Coming soon to Invidia TV...

[cancrymods]

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?

Comments

[daughterofthemark]

Perhaps she hopes to drive us away? She may believe we'll simply give up if she can win a decisive victory over us.

[phantasmagorial]

It... could be. I don't know if she's the type to rest on her laurels like that, but it's not like we can go any further down with Esme controlling everything. If she thinks she's blocked our path permanently then we really would have no choice but to give up.

[daughterofthemark]

I'm not at all certain what else she could be planning.

[It's a personal failing.]

Unless she means to poison us again, but surely she'd not expect us to fall for the same trick twice.

[phantasmagorial]

No, I don't think she would. Even if it was the only trick she had up her sleeve, it didn't work the first time, so I don't think she'd bother to waste her time trying it again. And I'm not sure when she'd get the opportunity, either.

[daughterofthemark]

Then... I've no idea. My apologies.

[phantasmagorial]

[ She shakes her head and gives Veil a weary smile. ]

No, it's alright. I don't really know either. Right now, we're just making blind guesses... we don't have any real way to be totally sure what she's planning.

[daughterofthemark]

But...

[She can't help but feel like everyone else is closer to an answer than she is.]

There must be some clue we've overlooked.

[phantasmagorial]

Well... when the two of you were talking, did she say anything in particular to you that stood out?

[daughterofthemark]

[She thinks hard about this.]

She highly recommended a certain bakery... she said she would find me later... I feel as though she somehow spoke a green heart out loud...

[phantasmagorial]

[ Rei sighs. ]

I guess it'd be a little too convenient to hope she'd leave us a clue like that...