In the heart of Montreal, Canada, a popular events and entertainment hall had been booked for a week straight for the preliminary auditions of Rising Voices.
It was quite early in the morning with the sun already out and yet, a large crowd had already filled up the entire area.
The venue was packed chockful with thousands of people lining up in a ridiculously long queue, all here to take their chance at becoming the next big star and singing sensation!
Having birthed superstars who had gone on to rule over the most popular music charts around the world like 'Beat Boulevard 100', 'Harmony Hotlist' and popular music streaming platforms like 'Groovebox', it was any aspiring singer's hot ticket to stardom if they made it to the singing TV show's main stage.
Some people though, just wanted to make appearances on a stage that would be broadcasted all over the world and to be fair, that was something to be actually proud of.
The air, the atmosphere, the vibe of the venue, all of it, was super-charged with a mix of electrifying excitement and anticipation.
A stream of about twenty to thirty individuals from the long queue, would be filtered into the hall itself from time to time after handing over their registration numbers to the staff.
The staffs would then pass the registration numbers over to the staffs tasked with verifying them in the hall as the contestants themselves were brought in.
As a few more individuals were filtered in, Kyle, dressed in faded black pants with his beaten black sneakers which he had cleaned up the best he could, along with an old blue shirt and a black jacket, also moved along with his stream as they were ushered into the hall.
Already sure that people would have arrived even by the wee hours of the morning, Kyle had opted to also reach the venue by those wee hours too, travelling the night before from Toronto by bus.
This way, he had been able to reach the venue very early.
Glancing up for a short second to stare at the big star-studded 'Rising Voices' logo with bright lights dazzling on it, Kyle made his way through the large front doors and into the hall's lobby, his guitar on his back.
Walking into the spacious lobby whose walls were adorned with large posters of 'Rising Voices'' past winners and some truly memorable performances, the young man soon found a corner to rest his back on whilst standing.
The lobby was also packed with about a hundred or so people, each waiting their turn for their contestant numbers to be called, a silent mix of talks and whispers filling the room.
As Kyle waited his turn too, he gazed around to stare at the people present in the lobby with him, his sapphire blue eyes scanning the room from behind the frame of his glasses.
'Wow. Those are some exceedingly flashy costumes…' he thought as his eyes landed on a guy who was carrying a plastic scythe while wearing a black shroud with skeleton mask on his face.
Another person, a man with dyed green hair, was dressed in purple suit with a red rose stuck onto its front pocket while another, a woman this time, was dressed in a pretty and dazzlingly white dress with a golden wand in her hands.
'Joker and The Fairy Godmother in the same frame… What an uncomfortable sight to behold…' the bespectacled young man couldn't help but inwardly comment.
"Contestant 0257. I repeat Contestant 0257! Please come to the counter to receive your ticket!" one of the three pretty staff ladies handling the ticket from behind her counter called out.
Quickly walking over, Kyle stood from across the counter while responding.
"That's me"
Looking up at him for a second to ensure he was actually the contestant she had called through the picture on his ID-card, the busy staff quickly gave detailed instructions to him while also handing him said ID-card and a ticket.
"Just walk through those doors on the left and head down straight into the waiting room"
"Thanks" Kyle responded and proceeded to do as he was told.
Handing over his ticket to a security staff by the door, he was then allowed passage and quickly made his way through the fairly long corridor before finally arriving in the waiting room.
The waiting room itself was a stylish room which was already full of contestants, obviously.
Most of them had almost completely occupied all the chairs, and the few chairs that were left, were at the very, very back.
Cameras were expertly positioned at various angles to get multiple different perspective views of the contestants, further reminding them that this really was a reality TV show.
Not minding the stares he was getting the moment he walked in, especially since it was expected since he had just come in, Kyle made his way over to one of the few unoccupied seats left, placing his guitar on his laps as he sat.
Comfortably seated, he then turned his gaze upwards to stare at the large, wide screen before them that was showing the live feed of the ongoing audition.
Currently, a very pretty black-haired lady was singing her heart out and it looked like the judges were loving her performance.
As she kept performing, a lot of contestants present in the waiting room suddenly began to feel nervous and outclassed while the air also felt like it got a slight, nail-biting tension to it too.
Not really minding her performance though or wanting to get intimidated, Kyle pulled up his system's interface.
___________________________
{Kyle Kestis} – Exp. Points (165)
⸶Skills⸷
| [Soulful Vocals (P)] [Growth Spurt (P)] [Empty]…
* Exp. Points can be used to create skills.
