Karaoke Night [OPEN]

[hero-medic.livejournal.com]

 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.]

Comments

[not_the_philistine]

"Is that so?"

She does not strike him as a normal human child. Only propriety and, well, horror have kept him from pressing the matter further.

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

Roxie nods slightly. "I haven't substantially altered myself as of yet, but I may have to, depending on what challenges this ship faces."

[not_the_philistine]

"Altered yourself?"

He has been quietly involved in their conversation, but now he looks at her with something between confusion and alarm. He hasn't had the best experiences with people who alter themselves.

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"Yes," she says simply, adjusting her glasses.

[not_the_philistine]

"How?"

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"Magic." He's the weirdo who turns into stone, he should be able to handle that. "My power was granted by the deity I serve."

[not_the_philistine]

Oh. That's a little less of an alarm button. She didn't say "the deity I wrested control from," so he relaxes a bit. "Which deity?"

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"Shyama. However, he goes by many different names in many different universes."

Heckuva deity.

[not_the_philistine]

"And you are his servant, not his avatar?"

Important (and interesting) distinction.

"How did this come to pass?"

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"He offered me the chance. I took it."

She's glossing over the ickier bits, though.

[not_the_philistine]

He assumes there's more to it than that, but if she;s not going to offer the information without prompting, it's probably none of his business anyway. He nods, and looks back to the stage.

"What sort of duties does he have you perform?"

[twelvevoltman.livejournal.com]

"-So be sweet and kind to mother,
Now and then have a chat,
Buy her candy or some flowers or a brand new hat,
But maybe you had better let it go at that -"

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"I kill creatures called cho. They infect beings they come in contact with and would spread across many universes if there weren't guardians to stop them." Sounds like the 'Ohm' might not be the only menace to worry about.

[not_the_philistine]

No race has a monopoly on evil.

"Infect with what?"

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"The beings the cho convert become cho themselves."

[not_the_philistine]

He snarls at the thought. "How do you recognize them?"

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes they'll have white eyes. It looks sort of like cataracts." A pause. "But most of the time it's impossible for most people to tell. I can only sense them when they're hiding because of my divine gift."

[not_the_philistine]

"What is their purpose? The nature of their infection?"

He's going to keep up the questions until Roxie runs out of new things to tell him.

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"They have no purpose but to make more of themselves. Most of the time it's through bodily fluid contact, but it's not biological. They've can even corrupt powerful inanimate objects with enough time to work on them."

[not_the_philistine]

"Like insects breeding in living bodies."

He considers the things she has told him, and considers his distaste for the idea of the Cho - the idea of individuals of free will being overtaken by life forms with no rightful claim to their forms.

"How do you stop them?"

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"I kill them, and I eliminate the infection before it can spread."

She speaks calmly, but the implications that statement...

[not_the_philistine]

He would be surprised to hear that from any other human child. But a human child on board this ship - and, moreover, this human child - it is less a surprise, and more a new piece of evidence as to why she and not another was salvaged from her world.

He looks at her with calm understanding - that she, like any chosen by a god, is not to be underestimated, or thought of lightly for her appearance. "The work of gods is seldom easy."

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

Roxie nods a little bit at that comment, though she doesn't say anything. "..."

[not_the_philistine]

He watches her, still trying to get a better idea of who this child is. She can announce the death of worlds casually, but there is more to her than callousness.

"Who helps you?"

If no one does - if she is without clan - that may answer a few more of the questions he hasn't posed.

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"I was the only agent of Shyama for much of North America," Roxie says.