What the Fic

Hello again!!Of course I can :D

This is by no means exhaustive but here’s the ones I’ve thought of in the time it took to get back to you (sorry again)

Butch’s extended family is largely HOH. As a result, he knows sign language. I wanted this to play a bigger part in later chapters of Product Placement, but I’m not sure if I remember where or how. 

Because of his extended family, Butch is amazing with babies. Because he’s a giant nerd who tells spooky stories, he’d great with all kids, tbh. He’s the “Weird Cousin” but in like a cool way. 

Having lived in Arkansas, Butch was sent to the guidance counclor for his ‘outrageous and troubling’ stories many times until everyone realized he was gaming the system and they made him go back to class. 

Butch doesn’t have much fo a sweet tooth, but when he (eventually) quits smoking he replaces them with the occasional lollipop along side his toothpicks. 

I’m not sure if I mentioned this in OG Product Placement, but Butch smokes in large part due to his Uncle Don, who taught him how to tell scary stories, and left him with several stories on his passing. Uncle Don was a rampant cigar smoker, but Butch couldn’t find or afford the cigar brand he used, so cigarettes were as close as he could get. 

Also not sure if I mentioned this in OG Product Placement, but once Butch outgrew his black jacket he wears in the show, he replaced it with a doctored-up green one. I’m no sure if there was a distinct reason for this, but it’s so in a lot of fanart @tazzes drew. I mean it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense since he still shadow-lurks, but whatever. (HK got a nicer grey trench coat for his redesign if you’re wondering)

This is less of an HC and more of like a fun fact, but all of Butch’s stories are nods to tales from Are You Afraid of the Dark. It didn’t play a huge part, but there are shades in some chapters if you squint. I’m an unoriginal hack

Working off that, I intended to have Butch be published when he was older. Basically he was going to novelize Are You Afraid of the Dark and agree to let his work be adapted into a TV / Netflix show. (I know I’m unoriginal and that makes no goddamned sense let me have this weird crossover)

Butch likes well written horror writing, and loves terrible horror movies Terrible adaptations of excellent written fiction are a double edged sword of guilty pleasure for him. 

Butch wound up going to college. He went less for the degree and more for the experience (I am willfully ignoring the horrible idea irl this would be). HK went up to visit him frequently, as he skipped that bandwagon to grow his business. 

Oh anonI am the most basic of bitches, so I love any and all tropes and cliches. To a point some shit just ain’t coolI’m. Guilty of a great many things that are like. Fanfic staples. Overuse of small dashes and words like ‘mutter’ and ‘mumble’ and ‘murmur’. Using strange descriptive words because it’s FUN. Too many commas. I live for that shit. You want tropes I fucking love and will die for? Here’s some. It’s not an exhaustive list because I will just keep adding and I’m sure I’ve forgotten but HERE 

Friends to lovers

Enemies to lovers

Enemies to friends to lovers

Share a house to save on rent

Share a room

Only one bed

Fake dating

Fake married

Sleepy admissions

Drunken admissions

Accidental admissions that are tried to be taken back but whoops they’re out there now

Accidental kisses

Neglectful/dead parents (idk why I do this but it just. Happens to damn near each one sorry)

One sided pining

Mutual pining

That thing where one doesn’t QUITE get how much the other loves them and it hits them like a fucking freight train

No worries about asking or rambling!! Ever!! Please I love to be bothered about my OTP you are 100% cool (even if it takes me like 10 years to get back to you sorry)

I always headcanoned HK was kind of a head honcho, an unofficial leader. He’s called THE Hustler Kid, after all. Whether or not this title was handed down I never quite figured, but he’s been doing this for so long and so successfully that he’s got seniority if that makes sense?

That said, he’s also kind of a mentor, kind of a benchmark. They’re all competing and use and trade with each other, and the business can be cutthroat. My version of HK was always kind of benign, tbh. He COULD be big mean and scary and pull any number of strings to shut people down, but he very rarely uses them. And that combo of HAVING that power but not wielding it like a club is a balance he sought early on. A way to hold all the cards, as it were.

