Murdersphere Mosaic [ManXMan] [BoyXBoy]

Chapter 4 Part 1 The House of The Rising Sun

Despite “winning,” I and the other winners have to film the awards show that will conclude the Megafauna Spectacular.

I have roughly a week to prepare; a process compromised by my absolute lack of knowledge about the procedure. I have a lifetime of television and other media consumption to pull from, but that is not the same as being on a sound stage and being a representative of an alien corporate culture.

Hell, I am still working through updating my personal definition of “people.”  I tell myself that I need to stop thinking of people as synonymous with “human.” I instantly recognized Orai as “people” even though she does not look “human.”

I am allowed plenty of time to sleep, and I’m well fed and generally kept relaxed. I have started having nightmares and I’m informed that those cannot keep me from getting ready.

Klesean is patient, walking me through the meta-process for interview preparation.

"Even if you do not have a specific project to represent, always remember that you are your own best product and you must represent it at all times.” She says. “Right now, the footage we have of you indicates a public reserve and strong retention of empathy and a private capacity for great passion. We can use that. There is one problem."

My listening expression sharpens and I make eye contact with her. "What kind of problem?"

"The Styx Collective is disputing the results." She says. "They are agitating for a deathmatch between the top three contenders."

"Do they even have anyone in the top three?" I ask.

Klesean gives me a small, mischievous smile. "No they do not. Styx's reaction to any dispute is to call a deathmatch. I think their management is smarting over several poor wagers they made."

"They are making noise, but is it actually affecting anything?" I ask.

"No." She says. "The competition is over, this is just a wrap up. Besides, setting up a non-narrative deathmatch would require new negotiations especially since Styx isn't risking anything. Of course this is really about Minsk."

"The spy." I say, earning a nod. "What was he doing?"

"Driving Talent away." She says. "He was sneaky, subtle, but it all added up to less frequent contract re-up's. Of course the smoking gun was that all of those who did not re-up used him as a primary mental health provider."

"Did they go to another entertainment corporation?" I ask.

"No." She says. "He convinced them to go Outside, to join up with a commune. A commune that is in actuality an unpaid content generation arm of Styx. The people there are in virtual slavery, unable to survive outside of the commune and doing what they can to stay in it, or be cast out."

"So why was he interfering with me?" I ask.

She says. "He wanted to dragoon you into complaining about your pre-game Audience contact on camera to potentially disqualify you, and put you on the path to where you would be willing to run away. Your worth would be so low at that point we would probably not even pursue you and Minsk would have been oh so helpful."

I frown. "I know I am still greener than new leaves, but can you tell me what Styx wants?"

"The Styx collective specializes in high-volume low quality fare. And they have a large, fluid Audience share. They want to expand into different programming, but they do not want to give up their current output. They need new direct link widecasting slots and they want ours."

"Can't the Audience just make more?" I ask.

"They like the competition." She says. "Observing the competition in this economy they have created and maintain is as entertaining as the programming, and it directly affects them. Plus, upstarts can just use radio broadcast wavelengths that are not taken up for official uses."