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Write about someone who makes a deal for viral fame — but their rising popularity comes with unexpected (or dangerous) side effects.

Posted in Dramatic on Jul 4, 2025

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✍️ 48 stories

Clickbait

Submitted to Contest #310

Astronomers cannot always predict where a meteor might strike or when the sun will next hiccup a solar flare. An omniscient narrator, however, sees all things. It is simply a matter of focus. And so when a young woman is thrown into the path of C-list fame, we do not need any particular skills to guess where exactly things might land. Bella Noone was an ordinary child by most metrics. She was pretty, and her parents and brother loved and protected her. She went to ballet classes, (with no particular distinction), and that didn’t matter. Her ...

36 likes 23 comments 23
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The Echo Deal

Submitted to Contest #310

Tamsin uploaded her video at 2:14 AM. She stared at the screen, holding her breath..Seven views. Seven.It was excellent work too - those vintage overlays took hours. The story about that Prague subway station where people vanished? She'd researched for weeks. Added her own field recordings. Analyzed the folklore.But seven views.She cracked open warm cider, took a swig. Her eyeliner had smudged under her eyes. The ring light made her look half-dead."I'd give anything for people to finally hear me," she muttered into the can.She laughed bitter...

28 likes 6 comments 6
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Signal Through the Noise

Shortlisted for Contest #310 ⭐️

Once again, Signal had dropped another massive content creation bomb – a new novel and its accompanying videos. Marcus stared at the notification on his screen and immediately wrote off his weekend. This time she'd branched out into historical fantasy, and people were rushing to write reviews, opinion columns, spinoffs, fanfics. Then, very likely the studios would get the rights and adapt the story to the screen. He completely understood why. For one thing, he always loved her characters. For instance, there was lonely Maintenance Unit 8, wo...

22 likes 8 comments 8
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Latency Drift

Submitted to Contest #310

The Offer Elijah Crane wasn't exactly invisible — just translucent. He posted content like everyone else- meal pics, gym check-ins, reaction vids with forced laughs. But his follower count hovered at a pathetic 312, mostly bots and high school acquaintances who hadn’t unfollowed yet out of inertia.He was twenty-five, working IT support for a finance firm where he barely spoke to anyone unless Outlook crashed. Nights were worse- two beers, Reddit, and the grim little voice whispering, You’ve peaked. But that night, as he doom-scrolled through...

22 likes 5 comments 5
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The Melancholy Machine

Submitted to Contest #310

In the taxonomy of sorrows, there exists a particular species of grief that feeds upon itself—the melancholia that blooms in the aftermath of perfect beauty. It is a cultivated thing, this despair, as deliberate as any gardener's roses, and twice as thorny. Edwyn Silversong discovered this truth piece by piece, like a man assembling his own gallows from driftwood, though he would not understand he was both architect and fuel for an engine that ground the very cosmos until the final nail was driven home. The silence that followed his performa...

20 likes 2 comments 2
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Last Call

Submitted to Contest #310

What would you do if you were a male model in Los Angeles, going on thirty with a patchy resume of ad shoots and a part-time job at a coffee shop, if someone offered you a hundred grand to represent an App on Instagram—you’d take it, right? Even if the contract came with a 1 year no dating clause?Ashley leans over, her golden hair bathing in the warm glow of the candlelight between us, “you are so tall,” she coos as she taps my leg flirtatiously under the table.We met at a reading group at an independent bookstore in Pasadena. She put her mo...

15 likes 6 comments 6
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Getting Ice Cream With the Devil

Submitted to Contest #310

Did you know that the devil’s favorite ice cream is vanilla? Vanilla. You’d think it’d be something wild, like Rocky Road or Mint Chocolate Chip with Rainbow Sherbert. Something chaotic. Something clashing or bitter. But no. It’s vanilla. Plain vanilla. I know a lot about the devil. And most things you wouldn’t expect to be true. Like the vanilla thing. Or the fact that they love to go shopping for socks. They are all about the socks. Witty socks. You know like a picture of rocks reading and the little talking bubble says, “Reading Rocks!” ...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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The Morning Show Circus

