Xaviers!

Bear grinned and cheered, finishing off her fruity drink.

Basil's response?

"... Hullo!" in an identical cadence.

Basil looked at Sam for a moment out of confusion, but refocused on what he was doing.

"The hell..." Haley murmured into her beer bottle as she felt her shields strain ever so slightly.

Once he was done, Basil relinquished the stage to the next participant, taking the mic stand with him.

He was pretty convinced Sam was upset with him now but he had no context as to why, and instead of confronting her to find out why, he decided to make a bee-line to his emotional woobie: Colette.

Chase was laughing and grinning as he went over to Basil. "Holy shit that was amazing. I'm not sure I can even dare follow that."

Toshiro Narumi wrote:"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..."

"So more like Sharkboy." she teases.

"Oh God no," he shuddered, "That movie was terrible."

"I should... probably go take my turn before someone else who's actually good does and I lose all my nerve. We'll talk more after I make a fool of myself."

He went to give Haley her drink and grab his bag before ducking into the men's room.

"I think Basil just ruined that for everyone else, but that just means everyone else is gonna look terrible in comparison, so you're safe."

Colette waited patiently for Basil while he was being congratulated by his friends.There was no rush, her praise would still be on her lips once he arrived.

Haley took her beer, but still had a puzzled look on her face as she looked around. Spotting Sam wearing a similar somewhat expression, she reached out telepathically, "The hell just happened? Did you feel something like...poke at your shields after Basil did that?"

Now that they noticed it, the two might realize it never actually left. The output or signal Basil was giving off wasn't leaving so much as blending in with the cacophony of other, much louder psychic chatter.

If the situation were compared to a restaurant, what was emanating from Basil was the low volume muzak, drown out by all sorts of other sounds and activity including his own conscious thought. Easy to ignore as long as you weren't trying to hear it, but damned annoying when you did and couldn't place what it was.

Basil just laughed back at Chase. "It wasn't *that* great. Besides, it's still fun, even if I did school you."

"You totally did and you weren't kidding about being a performer. I didn't know you could even move like that."

Basil didn't really know what to say. He hadn't had anyone but Colette be so complimentary towards him in a very long time. He started laughing, and then, blushing and fidgeting with his hair, running his fingers through it.

"It's nothing, just some tricks I learned awhile back. Anyone could do it if they had too much free time."

"The dancing maybe. That falsetto though? You can't teach that. My ears are bleeding but in a good way."

Basil shrugged bashfully. "We all have talents I guess. Mine aren't as useful around here as everyone elses though. That's probably why you didn't know."

Bruce emerged from the bathroom and took the stage. He was wearing what looked like a giant unbuttoned red bellhop jacket over his X-Suit.

"Are you guys ready to rock!" he bellowed, holding the mic stand towards the room.

Regardless of any actual response, he put the mic back and started the music. He began bobbing as the opening guitar riff kicked in. With each boom of "thunder" his glow pulsed. When the actual lyrics began, his deep energetic boom of a voice seemed right at home with the song. While he had the right energy as he performed rock and roll antics across the stage, his sheer size and childish glee lent his performance an inescapable humorous edge.

Also, because he was a dancing shark.

Basil used the aquatic disaster as a bit of a distraction, clapping his friend on the arm and indicating where he was going,. Towards the back of the room, towards Colette. Basil wouldn't stop him from following, but the music somewhat prevented further conversation this close to the speakers.

Basil took off his sport coat as he got closer to her.

"Did you see me?" He asked of her.

"Alright, I don't know what the fuck is going on with this kid, but I don't want him to wind up in another coma or some shit," Haley replied to Sam.

"Basil, quit avoiding shit," she mindspoke across the room just in time to cockblock him. "What the hell was that that happened right when you turned visible?"

No one had talked to Basil in this fashion before from across a crowded room, so it caught him a bit off guard at first and definitely succeeded in managing to distract him from his target.

His back snapped upright and his head went on a swivel trying to find Haley. When he didn't see her in the immediate vicinity, he decided maybe he was just supposed to... think? Is that what she was expecting?

Now that he'd heard both of the telepaths voices in his head, he more or less gathered they were both listening in on him. He was inexperienced, but not a thickie.

"I don't know what you are talking about. I don't know what I did to upset Samantha. I don't know what I did to upset you. Please don't be angry at me. I didn't mean to upset anyone. I'm sorry." His words seemed very deliberately chosen, as one does when two different telepaths have a squishy, extremely important consciousness under their command.

"I'll bug him after this song," Sam sends to Haley, queueing up as Bruce finishes up.

As she hits the stage, she once again starts keeping the beat, launching into another drum-heavy song with similar confidence to before.

"I have my mother's dreams, I have my father's eyes, you can't take that from me, just go ahead and try..."

Colette smiled softly at Basil and nodded her head. "Yes, of course I saw you, I arrived just in time. You were wonderful."

Of course, she gave him a look of concern at his sudden change in disposition, unaware of the silent conversation taking place. "Is somezing ze matter Basil?"

Basil's expression changed from concern and discomfort to a distant smile as he looks back at Colette.

"Nevermind it for now." He says, and drapes his jacket over his head as if it's raining. He then started stooping down to her height, and the jacket was slowly brought over the both of them.

"Kiss kiss?" He asked, but didn't take.

Tosh re-emerged from his impromptu dressing room and took a seat with Haley.

"So... that happened..." he grinned sheepishly.

Haley seemed intensely distracted with her mental discussion with Sam and Basil, but she smiled and kissed Tosh, "you were awesome, sweetie."

"Teep stuff?" he asked perceptively.

"Yeah," she replied, not technically lying. "Just a lot going on hard to focus."

Sam makes her way off the stage as the song ends, winding through the crowd towards Basil and Colette.

Colette's visage took on a more opaque and lighter pink appearance as she slowly nodded, leaning in and closing her eyes to press her lips to Basil's.

Basil kissed her once, but the session of suck face was cut off when he opened his eyes to look at Colette for a moment and noticed another pair of shoes and legs that weren't his or Colette's. Basil stood upright, the jacket still over his own head, but not Colette's now due to the height difference.

"Hello Samantha." He mumbled from behind his jacket.

"...cute."

"You know you were visible, up there?"

"Yes. Still am." He said, waving a visible hand as if in greeting.

"Which is why I thought if I stood like this you might not be able to see me.

Is it working?" More avoidance.

"I'm just checking, because you haven't noticed it always."

"Something... odd happened up there."

Basil seemed to be taking this a little more seriously now that he didn't think Sam was mad at him for something. He pulled his jacket off his head.

"I'm not breaking again am I?" He frowned in concern.

Bear had been rocking out pretty heavily to Sam's song.

She grinned, congratulated her, and made her way to the stage.

She queued up the machine, and launched into a folk classic.

"You haven't ever shown signs of being telepathic, have you?"

"Like listening to peoples thoughts? I can't do that. I can't lift things with my mind either."

"While you were up there, Haley and I felt something pushing against our defenses."

Haley Crusek wrote:"Yeah," she replied, not technically lying. "Just a lot going on hard to focus."

"Kay. I'll just get my drink on and be quiet," he answered before starting on his beer.