I#1A: The Audition - Ainsleigh & Chloe

At the appointed time Ainsleigh and Chloe arraive at the auditorium. A work-study student man's the front desk and points the pair to the second floor of the East wing where the performance studios are. The west wing yhay holds the large amphitheater for plays and concerts is loved by a sign hanging from a velvet rope

Once upstairs the freshmen notice the building is incredibly quiet. Likely a result of all the padding and soundproofing. Rounding a corner you see a group that has to be the people Ainsleigh is looking for.


The guy in the middle smiles and extends a hand to someone, but he isn't sure which to greet. "Count?"

'In the flesh,' Ainsleigh shakes his hand, then performs a Restoration-style court bow, leaning over the hand as if to kiss it, but stopping short before rising back to a more casual standing position. The whole gesture was certainly pompous and eccentric, and would look silly if not for how smooth and self-aware it was, and so instead it came off as quaint. 'Though the real name is Ainsleigh. I could never get the repertoire to match the online handle anyway, so may as well relegate it to the narrow context where it was created. Besides, even there it's rare for people to call me that.'

Ainsleigh didn't rush to post any links to prior creative work druing the first week at the new university, but a trivial search for 'Count63' would indeed show a few videos with the comment section mostly consisting of (now former) classmates, who seemed to predominately refer to the uploader as 'Angstlord'.

'Ah, and this is Chloe, an ingenue I allowed to invite along, for the sake of offering a first-hand experience of the corrupting influence of eldritch and unholy music,' Ainsleigh adds in a melodramatic tone, imperfectly suppressing a smile.

"Excellent. Welcome Chloe, nice to meet you. I'm Cliff. Ainsleigh, let me show you the setup for today." He leads you and the rest of the band down a hallway. Along the way are sets of three doors. Some doors are marked Studio and have numbers, others are marked Recording and have letters. He stops at Recording 4 and enters. Inside are two elaborate console setups for recording audio, one to the left and one to the right. Above each console is a window that allows you to view what would be Studios G & H respectively. There is also a large leather sofa and four office chairs. In one of those chairs is a young woman with a partially shaved head of bright red hair, wearing a purple blouse and jeans. She turns and smiles broadly at everyone, pulling her hand in close to her shoulder to excitedly wave at everyone as they file in.

"D, this is Ainsleigh and Chloé. Ainsleigh is one of the potential vocalists, Chloé is their friend. Ainsleigh and Chloé, this is D. She's going to be manning the booth for us today. She's a whiz with the sound board. She's going to make you sound great."

"Aww, thanks Cliff. I'm not going to do anything really. Just help everybody get their best performance."

Through the open door you all hear a small voice call out.

"Hello!? I'm looking for Cliff! I'm here for the audition?"

Cliff responds, "Yes! End of the hall. Open door." and a moment later another student appears. She is incredibly tiny, blond and looks to be dressed for an anime convention. Cliff introduces her to everyone as Beatrice.

"Beatrice is the other vocalist. Beatrice this is Ainsleigh, who i told you about."

"Oh, I see. Well, Good luck I suppose. Not that it will help. This isn't a competition I'm likely to lose." Her expression turns sour, but her time remains sickly sweet. She seems to think her confidence might be enough to knock Ainsleigh off their game.

For a Star of the Stage, haters' comments are par for the course, and have long stopped having much of an impact on confidence in one's own musical competence. Ainsleigh waits for Beatrice's interruption to end, paying little attention to it, and instead addresses the band, with a slight nod to D:

'Delighted to meet you. And pleasantly surprised you've brought in a soundboard specialist even at such an early stage as this. I've seen too many who underestimate the importance of the off-stage members for the band's final product.'

D grins broadly at being acknowledged by Ainsleigh. "Just to be clear, I'm not officially part of the band. I'm helping out as a favor. But i appreciate you saying so Ainsleigh." Her attitude is quite bubbly. She lets her eyes dart over to Beatrice then meets Ainsleigh's gaze again. The message is clear that she too isn't impressed with the other young woman.

Cliff steps in. "Well, looks like we've got a couple live ones here. Why don't we get you two in the booths and let you get warmed up and a chance to listen to the song. Remember you don't have to be perfect, just be entertaining. Once you're both ready we'll listen to what you've got."

He points toward the door again. Beatrice stomps her way out seeing her efforts had no effect on Ainsleigh. He takes her to her door first and opens it. She looks over her shoulders and bats her eyelashes at him. He brushes it off and closes the door behind her. He then leads Ainsleigh the few feet away to their booth. And lets them in, closing the door behind.

There is a narrow bend around the Recording room before Ainsleigh is in the space proper. The room is softly lit with gray and black foam to mute sounds. A leather love seat is against one wall, a microphone hangs down in the center of the room with the boom arm and chord going over tone side, a stool sits underneath next to a music stand with a small remote control device and a pair of headphones. A large window shows the Recording room with D, Chloe, and the band. Behind them Ainsleigh can see Beatrice in a similar room.

