Pantsless Pop Princess (Patreon)

It was one of the biggest stops of her tour, a music festival. She was told that the crowd was bigger than that of her last two shows combined. She was excited, but also extremely nervous. There never was a time that she wasn’t nervous before a show. Alex was just very good at hiding it and once she was on stage, her fans, the cheers and the loud synchronized sound of people chanting her name made her feel right at home. That, and the fact that this music festival was in the bottomless district. (A no pants show! Woo!)

Alex Marx the Spot was her stage name, as silly as it could sound sometimes, it stuck in people’s heads, helped launch her career and had her climbing up the charts time and time again. People loved underdog stories, and a tigress who grew up with nothing becoming a pop star was just fascinating to many. That, and she wrote and performed really good music. 

Alex’s climb to fame did not happen overnight. She spent countless hours writing music, recording music and releasing it out into the world. Her first song to top the charts was an electro-pop song and oh boy was that the sleeper hit she was waiting for. She released a bunch of songs before, but they failed to catch on, mostly because they were her more personal tracks, tracks where she was at her most vulnerable. 

Her first hit “Blow Your Mind” was a very simple song, with only and it often didn’t make sense, but it was fun, upbeat and very, very catchy. It wasn’t her only hit to follow, and it wasn’t even her biggest, just her first.

Backstage, in one of the big dressing rooms, Alex was sitting in her chair, looking at herself in the mirror, applying her eyeliner by herself. Usually, she’d have her makeup artists help her with it, but she didn’t mind doing it herself. She’d sent her makeup artists over to get her opening act ready for their slot right before her. She had an extra thirty minutes and could have waited for them to come back, but she always thought she drew her eyeliner better than her makeup artist did anyway. 

Dragging her eyeliner underneath her eye, her elbow slipped on the table and she messed up her eyeliner, with a long black line going all the way to her cheek. She rolled her eyes and tossed her eyeliner onto her makeup table and leaned back against her chair, huffing and sighing. Maybe she wasn’t better than her makeup artists. She tapped her feet as she waited, the soft muffled sound of someone starting to sing onstage giving her a little something to listen to as she waited. 

Dressed in a bright red bra, a matching red leather jacket, and nothing else down below other than brown thigh-highs, she would be ready to get her show on the road had it not been for that DUMB EYELINER MISTAKE. 

“I’m herrrreeeee!” Demi, Alex’s makeup artist came running into her dressing room, sweating a little and panting as she tried to catch her breath. For a cheetah, she definitely wasn’t the fastest runner. “Sorry, we all got distracted watching Melted Wax open, they’re really good. Did you find them?” Demi asked as she walked over towards Alex and pulled herself a chair so she could sit down and start doing Alex’s makeup for her. 

Alex turned around to face Demi once she sat herself down and shook her head.

“Nope, wasn’t me, was Troye. He’s really good at going to bars and getting drunk and realizing that the band playing there is really good.” She chuckled. 

Demi chuckled too, although she was chuckling at that streak of eyeliner that went down Alex’s cheek. “Girl, you can sing, but you still can’t do your eyeliner.”

Alex rolled her eyes and sighed. “Yeah, that is why you’re here, to fix my incompetence when it comes to my eyeliner.” 

Demi grabbed that same eyeliner pencil from her dresser and held Alex’s face still, wiped the mess Alex made with a makeup wipe, “Hold still,” she said, and she drew her eyeliner again. 

It didn’t take too long for Demi to do Alex’s makeup, with her being a pro and having done Alex’s makeup for the past shows. When she was done, she put the makeup away neatly into her kit and lifted Alex’s chin with a finger, inspecting her work, making sure there were zero flaws. 

“Perfect.” 

“Thank you,” said Alex with a soft smile, puckering her lips at Demi all cute-like. Alex’s eyeliner was perfect now, thick, but it looked hella cool.

A knock on the dressing room door. 

“Alex, you’re on in five.” 

“Okay. I’m ready.” Alex exhaled heavily, standing up from one of the couches she was sprawled out on chatting with Demi. Demi smiled at Alex, noticing how she was nervous and starting to sweat a little. Alex was jumping up and down, warming up her legs, her tail swaying left to right as she did so. It definitely wasn’t hard for anyone who knew Alex to know she was nervous; it almost was a routine for her. This was her debut tour; it was surreal that so many people turned up to her shows and sang along with her. Even in countries that had completely different languages! 

“Alex, relax, this is your forty-sixth show.” Demi chuckled, standing up to put both her hands on Alex’s shoulders, stopping her from her jumping. She couldn’t let Alex exhaust herself before the show even started. 

“You’re counting?” Alex furrowed her brow, whining a little now that she was stopped from jumping. “It still feels like my first... And there’s what, 50,000 people out there?” 

