dance my generation

[Remle Boyd]

She had a love/hate relationship with interviews. On one hand she enjoyed the chance to talk to people and to get to know them and their motivations. On the other it sometimes forced her to ask personal questions that she didn't want to know the answer too. She could just not but her college teachers and bosses had informed her that personal stuff was always a hit and that to ignore that fact was to ignore what the audience really wanted. Not that Remle ever got too personal, she never asked about love lives, she never talked about families if it could be avoided and she certainly did NOT talk about political orientation. She was supposed to interview Kassy and Jason Hyde that night and given that they were both video game designers had tried to tailor her professional style more to what they might like and feel comfortable around. Her outfit wasn't flashy (they never really were) but she tried to inject some playfulness with subtle animal prints and metals. Her favorite part was probably the hounds tooth patterned pants that looked great with the knee high boots.

Remle had prepped for this interview for a week because she hated doing things at the last minute. Therefore being told at the last minute that something was changing, did not sit well with her. She now had a list of questions in her hand that would need to be tailored and edited during the interview because she didn't have the time to do it now. She could feel her eye twitching even as she held her hand out for a shake. "Hi, my name's Remle Boyd, thanks for coming on such short notice," she grinned with a hint of embarrassment. "Oh yeah, thanks EVER so much for showing up at the last fucking minute instead of cancelling all together. THAT I could have handled better, now I might look ridiculous on MY show because of YOU," was the seething, irritated grouching in her head. She should have been happier, now she wouldn't have to fill the space with something stupid like an impromptu quiz show but at least with a quiz show she could have shaved off a few CD's and T-shirts from the prize bin that always seemed to be overflowing no matter how many give-away's the other shows did. She reached over to grab her coffee mug from the passing aid and took a quick drink of the coffee that would no doubt sustain her patience until her interview was over.

[Dakota Hyde]

Dakota could understand the love/hate relationship that came with interviews. He had to interview a lot of people for jobs in the company. Personal stuff really was a hit, he should know. He has been to a few different types of interviews, some of them were good and some of them weren’t. He also held interviews, mostly for people looking for jobs at the company but still. He still didn’t like them, he never liked interviews, and he didn’t think he would. Some interviews were good, if the person that was interviewing him could make it interesting and funny and actually care. A lot of the time it just seemed like he was being interviewed so the person interviewing him could get paid for it. Which never rubbed him the right way; he never believed in doing something you didn’t like just for the money.

Kota walked into the booth, shaking the girl’s hand. It was a very strong handshake, which most likely meant she was upset, and didn’t like the fact that his parents bailed on her. Truthfully, she was glad they didn’t show, because they would probably be pissed at each other and not give her a good interview. “Dakota Hyde. It’s not a big deal. I’m sorry my parents bailed on you… They… had some things come up…” he couldn’t really explain the fact that his parents own the company together yet were divorced, and didn’t agree with anything business wise. Which was where he came in, he was the one that had the final say, and the one that was put in the middle of a lot of things that involved his parents… It was pretty stressful, because not only did he have school, the work he was suppose to do one his own at the company, and he had to do 90% of what his parents were suppose to do just because they couldn’t agree with each other on anything.

He took the liberty of sitting down, “I know you’re probably pissed at them for bailing, but they meant well. Besides you should be happy to have me. I’m way hotter than my parents.” He winked at her, hoping to set a light mood to the frustration she was probably feeling. He watched her reach for her mug with her left hand, “Nice tattoo. Didn’t really peg you for a tattoo kind of girl really.” Looking her up and down, she seemed very… uptight, and overcautious or maybe it’s guarded. Either way she did not seem the type to have tattoos, even if she was trying a little hard with her outfit of choice. Or maybe this was her normal attire, in which case he had no judgments about.