I named a BUNCH of other hustlers in one chapter and I’m. I’m pretty sure they were just Joke Names. I’ve got no other notes about them. Morgana is the only exception, who was also kind of a joke because she’s named after a character in Rugrats who Grandpa Lou shares a date night with (Tommy and Chuckie interrupt it in typical Rugrats fashion). She was supposed to be someone with an ‘old soul’ like HK, into the antique things and maybe kind of a foil to him? I honestly can’t remember. They COULD potentially be close but HK is emotionally stunted and has Work Blinders, so there’s that. Or at least I think that was the intention. I could have done her more justice, but alas, I was focused on the slash. 

Fingers and Tammy are a little different, in that they are HK’s friends. HK may or may not know this. HK’s life is consumed by his work, as it’s his one activity. Hustling is his everything. So he more or less considers them “Work Friends” - as in he’s friendly and personable, but held at arms length. With the exception of TJ, who’s everyone’s pal, Butch is the closest he comes to a non-work-friend, but that started as a business arangement, so it’s a moot point.

Tl;dr - HK is pretty sure Tammy and Fingers are just work connections, but literally everyone else thinks they’re Actually Friends and, surprise, Everyone Else is Actually Right

As far as actual characters go - I’m afraid I can’t tell you very much about Tammy, as she was @snazzytazzes creation. Feel free to drop a question in her inbox, but idk if she really uses Tumblr anymore. From what I remember, Tammy was a chaotic force for good. Her good, but never like. Malicious. She just looked out for herself first, and HK and Fingers second, and everyone else was hit or miss.

Fingers I always HC’d as being like. Low key and chill. Observant, patient, and smart af. Hustling is what he does to get by. I think I had notes about him having two little sisters, and having a Dad that passed away being a firefighter. His mom holds down the fort. Idk if that ever actually played any parts in any WIPs but it’s what I’ve got written. I also can’t remember if I gave him an actual name ever? I wanna say something like Justin. Maybe James. A J name. But that’s also lost to time.

Fingers is Super Real with HK which is Great because HK needs literally anyone to ground him, and as much as Butch is there to do that, Butch is also Dramatic™. He’s pretty sure HK and he are friends on a level above Work Friends, but he’s also not one to go proactively helping, especially someone so private as HK. And, to be fair, HK’s kind of a dumbass so he might be insulted if Fingers tried to be Overly Not Work Friend. That said, Fingers knows HK’s going through Some Shit on a near constant basis, so he’s trying to be there for him. Especially as he gets older and more mature. Fingers is the kind of guy to notice things are up with his bro.

HK is. A mess of a human.Fingers and Tammy are saints.

To answer your last question - HK’s past ABSOLUTELY does play a part in how he perceives people coming up to him for friendship / relationship / whatever. His situation with his neglectful parents have kind of. Hardened him to emotion. So he’s stunted there with a) recognizing people are looking for a connection and b) how and why to do such a thing.

ADDITIONALLY - HK’s work adds and extra level of bullshit to filter through because, as a Hustler Kid - people only came up to him when they needed something. So if someone’s gonna come up to him and ask for a date- then what’s their angle? What’s in it for him? For them? Pros and cons? Is he gonna lose out on this investment?

Hi there Anon!  

It's perfectly fine to ask - in fact anytime anyone wants to ask about the OTP I'll gladly answer :D  

I'd like to preface this as someone who kind of. Ignored the timeline of the 90's and location basis and made it in a fiction vacuum where it wasn't THAT big of a deal because my heart is Soft and the person who Conducted the Angst Train also disregarded the time and location for more soap-opera-esque dramatics.

That said - I always imagined that Butch's parents were accepting but. Not in the most healthy way. Like the "...oh." kind of response. Like no real effort to learn, more concerned about how he's going to make it living in Arkansas, what about grandkids, don't you want to get married and live a normal life - that kind of thing. So like. Not Angry, but not going out of their way to accept and embrace either.  

On the bright side, Butch's older brother Joey was there to back him up 100%. He's in college, he's got some idea about things that aren't """"Normal""" where they are., and he's willing to learn about things he doesn't know about. Plus, it's his kid brother, and although he jumped into taking over (stealing) his room the DAY he was leaving for college, he still loves Butch.  

The other hustlers were shoulder-shrugging and 'meh' about it. There might have been a few frowns, but it also doesn't really affect their business so it doesn't matter to most of them. And he's such a pillar of the organization who's gonna be That Asshole who kicks up a fuss over what HK does in his free time?