Chapter Text
I have never been more nervous in my life. I work in the studio of the most popular television show in Rhythm Heaven, The Dazzles. Most of my job looks pretty simple, but since I'm the newest girl on set, some things still don't come as easily to me. It's just me and a group of five other girls who perform on live television every night. We sing a song and pose on a stage that I hate to admit, looks like an ice cube tray. But once you get over the performance anxiety, it's actually a pretty fun job.
Since the ratings for our show have been superb as of late, the President of our fair land, President Perfect, is stopping off at the studio to evaluate our performance. If he gives us his seal of approval, our show will start receiving nearly triple the amount of funding and popularity. Whatever we do tonight though, it has to be absolutely flawless. In other words, perfect. I'm prepared to make the performance as such.
I'm still in my dressing room when someone starts banging on the door.
"Papriiiikaaaaa! You're on in 5! Where the bloody hell are you?"
The door swings open and a pair of stepswitchers run in and grab me by the wrists. Stepswitchers are short, half my size, in fact, so I can lift my arms and they'll dangle off of them. They soon let go of my wrists in order to avoid being smacked into something hard.
"What's been taking you so long?" One of them asks me.
"Yeah, hun, you look absolutely fine!" The other one smiles as they attempt to pull me out of my dressing room. I don't resist this time, my feet are already moving and carrying me out my dressing room door and through the halls that lead to the set.
"Wait!" I cry. "I need to comb my hair again!"
"You look fine! Not a hair out of place!"
"But this is the most importance performance of our careers! I can't go on looking like this!"
We arrive at the set. Blondie has already been set up in the top left box. She’s doing some stretches. Ruby is in the top right box, she’s cleaning her ruby-red glasses and singing scales and vocal warmups. Cocoa is on the middle level, on the left, she’s shaking with excitement. Caramel is beside Cocoa, she’s also practicing her vocals. Ginger is on the bottom level with me, and she’s just getting loaded onto the stage. She waves at me.
“Paprika!!! She calls out to me, “You look amazing!”
“Thanks!” I call out. I’ll accept the compliment, and I understand that nobody is scrutinizing us over the air, but I’ve never met the President, and I don't know if he really does pay attention to every single detail.
I get loaded onto the stage by the crew. Just as I finish smoothing out my dress, I hear a tapping on the director’s mic and a clearly rattled stepswitcher, our director, is frantically waving their arms.
“He’s here!” the director yells. The girls and I are all frozen solid. I can hear Ruby on the top row letting out a little squeal. We’re all petrified and President Perfect isn’t even in the room yet.
The door opens and we hear a nearly inaudible hopping sound. It grows louder as President Perfect hops into view of the stage on his single leg that doesn’t appear to be easy to stand on, but he makes it work. He’s wearing a top hat. I find it amusing. If this wasn’t a critical event of my career I’d let out a chuckle. The hat seems so out of place, but it suits him.
“Hello ladies.” He says in a lightly accented voice that makes him sound more aristocratic. “You may begin.”
The director stands behind their camera, and starts pulsing with his fingerless hand. "5...4...3...2..." The director points to us and the intro to Love Ooh Ooh Paradise plays.
We do our thing. For a while it feels like everything will be ok. Ginger and I are completely in sync, and I can assume everyone else is as well, besides, the President hasn't left yet and I hear he leaves right after he sees a mistake.
Then it happens, as I just knew was coming. An external light flickers off. I keep my composure. The President turns to look at the scene, but doesn't leave. At least that's a good sign.
I hear a thud. That cannot possibly be a good thing. I hear another thud, then a crash. The music stops and the director rushes out of his chair to see the damage. The director comes back and addresses the rest of the crew. "Some lighting apparatuses got cut from their suspenders and ruined our speakers!" He's panting with an alarmed look on his face. "Mr. President, I'm deeply sorry for this tragedy, we had all of the equipment tested!" The President glares at the director, grumbles and storms off.
Moments before the President reaches the door the entire shooting room goes pitch black. For 6 seconds, chaos erupts on the set of The Dazzles. There are screams and loud noises. The stage shakes and I instinctively shift away from the edge, even if I am only a couple of feet off the ground.
When the light hums back on, I release my anxiety in one large exhale. I could only hope that would be the worst of the night, but when I finally readjusted my eyes to the light, I scream at the horrendous scene
that has appeared in front of me.
The director is lying on the floor, with several burn marks across his torso and face. There's blood pooling behind his head. The director is dead.
President Perfect turns around to meet the carnage to his own eyes. The look in his eyes can only be seen as a stare of utter horror.
"NEVER BEFORE HAVE I SEEN SUCH A HORRENDOUS SCENE. DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT A GOOD REVIEW FROM ME."
President Perfect finally storms out, taking our biggest opportunity with him.