confrontation.

[cancrymods]

It's time.

Esme has been doing her level best to make sure everyone in Invidia knows about their little competition, so it shouldn't be a surprise to see that the mall is absolutely overflowing with devoted fans today, all eager to see the outcome of this "friendly" competition between performers. Thankfully, Esme has been unusually sportsmanlike and deigned to release a schedule of the event beforehand, so you're not just going in blind. Esme and Idol-ON will perform two songs each and then hold a question and answer session with the audience, after which a vote will be held – and whoever has the most votes by the end of the show will be declared Invidia's newest top idols.

Sounds simple, right? Right.

You've all been given a private room out of the way of the crowds, with some time to spare before the event itself starts. Time for some last minute rehearsal, some last minute panicking, some last minute... sabotage? Well, Esme's probably not going to play fair, so why should you?

Comments

[schardynfreude]

Oh ho ho! Well then! Fucking around with the vote numbers isn't really going to help much at the moment given Esme's ridiculous inflation tactic, and given he can't seem to do much of anything about it otherwise, he's just going to have to bomb this shit good.

So. Surely people want to ask Esme some things, even if it's just someone fawning over her. Chiron hems and haws just a bit, mostly for drama, entirely for himself, and shoots a quick note to the chat - not that the idol girls are going to be checking their phones, that'd be super rude, but, y'know. Heads up to other people. Technically.

The following program is rated R for Revolting, Retch-inducing, Repugnant, Rude, and Reprehensible.

(He's having fun. It's possible he'll feel bad about it later, but hey, nobody's here to point it out to him.)

If it's the last thing he does (and maybe it is!), he will force the entirety of this recording (emetophobia, body horror, eye trauma in the link) to go through.

There's "sudden illness" and there's "what the absolute fuckshit could possible cause something like that".

And then he's just going to watch the vote numbers! If they start swinging Idol-ON's way, well, who's going to notice if he visually helps that along, hm? If nothing else, the last hail mary is to try and time the vote closing and his number fudging as close as possible to make the girls look like winners.

Two can cheat at this game.

[cancrymods]

Hooooooooooh boy.

So, right off the bat, the recording absolutely stalls Esme's votecount, but that's less because people have suddenly jumped ship to Idol-ON and more because everyone has taken to Caw to go absolutely apeshit bonkers on high-velocity conspiracy theory posting. The votes as a whole have ground to a halt, though there's still the occasional one or two that come trickling in. The votes get shut down pretty quick after that though, probably as some degree of damage control, so if Chiron wants to mess with the vote numbers... well, here's his best chance!

The effect on Esme is also pretty devastating. It's nothing quite as dramatic as you'd expect but it completely shatters her perfect idol facade. The look of barely suppressed rage and embarrassment on her face is one hell of a sight to see and makes for some extremely choice hot takes on Caw.

Any further vote manipulation you want to get up to?

[schardynfreude]

If Esme's are going to be counted twice, well, while he's at it boosting Idol-ON's numbers, he'll shrink Esme's. Maybe not halve it, but I mean. 'Subtle' also feels like it got thrown out the window.

But nah that's it on Chiron's end. Re-rig those numbers as best he can now that he's used his ammo.