Some moots & I were thinking that it could nice to have a lil rarepairs event for the fandom, and after doing a lil interest check it seemed quite a few people felt similarly, so here we go!
This is just a fun little event to try & bring the fandom together a bit :) The AO3 collection for the event is here and we'll also be using the hashtag #TLWRarepairsWeek on tumblr! (Feel free to use it on twitter too, this doesn't have to be a tumblr only event, I just don't use twitter)
Please spread the word, I think it would be rly great if we could get a lot of the fandom participating in this :)
my headcanons for how the tlw boys would spend a day at the fair! currently writing a little ficlet of this. this is based mostly on the movie versions of the characters btw!
also credits to my friends in the tlw discord for indulging me and sharing some ideas about this with me!
ray -
ray is having the time of his life at a state/county fair, truly. he loves the rides (mostly), he loves the food, and he loves getting to spend time with his friends.
he would fuck up some deep fried oreos. he'd get the powder all over his face and shirt and pete would kiss him under the guise of helping him clean up but it would only succeed in covering pete in the powdered sugar as well. ray would normally be embarrassed at such an obvious sign of pda, but he's gotten used to it over the time dating pete, who always wants to have his hands on ray in some way, so he's started not to mind pda anymore.
ray plays a few games himself, enjoying the bottle break game a lot though he can't manage to break enough to qualify for more than a small hello kitty keychain, which he promptly pockets so he can offer it to jan the next time he sees her. he enjoys watching pete show off for him, easily winning him several stuffies at different games. ray walks around the fair for most of the night with his arms full of teddy bears, stuffed penguins, and a large inflatable sword. he beams each time pete picks a prize and hands it over to ray, sayin', "i won this for you, baby."
the part he enjoys most though is getting to watch pete perform. he's an amazing singer and an even better songwriter, so ray is happy each time his boyfriend gets to share his talents with the world. he knows it boosts pete's confidence to have more than just ray tell him he's good.
by the end of the night, as ray kisses pete at the very top of the ferris wheel, the bright, rainbow-colored lights lighting up the night, his stuffies on the seat next to him and powdered sugar still adorning his shirt, ray feels like it might be the best night he's ever had.
pete -
pete has the best time because ray has the best time. he loves getting to go on dates with ray and seeing him so happy and comfortable. pete is also incredibly good at the rigged games and somehow knocks over every bottle he aims for with the baseball, hits every balloon with the darts. sure he drops more $$ than he should, but anything to see ray smile. he ends up winning ray at least three of the large sized stuffies. he could've taken one of the big jumbo ones but ray adamantly refused to bring home a stuffed bear that wouldn't even fit in his mom's car to take home.
there are also opportunities for local musicians to have a slot to perform at different times of day during the fair's two-week run, so pete signs up after some encouragement from ray. he agonizes for weeks over what songs to perform until ray finally sits him down and tells him which ones are his favorites and demands (playfully, of course) that he sing those. the crowd is small, as most people at the fair are there for the food, rides, and games, but ray is there, and the rest of their friends, and that's all pete needs. the applause and cheers he gets fuels his confidence for days after.
afterwards, he takes the time to enjoy more of the food and not just the desserts that ray had talked him into. he snags one of those huge turkey legs and carries it across the fairgrounds, taking large bites every few steps, turkey leg in one hand and one of ray's stuffies in the other. once he's done with it, he immediately throws it out, wiping his hand across his jeans to get rid of the turkey juice so he can snag one of ray's hands in his own, taking in ray's answering grin as he thinks this might be his favorite date they've had yet.
hank -
hank is Not Having A Good Time. even when he is, he's complaining anyway. from the moment they all arrive at the fair he's complaining: about the long line to go through the metal detector on the way in, about the price of the tickets, the price of the food, and especially how rigged the games are.
hank walks into the fair with one thing in mind: wanting to win a stuffie for clementine and art. he's got a pocketful of cash to burn and he is raring to rip. only problem? he is extremely bad at all of the games. his darts don't even hit the wall, much less the balloons. the basketball games are impossible when he's so short and they make him stand so far back from the hoop. he manages to win a sad-looking goldfish in a too-small tank ("what a fucked up thing to give away as a prize, jesus christ, what the fuck am i supposed to do with a goddamn goldfish?"), but all he really wants is to be able to wipe the smug smirk off stebbins' face as baseball after baseball misses each and every bottle. it doesn't help when mcvries slides up and knocks down 10 bottles in quick succession and stebbins reluctantly hands over a large teddy bear to the grinning and flushing ray.
