Xaviers!

Haley cackles, places her fingers in her mouth and whistles loudly. "Wooooo!"

Basil wasn't on teams so he was uncertain what kind of a dynamic they had. As such, Basil wasn't sure if he was supposed to laugh so he hid his amusement tightly until others reacted. Which wasn't that hard to do for him.

Once it seemed everything is alright he makes sure to applaud extra hard to make up for it later.

"Well, someone's really playing to the audience." Jez said to no one in particular, smirking over a glass of white wine. Oh this was just the beginning. Now they were all going to try and outdo each other. This was going to be very entertaining.

"So did I pass the audition?" Sam smirks to Tereza in passing as she retreats from the stage for now.

She looks at Will a bit strangely as she twigs to the lyrics, but claps nonetheless as he wraps up.

"Who was that?" Bear asked Sam, leaning over from her table.

"Huh? That's Will. Let me guess, new here?"

"Yep. Direct from XI, More or less. I'm Byrna, but everyone calls me Bear."

"Do you turn into one?"

"Nope, it's just my nickname." She said, grinning.

"This thing seems to be going well! Lots of fun about."

"Well it's a fair question, aye?"

"My name's Sam. I turn into... all sorts of things."

Will tried to avoid Sam's weird look as he bounced down the steps, taking a seat by the bar.

Toshiro Narumi wrote:"Oh!" Tosh exclaimed, "Right! Drinks!" He scrambled to his feet like a good little boyfriend and headed to the bar.

"Thanks dude," he told Basil as he took the note. Turning to Shari and finally actually looking at her, he awkwardly hesitated with an expression of nervous curiosity.

Be cool. Be cool. Trust Nat.

He reeled in his nerves and asked, "So... uhh... what drink you want?"

Shari seems to put Tosh's nervousness down to buying a girl a drink, at least. "Something with an umbrella." she decides after a moment while listening to the others getting in on the singing game.

Samantha McManus wrote:"Well it's a fair question, aye?"

"My name's Sam. I turn into... all sorts of things."

"At this place? Yes." She said, her eye drifting to the stage.

"So, you're a shapeshifter? That's really neat! flora, fauna, or mineral? Something exotic?"

"I'm pretty good at people. I've managed some other things. Generally... meat things?"

"Very cool! It must come in handy quite a bit."

"Well you know, people get funny ideas about it. Definitely helps on missions, though."

"Little Miss Superspy."

Bear grinned, disguising her face with a two fingered moustache.

"So, am I on your level yet?"

Tereza hops up on stage while Natalie goes over to the karaoke machine and fiddles with it for a second. Then the music starts and Tereza immediately after it, seeming to know the words by heart, going through a song that wasn't on the list.

Byrna Cooper wrote:"Little Miss Superspy."

Bear grinned, disguising her face with a two fingered moustache.

"So, am I on your level yet?"

"I dunno, you tell me..." Shari says as she leans over from her spot at the bar and into the conversation, sporting a ridiculous bushy and twirled mustache.

Tosh ordered his trio of drinks and slid Shari's over to her. "Here you go, one umbrella drink courtesy of the invisible Englishman."

"Shari, right?"

"Yup, that's me!"

"I'm Tosh," he said, offering a handshake, "It's good to meet you. Natalie's told me a lot about you." He was trying his best to subtly let her know he knew of her alien-ness and had no ill will.

"Oh. Uhm... did she mention where I'm from?"

"Yeah. It's somewhere further than I'll ever travel, that's for sure," he chuckled, "Well, unless you count parallel universes. 'Cause that happened."

"Well my ride's busted or I'd take people for a spin." she chuckles.

"As you can see, Shari's better at being sneaky than I am," she chuckles.

"Don't worry, I'll still let you ride my sharkmobile... and you probably don't know enough about me to get that joke.'

"Don't worry, I'm sure it's hilarious in the right context." Shari chuckles.

"My mutant codename translates to Shark Man. I'm like Batman, but without money or combat training or bad attitude and I turn into a fish man..." he said, digressing, "...so not like Batman at all really..."

