#willy's i INFURIATINGLY would actually wear i think

[kineticallyanywhere]

Monkey’s Paw pages 107-112 ( START HERE || ao3 || previous || next (ongoing CW: violence) )

AU after episode 62. The Omega Dads try a more desperate gambit, but   careful what you wish for. Our dads find alternate versions of themselves in a strange dreamscape.

If you die in the dream, do you die in real life?

HEADS UP: I assume you saw the last update before this one, expect follow up on that and the fighting won’t stop there. For fight scenes going forward, expect something in the area of popular shonen. No guts falling out, and probably no chopping off any limbs but like... you listen to this podcast! probably! we’re gonna get rowdy. it’s dungeons and dragons. anyhoo.

Finally a woman in this comic and she has to be in a scene with Willy.

Sorry it took a month longer than expected, forgot to account for 6 pages of color. Anyway we’re back! and we’re going back to our boys next time and going back to less background for meeeeeeeeee thank youuuuuuuuu. Luckily at least I could limit myself to the same kind of methodology I’ve been drawing the other backgrounds with, there’s just more that has to there cause it’s not just a forest its like, a persons house. which could absolutely have been filled with more things but then it would have been 2023 by the time you got this update so screw that. also yes the details of her house do change between panels yes it’s intentional yes it saved me.

the other thing I guess I’ll address here is spoilers. The comic takes place kinda mid-episode 62 and so, mostly for funsies, will not outright spoil anything after that. Wizened readers know exactly what Willy threatened Tilt with, anyone somehow reading this before finishing season 1 will not. Further on this note, certain revelations provided by season 2 will not be changing this comic! That’s not to say this comic is going to go against season 2. Season 2 absolutely is going to inform more than 1 upcoming scene, but only in the way of characterization. This takes place well before season 2 and so can’t outright reference season 2 events, but characters who appear in season 2 which also appear here can absolutely be informed in their writing here by their future behavior (or re-contextualized current behavior).

and now I’m STOKED to get back to drawing THE BOYS see you next time!

#dndads #monkeys paw #fanart #willy stampler #i used er era george clooney as a reference for this willy design #as per anthonys description of young willy #i think every time ive drawn willy its bit a bit different #tried to design each of their robes with their own sense of style in mind #beary is from faerun so he's all layers and fantasy drapery #bill's is like a leather duster/trenchcoat deal #(coulda used a second pass on the accent design but meh maybe next time) #willy's i INFURIATINGLY would actually wear i think #something of an american businessman kind of cut while still having the dramatic fantasy flair of a robe #my deepest desire is for willy to be a man always running around in his purple bathrobe #like the deadbeat you imagine sunken too far into the couch with a beer in his hand #but too much of how he carries himself and THEY KEEP SAYING HE'S HOT and so like #can't not take that into account #also yes he's wearing suspenders #this isn't the last you'll see of them #but it'll be a bit #long posts

[taylorboultoncw30-blog]

Home

First there was Liam, tall and appealingly average. He had been the football star, the ‘ladies man’, the one destined to live out a life that would make Willy Loman green. Next came Josephine, brilliant and beautiful, and infuriatingly unaware of both. Lastly, and in the eyes of just about every extended family member most definitely least, was me. I’d always been far too artsy and liberal for my conservative town. Siblings who grew up with little in common but our parents and a desire to escape suburban prison, now brought back together in that holding cell.

Mom had been sick for a while. Which is unjustifiably why none of had been to visit for a long time. I was busy at school, Josephine was working on her masters and interning for some prestigious organization, and Liam was still enjoying the fact that he’d peaked in high school, but no one seemed to notice. All of these seemed like extremely valid reasons to ignore our ailing mother when we believed she would remain ailing for some time, but incredibly unimportant the moment I got the call.

They became increasingly unimportant as time passed, and as I sat in the back of a cab on the way from the airport to my childhood home I wondered why I hadn't taken this trip home a year ago. I had always prided myself on being the most humane of my siblings, but in this moment we were exactly the same.

My dad was waiting outside when I pulled up to our house. He looked smaller than I remembered, even through the tinted windows of the cab I could see his forced smile and the bags under his eyes. He opened the door for me and immediately embraced me in a hug. He felt as weak as he looked, but I could feel him smiling over my shoulder, for real this time.

“Hey kid.”

“Hi dad.” I smiled too.

We let go and he walked around to the back of the car and opened the trunk, pulling my suitcase out. He walked back around as I finished paying the driver and waved them off.

“I could have paid.”

“So could I.” I shot him a small smile and followed my dad inside.

As we walked across the lawn he asked about my flight and informed me that Liam was already inside with ‘her and the baby’. He was referring to Liam’s wife Sherri and their six month old daughter, who was already an astounding brat.

We entered our house and found ourselves in the tiny room which serves as a claustrophobic entrance. My father swiftly kicked his shoes off and shuffled through the door with my bags in tow, leaving me alone for a brief moment. I leant down slowly and untied my shoes, fumbling with the laces of my sneakers and attempting to take deep breaths. I put my shoes off to the side, in the same place I had put them everyday for the first seventeen years of my life, and followed my dad through the door which led into our kitchen.

He was waiting on the other side for me, “Ready kiddo?”

I nodded and we walked through the kitchen and into our living room.

It hadn't changed. The walls were the same faded grey, the floors dark and shiny. The family portraits that I always looked awful in hung, taunting me, above the stiff leather couch. And there, sitting upright on the couch wearing a neat and tidy dress pants and shirt, was Liam.

