grayson grabbed hold of the paper, crumbling it down and throwing it into the trash. “if he wants trash he can get trash from elsewhere,” he grumbled. leaning back on his spot, looking Val over. “why do you keep up with all those dipshits? you know you’re better than that.” grayson could get her anything she wanted if she just asked, but he knew that wasn’t an option.
“I MIGHT BE better than that but it’s all part of the job. need to prove myself to them so then one day, they’ll already know how good I am.” val shrugged, appreciating the sentiment of his words. traipsing slowly towards the trash, grabbing the screwed up page that the boy had just thrown in. “if i turn him down, he could label me as difficult to work with or anything and my career could be over. they might be dipshits but right now, they have the power to make or break me. it’s a risk i just can’t take.”
Being in this business was difficult. You needed to have thick skin because there was always criticism, no matter how well you thought you did. Jace learned that at a fairly young age, and he also learned how to give criticism himself. Not just shitty comments but genuine advice on how to improve and make it up the Hollywood ladder. That’s exactly what he had done for Rivera. Maybe he had been a little more harsh than necessary, though, noting the look on her face. “Look, I know you put in the work for these, and it shows. It does. It’s just… You said to be honest, yeah? Well, I’m gonna be real with you for a minute. Spiderman was really my biggest break, and it can be that for you, too, but you have to want it. You know the comics? Great. That’s gonna be a hell of a lot more than some of the competition, but these sketches?” He gestured to the papers and shook his head just slightly. “These don’t show that. It’s like you’re trying to match what you think they want instead of showing the vision that you have. What are your thoughts about the comics?”
LETTING HER EYES fall closed, val took in a deep breath. she wasn’t mad at jace, she knew he was just trying to help her but it was one thing knowing what the team were looking for and another thing knowing the effort that goes into designing it. “my thoughts about the comics ? my thoughts right now are if i see any more red and blue, i might set the room on fire.” she joked, walking steadily towards the window and gently pushing it open with her free hand. the breeze was nice after the hours she’d spent inside the stuffy space. it was funny how that simply action seemed to help put things into perspective. “you’re right, you know ?” she started, eyes glancing at the drawings. “these aren’t me. i’m good at what i do but fuck me, i got in my head with this one. i’ve done big events and i’ve styled movies and shows before with the guidance of others but.. but this time it’d be mine ! it’d be me providing other stylists with guidance and that’s scary as fuck — i don’t know why i’m telling you this !” she laughed, heading back to her seat and taking in the organised chaos of papers in front of her. “jace, what do you think about the comics ? i mean, after all it’s going to be your suit.”
shrimplyirresistible: well, it got a whole lot better now that I'm talking to you 😘
shrimplyirresistible: wasn't all that exciting tbh... worked on a couple projects, facetimed with my mom, uh... considered how much work it would be to open my own food truck
neonmercury: shh you, you'll make me blush
neonmercury: your day sounds sweet babe. hey, i didn't know you wanted to open your own food truck! that's kinda cool
Jace took the pile of papers and shuffled through them, humming and sighing as he took a look at each sketch carefully. When he reached the end of the samples, he shook his head sighed once more, heavily. “No. No, this is… You’re venturing too far with these. Yeah, you have to show your own spin, but this is Spiderman. It’s a classic. If you’re going to go for a costume designer role on this show instead of just a stylist, you’ve got to give the producers and directors something that screams ‘I was meant for this job,’“ he advised, holding out the stack to her. “Actually, no. It’s got to scream ‘This is my fucking job!’ Right? Study the comics and try again.”
V BIT HER tongue as she listened to what jace had to say. sure, he probably had good intentions and meant well but the pride of her perfectionism wasn’t taking too well to the critiques being thrown her way. and it definitely wasn’t enjoying the attitude. but still, she was a professional. taking his words on the chin, she smiled possibly the fakest smile she could muster. “they told me they wanted new and different. i know the comics, i studied the comics. this is new and different like i was told to create but okay, if you think i should try again then i’ll try again.” taking the papers back from him, her smile falling slightly trying to quickly visualise a happy medium between the comic book lore and the exciting new vision everyone was expecting.
“what exactly am i looking at v? i’m not a mind reader,” grayson’s eyes looked at what she was showing him, but his mind didn’t register it. was it a painting? was it a doodling? or was it just a random thing she had gotten from a store? “is this a drawing from a child or what? because i can try to keep on guessing until i hit on the correct answer.”
