The first day, Soda wakes up in a good mood. The sun’s shining through their thin curtain, just enough to warm him up from how weirdly cold he is. He rolls over to ask Ponyboy if he’s also bizarrely chilly, and it’s not until he notices that the shape next to him is a mound of blankets and not his brother that the last night’s events come back to him like a thousand bricks.
The fight. The hit. Ponyboy leaving.
And apparently, he hasn’t come back.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Day three work for @outsidersweek ! The whole thing isn’t done yet because I have been so terribly busy recently but the first chapter is so voilà
please help me think, i've been stalled on this for days and am hitting a point where i can't just write around it vaguely anymore. i need to figure it out
setting is pretty classic high fantasy castle stuff. the basic action plot is; you've got the local court and some visiting dignitaries. a few years ago in the local court they legalised magic. magic is legal and has been for some time in the visiting court
the villain is one of the visiting court, and the main villain thing he does is he intends to assassinate quite a few members of the local court. he's not working alone but i don't know if he has his king's blessing or if he's on a rogue mission. i have a few motivations i'm playing with
he doesn't want a neighbouring kingdom (local court) to develop magic because he's keen to keep the knowledge and expertise in his country, so he's killing them with magic to make it scary (this one makes sense to me with the rest of the story, but it's kind of bland in a way. i think it needs a spruce up. it also conflicts with a motivation for another character in the visiting court who's pleased there's magic here now, so i need to really figure out a way to communicate that difference of opinion clearly)
he has a personal beef with the local court and is enacting revenge (keeps it simple but a lot of the story is about the magic stuff so i feel like i want that, but this could be a cool red herring actually)
he wants the local court to regulate magic even less than they already are with the recent changes and is intending to fill the power vacuum he creates with a pro magic puppet (interesting since that's almost the motivation i'm giving a good guy (mentioned in option 1), just different actions)
his king gave him orders and hes kind of mindlessly following them, the king's motivation would be one of the above though. just shifts the dial on who's the bad guy and how the characters deal with the threat (right now they just kill the villain lol)
and then there's the villain's vibes. Right now he's the visiting Princess's adviser and sort of watcher, the Princess is like 19 so the villain is her dad the king's staff, not hers, and he's keeping an eye out that she's doing the diplomacy stuff right. He's got almost no vibes in the story yet, I've really skipped a lot of his scenes cos while i wait until i figure him out
the story has the main characters all keeping secrets form each other and pretending to have relationships and lying and all this sort of thing. so we've got the local queen pretending to be less informed than she is, we've got the pov guy who's the queen's like spy who's pretending to be her himbo boyfriend, we've got the visiting wizard who pretends to be aloof but wants to defect and help teach magic with less suffering locally (he's the happy ending). there are other characters, but they have less secrets. I list them to kinda say just having a villain who's presenting a different personality isn't going to be that interesting since like everyone is doing that. i kinda want him to have another Thing going on
so, already taken;
cunning, pretending to be stupid
careful, pretending to be bored
kind, pretending to be a dickhead
so the villain could be one of these or something else entirely;
passionate, pretending to be aloof
destructive, pretending to be civilised
obedient, pretending to be sly
racist, pretending to be peaceful
i'm just trying to brainstorm, those aren't limits
right now i'm making him a wizard, but that could be shifted to someone else without changing too much of the story. it may even be more interesting, so i can't rely on him being a wizard to be a cool reveal. and honestly, he's a full arse dude he should have something interesting going on. i don't know why i'm not finding a way to make him click for me yet
Im struggling to create this villain's character! does anyone have thoughts? what's your favourite kind of villain? favourite fictional villain any why? cool way to flip a character on its head? character trope that's not normally associated with a villain that i could try and incorporate?
(very belated) day 1 prompt from @theworldofprompts oc-tober, featuring @wayhavenots rider! (thank you so much for letting me use him, pd! i hope i did him justice)
human!tanner x rider
~1.9k
pg13 (cursing + a few mildly suggestive comments)
day 1 prompt: bat
--
"Can I see the boss?"
Tanner's eyes close and he lets out a heavy sigh when he hears the words from the front counter beyond his office.
"Come on," he mutters to himself, glancing at the time on the screen of his computer. Ten minutes before closing and some jackass chooses now to come to him with an issue.
He gets to his feet with a groan, already at the door when there's a knock from the other side. He pulls it open and nods to his apprentice.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard," he mutters before the kid has a chance to say anything.
