scribbling-scribbles

[scribbling-scribbles]

1.1.1. meeting

Story outline

God, he was tired. 

Will leaned back into the cracked bus seat and sighed. There had been a math test today and an English paper due, then he had robotics club with Joe. He had a physics lab the next day and had to make dinner when he got home. Emma was at girl scouts and his mom was working. 

Oh well. At least he could play whatever music he liked while he cooked. Will blinked sleepily, slipping into the space just between waking and dreaming.

A woman sat a few rows in front of him, wearing a thick grey coat. He blinked again, and she became a wolf-headed creature with silver armor. Will jerked himself awake, but when he looked again, she was just a woman in a grey coat. He must have made some sort of sound, because she turned to look at him. He offered a shaky smile, and she returned it with a toothy grin. Was that too many teeth? Were they just a bit too sharp? No, he was being paranoid. 

The woman got off at the next stop, and several new passengers came on, including a girl (maybe his age?) with hair much to red to be natural, and wearing what looked like a black leather fencing jacket. Will settled back into his seat. His was the next stop.

The girl was staring at him. He he gave her a look. She smiled brightly and sat down next to him.

"So, how've you been?"

"Excuse me?"

"C'mon, you can't have forgotten me already, it's only been a few months," she was still wearing a friendly, open, smile. She didn't look crazy.

"I think you have me confused with someone else," Will said as he got up to leave. That was enough weird for one day, thank you. He had homework and dinner to deal with. 

"No, wait," the girl grabbed onto his sleeve with a surprisingly strong grip.

“Hey!”

"You're Will,” the girl spoke quickly and intensely, “You have a little sister, Emma, and you live with your mom. It's me! You remember me right?" The bright smile was beginning to wobble, "Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away, it's been... busy, but I promise I'll stay in touch now."

What. The. Heck. Who was this? How did she know him? Will had like, two friends, he wouldn't have forgotten a third.

"Who are you?"

The smile had a faintly hysterical quality to it now, "No, that's not funny, Will. Why is everyone acting like they don't remember me? It's me! I'm your best friend! Look," she yanked up his sleeve, bearing his right wrist and a worn thread bracelet. What? He didn't remember that, "I made that!" She held up her own wrist, displaying a similar bracelet, "you made this one."

Will looked down at "his" bracelet, then the girl's bracelet. Both were made of faded thread, knotted into the kind of friendship bracelets you made in third grade. They looked old, and the girl's had reddish brown stains. Will looked at the girl's face, round, with warm brown eyes and freckles, framed by tomato red hair pulled into a stubby braid. The hope, near desperation, shining out from it.

It was very vaguely familiar, like the memory of a memory. 

It wasn't entirely impossible for them to have met before. 

But to have been friends? Best friends? Will hadn't had any friends before starting high school, and there was no way of him forgetting someone that quickly.

But the girl was so persistent, insisting they had known each other, even as Will denied it again and again.

The girl... wasn't it odd that in all her insisting, she had never mentioned her own name?

"What's your name?"

"You-? No. No, that won't work, it's different now," the hope had left the girl's face, she was just desperate now. She finally let go of Will's arm and broke her steady stare, "I, I gave it away," she dug her fingers into her scalp, disturbing the braid, "I didn't even think about why, or why no one ever..."

This, this was freaking Will out. 

Other passengers were finally starting to glance over at them, and Will took that as his cue to leave. He started to back away from the girl, and, oh geez, she was crying now.

But, as if sensing his movement, the girl whipped her gaze up to face him again, "Will," she said, "Will, I'm so sorry," she sounded like she meant it.

What was freaking him out more was how familiar it felt.

"Hey," Will said, stepping back towards her, reaching out to touch her hand, and it felt like reflex, "It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay." The girl whimpered, screwing her eyes shut and clutching his hand. "What can I call you?" And Will got the strangest sense of deja vu as he sat down next to her.

"Red," she whispered, "They call me Red now."

"Okay, Red," Will continued, using the same voice he used to use when baby Emma was being fussy, "I have to go home now, but I would like to see you again," The more time he spent with Red, the more he felt like there was something he was missing, "Do you know the library by the bagel store, across from the high school?"

