trans_9 | Karaoke Night [OPEN]

Entry tags:

Karaoke Night [OPEN]

Between nearly killing himself trying to help people and his talk with Nathan, Peter was exhausted. Even with his upbeat demeanor, it was hard to not say he felt stressed. His flight-breaks no longer helping, he decided he needed to take a few hours. He found himself at the sensoriums, a place he had heard talked about like the holodeck from Star Trek. As he walked in, it was a blank room. He closed his eyes and thought to himself.

I just need a way to relax.

He suddenly heard music, and opened his eyes to what appeared to be a high class nightclub, but filled with the strangest creatures he had ever seen, even since arriving on the ship. Behind the bar, a green-skinned redhead with horns, more conspicuous for his paisley shirt and purple ascot, was trying to get his attention.

"Hey, kiddo, didn't you hear them call your name?" The demon said, smiling. "You're up, bubbulah. Don't worry, I picked a good song for you." Peter eyed him warily. Wherever this place had come from, it was not his head. But decided not to question it, and went to stand in front of a karaoke machine on stage. He picked up the mike and saw the song, and smiled. He loved this song. EVERYONE loved this song. Luckily, a few years in boy's choir had given him a sense of tune, and puberty had left him with a decent tenor. So, he began to sing.

o/` I can't fight this feeling any longer,
And yet I'm still afraid to let it flow... o/`

That was all it took. As if suddenly injected with 100 ccs of pure rock ballad awesome, Peter closed his eyes and began letting the music take him, eventually rocking out. He had forgotten what it was like, honestly. Forgotten the fun of just letting go and having fun. And as he finished up the REO Speedwagon classic, breathing heavily and feeling alive, he wished he hadn't.

But then he opened his eyes to notice more than just his holographic audience had filtered into the "club".

"Uh... Next?" He said as he hastily replaced the mike and went to get a holo-beer.

That was embarrassing. He could only hope someone would follow him up and make it slightly less so.

[ooc: Start a subthread with your character approaching the stage and singing a song. Characters can react to other's performances even if they aren't singing themselves. And any song you'd like, Lorne has the entire mutliverse on karaoke. I'm not asking, and neither should you.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The person approaching the stage then was probably one of the last that any of Stacy's refugees would expect to find in this place. No, they were not seeing a Sensorium-induced illusion. That was really Billy Cranston pulling up a stool and hoisting an acoustic guitar into his lap. Those who have little tolerance for country music would be wise to plug their ears now.

...I don't know what it is about the edge of a cliff
Makes me want to get so close to it
I guess this time I finally slipped
What a foolish way to end it
Maybe that's why I'm back here now
got both feet back on the ground
Hopin' you won't turn me down
When I ask you for forgiveness...

Billy's voice definitely wasn't one of the world's strongest, but the mic gave it a quality of resounding despair. It wasn't an terribly stellar voice, true, yet it got the job done.

Then, the song ended and the lights faded. Stunned at his own bold streak, Billy's face started to flush with embarrassment. As he exited stage left and sought shelter in the crowd, he had a moment to ponder the unpredictability of humans afflicted with emotional turmoil; a curious phenomenon that he was certainly not exempt from.

Peter looked at Holo-Lorne, and the green-skinned demon motioned Billy over, placing a free soda on the bar for Billy.

"It's a little stronger than a regular coke, kiddo, but as long as you pace yourself, you looked like you could use it." The fiend bartender said sympathetically. Peter himself looked at Billy.

"Good guts, man. And not a bad song, for country."

Billy had wanted more than anything to disappear, but it would be rude to refuse a direct summons. Once there, the offered drink surprised him.

"Thank you," he said with a grateful nod. Sipping the concoction experimentally, he instantly verified the bartender's description. Slow and steady was the way to proceed.

Billy's attention turned to Peter then. "It was my dad's favorite music genre," he explained almost apologetically. "Every night, he played the songs on his antique record player. I asked him once why he overwhelmingly preferred songs with subject matter involving personal mistakes and lost opportunities, and he said I'd understand someday."

Peter nodded at Billy.

"It's not just you, man." It seemed like all he needed to say on the subject of mistakes, as Caitlin's face seemed to flash before his eyes.

