2012-08-19 Secret Show

However discovered - word of mouth, a mysterious flier, a friend who heard or got a flier, psychokinetic brainwaves from the collective subconscious or crazy rumors on the internet or what have you, hell even just walking through and seeing people queuing - tonight brings some life to Old Gotham's Monarch Theater.

No cover is being charged for the event, though there's a couple of people with a tables set up. One is for the Thompkins Clinic, the other is selling what looks like a last bundle of Dazzler swag that survived a protesting purge; and it's mostly bumper stickers, buttons, and iron-ons of a promotional shot from the ill-fated movie.

Dazzler herself is at the stage, occasionally smiling and waving to people as they arrive but mostly just tuning the guitar in her hands and chatting with the very nice young men who are backing her on keyboard and drums.

All in all, it's not an overtly large crowd - the place will probably be about 3/5ths full if the estimates are generous, and it's not a large venue to begin with. But so far, the vibe is good.

Thank you, Twitter. Anya hasn't seen Dazzler in ages -- she was still Araña the last time she'd bumped into her! -- but that was just all the more reason to make the trip out from Queens for the gig.

After stopping by the tables for some buttons and to drop a tenner into the Clinic's jar, Anya's made her way into the theater proper, torn between wrinkling her nose at the state of the old building and /far too excited for her own good/. Up comes the freshly-charged smartphone for a picture, and then she's trying to weave her way as close to the stage as possible. Fangirl? /Perhaps/.

Barbara Gordon is here as a volunteer for the Thompkins Clinic. Hey, how do you think Oracle got all her little spy gadgets into the clinic? The wheelchair-bound redhead is at the table, passing out literature for free vaccinations and drug counseling.

The girls know when something's afoot in their sphere of influence. They usually ignore community events like this except that this one has all kinds of interesting people associated with it--a lot of mutants seem intent on attending. That makes it worth showing up.

They wrap themselves up in their usual 'not my problem' field--being disinteresting and even a little despicable is far less work than being outright invisible--and drift over. The line-up seems a little mundane so they pick up on a train of thought from someone helping set up and come in by a back door.

That there must be this Dazzler person. |"I don't get it."| Phoebe does the mental version of a head-tilt. |"Me either,"| Esme says. |"Well, it's -music- stuff,"| Sophie reminds them. Right. Music. They're still not clear on why people like it so much. Working on it, though.

Well, why not? Rain's pretty retiring and shy (The Engineering Cave?), but she does remember the hijinx of last time's appearance, and so ... why the heck -not-. Mind you, she looks ready to bolt under the fridge with a calculus book and hide. But she's here. She did spend some time being homeless in the city, dodging those fire shooting, knife wielding pigeons. She does sneak her way over towards the Clinic and sneaks a 10 in, too. She likes music, but crowds? Crowds she's not entirely sure on. She smiles politely at people in passing, looking a bit wide-eyed at it all.

Tony Stark. Dazzler Fan.

It can be said that Tony Stark just likes to be wherever there's something going on. However, the fact that he has arrived with a set of young (but of age) models could mean that he's here for them. After all, as they all climb out of the back of the expensive limo he's chosen to use for the night, each of them dressed like a Dazzlerite, it's easy to see just why he may have chosen to bring them here. Or is it the other way around.

Tony's rocking a 'Dazzle Me' t-shirt from some time ago, jeans and sneakers. Yes, for once, the Stark is dressed down and still looking as amazingly Stark as ever. As they go up to the tables for merchandise, all six of his model dates are going bonkers for merchandise. Meanwhile, Tony's taken to his phone to get his tweet on. As usual.

@IAmIronMan: Gotham is about to rock. I'm at the Monarch. Where are you? #DazzleMe

Hugh was in Gotham anyway and someone had passed the word of the concert on to him so he decided to stop by. Some cash was dropped into the clinic's donation jar before the man from down under moved to find himself a place to sit. Some people told him good things about this Dazzler so he's looking forward to the concert. His first one in America. Settling into his seat, he looks around at the crowd and has to do a double-take when he spots Tony Stark of all people. "Woah."

