Aeon Nether & Idol Effigy

Chapter 51- My Turn to be judged

The lights flashed once again announcing the end of what was supposed to be a seductive performance. It was the second performance after Trina's and it really did make me think that the show wanted to draw a clear comparison to emphasise Trina in every way possible.

The performance today was clearly at the bottom of the show. I've watched Idol Effigy and it's hard for me not to be aware of how the show staff are pining to give away compliments to Trina. Between the information I had at my disposal and Trina's blatant assumption that everything was going her way like in the other timelines, it became obvious that she was adopted by the Dafiin family again. I don't know how that made me feel remembering how I was seen as something like an annoying plastic shopping bag that was torn and wet. I could swear they thought I was convenient for the span of five minutes that they were in front of the cameras and no more. Their messy family history that wasn't really their own also didn't make me jealous of her. After surviving the show I may get jealous when she inherits stuff, but realistically I'd say that it was more so me being envious of people gaining easy money.

I breathed in and out deeply. Currently, I was backstage and was waiting for the previous contestant to be judged.

Rather than worrying about being judged by the judges, I was more worried about the audience's reactions. Afterall, the judges don't count for much on this show with the monitoring ability of the show that aims to keep things to the utmost fairness in the first year of the show. Although, the judges' vote normally shows the popularity of the contestants and can allow them to pass through the first year with ease if they themselves put a little bit of effort into their performance. It's not surprising that Trina won't have to try as hard as everyone else, because she's been given additional help. Even if she paid attention to miss the bottom place she'd be able to pass easily.

At least, the Rain helps decide who of the five hundred final year contestants will stay by paying more attention to their capabilities. Afterall, the egg will be on your face if you end up progressing in the competition without some effort or talent to back you up on stage. This is especially the case for our cohort of contestants, because we had previous musicians and celebrities added into our batch of sixteen year old lottery winners.

Thinking about it now makes my heart sour. Even if I didn't like drama, I want to watch and listen to some information on the fellow contestants. I don't even know which or how many well-to-do artists have been eliminated!

Was this a problem!?

Nope.

I'm too stupid to even focus on evaluating whether those pieces of information were worth what my little brain power can offer.

What was I supposed to do? Walk up to those contestants and use my social wit like a modern day noble woman. No! I'm too poor to do so! Let's not think about it.

My steps started making a different sound when I got to walk on the stage. Bright spot lights dimly shine on the dark grey stage that looked black due to the lights that had chosen to get patchy now. Whether that was a technical issue or a human issue, I've got no need to think about it, because I trusted Rain to soon fix the issues.

Rain didn't disappoint me, as the staff was swiftly fired publicly. I didn't have the brain cells to give my usual thoughts on whether he'd end up writing on his resume that he was fired for sticking it to the out of whack powers. Something imposing and reinforcing the whole: I stand with you, the men! You know, absolute dog crap.

"Hello, my name's Aeon Nether and I look forward to your critiques instead of useless insults like the last few times. Thank you. Rain, could you play my song?"

My tired voice had sounded over the stage and screens with little care to people being angry at me for this or that reason. Most of the judges didn't deserve respect. I had been treated illy by them before they gave critiques to me face to face, in the previous weeks of judging. Whether they expected me to cater towards them or not, I simply didn't care.

The lights on the stage swayed in a slight orange and pink hue. My outfit was in an off-white chromatic style and was wrapped around me in a savvy manner. The places where the risky business one-piece had cut outs had shades of pink and orange peeking through. Once the beat of the happy song sounded off, instead of dancing whilst singing passionately I walked for the most part. Awkward as it was to acknowledge or to say, I had focused on my musical strength and decided to incorporate a unique walk that wasn't quite model like, but was certainly pleasing to the eyes. Every now and then I'd dance with the four background dancers I'd chosen to focus the choreography of this song on. Every now and then the verses gave off a very rebellious talking kind of singing that changed slightly with the verses and beats of the song subtlety until it gets near the end of the song. The happy chorus had made the song happy and the last part of the song focused more on the chorus being changed that gave off both a happy and confrontational vibe drawing the song neatly to a close.

When I stopped Rain, just like he did for the other contestants, informed the judges that they could judge. Except this time Rain had given a telling hand in making the show fair for me, as he talked.

"The ONLY judge who is judged to be capable of judging contestant Aeon Nether is Felixe Virgil. Would the other judges not interact with contestant Aeon Nether on account of your hostility and attempted assistance in killing Aeon Nether in order to vie to other contestant's families favours. That will be all. Thank you, we at Idol Effigy aim to give a FAIR and SAFE environment for the unpolished gems we introduce to the worlds. If you don't want to see the archiver's play their hands I would suggest that talentless humans do not think to judge a life that is blatantly above your own. This has been Rain."

Watching the pallor of the judges drain colour quickly, my gaze stuck on Felixe forgetting to check if Trina had been watching in the audience. All I could see were the red eyes that were unlike a garnet and matched closer to a ruby missing some odd number of drops of blood. I could vaguely tell his eyebrows had roughly raised in surprise at Rain.

In my mind another voice sounded that was like me, but also unlike me.

'Idol Effigy wasn't safe for Emma. Why did it change for me?'