trans_9 | Enchanted Aquatica---the Prom [WIDE OPEN Y'ALL]

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Enchanted Aquatica---the Prom [WIDE OPEN Y'ALL]

The day had finally arrived for her big event, and Starfire couldn't be happier---or more nervous, actually. She was certainly not an expert on the inner workings of a prom, but it couldn't be too terribly complicated, right? As long as the people could eat, dance, and talk, it should be a reasonable success.

With that in mind, her decorations sprung from her mind into the large dome all around her, transforming a grey Sensorium into a beautiful underwater world, one with clear waters and free from the possibility of a shark attack.

The first change was the scent of the air, shifting into the comforting salty scent of the seas. Then the ground beneath her feet became a hardened sandstone, maintaining the gritty texture while remaining easy to walk upon---except for the smooth dance floor, of course. The grey dome transformed into a flowing bluish-green, rippling all around with fish of all colors passing in the background. Some of the 'sky' faded into a violet tone over the dance floor, lit by glowing circular lights in every color. Suspended in midair, they almost looked like motionless fireflies, though they sometimes swayed in tune with songs.

Tables arose from coral in all colors, rising from the ground and twisting to provide a flattened surface on the very top---rounded ones for guests, and long tables off to the side containing shell-bowls of food. Chairs were large floating clam shells with well cushioned interiors, some large enough to hold two people. More comfortable spongy places to sit were also littered across the area, notably by the large shell-shaped enclosure that was the promised swimming pool. It too was lit by the floating lights, providing what she hoped was a romantic atmosphere.

Finally, the glowing stage above the dance floor couldn't help but attract attention with its chairs. Six royal thrones and one plush chair of all colors directly in the middle rested in the back of the stage, leaving the front open for announcements. Just off to the side of the stage stood the DJ's table, with even that machine painted to match the soft underwater glow of the scenery.

Everything finally seemed pleasing to Starfire. With one last change, dressing herself in the formal attire of the prom, she sent out the signal to everyone and waited. She hoped they would have a wonderful time.

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Howard selects a table off to the side, with a good vantage point to watch who's dancing with whom and easy access to the food. Parties really aren't his sort of thing, but he figures it's best to be seen after everything that happened on Galilee, and he did nominate Zouichi, after all.

At the very least it should give him a chance to make fun of some people's outfits.

Sam was kind of checking out the place (and some of his female shipmates in their formalwear), making sure no one was getting into trouble. But what he found was Howard sitting off by himself. "Hey," he started. "Did you get stood up?"

"Nah. Decided to go stag." Besides, given his total lack of interest in dating, asking someone to go with him would be almost disingenuous. Not that lack of honesty usually bothers him, but in this area it makes him uncomfortable. He doesn't even know how to pretend to be romantic. "You? Waiting for your wife to pop?"

"Don't make me have to take you under my wing, Howard. Let me put it this way: I even had a girlfriend's mom ask me to take her to prom." God, he sounded old, he thought to himself. "And am I ever. She's never even gone to normal school, let alone to prom, so this would be really special for her." He tried to keep the memory a bit lighthearted, but he couldn't help but go back to dancing lessons he gave her before their wedding.

"Well la-di-da, good for you. I'm just not really interested," he says, getting a little bit defensive. It's not as if no one's ever drawn his lack of dating knowledge to his attention.

"Lucky her. Normal school is a pain in the neck. Hey, maybe next year I can nominate you two for prom king and queen."

You know where Zouichi was looking for Howard? A table off to the side, with a good vantage point to crowd-watch.

"I was wondering when you'd show up."

"Dude, where've you been? I've been sitting around waiting for you for like, a whole ten seconds!"

He raises an eyebrow at the coat, though. "What, no Nuon hat?"

"Wouldn't have matched the costume," Zouichi said. "What, you didn't dress up? I thought it was required."

Alan, from his perch aboard Zouichi's shoulder, is giving Howard a look. It's a look that says I'm watching you.

"Jeez, Zou, I'm wearing a collared shirt. What more do you want from me?" Because he doesn't want to look like he should be singing opera with you, Zouichi. "So where's the future queen?"

He returns the look at Alan, although Alan benefits from not having to blink much.

Zouichi frowned a little at it, as if concentrating. "That must be why I couldn't find you at first. And Alastirra's not here yet."

Alan didn't have to blink at all, unless you counted his nictitating membrane. "Tee hee hee," he said, in Lash's voice.

"Well, I guess if you're going to get maybe crowned it's good you didn't go with a hat. I wonder how a tiara will fit over her horns, though?"

Howard jumps back. "Wait, so Alan's a mimic now?"

"Aren't you counting the crowns before they're bestowed? I don't think Alastirra and I will actually win."

Zouichi smiled, scratching Alan's head. "He's awfully, talented, isn't he? He's been picking up words left and right."

