#and none of it has to do with their ships

[canisbrutus]

Could you... Make some headcanons...... about.... Hal/Justin ?..... Pleaseeeeeeee.... Love u. (⁠o⁠´⁠･⁠_⁠･⁠)⁠っ⊂⁠(⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠*⁠⊂⁠)

lol ok so these two are not a whole romantic ship in my lore. But: they do have their own little 'relationship' to say the least (and maybe justin has a little unrequited crush lol). anyway:

song blast rq - x

Hal & Justin 🔩🥚

The Basics

'rivals' first, business partners second.

looking at the bigger picture for a sec- as with all greaser/prep interactions, the preps scorn their slummish lifestyle and 'degeneracy' whenever possible.

however: they often hire their services whenever they dont want to dirty their own hands with something especially dicey.

and annoyingly, the preps make for nice, high paying clientele.

much like the actual mafia and corrupt upper class, these two cliques are entwined together in a way that's hard to separate.

as far as Hal and Justin go, however?

Justin isnt all that loyal to his business partners, typically.

but he can admire one's... strengths.

Hal, meanwhile, can see a cash cow from a mile away.

and Justin isn't all that hard to play like a fiddle, even without beating him to a pulp.

Expanded Lores

allow me to paint a picture for you.

Hattrick's been preoccupied with Galloway, and by doing so, he's holding out on supplying test answers to Justin for his side gig.

This won't do.

but Justin can't make any direct moves against a teacher, no no.

instead he slinks off into the alleys of new coventry, arms crossed behind his back and his chin held high.

Hal seems to be the easiest to 'bribe,' he thinks, largely due to his weight and associated stereotypes.

he was wrong. but it got his foot in the door for a Deal anyway.

in an attempt to deescalate the situation he held up a crisp $20 between his fingers, promising more where that came from, if he was just willing to do him a small favor.

Hal, of course, was a bit of a shark. He asked for $120.

he got it.

the next day Hattrick's car broke down and he wound up in the hospital with a broken femur.

future deals would be made in diner and deli booths alike (with Justin paying every time, of course).

generally they kept their deals 1-1. "man to man." Justin didn't want to pay any more greasers when Hal's proven himself to be capable, and Hal probably wasn't about to share his cut either.

had to stay strictly confidential anyway, you know?

none of the other preps needed to know Justin was cozying up to that Pig.

who's to say Hal didn't laugh at how hard he was milking this egg-eating snake with the rest of his boys, though?

admittedly Justin wasn't too pushy with haggling down his prices.

would make a counter-offer, sometimes, but usually Hal got what he wanted because Justin didn't wanna go through the hoops of trying to appease another greaser into not kicking his ass on sight on top of working for him.

that, and... well. it's obvious Justin has a type for the big strong and crass. Hal ticks all those boxes, even if he is notably more rough around the edges.

Justin however is nowhere near Hal's type. but that doesn't stop him from flexing a bit for emphasis on something.

it's funny trying to see that prep struggle to stay composed while pinned against the wall.

he often makes fun of him for a quick laugh anyhow.

always gets his heritage wrong. calls him German Boy.

Justin gets real haughty about that. claiming to be Flemish.

Belgian, German, Dutch; they're all the same to Hal. it drives the prep nuts.

they're not always completely antagonistic with eachother though, really.

Hal frequently offered him a cig for the hell of it (as he Always has Too Many). most of the time Justin would turn him down, but sometimes. sometimes. he'd take one if he had a headache for whatever reason.

Hal got a real kick outta loosening up this fool.

weird ass situationship.

somebody tell me why i have NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A stuck in my head now.

[writing masterpost]

[artigas]

i have very few earnest and sincere wishes for The Pitt season two. mostly, I just want it to the maintain its quality and pace and avoid the pitfalls (lol) of melodramatic procedurals like greys. but of the only two or three hopes I really hold for next season (none of which, believe it or not, involve shipping), i really hope that they handle Langdon's relationship with addiction and recovery as sensitively and compassionately as they can.

