章 101: Variety Show (3)

It seemed to work for a bit as the comments slowed in response, but then a line appeared that drove the fans into a frenzy.

- Rio: Hey Val, how are you doing? Feeling better? That tumble looked pretty bad. What did the hospital say? Do you have the report?

Sighing internally, Valentina put on a fake smile and held the report out, "Hi Rio, I'm good. Feeling much better. I do have the report here that I got from the hospital. Long story short, there are just some bruises and nothing more serious than that. I just need to rest, and I'll be good to go. How have you been, and hello to Senior Shawn as well."

- Shawn: Hey! Why is Rio just Rio, and I'm senior Shawn?! You know he's older than me! Don't be biased, Valentina! 😠

Seeing the angry emoji, Valentina burst out laughing, and seeing the image of a beauty giggling happily, the entire comment section froze before exploding.

- Beautiful

- My god, she's gorgeous

- Lick lick lick

- I see why they made her an angel; even looking at her skin in 4k HD, there are no pores in sight. I want whatever makeup she uses!

- Makeup??? Up above, haven't you seen her wiping her face? Her hands are clear! No makeup in sight!

- AI Editing?

- On a live? Grow up!

Ignoring the argument breaking out in the comment section, Valentina answered Shawn. "My bad, Shawn. How have you been?"

- Shawn: Busy prepping for our new album and doing some promo. Rio and I are so tired we haven't been able to sleep.

"Make sure you get some rest and eat your meals. Taking care of your body is the most important thing!"

- Shawn: Same to you, Valentina. That fall looked dangerous. I'm glad you're doing fine. Sorry that you had to go through that. I hope the conflict gets resolved and you get an apology.

"Aww. Thanks for caring." Valentina smiled at his caring words. As for getting an apology from Aaliyah, she was sure that would never happen.

Shawn's comment spawned a new line of questioning about her and Aaliyah's relationship, but she dutifully ignored them as another question caught her eye.

- Will the Fallen Angel's new album be a continuation of the old one? The ending of 'Bring Me to Life' was so sad! I want my Demon Rio and Angel Valentina to have a happy ending!

"Uhm, I can't speak on any details about their album since I truly don't know, but I'm sure you can ask Rio or Shawn on their socials about it." Valentina tried to deflect the question, but it seemed to invite a swarm of questions and comments as the 72 demonic pillars made their presence known.

- Stay away from Rio, you social climbing hussy!

- Is it bad that I want to see them together? The vibe between them is so cute.

- Rio, I love you!!!!

- Marry me.

- 🚂 🚂 🚂

- Why are you so close? It's my first time seeing my baby Rio joining someone else's live.

- Are you and Rio dating?

- Are you and Shawn dating?

"No! Absolutely not! We are not dating! We are simply friends." Valentina vehemently denied it while shaking her head rapidly.

- Is that a lie?

- Sounds sus.

- Why are you so close and friendly?

- Why was she giggling?

- Smile is looking a bit too bright there, Val.

- Did you notice she only called Shawn Senior and not Rio? Suspicious. I have to investigate.

- +1

"I assure you it's the truth. I am currently not dating anyone. As for Rio and Shawn, please ask them that yourself." She wasn't lying. It was technically true since she and Kaiser weren't dating.

- Rio: We're not dating. Please be kind. Next topic.

As Rio's message came across, the comments seemed to calm down a little, and Valentina couldn't help but wish for him to hurry up and leave. Her original topic had been derailed, and now it was just all about the Fallen Angels.

- Are there any bloopers from the MV? Or bts? Especially between Valentina and Rio and Shawn and Yuri? We want to see them!

- +1. I want to see more romantic scenes.

- Are there any scenes with Rio taking his shirt off?

- Valentina, how did you not fall in those heels?

Seeing the last one, Valentina hid a smile. She had fallen and had to be carried, but they would never see it if she had her way. As for the other questions?

"I'm not sure. You'll have to ask Rio or Shawn about that." Valentina calmly replied.

The next couple rounds of questions continued to be about The Fallen Angel's music videos and hidden scenes and easter eggs, and just as she wanted to end her life after repeating for the thousandth time that she had no idea, someone made a suggestion.

- Rather than asking Valentina, why don't all four of them be on a variety show together to answer some questions? We want to see you all interact since the chemistry seemed so good on camera.

- The chemistry was so good; I've never seen my dark Prince Rio vibe with another woman so nicely. And dark Shawn? My heartttt

- +1

- Up above, although my heart hurts because he is my husband, I'm willing to allow concubines if I can see his sweet face become emotional once again

- He's actually married to me, but I guess I can share because the chemistry between you two was too good to be true. If you told me you were in a relationship, I would believe it.

- +1

- Evil Shawn was sexy ngl. He can betray me any day

- Am I sick for enjoying Rio's tortured look?

- No. I also want to be the star-crossed angel to his demon and cause him emotional damage.

Valentina: "..."

Chemistry? Relationship? What were these crazy fans talking about??

"Uhm, I don't know about that. I was only a small-time actress in the music video, and it's very nontraditional to do something like that once our contract is over. I'm sure Rio and Shawn are quite busy as well…" As Valentina started to deflect again, comments rapidly filled up, encouraging her to join the two in a variety show of some kind, and she had to control her expression to maintain her smile.

Although she had a task to complete, she was already mentally exhausted from dealing with Rio's fans and their delusions. She could only imagine how much worse it would be if she went on the show.

Unfortunately, she was destined to be disappointed.

Rio: Good idea. I'm looking forward to reuniting with such a great cast. We can treat it like a promo since it's submitted as a short film to awards.

Shawn: I'm down; let's bring the gang back together.

Fallen Angels: Let's set it up. My people will contact your people, Valentina. See you soon.

