DATELINE: Wednesday, February 27, 2008
LOCATION: Just outside the LJ Idol Green Room


Ms. Smith pauses outside the door to the studio, peering into the mirror Brian holds up for her. She fluffs her hair until her well-puffed do stands up even higher, then checks her teeth for lipstick, and nudges out a smudge of blush upon her cheek. Straightening her blouse, smoothing her skirt, she turns to Brian. "All right, we're ready to go. Camera?"

Brian hoists the camera onto his shoulder and hands her the microphone. "Ready. Three. Two. One. Rolling!"

She beams at the camera, smile wide and preciously bright. "Hello! We're broadcasting today from the Green Room for LJ Idol! Just a little while ago, clauderainsrm announced that we've reached a milestone: the top 50."

"Top 48," Brian whispers.

"I know," she hisses in return, under her breath as she glances at him. "Top 50 sounds better." Pasting on a bright smile again, she looks back at the camera as if she could lock gazes with every viewer personally. "But before we take a close look at our contestants who have made it this far, let's take a quick glance back at weeks past, and the contestants who've already made that long alk back home."

She makes a motion, and a prepared montage of contestants and their pieces rolls.

"LJ Idol began Season 4 with 154 contestants. Over the first fifteen weeks, more than 100 contestants have been eliminated. Some were voted off; others used all their byes and couldn't post; still others voluntarily dropped out, either for personal reasons or nobly sarificing themselves to save someone else. And now we take a look back," as the montage shows each of the contestants of past weeks' leaving, "at those we have left behind." Her voice lowers, solemn and sweet, as she intones each name, pausing periodically for necessary quick breaths.

"go_orgoahead, comradecharlie, ilovestewie04, jaxskycloud, the_girl_i_knew, hannah_henchman, mcmayhem, celrock, deuceloosely, taybar19, camarilla_girl, echoes_of_dream, spherissa, ankita_1, freaktofreak, rdfreak, varykino_rose, _saint_cecilia_, aumonae, _libertybelle_, chiara607, pshaw_raven, magnus50000, rotheche, shadowwolf13, tenseiv, dizzydog, justthere, oberonia, bangdrum, cindynmuttnaz, emaline412, neverwhere74, techempage, 1_rhiannon_1, flutterbychild, nerdygirrl, pete_wisdom, a_singularity, astriana_, free_vigilante, med_kitty, mezzominty, naamaire, teenonfire4lord, tygress, 40sw, amadruadaboleyn, cataclysmic_liz, genesisdesire, mert_mt_bc, zyada, jldecker, beemerbike, bleuunicorn, evilgeniuskaty, iballs2entrails, katybean, leinahtane, lttledvl, wakiing_up, blackfroggy, celticboy, commodity_sign, sweetstephanie, toonhead, ladyariadna, darkwolf69, gatorgal1985, marjory, newsong, bella_devil, brucetola, cheapdestiny, forceworks, kelly0182, chather, ellenmillion, puppybraille, wbahner, anchasta, ambwilson, djner, hopefulnebula, lordrexfear, sideshowbennie, sushimustwrite, dedamona, dragonfluff, dubheach, js_africanus, shay_writes, tazcat, worldofcharlie, anamacha, beldar, blue_eye, controlld_chaos, flisleshnitz, lacombe, moonstone_fae, twystedpixie, belenen, libra_dragon, rm, shannihilation, srs_bidness." She remains silent when the list is done, posture straight but her eyes and microphone lowered in polite deference to those who have gone before.

Looking back up at the camera, she raises the microphone once more, and speaks in a soft voice. "We are glad to have known you, and you will be missed. I am quite certain I speak for all of our viewers when I say that we hope you will return for Season 5 and test your mettle again before the judges that are your Livejournal Readers."

Another moment of silence, stretching onwards, marred only by the restless movement of Brian, and the unseen tap of Ms. Smith's foot as she marks off the time.

