Chapter 37: Windfall

Only four days had passed since its initial release, and yet, [Polaroid] had become a viral sensation.

Largely in thanks to the multiple edits that began swarming TicToc, one where people would make montages of either their family, friends or loved ones using the song, it quickly ascended through the rankings and transitioned charts.

Now maintaining its placement as the number one song on the New & Hot 100 chart, it also landed firmly as number ten in the Indie Sensations chart.

Even then, it was already making its way up that chart too, gunning like an unstoppable force for the top spot with its staggering five million streams and rising.

That phenomenon alone, sparked a new swarm of articles, blogs and posts related to Niall.

TweetTalk was no different as #Polaroid became the number five trending topic on the platform.

Under a post from a random user which was titled;

[POLAROID!WHO THE HELL IS NIALL PARKER ANYWAY?!]

Seriously! Who in incarnation is this guy?! Just last week, we got a hit piece on him--one I’ll admit I never bothered to care about ’cause so what?It’s not like he’s a well-known artist or anything. Then [Polaroid] came out and I got curious enough to do some digging and once again, I just have to ask! Who the hell is this guy and what in the nine heavens is he smoking?!

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Having accumulated over 200,000 views, 10K likes and 5K retweets, just a little over 100 comments, multiple denizens continued engaging with the most, thereby making it one of the most viewed post on the topic.

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MayaTheWitch: Arguably the best indie artist in the industry right now, that’s what! Put some respect on his name.

LifeHacker: Tell me about it @MayaTheWitch! Never even heard of him until today but even I can admit he’s something else. It’s like he’s speedrunning every major craft in the game like he knows all the exploits there is to be known.

DannyBoi:Imagine not only dropping a hit book a couple months ago, but equally dropping a hit song just after... right after Hollywood decided to put a red dot on his acting career. Bro is on demon time!

TroyInTheMiddle: Don’t forget that he also had arguably the best performance in [The Promised Queen] @DannyBoi. Man, that speech he gave still sends shivers down my spine whenever I think about it.

PlottingPotter: I don’t even know what it is but I’d love to have some of that blunt, man. This hocus-pocus shit my wizard gave me ain’t working one bit.

Catnipper: Freaking No. 1 in one chart and top ten in another and still climbing like a charging bull. [Polaroid] deserves all the attention it’s getting.

Hollyweird Snooper:Though his acting career may very well still suffer due to that piece from the Hollywood Times, especially since Hollywood loves playing fast and loose with morals, if he pivots to a singing career, he just might find massive success.

MusicBuff: Man, I hope he doesn’t become those one-hit wonder typa musicians. Gaining this much attention in such a short span of time is enough to overwhelm and pressure even the most established artists.

Critic Warrior: Went through his filmography. Asides from [The Promised Queen], most of it is lackluster. And though I think [Polaroid] is a great song, I don’t really think its worth all this fanfare and hype.

JustOneMoreChapterLiar:It’s a miracle he has as much talent as he does to try his hands at other fields and succeed better than his main profession. My advice, he should stick to one profession. Would be better for his mental health in the long run.

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With the growing interest in whom Niall was from the internet, a lot of Hollywood-based bloggers, both from independent and even a couple Hollywood orgarnizations, knew better than to not capitalize on it.

Obviously, this played to Niall’s benefit, one that Feyre Publications were probably the happiest about.

Even when the hit piece on Niall’s head had been released, objectively, they knew they were going to benefit from it in a way.

Afterall, it meant more people would be interested in Niall’s career as an actor, a curiosity that would lead some of the more curious ones down the rabbit hole of knowing whom this seemingly obscure artist was, which would in turn funnel a couple individuals to check out his book, thereby increasing sales for the book, if only marginally.

However, the current development was far better than they could’ve hoped for.

Which was why, amidst all the hype surrounding Niall and his song, [Polaroid], they equally chose to release an announcement for their book signing event, citing all the major authors contracted with them who would be attending the event.

And as one would expect, no sooner had fans of [The Token of Fate], alongside many curious individuals seen Niall’s name amongst those whom would be attending, they swarmed to the ticket booking site in droves.

Though the event was free, Feyre Publications had set up a limited number of slots to mitigate overcrowding as they intended to hold the event at a fairly big hall a couple blocks down the street from their establishment.

Yet, even they, couldn’t have expected to have all the slots booked out in a little over 24 hours... a news that quickly spread across select internet discourses, further solidifying that people were indeed, interested in whom Niall Parker was.

But for Callow whom had orchestrated the hit piece on his former client’s head, he couldn’t help but fume with fury.

Nothing could’ve prepared him for the fact that the upper limit of Niall’s skillset wasn’t even writing and acting, but seemingly more than he had ever been chanced to know.

And though he wasn’t a music enthusiast, he, much like every average individual knew when they’d heard not just a good song, but a great song.

[Polaroid], asides becoming a viral TicToc sensation, was a great song, period.

However, being the bitter and petty little asshole that he was, that realization only served to infuriate him to no ends.

Yet, there was nothing he could do to placate it.

He’d already done all that he could to stop the young man from becoming too successful.

Now, he could only hope that whatever windfall Niall seemed to riding on, would vanish as soon as possible before it blew over and fanned away the damage he’d worked so hard to wreak on his acting career.

Meanwhile, as Callow kept harboring those thoughts, Victor on the other hand, was nodding his head, genuinely impressed by the script his talent had written.

Having taken the time to peruse through it for the past couple days since he and Niall’s meeting, he could only bob his head in acknowledgement.

If he was being honest, the plot of [Silver Comets] wasn’t particularly innovative.

However, just because a plot was conventional, didn’t mean it was bad.

Rather, conventionality at times, when done right, was usually far better than something novel or original.

That exactly, was what [Silver Comets] had leaned into.

Afterall, it was a musical comedy-drama that centered around the lives of four youths whom had formed a rag tag rock-band in hopes of winning the prize money at a popular Battle of The Bands competition.

However, what was extremely original about [Silver Comets] were the songs.

Having listened to all the tracks Niall had made for the song, Victor couldn’t help but shake his head in a mix of perplexed awe.

’What really is the upper ceiling of his limits?’ he asked himself as he leaned back into his chair.

Unfortunately, he had no answers to that question.

Sighing softly, he then placed the script on the table.

Though everything was all fine and dandy on the creative front of things, on the business side of things, Victor was a tad bit concerned.

Niall had requested of three major things before he could have the movie produced.

For starters, he wanted to be the movie’s male lead. That much was understandable, Victor believed.

But then he asked of the other two.

The second was a 10% cut of whatever the box office returns of the movie would be.

The third was that he got to keep his IP for the movie and all the songs used in it.

Slowly spinning around with his chair, Victor let out another sigh.

These were the kinds of demands a mainstream actor--usually a very popular one, no less--would request of and would still be frowned upon by a studio or production company.

Yet, Niall whose star power as an actor was laughable to say the least, was the one making the demands.

Even if he was the one who wrote the script and produced the songs, it was still too much to ask of by industry standards.

And then there was the hit piece that had undeniably done a good damage to his career before it even took off.

Nonetheless, despite how crazy his demands were, and how impossible the odds seemed, Victor was confident he could make things work for his client.

Picking up his phone, he soon dialed a number.

A few seconds later, the call went through, to which the agent casually spoke;

"Hey, Henry. Could we meet up sometime soon? I have something rather... interesting I’d like to discuss with you."

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/Caer07