Fame Has Gotten to Your Head, My Friend

[Hikari-chan (光ちゃん)]

This roleplay is based off a Japanese manga called "Helter Skelter" by Kyoko Okazaki (which also happens to be the name of a Beatles song and a movie about a serial killer).

In this world, everything is based on outer appearances. There are a small percentage of people who are paid to satisfy people's idea of "outer appearances," called famous people. Sure, they can make a whole crowd of people smile, but what about themselves? Who are they? Underneath all the commands they receive to act "perfect" and "beautiful," are they actually "perfect" and "beautiful" underneath their skin?

One day, a new website comes out, called laserbeam.net, where users have the chance to share their life experiences, and get some "advice" from "professionals." Celebrities use this site, a fact that is discovered later on.

[Roleplay information]
This is a jump in roleplay! Feel free to jump in or out at your liking! You can be as active as you choose, or as inactive as a snail!

Wanna join?
Well, don't just stand there! Write a reply, immediately! Since this is a jump in roleplay, there is none of that confusing "registration" or "OOC" stuff!

Stuff to include in your first reply:
1) What is your character's place in this world? Are they a famous actress who plays a lesbian on a dramatic show? Are they a psychologist, who makes Bollywood movies? Are they a normal and air headed person, deceived by celebrities and the media? What is your character's place in the world?

2) Give your character a name. If they're a singer/entertainer, you might consider a stage name.

3) What does your character look like? You can either include a photo (the photo can be a realistic drawing, a real boy, an anime girl, it doesn't matter!) If you don't have a photo, then use words to describe your character's physical traits.

If you really didn't feel like reading all that above, then here's a sentence that sums up this roleplay: You are somehow related to the entertainment industry, (whether you are a fan, performer,etc..), and you discover a website called laserbeam.com, which changes your life dramatically.

 

[Hikari-chan (光ちゃん)]

Wanda was so excited, so happy that she got a scholarship to a prestigious art school. She remembered jumping up and down the day she got the letter. Her friends had scheduled a celebration party, in honor of her accomplishment. Everyone of her friends were there: Ailee, the girl she knew from 1st grade, Douge, the boy she always arm wrestled with and lost, and even Chansung: her Korean boyfriend she loved to pieces. She could clearly remember her making out with Chansung, when she was filled with lust. But there was a part so horrible about it: one of her friends had taken advantage of the alcohol, and got drunk to the bone. And just like those teenage dramas, she literally got pushed into a car. Thankfully she fell on the oil filled road, and the only thing she lost was her right hand.
But she absolutely despised the hospital, the walls were painted with a demented looking white color. She remembered the moment the nurse told her "You have to see a psychologist." The psychologist told Wanda the stuff she knew already: she lost the ability to ever create art, for her right hand was permanently damaged. Sure, the pain in her hands hurt. Yes, her lovely boyfriend breaking up with her hurt her heart. But the inability to create art ever again? How cruel could fate possibly be? Wanda remembered being filled with so much anger, so much hate, she felt she couldn't keep all inside of her anymore! She grabbed the doctor's vase, and broke it to pieces.
"Fuck! Fuck this," she screamed at the top of her lungs, her throat getting sore. "Fuck you doctor! Fuck everyone!"
But she was lucky, for this unlucky experience changed the fate of her life. She decided she would listen to other people's problems, over the Internet, and she would offer them advice. It took her a while, but she became the creator of a site called laserbeam.com. She wondered what kind of people she would end up helping.

 

[Hikari-chan (光ちゃん)]

The layout of site was fresh and simple to interact with. Wanda made it that way, so that it would appeal to more people. At the top of the page, it said in clear and bold letters "The World Revolves around Outer Appearances! That Is a Problem, and This Site is for Those Who Wanna Complain About Their Problems!" That was the message, the point of the site, so others wouldn't have to hard for the existence of the site. Since she didn't expect any traffic, it wouldn't take her a long time to reply to messages, if their were any. At this moment, she felt a feeling of success, what if she impacted the life of others? Whatever happened, she hoped she could learn more about the psychological state of people, from all entire world. It was only a dream of hers, and the girl continued dreaming.

