Title: Controversy Sells
Author: Cold Nostalgia
Disclaimer: Don’t own. No profit. Don’t sue.
Claim: Jem and the Holograms
Prompt: Debt
Characters: The Misfits, Stormer, Kimber
Word Count: 386
Rating: PG
Summary/Warning: The Misfits could have been selling anything. Slash if you squint.
She wakes at the crack of dawn. There’s barely enough time to shower, dress, grab a cup of coffee, before she leaves for the early morning interview.
Normally she hates interviews, but for once Stormer’s excited about the prospect. When in Rome is their finest record to date and the possibility of being asked about it; the creative process, the ideas behind it, is enough to keep her mood buoyant and the smile on her face genuine.
Deep down she knows they won’t be asked about the new record. When people think of The Misfits, they never think of the music. It’s understandable really, but it doesn’t stop Stormer from hoping that once, just once, they won’t be asked about pointless rivalries or who they’re sleeping with.
It’s a futile wish, but Stormer didn’t make it this far by being a realist.
The others are twenty minutes late in getting to the studio, the interview gets stopped half way through when the host asks Roxy a delicate question about her childhood back in Philadelphia and she threatens to put him in hospital. They are collectively told never to darken the door of Channel Five again.
In terms of publicity the interview is a triumph, When in Rome is at the top of the Billboard Charts the very next day and their latest video is played non-stop on every music channel.
For Stormer, the entire thing is a disaster. The Misfits could have been selling anything; soap powder, dishwashers, personal stereos - it didn’t matter. Controversy sells, controversy will always sell. She just wishes she hadn’t spent six months of her life and so much of her soul trying to put the blasted record together.
Days after the event, Kimber comes to see her. Just like always, she tries to get her to leave The Misfits and go solo, maybe even form her own band.
Stormer’s reply is the same as it always is: she can’t, she’s in Pizzazz’s debt, she will always be in Pizzazz’s debt, without her she’d still be playing in coffee houses to disinterested customers. Stormer knows it’s a stupid argument since she thinks she’d probably be a hell of a lot happier.
It’s just that if she took Kimber’s advice then Stormer would be forever indebted to her.
And somehow that was infinitely worse than being under Pizzazz’s thumb.