She nodded, still not opening her eyes.

"Okay," Will said, "It's going to be okay. Can you meet me there, tomorrow, at three o'clock?"

"Mmm hmm," Red nodded again, eyes still closed.

"Okay. I'm going to meet you by the book drop, and then we're going to talk."

"Okay," Red whispered. Her grip was really, really strong. Will was losing feeling in his fingers.

The bus finally screeched to a halt at Will's station. 

He gave Red's hand a final squeeze before leaving the bus. There were another three blocks to walk before he reached his house. When he finally got there, he didn't put on music. He took off his bag and coat, and put them away. He poured himself a glass of water and sat down at the kitchen table. He looked down at his wrist, where Red had shown him a bracelet. Looking at it directly, there didn't appear to be anything, but Will found that if he squinted or tried to look at his wrist from the corner of his eye, something flickered in to view, like a faint star.

What the HECK, he thought again, finally getting a start on dinner. When Emma and their mother finally arrived home, Will ate quickly and then excused himself, ostensibly to do homework.

And he did try to do some homework, but with all that had happened he couldn't concentrate. His mind rushed from point to point, trying to find some connecting thread, and coming up with nothing.

He groaned, running a hand through his hair, then reached for his phone. He picked up the device, opening text messages, and then stopped. Who was he planning on talking to? Peter hated puzzles like this one, no clear objective or end in sight, and Joe had work until nine and always complained about the terrible cell service he got there. 

That left... that left no one. Will didn't have any other friends he could casually text.

Why did it feel like he was forgetting something, someone?

God, he was tired.

He tossed his phone to the side, then leaned forward, gently but repeatedly banging his head on the tabletop.

Think, he commanded his brain with each collision, think, THINK. What are we missing?

Emma came in without knocking, flopping herself face up onto his bed. "Stop banging your head," she said to the ceiling, "It's loud."

"Hmm," was his elaborate reply, and he left his head resting on the desk.

"Wanna talk?" Emma sat up, plucking a reversible ball off Will's dresser and throwing it lazily, "Or is it nerd stuff? If it's nerd stuff, don't bother."

Will turned his head, leaving his cheek smooshed onto the desktop, "Emma, you are in advanced English and math."

"And your point is?"

"We're both nerds."

"Whatever," she deflected, throwing the ball until it almost hit the ceiling, shifting colors with each toss. Blue to red, red to blue, "No physics or metaphysics, then. So, what's up?"

"I feel like I'm forgetting something really important," he finally said, after a minute’s hesitation. He wasn't going to tell anyone about the girl in the bus just yet. It felt too strange and too... personal to share it just yet, "Or someone important," well, not outright, at least.

"Mmm," Emma replied, leaning back, but still throwing the ball. Blue to red, "I think everybody gets that sometimes."

Red to blue, "Yeah, but I've been getting it way more lately," Blue to red, "I don't know, man. It just makes me edgy."

"Oooh, 'edgy'," she smiled, red to blue, "You gonna back that up with some hard hitting poetry? Get some piercings?" 

"No one in this family understands me," Will leaned back, throwing one arm across his face dramatically, "Get out, I've got homework."

"No," she said, getting up from the bed, "Never," she walked over to the door, "I'm here forever," she shut the door behind her.

"Love you!" Will called after her. 

"Gross!"

Will smiled and lowered his arm. He picked up the ball Emma had been using, tossing it a few times himself. Emma had a point. Everyone got the feeling they were forgetting something, or that something was missing sometimes. It was perfectly normal. But it wasn't normal for that feeling to persist for months at a time.

Red was the inverse: she felt like she was someone he should know, but didn't recognize. But this too made him edgy.

Red... It seemed like a strange name, and the way she had presented it had been strange as well, "they call me" rather than "my name is", and her piecemeal admission to "giving away" her old name. It was oddly specific, the wording seemed to skirt some other more important fact, and Will did not like this hole in his understanding.

Will glanced over to his bookshelf, stuffed with science fiction and fantasy novels, books detailing astrophysics for the layman or accounts of past scientific discoveries, and on the bottom shelf, several on mythology.

