Ballet Shoes: Encore

New Forms

This chapter was gonna be something a lil' different but FreeShadow on Ao3 left a comment that inspired me to change around this chapter. I hope y'all like it! 

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Third Person's P.O.V.

Age: 42

It was one of those rare days of calm in the universe. Absolutely nothing major was going on. That's a good thing for everyone aside from Ben. Seeing as nothing needed his immediate attention or heroic intervention he was left with nothing to do. He exhausted the few means he had to entertain himself already. One can only stretch and practice ballet for so long after all. Meaning that for the first time in forever, Ben was completely and utterly bored.

As such, he was currently lazing on the couch. Aimlessly watching YouTube video after YouTube video to try and stimulate his mind. It clearly wasn't working but what else was he to do? Kai was still in Navajo spending some quality time with her dad and wouldn't be back until very late in the night. The kids were spending the weekend with Ben's parents and Rook was currently on his home planet for his eldest daughter's Bi'ntakoid Ceremony. Gwen, Kevin and Devlin were on vacation in Japan for the next week and every other person Ben could think of was busy with something else. So yes, Ben was bored out of his mind.

After a couple more hours of staring at his phone screen while videos of any and everything played, Ben perked up. Something had caught his eye. It was a video of a Dracosian doing a cover of his contemporary piece to "Glory of Love" from when he was fifteen.

"I did that piece almost thirty years ago," Ben thought as he pressed play, "I feel old."

His green eyes were glued to his phone screen for the duration of the video. The Dracosian girl was quite skilled. She performed the piece with such grace and pulled off nearly every move effortlessly. It was clear that she'd put extensive work into it. As the video came to its end, Ben found himself lightly smiling. He really enjoyed that and as such, left a like on the video.

Ben then glanced at the recommended videos and found another cover of one of his older dances. This time, it was a male Uxorite performing his jazz dance to "I'm Feeling Good". Ben was captivated by this one too and was once again left to marvel at the being's talent when the video ended. He once again left a like and glanced at the recommended section again. That then became a cycle. Ben would find another dance cover of one of his old pieces by another alien species, watch it and like it, look at the recommended videos and repeat.

This went on for about an hour before Ben gasped and jolted upright. Nearly falling off the couch in the process. His eyes were as wide as saucers as he stared at the phone screen. Did Ben read that right? Were his eyes deceiving him? There was only one way to find out. He clicked on the video whose title had shocked him.

"No way," he muttered, voice barely above a whisper.

On Ben's screen, a pair of Floraunas were performing the Coppelia Grand Pas de deux but with several twists. First, the classical music was modified with some of their traditional instruments. It sounded weird to Ben initially but gradually grew on him. Second, the two aliens utilized their vine appendages to perform some of the moves differently. Not different enough that Ben couldn't recognize the original move but just enough for it to be noticeable. And third, they had created entirely new moves as well which looked fantastic!

"Is there more of this?" Ben wondered when the video ended, "There has to be more of this!"

There was more.

And not only from the floraunas, who Ben found out were named Basil and Acacia, either. There were so many new forms of ballet from various alien species. From Conductoids to Orthoterrans and from Splixons to Arachnichimps. Ben found new versions of ballet from most alien species that actively used the extranet. Or at least the beginnings of one from majority of them. Nonetheless, Ben thoroughly enjoyed all that he watched. He also tuned out everything else. So much so, that he didn't hear when Kai came home.

He only noticed her when she yelled, "Benjamin Kirby Tennyson! How long have you been sitting there?"

At her question, Ben sat upright and checked the time on his phone. His eyes widened when he realized that he'd been sat on the couch going down a ballet rabbit hole for almost twelve hours.

"Uh... Welcome back honey," Ben said, knowing exactly what was coming.

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Here's a link to the playlist of all the dances that had covers done of them. Not all of them were named but I included them all the same: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFRXYbtF-yv8PRTmEdhzmG4d4j4gQ9YNQ

Have a good rest of your day/night!