[Remle Boyd]

Remle was unflappable in most cases but Dakota's response threw her completely off guard. She should be happy eh? Her eyes narrowed and a frown graced her face in her surprise, no in fact she was not happy. She was prevented from answering however as it was in the middle of showing him her booth and directing him to put on his headphones and signaling to one of her interview aids to start when ready. She was not expecting the ON AIR switch to be thrown so soon OR for Dakota's next comment to be about her tattoo. Most people didn't comment on it or they didn't see it. They weren't prohibited at the office but she didn't make a habit of showing them off either.

"Yeah well, most people don't come to an interview wearing a leather jacket and...speckled pants either," she snapped, quickly taking a drink from her mug to hide her feelings. Who did this guy think he was?! Shit she was still on air and had an interview to conduct but all she wanted to do was storm out. She looked up at her aid and wondered why the girl's face looked so confused, how damn hard was it to monitor the phone lines while she was busy?

[Dakota Hyde]

He could tell he didn’t like his flirting, but he really didn’t care, hopefully the listeners did. Cause that’s what mattered the most right? To give listeners something to actually listen to, and maybe laugh at, something that was at least somewhat entertaining. It didn’t seem that Remle got that, at least not with the flirting thing, maybe she just wasn’t a flirter, or maybe she was taken, though he would have thought she would have said she was if she had been. Woman were very weird, maybe that’s why the only good relationship he ever had was with a guy…

Chuckling at her comment, he shook his head. “Look who’s talking. I’ve never seen someone drink out of an owl mug at interviews, or wear animal printed jeans.” Two can play at her game, whatever game that was. Who did he think he was? Who did she think she was? Did she really think she was better than him just because she was the one conducting the interview? Was she really that egotistical?

[Remle Boyd]

Remle was so riled at this point that she practically spit her coffee back into her cup in shock. "They AREN'T animal print, they're HOUNDSTOOTH!" she squeaked in offense, face flushing in embarrassment. Her grandmother had given her this mug for her birthday one year and she liked owls...they were cute and she identified with them to a certain extent. Then the ridiculousness of the situation caught up with her. She was sitting here, arguing clothes with a kid.

"Besides owls are cute and there's nothing wrong with them being on a mug!" her lips twitched slightly in the ghost of a smile and despite how she was trying to concentrate on frowning, her eyes were starting to give her away. She shuffled her papers a bit out of nervousness and trying to get some control over the situation, she was the one asking the questions here and it was her show anyway! To that end she decided to address the listeners that were probably wondering just what the hell was going on.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and to the boys and girls up past their bedtimes, this is your DJ speaking, Remle Boyd. Here with me tonight is Dakota Hyde of Jekyll and Hyde Games and as you can obviously tell we’ve got the night started off with a bang so to speak, say hello to the late night radio crowd,” she pulled back so that Dakota could speak an image of calm overcoming her face.

[Dakota Hyde]

Dakota put his hands up in defense, “Okay, okay. No need to get bitchy about it.” What was she pmsing? Or was she always like this? Was this how people felt when he got angry with them? Damn, it was not a good feeling.

“I didn’t say they weren’t. Or that there was. Just that it’s a little childish for an interview.” Usually people had mugs with sayings on it or something their kid made to put on it. He also doubted a child gave that to her, she looked too young to have kids. “It is a very cute mug though.”

Dakota smirked as Remle started the interview off, finally, after their fight. Which he was sure that the listeners got a good laugh at; that or they hated him now. “Hello late night radio people. Hope you guys are having a good night.” Cause he wasn’t sure if he was or not at this point. “I guess we should actually start the interview. Lay all your questions on me.”

[Remle Boyd]

She didn't even dignify the comment about her being bitchy with an answer; she merely spared him a disapproving look before moving on. She also wasn't sure if her mug being "cute" was supposed to be a compliment or not, he might be mocking her for all she knew. This interview was already shaping up to be a barrel of “fun” and by fun she meant “migraine in the making”.

"Before we start with any listener questions I have a few I'd like to ask," Remle continued after Dakota finished his introduction. She looked down at all of the questions she had meant to ask his parents and reshuffled them in her head to better suit the man in front of her. "What sort of responsibilities do you have within the company?" she asked conversationally, despite her eyes clearly appraising him. It couldn't be much right? Maybe he was a tester and justified whatever paycheck his parents handed him by "working" all day shooting people or racing cars. Remle never was very good at electronic games. She preferred card or board games herself but she could be oddly old fashioned at times.