"that's not fuckin' fair, mcvries, i've been tryin' to win this shit for over an hour how the fuck did you-"
"sorry olson," pete cuts him off, big shit-eating grin on his face as he watches ray cuddle the bear close to him. "can't hear you over how big this fuckin' bear is."
hank wants that for art, to be able to show off for him and win him something. he wants something to bring home for clem, too, to show he was thinking of her the whole time. but all he's got is a fuckin' goldfish and the prize that art wins for him.
finally, once stebbins leaves with collie and barkovitch for the ferris wheel, hank's able to lean up while the new person replacing stebbins is still getting settled and snatch a medium sized stuff cow. art's eyes widen, but he lets hank grab his hand and drag him away from the games until they find an empty table nearby.
"here, art. won this for you."
art takes it with a small smile and laughs. that makes it all worth it.
art -
art is definitely spending the evening following hank around, trying to keep him from crashing out every time he loses at a game. he keeps trying to tell him he doesn't need a stuffie or any prize to take home, that he just likes spending the day with him and their friends, but hank will have none of it.
art takes off for a bit to go explore the petting zoo, which makes him a bit sad since he knows the animals can't be too comfortable there. it makes him miss home immensely, the smells reminding him of the small plot of land in baton rouge with his grandma and some of his uncles, where he grew up tending to the horses and the cows and the donkeys. he hasn't been home in a while and he makes a note to plan a trip back as soon as he can.
eventually, art wanders off and finds a game where they give you a bucket of ping pong balls for only $10 and to win a prize you have to throw it into a moving pool of water and land it in one of the few colored cups. art somehow manages to get a few into the desired cups and wanders back over to where hank is arguing with an amused stebbins over the logistics of the bottle break game. he slides the large stuffie- gizmo from the gremlines- across the counter to rest in front of hank.
"here, hank. i gotthis for you."
hank's eyes water a little, but he'll deny it if anyone asks. he snatches the gizmo up and hugs it to himself. "thanks, art," he says earnestly as he looks up at the other man. then he turns back to where stebbins is leaning up against the counter, unbothered. "but i still need to beat this piece of shit, i know he's cheating, art, i'm tellin' you-"
art just shakes his head, amused, and sticks by hank's side for the rest of the night.
stebbins -
stebbins is a D1 ragebaiter so what's a better way for him to spend a few weeks every fall than to work at one of the games at the fair? he's in charge of the Bottle Break game, where players have to throw a baseball at a glass bottle and break it. it's rigged, of course, and maybe stebbins gets to the fair a little early every day to try to make the game even harder in whatever way he can.
he gets a kick out of everyone coming up to his booth and dropping $$$ only to not knock down a single bottle, or only manage to knock over one so they only win a small keychain and none of the jumbo size stuffies. he laughs each time someone gets upset or angry, even little kids (he refuses to abide by the 'little kids get to play until they win' rule that a lot of the other games have).
whenever he does take a break, he hits up different food vendors to try different sweets. he'll never admit it, but he's developed a bit of a sweet tooth- he blames his mom for that, but he doesn't complain. he really likes those ridiculous-looking, teeth-rotting milkshakes that only one of the vendors makes. it's filled to the brim with strawberry ice cream and whipped cream, lucky charms adorning the top and almost overflowing. he walks around sipping it through the straw undeterred, ignoring ray when he makes a comment about how fuckin' ridiculous it is (and really, garraty has no room to talk with powdered sugar still adorning his face and shirt- and mcvries'). the others are surprised by him consuming so much sugar, especially since when the others had first approached his booth that night, ray still had a basketful of deep fried oreos that he'd offered to stebbins, who had taken a large bite of one and promptly spit it out on the ground. ray had grumbled, mad at the waste, and that had been exactly why stebbins had did it.
eventually when his shift is over for the night, he lets collie drag him, and barkovitch, off to the ferris wheel and can admit to himself that he actually does love the fair.
