Start time: February 6, 2007; 6:22 PM, PST
Thanks for the support so far, because it really means a lot to me. Like I said, this story will most likely end up being my longest, but that's at the expense of the chapters being drastically shorter than chapters compared to Sensei or Under Glass. Still, that shouldn't be a problem to anyone, because people have wanted longer stories out of me in terms of number of chapters, and I'm personally getting rather tired of cramming so many details and events into single chapters that usually go in excess of four thousand words..
If anyone has forgotten, this chapter will be told from Link's point of view. The summary of this chapter is basically an outline to Link's history like chapter one was for Zelda, the events at McDonalds as told from Link's point of view, and in addition to that, this chapter progresses the main story.
Link and Rauru are friends in this story once again, but unlike Sensei, nothing will happen that will cause animosity between them, so if you have bitter feelings towards him because of Sensei, get over it and picture this friendship, which will be a lot nicer and friendlier.
Anyway, here's chapter two.
COLUMBIA WARD--HYLIA MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT HEADQUARTERS- FIFTY-SIXTH FLOOR: AUGUST 16, 2004; 1:13 PM
I exit the elevator after it stops at the 56th floor, the top story of the Hylia Music Entertainment headquarters.
As I walk down the empty, quiet halls, I tighten my blue necktie slightly, trying to make myself look presentable to my boss and CEO of Hylia Music Entertainment, Rauru Sayge.
Hylia Music Entertainment is one of the three major record companies in the world, with all three having center of operations inside Hyrule. One of the other two is Majora/Goddess Music Industries, a joint venture between two former major record companies: Majora Industries, which is headquartered in Clock Town, the capital of Termina, a country to the west of Hyrule, and Goddess Music, headquarted in Hylia Village, a wealthy seaside resort community on the shores of Lake Hylia in southwest Hyrule. The second is the Sheikah International Group, which is headquartered in Kakariko Village, the second largest city in Hyrule behind Hyrule Castle Town, which is south-southeast of here. Together, Hylia Music Entertainment, Majora/Goddess Music Industries, and the Sheikah International Group make up the "Big Three" record companies, also aptly named the "Triforce of Music." In terms of control of the world music market, the rankings stand as the Sheikah International Group with 42.54 percent of the music market in their control, followed by Majora/Goddess Music Industries with a 31.23 percent share, and in last place, Hylia Music Entertainment with a dismal 26.23 percent of the market belonging to us.
The reason why we are in last place in the world music market is because for some time, Hylia Music Entertainment has been without a major recording act to bolster our revenue. Majora/Goddess has The Indigo-Go's, a Termina based band consisting of six Zora, a group of amphibious human-fish hybrids. The Indigo-Go's was formed recently, and their biggest hit to date, "The Ballad of the Wind Fish", went to the top of the charts across the world. Sheikah International has Marin Tarin, a singer from Koholint Island, an island country south of Hyrule, but she is based here in Hyrule, and she is probably the most prolific pop singer at the moment. She's the most successful artist out there as of late, with three Hylian Blazing 100 number one singles, ten million copies of her debut album sold worldwide, with half of that figure in Hyrule alone, a next album in the works, and she recently won the most coveted award a fresh artist can win at the most prestigious awards show in music: the Best New Artist Award at the Ocarina Music Awards. She's sent Sheikah International's revenue skyrocketing, and she's the main reason why they're controlling so much of the music market. As for us at Hylia Music, we're in desperate need for a recording act, because if we go any longer without one, we'll have to file for bankruptcy.
I reach the double doors to Rauru's office, with two guards in black suits and black sunglasses on either side of the doors. They nod to me in acknowledgement, and I casually salute them with two fingers, and I open the doors, entering his large waiting room, decorated with modern, contemporary and sleek furniture, windows that offer a panoramic view of the Castle Town skyline, and fish tanks that are built into the walls, filled with tropical and exotic sea life. There is another pair of double doors, decorated ornately in gold and blue, and another pair of guards standing by the doors. One of them turns to me, and they nod as I approach them.