 

[Armin Arlert]

Zaki looked over the site his gold and black eyes going across the page before he leans back in his seat "Well...a site where people can get advise and for those who want to rant about outer appearances...."

He looked at himself in the small shard of a mirror, he noticed his eyes and then his hair. It was all his own natural look, but others question his looks and critize him about 'Not liking what the lord and your mother gave you' why did he have to look like this, not to mention his body is littered in scars...scars. He looked down at his gauze covered arms, he flexed his fingers watching the gauze bend with the motion. He unraveled one of the bandages revealing a metal limb.

He sighed, the night of the incident will always haunt him.

Zaki was just six when his parents lead him down the basement, he wasn't unfamiliar with the place he was often sent down there, (more like thrown) and punished or just sent down there.

His childhood was a living form of the Netherworld and his parents didn't care. One day his mother took him down there and without warning hacked both his arms off, needless to say she and her husband are gone. But it left Zaki not able to trust a soul.

He looked back at the site unsure if he should trust it. But then again...using a fake name and fake information never hurt.

He gave in and created a username for the site: Izak .

(OOC: He's not the most creative when it comes to making up names XD)

 

[redblood]

It had been a long day, but finally it was over. Mirage exited the stage, leaving thousands of screaming fans behind her. At least there were no stupid fan meeting this time around. All of it had been fun in the beginning, but as he fame grew and grew, it started to feel more and more bothersome. Still she kept on smiling in front of her audience as the good girl she was.

"Oh my God, I told you she would take this exit." A voice sounded as the back door was opened. She had hoped for a nice secret exit for ones. Usually she didn't take that way as it would become obvious in that case. It was just to plaster on the smile again.

"Can we get your autograph?" The group of three females and two males, probably classmates, were all looking expectantly at her while she walked the last steps outside and heard the door closing automatically behind her. The guys weren't as hyped as the girls, but she could see some excitement which they tried to hold back. Maybe they accompanied their girlfriends or something.

Mirage smiled sweetly and nodded. "Of course. How could I say no to such a sweet girl?" It took her some time to actually get away from the group. One question after another showered over her. But eventually she were able to leave as her manager, whom was also her father, found her and told her they had to leave.

Once home she could finally leave the world of Mirage behind for another night, and live the life of Mai Takahara. She went to her room and turned on the computer, not completely sure what to do online. She were not going to check her fan page, it would be bombarded with questions. Maybe she would check out some online videos or something. But in the end she ended up on google, just searching random words, trying to find something interested. Or maybe they weren't as random as she thought.

Then suddenly she found something... Laserbeam.net huh. Never seen that one before. She thought to herself. As she entered the site, it immediately drew her in. She shouldn't complain. She had a good life. A lot of money. People adored her.... With a slight hesitation she signed up anyways with the username: TheShadowOfMe

Maybe it was stupid to take one of her own songs as her username, but if it wasn't music, then she just couldn't be creative. It was the best song she had ever written, and her first song. If people made the connection, then they would most likely believe she was a simple fan with troubles. Now when that was done... What exactly did she want to write? There was so much. She just had to ponder over it. She didn't want to give them a novella. But it was time for dinner either way. Time for a break.

 

[Armin Arlert]

Zaki huffed as he finished his profile for the account. He looked it over just double checking if everything was accurate. He glanced at his profile picture of Frozen's Elsa with the caption being "F**** it all".

He saved the profile and noticed a notification that there is another User online.

He clicked it .

 

[redblood]

After dinner, Mai went back to her computer. Slightly tired she figured that she should just fix her profile quickly, and then go to bed. She would have to get up early the next days for rehearsals after all. It would be bad to loose sleep. But before she had even clicked on profile settings, she saw something. Someone was online.

Curious, she clicked the profile. She recognized the picture from some movie, but she weren't sure which one... Disney, was it? She didn't have much time watching movies, and even if she did, kids movies would be last on her list.

