My Universe (OPEN)

[lancelot ray linley]

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Streaming the music first would probably be the most economical way for him to get a good grasp on k-pop and the likes, but there was something enjoyable about being able to pop a CD into a player. Plus these boxes were all intricately detailed. He was starting to understand why fans were rabid for them, and that was all before even listening to the music. Georgie would kill him if she found out he spent too much of their money on more music related things, but she also did a poor job of going with the motions and just living at times. Not everything needed to be life or death anymore. There would be a day where one of them moved out of their shared apartment and then things would probably get really tough. But that wouldn't happen over a silly CD. Maybe.

"Maybe whatever the most popular one is?" Lance inquired. That was probably a stupid way to put it, because he knew by reputation alone that every single one of these albums was considered the best in some shape or form. "Or whatever the cheapest one is. Start small with one and grow from there if I like it," he added. That was a smart way to do it. Then his sister wouldn't freak out a month from now when she fully moved into the flat. Dozens of boxed albums would look highly suspicious, and there was no way he could pass off k-pop as a work thing. If only he had the ability to expense things for research purposes. That would hopefully come one day, if he ever managed to start producing music. Then again, at that point there would be enough money that expensing something so cheap wouldn't make sense...

"Unless you have any recommendations. I always try to take those..." Lance's gaze had fallen on another one of the brightly colored box sets, it's sheen catching the fluorescent lights of the grocery store. Even if he picked it up and tried to read it, he'd never succeed. There had to be a quick translation spell out there, right? Because that would save the headache of looking on wikipedia or whatever. Lyric translation sites were plenty, thankfully, but he was more interested in everything else supplied in the boxes. The only thing he really didn't need were photographs or postcards of the band members. That seemed a bit much.

yara leila el fayed ● 404 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[yara leila el fayed]

May 14, 2026

"Maybe whatever the most popular one is?" the young man considered after she had asked him which of the albums he was most interested in buying. That wouldn't be hard for Yara, seeing as she knew the answer to that question right away. "Or whatever the cheapest one is," which was also an option—and not an unreasonable one. "Start small with one and grow from there if I like it."

Yara began to glance over the prices of the albums. Because they were imported, they were slightly more expensive than they actually should have been, but that had been far less of a concern for her. She had the money at her disposal, though she also knew not to make a show of the fact that she did. While some people would buy out all the albums because they could, that wasn't her.

"Unless you have any recommendations. I always try to take those…"

Trying to strike a balance between not making the young man purchase anything that he didn't actually need and wanting to ensure that he got introduced to some decent Korean pop music, Yara looked at the inventory available to them. "Okay," she decided once she had made up her mind. "Map of the Soul: 7—the one I've mentioned—is the most popular. And then there's this one…" She gestured to an orange album with the word "Butter" on it. "There are only four tracks on it, but it's really popular, too."

lancelot ray linley

[lancelot ray linley]

▲

Map of the Soul: 7... Were there six others? And were they required to listen to before getting into this one? Lance had listened to artists that had songs with multiple parts across albums before, and it was always interesting to see how they were very similar yet distinctly different. Also to have the power to do that when there was never any guarantee of another album? Amazing. Those were aspirations of his own as a musician. He just needed a band first since he wasn't very good at anything but bass and guitar at the moment. Even trying to digitally do drums became a headache for him. It was so much easier to ask a friend to do it and give them the credit, which he was quickly finding much more useful in his career.

The album that was specifically pointed out was titled Butter and Lance almost laughed at it when it registered. "Only four?" he repeated back. Merlin, that was a short album. Could it even be called that? That almost fit as an EP if anything. But Lance wasn't one to debate on what constituted as a record or an extended play when he'd only put out the latter himself. "Interesting..." Lance mused to himself as he flipped the box back and forth to try and gleam information from it. Amazingly, he still couldn't read Korean! "Maybe this will work then. Until I get a feel for the genre."

yara leila el fayed ● ### ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[yara leila el fayed]

May 14, 2026

The young man whom she was educating on the subject of Korean pop music sounded shocked that "Butter" only had four tracks on it. It wasn't the longest album that she had ever seen or listened to in her life, but Yara certainly felt that it was art. She wasn't about to get into an argument about it, though; she could save that for conversations on social media that other users interrupted and twisted out of context. "Interesting…" he mused nevertheless, and Yara nodded her head at that. It was interesting.

Yara noticed that the stranger was flipping the box around a few times, and she wasn't really sure why he was doing it at first. It wasn't a lenticular design on the packaging, though there was a photocard inside of it. Then, she realized, he was probably looking for some sort of English-language description of the thing.

"Maybe this will work then," he considered despite seeming a bit confused by it still. "Until I get a feel for the genre."

"It's excellent," Yara assured him eagerly. "There are tons of unboxing videos on YouTube for this one, too," she added, "if you want to see what comes inside of it before you buy it." For her, the suspense was part of the enjoyment of buying a new album, but he was just wading into a whole new world.

lancelot ray linley

[lancelot ray linley]

▲

Lance always forgot that the no-maj put literally everything on the internet. Not that he really should have, since the majority of his career was focused on keeping up to date on music, and it was all on the internet these days. He basically required it at this point. The magical folk would never actually know if a non-magical artist was ripped off, but there was a principle to it that he would never cross. There were stories about artists in the past doing that, leading hoards of angry no-maj born to report them for copyright infringement. Supposedly it worked a bit different in this world, though it still led to a one way ticket to getting blacklisted from the industry. With the way technology was quickly changing everything on this side too, you couldn't really plead ignorance anymore either. Learning from the best of the no-maj had definitely helped him out though. Their simple ways of doing everything without magic really led to some innovative ideas once magical concepts were added in. Especially with stage presence.

"I'm fine with whatever is in it, really," he stated as he flipped the box around in his hands again so that he could at the back once more. "I should get back to my shopping, but thanks for your help with this. I hope you enjoy yours as well." He'd have to remember the name of the one the woman took, in case he wanted to do a deeper dive sometime down the road. Placing the album carefully on the top of his cart, he readjusted the wheels to continue on his way, one of the front ones spinning wonkily as it tried to not work. Giving the woman a small wave, Lance continued in his way. He had to get this all taken care of in time for Georgie graduating next month.

[End Lance]

yara leila el fayed ● 311 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[yara leila el fayed]

May 14, 2026

"I'm fine with whatever is in it, really," the young man told her. Yara wasn't sure if his response was sincere or because she had gotten a bit too excited about the whole thing and needed to take down her approach by a few notches. Then again, she didn't think that standing around in the aisle of a store just to check YouTube for unboxing videos would be seen by everyone as being polite behavior.

Since they had been talking for quite a while, it wasn't a surprise when the young man brought up that he needed to get back to the rest of his shopping. He wasn't actually a captive audience for her encyclopedic knowledge of Korean pop music, even if he might have felt like it by then.

At least it didn't sound as though the stranger had any hard feelings towards her about being kept from whatever all else he was buying at the grocery. He thanked her, in fact, and said that he hoped she enjoyed the album that she was going to purchase.

Yara nodded. "You're welcome," she replied to him. "And thank you!"

lancelot ray linley
Fin!