he's going to keep trying to improve.
Las Vegas (Have they ever broken a heart?)
One that he knows about. He was seeing a girl seriously for almost a year and they were discussing marriage, but they realized that there were things they couldn't compromise on. She wanted to leave the city for somewhere greener with more fresh air, but Nate, no matter what issues he has with Manhattan, still loves the city and doesn't want to leave.
So, no matter how much he loved her and how much it hurt to end things, he decided it was best for both of them if they did. It broke his heart just as much as it broke hers, but he still maintains that it was the right thing to do, even if it still hurts.
Madrid (Describe their aesthetic.)
He's a blacksmith now and will move on to working at the train yards once the forge goes out of business, so he spends a lot of his time covered in black smudges (first soot, then machine grease).
He adores the ocean and spends as much time near it as he can (he picked working at the train yards over the docks because he doesn't want it ruined for him). He can and has spent hours watching the water on his days off.
Kloppman got him into boxing as a way of redirecting his anger and it's still something he keeps up with now that he's older. This site here talks about the lodging house gymnasium and while he isn't the instructor for the boys, I don't think the C.A.S. would turn away someone wanting to volunteer to help out with boxing lessons.
He may be a poor young man with limited formal education, but he's very intelligent and he tries to be well-read. Most of his leftover money goes toward books, usually mysteries. He's a big fan of Sherlock Holmes!
In a modern era, he'd ride a motorcycle and definitely wear a black leather jacket. I don't think he'd have the time or the money to be a member of an official club, though. Maybe the "Bikers Against Child Abuse" organization when he's in a better position for it.
I'm having a lot of fun with moodboards and stuff, so I hope you don't mind another one!
Side Note: I watched the first couple seasons of Riverdale when I was in high school and while I stopped watching after it turned into a massive hot mess, I did stick around long enough for the Southside Serpents to show up, more specifically Sweet Pea. He's not a 100% match to how I see Nate, but he's pretty close! His actor, Jordan Connor Yeun, is mixed white and Chinese and he's about the right height. He's also the only reason I watched the show as long as I did, which my friends find really funny.