Submitted to Contest #310

“Welcome back to the Kelsy and Marco Show,” Marco said, “weren’t those dancing penguins great.”“You can see them right here in New York at the Bronx Zoo. Amazing.” Kelsy said.“I am taking the kids tomorrow.” Marco said. “Did you know some cultures eat penguins?”Kelsy replied, “I think I will stick with KFC.”The audience laughed.Marco said,“Now for our very special guest to the Kelsy and Marco Show. A man who has been taking New York by storm and helping out those less fortunate. A doctor of psychology and psychiatry, who had radically transf...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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God Sent Me a Message… and Then Blocked Me

Submitted to Contest #310

A modern tale of divine ghosting and emotional roaming I don't quite remember when I lost faith. Maybe it was the day Aunt Lilian gifted me a Bible wrapped in greasy salami paper. The pages still smelled like peppercorn for weeks. Or perhaps it was when my ex said, "It's not that I don't love you, I just like you better when you're quiet," while buttering toast like nothing had happened. Or maybe it was one lazy Sunday, the kind where the air feels thick and lukewarm, when I made myself a watery coffee, sat down in pajamas with a pâté stain ...

11 likes 15 comments 15
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The Story Spinner

Submitted to Contest #310

He’s there again – watching. Enveloped mostly in shadow, as has been his want lately. I’ve given up trying to catch him. To kill him. It’s useless, he’s too quick. His lair a mystery to me, despite my best efforts to find it. Now, I lay in bed, engulfed in anxiety, sheets pulled tight whilst staring back at him. I try to penetrate the darkness in the corner of my room. He shifts his body, revealing one of his long hairy legs. And I catch a faint reflection of light in one of his beady black eyes. My breathing is heavy, heart racing. I don’t ...

11 likes 6 comments 6
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The Curse of Fame

Submitted to Contest #310

What would she do for her words to be seen, to be felt? What would she do to have her words be understood? Eris’s mind wanders as she sifts through the dozens of emails on her work computer. What would she do to finally let someone see the thick draft collecting dust inside her desk? The fear of advocating for her work and the fear of never letting the world see her story battle each other in her mind while she tries to focus on the screen. She sighs and gives up on the never ending emails, and moves towards the even bigger pile of physical...

10 likes 0 comments 0
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Bad Boys

Submitted to Contest #310

It was a beautiful summer day in Amarillo, Texas; not one to be lazy, inside all day, nope- Austin was fifteen, restless, and bored. Venturing farther from home, he roamed the neighborhood, looking and searching for anything or anyone who would give him the feeling of worth and he was on a mission to accomplish his journey, since age eight.I knew that more likely than not, he would, at some point, come across the 'bad boys', the delinquents, who thrived on drama and created chaos. They were, sort of, bullies who didn’t show any shyness to at...

10 likes 4 comments 4
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"You Can’t Sell What You Don’t Own"

Submitted to Contest #310

Golden hour painted my face like a spotlight. It wasn’t Heaven, but it was close. A million views in less than an hour, and for once, the world saw me. That was the beginning. But every kingdom comes with a crown—and a price. It started in my bedroom—like most viral dreams. Just a ring light, a Bible I barely read, and a desire to be seen. I didn’t ask for a miracle, just attention. And I got it. His name was Elian. He slid into my DMs like a serpent with skin made of honey and algorithms. Snakey. “Seen you,” he wrote, “You're meant for more...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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Institutional Flesh

Submitted to Contest #310

Some people, to earn money, sell their bodies. Some people, to earn an institutional chair, sell their dignity.The former, you will say, is prostitution. The latter? We have no word for that.But let me tell you, prostitution is not a profession, but a mindset.Power in unjust hands is violence; but when it strikes with a smile, veiled in the civility of sweet words, it becomes something colder than cruelty.The appointment of Professor Greta Kristen as Dean of Student Affairs at the University of Longsong did not raise questions. It was whispe...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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GalatAI 2.0

Submitted to Contest #310

I don’t remember when I first saw you. For me, you were always there: wrapped in a hoodie, dark circles under your eyes, fingers flying over the keyboard.Your small room is dark, curtains drawn. Only the blue glow on your face is a beacon in the night. You stare at the screen, re-reading the caption for the tenth time, checking if it reads well, if there are any typos. I know there aren’t. You study the image again. You spent so much time tweaking the model, making sure the results weren’t too weird, but also not too perfect. I know it looks...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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