Event: Welcome Barbecue

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

Staring a war? That actually sounded like a lot of fun to Laharl. Show these stupid humans how very foolish they were. Plus, a war was bound to get some attention, and that was something Laharl was more than ready for. Unfortunately, the blaring music kicked in, making Laharl wince for a moment. He had to admit, it had a nice beat and all. A bit soft compared to the usual music played in the Netherworld though. Well, they either went extremely hard or they had that sort of creepy stuff that Laharl's old man always liked. The Overlord found himself reminiscing for a few moments, remembering King Krichevskoy and the palace and all the people back home...

But Laharl got over it. He shook his head fiercely, instead looking at the back of the head of the guy... the country who would be his first victim. Smiling devilishly, Laharl crept up behind him. He produced a sack, opening it slightly.

What happened next was a bit hard to see. A few dancing people conveniently meandered close to the area, and what with the loud blaring music and all, even Laharl's "stealthy" actions were pretty easy to miss. But it did seem that Laharl had lured Tino away, with the latter staring interestingly at the sack for an extended period of time. There seemed to be some mention of sweets or presents or something. and then there might have been a sack shoved over a head and some application of a baseball bat... which probably wasn't strictly necessary but was certainly kind of fun. It's okay though, Tino was a lot more durable than he looked. At any rate, the end result was that the demonic Overlord was soon escorting the country of Finland out of the party. He even walked right past a few suits, grinning and saying that the teacher wasn't feeling well, and that Laharl was going to escort him home...

[and thus does Laharl kidnap Tino, and both leave for plotly shenanigans.]

[Kori Ander]

Kori more or less brushed off Jasmine's half-hearted comments about Twilight. The purple-haired girl was off, likely to begin doing precisely what Kori fully intended to do. She could almost feel the music beginning to rise, and it was certainly hard to miss the various musicians and people getting things set up and together. Everyone was gathering, drawing toward the dancing area like moths to a flame.

And Kori intended for Jasmine and Kori to join them. Hence the arm grabbing and the heading toward that general area. The swelling music was about the make conversation rather difficult, but if it was one thing Kori was completely confident in, it was talking to Jasmine over loud music. She beamed at the girl now, turning slightly to face her.

"YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THE WORRYING! THE EARTH DANCING IS QUITE EASY! YOU JUST MOVE TO THE MUSIC!" and Kori began to do so, demonstrating surprising grace. It probably helped that she was quite literally light on her feet. But the driving beat of the song made it pretty easy to dance to, especially when that dance mostly entailed bobbing and wiggling the hips in time to the music. Kori had already dragged Jasmine into the dancing area, and now she bumped hips. "DO THE MOVING! PERHAPS WE CAN LURE THE CUTE BOYS TO COME DANCE WITH US!" And Kori looked for precisely that, wondering if there were any left that had not sneaked away or dealt with choking persons...

[Helena Bertinelli]

Helena ignored the music that was starting and took the cup from her fellow teacher--Ms. Doe, if she remembered properly. She'd had trouble not laughing at that name, but the woman seemed perfectly serious about it. Talk about a culture change.

"All right, all right, let me in," she said to Hiro and Jane. She nodded to Jane. "Thanks for the water--we'll use that in a minute. Give him to me, Hiro." She picked up the kid and wrapped her arms around him, hauling him up to a semi-sitting position. Tucking her hands together and settling them in position, she began performing the Heimlich maneuver on the student, getting him to cough up the steak.

Once she felt that the situation was dealt with, she stood up and gestured at the student. "He can have that water now; just make sure he takes it slowly." She brushed off her clothes and pushed her hair back into position. "And in answer to your question, I actually get called a lot of things, including reckless. And I usually take it as a compliment." She grinned, remembering all of her various scoldings. "Never stopped me from helping people. That's something worth risking yourself for. But this kind of stupidity?" She cast the student a wary glance. "There's such a thing as natural selection."

Checking once again to see if everything was okay, she looked at her two fellow rescuers. "Thank you both for your help. I'm sure he'll say it too when he gets a chance."

[Deleted]

It was time for yelling again. Jasmine couldn't help but smile. This was exactly what happened during their first meeting, and now it was happening again. While the yelling in itself was pretty fun now, what was being said wasn't so fun. So she'd have to try her hand at dancing. That was going to be hard, she was sure of it.

"OKAY, I'LL TRY IT," Jasmine yelled back at Kori. She started attempting to mirror Kori's moves. At first, she did it terribly, but it didn't take long until she wasn't missing a beat. Mirroring Kori's moves weren't hard at all. Actually, it was kind of fun. And exciting. It was like running, but without the traveling. She could do this kind of thing and never get tired of it, she was sure. "THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!" she exclaimed.

