howdy pardner

I literally can’t even speak

hey tysm!! i have thought about this a LOT but to be totally candid a lot of it is me talking out of my ass bc i am not a tradie who spends all day on a work site so it's hard for me to concretly picture that dynamic and how ryan would fit into it rip

BUT ! working with my understanding from brothers and cousins and other men who i know who ARE tradies, sad to say i think ryan's first year as an apprentice is probably really fucking rough. as i've written in fic and said in previous posts i do believe post-bandee ryan is stubbornly open about being gay bc he wants to avoid forming relationships with people who might eventually reject him for his queerness, so he's open about being gay from the beginning. but that doesn't mean i think he's advertising it on the worksite per say, just that he doesn't avoid mentioning it if it arises naturally. like I think he could get a couple months in to his apprenticeship before one of the bosses makes a point of asking whether ryan's got a missus. maybe ryan hesitates, or maybe he doesn't, but i believe ultimately when he responds he just says it like it is. "yeah i do. he's called naim."

i think at first that's just gonna be met with confusion. fuck you mean he? awkward laughs like ryan might just be a bit slow and misunderstood the question. and though ryan laughs a long and grins with all his teeth, he doesn't let it pass. nah i meant the he actually. boyfriend. i'm gay.

hard for me to speak on it since again, i've never experienced the social dynamic of a chippie worksite firsthand but i can't imagine that would go down smoothly. he'd probably get the cold shoulder from a lot of the older/more traditional men, maybe even slurs thrown around behind his back at a volume to make sure it's heard. sometimes they don't bother waiting till his back is turned and just say it to his face. i think ryan deals with this treatment like he dealt with it in bandee. head down and getting on with his work. he and naim are on their own in the city after all, and he has rent to pay and a fridge to fill. no point crying about it.

but gradually i like to believe it would get better the deeper he gets into his apprenticeship. ryan works his ass off and is brighter than a lot of the 17 year old year 11 dropouts the older guys are used to taking on, so he shoots up the ranks pretty quick. and he's also just genuinely likeable. even if they are homophobic, a lot of the guys he works with just kind of. put it aside bc ryan whelan's a fun bloke and s'pose it doesn't matter where he puts his dick as long as they dont have to hear about it.

reactions to him being gay remain consistently ones of surprise given the fact ryan doesn't present stereotypically queer, but after a moment of wait rlly? i like to believe most of the guys more around his age don't shun him bc of it the same way some of the older men do. to a lot of them it's just another thing they know about him. ryan whelan is always good for spare screws and a light, is the funniest cunt you'll ever meet, and his missus is some guy named naim (fuck kinda name is naim? they're sure to tell him. outta all the guys you could settle down with you chose a bloke named naim?)

beyond just tolerance though i loveee to think about ryan eventually making some genuine ride-or-die mates. he's getting drinks with them at the pub and playing footy on the weekends, and bumming a free ride to see a game at the mcg when they have a spare ticket (bc it's always ryan they call when they have a spare ticket). eventually a few of them even meet naim and though naim is . hysterically awkward around a painfully blokey group of straight guys, they're so kind and genuine he warms up to them pretty quick. they of course, love naim to bits and make a point of jovially clapping ryan on the back like ya snagged a good one mate good on ya.

i also like to think that (though rarely once he's out of his apprenticeship years and holds a lot more authority on the work site) when some dickhead decides to say shit out of turn when they find out ryan's gay, his mates refuse to stand for it. though ryan isn't the type to rise to bait (think frog bullying scene!) he'd be lying if he said he doesn't get a little kick at having to talk down his mates from punching a homophobic cunt in the mouth.