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And Blackjack [IC]


alderwitch

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Ace smiled as he returned Jacks almost too tight hug and whispered ever so quietly, "See the difference is I make this look good."

Then released Jack to saunter over to the bar and retrieve his drink from the waiting barman, "Well I think the tradition dictates the birthday girl go first." He said with a grin and a playfull swat to the posterior. He leaned into Derrick, "Karaoke night my man." and gestured to the still unoccupied stage in the corner.

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Ace had about a half of a second of contact with his hand on Taylor's rear end. Startled, she automatically phased which left Ace's hand passing through her midsection. Taylor rapidly scooted out of the way of everyone's hands so she could solidify without there being a messy incident.

"I think that being the birthday girl means I don't have to go first." Taylor announced once she'd put Jack between herself and Ace again. "Besides, I promised Stesha I'd have a drink with her first."

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When Taylor seemed more annoyed than actually frightened by Ace (a healthy response, in his opinion), Jack ignored his 'brother' and focused on Taylor. "I'll break the ice, then." He grinned at her. "Call it Present #2. Pick the song, and it's yours." He raised her hand to his lips and pecked it. "I can make no guarantees of skill, only of passion." He leaned close and murmured in a stage whisper, "Just don't say you've heard that one before."

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Derrick raised an eyebrow. "Karaoke? I'm not familiar with that. It sounds Japanese, or perhaps Chinese. Is this some kind of drinking game?" As Dark Star, he'd thankfully missed the last decade or two of fascination with horrible amateur singalongs. Nor, when he had been Derrick before all of that, had he had a particularly active social life. The concept of going to bar and drinking had been pretty unusual then too. He blinked a little as he started putting one of Jack's comments together. "Drinking and singing? This seems...unwise," he said lightly.

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"Hey, watch it!" Stesha told "Vince" indignantly on Taylor's behalf. It took another few seconds for her to see behind the disguise. "Oh, it's you. Why are you wearing that outfit?" She looked around at the rest of their party, all of whom were wearing normal clothes. She wondered if maybe Jack had told Ace it was a costume party, just to make him feel silly. He looked silly, but it didn't look like he felt silly, at least.

Turning back to the bar, she ran her fingertips fondly over Derrick's cheek and smiled at him. "It's fun," she promised, "you'll like it. You get to see your friends' hidden talents. And if everyone is drinking and singing, no one can be too embarrassed. The words are right up on the screen, so you don't even have to remember anything."

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"You have to start with a classic. How 'bout Survivor, Eye of the Tiger? You could borrow Ace's leather jacket and everything." Taylor said with a grin that was downright impish. She pressed a quick kiss against Jack's cheek in thanks before she answered Derrick, "It is fun. And you don't have to go buy yourself. You can sing in twos or bigger groups if you want. I'm not sure how much good the alchohol is going to do this group anyway as far as liquid courage goes. You can also set it up so that you have to sing whatever comes up on random. That can get a little wacky."

Taylor glanced around. Actually, she rather thought more than half the group was metabolically challenged when it came to alchohol consumption.

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"Eye of the Tiger it is," said Jack with a smile. "I'll stick with my sports jacket, though." He asked the bartender for help with the karaoke machine, peering at the instructions carefully, before taking the mike in hand. He opted not to pay the extra money to have his performance recorded, reckoning there was no use looking for trouble. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said as he tested the microphone, "I'd like to send this one out to all the ladies in the audience, especially the lovely Taylor Chun. Here's to many more 21st birthdays!" And with that, as the music started, Jack burst into song!

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Lynn took a cab up to Kingston, her first time north of the Wading River; this was not her turf, but she was happy for Taylor, and sort of intrigued to see a few of the Knights in their civvies, especially 'post-breakup'. She'd come up with a decent look fior the evening: kickass low-heeled boots, black jeans and a black silk jacket over a pale pink blouse. A flat wrapped box was tucked in the crook of her arm.

As she pushed open the door of the bar, she heard a familiar set of power chords, and she grinned.

"Uh oh, here we go."

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said as he tested the microphone, "I'd like to send this one out to all the ladies in the audience, especially the lovely Taylor Chun. Here's to many more 21st birthdays!"