The last time he remembered reading them was two summers ago with... someone. He had been with someone, right? 

He went over to the shelf, and picked up one of the books. American Gods did not seem nearly as dusty as it should have. It was bristling with post-it notes of all colors, most of which were covered in Will's own careful print. Others had character doodles or intricately drawn diagrams, and a few were printed with someone else's handwriting.

He looked at these last ones carefully. The barely legible writing didn't look like anyone he knew, but it didn't seem totally unfamiliar either. Like Red, it tickled at the back corners of his brain. 

Will slipped the book into his backpack, trading it for a chemistry textbook. He could ask Red about the notes tomorrow, he thought as he started on the homework he should have begun hours ago. The way things were looking right now, there was either no reconciliation of Red's story and his reality, or they fit perfectly together to create one earth-shattering revelation. Will wasn't sure which one he would prefer right now.

GOD, he was tired.

[scribbling-scribbles]

Main Story Outline

Black and White (working title)

Part I- Will joins the Black court (White Court)

Who's Red

meeting

remember? Backstory (kinda)

what is the white court? What do you do? 

This is abuse. I'm getting you out

I get you have a skewed perspective, but, really!

you don't need to be anyone's soldier

you sold your SOUL?!

Okay, how can we do this? It's time for research! 

Introduce Glass Mask sub-plot

A powerful artifact and semi-sentient, produced as the universe’s counter to magic.

Will is intrigued, but ultimately decides the mask would be too dangerous to use.

At some point, Will dips into more magical sources, either on purpose or by accident, and one of the Black Lady’s servants comes to confront him.

A method! Let us execute it!

The Board and the Rites

Preparing

Finding. The damn. Contracts.

Start the Rites

Crap!

Attack! (Battle of the Board)(that's as far as they get before they are caught. The Board has some very powerful magical significance, though, and is usually where part of the contract-making process occurs)

Will sells his soul, and regains some memories.

Part II- Will and Red re-align and plan (Black Court)

Introduction to the court

Infinite apartment building, from a modification on the standard infinite forest. As far as human members are concerned, exits only lead to the Board, the Market, and various points in the human world. These exits are arrayed around the building, almost seeming at random, but there is a pattern somewhere. There is a time dilation, but not a large or consistent one. Like +/- 1 day.

The Black Lady, her rules and ruling

The court and the developers

It appears I need a new name.

Who are you guys? What are we doing

Time passes

Will/Tim befriends the developers and other members of the court

Angst and sweetness with Joe/ Volto

Any’s mech, a subplot 

Movie night!

Damn, the Game’s sound kind of even more horrible than I thought.

The Basement, i.e. the torture chamber for Bad Courtiers (maybe run by Steve? Maybe Steve is constantly tortured? Steve is involved)

Tim does R&D

Let’s all go to the Market!

Continuation of the Glass Mask sub-plot

I have modified some cool magic based off of physics because gODDAMNIT, science works!

Tim is slightly obsessed with incorporating iron into anything possible. Iron salts are his new best friend. 

Tim and Red (Rose) meet (again)

So I was hoping you would still remember me? No? Well s hit.

Timur should have expected it sooner.

I’m not a Black mage. I just wanted us to be clear on that. I am a developer, there is a difference, I'm not on the board.

I didn't give my whole name. This should give me a bit more leeway in my obedience. I still can't outright harm, but neglect and sedition is much easier than it would have been.

We're friends. I mean, I forgot, now you've forgotten... It's complicated.

We had a plan. Not a good one, but it existed.

No, really, they're evil, I swear

Tim becomes a piece.

Fuck.

After first game

Will and Taylor team up

We are looking for leads a bit deeper in Faerieland and oH SHOOT WE'VE BEEN ATTACKED, but Tim saves the day.

Emma shows up

The hell are you doing here?!/ Nerd?! // What the hell, you remember me?/ What the hell, you're real?

New recruits came all the time 

Some more dialogue

"I sold it," Tim said

Some more dialogue

"What did you trade?"

Tim explains what he can/ is willing to.

Emma’s side of it

“I was pretty sure I remembered you, but there was no official documents proving you existed, so that messed me up for a while.”