She clicked on her settings and forgot about the other user for now. At the moment she wanted to make her page presentable... Even though it was on a forum for complaining. Well, even complainers wanted to look good. Slowly her profile started to get some colors and info. The profile pictures was of her from a few years earlier. She had a black wig that covered her colored blond hair, and the colored contact lenses she wore as Mirage had been taken off, making a pair of dark brown eyes looking into the camera. She looked like she did before her career started. Still beautiful, but not the person everyone knew her as. Sure, people had remarked that she looked just like that singer, but with darker hair and eyes. Wow, what a coincidence, she always thought sarcastically.

It had been a while since she had gone outside with a disguise.. Or gone out as herself. But what did it matter? No one knew Mai. They just wanted to see their fake idol. Gosh. People were so dull.

She wrote in the information requested, age 19, female, New York etc. Of course she made sure that nothing would give away whom she truly was. A Japanese teenage star whom had gotten big in America. She did travel a lot between America and Japan, as those were the two places where people recognized her the most.

And save information.

 

[Hikari-chan (光ちゃん)]

[OOC Note: My character Wanda will mostly be the person who keeps the roleplay going.]

Every now and then, Wanda got new obsessions. The thing she was obsessed with this week was checking laserbeam.net. She wanted to see if anybody had noticed that her site existed. Probably nobody. She didn't want to think in a pessimistic way, but she couldn't control her thoughts. To her surprise, there were 3 people who had noticed the site. 3. To most people, that would be almost nothing. A website with 4 people using it in total? Tch, what a joke. But to Wanda, it wasn't a joke. She smiled, and she thanked "God" for it. She was extremely ecstatic.
She decided to check who the other 3 users were.


[OOC: Excuse my horrible editing skills. T.T Anyways, this is what the site looks like. Notice the 4 photos at the bottom. The first one is of a beautiful women. (Her name is Ga In, a Korean singer) The second one is of an extremely attractive idol. (His name is Kim Jongin, and part of the Korean/Chinese boy band "EXO") The third one is of a sad looking female. (Her name is Ringo, and she is from an anime called "Mawaru Penguindrum.") The fourth one is of a "happy looking" female singer. (I don't know the anime she is from.)

 

[redblood]

Mai looked at the text at the top of the page. One said chat. It wasn't like anyone would write to her even if she went onto it. There were only a few people online, and they were probably busy with other things than being on the chat. But a quick look just to see how it was couldn't hurt.

She clicked the chat and came to a so far empty chat room. "As I thought." She mumbled before writing.

TheShadowOfMe: Anyone online?

And she waited. If no one came soon, then she would leave. Maybe she would start lurking around to see if the site got a cult following or not. But it didn't seem much worth the time if no one even cared about the site.

 

[Anino]

Kira had finished her homework. She had nothing to do, nowhere to be, no one to talk to. So she lay in bed. She'd lost track of how long.

Finally feeling restless, she got up from her rumpled, unmade bed and faced the mirror. She was still in her school uniform.

She stared at herself. Brown hair tied back in a ponytail. Brown eyes. Glasses she had gotten 5 years ago, when she was 13 years old. Unremarkable. She might as well have been invisible.

And most of the time she was. She wasn't pretty enough, or rich enough, or smart enough to be noticed. She was invisible in school and the rest of the world. And when she wasn't invisible, she was The Charity Case. The poor girl awarded the great opportunity to be educated among the privileged daughters of high society, and when they weren't ignoring her, those girls never let her forget it.

For the umpteenth time, she stared at her reflection and wondered if things would be different if she just looked... prettier. A splash of color caught her eye. It was a life-sized poster. A beautiful blond girl was singing into a microphone. The reflection of her beautiful eyes stared right into Kira, and she felt a flash of emotion she struggled to define.

Mirage. Beautiful, energetic, talented Mirage, who always spoke so kindly to her fans. Mirage whose first song had spoken so directly to Kira that she wondered if it had been written for her. She'd been a die-hard fan ever since.

Somehow, she knew Mirage understood. She was beautiful and talented and the exact opposite of invisible, but she understood Kira.

