Wackos to Obliterate: Book Two (Chapter 15)
One afternoon, Karl was checking out the comments following an article about the Trinkets that was posted on a major social media website. As he read, he clicked on the avatars of a few comments and discovered they were linked to profile pages that contained nothing more than just the pictures used for the avatars of the persons posting the comments. Intrigued by this, he checked a few fan pages for other bands. After clicking randomly on some of their comments, he found they were linked to active pages with hundreds of pictures and comments posted by active users of the site.
“You might suggest someone at Summit to clean out the trolls on the SNS pages,” Karl told his mother by phone as they talked a couple of days after the TV appearance on the comedy show.
“What do you mean?”
“I gather one part of the PR package the record company has put together is to develop social networking pages. No doubt, they have someone in charge of doing that. So far, that person has done a piss-poor job of keeping the pages clean of nefarious elements.”
Sophie pulled her phone from her ear, looked at it, and then returned it to her ear. “Once again, what do you mean?”
“I found a large number of negative comments linked to bogus sites.”
“Once again, what do you mean?”
“It appears there is someone or something out there who wants to trash the TRinkets.”
“We’ve been trashed from the get go.”
“I don’t mean the first incarnation of the group, I mean the most recent manifestation.”
“Man, can’t you speak English?”
“I’m just saying there are people in cyberspace who aren’t happy with the message you’re spreading.”
After she got off the phone with her son, she decided to give a buzz to Ryuji. “Are you busy?”
“Just fartin’ around with my laptop.”
“You’re not writing any negative comments on one of our fan pages, are you?”
“Huh?”
After the PR department inspected a couple of the sites, they concluded Karl was right: the TRinkets were besieged by trolls. Attacks were expected since all sites get trolled by spiders and other automated tools employed by commercial interests that generate comments containing links to their products. For the most part, the SNS providers are able to filter those out, while most of the others are handled by the hirelings in the PR department. What was unique about the trolling on the TRinkets’ pages was the socio-cultural or political focus; much like what you would find on a news site.
“No surprise when you consider the corporate interests who want to keep cannabis and other controlled substances illegal,” Brad said from Neverland.
Trink shook his head in agreement. “Not to mention government agencies.”
“Organized crime, et al,” Ryuji added.
“The Deep State,” Brad said.
Sophie shook her head in disgust. “Oh great, not only do I have to worry about my stage presence, but assassination as well?”
“You mean actual shots from the balcony?” Chelsea asked.
“It would have been better keeping my job at the convenience store,” Trink said to Madelyn.
Madelyn turned to him and smiled. “You should have gotten those love ballads to Limey finished like I suggested. I doubt you’d have any attempts on your life over those.”
“You never know. Someone may have done you in just to put you out of your misery,” Ryuji said.
“From what I’ve heard, there haven’t been any death threats yet. I’m just saying: don’t be surprised if it happens. It’s one of the prices of fame. Didn’t you ever get death threats from hate groups before?” Brad asked.
“Why would we have gotten death threats?” Sophie asked with more than a little sarcasm in her voice.
“Don’t get into it; let’s look to the future,” Ryuji said. “Speaking of which, why don’t we invite Bowen and Diamond to these pow-wows?”
“Point taken; especially, today’s topic affects everyone,” Madelyn said as she took her phone out of the shoulder bag placed on the floor beside her chair. “I’ll contact them to see if they can join us,” she said, leaving the room.
“Have all of you read some of the comments that have been written?” Chelsea asked.
“I have and I agree it’s pretty clear there’re some heavy hitters out there who’d love to see us shut up and close shop,” Trink said.
“What’s something you read that made you think so?” Brad asked.
Trink looked around the room at the others, waiting to see if anyone would volunteer an example; after a few seconds elapsed he continued: “One person wrote we should be strung up for promoting legalization of a toxic substance bound to destroy both the health and moral fiber of the nation; a substance guaranteed to turn us into a nation of butt pluggers and hermaphrodites.”
“That appears to be grounded in scientific evidence,” Ryuji said.
“Wow, a toxic substance that makes hermaphrodites. Does the transformation occur before or after it kills you?” Sophie asked.
Ryuji said, “One I read claimed ammonia was present in marijuana smoke at levels 20 times higher than tobacco.”
Brad said, “That’s a factoid from a bona-fide scientific study that was conducted in Canada, but it’s a rare puppy who smokes a quantity anywhere near the amount of a tobacco addict.”
Madelyn returned and said, “Diamond’s out playing soccer, but Bowen’ll be right over.”
“So, how much pot did you smoke as a youngster?” Sophie asked Madelyn as she sat back down between Trink and her. Ryuji started laughing as Trink gave her a dirty look.
Madelyn looked at the others and noticed Chelsea and Brad seemed to be curious what she might answer. “Is that related to some of the comments on the websites?”
Sophie smiled. “You could say that.”
“Has anyone seen any comments about me specifically?” she asked, knowing Trink didn’t look pleased.
“You could …”
“Can it, Sophie,” Ryuji interrupted.
She looked at him and shrugged. “I can, I guess.”
“I don’t know what that’s about, but let’s move to more important things. Specifically, what’s next on your slate?” Brad asked from his chair.
In a matter of minutes, Bowen joined the meeting. He looked like a younger version of Barry: pale, beefy and balding. The main difference was the large number of tattoos covering his arms, neck, and even a sizable portion of the landscape on his face. He had so many tattoos crowded together that you had to get very close to distinguish what were the individual designs. From a short distance, they resulted in conveying a dark-bluish yin to the yang of his ashen complexion. The other main difference was a gold ring he had in the columella of his nose, like a bull.
“Thanks for inviting me,” he said as he sat down in a chair between Chelsea and Ryuji.
“Sorry to pull you from the soccer match,” Ryuji said.
“Do I look like someone who’s interested in ‘the beautiful game?’” he said with a bit of machismo sarcasm.
“No, but you don’t look like someone with a manager …”
Trink interrupted Sophie. “Sorry, we keep forgetting to invite the two of you to these sessions.”
“What’s up?” he asked.
“The TRinkets have been requested to perform at a NORML rally this Sunday,” Brad said.
A big grin shone on his face. “Here in L.A.?”
“Not in California,” Madelyn said. “Hawaii.”
“Cool! When we heading out?” he asked no one in particular, but stared at the large monitor that displayed Brad in Neverland.
Links to the previous chapters of Book Two
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Copyright (©) by Kenneth Wayne
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