“Then I decided ‘screw that’ and went to find you anyway.”

There was a sound like discordant wind chimes.

“What you thought I found you all by myself? Heck no, I got help.”

Team includes Stacy (phone friend), a couple other of

Emma’s friends, and Peter, Will’s friend who no longer remembers him.

No one has official connections to either Court except Emma.

(Huh) says Tim (A team sounds like a good idea. Maybe I should look into that)

“And they… believe you?” “Kinda? Some of them do at least. Peter thinks its a government cover up.”

"Well. Hmm. Can I bring my baby sister into this crazy plan?”

Debate

Some internal debate.

Some debate with Red.

Verdict: Hell No.

A nightmare

Part III- A better and more viable plan, i.e. let's do a revolution. (Gray Gang)

Guess who wants to get involved? That’s right, it’s Emma.

“No.” says Tim.

Spectrum

Who are they?

(Was Ash)- royal self-aligned (ineligible for throne) pansexual non binary (genderfluid) (Prince, but non binary, thanks.)

Oh, you didn’t know this is just about succession? Wait, you thought this was about Unseelie and Seelie? Dudes, no.

Someone contaminated me. See the wings? Blue, means I'm impure, unfit to rule. 

Also, I'm like, way younger.

What will they do for us?

Legitimate heir to the throne, could challenge their sisters and demand the freedom of all the Bonded.

“I mean, I don't really feel like doing anything, but if you've got something to offer…”

“What do you want?” “I'm loooonely, be my friend.” “Oh, sure.”

Also, say Spectrum, to themself, That is a very cute boy right there and I want to seduce him.

This will not work. At all.

The Gray gang 

Emma has weedled her way into this mission.

Does not bring her group, but is in contact with them.

They try to see if they can do anything more mundane for them.

What are you?

Support group for ex-courtiers.

Made of both Black and White.

The Ones That Got Out Too Late

Courtiers who were only able to escape after they had lost a significant portion of humanity. They cannot rejoin human society.

Headed (loosely) by two who joined back in the middle ages or earlier, one from each court, they got immortality, and have honestly lived long enough at this point and soaked up enough ambient magic that they are two thirds of the way to fae already. This would worry them, if they weren’t already beyond the point of caring about pretty much anything.

Umber

Black

Original deal was for immortality, but boy do they regret that now.

Lux

White

They are one of the very few Old Whites, since humans in the White Court tend to lose their humanity through weird, magical osmosis, and the iron in their own blood starts to poison them. The ones who survived made some kind of deal to counteract that.

The Ones That Got Out With Nothing

What it says on the tin

Identity erased, no family, no money, nothing.

Maybe a boon, but it’s a pretty useless one now.

The Ones That Got Out With Trauma

May or may not have returned to family.

But how do you explain that for a while you were a soldier in a war of immortal, amoral beings?

Maybe you killed for them, and if you did, what does that make you?

Maybe you made weapons, and does that make you as bad as a killer?

Who knows! These are not fun questions!

Magic addiction is totally a thing, and very hard to satisfy unless you were born naturally gifted.

Operate under the radar

Apparently, they've been around a while.

Boy, we could have used you in part one.

Yeah, well, we've been trying to keep a low profile. You are not at all low profile.

“Touché, but what is your plan?” “Help the people who actually get out.”

New idea: what if you teamed up with us and help stage a revolution?

Hell no.

We do have this semi-legitimate heir to the throne to utilize?

No, that's worse, we're not working for THEM anymore.

Well, you wouldn't be working for Spec either, they just make the thing binding.

(Also) says Tim to himself, (Glass Mask backup plan)

Fine, I guess.

Hey, Spec, guess what!

Oh sweet, says Spec, also, did some looking, turns out there is a not unsmall faction of fae who also do not like this system.

Hell yes

Turns out they have a similarish set up on my side.

It’s Maren and Mark.

Hell yes

Part IV- Now that we’ve decided to do this thing, let’s do some awesome prep work (my favorite part) and then FIGHT! (Red Army)

Strategy/ inspiring speech montage (best part),

Tim, Red, Emma, and some of her crew hang with the Gray Gang with more frequency.