Feeling somewhat less down, Kira turned on her laptop and typed in the title of Mirage's debut single, The Shadow of Me. She would print out the lyrics, even if she knew it by heart. She'd put it beside the poster to remind herself thay Mirage understood.

After printing the lyrics, she idly checked the other search results. Song lyrics, song reviews, sites selling the abum.... and Laserbeam.net?

Clicking on the link took her to a site member list. It was small, the site seemed new, but one of the usernames caught her eye: TheShadowOfMe

Another quick look around the site confirmed that it was new. She'd never been a part of something like this... and it seemed like a site just for her too, a place to complain about appearances. Should she sign-up?

A quick look at the chatbox made up her mind. After a bit of thought for her username, she hurriedly filled out the sign-up details and logged in. She clicked back to the chat room.

TheShadowOfMe: Anyone online?

feeling nervous, but also a little excited, she replied,

JustAnotherMirage: I'm here.

 

[redblood]

Mai sat there minute after minute, just watching the screen. Nothing happened. "What did you expect?" She asked herself. What had she expected? It was a site with less than five members. Even if one were on a site with a hundred members it was usually hard to catch someone in the chat room.

Just as she gave up and started to bring the cursor to the log off button, someone wrote. Mai stopped her hand and gave her attention to the chat room again.

JustAnotherMirage: I'm here.

Mirage? Was it a fan? Maybe not. There were lots of movie characters that were named Mirage. It could be a reference to another song or album by other artists. Or maybe she just liked the word. Just another mirage. Just another illusion. What a fitting artist name she had chosen. She hadn't even thought about that before.

For a few moments she pondered over what to write. She had never interacted with anyone as someone else than Mirage. But she weren't Mirage now. What would Mai write? Oh well, whatever came just had to do. She started typing.

TheShadowOfMe: Hello :)

Her fingers lingered in the air for a second before continuing to write.

TheShadowOfMe: It's kind of tricky to find new sites like this one. Not very high up when googling yet. How did you come across it?

She felt almost nervous writing to the other person. She had no idea how to act or what to say to not seem like a complete idiot or weirdo. It was easy when she played a role, but now... Oh well, hopefully she didn't come off as completely insane.

 

[Anino]

A thrill of giddy excitement shot through her as she read the reply on the screen.

TheShadowOfMe: Hello :)

But what should she say? Thankfully a longer message followed before she could fumble a clumsy reply.

TheShadowOfMe: It's kind of tricky to find new sites like this one. Not very high up when googling yet. How did you come across it?

She pondered that a bit. It was true, she had scrolled through a lot of other links, maybe even a page or two, before finding the site. If she hadn't been searching for Mirage's song, she probably wouldn't have found it.

JustAnotherMirage: Yeah, that's true. I was looking for lyrics to a song called The Shadow Of Me... The site probably turned up because of your username...

Her fingers hovered over the keys before continuing. She had wanted to ask this question the moment she saw that member list. She typed hurriedly and posted before she could change her mind.

JustAnotherMirage: Do you know it, by any chance? It's by an artist named Mirage :)

Was she a fan, or was she not? Kira stared at the screen, her heart beating a little faster than usual, and waited for a reply.

 

[misspriss]

Miranda Cortez. Miranda Cortez. Miranda Cortez. Sometimes Miranda had to repeat it over and over to remember her name. 99% of the people she new called her Mandy May. Even her parents called her that. Her agent was the only one who referred to her as Miranda...in private. He found it crucial to keeping her identities separate. Every time she was on stage singing someone else's country lyrics, she felt it-that large boulder that fell from her heart to her stomach. This wasn't her, this was not who she wanted to be.

DANCE.
Now that is what she really wanted to do. Ballet was her passion and joy. Her parents had different plans for her. Growing up her family had lived in a 1 bedroom apartment in NYC. Miranda had slept in the room, while her parents slept in a makeshift bed on the living room floor. They insisted on treating her like a princess. They knew that with her beautiful looks, they just needed to find a talent to make her rich and famous. They spent every dime they earned to put her in dance, singing, and instrument classes. They pulled her out of dance though, when they realized that with a guitar and her country-strong voice they had found their money maker. They put the best agent on the job and Miranda found herself booking gigs very quickly.