Marissa doesn't have a Dazzler shirt. Well, she did. Her dad made her burn it when Dazzler got outed. Sigh. Instead, she's elected for jeans and a rainbow tie-dye t-shirt with 'Always Be Yourself' printed on it. As she enters, she makes immediate note of Tony and...six? Even he doesn't need six, she thinks wryly, but she's actually heading more towards the Thompkins Clinic table, dropping a bit of cash into the receptacle on it. Not a lot...she's saving up...but a bit. Dazzler at the stage, tuning her guitar...looks like her anyway. So, this IS for real. Awesome! She wishes Stephanie had shown up, as she WAS wandering around in a Dazzler shirt the other day. Hrm. Any shirts in that merchandise? Rummage.

A couple of familiar faces, a decent line-up of people she met at the Clinic and during her two terrible nights on the street (worse for the low-lifes she tangled with) - Dazzler is definitely feeling good about this. She seems to be looking for a specific face while the final sound-tweaking wraps up... but instead she lands on Tony MFing Stark. And her jaw drops.

Putting one hand over the mic so that none of the concert-goers overhear her, Dazzler looks over her shoulder at the keyboardist. "Well. So much for low profile. Commissioner Gordon is gonna KILL me." Helpful as ever, 88 Keys just shrugs at her.

AAAANNNYway. Once everyone finishes drifting in... the hell, is the line outside suddenly getting longer? Oh man! -- Dazzler just takes her hand off the mic and decides to speak up. "Thanks for showing, everyone - tonight's dedicated to a good friend who didn't make it in tonight, but this was all his idea. I hope you enjoy the music, drop phat tipz in the Thompkins Clinic jars. All the proceeds from the swag table are going to the Charities arm of the Wayne Foundation. They do a lot of awesome work with local groups, so don't make me carry any of that stuff out with me!" She points an accusing look, but her eyes are sparkling and she's grinning. "Thanks again for coming!"

A bit of a throat clearing, and then she loudly taps her foot, "One, two, GO FOR IT!" And the drums bang and Dazzler's guitar wails out the intro to one of the singles from her album.

Awww, yeah. Front row center. Anya is the best fangirl ever. She beams up at the stage, oblivious to the Event That Is Tony Stark unfolding behind her -- at least, until she checks her phone's Twitter app. Oh, man. She /wants/ to Tweet back, but... secret identity. The /agony/ of it all. Secret identities are literally the worst thing ever.

Anya takes a deep breath to steel herself and turns the app back off, swapping it for her camera instead. This gig ain't gonna Instagram itself, folks, and she is ready and willing to serve.

Babs can't help but chuckle at the mention of her dad. She turns her head towards the musician to listen to the opening song. She might, MIGHT just be here to show Doug she supports mutants. She sees Tony Stark arrive and grins, before handing him a pamplhet on avoiding STDs and unplanned pregnancies.

The girls find a perch--literally--in the shadows up behind where Tony and his gaggle of models are rocking out. They don't 'get' Tony Stark anymore than they do the popularity of modern music--power and money, they understand, but not *Tony*. The music, though, is becoming clearer.

Getting to surf the waves of Dazzler's brain and the happiness of her band, that's engaging. And the level on which they see, thoughts and minds, is boiling with bright and enthusiastic thoughts. |"It's a bit like being drunk,"| they muse. |"Only less toxic."| That makes a great deal of sense. |"It feels nice, too."| The bass beat is pleasant on a physical level.


 * "I like her,"| Phoebe says, with the telepathic equivalent of hearts in her eyes. Sophie stifles Esme before anything snarky floats into the gestalt.

Rain is a little overwhelmed. People. People everywhere. Musical noises! That Tony Stark guy! And some scantily clad women! Sensory overload. But it's at least, a positive sort of sensory overload and no one's trying to set her on fire, so it works. She boggles a bit, but smiles. She's in the fair to middling crowd, hovering dangerously near pamphletsville. She pauses. Are those sisters from - well, she's seen them, but it's nice to play Where's Waldo with people she's seen around. A polite smile at Babs as she mingles through the crowd like an electron trying to find a nice positron to chill with. The happy aura is infectious, so she quietly goes with it. And at least this version of Where's Waldo doesn't involve Waldo with a sniper rifle. Anyway. She grins as Dazzler speaks. It's admirable, that happiness and talent.

So many model chicks, so little time. Tony Stark is paying for more merchandise than these girls can even carry so there's going to have to be some picking up after the show. Stuff gets tossed into boxes and everything, but these model chicks are grabbing glowsticks and whatever else before they head to their seats. Of course, they leave a seat for Tony right in the middle of them. There is a lot of ditzy giggling going on from them. Oy.

