#eventually Willie brings home a nice girl he met for Flynn and possibly a puppy for Reggie that the train as a guide dog for Alex

[innytoes]

More Triffid AU thoughts because apparently the book stuck with me even though I read it like 15 years ago.

-So Reggie wakes up to his brother screaming that he can’t see, and freaks out, and rushes to get help only to open the door and it’s chaos outside because pretty much EVERYONE can’t see. His parents are gone (or did they even come home?). He does the first thing he can think of: put Stevie on his bike and ride to the Molinas, dodging and serving blind pedestrians along the way.

-The band was supposed to have a Meteor Watch Party, which Reggie missed, but it is very convenient because everyone is already in one place. They quickly piece together what happened, because Reggie (who slept through the meteor shower) is the only one who can see.

-Reggie and Carlos quickly retrofit their zombie apocalypse plans. He feels bad raiding a grocery store, even worse raiding the pharmacy, but Alex needs his inhalers and if this isn’t temporary, things could get very bad very fast.

-He realises this when he’s nearly kidnapped by a cop who can’t see anymore, who tries to hold him at gunpoint and force him to be his guide. (He throws a can of beans at a car, making the alarm go off and distracting the cop, and hightails it out of there, figuring out pretty quickly that letting anyone know he can see is a very, very bad idea.)

-Luke 100% is the first to stop freaking out because they can still play music, right?

-Over the next few weeks, things both get very bad (fires, car accidents, desperate people) and then very quiet. Reggie spends time raiding more stores for supplies (sometimes with the help of Luke or Ray, though he hates the idea of putting Ray in danger when he has kids to worry about).

-He also goes around to all of their family’s houses. His parents are nowhere to be found, but he packs up some stuff for him and Stevie. Tía Victoria isn’t home, and the hospital she works at is such chaos that Reggie quickly flees.

-He never, ever tells Luke what he found on the Patterson’s street. And he makes sure that if they ever regain sight, Luke will never, ever see it either.

-He visits Flynn’s family, and they seem to be doing more alright than the other survivors he’s passed that are still in their homes. Probably because Flynn’s mom has been blind for most of her life already. The first thing Flynn says when she realises Reggie can see is: Reggie, give it to me straight.... does my outfit clash? (And if Reggie has a little hysterical breakdown at that, well, he’s earned it.) Eventually, they all agree to move in together, because it’s safer to stick together.

-Alex’ parents and family aren’t home, but he said to check at the church as well, which he does. He’s surprised to find that there are a number of sighted people at the church, so he lingers at the open door and stares blankly at a spot on the wall and listens to the sermon. When he starts hearing words thrown around like ‘gods will’ and ‘women of breeding age’ and ‘repopulation’, he decides it’s time to get Alex’ sister out of there really fast. He speeds back to the house to get Alex (since he’s not sure if Olivia would come with him if without that).

-When Alex arrives, Reggie carefully leads him to Olivia. Alex tells his folks he’s taking Olivia, and that there isn’t shit they can do about it, because they can’t see. (Olivia is more than happy to go with them if it means not being a baby incubator.) They get out, leaving Alex’ parents behind wondering if Alex can see (he can’t, but with some silent directing by Reggie he could fake it). They did agree beforehand if anything were to happen, Reggie would grab Liv and run.

-100% Alex made sure his parents thought that The Gays were Immune, which probably put a spanner in the whole cult thing the people at the church were trying to set up.

-The amount of anxiety Alex goes through, not only being blind but now being solely responsible for his sister, it’s pretty intense. Especially when you can’t just run away and hide or go for a walk alone to clear your head. There’s a lot of frantic drumming.

-Ray teaches Reggie how to drive, even when blind. He’s mostly working off muscle memory, listening to the sound of the engine, and hoping Reggie’s good enough at steering to not hit anything. They don’t need to go fast, but being able to drive means fewer trips to the supermarket. (Also, when Alex eventually bangs through one of his drums and freaks out, Luke and Reggie go get him a new one. A blind Luke in a music store is a Bad Idea and he’s banned from subsequent trips unless he promises to hold Reggie or Julie’s hand the entire time.)

-Eventually life quiets down, which is both good and horrific if you think about it long enough. They move Flynn’s family into the Molina house. They start checking all the houses and figuring out who is still there, who is gone. Reggie buries more bodies than he cares to remember. But it’s better than his friends tripping over them in the streets.

