Karaoke Time!

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

*There is a karaoke machine in the bar. It is very large and very pink.

Therefore, Xander assumes that it must be evil.*

Wow ... didn't know they had an open mike night ...

*He approaches the karaoke machine slowly. It lights up and looks inviting-- as inviting as a possibly-evil-because-of-its-pinkness karaoke machine can be.*

Whoa!

Comments

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

*Xander recognizes a fellow member of the High School Loser Society.*

Always a good thing. *extends hand to shake* I'm Xander.

[thedigitalpimp.livejournal.com]

He shakes hands. "Mouse."

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

Mouse? That's a nickname given by fun-loving peers, isn't it?

*Xander spots the skeleton on Mouse's shirt, and something clicks.

This is cool.

He refrains from making Matrix jokes.*

[thedigitalpimp.livejournal.com]

"It's my only name now, I guess. But, uh... you know how it is." Mouse shrugs. Talking about highschool-- or anything about his old life, really --isn't the most fun thing in the world. Mostly because it was all a program.

Mouse's number one skill is not the topic change, but he likes to pretend it is. "So what's your story? Dead, alive, stuck, from the future, from another world...?"

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

Alive, from the future-- well, I guess that's all a matter of perspective, actually, and very, very stuck. I guess I'm from another world, too. A demony world.

[thedigitalpimp.livejournal.com]

"A... demony world?" Mouse is intrigued. "And when you say future, do you mean after 2199? Because technically I'm from sometime around then, nobody knows for sure, but you could also say I'm from sometime in the 1990s, and that could also be right--"

Mouse likes to talk.

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

By "future," I mean 2003. But I'm guessing that's your past. *Xander's brow furrows.* Um, but it could also be your future.

*He decides to stick with what he knows.* Yeah, demons! Sharp teeth, magical powers, fondness for virgin blood ... I bet your universe isn't anywhere near as fantastically fun.

[thedigitalpimp.livejournal.com]

"My universe turned out to be one big program," Mouse says. "And then I got unplugged from it and things were even more fun. What with the eating nothing but goop every meal and the Agents and the dying. Did I mention I got killed by a SWAT team? 'Cause, yeah."

Mouse is kind of bitter. Just a little, though.

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling.

Not, you know, of being killed by a SWAT team. But grand-scale dying? Totally there.

Er, sorry about being killed, though. And the goop.

[thedigitalpimp.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, it sucks. A lot. But, hey. I'm sure demons suck too." Because... vampires... suck...

Yeah.

"And then there was that whole movie thing."

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

Oh! Right, I, uh, actually knew about that, but I thought maybe telling you would be like on Star Trek where it makes your universe collapse on itself or something.

Was the movie thing ... bad?

[thedigitalpimp.livejournal.com]

"Andrew told me a while ago. I'm mostly used to people knowing about it now."

Mouse looks vaguely uncomfortable. "And, uh, yeah. It was bad. There was... a lot of stuff I didn't know. Like what Cypher did. And, um, watching most of my friends die isn't my idea of a good time. Not to mention watching myself die." He doesn't look at Xander. Stupid woe.

Mouse's questionable subject changing abilities... not kicking in. Damn.

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

*Xander looks at him sympathetically.*

You know, when I'm forced to think about the deaths of close friends and/or myself, I like to have a giant sundae to sugar-high my woes away. Sound good?

[thedigitalpimp.livejournal.com]

"Sounds great." And Mouse actually looks a little bit happier. Good work, Xander.

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

Bar? A giant brownie sundae, please?

*And one appears, with all the fixin's. It is indeed a giant among sundaes. Two spoons lie beside it, and Xander picks one up.*

Dig in!