EYEBROW RAISED VAL smirked, twiddling her pencil between her fingers. “it’s a concept. a shit concept. this big time designer wants me to style his looks and based entirely on his requests, this is what he wants.” her eyes quickly flashed over each example outfit she’d been provided with and sighed. “his dumb ass has no idea what i can do. i can make his shit look incredible but he wants this.”
AS MUCH AS she loved her job, the creative blocks that regularly hit were a killer for her mind. so many events, premieres, pr appearances and so little time to get everyone sorted and herself out of this creative funk... but v wasn’t about to back down now. her parents didn’t raise a quitter ! “ right, so they’re still a little rough but before i go any further, what’s your opinion on this ? be as honest as you want. i’m a tough cookie, i can take it. ”
look !! it’s valencia ‘v’ rivera !! she’s my favorite c-list stylist with 192k followers, even though she’s only twenty-six. i heard she can be undemonstrative and impatient, but i think she’s illustrious and passionate. when i first saw her, i could’ve sworn she was ursula corberó, but i’m sure she’s heard that before.
BASIC INFO.
FULL NAME: valencia rivera.
BIRTHDAY: september 14th 1994
ZODIAC: virgo
NICKNAMES: v, rivera, val ( by friends ), valencia ( parents ), cia ( by her sister )
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 5′8, 130 lbs.
TATTOOS: a few placed all over. working on sleeves
BASIC STYLE: androgynous, more masculine than feminine, alternative
USUAL EXPRESSION: resting bitch face or resting confused face
AESTHETIC: messy hair, under eye bags, takeaway coffee cups, scuffed up shoes, kind heart, unsent letters, 2am phone calls, late night adventures, long drives, worn leather jackets, doc martens.
TRIGGERS: negative mentions of her family, specifically her parents and sister
BACKGROUND & PERSONALITY.
valencia comes from a very loving home. she knows she’s incredibly lucky to have the family she does, her parents are still madly in love with each other and she couldn’t ask for a better relationship with her little sister. they are her world.
growing up, the family were just comfortable. some months were better than others money-wise but they knew that no matter what they’d be okay because they had each other.
as a child she found it a lot easier to get along with boys than girls. she enjoyed the adventure and play style most of the boys around her had rather than the girls. like imagination games and moms and dads was fun sometimes but she loved play fighting and getting muddy more... a thing that drove her mum a little bit crazy but she wouldn’t change valencia for the world!
gender norms weren’t a thing that val stood by either. she loved ‘boy things’ like playing sports, fighting, watching games with her dad and just being rowdy but she also liked playing dress up, giving makeovers, baking with her mom and being sensitive.
all her life, she knew she was different. she could agree with her sister about the cute boys in their magazines and on tv... but she couldn’t picture herself ever marrying one. her sister would have crushes on various boys at school and v never found herself feeling anything. it all soon became clear though. and her name was sarah.
from the age of 10 to 15, val and sarah were best friends and she was wrapped around that girl’s finger. they’d do everything together and quite clearly adored each other. it was so clear to everyone except val and sarah however that val’s adoration was a lot more than just from the perspective of a best friend. and it wasn’t until sarah had to move away that val realised her true feelings. she was heartbroken. the two girls wrote each other all the time but val never felt right confessing her true feelings to her friend. there had been a few times where she’d tried to write it out but always decided against sending them.
she told her family about what she’d realised. she was a lesbian. they all took it well, her happiness being their only priority. her sister was a little bit taken back and took a little longer than her parents to come round but she was only 13 and didn’t totally understand the whole thing.
being the 2000′s, being gay brought a lot of bullying and homophobia her way. older family members in spain even writing to her parents to tell them they need to ‘get her help’ to which her parents kindly told them where they can shove their opinions and let her continue to find herself. a lot of the girls at school treated her like she had some kind of disease and would refuse to be around her which made her feel like shit as you can imagine but she always pushed through with the support of her family.
eventually, she came across a group of kids who didn’t treat her any different and supported her, some of them even being the same or incredibly similar to her. they opened her up to a lot of new things. new styles, new adventures, new music. and she loved it all. this group is why she is how she is today. they taught her about androgyny, about doing what you want and not giving a fuck about anyone else and about always being open and welcome to other people, even if you don’t totally understand them at first.