D waves at both of you and motions to put the headphones on. Once you've done that a click indicates the connection is made.

"Can you hear me? Great. So, the device in front of you will control everything for your end. The one button says "Mic" right there. Green means your being heard in here. Red means you can hear us talking too like right now. Gray means we can't hear each other at all. Then you see the playback controls. We have the song preloaded in here. Stop syaty rewind whatever you need. Your hooked up to two different computers so you wont interfere with each other. So no worries there. Any questions?"

Through the window Beatrice is staring daggers at Ainsleigh. "Nope. All good, I've been in studio before. I'm ready to rock!" Ainsleigh hears her voice through the headphones, through a speaker in the next room.

'I do have one. Since this event was organised with relatively little prior discussion, I didn't spot a good moment to ask, what kinds of takes on the song would you be interested to hear? I understand that that, of course, nobody expects an identical replica of the previous performance, and experimentation is expected, but what directions of such experiments are you interested in?'

Ainsleigh leans back and focuses on the band. The glass offered a perfect opportunity to watch the group dynamics and get a feel for the members' personalities. Who's really in charge. Who displays strong reactions to the varous facets and approaches of the candidates. Who seems preoccupied with concerns more important than the current event, and thus might not have much of an impact on the decision.

It was not a given that all of those unspoken questions would get answers, but it was what to be on the lookout for. The nature of the glass windows meant that Beatrice was also within peripheral vision, but compared to the above considerations, at the moment, her and her icy stare were very low on the list of priorities.

The band memeber look toward Cliff as he sort of leans toward D's station, confirming for Ainsleigh the answer to where "leadership" of the group currently resides.

"Great question. So, when I wrote this particular piece of music I was dealing with a breakup, cliché I know, but the concepts of loss and separation were heavy on my mind. Not just the breakup though. Like, the whole spectrum of what we can experience as humans. My breakup sort of felt like a middle, yeah the relationship was over, but they weren't really gone the way people are when they die, but also there was a bit of toxicity in that relationship, so i felt free. The chain i hadn't realized was weighing me down was gone as well. So maybe channel those kind of emotions into it if you can."

The other band members nod in agreement. One of the other guys pats Cliff on the shoulder in solidarity.

With everyone distracted by Cliff's explanation Beatrice rolls her eyes and makes a "shot me" motion then hangs her head to the side with her tongue lulling out of her mouth. Quickly she corrects her posture and says into the mic, "Awesome answer, Cliff. I could really hear feel the amount of yourself you put in your music when i listend to your SoundCloud. It really moved me." She gently places her hand on her chest. An actual tear wells up in the corner of her eye.

With that input, Ainsleigh can now make a plan, which is great. Unfortunately, between the original sound and the most fitting ways of conveying the listed combination of emotions, about half of it was neither in line with the styles Ainsleigh was experienced with, nor a good reflection of the style the band was allegedly representing. Still, this was what the specifications called for, so that was what had to be done.

The first verse and first chorus would be sung in a clean but firm voice gradually turning into a gentle growl, conveying the growing tension of a flawed and failing relationship, like a gathering storm. The second verse would be sung cleanly in a higher-pitch, melancholy, almost wailing manner - Ainsleigh's unfortunately best approximation of portraying heartbreak. It would culminate in breaking into a chorus performed as growling scream, conveying the rage at everything that went wrong so far. Finally, the third verse and chorus would be sung once again in a clean, albeit low-pitched voice, full of bittersweet pride, as if standing up and shaking off the dust and finally taking - for the first time in years - a long way home.

At least Ainsleigh hopes that in the short term such a cocktail would be in line with the band's tastes. In the long term, there would be a potential issue with the difference in prioritieis, what with the fact that the prospective singer very much did care about fame and glory, unlike the other musicians. Only time could tell whether such a difference would become a problem.

'D, I think it would be best if I try to convey that spectrum of emotions through a spectrum of different styles throughout the songs. And because of this I would like give you a suggestion about how to engineer the sound during the different stages of the song. For the first verse and chorus, there's a lot of leeway in appropriate adjustments, so long as it helps convey a sense of escalation, of emotions approaching a boililng point.

For the second verse - please hear me out. I know what I'm about to say will sound a bit too commercial, and normally I wouldn't go in that direction, but I think it makes sense in context: imagine you're trying to help Anne Nurmi fill Amy Lee's shoes in the late 1990s. Just for the verse. For the chorus we switch back to a heavier style - about as heavy as it gets here - and again with a lot of leeway regarding the exact nuances of the sound.

Finally, for the last verse and chorus is a stage of de-escalation and relief, hurt but hopeful. Think something like Lacuna's Leaving Alone. I think if we work together on this, we can pull off the spectrum Cliff described. What do you think?'