"Mr. Avalon," he says in a deep voice. "Mr. Sayge has been expecting you."
I give him a half-smile and I put my hands in my pockets and he turns to the doors and knocks on them.
"Come in," a voice from the other side says. The guard slowly opens the door and pokes his head in.
"Sir, Mr. Avalon is here."
"Ah, yes…" I hear Rauru breathe. "Send him in."
The guard withdraws his head and turns to me, motioning me to come over. I walk to the doors and the guard opens them for me. I thank him, and he closes them behind me.
I'm standing in a large, expansive room. It's shaped like a semi-circle, with the wall where the door is straight, and the wall I am facing is one giant, curved glass window. There are assorted pots of plants next to the windows, pictures are hanging on the wall where the door is, and across from me is a desk with two beige leather seats in front of it, and sitting at the desk is Rauru. His back is turned to me so that he's facing the window, and he's looking at a projector screen that drops down from the ceiling, watching some sort of animated chart on it.
I clear my throat softly, trying to gain his attention. He turns to the side, and he seems to have seen me. He turns his swivel chair around so that he's facing me completely, and he smiles slightly at me.
"Link, my boy," he speaks, and he gestures to one of the leather seats in front of him. "Come and have a seat."
I walk over to his desk in silence, and I take my seat, casually reclining into the back. "Yes, sir?"
"Link, you're still calling me that?" He asks, chuckling. "We've known each other for three years… You'd think that people who have known each other for that long would be on first-name terms by then."
I smile somewhat, but I want to get down to business. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about, Rauru?" I ask him, though I have a pretty clear idea of what it is, since it's the only thing he ever talks to me about anymore when he calls me over to his office.
"Link…" He starts, his smile fading and his tone darkening somewhat. "As you know, the company is in an all-time slump. We are in control of less than thirty percent of the market, as you can see on this chart on the screen." He points over to the chart, which is an overview of the world's music market shares.
"Yes, Rauru," I nod.
"Lately, you've been making promises about finding the next "it" girl… You promised me another one of this…" He grabs a small, thin remote from his desk and points it at an overhead projector, and the chart is replaced with a picture of Marin Tarin in a vibrant red dress holding her Ocarina Award at the after-ceremony press room interviews. "…But as of late, I have seen nothing."
I lower my head slightly after taking in the sight on Marin flaunting her Ocarina statuette. "…Yes, Rauru."
"Link, I know you've been trying hard to help this company bounce back on its feet; believe me, I do… But I've given you more chances than I can count, and I'm tired of broken promises."
I have a bad feeling of what he's getting at, but I try not to think about it. I've learned that the more you think about something, even if it's about making it go away, it will gravitate towards you and it will happen.
"Rauru?" I raise an eyebrow slightly.
"You know you're one of my closest friends, Link…" Rauru trails off. "But I'm afraid you are dismissed."
Dammit.
"Rauru!" I cry out, getting up from my chair. I lean on his desk, looking down at him straight in the eye. "I know said all those things, and I know I am to blame for nothing ever coming up, but please, Rauru, give me another chance to redeem myself!"
He looks hesitant to answer yes, so I go on, trying to persuade him.
"Please, Rauru… Give me two days. Two days is all I ask of you. If I don't come up with anyone in forty-eight hours… Then you can fire me. You can shut down The Rarity…" 'The Rarity' is the nickname for the record label that I run, Rarity Records. "You can do anything. Just give me two more days…"
He doesn't say anything for several seconds. He just stares me square in the eye. He lowers his head slowly, and he sighs deeply. He lifts his head again and looks up at me. "Two days…"
I jump for joy, throwing an uppercut in the air in excitement. Rauru laughs at my exuberance, and I take his hand to shake it vigorously. "Thank you, thank you, thank you Rauru… You won't be sorry!"
"Make me proud," he smiles, and I nod.
"Of course!" I grin widely, and I run out of his office in happiness,
HYRULE CASTLE TOWN- HYLIA SQUARE: AUGUST 18, 2007; 2:19 PM
So, two days are almost up, and surprise-surprise, I have come up with a resounding… none.