all these years, one thing about herself had stayed consistent. she’d always loved a good makeover. she was the one her friends came to for their hair and makeup for parties/dates and she’d be the one they came to for style advice and she loved that! she showed a lot of promise, as told by her drama teacher who often recruited her for help with costuming and styling for school plays. so as soon as she was able to, v went to beauty school and grew her talents.
never in a million years would she have thought this would get her to where she is today, stylist to the stars! and an incredibly popular one at that. fame isn’t a big deal to her though, she just happy to have a good job in an area she loves and being in a position to help her family out.
relationship wise, val has always dreamed of having a connection like what her parents have but so far, her few short lived relationships haven’t exactly shown much promise. sometimes she jokes that she’s terrible at picking girls since they all either only like her because she has access to celebrities, only like her because she has a little bit of fame they can use or they’re just not great people! she still secretly holds out hope though.
v has gained herself a bit of a tough outer shell after all these years of dealing with rude celebrities, catty competition and just general homophobia. some find it hard to get close enough to truly know her beautiful personality but those that do know they have a friend for life in v.
in her spare time she likes going to sport games, experiencing l.a, drawing and painting and occasionally going out with her friends. she’s very into politics and often attends protests, this isn’t something she usually talks about though like she prefers to just do stuff than talk about how she is going to or has done something.
her professional name is v rivera so to the majority of the people at shine, they would only call her v or rivera. she likes to save ‘val’ for her close friends, who are also welcome to come up with their own nicknames and ‘valencia’ is something only her parents call her (or sometimes her friends when she’s in trouble) and ‘cia’ is something only her sister has ever called because she struggled to say valencia when she was a toddler.
WANTED CONNECTIONS
sarah (this name can change): the girl who has always been a ‘what if’ in val’s mind. perhaps they lost touch and stopped writing to each other after a while? maybe they still write each other but just haven’t crossed paths again? maybe she also had feelings for val but was too scared to say anything or maybe she saw her purely as a best friend and we can find out her reaction to knowing the truth? maybe they could now be industry rivals and have to deal with the dynamic of their once best friend being competition? so much choice!
her sister: these two are as close as can be. they’ve had each other’s backs from day one and val would die for her sister no questions asked.
best friends: your muse is one of the few in the industry who took the time to break down val’s walls and get to know who she truly is. you see the weird and wonderful things that go on in her brain and also the fire in her heart and embrace it all just as she embraces everything about your muse. ( would be open to probably 2 or 3 )
industry rivals: hollywood is cutthroat and there’s always someone better. these two have been head to head for a while. maybe they admire each other’s artistic ability and use that to better themselves? maybe they can’t stand each other and always want to one up the other out of spite? maybe they’re really good friends and a bit of healthy competition never hurts? maybe they were once good friends but the competition pushed them apart?
“boyfriend/husband”: this is valencia’s boy best friend. he’s her boy and if she were straight she’d marry the fuck out of him. they probably get each other valentine’s day gifts and make jokey relationship posts about each other on their socials. they have a lot of love for each other. they always wingman each other and bro out whenever they can. i also like to imagine val practising make up looks on him if she can’t picture how it’ll look on an actual person.
idk what to call it: they love to work with each other. so maybe an actor/singer/model/etc who whenever they’re given the choice will always ask val to be their stylist and if she’s available, val will always do it because they’re one of her favourites. they probably have a good vibe together and enjoy each other’s company and if they spent more time together would be great friends but maybe due to work they’ve never had the chance before?
ex-girlfriends: this has so much opportunity for plots and backstory so if you’re interested in this then we’ll have to talk about what went down and why things didn’t work.
exes who can’t seem to let go: (i’m v inspired by this song and need a plot like it) maybe they broke up because things weren’t working but they decided to stay friends because even though the relationship was wrong they still care about each other. and they keep trying to move on but everytime they see each other, something ends up happening even though they both know it probably shouldn’t.
flirtationship: maybe her and a straight girl or her and a boy or even her and a gay girl... they probably both know nothing’s going to happen but they enjoy flirting with each other. where’s the harm in flirting?
enemies: these two just don’t vibe together. it’s not a thing, it doesn’t work. backstory can be worked out but yeah, they’re really don’t get along.