But he doesn't expect to see a familiar face grinning at him when he reaches the front of the shop. Not overly familiar, but familiar enough that he actually remembers this guy's name. Rider. He relaxes instantly and leans against the counter, offering his own grin in return.
"Well, well, well," Rider begins, looking around the shop before his eyes return to Tanner's face. "And here I thought you might have been lying about being the boss to impress me."
Tanner laughs, then raises a brow slightly. "Well? Are you impressed?"
"Very," Rider replies before a short silence falls between them.
"So, you really came all the way in here just to verify my story?" Tanner asks after a moment.
"Well," Rider begins, looking slightly nervous for the first time since Tanner met him a few days ago. "Yes, and no. On the off chance you were telling me the truth, I thought… you might be interested in having the honour of giving me my first tattoo."
Well, that's unexpected.
"Oh! Um, yeah, definitely. Just, gimme a sec to send this lot home, yeah?"
"I didn't mean right now! I thought I could just make an appointment, or something…" Rider trails off when Tanner waves his objections away with one hand.
"We'll just talk ideas and then see what happens, 'kay?" he offers with a wink before gesturing for Rider to sit down.
He's not exactly sure why he's entirely willing to go out of his way and work after hours for this guy, but he finds himself pushing his artists to hurry up and clean up their stations, eager to get them the hell out of here so that he can bring Rider out back.
He was very interested when he'd met Rider at a friend of a friend's party the other night, but unfortunately had already been, well, taken care of, by a girl who's name he doesn’t remember anymore.
So, they'd spent the night just hanging out, and he can't remember the last time he just hung out with someone new without the promise of something more at the end of it.
It had actually been a lot of fun. Different, but surprisingly not in a bad way.
Finally the shop is empty, and Tanner locks the door and flicks off the main lights, leaving the front room illuminated by only the dim lamps fixed to the walls.
"Not creepy at all," Rider comments with a laugh. He's gripping a sheet of paper when Tanner glances back over at him.
"Yeah, got ya right where I want ya, now," he says with a grin. "C'mon," he nods toward the back of the shop, indicating for Rider to follow.
It's brighter back here, the fluorescent lights above each table still buzzing away, and now Tanner can see that there's something drawn on the paper that Rider's holding. He's drawn his own; Tanner didn't even realise that Rider could draw.
"That your design?" he asks, nodding at it as Rider takes a seat on the edge of the closest table.
"Yes," Rider replies hesitantly, keeping the paper out of Tanner's reach.
"You- uh, can I see it?" Tanner asks after a few more seconds, and Rider slowly extends the hand holding the paper.
"I don't know how good it is," he mumbles when Tanner takes it from him. The nervousness is a vast contrast from the confident and bubbly person he'd spent hours with the other night. It might be a little bit adorable.
Tanner takes a seat on the stool beside the table, grabs his glasses from his workstation and puts them on to take a decent look at Rider's design.
There's a series of small bat outlines in the centre of the paper. Simple, shouldn't take too long, but Tanner's impressed nonetheless.
"You didn't mention you could draw," he says, setting Rider's drawing on the small desk beside it.
"Because I don't know that I can," Rider mumbles, and all Tanner offers is an under his breath "psh" in response. He grabs an album from the desk and spins his stool around to drop it on the table beside where Rider's sitting.
"These are good, but if you're not happy," he begins, flipping through the book until he finds the pages he's looking for; a series of photos of bat tattoos. He runs his finger over them as he continues, "we can colour them, shade them, black fill them-"
"Ohh, I didn't think of just black!" Rider cuts in. "Why didn't I think of that?"
Tanner laughs and closes the album again. "Because you got in your head about it. So you want them all black? You sure?"
Rider nods, pushing the sleeve of his shirt up and lightly slapping his bicep. "Here."
Tanner doesn't even try to pretend that his eyes aren't lingering on the other man's muscular arm, before giving him a small smirk and remarking "nice arms" before spinning back around to face the desk and grabbing a sheet of tracing paper.
"Nice hands," Rider shoots back as Tanner tapes the two sheets of paper together and begins tracing his picture.
He laughs again, focusing on the task at hand even while he distractedly replies "thanks. I'm pretty good with them, too."
"I have no doubt." Tanner can hear the smile in Rider's voice without looking at him.
He finishes tracing the picture, and can see from the corner of his eye Rider watching intently as he flips the tracing paper and places a new sheet on top to copy the drawing again with a stencil pen.
