[Third Person POV, Year 2001, Third Loop, 29th of January]
"This is harder than I thought, man. Fuck being a five-year-old child, it really messes with my plans. Why didn't my creator just spawn me in as an adult? This sucks."
Sighing in mild frustration, our protagonist sat cross-legged in the center of the studio, eyes flickering between the various instruments scattered around him. It wasn't the music itself that posed a challenge—he had perfect memory and knew exactly how to replicate everything—it was just the context behind it. The real problem was how to make it believable that a five-year-old could produce, perform, and even understand certain songs. Many popular tracks, especially from the future, involved mature themes that just didn't make sense coming from a kid his age.
"With this in mind, things like Toxic by BoyWithUke, It Wasn't Me by Shaggy... I can't use those. Gorillaz, I don't know... although maybe Clint Eastwood could work. I just need to tweak the 'chicks and dudes' line to something like 'gals and dudes' and that should do the trick. Happy by Pharrell Williams is also a solid option—safe, catchy, and kid-appropriate. Sadly, I can't release a full album. I don't have enough songs in the same tone or genre just yet."
Standing up and dusting himself off, Adrian walked out of the studio momentarily to put Bartholomew Chungus Gingersnap The Great safely back in his room, placing him in his favorite little cage, then quickly returned to his working space.
"I guess I'll just drop a few singles for now, no full album in mind. Thankfully, I know the exact lyrics and arrangements for everything. It'll be fast work... OH! Bones by Imagine Dragons could work too! Even if it was written with mortality in mind, it still has that raw, pulsing energy. With lyrics like 'I will live a million lives,' it hits pretty close to home. Considering how the Marvel world goes, and how many times I'm probably gonna get killed or loop again, it's pretty damn fitting."
Grinning at his own cleverness, Adrian clapped a few times and made his way to the laptop in the center of the room, his camera neatly set up beside it. He rubbed his hands together, energized by the plan forming in his mind.
"Alright. Time to cook up some serious music. Honestly, I'm so glad I copied myself from my past life—this technically isn't piracy or fraud, since I am the original creator from my own timeline. So morally and legally... I'm covered, probably."
With that thought cheering him up, Adrian began working on what would be his first official single release: Happy by Pharrell Williams—or rather, Happy by Adrian Lane.
Already anticipating the trends that would eventually hit the market years from now, he prepared two different videos for each track. The first was a blog-style video where he spoke directly to the camera like a YouTuber, acting like an excited kid who was discovering music for the first time. He talked about how much he loved music, what inspired him, and even introduced Bartholomew Chungus Gingersnap The Great as his emotional support hamster. It was innocent, heartfelt, and helped sell the image of a gifted child entering the music world.
Then, apart from that, he recorded the song in clean audio only. The second video was a "Musical Video," where he edited a video in which he appeared playing the instruments that were more prominent in certain parts of the song, and when he obviously sung.
(Author Note: For reference, search "Killer by The Ready Set" official web video)
He repeated the process with Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz. This time, he gave a mini explanation of why he chose the name, how the current culture influenced the tone of the track and more, the decision to use multiple vocal personalities, and how he used software to alter his own voice. He recorded the clean audio version too, but skipped the animated music video. Creating something with the level of polish like The Egg video would take way too much time and effort on top of his other plans.
(Author Note: Thank Marvel for having tech that's ahead of its time but a culture that still mirrors early 2000s. Let's be real, the 2010s only really started happening around 2011 in marvel by how the movies and series represented things. And remember folks—The Egg is the "real" world.)
"Alright, I think I need to pause now. Next up is talking to my parents about starting my own music label. I'll make my dad the legal owner safer and more believable. Then, I gotta get a deal with CD Baby or Koch Distributions."
Signing with a major label would be risky—too much control, too many contracts. Indie-friendly options like CD Baby or Koch were better for maintaining full creative and financial control. Plus, with how digital markets would boom later, Adrian planned to upload to early music sites like mp3.com and SoundClick, placing himself ahead of the curve.
[Time Skip – 19th of February, 2001]
Time flew by as Adrian juggled school, music production, business discussions, and secret planning. His parents, shocked by his sudden bursts of maturity and intelligence, quickly agreed to let him skip ahead three school years. Any more would have raised suspicions, but three was already enough to free up his schedule significantly.
His father was admittedly concerned about Adrian's social development, worrying that skipping grades might isolate him or affect his ability to bond with peers. Still, he believed in his son's potential and promised to guide him however he could if problems arose. He'd support his genius no matter what.
His mother, on the other hand, wasn't too worried. She had always known her child was far too intelligent for his age group. While she outwardly supported the acceleration, a small part of her deep in her heart had begun to grow a seed of unease. There was something about Adrian that didn't sit entirely right with her. Something strange.
And now, in the present, we find our protagonist back in his room, talking once again to his ever-loyal companion, Bartholomew Chungus Gingersnap The Great.
"With everything already sorted—legal ownership, copyright, royalties, marketing and all that—today's the big day. The songs go live. Now I just need to convince my parents to hire a security team. Shouldn't be hard, especially after the lottery stunt. What really worries me is how the hell I'm supposed to make contact with the key MCU characters... I need Hydra to stay the fuck away from me long enough to finish my Anti-Terror plan."
Hearing his owner's troubled voice, Bartholomew let out a single, wise squeak.
"Squeak."
"But how do I even get near Tony, of all people? We've got nothing in common—no overlapping social circles, no professional reason to cross paths. I mean, I guess we're both young geniuses, kinda... though really I'm more like a cheater with perfect memory and accelerated processing than a real genius. Unless I straight-up reveal I can time travel, there's no way to naturally connect with him... unless I don't aim for him directly..."
Adrian paused, eyes narrowing slightly as he sank deeper into thought.
"But even then, Pepper probably doesn't even work for Stark Industries yet... What a drag..."
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Author Note: Sorry for being late for upload, i was in a party of my aunt so there is that, y'all already know the drill