Chapter 94: Point-one Percent

(One week later...)

Niall’s newer fans had been on a scavenger hunt for their elusive and favorite new celebrity.

To many of them, it was rare that they took so much interest in an artist’s life... only to end up realizing that there was barely anything to know about him that hadn’t already been known.

Asides from the occasional pictures a few paparazzi had managed to take of him these past couple months, finding actual concrete information on what he was up to, was harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

It was also why, yet another fairly viral post had cropped up on TweetTalk from one of such fans.

With over 500K views, 10K likes, 7K retweets and well over a 100+ comments, the actual post itself read;

So... are we gonna talk about how Niall Parker seems to drop arguably some of the best pieces of media we’ve had in quite a while and then quietly dip for the next couple months like he’s a ghost?

Given how much these newer fans were looking to discuss something about him, one would’ve assumed that several of them would’ve been the most individuals to engage with said post.

Instead, it was mostly fans from before Niall had exploded in popularity that dominated the comment section.

-

Truth_Bomber: Haaa~. Honestly, some of y’all need to understand that certain people, no matter how popular they might become, aren’t all that gung-ho about constantly being in the spotlight.

Chronically Online: Still @Truth_Bomber,you have to admit that it’s rather curious how we’ve heard practically nothing about him. In typical Hollywood fashion, we’d have at least begun hearing rumors about some movie or project he’s set to star in next or at least working towards.

Proud Tennessean: Beats me. Though I’d really like to see him perform live at least once here in Tennessee. You can’t not drop a song about your roots and at least not perform there, right?

Generational_Tyler_Hater: No, thank you. I’d rather we see him once in a blue moon, have him drop a banger, dip, then rinse and repeat. Not everyone wants to be fucking overexposed Tyler Jerkstone in Hollywood with equally toxic fans composed of screaming banshees.

Tyler K Stan: You take that back right now @Generational_Tyler_Hater!! Whatever Tyler puts out is miles better than whatever trash Niall puts out!

Jayce_TheMan: And he’s proven you right without even trying... @Tyler K Stan. Quick question, though? Do they mass produce you guys in a factory or something?

Danny Boi: Well, well, well, aren’t you a harpy for sore eyes @Tyler K Stan? And I mean that in all the worst ways possible.

MayaTheWitch: Please and please @Tyler K Stan, do not ever compare gold-plated dumpster fire to carats worth of diamond. Thank you very much.

Generational_Tyler_Hater: Ha! Get ratioed @Tyler_K Stan! I don’t even need to cook you myself!

JustAChillGuy: I mean, I find it rather refreshing that he’s an artist who’s just an artist so it doesn’t really bother me that we’re barely getting any info on him. Makes anything he does all that more interesting in my opinion.

BluntBellina: Most of y’all are just impatient. Niall has been a very private artist, way before he ever even blew up. You newer fans are just so used to the glitz and glam of a celebrity’s life, you expect all of them to be cut out of the same cloth.

-

As the comment count in the post continued to rack up, a piece of information quietly landed on TweetTalk for a couple seconds... only for it to immediately go viral a few minutes after.

And with it, several of these newer fans and even the older fans, were stunned to high heavens when Goldberg Productions--Murray’s production company--made a new post with the caption;

[Rink], has officially wrapped up filming!

Then they attached four close-up pictures highlighting the movie’s main cast. Naturally, Niall’s picture being there was what had caused his fans to immediately take to buzzing around like bees starved of honey.

That piece of information alone, would have been enough to tide them over for months to come.

Afterall, given Murray’s inclination to pick crème of the crop actors for roles in his movies, it was essentially a stamp of validation that Niall was just as good as the very best actors the industry had to offer.

Yet, Coachella, ’by some struck of luck’, happened to casually drop a post of their own a couple hours later with the caption;

Are you ready to see Niall Parker and Midnight Avenue perform at this year’s Coachella? ’Cause we sure are!

Then they attached a poster to the post, with their names updated amongst the previous lists of emerging and buzzing artists that were set to perform at the event.

This time, Niall’s fans, both old and new, absolutely lost it, and it didn’t take long before they self-manufactured a new wave of hype all on their own on the social media platform.

The resulting product of that, was a new wave of attention drawn mostly to Niall Parker, and in no small amount either, Midnight Avenue, both names suddenly hitting the trending list.

Afterall, to so many fans... it would be an opportunity to see not only their favorite artists, but also some rendition of [Silver Comets] actually play out in real life.

That said, not everyone was ecstatic about this news.

Vinewood Records... and specifically, Tyler Kingstone.

Ever since his movie had flopped at the box office, it had cost them quite a bit.

Though it could be argued that they hadn’t lost as much money when compared to Diamond Productions, what it had in fact cost them was their face in the industry.

Them having one of the biggest artists in the US, only to make a movie of him that bombed spectacularly hadn’t been a good look for them at all.

Not only did it bring about criticisms as to how their marketing strategy was so shit, they didn’t realize they were overexposing said artist, it also shone a spotlight on how spectacularly their curated persona of Tyler’s image to the public had finally come back to bite them in the ass.

As a result, they’d had Tyler dial down all the parties, clubbing, fighting, sleeping around and just generally anything that would land him on the tabloids since the tail end of last year. Simply put, they were starting to be much stricter with him like they were their less popular artists.

And though Tyler knew it was necessary that he complied, not only for the record label, but for the sake of his career, he still couldn’t help but be furious at his former bandmates and that one Niall Parker.

Afterall, he’d become so far gone in his delusions, he was of the belief they were probably having the time of their lives making fun of him.

As if the quartet didn’t have better things to do with their lives and unhealthily obsess over him like he was starting to, over them.

Still, what had at least done a bit to ease and placate his growing anger, had been that he would return to the public eye come April next year as one of the performers at Coachella.

Given he’d already headlined last year’s, they hadn’t wanted to have him do so this year again.

More than that, Coachella was having none of the heat from whatever bullshit Tyler might end up pulling, hence why they simply tossed him into the mid-tier/buzzing/emerging artists performers for the event.

It was now also that very same group, that Niall and his former band members had been tossed into. At the very same time, it was the same day Tyler would be performing that they would.

And somehow, someway, Tyler had seen it as a competition of sorts. One where he felt the need to utterly crush them with his live performance.

As a result, for the first time in perhaps forever, he actually called up his manager to discuss a way he could deliver an unforgettable performance at the upcoming event, one that said manager had been rather shocked to hear.

In any case, as Tyler got on over to competing with people who honestly couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what he was up to, Niall and the trio had been in a full-on creative zone these past few days.

One that essentially took the song Niall had made, and dialed up its quality to eleven.

Given how much of a massive opportunity the young artist had provided them with by sharing his stage with them at Coachella, it was only natural they wanted to ensure the song he planned to unveil there was nothing short of phenomenal...

...more so, when the unrefined version of it that Niall had originally brought was already a perfect ten out of ten.

There was just one teensy, tiny problem though...

Niall couldn’t quite replicate the actual tune he wanted in his head perfectly.

Despite trying everything, the trio were unable to truly grasp that last .1% that he wanted to squeeze out of the song.

Even after an extra week, they remained stuck at 99.9% and it was starting to seem like they would simply have to compromise and not perform the new song at the venue.

But that was when the trio noticed Aiden trying to tune his guitar strings gently and in a certain way to get the tune he wanted.

Then, as if a lightbulb had simultaneously flipped on over their heads in shared realization, they immediately knew what they had to do to eke out that 0.1%.

Advance Chapters are available on Patreon!

/Caer07