With all these titles that are a lot alike I kinda feel like Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse when they whip out the comic book and are like "okay, let's do this one more time" and go through their origin story haha.

Shout out to Broadway_Crackers and annanymos_ (just pretend like I know how to tag, please) to reading the last two chapters suuper fast right after I posted them it was fun seeing you two race through the chapters leaving comments as you went and constantly refreshing my notifications to see a new comment pretty much every minute, and even quicker. It made my day haha.

Now you get to learn Spot Conlon's plot twist backstory! 

Enjoy! :)

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The less anyone knows about where Spot Conlon came from, the better. Once he loses his advantage as leader of Brooklyn, he's done for.

He started out in a big Irish family in Brooklyn, one of the younger siblings. One of the younger daughters. He wasn't allowed to do all the things that his older brothers got to do. And when his younger brothers got treated in ways that he wasn't, it drove him mad. He wanted to scream from his frustration daily. But no one would listen to him. No one would listen to him because he wasn't born the right gender to be listened to.

Not that they paid much attention to him anyway. He was just another daughter in the family. He got over looked.

So, when he turned eight, he ran away from home. He knew that none of them would come looking for him. Even if they did, he was determined to make sure that none of them would ever find him.

Because he immediately ditched dresses and donned over-sized shirts and slacks.

It felt great. People finally looked at him more.

Well, more than before. He still was a poor runaway kid with nothing to his name. He didn't even have a name for himself. So, he got recognized as a boy, but still overlooked by many.

And that made him just as frustrated as before.

Until one day he accidentally bumped into a big, intimidating, tall Brooklyn newsie. He was nine at the time. He stood his ground. The newsie was impressed. He took him back to the Brooklyn newsies' lodging house.

And for once, he wasn't overlooked.

Of course, he needed a name.

He told them he didn't have a name.

To his surprise, most of the newsies empathized with him. They told him that he could go by a new name, a nickname; most of them did anyway.

And so he began going by Spot. True, it was an unusual name, even for a newsie, but all the newsies had an easy "you do you" attitude about it--as well as pretty much everything else. Spot was thrilled.

True, because of his age, he was lumped in with the younger newsies, which annoyed him a tiny bit, but they played with him and talked to him as if he was one of them, in a way that his family never had. 

And so that's how Spot grew up. And he was happy.

Inevitably, Spot's body started changing in ways that the other newsies couldn't empathize with. To be honest, it didn't bug him too much. Well, yes it did bother him, he wished he had just been born a boy instead, but it was more of what it meant that bugged him. That his family's expectations of growing up and becoming a woman and having children would once again creep back into Spot's life. And he wanted none of that.

So, to make sure that no one would ever get misconceptions, Spot made sure to never appear weak in any way, nor give them reason to believe he's just another girl that belonged in the kitchen. He made sure that he hid his chest to the best of his ability. He was tough. Height wasn't on his side, but he made up for it with a strong fierceness that showed that he was a force to be reckoned with.

He ended up impressing them all, even the older newsies, gaining more respect from them.

Spot found red suspenders one day. He really liked the color. He kept them ever since.

He even managed to get a pimp cane at one point too.

And so he kept moving up in seniority and ranks of the Brooklyn newsies.

By the time he was fifteen, he was the legendary Spot Conlon: the intimidating, most powerful, most revered newsie, of all Brooklyn, and all of New York as well.

He had it all. He had recognition. He had people who feared him. A famous name, a reputation. A life as boy--the only thing that he's truly ever wanted. As long as he kept this power, this position, this life, everything would be okay. 

One can't forget about how Jack Kelly fits into this story of Spot's.

(A/N: I forgot to write something like this into Jack's backstory, so here it is now. Oopsies. Eh you're getting it now haha)

Spot was probably eleven when he met Jack Kelly, who was thirteen at the time. Even then, they were both relatively respected in their separate boroughs. Somehow, they became friends. They then realized that they were similar in a way that not many people were. Over the years, they would spend time together ranting about their past lives and ranting about things that they wish they could change and telling the other that he is a real boy, and no one could take that away from him.

Out of the two of them, though, Spot was the one who took care of himself better. Definitely. 

Not gonna lie, Spot got some satisfaction out of giving advice to someone older than him. Someone who really could use it.