[Dakota Hyde]

“Alright, lay everything you have on me.” That sounded more sexual than he meant, but he was sure the listeners got a chuckle out of that one. Her first question was actually pretty easy for him to answer, but it was a very long list. “Uh, let’s see here. I manage almost everything, I do auditions, I make choices about the company that my parents can’t. I am also in the process of getting a video game design degree, so I’m kind of working in the actual labor field. I also have a bunch of ideas for games, and things like that. I also help with a lot of other things, like game stories, graphics, and characters.” He was really hands on in the company, “Oh and I also over see some of the financial stuff.”

If that answer didn’t change the girl’s mind about him, nothing else was going to. He wasn’t one of those snob pricks. He worked for what he wanted/had. He paid for his own bills, and he is pretty sure that even if his parents didn’t own the company, he would still be working there, just maybe not as high up.

[Remle Boyd]

Remle had enough manners and training to not let her surprise show. Alright, so she had totally pegged this guy wrong, in a really bitchy way actually. "That is a long list," Remle conceded with a hint of admiration in her voice. "Could you maybe take us on a tour of what your typical day looks like? With that many things on your plate, I imagine that you must be fairly good at time management," she teased, though not unkindly. She was still on edge; she doubted that would go away any time soon and for some reason her traitorous mind had her going back and replaying their first moments together.

She was certain that he was "hotter than his parents" but her mind did not need to keep replaying that moment in her head as it tried to analyze what in the world he had meant when he said it. Was he attracted to her? What she attracted to him? Did it show if she was? Was she really? Well, maybe a little, he was very non-typically the type of man she found herself attracted to...but that was looks alone, she liked responsible, hard-working guys usually...which he apparently was...FOCUS REMLE! She took a quick sip of her cup and flicked a glance up at her aide and looked over at her computer screen where there were messages about callers holding on the line.

She gave the aide a thumbs up and returned her attention to Kota now that he’d finished talking. “You do sound busy! Thank you again for taking time out of your schedule to do this interview for us, we’ve got some callers on the line waiting to ask you some questions…caller Jaina, go ahead,” Remle prompted the woman she’d brought up on the other end of the line before sending copy of the list of names to the computer screen next to Kota and looking at the blinking queue of lights signaling callers on hold.

[Dakota Hyde]

“Yeah, I guess I am. Most of it is people coming to me with what they need me to do at that moment and I usually get it then right then. So it really depends on the other people, usually I come into the office in the morning, go through some paper work, then people usually start coming into my office around noon for me do look over something, or something else they need me to do. Then when I don’t have any of that stuff to do. I go over see development things, or I write out my ideas, stuff like that.” It was really hard to give her what his day looked like, because it all had to do with other people, what they got done, if he had any auditions or interviews to do.

He just meant it in a joking way, he hadn’t meant anything serious about it. Just saying something to lighten the mood. Hey, if she kept replaying that moment in her head, meant Kota was doing something right. Was he falling for her? God, that sounded like a really bad comedy romance film… He hated those types of moves. They were so stupid and unrealistic.

He nodded, that sounded so rehearsed, and fake… But he wasn’t going to say anything, it was none of his business. “Hey Jaina.” ‘oh yes, hi, I was wondering if you were single..” Kota couldn’t help but chuckle, “Yes I am single, thank you for asking..” He should have known a question like that was going to come through. The next question was asked, ‘did you grow up in Pilot Ridge?’ “ Yes I did, my parents went to school here, and basically grew up in this town themselves. So they wanted me to be raised in town also.” Which was actually very unlikely thing to happen here, most people had moved to Pilot Ridge cause of Hammel and being meta.. That or just wanted the quiet life of being in a small town. A few more questions were asked, some about his job, some were a little personal, but nothing that was too personal for him not to answer. The up coming question surprised him a lot, ‘Yes I was kind of wondering about the tattoo you mentioned Remle having. What is it if I could be so blunt in asking? I’ve always been pretty fascinated by tattoos.’ Kota raised an eyebrow, was this a first time listener? Or did Remle really not tell these simple facts about herself? “Well why don’t we have Remle answer that.”