⸶Levels⸷
| Singing › Level 6
| Acting › Level 6
| Composing › Level 7
| Dancing › Level 5
| Instrument Mastery (Piano/Guitar) › Level 6/6
* Levels will increase in accordance to your growth.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Over the remaining week that was left before today finally came around, Kyle had advanced past average in singing, increased his guitar instrument mastery by a level too and had also gained a level increase in composing too.
All those hadn't really surprised him all that much since he knew that he had been putting all his efforts into getting better at them, especially when taken into consideration that he had also composed three original songs within that short span of time.
Two of those songs were something he had always been working on in his past life whenever he could… kind of a passion project for him but without any plans of actually pursing it any further.
But the third one, which was also the newest, was one he had written as a tribute to Ollie and the gang.
What had actually gotten him surprised however, was how he had advanced a level in his acting and dancing while reading the book he had bought on the basics of the craft.
Turns out, learning in depth about any craft he wanted to improve upon could also potentially be a way to increase his levels.
'Guess my hard work paid off a lot' Kyle said to himself, a bit proud of his small achievement.
"She's fantastic" he then suddenly heard the guy just next to him speak, seemingly directing his words towards him while also complementing the black-haired lady whom had just completed her performance in a familiar manner.
Turning his head around, the handsome dude with brown hair styled in a pompadour haircut, who was speaking to Kyle, quickly introduced himself in a show of courtesy while offering a handshake.
"Hi. My name's Ryan Parker. I'm a student at Map-…" Ryan suddenly paused midway, his brown eyes widening in mild surprise.
"You! It's you! Campus Loner!" he declared a bit loudly, garnering a few people's attention.
'Ouch…' Kyle thought to himself as he responded to Ryan while receiving his handshake.
"Yeah. That's me. Kyle Kestis"
A bit surprised that he even replied properly, Ryan spoke again.
"Wow. Had no idea you were this receptive. Everyone says you just tend to push people away so I hope you can understand why I find this surprising"
"Yeah. I do" Kyle replied calmly.
"And then there was the whole issue with your scholarship being revoked. Sorry about that man" the former directed a pitiful look at the latter who just responded again calmly.
"It's alright"
Ryan on the other hand, possibly still excited due to meeting another familiar face, immediately spoke again to the young man again.
"Never would've expected to meet you of all people here though. You aren't even in the theatre club nor a performing arts major are you?"
"No. I'm not" Kyle curtly replied again, finding the company from Ryan a bit nice.
Truth be told, he was just as nervous as everyone else but he had been doing a pretty good job of keeping himself very calm.
Ryan speaking to him only served as a way to further calm himself down.
"Hmmm. I see. Well if you don't mind, feel free to join the club even though we'll be graduating in a few months anyway. We're actually always welcoming of new members" Ryan grinned and said.
Kyle just quietly nodded his head, while offering a light smile of his own.
"Contestant 210. I repeat Contestant 210. Get ready for your audition!" a staff member among the production team suddenly called out.
"Welp. That's my cue! Wish me luck man!" Ryan swiftly got up and headed over to the front as the latter replied while giving a small wave.
"Good luck"
As Kyle finally watched Ryan head in and introduce himself to the judges in a very charismatic manner, he figured that the dude was quite the extrovert yet happy-go-lucky person, just from the way he carried himself.
And then, when the time came for Ryan to actually showcase his singing skills before the judges, Kyle watched on and he only had two words to say.
'He's good!'
Impressed by his singing, the judges didn't spare any effort to give him an instant ticket to the next audition, although there were the few usual criticisms here and there.
'Hmmm… I should create a skill for appraisal down the line' Kyle suddenly thought to himself, realizing that it would be a very handy skill.
After Ryan's performance though, most of the other contestants fell short and as most kept getting rejected, so was the nervous tension in the room increasing by the second.
Some people even cried off the stage as the judges harshly criticized them while some felt angered by it, believing that the fault lied with the judges for not seeing how truly talented they were.
The production team was absolutely having a field day with those set of contestants and it was certain they would be including some of those scenes heavily when the show premiered.
These strings of continued rejections with few acceptances, continued happening until Kyle's moment finally came around.
"Contestant 257. I repeat Contestant 257. Get ready for your audition!" the same staff member on the production team called out.
'Well, here goes… something, I guess' Kyle calmly stood up and made his way over to the front with his guitar.