#CRIMINAL that this is not coming to bway

[hold-him-down]

[poorguysheadisdoingwhatnow]

Blink’s side pt. 1

Blink was always so careful.

When he was little, he was careful around his father’s anger and swinging fists. As he got older, he was careful around anyone he thought might be a threat, from other kids on the street to street vendors from whom he was swiping just enough food to survive.

Blink became a newsie after he ran away from home, and even though he trusted his friends as though they were family, he was still careful.

Blink was always careful. So how did he get caught?

He still didn’t know the answer even as he sat in Snyder’s office, a place he was all too familiar with from other times he wasn’t careful enough, watching the man scribble notes of his ‘criminal charges’ in a book.

“Trespassing, aiding and abetting, loitering...” Snyder set the pen down with a smile. “Quite the list there, Louis.”

“Don’t call me that,” Blink spat. “Ugly fucker like you don’t get to-”

Snyder had always moved faster than a man of his age probably should have been able to, and suddenly Blink was reeling from a hard smack to his face. After a few moments, he managed to get his bearings and sit upright again, but he could feel an uncomfortable warmth on his face. Though he couldn’t reach up and touch it with his hands cuffed behind his back, he knew he was bleeding. He had caught the sharp end of Snyder’s ring before.

“That’s a common problem with you newsboys, isn’t it? Showing respect to your elders,” Snyder said. “Even the new one. And his little rat of a brother.”

Blink knew Snyder was talking about Davey and Les, but he held his tongue despite how desperately he wanted to defend his new friends. The kids he hadn’t even talked to that much before the strike but felt he knew them well because of the stories Sarah would tell as they walked to the Refuge nearly every night-

Oh, no. Sarah might try to come alone (Blink had made Boots promise ages ago that he wouldn’t go anywhere near the Refuge again after he brought Katherine that one night), and something could happen, and if she got arrested, too, there was no telling what Snyder would do.

Maybe it was because of his startling realization and the panic that accompanied it, or maybe it was just because of his fiery temper and unwillingness to think things through, but suddenly Blink was talking again.

“Maybe we would show more respect if you earned it good and proper, ‘stead of beatin’ kids senseless just ‘cause you’re a spineless coward who takes his anger out on people smaller ‘an you ‘cause you know they can’t fight back-”

The fist to Blink’s face was unsurprising and certainly not appreciated, but Blink knew that he had dug his own grave the moment he decided to sneak back to the Refuge despite the fact the sun was coming up soon and he would no longer have the cover of night. So he kept talking through a newly-split lip.

“What, you just provin’ me right?”

Snyder’s next blow was the hardest; the man had evidently decided not to hold back anymore, or maybe Blink had managed to piss him off just enough to cloud his already shaky judgement.

Soon, Blink stopped talking. There was too much blood in his mouth.

Then Snyder grabbed his hair and slammed his head into the concrete floor, and Blink stopped thinking for a while, too.

---

Unconsciousness was bliss, free from pain and fear and the worry Blink had felt in the pit of his stomach since the rally, and it was over far too quickly for his liking.

He groaned and curled in on himself, realizing belatedly that he was now lying on a mattress, not the floor of Snyder’s office, and that his feet had brushed up against something that shifted when he touched it. The movement was accompanied by a voice, soft and practically dripping with concern.

“Blink?” It was Mush. Of course it was Mush. No one besides him and Crutchie could bring that sense of care into their voices, and Crutchie was...

“Mush.” Blink was startled at how hard it was to even say the one word, but he supposed it was because of the bruises he could feel forming on his throat from Snyder’s rough hands.

“You’re a dumbass,” Mush said. Even with the harsh words, the care still remained. “You got caught. I told’ja you couldn’t keep sneakin’ up here. They was bound to see you sooner or later-”

“Least it was later,” Blink joked.

