Rewind With A Superstar System

<🎧 Song Recommendation: Hate It Or Love It by Kanye West, 50 Cent>

...

[A Bloodied Mouth, A Guitar Caught While Flying, And A Song That Doesn’t Exist: Was Von Varley’s Tour Opener The Best Show America Has Seen In Twenty Years?]

[There is no need to introduce Von Varley. The man has barely left a trending list all year.

At twenty, he is a 15x Platinum singer, songwriter and rapper with a No. 1 album, a shelf of No. 1 singles, and a lead role in Perfect Ruins, which took the People’s Choice Award in Toronto only weeks ago.

And clearly, he isn’t done making waves. Partnering with Vanguard Apparel and V-OMEN, the sub-label he founded himself, he announced a debut tour across North America. Twenty-six shows, twenty-one cities, October 2nd to November 29th.

Last night in Miami, he played the first one. And this morning, the problem isn’t finding a highlight to write about. It’s that there are too many of them.

It started before anyone even sat down. The PARADOX collection dropped its first piece at the arena, and only at the arena. A laceless foam boot, thirty designs, forty-nine dollars.

Within hours, people who couldn’t get tickets were watching strangers online walk around in dolphins and cactuses and openly saying they regretted their entire evening.

But it still cost just 99 dollars to pre-order at the official store which is still an insane price for the quality.

Then there is the flying. He sailed the air across the Kaseya Center, forty feet above a crowd that reached up at him with both hands, while he sang live. The agility on display has left thousands of people arguing about whether what they watched was even possible.

There is also the small matter of the blood that didn’t look like make-up in any form. But the quietest surprise might be the biggest one.

The consensus forming this morning is that Von Varley simply sounds better live than he does on record, which is not a sentence written about pop artists very often anymore.

And then he closed with a new song nobody expected. The song captured the hearts of the entire audience, and is currently circulating the entire internet despite it not being officially released.

Which brings us to the part worth remembering.

Three days ago, someone leaked everything in this show. But now, Von has given us something beyond what the leak ever predicted. It’s just insane.

Whoever paid for that leak didn’t sabotage anything. They ran his marketing campaign for free.

The only question now is whether he can do it again and if he has anymore surprises for us.

— Camille Okafor, The Front Row]

The post on X was already garnering hundreds of thousands of likes, and that was just the beginning.

Over on Instagram, the official slideshow post uploaded by Max had already crossed three million likes in just a few hours.

The high-definition shots of Von soaring above the crowd, the glowing fiber-optic suit, and the guitar solo in the middle of falling petals were everywhere.

Driven by the viral wave, Von’s personal Instagram follower count had exploded to a massive twenty-four million, an absurd number compared to other artists at his stage.

Sitting on his bed in the quiet room, Von’s face broke into a wide smile as he took in the sheer speed of it all.

He tapped into the comments on Max’s post, leaving a few replies to the top comments before the heavy weight of exhaustion finally caught up with him.

It was almost four in the morning when he set his phone on the nightstand and closed his eyes.

***

(October 2nd, 2020)

Von woke up around two in the afternoon.

He lay still on his back for a moment, doing the math in his head. He had gone to sleep at four. Ten full hours.

His hip immediately informed him that it had strong opinions about yesterday’s stunt.

[Ding!]

[Quest: Daily Task]

[Description: A body that flies must first survive the landing.]

[Objective:

○ Complete a full resistance session (0/100%)

○ 12 minutes of ice immersion (0/12)]

[Rewards:

● +40 EXP

● Stamina Recovery Pill]

Von squinted at the second objective with a faint smirk. It felt almost funny seeing it written out, considering Tobias had given him that exact same advice last night.

Recognizing the necessity, Von dragged himself out of bed and headed down to the mansion’s private gym.

He pushed through a structured resistance session he found online to stabilize his joints before filling the spa tub with ice blocks and submerging himself for twelve grueling minutes.

It took a while, but eventually Von heard the sweet words;

[Objectives Complete!]

[+40 EXP]

Even after the ice bath, Von still wanted a hot shower to wash off the chill. So he rinsed himself clean, changed into a comfortable shirt and sweatpants, and headed downstairs.

***

The rich aroma drifting from the kitchen smelled like heaven to Von as he climbed down the stairs.

Von stepped into the main dining space, savoring the flavors in the air. "Good morning, Marcello!"

The old chef turned away from the stove with a wooden spoon held high in one hand.

"Ah! He is awake!" Marcello threw his free hand into the air. "Buongiorno capo!"

"What did you make?" Von asked with a smile, sliding into a seat at the kitchen island. His stomach let out an audible rumble, completely unbothered by the late hour.

"Ossobuco. I start him at eleven this morning, so he is only three hours, but three hours is enough when the veal is good." Marcello was already plating a generous portion.

"And the risotto Milanese underneath. You eat all of it. You are too thin from all that jumping."

Von chuckled, not offering a single argument. He was more than ready to clear the entire plate.

As he picked up his fork, Marcello leaned against the counter, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Signore Von. I watch you last night. The way you go up in the air. And the blood, my God."

"Sorry about that part..."

"No, no, it is beautiful." Marcello waved a hand dismissively, though his expression turned slightly wistful.

"I only think... I wonder if maybe one day you go and perform in Italy. It is a very beautiful place, Capo. Very beautiful. You would like it."

Von smiled around a mouthful of risotto. "I don’t think I’ve got many fans in Italy, Marcello. They speak Italian over there."

"Pfft. Music does not speak Italian."

