Emmett/Yuyue

I have this tiny hc that when they were younger, every time Jeremy loses a bet, Michael would instantly look at him like this :-)

do you miss them already? i do

i think our nakamura did very well with that hirose portrait at art class. we should be really proud of him. i will support my precious boy’s art, octopus loving, fujoshing, crushing over hirose and his other hobbies

Thank you so much for your question! Fair warning, this answer is probably more in depth than you bargained for.

Spot Conlon was indeed real. Or, at least, The Sun reported that he was real (newspapers didn’t fact check as much in 1899 as they do now). He is mentioned in two articles related to the strike, both from The Sun. Full transcripts of the relevant sections of the articles are below the cut, but briefly on July 21 they say Spot Conlon crossed the Brooklyn bridge in the evening to tell Kid Blink that Brooklyn was behind them and promising to bring three thousand boys over the next day to help with the strike. On July 22, The Sun writes that a messenger from Brooklyn was sent over to say Spot Conlon apologizes for not sending the boys over like he promised, but they’re busy doing other strike business in Brooklyn.

Those two passages are the only mentions of Spot Conlon we have from the time. We know (as much as these things can be known) that he considered himself Workboy of the Brooklyn union, and that he communicated with Kid Blink in the early days of the strike, but after July 22 he disappears from the newspaper records, and any future references to a leader of the Brooklyn union name Ed “Racetrack” Higgins as that leader.

The rumour that Higgins and Conlon were the same boy was actually started by me a long time ago. It was meant mostly as a shitpost, and I didn’t realize at the time how eager people were to believe anything I posted was fact. The best answer I can give you is that yes it is possible that “Racetrack Higgins” and “Spot Conlon” were two nicknames for the same kid, but it is not by any means the most probable explanation. More likely explanations include that Spot Conlon ran one district of Brooklyn and Racetrack Higgins ran another, that Spot ran the Brooklyn union in the early days of the strike and Racetrack Higgins took over in the later days, or that Spot Conlon was a character made up by a Sun reporter and he never existed to begin with.

What is true is that the fictional Spot Conlon depicted in both the 1992 film version and the 2012 stage version of Newsies (and the novel, but we don’t talk about the novel) has more in common with the historical Racetrack Higgins than with the historical Spot Conlon. So in that way, yes they are the same person.

I hope that answers your question. If you or anybody else want to know more, please do feel free to ask.

Todd used to have a plushie that he absolutely adored. It was a simple teddy bear, stuffed with cotton, though it's fur was a bit worn from the passing of time. His parents honestly thought they had thrown it out, they didn't know that Todd had managed to get his hands on it again, nor that he had brought it with him at Welton Academy.

He kept it tucked at the bottom of his suitcase. He wasn't planning on bringing it out at any point. It was only that he didn't have the heart to let go of it yet. It was familiar to him, like the scent of your mother's favourite perfume and the sheets of your childhood bed. It felt like home, in a way, as funny as it sounded to admit.

But one day, Neil found out about the teddy bear. Todd didn't know how, or why, but Neil did. Todd thought he was actually going to die from the embarrassment. Though, instead of laughing, Neil sat on the bed next to Todd and, looking at the bear, asked his name.

Todd, still red-faced and mortified, stammered out that it was Cooper but Neil cut him off and told him “Todd, I'm asking him a question. Please, don't be rude!”. Then, Neil brought the teddy bear close to his ear and pretend Cooper had introduced himself. It made Todd laugh, not feeling quite so bad about it anymore.

Day 2: adults