As I promised, this is the audition chapter. This is basically going to be the entire day, so if you're trying to skim through filler you may wanna pass on this chapter. Anyway, back into Persona filler! Oh yeah, if you don't know the show Les Miserables, then have a look at it. It's a good show, and my school did it a year ago.
/= [DAY 19] =/
"Oh wow…Lovino actually showed up!"
"Shut up, I'm only here because of Antonio…"
Charice laughed as she turned her head around to the people in the auditorium. As she walked in, she had to admit that she felt extremely small and unwanted. Her eyes scanned around the place for familiar faces and couldn't help but notice Kiku just locking eye contact with her. He waved as she jumped over to him.
"Hey, I didn't know you were auditioning!" She chirped.
"I'm not. I'm co-directing with Francis." He answered. "He asked me to be here in case he needed my help."
"…but I thought you can sing!"
"Not well, I'm afraid. Opera songs aren't good for my voice."
Lies and infinite slander. "Well, you're in the show anyway so…"
"Do you know anything about Les Miserables, Charice?"
"Um…only that a Filipina was in it!" She chirped. "And she was hence the best character on the show."
"You know a little bit. But if you're going to be in the show, you're going to have to know the story." Kiku sat down. "Well, this all begins during the French Revolution-"
"Everyone's going to die, aren't they?"
"Yes, but you want to know the details about it. So the show is about a man named Jean Valjean who is running away from a cop named Javert that wants him back in jail because he missed a trial for his yellow slip. Meanwhile he meets a woman named Fantine where on her deathbed proclaims that he will care for her child Cosette, who is being raised by two greedy innkeepers and their daughter Eponine-"
"They're French, so it's OK."
"True. Anyway, Valjean finds out and takes her away, raising her. A few years later you meet a man named Marius and find out that Eponine is infatuated with him for a few years. However, when he first bumps into Cosette, it's love at first sight."
"Again, he's French, so it's OK."
"Good thing Francis can't hear you. Well, a few things happen and Marius joins the rebellion against French police officers and ends up being the only survivor at the barricade because Valjean finds out of their love and goes to save him. In the end, Marius and Cosette get married while Valjean dies happily, knowing that his job is complete."
"…while Eponine is still alive?"
"No, she dies at the barricade. And most of the songs they sing are about God saving them or being in charge of their fate."
"…their God must either be French or German." Charice grinned. "Pretty epic sounding show."
"It is. In fact, it's been played in different languages." Kiku stated. "We all decided that since it's one of the top universal languages, we'll play the English translation of the musical."
"Good. All I can read is English and Filipino." She chuckled.
Before she knew it, she heard a clapping sound. She turned her head and saw a blond man in a Europe uniform walk on the stage holding a rose in his hand and a simple look on his face. He had strange chin stubble on his face, making him look a lot older than what she was used to with the other nations. Maybe that was Francis…
"Welcome, welcome all of you to today's auditions." He stated (yep, French). "I assume all of you are here to be an actual actor on the stage? Of course you all are!"
She could've sworn that she heard someone's yelling in the back of the room being muffled.
"Well then, let's not hesitate any more of your time. We're going to start with a few minutes of reviewing your audition songs. The music sheets are at my feet right here. Feel free to practice your voices as well as reading the synopsis that Kiku was nice enough to type up next to it."
Charice shrugged as she walked up to the stage to grab her music sheets. It was then that she realized that she couldn't read music and hence had no idea what the hell the song was tuned up to. Next to her, she saw a familiar regal-looking young man grabbing his sheets as well.
"Ah…so you came after all, Roderich."
"I figured that I might as well, if the whole school is going to be involved." He sighed. "Do you even know what you're reading from these sheets?"
Not a single freakin' clue. "I can manage."
As she strayed away from the man, she could hear people slowly auditioning their songs from the sides of the auditorium. Charice honed her ears on them as she sat down and leafed through the pages in order to figure out which songs they were singing. Trying to catch up is hard. It was then that she realized that there was someone sitting next to her. She looked up and saw someone muttering the songs to himself.
"Oh hi there, Matthew! I didn't see you there!"
"Hm? Oh…Charice, hi." He blushed. "I didn't see you there either."
"…no comment. Anyway, I didn't know you were auditioning!"
"I thought I might as well…since everyone else is. Plus, I know all about the show and love it quite fondly…" Matthew smiled. "I'm not expecting a big role, but I would like to sing at least."
"In front of all these people?"
"I-I have to sing in front of everyone? I-I thought we were going in individual rooms!"
Oh. Shit.
"B-but I don't know how any auditions work around these parts, so don't take my word for it!"
"…it's OK, Charice. Thank you for worrying about me."
"No, no…the pleasure's mine!"
Matthew nodded as he turned himself back to his music for some more reviewing. She turned back to her music sheets to bullshit reading when she noticed that a card was stuck between her thumb and her paper. It looked like a tower was falling in on itself. She lowered her hand and saw a man wearing traditional samurai armor (not just the robes, mind you) and a Shinto hat. He was staring right at her in the middle of a crowded auditorium, yet not one person was looking up.
["I AM THOU…AND THOU ART I."]
