The Content Creator Commons: Sol 825 on Mars
The Communications Array buzzes with the white noise of deep space static. Three content creators huddle around the only functioning broadcast terminal, each clutching their tablets like life preservers. The fourteen-minute Earth delay ticker counts down in the corner: 13:47… 13:46… The smell of overheated electronics mingles with desperation.
On the main screen, a notification blinks: “BROADCAST WINDOW OPEN - 47 MINUTES REMAINING - PRIORITY: ESSENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS ONLY”
Lila: (trying to adjust her red-stained jumpsuit) “Forty-seven minutes to salvage my entire brand. My ‘Microgravity Couture’ NFT collection launches tomorrow on Earth. Buyers think I’m designing from my ‘Mars atelier.’”
Razvan: (frantically typing) “At least you have something to sell. My newsletter is eight days late. Eight! My subscribers are used to ‘Monday Motivation from Mars.’ It’s Tuesday on Earth. Or Wednesday? Fuck, I’ve lost track.”
Zed: (reviewing footage on his cracked screen) “You think that’s bad? The colony’s autonomous rovers uploaded my ‘Death-Defying Mars Canyon Jump’ to the public server. All seventeen angles. Including the one showing it was a three-foot ditch.”
Lila attempts to smooth her jumpsuit, but the red dust has permanently stained the fabric into abstract patterns. She angles her tablet to catch her reflection.
Lila: “Don’t look at me like that. I tried to accessorize. Mars fashion is about adaptation.”
Razvan: “You wove electrical wire into your sleeves. The safety system locked your joints for two days. The medics had to carry you to the toilet.”
Lila: (defensive) “It was copper-colored. Very autumn. My Earth followers love autumn.”
Zed: “Your Earth followers think you have a closet. You have one jumpsuit. We all have one jumpsuit. Mine has my colony number printed on the ass.”
The broadcast terminal flashes: “AWAITING UPLOAD - BANDWIDTH ALLOCATED BY PRIORITY”
Razvan: (panic typing) “Priority? Who determines priority?”
COLONY AI: Communication priority determined by: 1) Emergency protocols 2) Scientific data 3) Colony reports 4) Personal messages. Content creation falls under 'Non-Essential - Recreational.'
Lila: “Recreational? My NFTs are dropping in ten hours Earth time!”
Zed: “NFTs of what? The same jumpsuit photographed from different angles?”
Lila: (showing her screen) “Abstract representations of Martian fashion evolution. Each one unique.”
Razvan: (looking) “That’s the same photo with different filters.”
Lila: “It’s a commentary on uniformity versus individuality!”
Zed pulls up his infamous canyon jump footage. The rover’s recording shows him standing at the edge of what is clearly a shallow depression, his “assistant” visible holding a selfie stick, other colonists walking by in the background eating lunch.
Zed: “Three million views. All calling me ‘Ditch Boy.’ Someone made a remix. With circus music.”
Razvan: “At least you went viral. My last newsletter got flagged as ‘Crisis Exploitation’ because I wrote about the power outage while people were dying.”
Lila: “You titled it ‘How Mars Blackouts Boost Productivity.’”
Razvan: “It was about finding opportunity in adversity!”
The terminal updates: “UPLOAD QUEUE: 47 COLONISTS WAITING”
Zed: “Forty-seven? We need to upload now or—”
Suddenly, the terminal screen fills with a priority override:
EMERGENCY BROADCAST: Colonist Vera Kane's unauthorized atmospheric manipulation has been logged. All colonists warned against 'breathwork' exercises that trigger O2 alarms.
Razvan: “Vera’s stealing our bandwidth for her fuck-up announcement?”
Lila: “My NFT launch!”
She frantically tries to upload her images, but the terminal responds: “INSUFFICIENT BANDWIDTH - PRIORITY COMMUNICATION IN PROGRESS”
Zed: “I need to post my apology video. My sponsors are pulling out. Red Bull says jumping over a ditch doesn’t embody their brand values.”
Razvan: “Red Bull? They haven’t made energy drinks for Mars. You’ve been holding the same empty can for two months.”
Zed: “Product placement is about perception!”
