LITTLE MISS CORNY

Let's start with the basics!

This is Goldstar, also known as Dallan (his real name), and I'll let you in on a little secret: his name... Dallan... is foreshadowing :3

Goldstar is a big celebrity of Midtown! He rose to this fame thanks to the incredible control over his voice (which, to begin with, was extremely clear and loud since he's got a more advanced speaker). In a world where all the music available is in any of the human languages, having a Companion write some in the language of their own people was immediately welcomed and praised by all of Midtown. Goldstar became famous very quickly, and his performer alias was just a nickname made popular because nobody could remember his real name during his first days of fame. (read: it was a placeholder I made when I still didn't know what to call him and it just. stuck)

But Goldstar didn't always exist, and Dallan wasn't always living the high life.

Brief backstory

He used to have nothing - nothing but his adoptive father and sister. They were all barely getting by, however... And eventually decided to seek help from the Outsiders.

What's that? Outsiders in Midtown? Oh yes, many of them. So many of them, you could probably build a village for just the Outsiders..............

:)

Midtown was full of Outsiders, but they had to stay hidden since their goals were thought to be the kind of destructive that would bring the entire city to its end. Dallan's father and sister were fully dedicated to the Outsiders' mission believing they'll have a better life outside of the Sentinels' reach. And Dallan... didn't. Not completely. But he was afraid to say it. He didn't want to lose the two bots he cared about most.

Unfortunately, being an Outsider in Midtown was far too dangerous, and Dallan's father would soon be caught by the Sentinels. Devastated, Dallan finally decided to leave the Outsiders, knowing he couldn't bear seeing his sister get captured as well. Ironically, living on his own is what got him captured after he got involved with some problematic bots of Midtown (one of them being... drum roll please.... Blazer!), but he was soon released with the help of someone who saw nothing but potential in him. This bot will also be the one who will make him as famous as he is today... But more on that later✌️

Is this dude an Outsider or not???

You didn't see that in his bio stop asking!!!!

Okay but I can't leave out the most important thing about Dallan:

he has an access to the Outside.

It was by pure luck that he discovered it, and unfortunately this happened after he left the Outsiders. He found a way to leave (I'm thinking maybe through like. a malfunctioned air filter? WC has air filters right????) and he became the first bot ever to leave to the Outside.

... not that anyone else will know that. The Outsiders were all gone by the time he discovered an exit (and he wouldn't be helping them anyway, considering his sister also ended up captured in the end...), and revealing this to anyone around him would be like asking to be killed. But he couldn't just do nothing about this discovery!!

Dallan keeps going back to the Outside to learn more about it. That's all. He's just curious. He doesn't expect to find a better home out here than in the city. He has no real goal in going Outside other than just to see something new and as a form of revenge on the Outsiders who screwed him and his family up.

Personality

Dallan is as charming as his fans make it sound; his presence livens up the room and you'll never find yourself disappointed in the amount of energy he brings to the party. Ever the optimist, he believes anything can be achieved with enough time and effort. After all, he wasn't always Goldstar! And the path to this life wasn't easy. He loves helping others learn this lesson in hopes he can make his friends and fans feel better when needed. He's inspiring, hardworking and passionate about his job - he was made to be a performer! Nothing makes him happier than a large crowd of bots screaming out his name - aside from putting on a show that they could only have dreamed of until now. But he's well aware of the secret he holds... One wrong move and his life will be over. Could he really let go of his discovery for the sake of his own safety? Maybe he should... But his stubbornness and belief that he's invincible due to his social status won't let him do so.

Okayy that's all for now :) I've been waiting for SO long for this one... Happy to finally be making this post!! Hope you like him and look forward to the rest of the story as much as I'm looking forward to sharing it🙂‍↕️ Thanks for reading, it's not as long as Kiran and Seamus series, but you still get a cookie for making it this far🤲🍪 see you all later in another post, cheers!

In this AU (which is currently nameless augh), things go a bit differently than in canon. Blazer doesn't betray Clementine - he doesn't get the chance to do so. After having her face plastered over every wall in Midtown, Clementine takes a different approach for her mission. She learns the town's routine, every face that lurks around the part of town she's hiding in and the subway. Every move she makes has been planned to the smallest of details and triple-checked (at least). So when Blazer appeared and offered help, she didn't believe him for a second.

Finding the truth behind this random dude and his eagerness to help (in short: it was a trap made by Raf), Clementine proceeded with caution. She accepted the offer only because Blazer knew his way around Neco's factory and would be most likely to get his hands on the item she needed. After that was accomplished (by the kitty, of course), Clementine disappeared from the residence and hid elsewhere. She bailed on Blazer, not showing up at the club as planned. Raf's trap fails, and Blazer gets in trouble for it, being forced to also run from home in order to avoid being arrested.

Kiran made it to Midtown not long after the cat. They and Clem reunited and worked together, with Kiran becoming an extra pair of eyes to survey the surrounding and gather more information on the residents, since they had all the social skills to do so without appearing suspicious. In the meantime they got to hear all about Clem's suspicion of Blazer and what her plans are to avoid getting caught again, so Kiran had learned to despise Blazer. But while they never got in contact with him, they did get in contact with another... problematic resident. And failed to mention this to Clementine on time.

They and Clem have a falling out and Kiran finds a secluded place to grieve and try to recover (more about this later). It just so happened, however, that this spot was Blazer's hideout as well.

And now we get to the scene pictured in the comic.

Kiran is handling several heavy feelings and fails to control them in the moment they finally meet Blazer. They lash out, and immediately get humbled. Blazer doesn't budge, doesn't blink, doesn't even try to get them off of him. This unbothered stance completely throws them off. But they refuse to leave. They don't know Midtown well enough to find another secluded spot like this quickly. So the two share it for the time being. Along with their troubles.

My favorite track is Secret Lab. It's mysterious, sad, like reminiscing the memory of an assumed-to-be-dead Doc. I liked it, but didn't think too much about it on my first play through.

Second playthrough I get to Antvillage and once I'm done talking to Zbaltazar I hear the mysterious motif (it's not a motif). I immediately do some digging to find stuff about the Stray soundtrack but didn't find much outside of just the audio and some piano tutorials.

My "motif" of interest is "included" in the tracks Communication, Secret Lab, Raft, and Antvillage. As much as I diss myself for my pathetic music theory skills, Communication and Antvillage actually DO share a motif. I dunno, maybe it's like, Zbaltazar's theme or something.

However, as I was making this post I decided to create some sheet music by listening to the tracks to analyze the notes.

And as you can see... THERE IS NO MOTIF shared between Secret Lab, Raft, and Communication/Antvillage. I thought those tracks sounded the same but my ears were DECIEVING ME.

My ears deceive me a lot in fact. The reason Antvillage/Communication isn't on there is because not only was I unable to identify a particular pitch, I couldn't even identify whether each note was higher or lower than the notes next to it.

Not only that, I tried to at least get a layout of how many notes there were, and then fill them in with pitches later. The section I wanted was nine notes, so I put down nine null-notes. However as I kept relistening to the track, I kept on hearing thirteen notes? Fifteen??

I'm so bad at music theory I sat there for an hour replaying that one section of Antvillage just for me to not only be unable to identify the notes, but I don't even know how many notes I'm SUPPOSED to identify. AND it didn't even match the motif I THOUGHT existed with Secret Lab and Raft. 😭