by Mars Dorian
“That, too,” the lobby lady said.
The vloggers cursed, moaned and sighed at the same time. Violet couldn’t let go of it.
“We’re participating in the so-called biggest online show on the planet, and we can’t even use the web?”
The lady forced out a smile.
“Sorry, sweetie, but it’s for your own good.”
“This blows.”
“Go home and cry about it.”
All eyes drifted to a scrawny guy with jet-black, curly hair. He cleared his throat and walked up to the desk and stood two breaths away from Violet.
“This show is about becoming Stax’ Head of Online Content. A multi-million credit salary with more prestige than you can handle. If you’re already whining about the rules, save yourself a lot of trouble and go home right now.”
Violet boiled. The way he looked at her, the way his high-pitched voice ripped through the air, it gave her the chills. His words were an open invitation to bust his slimy face. But it was too early for enmity. She clutched her teeth and took a deep breath. The receptionist put on a soft voice.
“I’m sorry, instructions are instructions.”
Her face slid into a shine.
“But I can promise you this facility has premium alternatives. Wait till you see the rooms, we have the best food, workout, and planning center you can find on this side of the planet.”
“That’s a big call,” Bam said.
The receptionist continued to smile.
“You’ll soon witness it yourself. Now please, go enjoy your rooms. You will hear an announcement from the Blogbuster crew soon.”
The vloggers walked towards the elevators. Only the freckle-faced girl stayed on her spot, kneeling on the marble floor.
“No Internet, no Internet, no Internet. What will my community think of me? They’ll think I have abandoned them.”
Pause.
“They’ll hate me.”
Bam walked up to her.
“Don’t worry, it’s just going to be a day or two. They’ll survive without you.”
The girl freaked out.
“One day? One entire day? That’s like half a lifetime in Internet years.”
Her face turned snow-white. Bam shrugged, walked towards the elevator. The scrawny guy with the curly hair squinted and swapped looks between Bam and Violet.
“One minute in the lobby, and two girls are near breakdown.”
He cracked a smile which unveiled his crooked teeth.
“This show is going to be an easy win.”
28
Violet took the elevator to the second floor and followed the directions to her suite. The architecture lived up to the hype. Minimalist interiors, modern furnishings, especially the ergo couches and the wall-sized screens in the common area. Vending machines were packed with drinks Violet couldn’t even pronounce.
Pikachoo Sweat
Diverse-Tea
Waldmeister Burrn
La Coke Du Jour
She smiled. It was like the technerds met the neohipster crowd in a multi-billion startup complex. Violet noticed the other vloggers were just as dazzled. They pointed fingers, snapped pictures and smiled at each other. Ok, she thought, I’m almost impressed. She entered her suite and admired the white minimalist design with clearcut furniture, a king-sized bed and a thirty-two inch screen on the wall. Not to mention the freezer — a voice-automated refill station with contact to room service. She approached it first.
“Would you like to drink something, mylady?” the artificial voice said.
Violet froze in motion, stared at the peeping circle in the middle of the refrigerator door.
“Do you have spicy tomato juice with pepper?”
“My pleasure, mylady.”
Mechanical sounds of moving parts whirled in the background. The door opened up, a robot arm handed her the drink. Miniature umbrella and cut lemon piece included. Violet smiled.
“Now that’s what I call service.”
She took the juice and pressed it towards her lips. When the thick, herby liquid washed down her gullet, it rejuvenated every cell of her body. A drink from the heavens, thanks to technology.
“Do you like it?” said the artificial voice from the freezer.
Violet nodded. ‘Like’ was an understatement, it was the best tomato juice she’d ever drank.
“Two tomato thumps up,” she said and moved towards her king-sized bed.
The surface was soft and…computer-controlled, of course. Violet tossed her shoes on the floor and landed on the bed. She even jumped up an down on it. She felt like a child on Christmas Eve. Wowzee. Was there one part of the suite not connected to a computer?
Probably not. Too bad she couldn’t show any of this to her community.
She imagined all the emoticon-riddled updates she’d receive.
Oh well.
She sat back down and sighed. Despite all the awesomeness in her room, she couldn’t allow herself to get lost in the swooning. This wasn’t a holiday, she was in battleland now.
Vlogger against vlogger.
Competing for the biggest prize of her life.
Violet grabbed her rucksack and unpacked her gear. She needed to prepare now, because the event could start anytime.
Which it did.
A female voice buzzed over the room’s intercom.
“All vloggers, please get ready for a mandatory meeting in thirty-four minutes. We’ll be meeting in the holoroom in the first floor. The location is tagged on your maps.”
No break for the wicked.
Violet didn’t mind. The curiosity ate at her. The sooner she learned about the mission objectives of the Blogbuster show, the better. She tiptoed into the bathroom and refreshed her makeup. A thousand questions popped up in her mind. What in the world would she have to do?
She’d soon find out.
29
Violet and the rival vloggers arrived at the tagged location on the first floor. The holoroom turned out to be circular shaped, with a mechanical device placed in the center. Every row of seats curved around it, forcing everyone to look towards the middle of the room.