Demi put her hand over Alex’s mouth to hush her and smiled her usual warm smile. She did this for every show, poor little Alex was just so nervous! “You are going to be fine, now go out there and fucking give the people what they want, okay?” 

Another knock on the dressing room door. 

“Alex you’re on in-.”

“Okay Jacob, I’m coming!” Alex pulled Demi into the biggest hug, holding it for a good while before letting go, patting Demi on the shoulders to thank her for that pep talk. She left the room and followed her stage manager, Jacob, a super tall wolf, serious about his job and everything being super punctual. Alex gave him lots of shit for being Mr. Punctual, but it did prove to be a very nice attribute for him to have.

Jacob led Alex down underneath the stage to an area where Alex would have to crouch for a bit before the platform would slowly lift her up onto the stage as she started to sing her first song. 

Under the stage, she could hear Melted Wax as they played on of their last songs, she tapped her foot against the floor, and started to sing along quietly, although she didn’t know all the lyrics, she was still able to follow along a bit. By the time the song was over, she was smiling and motioning to Jacob for him to come over to her so she could tell him something. “Tell Melted Wax that I want to meet them after the show... They don’t have to stay if they don’t want to, but please try and convince them I REALLY WANT TO MEET THEM.”

After Melted Wax (the band opening for her) ended their set, the crowd was screaming. Alex was excited and nervous. She took in slow breaths and tried to calm herself down as she looked over her shoulder at Jacob to see him counting down from twenty. 

A robotic voice started to hype the crowd, announcing that someone was about to make her Marx. The crowd went wild, screaming and cheering. Alex gripped her mic in her hand tight and brought it to her lips as the instrumental for her song “Blow Your Mind” started to play. She waited for the right beat to drop before she started to sing. 

“I know it’s hot… I know we've got… Something that money can’t buy..”

The drums loud, exaggerating the beat of the song as Alex slowly rose up from the stage, dead center, with her back turned towards the crowd. The smoke machines fire smoke into the air, adding to the dramatic effect. Alex stood there, motionless for a moment before she shouted. “I WANT TO HEAR YOU SINGING!” Then the drums came, and Alex jumped up and turned around.

“HEY! If you don’t like the way I talk, then why am I on your mind?

If you don’t like the way I rock, then finish your glass of wine

We fight and we argue, you'll still love me blind

If we don’t fuck this whole thing up

Guaranteed, I can blow your mind

Mwah!”

The crowd screamed, jumped and sang along with Alex. All that nervousness that Demi saw in Alex was gone. She was at home. Her set went on for approximately two hours, she played songs that ranged from very fun to very sad.

“This is one of the first songs I wrote, for someone I used to care very much about, I’m not sure where they are now, but just know, this one’s for you.” 

“Maybe one day I can see you

We can smile and wave

And it'll be okay

Maybe one day it'll be cool

We could just be friends

Without the complications that it brings

When we start saying things

Yeah, I hurt you, and you hurt me

Yeah, we did some things that we can never take back

And we tried hard just to fix it

But we broke it more

And so I guess some things are not meant to last

Is it too much to ask?

For tonight

Let's love like there's no goodbyes..”

Alex wiped tears from her eyes as she ended the song, but what kind of pop-star was going to end a concert on a sad note. After wiping her tears, Alex walked towards the back of the stage to grab her bottle of water and took a drink from it. She then cleared her throat and walked back to the front center of the stage. One of her crew ran up and placed a mic stand out in front of her before running off and disappearing. “Thanks, Dave.”

Placing her mic on the mic stand, she cleared her throat again, then spoke to the huge crowd. 

“You guys noticed how I said I used to care about that person, right?” The crowd screamed, and Alex couldn’t help but grin. “Oh yeah, you guys know what this song is..”

The music started. 

“You call me all friendly

Tellin' me how much you miss me

That's funny, I guess you've heard my songs

Well, I'm too busy for your business

Go find a girl who wants to listen

'Cause if you think I was born yesterday

You have got me wrong

So I cut you off

I don't need your love

'Cause I already cried enough

I've been done

I've been movin' on since we said goodbye

I cut you off

I don't need your love, so you can try all you want

Your time is up, I'll tell you why

You say you're sorry

But it's too late now

So save it, get gone, shut up

'Cause if you think I care about you now

You know how this goes! Let me hear you sing it!

Well, boy, I don't give a fuck”

The music stopped and Alex blew a kiss to the crowd and stuck up her middle finger before walking towards the center of the stage where she came up from, to sink back down into the stage. “You guys have been amazing, good night!”

Alex knelt down as the platform lowered her back under the stage, and she sighed, head looking down at her feet and the floor. She started to chuckle a bit, and then she heard her stage crew clapping, and she smiled, giving them a cute little thumbs up as she caught her breath. 

What a show.

------

Art by HoltzWorks