PRESS PLAY (music WIP, prologue, chapter 1-4.1, 259k words; !UPDATED September 17th!)

A better choice of words might be called for :thinking: share control more like. If I remember correctly, what I meant there was he’ll share it. I.e. he would not be the only one on the strings anymore

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I hope Zima has more success writing music than lyrics. They mentioned they struggle with that.

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Purely headcanon of course but I think without his mom and lifelong friends my mc would need some sort of structure in his life to not fall apart that has to be a bit more than occasional work as lyricist or actor/model. Could see my mc becoming a music professor and vocal coach at some conservatory or university after the great split, as again I think that without his friends and mom he could really use the structure a regular job (of the non shitty kind) would give his life. :thinking: Would also be oddly weird in an ironic sort of way if my mc, the weirdest of the band by far, turns out to go on and life the most normal/regular life out of all of them post split.

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That’s a really nice idea, too! I’m definitely gonna host a bunch of options for MCs to shape the life they were leading after the Great Split, so… maybe something like this is gonna show up!! :blush:

Though nothing’s set in stone yet. And you might find that certain paths will make the future your MC is “granted” very limited :smiling_face_with_horns:

Ugh I’m so looking forward to writing all the endings

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They do struggle with it, but they don’t really want to write for the most part. Those two singles they may or may not do on their own are very much brief flashes of genius where they went “okay I gotta do this” but in the grand scheme of things, they are neither good at composing nor lyricism and they aren’t passionate about it either. When it comes to the guitar, they’ll weigh in, but Angel is mostly gonna be directing

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Idk what exactly Love Dagger did to Zima, but I’m hoping we get the opportunity to knock his teeth out in the next update. His vibe is so incredibly weird and off-putting. I don’t even really like Zima, but them freezing up and getting uncomfortable anytime he’s even mentioned is such a red flag.

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I have a few ideas what it is and I really, really hope I’m wrong

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It’s bad that we accepted the house. Love’s going to have a lot of soft power over us that can turn to hard power since we’re at his record label as well.

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Yeah, I also have a few ideas, and none of them are good. Love is really giving me some Harvey Weinstein vibes . Which I hate to say, but it feels like the most realistic possibility at the moment.

Yeah, I’m with you on that. I get why the band did it, of course, since they don’t necessarily know what we do (though I feel like Stevie really should’ve picked up on Zima’s discomfort at this point, since she’s repeatedly shown to be insightful and empathetic).

I wonder if the story is ever really going to delve into how fucked up the relationship between the band and the Grahams is. I get that it’s probably standard in the industry, but every time Kalena and Russell interact with the band (particularly Zima and Angel), there’s just something so insidious about it. Hope the interviewer grills them on it in the present timeline.

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I think that the important thing to remember is that we’re all out of our depth right now. We went from being a nobody band playing no-nothing gigs to being a rising band.

Kalena’s genuine in trying to look out for us, but one of the issues Zima’s acknowledged is that they closed off in their twenties and reverted to the “in distress” Zima we knew.

If I’m right with what they went through, they definitely would struggle even harder to confide with people. Especially when they’re scared of the Grahams.

Re: them, one of the hardest parts of managing people is knowing what buttons to push to get the best out of people and you don’t always do it nicely. Russell identified he needs to use the stick more than the carrot with Zima, most likely correctly. Zima already said they’d struggle with being in a band with us because they’d hate being compared with us.

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Given that the MC is writing much of the music the most logical thing for them to do without the band would be to have a solol career. We have the manager and producer repeatedly emphasizing how all anyone will remember is the singer it would be odd if that foreshadowed nothing.

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My imagination persistently places this IF in the seventies, and I go “Awww :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:” about the idea of mini hippie commune because it’s just those times. Then I remember it’s modern times with modern real estate prices, and yeah, the band would owe that guy big. Oh well, if he tries anything we could murk him and tell it was the ghost of the murder house.

Speaking of him, I always presumed he’s just Zima’s shitty ex or fling something like that. Zima is overdramatic champion of holding grudges, MC is their arch-enemy for not keeping adolescent friendship borne in dire circumstances, might be exaggerating with Dagger as well.

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Sure they could have one, purely based on the technicalities. But if I wanted to write a solo musician, I wouldn’t be emphasizing the connection the band has. MC and the band are canonically a package deal, and the band shattering would have no impact at all if all of them went “welp, gonna keep on going without you guys x”

I mean MC and the others do some projects sporadically after the Great Split but it’s never the same. So I don’t want people zeroing in too much on the possibility of a solo career.

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Yay seventies mention :blush:

Also oof calling MC Zima’s archenemy when they’re straight up ready to hang with MC if you show a shred of interest

Edit: I do see what you mean but for ppl genuinely wondering, I’d just say that there’s a great difference in the way Zima reacts to MC vs how they react to even the mention of Love. Without spoiling too much, it’s safe to say that to Zima, those two situations are not comparable in the least and they would never seek to rebuild their acquaintance with Love like they do with MC.

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Well, they did go kinda “Of all people in the world why it had to be you?! :grimacing: Nope, not doing that, fuckety-bye” upon meeting MC. So my MC decided to give them space, especially after they shot down invitation to Lin’s party, and their relationship is non-existent. Literally, my score with Zima at the end of the demo is big fat zero.

Speaking of fat. Loved the “Look at you, you used to be so pudgy!” option and loved even more Zima’s response, which was the only correct response in given situation. :grin: Reloaded that save, of course, my MC isn’t that clueless.

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I mean yeah saying that to them is just plain mean. Like, poor thing.

But I still wanted to give the option bcs I’m a cruel god to these characters

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I mean, I wouldn’t say they’re the MC’s archenemy or anything, but they’re definitely one of the most annoying members of the group. Zima and Maddox are major liabilities imo, but at least Maddox has a good relationship with the rest of the group and the MC to fall back on. Zima’s whole tantrum upon meeting MC totally turned me off of wanting to be friendly, or really even cordial, to them.

The pudgy line is crazy though, not even my most unhinged MC would say that lmao

I was talking about his tendency to be wasted or high 90% of the time, though I guess I was also talking about how he seems to be more interested in spending every waking moment with his gf than he does being part of the band. Which is fine, people have different priorities, but he really should just leave and let someone else take his place at that point.

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I got the impression that Mads was always the least… hmm, what word should I use… motivated? The least “music freak”? or did you mean his tendency towards drugs?

With Zima it’s a matter of integration, right? Which, uh, can be difficult at first I guess. But my MC is a kind person, and he’d only make it easier for her. So it’s up to her :person_shrugging:. I’m not aiming for them to be best friends again, but for the atmosphere in the band to be bearable…

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At the point of this update, if you haven’t been outwardly hateful to Zima, they leave you alone. They’re not their most comfortable and have a lot of feelings about you, but they think the band is a good thing and they’re not about to ruin their chances of being part of it.

Not to mention that if you have indeed been kind to them, they’ll be friendly and go to some lengths, such as possibly accompanying you to a certain club if you think you need their support (and a ride in their car, which is a death trap so idk if you’d call that a favor lol).

@dorquemada oh but I forgot to say!! They do take you up on the party invitation after all. But they only show up if MC needs to be saved from drowning. They gotta be all dramatic and heroic you know :melting_face:

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Also I really gotta get on top of this instinct to defend and praise my beloved creatures (incl. Zima and Maddox). I need to stay on Tumblr where people mostly love them and complain about getting attached to Madds in my askbox XD it’s safer for my sensibilities

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