[Remle Boyd]

Remle had endured the first two questions like any good radio host would, by internally rolling her eyes and very glad that she wasn't anywhere near famous. The next few didn't really grab her attention as she was busy organizing a few things on her computer screen but it would stand to reason that the one she did hear was badly timed. She had just taken a drink of her coffee when a caller asked about her tattoo and spat it back out with a choked cough. She was lucky it landed back in her cup but some escaped and had her desperately wiping it away with the back of her hand and then onto her pants as she tried to dry her hands. There was a second of pure, unfiltered, very obvious horror on her face before it vanished and she tried to compose herself. She could get through this, she just had to answer one question right?

“Ah…” she cleared her throat. “It’s an octopus,” she answered.

“Oh so you like octopuses? Octopi? Whatever the hell they’re called…” the caller asked.

“Uh..well…”

“Did you do it like Japanese style? Is there a school girl?” he joked with her. Remle turned the brightest shade of red her DNA was capable of turning her.

“No…it’s a drawing from a Victorian era science book,” she finally answered.

“Oh, well that’s kinda cool; do you have any other tats?”

“WELL I think that’s enough about me, thanks for calling!” Remle said quickly, dismissing the call and pulling up the next caller. “Ted!” her voice squeaked almost desperately. “Do you have a question for Dakota?”

“Oh, well kinda, but I wanted to ask you first like…how many tattoos DO you have?” innocent Ted queried.

Remle wanted to die, she wanted to crawl under the soundboard, curl up and die. Only her sheer stubbornness kept her from “accidently” hanging up on Ted and his stupid, prying questions. “Four,” She answered in a tiny voice, resigned to having to share this information whether she liked it or not. “The octopus on my arm, I’ve got a Victorian styled bracket on my lower back, a moon and some stars behind my let ear and a peacock on my right shoulder to my elbow,” she explained as simply as possible. “What was your question for Dakota?” she asked, very clearly steering the topic away from herself. There had been an influx of calls over the last few minutes and as she sat there staring at her screen like a woman condemned to execution she very much DESPERATELY hoped that all these questions were for her guest.

[Dakota Hyde]

Dakota could sense how nervous and anxious Remle got all of the sudden. His expression became a confused one. No wonder her listeners didn’t know anything about her, she was afraid. He really didn’t know what that feelings was like, he was a pretty open person. But he would think even a closed off person would be okay sharing minor details like a tattoo… It wasn’t like they were asking for the meaning behind the tattoo.

When Remle had seemed to reluctantly answer the callers question, he realized he needed to stop the calls. He apparently opened up a pretty big door for people. “Hey instead of me answering this question, why don’t we go to a music, or something break?” He thought this would be a good time for Remle to try and recompose herself.

[Remle Boyd]

Remle jumped at the chance to play some music and quickly thanked Ted for his questions and hung up the phone. She pushed all the other calls onto a hold line and immediately hit play on the latest indie record that had come across her desk earlier that week. She then took a deep drink of her still-warm coffee and shuddered as she attempted to calm down. It wouldn't do her any good to freak out on Dakota even though she really, really wanted to and her glare at the computer screen said as much. But he'd also technically given her an excuse to play music instead of answering other, potentially revealing questions.

She didn't want to talk about her tattoo's, they were hers and no one else needed to know about them or see them unless she wanted them too. Most people were polite enough not to pry and those who insisted on questioning were usually given terse, simple answers, she did not want to talk about why she had gotten tattoo's and she certainly didn't want to potentially have an argument as to if it were appropriate for her to have them. She also didn't want to be judged...she really hated that. Not that she didn't act in a manner which caused most people to assume she was an anti-social pain in the ass...but if Remle wanted to be seen as anything different she would have opened up ages ago. At this point she was sure that pure stubbornness was keeping her scowl in place as she took a deep breath and finally faced Dakota. "I don't really want to talk about myself, this is your interview so let’s make sure we keep it about you," she said simply.

