....
Five Days Later.
March 16th, 2010.
.
"Hello there! I am Ben Azelart. Nice to et you!"
Regal glanced up from his notes, montarily caught off guard by the sheer force of Ben's enthusiasm, which seed to fill the room the mont he walked in.
"Hello, Ben. I am Regal." He gestured to the chair across the table and offered a polite, if sowhat strained, smile. "Please, take a seat. Here is the scene. No rush, take your ti."
Ben's eyes flicked to Regal, registering a brief surprise at his youthful face before brushing it off.
Without missing a beat, he flashed a quick grin and dropped into the chair, snatching up the script. His eyes darted across the lines, lips moving faintly as he rehearsed under his breath.
Regal leaned back in his chair, observing the display with a asured calm.
For a mont, he considered Ben's enthusiasm.
It was refreshing, if nothing else, though the recent experiences had taught him to temper his expectations.
The room was part of a small run down theater Regal had rented for three days to cast the acting crew for his film, [Following].
He had ticulously planned for this, sorting through scripts, finalizing the audition posters, and spreading the word both online and offline. He had given exactly six days for the casting notice to gain traction, a tiline carefully balanced between urgency and reach.
Now, it was already the second day of auditions.
Barely a few minutes passed before Ben straightened, grinned again, and dove headfirst into his audition.
When he finished, he looked at Regal with an eager expression, eyes bright with anticipation.
Regal's face remained neutral, though his inner thoughts painted a more honest picture.
The performance? It was... well, it was sothing.
===
[Na:] Ben Azelart
[Traits:] Cheerful, Resilience
[Acting Grade:] E ᐩ
===
Cheerful and resilient - very admirable traits in this brutal industry, Regal mused, noting the determination in Ben's eyes.
But acting? That was a different matter altogether.
Another one who is not 'yet' ready trying to conquer the cara.
Regal thought, fighting the urge to rub his temples.
The auditions had been running for two days now, and they were starting to feel more like a test of his own endurance than a search for talent.
The first day held promise.
Plenty of hopefuls had flocked in, lured by the attractive pay hinted at in the gig description.
But by the end of the day, Regal had realized none of them were cara-ready.
Today? It was shaping up to be even worse.
Despite a slight uptick in the number of candidates, the quality of performances had taken a nosedive.
By the ti the afternoon sun cast its muted glow across the room, every audition had blurred into a monotonous parade of diocrity.
None left even the faintest impression, let alone a spark of hope.
And now, Ben.
His initial enthusiasm had been a rare highlight, a montary respite from the drudgery. But enthusiasm alone could only carry him so far, and his performance quickly unraveled.
Halfway through the lines, Ben stumbled over his words.
Awkward pauses in between each one dragging like a poorly delivered punchline to a bad joke.
Regal forced a polite smile, suppressing the sigh clawing its way up his throat. "Good work, Ben. We will contact you if there's a role that fits."
For a brief mont, Ben's grin faltered.
His expression flickered with a subtle disappointnt, a crack in his upbeat deanor that was fleeting but unmistakable.
He knew. He had failed ...again.
But just as quickly as it appeared, the mont was gone.
Ben straightened his back, his voice as buoyant as when he had first walked in. "Thanks! I would really appreciate that!"
Regal blinked, montarily taken aback. Resilient, he thought.
There was sothing almost admirable about the way Ben shrugged off rejection, even from soone as relatively insignificant as Regal himself.
It wasn't forced or defensive.
It was genuine, an unshakable optimism that wasn't laced with bitterness or pretense. Still, admiration alone didn't change the reality of the situation.
"Next." Regal called out, already moving on.
....
After a few more rounds of auditions that added little more than a growing sense of disappointnt, the door opened once again.
A woman entered, her long black hair falling neatly to fra her face.
Well, she got the looks, thought Regal.
Every detail of her appearance was sharp and precise, as if her entire deanor had been carefully curated to exude composure.
"Hello." She said curtly, with a stony expression.
That was it? Regal blinked. No smile, no overdone pleasantries - just a cold, lifeless greeting.
"Uh... hello." He replied, the awkwardness lingering for a mont before he shook it off and slid the script across the table toward her. "Here are the lines. Start whenever you are ready."
She nodded, a silent acknowledgnt, and reached for the script without another word.
As she moved toward the nearby chair, Regal assud she was about to sit and prepare.
But mid-step, she stopped.