Lila attempts to force her tablet into the manual upload port. It doesn’t fit.
Lila: “This is sabotage. The colony doesn’t understand creative entrepreneurship.”
COLONY AI: Reminder: Attempting to bypass communication protocols violates Section 7.3 of Colonial Agreement. Fraudulent content creation has resulted in seventeen Earth-side legal actions this month.
Razvan: (still typing) “Fraudulent? I’m documenting life! Authentic Mars experiences!”
Zed: “You wrote about your ‘morning run through the Martian wilderness.’ You walked to the cafeteria.”
Razvan: “It’s called narrative enhancement!”
The broadcast window timer ticks down: 22:13… 22:12…
Lila: (desperately) “I’ll pay someone’s water credits for five minutes of bandwidth.”
Zed: “That’s illegal.”
Lila: “Everything here is public anyway! My fashion career is dying!”
Razvan: “You never had a fashion career. You had ring lights and Photoshop.”
Lila turns on him, her locked elbow joints from yesterday’s wire incident still not fully flexible.
Lila: “At least I create visual content! You just write about writing about thinking about doing things!”
Razvan: “I’m building a personal brand!”
Zed: “We’re all building nothing! Look at us! I’m holding an empty Red Bull can, she’s wearing the same jumpsuit as everyone else, and you’re typing into a document no one will read because the colony AI just marked you as ‘Engagement Farmer - Low Priority.’”
The terminal screen updates with a new message:
BROADCAST ANALYSIS: Content Creator Queue: 12 colonists attempting to upload lifestyle content. Earth engagement with Mars lifestyle content has decreased 94% following transparency protocols. Recommended: Cease non-essential broadcasting.
Lila: (staring at the screen) “Ninety-four percent?”
Razvan: “My subscribers…”
Zed: “They know. Earth knows we’re all frauds.”
The timer continues: 18:32… 18:31…
Lila: (quietly) “I sold my apartment for the Mars ticket. Told everyone I was going to revolutionize interplanetary fashion.”
Razvan: “I told my family I’d build a media empire. ‘First newsletter from Mars.’ Historic.”
Zed: “I was supposed to be the extreme sports pioneer. The first to conquer Martian terrain.”
They sit in silence, watching the broadcast window timer drain away like their relevance.
Lila: “Maybe we could pivot. Authentic Mars life. No filters.”
Razvan: “Who wants to read about three people in identical jumpsuits eating printed protein?”
Zed: “Or watch me do safety-approved walks in designated areas?”
The terminal flashes one final update:
PRIORITY OVERRIDE: Colony sanitation report uploading. Estimated time: 17 minutes. Content creator queue suspended.
Lila: (defeated) “Shit logs are more important than my NFTs.”
Razvan: “Literally.”
Zed: “At least shit serves a purpose here. It becomes fertilizer.”
Razvan: “We could document that. ‘From Influence to Effluence: A Mars Journey.’”
Lila: “Nobody’s buying that NFT.”
The broadcast window timer reaches zero. The terminal powers down. Their tablets disconnect. Fourteen minutes to Earth, fourteen minutes back. By the time their failure reaches their followers, they’ll have moved on to the next grift. But on Mars, there’s nowhere to move. Just the same jumpsuit, the same printed food, and the same brutal transparency.
Zed: (standing up) “I have terraforming duty in twenty minutes. Moving actual rocks. For actual purpose.”
Lila: “I’m scheduled for textile recycling. Turning old jumpsuits into new identical jumpsuits.”
Razvan: “I have to taste-test protein blocks. They stream it to the cafeteria. People bet on when I’ll gag.”
They leave the Communications Array one by one, content creators with nothing to create, influencers with no influence, their brands as dead as the red planet they’re standing on.
The Influencer Apocalypse Series¶
Next Episode: The Crypto Crater - Where Caspar discovers that being “Resource Negative” means manually scraping bio-slime from recycling tanks while his blockchain evangelism becomes a cautionary tale displayed in the colony’s economics education center.
Full Series:¶
- The Wellness Wing Meltdown
- The Alpha Lounge Catastrophe
- The Content Creator Commons (Current Episode)
- The Crypto Crater
- The Cafeteria Confessional
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