Wooahh.. I Drew Something Cool?? For An Oc??

wooahh.. I drew something cool?? for an oc??

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Stagelight AU

A modern music Lamplight adjacent AU. (Lamplight adjacent in that it uses the loose format of: guy who is powerful and can't talk + guy who will do anything for him). Thank you @liloinkoink @martynsimp69 @ilexdiapason @kingtheghast @honey-daisies and Bird for collective brainstorming this with me <3

Let's meet our guys in this AU!

Martyn is an aspiring musician, previously with the band EVO (though he left when the band signed with Watcher Records). Years later, he now works a pub called The King's Head, but attends the open mic nights hosted by The Burning Lantern down the road. He begins noticing a reoccurring audience member.

That reoccurring audience member is of course Ren Dog. An older man wearing sunglasses at every open mic night. He always sits through Martyn's performances, sometimes he leaves right after, sometimes he sticks around for a while, but he is always there when Martyn plays. Except that one time Martyn played an old rock song from Red King, the guy had left in the middle of that performance, odd.....

And that's where it starts.

Martyn, of course, immediately has his interest piqued. Originally, because there was a very attractive man staring at him intently, but afterwards because of the mystery. Who is this guy? Why does he only leave after hes had a chance to hear Martyn's sets? Why does he never come up and say something? Martyn is aware he's an attractive guy, and the musician look really does it for a lot of people, so he's no stranger to an audience member coming up for a chat after his set.

This guy never does though, so Martyn ends up taking the matter into his own hands. So he devises a little trap. If that man always waited for him to play, then how about using that to his advantage? Trading out his electric guitar for acoustic that night, Martyn delays his set until he is the last act of the night. The moment his last note finishes ringing out from the stage, he sprints down the steps to introduce himself.

Ren though does not react well to this situation at all, staring at Martyn in startled silence and before turning and walking away without a single word.

He eventually finds out Ren's name by asking the employees of the bar. Imagine his surprise to learn that his name is Ren, just like the Renthedog account that has been consistently liking his posts on AUstagram. Even after the disastrous introduction.

So the next time he reaches out to Ren, he tries to take it a bit slower. Making eye contact from the stage, a little wave. Next time he tries to talk to Ren, instead of offering to buy him a drink, he asks if he can get Ren's AUstagram, and with a laugh Ren hands it over.

A flood gate opens from there. For all that Martyn has never heard Ren speak, he sure has a lot to say when it's in writing. They hang out from there, quickly becoming friends. When Martyn finds out that Ren straight up cannot speak, and it wasn't just shyness holding his voice back, he tries to ask why. Ren just gives the vague answer of:

Stage fright, all the world's a stage

Which doesn't really explain anything.

They have a comfortable, distant, but a bit flirty, friendship. Which is something that changes when Martyn finds the photo.

He finds it when cleaning out an old box of stuff. In a box full of high school knick knacks, one of the photos stands out. It's of himself and BigB, they must be 17 or 18, and they're standing with their arms thrown around eachother at some sort of music festival or concert. That's not what gives Martyn pause on it though, it's the singer performing in the background. The face might be obscured by makeup, and time, and the noise of an old photo camera, but its Ren. Martyn is absolutely certain Ren is the one singing in that picture. It clicks what band that is, Red King, BigB’s favorite. Ren, Ren was the lead singer of Red King.

With some digging, he finds out what happened. Red King, a three man rock band, with Lead Singer/Guitarist Ren Dog, Drummer Skizz Leman, and Bassist/Harmony Singer Scar Goodtimes, was one of the bands of all time. Sold out shows, huge tours, the works. Until it suddenly broke up over a decade back because of a scandal involving the lead singer, involving Ren.

Their tour had stopped where Ren's childhood friend Lizzie lived, famous actress Lizzie Shadow, Lizzie. They had been out for dinner to catch up and Ren was driving her home when he took a corner just a little too fast, the car skids, hits a tree, Lizzie's taken to the hospital and suddenly Ren finds his life crumbling around him.

Lizzie had been fine when the paramedics had arrived, told him it wasn't a big deal and that he didn't need to worry about any bad press from this. Cause why would she want to hurt her friend?

But somehow the press does find out, and the person who tipped them off implied that it wasn't a mutual understanding but instead a cover up.

Someone reports that he was drunk when they wrecked (even though he wasnt) and that gets picked up and run with. The constant pregnant rumors that follow Lizzie also get thrown in the mix and whispers of an affair (which again he wasn't, they weren't) get picked up as fact.

Ren figures out pretty quickly it was Scar who leaked the accident, the initial reports had too many details that he'd only told a couple of people. And when he goes to confront Scar about it? Well, Scar's always been able to put on a good performance, it's why Ren had brought him into the band in the first place. To have that acting turned against him though? Used to manipulate the flashing paparazzi cameras so that it looks like Ren is lashing out against his innocent band mate? It makes him wish he'd never met Scar.

The day after that fight with Scar is flooding across the tabloid, they still have to go onto the stage to performing their show.

Ren steps up on stage and sees a sight that will haunt him for the rest of his days. The giant venue, a sold out show, stands almost entirely empty. He tries to push on, tries to sing, but his words get absorbed into the empty silence. And on that silent stage is the last time Ren Dog speaks.

Lizzie speaks out and clears up the scandal after she's leaves the hospital, but its too late for Red King to recover. Skizz returns home to his family, Scar builds a solo career off the stinking corpse of Red King, and Ren fades into the obscurity of a normal, secluded life.

Martyn takes this knowledge and uses it to help Ren on his journey to gain back his voice. They are drawn together by music and fall in love. In the end, Martyn and Ren go on tour together, The King and The Hand, not to become famous, but to travel around and continue to find the joy in music together. Ren is back in the stagelight, but Martyn is the one in the spotlight, and Ren could not be happier for him.

PLEASE ASK ME ABOUT THIS AU IT MAKES ME INSANE AND I WANNA TALK ABOUT IT MORE!!! THERES SO MUCH MORE I COULDNT FIND A WAY TO FIT IN!!!

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