Transmigrating Narcissus

1.06 - Rise to Fame

"Keep it, treasure it." - Life's Melody

3rd person POV:

Landon Vibrato is another student at Allegro Academy seeking fame, and he is Mr. Rubato's nephew. When Alex asked Mr. Vibrato to help record a song that involved a female pianist and a male singer, how could the ex-sound engineer not use this opportunity to bolster his own family's reputation?

Using his contacts in the music industry, Mr. Vibrato was able to transfer the identity of the song's copyright holder to his nephew's girlfriend without notifying the previous owner about the change. Throughout the ordeal, Mr. Vibrato could not help but feel as if he was being watched and frequently checked his surroundings, but there were no cameras or suspicious people to be seen. A few days before Alex and Kayla's reservation, Landon and his girlfriend record Life's Melody and post it to YouVideo.

A woman has just finished her daily piano practice and opens the door to see a familiar man with dirty blonde hair turn around the corner. Curious at not seeing another figure beside him, the woman follows the man and catches him talking to Mr. Vibrato by the entrance to the recording studio and smiles.

After posting a video informing that her work was copied the next morning, the woman's fame increases dramatically as her new fans rushed to defend her and bashed Kayla Abernathy's channel with hundreds of negative comments accusing her of being a thief.

The trio sits back as they stoke the flames of anger in the background, relishing in the chaos and destruction to come.

Back to Kayla's POV:

The very next day, Alex and I are bombarded by agents' phone calls who want to sign artist contracts with us, fighting over why they are the best deal for us. We leave them on speaker phones so we can both hear their words.

"Miss Abernathy, I am willing to give you only a 15% sales commission if you sign."

"Mr. Battaglia, you must sign into our record deal with your beautiful girlfriend." Instead of being possessive, Alex smiles and extends his arms for a hug which I gladly give. I laugh as he sets me beside him on the soft sofa cushions.

"My girlfriend is the most beautiful woman in the world to me," he says.

However, after an hour the phone calls abruptly end, with agents making excuses on why they are retracting their offers. My dorm is filled with silence until Stella bursts in clutching her phone tightly in her hand, her face red with rage.

"YouVideo took down your video for copyright infringement!" Stella exclaims indignantly as she shows us the words: Sorry, this video is copyrighted :/. She plops herself down on the edge of a sofa arm and lets out a huff of anger.

"What? But we made sure to get the song registered at the national copyright office before we started the audio recording. This doesn't make sense," I try to reason. Oldie is surprisingly silent, and I can't feel his usual presence in my mind. Where did he go?

Alex's silent fuming sucks all of the previous happiness away like a black hole; his entire body is rigid. I can't see inside his brain to make out his thoughts, but I am sure they are filled with dark vengeance.

"As long as we provide our registration proof when we take this idiot who reported us to court, we will win. I won't let your reputation be destroyed by a cowardly online stranger," states Alex.