Blogbuster - A comedy-laced blogger sci-fi thriller

13 - Pricey money

Violet Gear lost her breath, almost. She looked at the sum again, moved her finger along the ginormous number to make sure she got it right. But no matter how many times she reread the digits, the same number popped up.

Stax Media, Head of Online Content, initially for one year, just shy of a million credits annual salary. One million freaking credits. And the guy was looking for popular video bloggers, just like her. Exactly like her. 

Coincidence ? 

Au contraire.

Violet jolted from her couch, called for her assistant. So loud, even Mrs. Marbles bolted off and took cover. Meow meow.

“Why in the world would they offer you so much money for winning such a stupid online show ?

X entered the living room with a soy milk cookie in his hand. He looked half-awake, but then again, he always did.

“The guy’s a multi-millionaire. It’s probably just pocket money for him. Besides, he claims it’s going to be the grandest online show the world has ever seen. If you make bold statements, you have to back them up. A million credit position sounds like a compelling start.”

“Slicko,” Violet said.

She sank back into her couch pillows and thought, with that kind of money, she could pay off the models who sued her and still have enough credits for a new collection. Heck, she’d have enough money to fund a global techwear label and create the most advanced clothes known to humanity. At least. But did she want to work for the ‘man’ ? Especially someone like Roman Stax ?

“It can’t be that simple,” she said to X.

It never was and never will be. Her experience proved it again and again. X shrugged, looked over her shoulder to her browser’s menu and moved his index finger towards the ‘application’ section.

“Before you go all fire about it, check out the show’s requirements. They are special to say the least.”

Violet sighed. It was one of these dopey online shows where dopey participants did dopey things. But when she watched the promo video on the application menu, her heart dropped into her 3D printed nanofiber jeans. The requirements were not special. They were insane.

“Think you can be the next super video blogging megastar with billions of views and millions of credits ? Prove it to the planet. But first, prove it to us. We only accept eight video bloggers with a track record of remarkability.”

Violet scanned over the blahblah sections and headed straight for the bullet-listed requirements.

“You must have an existing online subscriber base of at least five million fans.”

Next.

“You must spend every single second of your life promoting the Blogbuster up until the time of the event. This will only last for two to three weeks.”

And last but not least.

“Limitation of liability. The Blogbuster brand is not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to physical damages or the loss of life.”

Reading the requirements turned Violet’s stomach inside out. X peeked over her shoulder and smiled.

“I guess one million credits don’t come easy.”

Violet moaned, Stax’ offer was way too good to be true. Even though she’d fulfill the five million subscriber minimum, she wondered what kind of show included the risk of dying. But maybe it was just a terms of conditions jargon, something you had to write if you didn’t want to get sued. It happened all too often nowadays, heck, it just happened to her. But odd contract lingo aside, what were the chances of getting accepted ? In this day and age, she knew thousands of vloggers with a five million strong subscriber base, and the Blogbuster event makers were only looking for eight people. Merde. Violet buried her face into her folded arms. The last twenty-four hours were a hovercoaster ride of good/bad emotions. And it didn’t stop there. A beep sounded. It was a new message from the fired model, and her lawyer with the grim profile pic. Violet’s eyes scanned down the message where under the jargon, she deciphered the phone number. Except it wasn’t a phone number, it was the sum they asked for as compensation. Those bastards, how dare they. Violet deleted the message and splashed back in her pity lake. It was tough being a misunderstood fashion genius. But injustice aside, she needed to get some credits rolling in quick. Or else she could kiss her freedom and fashion career goodbye. So she put the Blogbuster site back on the menu and stared at the homepage. Her finger hovered over the apply button and hummed. 

“Ah, what the hex.”

She clicked on the application button and filled out the online forms. 

No harm in trying, right ?