Matthew with an epic voice. My life is complete.
["AS THE MAN WHO HAS KNOWN LOVE, LOSS AND BETRAYAL, I AM AT YOUR COMMAND."]
He sank into the card, making her realize that not one person bothered to shift their head up to see that a random samurai was talking in an epic voice. Maybe there was something wrong with the whole Persona thing. She gave up for a few minutes and decided to continue studying her music.
/=+=/
"Well then…we should be ready to begin~!" Francis stood in front of the crowd. "I have a lotto system right here in front of me, so draw your number and that is the order you'll be going in!"
Charice shrugged as she stood up from her seat and went to the hat to draw her number. She looked at her slip of paper. #10. Huh, that's a lot of people auditioning, if she thought about it. And that would mean she would have to be quite early on. Curse her luck.
"Ve~~~I'm number #12…"
Hold up. I know that voice. "Feli-chan! You're here too?"
"Ve? Ah-! Charice!" He turned to her. "I didn't see you there! I didn't know you were auditioning!"
"Can I say that for you too?" She turned her head around and saw…well… "Wait, Ludwig's here too?"
"Yes! I thought it would be nice for the both of us to audition for this show! Fratello Francis is a nice man to work with!"
Suuuuuure…I'll take that as a truth.
"Ve~~~can we sit together until we are called upon?"
"Of course, of course! How about up there so we can see the auditioners?"
Feliciano nodded as she crawled through the rows to watch the people playing for their roles. She couldn't help but notice how beautiful and new the seats were in the auditorium, feeling so soft as if they were made from IKEA or something like that. As she plopped downward, she couldn't help but notice that there was another person in the seat next to her.
"Oh, hey kuya~!"
"Hey." Rizal sighed. "Auditioning?"
"Yep! #10, while Feli-chan's #12! What about you?"
"Not really. I'm in charge of the lights, so I just came down to see who I might 'accidentally' blind with a spotlight."
"If you're doing that, you might as well do it on that guy."
#1 = Antonio Hernandez Corriedo. The Spaniard was really open when it came to talking about what role he wanted to be (which, actually, he didn't know). For the hell of it, he began to sing "Do You Hear the People Sing?", which wouldn't be bad until you realize that he was singing in Spanish. Kiku calmly told him that he had to sing the English version…three times. And after he did it, he wasn't that bad. Now if only he can remember singing the English version at all.
#2 = Feliks Lukasiewicz. She had no idea what gender this country is (or even what country this person was…we'll assume it's a boy), and the voice didn't help either. He was singing a very good rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream", which did not help on working out this person's gender. She gave up on figuring Feliks out a few minutes later.
#3 = Yao Wang. She automatically assumed that he was going to get a female role (maybe because of the long hair?), and his rendition of "On My Own" made this automatically worse. She and Rizal snickered during the entire audition, and from the sound of it so did the other people. What is up with these genderless people?
#4 = Ludwig Beillschmidt. Yeah, the German guy was auditioning to be a French man. That automatically made Charice freak out on just how he was going to bomb his audition. However, his (rather reluctant) version of "Stars" made Rizal blush and look away (?), Feliciano chirp and praise his hidden talent, and Charice question just about everything that she knew about Germans. What can you say? Ludwig can SING.
#5 = Gilbert Beillschmidt. Apparently Gilbert vowed to overshadow his younger brother in talent and then belted out his version of "Stars" as well. Of course, everyone started clawing out their ears and Kiku begging for him to stop. Charice, on the other hand, finally concluded that Ludwig was just a 'special case' in terms of German talent. But didn't Gilbert say that he was Prussian? And was Prussian a type of German? Now she questioned everything about blood relations.
#6 = Raivis Galante. OK, who was this guy? That's it, she's talking to someone else.
"Hey, kuya-" She paused. "Rizal?"
"Hm? What is it?"
"Are you blushing?"
"…no."
"But your face is red…"
"…I just don't feel good."
"Then why are you here?"
"Because Gilbert was what made me sick."
Charice was about to argue that statement when she realized that he made a reasonable explanation. She gave up and realized that they had hit #9, who was none other than Matthew Williams. Charice leaned in with low expectations (to help the guy, not because she couldn't find herself seeing him high) and heard him sing a light version of "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables". No one could hear half his lines, but for some reason it made the song all the more powerful. She couldn't help but start crying.
And that's when she realized that she was up.
She panicked a few minutes before jumping up to her feet and running to the stage. The fact that a lot of eyes were staring at her somehow unnerved her a little, which was strange concerning the fact that this had happened a few times during the few World Meetings she had beforehand. After a few greetings, she decided to sing "On My Own" (in true Lea Salonga pride). After she was done, she bowed and left the stage, seeing the #11 player.
"I think the term is 'break a leg', Roderich~"
"Duly noted."
Yes indeed. #11 = Roderich Edelstein. After she got a high-five from Rizal, she sat down and watched as Roderich cleared his throat and began to sing "Bring Him Home". What freaked her out was that the entire song was sung in high notes and he actually pulled it off. Maybe this is nation talent? She could hear hoots and hollering from the little group of people in the side of the room, and couldn't help but notice that one of them was a woman with long, brown hair. Who was she?
