Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-4199666-20151208131042

A/N: enjoy

Sam sat anxiously in the waiting room, just wishing that she could have dragged Danny along with her. Even Kieran would have been more comfortable than sitting there on her own. She nervously tapped her fingers across her leg, drumming a fast-paced rhythm as she reminded herself to breathe in and out. After what seemed like an eternity, she was finally called up. Her stomach dropped out of her body, as she stood up to follow the secretary who called her. The secretary herself gave off the vibe of being extremely overly organised. Her hair was sprayed and pinned back, not a single strand of her straight black hair sitting out of place. Her skirt was oddly free of wrinkles as she walked. Sam managed to get so carried away noticing insignificant details that she forgot where she was and for a brief moment she felt calmer.

Then the lady opened a door and Sam walked in. The boardroom was filled with about five people, all looking at her. They were mostly older men in suits, but there was a younger lady with dark skin and think, curly hair, sitting front and centre. Sam had met this lady before. Her name was Shreya. It looked like this was going to be a publicity meeting. They’d managed to keep her in the dark about the exact details of the meeting, however.

“Sam, have a seat,” Mason’s voice boomed through the room. It was probably a little unorthodox for him to be sitting there with someone who hadn’t even recorded for him, but he liked to take a hands on approach to his business. Sam nodded and obliged, sitting in the empty seat left for her.

“Now, Samantha,” one of the older men began, pulling his glasses onto his face as he looked down at a piece of paper in front of him. Sam gritted her teeth together, but she didn’t want to correct him. “You understand that anything discussed within this room remains confidential, correct?” Sam nodded. “You will not repeat confidential information to any persons outside of this room.” Sam nodded again, realising where this was going. She looked over at Mason as the man with glasses continued droning on in his monotonous voice. Mason seemed to be smirking at her. No he’s not. He’s a professional. Stop acting immature. Sam nodded again at the end of the sentence, then signed the bottom of the paper.

“Now that’s over with, can we actually get something important done?” Shreya asked, avoiding all eye contact with the man with glasses. Instead she was looking at Mason. He was smiling a sort of perfect smile. His teeth were pearly white and his face looked like he had rehearsed this smile to look as friendly and inviting as possible. Still, he didn’t mind Shreya being snarky, which was promising, because Sam was a professional at that and she’d been trying hard to hold it back. “Sam – can I call you Sam?”

“Please call me Sam.”

“Okay, Sam – we want you to be the newest face of Duke Records. The girl from Baltimore who moved to California to follow her dreams and ended up here.” She began explaining. She crafted some really oversimplified narrative about how Sam would have to sell different parts of her life. She wasn’t all that interested in listening to it. She knew that this would happen on a record label, but she had also hoped that they would care more about her music. She hadn’t even recorded a song yet and they were telling her how to act. “Also, we want you to pay more attention to your social networking. No more posting about drinking, and avoid excessive swearing. We don’t want a bad reputation to come to Duke Records.”

Mason chuckled a little at that, prompting a glare from Shreya who was sitting next to him. “We can’t just go back and delete seven years of social networking, Shreya. You don’t think people will notice something different?”

Shreya folded her arms across her chest. “Your social network posts will be monitored from now on. And we will need access to your account in case we need to promote your work.”

“Can’t I just get like a professional account and make my personal one private? That seems like it would save you guys the trouble.”

Shreya cleared her throat. She obviously couldn’t say anything to Mason interrupting her, but Sam was definitely not safe. She wasn’t even sure if she was technically working for them yet. “And one last thing. We need you to remove your relationship with Mr. Vespa from your social media.”

“What the fuck?” Sam asked, momentarily forgetting where she was. The faux pas was followed by a lot of sudden regret. “I didn’t mean that.” She noticed the two other older men getting a bit disturbed by her language. “What’s wrong with Danny?”

“Mr. Vespa is currently working for a radio station. We don’t want people getting the wrong idea that your music is playing on that radio station because of your connection to him.” She explained. “Also, we feel that you’ll have a greater sex appeal if people think you’re available.”

“First of all, I have sex appeal,” she defended. “Secondly, I still don’t see how Danny is a problem. He’s my boyfriend. And finally, shouldn’t you be focused more on making sure my music sounds good?”

“We already know your music sounds great,” Mason spoke up. “We have to sell an image with it. Besides, we’re not going to stop you from dating – Danny, I think you said.” Sam nodded, her arms crossed firmly across her chest. “Just that your relationship status isn’t public. We can keep the public hooked if they don’t know whether you’re in a relationship or not.”

“This is so dumb. Do you do this to your male employees too?” Sam asked, rolling her eyes. She nearly considered walking out on them then and there but she could sense the glaring eyes of the guy who had been forced to remind her that everything was confidential and she wasn’t in the mood to get herself into a lawsuit. “I notice everyone else in this room is allowed to wear wedding rings.”

“These are the conditions of your contract. You agreed that we may have some control over your public and online appearance.” Shreya piped in. “This is an agreement that you signed, Ms. Riddleman.”

Sam rolled her eyes as Shreya continued to explain in excruciating detail just how much she would have to act differently in public. None of this sounded like it had anything to do with music, but she shut up, sitting patiently with her arms folded as she realised there was not much else she could do. Finally, when given the chance to comment, she spoke up. She didn’t even attempt to cover up the pissed off tone in her voice. “Fine, you can have your little puppet show, but no one else has to play pretend. Not Kieran, not Danny and not my family. Deal?”

There were a few glances exchanged throughout the room, most of them pointing back towards Mason. She could already tell that most of this room didn’t like her, but she knew there was something there with Mason. He seemed almost impressed by her ability to stand up to them.

“I asked if we had a deal.” Sam repeated. “Also, I’m allowed to tell Danny and Kieran about this.” She added, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to start acting differently without both of them noticing. They knew her way too well for that to work. Sam finally got a bit of leeway from Mason, who agreed to her terms, before excusing her. All Sam could think afterwards was that she felt cheap. She agreed to this job to make music, not to pretend that she was some other, foreign Sam. 