Stark gets handed a pamphlet and he tucks it away into his pocket. Why not. But that's also when he decides to drop a couple thousand in the jar. Because charities and clinics and everything like that are his bag. He's all about the helping out of people. He doesn't even have time for a snarky stark remark about the phamplet because there's music about to go down and that's definitely what he came here for. Maybe. All the merchandise gets paid for too. Apparently, Tony Stark brought cash on purpose.

The phone is put away by the time the jams start and Stark is with his models and getting his rock on. Yeah, so his chest may be glowing from Arc Reactorness, which is making the 'Dazzle' in his Dazzle Me shirt sparkle even more than it already was, but that just means this whole thing is going to be amahzing. And yes, Tony Stark is getting his dance on. Which is weird because he's dancing with six model chicks that are in danger of bouncing out of their tops at any moment.

Any moment at all.

As much as Hugh would like to buy more stuff, he's on a budget and doesn't have too much cash as it is. He at least buys a glowstick since he's always liked those. He ignores the models near Tony as he watches the man, both surprised to see him and having a little bit of silent admiration for the guy. When the music starts, Hugh nods his head to the beat. It's better than what he was expecting so far.

Ahem. Marissa pounces on a Dazzler shirt *before* Tony can buy up the merchandise. Not that it isn't indirectly his money she's spending anyway. She'd wave to him, but he's got his back to her, for the most part. So, instead, she tucks the shirt into her bag and moves to sit down. Dang...she's every bit as good as before her hiatus, at least to Marissa's ears. And it might be made all the sweeter by how angry her dad would be if she was here.

As she starts in on the lyrics, Dazzler can't help but be wrapped up in the moment -- this is the only place where she feels like she can give her everything, pour out her heart and soul and focus emotions as fine as the laser-beams she can shoot from her fingers, and validation from an audience? ALWAYS awesome, especially when they're totally digging the presentation!

Before the end of the first tune, Dazzler's literally started to glow -- she just can't help it, the snatches of sound around her transforming effortlessly into light -- telltale sparkling rainbow-colored diamond pinpoints and prismatic 'bubbles' and an overall soft glow that just won't be contained.

Okay. With the glowing... Anya just can't resist anymore. One snap of the camera app and she attaches it to a tweet:

@the_spider_girl: You see this glowing? Yeah. Not everyone can do that. #DazzleMe

Stupid risk for an obscure reference taken, Anya glances around shiftily and abandons her seat to go stand off to one side instead, so that she can a) dance to the phat beatz, and b) avoid anyone who might see the message and look for its vantage point in the crowd. Nothing! Nothing!

It's hard to hate on Stark when he drops a couple grand in your charity jar, but the modelettes nearly falling out of their shirts comes close for Babs. She grunts and removes the money from the jar, counting it carefully under the table and logging it in a ledger, before putting it in an envelope and inside a lockbox. Rain gets her nod and smile returned though.

There's Anya, but no Laura. |"We miss Laura."| |"Don't think about that right now."| |"Let's try this... thing."| The girls slide down from their perch and head over to the merchandise table, ducking under people and coming up with a selection of T-shirts.


 * "These are very small."| They fit, yes, but... when in Rome and all that. The girls tie their hoodies around their waists and put on the T-shirts--no one's looking, hush. Good enough. As for money, well, Sophie's pockets are always a little full and she's got lots to spare tonight thanks to Remy. The last thing they want is for the Clinic to get accused of bank robbery. They pay for the shirts--no one gives them any attention--and drop a handful of bills into the donation jar. The Mobsters of Gotham have contributed to the Clinic. Again. If only they knew how much good they're doing!


 * "Now, come on!"| That's Phoebe, doing her best tugboat imitation to get her sisters into the crowd. |"Dancing is good for you."|

Yay! A smile back. Rain boggles some of the clothing, but that's hardly new. She seems amused as Tony buys up stuff. Still, the music is awesome and she's content to listen. She's blissfully unaware of the tweeting going on. She smiles at the Cuckoos in passing, too. For her part, she's watching things, likely debating where to stake out a spot and/or listen best. For now? Lingering is good. Sizing up the crowd and listening to Dazzler's a pretty good start on being social for Captain Awkward of the USS Derp. "Oh, erm." People -dance- at these things? Wow.

"Ladies."

Stark's command has all of his models stopping in the middle of their dancing fits and within moments, there is a synchronized revealing of Stark Shades and they all pop their elbows, unfold their glasses and shove them on their faces. Stark is right there with them.

