Post by Damon Graves on Apr 23, 2017 19:39:35 GMT -5
Rebel Ink Tattoo Shop – Damon’s Workstation
Five hours into the tattoo session
Scene fades in near the front end of the tattoo shop, where Vincent is laying face-down on a long, padded table, his teeth clenched as he stares blankly across the room, as if doing everything he can to block out the pain of the tattoo needles entering his skin. To the boy’s credit, he is holding up rather nicely, barely even flinching as Damon Graves goes to work, the buzzing from his tattoo machine half drowning out the sound of Slayer’s “Here Comes the Pain” as it plays over the sound system.
Young male voice: Alright, where is the big baby? I’m not too late, am I?
Gritting his teeth, Vincent mutters under his breath at the sound of the intrusive voice.
Vincent: Oh, fuck me running....
Damon: Something wrong?
Vincent: My brother... ow... just showed up.
Damon glances up briefly, his eyebrow arched in curiosity.
Damon: So what’s the problem?
Vincent: I’m pretty sure he’ll find any and every excuse to poke fun at me...
Aurora walks past the workstation, smiling as she catches Vincent’s last few words.
Aurora: Oh, he’s just acting like any younger sibling would do. It’s kinda in the job description to pester your older siblings. The tradeoff being that older siblings can turn around and do the same thing to you.
Vincent: I’ll... keep that in... mind.
Auron’s Voice: AHA! Found him, Mom!
From out of frame, we see a thin, blond-haired boy in his early teens walk into view, while behind him follows a brunette woman who looks to be in her late 30s. They both stand in the lobby, with the young blond boy leaning against the partition, making faces at Vincent.
Mom: Is it finished yet?
Damon shakes his head.
Damon: Nope... still have some spots where I need to pack in more color.
Mom: Good. I’ll see to it that we stay out of the way, then.
Auron: Aww... you mean I can’t taunt him about being a total chicken wuss? Look at the face he’s making right now!
Aurora cocks an eyebrow bemusedly.
Aurora: Chicken wuss? Someone’s been playing Final Fantasy VIII....
Auron: Yeah... and when I’m old enough to get a tattoo, I wanna get Seifer and Squall tattooed on my hands.
Vincent: Never get... job stoppers... as your... first tattoo!
Auron looks perplexed.
Auron: What’s he mean by that?
Damon: Harley, I’ll let you explain it to him....
Aurora: Well, that’s what we call tattoos on the neck, hands and face. We generally try to steer clients away from them, unless they’ve already got full sleeves, are part of the tattoo industry, or just have REALLY solid job security.
Vincent: Yeah... best to stick... with something... you can... cover up... if you need to.
Aurora: Listen to your brother on this one. He may just be an apprentice, but one of the most important things about tattooing is...
Aurora, Damon & Vincent: Location, location, location.
Auron: Okay, am I the only one in this room NOT creeped out by that?
Vincent: Nah... I get the creeps when they do it.
Auron: But... YOU just did it with them.
Damon: Aaaaaaand... there! Just let me clean you up, and you can take a look at it.
Damon cleans up his artwork and steps back a bit. Before Vincent can even get up from the table, his brother swoops in to look at the finished piece.
Auron: HOLY SHIT! That looks pretty bad-ass!
Mom gently but firmly pulls her younger child back so that Vincent has room to stand up.
Mom: And how long did that take?
Damon looks up at the clock. It was quickly approaching 1:30 in the afternoon.
Damon: Oh, about five and a half hours. Kid’s got a pretty high pain threshold. He hung in there better than I thought he would, especially for a virgin can...
Auron points his finger at his brother.
Auron: HAHA! Damon called you a virgin, Vincent!
Vincent’s head swivels around so that he could give his brother the “death stare”.
Aurora: Not THAT kind of virgin, you little pervert! Had you waited for a second for Damon to finish his sentence, you would have known he was saying “virgin canvas,” meaning that before this, Vincent had never had a tattoo before.
Damon chuckles a bit.
Damon: Kid’s got a dirty mind... he’ll fit right in here! Tell you what... now that your brother’s my apprentice, once you’re old enough to get a work permit, you can take over as the new shop boy!