Now Miranda lived in the 4 bedroom/2.5 bath guesthouse while her parents lived in the 7 bedroom/6 bath main house. When Miranda had bought the house, she offered the main house to her parents and without hesitation they moved in without even a thank you. Any time she complained to them, they painfully reminded her of all the sacrifices they had had to make.

She had just come from such a conversation. She walked the half acre to her house feeling very beat down and on the verge of crying. The downside to being a celebrity was that she didn't know who she could trust and she had yet to find someone she could. She sat at her vanity rubbing globs of makeup off her face. She had her laptop open beside her playing the best of Beethoven.

She plopped down on her bed with her laptop so extremely exhausted. But her sorrow trumped her sleepiness so she turned to the internet to maybe find some help.

GOOGLE SEARCH: Lonely, not the real me, have to hide, fake identity

She sifted through the listings. Most were suicide help sites. She wasn't that desperate. She finally landed on this page called laserbeam.net. She read through what it was about and liked what she saw. For the first time in what felt like ages, she felt a pang of hope in her chest. She quickly clicked the Sign Up button and filled out her profile. She filled everything out (with fake birthday, of course)...now what username to use? She finally settled on one:

pandalover

Amazingly the user name was available! There must not be many users on here. Oh well...at least she could type something out. She had started writing a post when she decided to go take a shower. Her time in the shower would take forever given her required beauty regimen.

 

[redblood]

Hmm... So she was a fan then. She weren't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. On one hand, she could finally see how her fans would act around here, even though it was on the internet, when they didn't know that it was her. On the other hand, how would she be able to talk about her other persona's work without giving anything away?

But she couldn't keep the girl hanging. Or could she? She could log of and lay the guilt on her internet failing. But she couldn't.

She looked at the last sentence once more.

JustAnotherMirage: Do you know it, by any chance? It's by an artist named Mirage :)

Then she typed

TheShadowOfMe: Yeah, I know about it. Incredible song ^^
TheShadowOfMe: Though personally I think she's lost her glow lately. Her first two albums were perfect, but now a days it doesn't feel like she puts her feelings into the texts. Honestly they do feel a bit forced. :/
TheShadowOfMe: Idk. Maybe she's stressed or something. Or maybe she's just changing her style a bit. But I hope she'll be able to make something as breathtaking as The shadow of me again.

It was a bit hard to talk about herself in third person, especially when she bragged about her own album or songs, but at the very least she didn't have to lie about it. Well, with the exception of her theory that she might be stressed or have changed style. The first one was true, the other one wasn't. Well, stress and lack of inspiration. Writing one song could take her months now a days, while The shadow of me and her first full album took a bit over a month all together. Now a days she had songwriters helping her filling an album, usually she only wrote two or three of the songs while others created the rest. But that was kept a secret.

She wondered if her fans even noticed it. Or if they just went with whatever she released no matter what it was. Her heart beat accelerated as she waited for the other person to write. Would she agree or disagree? Would she think her new albums has been better than the old ones? That would make her slightly disappointed. The things not written by her being better? That would hurt. But they were written by professionals, so maybe that was how it should be. Of course they knew better than her even though they didn't care a thing about what they wrote.

 

[Anino]

She read the reply and the first thing she felt was a strange relief. So she was a fan! And she liked The Shadow Of Me! She couldn't help herself from feeling a little happy.

Despite the fact that there were several fansites for Mirage, she had never been active in one. Fans mostly gushed about things like "omg how awesome was her outfit that concert?!?!?!" and "i know a shop with colored contacts that make your eyes look just like hers!". And while she did think that Mirage's outfits were cool and she was beautiful, those weren't the things she wanted to talk about. Mirage wasn't just clothes and a face to her.

However, as she read the rest of the reply, her little bubble of happiness at finding a fellow fan deflated a bit.

"Lost her glow" and "stressed out"? Kira tried to think back to any news about Mirage that might lead to those comments, but she drew a blank. Mirage was notoriously secretive about her private life, and she never got into trouble and headlined tabloids, unlike many other young artists. It was another thing about her that Kira admired.