"As for the record player, that's how my brother Nathan and I got into music, our Mom's old MoTown records. We always had everything else, but nothing beats something to connect you to family." He smiled warmly, hoping Billy would understand he wasn't judging him for liking the music any more than he would be judged.

A terrible thing happened as Billy took another sip. He almost smiled.

"To family," he whispered with a raised glass. But the faces flashing through his head weren't the blood relatives who may or may not have been in stasis in the Pod Caverns.

Billy lapsed into silence then, and he might have even started to relax. The music was not unpleasant.

"To any family," Peter said as he raised his glass to touch Billy's. "Hey, You're a friend of that Adam kid, right? I worked on him, earlier..."

Well, that caught his attention.

"I am---how is he? I would've stayed, but he wanted to be left alone for a while. And I certainly can't blame him for that." Even if he didn't like it. Billy dropped his gaze to the counter, wondering what the Black Ranger felt then.

Peter looked over at Billy and smiled.

"Physically? He'll be fine. I'm going to do a followup with an actual doctor with him later. As a medical professional, I can't give you word on his psychology without his consent." Peter wasn't about to give that stuff out to anyone, period. He did have his standards. "But the way you jumped to ask how he was... I can at least say he's lucky to have a friend like you. The only guy I have who would act that way for me is my brother, and he would only do it half the time. You really are a good person. That should have been our toast." He smiled, somehow feeling like a good person for saying that himself, as he took a drink of his beer.

"Oh---of course not. It was highly inappropriate to ask you to violate doctor-patient confidentiality. It won't happen again." He looked properly ashamed for a dedicated scientist who should certainly know better. Still, he was glad to hear that the injuries would heal.

Billy took another sip and ducked his head, unsure of how to respond to the other comments. "I can't say I'm qualified to speak about sibling relationships, but Adam's my friend and teammate. We're the only active crew members from my former universe. If he'd been infected by the zombies while I was locked on the other side of the wall..." He trailed off. Peter could fill in the blank with whatever horror he chose to.

"I highly doubt I would have elected to make such a self-congratulatory toast, but I appreciate the thought." There was the tiniest of smiles on his face. "'To compassion' would've been my alternative. As a medical professional, I hope you can understand that."

Peter did.

"To compassion. And to the understandings that lead to that compassion." He smiled at Billy. They certainly had common ground, and Peter could see it after Billy's suggestion for a toast.

"WOO! YEAH, BILLY!" Katara cheered.

She had really takimng a shining to him after trying to take the bridge. That, and she knew that Billy was normally a more reserved kind of a guy.

Billy almost froze in confusion at the top of the stairs. Someone was calling his name, almost as if he were one of the music stars. After a moment of confusion, his eyes landed on the source: Katara. Her voice was the only discernible sound over the din of the room, so he made a beeline for his new friend.

"Katara, hi." Billy tipped his Sensorium-created illusion of a cowboy hat in her direction, a movement accompanied by an anxious smile. "When did you get here?"

Katara laughed, first at his confusion and then at the hat. "I came with Slobo and the others," Katara said, grinning. "Apparently we're building group friendship by going here and singing. I don't quite know what I'm going to sing yet though. I think I'm still thinking about it."

She looked at his hands. "You're not feeling any more pain, are you?"

Billy lifted his hands, carefully rubbing them together. "No. Your work was excellent. Thank you again."

He attempted to pick out her friends in the crowd, smiling slightly when Slobo and friends appeared. "I never thought of this as a frienship-building exercise, but I see the potential understanding that might unfold. I'll look forward to your song." And he meant it. It was wonderfully cathartic, sitting here and listening to the music.

Katara smiled. "I'm so glad to hear that! I'd been working on a few people that day., I wanted to make sure that I was pretty thorough." Not that Katara really doubted her ability, but even she wasn't perfect.

Katara showed Billy the rest of the Outsiders. "This is my brother Sokka, Rose, Static, and Slobo."

Sokka waved at Billy and Katara, munching on something from a paper bag.

"Hey Katara, they have Fire Flakes. Best bar ever! Who's your friend?" He'll try to forget that there are no more actual Fire Flakes and never will be ever...

"This is Billy!" Katara replied enthusiastically. "He's a Power Ranger!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Karaoke Night [OPEN]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject