Lacey

Chapter 5

James: August 1st, 2023

Two days until the deadline and I still hadn't finished the application yet. The questions really are weird. I wondered to myself if Corianna was right.

What's worse, though, is that I was completely stuck in writer's block for everything. Articles, video scripts, even Tweets and Reddit posts. I had not updated in a few days on any of my socials besides retweets. While that wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't stuck in a sludge of no creativity, the last time I had writer's block lasted for a month. I lost over a hundred followers from an initial two thousand then. Thank goodness I now have 30K on Medium and Vocal.

With seemingly no way out of my creative sterility and only a few days left, I contemplated giving up on applying.

Maybe it just isn't worth the hassle, I thought.

Part of me didn't want to give up yet, but I definitely needed a break. I went onto Discord. None of my online friends or mutuals were online. So I checked out the official Music Refined server.

For a publication known for being insanely exclusive, the chat was rather chaotic. There were anime GIFs being plastered all over in the general chat and writers arguing about Machine Gun Kelly.

I messaged a simple "Hello" to the server. For a brief moment, everyone seemed to calm down. A few greeted me back.

Orion (08/01/23, 7:59 PM): Hello there!

Animemc (08/01/23, 7:59 PM): Hey there

Lacey Hannah (08/01/23, 8:00 PM): Hiiiiiiii, what's up dude?

The last message startled me. I hadn't seen that phrase since last summer. I've only ever heard it from one person: Augusta.

Augusta used to be my other best friend. At times, we were even closer than Darian and I. We only ever knew each other online, but she felt like family to me. I'd half-jokingly call her a sister sometimes.

Those days are long gone.

She wrote articles like me and also posted on TikTok. Also past tense. Augusta doesn't go onto public social media anymore - assuming she told the truth. And honestly, it's for the better.

While trying to calm down, I noticed Lacey's avatar. It was a sullen dark skinned blonde Picrew with medium length hair and brown eyes. Photoshopped onto it was a dreamy filter - almost the exact same one Augusta used to use.

This can't be Augusta, I thought. She'd never be so blatant with an alt account.

Still, I spent several minutes combing through Lacey's socials and messages.

I started with her Twitter. The bolded name was Lacey Hannah, with the handle being the simple laceyhannah. Her bio went like this: She/they, writer and rambler. I unwind here. Lacey's Tweets fell into four main categories. Generic cute animal memes, promoting her content, small talk designed to be #relatable, and pop punk. Not even only respectable pop punk like Paramore, Avril Lavigne or Fall Out Boy. Nope. She just had to go with Olivia Rodrigo fangirling on top of those. At least she seemed to like me, though. She retweeted a few posts of mine and followed me.

Next, I checked her YouTube. She had been trying to make it big in music there. Unfortunately, for her, there were quite a few things going against her. One, a low subscriber count of 43. Two, too many original songs and not enough covers to gain a fanbase first. Three, a singing voice that while good was hardly consistent video to video.

Finally, Medium. Unlike me, that was the only place she wrote long form. She didn't post often. Her articles tended to center around pop music and rap, with a dash of actual rock here and there. Turned out, she wrote for Music Refined before. I read her article on a Sex Pistols song where she rips and tears into every detail. I may not have been into the band all that bunch, but she clearly didn't know what she was talking about. Most damning was an article from 3 years prior where she confesses to having never heard a hard punk song in her life.

Returning to the Discord server, I scrolled through Lacey's latest messages. She had only been in the server for a few days, but everyone liked her as a texter. They participated in her playful banter and replied to her meme posting. I both felt déja vu and didn't.

Stupid you, I thought to myself. If you can't write, at least spend more time trying to eliminate your competition.

I checked the Music Refined server channel for editor questions. Sure enough, Lacey was also applying to the editing team.

Lacey Hannah (07/30/23, 5:00 PM): For the questions which aren't asterisked on the editor application form, do we still have to answer them?

Micah Turner (07/30/23, 5:06 PM): You can if you want to! There's no requirement, but it's a great way to show off your personality.

Lacey Hannah (07/30/23, 5:07 PM): Alright, thanks.

The time was 9:00 PM. Even though it was late, I felt rejuvenated. The motivation to finish up that damn application was back in store for me. There was no way I'd let Lacey take an editor position. Not when she was a sleazy sellout with no idea what true punk was. Sure, I didn't know an awful lot either. But at least I wasn't into juvenile wannabes like Lacey was.

I wasn't just doing it for me either. Lacey was the pinnacle of everything wrong with beginner publications. Her articles were light and fun, yes, but they were just that: light and fun. And being light and fun shouldn't be what cuts it in this sphere. Lots of people - like me - worked their asses off to get the engagement they dreamed of. It wouldn't be fair for Lacey to win.

(Tumblr version: https://www.tumblr.com/talesfromasnarkylisa/763503011114975232/lacey-chapter-5?source=share)