[open] What a way to start...

[heir_to_ruin]

[Well... okay. Dead. That kinda sucks, sure, but he's been down here long enough to kinda know how things go. Some cute little girl thinks she can just wrap everyone around her finger because they don't know any better. Just using everyone around her. It's disgusting. He's absolutely horrified that he's spent who knows how long practically worshipping this girl.

But that's okay. The man is nothing if not confident.

Which is why anyone that's been keeping an eye on the rooftop stage may find an unfamiliar redhead chatting up the specter guards, all bright smiles and casual charm. Insisting, of course, that he knows a guy.

After getting insistently removed from the area enough times the mask drops a little, amber eyes going hard as he stares at the nearest screen. What the hell makes her so special, anyway? Like she's entitled to everyone's adoration. All he needed was one chance and he could ruin her. All this desperate need to be seen and adored at all times meant one little slip was all he needed.

A moment later the smile is firmly back in place and he's strolling out of the mall proper, heading for the housing district. If she's not at work... then she's gotta be at home, right?]

Comments

[callbacks]

[Well, now. Clocks is on a mission to share the good word of the New Teen Idols on the Block, and this guy's made the mistake of standing still for two seconds too long. After hanging out a moment in his vicinity, watching his own screen, Clocks says, real casual:]

I hear there's some some other group coming up soon. Whole little posse of 'em, cute as fucking buttons. You know, if you're into idol girls like that chick.

[heir_to_ruin]

[What's this? Another lead on ways to destroy this woman's happy little empire? Excellent]

Isn't everyone into idols?

[He's smiling as he says it, sly and suggestive in the way he cocks a brow but there's a sting of bitterness under it... if Clocks is observant enough to notice. So, maybe being dead for awhile has made his play boy mask a little weak.]

Another group, though huh? Someone's going to try to challenge the Empress?

[Maybe an odd choice of word, there, but it sorta feels right, regardless. Oh well.]

[callbacks]

[Luckily(?), even if Clocks could catch the subtle slip, he's not nearly good enough a reader of people to interpret it. Mr. Babewatch's charming persona remains intact, at least in this kid's sunglassed eyes.]

Sounds like it. I dunno, deets are pretty hard to scrape up. I hear there's only one source out there with reliable intel on the newbies.

[How to play the Envy layer: imply scarcity, difficulty, and secrecy, then watch the milling crowd knot themselves into a frenzy trying to be the first to find out more.]

[heir_to_ruin]

Yeah?

[He does, in fact, perk up, all curious like a puppy. But at the same time...]

Not gonna be much of a challenge if no one knows about them. And one source is easy to silence.

[Can't orchestrate a take over without the appropriate numbers. Or a scheme to get in under the radar and take out the power players directly.]

[callbacks]

[There. That finally gets Clocks to pause for a moment, that the man jumps to that rather than excitement or a fervent defense of Esme's talents. Very slightly, he tilts his head, like a bird who's just begun to notice something.]

...Well, from what I've seen, I think it's gonna be a showdown to die for. You know what I mean?

[heir_to_ruin]

[That gets a sharp snort from him, despite himself. Okay that was a terrible pun but damn if it doesn't appeal to a certain kind of dark humor.]

Oh yeah~ From the sounds of it, when Esme's involved, the competition's always killer.

[callbacks]

Yeah. Someone already talk to you about toxic celebrity?

[Or poisonous celebrity, as the case may be.]

[heir_to_ruin]

Yeah, kinda?

[Noncommital shrug because it's Sylvain, he's allergic to commitment.]

Pretty sure most celebrities are toxic, y'know?

[callbacks]

Yeah, well. A citywide echo chamber of fannish adoration can do that to a person. Lead them to believe they can get away with anything and still enjoy the love and support of their literal thousands of followers.

[Dot dot dot...]

So just mind who you say stuff like that to unless you're ready for a pretty virulent reaction.

[heir_to_ruin]

[That gets a bright laugh, genuine humor... maybe his humor is just sorta dark. Maybe that's a thing. Huh.]

What're they gonna do? Kill me?

[callbacks]

What, think you can't die if you're dead?

[This question, said aloud, apparently does not strike him as at all unreasonable.]

eeeh this could tiptoe over to Suicidal Ideation, heads up

[heir_to_ruin]

[It's a perfectly reasonable question. And it absolutely does not strike Ruin that..... y'know maybe most people don't think this way.]

Does it matter?

[Still laughing. This is totally fine.]

Noted!

[callbacks]

Uh. Huh. I dunno, guess maybe that's more of a personal preference thing than I thought.

[Bro, are you, like, okay.]

Poison's a pretty brutal way to go, though, I hear.

[heir_to_ruin]

Is it?

[Personal preference or brutal? Hmm Both? Maybe both. He absolutely sees no issues with re-dying.]

Dunno... poison doesn't sound so bad?

Well now we're discussing gross and horrible ways to die

[callbacks]

No way, dude. Regular food poisoning's bad enough, can you imagine getting a case of that so bad your own fucking organs shut down inside you? Whatever took me out, I hope it happened fast. None of that 'my own traitorous circulatory system pumps venom directly into my soft lung tissue' or 'exotic fungal concoctions shred my stomach lining and fill my entire abdominal cavity with gastric acid' horseshit. Hard pass.

As you do

[heir_to_ruin]

Some poisons just... put you to sleep though. That'd be nice.

[He actually sounds a tiny bit wistful there.]

I'm relatively sure that, horrible as all that sounds, it's a bit of an exaggeration.

[No, Ruin, you were just never told about the horrific shit your leader came up with.]

[callbacks]

Bro, are you trying to insinuate that TV would tell me untruths.

[heir_to_ruin]

[Gestures towards the nearest screen with Esme's smiling face~]

[callbacks]

You know what.

I was JKing but that's completely fair and I accept this small but clownish ownage of my person. This round goes to you, morbid adulty guy.

[heir_to_ruin]

[Wow?!? Okay he looks simultaneous slightly offended and... confused?]

I'm not that old and I'm damn well not responsible enough to be considered an "adult".

But... why morbid?

[That just makes no sense, clearly.]

[callbacks]

[Dude.]

You just sighed wistfully over being poisoned to death. I was right here, bro. I witnessed that take place.

[heir_to_ruin]

Oh...

[So that's not just... a thing that people do, huh? Okay. Maybe he should not? Say things like that?

Sounds fake.]

I guess that's... kinda weird, huh?

[callbacks]

[God, this keeps happening. First saying that poor Lion was smelly, now informing Ruin that longing for the sweet embrace of death is a little ghoulish...]

It's kinda grimdark and woegothy, anyway. Not to say our premise here isn't, I'm just saying.

[heir_to_ruin]

I'll uh... keep that in mind, thanks.

[That's awkward. Okay time to keep his thoughts to himself from now on. ]