[Deleted]

Within moments there seemed to be a swarm of people around him. Luffy was lying flat on the ground now, his rubber lungs refusing to take air. This was impossible! It was like drowning, which was feeling Luffy was extremely familiar with a recently reminded of. Water hated him and he'd been cursed to lose his ability to swim, but he wasn't in water now. He was on solid ground as far as he could tell through his blurry, oxygen deprived haze. How could he be drowning above water!? More importantly how could he make it stop?! Normally Luffy felt quite alright about the idea of dying. If he died fighting for his ultimate goal in life then that should be okay, right? Only...he couldn't remember what his goal in life was! All he knew was that his hat was important, Zoro was his friend, and his devil fruit powers were failing. AND he was slowly succumbing to the worst possible death he could think of. How could meat betray him like this? No, NO. He couldn't die like this, not yet, not until he had something to fight for. He refused to die now.

There were insults flying, which Luffy assumed were not meant for him. Someone was pouding on his back which only hurt and made him cough more. Then there was a glass of water in his face, but he'd lost too much air to raise an arm. It wasn't until some lady wrapped him in a weird hug that he felt the obstruction forced back upward through his throat. With one final squeeze the round, hollow bone of one of the steaks shot out of his mouth, along with some tasty bits of meat, and headed for the face of one of the people by his side. It was the guy, Luffy realized, that had been unhelpfully pouding on his back.

With air now rushing it's way back into the rubber man's lungs it was all he could do at first to stare at the meat splattered guy and breathe. Whoa. He managed to huff, blinking away tears from the stress he'd just been through. Luffy actually looked a bit traumatized, having been so close to death thanks to something he loved so dearly as food. There was a brief moment of what is happening to me? and another that went something like Oh hey I'm alive, thats cool! and by then his brain had woken up enough to burst into laughter and point at the person he'd just spit up on. He didn't may any attention to the woman who called him stupid again, not exactly understanding what she meant by natural selection anyway. Plus it was hard to hear her now that the bad had started to play. Thats what Luffy needed! A musician! Right?

[Deleted]

The concerned look still clear on her face, Minnie nodded at Rapunzel as she explained how she liked it here. The little girl tried to offer a soft, understanding smile, but her eyes remained dutifully anxious. She was already on edge given her own sudden sift into a world outside her own, but it was extraordinarily upsetting to see the same thing happen to those she had come to care about from afar. Meg had never been quite cheerful, but Minnie was afraid of what might come of her without Hercules to redirect her story and her heart. What would become of innocent Rapunzel outside her tower without Flynn to guide her? And over there! There, was that Jasmine conversing with a red-haired girl that Minnie had never seen before? Where was her prince to free her from her royal prison? Speaking of princes...

A men then approached the two of them with very familiar gestures. Rapunzel was easy enough to recognize with her very long hair and Meg always carried around that demeanor of death and deep purple eyes. She couldn't be sure with Jasmine, but that girl was the right age and race. This man could be anyone, for all she knew he was from this world. Given the amount of people here that Minnie was almost certain she did not know, she had do conclude that not everyone here had perviously lived under the Disney title. Although the way he bowed and greeted them made her wonder if he could be one of the princes. He was the right age, but in this form, who could tell? What did it matter right now anyway? He was being awfully polite and Minnie was not one to be rude in return.

Minnie pinched each side of her yellow dress and curtsied sweetly at the mention of her name. Her pretty brown eyes glittered kindly as she looked up at the young man who bowed for them. Henry she thought Henry Charmant. Ooooh she should know this shouldn't she? Unfortunately it would seem several of the Disney Princes preferred nicknames like 'charming' or even just 'the prince' to their real names.

[Ichiro Yoshi]

[aww, c'mon guys, back blows are what you're supposed to do when someone's choking and still coughing v.v ]

Hiro heard the comment from the willowy teacher, and he turned to look at her. Something in her tone, well, the tone mixed with the fact that she was, in fact, an Asian teacher, instantly made Hiro feel somewhat ashamed. He looked to the boy, determined to still help even though that embarrassment was threatening to take over. "You're right, sensei, but still it was foolish--"

But the other teacher had finally moved into action. Hiro moved aside slightly, letting her get to the choking student more easily. He didn't completely leave the scene, wanting to be ready in case he was needed. While Hiro wasn't completely positive, he suspected that he was the strongest of the three rescuers. Plus, he couldn't help but feel like he had something to prove, especially with the two teachers present.

Then came the vomit. Hiro really should have seen it coming; he'd been squatting right in front of Monkey the entire time. The stuff had to go somewhere. Given all those ninja skills, Hiro should have been able to dodge out of the way, letting the spray head somewhere else. Instead, he caught the full face full of it, with barely enough time to squeeze his eyes shut. Hiro felt the warm liquid and meat chunks fly over his face. He swore he felt something like half a hotdog plastered to his left cheek, and there were definitely flecks of ribs dangerously near his nose. The ninja took a deep breath, not daring to open his eyes.