Violet marched towards one of the front row seats and scanned the area. She recognized at least five other vloggers. On the second row sat Trigger, wiping the surface of what looked like some kind of gun. Peroxide blondie did some squats and listened to audio, the TwinBuilds mumbled and discussed something on a piece of paper, the girl with the freckle face throned on the last, elevated row and inspected the holoroom just like her. She looked like a farm girl from one of these 19th century romance novels.
“Hello Beasty.”
Violet turned around and saw Mr. bandaid wearer, aka Bam. He stood all swaggered up, or tried to be. She looked him over from top to bottom. It made him smile.
“Are you checking me out?” Bam said.
“I was just noticing your sense of fashion, or lack thereof.”
“And what’s the verdict?”
“If I want to make kids go blind, I know who to call.”
Bam grinned.
“Maybe I should hire you for a little one-on-one fashion session. I’m curious to what nifty little tricks I can expect from you.”
“I don’t think there are enough life times in the world to help you out.”
She left him standing, moved up to the last, elevated row and looked down on everyone. Freckleface sat a few meters over from her. Their eyes crossed for a nanosecond, then she smiled and turned her glance back to middle of the room. Observers alike.
Violet activated her drawing application, but a voice cut her out of it.
“Guten Morgen, my lovely vloggers.”
Everyone swiveled around to see where the voice originated from. They looked at each other, up, down, left and right.
“I’m here,” the high-pitched voice said.
But that didn’t help at all.
“Watching you from above.”
Everyone stared at the ceiling in unison.
&nbs
p; “Hahaha, I’m just messing with you.”
The slide door burst open and a young woman with funky hair strolled in. She looked like one of those Japanese costume players, trying to emulate a D-class video game character.
“Konnichiwa, mina-san,” she even said.
The vloggers looked perplexed. She giggled.
“That’s Japanese for ‘good afternoon, everyone’. I know it’s just noon, but it’s the only J-sentence I know.”
She pranced around and walked towards the middle of the room. Bowed in front of everyone. No one said a word. She looked up again and frowned.
“It’s me. You can clap now.”
No claps.
Just whispering.
The young woman lifted her right index finger and pointed it at her nose.
“It’s a-meeee.”
Violet sighed and stood up from the last row.
“Who the hex are you?”
“You can’t be serious, you really don’t know who I am?”
The woman stared into the round and saw shaking heads wherever she looked.
“Almost three million subscribers, winner of the Wowzee Web Awards, loved by over ten nations online and hated by at least half of them?”
More silence and shaking. The young woman formed her face into a grimace.
“Ew, major personal branding fail. I should just leave right now and call it a day.”
She waddled towards the slide door and stopped halfway.
“Haha, kidding. I’m going to stay, ‘cause Mr. Stax paid me semi-solid money to host the Blogbluster show.”
Pause.
“I’m also acting as your guide.”
She pointed her finger at every single vlogger in the room.
“That’s right, I will supervise and answer every question during the course of the Blogbuster show. And if you feel depressed and need some soul soothing, hey, I can do that too, within reason of course.”
Her lips turned into a sugar-white toothpaste smile.
“I’m like your mother, your bff and the almighty lord at the same time. Ask, and ye shall receive, gotcha?”
Silence in the room.
“I guess it’s too early for humor.”
Violet stood up from her seat, again.
“Do you mind dropping the second class slapstick and go straight to the point?”
All the vloggers looked up to her. The young woman kept her smile alive.
“Aw, that raw directness, luv it, luv it, luv it. I can already tell you’re trouble, heh.”
She clenched her fist and raised her arm.
“You go, girl. But now for real. Since you’re all seem to be living behind the dark side of the moon, let me illuminate your minds. My fans call me dynamite with lipstick, but to the rest of the world I’m known as Laci Steem.”
“Worst name ever,” said the curly-haired vlogger with the skewed smile.
Laci rolled her eyes.
“Look who’s talking, Whizzard. When did you come up with that name? When you smoked your momma’s ganja pipe while she changed your diapers?”
“Close enough,” he said with a defeated grin.
Violet moaned from the last row.
“Guys, for once, could you stop cranking out witty one-liners and get on with it? We’ve been waiting in this room for almost half an hour, and all we get to hear are wannabe-cool conversations. Merde, it’s like you’re all characters from a self-published sci-fi novel.”
Whizzard and Laci looked up at her, like everyone else.
“Fine,” Laci said, “I keep the cool lines for the actual show anyways. My humor is obviously wasted on you.”
She paused and cleared her throat.
“Anyhoos, since you all seem so eager about the Blogbuster, let me tell you the basics.”
Violet sat back and sighed. Finally. The girl with the freckle face turned to her and flashed a faint smile.
“I like you already.”
Violet frowned. Whatever. She moved her gaze back to Laci Steem in the center of the room. She activated the display which popped up a fifty inch wide hologram. The effect flashed the room and flooded every vlogger in rainbow colors. Laci Steem grinned.
“Now that I got your attention for good, let’s talk dirty details.”
30
“The show will start in three days. Everything you’ll need will be provided by Stax Media. You have to attend two tutorials where we’ll teach you how to show your best self during the event.”