Perhaps these are some more than regular shades that are technologically designed to make the glowing experience happen in a much more awesome visual state! Perhaps when marketed correctly and sold at concerts they would be considered Dazzler Vision. Perhaps they are designed to be used only with Dazzler's specific style of mutant ability! Perhaps... they are just cool shades. Who really knows.

They are not. But shhhhh. Prototypes.

Tony may or may not be attempting to catch Dazzler's eye during his dance fever motions. If he can, he simply mouths: 'After The Show' to her and tosses a wink. Oh snap. The Stark Wink.

People dancing, huh? Hugh grins and decides to join in. Getting up from his seat, he moves off to join in the dancing and almost bumps into Anya. "Whoops, sorry there," he offers with a little laugh.

Oh...right. Dancing. Marissa pops up as quickly as she sat down. Then rolls her eyes at Tony and the shades. He probably can't see her. Probably. Tony. Equal parts awesome and exasperating. Sometimes for the same reasons. Oh, yeah, and she can dance. Not, you know, like a professional, but knowing how to move and carry yourself helps. As does awesome music. (Produced by a hot singer, but ahem, she's not voicing that, rainbow shirt or no).

'Oh snap,' indeed. Alison catches Tony's wink, and since people seem to be in a mood to dance, transitions the next song into an even more deliberately 'dance' tune - though it's a cover. A somewhat Rocked-Out version of Gaga's 'Summer Boy' - it's vaguely dirty, like all Gaga's songs are, but Dazzler manages to emphasize and tinge the charged and simple lyrics with both regret and longing.

"Whup!" Anya is quick to dance out of Hugh's way to try and avoid a collision, phone held up and out of the way. How she manages not to plow into anyone else in the process is anyone's guess. She laughs it off and waves a hand. "Don't even worry about it," she tells Hugh, pitching her voice to carry over the music. "Wouldn't be a concert without knocking into people, would it?"

Anya pauses and leans slightly to one side long enough to get a shot of Tony and his entourage. Yoink.

Babs holds up her S-phone to take some video of the Dazzler performance, so she can send it to Doug, with a "Wish You Were Here!" message. Nerds.

It's easy to do like the Romans when you can reach out and skim the knowledge out of the churning mass of thoughts and emotions. The girls do -not- like the idea of being caught on camera, though, so they stick to the thick of the crowd.

Sophie loses no time stepping on someone's instep when they elbow her in the kidneys. |"We'd be better off the other way,"| she complains. |"We couldn't hear people that way."| |"Everyone would be looking at us."| Bright lights plus organic diamonds are a great way to get attention they really don't want. |"Ow. People do this for fun?"| Sophie's ready to go home because her body's annoyances are overriding the fun around her.

Esme, for once skipping the part of being a cynic, shoves the empty, bubbly, giggly, smitten impressions of one of Tony's models into her sister's thoughts. ...in retrospect, this may not have been the most well-considered tactic.

Even the Romans had some candidates for hiding under rocks, it's true! But Rain's making an effort to reach out and socialize. Sorta. Or at least not run and hide. She politely smiles at people in passing, even the models. She seems to avoid dancing though, for now. It's cool just to watch and sponge the atmosphere. The Brawny man would be proud of Rain's social sponging capabilities. She can appreciate without risking elbow to spleen. It works.

Dirty Songs? They Rock. Because it gets the models riled up and that's definitely something that needs to happen. Especially, if Stark's Dazzling Plans don't pan out tonight. Who knows, though. Who really knows.

It's almost like a Stark Train Line the way Tony moves from Model to Model to Model... and so on. Tony is just moving to the music as much as he can. Unfortunately, it is not very good. But then again, it's Tony Stark. He's too rich for people not to just go with it in the first place.

Yes. He might even be singing along. Not loudly. But if anyone's paying enough attention and are close enough, they can hear him. How does he even know this song?

Hugh laughs, making sure his voice could be heard over the music too. "Wouldn't know! This is the first one I've been to in this country," he replies, grinning. "They're tamer here," he adds, mostly joking. When the song changes, Hugh arches a brow but it doesn't stop him from dancing. "Are all of her shows like this?" he asks, tilting his head towards the stage.

Keeping moving, keeping dancing...aha. NOW Marissa is in Tony's field of vision. She flickers him a wave. Equal parts awesome and equal parts exasperating, but how many times does one's BOSS come to what's basically a rave? Most bosses don't do things like this, which is, definitely, one for the awesome column. Grin. Hi, Tony.