Turning slightly back toward him, she seed hesitant, her lips parting as though she had just rembered sothing.
"Thank you." She said softly, her voice oddly stilted and unsure, like a child fumbling with newly learned manners.
Ah, so she is nervous, Regal assud.
His gaze dropped to the script trembling slightly in her grasp. Her fingers were quivering, just enough to catch his attention.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"No problem. Would you like so coffee?" He asked.
Obviously, the offer wasn't just because she was attractive, though she certainly was. Regal prided himself on being a decent person, and if a little caffeine could help ease soone's nerves, why not offer?
Her eyes stayed on him for a beat, before she finally gave a small nod. "Please. I would like that."
"Perfect. You can continue, and I will get it sorted." Regal said, reaching for the small bell on his desk.
As he rang it, he couldn't help but wonder if this ti, the day might finally take a turn for the better.
The sound had barely faded before the door opened, and in walked a middle aged woman in a sharply tailored suit, clipboard tucked neatly under her arm.
Her stride was brisk, her deanor professional, exuding the air of soone who had long mastered the art of efficiency.
Regal glanced up, smiling inwardly.
Ah, the perks of hiring help.
The sheer monotony of these auditions would have driven him up the wall if he had to handle them alone.
So beforehand, recognizing his limits, he had enlisted soone with experience, soone who could take care of the logistical side while he simply focused on auditions.
Her na was Samantha Cross, a recomndation from Maggie, Gwendolyn's go-to person for all things organizational.
...and, no, don't ask why it just so happened to be another woman.
Pure coincidence, Regal assured himself.
Still, there was a small, additional voice that whispered.
Who hires a guy for this kind of work? Isn't that just common sense? It was a bias, sure, but he was self-aware enough to admit it.
"Yes, Mr. Regal?" Samantha asked, her polite, professional smile perfectly in place.
"Ms. Samantha. A coffee, please." Regal gestured with a slight tilt of his head toward the woman now seated and preparing for her audition.
Samantha's eyes followed, taking in the scene.
The woman was hunched slightly over the script, her focus entirely on the lines before her. Her fingers tapped nervously against the paper, betraying her unease.
"And make it... strong." Regal added, his voice quieter, as though not to disturb the woman's concentration.
I see... Samantha's sharp mind already filled in the blanks imdiately.
The coffee wasn't for Regal.
Her gaze flickered back to the woman - the young woman was undeniably pretty.
Pretty won, Samantha knew, often received these small courtesies, acts that, while harmless and unspoken, weren't strictly professional protocol, either.
Still, she said nothing. Her thoughts, neatly compartntalized, stayed where they belonged, private.
With a nod, she turned on her heel and exited the room.
Monts later, Samantha returned with a steaming cup of coffee in a tray.
Fortunately, she had brewed a fresh batch earlier, anticipating such requests. Regal had made similar ones the day before, again not for himself, but for the participants.
And no, not all of them had been won - it was a small, telling detail that had earned him a point or two in her book.
Professionalism, after all, was a rare commodity in environnts like these, where egos and ulterior motives often ran rampant.
Still, even if that weren't the case, Samantha reminded herself, it wasn't her place to judge.
This was her second day working alongside Regal. So, the job wasn't permanent, just a short-term gig to help manage the calling part outside the audition room.
A small favor from a 'friend' who had vouched for her, really.
But even in that short span, she had observed enough to form a general impression.
Regal was young, handso, and clearly juggling the challenges of a demanding environnt filled with potential distractions.
Whatever his intentions were, they weren't her concern.
She approached the table and placed the cup carefully beside the auditioning woman, who barely acknowledged it.
She received a polite nod of thanks from Regal, and with the sa quiet efficiency, she exited the room, leaving it steeped in silence once more.
The woman remained focused, her eyes locked on the script as she reached for the coffee. She sipped it absently, never once shifting her gaze from the page.
Her focus was comndable, her fingers tracing the edge of the sheet of scene paper.
....
Finally, after three more minutes, she rose, setting the paper neatly back onto the table.
"I will start now." then she announced.
Regal gave a small nod of approval, and instantly his casual deanor shifted - the faint neutrality in his expression hardened into sothing sharper and critical, ready to judge.
...yet, it imdiately unsettled her.
Her fingers curled into a fist, knuckles whitening as her composure montarily cracked.
The coffee?
The polite tone?
She had misread them entirely.
