cancry | Coming soon to Invidia TV...

Thanks to the Idol-ON girls doing their darnedest to overtake Esme in popularity and the Dad Squad doing their best to just flat out cancel her, things have been going well for the Executors. There's been no overnight explosion of popularity but thanks to Autumn and Clocks' guidance on this whole celebrity social media thing, things are ticking along quite nicely.

Which is why it's so out of the blue when, one day, the Idol-ON Caw just kind of... explodes. Notifications pour in from people saying they "heard the news" and they're so excited and they can't wait to see how it all goes and blah blah blah. Which is a little confusing because none of you have announced anything. But there's some talk of a announcement on TV... so what could it be?

Things unfortunately become clear once you tune into any of the screens in Invidia. Sure enough, it's not long before a flashy advertisement pops up declaring the start of a little show called Invidia Idol-Off! which will be a light hearted competition between everyone's beloved Esme (introduced with a string of lovingly filmed shots of Esme basically just sitting around and looking pretty) and the cute newcomers Idol-ON (who are introduced with a few supercut shots from a few of their videos, introducing each off the girls in turn). The winner will get to take her place at the top of Invidia and the losers... Well, they'll get to stay on the bottom. That's how a competition works after all.

The advertisement continues hyping this up for a bit before ending on a decisive "More information coming soon!" and the usual stream of Esme content continuing like normal.

This is all well and good but... well, I don't need to tell you that no one signed up to or agreed to this. So just what could be going on?

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Well, she wants us to panic, so that's exactly what we can't do right now.

[Much as she says that, though--yeah, Autumn is a bit nervous about this.]

We need to improvise...something. Or at least figure out what she's planning with this.

She's tried the brute force method... so maybe this is her way of trying to get rid of us indirectly?

[ Given that, you know, The Poisoning didn't work ]

What would we even do in a competition like this?

She might pit you all against each other individually. For a centralized power, rather than have it spread in a group. Cause dissent, backstab. Something juicy for the viewers at home.

That would give her the advantage...our image is all built around the group dynamic.

[HMM. She chews on her thumb a little as she tries to think.]

How can we turn it back around against her? She's the established brand, even with the rumors you guys have been spreading.

We could always...decline? But given her clout here, she'd be able to spin that against us.

No, that'd just put us in a bad light. We'd look like we're trying to snub her, or cancelling something last minute. ...can we make an announcement of our own about the competition? She didn't tell us it was going to happen, so we don't have to tell her how the game itself will work.

Hm... We'd have to move fast, and we don't really have a surefire way to broadcast ourselves--there's the abandoned station [ABANDONED FOR A REASON] but I'm not sure if any of us know enough how to work it to...make it work, hijack whatever system's already in place.

Ugh...is it worth at least looking into? Unless we come up with some other thing to prepare first, it can't hurt to try, right?

I'm not ruling it out entirely, mind. It might, in fact, behoove us to see if we can't figure it out to have a little fun with certain potentially broadcastable items during this whole... [He gives a little dismissive handflick.] Charade.

What, like the dirt you dug up?

[She...sort of doubts it, considering how vague they've been about the details of the thing, but...]

Just so. There might be other tidbits in the future... [depending...on alice-related stuff!] I'll have to speak with Phoenix and Beast about it, I suppose.

Though even without any of that, the ability to work a broadcast station and hijack her little takeover would help us tremendously to disrupt everything.

Maybe getting some behind-the-scenes stuff without her knowing...that might be tricky, though. But figuring out how to broadcast it comes first, huh?

[She huffs out a quick breath.]

I can go find Clocks, and we'll go run to start trying to get that running.

I think Clocks would be the perfect candidate to help figure something like this out. I can chip in, too, I think, or at least where I can.

We could potentially record there, too, but...hrm, we'd need to do some cleanup work...

I can do the cleaning! I don't...really know a lot about the tech side, but I can at least get rid of all the dust! And getting stuff like that ready is part of why I'm manager anyway.

[She Likes To Do A Job]

(no subject)

schardynfreude - 2020-12-13 14:06 (UTC) - Expand

She can't really think we'd–

[ A pause, as she thinks about Esme's general personality for about two seconds. ]

... no, she absolutely would expect us to turn on each other like that.

She very much would. It's quite cunning. If even one of your ladies lets the idea of power and fame get to you...

[...Hm-] Who all is in this little group again?

There's me, Ariel, Veil, Medic... Braniac and Autumn and Clocks have been helping too.

[ It's been... a process. ]

Why?

[brightly:] Then it's all fine! I see little risk among the four of you. While Autumn I would be concerned about what might happen when we once again meet Esme, I don't necessarily peg her for being a backstabber.

Unless it's Esme's back being sheared by scissors.

[Bro she is Literally Right Here.]

I wouldn't do it on stage...

[POUT] But think of the drama!

I'm not aiming to look like the villain here, Chiron!

Mm, he's right though. We've been working too hard together for anyone to just turn around and stab the rest of us in the back.

It's a little strange that she could be so certain we would, though.

Despite the unified front we tried to show her, the number of, shall we say, conflicting personalities might have led her to believe she could break us apart. She's had a very different experience, remember. She was part of a group, yes, but one in which she was looking out for herself alone, and she's been alone ever since.

As Mona might point out.

Now, there might be something else going on, of course, hm...

Something else?

[ She perks up with visible interest. ]

Do you have an idea?

Not offhand, but I don't need to tell you ladies to be on your guard. If one plan backfires, she's sure to have something else up her sleeve, and so long as the people still love her, we can't touch her.

phantasmagorial - 2020-12-05 20:14 (UTC) - Expand

schardynfreude - 2020-12-06 13:34 (UTC) - Expand

phantasmagorial - 2020-12-06 14:45 (UTC) - Expand

schardynfreude - 2020-12-06 17:18 (UTC) - Expand

phantasmagorial - 2020-12-08 20:10 (UTC) - Expand