Today, I don't go to work until five o'clock, and that's when I have to tell Rauru that I have nothing, and then I'll have to clean up my corner suite-office. Oh well. I can't say I didn't try, and boy did I try.
For the past two days, I've been searching nonstop all across Hyrule. I've been on more subway trips across the country in those short forty-two hours or so than I'll ever make in a lifetime. Karaoke bars, singing auditions, you name it, and I've been there and done that. Sure, I found some pretty good singers, but none of them have that voice that would wow the general public. Then again, Marin doesn't really have a singing voice; her entire success is attributed to hype, overadvertising, and most of all, the marketing of her looks.
I'm on a lunch break right now, headed for the McDonald's Hylia Square, the busiest McDonald's in the world. I've never been there, but I got a sudden craving for fast food, and that was the closest place.
I slowly approach the famous Hylia Square Scramble Crossing. It is the busiest intersection in the world in terms of how many people cross it daily; a little over a million people cross this intersection every time the lights change, and that number nearly doubles during the time of year when sales at the surrounding stores arrive, especially during the holiday seasons. A few years ago, the city had to change the street light's settings to accommodate the overwhelming amount of pedestrians by programming the street lights to simultaneously turn red and the crossing signs allow the pedestrians to cross all at the same time. Even with the change from a normal intersection to a scramble crossing, it helped the crossing traffic only marginally.
In the crowds, I see a familiar man standing with the other hundreds of thousands of people on the sidewalks, waiting anxiously for the crossing lights to turn green. It is Ganondorf Dragmire.
Ganondorf is a Gerudo, which is a group of people who live in the western deserts, and their settlement is mainly run by women. Ganondorf is my rival in a way, I suppose. He is a record producer for One Tear Drop Records, a subsidiary to Sheikah International, and it is the label that Marin is signed to. Ganondorf discovered Marin, and the two are rumored to have a romantic relationship. Taking Ganondorf's womanizing behavior and Marin's perceived image as being a loose woman, I don't doubt it for one minute. He has fire red hair, dark tan skin, and piercing red eyes.
He catches sight of me, and he snickers a bit. "Well if it isn't Mister I'm-gonna-find-Hyrule's-next-pop-idol…"
I shrug him off and I stop walking, stepping into the midst of the crowds. Ganondorf pushes by a few people and he stands next to me. "How's the idol hunt going?"
I turn to him, cocking up a careless eyebrow. "Why do you care?"
"Whoa, whoa…" He holds his hands up defensively. "Touchy…"
I just cross my arms over my chest and I stare at one of the crossing lights, and I hear him speak again. "I take it that it's not going so well."
"Whatever, Ganondorf…" I shake my head, and he just laughs. He casually says goodbye, saying he has an album by a certain brunette to produce, and as if on cue, the lights change, and the hundreds of thousands of people on the sidewalk pour into the intersection.
I'm on the other side of the street now, and I walk down the sidewalk, feeling like a salmon trying to swim upstream as I struggle to get passed the crowds that are washing over me. I turn a corner, finally reaching McDonald's. I peer through one of the windows, and to my utter amazement, there are absolutely no customers here. The lunch rush is usually still going strong by this time of day, yet there is no one inside. That's something you don't see everyday.
The doors are being held open with trashcans acting as door stops, so I walk in casually, and I see a girl behind a cash register who looks like she's about to fall asleep at her post. Her head almost hits the countertop, but she suddenly wakes up, her head shooting up abruptly. She takes one look at me and she quickly fixes her red uniform shirt and visor. It's then that I notice what a beautiful girl she is.
She looks probably under twenty-one, probably around eighteen or nineteen. Her golden blonde hair is pulled back into a ponytail with a few strands left going down either side of her cheeks. Her pretty violet eyes sparkle in the light, but under them are small bags, and it seems as if she's barely gotten any sleep the night before. Her skin is kind of a peach color, tanned lightly. She puts on a smile, revealing sparking white teeth hidden behind her pink lips. She clears her throat as I near her.