She had assud it was more of the sa pandering she had seen too often before.
But now, studying his expression, it hit her, Regal wasn't here to sugarcoat anything.
His quiet focus wasn't encouragent - it was expectation.
If she didn't perform, she would be out.
No sympathy, no excuses.
The realization was sobering.
She wasn't new to auditions. In fact, she had even landed a few roles before. But deep down, she knew why she had gotten those offers.
Her auditions? Subpar.
She has a stage fright, so despite her preparation, she always couldn't do her best at the audition.
She had recently co to terms with that, but she was still in the process of overcoming it.
And the roles she thought she really landed were not because of her acting. She only understood after a few experiences that those kinds of offers often co with unspoken agreents.
Opportunities dangled in exchange for favors she had no intention of giving.
And so she refused.
Ti and again.
Each refusal ca with consequences, doors slamd shut, opportunities lost.
But she had chosen this path.
If she couldn't earn her place, she didn't want it.
That thought sparked sothing in her.
A new determination hardened her gaze, sharpening her stance.
Across the room, Regal noticed the shift.
He noticed the change instantly. Hadn't she already seed serious? What has shifted now?
He kept his thoughts to himself, leaning back to observe.
And then, she began.
....
She was good-ish.
Regal would place her around a [Acting Garde: C].
Not quite there yet, but she was definitely on the right track.
She was already in the project, he decided.
Continuing the search beyond this point would be unnecessary.
Perfection, after all, was a mirage - there was always soone better, but chasing them would lead nowhere.
Sotis, you have to make a choice and stick with it.
Still, sothing had caught Regal's attention during her audition.
At the beginning, she was just... okay.
Her delivery lacked the sultry undertone the character demanded, and if she had continued at that level, she would already be on her way out.
But as the minutes passed, sothing shifted. She began to settle in, and by the end, her performance carried a grounded, imrsive quality.
It wasn't her best - He could tell that much.
Still, the potential was there.
Maybe she could be a [C : Grade] talent actually.
With a flicker of his eyelid, Regal opened the system panel in front of him.
===
[Na:] Violet Grace
[Traits:] Stoic, Principled, Performance Anxiety
[Acting Grade:] B -
===
Regal likes to think of himself as fair, not one to rush to conclusions.
...and he believed he was already being generous.
He always gave candidates the benefit to prove themselves before relying on his system.
With her stoic expression, he wasn't expecting anything 'extraordinary' from the woman before him.
But it seems he was wrong...
The evaluation results were right there in front of him: [Acting Grade: B -]
Regal nearly shot up from his seat in disbelief.
Acting Grade: B -!? That was the second highest grade he had seen since Keanu, who was a beast of his own in Regal's book.
His eyes drifted back to her.
Stoic and principled, huh? He let the words linger in his mind, considering the first one.
Stoicness is sothing that is definitely not the best first impression trait one would love to have in this field.
Violet Grace.
He repeated her na quietly to himself. He would rember that.
?!!And then, it hit him.
He hadn't even asked for an introduction.
Clearing his throat, Regal stood and extended a hand. "Regal. Regal Seraphsail."
She blinked, her stoic deanor cracking ever so slightly. "What?"
Regal gave a genuine smile. "I would further like to discuss the contract details before we finalize anything."
Her eyes widened, her composure faltering further. "I passed?"
"You did, Miss...?"
Straightening imdiately, she regained her poise. "...Violet Grace. And I am glad to hear it."
"But before we proceed..." Regal's words hung in the air, stretching just enough to keep her in suspense.
Violet's lips twitched, a flicker of dry disappointnt in her eyes.
She already seed to know what was coming, her expression faintly resigned as if bracing for a predictable question.
"That wasn't your best, was it?" Regal finally asked, watching her closely.
Her reaction was subtle but telling, a slight shift in her posture, a spark of surprise quickly replaced with confidence. "It's true. I know I can do a lot better."
"Good." Regal said, his tone approving. "I intend to use your skills to their fullest potential."
Violet returned the nod, her tone steady. "...I am looking forward to it."
Regal's expression eased, clearly satisfied. "I will contact you once the auditions for the remaining cast are complete. Please leave your contact details with the assistant outside."
"I will. Thank you." She replied, a faint smile, almost imperceptible, gracing her lips.
With that, she turned and left the room, her composed aura returning, leaving Regal satisfied for finally moving sowhere with the casting.
....
.
[To be continued...]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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