Aeon Nether & Idol Effigy

Chapter 58- Reality

<Pretty picture from Flickr>

I looked around me.

Drag had changed his government name to Drag before he came on this show. Rain wasn't someone who'd call out people like they'd like to. It was the best thing to do for him, probably. Drag stood with an aged face that had long since became a handsome debonair sort of guy on the silver screens. His stance was clear.

The others within the top ten also looked negatively on the idea of allowing the judges to join the competition. It wasn't like these sorts of surprises hadn't happened in the past, but they were rare. It was also due to the theme of having old failed or celebs who'd wanted to come out about something, on the idol show that made it more of an off putting idea to now add the judges into the mix.

It was questionable and we had every right to question it all.

The second year tends to be what everyone tends to look forward to watching. But now some popular celebs that weren't in the first year contestant batch were just going to jump in. Were they that concerned in taking the air time from us contestants? Especially the contestants who'd ended up ranking high due the audience members who like to watch talented people display their art skillfully. But now the successful musicians, dancers and idols were going to jump into the show? Before the second year where the majority of the show's viewers would come into watching the show, the previous judges turned contestants wished to jump in. Some contestants don't even have people who would stick with them as fans, some contestants also got most of their viewers from fans of these judges, but now the judges had become an option for these viewers. Who knows?! Do I even have a strong enough following yet!? Cult!? Do I have the cult following to survive the show?!

Unknown to me, I had already gotten a loyal cult following, to what extent or amount, who knows? But it was enough to survive. Felixe was watching me from the corner of my eyes, deeply amused.

Another judge that was about to enter the show at the age of nineteen or twenty, seemed to not know about Drag's idol history, or maybe they did. The new found contestant seemed to want to appeal to Drag through himself being young and just coming out of dungeon service about a year ago. An awkward thing to do in front of a person like Drag. Most people already seemed to have gotten second hand embarrassment, but no one stopped him. I mean, how can you stop him? The situation was perfect for doing nothing and entirely impossible to do something to make him stop. Would he stop?

The speech continued, "... I'm just looking for stability and-"

"- we're entering as judges who are already well known. Although we'd be ranked with you all, we don't really count as contestants of the show, so we won't be able to become victors of the competition. You can just think of us judges as having a show of power on the side, whilst you all compete and that we'd be participating in order to further train you all." Felixe's voice cut in to explain what was actually happening.

When Felixe's voice cut in, the visual appearance of the other judges could be taken in and it seemed like they were going to add some unnecessary drama in, so I interjected before they could do anything.

"So in short, the judges turned contestants' significance in being ranked into the competition is a competition between yourselves and a way to show off that you're professionals. If we normal contestants rank above any of you it's a shame on you, but if you rank above us it's just another benchmark to beat in our journey in the entertainment world?"

"Pretty much. At this point it would be somewhat degrading to be a judge and not put up a good performance. At least my fans will be able to judge fairly, whilst accepting whatever rank I get after I put on a good performance, but the other judges seemed to just be... Well you can see."

"Yeah... everyone, but they themselves can see..."

The fourth placed contestant seemed confused and asked, "What do you see?"

I answered her back, "Arrogance, ignorance and some pretty annoying traits that went into their existence as a whole."

"Isn't that too much?", she asked back.

"No, they're the type to appear all innocent up front, but don't realise that their acting is off. Pretty soon they'll be canvassing and bullying more people other than me, in order for their own performances to look decent on stage and to ruin the other contestants' performances without getting Rain to air out their dirty laundry. The staff taught most of them well enough."

"What?! That's-"

"-The truth. You should have noticed it too, with everyone performing and getting public feedback from them. Most judges had been bought on this show, along with the staff members. The only reason they appear kind or 'alright' to some extent is to make sure who the owner wants to look good or bad can be shown as such. I honestly doubt that they didn't spend months only teaching a few people they picked out for their own reasons, in order to look better on the show. They won't realise how bad it looks until after they die and someone dances over their grave on a short viral video."

"..."

I looked around again and spotted the shocked impression of the other contestants who seemed to either fight the urge to move away from me or were confused by my blunt character that had gotten tenth place. The judges' expressions were also funny to look at and a few of them, including Felixe, chose to blatantly agree while they laughed at the other judges. The other judges who were laughing seemed to be the ones who tried to be fair to everyone in the competition, so one of two more people laughed.

After that, we discussed our courses and timetables before they were to be fully explained the next day. Then we all went to sleep, except for the judges turned contestants and two contestants who wanted to party. Felixe didn't want to party either, thankfully. If Felixe were to join, I wouldn't be surprised if they drugged his drink for their own scripting reasons.

Just like that we entered another period of intense studying that levelled up our skill specs quickly. In some ways the show was starting to show why these lottery shows were so important for us.

Surprisingly, the feeling of shock didn't show up to me, it felt obvious that the show was preparing us for something in an efficient manner. I knew it wasn't some strange feeling I had in the past when I thought my paranoia was acting up. Idol Effigy with its oh so talented contestants seemed more like an audition platform for the end days. Although, in all due respect, having an idol reality competition format is still a bit odd to me, but I more or less understand that this all is helpful to my growth. This was especially the case when I picked out my courses and found out that the skills showed up fairly often on my screen.