All Great Stars Burn Out

A Change of Scenery

A year. That's how long it's been since the rock revolution. All the NSRtists had gotten their acts together, by now. Things were starting to go back to normal, even for Neon J. His factory was nearly done with repairs, by now. Everyone was working hard to get the city back to complete normalcy, by this point, and everyone was doing much better, now, than ever before.

Well, everyone but one NSRtist. Here DJ Subatomic Supernova was, at his desk, head down as he absentmindedly traced some cracks on his helmet with his fingertips. He was... exhausted. Not much had changed, for him, besides his already stressful schedule becoming more and more stressful. Especially now. His phone went off every few seconds, but he didn't bother to answer. He just remained there, with his head down, trying to relax, even a little.

After his last satellite was destroyed, he began trying to make a new design, but after countless rough drafts and trashed attempts, he simply gave up on it. He wanted nothing more than to be known across the whole galaxy, but given his current situation, he could probably just figure it out, later.

He finally sat up, letting out a deep sigh. The cracks were happening quite frequently, as of late, but he did his best to keep away from others, not let anyone notice. It hurt like hell, but quite frankly, the cracks were merely surface level, nothing serious, and his head hurt almost all the time, anyway. He hardly ever got decent sleep anymore, staying up late at nights while trying to force himself to work on his music, attempting to get back to normalcy, but it just wasn't working.

He looked down at his phone, mostly looking at the time. It was 6:30pm. Too late for him to really feel like going out for anything, but too early to go to sleep. He got up and went to get another Mr. Dodo Ice Pop, wanting to save SOME coffee for tomorrow, as he was beginning to run out, and really didn't feel like trying to get more today. It was... a little sad, considering he'd just gotten more coffee less than a week ago.

He looked out his window as he tried to think. His head was in agony as he tried to have even the vaguest idea of how to make his next song. He'd need it to be good, considering he missed a concert yesterday. To make things worse, he also missed two monthly meetings, now.

He couldn't believe he did.

He was so angry he let himself be so lazy. He was so annoyed by his whole situation. He just wanted things to go back to normal, but he couldn't even bring himself to work on the satellite, anymore. Hell, he couldn't even bring himself to go out, more often than not.

He went back to sit down, and looked at his phone as it went off, once again, expecting another call from Tatiana, demanding to know why he missed this concert, but paused. Reading the name of the contact, he visibly tensed, taking a moment to rub his eyes - well, helmet - a little, before reading it again.

Neon J, the manager of 1010, was calling him. Why? He couldn't have been worried, right? Nova knew he couldn't stand him, and the feeling was mutual. Why on earth would Neon of all people call? Could it be important? Did one of the robots get stuck in his district, or something? He heavily debated outright declining the call or just letting it ring, but the more he thought about it... the more it got to him. So, he picked up the phone.

"... You actually picked up?! Holy shit, you're alive!!"

Neon's voice boomed, making Nova groan, a little, bringing the phone a bit away from his head. Neon laughed, a little, but then he was silent, for a moment. Then, an audible sigh was heard.

"Sorry, just... I'm amazed you picked up for me, of all people."

Nova was thinking the same thing.

He quickly composed himself, clearing his throat, a little, and speaking, trying to hide how exhausted he clearly was. "Yes, well, I suppose I wasn't expecting you, of all people, to call, so I thought it might be important," he muttered, voice quieter than he meant for it to be.