it's really important that we get compassionate and realistic narratives about addiction. it's really important that we see stories where "successful" people struggle with substance abuse and this issue isn't problematically assigned only to people struggling with poverty, miseducation, and housing insecurity. it's important that we see stories about substance abuse not being a moral failing or a flaw of ethics or discipline but instead literally a disease of the body and the mind. a disease. we don't moralize around a broken bone, or alzheimer's, or cancer the way we do addiction (except perhaps lung cancer if you committed the supreme crime of being -- wouldn't you know it! -- addicted to nicotine). and yet, they're all diseases. i think it's really important that langdon is addicted specifically to pain medicine, especially given the ways american medicine and racism helped facilitate the opioid epidemic we live in now. i think it's really important that his addiction began because of chronic pain. i think it's really important that langdon's pursuit of substances brings him (at what might be the lowest point of his addiction) to commit real wrong to others (his patients) and yet the show invites us to love him anyway.

i hope people can be increasingly kind and contentious about addiction. i hope fans can remember that Patrick Ball, the man who plays him, has disclosed that he is in recovery himself. i worry about how young this fandom is and the messy boundaries therein; i hope people realize that how you talk and think about addicts in fiction can carry over to how you do so in real life. i hope we don't project weird shit onto actors. I hope we always remember that these people are people and also that addicts (and the people who love them) live amongst you and also share fandom spaces with you. so we've gotta be informed and we've gotta be kind, man.

[buckitweride]

This fandom is so funny (not affectionate). Any opposing takes on what happens in the show is constantly minimized to being a side effect of ship wars.

Oh, you don’t love the Bobby death arc and the way the show is handling the fallout? Must be because you’re a delusional bvddie truther.

Oh, you don’t like the tone departure from the past 7 seasons of no MCD precedent? Well that’s because you’re a fake fan who didn’t watch season 1 since Eddie wasn’t in it.

Oh, you’re not upset enough about Bobby dying? Well it’s because you only care about Tommy and are making the whole season about him.

Liiiiiike…. This fandom creates its own problems I stg. If you don’t seek out the extremists, then you’d see that normal fans across all shipping preferences have liked and disliked the current storyline in various measures.

Reducing absolutely all opinions regarding the show down to shipping preferences is 1) weird 2) unnecessarily reductive and 3) overly inflammatory for no reason.

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

It's not just about touching grass at this point anymore. It's about growing a spine and being able to have your own personality outside of everyone and everything else.

Because, here's the frustrating part. Normally when it comes to people who were the biggest against shipping. Which, let's be clear of your against "pro ship" you're against shipping as an entirety. Cruise ship never ever meant that you were exclusively for "problematic ships". And anti-shippers are the ones who lied and created that version of it. And not only is it infuriating, especially to people who just ship characters. It also very much happens to do two things very specific. Well let me reword that. It does one thing very particular and as a tendency to show part of that person's...... Issues. What it does is it says that all ships are sexual in nature. That is effectively what it means to be anti-"pro-ship".

It's a bunch of whiny little brats who literally make everything sexual in every way all the time. And because of that the term problematic ship arose out of nowhere and started getting slapped on literally everyone who just shipped two characters together.

Unfortunately, the thing that it typically shows about them as a person is normally that either one they're an abuser or two they have particular thoughts about children. And I'm not saying that it's every anti-shipper. It is however 90% of the ones that I've run across.

I've explained this in dozens of separate posts. If you are a pro-shipper that means you are pro shipping characters. There is no alternative meaning. There is no deeper meaning. There isn't even a subjective version of a meaning. That concept has one meaning and one meaning only. And if someone blocks you because you're fine with letting people ship characters together, they weren't worth your time in the first place.

Let moral Puritans do whatever the hell they're going to do. And stop worrying about whether they're going to block you or not. And, something else to consider; Who are you to decide what fictional non-real characters get shipped together? It's none of your business, and if you don't like it don't consume it. This isn't hard. You don't just need to touch grass. You need to get off the internet. You need to get off your phone. You need to get your head out of the clouds. And you need to ground yourself and realize real life is not fantasy. And I'm sick of these people who constantly insist that fiction affects reality. It only affects reality insofar as its messaging. But just because something is featured as a concept in a series or IP does not mean that it is being condoned.

And this goes far beyond lack of media literacy. This goes into the realm of people's inability to separate fiction and reality as an entirety. And until you can tell the difference, maybe you need to stay away from it. Go out and read some biographies or some research papers. Stop being arrogant, ignorant, dummies. It's not that hard.

This is what a collective obsession with moral purity does to people. People are scared of being blocked just for accidentally interacting with a problematic account.

This is literally this person’s entire bio. Instead of sharing something about themselves they’re giving a disclaimer that they don’t know everything about every single person they follow.

The amount of anxiety this causes even for people that haven’t said or done anything themselves is horrible.

