Blogbuster - A comedy-laced blogger sci-fi thriller

8 - Destiny in danger

Violet and her assistant hit the road back to the city. The moon glowed above and turned the city’s skyline into a sparkly silhouette. It twinkled like a crown of jewels scratching the stratosphere. What a viewtiful sight, but it lasted only seconds. A beeping sound shattered the moment. It was the melody she assigned to her VIP messages. The sender’s name was familiar, just like the tone of the message.

“I’m going to sue you back to the stone age. Hate regards, the model you just fired, literally.”

Violet gnarled. Some people had skin thinner than paper nowadays. Whatever happened to making sacrifices for the arts ? She tried to revolutionize the techwear world, and everyone knew the path to innovation was paved with failures. That model should have felt pride when her jacket burst into flames. She was witnessing the experimental stage of Violet’s career, what a blessing. But no, she went all traitor mode on her. Stupid bitch.

Violet didn’t even complain when she tried on her first blade dress and it cut off a part of her skin. Sure, it hurt, and it didn’t look pretty the way it lay on the ground, like a lonely worm. But was it worth it ? Yes. If you didn’t endure pain for your passion, you weren’t fit to live, period. But those soulless normalos would never understand. How could they ? 

Their brains were nothing but wobbly membranes devoid of style. 

A waste of good tissue.

Meh.

Violet slumped even deeper into the car seat. She spent the rest of the ride in ponder mode until X stopped the car in front of the industrial brick house, aka her home, aka her shared studio space.

“Thanks for everything,” she said to X.

He nodded. She walked up the stairs and marched into her living room. Clapped, which activated a funky pop tune on her surround system in the background. 

Gloomy and the Fangbangs, Violet’s favorite J-pop-flavored, funky goth band. Gloomy was anything but doomy. That kind of music was exactly what Violet needed to hear now. The lyrics had already calmed her mind.

“I’m in luv with a sparkly vampire, and 2gether,

we’re gonna build the Gothic Heart Empire.”

Violet grinned.

Mrs. Marble slid across the room and jumped into Violet’s welcoming hands. It made her smile for the first time since the ride.

“I missed you, too, Mrs. Marbles. Oh my, how chic you look today. Your fashion sense is très bien, as always.”

Of course the feline friend looked très bien, Mrs. Marbles only wore original ‘VioletGear’. A prototype dress for sophisticats.

Violet grabbed her tigerlady and schmoozed with her. X closed the door and unloaded the pile of partially burnt techwear. Violet nodded, fell into her premium black couch. What a day. 

She spent years preparing her collection. Took even a year securing the industrial location and saved up a fortune for the event. While traditional designers went for samey samey catwalks, she combined military action with smart camouflage to create a unique fashion show. Sort of video game action meets tech couture. What a concept, at what a price. Special effect fashion plus flammable model made for explosive costs, no pun intended. Violet sighed. It was damn hard to be an entrepreneur and video blogger. But that was the life she chose for herself.

Assistant X returned from the bedroom, which also acted as her techwear treasure chest. He found Violet with arms and legs draped across the couch.

“I’m officially broke now,” she said to him.

“And with today’s disaster, I’ve scared off every potential sponsor. Only pyromaniacs would be interested in investing now.”

Whatever.

The assistant sat down next to Violet, put her legs on his lap and massaged them. Good boy.

“At least you have a record high on views. And you should read the comments, your community is on fire, pun intended.”

Violet almost smiled.

“How many ?”

“You’ve just broken the ten million viewership mark.”

“That is slicko. I told you special effects make all the difference. Audiences expect more nowadays.”

She purred like her cat when X found the sweet spot on her foot. 

“Now if I could only find a way to make money from that. Vlogging is so damn hard to monetize.”

The assistant smiled.

“Well, maybe not. Have you heard about Roman Stax’ announcement ?”

Violet shook her head. Roman Stax, yes, she heard of the guy. Who hadn’t ? Multi-millionaire CEO of Stax Media, one of the biggest media companies on the web. 

“What about him ?”

The assistant moved her feet aside and opened a new browser window on his eScroll.

“He’s looking for famous vloggers to participate in his new online show. The winner can become Stax Media’s new Head of Online Content.”

He gazed over at Violet.

“Maybe you should consider it.”

Violet squinted her eyes and yawned.

“Does that mean I have to work for someone else ?”

The assistant grinned.

“Well, the position is initially for one year. And the offer is pretty tempting, to say the least.”

Violet turned to him with half-open eyes. Interesting offer ? It sounded like one of these stupid game shows. And what was the reward again ? Head of Online Content for Stax Media ? Hyped position and low pay, that’s what it sounded like. Probably not even enough prize money to pay the models that were suing her. But X’s smile lingered. He showed her the pay on the screen. Violet almost fell from her couch.

“Impossible.”

Except it wasn’t.