Oh man, no way. :o

It took her a few seconds to get over the shock of seeing Jack up there getting his Survivor mojo on, but then she saw Taylor and a few others drinking together, and she made her way across the nearly empty bar to join them.

"Hey hey, birthday girl!"

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"Hidden talents?" Derrick looked somewhat skeptical. Singing in front of a crowd? While possibly inebriated. It seemed rather embarrassing to him. But oh well. When in Rome. He'd seen stranger activities; he could handle this. "Ah, yes. Well, it your birthday. Far be it from me to detract and be a 'party pooper'." Though he was happy he wasn't going up there first. "Good evening Lynn," he greeted Grim as she arrived.

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"Hey, not sure if you know everyone. Have you met Stesha? Stesha, this is Lynn." Taylor waved at Lynn once she'd elbowed Ace when it looked like he might start heckling Jack. She blushed at his dedication, glad for once that she was holding a glass in one hand to at least cover the bit of fluster.

"You have got to have seen weirder things than us, Derrick. Well, maybe not." She admitted with a grin as she glanced around the assembled guests. "As odd, at least. Right?"

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"Hi, nice to meet you," Stesha said cheerfully, reaching out and giving Lynn's hand a friendly squeeze, if the other woman didn't seem too put off by the gesture. She continued ignoring Jack in favor of the action off the stage, splitting most of her attention between Taylor and Derrick. "Don't worry," she told Derrick, "we won't make you solo until you're ready. It helps if you have a few drinks in you first, warms up the vocal cords," she added with a teasing grin.

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Ace dutifully if with no small difficulty refrained from commenting on Jacks performance. "Don't worry about it Derrick." He said relishing his friend and comrade being solid as he clapped him on the back, "We can show em how its doen when you're ready."

As Lynn entered he flashed her a dazling smile, "Well hello there." He said as he strode across the room still in character. "Vince Farretti," He said leaning in closer, "Quite daring showing up the guest of honor at her own party." He admonished flirtatously. He didn't look anything like the Ace she knew and had worked with but under the smell of new leather and exhaust fumes were the delicate notes of the man himself.

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Derrick chuckled at Taylor's comment. "True enough, true enough. But listening to me sing seems less like fun and more like some form of bizarre and vaguely ineffectual torture," he said with a smile. He was not exactly musically inclined outside of appreciating the physics behind the harmonics of a tune.

He gave Stesha's hand a squeeze. "Thank goodness. I'll happily observe and cheer everyone else on. I'll skip loosening my vocal chords I think," he said smiling. He looked over at Ace. "I'm sure you'll be great as usual. You certainly don't need me to detract from your performance." Ace was very likely great at this. Anything that could help woo the ladies he seemed to have spent quite some time on over the years.

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""Good evening Lynn,"

Lynn tipped her head to one side, then grinned. "Nintendo DS, is that you? Can I hug you in this form, 'cause I'm gonna try!"Â The tiny Jerseyite wraps her arms around him.

"Hi, nice to meet you,"

She returns Stesha's hand shake warmly. "Nice to meet you! Do you know Taylor from, uh, 'work'?"

"Well hello there.""Vince Farretti," "Quite daring showing up the guest of honor at her own party."

Lynn sniffs the mysterious newcomer experimentally, then rolls her eyes.

"Vince! Jack's long lost...relative! It's so good to finally meet you, Vince. Even though I've never met you before, you get a hug, too, because that's just the kind of gal I am!"

She does her best to crush him in a bear hug while whispering in his ear.

"Worst. Disguise. Ever." ;)

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Jack focused on Taylor as he sang along with the cheesy 80s pop ballad, shutting out the distractions all around him with the focus and drive of death itself. He put his heart and what passed for his soul into the music, rocking and dancing along with it in an undignified, cheerful sort of way that bespoke far more dedication than talent. When he was done, he took the smattering of applause from the onlookers and waved the microphone around. "All right, who's next?" he called with a laugh. "Who'll fight the dragon of music?"