"Fair point." Von laughed softly. "Maybe one day, then. Who knows."

Marcello nodded gently. "Have you been to Italy?"

"Nope, never been there. But I hear it’s a great place with incredible food."

As the conversation settled, Von turned the thought over in his mind while he finished eating.

A number one album, a movie, a fashion brand, an arena tour, and yet the only time he had ever stepped foot outside the United States in his entire life was for a quick trip to a film festival in Toronto.

He had the money now. He had held onto substantial wealth for months, but it had simply never occurred to him to buy a plane ticket for anything other than work.

’Perfect Ruins 2 shoots in Spain,’ he thought to himself. ’If the first film performs. If they greenlight the sequel. If, if, if.’

That was a year away at minimum.

Von chased the last grain of risotto around his plate before looking up. "Marcello."

"Capo."

"This is unfair. You cook better than me and I hate it."

Marcello beamed, his chest swelling with pride at the compliment.

Von headed into the living room, catching Alex just as he dropped a set of car keys into the decorative bowl near the archway.

Alex and Conor had been staying at the Pinecrest Mansion since tour rehearsals started to keep logistics simple.

"Where are you coming from?" Von asked.

"Guitar shop in Little Havana." Alex held up a hard-shell instrument case. "Wanted a tech to check the neck after you caught it out of the air like a psychopath. It’s fine, by the way. Barely a scuff."

"Told you it would be fine."

"No," Alex deadpanned. "The argument was whether you would be fine, not the guitar. Well, at least you’re walking."

Von opened his mouth to reply, but his eyes dropped to the floor, and he immediately had to fight to suppress a laugh.

Alex was wearing Exo boots. Not the standard forty-nine-dollar pair, but an exclusive design from the premium line. They featured a thicker sole, a sharper silhouette, and retailed for two hundred and ninety-nine dollars.

The pair on Alex’s feet had a distinct Labubu theme.

Von had selected every single artwork in that premium lineup himself.

He remembered, with clarity, how the entire world had lost its mind over that specific ugly-cute character trend in a few years’ time, and how much money had been made by those who capitalized on it early.

And judging by the fact that Alex was wearing them right now, the strategy was working.

"What?" Alex asked flatly.

"Oh, nothing. It’s just your boots. They look great!"

Alex looked down at his feet, realizing what Von was looking at.

"Aren’t they perfect? They’re so fresh. I still don’t believe you designed these.... Why are you laughing?"

Von stopped covering his mouth and let out a full laugh. "Why are they pink?"

Alex’s jaw tightened slightly. He looked up at the ceiling for a second before giving the most wry smile Von had ever seen on his face.

"...These were the only ones left in my size."

"Yeah." Von turned and started walking toward the corridor. "Yeah, I totally believe you."

"They were!" Alex called after him.

Von took four steps down the hall before stopping. He leaned back around the doorframe and checked in. "Hey. Have you seen Emily this morning?"

"I dropped her off on my way out." Alex was still looking down at his footwear. "She said she had a mountain of work to organize before our shows outside Miami."

"Ah, got it. Thanks."

Von headed down the wing toward the private recording studio. Patch was still staying at the estate and helped with audio engineering whenever needed, but these days, Von handled the vast majority of the production work himself.

He dropped into the leather chair behind the mixing desk, spun around once, and pulled a fresh notebook toward him.

There were only two days left before the second Miami date.

The pledge he had made to himself was still with him; no two nights on this tour would ever be identical. While rebuilding a set every night was a massive undertaking, Von knew he could execute it.

And the most powerful way to shift a show was through the music.

Launching a new song for every city was already an ambitious target. Dropping a brand-new track for every single show was practically impossible.

’It doesn’t matter,’ Von thought, tapping the pen against the wooden surface. ’I’ll get as close to that standard as humanly possible.’

He tapped the pen in a steady rhythm.

’This next track won’t be ready by Sunday. So for Sunday, Blinding Lights runs again, but the stage surprise will be something completely different. The new song goes to Orlando.’

Which meant he needed to select the next track now.

Choosing a song was far more complex than people realized, because the process wasn’t simply remembering a hit from the future and copying it.

Take Blinding Lights. In the timeline he had originally lived through, that track had existed under the title Overdrive.

It had been one of his personal favorite songs, but it had never achieved mainstream dominance back then, topping out at around seventy million streams on Musify by the time of his death.

Von had always loved the foundation of the record and knew it possessed massive potential, which was why he chose to completely rebuild it.

The original demo had been built on a synth patch that didn’t exist in this era, so he had spent four hours working alongside Patch to reconstruct the tone using hardware that did exist.

The final version they created ended up colder, harder, and far more energetic than the original demo had ever been.

The original draft had also been written in a key that felt awkward in his chest. He had transposed it up a full tone, which completely transformed the power of the chorus.

He had rewritten the verses to match his updated vocal range, and while the original demo had contained zero live guitars, adding that flying solo had turned into the centerpiece of the entire performance.

So no, it wasn’t just remembering.

It was standing in front of an unfinished idea that only he could hear, and deciding, piece by piece, how to elevate it into a masterpiece.

’Which is why picking the next track matters so much.’

Von leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes, letting the vast catalog of future records turn inside his mind.

A stadium anthem? He already had four in his current rotation, and it felt too easy.

A rock-infused track for Alex to shred over? Possibly, but Von wasn’t fully convinced yet.

He kept scrolling through the mental vault.

And then, one specific melody surfaced in his mind.

’This might just be it.’