She snaps back to abrupt motion with a beaming smile and a gesture towards the door. "The past weekend's voting kept everyone on tenterhooks as claudrainsrm declared a contestants only vote--just like the ones he declared for the cage matches of season three. This week, with five people going home, and ten contestants taking a bye, the contestants-only vote involved 55 voters, and 43 contestants. When the dust cleared at the end of a long weekend of reading and voting, we had our top 50. Which," she interrupts herself when Brian opens his mouth, "is actually the top 48 contestants, after dropouts."

"47," Brian whispers, as wherdafux_d_cat exits the Green Room, door closing behind her. "Just got notice that she had to drop and moonlightmuse will be joining another pair as a third member of the team."

Eyebrows arch for just moment, then Ms. Smith beams again. "Well isn't that a fascinating twist of events. I know all our viewers wish wherdafux_d_cat well and will be waiting with bated breath to see who moonlightmuse decides to join. While we wait, lets take a look back at how we first met our top 47 contestants..."

The video pans to a preset montage:

adpaz: "My name is Amber. It is a jewel name, being a semi-precious gem. And like a gem, I have many facets."

amenquohi: "So that's me...bologna in a peanut butter world."

angstzeit: "Who is Angstzeit? When I know, I'll tell you. But I'll be dead then, so I won't be able to."

awallens: "Come on in! Kick off your shoes, and enjoy the ride!"

az_starshine: "I marched to the beat of my own drummer and sang along to the music in my head."

baxaphobia: "I look forward to the journey and those I choose to take along my path will share in the ever changing person who is me."

boundfate: "But like you, I am more than a set of words."

browneyedgirl65: "But each of these is simply a facet of who I am, that can be examined separately, but don't add up to me."

chazari: "We all know I periodically lose my mind and, while I could give you examples, I can't because I lost my mind so there is nothing lurking in the confines of my ever-diminishing, cobwebbed-decorated (and not just for Halloween) mind."

chite: "So I'm hoping that, no matter how this all works out, I can find myself having the will to write again."

elva_undine: "I will never forgo sleep unless it's for a really good book, or perhaps knitting."

ewok_626: "I'm a vat of conflict and contradiction."

fidgety: "Before commencing, I suppose that I should point out that I've been mistaken for a fictional character. No, that's not a positive trait."

gnomeangel: "Her grave is marked by an elegant and simple tombstone that reads: '...who needs this sentimental bullshit anyway...'"

golden_sands: "But most of all being me is to just be me, and to take each day as it comes."

gonadsandstrife: "I believe that the philosophies of Daniel Quinn & Robert Heinlein hold the ticket to humanity's survival."

imafarmgirl: "I am both the breeze of gentle ideas and the thunder of action born out of rage."

jennielynn1127: "I'm looking forward to finding out that WHO I am meshes well with WHAT I am."

johnmill79: "It is said that the mark of insanity is trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results."

kathrynrose: "Pull up a chair, get comfy if you like, and get to know some of the people who might currently be distracted by something shiny over there, but might make a comment so you'll know they're here as well."

kittenboo: "I am going to go into that room, break down those walls, and really listen to what it is I have to say."

ladyozma: "If there is a geeky pursuit, I dabble. I'm a jack of all trades, master of none."

laurelian: "This is who I am, what I am, right now. Don't blink, you might miss it."

lilerthkwake: "In those times, after long nights of uncertainty and blindness, we need visitors to come across the bridge, someone with whom we can share our darkness."

lilmissmagic71: "So many times we ask ourselves who we are, why we're here and who's out there that sees us... the answers aren't the reward.. the search for the answers is where the true value lies."

lisasali: "Even now, I can relive the wonder I felt at holding such fragile beauty in my hands."

minikin: "Picking apart threads of continuity and sequence from a felted ball of colorful whims and impulses."

mme_furiosa: "The human body is made up of roughly 90 percent bacteria, 10 percent human tissue. I am more them than "myself" in a corporeal sense."

monkeysugarmama: "I was…the bad girl in high school, a free spirit with the need to wander."

moonlightmuse: "At the end of the day, there is only so much I can tell you about me. The rest will come out in its natural course."

n_decisive: "I prefer my blending talent, the one that lets me overhear things because people forget someone is present, the one that lets me in on what’s really going on because I know everything that everyone *isn’t* saying."

