Prisma App; major Buried Stars spoilers!

[phaterstar]

▶ PLAYER
HANDLE: Typhie
CONTACT: typhie or Typhie#5535 @ Discord
OVER 18? Yes!
CHARACTERS IN-GAME: Constance von Nuvelle (noatic) and Professor Sycamore (sycamour).

▶ CHARACTER
NAME: Hyesung Seo (western order)
CANON: Buried Stars
CANON POINT: End of 'Deserter' conversation, B-route
AGE: 20
BACKGROUND:

Major spoilers for the plot of Buried Stars! There's no Wiki for the game, so I'll summarise.

PRE-GAME BACKGROUND:

• Hyesung comes from a poor family, and is not a particularly good student in high school. He's more interested in goofing off and was, in his own words, a 'snobby punk'. However, he values his friendships highly.
• His class leader (Kun-wook) is the son of a wealthy, influential family. Hyesung believes him to be his friend, but over time he notices that he's always the butt of Kun-wook's jokes and the target of his bullying remarks.
• One day in class, he confronts Kun-wook and demands to know why he's being treated like this. In response, Kun-wook hurls a chair at him. Hyesung defends himself, and the pair end up in a brawl. It's implied that Kun-wook is injured.
• Despite there being many witnesses in the form of their classmates, due to the influence of Kun-wook's family, they all say that Hyesung started the fight and attacked him.
• Due to this, Hyesung is expelled from high school. To make matters worse, his family are too poor to provide a decent settlement to Kun-wook's family, so he is charged with assault and receives a criminal record.
• His family cut contact with him over the incident with Kun-wook.
• A few years pass, and they are not particularly kind to Hyesung. He joins Season 4 of Korean pop elimination show Buried Stars (similar to American Idol, The Voice, etc - the viewers vote for their favourite acts, and the lowest get eliminated). He sees it as his only chance at having some kind of life after what happened to him in high school. He does not disclose his criminal record.
• He begins a relationship with the producer of the show, Shin Seungyeon. She's 13 years older than him (33 to his 20), but he initiates due to a preference for older women.
• Each contestant is given a special Smart Watch, with a Phater (basically twitter) account for promo. Hyesung turns out to be extremely good at creating a strong social media presence, and within a short period of time, he's top of the show's rankings.
• However, much of his popularity is due to how he is presented on the show. He receives the most favourable edits, regardless of his actual behaviour. Many of the other contestants, along with show staff, can't stand him, as he is arrogant and belittling.
• His relationship with Seungyeon - the key reason he's doing so well in the rankings - is secret. He receives other benefits from her, as well; he's the only contestant that receives the latest model of the Smart Watch (which has an integrated camera), and Seungyeon also shares illegally-obtained background information on the other contestants with him.
• Right before the finals, an anonymous Phater account shares all of the details of Hyesung's "criminal" past. The backlash is immediate; his ranking plummets, Seungyeon promptly dumps him, and he enters the finals in last (5th) place.
• Before the finals commence, however, the building housing the stage collapses, and the main plot of Buried Stars begins.

MAIN STORY:

• Everyone in the building manages to escape after the stage collapses, except for the 5 contestants (Do-yoon, Gyu-hyuk, Juyoung, Inha and Hyesung) and one staff member (Seil). The six of them are trapped. Thankfully, they're able to make contact with the rescue team through their Smart Watches, and intend to wait until they are saved.
• This doesn't go to plan, of course; they soon stumble upon the body of Shin Seungyeon, who appears to have been killed by falling debris. All the group are disturbed by the find, but Hyesung is particularly upset - even though Seungyeon had dumped him, he still cared deeply for her and wanted to win her back.
• In his emotional state, he posts on Phater that her body has been found, which doesn't go down well with the other five. His grief is rapidly making him more and more unstable.
• Not quite as unstable, however, as he becomes once an anonymous troll appears on Phater, using the name of the dead producer as their un (@ s_seungyeon) and spewing bile about each contestant. The troll also claims that each contestant will be murdered, starting with the one in last place - Hyesung. His time of death has been "foretold" as 2am, a few hours from that point in time.
• Hyseung, believing the troll to be Kun-wook (who is also his #1 suspect in the leaking of his criminal record) engages it on Phater, exchanging insults - much to the chagrin of the others.
• Believing the group to be turning on him, Hyesung has another emotional outburst and runs off to hide in a dressing room located in a corridor off to the left of the stage. He soon messages Do-yoon (#4 in the rankings), asking him to come and speak with him - alone.
• Once Do-yoon visits him in the dressing room, Hyesung demands that he drop out of the competition. When Do-yoon refuses, he tells him to leave, saying that he knows at least one of the contestants will agree to do it. He explains that he has 'aces in the hole', which worries Do-yoon. However, he is unable to convince Hyesung to leave the unstable dressing room and return to the safer area by the stage. Defeated, he heads back to the group. (CANON POINT FOR PRISMATICA)
• Gyu-hyuk is the next person to visit Hyesung, after Do-yoon warns him of what he is going to ask. While the pair are in the dressing room, a tremor shakes the building, and they move into what they assume is a more secure location - the men's bathroom.
• While there, Hyesung reveals that he knows (thanks to his 'aces in the hole' - the illegal background info from Seungyeon) Gyu-hyuk's deepest, darkest secret, and demands he drop out of the show or he'll post it on Phater. To his surprise, Gyu-hyuk agrees to drop out, and while he's obviously upset, the pair come to an agreement.
• Hyesung, however, makes the fatal mistake of sneakily recording their conversation on his Smart Watch - as collateral, he argues. Gyu-hyuk - already in an emotionally fraught state after their conversation - completely snaps once he realises what Hyesung has done, and bashes him over the head with a nearby mop. The blow causes Hyesung to strike his head against the bathroom wall, and the combination of the two injuries results in him bleeding to death.
• His body is discovered - conveniently - at 2am.

