What do you think the aftermath of Steve shot instead of Dally would be? Like after he’s out of the hospital?
Good LORD is the gang protective of him, even after he's fully recovered.
Him and Dallas both are put on suicide watch, constantly scolded for their recklessness and idiocy and "what the hell were you thinking!?" etc etc.
Dallas is fucking riddled with guilt over it. He thinks it's all his fault that Steve almost died and I think that translates to him becoming rabid about protecting him. Dallas is very possessive of people he views as "his" and he almost lost two of those people, so he's doing amazing obviously.
Darry and Two-Bit are similar, but I think Darry just fusses more meanwhile Two becomes more overbearing. They both want to make sure Steve is taken care of and they're constantly asking where he's going and what he's going to do in a day.
He tries to leave for school or work and just gets hounded with questions.
I think Johnny also feels a little guilty, while also being furious at Steve and Dally's fucked behavior. If he never got hurt, Dally would've never attempted and Steve wouldn't have taken the bullet for him. But also they're both idiots and Johnny is the first person to scold both of them.
The biggest change definitely comes with Pony. Steve almost dying, alongside everything else that's happened up to that point just changed his brain chemistry and how he views the world.
Steve is in the hospital, struggling to survive and all Pony can think is "He's never going to buy me a Pepsi again. He's never going to offer me a ride to school again. He's never going to call me a tag-along, but still let me come on his dates ever again."
It's just a huge realization for him yk. He only realized how much Steve cared and how much he relied on him once Steve's almost gone.
I think Steve has the easiest time with the transition, if that makes sense? In his head, he saved one of his best friends. He doesn't regret it, and he makes it clear he'd do it again every time.
I don’t remember if I asked this before, if I did you can ignore this, can you tell me about Steve in your au? And Cherry too, if you want
-M1dnight
Hehehe hello moot! 💞 Thank you for the ask!! I'd be happy to yap about Steve and Cherry again! @cry1ng-at-m1dnight
Steve section 🩵
-Steve was born to a lazy, selfish father and an alcoholic mother. Steve's biological mother left him and his father when he was 3, which just made his father even more detached from Steve. He'd yell at him a lot, and Steve would yell right back, resulting in a lot of arguments and occasionally physical fights when Steve was around 13-15.
-Steve met the gang (which was only the Curtis brothers and Keith at the time) when he and Soda were 4 and started grade school together.
-When Steve was a little kid, his dad made him wear dresses to go outside. Steve always hid shorts underneath and then ripped the bottom of his dress off the second he was out of his dad's view. Even at school, which resulted in quite a lot of angry teachers and an even angrier dad.
-Ponyboy actually used to be very fond of Steve when he was little. Steve taught Ponyboy how to jump when Ponyboy was 2 and how to backflip/frontslip when he was 4. Steve and Soda used to hold his hands and spin him off the ground all the time too. The reason Steve's teeth are wonky is because he slammed face first onto the ground when he was 7 after catching little Ponyboy when he fell out of a particularly high spot on a tree. He lost one top tooth and one bottom tooth and heavily displaced another. This is also why his nose is a little messed up at the top. (Visualised here!)
-Steve used to eat dinner at the Curtis house a lot since his dad didn't cook every night (or most nights.) Steve's house hardly ever had food in it and Steve would get yelled at for going in the fridge or cupboards without permission.
-Steve has tourettes. His tics are mostly simple vocal ones or mild jerking of his neck of shoulders (like this). But sometimes it could be a bit more intense, like pounding his hip with his fist, but it never really gets to the point where he could cause injury to himself. Because this is the 60s, the gang wasn't aware of what tourettes was, and Steve never saw a professional about it, so they all kind of just get on with it thinking "Yeah, Steve's just like that." He has explained to them that he physically can't help it, which they all accepted without too much questioning. Whenever he tics, they normally just ignore it since they've gotten used to it.
-Steve started dating Evie when Steve was 15 and Evie was 17, Evie asked him out because she liked the tough, no-nonsense way he carried himself and how good he was in fights.