“Yeah, whatever.” There was another shift, as though Mush was leaning closer. “Blink, can you open your eye for me? Your, uh, your patch is gone, and I don’t gotta see your bad eye even though I probably should ‘cause the place around it’s all swollen and such, but, uh, I gotta look at your good eye to see if it looks funny. Specs told me about concussions, but he’s sleepin’ now, and I don’t wanna wake ‘im. I think I can see if you got one, though.”

“You always talked too much, y’know that?” Blink grumbled, though the insult held no malice. Everyone knew that Mush’s tendency to ramble was just part of his charm. “My head’s poundin’ somethin’ wild. Just gimme a second.”

His eyelids felt unbelievably heavy, and Blink thought Mush could be onto something with what he said about Blink’s bad eye because he found he couldn’t open it at all, but finally Blink managed to force his good eye open just a little-

-and saw nothing.

“What the fuck,” he whispered. He closed his eye and reopened it, but everything was still as black as though he had never opened it at all, like all the light had been sucked from the room and they were all sitting in a void.

Except Blink was the only one in the dark.

He screamed.

---

Tag list under the cut:

@rebecko

@disney-princess-sized

@interwebseriesfan24

@albertdasillva

@marcellerambles

@anotherday-anotherdestiny

@get-back-benjamin

@maiawakening

@transkathrinepulitzer

@my-writemind

@king-of-new-yoirk

@patrick-darling

@welcome-to-the-sound-of

@tacozebra051

@westcoastbroadway

@thewebernutter

@fuckboyloki

@racetrackcook

@the-athenian-pamphleteer

@we-dont-sell-papes

@the-dance-boi

@purplelittlepup

@bouncyscreamingnewsboys

@ben-cook-can-cook

@the-woild-is-my-what-now

@tony-higgins

@marvels-ninja

@graceful-popcorn

@thecaptainsgingersnap

@borough-what-gave-me-birth

@bway-bby

@relentless-logic

@that-be-ma-erster

[perfectlycapable]

rules: tag ten(ish) followers you want to know better  !

tagged by: my fellow meme thief @mxdam tagging: shrugs loudly and with force 

name: aleah, I should have come up with a cool internet nickname but it’s too late now.  star sign: leo. height: 5′2″  what’s your middle name? kay. put your itunes on shuffle. what are the first 6 songs that popped up?

1. for the first time in forever - frozen 2. cancelling the bar mitzvah - falsettos 2016 revival  3. jack sparrow - potc dmc ost 4. poem: we have been metamorphosized - when you’re strange  5. what you mean to me - finding neverland ( original bway cast recording )  6. i’ve been waiting for a day like this - an american victory 

grab the book nearest you and turn to page 23. what’s line 17? "they appeared as complete prisoners as they would be in gaol,” remarked one observer to the Peel Committee. from the fatal shore by robert hughes, bc australian criminals are fascinating.  when was the last time you played air guitar? yikes uh .. when i was at dca i think.  who is your celebrity crush? jack davenport all the way babe. but also lowkey mia wasikowska that girl is a goddess.  what’s a sound you hate; sound you love? tornado drill sirens ?? idk like i can handle fire drill ones but i hate that one particularly. and then i love the sound of typing and page turning and typical library noises.  do you believe in ghosts? how about aliens? i wouldn’t be a potc stan if i didn’t.  do you drive? if so, have you ever crashed? ha ! terrified to drive no thanks !  what was the last book you read? im in the middle of reading a farewell to arms ( which sucks, 0 out of 10 do not recommend ) and the pirate king ( barely better, like 2 out of 10 ) the last book i finished was marilyn monroe’s autobio, which was a dazzling 10/10 !  do you like the smell of gasoline? ye what was the last movie you saw? wonder what’s the worst injury you’ve ever had? i got a chunk taken out of my knee by the kitchen cabinet.  do you have any obsessions right now? uh, always : / pirates forever, vinyls, georgian harlots, broadway, walt disney, the holy trio jdav/kat mcphee/meg hilty, also like just vintage fashions and disney bounding stuff in general.  do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong? : ) mmhmm yep in a relationship? “lesbians don’t date, we pine.” - rabbit, 2018