trans_9 | KARAOKE DANCE PARTY!!! [OPEN, COME GRAB FREE CR!]

Everyone had been so nice to Ryo since he had awoken a day prior. He wanted to show his appreciation to his friends and the crew, and get a chance to meet others. So, he walked back into the sensoriums and imagined a place. As he opened his eyes, there was the Milk Dipper. Wood finish, stars decorating the place, rough hewn wooden tables and the telescope in it's pedestal at the center. Everything was as it should be, except for one thing. Behind the counter, looking very confused, was a green-skinned demon who bore no resemblance to Airi. Ryo registered his shock as the demon spoke.

"This... is NOT my bar..." The green one said, his own shock evident. He looked at Ryo. "And you're not Peter..." Ryo, not knowing what to do, bowed quickly.

"I'm sorry, Oni-san, I just wanted to throw a party for everyone, with karaoke and dancing, and I didn't mean to summon you!" The demon shook his head, waving Ryo off.

"It's Lorne, and you had me at karaoke. Now, this place.... I like it. Kind of a kitsch-meets-class thing going on... It does need to be bigger, though..." Lorne snapped his fingers and the cafe expanded, now as large as an auditorium. The telescope pedestal sat firmly in the center of a well-polished dance floor, underneath a disco ball and lighting set up. To the left of the counter was a stage with a karoake set-up, and behind the counter was now a lot more than just coffee. Otherwise, the decor remained the same.

"Alright, Ryo-kun." Lorne said with a smile. "Give everyone the heads up and get this party started." Ryo nodded, amazed by the demon's abilities, and gave a call on the omnicomms.

[[ OOC: It's karaoke dance party time! Start a sub-thread with your character singing a song, socializing, or just being a wallflower, and let the CR flow! Especially great for newbies to meet folk and influence people!]]

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"That explain things," said Ben. "Crystals are natural amplifiers and if the resonations are drawing the bugs in, then the undiscovered veins in the mountains and cliffs would still pose a problem. Unless you have a way of completely eradicating the material from the town and surrounding area, the result would be a complete Scorched Earth policy for a few crystals." Ben sighed. "If I were Diamondhead I could probably help with that. Yet another thing on my list of Things To Do Once We Kick The Ohm In The Teeth."

"The crystals are good," Kala said with a sigh. "And I got rid of the bugs. It took three years, but I did do it. They came in all shapes and sizes. It was the last one that got me noticed by the Time-Space Administration Bureau. I...I had to use a very powerful attack and that's when Audis found me and finished it off. There were bits of some sort of crystalline substance in each bug that made them very sensitive to our crystals, I think. Audis said I'd been collecting the substance when I sealed them. All I knew was that that's what Farla, the woman who taught me, told me to do. I completed her mission for her after she died. Right now, my province and the next over are just getting back to normal. We're okay now. I mean, there's other dangers, but not from bugs. I'm still wary, though, and habits are habits."

Ben nodded. She had wrapped everything up, and he didn't have to go wreck an entire culture's livelihood in order to help them. "That's good then. In a way, it helped shape who you are today."

"But I'm glad you've told me this. I guess I owe you a story then I suppose, of how things happened to me in exchange." He dipped his hand into his fries and found the platter empty. "Want more Chili Fries?"

Kala shook her head, but a cup of tea appeared in place of her bowl of water and she blinked at it for several seconds before blowing on it and nodding for him to continue. The fries were good, but she had never been one to eat all that much. She supposed that came from growing up the way she did. Kala was as frugal as it got.

Even if she did have a tiny weakness for sweet things. Like sweet-teas.

Ben nodded, ordering up another plate of fries and digging in. He had a large appetite due to shifting so many forms at a times. "You know," he said between bites, "You remind me a little of Kevin, always serious."

"I'm focused on what needs to be done, most of the time," Kala said, watching him over the rim of her teacup. "And I suppose that's good if I remind you of a friend."

"True, but this is a party. Even if you can't sing, you should try to enjoy yourself a little, you know? We're trying to stay cheery in the face of adversity and all." And he smiled. "And what I mean by that is that Kevin also has a dry humor unless it explodes with pure raw amusement."

"I'm enjoying myself," she said, sipping her tea. "If I weren't I'd have left. And I'm pretty sure I don't explode...unless I'm very, very angry or defending someone."

"Could have fooled me. A cute girl like yourself should smile more," replied Ben with a little grin. He would probably get hit for that.

"I'm not cute," Kala said, peering at him for a good long while. "At all." She didn't hit people, but she thought about it for a moment. He wasn't that irritating, though, and she wasn't particularly bothered when it came right down to it. And she wasn't cute.

"And I avoid excessive use of emotions. Rising Phoenix and I aren't...equipped to deal with them." They were broken. Both of them. And the only one to get a full smile out of Kala had been one William Shane Barlow...even if it hadn't been a real smile. Not on her face.

"Suuuuuure you're not," replied Ben, matching her even stare with an equally irritatingly cheerful grin. "Well we'll just put that to bed for now."

Taking a sip of a smoothie that appeared, he added, "Check that. You're not like Kevin at all. He at least doesn't run with the dot dot dot expression all the time. Way more emotional. You're just you, that's all I can figure."

Ben grinned. "This is my first real stab at being intentionally annoying to get a rise out of someone and/or attempted flirting. How am I doing? Insufferable enough?"

"I wouldn't really know," Kala said, blinking at him in confusion. "If you're trying to be annoying, it isn't really working. If you're attempting to make a..." She trailed off with a slight frown as she searched for something to finish her sentence, "flirt," it came out the way someone might say a disease, "I'm not even really sure what that is, so I can't comment on that either. And I don't even know what a dot dot dot expression is. I don't find you insufferable, though, even if you are very talkative."

"All right, cool. That means you can stand me being just weird," replied Ben with that same grin on his face as he drained the smoothie in one long pull.

"You know, if you have time later, want to hang out together? Explore this place once in a while as friends? I mean, I don't really know my way around this place that well and hey, figured I may as well ask right?"

"Sure," Kala said. "I need to explore, too." She took her time sipping her tea, as if it were the only cup she'd get in a long, long while. She always made sure everything was carefully and slowly consumed. It fooled the body into thinking it was getting more than than it really was.

That was good for when food was scarce.

KARAOKE DANCE PARTY!!! [OPEN, COME GRAB FREE CR!]

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