The music blared too, though at least Hiro likely numbered among those that actually liked that kind of music. He took a deep breath and leaned back. "Can I have some of that water now?" he asked, forcing himself to remain calm. It was that or attack Monkey, and something told him that the two teachers would not be happy if he tried it. Hiro had to squeeze his hands tight to suppress that urge, and he practically trembled.

[Kori Ander]

"IT IS MOST ENJOYABLE!" reiterated Kori. She let out a whoop of glee as well, her dancing as fluid as ever. Jasmine was proving to be a quick learner, which Kori had pretty well figured. That meant that Kori only had to pay a little attention to her friend, mostly to make sure they were still keeping more or less together and all. For the most part, Kori was still scanning the crowd.

So she caught the vomiting action, which made her wince and move a little closer to Jasmine. Catching the other girl, Kori jerked her head, indicating that they should dance away from where people were returning their barbecue in an expeditious fashion. Kori decided that the best way to do this was by dancing her way toward the stage, though this did mean bumping into a few people. Kori giggled more than once, flashing apologetic smiles as she cleared a path for the two of them to head to the front of the crowd. A new song would probably be starting soon, after all.

[Henry Charmant]

"It's good to meet you, Rapunzel, Minnie." He smiled at the girls. "Minnie...Mouse? That's an unusual last name. Might I ask where it comes from?" Actually, Henry had heard rumors of talking mice in his own world, and he knew that Twilight used to be a pony, so perhaps this was a mouse from his own world. It was a long shot, but it might be nice to have someone else from his world.

Suddenly, a raucous din came from across the field. Henry winced and looked over at a group of people calling themselves a band. "Is that...is that meant to be music?" he asked, watching some of the other people begin to migrate to the dance floor. "Things certainly are...different here. Though I'm told that much of what I'm used to once existed in this world, a few hundred years ago." He sighed, wishing for the good old days.

"I'm so sorry, where are my manners. You don't want to hear about my life. Please, tell me a little more about yourselves. Or would you maybe..." he turned to the music and winced slightly again. "Perhaps you would like to dance? I'm sure it's just an acquired taste for me."

[Deleted]

Jasmine couldn't halp but giggle when the boy got thrown up on. It was strangely funny. Maybe the joy of the dancing was messing with her brain. She couldn't think of a reason why it would be funny. No one else was reacting that way. Actually, almost everyone that saw it happen looked completely and totally grossed out. She was the odd one out again. Jasmine's giggling turned into full on laughing. There was absolutely nothing funny, but she couldn't help herself at this point. She almost stopped dancing because of her laughing when Kori grabbed her.

She turned her head in time to see Kori jerk her head and start dancing off. Jasmine followed right behind her. She was able to dance around everyone pretty much effortlessly. Her trained ability to move through crowds was a big help, but Kori getting most of the people out of their way helped a lot, too.

[Eva Vogel]

Eva heard something behind her. She dismissed it as some of the music echoing off of whatever was behind her. But what was really behind her? Finland was behind her! Eva spun on her heel, but a bunch of dancers conveniently swept her up. She couldn't see anything through the wall the dancers formed. They were all around her. "Finland?" She called, getting worried. There was no response. She pushed her way through the dancers to find him gone. Her face was a mask of calm, but she was freaking out on the inside. She turned again and ran to the first people she saw. It was two young ladies, one with brown hair and the other with blond, and a young man.

"Excuse me," Eva asked hurriedly, "Have you seen a man with blond hair pass by here? He would have come from that direction." She pointed to where she had been. The dancers were still in a convinient wall. Had Finland jst been swept up in them? No, that couldn't be. Where in the world had he gone?

[Deleted]

"C-Certainly. Of course. But I do believe you will need more than what I have got in my hand." Jane replied to Hiro, honestly trying to keep her calm and demure disposition while the pungent aroma of vomit and Luffy's mocking laughter filled the air. The events that unfolded while the band kicked up the stage were nothing short of spectacular: Ms Bertinelli's answer was well-timed with as much wit and verve that Jane expected from the confident woman. And she even impressed Jane with a bold and out dated move which (as old fashioned as it may be,) proved to be quite effective on the suffocating student. SO EFFECTIVE in fact that it finally ended with the young Japanese boy being covered in various gastric contents belonging to the amazing swallowing talent that was: Monkey D. Luffy... That projectile vomit which Jane Doe was thankfully spared from, save for a few stray bits of juice that ended splattering back on her black dress. But seriously, by the looks of the stuff that flew into Ichiro's face - did he NOT chew any of it before swallowing? She was beginning to see why the other two had called the boy an 'idiot.'

At least he was breathing now, chuckling jovially now in fact.