Rio has left the live.

Shawn has left the live.

Fallen Angels has left the live.

Seeing the stream of heart eyes as they left, Valentina blinked before laughing with joy as they were finally gone.

"Well, thank you to the Fallen Angels for joining. Any other questions before I leave?"

Thankfully, the questions took on a normal tone with Rio and Shawn's departure.

"My favorite junk food for dinner? I really enjoy chicken wings. The spicier, the better."

"What do I do during the day? Usually, I read scripts to practice acting; I try to take a walk daily, I play video games every now and then, and I read novels occasionally to pass the time."

As she got comfortable on the chair, propping her feet up as she answered questions, the tone of the comments began to change.

- Hey, wait, that chair looks familiar. Isn't that the Aresline Xten chair?

- Up above. I looked it up, and you're absolutely correct. That chair is worth 1.6 million dollars. Crazy!

- Valentina, where did you get the chair from?

- Valentina, are you from a rich family?

- Valentina, are you a nepo baby?

"I am not a nepo baby." She didn't realize that the things in Kaiser's office were of such high quality, although she should have expected it.

- Lies. Look at the background behind her. That's not a backdrop; that's an estate. Look at the garden and the fountain! It's crazy!

- Valentina, who's house is that? I thought you were a poor artist.

"I am a poor artist," she chuckled before continuing, "I came to visit a friend. This is their house and the stuff I'm using. Look, this is my personal phone. It's an older model." She held her cell phone up for them to see.

- Pfft. Don't believe her, look at the clothes she's wearing. That's a limited-edition ad*das x P*kémon collab. If you're not a big fashion brand or influencer, you couldn't even sniff of getting it. And those shoes are the Jordan 1 Retro Knicks. It is still sold out to this day.

- Up above correct. Also, look at the clips in her hair. Those are high-quality Swarovski crystals, and the centerpiece is an actual diamond. Source - I'm a jeweler

- And I'm your mom. Stop lying.

- You're talking about crystals; I'm still stuck on the 1.6-MILLION-dollar chair!!

- Has anyone looked at the laptop? That's the MSI GT77. It starts at 12k! And she has it there covered in kiddy stickers!

- Nepo baby unlocked

- Nepo baby confirmed

-Nepo baby revealed.

Valentina couldn't help but laugh as she read the comments.

Nepo baby?

She wasn't a nepo baby. If she was, would she have to be working this hard? Laughing to herself, she didn't bother denying it anymore and skipped past and continued reading comments.

- Where did you get the stickers? I see a*imal cr*ssing, p*kemon, minecrafft, splat**n, mar*o. Valentina, are you secretly a gamer?

- no way she's this pretty, an actress, and secretly a gamer. What a bot

- bot confirmed

- NPC

- She's an NPC fr

I bet she put those up to look cool and bought them of T*mu

"The laptop is owned by my friend Kid, who is like a little nephew to me. I wouldn't say I'm a gamer, but I do play video games every now and then. Look, I even have calluses on my hands." She wiggled her fingers.

More correctly, she accompanied Luca in playing games throughout her stay when he came to her. Throughout her time here, she had played so many games her fingers had actually developed calluses from pressing the controllers made to fit Luca's small hands.

Thankfully, she had gotten decent and could win one out of every 2 or 3 games, which would sound impressive if she wasn't playing against a literal four-year-old. Still, she was proud of her improvement, especially when the little nugget laughed happily.

- What do you play, Valentina?

- What's your favorite game and system?

"My favorite game? My little nephew is partial to n*ntendo when I play with him, so I really like animal cr*ssing and s*per sm*sh br*s. I'm not too bad at M*rio K*rt either."

- Who do you main in Smash Valentina?

"Main?" she titled her head and asked in confusion at the term.

- See. She's a bot. She doesn't even know the terms.

-Maybe she's a casual.

- Main is your main character. Who's your favorite character to use?

"Favorite character in Smash? Zero-Suit Samus, Ness, and Lucas, of course. Back throws for the world. Oh, I also like Princess Peach and Isabelle. I like their character design and move sets quite a lot, especially Isabelle. Who knew throwing somebody with a butterfly net or fishing rod and smashing them with a radish or a stop sign could be so fun." Valentina responded with a laugh, her green eyes sparkling as she imagined the scene.

The comments momentarily paused as if people were stunned by the sight, and then they began streaming in rapidly.

- How do you know that Valentina? Did you look it up?

- Yo. Do you actually play?

- Bffr!

- Be honest. You play fr?

- Aint no way!!

- Fraud!

- You looked it up, didn't you? Show me your hands! Where's your phone?

"I did not look it up."

- Fake. She's a nepo baby.

- She definitely looked it up, there's no way she plays

- Nah, she plays for real.

- She's calling out moves irl. Bro, she plays. Ask her another question.

As the comments began grilling her about the details of the game stickers on Luca's laptop, she laughingly answered each one while wondering how she had gotten on this topic. As the time she had been on the live slowly approached two hours, she decided to end it.

"Thank you all so much for chatting with me today. I'll talk to my team about possible streaming gameplay, and please tune in when I join the Fallen Angels on a variety show. Thanks again. I love you all. Bye!"

After making sure the camera was off, she logged off, and everything was disconnected. She sighed in relief.

What an interesting live. Apart from the few people who asked about her injuries in the beginning, most of the questions were about the Fallen Angels and then gaming, which was an odd turn of events.

Not a single one about her acting and her roles. Still, as long as people were happy, she supposed it was fine.

After creating a post thanking people for joining and photos of her medical report, she decided to go back to her room to call Rio and Director Loewe. She needed to figure out the filming schedule and plan for the variety show she had been roped into doing.