The Puppets (Milex one shot)

The Puppets

That's funny how people think how close we are. All of those accounts on the internet called 'milex is real' has always made me laugh with contempt. Or crowds at our concerts screaming with excitement when we sing to one microphone, hold each other's hands or do whatever they want us to do.
I can't believe everyone still believes in all of this wonderful image of us our managers have created.
At the beginning I didn't like the idea of that - pretending such a great friendship with someone you hardly know? Seemed impossible for me.
But then, when we started acting like that, it was kinda fun, actually. And it automatically made us good mates, although we knew nothing about each other. We were both laughing at it - how easily people get excited about some guys holding hands on stage. 

At the beginning of The Last Shadow Puppets' career, I thought that the pretended friendship would become something real. Talking came to us easily, writing songs got us quite close. Besides, tour made us spend a lot of time together and no matter if we wanted to - we had to stand each other's company.

But after The Age Of The Understatement tour was over, we almost completely served our relations.
I didn't want to at first. It seemed ridiculous to left behind someone you've been through a lot with without bidding him goodbye. And for a few months after the end of the tour, we used to hang out quite often and help each other with writing some songs or just try to talk. But it seemed pretended too. It was like we had to hang out with each other since we both knew it would be weird to sever relations immediately after ending the tour. But when we both realised that wasn't it - we stopped acting and seeing each other.

Our managers used to call us asking if we wanted to record some new stuff. We wasn't really keen on that, busy with our own works but when they started to be a little pushy I agreed to go on another tour, although I totally didn't want to.

The day we met again, after eight years of being busy with our own lives, was probably the most uncomfortable day ever. We had nothing to talk about and it was hard to write together anything. Fortunately, we both had some lyrics we had already written, so we just tried to mix them. We were hanging out for about a year, writing and recording the album. We were much less close than we used to be during the first tour and our meeting was only about the work. Working with someone you hardly know was a torture - it made me feel uncomfortable like nothing does. And that's why I was really afraid of the Everything You've Come to Expect tour. I didn't want to act again but what could I do when the managers told us to? Besides, we started creating that image during the first tour, we couldn't just stop it without giving any reasonable explanation.

They wanted us to be even closer. I mean, act like that, obviously. It terrified me at first but I told myself that it was a part of my job and I had to get used to that. The first gig wasn't the worst - we've been already singing to one microphone, so it wasn't a big deal but we had to do more, as the managers told us to. Luckily, it wasn't hard as well - just holding hands sometimes and some hugs on the stage. I guess I've always been a good actor.

I'm disgusted by my childish behavior and that I agreed to take part in this play. But is there anything I can do about it now? We can't stop pretending the great friendship without giving any reason to fans. That would ruin the career and the image we worked so hard to create.

The funniest thing in all of this is how accurate the name of the band is. 'Shadow Puppets'? We're held on strings like them by the management who made us slaves to their never ending games which are supposed to be 'helpful' to our career. And they probably are. But is it okay to lie to everybody else only to increase our popularity? Seems not okay for me.
What about 'The Last' then? It often occupies my head, filling the gaps in my mind when I'm totally bored. Maybe we're the last band who acts so immature only to get what we want? I don't think so but every idea is important in solving a problem, right? Most of artists do that, obviously. There's so many examples that I don't even know who to mention. 
But still, it shouldn't be like this. We lie to fans, artists we work with, interviewers... probably even to ourselves.

But what has begun, has to come to the end.

Because we're just like them.
Like The Puppets.

------------
This shitty app had deleted the half of this story, I had to write it again, GAWD.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
Sorry for the sad one, tho.
Maybe I'll continue this, idk