But he would also worry that some day Jack would hurt himself badly or cave in to the bad voices telling him he would never be enough. So he would always call him Jackie Boy to remind him that yeah, he is in fact a boy. And it seemed to work.

Jack, on the other hand, is just glad that the Brooklyn newsies with a mean reputation haven't eaten Spot alive. He's proud of the scrawny young boy he befriended a few years ago. He makes sure that Spot knows that if anyone gives him trouble, they'll have to answer to Jack.

They look out for each other. All is good.

Some would say that they had a near brotherly bond.

Spot thought so too, until that fateful day during the strike when Jack turned his back on the newsies. Spot, for one, was shocked and confused. He couldn't understand why Jack would do this.

He couldn't understand why Jack would let down the Walking Mouth, who Spot could tell the moment he saw them walk into Brooklyn together was the one that Jack had fallen head over heels in love with.

He couldn't understand how Jack would betray Race.

Race.

That was a whole mess on its own.

Well, yes, Racetrack Higgins is a mess. Always. Definitely.

The problem, though, is how Spot's emotions are in a mess about Race.

Ever since Race first starting coming to Sheepshead, he intrigued Spot.

It was probably Tibby's when Spot realized his feelings for Race.

Race asked if his picture looked pretty in the newspaper. Spot thought he did.

But surely this wasn't how it was supposed to go? If Spot was a boy, why was he getting feelings for another boy?

For the same reason that Jack did for David, probably. And those two other Manhattan newsies that Spot only so-so knows, Blink and Mush. There just wasn't any reasoning. It just happened.

Spot knew that there was nothing that he could do except just accept that he had feelings for this boy from Manhattan, who loved to provoke him and tease him. Spot enjoyed it, and seeing Race smirk mischievously always made his day.

True, he was surprised when Race jumped into Teddy Roosevelt's moving carriage to go back to Brooklyn with him. It made his heart flutter. Could Race possibly like Spot the way that Spot liked Race?

Spot knew that Race was hiding something that day. He wasn't completely sure what, but he had an idea. He just was waiting to see if he could trust his intuition on this one or not.

Overall, Spot Conlon is happy where he ended up in life. True, he knows that he won't be able to stay a newsie forever, and he's okay with that; he'll just have to move on eventually. But for now? He is the youngest leader of the Brooklyn newsies in history, well known throughout all boroughs, participated in a successful strike against the most powerful man in New York, and given his background he achieved all of these things against all odds. How many Brooklyn newsies leaders can say that?

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That was actually fun to write.

As you can see, Spot handles his gender like a man (very very bad pun, I know).

To me, Spot doesn't seem like the kind of person to be super gender dysphoric. What I love about this back story is that it's more about stereotypical roles and how Spot didn't want any part in that at all, which for me, is extremely relatable.

Honestly people can identify as any gender and/or sexuality and want to defy stereotypical gender roles.

For me, it was learning that there were few ways out of those stereotypical gender roles that made me really dysphoric.

And here's another point: Spot can be trans and not experience gender dysphoria. Dysphoria isn't a requirement. Gender-non-conforming identity isn't a competition of who feels the worst about themselves.

Can this count as a fluffy chapter? I think out of the three, Spot is the one who handled everything pretty well and I know that I'm the one who wrote him this way but I'm kinda proud of all that he's done and how confident he is in his gender.

Like said, sorry for not mentioning him at all in Jack's backstory it was 2:00 am and I forgot to include it even though I was planning to because if I don't write down an idea it floats away. So here I am, writing it now.

Oh history moment: the term nickname was coined in 1303 CE. And Irish was one of the biggest ethnic groups in Brooklyn in the time (not to mention that his last name is CONLON and the fandom accepted his first name to be SEAN PATRICK--most of the time, anyway).

Ready to get back to the real story? I've had the scenario in my head for some time. I can't wait to write it and I can't wait for you to read it! :)

Please, no homophobia or transphobia, profanities, hate etc in the comment section.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who wonders what would happen if Gabriel Damon Spot Conlon and Tommy Bracco Spot Conlon met; and is wondering what conversation happened when Gabriel Damon and Tommy Bracco actually did meet in person)