#clark brillstein

[littlestarbigsky]

i said i'd be back with headcanons so here they are.. these bitches have occupied every ounce of my brain power for the past two weeks lol

chronically ill bev🩵

- she's got a handful of things going on, someone sent in anemia and i rlly like that, im also thinking she has some kind of serious gastro-intestinal issue. i also think she has some form of alopecia, but she never tells anyone about that - with her stomach issues, she had to have a feeding tube placed at one point because her body literally couldn't tolerate food. she absolutely didn't want it and she fought it the whole time, but it wasn't a question of whether or not she wanted one, she would go into organ failure if they didn't get something in her - i also have this really sick and twisted hc that after she had her feeding tube placed, it still wasn't enough and they had to remove one of her kidneys to keep the other one from failing - with her anemia, she's always tired, always cold, and always has a headache, tylenol and ibuprofen are her best friends. she doesn't really have the issue of passing out when she stands up, but that's mostly because she's really good at managing it by now

marcia with tremors💚

- it started when she was little, i think she had some kind of speech impediment/stutter when she was in preschool/kindergarten, but grew out of it. however, when they started focusing on fine motor skills, she fell behind because she couldn't stop her hands from shaking. - she's not an angry or aggressive person, but her tremor is one of the only things that truly fills her with anger. when she was 8, she smashed a ceramic teapot on the floor because she kept spilling the tea at her stuffed animal tea party - she really has to put so much time into her school work because she's a perfectionist but her handwriting is messy because of how badly her hands shake, she spends hours on hours trying to keep her notes legible - her parents really don't get it... they try, by replacing all of their glassware with a nice plastic that won't break if marcia drops it, but they still get mad at her when she spills. they won't sit with her if it takes her longer to finish her food - speaking of marcia's parents, they stop going to doctor's appointments the minute she turns 18 because she can go by herself, and i always hc her parents to be pretty absent. marcia is just as much of a latchkey kid as two-bit, her house is just nicer

cherry with insomnia🩷

- cherry baby has not known a moment of peace once in her life !! from all the pressure her parents put on her to the way she's expected to be perfect at school (by her teachers, by her friends), she's so exhausted by all of it but still feels like she has no idea who she is.. and it keeps her up at night - i also hc that cherry was sick a lot as a baby (not like scary-hospital type sick, more like she had a bunch of ear infections/strep throat/little infections) but she never really learned proper sleep patterns when she was supposed to. - normally, she falls in this really frustrating middle ground where its hard for her to stay up all night becuase the tired only hits her at like 4-5am, but if she's in a bad season, she'll go 2-3 days without sleeping, functioning perfectly fine, maybe just a bit more emotional. - every now and then it's useful, like studying for finals, or when she and her friends miscalculate how long a drive home will take and she's still wide awake at midnight, but she's mostly - she learned to avoid sleepovers at a young age because she got tired of being the only one still awake at 3 in the morning. - and in true cherry fashion: she thinks it's her fault. she thinks that she should be able to just shut her brain off and not think the way she does, she makes herself so mad all the time over it.

trip with anxiety and an irregular heartbeat💙

- the funny(ish) thing about trip's irregular heartbeat is that it probably never would have been an issue if he wasn't such an anxious person... but bro is always worryin about somethin, so his heart is always havin problems - i imagine him with POTS, which wasn't recognized as a condition until the 1990's, but before then, it was categorized as an irregular heartbeat or anxiety - bro just rlly needs to drink more water or SOMETHIN bc he's definitely doing his best but if marcia or brill aren't actively refilling his water bottle and giving him gatorade, he's seeing stars every time he stands up - melvin and his parents are aware that it's an issue but he also never really talks about it so it doesn't become something he talks to a doctor about for a good while. by the time they actually see a doctor they're pretty sure it's gotten a lot worse - there has definitely been a night or two that he's been sent to the hospital after going too hard at football practice and they have to put him on a hydration drip to get him under control

brill with an eating disorder💚

- oh brill my baby.. tbh he just never properly understood the necessity of properly fueling his body, and he was constantly ridiculed by his parents for eating too much, not eating enough, so eventually he just stopped trying - 100% the type to think an espresso shot in the morning counts as breakfast (thank god they didn't have redbull bc this boy would singlehandedly keep that entire company running) - another rlly important bit with brill is that he is so wrapped up in taking care of bev that he forgets that he needs food and water. he would be spoon feeding her applesauce because he hasn't seen her eat in three days but he hasn't eaten in that time either - he is constantly being strong for everyone around him and doesn't realize that he's crashing until it's really bad. he'll lose weight over the winter and spring and not notice until they're going swimming that summer and suddenly, "oh shit, where did half my body weight go?" - basically, he doesn't mean to, but it's still a problem

