Viral

Though it was just social media, Loralei couldn’t help but to feel as if Carl was Eve and she just gave him the forbidden fruit. This whole new world was like Pandora’s Box, and despite giving him freedom to do whatever with it she felt obligated to at least somewhat keep tabs on him. She never knew she would be the wingman of a global conquest.

"Now Carl, I-" Before she could give him a few words of warning, he continued his grandiose scheme to entrap the innocent instagrammers of this island with his mind already set. And once that was done… Boy, was it impossible to stop that train.

She sighed, her hand on her hip as she mentally checked out for just a few moments. Of course, her apathy in this moment would work against her, as the second she let her guard down, she got a taste of her own medicine and has his own phone shoved in her face.

"Shit!" She jolted, surprised. When she regained herself, she realized Carl took a very bad, very unflattering picture of her.

"Wait Carl I-!" She stopped herself. She thought for a second, wondering if it was worth redoing it to rain on his parade. Sure, she could have told him that she would rather have a filter, color adjustment, and desaturation on her introduction to his profile, but for this little thing it was worth seeing him pleased with himself. Besides, at least he hadn’t figured out tagging yet.

"I… Think it looks great. You really got my best side there." She said, calming down a bit as she nonchalantly folded her arms across her chest. I mean, she wasn’t wrong. She could dress herself up with all the glamor shots she wanted but on the inside she was the same old crotchety, cynical genie. "Well, I guess I ought to christen this new account. Consider me the first in your fan club." She looked up his name and clicked the little follow button. An alert would pop up on his screen, signifying the “1” under the followers tab.

"I know I’m hot and all,but you should consider putting more stuff up so your followers know what you look like. But other than that, go nuts." She smirked.

"Anything else I can teach you, young padawan?"

​

Oh sweet baby Jesus what has she done

Loralei watched as Carl grew mad with power in a fragment of a second. That his one follower coming from his own wife who was obligated to support him spent him into a spiral of evilness. Damn, she just wanted someone to take pictures with.

Well, she got herself into this mess, now she was going to have to dig her way out.

"Ahh, uh.. Listen Carl." She said, trying to get a word in as he continued to assert his dominance as the future dictator of the internet. Hm, how as she gonna break this to him…

"Not to rain on your parade, but this app has some rules." She said, rubbing her temple delicately. "Trust me, I know death threats and appeals to soul crushing despair are sorta your brand and all, but there‘s a strict no violence or harassment policy on this thing. You don’t wanna get shut down before you get started."

Yeah, flat out right telling him to knock it off probably wasn’t gonna fly.

So she had to be clever.

"You wanna rack up those followers? You gotta think like them. Put up a front and people will flock. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar or whatever. Besides, if you’re too over the top, people might not take you seriously.”

She hummed a bit, thinking.

"I’ve noticed the people who solely join to get popular tend to fail. So be casual. Play it cool. You wanna slowly ease people into literally wanting to throw themselves at their feet. And those fans who were there since the beginning would do anything for you, trust me."

​

When she interjected, she worried the jig was up. This was getting interesting and she wasn’t one to be a stick in the mud. But, she did manage to introduce to him a loophole. And lucky for her, he took the bait. Speech 100.

Under one condition…

She smiled smugly as he thought of a way to work within the parameters, her eyes tracing him as he paced back and forth. She was tempted to poof up a chair before he finally came to a conclusion.

Of course, the fuel behind social media stardom was to be the kind of person everyone wanted to be. Successful, well-off, attractive with an attractive significant other… Superficial bullshit like that. It seemed he finally put two and two together as he decided to exploit the latter.

Harmless enough, right?

"Now you’re talkin’." She said, running a hand through her thick black hair. "But you gotta bring it in here too. Anyone can snag a photo off the internet and pretend that you’re married. And we’re not just anyone, are we?" She moved back to his side with a bit of a skip in her step. "We’re a power couple."

She rested her head on his shoulder, her hands ever so slightly around his sides. She smirked, raising a brow to him.

"Well? It’s your move now."

​

As they took the photo, Loralei looked back up at him. They were a power couple, in more ways than one. Whether or not his specific interpretation was going to be fulfilled remained to be seen. Still… She liked her own interpretation. They had been through a lot, and they kind of complimented each other nicely. In her mind, anyway.

Before she could answer his question on how to triumph over other islander couples, he made a point about how she should have rules too. Hm, he had a point. She sighed exaggeratedly, before resting her chin in her hand to think.

"Damn, I suppose you’re right." About the rules. Not about him winning. She looked down at her phone. She did have a bit of an extreme head start, and it wasn’t exactly fair that she already had a dedicated following. Not like genies were known to be fair, but she had to at least give her husband a chance.

"Fine." She said, looking up to him smugly. "I won’t use magic in my posts. That gets a lot of people flocking to me. Or filters. Or..." She looked down, grumbling a bit under her breath. "Suggestive photos." It was her one weapon against him. Her “attributes” did get her a lot of fans. And a lot of Amazon packages.

"Is that good enough? I feel like the playing ground is even. You’ll be popular in no time. Besides, who doesn’t like a blonde?" It looked like the game was set. All she had to do was start the showdown. She stuck her hand out in a shake. She smirked, raising a brow.

"Deal?"
​