-Then, the triffids break out of their farms and it’s like the apocalypse all over again.

-After a few years they do have things pretty under control. They’ve fenced off a large part of the neighbourhood. The only other survivor in the fence is an old lady that Reggie goes to check on every day, until he doesn’t have to anymore. She wrote him a note in frightening good penmanship for someone who couldn’t see, that he didn’t need to feel bad, but that her meds ran out a long while ago and she was ready to go meet her husband.

-Every week they patrol the fences and set fire to any mature triffids they find. Who would have thought anyone would trust Luke with a flamethrower, let alone a blind Luke?

-Flynn’s dad used to be an electrician and they rig up some was to get power and collect and purify water.

-The sheer feels of Ray teaching the boys how to shave without being able to see. (Luke complains about having to until Julie is like: no kisses until you get rid of that itchy upper lip. He turns around real fast after that.) 

-Willie was locked in the basement as punishment by his shitty evil foster dad. When Caleb figured out what was going on the next day, and that people who didn’t see the meteors could still see, you better believe he made sure to cuff Willie or tie him up so he couldn’t escape and use him to his advantage.

-Eventually Willie manages to escape, possibly by luring Caleb over a cliff or to a triffid or something.

-Willie settles in to the Molina-Taylor homestead pretty easily. He’s fed properly, they let him skate around the abandoned streets, Carlos even helps him build a ramp. He can see Reggie is nearing a breaking point and takes over some of his tasks.

-Every evening Reggie helps Flynn find the clothes she wants to wear. When Willie comes back with clothes from his raiding-outside-the-neighbourhood trips, he always makes sure to describe them to Flynn in detail so she knows what she’s wearing. He gets her the most fashionable clothes he can find.

-Don’t think about Ray getting sick and getting a fever, and Reggie insisting he’ll stay up with him because he’s the only one who can read the thermostat (besides Willie, who was out all day trying to find meds and is exhausted.) Don’t think about people trying to tell him they’ll just wake him for the reading and he’s already doing so much.

-Don’t think about Reggie shouting ‘He’s my dad too!’ at Julie before immediately apologising, because of the yelling, because of course it’s not the same and he isn’t really...

-And Julie just hugs him and tells him of course Ray is his dad too, but he’s stretching himself too thin. They compromise, Reggie will stay with him until his fever breaks.

-As the teens grow into adults, there are some very serious talks about Privacy. It starts with rotating who gets to sleep out in the studio. Eventually, Julie and Luke move into the house next door, possibly with Flynn (and a good pair of earplugs). They tear down the fence between the two properties for easy acces. Maybe even build a tunnel connecting the two.

-Mr and Mrs Taylor across the street. They’d move back to their house, but it’s too far down the block to be safe. Still, everyone spends a few days moving around furniture to get the house to their liking.

-Alex, Reggie and Willie don’t move out, though they might move into the studio loft. Sometimes when needed, Reggie or Willie will sleep over at one of the other houses. But Alex is way too anxious to learn a whole new layout of a whole new house, and he doesn’t want to leave Liv alone, even though tells Alex it’s fiiine, she’s practically an adult now, Lex. (”You are sixteen! That is not an adult! I don’t care if it is the apocalypse!”)

-After the first successful beach trip, they maybe take a few more in larger groups. Not too often that it becomes a routine, because leaving their home defenseless is a bad idea. But for very special occasions, they do.

-It is a very awkward conversation when Julie is like: hey Reggie can you do me a favour and tell me if this has one line or two lines? Yeah thanks that’s what I thought so anyway I’m pregnant. And Reggie is like WHY DID YOU JUST SHOVE SOMETHING YOU PEED ON AT MY FACE before realising what this means and then he’s ecstatic and calling dibs on godfather and second-coolest uncle (after Carlos of course.)

-Luke and Julie 100% had a discussion where the went back and forth between ‘should I take a pregnancy test and ask Reggie or Willie’ vs ‘do we just not say anything and hope nobody bumps into Julie until Reggie or Willie very awkwardly brings up her giant stomach’ but in the end they decided they probably needed to tell people because of the whole ‘eating for two’ and ‘Willie can you please go and steal some pregnancy vitamins’ thing.

-They all live happily ever after except for the whole triffid apocalypse thing.