[curtis-brothers-hug]

When Darry and Paul are seniors, there’s this crop of annoying freshmen Socs on the JV football team who follow Paul around like rich, spoiled ducklings. Apparently Paul’s parents are friends with a lot of their parents or whatever, connections from the same rich, snotty west side neighborhood. They’re always hanging around Paul, bugging him for rides and booze. (At seventeen, Paul’s fake ID is more convincing than these preppy kindergartners.)

One day they play a prank on the kids - Paul generously lets all the Soc boys pile into his mustang with Darry driving. Darry has perfected his technique of driving like a bat outta hell to entertain his little brothers. He speeds, takes razor sharp turns, spins the car in circles, skids a little too close to ditches. It has the desired effect. The passengers are all terrified, nauseous, or both. Trip screams like a girl. (What kinda name is Trip anyway?) Brill (ditto on the dumb name) has a death grip on the door handle so hard his knuckles are white, eyes wide with terror. When they get out of the car, Chet throws up. And Bobby (“Paul, quit calling me that, it’s Bob now!”) looks like he ain’t even breathing.

Darry and Paul laugh their asses off.

Darry gets a sudden sense of Deja vu in Pershing park. Through the coating of rain, mud, and blood, he sees swatches of torn madras shirts floating in puddles, wobbling upright, and stumbling away toward cars that somebody had stupidly given them a license to operate.

Darry and Paul are glaring at each other like they’ve never laughed together a day in their lives. Trip takes a nasty looking punch from Two-Bit, and screams like a girl. Brill stands frozen for a moment until his friends grab him, fists clenched so hard they’re vibrating, eyes wide with terror. Chet drops to his knees on his way out of the park, and throws up. And Bobby - Bob -

Bob isn’t breathing.

[aroaceoutsiders]

moments at the drive-in

[specific-dreamer]

bevbrill: you can tell us anything, we won’t judge !

also bevbrill:

[aforeffective]

thinking about the curtis’ unlocked door policy. everyone on the west side knows that if they have an issue, part of the curtis gang or not, they can have shelter at the curtis house.

thinking about darry mentioning it offhandedly with his football buddies. something along the lines of “oh yeah, one time we woke up and *insert outlandish person* was just sleeping on our floor”. the socs never thought anything of it, besides that it was a bit odd. they couldn’t imagine having to rely on a stranger for support. whenever they have to escape their own houses for whatever reason, they just go to their own friends.

maybe paul had used this policy once or twice, after getting into arguments with his parents. but paul had come to hang out at the house before so it wasn’t totally weird to see him in the living room, just sitting on the couch when they woke up. but he was the only one from the west side of town that would ever dare to use it.

but then i’m thinking about post canon events and one of the soc boys (i’m imagining brill but i think it’s more likely for it to be chet) is just not handling things well. they get out and get super drunk, maybe into a bar fight. they can’t go home because they’re drunk and bloody and spiraling. maybe depending on which one it is, their parents would hit them if they knew they were drunk. or maybe their parents aren’t so bad but they just can’t risk disappointing them. so they’re just outside, wandering around tulsa and they find themselves on the east side and see the lot where bob died. and it doesn’t help their spiraling so they keep walking and eventually they see the curtis house and they remember how darry and paul used to reference the unlocked door. they figure going to the greasers is probably safer than going home, and if the greasers did do anything, it wouldn’t be anything they deserve. so they’re let themselves into the house, only to find darry sitting on the recliner. he was asleep but the sound of the door had woken him up. “keith? that you?” when they finally round the corner and darry sees him, darry doesn’t know how to feel. “i just need a place to sleep tonight. i can’t go home. i remember you used to talk about keeping the door unlocked.” when darry doesn’t immediately answer, he turns around to leave. “sorry, this is stupid. i shouldn’t have come here. i’ll go.” darry stops him from leaving. “you can spend the night. just don’t be shocked in the morning if one of the guys starts threatening you when they find you on the couch in the morning.”