D confirms going through with Ainsleigh's plan. She makes some adjustments to the board on Ainsleigh's side of the studio and gives a thumbs up. "We're all set Ainsleigh. Whenever you're ready."

"Actually, could i go first? I think my performance will need less nuiance. Beatrice interrupts.

"Yeah, lets go for it." Cliff says in response to Beatrice.

The blonde girl really rocks out to the music. Despite her bravado, Ainsleigh has to admit she has some talent. But is it enough?

Ainsleigh sits back and continues watching everyone while Beatrice is singing, and constantly at the ready to meet D's gaze should she decide to look through the window, though refraining from deliberately displaying any particular expressions or attempts at communication.

Once Beatrice is done, Ainsleigh performs a modest applause - neither enthusiastically nor sarcastically, but rather in a balanced and polite manner characteristic of someone who respectfully acknowledges the rivalry and holds no grudge.

And once the group is ready for the next candidate, Ainsleigh begins, sticking to the established plan on the first signthrough, but ready to make iterative adjustments based on D's technical suggestions and the band's reactions to the initial performance.

Everyone in the recording booth sits silently staring into the window of Ainsleigh's booth. Cliff's jaw hangs open slightly. The woman in the band starts clapping, followed by everyone else.

Cliff stands up and takes center stage as best he can in the room. "Wow. Wow. Yeah, both of you are amazing talents. It's really a privilege to have met both of you. And I want to thank you both for coming out today. I would confer with the band..." he pauses to look at the other three musicians and some form of silent communication happens through facial ticks and significant glances, "...but it seems we are all in agreement. Beatrice...

...thanks for coming out, you really are an amazing talent, but we think Ainsleigh is the right person for our group. We'd love to work with you sometime in the future if the right project comes around, and you can use us as a reference if you find another group. D will send you today's session if you want it for a demo or anything. Again, thanks for coming out."


Beatrice stares daggers through the window at Ainsleigh for a moment, color starting to show at the throat and in her cheeks.

"Whatever. I don’t need this band anyway. Bunch of losers." She scoffs, tossing her headphones to the ground disdainfully and stomps her way out of the booth...or she looks like she's stomping but Ainsleigh can't hear anything more as D has cut the mic feed from her booth. The lack of noise makes her look more like a petulant child than she likely intends.

Ainsleigh gets an email from Paul that the maintenance crew is in the building and he would like for them to be present if possible so they aren't entering anyone's room without their knowledge.

Cliff and the band want to hang out and get to know their newest member but then one by one remember prior obligations that require their attention. When Ainsleigh mentions needing to get back to the dorms also, D speaks up and asks Ainsleigh to wait a moment.

The band says their goodbyes and says they will be in touch shortly to figure out a rehearsal schedule.

D checks the hallways to make sure no one is around then shuts the door to the recording booth."Hey, so you're a freshman living in Gainer this year right? Um, so I heard some talk about...I don't know...weird stuff happening over there today. Do you know what's going on?

Ainsleigh was expecting a more difficult discussion topic, and replied with a hint of relief. 'Ah, about that. I don't know much yet. There have been several people whose roommates have gone missing overnight, but now it turned out that none of them have any paper trail in the university's system whatsoever, and all of us were listed as being lone occupants of our respective rooms, which is normally against the university's housing practices, so should not, and allegedly could not had happened.

So they started to run checks, and look for contaminations and leaks in the rooms, or at least planned to. Speaking of which, I should get back there and see how the rest of their plan is about to go. Would you like to tag along and hear any news first-hand?'

Chloe steps forward with her laptop and the image she generated of her missing roommate. "This is the person i spent one week living with. Or a very close approximation, within a margin of error of two point...well, I mean its as close as i could get.

D looks at the computer with concern and takes out her phone. "Do you mind if i take a picture of that and send it to someone?" Chloe nods and the picture is taken. D quickly drops a text message to someone. The message seems to be in some kind of code, and the picture is added. Ainsleigh sees her screen briefly it says "GH C new i. Bit early?"

"I am curious about it. You'll see me around eventually I'm sure. In the mean time..." She hands Ainsleigh and Chloe each a business card. "...if things get wierd, or weirder i guess, use this to find us."

Looking down at the card it reads Willowveil Young Pecreational Detective Society. Except...the W inWillowveil is drawn as a wide U with an uppercase I in the middle, the D in Detective is more of a triangle shape, like the graphic designer tried to get creative in a weird way, and looking again, the P for Pecreational...whatever that word means...is in bold, as are the W and the triangle D.

"well, i need to meet someone. Sorry to bounce like this. Hopefully I'll see you soon." and with that she leaves at brisk but not crazy pace.

Ainsleigh accepted the card, amused to be on the receiving end of a mysterious new acquaintance. 'Thanks. Let's see if anything like that will come up. Even if not, perhaps it might be interesting to discuss what already happened in more detail. And I'm also looking forward to collaborating again. But for now, I won't delay you any longer. Cheerio!'