#ponyboy headcanons

[jellypxps]

"baking my boyfriend, who's in reformatory, into a cookie because I miss him"

I haven't seen a purly/papercut version so here's my contribution <3

[cherryharps]

does anyone else headcanon pony as like an insanely fast reader, or is that just me? like this dude can wipe out a 300-400 page book in two days, one day if he is left alone and doesn’t have anything going on.

[cherryharps]

I FUCKING HATE GETTING SUNBURNED!! ᕙ( ᗒᗣᗕ )ᕗ

so im projecting onto pony and this horse gets THE WORSE sunburns ever. if he missed the smallest fraction of skin when putting on sunscreen— BURNED

[ambertheunknown]

Hcs for Pony just being the clingiest guy on planet earth ? 👀👀 (can be agere or just in general whichever u wanna do ^_^)

-Ambrose

Love this i LOVEEEEE clingy Pony!!!

Lemme be clear - this boy is not clingy in the normal sense. He is FAR too insecure and self-conscious to be constantly latching onto whoever is around him. HOWEVER:

When he and someone else are walking together, he's following them. Even if they have a specific destination, he's not walking with them to said destination, he's following them and they are taking both themself and him to the destination. If they change course or take a wrong turn or get lost? Well Pony doesn't realize. He's just following them.

He kinda orbits people. He likes being alone, likes his privacy, but if the entire gang is in the living room and he's had a good/okay day, then he'll leave his room and linger in the kitchen. At school, he'll lean against the lockers and listen to the people around him. When walking through the halls, he pushes through the most crowded areas just to be around people. His eyes constantly search around, finding people he knows and following them because looking at them feels a little like being with them.

He doesn't like when people intentionally touch him without permission, but every time his shoulders brush against someone else's it feels grounding - like a reminder he's not alone in the world (and yeah he always gets a little tense when accidentally touched but he imagines that never be touched would be much worse so he puts up with and even enjoys the way his skin crawls (touch-starved Pony who thought he was touch-averse for the longest time, my beloved twin)).

With Soda and Johnny, he's clingy in the typical way. He leans against them when no one is looking, rushes to be the one to patch up their injuries, pretends to fall asleep when sitting next to them so they'll let him rest on their shoulder, etc. Of course, everyone knows he's pretending to sleep because in his sleep, he's constantly shifting and mumbling and his breathing wavers every couple minutes, but no one told Pony that so he just assumes he sleeps still and quiet.

Other than Soda and Johnny, he doesn't go out of his way to initiate physical touch with the rest of the gang, but he doesn't push them away either. Steve messes with his hair? He's scowling and huffing and gently slapping his hand but not actually trying to push him away. Two-Bit tackles him to the ground? He shouts, pushes him, complains about him smelling like beer, but never genuinely tries to get him off. Dally swings an arm around his neck? Pony doesn't even comment, just leans in unconsciously. Darry patting his back or resting a hand on his shoulder? He doesn't even tense up for a moment like he does with the rest of the gang, he relaxes.

[sodasodasodapop]

hmmmm ponyboy mental health hcs?

omg guess what i'm finally getting around to the hcs i said i'd get to like a week ago-

this poor boy and his aspirin & smoking problems ... i've touched on this a little bit before but the aspirin addiction is something that interests me and i'd like to explore in my writing. the most obvious reason for it would be his headaches/migraines, it's easy enough to think that if one aspirin doesn't work he can just pop a few more and it'll fix the issue and put him to sleep.

the thing about managing pain that way when you experience chronic pain like that is that it really does get addictive, and then he just ... keeps going with it. headache -> handful of aspirin -> conks out and pain goes away -> repeat. that can also cause all sorts of other health issues for him (stomach/liver/etc) but i'll talk about that later

i feel like he struggled with anxiety before everything happened, but after his parents' death and then after johnny and dallas and the events of the book, it ramped up intensely. it mainly manifests in relation to school/responsibilities which isn't helped by how often darry harps on him about those things.

depression - also would have initially manifested after his parents' death and also gets much worse post-events of the book. there are days when pony just can't drag himself out of bed, not for lack of trying, he just can't bring himself to function. darry originally isn't sympathetic of it and tries to kind of just get him to go about his day, but post-book he understands a little better. he worries a lot about pony during those episodes and tries along with soda to make sure he is still fed, watered, taken care of as best as he can

sorry if any of these are lowk buns i am sleepy and sick 💔 a lot is based from personal knowledge/experience so apologies if anything isn't clear or doesn't make sense !

[scotchontherox]

Do y'all think ponyboy would have one of those tt rant accounts

[scotchontherox]

For the first few weeks after recovery from his concussion, ponyboy would hallucinate johnny's presence. Sometimes he would be sitting outside on his front porch smoking a cigarette and would turn his head and would see johnny sitting right next to him for a split second before disappearing, sometimes he would be wandering through the halls of his house after everyone else was asleep and would hear johnny's voice behind him js to turn around and see that no one was there, and during the early days of his recovery when he was still bed-ridden, his brothers would hear him mumbling incoherently and the only thing they could make out was the name "johnny."