collie -
collie mostly comes to the fair because he has some art on display this year. he's made a few sculptures that he's proud of, having finally found his niche after a while of struggling with which medium was the best for him for his art. he proudly shuffles the other boys down the mini art gallery at the fair, casually pointing out the few pieces that are his. he's so fuckin' proud of himself. his mom and siblings have already been by earlier in the day, his mom ruffling his hair and kissing his temple after whispering that she's proud of him, his younger siblings playfully ribbing him about the sculptures. his friends are proud and the only ones who really give him any shit are olson (because he can't help himself) and barkovitch (who also cant' help himself), but none of it is meanspirited.
after leaving the art gallery, collie doesn't follow his friends around to the games or the food. he's there for the rides. he drags a reluctant barkovitch onto every ride in the place. he loves the bumper cars the most, getting to ram his car into everyone else, even the little kids whose parents keep throwing him a scolding look as he and barkovitch, who are sharing a car, share a laugh each time they slam their bumper car into another.
at the end of the night, he slides up to stebbins' booth, where olson is still struggling to hit a bottle. he drops a $20 on the counter, then picks up the offered baseballs. he hits every single bottle he aims for. he hears olson cursing him and sayin' it isn't fuckin' fair but collie just keeps his eyes on a pouting stebbins as he directs him to pick out one of the jumbo prizes behind the counter. collie, smooth as ever, says, "you're my prize. come ride the ferris wheel with me and gary."
stebbins sputters, the tips of his ears turning red, but he turns the booth over to another worker, ignoring olson cursing him as he leaves, and lets collie lead him and gary over to the ride together.
barkovitch -
barkovitch was not invited by the others but still shows up at the front entrance with his own ticket so the others just sort of. Let him come in with them. he brings his camera, of course, and takes pics all night of the whole group and all the rides when they light up. he can't wait to get home and show his memaw, who had loved going to the fair when she was younger but now couldn't make it happen since she's gotten up there in years.
he manages to try everyone's food without having to pay for his own at all and succeeds in filling up pretty quickly on just nibbles of everyone else's snacks. it turns out to not be a great idea to eat so much after collie drags him to one of the spinny rides. upon exiting, barkovitch promptly loses the contents of his stomach all over the grass as collie laughs at him, but still holds back his hair with one hair and rubs his back with the other.
he really wants to go on the ferris wheel and spends most of his time at the fair begging one of the guys to go with him, but they all shake their heads and say they've got other plans. the lying assholes. barkovitch knows they all just want to kiss each other at the top and don't want him third wheeling. whatever. collie tells him he's going to ride the ferris wheel with stebbins, and he feels himself deflate, realizing he'll have to just ride it alone if he wants to ride it at all. but then collie's grabbing his hand and dragging him with him to ask stebbins and then the three of them are all riding it together and it makes the great view even better with the two of them by his side.
"i'm not kissin' you, by the way, gary," collie says as they reach the very top and the ride pauses momentarily.
barkovitch feels defensive immediately, opening his mouth to snap i didn't fuckin' ask you to when collie grabs his hand, then stebbins, and adds, "not until you brush your fuckin' teeth." stebbins wrinkles his nose and nods in agreement.
barkovitch smiles to himself and looks away to admire the lights.
harkness -
harkness is definitely just tagging along so he can write a short piece about the fair for his local college paper that he's the head writer on. he does enjoy the fair, can get behind throwing a few darts at balloons and snacking on a funnel cake, but he enjoys the people watching the most.
the ferris wheel is the best way to do that, so he rides it quite a few times, enjoying the way the height expands his sight and lets him see what the whole fair is up to. it gives him a lot to write about, since from that angle he can see the different kinds of game booths and the different food vendors that are there in a way that's harder with his shorter height when he's flat on the ground.
he stays by stebbins' booth for a while, watching in amusement as hank olson tries and fails to win something. he looks up at the different prizes hanging around and wishes that he had someone who would try to win one for him as hard as hank tries for art baker.
by the end of the night, harkness is back in line to ride the ferris wheel one more time. he spots ray and pete kissing at the top, collie, stebbins, and barkovitch sharing one of the cabins. he goes to make a note of it in his notebook, then stops himself. some things are meant to stay private.
