flash the camera!

❛ okay, real talk. ❜ kai's currently lounged across the couch in the green room, patiently waiting for her turn to go get dressed up for some photoshoot or something. she's bored, that much is clear. they'd never really liked media days. they were high-effort, low-reward, exhausting days that usually left her plopping into her bed and falling asleep without going through her bathroom routine. but she'd grown tired of scrolling on social media, so the next best thing ? bother whoever was unlucky enough to share the space with her now. ❛ would you rather give up kissing or all sauces ? ❜

ruby had finished striking her required poses and sat down across from kai. they were mid-zip with their thigh high platform boots when kai randomly asked a question that ruby knew the answer to with no hesitation. "i'm giving up sauces. are you kidding? no sauce could ever top a good kiss. haven't you ever had a kiss that sparked warmth from the top of your head to the tippies of your toes? haven't you had just one good honest kiss? c'mon, no brainer!"

" yep, if you have any job opportunities after this, just toss 'em my way and tell yourself it's because of my long-standing crush on you, " tone does enough lifting to supply the sarcasm to a straight face. " and because of that, i'll very graciously let you keep the sparkle and shimmer. " trin looks down at her own outfit, as if she's forgotten the typical uniform she was clad in: all black anything, both for practical purposes and matters of taste. or lack thereof.

"i knew it, i knew you loved me," ruby teased, pressing their hand against their chest. they pulled out their phone and quickly typed something in, forcing trinity to stay in her spot in a flash of silence. ruby then held it up, smiling at the blue glitter background she had just googled. "see? sparkle and shimmer would look sooo good on you, my darling." ideas started to swirl around in their mind. they sure loved a good makeover montage moment. and to do it on a cranky pants like trinity? perfection.

" you're heaven-sent, " they say in an appreciative exhale. it's then immediately squashed when elian is referred to as a mannequin, and they narrow their eyes in a glare. " i'm only your dress up doll today, ruby. remember that. . . " because if ruby had their way, elian would probably be head-to-toe in their clothing for the rest of the tour. it could be worse though, elian thinks. they could be stuck in kai's style. eeyuck.

"oh please, accept that i am your angel," ruby said with a jaunty roll of their eyes. they beckon over to the person they had called in a favor to grab their clothing options. unfortunately for this person, ruby had asked for at least an armful of wardrobe options to present to elian. "now what are we feeling for the replacement? flamboyant? demure?"

"ruby..." she called out. "damn bitch, slow down." while it wasn't the expected outcome, gemma knew ruby would take the loss harder than anyone. for obvious reasons. the two may butt heads at times but gemma still cared about her friend and wanted to make sure she was alright. she wasn't far behind ruby and saw her duck into a random utility closet and followed. "look, i know..." she totally forgot the rest of her thought when she realized what had just happened. "you've gotta be fucking kidding me..." she huffed. gemma picked up the broken knob in a failed attempt to reattach it. "fuck me," she groaned. "please tell me you have your phone on you right now to call lucky or literally anybody to get us out." gem had passed off her bag to an assistant before going after ruby. and of course, her phone was in the bag.

"look at me, gemma! i'm vacuumed into this dress, where the hell would the phone be?!" ruby cried out, twirling around in their beautiful baby pink gown that match the colors of the other cloverettes. under other circumstances, ruby would never be so mean to gemma, but she was crushed by the loss and now totally freaked out by this saw trap closet. "sorry, sorry, i'm sorry. but what do we do?! we don't have a phone!! who's gonna hear us in here?!" they continued to freak out, starting to hyperventilate.

ruby didn't take sol's response as a diss, but a piece of curiosity and desire to learn, of course! "oh my gosh, i can totally see how you would see that, but a basic t-shirt can elevated. like your outfit isn't bad at all, i just think it needs some pizazz! you're part of a huge band, you gotta stand out, y'know?!"

