InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "beavers and ducks!"

Benjamin Bale (benjamin_bale) wrote in freedomtownic,
@ 2020-12-14 16:36:00

Entry tags:

!idol plot, ben bale (benjamin_bale), olive penderghast (fancymyth), queen barb (queen_of_rock), rachelle martin-bale (rockinrachelle)

UNIVERSAL IDOL S2: FINALS, Ep1
In a departure from the typical typical opening, the first part of the finals opened cold to a shot of the finalists, Olive Penderghast and Queen Barb, both dressed in cute, yet sexy little Santa dresses, with knee-high black boots, black spiked choker collars, and elbow-length black gloves.

With the backing band playing behind them, the two best friends opened up the show with a fun, hard-rocking Christmas song, "Santa Claus Is Back In Town".

After the end of the song, Ben walked out onto the stage, wearing jeans, sneakers, and a Van Halen-themed Christmas sweater. He shook hands with both women, before walking up to the microphone.

"Ladies and Gentlemen... welcome to the Season 2 finale of Universal Idol! We started with 13 hopefuls, and now we are down to the final two. First, let's say hello once more to our judges... Rachelle Martin-Bale, Meredith Delany, Kyle Sutherland, and Kayla Barnes!"

After giving each judge a quick closeup, the camera went back to Ben, who finished bringing everyone up to date on where we began, and where we are right now.

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Video Package: Olive Penderghast

fancymyth
2020-12-15 12:44 am UTC (link)

After her name was announced a video package began with Olive Penderghast sitting in a director's style chair, her legs crossed and her fingers laced on her top knee. In the background, Olive's cover of "Mary Did You Know" played quietly in the background. "I should probably explain myself," she finally spoke after nearly thirty seconds of silence. She rolled her eyes, "but I won't. Closest I'm going to come to explaining me walking out before the judges could comment on my little protest last week is that Kyle was right." She shrugged, letting out a heavy sigh. "Sometimes, you just don't want to hear it. Even if it's praise. And I'm not going to put on some front and smile when I'm annoyed."

She uncrossed her legs, nice and slow, bringing one hand up to raise her head-on. "Now we've come to the finale that we all knew was coming. From week one, everyone predicted that it was going to come down to me and my Queen. And here we are," she grinned, raising her eyebrows. "Sure, I've done a little experimenting throughout the show, but I get that I couldn't be doing that the whole time. The last few weeks, I've been doing straight rock covers because to quote Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, I Wanna Rock!" She threw up a pair of devil horns with a grin, then shrugged, "It's just that even rockers do ballads sometimes." She left it off at that point, letting the video fade out as light applause sounded.

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Performance: Olive Penderghast

fancymyth
2020-12-15 12:46 am UTC (link)

Olive walked out onto the stage with a bright smile on her face. Obviously, all she needed was some time to blow off a little steam and she was more than a thousand percent ready to bring an Earth-shattering performance. She didn't apologize for her actions because she didn't feel like she needed to. Her normal denim shorts were replaced by a barely modest length black leather skirt, paired with an oversized tank top with the logo for her as yet to be revealed band name. On her face, she had dark cat-eye makeup and her hair was lightly teased. She stepped up to the mic stand, testing to make sure that the microphone could easily slide in and out of its holder before giving a small nod, looking down as the lights lowered for a moment before fully coming up as the music began.

"Now I will tell you what I've done for you
Fifty thousand tears I've cried," she looked out to the crowd, to everyone and no one at the same time, a dark, piercing look in her eyes.
"Screaming, deceiving and bleeding for you
And you still won't hear me

(Going under....)," the haunting sound of the improvised title shoutout reverberated throughout the entire studio and a strobe light penetrated the entire room as she slid out the microphone then held out the stand.

"Don't want your hand this time, I'll save myself
Maybe I'll wake up for once (wake up for once)," she gave a little shrug as she returned the mic stand to its original position.
"Not tormented, daily defeated by you
Just when I thought I'd reached the bottom," she gave a firm nod, banging her head as she stepped back with a single stomp.

"I'm dying again," she stood mostly still, delivering the single-lined hook, swaying just a bit as the strobe light show came up again, stopping just before she dove headfirst into the chorus.

"I'm going under (going under)
Drowning in you (drowning in you)
I'm falling forever (falling forever)
I've got to break through, I'm going under," she closed her eyes after letting out the last note of the chorus and stepped back up to the mic stand, slipping the microphone back into it.

"Blurring and stirring the truth and the lies
(So I don't know what's real)
So I don't know what's real and what's not
(Don't know what's real and what's not)
Always confusing the thoughts in my head (oh)
So I can't trust myself anymore," she raised her arms as a full-on light show began to go through to the end of the song.

"I'm dying again," she used the strobing effect again, rolling her shoulders to draw it out and slid the microphone out again.

"I'm going under (going under)
Drowning in you (drowning in you)
I'm falling forever (falling forever)
I've got to break through, I'm," she spun around as she continued singing flawlessly.

"So go on and scream
Scream at me, I'm so far away (so far away)," she stopped as she faced the audience once again with a piercing deadpan.
"I won't be broken again (again)
I've got to breathe, I can't keep going under," she did a single air guitar style windmill swing before going into a little dance, wiggling and swaying down until she was crouching on the floor.

"I'm dying again," she leaned forward, balancing herself on her free hand before jumping up to go into the final chorus.