Tim is a good big picture/big plan guy, but Red is where we really get strategy.

The breakdown goes like this: Tim: Here is a goal/ step that needs to be accomplished Spec: Here are some ways to do that and their cost/benefits. Red: Here is which one is most tactically sound, given out resources and position. GG/Em Folks: Here is what you need to do that, let's go!

Tim is able to recruit some folks from the Black Court, those who do not have very constricting contracts, or those that can leave, or those that find loopholes.

Somehow, the Ladies find out about the planned rebellion and the Gang base is attacked.

The base is attacked by fae soldiers and/or loyal bonded humans

Short scuffle where some folks including Tim fight as a diversion while others make an escape route and flee to an inbetween.

Tim gets stabbed.

Shoot! (Hey look, other allies, namely, Jo)

But hey, we have someone who can help!

Really? Say Red and Emma and Spec and any defectors and probably a bunch of GG folks as well.

Yeah, say a small group, now looking slightly sheepish, uh, their name is Jo.

JO!

Bit of their back story, probably starting with “Jo never realized the dangers of lending milk money to strange teenagers…”

Recoup

Hey, Spec, can we stage the final battle yet? We’re asking you ‘cause Tim’s unconscious. 

I mean, we wanted to wait until May (or November?) Day? Because of magical significance? That’s not too far off at this point.

Okay, so we need to hold out just a bit longer.

Tim wakes up and he is maaaaad…

He actually seems just a wee bit crazy right now

Like, instead of being ruthless but clean, now he’s plans almost seem, sloppy.

“Okay, so we do this and this...” “Tim, we can’t do both of those things at once for some reason you should really know and may have actually pointed out to us at some point.” “Ah, so we can’t, well-”

He is TERRIFIED and FURIOUS, and that is not the mood you want your teenager general to be in.

This whole time, there have been continuous small strikes at any GG/ defector/ fae ally groups that are out in the open.

Like, any time they need to get food, or when trying to communicate between mortal and fae side groups

One of these missions is headed by some of the fae side operatives, and results in the destruction of a few select contracts, including Red's.

This is not helping anyone, but it is especially not helping Tim.

He feels trapped, like everything is closing in on him.

Hey, Tim, you good?

The other folks are genuinely a bit worried about him now, because this does not seem like him at all

Oops, we lose Tim.

Tim is part of a group attacked by adversaries.

He was probably not supposed to be part of this group because he is recOVERING FROM A STAB WOUND and cannot fight or defend against any members of the Black Court.

Honestly, though, this almost feels like relief, ‘cause some of these folks are definitely Whites and this is SOMETHING as opposed to however long he’s been cooped up doing nothing but planning.

Tim is not typically a man of action, but anticipation gets to even him.

Either just Tim gets taken while providing cover for the rest (look, it’s easy to sacrifice theoretical soldiers, but it’s much harder to abandon the friends in front of you), or the whole group gets taken ‘cause Tim tried to abandon them, or just Tim gets taken for the same reason. (Option one sounds more like Tim, but options two/three fit better with the devolution arc.)

Crap.

Okay, so this is pretty bad; who knows what the Black Lady's doing to him?

We (the readers) do. She's torturing him for information about this upcoming attack and how he has been resisting her commands.

We gotta do something! 

It'd be too risky to spring him, says someone, we'd probably just get captured as well.

Hey, Spectrum, when were we planning on staging this whole thing again? In just a few days, Spec says, uncharacteristically grim, He'll have to hold out until then.

This visibly pains Spec, they really like Tim, possibly a crush.

PRE-BATTLE MONTAGE BABEEY!

A reiteration of the basic plan.

People are running around, suiting up however they suit up, saying their "I love you"s however they do.

Big speech, collaborative from Rose Red, Spectrum, Lux and Umber, Maren and Mark, and Emma.

What are we fighting for today?

What we have lost, what has been taken from us.

The many who have not escaped as we did.

A better society in the future. 

This is not a rescue mission. They are not going in to save Tim, there are going in to break the system. Saving Tim is just one of the good results of this. As such, this is not a rescue speech, this is a revolutionary's speech.