izzy should've known better than to start anything with ruby because she knew it was never going to get anywhere. she scoffed when they basically blamed everything on her. "that's fucking rich. are you seriously that fucking selfish that you think my behavior isn't a direct result of yours?" she never thought she would be talking to ruby like this, a person she used to consider her best friend. it felt like a scene from a movie about a daughter and her narcissistic mother to izzy. there might've been some truth to what ruby was saying but izzy couldn't hear that right now and all she could hear was the lack of accountability and all she could feel was the anger pulsing in her veins. "you literally sat us down, treated us like we were a stepping stone instead of a band, instead of a—" a family, she almost says. "don't..." she puts up her finger, almost wagging it like a disgruntled teacher, and then her hand. "don't turn this around on us. you can try to deflect and reverse the blame all you want but that doesn't change the fact of what actually happened." it felt like ruby viewed their departure of mulholland drive as merely a business move but izzy could not separate it like the other was so easily able to do. "you know, sometimes...even if we want to do something else, some people think about how it's going to affect others." izzy's so angry, she doesn't even think about how that could be interpreted as her also wanting to leave the band. she hopes ruby doesn't read too far into it, she hopes all ruby hears is the stuff she says about her and not herself. izzy hopes ruby is selfish enough to only focus on that. "but you never did, did you? all you ever fucking think about is yourself. oh, how will this better my career? you never once fucking thought about us and now you want us to consider you? fuck you."

"i never once fucking thought about you? if that was true, i could have just left without telling you! i would have thrown mulholland drive under the bus along the way, i would have made it my business to beg supernova not to choose the band for this freaking tour, whatever! you guys made it without me just fine - you never needed me!" ruby snapped, tapping further into their frustration. part of her did hate that mulholland drive did so well without her. they didn't like the idea that they were the problem because that would require a lot of self-reflection that sounded like way too much work. the other part of her swelled with pride because those were her friends who flew to stardom. but they weren't going to tell izzy that right now. not when she was being so unreasonable and mean! "you know, you aren't thinking about how it affects me at all, by the way? you are so blinded by rage and fixated on what i did, what i did, but you literally cut me out. you think that wouldn't hurt me? but who gives are shit about me, right? i'm a fucking villain no matter what i say or do."

"as if i would let you do that," lucky replied, jokingly making it about her to keep the mood light. she obviously didn't as much about the award as ruby, but even a small part of her was annoyed. what the hell was this all for if they weren't even recognized for it? she heaved a sigh and braced herself against a nearby table. "and what was with those execs that came up to us before we left the theatre?"

lucky being somewhat nice to ruby frayed her nerves a little. they must have looked so pathetic that even their sardonic friend felt the need to ease up. "after saving me from the vomit fest at glasto, now this... you might as well sing hero from starstruck to me. serenade me and make kale jealous," they said, the joke forcing its way out. they couldn't have a public breakdown, that would just destroy their reputation more than it has been. remembering the executives who approached them, she rolled her eyes. "that was so shady. it was like corporate speak for we're giving you one more chance to prove your profitability or something. that was just the cherry on top of this crap sundae of a night."

birdie preens like her avian namesakes when ruby calls her pretty, unable to stop the bright smile that sweeps across her face and the tint of warmth in her cheeks. her brain takes the feedback and files it away automatically, with an exclamation point, underlined and everything in bold: important. she needed to captivate. " thank you. seriously. i just worry i look crazy if i'm just smiling like— " she forces a wild looking smile on her face, and then drops it. " the entire time. and if i'm trying to look all muggy, i look miserable. "

ruby laughed at birdie's facial expressions, shaking their head at the memory of ruby herself trying to figure it out. "yeah, you look crazy doing that. you don't wanna pose like chucky or something. gotta train those face muscles to be fluid and whatnot. hit the expressions as they hit the beat. otherwise, you'll stand out in the worst way." ruby then presented their own example of what they meant, with a smile transitioning into a half-lidded stare-down without making it look clunky. "just takes practice."