"Hello, may I take your order?" She asks politely.
I look up at the menu above her, scanning it back and forth for something that interests me. "Yeah… Can I get one McChicken… A medium fries… And a medium soda?"
As I speak, she looks down at the register, pressing a few buttons as they make small beeping sounds. The cash tray pops open with a ching.
"Six Rupees," she says. I reach in my back pocket for my wallet, and I open it, pulling out two blue Rupees, the equivalent to ten Rupees. I extend them out to her, dropping the money in her hand.
"Keep the change," I speak, smiling brightly at her. I see her cheeks turn a soft pink color as she puts the money in the tray and pushes it closed. She turns around to grab a medium sized drink cup and cap and she turns back to me, handing me it. I thank her, taking the cup and cap, and I walk over to the soda machine. I fill the cup halfway with ice, and with Sprite until it fills the cup almost all the way. I put the cap on and I grab a straw, tearing off the wrapper and poking it into the hole.
"Sir," I hear from behind me.
I turn around, and I see the blonde girl staring at me, setting a tray with my order on it. I grab my drink and I walk over to her. I pick up the tray and I smile again.
"Thank you," I nod. She smiles back and I turn around, walking over to a table.
…
I'm voraciously hounding down my meal, stuffing fries and bites of my burger down my throat. The last meal I ate before this was half a bagel before I left the house at seven to search the city one more time for a potential singer. I swallow the burger in my mouth and I wash it down with Sprite. I take a quick breath before continuing eating, when I feel a pair of eyes on me. I look up and I see the blonde cashier.
She's sitting at a table alone that's a few feet away from me. She appears to be on break or something. She has earbuds in her ear that are connected to an iPod that's resting on the table top. Our eyes are locked onto each other, and as much as I want to look away and continue eating, I can't. I reach for my soda and I take a quick sip before flashing a grin at her. Her face turns the darkest shade of hot pink, and I see her swallow nervously. I chuckle softly, my smile going a little lopsided, and she turns away, looking to her left out the window, her hand hiding her face from me. I laugh a little bit as she covers her face with her hands, and I continue eating the last few bites of my burger.
After a minute or two, I look back at her, and she's talking to a man who looks in his mid-thirties. His uniform is a little different and looks more ornate than her's, and I assume that he must be the manager or something like that. She grins widely and nods her head exuberantly and she presses a few buttons on her iPod and I look back at what's left of my fries. I hear her run into the kitchen, her rapid footsteps fading away.
…
A few minutes later, the blonde girl is already gone, and I toss my trash in the trashcan and place my tray on a stack of others. I turn around, ready to leave, when I spot something.
I see the girl's iPod laying on the table she was sitting at earlier.
How could she forget something that valuable? I shake my head slightly, and I walk over to the table. I pick up the iPod and I turn it around in my hand. On the back, there is a sticker with a name, phone number, and an address:
This iPod belongs to Zelda Harkinian
(314) 555-6969
840 Poppyseed Avenue. Apt. #417
East Village, Hyrule Castle Town, Hyrule 42592
"Zelda", eh? That's a nice and unique name. It's not everyday that you come across a girl named "Zelda." I should return this to her. She's most definitely worried sick about this by now. But I still have a lot of errands to run, and I have to go straight to work right after and crack the bad news to Rauru. I'll make sure that right after I clean out my office, I'll return it to this Zelda girl.
…
It's about 4:45, and I'm stuck in evening traffic on my way to headquarters.
Evening rush hour is always a bad time in Castle Town, but no where near as the morning commute. Take it from someone who knows; it is absolute hell.
I turn off my engine, figuring that I'd only be wasting gas if I keep my car on when it's obvious that I'm not going to move so much as an inch in the next hour or so.
I glance to the front passenger seat next to me, and I see that girl Zelda's iPod on the seat with the ear buds wrapped nicely around the body. I wonder what kinds of songs and singers she listens to. Rap maybe? How about Marin's music? The kind of music a person listens to says volumes about their personality.
…I guess it can't hurt to listen to just one song.