(the next morning, whichever soc boy it was definitely woke up to two bit poking him in face and darry being like ‘keith, i already told you that i gave him permission to stay here. lay off of him’)

[athenaweena]

idc in my head brill is thinking "they needa move I wanna see my girl." idec.

[darrelneverwentsoc]

thank you bethmarie for this photo that absolutely destroyed me :’)

[wassupmygays]

this is the most bev n brill coded interaction ive ever seen off the stage

(dan threw his sweater and it messed up melody's wig and barton got so defensive about fixing it lmao) (@ 11 mins of this soc saturday)

bart: "are you serious??? are you joking??”

mel: "hey! you wanna fix my wig??"

[to-know-how-it-ends]

all the Soc boys HATE brill on Valentine's day bc of how all out he goes for Bev where he publicly sings to her, gets her her favorite chocolates, gives her a ridiculously large bouquet, and writes her a love poem and they have like. a rose and a card.

[very-super-silly]

my collection of bevbrill bc i love them sm

[creepyoldguy33]

how often do we think the soc boys are like genuinely screaming at the television when football is on. like how genuinely PISSED do we think they get about watching it.

[marciavalance]

one day this week melody cherry and barton bob NEEDS to happen. it would be so insane but also amazing. please casting people 🙏🙏

[curtis-brothers-hug]

The way greasers and socs both come from environments with high rates of child neglect, high rates of parents who are alcoholics and addicts, but it’s framed completely differently. Classy if you’re rich, but trashy if you’re poor, if you will.

Greaser parents are “negligent.” Soc parents can’t possibly be, because they provide their children with everything financially and materially. And if they don’t spend any time with their children, it’s in the classy, high society way: handing them off to nannies and housekeepers until they’re old enough to behave at dinner parties.

Greaser parents are “alcoholics” and “use drugs.” Soc parents are fathers with refined taste in expensive whiskey, and mothers who just need to “calm their nerves.”

Only greasers come from “broken homes.” Socs come from respectable marriages that stay pictures perfect through years of “your father is working late again.”

Greaser homes are loud and small and cramped, run down and broken and in disrepair. Soc homes are sprawling mausoleums of refined, polite silence, filled with perfectly displayed, expensive items that children aren’t allowed to touch.

[girlishwhimsies]

we have japanese american brill and jewish brill 🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️ me when socs are ashamed of their pasts that they don’t even truly know of 🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️

[specific-dreamer]

mmmm thinking about the socs not being able to move on from bob’s death because that’s the first time their actions have had consequences and bob subsequently not being able to move on in death so he’s tethered to tulsa still. bob not knowing what else to do with his afterlife so he follows his friends.

he watches bev and brill who somehow are still tough skinned and thriving. he follows brill to his grave sometimes and listens as brill talks to him and pours one out for him. on the rare occasion bev goes to visit his grave he listens to her call him a stupid idiot through sobs and he longs to comfort her

he watches marcia and his heart aches for her when she starts pulling away from trip because he knows how much they liked each other. he use to think they were a (better) version of him and cherry

he watches chet who goes looking for more fights a lot more often. he watches chet a lot if only because he sees himself a lot in him and he’s scared chet is going to join him real soon.

he watches melvin and sergei a lot too. he hardly knew them but they were the same age as ponyboy curtis and kinda just wants to make sure no one goes after them like he did the curtis kid

most of all, he watches cherry. they broke up and that was probably the scariest moment in his life, including when he got stabbed. not doing right by cherry is probably his biggest regret. he regrets bringing the liquor to the drive in that night, he regrets even going to the nightly double drive in period.

but he watches cherry go through the motions after he died. he watches their friends blame cherry for his death wishing he could say something because it was never cherrys fault. he was blindsided by rage and liquor that night but there wasn’t a single part of bob that blamed cherry. because the thing is he knew he was being irrational, he knew it was absurd to get angry at cherry for talking to a little kid but bobs always been jealous when it came to cherry and he’s always been quick to fly off the handle even when he’s sober. so no, his getting angry and going after those kids and getting himself killed was never cherrys fault and it pissed him off when everyone accused cherry.