It certainly didn't start OUT as a Rave! Not in intention, anyway -- and now hordes of people have showed up and they're being turned away at the door and there's not enough swag to sell to satisfy and the security -- 3 guys and a dog -- is definitely stretched thin. Dazzler's light show and glowing shift and dance along with her, matching in brightness, veracity, pattern and emotional inflection to her singing precisely.

It's a good thing the venue is a burned out hulk of a place, because it's starting to warm up from all the bodies. The sound technician has to turn things up to keep everything audible to everyone, and Dazzler's lights become intense enough to poke through the open holes in the ceiling - and the bass can be -felt.-

"Only the good ones," Anya tells Hugh with an impish smile. She seems to pause when the bass goes up and she can't help but laugh, bringing one hand up to cover one of her ears. "Though not usually this loud!" She loves Dazzler, but she needs to find somewhere to rock out that is not next to speakers, ouch.

Barbara's shift at the table is done, and she passes off the duty before rolling to the back of the crowd to watch without being run over. She fades into the backgroun.

In the gestalt, where everything runs so much faster than in reality, there's a horrified silence and then Phoebe gasps, |"ESME! What did you do?!"| Esme wasn't really thinking about it--for once she was having fun and Sophie was being -Sophie- and she was going to make them go home, and |"Uhoh. I didn't mean to do it THAT hard. I forgot we're that good now!"|

Oh, yeah. Uhoh. Sophie wasn't expecting that. In the gestalt, they're all wide open. Zero defences when Esme decided to imprint Sophie with brainless fangirl model #4.


 * "Ee! Tony Stark!"| Sophie prances on her toes. |"Ooh, how do I look?"| She starts pulling the bobby pins out of her hair.


 * "Esme, put her BACK!"| Phoebe grabs Esme by the shoulders and shakes her. Esme is too horrified by the consequences of her impulsiveness to react right away.

Sure, it'll wear off, but right now? Sophie is momentarily brainless and giddy and... oh, yeah. Bounding off to meet Tony Stark. Bounding. Bouncing. All the same thing in a shirt that snug.

"Tony!" As her sisters flounder after her in some slow-motion desperate lunge out of a horror movie, Sophie throws her arms around Tony's neck and plants a kiss on him.

It must be cool having identical sisters. Imagine the sheer prank potential. It's incredibly cute, too! Rain smiles faintly and then blinks as one of the sisters goes and hugs Tony Stark. She's brave. Rain has to give her props for that. And that shirt, too. Granted, the shirt would probably be loose on Rain, for the bosom pixies neglected her mightily. But still! Wow. She's watching wide-eyed.

"So you're a Dazzler fan, huh?" Hugh guesses, smilign. As the bass goes up, he winces and covers one ear too. "Loud is just like home," he laughs out.

Stark is... surprised to say the least. His models are rocking out too much to really care. After all, this is a party concert thing for everyone and because it's Tony Stark, it was bound to happen sooner or later. While Tony is dealing with an arm full of Sophie, the models kind of box her and the Stark in. Just to make sure that they can all dance and rock out together.

Stark is not about to just let this go without doing or saying something. He's hoping his models are capable of blocking any straight shots of any cameras that are happening at the moment. It's funny how they just seem to dance right in the way to make sure there's no clear shot of what's happening between Stark and Sophie. Funny how that just works, isn't it? Totally a coincidence.

"... Please tell me you're 18." comes from Stark's mouth as he works on pushing her away just far enough for this to not become a Federal crime.

And...poor Tony gets fangirlpounced. Which IS a word. Wow. Marissa is trying not to laugh at the situation Tony's in. Cute fangirl, too. The bass is...well. She can feel it, and she really hopes it doesn't hit just the wrong frequency. Which might be why the teen is now sort of working her way into the models' pattern. It's to keep next to Tony, honest. She's not a fangirl...she KNOWS him. Sort of. Kind of.

The lights draw another sort of attention too - from above. Of course, the line around the block and people getting turned away at the door and the whole outside bit starting to break up with frustration gets attention too, but the lights are where it's at for one purple and black-striped costume wearing helmeted gotham weirdo with mechanical wings.

Killer Moth has NOOOO idea what's going on, but wow is that a lot of people to potentially harass and -- ooh, lights! Swooping down towards the source of it...