Bear had a great laugh at Shari's demonstration.

"Oh, this year is going to be awesome!"

She returned her gaze to the stage, seeing if anyone else would be brave enough to Karaoke.

Haley, meanwhile saw a distinct lack of people getting ready to sing, so she jumped up from her chair and bounced up onto the stage to fiddle with the karaoke machine.

After just a moment, a guitar and synth riff kicked up onto the speakers and Haley delivered a very energetic, though especially tone deaf rendition of https://g.co/kgs/msYd4p

Thhhaaannkkk Goooodd he was invisible for that one, as it was much harder holding in his amusement with her than with Will.

It wasn't the bad singing. Not in and of itself anyways. It was the bad singing, the cowboy get up,the fact that she was just a bit tipsy on cheap American beer, and the fact that she found probably the most honky-tonk song on the karaoke machine and of course, chose it.

She was a flag printed bikini and an AK-47 away from being a living stereotype and Basil was having a hard time hacking it.

Basil applauded her when she was done with just as much enthusiasm as he showed to everyone else.

He checked his phone, something he had been doing periodically through out the night, then looked up at Chase.

"So do you want to go first or would you prefer I embarrass you?"

Chase applauded politely but was reminded of a particularly unpleasant experience at a Madripooran karaoke bar. And that was before he killed a guy in the bathroom.

"Oh no. Don't put it off on my account," he smirked.

"Wooo!! That was great!!"

Bear clapped and cheered, and started on her first beverage of the night.

Basil sighed and stood upright Instead of going directly to the machine, he went to get something tucked away in a corner, a microphone stand.

Letting out a long exhale Basil started shaking off the jitters. He hadn't really done this in awhile, not in public. In private while his room-mates were gone with the broom? Sure, but not out here in the open. And not with the weightier stand since his year 9 talent show.

There wasn't a whole ton of options out there that worked well with his falsetto voice on the rotation just because the songs tended to be easier so that anyone could sing them, but he had managed to find one he liked and had done this to before in privacy.

The song he chose had a bit of an intro which gave him time to get up there after starting it up to get positioned.

And then it started.

"Can't explain all the feelings that you're makin' me feel!

Basil was not only capable of hitting notes some people found 'impossibly high', he was dancing as well, full on hip gyrations with the sort of flopping knees that only a man who had drainpipe legs could get away with.

By the time they made it to the first guitar solo and Basil had launched into a series of microphone stand tricks (including one that involved him rolling it over the 'slightly raised' stage area as if it were a Bop-It before kicking back up into his hands) it would become painfully clear to more talented types in the room that Basil wasn't just singing Karaoke.

Like a few before him, Basil was performing.

Dressed rather casually compared to her usual getups, a certain young lady arrived just in time to see things really start to heat up. Colette wasn't going to sing, oh no, she couldn't carry a tune in a bucket even if she could be carried in one herself. But Kareoke night was cheap entertainment and an excuse to try something new from the bar. Though that part would have to wait, she was left staring from the back of the room, giving Basil her undivided attention. How could someone so stiff and British move like that?

Jezabelle polished off her glass of wine and signaled the bartender for another. Competition had just heated up and the butterflies in her stomach needed to be drowned in alcohol. Was there even a prize? She was beginning to have second thoughts about going up on stage.

Basil had somewhat forgotten what it was like to be up here. He couldn't really tell if anyone was watching at all, which was rather the point. To force himself into being seen, even if it meant making the biggest jackass of himself in front of a large group of people.

Until he saw Colette staring at him all the way in the back. That was enough.

In an instant, the entire room could see him standing there watching Colette back, After a moment, he winked at Colette.

Haley and Sam would at the same time feel something different pressing against their psychic shields, something so subtle it would almost be missed had it not been in sequence with Basil's appearance.

Basil didn't really seem to notice whatever the two of them had. He clapped his hands in time hoping the others would join him to finish out the song.

Sam quirks a brow at Basil, trying to feel out just what seems to be emanating here.

"Hullo!" a semi familiar, obnoxious voice replied back.

Haley too would get the exact same response if she pressed it.