"Happy?" Tanner asks once he's done. Rider just nods, looking slightly worried again. "You sure?"
"Yep, c'mon, let's do it." He slaps his bicep a little harder this time with a wide smile, but Tanner recognises false confidence when he sees it. He's seen enough of it; not many people want to admit that they're freaking out over their first tattoo.
"It's not as bad as you're thinking," he reassures as he pulls on a pair of black nitrile gloves and grabs an alcohol wipe to clean Rider's arm.
"I'm not thinking it's going to be bad," Rider insists, and Tanner raises an eyebrow at him before pressing the stencil onto his arm and holding it there.
"Then it's gonna be a little worse than you're thinking," he only half jokes in response. He prefers that people are prepared for a little bit of pain.
"You're so reassuring."
"Always," Tanner grins at him and Rider gives an exaggerated eye roll in response. "'Kay, this good?" Tanner adds when he pulls the stencil away, and Rider turns to check out his arm in the mirror beside the table.
"Perfect," he says with a somewhat forced grin, and Tanner gives a quick nod before turning to prepare his equipment.
"So, this is gonna hurt a bit, right?" Rider blurts out suddenly once Tanner turns back to face him and gently pushes him to relax back onto the table.
"Little bit, yeah," Tanner answers honestly, pausing with the tattoo gun mere inches away from Rider's arm. "You good?"
"Yeah. Yeah, go for it," Rider tells him, glancing down at the gun in Tanner's hand and then resting his head back onto the table and staring up at the ceiling. "You're left handed," he adds distractedly.
"Mmhm," Tanner hums his confirmation, lowering the gun down onto Rider's arm.
Rider sucks in a sharp breath and his arm twitches despite the fact that Tanner can tell he's trying not to move.
"Hold still, sweetheart," Tanner murmurs, laying his other hand on Rider's arm above where he's tattooing. He holds the skin taut, and after a few seconds his pinky begins to soothingly stroke Rider's arm.
"You know what they say about lefties," Rider comments after a moment, relaxing significantly but obviously still trying to distract himself.
"Creative or some shit, right?" Tanner replies with a light chuckle.
"Super smart, too."
That makes Tanner laugh out loud. "Yeah, you give me a few more hours and I'll bust that one."
They make small talk for the duration of the tattoo; Tanner making stupid jokes with the odd flirtatious comment as distraction. While Rider directly, all out comes onto him and makes concentration incredibly difficult.
"Alright, here. Check it out before I cover it," Tanner says once he's done, gesturing towards the mirror beside the table before spinning on his seat to start on cleaning and sterilising his equipment.
"I love it!" He grins when he hears Rider's exclamation; this is always his most nerve racking, yet favourite part.
"Yeah? You sure?"
"Absolutely! I know where to come next time I spontaneously decide I want some ink."
When Tanner turns back around Rider's still checking himself out in the mirror, turning slightly every so often to see his new tattoo in different light.
"Alright stud," Tanner laughs, rolling closer to him on his stool and guiding him back to sit on the table. "Gotta hide it away for now."
Rider pouts, but holds his arm still for Tanner to give the ink one last clean and then stick a fresh bandage over the top of it. Once he's done he fishes a tube of ointment from his workstation and places it in Rider's hand, deliberately letting his fingers wrap around the other man's for a few seconds as he closes his hand around it.
"Put this on every day. No swimming, no baths and try to keep it out of the sun for a couple weeks, yeah?"
"Thanks, Tanner," Rider says as he follows Tanner back out to the front counter.
Tanner watches as he gingerly adjusts the sleeve of his shirt back down over his bicep. "It's literally my whole job, don't mention it."
"What do I owe you?" Rider asks, fishing a wallet from his back pocket.
"Dinner," Tanner blurts before he can stop himself.
What the actual fuck? Since when does he want to take someone out?
Rider just grins, slowly tucking his wallet away again before grabbing Tanner's hand and a pen from the counter.
"Text me when and where," he says, writing a series of numbers on Tanner's palm.
“Will do,” Tanner replies in something of a daze, still trying to figure out why the hell he just asked this guy out, and why the hell he isn’t taking it back.
Whatever the reason, he's not; instead he's moving to unlock the door to let Rider out, and letting him lift onto the balls of his feet to plant a kiss on Tanner’s cheek.
"Don't make me wait too long," he says playfully before turning and heading out onto the darkened street.
Well, shit. Looks like Tanner's about to go on his first ever date.