Dazzler's eyes are keen, of course, even in the midst of the radiance that is her awesome self... and - there's a moment when she breaks character in the middle of the song to sort of look up and non-verbally 'ABUH?!?!' while she sings. No time to notice Tony mack on a teenage girl. Not that it would be a SURPRISE.

But the song is coming to a climax, and - yeah, that'll work. As soon as the last strum, drum-pound, and keyboard chord go down all at once, Alison's hand goes UP and a quick POP! of light fills the theater. Not enough to blind but just an attention grabbing 'Ta-DOW!'; all to disguise a similarly quick ZAM! of solid photons to blast Killer Moth out of the sky and well away from the venue.

After which, Dazzler dramatically pulls her gun-finger close to her lips... and blows.

"Huge! I've been a fan of hers for ages," Anya tells Hugh, beaming. And then there's a commotion, enough to draw her attention, and... oh. Oh, no. "'scuze me," she asides to Hugh before she starts very quickly, very carefully darting through the crowd towards Tony.

Well. Not /Tony/. Anya is aiming for Sophie and her sisters. Wrangling science projects seems to be her new lot in life. WHATEVER. It makes her miss the finale and that is awful, but she must prioritize.

"I just turned eighteen," Sophie informs Tony with great enthusiasm, trying to wiggle closer again. In the back of her head, a tiny part of her is kicking and screaming as brainless fangirl model #4 drives her life into the ditch. The rest of her is completely in *~lurve~* with one Tony Stark, awesomest dude in the history of ever. "I'm Sophie!"


 * "Nonononono."| Phoebe throws herself into the fray and manages to get an arm around her sister's waist. She was having fun until now. Dazzler is *~the best~* as far as she's concerned. Forget Tony Stark!


 * "That's it, I'm erasing his memory of this."| Esme has never been one to shy from making a bad situation worse.

"Don't you dare!" Sophie heard that. Her hand closes around Esme's wrist and yanks Esme in. "We're triplets," she informs Tony, in case he missed that part.

Oh dear. Fangirl battle. She's seen this on the internet. Rain hides her eyes. ... peeks through a couple of fingers. Hides eyes again.

Still, the killer moth thing? Poor guy. Rain tries not to giggle too much as the poor guy gets blasted. Sure, on one hand, it's kinda serious some poor soul got zotted. On the other? Moth vs laser. Maybe she's spending too much time around Loki or something. Because she simultaneously thinks it's hilarious and feels horrible about it.

Moment to look up at the ceiling...

(Wait, was that Killer Moth? What the hell?)

... and Tony Stark is silently thanking the Powers That Be for making sure that this girl was eighteen. Eighteen is a very good number when getting fangirl'd on and kissed in a very public place. This allows for his hands not leaving her... and just making the smile he's wearing when he looks back down.

"Triplets." Tony Stark is looking back up towards the ceiling once more and there's another silent THANK YOU passed off to those same Powers That Be that have given him three more girls to play with. All he needs now is a Dazzler to finish off the set. Finally, his attention is back on the three of them and he's flashing a big ol' smile. "There's room in the limo for three more. I'm throwing the after party. You three are going to come, aren't you?"

Don't read his mind right now, girls. Don't.

Hugh blinks as Anya goes off, head tilted to the side. And then his attention is drawn to the Killer Moth event. Cursing under his breath, Taz starts towards the exit. If he has to transform, he's going to do it in private so he can avoid ruining his clothes. Marissa Sometimes narrows her eyes, glancing up as Dazzler sees off Killer Moth. She hopes. Great. Joy. She can't really see anywhere around here to change and if she did? A costumed super showing up is likely to escalate any problems. So? She stays dancing with the models, flickering one of them a grin. Of course, by the way they're moving, she rather suspects they've been hanging out with Bethany some.

Oh, when you can practically SMELL the costumed superheroes in a room: The ones who pay attention, the ones who notice, the ones who furtively look for places to be. Dazzler has no idea who any of them /are/ in their costumed identity, except for Tony because he's freakin' Iron Man and everyone knows it, but is that a tiny satisfied smile on her face?

There's one more song to go, though; the guitar is set aside, the drummer leaves and the keyboardist takes over there while Dazzler moves to the keys. She begins playing the opening bars to Fiona Apple's 'I Know' in a quiet loop.

