Rise To Stardom - Chapter 109

Chapter 109: Petition
Critic reviews were nice and all but, in reality, did people really even give music reviews the time of day?

Most individuals, would rather listen to a song and decide for themselves if they liked or disliked it.

And for [Paradox], because it was a unique, alternative rock song that touched on philosophical themes everyone could relate with, it was instant like for most people.

Added to the fact that the tune itself was ingenious to say the least, especially with its attention-grabbing and hauntingly mesmerizing piano riff that was present throughout the entirety of the song, people were listening to it non-stop.

Considering Kyle released [Paradox] at exactly midnight, seeing the song skyrocket to No. 1 on the charts just a few hours later with over 6.7M stream counts, was something akin to magic in his opinion.

Sure, due to the hype from his fans, music enthusiasts and critics, the song was bound to be successful but, that wasn’t the only reason.

The renegotiation between Oliver and DiscoTune to 4% royalties taken, one in which the music distribution firm, along with GrooveBox were heavily promoting the song, also allowed for the song to also debut on a very high No. 10 on the ‘Buzzing 100′ charts.

That said, considering Kyle himself, knew just how much work and effort he had put into perfecting the song, along with remembering Oliver’s advice to him, he was much less floored when compared to his disbelief from the success of his previous songs.

Yet, the young man was still extremely grateful for the success of his new song.

Still, Kyle didn’t really have time to fixate on the overwhelming success of the song as something else was seriously occupying his time.

He and Christina had been brainstorming ideas for his audition for the past two weeks now, one where Kyle was the creative mind while Christina, was the one, helping him refine those ideas.

Eventually, both had come down to a simple narrative script, one where The Curator himself, would be introducing himself to the presumed individuals whom would be present at his audition.

It was a pretty weird idea to say the least but, the more Kyle and Christina worked on it, the more incredibly credible it seemed.

It was definitely something The Curator could and would do.

Still, as that was happening, the success of his song very well established, the trolls and denizens of the internet on the other hand, all of whom had been patiently waiting for Kyle’s song to be a success, readied and revved themselves up to flame the Hollywood Star Awards show.

Considering they’d been looking forward to this exact moment, they were absolutely going to have a field day today.

And what better time was there for them to be absolute trolls of misfortune towards a corrupt award show, if not the first week of a new year.

To them, 2020, was quite literally, the start of a fantastic year.

* * *

[2nd Of January, 2020]

The Hollywood Star Awards Show, soon began trending on TweetTalk, coming in third after [Paradox] and the interaction between Kyle & Martin.

Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly though, in contrast to the first and second trending topics on the space, both of which were trending for a positive reason, they were obviously trending for the opposite.

One which the Star Awards Panel of Judges didn’t like, one bit.

–

WeDoABitOfTrolling: Isn’t it satisfying? Seeing your favorite artist who deserved an award but was deprived of it, giving the middle finger to his deprivers with a banger song at the beginning of a new year. Time to rid the world of and #CancelStarAwardsShow.

HereComesJohnny: @WeDoABitOfTrolling; And the best part, not once did Kyle comment on the controversy. Rather, bro went to cook and instead, spoke with his music. That’s some top-tier clapback in my book. #CancelStarAwardsShow.

StringlessMarionette: I support #CancelStarAwardsShow. There’s no friggin’ reason, at all, to justify snubbing [Strange Canvas]! I mean, do these guys have their eyes blindfolded and their cochlea surgically operated on to not see the success of or listen to great songs?!!

Enlightened Dao: Honestly, I’d never join in with this sort of movement on a normal day but, with multiple indie artists, talking out on their various accounts about how The Star Awards deprived them of awards that were deservedly theirs because they didn’t conform to certain, diabolical industry standards, I am compelled to say, #CancelStarAwardsShow.

Princess Peach: Still waiting on them to offer an apology for not nominating Kyle and Lily in Best New Song and Best New Artist categories. #CancelStarAwardsShow.

GremlinInYourBackyard: I’d rather there be no award show at all than have an award show that’s just there to cater to people sucking up to them behind the scenes! I stand with #CancelStarAwardsShow movement.

ShrekLovesFiona: At first I’d always thought people overexaggerated when their favorite artists didn’t win an award because, well, some fans are like that. Brainrot and what nots. But, personally, after following Kyle’s Kestis’s music since 2018, I can confidently state, that I get the hate for this darn award show. #CancelStarAwardsShow.

RoastedBarbecue: Smell that people. The smell of flames, gradually scorching and burning the Star Awards Show. I don’t know about you all but I just might get addicted to this! #CancelStarAwardsShow.

RudeAwakening: Fraudulent little shits will probably hope this will pass over like all the other times on the internet, only to realize, a fucking petition of over eight hundred thousand people has already been signed to #CancelStarAwardsShow!

