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OK HALP MOAR PLOX ;A;
I don't know what to do with Mr. Darling.
At all.
I had like two ideas I was kind of trying to merge but they weren't working. It worked okay with my Buchenwald idea, but I decided not to go with Buchenwald, since exactly FOUR Americans were involved in liberating it, and my German character would have to be about five years older than I wanted him to be to be in it. So. I'm considering during the clean-up of West Berlin right after the war- you know, Allied Forces come in, kiss it better, etc. Either that or right after the construction of the Berlin wall, though that's far too recent for me to really say "oh hellz yeah let's do it".
Well. Here are the two factors I'm trying to merge.
1) Johnny has a friend, Courtney Cooper, back in Quitaque, Briscoe County, Texas, which is basically a dinky little town fulla cowboys much like Mr. Darlin'. Courtney's old enough to serve/be drafted but has hemophilia and so he's ineligible for military service. Through letters they sent back and forth while Johnny's been serving, they kind of fell in love. Not that they'd never like "experimented" with each other before- that happened once, and it wasn't like all the way, you know, so they were totally not gay *cough* or so they thought- but they were like "...whoa, hey, these are not friendship-y feelings." Which Court's overprotective big brothers- very angry, large, gun-toting ranchers- are not happy about. 'Cause they kind of have the default idea that anyone who's not them is going to hurt Courtney. And Johnny is not them.
Johnny has a lot of hesitations when it comes to actually being involved with Courtney. Among them are his general fragility (or what Johnny sees as fragility, though he's not that fragile- it's just that everyone expects him to start bleeding every five seconds, 'cause they love him and all... that makes sense), his idealism/immaturity and his very provincial attitude. Now that Johnny's been to Europe and fought in a war and been surrounded by death, he's not sure he and Courtney can relate anymore. And uh, there's the fact that they've known each other for-freakin'-ever, so romance could destroy a very happy friendship. Courtney doesn't see any of these issues, of course. He's way too optimistic for that.
Anyway. Johnny's welcomed back to Quitaque with a whole lot of enthusiasm. He's going to end up walking with a gimp, so his days as a twister- a cowboy who breaks wild horses- are pretty much over. And he has this whole thing to work out with Courtney.
2) So here's the German component. The tricky one. Nicolaus "Nico" Korbinian Breisacher could be... a number of things, depending upon exactly what decade/year whatever I end up sticking this in. He could be:
xxxxxxxxxxxa) a drag artist from a German gay bar (which were highly common before psychos like Dr. Vaernet decided to try to cure them scientifically of their disgusting gay disease, of course) who made it onto the Gestapo's 'pink list' back in 34, I believe, when he was eighteen, and narrowly avoided imprisonment at Buchenwald, managing to hold out 'til the Americans busted in in 1945 and clinging immediately to Johnny 'cause he's a big strong man and all. This would make him kind of older than I wanted him to be by the time '45 came around- Johnny's 23 at that point, so I'd say that Nico should be around 18 at the time Johnny appears on the scene. So one of my other ideas is that Nico's
xxxxxxxxxxxb) still a drag artist, but for an underground German gay bar. But... I don't like this very much.
xxxxxxxxxxxc) It also depends on where in Germany Nico's from. If Dresden, he could be a survivor of the fire bomb, perhaps burned, who makes it to West Germany and Johnny's the first American he sees. And Johnny gets him medical attention, etc, and there's a little bit of hero worship thanks to that.
xxxxxxxxxxxd) if Berlin, I could bump the year up to the Allied occupation of West Berlin- the division of Germany in '49, or when they first arrive, which is I'm pretty sure '45, but I'll have to check again. Either way, at the time, Berlin was in COMPLETE ruin. So again, Nico could be picking through the ruins, and lo, here's this gorgeous American, right? Like, hallelujah, gift from above, now get me some decent clothes and food cuz I'm hella hungry.
xxxxxxxxxxxe) BUT. I wanted injury to be involved. Nico has to start clinging to Johnny. Like, drowning man : life preserver :: Nico : Johnny. And one of the best ways I could imagine that happening is that Nico sustains some terrible injury, is basically licking his wounds alone, pretty much expecting to die of gangrene or something equally awful, and oh hey in rides the knight in shining armor. Or something.
So I want to, ideally, figure out a way to combine D and E. Or if I could have maybe that Nico was in the Dresden fire and then ran off to Berlin and chilled there 'til the Americans came along. Though I can't see why a good native Dresden boy would decide that was a good idea. And he'd probably be dead if he was in Dresden >_>
They did bomb Berlin ('they' being 'the Allies', specifically England), so I could have that Nico was in one of the bombings, but they kind of pinpointed certain buildings, and they weren't places most eighteen year olds would be. He would be walking by, if anything, and that's... silly. Maybe he was in a church or something- I think they bombed a church, though I'll have to check again.
Anyway.
As for /why/ Nico has to start clinging to Johnny;
xxxxxxxxxxxAt some point, Nico gets it in his head that he's going to go back to America with Johnny. He really, really wants to go, to see NYC. Johnny tries to explain to him that he's from Quitaque, for the love of God, and that he's never even been to NYC- that he's ridden more horses than he has driven cars- but Nico has his heart set and basically pleads with Johnny until Johnny leaves Germany, goes home, but keeps writing to him. While Johnny's working things out with Courtney, Nico's basically long-range clinging to him.
All that's liable to change.
I just don't know.
I really want to write something with Johnny, but I really like him with Courtney, and I also really like him with Nico. That aside, this all sounds really stupid to me. Really, really stupid and soap-operatic and I hate it. I just don't know what to do.
{Also, I haven't even been able to watch HBO's "Band of Brothers" yet and I'm already a Winter / Nixon fangirl >_> *coughcoughwheeze* same thing happened with Good Omens and Aziraphale / Crowley, and the very same fanfic author is to blame for both. Damn.}
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