French and Burlesque (Cynthia)

[Rhett Goddard]

Now, you'd say that being unemployed was wonderful with all the free time that it entailed, but you'd be wrong. For Rhett, it was beyond wonderful. He finally had time for himself, he returned to train parkour on a daily basis and increased his gym schedule, not to mention the amazing amount of time he was now spending with Odion, with whom things were finally as good as they should have always been. Everything was going top notch... until he received an e-mail from Mrs. Wilson, telling him that she had heard he didn't work at McDonalds anymore and asking to offer her help in getting a new job. He knew, however, that this "asking to help" actually meant a "you HAVE to get a job asap", so he just decided to sigh it away and actually start looking for one.

Due to the multiple misunderstandings between him and the internet, and not wanting to ask Odion for help, Rhett just went into the easiest possible way to find a job: the newspaper, and after looking at several job offers, circling some and crossing off most, he arrived upon one that called his attention. It didn't say much, just that it was a nightclub and they were looking for people in multiple positions. What called his attention was the name: La Maison Magnifique.

Now, Rhett is french, so the business' name only translated to him into something along the sorts of "The Magnificent House", but it never crossed through his mind the true nature of the establishment, even when the advertisement also said to contact "Madame Cynthia". She must be french as well.

Since the newspaper said that he could pass at anytime, Rhett decided to just check the place at night as it functioned. The bouncer on the entrance immediately asked him his age, to what he answered he was eighteen, soon to be nineteen, showed him his ID, and then said he was because of the job being offered in the paper. The bouncer let him pass and told him to approach the woman in the lobby, as she was handling that.

He stepped into the place quickly and walked towards who he supposed was the person the man was referring to.

"I'm here for the..." He said slowly to the woman as he examined the place.

Enter surprise face. It was bigger than he expected and far more crowded, what surprised him the most, though, it was how it looked like those terrible depictions of how the french culture is: burlesque. It was something that he had learned to despise a little, and when the show of dancing women started on the stage, he just told himself mentally how this was just not the place for him.

"...job?" He finished the sentence rather jaw-dropped.

[Cynthia DeMato]

A single spotlight shone down upon the woman draped across the piano, a black sequin dress shimmering in the light. The place was fairly quiet - at least, relatively speaking - as it usually was when the Madame of the House took the stage, and all eyes were on her. Suddenly, the man at the piano began to play a grand arpeggio, and Cynthia rose up to a sitting position, microphone in hand as she looked up towards the light.

"Clock strikes upon the hour, and the sun begins to fade
Still enough time to figure out how to chase my blues away
I've done alright up to now; it's the light of day that shows me how
And when the night falls, loneliness calls..."

There were catcalls as she sang a stripped-down version of one of Whitney Houston's greatest hits; all of the performances were centered around her, the first show after the news of her death, and Cynthia had reserved this number - her favorite - for herself. Now she rose up to stand on top of the piano, long dress flowing down to her shoes as the music swelled to the chorus.

"Oh, wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me!"

She held this last note, and suddenly the whole band kicked in, the lights coming up as several dancers came out. Cynthia hopped off the piano, joining the dancers at the front of the stage as they went into a Seventies-style dance routine with kicks, spins, and leaps. The crowd was loving this - most crowds loved just about anything when there was plenty of liquor flowing.

"I've been in love and lost my senses, spinning through the town
Sooner or later the fever ends, and I wind up feeling down
I need a man who'll take a chance on a love that burns hot enough to last
So when the night falls, my lonely heart calls,

Oh, wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me!"

The dancing continued through the rest of the song, Cynthia getting back up on the piano and the dancers surrounding her as they struck their final pose. The woman was breathing heavily - a big dance number like this took a lot out of her these days - as the crowd roared, thunderous applause and whistling filling the room. "That's how you do it, girls," she whispered to the dancers as she hopped back off the piano, took a quick curtsey, and headed backstage. Not long after that, she reappeared out by the lobby - there was a hallway connecting the entryway to the backstage area so that the performers didn't need to weave through the audience to get backstage - and was greeting some guests like a good little hostess when a young man approached her.

"Young man, are you sure you're old enough to be in here?" She asked, somewhat facetiously, although he actually did look very, very young. Ah, but he was here for a job. She had held several auditions and interviews in the past few days in an attempt to freshen things up. "Yes, yes, come on then," she said, beckoning the boy to follow him down that same hallway towards her office. "And what is your name, young one?" She asked as she opened the door and gestured for him to head in. It was a fairly small room, just a large desk filled with a lot of paperwork that she generally ignored, and a few chairs. The walls were plastered with photos of Cynthia in various costumes during various performances. There were also some trophies and certificates thrown in. "Tell me about yourself," she said as she took a seat behind the desk. This was just a preliminary interview, and based on his experiences and what kind of job they were after, they would most likely end up going back out into the main room to see what he could do.

[Rhett Goddard]

"I..." Rhett was still a little shaken up and didn't exactly know what to answer to the woman's question. He had to thought about it for a moment or two, jaw still rather dropped, but he closed his eyes and recovered his senses just about enough. "Your ad said eighteen? So... yes."

He knew he looked a bit younger, but it didn't bother him. He actually liked it. Aside from his eyes, he knew his boyish face in general was his biggest charm, although it wasn't like he was trying to charm someone nor he needed to, as things were fairly settled already in that field of his life.

"Rhett Goddard." He said as he entered the office just behind Madame Cynthia. He quickly took a seat and examined the room. Far more disorganized than his last job's manager, but also far more welcoming. "Oh, wait." He inserted after her request of talking about him and started to look through his satchel, taking a single piece of paper which he quickly gave to her. "Curriculum Vitae."

He stated the obvious to her as to what he was handing. It didn't say much, though, just that he was a Hammel student and had worked on McDonald for four almost five months, along with his boss's number and his personal recommendation. He had originally thought that presenting a resume was silly since he had only had one job, but when he quitted, his ex-boss told him he should make one, so he could include a recommendation from him, which was probably far better than none. It made sense, even if a McDonalds recommendation was not that big of a thing, but still.

"I mainly worked the Drive-Thru." He added. "A little of cashier experience too when they had no one else too, and that's pretty much about it." He was not making that big of an effort to make himself look good, but then again, he was really all not excited to work here now he had discovered the club's true colors. "Look I'll just be awfully honest." He thought maybe he should just go to the main point of it all. "My boyfriend hated my last job's schedule. It was pretty much all afternoon and several late-night shifts through six days of the week." Five months of being together, and it "boyfriend" hadn't stopped sounding weird. "I just need a change for that. I don't even care about the salary that much," As he could always pay his appartment's expenses by other means, and Odion helped around a lot anyway. "just a good schedule."