I pretty much know that it's a talent contest and... hmmm. Yeah. Kris Allen was apparently once a contender and was outed after his series (I couldn't recognise the guy from a line-up, but last time I went out to dinner with fannihs friends, someone was going through a huge AI RPS stage and it's always fun to hear someone gush about how awesome their current fannish thing/characters/people are).

Ah, the story is Carry That Weight and I especially love the use of images in it (there are screencaps of a mocked up Idol site and fan reactions, and it's very sweet). It also says something very nice about coming to terms with who you are (even when you can pass as something else). And it's fairly long (nearly 60k).

...and, oh, one good deed deserves reward -- I just found out there are other stories set in that verse. So now I'm heading off to read.