"Thank you all for coming tonight. I wouldn't have anything if I didn't have people like you," Dazzler says frankly and earnestly into the mic while the drummer soft-sshhhs the subtle back beat. "Your love and support means more than you know."

And then she starts to sing.

Ah, such a nice song to make a fool of herself by. Anya's life, let her show you it.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark," Anya says as she comes up on The Man, The Myth, The Legend. She inches around towards the Cuckoos, flashing an anxious smile at him. "I think someone slipped something into her drink. She's usually not like this. We should probably take her home," she notes, turning towards the two Cuckoos who still seem to be in control of themselves. "Before she does anything she'll regret. Right?" Up go the eyebrows and she nods encouragingly. Say yes, girls. Please.

Oh, Sophie's reading... the problem is that she likes what she sees-- or BFGM #4 does. "Of course, we'll come." She nuzzles her nose (and everything else) against Tony's, ignoring Anya. "I can read your mind and I'm in," she murmurs.

Esme takes a quick look and, in gestalt time, she takes a moment to examine what she finds there. |"Well. We could use some of that,"| she muses.


 * "ESME!!!"| Phoebe is horrified.


 * "It's -sticky- but whatever."| Esme shrugs. She's a pragmatic girl when she's not brainwashing her sisters.


 * "I. Am. Going. To. KILL. You. All."| Sophie grinds out from under brainless fangirl model #4. At last. |"If I get -sticky-, I'm going to kill EVERYONE."| |"ANYA. HELP."|

Snicker. Rain just can't not giggle at the Killer Moth thing. Sadly, she lacks telepathy, so all she can do is stare wide-eyed at the fangirlsplosion. It's like Pokemon, but with fangirls. Sophie used Snuggle! It's Super Effective! Too bad she doesn't know any of the names. Regardless, her superhero costume is clean. Rain owns like 7 duster coats and frilly shirts. Boom! She's trying to be politely oblivious, listening. Yup. ... heehee, moth.

Stark is not opposed to being rubbed up against or nuzzled or anything of this nature. "The more the merrier." is probably the only thing that Stark is going to say to these girls at this particular moment. "Just meet me out front after this is over." Perhaps even Anya is invited. Who knows. It is hard to tell whom Stark is talking to at the moment because he's surrounded by so many different styles of female. It is, of course, the usual for him. Which could be why he's not bothered by any of this.

"Spoiler Alert? I'm going to see if I can get our Guest of Honor to make an appearance." Tony grins as he looks at the girls that are surrounding him with a big Trump Card smile on his face. That's right. Now you HAVE to come to his After Party.

Staying by the exit and watching for any more signs of Killer Moth, Hugh doesn't overhear the fangirl splosion. He can see it though and it just makes him shake his head. "Straight boys..." he mutters, mildly amused.

Marissa Sometimes rolls her eyes at Tony. Not that she'd...oh great. She's going to end up at the after party. Of course, Tony's not her type. The Cuckoos, on the other hand... Ahem. No. She's not staring at anyone's chest. That would be too obvious. (Rainbow shirt or not). As there's no sign of Killer Moth, though, she relaxes and listens to the music, although she doesn't leave the group around her boss just yet.

As the last lines of the song drift out on sustained notes, at last Dazzler stops. The lights go dim, applause applause, and now the long stretch of general clean-up and packing things in a van to get them all back to their proper owners can begin.

Normally, Anya would not miss the ovation for anything... but this, this is a potential crisis. "We'll catch the next one," she promises Tony, before turning to Sophie as her voice rings in her head. Right. "You'll thank me later," she assures her, and then she reaches out to pry Cuckoo and Billionaire apart /just far enough/ to let her haul Sophie up and over her shoulder like a sack of potatos. She sighs mournfully at the thought of what she'll be missing flits through her mind, draws her lips back into a determined line and starts marching for the exit, trusting the other sisters to give chase. Probably. Or at least not crawl all over Tony.

"Maybe next time." Esme pats Tony's cheek on the way out. Always keep 'em wanting more.


 * "But, but... Dazzler."| Phoebe pouts cutely at Tony on the way out. Rats.

Good thing Anya got there because with the prospect of *~Dazzler~* at the after-party and Esme's fast-moving calculations about exactly how useful Tony Stark would be, Sophie could have ended up with a lot more than she bargained for tonight.

Sophie, meanwhile, is doing a fair approximation of |"asdfjkl;!!!"| in the gestalt as her mind slowly returns to normal. Ugh, she has boy cooties on her. This is -terrible-.