(i got besides myself cough cough)

bob watches cherry and how she goes through the motions. he watches her through herself back into her school and volunteer work. he watches her when she goes in her backyard to watch the sun rise every morning. he watches her take away their beach boys albums and put them in a shelf in her closet.

most importantly he watches cherry when she finally learns to let go of him. he watches in real time as cherry stops blaming herself and allows herself to start dating other people again. and he’s not real fond of the guy, dr pepper or something he doesn’t really care, but if the guy makes cherry happy (and he does, he hasn’t seen cherry smile so bright and for so long since way before he died) then he’s alright with a cherry dating a greaser of all things- sorry, of all people.

[aforeffective]

my headcanons of the socs' families, as created by me at 12:30 am instead of sleeping

(remember that these are just my personal headcanons so even if you disagree with me, please be respectful) (also some characters have less than others, i apologize about that. i promise i love all of them)

this is long so its below the cut.

trigger warning for bad parenting ig? basically it is exactly the level you would expect in the outsiders. there is not graphic explanations of abuse but definitely insinuations

marcia meyrink-mariani

her parents are great and they love her very much and she is their pride and joy

BUT her parents both grew up in lower-income families

they both grew up to have successful careers so they were able to get from like lower-middle class to like upper middle class

and both of her parents are pressured by their own parents to work to keep the status of the family because they want to see marcia get what they could never provide their kids

so her parents and her grandparents all love her very much and have great intentions

but now they are unintentionally kinda neglectful just because they are ALWAYS at work, so that they are able to provide marcia with everything she could ever want

i do think she is very close to her parents when they are actually home though

and because of their pasts of growing up in lower-income families, they aren't as judgmental as the other west side families, hence why marcia isn't as against two-bit and the greasers as her friends are

they liked her relationship with trip but they are also very supportive when she breaks up with him and begins dating two-bit

last name headcanon: meyrink-mariani. meyrink is her mom's maiden name while mariani is her dad's last name.

beverly jitney-bush

her mom is absolutely a toxic pageant/ballet mom (yes bev does pageants and ballet) (or at least she did when she was younger)

her dad is always "gone at work" but both bev and her mom know that he's with his girlfriend (who is probably controversially younger than him. like not too badly to the point where its close to bev's age/being illegal. but definitely like 5-10 years younger than him)

like this is a well known fact. everyone knows that he's cheating but her mom never acknowledges it so everyone else just kinda ignores it

due to the ballet and pageant stuff, bev's mom is very controlling when it comes to her health and her body

bev tries to spend a lot of time at brill's house to escape her mom's control but her mom will find excuses to keep her at home

bev hates both of her parents and honestly just wishes her dad would run off with his girlfriend so that she'd at least only have to deal with one bad parent

cherry valance

okay so she's the only one that has canon family info in the musical so we're going to build off of that

her dad is an alcoholic and not great to cherry or her mom

high school "sweethearts" but not in the same way as brill's parents. brill's parents stayed together cause they love each other. cherry's parents stayed together cause her mom felt obligated

when i was coming up with it, my brain kept thinking of daisy from the great gatsby; how she married tom because she had lost hope of running into gatsby again and then the whole "beautiful little fool" thing and that is definitely how cherry's mom felt when she was pregnant with cherry

and i think because she knows cherry has grown up to not "be a fool", she pushes cherry towards bob in hopes that cherry won't get herself into trouble

due to this daisy comparison, i'm going to say that cherry's dad was probably her mom's second love but she never truly got over her first love

cherry def read the great gatsby and just felt so depressed by daisy because it is literally her mom

i'm going to say that cherry's mom doesn't work so she is home with cherry but she's never really bothering with her. she'd rather hire a nanny to deal with cherry as a kid, and then just lets cherry watch herself as she gets older

bob sheldon

his parents are so neglectful

they just do not have the time (or the want) to care about him

he could be sitting next to them at the dinner table being like "yeah i murdered 30 people and now cherry and i are gonna drop out and go on the run together and get hitched" and they'd be completely not listening like "oh wow, that's nice honey"

he acts out in hopes of getting his parents' attention (iirc randy says this in the book) but even then they literally just do not care

he'll come home to an empty house with a note on the counter that just says 'your problem is dealt with, be smarter next time'