"Oh, come on! You're so cute together! You managed to make it by overcoming the obstacles of your total lack of dating skills!"

He shakes his head. "Talented and creepy. Although I guess that could be useful. Can he do my voice?"

Have an eyeroll, Howard.

"Creepy?" Zouichi looked vaguely insulted. "It's just imitation. And I'm sure he could, if he wanted to."

Alan didn't look like he wanted to. Alan was doing his best impression of the Fry squint (http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee233/kattdogg23/fry-squint.jpg).

Have an innocent grin, Zouichi.

"It's a really accurate imitation. That's why it's creepy. Like from the second Terminator movie, you know?"

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Anwei stopped by the table, and the long trailing strands of her dress swept around her legs and along the edges of the table in a rather disturbingly lively fashion.

"Already tired from dancing?"

"I don't dance," he says, before looking up at Anwei. "Holy shit, did you make a hula skirt out of glowsticks or something?"

She mentally measured the distance from Howard to the food tables; yes, that would be enough reason for him to come, even if he didn't dance.

"This?" She spread out her arms and the dress reached up, waving between her fingers (and baring perhaps a bit more of her legs than was quite proper). "It's actually a recreation of a real dress I wore once - all Stacy-built in here of course. Which makes it much, MUCH lighter."

The original dresses were not worn so much as steered by the wearer, as servants waited with long reclining couches to catch dancers who collapsed under the weight. What she was wearing now was about seventy-five-percent pure hologram.

"I'm just scared that a lot of innocent sea anemon-mena-anne- sea things died to make that dress." It is an interesting dress, though. "What was the occasion, first time around?"

"Died?" She looked down at the dress. "No, it was quite alive. Genengineered. It only lived for one night though, and if you stayed out dancing too long it just withered up and fell off."

She stroked the tendrils through her fingers. "Poor things."

"And the occasion was," she frowned, "some sort of memorial victory celebration, for some old battle that involved an ocean. Or was it an interstellar hydrogen bomb? Get enough history under your belt, and there's a reason for a party every night. At the time I felt entirely put upon by the whole process." A shrug. "I was pretty obnoxious back then. Even more so than now."

"Sounds embarrassing. Were there cameras around for the inevitable wardrobe malfunctions?"

It doesn't bother him so much that they're created to die. They barely get a chance to get attached to life, just with one night to live.

"Eh, you're not that obnoxious. You're way less obnoxious than almost everyone else here." That's as close as he'll get to giving anyone a compliment tonight, probably.

She laughs almost silently in the back of her throat. "Cameras? Howard, the Ninth Empire was a total-surveillance society. You couldn't do anything, anywhere, without being recorded; you could fart in your sleep and wake up to an audio remix of it being played over the newsfeed." A rather twisted smile. "And you'd get paid for that remix, of course, being the subject of it. There was no such thing as privacy. It goes along with not having a lot of the freedoms that other societies have."

And humans picked flowers and let them die, in vases and corsages, right? No real difference between that and a living dress.

She looks a little wide-eyed at him. "You haven't been drinking, have you? I'm pretty certain that I've been awful to some people. Zouichi, for example."

He shudders. "That sounds awful. God, Maw, someday you might even get me to admit my world sucks less than yours."

He pulls a face. "Ew, no. I hate booze. It leaves you all dehydrated. You're better off not drinking anything." Besides, it's one of the few things Howard doesn't like the taste of - or the nasty effects he's seen in others. Ironic, for a bootlegger.

"And Zou totally isn't who I'd trust to tell me who's good people or not. If you haven't noticed, he kind of hangs out with jerks."

"You were on your way," she warns him, head cocked. "I visited your England, while I was on Earth - cameras in every major city. Just a few more years, until the cameras are everywhere, and computer-driven face-recognition gets cheap enough, and linked into the ID databases, and you would be able to find out everything about everyone. Wouldn't that be nice?" Her tone is definitely mocking. "Never meet a stranger again: know everyone's name, their habits, their vices and virtues without even talking to them. Think of how safe you'd feel!" Back to her normal tone. "Safe, as in the opposite of free."

"I don't adjust very well to alcohol either," she confides. "As for Zouichi and jerks - should I add, present company excepted? - considering he was raised for battle, he's surprisingly sociable. And I abused his sociability. My error, and I probably can't undo it. So." She shrugs, palms out and up. The tendrils of her bodice do sort of a rolling wave to stay clinging to her. "Better luck next time."

"I can't decide if I like that idea more or less than just not having any electricity or computers at all. On one hand, I guess it'd make everyone a little more honest if there's no point in lying."

He wrinkles his nose at her. "Did more go down between you than I know about? Because I think it'd be hard to top selling him into a gladiator ring, but the way you're talking, it sounds like you did worse."