It also didn't help that by this point pony was starting to come to terms w johnny's death, and what he thought would've been a pleasant experience bc it meant that johnny was still there and listening to him, js ended up being an inconvenience. It wasn't that the hallucinations scared him or anything, he js didn't like knowing that he had to resort to spirit johnny listening to him instead of the real one

[ambertheunknown]

I realize I haven't really made a list of fully canon-compliant Ponyboy hc's so like...here ya go!

LEAVES TULSA!!!! This is a big one. He struggles a lot with his identity as a greaser, and allowing himself to stop acting like the rest of the gang and just be...himself. He's always felt like he's had to put up an act to fit in. After Johnny and Dally die, and he writes The Outsiders, he has an almost catharsis-like realization and feels more settled in himself, but he's still, y'know, a traumatized 14 year old, so for him, leaving Tulsa is what finally allows him to really feel free to be himself, and explore who he is outside of the gang and being a greaser. In fact, he probably leaves OK as a whole. Maybe not straight to New York like I've seen people imagine him doing, but he's definitely going to college.

He's a writer and social worker with a psychology degree until he's like, 50 or 60. He spent a lot of time and energy as a young adult, maintaining a full-ride scholarship. He was on his college track team, made straight A's, and basically ran himself ragged so he could achieve the degrees he wanted and could become an author and social worker.

I chose a writer and social worker because I feel like, post-canon, he'd want nothing more than to help kids like Dally, Johnny, and even Bob who'd been a victim of the same system as Dally and Johnny. Once becoming a social worker and getting his psychology degree, he's writing essays and trying to gain the funding for research projects. He's writing essays on the effects of corporal punishment on children, how poverty effects kids mentally, social divides, etc. That's a side thing though - he knows that social reform is slow-going more often than not, so he tries to make a bit more of a direct impact via social work. I'm not an expert on how being a social worker works or anything, but Ponyboy is doing his best to make sure kids get placed in good homes, encourages kids and parents to seek therapy ('no ma'am, i am not saying you're mentally unwell, therapy can be helpful to everyone and DO NOT THROW THAT GLASS AT ME I'M JUST TRYING TO HELP-), all that jazz. He's constantly overworked and he loves it because it means he's helping people.

Around 50 or 60, he gets a teaching degree and teaches college students psychology, becoming a favorite of the kids. He keeps candy on his desk in a tiny glass bowl. Anyone who falls asleep during lessons wakes up with candy and pre-prepared notes on everything he taught during class sitting next to them, and well as hand-written 'get more sleep!' notes that read like their mother is saying it. When google presentations (slides) comes out, he uses it immediately. Has never struggled with technology, since he likes to stay on top of things. Will take a list of pizza preferences and all allergies for all his students in every class, and will bring pizza and baked goods for each of his classes at least once a week. If you ask the right questions, he'll tell you a personal story of his instead of teaching, and just hand out those pre-written notes I mentioned earlier on what he was meant to teach.

Has no biological kids and makes a good amount of money from his books, essays, and work, but lives in a poorer area so he can, like his parents, be a safe space for kids who need it. He probably also fosters kids and adopts a few older kids who are about to age out of the system but won't have anywhere to go when they do.

For like, 5-10 years after he leaves Tulsa, he doesn't really talk to the gang or his brothers. They get phone calls once a month, and maybe 2 or 3 letters a month, but those are short and only share what they need to know, what they ask him to tell, or unimportant info to make the letter/call longer. He knows it's unfair, but part of him resents his brothers and the gang for never realizing how he felt - being told to be better, get out of Tulsa, and make something of himself, while also wanting him to keep his head down, act like them, and not indulge in the things he liked. He also just associates them with Tulsa, and the crushing feeling that came with being a greaser and having everyone around you expect contradicting things from you, and grieving. He goes to visit for the first time after leave once he turns 28, a full ten years after he left. He loves seeing his family and the gang, and meeting new partners and friends and such, but he hates being in Tulsa. After that, he only visits maybe once every 2-3 years, or for any big events. Calls and letters come a little more frequently, but not as much as the gang would like. Any kids that the gang and his brothers have hear from him constantly, however. When they're too young to talk, he insists on their parent holding the phone up to their ear so he can talk to them and listen to them babble back. Once the kids are old enough to read and appreciate gifts, he's sending letter after letter with endless gifts, plus weekly phone calls. Their parents are highkey jealous because Pony only agrees to talk to them maybe once a month, and every other time they pick up the phone he immediately demands he hands it to 'his baby(ies).' He's the favorite uncle of like, all of them. He also shows up for 10th birthdays, 16th birthdays, 18th birthdays, and 20ths, and 21sts. He does the same for any kids that those kids have.