-Steve has a tattoo of an 'E' with a heart around it. This was initially for Evie, but after he gave birth, it also stands for Eloise. He has a tattoo of an Eagle that he just got for the sake of it. He just thinks it looks tuff.
-Evie has a job as a bricklayer helper in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma just outside of Tulsa and spends a lot of time away from home. She doesn't need to spend so much time out of Tulsa, but she gets caught up going out for drinks and such with her friends. This really pisses Steve off, and it's the main cause of arguments in their relationship. But Evie seriously starts locking tf in when Steve got pregnant with their daughter, Eloise.
-Steve and Evie eloped when Steve was 7 months pregnant. Steve only changed his surname to Randle-Cox because he was relatively fond of his name already. Eloise is just Eloise Cox though.
-Eloise was born in the Curtis's bathtub. Steve was adamant that he wasn't giving birth in a hospital so long as he could help it. (This isn't a necessarily safe practice, home births should be supervised by a professional in the field to be safer!) He went into labour while having dinner with the gang and just rolled with it. If Eloise wanted to be born with all her uncles, he saw no reason why not. He'd certainly feel the most comfortable there anyway.
-Evie wasn't present for Eloise's birth because she was out for a few days working and sorting some things out, which gutted her. She met Eloise two days after she was born. After giving birth, Steve specifically saved his placenta in the freezer (which I made a little comic about!) so that he could make Evie see it.
-Steve and Evie move into an apartment when Steve was 8 months pregnant. And when Steve is 24 they move into Evie's late uncle's house, since he left it for her in his will. They still end up staying in the same neighbourhood they've always lived in, which they're happy with. Steve ends up opening his own garage that he makes good money from since he's the best in the business locally.
Cherry section ❤️
-Cherry is 17 years old during the events of the book, nearly 18. Her full name is Sheryl Valance.
-Her parents act supportive of her and are proud of her, but they still have lots of expectations on her. Cherry's a footballer with good grades in her core subjects (maths, english and the sciences) but she doesn't have a passion for those things. She enjoys team roping with Marcia at rodeos, sure, but that's still not something she does just for passion. Her parents only seem proud of her for being good at the things they want her to be good at. They don't really care when Cherry shows them a painting she spent days or weeks on.
-Cherry and Bob have been dating for 5 years during the events of the book. On and off a few times, but not that many to say that they're teenagers. They do genuinely care for each other a lot.
-Cherry provides some of that discipline that Bob wanted so badly from his family. She isn't controlling by any means, but she makes sure he's in check. She hates when he gets drunk because she worries about what could happen to him since he's "still just a boy." (Cherry isn't sexist or anything, not anymore than what was internalised in most people during the 60s. She's actually quite 'woke' in most aspects. Or at least for the time-) She doesn't like having to spend her nights protecting him when he gets totally wasted, but she normally will because she cares for him. The only time she didn't was that night at the drive-in. She figured that being there to protect him all the time was just enabling him to continue drinking and that he'd stop if he started facing the consequences.
-Cherry likes doing nice acts of service for Bob, like driving him places, carrying his bag, washing his hair in the shower, ect. When they're in bed, Cherry likes to be the big spoon since Bob's quite small compared to her (he's 5'2, she's 6'5-) and because she knows he's safe with her and that's all she wants after spending nights worrying about him when he's boozed up and vulnerable without her.
-Cherry's parents both like and dislike Bob. They like him because his parents are of considerable wealth and because he's pretty, but they don't like that he seems "unruly." Cherry's mother tells her all the time that she needs to get a handle on her boyfriend and get him to settle down good before he ends up "a no good tramp." Cherry, while she also dislikes Bob's habits, doesn't believe in treating her boyfriend like that, making him into some dull, quiet man like her father. She only really wants Bob to stop endangering himself, not stop being himself.
