Post by Linna Rails on Sept 13, 2017 15:36:00 GMT -7
Linna chewed on her bottom lip and looked across the array of people cleaning up their belongings after the audition. Several of them were chattering to one another, some looked completely dejected, and she recognized almost none of them from before today. There were only twenty of them, but even that number had astounded her. Aside from her friend that had come back from District 2 with her, she hadn't found another soul like her in the year since being home. Since District 6 didn't have any sort of proper theater yet, the auditions for the big musical had been held inside the town hall. The wide stone floor made for a good dance space, and the higher ceilings produced interesting acoustics, but it also meant that everyone auditioning was there to watch... every single person auditioning.
Never in her life had Linna actually had to audition for something, and she'd had no idea how wonderful the process would be. Everyone was told to find a place along the walls of the large room to set their things and then sign up to receive a number. Hers had been 14, which somehow felt fitting. 14 was the year that changed her life. The dance section was first, and so most people began by warming up. She remembered watching Tatya warming up before a dance back in District 2, and had emulated her stretches, but kept stealing glances at the other contestants. Then, everyone learned the dance together, and Linna could already feel herself slipping into that comfortable place where entertainers lived. These strangers felt like friends, and they were all having fun together.
Then the director came in, and the mood changed. Things became more serious. People were called up in small groups to dance, and she could feel the pressure of it. She could feel it, but she also wasn't a stranger to it. She hadn't danced before people like Tatya had, not like this, but she was used to feeling the pressure of every eye in the room on her. So while she danced, she just slipped into that zone that let her escape. She knew from watching people like Tatya that she was perhaps only a middling dancer, but what she lacked in technical skill she felt like she made up for in spirit. She dedicated her entire body to everything she did, and if she messed up, well, she wouldn't let it show.
After the dancing was done, it was time for individual singing auditions. Anyone who wanted to practice or warm up had to step outside into the town square to do so, as the town officials hadn't allowed them any additional rooms. As number 14, Linna had to watch 13 other people go before her. She was absolutely fascinated. Not all of them were good - in fact, some of them were quite awful - but all of them told stories in their songs. There was a man in his late thirties that sung a song about losing hope that made her want to cry, his gravely voice adding to the pain of the number. There was a woman perhaps a bit younger than she who couldn't stay on pitch, but had this energy to her and her song that made her giddy to watch. Why couldn't she have found these people before today? And if these were just the representatives of her own district, what were the people like who had auditioned in the other districts?
Linna was sad to have missed numbers 12 and 13 while she warmed up outside, eliciting strange looks from passers by. Then it was her turn, and while she hadn't sung this song in over a year, she knew exactly what she was going to sing. It was a song she'd written with a few of the other kids back in Two. It was the story of a boy who sung on the streetcorner for coins, and it was told from his point of view. Every day, he'd bring what he made back to his drunk papa, who spent it all on drink and left him little to eat. Then the rebels started a battle and they shot, and they shot, and they shot the boy singing in the streetcorner. As he died, the boy sang that it was a mercy to die because he didn't have to sleep under his drunk papa's roof any more. The song was incredibly tragic, but light until the end. The Peacekeepers had loved it, because it seemed to convey how awful the rebels were to kill a boy on the corner - when really, the kids that wrote it meant that the mercy was really that the boy didn't have to become one of them. This was a song Linna truly felt, and so it was not difficult at all to throw herself into it.
Linna was out of breath when she sat down, but she felt amazing as she watched the last six people audition. And then, just like that, it was over. Anyone cast would be notified later today, and anyone who wasn't wouldn't receive any notification. They were all released, and now there was a flurry of motion as everyone started leaving. That sense of comradorie she had felt during the audition was gone now as people went back to their separate lives and their separate homes, and she felt sad about that. Still, not knowing if she had a chance of making it into this musical or not - and fearing for what her life could look like stuck in Six if she didn't - Linna headed out into the town square once again.
WC: 944
Tag: Open! Anyone from the Dark Days Musical plot, or from District 6 (when some join) are welcome to talk to Linna! Or this can just be a one-shot
Never in her life had Linna actually had to audition for something, and she'd had no idea how wonderful the process would be. Everyone was told to find a place along the walls of the large room to set their things and then sign up to receive a number. Hers had been 14, which somehow felt fitting. 14 was the year that changed her life. The dance section was first, and so most people began by warming up. She remembered watching Tatya warming up before a dance back in District 2, and had emulated her stretches, but kept stealing glances at the other contestants. Then, everyone learned the dance together, and Linna could already feel herself slipping into that comfortable place where entertainers lived. These strangers felt like friends, and they were all having fun together.
Then the director came in, and the mood changed. Things became more serious. People were called up in small groups to dance, and she could feel the pressure of it. She could feel it, but she also wasn't a stranger to it. She hadn't danced before people like Tatya had, not like this, but she was used to feeling the pressure of every eye in the room on her. So while she danced, she just slipped into that zone that let her escape. She knew from watching people like Tatya that she was perhaps only a middling dancer, but what she lacked in technical skill she felt like she made up for in spirit. She dedicated her entire body to everything she did, and if she messed up, well, she wouldn't let it show.
After the dancing was done, it was time for individual singing auditions. Anyone who wanted to practice or warm up had to step outside into the town square to do so, as the town officials hadn't allowed them any additional rooms. As number 14, Linna had to watch 13 other people go before her. She was absolutely fascinated. Not all of them were good - in fact, some of them were quite awful - but all of them told stories in their songs. There was a man in his late thirties that sung a song about losing hope that made her want to cry, his gravely voice adding to the pain of the number. There was a woman perhaps a bit younger than she who couldn't stay on pitch, but had this energy to her and her song that made her giddy to watch. Why couldn't she have found these people before today? And if these were just the representatives of her own district, what were the people like who had auditioned in the other districts?
Linna was sad to have missed numbers 12 and 13 while she warmed up outside, eliciting strange looks from passers by. Then it was her turn, and while she hadn't sung this song in over a year, she knew exactly what she was going to sing. It was a song she'd written with a few of the other kids back in Two. It was the story of a boy who sung on the streetcorner for coins, and it was told from his point of view. Every day, he'd bring what he made back to his drunk papa, who spent it all on drink and left him little to eat. Then the rebels started a battle and they shot, and they shot, and they shot the boy singing in the streetcorner. As he died, the boy sang that it was a mercy to die because he didn't have to sleep under his drunk papa's roof any more. The song was incredibly tragic, but light until the end. The Peacekeepers had loved it, because it seemed to convey how awful the rebels were to kill a boy on the corner - when really, the kids that wrote it meant that the mercy was really that the boy didn't have to become one of them. This was a song Linna truly felt, and so it was not difficult at all to throw herself into it.
Linna was out of breath when she sat down, but she felt amazing as she watched the last six people audition. And then, just like that, it was over. Anyone cast would be notified later today, and anyone who wasn't wouldn't receive any notification. They were all released, and now there was a flurry of motion as everyone started leaving. That sense of comradorie she had felt during the audition was gone now as people went back to their separate lives and their separate homes, and she felt sad about that. Still, not knowing if she had a chance of making it into this musical or not - and fearing for what her life could look like stuck in Six if she didn't - Linna headed out into the town square once again.
WC: 944
Tag: Open! Anyone from the Dark Days Musical plot, or from District 6 (when some join) are welcome to talk to Linna! Or this can just be a one-shot