[Dakota Hyde]

Dakota still didn’t get it, what was so bad about people asking about tattoos? Random people asked about his tattoos a lot, and even some of the people who interview him, like Remle is now asks him about it. It was a fresh thing to talk about, and it is a conversation that lets the interview stay light, and not heavy hearted with all talk about business. However, it was her life, and if she wanted to have a stick up her ass the whole time that was on her, not him.

He shrugged at her comment, “Whatever you say. It’s your interview, though I really don’t know how you still have listeners.. I guess they must really like the music you play…” She was stuck up, and to Kota it seemed like Remle had an attitude that told everyone to shove it, like she didn’t care about them. “Because your attitude toward your listeners could totally come off as uncaring…” Simple answers were fine! She didn’t need to have a paragraph detail on something so simple as tattoos. And so what if she got judged? She was probably being judge now, damn even Kota was judging her some. Kota put his hands in the air, “I’m not the one who asked the question. And if you never want to talk about yourself, you should probably never open up interviews to listener questions, because this is going to happen again, and again, and again. I’m sure it has even happened before too. So you really need to figure out where you want this radio show to go, and why you are even here in the first place. Because as far as I can tell, you are miserable and have been since I walked through that door, and if it’s just because you don’t like to do interviews, then don’t do interviews. Keep it about music, play music the whole damn time for all I care. But be happy doing it, enjoy it, you aren’t on this planet to constantly have a stick up your ass. And if you do like doing interviews, than enjoy it! No matter what anyone throws at you.”

[Remle Boyd]

Kota's tirade (yes tirade, lecture, talking to) did not sit well with Remle, at first it embarrassed her, then it made her want to crawl under her desk and sit there for the night, then she remembered that this was her job and no one was allowed to tell her what to do with it...even if he was technically correct. To that end her eyes narrowed and her already straight back tensed. "To be entirely frank, my listeners don't call to ask me personal questions, they call to request music or to ask for suggestions so yes, I play great music and that's my job. Do you realize what time it is? It's late; no one wants to hear someone prattle on about shit when they're pulling a shift like this. They want to hear music, that's what I do," she snapped. "I scheduled this interview on the suggestion from several listeners who thought it might be interesting to try something new," she informed him as the aide frantically began signaling that they should really start the interview again. "Thanks for letting me know that it would be a terrible fucking idea," she thought with just the tiniest bit of regret. Was it her fault it was going so badly? She'd examine that later.

Remle took a deep breath to get her temper and other, questionable emotions under control. She didn't want this to be her fault, she hated failing at things and she especially hated when other people pointed out her flaws either real or perceived. Despite the myriad of emotions roiling through her she steadfastly held to the interview time and finished her list of questions, having called an end to the listener questions after returning from the earlier commercial break. For the next twenty minutes (excluding the commercials) there was a tense sort of challenging atmosphere in the studio as Remle asked her questions, made trite conversation and tried not to fidget in her seat.

Not surprisingly, as soon as the interview was over, she shot a look to her aide before rising to her feet, grabbing her coffee mug and turning sharply to Kota. "Thank you for coming today," and with that Remle was gone through the door in order to take refuge in the darkness of a closet for a few minutes so that she could compose herself enough to work for another few hours before her shift was over.

The abandoned Aide slowly came out of her little cubical and approached Kota with a nervous smile and fidgety hands. "Um, hi, I'm Sally. Sorry about that I'm not sure what got into her today," she floundered, eyes following to the door where her boss had left. "Remle's not that bad normally, she's usually nice and the listeners really like her, her ratings are pretty high. I've never seen her lose her temper like that..." the aide then smiled brightly and looked at Kota. "She must really like you! If you'll follow me to the reception I'll retrieve your check for you," Sally grinned as she opened the door and indicated that Kota should exit the booth.