porcelain72: "Lightning-fast wit, highly proficient in sarcasm, cynicism and several other "isms," harsh outer core with soft nougaty center, finely tuned bullshit detection, able to rock you like a hurricane, often cranky, often bitter, always compassionate, never not funny. Typing speed 90 WPM. I also bake gingerbread zombies."

puppetmaker40: "I'm a big Henson fan and love all things muppet. I could list a lot of other puppeteers here that have influenced me but I think your eyes would glaze over."

roina_arwen: "I'm a 39-year-old native New Yawker transplanted to Kentucky about 17 years ago."

rosepurr: "But at the end of it all, I am quintessentially, absolutely myself."

sircaliban: "When someone asks us who we are, we often reach for words to define ourselves and use these types of words to label and categorize who we are in a finite set of words."

spydielives: "Though I shake and quake in fear,
I plan to also engineer
a modest false-biography."

suesniffsglue: "Latin for "blank slate." Tabula rasa has been tossed around in my head for years now. It's one of the few things that stuck with me from the Old Testament class at Geneva College five or six years ago. At this point, I can't even remember the context."

superhappytime: "'This one is special,' he said. 'I can tell you now that he'll be misunderstood and not fully appreciated in his time. But he'll also be blessed with intelligence and wit. And once he reaches manhood, he'll be the greatest lover that most women ever meet.' So I've got that going for me."

tdarling: "My theory has always been that you can not fight with the universe. Even when you aren’t sure, you should jump into everything that you do with the faith that it will work out. When it doesn’t, it hurts, but you learn. I’ve learned plenty in the past few years."

tryslora: "Most of all, I'm just me. Whatcha see is whatcha get."

tulip_in_yellow: "And this, well...this is kind of how I see life. A little bit dreamy, a little bit reality, but I've always got a lovely view of the sky."

twirlandswirl: "# I used to have a far more descriptive bio, but I realized that, just a few months later, it was no longer accurate. I am growing right now, and discovering I'm not who I thought I was. I'll put more on here as soon as I'm sure of it. "

unsold_capacity: "I think that's part of the reason I never peaked out from behind my friends-only curtain before; inside, I know I don't have to explain myself to anybody if I don't want to."

walkertxkitty: "Try thirty-six years of riding the most unpredictable, dangerous, devious bronc and knowing somehow when the whole thing comes to an end you've simply got to stick the landing."

wildcatwrites: "I’m the girl that is honest to a fault…and yet knows how to work the sarcasm. I’m the girl that will take laughter over tears and nonsense over drama any day."

xo_kizzy_xo: "Ah, the lifelong journey question! I don't think anybody really knows who s/he is. One thing I've discovered is that the older you grow, the more you have a good idea, but your perception and everyone else's maybe two totally different flavors."

Ms. Smith gives the pictures a moment to roll off the screen, and for Brian's focus to return to her own smiling visage. "In the top 47, we have several contestants from last season, including two who finished in season three's top five. We've also got a large number of contestants who are brand-new to the world of LJ Idol, or who followed along last season playing the home game. We've even got one lucky contestant who started out playing the home game this season but was brought into the game by a special power, and another lucky contestant who was brought back from the vanquished by that same power.

"As we move forward into the next rounds, clauderainsrm has declared an Intersection--similar to those on The Amazing Race--reminding the contestants and the viewers that LJ Idol isn't just a writing contest, it's also a strategy game. Every contestant has to choose a partner. The partners have to work together for the next stage of the competition. clauderainsrm will combine their votes to see which pair--or pairs--will go home."

She nudges the door to the Green Room open and Brian pans the camera around the room, spotting pairs of contestants speaking animatedly about the upcoming topics. "As you can see," she speaks quietly, so as not to disturb them, "most of the contestants have already paired off, and some entries have already begun to trickle in."

She gently pulls the door shut. "It's week sixteen of LJ Idol. At this point in season three, we were down to the top 25, half of our current number. The weeks will move quickly from this point on, until you, the voters, finally crown the next LJ Idol!"