Oh dear. Rain decides that it's best to head on out, though she smiles faintly. She seems amused by the Tony Stark and Cuckoos misadventure. ... and Killer Moth. Bane to porch lights everywhere. She titters a bit and will meander along towards the door.

Stark would frown if it mattered. He's Tony Stark. There will always be more. But for the moment, though, he's content with making sure that everything gets handled the way it should be. Which is to say that he's whispered something to one of his model chicks and they have taken to making their way to their merchandise and trying to get out of this crowded place. They have to go and get the car ready.

Only one seems to linger, because this is the part where Tony is attempting to get himself up and on the stage. He must go and talk to the DAZZLER! Since she's probably the only one that wants to party still.

Hmph.

Hugh would party but he doubts he's invited. He claps along with the end of the song and smiles when he sees fangirl-chaos end. Shaking his head again, the red head shifts his bag and starts for the door too.

Marissa Sometimes is totally not leaving. In fact, she's doing her best to follow Tony onto the stage. Albeit, her reasons for wanting to actually meet Dazzler are completely different from Tony's, but she's still going 'after' the poor singer.

Once cleanup is mostly handled, the Dazzler is there to talk to stragglers. Autographs are signed, phone pictures are taken, that kind of thing. Finally, at last, she can join Tony and his... ahem. She gives the Dazlettes the hairy eyeball. "Excuse us for a few minutes, ladies?" and then she promptly grabs him by the arm, and smiling all the while, gives it a good hard squeeze. "You turned my intimate secret show into a flash mob, Tony -- do you have any idea how /badly/ that could have turned?"

"She'll have other shows," Anya promises the girls, hurriedly carrying Sophie back past the merch tables and off towards the exit. "I'll make sure you know when the next one is, even. Promise." Because /she/ will be attending the next one, and she /will/ get to say hi next time, mark her words.

Point. It could have gone badly...but Marissa can't really find it in her to actually criticize the guy who pays her. She kinda...looks down a little bit, standing nearby. She just wants an autograph, dang it.

Wincing is not a good thing. And poor fragile Tony Stark is doing that because of the squeeze. He can't help it. "You know I don't do secrets well." That's the only defense that Stark has. Well, that and his smile. Hopefully, the smile will keep him from getting blasted to smithereens by light! "You deserve a packed house every time you perform."

And off in the corner, just before going... Rain has found a stick and is quietly poking the fallen Killer Moth with it. She's likely testing for signs of moth life. Satisfied that he's not going to get back up? Rain will wander along.

"The crowds are /fickle/, Tony - there's always going to be fans, that's the nature of a public life," Dazzler concedes, softening her grip, taking a hold more amicably now. "But there could have been protestors, activist groups. People could have gotten /hurt!/ Security here wasn't prepared for that kind of a crowd." Sigh. And then she leans over and plants a kiss right on his smarmy cheek. "Thank you. I had a blast." Literally.

"It *was* rather fun," Marissa notes. And nothing did happen. This time. A bunch of protestors showing up would have been seriously annoying, though.

"We were more secure than you know." Tony quips, even as he accepts such kissing on smarmy cheekness. "Listen. I'm throwing you an after party. And I also have something I want to talk to you about. Which I'm more than willing to do at breakfast tomorrow." Oh snap! "Care to spend a couple days with me in New York?"

The Models have already started piling in the limo outside.

Dazzler just smiles at Marissa, signing her autograph good and big on her purchased T-Shirt, with a few added decorative flourishes, and then turns a stunned look at Tony. Her eyes narrow ever so briefly... only to just shrug broadly and break back into that smile. "Ah, what the hell. Sure!"

Marissa Sometimes grins at Dazzler. And then she winks at Tony. Those dancers. Yeah...she's SURE they were spending a fair bit of time with Bethany Cade. How else would somebody like Tony do it. She goes to get her bag and carefully place the signed shirt in it. SHE would like to talk to Dazzler too, but she is well aware she is thoroughly eclipsed by Tony.

"Excellent. Great show, by the way. I know you have a lot of autographs to sign so you can do mine later." Tony cracks a smile and winks at Dazzler, before leaning in to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Don't pack anything. Everything's on me." is whispered to her before he pulls away and turns to head off the stage. "After Party at the Mansion! Let's go, people!" Whether or not people are listening to him or not, Stark is headed out to wait for Dazz in the limo.