Larry Jackson was completely bored.
He had been sitting for days on end, watching audition after audition, trying to make the quota required for Pop Star Academy: Project 777.
Initially, it had been limited to 100 people, but the large budget was approved at the last minute, and the quota was increased to 200 participants so that a dramatic cut down to 100 contestants could be played on TV.
This caused him to be swamped with callbacks and hold additional in-person auditions for the past couple of days to fill in the numbers.
Finally, today was the last day.
Earlier in the week, he had seen some real gems that excited him, but now, on the final day of in-person auditions, 7 cups of coffee deep, he was ready to end the day.
He only had to get through two more hours.
Then he was free to go at least until the planning meetings began.
"Okay. Thank you. Next!"
The panelist judge next to Larry made some appropriate comments for the contestant and shouted out before rubbing her eyes tiredly and putting a small X next to the name of the kid who had just left.
She, too, had been slogging for the whole week, and at this point, the contestants were blurring together with no body really standing out.
"You didn't like him, Selena? You're usually quite lenient." Larry asked in a joking manner as he drank his coffee while looking over her appreciatively.
She looked good even after the long day, and he wondered if he could convince her to get a drink afterwards.
After all, they would be working together for a while on the show.
"That's the 60th 'Baby Come Back' I've heard in the past two days. Maybe if he had come in around the 10th one, he would have stood a chance of passing, but now? No, thank you.. How about you?" Selena rubbed her eyes tiredly while trying to make conversation.
"Absolutely an X. If you're going to insist on singing and dancing simultaneously, especially when we asked for it to be separate, then do it well. Shitty pride gets shitty results."
The two continued chatting as more contestants performed and passed through, but as Larry saw something in the corner of his eye-
Pfttt-
He immediately spat out the mouthful of coffee that he had in his mouth as he stared at the two people who had just walked into the audition hall.
To be honest, he felt as if he were in one of those bad jokes;
You know the ones that start with a rabbi, a priest, and a horse all walk into a bar.
Except in this case, it was an old Asian priest and…. a punk rocker wannabe son (?) walking into an idol survival show audition.
Larry turned to one of the staff members in amusement.
"… Is that the right person? Here for the idol audition?"
"Yes, he's on the list. He has a name tag on and the name is…" the staff member glanced down at the clipboard before reading the name slowly, "Ariel…Matisse?"
"You're saying that person is here for an idol audition?" Larry glanced at the kid with curly black hair.
The boy had painted his face stark white, added black graphic designs, and red lipstick reminiscent of a rockstar.
He was wearing slim-fit black jeans, a black turtleneck, black gloves, a black leather jacket, and plain black boots, completely covering up every inch of his body except for his painted face.
In fact, he was a walking stereotypical punk advertisement, and Larry wondered how he wasn't sweating in the heat from the sheer amount of black things he wore.
The shape of his sea green eyes, barely visible through the white paint, was reminiscent of a cat, and they seemed to evaluate him before calmly looking away as he continued to speak with the Priest.
Such casual disregard, especially compared to the fawning faces he had previously seen on other contestants, immediately offended Larry.
He began looking at the kid again, trying to pick out more flaws apart from his girly name.
Although the face paint was thick, Larry could still make out the facial features, bumps, and textures, and he had one thought: man, this kid was ugly.
Hideous really.
No wonder he was wearing all that face paint.
Well, at least he was decently tall and slim, so points for that.
But apart from that, he was nothing to look at.
Even if he had no skills, Larry was almost tempted to pass him on so he could be laughed at at the live showcase in two weeks.
Almost.
"He was checked in with the correct ID and says that's who he is." The staff member next to him brought him back to attention.
"And it's a boy? With that name, Ariel?"
"According to both him and his ID. He also submitted his school records."
"Alrighty, let the little fishy perform. I probably won't pass him, but at least it will be interesting. And even if it's bad, it'll make funny footage."
*************************
Ari was getting a lot of strange looks.
He completely expected it, considering his current looks were the complete opposite of the people who were auditioning.
Where they all had a boy next door vibe, a refreshing vibe, a cool dancer vibe, or a model vibe, he was coming in at the opposite end of the spectrum.
He wore black on black, with every inch of his body covered, and even had his face painted like a punk character.
As he was signing in, the staff member physically recoiled before politely schooling her face as she glanced between him and Steven Choi, who still wore his white priest robes for some reason.
Even during his profile shots and spoken introduction, the photographer compared the school photos he had submitted online and asked if he would like to take off his makeup and any prosthetics he wore.