Next time you see a proshipper, instead of stalking their follower list or harassing them go touch some fucking grass.

[corrie-zodori]

Me 3-4 years ago: I genuinely do not ship Spamton with anybody. I think he is the most divorced man ever (second only to asgore) Toby fox in 2025, about to do the funniest fucking thing possible:

[lucradiss]

“Oh the age gap was too big I aged one of them up/down so they’re the same age”

YOU HAVE SHOWN YOUR WEAKNESS! YOU ROLL ON YOUR SPINELESS BACK AND EXPOSE YOUR COWARD BELLY IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY! I DONT HAVE A SHIP WITH AN AGE GAP OF LESS THAN A DECADE! GIVE THESE MIDDLE AGED MEN A TWINK AND SOME VIAGRA AND THEYRE READY TO GO!

[altschmerzes]

before you make that post about how annoyed you are at all these dumb idiots calling their interpretation of these two characters something like oh idk siblings or family or whatever maybe ask yourself this:

is someone flattening this dynamic using a familial term or trying to invent a reason why no one can ship them OR are you just pitching a fit about someone else’s interpretation of this dynamic (that they’re expressing in their own space and on their own time, maybe sometimes saying they don’t like the ship or it makes them personally uncomfortable) (again on their own time and in their own space) because it makes you feel weird about your ship and you have zero distress tolerance because you’re so used to all of fandom catering directly to you and your romantic ships that any deviation from that - which isn’t even addressing people who DO ship them just expresses the op not feeling the same - feels like something is being taken away and you’re under attack.

[basket-of-radiants]

Anyone want to help me make El really popular by drawing him super hot and coming up with a bunch of ships for him? I think that's how fandom works. I don't know how else to make a character popular. Anyone want to do that with me? I don't how to make characters super hot or come up with crowd-pleasing ships, but I could try.....

[suntails]

👑⚔️

[fatedroses]

No-one butts into Estinien's bromances and gets away with it.

[planetvries]

Some things never change…

[pup-pee]

the whimsey took me. blame these guys whove had a hold on me since whenever i watched the cartoon as a kid

anywaysssss harpoon mermaid au ^_^ ((if yk that 1 manga ykok))

[royaltea000]

pruame dynamic

[stebbinsgreyhoundfursuit]

This is geunily the worst thing I've ever made it took days not because it took any effort but because I could not make myself look at it any longer 😟😟😟.....

[gods-leastfavorite-parent]

"Jayce can love Viktor and Mel" I agree with you, but also he doesn’t love them both. And that's no hate to either character (which I have to say because some of yall are getting racist and making us all look bad), it's just how I saw their relationship. I don't feel like their relationship was ever deep. I think he liked her (fair, she is beautiful and charming), and she liked an idea of him, but it never felt any deeper than the shallow end of a pool. They find out each other has been on a life-changing trauma trip for months and basically go, "Wow. Anyway-"

Or when Mel got Jayce put on the council without, y'know, talking to him about that first. And he fucking hates it and it makes his life so much worse lol. bby they are NOT compatible

I wasn't insane about Mel in the first half of season 1 (didn’t dislike her, just wasn’t feeling it yet) but I started to love her when we learned more about her backstory. When she had that dream of her mom beheading that princess, I thought "NOW we're cooking with fire". It's so interesting to see how she genuinely wants to be a good person and grow Piltover, but is held back by an upbringing that prioritized strength over compassion. I love when characters try to be good and fail!

That's also interesting in how it plays into her as a councilor - because the council is the cause of basically all of the problems in the show. Like, they ARE the oppressors. In a version of this show that was 3 or 4 seasons, I would so badly want season 2 to focus on the political side and a Zaunite revolution, and I would want Mel to grapple with her own role in it. That she was still so focused on strength and cunning, on Piltover's growth and proving herself, that she never thought about how every day they were sacrificing an entire city of people on the altar of progress. I want to see her realize that this whole time, she thought she had rejected her mother's teachings, but she still chose power over goodness. She just never had to see the blood.

All this to say that I am a Mel lover and I still don't think her and Jayce's relationship is that deep lol

[jackabbot]

"you don't have to ship x just enjoy—" how about i ship whatever i want without some rando making it into their calling to hand out permission slips? maybe i'll enjoy the source material my way? maybe i find whimsy in shipping certain characters that others only see as platonic? what then? are you gonna steal my pillows?