Auron: Thanks, but I was thinking of going into sales, like my Dad.
Aurora gives an approving nod.
Aurora: Nothing wrong with wanting to follow in your Dad’s footsteps, I suppose. But the offer still stands. It never hurts to keep your options open, you know?
Mom: Auron, isn’t there something you wanted to ask Aurora?
Auron: I was wondering how I would go about getting a piercing…
Aurora: Where did you want to get it?
Auron: In my left ear.
Aurora turns to his mother.
Aurora: If your mom’s ok with it….
Mom nods.
Mom: I told him that he could get it done when he turned 13. We just hadn’t gotten around to getting it done quite yet. Besides, he wanted to get it done by someone he was familiar with.
Aurora: Well, then, let me show you what we have as far as studs go...
Aurora leads Auron and his mom off towards another part of the studio, while Damon finishes up taping clear plastic over the fresh tattoo.
Damon: I really don’t need to remind you how to take care of that, right?
Vincent: Nope…
Damon: Ok, then. You know where the Aquaphor is.. Grab yourself a tube and we’ll see you in the morning….
Vincent takes another moment to admire his new ink before he exits the room.
Friday, April 21, 2017
Scene fades in once again at Damon’s workstation, only it’s at the end of the business day. We see Damon going over aftercare with his latest client, who then leaves with a satisfied smile as she heads out of the door. As his new apprentice goes to lock the front door and shut off the “OPEN” sign, Damon turns to the approaching Redemption camera crew.
Damon: Some motherfuckers just can't help messing with a good thing. They want to play Dr Frankenstein and see what happens when they screw around with something that was perfectly fine to begin with. Case in point, Devlin Scott and his “Strange Bedfellows” concept for the upcoming episode of Glory. Not only is he going to split up THE hottest tag team on his roster, but he's having them team with the tandem that defeated them via disqualification over the Redemption Wrestling Tag Team Championships. A disqualification that, may I add, was handed down to us ONLY because the referee took too long to pull his head out of his own sphincter.
Brilliant move, Einstein. You'd have less of an issue trying to match up a Bic lighter and a puddle of gasoline.
Damon starts breaking down his station, starting with his machine.
Damon: You’ve got me teaming with Blair Kivisto, while my wife is teaming with Blair's ex Joseph Setala. Almost makes you wonder who’s ending up with the short end of the stick. If Blair's Twitter feed is any indication, it's probably me. One half of the opposing team thinks of me as his “personal rag doll,” while my so-called partner is too busy throwing herself a fucking pity party. Why my wife actually likes her is beyond me, but while you two are busy jaw-jacking about how much of a factor you’ve convinced yourselves that I WON’T be, my wife and I are training every chance that we get so that you can find out the hard way just how dangerous I really am. Yeah… you heard that right. We may be fighting on opposite sides, but even as my opponent, my wife still has my back, which is more than I can say for my tag team partner in this little shit show.
Listen, Blair, I don't care about what's going on in your private life. If you and Laroux are on the outs, that's your problem to deal with, and you had best fucking deal with it quick. All of the drinking and the “fuck the world” attitude needs get locked down, because if your private shit begins to affect our match at Glory, I will end you myself and make this shitstorm into a goddamned handicap match.
Damon discards the partially used ink cups at his station.
Damon: But if that DOES happen, don't delude yourself into thinking you're getting some sort of free pass, Setala. You may be standing in the other corner of the ring with my wife, but if you get in her way, she’ll end up tagging you with her boot across your face. I’ve been on the receiving end of those beautiful, but brutal appendages of hers, and let me tell you… you’d be safer standing behind an agitated horse. No, your best bet is to play it straight.
A voice rings out from behind, and Damon turns to find his wife standing in the hallway with her arms crossed.
Aurora: But what about me?
Damon turns and crosses the distance between them.
Damon: We’ve danced this dance before, so there’s no big mystery. We both know that neither one of us is going to back down, so we’ll go out there and do what we do best: Show the world that whether we’re partners or opponents, we’re the best motherfucking tag team on the planet! If Kivisto and Setala can’t hold up their end of the match… then they can go fuck themselves…
Damon turns off the overhead lights as he and Aurora exit the shop.
Fade to black.