"Well done, Helena. Can I count on you to save me too, once they bring out the dessert~?" A coy smile to match her delightful chuckle while she swiped a few napkins off a neighboring table. You have got to learn to laugh at these things, Jane figured. Though she did refrain from calling her fellow staff by their last name, simply due to the fact that she felt a small pang of degradation whenever she heard someone refer to her as 'Ms Doe.' Was she not deserving of a REAL name? Well its not like the tall Asian woman had got around to figuring out something that suited her better than that so....

"Ah," The sound escaped her as she poured on just enough water and proceeded to wipe Hiro's face with the wet cloth. The courageous boy had taken the full brunt of the flying gastric juices, but The Mother proceeded to tenderly wipe at his face, not once making a expression as though she was about to gag from the smell.  The music carried on the in the background, although she was not one to appreciate such a vulgar rap.

"Poor Ichiro." As she murmured to herself, the flecks of spew in the boy's hair were proving difficult to remove, even though she matched his height without any effort on her part. "What girl will want to dance with you now." You could almost imagine the inaudible 'tsk..' following.

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow Dash frowned up at the person teasing her before realizing that Twilight had managed to make it over from her booth. Then she smiled briefly before frowning again. "Hey, at least this time it's not your fault, right? Twilight...uh...Spike never did manage to come up with a nickname for you, did he? Twifight...Twi...right...uh..." She trailed off, trying to come up with a suitable replacement. She gave up. "But hey, at least I haven't destroyed any buildings yet. But I think even flying upside down was better than no flying at all." She looked over her shoulder to her empty back again and sighed.

She walked away with Twilight, waving briefly to the person she had managed to trip over. "What about you? Doing all right without your magic? How's that going, anyway? Managed to figure out how to get it back yet? Is it some sort of villain? Are you going to need my help?" Each question rose slowly in volume as she got more excited about the idea of actually being able to do something. Being in this world was so boring. Which, come to think of it...

"Hey, Twilight, before I got lost over here, I was going to your place to borrow the next Daring Do book. You wouldn't happen to have a copy, would you? I need something to do until I figure out this." She waved a hoof over at everything. "They haven't really had any jobs that I could do here."

[Helena Bertinelli]

Helena was actually a little relieved that she'd managed to rescue the guy, especially once she saw what all had actually been caught in there. How had the kid managed to survive this long with those sorts of habits? She raised her lip in slight disgust at all the spew on Hiro's face, but she was even more disgusted with the rescue victim. Not only did he pull an incredibly stupid stunt, but he also seemed to be completely unconcerned about the whole matter, already looking over at the band.

"Don't worry, it was my pleasure," she said to the kid in a biting voice. "I can't believe you were still managing to cough at all with that much jammed in your throat. No wonder you couldn't get it down." She glanced over at Hiro, who had attempted to help the kid first. Helena tended to take the most drastic action first, even if only a lesser move was called for. This time, apparently, it had paid off.

She was slightly amused by Jane's attempts to clean Hiro's face. But then, her fellow teacher certainly gave off a motherly vibe that Helena herself had never possessed. "Hopefully you won't need to be saved. I don't think you're going to end up swallowing an entire pie at once, so unless the dessert comes to life and attacks us, I think we'll be all right." She gave a wry grin.

"I'm going to head over to the dance floor," she said. Suddenly, she looked around. "Where did Robin--oh, you know what? Never mind. I should stop wondering where the bats disappear to." She waved a hand dismissively. "Are you planning on dancing, or are you hoping to cover the perimeters?" She grinned again. Ms. Doe on guard duty? That would be the day.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Nope!" Twilight practically chirped, managing to keep her voice just above the music. The chirping and the expression of joy both faded slightly as Rainbow reminded her of their... handicaps. Rainbow's wings were gone and Twilight was left decidedly magicless. It was pretty much like being an Earth Pony, and it was clear in those few moments that, while they might have nothing but respect for their Earth Pony friends, neither Twilight nor Rainbow were all that thrilled with the sudden transformation. "Hey, it's just like when Discord took away your wings and my horn. Remember that? We got out okay."

Though it had been later... after they'd gotten their abilities back. Which, if anything, only solidified Twilight's belief that the first thing they needed to do was precisely that. Rainbow was evidently thinking along the same lines, as the burst of questions that came from her, which started well above the music and grew steadily louder, outlined things perfectly well. They also threatened to nearly overwhelm Twilight, and she was certainly thankful that she'd gotten used to answering people's questions.

"I'm okay, it's going to take a while, probably, definitely, and, uh, no," answered Twilight in turn, ticking them off with her fingers. Her eyes flicked to the stage, remembering how Rainbow had been able to play guitar passingly well back home. In fact, nearly all Twilight's friends could sing. Maybe she should suggest that...?