-Before Bob was killed, Cherry had the suspicion that she had gotten him pregnant. This wasn't true, but she had been worrying about it, especially since she didn't get to ask him directly about it. She thought that she had because he had been getting sick even after nights when he hadn't been drinking, and he'd been acting odd in general, such as forgetting things and just looking beat all the time and being more sensitive. She also thought he was late on his monthlies (most boyfriends would try not to tell their girlfriends when their menses are, but Cherry is woke, so Bob has no problems letting her know every month to make things easier for himself because Cherry could help him out.) Cherry vaguely tells this to Ponyboy in my full book rewrite: "I couldn't," she said in a quiet, desperate voice. "He killed Bob. Oh, maybe Bob asked for it. I know he did. But I couldn't ever look at the person who killed him. You only knew his bad side. He could be sweet sometimes, and friendly. But when he got drunk... it was that part of him that beat up Johnny. I knew it was Bob when you told me the story. He was so proud of his rings. Why do people sell liquor to boys? Why? I know there's a law against it, but kids get it anyway. I can't go see Johnny. I know I'm too young to be in love and all that, but Bob was something special. He wasn't just any boy. He had something that made people follow him, something that marked him different, maybe a little better, than the crowd. And I think he might have... No, it wouldn't have mattered with that drinkin' he was doing, dead or not... Do you know what I mean?"
-Cherry ends up leaving Tulsa at 18, moving to New York City to see the developing art scene there and hopefully start her own successful career as a painter. She ended up becoming quite popular, selling lots of her paintings and doing work for other people or businesses. She even got quite famous later into her career, her most acclaimed piece being 'The Same Sunset' which depicts two people watching the sunset from two very different environments. I don't need to tell you what the inspiration for that was.
-Ponyboy ended up becoming a published author, including him publishing his essay as an actual book (this happens in my timeline where Johnny and Dally live too, the book would just be a little different.) His book would quickly gain popularity, especially since it was all true. Cherry, in her own fame, was asked several times by press and such if she was the same girl from the book. Cherry was known by her real name "Sheryl Valance", which Ponyboy never addresses her as in the book (only calling her Cherry and mentioning the name 'Sherri') but it was still incredibly easy to see that they are the same person. Cherry is open about that being her, and even gets to meet Ponyboy and do an interview with him for magazine when she's 26.
-Cherry waits until she's 25 before she starts getting back into searching for a relationship and she ends up meeting a sculptor and florist that wanted to buy one of her paintings and falls in love with him. The two end up getting married when Cherry is 26 and have a daughter called Marilyn-Mae.
i read a fic abt this (i forget which one im so sorry💔) abt soda trying on a dress as a punishment for loosing a game of cards and steve’s brain goes 404 error override and i cant help but imagine this song for that scenario
do you have any fem Stevepop headcannons you’d care to share?? :D
Sodapop is SUCH a horsegirl, the only toys she had growing up were horses and she tossed the dolls aside if it happened to be an equestrian horse set. Stevie took the dolls and would fuck their shit UP, throwing them at trees, cutting their hair, drawing on their face in permanent marker— completely destroying any possibility of selling them later on. Sodapop could not care less.
Soda swears on her life Stevie can sing, like she swears up and down she’s the best singer she’s ever heard. Stevie will deny any such thing and sing bad on purpose when pressed about it. Still, Sodapop insists she’s never heard someone sing quite like Stevie. (Whole time, Stevie’s just mediocre.)
Stevie tries to do nice romantic gestures for Sodapop but something ALWAYS has to go wrong. Like, genuinely. Stevie has the worst luck ever.
This doesn't happen for Sodapop, though!! Whenever she does something sweet it just seems like everything goes along right in her favor
Stevie’s will mend all of Sodapop’s clothes without her knowledge, only finding out when she takes them out of the ‘too ripped up to wear’ pile in her drawer to fix herself, finding them already patched up. It’s a real ugly job, but hey— it’s the thought that counts. Sodapop ends up just reinforcing the stitches Stevie did.