Battle! 

Includes the fantastic line of “talk s hit, get hit!” by someone attacking a chant based spellcaster.

Culmination of the “Any’s Mech” sub-plot (may be a two pilot mech with Em as the other pilot)

Also includes Albus' redemption, where he does something sacrificial to help/protect Rose Red and by extension The People's Court. (The Rainbow Court? What court is Spec?) Possibilities include Albus refusing to fight when played, kneeling in submission before his opponent. That's all I got right now.

So what does this involve, actually?

This is Spec making a formal claim to the throne and showing they have the manpower to back it up.

They have to fight their way there.

They escalate from “Right to be The Chosen Heir to the Monochrome Court” to “Make Me King Right Now I’ll Fight You”

So they set up a three-way board, each side playing for itself, but also trying to play the other two off each other.

The Black and White Ladies have pieces of various shapes and talents, but they all wear the color of their court. Spectrum's side lives up to their name, it is a riot of color from all of those who have pledged themselves to them.

This might be a no-mercy match, or at least the Ladies might try and play it that way, knowing that whoever wins this game gets all the contracts.

Resolution of the Glass Mask sub-plot

Tim escapes wherever he is because he never gave his whole true name.

Before this though, I want him to have a confrontation with the Black Lady.

"Magic likes a story right? So which one is this, huh? They say there are only seven basic plots, so which one is this?"

He says it's "Slaying the Monster"

Tim sees this as his only chance to fight on the side of what he sees as justice, since by submitting to the mask, he gives up any identity he has, including the identity he “gave” to the Black Lady.

True, he becomes a kind of raging monster, but hey, it means he isn’t fighting for the “wrong” side.

This Ends TERRIBLY.

He takes a deep breath before putting on the mask

Red, Spec, and Emma are understandably freaked the heck out, that’s their friend in that thing, and he doesn’t do this kind of thing! What is happening, and can our dude be saved? 

Maybe? Currently, we know of two options: option one, and the better backed option, we try to break the mask, which will collapse this current iteration. This will probably kill our dude. Option two, which is mostly just wishful thinking, is an act of true love, and they don’t really have much there either.

They end up having to go with option one, saving the Faerie dimension from certain doom.

“it’s over we won” *monster slowly staggers up in the background* *comrades point and try to speak* “No, it’s over. We won. We’re done now, everybody go home” *a meteorite drops from the sky, killing the monster* “Will…” “That was not me” “But Will-” “That was nOT ME”

Will may or may not have residual cosmic powers

Freedom for the bonded.

Probably collaborative shenanigans with Will’s maybe cosmic powers and Spec’s new legal ones.

Part V- So, how does one live after all this? (Epilogue)

Going home?

Welp, looks like my mom remembers me now. That’s nice I guess. She’s gonna kill me.

Welp, looks like my dad remembers me now. That sucks, I hate that guy.

I grew up in the nineteen thirties. Does my immortality still apply? If I leave the Faerie dimension do I die? I have no clue how life out there works anymore, and I have no living relatives I can contact for help.

I liked living here, do I have to leave?

Gray Gang to the rescue!

Umber and Lux are fae enough and served long enough to earn themselves actual small estates. They work with Mark and Maren and combine the property and modify it with Spec’s help so that people who need to can stay there.

Some of the people they had helped in the past actually grew up to be pretty successful, like doctor/ lawyer kind of successful. The Gray Gang gets into contact with them, and people who need it get human help (therapy, temporary living, working papers, etc.)

Effect on Faerie society

Specifically, what are our main characters doing?

Probably accomplished through a scene featuring some or all of them, talking about life.

Rose probably stays in Faerie as one of Spec’s most trusted knights, so she doesn’t have to worry about going back to her dad. She is of course welcome to stay with the Gerbers, but that could get dicey legally. She is still free to come and go from Faerie as she pleases, within reason.

A news report, or a scene from Rose’s dad’s perspective. She’s out getting groceries with Will and she sees him and just. Decks him. It’s great.

"Wiiiillllll," Rose whined, tugging on Will's sleeve like a needy two-year-old, "Willll, I neeeed iiiit."