"I'm going under (going under)
Drowning in you (drowning in you)
I'm falling forever (falling forever)
I've got to break through, I'm going under (going under)

Going under (drowning in you)
I'm going under," after the music faded out, she walked up to the edge of the stage, right in front of the judges, and sat down with a huge smile on her face.

"Let's do this," she gave a nod before switching her microphone off and setting it down.

[ooc: Song - "Going Under" by Evanescence; cover by Halocene https://youtu.be/cX6HCZMQcCU ]

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	Re: Performance: Olive Penderghast rockinrachelle 2020-12-16 07:05 am UTC (link)
	"YES!!!" Rachelle cheered, standing up and pointing excitedly at Olive. "That! Right! There! That's what I've been wanting to see! I don't mean the type of music, I mean that goddamn aggression! That was the performance of a bitch who wants to win this fucking thing. And son of a bitch... you just might do it, girl." (Reply to this) (Parent)

PERFORMANCE: Queen Barb

queen_of_rock
2020-12-16 06:56 am UTC (link)

"So. This is how it ends." There was no video this time. Instead, a simple voiceover from Queen Barb, as the lights were completely out. "Maybe this was the only way it could end. Me and Olive, kicking this competition's ass. If my best friend in the world wins this? I'll be thrilled for her. But at the same time? I'm taking no prisoners tonight. Tonight... you're all gonna see the closest thing to the real me any of you could imagine."

"No matter how much people try... rock n' roll will never die."

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Re: PERFORMANCE: Queen Barb

queen_of_rock
2020-12-16 06:56 am UTC (link)

As the light came up, the cameras focused in on Queen Barb, a happy but determined grin on her face, dressed in tight black vinyl pants, knee-high black high heeled boots, and a sleeveless Heart tee, cut off at the midriff.

The most surprising thing, though... was her look. She wore a black choker, and heavy, dark eyeliner. Her left ear was pierced with several large silver hoops. And most telling... her multi-colored hair was shaved close to the head on the sides, and the rest was sprayed up into a mohawk. And in her hands? A brand new guitar, fashioned after the beloved flying V she had in her world. She began ripping through a familiar, galloping riff as her vocals began, one foot propped up on a nearby amp.

"So this ain't the end, I saw you again, today
I had to turn my heart away
Smiled like the sun, kisses for everyone
And tales, it never fails"

She threw a hand in the air, giving the horns with her fingers as she stuck that long tongue out, curling it seductively to the camera.

"You lying so low in the weeds
I bet you gonna ambush me
You'd have me down, down, down, down on my knees..."

She winked into the camera, flinging her guitar around her body once by the strap.

"Now wouldn't you, barracuda?"

She ran toward the front of the stage, crouching down to happily glad-hand with some of the fans in the audience. They were loving her and she fed off of it like a drug. This was the crescendo her entire journey on this show had built to. The Queen of Rock, performing her favorite song for adoring fans all over the universe.

"Back over time we were all trying for free
You met the porpoise and me, uh-huh
No right, no wrong you're selling a song, a name
Whisper game"

The last time she'd performed this song, it was in an attempt to wipe out all music but rock from her world. She'd been a misguided, disillusioned girl, who had needed her eyes opened in a big way. And thankfully when that happened, she was able to fix what she had harmed. But this? This was her sharing her passion for rock, for this song, with people who gladly wanted to hear it. Who wanted to celebrate her and rock n' roll itself.

"And if the real thing don't do the trick
You better make up something quick
You gonna burn, burn, burn, burn, burn to the wick
Ooh, barracuda, oh yeah"

Barb felt a warm glow inside her, thinking of everything else that had changed about her life since arriving here. Sure, she was upset at first that she was no longer a troll... and no longer had a kingdom... but in return? She'd gained friends. Fans. A true love. And it filled her with a glee she barely knew she could feel.

"Sell me, sell you, the porpoise said
Dive down deep now to save my head, you
I think that you got the blues too"

Win or lose, this was it. This was the end of her Universal Idol journey. And while the old Barb would have pursued victory by any means necessary, and would have cared about nothing other than winning... she'd changed. Matured. And now she realized that the journey was what mattered, not the destination. Win or lose, she had friends, fans, and family now. And she couldn't be happier.

"All that night and all the next
Swam without looking back
Made for the western pools, silly, silly fools"

"The real thing don't do the trick, no
You better make up something quick
You gonna burn, burn, burn, burn, burn it to the wick
Ohh, barra-barracuda, yeah"

She went back to that galloping riff, banging her head to the beat of the song. These were the last moments of the song, and of her final attempt at getting votes. She poured her all into it, dropping to her knees as she tore through the closing single, soaking in the cheers before closing the song out with a big, happy, satisfied smile.
Whether she won or lost... The Queen was back. Long live The Queen.

("Barracuda" by Heart, covered by Sershen&Zaritskaya
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBcIQnexebY)

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Re: PERFORMANCE: Queen Barb

rockinrachelle
2020-12-16 07:09 am UTC (link)

"Shit... you are already the complete package, girl. I almost feel like you should've just been given a deal to begin with and not even bothered with this show, because you are a star. I don't envy the fans a goddamn bit right now, because I couldn't choose between you and Olive if I had to."

Rachelle nodded, looking somewhere between impressed and utterly shocked.

"You both blew me away tonight. I literally want to leave here tonight and buy albums from both of you. Fuck. I am completely stunned."

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