I reach for it, unplugging the ear buds and placing them on the dashboard. I reach for my CD player adapter and I plug it into the ear bud slot. I take the end with the cassette and push it into the cassette slot. I unlock the iPod and it automatically turns on, and the main menu appears on the screen. I click on 'Music Library' and down to 'Songs', and as I scroll up and down the list, I find that not only are there no less than twenty song on this thing, but there all songs that I've never heard of.
"The Only One"?
"Through My Eyes"?
"Babydoll"?
I go back and click on 'Artists', and I see that there's only one person listed.
Zelda Harkinian.
Ah, so she's a musician? She records her own songs, maybe? I wonder how well she sings? Her speaking voice is rather melodic, and it seems only fitting that she has a good singing voice.
…I wonder…
I go back to the song list, and I scroll up and down the list again, looking for a song that sounds listenable. I finally settle on that song "The Only One." I click play and it pauses for a second before music starts playing over the speakers.
I turn up the volume a bit to get a better listen, and the song starts off with a nostalgic sounding guitar instrumental. Then, as the riff plays over, there's a soft, female voice cooing over the music.
"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah… Yeah…"
Along with the guitar, a bass line comes in, with a hand clap coming on every two-second interval. A piano comes in and accompanies the guitar in playing the same break.
"Baby, don't you know you're the only one… for me."
The voice begins singing, and I'm instantly blown away by what I hear. The vocal arrangements are simplistic, but in a laid-back, mellow sort of way. There is no digital mixing to make the voice sound computer generated like what's in Marin's songs. She slips between head voice and falsetto seamlessly. There are a few cracks in her voice, but it adds grit and an attractive sense of rawness, like you can really sense the emotion in her singing.
I listen through the song, and when it reaches its climax after the bridge, the music and the voice raises probably half an octave. During the last chorus, she belts out ad-libs over the chorus, and I get chills down my spine.
"Even though you're with someone else
What we had is beyond compare
I may have accepted that you're long gone
But that's not changing the fact you're the only one
'Cause our memory still lives on
Our unbreakable bond is still going strong
There's no way that just 'cause you're long gone
That I'll forget that you're the only one
Baby, you're the only one
The only one
The only one
You're the only one for me
You may have flown far away
But my love for you will burn through the night and day
You're the only one for me
Even though you're long gone
You'll be the only one"
If the belting wasn't enough to blow me away, what I heard in the background behind the "Baby, you're the only one, the only one…" part. In the Mixed in with the music and behind the foreground were these subtle, melodical whistling sounds. They didn't sound like a normal whistle, but something that came from a vocal register that many people claim to possess, but that very few have full control over: the whistle register.
The whistle register is a highest register in the human voice, that includes most of the sixth octave and beyond, or the last thirteen white keys on a full piano keyboard. It's mainly woman who can access this part of the voice, though there are a few men out there who can sing in this register.
I think I've found Hylia Music Entertainment's key to bringing us back on top.
But you know what else?
I think I've found the next singer who is destined to be one of the most successful music artists in history.
So there's chapter two. FYI, the contact sticker on Zelda's iPod is full of inside jokes about myself. Shall I explain them?
(314) 555-6969: "314" is the first three numbers of Pi without the decimal point between 3 and 1. Pi is one of my favorite numbers. "69" is another of my favorite numbers, and if you're old enough, you may know why.
840 Poppyseed Avenue. Apt. #417: "840" is my house number. "Poppyseed Avenue" is a play on one of my favorite childhood television shows, "Sesame Street." "417" is my friend's current grade point average, 4.17.
East Village, Hyrule Castle Town, Hyrule 42592: "East Village", the district of Castle Town Zelda lives in, is a district in San Diego, California, my hometown and current location. "42592", Zelda's zip code, is my birthdate: April 25, 1992 (04.25.92).
Pretty smart, eh? It's like I said, every chapter of every story I've written is in one way or another, autobiographical. You just have to know where to look.
Review, please.
End time: February 7, 2007; 7:28 PM, PST