@rubywus || lucky didn't know how she got separated from ruby at the after party, but it was her mission to find them again. she wondered during her frantic search if this was what a day in the life of trinity felt like, then again when she laid eyes on her again, looking miserable no less. "babes, i was looking all over for you," she played nice for once.

ruby was spiraling. this had to be one of the worst nights they had ever experienced. all of the noise around the after party was making aches shoot through their head as they tried to ground themself. lucky's voice cut through the buzz. ruby instinctively pasted an award-winning (ironic) smile to face her. "babes? whoa, you must think i'm about to jump or something," she forced out a joke. frankly, if she heard one more condolence about losing to her former band that she was fighting with, a scene will be made.

without knowledge of how or why, somehow kai had been left alone with ruby. she remembers walking in with lucky and ending up getting sort of directed in the same direction as clover. which would've been fine except at some point both gemma and lucky had dissapeared, leaving two people who have spoken to each other maybe twice alone to converse with one another. ❛ you, uh... excited for tonight ? ❜ it comes out awkward and hesitant, and kai has half a mind to smack herself but decides that would probably just make this whole thing worse. ❛ an album of the year nomination is pretty cool. ❜

ruby couldn't really see the appeal of kai for lucky. don't get them wrong, kai was very attractive on the outside! but every conversation that ruby's had with them so far has been... so blah. maybe this setting would bring something out for ruby to see! "the nomination is great. i'm buzzing, and i'm totally dying to see the results. i just feel like i-- we've worked so hard for this. and you have been too, right? it's huge that your band got nominated for something."

" no harnesses. maybe if you get stunt cast the broadway cast of wicked, i'll follow you to new york — bedazzled headsets, they're either on your sound cart or one of the white tables backstage. i gave a glue gun and the extra jewels if anything falls off to your guys' assistants if anything falls off during sound check. " trinity couldn't imagine bedazzled headsets were the thing to make or break a set, but she knew better than to add that opinion to her instructions.

"aw, trinity... you would follow me to new york if i get cast in broadway? i knew i had a special place in your heart!" ruby cooed, fluttering their eyelashes at trinity. maybe teasing the overworked manager wasn't the brightest idea, but hey! ruby was getting a little restless so why not? "maybe we can bedazzle your wardrobe some time. give some sparkle and shimmer."

“honestly, i don’t even know how you do it sometimes, hang around all these people who could never compare to you,” amy prodded ruby, maybe more than a little bit of her hoping that someone will overhear ruby’s less than gracious response. nothing career-ruining, but maybe enough to inspire a heated facebook comment section. and that was low-hanging fruit, the bat of an eyelash could provoke that! so amy was hardly wishing anything too terrible!

"that's just the way the earth spins," ruby lamented, twirling their finger in the air. "this is where the talent across the whole spectrum comingle. i'm not even top of the pyramid - even though i'm pretty close. but the bottom of the pyramid? yikes. we all gotta start somewhere though, right?"

ruby wasn't sure if they should be honest or be gentle with kennedy. she's been around for so long and witnessed so many burnouts that she's realized that you've just got to have the moxie to survive the industry. but ruby actually liked kennedy, which was rare for them. "honestly... you will always have some freaks out there who will cancel you any second. people like to watch people bomb out there, it's fun for them because they don't realize that we're not just entertainment," ruby started to say, realizing halfway that this didn't sound very encouraging. the birds that they were watching chirped and tilted their heads towards ruby and kennedy, so she lowered her voice further so they wouldn't get scared and fly away. "look, who gives a shit about everybody else? your band knows you can do what you can do, and that's why you're here. and me? i barely like anybody, and i think you're doing a solid thing. support from me is like the golden goose egg."

"hmm," she ponders for a moment. "i haven't decided yet, depends how the first one goes... a trial, if you will." gemma still wasn't thrilled, with a shrug of her shoulders. she thought ruby was joking at first but the more this conversation went on, she wouldn't put it past the other to follow through. "well it definitely ain't gonna be my tall ass. i'm too worried of hurting someone." she could only think of how it could go terribly wrong. "why you tryna be an adrenaline junkie now anyway? there's other ways to be in touch without risking injury, ya know," she chuckled.

"alriiight, boss," ruby sang, giving gemma a wink. "i don't know... being here is just pumping my adrenaline, and i don't know what to do with myself. i also am a known attention-seeker, as you are aware. don't agree too hard or i'll pretend to cry in front of everybody." they shrugged and sat back in their chair. "if you can help me think of other ways to get this extra energy out, then maaaaaaybe i'll rethink the stage diving thing. maybe."