a list of moments and character details from the unfinished ranson groupie au that i’ve been thinking about since december:
- randy wants to look cool and tough to fit in with the crowds at benson’s shows and impress him, so he pierces his ears and paints his nails black before a gig. benson laughs in his face but probably enjoys getting to pull at the earrings with his teeth.
- on a similar note, randy has been promising himself since he started listening to benson’s music as a teenager that if he ever gets to meet benson he’ll have him sign randy’s bare skin and get the autograph tattooed (he does not know the word parasocial). benson hates the idea but it does spark a possessive urge in him and, once they start hooking up, he convinces randy to just let him mark him up constantly instead. the bruises fade but they can always be replaced.
- benson is still his violent, undone self, only somewhat mitigated by a consistent outlet for his anger and not having to work in customer service for minimum wage. the easy early access to drugs, the demands of his career, and the crushing weight of expectation from others (something canon benson has no taste of) just push him over the edge in other ways. he flies between long bouts of depressed withdrawal from the world and manic episodes where he’s reckless with his own wellbeing to the point of self harm, ODing in the back of tour buses or speeding drunk through the streets of various cities. if he’s a big enough artist to get papped, he definitely has assault charges for attacking paparazzi, and if not he’s probably at least beaten unsavoury members of his crowds to a bloody pulp before. he makes angry loud music that fans mosh to, but the idea of being in the pit himself makes him want to vomit. he does not like fan interactions.
- randy is a highkey stalker hellbent on finding out everything he can about benson’s life and background. I think the kicker would be that they do still come from the same sad shit town; maybe benson even briefly worked at burgers during his teens/early 20s before his career took off, and maybe that’s why randy works there, copping abuse from chris and customers daily but just desperate enough to take what echoes of benson he can get that he sticks it out.
- at first, when his career started blowing up, benson sent every cent home to his ma as a sort of apology for being gone for work all the time, for being him. he paid off her medical debt, bought her a nice new house in a better area, thought about the ways he could make her finally happy, finally proud. she didn’t move in, claimed she had everything she needed already, and what was she gonna do with all that space to herself when he never has time to visit anyway? in the end, the house sits pristine and empty while benson’s childhood home falls apart around her. he can’t bring himself to sell it. he’s not sure she’s ever listened to one of his songs.
