Hate Mob
When he returned home, Elric headed into his room and sat before his computer. He didn't have any homework because the first day was filled with syllabuses, but he did have some work he needed to do.
Even if he tried to force Leo to find an accompanying band for Ember, Elric wasn't about to leave her future to an unreliable friend. For all he knew, Leo would pull the same band stuff he was pulling with bringing in Ember as a singer.
If the band was bad, he could just blame it on someone else.
After messaging Leo and telling him to send over info on a few bands so that he would be able to confirm that they were actually good, Elric started working out a singing schedule for Ember. The time opening Leo needed to be filled was only one day later, and the time slot started just a few minutes after the end of their final class.
Being a performance college, students often missed classes for work, so Elric had no qualms about skipping their last class to make it to the venue on time.
After sending a short email to his teacher and confirming the location, Elric leaned back in his chair and switched back to an open page of the group chat.
He still needed to talk with Ember to coordinate what she would be singing.
'She's only got two original songs now that we're finishing up with one, so she'll have to sing a few covers… with an accompanying rock band, there's some interesting stuff we can do.'
Just as he was about to leave his chair to go find the girl, he saw a new message pop up in the local general chat.
-General Chat (Local)-
LeadShark: Bros, is anyone else going to the Alha Nulstaya miniconcert on Thursday? It's just going to be at a small venue, and I heard there's going to be a ton of fan interaction!
A few people left replies confirming their excitement below the original comment, and they then began chatting about how amazing the rising star of WStar was.
'Sure, her singing is decent, but she's rotten to the core!'
Elric reached out to his keyboard, joining the conversation
SecretlyKind: @LeadShark, she's scummy, don't support her.
LeadShark: Huh? What are you on, bro?
CallmeLittleTony: Yeah man, what's up with you?
Elric was already off on another tab, looking up the details of her concert. It was a small, privately held one that would only have a few hundred people attending at best.
'This witch has quite the following already, even among The Boys… well, not only is she a rude twat, but she also is a future competitor for Ember.'
Without even pausing to read the general chat, Elric flipped over to the -Jobs- page. He paused midway through writing it, realizing he might need a bit of motivation for the lads who currently viewed Nulstaya favorability.
Opening up his messenger, he picked up his chat with Leo.
"Yo, your younger sister is a freshman this year, right?"
A few moments later, a response appeared.
"Yes, why?"
Declining to respond, Elric went back to writing up the job listing.
–Jobs– (Currently Viewing).
…
…
Job Poster: Elric Melov (SecretlyKind).
Request: Go to the singer "Alha Nulstaya's" concert, boo and throw trash at her.
Rewards: $10 for the first 10 members to sign up, introduction to a cute girl for the most verbose booer.
Current applicants: 0/10.
Elric even decided to open up his own pockets to provide a bit more incentive.
When he flipped back to the general page, though, he quickly saw a wave of hatred.
LeadShark: Dude, what the hell? Alha never did anything to you, why would you post a job like that? And here I thought you were a decent dude.
CallmeTony: Piss off Kind, no one is going to accept that job. What a scummy thing to post.
Even after a few minutes passed, the accepted count remained at 0/10.
Just when Elric was starting to rethink his actions, someone new joined the conversation.
TheMilkmanDelivers: Yo @SecretlyKind, does this have something to do with what happened at the bar before?
Reading Milky's comment, a spark lit in Elric's mind, and he quickly started typing.
SecretlyKind: Just watch this video. The girl in the red dress is Ember, my girlfriend. (Link).
The chat went silent for a bit as everyone went to watch it, and Elric took the chance to type out the background info of the situation.
It took a solid minute before anyone responded.
LeadShark: Is this really real? I've never seen her do anything like this before…
CallmeTony: I did see someone complain about her running after stage time once, I never thought much of it before, though.
LeadShark: Damn… I guess I was wrong, then. It really is tough to know someone without really knowing them.
Elric heard a light dinging noise from his computer, and when he switched to the -Jobs- tab, he saw that the number had gone up to 1/10.
LeadShark: Well, if that's how it is, how can we not support one of our own? I saw @QuittingCosplayNow also saying that your girlfriend was great.
QuittingCosplayNow: What's up? Oh, yea, it was great hanging out with Ember and Kind. There's no way she would do something like this just to get at a competitor, she is way too nice and innocent. Please support her and Kind!
A few seconds after Eria posted her thoughts, the job applicants started flooding in. Even after all of the paid slots were filled up, more people continued applying.
SecretlyKind: Lads, there is an entrance fee to get in to watch her performance.
Lelhah88: I don't care! Down with two-faced celebrities! We support Kind's girlfriend to the end! Ps. My voice is loud, I'll definitely win the most verbose cheerer reward. You better deliver.
As the job applicant number climbed into the hundreds, Elric leaned back in his chair.
'I think I've just created a hate mob… Whelp, all's well that ends well, right? This girl had it coming!'