Feeling a just a tad defensive for her idol, she typed her reply.

JustAnotherMirage: Yes, it's a beautiful song, isn't it? It's my favorite one :3
JustAnotherMirage: And I kinda see what you mean. The first album is my favorite too, but I don't think the later ones aren't any good. They just aren't as personal, i suppose?

Kira had noticed the slight shift in the contents of the later albums, but she had still liked them. She had a few favorites on those albums too.

JustAnotherMirage: She must be busier now compared to before, so I don't hold it against her if not every song is a hit... Tho I'll admit I miss the feel of the old albums... When I listen to them, I feel like I know her...

She read what she had just typed. It was a little too much, wasn't it? She hurriedly continued.

JustAnotherMirage: Oops, sorry! kinda went into creepy fan mode for a second, didn't I? XD

After entering her reply, she saw another user was online. The username was pandalover, but they hadn't posted anything so Kira went back to staring at the chat room, wondering if she hadn't just totally weirded the other person out.

 

[misspriss]

pandalover: Hey guys! What up?
Miranda finished her shower. She had clicked around the site she had left up, saving her draft for later. She had noticed two other people had posted in the chat room. What she wrote was so not like her and she had been in several chat rooms before, but she was always nervous when establishing herself in a new one. She was anxious to see what would be written.

Maybe she seemed too weird. Maybe she should show an interest in what they were talking about?

pandalover: So I see you guys are fans of Mirage. I think she's great, although I am not a die hard fan. Believe it or not I like classical music and jazz...any of that old stuff you can really dance to. Have you ever jitterbugged? So fun!

Maybe she shouldn't put the banana *click* Too late...

 

[redblood]

Mai stared at the screen. She felt as if she had offended the person on the other side o the screen. The girl seemed to be nice about it... Well, at least she thought it was a girl. Who really knew on the internet. But even though she were nice, she might just be holding back. Then came the last message. Phew, okay. She didn't seem too offended or angry about it. Mai doubted she would have apologized otherwise.

TheShadowOfMe: Oh, no worries. We all have different opinions and taste :) It would be a boring world if no one ever had a different opinion about anything ^^

That should get them back on the right track. Just as she sent it, someone else also posted. Pandalover. Hmm...

TheShadowOfMe: Hello Pandalover
TheShadowOfMe: I've never even heard of jitterbugging... But I don't dance much so. I prefer rock and pop. I only fall asleep if I listen to classical /(^^')\

 

[Anino]

Kira laughed a little at pandalover's post. She couldn't help it. It was that dancing banana's fault.

JustAnotherMirage: I can't speak for TheShadowOfMe, but I'm a huge Mirage fan :3
I know a little about classical music, but I'm afraid I haven't jitterbugged before. I can't dance >.<

She thought she should start a new topic for the three of them, since pandalover probabaly couldn't relate to Mirage-related stuff.

A little hesitantly, she typed

JustAnotherMirage: So what brought you guys to this site, if you don't mind me asking? :)

 

[redblood]

Yeah, what had brought her to the site? Mai had believed she had just typed random things into the google search bar, but honestly, how would she have gotten to such a forum that way? She remembered some words she had typed. Problems had been one word. Appearance had been another. Tired and stressed had also been some words, but she weren't sure if those had lead her to the site. Well, tired and stressed people would definitely complain on such a forum, so maybe they were tagged or something.

TheShadowOfMe: I was just bored and googled some random things. Eventually I just ended up here. I just wanted a place to rant on where no one would judge me for it, so this looked like a good place. Even first world problems need to be complained about sometimes ;)

She weren't going to pretend like her problems were the most important ones, or that she had it worse than most others. She had it pretty well. But sometimes you just needed to complain. Especially when being stressed out and tired of the so called perfect life.

 

[misspriss]

pandalover: Ugh. Just. Life.

Suddenly it felt odd to complain on the internet. These were real people somewhere, right? She wouldn't complain to the people she knew in real life, but then again she couldn't.

pandalover: I could start with my parents...always on my back about being perfect.