My Scareuary 2024, Entry 3: Starlets and Immortality

My Scareuary 2024: Starlets and Immortality

Last entry, I spoke about my idea for the star seal story (statue horror). I should have started writing that story, because the plan was to knock one story out after the other, but I got a cool idea for the starlet/stardom story, and I wanted to make a post about that before I lost it.

To remind you, the prompt is this:

a young woman's dream of stardom is within grasp, but the closer she gets, the deeper she is dragged into a world of ruthless corruption, until the young starlet is faced with the greatest demon of all 👿

 

Building off of that, here's the story idea so far:

• a young woman was thrown into the acting/singing circuit from a very young age due to an overbearing mother who also doubles as her manager, and has as a result become quite jaded; her view is that everything is give & take
• she notices that she's been giving so much, but taking so little for herself; she decides this must be remedied, but there is little that she wants that she doesn't already have
  
• since she can't be young and successful forever, her one wish is to become the most unforgettable star that ever lived - to go down in historical collective memory and be kept alive through the ages, so that she will have achieved a metaphorical immortality
• as she succeeds again and again in her career, breaking records and making history, she begins to learn more about the world of fame and fortune - to get a glimpse into the universe underneath the seedy underbelly so often exposed
• she meets two characters: the Wise character, and the Devil character (we'll give them names later)
• the Wise character shows her that immortality is a myth; that her future is sealed, and she will be forgotten just as everyone else is - and should be - forgotten, even those figures she reveres so much
• the Devil character offers her a deal: immediate eternal fame for her servitude for the rest of her life; it is a trick, for immortality is a myth
• the starlet either accepts the deal and finds herself tricked into a lifetime of cursed servitude - and a hell awaiting her when it is over - or accepts the fact that immortality is a myth, and decides on another direction for her life
   

Some additional points I thought might be cool to know:

• the story is told in second person POV
• my idea right now is that the story will be told as an interactive fiction, but I'll have to be careful to keep things simple and short, so that I don't overwhelm myself complete - after all, this is a short story for Scareuary, and I don't want to spend all of Scareuary focusing on just this one piece and letting it grow out of control
  

One of the defining influences was actually the RR community magazine competition. I've been off of RR for a while and was able to check in, and I felt that their prompt for this edition - 'immortality is a myth' - fit perfectly with the starlet/stardom story. I wanted to flesh that out a little more to see if I could write this story for Scareuary and use it to participate in the magazine competition at the same time!

What can I say? I saw the opportunity, and I want to take it. 😁