albie

ohoho! it has a really stupid concept but i can’t get it out of my head lol. basically i just gave each of the lotf boys a job/occupation that ended with -boy and created a crummy storyline from that. also everyone is aged up bc i need them older for them to be able to have the jobs they do, the biguns are like 15-17 and the littluns around 11-13. it’s also set in britain 1940s

so ralph is a farm boy, simon’s a choir boy, jacks head boy, rogers a kennel boy, maurice is a bell boy, piggy is a paper boy, sam n eric are shop boys. i have yet to think abt jobs for the other characters but id like to think of the littluns in some kind of group job but idk since they’re all like 12.

the storyline is basically that it’s piggy’s first day of his job as a paper boy and he wants to complete his job well (as one does). and so piggy has to deliver newspapers to each house in the town that most of everyone lives in, this unfortunately includes ralph’s farm house which is close enough to the town that piggy still has to deliver the papers to it but far enough that it takes a heavy toll on piggy’s asthma. so when piggy finally gets to ralph’s house he’s completely out of breath and unable to finish off the rest of the houses that he has to deliver the newspapers to. so ralph (per his dads nagging) decides to help piggy out by delivering the rest of the newspapers for him so piggy doesn’t get fired. i don’t think i wrote this in my tiktok post abt it but i think it’s worth clarifying that while ralph delivers the papers and maneuvers the bike, piggy is sat on the backseat so ralph knows what houses he’s looking for.

while they’re in the town they spot the choirboys leaving the town church, led by head boy, jack merridew. it’s a particularly hot day and simon finds himself faint, he tries to keep up but fails and almost passes out if not for ralph who stepped in to catch him. ralph finds himself enamored by the choir, simon in particular. however, jack doesn’t like this sight (simon falling out of the choirs rigid line) and barks for simon to stand straight and keep up, shooting a glare at ralph, cutting ralph and simon’s first meeting short. but ralph is still star struck, even during the last few houses that he and piggy drop the last remaining newspapers at.

ralph sees he and piggy’s unlikely friendship as means for ralph to adventure into town and catch the chance to see simon (grows out of this through the storyline). and that’s basically all i have like story line wise but ill come up w smth soon.

extra notes/context:

maurice and roger are not a part of the choir, they are not close to jack by any means either. when i go over other relevant choir members ill think abt what their jobs could be, but just note that no character that’s a part of the canon choir (bill, robert, etc.) is gonna be a part of this aus choir/boarding school. the only ppl in that boarding school that are relevant are simon and jack.

^however, maurice and roger are good friends in this au. roger works under a huntsman by managing the huntsman’s hunting dogs as a kennel boy (i need to research more abt what kennel boys even are) and maurice got himself a job as a bell boy at a fancy hotel for his bright and friendly personality. the huntsman is a gruffy old family friend of roger’s, and roger looks up to him and looks towards becoming a huntsman himself (idk what happened to his parents, maybe dead, he takes full care of himself though with little/tough help from the huntsman he looks up to). i was thinking of having roger and maurice childhood friends but ill think abt it.

sam n eric work as shop boys at piggy’s aunts candy store, they are vaguely friends with piggy since they are his age and also bc piggy’s aunt wants piggy to have more friends his age and sam n eric want to keep their job. sam n eric are pretty good friends with maurice though and vaguely friends with roger through him.

the choir has a pretty big presence in the town (deeply catholic) and they are apart of an elite boarding school within the town (they’re pretty respected). jack is head boy through persistence and work but is also deeply lonely and reserved, he picks at simon whenever he can. im lowk thinking of jack highkey having a fat crush on simon but not processing it well (partially since it’d be one sided) and so he picks at simon and pushes him to the ground. i want it to be that they were friends at some point but then jack just switched up on him and slowly worked to became head boy but idk what kind of conflict would’ve caused that. maybe it was jack impulsively trying to kiss simon but then pulled back and got super confused and angry at himself. jack def wouldn’t accept his feelings/deal w them well and would turn them against simon but i still need to think abt fleshing their relationship out.

^its also why jack didn’t like it when ralph caught simon apart from simon falling out of the choirs line. buttt!! im thinking of having jack get over simon at the end of the storyline and we lowk get jager. jack would def be a big antagonist towards ralph but ill see.

^also the littluns are met through the candy shop since all kids love candy

GUYS piggy with a cleft lip

pardon the goat for reusing art but this has been on my mind for a while and the art is relevant-ish!!

one thing i dont see people talk about as often in regards to piggy is the fact he’s the ONLY one who openly sees the littluns as people in the novel. like goodness i love simon to death but he never stood up for the littluns. the other boys openly dismiss, mock, and hurt the youngest among them. during assemblies, they speak over the littluns when they try to speak. but not piggy. when the littluns are scared to speak, or are being spoken over, he’s the first one to call it out, the first to scold the other biguns, the first to give the littluns a voice when their own fails them. in chapter 10, after the feast and simon’s death, ralph asks if anyone is around. while ralph dismisses the littluns and says they don’t count, piggy still bothers to mention them.

it could simply just be that piggy is respecting the rules of the conch, but i also like to think that piggy, for all his social ineptitude, understands what its like to be cast aside or unheard because he’s experienced it longer than these littluns have, and he doesn’t want them to feel the same way he has. piggy has a certain integrity and sense of justice that focuses a lot on fairness for the ones who aren’t cared about as much. and i really love that about him, because he really is more than just the symbolism of logic.