–

Just like the last comment had stated, the big wigs who ran the Hollywood Star Awards show, were at first complacent about the entire matter, only to genuinely feel threatened a few hours later when they saw the actual petition being signed online.

Sure enough, petitions alone never really did anything in the grand scheme of things but, with the alarming level of awareness at which it was spreading at, especially on TweetTalk, it was something that couldn’t be overlooked any more.

Eight hundred thousand people signing a petition to have their award show canceled due to corrupt, lack of transparency and fraudulent behavior, was nothing to scoff at.

That was especially true, considering today was only the second day.

Possibly, by the end of the week, if not a month at this rate, it would’ve skyrocketed to millions of signatures.

Knowing fully well that this sort of movement was going to hurt their reputation for a long, long time to come, they quickly began to think of ways to appease the general public before it escalated beyond control, one of which started, with them issuing a public apology;

–

We’ve seen it all and we’ve decided we owe an apology to the general public. We are committed to a thorough review and immediate corrective actions to restore the integrity of our awards. We apologize…

* * *

“… to our community and promise to rebuild your trust in us through transparency and fairness. We hope, that, in the coming years, you’ll witness with us, an industry transparent, Star Awards Show.”

Reading the article out loud was Oliver, a particularly unimpressed expression on his face as he mused;

‘So, they are, admitting that they were fraudulent…’

“How’s this?” Kyle on the other hand, tried on another long coat, seemingly unperturbed by what his agent had read.

<No. Feels too subdued. The Curator, wouldn’t wear something fairly normal. The subtle, grey stripes are a nice touch though.> Christina signed to Kyle in response.

<Figured as much.> Kyle responded to the lady, after which he then took off the exotically styled coat.

“Honestly Oliver, I doubt they’d change anything this year, next year or the coming years for that matter…” the young man casually stated in response to his agent, gently placing the long coat atop the pile of others which he had already tried on as he continued;

“It’s been a running theme for them to disregard the interests of the general public anyway. This is probably just them trying to mitigate some of the awareness that’s spreading before it gets out of control.”

“I’m certain it is.” Oliver nodded in agreement and Christina, did the same, although her hands were already rummaging through another hangar of exotic-looking coats.

“But still, it’ll take quite a long while for them to recover their reputation after this. They can even kiss this year’s award show goodbye since people won’t even bother tuning in to their show.” the agent added with a bit of a contented expression, one his ward found a bit unexpected.

‘Is he glad they’re getting canceled…?’ Kyle thought to himself with a thin smile.

‘Guess he really was pissed that I didn’t win an award…’ the young man mused to himself, a bit of interest in his eyes as he tilted his head in slight amusement.

Currently situated in a popular mall Oliver recommended, Kyle, along with the help of Christina, was trying out outfits at the clothing store.

Considering the audition was in a few days, both individuals had already finalized the script they had wanted to use.

Kyle, however, wanted to take the auditions a step further.

Since The Curator was a bit eccentric yet mysterious, especially with his different characterization of traits over the years, Kyle wanted for his version to also be expressive yet still, somewhat, sophisticated.

It was a contrast that he knew was going to be exceptionally hard for him to pull off.

Mysterious and expressive, he felt like he could definitely pull off with enough practice.

Subtle eccentricity mixed with sophistication however, now that was something he doubted he could bring to life by simply trying to act the part alone.

Yet, at times, to really embody a character, only a bit more push was needed.

And in the case of the titular time traveler, a simple switch up in looks and attire, could effectively do that.

Also, considering every version of The Curator, had different attires from the previous, Kyle was also, using it as an opportunity to set his version asides from the rest, even if it was just an audition.

Although he wasn’t certain, the young man felt that most actors who would also be privately screened, just like him, would instead, go for a more recognizable attire of The Curator over the years.

At the very least, he hoped his own decision to breathe a fresh yet still in line take, into the character, would earn him brownie points in his own audition.

And so, sorting through a few more coats for about an hour, Kyle, along with Christina and Oliver, settled on a particular coat.

One which they knew would fit The Curator’s eccentric, mysterious and sophisticated persona that Kyle was going for.

<It’s perfect!> Christina signed in excitement the moment Kyle wore the long coat while Oliver, nodded in agreement.

However, as an added touch, the lady’s eyes, soon landed on a certain accessory and swiftly, she made a beeline for it, ran back towards Kyle and fitted the attire with it.

“Fully embracing the Belle Epoque era eh?” Kyle grinned at the lady with an approving gaze, one to which Christina responded with a light grin of her own, her fingers raised to give a thumbs up that seemingly signaled the word;

<Yep!>