they literally just do not care enough to lecture him or acknowledge him causing trouble

i hc that they also barely even acknowledged him post his death either and cherry had to pressure them to plan the funeral (and she had to do a lot of the work for them) (despite being literally a teenager) (and doing this while dealing with her own grief and also the fallout of all of her friendships)

paul holden

his parents literally only care about him when it comes to what he does for their reputation

as long as he gets good grades, does well on the football team, and can attend fancy business dinners with them and make the family look good, they do not care about anything else he does

they definitely taught him that as long as he does the above, they will throw money to make any problems he has go away

which definitely screwed with both his sense of right and wrong and also just how he views love in general

i view his parents as people who were in love before but don't really care for each other any more but refuse to get divorced (again, all they care about is their reputation to the other wealthy west side families)

so paul has a very toxic view on what love is

and they also taught him nothing about handling emotions

so he is soooo bad with his emotions

his parents definitely having screaming matches at each other a lot

he has definitely snuck out in the middle of the night and went and slept at one of the guys' house because his parents wouldn't stop screaming and he needed sleep

chet baker

chet's parents are not great

his dad is a cop (this is inspired by skyforcherry's chet headcanons because i just love the idea of one of the boys' fathers being on the police force and being one of the people investigating bob's death)

he has two older sisters but they have moved out and gotten married and begun their own families

chet's mom loves chet but when he was a kid, whenever she would do anything for him, chet's dad would yell at her for "spoiling" him and saying that it is emasculating that chet needs a woman's help doing everything (despite the fact that this is literally just a child wanting to spend time with his mom)

chet was also very close with his sisters as a kid, until his dad made him feel bad about it, saying he needed to stop acting like one of the girls

so yeah, his mom and his sisters could barely do anything for chet without his dad complaining that they were making him girly and "messing him up" (not for lack of wanting to. they do love him but their husband/dad can be scary when he's angry) (he's not outright physically abusive but definitely threatens that he would 'be able to get away with it' when he's angry)

so the only people in his house that he can really get attention from is his dogs, but even then his dad will find excuses about how depending on animals for companionship isn't manly

when he is home, chet's dad will be very nitpicky about everything he does. if chet does anything wrong or just in a way he doesn't like, there will be yelling

and he will poke and prod until chet finally reacts and yells back

and then chet's mom will begin crying because she just hates the yelling and fighting

and then chet will feel bad so he'll stop arguing back and just let his dad yell

and after a few minutes, his dad will stop and chet is just so tired of this because it is a cycle where his dad will do this and then apologize and be like "i didn't mean to get that mad, i didn't mean to set off your mother, let's both apologize to her"

and then they do this all over again a few days later (over such minor things)

because of this, chet has learned to avoid home unless he feels like being alone, in which case he'll lock himself in his room with his dogs and avoids interactions with his parents to avoid argument

terrence "trip" dipp

trip lives with his parents, his aunt, and his cousin (melvin)

his uncle passed away, leaving his aunt widowed with a young son so they moved in with trip's family (it was his dad's brother)

trip honestly doesn't interact with his parents much

they're fine. they work, they come home, they all eat together as a family, and then everyone splits off to do their own things

his dad can definitely be harsh, especially to his sister-in-law and he has definitely been caught complaining about having to deal with this "random kid" living in his house (aka his nephew)

trip is very close with his aunt

the reason she moved in is because she has some sort of chronic illness that causes her to get sick a lot, which was only made worse after her husband died

so she moved in to get help with her illness and melvin

it was trip's mother's idea and trip's father only agreed out of respect for his now deceased brother

trip acts annoyed by melvin but he has grown to care for him as a brother (but he would never admit it)

clark "brill" brillstein

okay imo his parents are the best of all the socs' parents

they were high school sweethearts that got married (and pregnant with brill) like within the summer after graduation

because of this, they're younger than the other parents. the others all are in their 40s, having had their kids in their 20s but brill's parents are only like 36

they are THE parents of the group. if any of brill's friends need anything, whether it's just advice or someone to talk to, literally anything, they go to brill's parents. he has come home to every single one of his friends talking to his parents before. it is a common occurrence.

such a healthy family dynamic

yes they love brill's friends and want to act as their parents but they will never let brill feel sidelined to his friends because of their attention