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Ace grinned and replied, "That sounds like my kind of girl." as he returned Grims hug. As he disenganged he winked, "Jack loved the look, wished he could pull it off but you know." He ended with a sarcastic shrug.

Ace glanced to Taylor, "So you want the next shot at glory or shall we serenade you further?"

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"Plenty of glory to go around. Go on, Ace. We all know you love the stage." Taylor teased him without any Malice. As Jack descended from the stage, she shifted so that she could slip one hand into his and lean up to peck his cheek. She flashed him the smile that dimpled both of her cheeks, "My hero."

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Stesha took her drink and worked herself around so that Taylor and Derrick and Lynn were all between her and Jack, just the way she liked it. "Sort of," she answered Lynn's question, "though I mostly just freelance. And I've put together some flower arrangements for her from time to time." Stesha's green hair, which today had tiny yellow flowers braided into it, was not a bad clue as to her general line of "work," for those in the know. "How about you?"

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Derrick accepted Lynn's hug. "It has been some time. I trust you've been well?" He looked up at the stage as Jack finished and clapped in encouragement. "That was well done. I never knew you were a singer," he said politely. Jack might not have been that good, but the man had obviously poured himself into the song and done his best. Derrick nodded in encouragement for Ace to ascend the stage, not that the man needed any.

He shifted a little as Stesha moved around, mainly so he could still be beside her even though he didn;t particularly realize why she was moving. "Lynn was a member of the extended...group that we formed shortly after my return. She and some others joined up after. It was a noble endeavor." Until I screwed it all up, he thought to himself even if he didn't say it. He still carried quite a bit of guilt for that day, among others.

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Derrick accepted Lynn's hug. "It has been some time. I trust you've been well?"

She shrugs and smiles. "I've been okay; my whole world's exploded and my mind's been blown, but I'm pickin' up the pieces. It's starting to look like my life again."

"Hi, Lynn," he told Grim with a careful smile. "Nice to see you again."

Lynn smiles a very complex smile, with hints of sadness, affection and ironic detachment. "Hello, Jack. Nice work on the song; I wanna to see what you do with Bon Jovi."

"Lynn was a member of the extended...group that we formed shortly after my return. She and some others joined up after. It was a noble endeavor."

The tiny heroine turns to Stesha. "What Derrick means is I like kicking butt, but he's too darn polite to say that; I'm not really good at anything else. And speaking of which-"

She turns to Ace and holds out her arms dramatically as she goes fo her best Pavaroti imitation.

"Sing!"

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Ace carefully perused the playlist, as usual the selections were both limited and bizzare, but that as half the fun of Karaoke wasn't it? Settling on his chosen selection he took to the stage mic in hand. "This goes out to all the lovers out there tonight." He said with a wink Taylors direction. Given Aces usual perversity what followed was something of a surprise as the opening chords of 'Can you Feel the Love Tonight' emerged from the speakers, his robust voice carrying without need of amplifacation throughout the room.

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Jack applauded politely when Ace was finished, leaning close to Taylor. "So, do I get to pick your selection?" he teased. "Or are you going to leave that up to the madness of the crowd?" He grinned and added, "There are so many to choose from, and I think the birthday girl deserves the very best. That's why you brought me along, isn't it?"

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Lynn, a die-hard Disney fan, visibly perked up when Ace started his song and softly sang along in a pleasant untrained voice. When he finished, she appluaded enthusiasticlly.

"Taylor, you should sing something by Blondie, I think it would suit your voice. Me, I have to get a little lit first."

She orders a rum and Coke, of course having to flash her ID, as she no doubt would have to for years without using her powers. Once she has her drink, she returns to the group, gnawing on the little plastic straw.

"I'm still trying to pick my first song. I might go with something by Queen, but not "Bohemian Rhapsody"; I mean, I love it, but it's a bit overplayed, y'know? Maybe something by Heart..."

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"It's only fair, go ahead and pick one. I only regret that I'm going to have to go up stone cold sober. The price I pay," Taylor replied, her dimple flashing as she laughed. She couldn't remember the last time she'd smiled so much. She twisted to reply to Lynn, resting comfortabally back against Jack as she did, "You should pick that Highlander song. You know 'born to be kings' and all that."

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