Chapter Text
“Now Violet, this will be your first solo assignment. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
Four pairs of eyes stare at her.
“Yes, Mr. Markham. I think I’ll be just fine.” Violet replies politely, internally rolling her own eyes.
It’s not like I’ve been interning here for two years on top of having been in this building with my mother since I was a baby…
“She’ll be fine, Markham. Our Violet is one smart cookie,” Dain’s father chimes in.
Violet thinks he must be trying to sound supportive, but Violet has been coddled and babied by him and everyone else in this fucking building since her mother gave birth to her twenty years ago.
Me. The immovable Lilith Sorrengail’s frail, sickly, weak daughter Violet, who could barely walk down a hallway without someone looking at her like she’ll shatter into dust at any moment. Violet thinks glumly.
Her Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome—or EDS—has become the most defining trait of Violet’s, closely followed by the unique hair birth mark where her long brown hair turns silver towards the ends of the strands.
Violet’s late father used to always tell her that those unique things about her were all because she was meant to “prove people wrong” or “stand out” or, his personal favorite, “because she was his own little silver lining.”
The silver in her hair has always grown back, even after the few times it has been cut—so now Violet never cuts her hair anymore than a trim of the dead ends.
The silver strands always make her think of her dad now.
Her dad would’ve hated that this is the direction she’s taking her career in; tabloid journalism was her father’s least favorite thing on the planet.
But to be doing it for her mother’s very conservative news station was just another nail in the coffin, considering how liberal Violet’s father had been. She always wondered how exactly her parents’ marriage worked as well as it did with them being on different ends of the political spectrum.
This is just a way to get my foot in the door. This is temporary. It’ll be great to have an internship at Navarre News on my resume once I graduate from Basgiath University. It’ll only be until graduation and then I can move on to something bigger and better. Violet thinks, not sure if she’s trying to convince herself or her deceased father that she’s meant to be working so closely to her mother.
She’d always had a strained relationship with her mother. Lilith Sorrengail was a formidable woman—strong, cunning, blunt, cold, intimidating. She’d served and fought in battles and wars, climbing the ranks of the Navarrian military all the way up to General with terrifying ease.
Lilith was exactly what men feared women could become if given the same opportunities they were granted—a powerful leader who could trample over anyone stupid enough to try to get in her way.
Violet often wondered what her mother could do with her life if she had been born a boy. She suspects successful complete world domination would not have been off the table for Lilith.
“I’ll be fine.” Violet assures the room again. “It’s just a simple assignment to go to this indie concert venue and write a review of the Marked Ones. Shouldn’t be too hard. I do those sorts of articles for the university paper of school events after all.”
She pointedly ignores tbe way the entire room scrunches their nose at the mention of which band she’s going to see.
Her mother just stares her down, looking the same as she always does.
Cold and entirely unimpressed by her third child.
Violet grew up with that look cast upon her for the majority of her life so she should be used to it by now.
She’d stopped wishing things with her mother could be different a long time ago.
“We know you’re capable, Violet. It’s not that we doubt your journalism abilities, it’s just… the subject matter you’ll be dealing with is very…” Mr. Markham trails off.
“Sensitive,” Dain chimes in.
“Divisive,” Dain’s father says instead.
“I’m just going to review an up and coming band, I don’t think it’ll even be that newsworthy. They got their start on YouTube, it’s not like they’re Beyonce or Taylor Swift. I think you’re all blowing this out of proportion. Who’s to say any readers or viewers of Basgiath News’ even care about this band?” Violet ponders.
This band being the infamous Marked Ones.
The group of six young men, all from Aretia or other provinces outside Navarre’s borders, did indeed start out making covers of songs on YouTube, slowly but surely becoming more popular as they went viral on various social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. They’ve got a steadily growing fanbase across the Continent, even in Navarre despite the bad blood between her home and the provinces that seceded. The size of their fanbase is actually very impressive considering where they started as teenagers just a few years ago.
Now all young men in their early twenties, the group has made quite an impression on pop culture. They’re also shaping up to be one of the most polarizing bands in recent memory.
One of Violet’s best friends, Rhiannon, is a HUGE fan of the Marked Ones. Not that Violet has ever really even watched their videos or listened to their music with her. She hasn’t.
(Okay, she totally has. She thinks they’re actually pretty good for starting out from nothing but a camera and their own instruments and putting themselves on the internet hoping someone clicks on their videos. She respects their ambition and drive, that’s for sure.)
Many people Violet knows besides Rhi are on the side that absolutely despises the band. Violet suspects their hatred comes more from who the parents’ of some of the band members were and the boys all not being Navarrians, but she keeps that to herself.
Her older sister and childhood best friend Dain would absolutely never let her hear the end of it if they ever found out she was a sort of fan of the Marked Ones.
So they’ll never find out. This will be the first article of her career, just a stepping stone to start her on the journalism path she’s been aiming towards her whole life.
It’ll be easy, Violet tells herself.
She’ll go to the concert, write the article as she’s been taught and trained to do, and then she’ll move on with her life, writing much more interesting, hard hitting stories and articles for Basgiath News.
She probably won’t even end up remembering this first shot at writing in the years to come. This whole thing will just be a blip on her radar.