Blogbuster - A comedy-laced blogger sci-fi thriller

19 - Bam Stax

Roman adjusted his gun’s aim.

“Bam ? Bam, Bam, the name does sound familiar.”

“It should, I was one of the vlogging applicants for your Blogbuster show.”

Roman raised his eyebrow.

“Son, an army of wannabes applied for my show. And the fact that I don’t remember your face means you lacked serious ooomph.” 

Bam grunted. His whole vlogging career was about ooomph, and bang, and dash. And other impactful sound effects. How could he NOT stand out with his crash videos ? It didn’t matter, not anymore. Still, he said,

“My name’s Bam. I crashed into that drone. It went viral.”

Stax nodded and smiled for the first time. He kept his pistol pointed at Bam though.

“Now I get what this is about. You’re pissed because I rejected you. You crashed into my limo because you sought out cold revenge.”

Bam shook his head.

“Nah, I just wanted to call you out on your BS.”

Roman frowned.

“What BS ?”

“The whole talk about looking for passionate peeps who made stuff happen instead of just talking about it. In reality, you are just looking for vloggers with insanely high view numbers. It has nothing to do with commitment to making extraordinary videos or being uber-passionate. It’s just about the numbers.”

He paused, watched Roman’s mouth for a reply, but it didn’t come, not yet. So he continued.

“Well, let’s see how many numbers I attract once I upload this video here, right with you, pointing the gun at my face. I’m sure it’s going to attract at least a million or more.”

Roman saw the people on the sidewalk filming this drama he didn’t want to be a part of.

“Very well,” he said, stepped back into his limo and closed the door. Through the darkened window, he saw Bam waving back at him with a grim, grim face. Roman turned to his driver.

“Let’s go. My presence is awaited.”

And the lady to his left, Laci, who had been watching the whole scene from the limo’s inside, said,

“You’re not serious, are you ?”

Roman shrugged. Laci squinted.

“You’re going to let him go ? Just like that ?”

Roman delayed his answer. He changed into another outfit. The only thing better than a five million credit suit were three five million credit suits. The chauffeur took the fifteen meter long limo back to the main road and continued the journey to the premiere. Roman put the gun back under his secret stash and leaned back into his hand-knitted seat cover and sighed. 

“I know this guy.”

Laci’s eyes almost fell out.

“You do ?”

“Well, not personally. I usually don’t hang around with poorly dressed low-achievers. I know him from our selection process. He’s one of the vloggers who applied for the Blogbuster.”

He turned to her.

“I rejected his application.”

“Why ?”

“Too few subscribers. Definitely less than five million. Not even a million, I think.”

“So, not as good as the vloggers that I picked ?” she said.

“Girl, your two vloggers are brilliant. High numbers and gonzo personality. This guy is low on views and high on loco.”

Laci looked down, stared at her glitzy high heels.

“So he was out for revenge ?”

“Yeah, but I think he wanted to a make a statement. His entire video channel is based on crashing into things, and crashing into the guy’s limousine who flipped him off probably turns him on. Jeez, what a troll.”

Roman cracked his finger.

“He’s got a smudge of creativity, and definitely some attitude, I give him that.”

He moved closer to his date.

“But when the premiere’s over tonight, I’m going to sue this loser back to the ice age.”