Audition [CLOSED]

Okay. Okay, okay. Right, this’ll be okay. She was six minutes early which seemed like a reasonable amount of time to be early, however she had spent the last minute checking her reflection in the door to be sure that she looked presentable. Her hair (the blond roots were a little too long and the red tips were starting to fade some weren’t they?) was pulled back into a tidy bun, and her clothes (the closest she had to formal wear) a simple white blouse and knee length black skirt looked free of rumbles. Right, okay, this would be fine. She had plenty of interviews so one more wouldn’t be a problem, no nerves at all, right? Steeling her nerves and clutching the shoulder strap of her messenger tote with a white knuckle grip Eli pushed the door open and stepped inside.

It was a pleasant little shop (cozy?) and the smell of coffee was nice not that she really liked the taste, but she found it always smelled good. A few heads turned her way as she entered, which seemed to be more because she was the only one who wasn’t an employee in the store at the moment. Eli raised a hand in greeting as she made her way deeper into the store. With the confidence of someone who felt completely out of place she made her way to a man sitting behind a checkout counter. She took a breath to steel her nerves and spoke.

“Uh, excuse me, I’m here for…” Eli trailed off as it dawned on her that this person was very clearly asleep. She cast a bewildered glance over her shoulder to a man working a coffee press of some kind and got a small shrug in return for her trouble. Should… she try to wake him up? The interview was for one o’clock today, right? Her gaze flicked down to her watch and with no warning the sleeping man flicked awake as if a switch of some kind had just been flipped. The girl blinked as the man called for a new coffee and another quick glance to the man behind the counter (Cass?) only granted her another shrug.

“Uhm” Eli cleared her throat as she straightened in place. What confidence she had managed to build up evaporated and her voice came to her quicker than she meant it to. “Hi, I’m uh, Eli— Eliana Rook, I had an interview here at one?” She smiled nervously.

“Yes, uh, hello.” Eli said quickly, flashing a smile filled with more nerves and teeth than it was friendly. She maintained her ramrod straight posture however, which might be a selling point in her favor if they were looking for very awkward looking girls to stand around for a few hours. Which, given her previous undisclosed employment, it was definitely something she’d be well qualified for. Eli sucked in a quick breath and willed her body to relax. How successful she was in that endeavor was debatable.

“Right, the dungeon. Eli said as Kosuke stood so easily and motioned for her to follow him into the back room. It was an odd thing to notice, but he didn’t walk like someone who just woke up from a nap in a chair. Something about that sent a chill crawling it’s way up her spine. It was like how Wren rested, where his movements always seemed just a little too smooth and crisp. But, Wren was somewhere back in California and this was just a pleasant man working at a cafe and record store.

With a shake of her head to push that thought back into whatever dark corner it lurked in, Eli fell into line behind Kosuke. She glanced back as she reached the door, flashing Cass a quick smile before she vanished through it.

As far as dungeons went, this was probably one of the nicer ones that she had been in, and as far as interview rooms went the sound system looked very cool. She had seen online that some of the people who worked here were in a local band so maybe they used the room to test samples? Maybe she was just overthinking why a music store had a nice sound system, like how she had been overthinking how smoothly Kosuke had been moving earlier. She was just letting her nerves get the better of her. That had to be it.

“Okay, I’ll, uh, take this seat then.” Eli said, pulling out one of the chairs that let her keep the door in the corner of her eye and sliding in. She perked up a little at the offer of caffeine, though her gaze was on a cup she was fairly certain was about to dump it’s contents. “Can he make a caramel latte? It’s fine if not, I’m just not very good with bitter things.”

Eli relaxed in her seat slightly at the question of choosing music. That seemed easy enough, right? Just needed to choose something that wasn’t too out there or distracting. So, probably no Rammstine. “Maybe something like Mili or Sakuzyo would make for good background music.”

Eli relaxed in her seat, this was… going better than other interviews had gone, wasn’t it? Kosuke seemed a little awkward, but he wasn’t giving her that ‘you’re too young to be here’ stare, which was quite the boon to her floundering confidence. She leaned back in her chair and called a ‘thank you’ down the hall while it seemed like Cass might still be close enough to hear her.

“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks” Eli added as Kosuke returned to the room and warned her about how bitter the coffee could be. It wasn’t like she was paying for it, so she wasn’t really in any position to complain if it was a little bitter. And she made a mental note to look through the store’s albums once they were finished up here.

“Yeah! I listened to that album on repeat for a few months after it came out.” She said with a flash of excitement as she placed her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I found them through AngelFalse it was good background music to study to.”

Or, sometimes it was nice to just not hear what was going on in the room next door.

Seeming to remember that this was meant to be an interview, Eli quickly straightened back up in her seat.

“Yes, uh, Eli is fine.” She said, her posture again stiffening with the sinking realization that more normal interview questions would be heading her way. She just needed to remain calm and think through her answers, she had done practice questions so this was just like any other test, and she was fine at those. But, that little anxious voice was already picking away at another little thing that didn’t sit right, this time in the reflection of his glasses. The paper had… a lot of notes. Maybe it wasn’t all about her? Companies did background checks, so maybe it was just related to that? Was this normal? It could be normal, but other places had just had her résumé and nothing else really.

Once more Eli found herself with an uneasy feeling she did her best to squash.

Putting her bravest face forward Eli smiled as Kosuke asked his first official question of the interview. She drew in a breath, something that was long enough to let her detangle her thoughts from the lingering paranoia and put her focus back on just answering questions. She just needed to take the truth and make it slant, which is what adults had always offered up about how to get through interviews.

“I moved to Pittsburgh recently, for uh some personal reasons so I haven’t really had much time to scope out much of the city. But, uhm,” Eli shifted in her seat, that was close enough, right? “Vulture seems like it has a nice atmosphere, and I’ve always loved music so it seemed like it would be a good place to try my luck.” She chuckled, a little more nervously than she intended.

”And, uh, it’s a little selfish but I still have some schoolwork — it’s all online, uhm, so I was hopeful that if there’s down time, I mean if everything else was taken care of, that I would be able to do some studying.”

“Oh is that so?” Eli said as Kosuke spoke about the store’s usual applicants. She shifted in her chair, was he concerned that she was one of those sorts who were just after bragging rights or something like that as well? She had done some research into the place, because when she had poked around online it was recommended to look things up beforehand so it wasn’t like she didn’t know there was a band but was it bad in an interview that you just listened to a few songs last night? They were good songs too but the guitarist was just — he was a little behind the whole song. However, she seemed blessed by some form of good luck as Cass arrived with her drink.

“Oh, that looks delicious! Thank you!” Eli said, her lips curving into a quick smile. She picked up the glass, brought it up to her lips and took a long sip. With a satisfied sigh she placed the cup back down. It was definitely more than sweet enough to satisfy her sweet tooth. But she’d need to remember to brush her teeth after the interview was over. “It's perfect, thank you.” Eli said.


“Pittsburgh?” She said, as the topic of conversation switched tracks to a topic that seemed a little less dangerous. “I’ve quite liked it so far, it’s got a different feel than any of the other cities I’ve been to. Oh, but, an airplane did fall on me when I first arrived but that was just… ” Eli chuckled nervously before clearing her throat.

“Is there anything in the city you’d recommend going to see? I’m still learning about the city.”