That's all the plot that's relevant to Hyesung (RIP), so I won't go any further!


PERSONALITY:

Seo Hyesung may have won himself many fans during his time on Buried Stars, but he certainly didn't win many friends.

With the benefit of the producer's favour on his side, ensuring he always got the best perks and the most positive editing, Hyesung was arrogant toward his fellow contestants, and condescending towards the show's staff. His attitude doesn't change all that much once he and the other finalists (along with one unfortunate staff member) end up trapped in the collapsed stage building. He's outspoken, happy to rile up the others (especially the unfortunate staff member) and doesn't respond well to criticism. It's not until the body of the producer is found that he starts to show some genuine emotion; even if it is anger and despair.

Finding Seungyeon's body only exacerbates Hyesung's primary characteristic - recklessness. He posts about the discovery of her body on Phater before they've had time to properly advise the rescue team of her death, publicly argues with the troll S_Seungyeon despite the others begging him to calm down, and when he ends up facing the ire of all five of them - no one on his side, reminiscent of the event that earned him an unjust criminal record - he snaps, running off to hide in a dressing room down an unstable and collapsing corridor.

In that dressing room, during what was to be their last ever conversation, Hyesung tells Do-yoon "If you ever want me to stop doing something, just tell me to keep going." It's a succinct way of summing up his character; he doesn't like being told what to do, particularly if it clashes with what he wants to do, and his fellow finalists quickly learn that trying to force Hyesung to do something is a guarantee way of ensuring he does the opposite. Even he is aware of his contrary tendencies; he admits that he's been immature all of his life and tends to behave for his own benefit and pleasure first and foremost. But having gone through an experience in which no-one cared for him - particularly when he placed his friendships on such a high pedestal - can he really be blamed for wanting to put himself first?

The sheer scale of the injustice dealt to him would break a lesser person, but Hyesung is determined to take back control of his destiny and make something of himself. That determination, however, quickly turns ugly when he starts to realise that his position in the ladder - last - is not only threatening his chances of winning, but his chances of surviving, once the troll S_Seungyeon arcs up on Phater. His response - born more of desperation than determination - is to demand at least one of the other contestants drops out of the competition, and he's got enough dirt on them to ensure at least one of them will. As far as he's concerned, the ends justify the means. Buried Stars - at least, as he sees it - is his last chance to make something of his life. It's heavily implied that were he to be eliminated, he wouldn't see life as worth living anymore.

Hyesung's view of the world has been tarred by his past, and he holds great distaste for those in power, saying things like 'truth is only for the powerful' during his conversation with Do-yoon. It's rather telling, then, that as soon as he gets a taste of it in his former position as the #1 Buried Stars contestant, he's quick to abuse it by flaunting his status at the other contestants and treating the show staff like they're below him. Even Do-yoon - the person to whom Hyesung becomes closest after the stage building caves in - can't tell which part of his persona is his true personality. He shows glimpses of sweetness with Do-yoon, saying that he's having trouble keeping his resolve (for his drop-out plan) as he tries to convince him not to do it, but will quickly turn threatening and angry should his desires be denied. Do-yoon leaves that conversation feeling conflicted, still unable to settle on how he feels about his fiery fellow contestant. To his credit, Hyesung is aware of and acknowledges that what he's doing with the 'aces in the hole' is underhanded and nasty, but he tells Do-yoon that he can't be a good person until he restores his image. It's critical to his survival - and in the end, isn't that the only thing they all want? To survive?

It's someone ironic that Hyesung's overpowering determination to guarantee that survival is what dooms him. His story ends with him bleeding to death on the floor of the men's bathroom, the victim of a contestant he drove just a little too far with his ill-conceived plot. It's a tragic end to a tragic life, and a sad summation of the recklessness with which Hyesung lived. There's a small silver lining, though; once the general public learn of his death, the song he performed on Buried Stars tops the charts. So in the end, he does get his wish for stardom - it's just a little too late for him to appreciate it.

POWERS/ABILITIES: Nothing outside of a lot of social media savvy and an above-average singing voice! Other than that, he's a thoroughly regular human.

INVENTORY: His official B-Stars watch, and the clothes he's wearing.

MOONBLESSING: Sanguis.

▶ SAMPLES

He's got a thread with each of his castmates here on the TDM!