She looked around and made sure the vloggers understood her.
“Ah yeah, if you fail to attend even one of them, you get expelled by default. Makes senso, right? After all, you’re the final eight of about ten thousand applicants. And you’re competing for THE Head of Online Content position with a fatso salary of over a million creditos. So if you don’t take our tutorials seriously, why should we take you seriously?”
Pause.
“Any objections?”
Every vlogger shook their head in agreement. Even Violet. Laci smiled.
“Good. As for tonight, you’ll join me and mister Roman Stax for the introductory premiere at eight pm. We’re going to introduce you to the public and press. Please behave until then, we want to reserve the bullying and cat-fighting for the actual Blogbuster event.”
Violet stepped up again.
“What about the actual event? You haven’t told us anything about the tasks yet.”
Laci nodded.
“Soon enough, miss Gear. If we reveal our missions now, we’d lose a lot of audience anticipation which is vital for view count. Think spoiler alert as a no-go. And we don’t want that to happen, right?”
Violet squinted. To hell with the audience anticipation, she wanted to prepare. But Laci wouldn’t budge.
“That’s it for now, folks. Check out the facilities and get accustomed to this building. Go to the gym, chill out in the commons and grab some fresh food. The cafeteria is open as of now.”
Some of the vloggers smiled for the first time. Cafeteria and food were the best news since they arrived at the BBB. Violet stomach’s roared a riot, but maybe because she still had to digest Laci Steem’s BS introduction. That girl didn’t tell one vital information about the Blogbuster, and judging by her minty-white smile, she didn’t mind. At all.
“Violet Gear,” she said, “I’m gonna keep my eagle eyes locked on you, babe.”
“As long as you only look and don’t touch,” Violet said.
“Heh, good counter.”
Violet took one more glance at that bugging abomination of a failed hipster geek hybrid. So far, she already met two people in the Blogbuster, and they already sucked the nerve strings out of her. She hoped it wouldn’t get any worse.
31
Bam left the holoroom with the other vloggers and dashed towards the cafeteria. He couldn’t concentrate one second during the introduction, all his mind came up with was, hunger, hunger, hunger. His saliva glands went berserk, he could already smell the aroma of food floating from the cafeteria. As he turned the corner, the dark-skinned vlogger walked up to him.
“That girl is quite a personality. Don’t you think?”
Bam sighed.
“A bit attacky for my taste. Her attitude is a downer.”
The guy raised his eyebrow.
“Downer? She was unleashing a volley of jokes.”
Bam smiled.
“Oh, you mean Laci Steem? Yeah, she’s quite special. I wonder if she can keep up with that quirky attitude. Must be draining to shine and chat like that.”
The guy smiled and reached out his hand.
“I’m Trigger by the way, I do video blogs about 3D printing and firearms.”
Bam nodded and shook his hand.
“I know, I’ve seen some of your vids. I dig the one where you 3D print the AK-007 rifle and fired rounds at that robot monkey puppet. Classic stuff.”
Trigger smiled.
“Heh, that’s an old video, but a fine one. Too bad th
e rifle jammed after only two rounds. 3D printing wasn’t that good back then.”
“I feel ya.”
Trigger nodded and walked with Bam into the cafeteria. An array of veggie, vegan and organic meat meals awaited them in the ten meter long showcase. Rice, curry, salads, soups, meat and potatoes, Paleo food snacks and chocolate lychee crackers as well as fruit spaghetti were ready to be consumed.
“What a selection,” Bam said.
Trigger nodded.
The serve lady behind the showcase asked for their preferences. Bam went for the classic eggs sunny side up, two bananas, and a spring roll salad. Trigger took the kebab with organic beef and a yogurt drink. They found one of the many empty tables and sat down. Trigger took a dinosaur bite out of his kebab and locked eyes on Bam.
“So, did you do some recon?”
“Recon?”
“Like, have you checked your environment? You want to know your rivals, their weakness and habits. Be prepared.”
“I’m getting into it.”
“Better be. This is a war.”
“Have you served?”
Trigger grinned.
“Nah, but I’ve played tons of strategy video games.”
“Always a plus,” Bam said as he cut through his eggs. The girl with the freckle face walked by and shot both boys a look. One filled with open disdain. Bam smiled, reached out his right hand and played it all gentleman.
“Heya, my name’s Bam. What’s yours?”
She gave him a blank expression three degrees below subzero. This was followed by two seconds of stare, before she moved two tables away and joined the female vloggers.
“Nice to meet you too,” Bam said.
Trigger sighed.
“Looks like a minor. Is she even allowed to participate, age-wise?”
“According to her profile, she’s over twenty-one.”
“Really? Damn, good genes.”
Bam nodded.
“I have to admit we have a lot of fine girls here. I thought this was going to be a gigantic sausage party.”
He pointed towards his right where Fitnessy was doing pushups on the floor. Her breasts jiggled with every bounce. Bam smiled. Trigger took another bite of his kebab.
“Is that your strategy? Getting smooth with the ladies so you can appeal to their empathy?”