After declining several times, Ari took the photos, was assigned his nametag, and went into the audition room with Priest Steven Choi when he was called in.
As he entered the audition area, he could see the two judges whispering and staring at him.
He recognized both of them.
The man was the main singer of a previous popular band, SOS, that had managed to stay together for over 15 years, Larry Jackson.
While the band was no longer as popular as at its peak, Larry, with his lightly styled blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, still had a handsome look that still got him a decent amount of attention when he went out in public.
The woman, Selena, was previously in a girl group before transitioning to a successful solo artist.
She was known for her amazing choreography and acrobatics and had even filmed several movies.
Her black hair was curled into beach waves, and the dress she wore sparkled brightly even though she wasn't on stage.
Even somebody like Ari, who didn't have social media and the time to watch those things, vaguely knew about them, so it was clear that the idol program was sinking a lot of money into the whole process, including the auditions.
The two judges were looking at a clipboard probably filled with his information, and Ari could hear the laughter in their voices as they looked at him, then looked down at his name, before laughter again.
"So you're contestant…Ariel? Am I saying that right? Ah-ri-el?" Larry started the audition off with an amused smile on his face.
"Yes, that's correct, but I go by Ari," Ari replied with a tired sigh, already picturing how the conversation would go in his head.
He hoped that since these were professionals and they worked in an industry where people had all sorts of stage names, they would quickly move on, but that hope was doomed as Larry began laughing once again.
First, they would ask: Like the mermaid princess?
Larry: "Ahaha, really? Ariel? Like the mermaid princess?"
"Yes, that's correct. However, I go by Ari"
Then: Isn't that a girl's name? Did kids tease you?
Selena: "Ariel? Isn't that a girl's name? Were you teased as a kid? I notice that you have a slight accent as well. You have quite a lovely voice."
Before Ari could respond, Larry jumped in with an obnoxious laugh.
"Oh, it's definitely a girl's name, and I'm sure he gets teased a lot. I know I would have teased him in school. In fact, I would have bullied the mess out of him. And his last name sounds like a dog. Phew, I'm weak. Your parents must not love you, huh."
As Larry began enthusiastically laughing while saying...odd things about his name, and Selena laughed along at first, Ari stared at both of them with a polite smile.
But as Larry continued ribbing him about his name for over five minutes, the jokes getting stranger and stranger, he first tried to interrupt politely, but since that didn't work, he brought out the card that was consistently successful against weird adults like him.
"It's actually a boy's name meaning Lion, and historically, it has always been a boy's name as well. As for teasing...whenever they try to tease me about the name, I just tell them that both of my parents are dead, and this is the only thing I have to remember them by, and that usually stops it unless the person is actually insane with no respect for the dead."
As expected, both of them stopped laughing and had stiff smiles on their faces.
"Oh- uh-" as the two stuttered, Ari gave them a small smile, which made them flinch as it looked a bit scary coming from a face painted corpse white with red lipstick and black graphic designs.
"I'm kidding. Well, not about the dead parents. But now that I have your attention, shall we move on from my name to the main event, which is my audition? I'm sure you're both busy, and I don't want to keep you."
Selena actually looked a bit embarrassed, but Larry's face was slowly turning red with anger.
The fact that a 17-year-old was mocking him when he was just having a little fun irritated him.
Especially when that 17-year-old was ugly as sin and was hiding it behind makeup like a girl.
Didn't he know that in the industry, you respected those who were more successful than you if you wanted to go far?
Just as Larry was about to correct the young man, Selena cut in with an embarrassed smile, "Well…Ariel, haha, you certainly have an interesting look, an interesting name, and an interesting personality. Why don't we just skip ahead and get started? It says here you'll be singing, playing the guitar, and dancing?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Okay then. Feel free to proceed in whatever order you like. I hope your performance is as good as that cocky attitude of yours Ah-ri-el."
Wiping tears away from his eyes, Larry finally stopped laughing as he looked at Ari's bland expression.
"Sure. I'll sing first."
Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Ari gestured to the staff member who started his music and handed him a handheld microphone.
As the bass and drums sounded out, Ari began tapping his feet to catch the beat, keeping the time like a drummer.
Then he began to hum along to the music, his raspy, low tones overlaying the bass line.
- dun dun
- dun dun dun dun dun dun
- dun dun dun dun dun dun
Then, as the guitar chords sounded out, he began to sing.