He stood and stepped around the coffee table to meet me in the middle of the room. He smiled and hugged me tightly, it was the kind of hug that when we were younger would have almost certainly come with some sort of prank that resulted in tears. But not this time, I rested my head on his shoulder for a moment and closed my eyes.

We pulled away to realize that our father had disappeared into the kitchen once more. I followed Liam back to the couch and sat down beside him. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted before he could get the words out.

“Elizabeth!” screeched a women appearing from the stairwell.

It was Sherri, just as blonde, and squeaky, and exactly like the type of person you would expect to spell Sherri with an ‘i’ as ever.

“I just put the baby down for a nap but she’ll be super excited to see you!” She glided over to where Liam and I were sitting and stood directly in front of me.

Upon receiving a harsh nudge from Liam I stood up.

“I am so, so deeply sorry for your loss.” She said, wrapping her arms tightly around me.

I finally escaped her clutches and sat back down without saying anything. Sherri sat in the chair across from the couch where Liam and I sat.

My dad came back through the kitchen doors just in time to spare us the silence. He was carrying a tray with four cups of water balanced on it.

“Jo just called and said she's about five minutes away.” He said, setting down the tray.

Those next five minutes were filled with weak attempts at slightly offensive small talk from Sherri and too forgiving responses from Liam. We couldn't have been more relieved to hear the front door open.

My father immediately jumped up and ran to meet Josephine at the door, leaving me to listen to Sherri unapologetically list off all the things she was missing out on back home while here for the weekend. When Josephine and our dad finally came through the door all three of us leapt up.

I hugged her first, tight and heartfelt. We said our greetings and I received a slightly condescending but well meaning “You look good, Liz.”

Sherri dove in next, granting an over the shoulder eye roll from Jo and a returning scowl from Liam. Liam didn't move forward to hug Josephine, and we all pretended we didn't notice.

Our dad promptly excused himself, claiming he needed to ‘pick up a few things for dinner’ but more than likely wanting an excuse to have a moment to himself. So he left us siblings alone, almost. Sitting back down in our places, now with the addition of Josephine, perched professionally on the couch beside me.

We fell into the security of small talk. I asked Josephine about her flight, she asked me about mine. I told an anecdote about the toddler behind me who continuously kicked my chair for the five hours we were trapped together. Sherri fired questions at Jo and I about our jobs and our love lives and all things that your sister in law should already know. We avoided any topics of substance and ignored the colossal elephant in the room; no one wanting to talk about the past, and no one wanting to talk about the future. To an outsider it would have sounded as though we were a group of strangers, pretending we knew each other, which was sort of how it felt.

Liam stayed relatively quiet, his way of letting Jo know he was still pissed off about some past conflict, of which details I hadn't the liberty of being told. Jo had semi filled me in last time we talked, but she didn't give details and I had almost 20 years of evidence to back up my decision not to ask.  

I gathered that their argument had something to do with Sherri, because not only were Liam and Josephine hostile, but Jo was channeling her teenage snottiness and shooting various snide remarks Sherri’s way. I couldn't really argue with her though, Sherri was usually deserving of a snide remark or two. She was in the middle of belittling my Women and Gender Studies class when Jo jumped in, suddenly defensive on my behalf.

“I don't think you're comprehending. They discuss actual topics of substance in this class, something I’m sure you don't have much experience - ”

Liam cleared his throat aggressively, the closest he’d gotten to actually communicating since we sat down. Jo ignored him, but didn't continue. Sherri either didn't catch what happened, and was actually as dense as we thought, or simply decided to ignore it.

“Your mother was quite the feminist wasn't she?”

And I felt my chest clench, she had broken the rule. There had been an unspoken but universally agreed upon rule that we were not to mention mom, and we were certainly not to mention her in the past tense.

I could feel Jo tense up angrily beside me, but I couldn't look at her, I couldn't look anywhere but my knees. I heard Liam responding forgivingly, but it was muffled. Suddenly I was all too aware that it was a ‘was’, she was a past tense, and I didn't know what to do with that information. I kept my hands securely in my lap, but I could feel them trembling. Everything felt foggy and warped, like when you're a little kid and you're sick but you don't know why you feel that way because it’s never happened before.

I stood up suddenly, without knowing I was going to do it.

“Excuse me.”

And I was walking swiftly up the stairs. The walk turning into a fumbling run once I had rounded the corner and was out of sight. It was as though my body was on auto control, I reached the top of the stairs and immediately walked through the second door on the left.

I found myself in my old room. In all of the things that I had over-thought in preparation for this trip, this one had completely slipped my mind. I sat myself down at the foot of my bed and looked up through my tear-clouded eyes at my childhood, forever preserved in pink wallpaper and film photographs.

A specific photo caught my mind, it was just stuck on the wall amongst the rest of my photos, but it wasn't one I’d taken. It was a bit old and faded and it was of my mom. She was sitting in the middle of a field, her head tilted back laughing as the sun set behind her. She was younger in it, my age maybe. I had the sudden realization that I would never know her at that age, and she would never know me past it.

I was letting the greatness of this sink in as my tears slowed to a somber stillness and I looked around my old room, a shrine to the person I was. There was a soft tapping at my door. I didn't respond, but watched as it slowly creaked open and Liam glided through, followed by Josephine. Without a word they walked over to where I was situated and sat on the floor on either side of me.

We sat silently for a moment, silently apologizing as siblings do. And then I spoke, voice cracking as I did.

“I didn't come home.”

Liam wrapped his arm tightly around me and Josephine leaned so her head was resting on my shoulder. Suddenly I was crying again. And suddenly so was Jo. And finally so was Liam.

There we were, united by our former desire to escape and our current desperation to go back in time.