"Ve~~~"
"What is it?"
"…I'm next…"
"Don't worry about it, Feliciano! You'll do well, I'm sure! And if not…well, you're Italian, so you'll do well!"
#12 = Feliciano Vargas. He smiled weakly at Charice before "ve~ing" and jumping to the stage to give his performance. He cleared his throat before he sang (what she would like to call) the male version of "Castle on a Cloud". That choice of song caused Charice to turn her head around to see if there was a camera catching this event. Nonetheless, Rizal was staring at him while rubbing his forehead in confusion as the girls in the room began to squeal in happiness. At that time, she felt a card in her hand that resembled a star. She turned her head and saw an elephant with armor on it…OK, these Personas are starting to freak her out.
["I AM THOU…AND THOU ART I."]
No comment, no comment, no comment…please don't comment…
["AS THE GUARDIAN OF THE ANCIENT DEITY, I AM AT YOUR COMMAND."]
She allowed the card to sink into her body as she saw Feliciano walk back to her with a smile on his face. She nodded, saying that he was good, and it somehow made him better. They turned back to the stage just in time to see lucky #13 audition. And guess what? It was Lovino.
/= [DAY 20] =/
Francis and Kiku went all night on debating, so they were able to post the big cast for the show just about the next day. As Rizal and Charice walked into the lobby, they saw that a small crowd had gathered around the listing. She quickly crawled to the front and was able to get to the side of a familiar face.
"Hey, Matthew! Looking at the list?"
"Yeah…I-I don't think I'm on the list…"
"Nonsense! See, here you are! Right there! Right next to my name!" She pointed at the list. "We're in the show! As ensemble, but heck we're in the show!"
"Haha…I'm on the list…I'm in the show…I have singing talent."
"Hell yeah, you have singing talent!" She chirped. "Let's go see who the main characters in the show are!"
THE LIST OF CHARACTERS
[JEAN VALJEAN] – Roderich Edelstein
[FANTINE] – Elizabeta Hedervary
[COSETTE] – Feliciano Vargas
[JAVERT] – Ludwig Beillschmidt
[MARIUS] – Alfred F. Jones
[EPONINE] – Arthur Kirkland
[MR. THENARDIER] – Antonio Hernandez Corriedo
[MADAME THENARDIER] – Lovino Vargas
[ENJOLRAS] – Gilbert Beillschmidt
[GAVROCHE] – Yong Soo Im
"…I'm done." Rizal sighed and turned away, yet making no gesture to walk away.
"Ah, look at that. German's dude the police officer!" Charice snickered. "And it looks like Roderich got the lead part anyway."
"Ve~~! Look look, Doitsu! You got a lead part! And so did I!"
"Why are you in a girl's part? You're a boy!"
"Hah! Look at that, I'm a revolutionary! That part's going to be a hell lot more awesome than always!"
Yeah, concerning the part that Arthur Kirkland's parents are a Spaniard and an Italian. Shit's about to go down. "Hey, uh…Matthew? Why's your brother Marius?"
"W-why? I don't have any complaints about it."
"I know, but…after your audition, I'm surprised that they just didn't give you the role. And besides, Alfred auditioned for Valjean, remember?"
"Ce que? Who said that America was Marius?"
She turned around and saw that Francis was walking by, muttering something to himself in French as he skimmed the paper on the wall. After a few minutes, he nodded and sighed as he turned back to Charice and Matthew with a sad smile on his face.
"Oh dear…I wanted to type of Mathieu's name on the list, not Alfred's…" He sighed. "Still, there's nothing you can do. I guess he'll have to do."
…
"Does Charice Pacquiao have to choke a bitch?"
"Ate? Ate, what are you doi- NO, NO, NO. Charice, back away from Francis- NO, NO, get your hands off his neck…Charice, come on listen to me…"
/=+=/
Yoshitsune is a Japanese general of the Minamoto clan during the late Heian and early Kamakura period. His legend goes how he beat a legendary warrior named Benkei in a duel and how he ended up being Yoshitsune's servant until he was betrayed and forced to commit suicide…which would be homicide, really. [Matthew Williams - TOWER]
Ganesha is a Hindu god that was supposed to be the son of Parvati and Shiva. He's the one who's most famous for having the elephant head because Shiva cut it off. [Feliciano Vargas - STAR]
And that my friends is the sub-plot for our main plot! By the way, the rehearsals for this show are going to be mandatory, so they won't be a choice for you to take. However, I will give you the choices for the fateful day…here you go:
-Jump Antonio (and now Lovino!) in the gardens
-Have fun in the Music Club
-Work in the library with Arthur
-Harass Gilbert for a while
-Or maybe Ludwig if we can find him
-Recite lines with Matthew
-Hang around with Rizal in the lobby
By the way, this whole chapter is "Le Mis" centric, so you'll have to know the show in order to get most of the jokes. I'm sorry, it's just that last year my school did this musical and it was one of the best memories that I ever had in my three years in my school's Theatre Society. Let me share the magic of this musical to you :D