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Demy had been hard at work since his sudden realization, busy trying to come up with something fun to draw in the other officers and hopefully reward them a bit. The past few weeks had been rough, Elysion had been stressful for them all, and they needed a time to recoup and just unwind. The new recruits needed some reassurance, to see that while there was a lot of work involved this family was something worth being a part of.

They needed a party. Demy loved parties, so planning one of this magnitude had made him one VERY happy boy.

First step had been to beg Heather to help him make the reservation, because a sixteen year old boy didn't hold much authority when it came to getting stuff like that done. A combination of his 'allowance' from her and the money he liberated from his energy drain victims covered the cost and sealed the deal. A party, they were having one.

Second step had been to let everyone know. This was easy! Between simply running into people, the communicators, and good old word of mouth he had managed to pass the news to everyone. Officers and corrupted senshi or cats alike. Location, time and date, the orders (or a suggestion, in case of the higher ups) to come out of uniform, and to bring some kind of snack food if they wanted to to add to their pile of food. It was going to be perfect.

Third step had been waiting, which was the hardest for Demy to do. He wanted to party NOW and ticking down the hours until the day of their outing had been damn near unbearable. On the actual day of the party he simply bounced around Heather's house excitedly until it was finally time to go.

~~~~~~~~~

Electric Dreams was a rather large arcade spanning a two story building. The first floor was your basic arcade, with flashing lights and electronic noises filling the air as people played any number of various games throughout the building. One side contained an area for laser tag, and there was a typical redemption counter in the corner, letting tickets be exchanged for prizes that ranged from cheap and hokey to awesome (Demy swore he'd get a lava lamp from there one day). There was a door that led out back to various fun activities like miniature golf and even go-karts. The blonde kept these in mind for a future fun trip for the officers.

Today though, they had an entire floor to themselves. Above the first floor of the arcade lay a second floor that mirrored the one below. There were games (though tickets had to be turned in downstairs, sorry guys!), and even a private laser tag arena. Most days both floors were open to the public, but in the occasion a function wanted to the entire top floor could be rented out and treated as though you had your very own arcade.

And this is precisely what Demy (with Heather's help!) had done.

The games were set to free play, which meant that the excitable captain had immediately taken to entertaining himself with Guitar Hero while he waited for others to show up. A table had been set up, containing pizza for everyone, and quite a few cases of Rockstar which clearly had been Demy's contribution to the food.

Cliffs of Dover rang out through the upper floor, Demy busy rocking out to his favorite song on the game.

Thought Lt. Painite had learned quite a bit about herself and her duties in these recent weeks, and had done a lot of growing in short order because of being thrown into a very large war and rushing to catch up, she was still very much the same person she always had been. Underneath all the new thoughts and worries and grit determination.

She was still a girl who absolutely adored having fun.

Gently strolled into the arcade with a grin on her face from the get go. She had never been to this place before, mostly because she felt it would be odd to go alone despite really wanting to and never thought any of her friends were quite nerdy enough to want to go with her.

True enough, she was mostly a lover of the Bit War era of video games, but she couldn't help but be enchanted by arcades and all their flashy brilliance and promises of awesome times. Dressed semi-casually, Gently actually felt a bit nervous that she might not look the part, or something. She had put on make up, which she mostly forgot to do save when she had something important going on that day, and carefully picked an outfit that indicated she was there to play, but could still look cute.

As far as she knew, anyway. She really did not train in fashion, and had no real sense of it. But she felt the retro gamer shirt was definitely good.

She had her trusty notebook in her back pocket, and a sock shaped purse in her pocket stocked for arcade gaming use. She was as prepared as she ever was, only this time it wasn't for a trap or plot, but to simply let herself enjoy the good times. She spotted the Guitar Hero station and immediately went over to watch the game. That was another fun activity in arcades: you didn't have to play if you weren't sure or if there was a queue. You could just watch!

Demy was quite into his game, happily dancing around a bit as he totally kicked the a** of the song. But really, it WAS his absolute favorite song on his favorite game! Of course he was going to rock it!

It was only when it ended and he put his name on the scoreboard (the..scoreboard seemed to be quite full of someone named "STAR"...which was the same name Demy was putting in) that he took a moment to look around.

"GUYS!"
Yes! People where there! He bounced happily from foot to foot as he realized this plan was so going to work. Serah was here, dancing her way to greatness on the DDR machine. There was Gently, who it took him a moment to recognize. He was so used to seeing her with that hobby horse it was hard to imagine her without it. But, there she was! Someone was near her that he recognized and yet...not. He totally knew this one, just not as well as some of the others.

No matter, that's exactly what these parties were for!

"Hey guys! Cmon, feel free to play whatever. Most are on free play so you can play as much as you want! There's some that aren't, but hey that's okay right? There's pizza and stuff over there."
He gestured to the table before returning his grin to the others.

"We have free run of the laser tag place up here too! Maybe when the others get here we can play a big game of it yeah? It's pretty big in there, should be plenty of room to run around!"

Gently jumped when she heard a familiar voice, her face splitting into a gigantic grin as she waved frantically at Skye, taking her hand and tugging her to look at the screen she was watching Demy play on. He was far better than she could ever hope to be, but she supposed that was because he played a lot. And she never had. And that meant one thing: she absolutely had to try it, and be the best newbie player ever.

"Hi Skye!" she said brightly, draping her arm around her Captain for a hug. She was in a very bright mood, and that made her affectionate and giggly. And she hadn't even had any of the candy or energy drinks.

"You're supposed to... I mean. Have fun? Right? You just play the games... oh!" She dropped her voice to match Skye's, smiling brightly. She was amused, to say the least, but she was far from teasing. Innocently, she tilted her head. "Have you not been to an arcade before? We'll play some games together! It'll be fun!"

She looked at Demy, excited.

"Free play? Even better!" She was so going to see if they had the Jurassic Park rail shooter.

She had never played laser tag before, and hobby horse weapon wasn't exactly offering her any expertise in that kind of area, but she was still itching to get a game of laser tag in. And hopefully hit at least one person before getting blasted to light-blinking death.

"That sounds really fun, ahaha!"

Billy smirked. Hated his hat? Well then... "At least I don't poke fun at your bows. And hooker boots." Seriously, Wolframite's thigh-high heels? Some hookers would absolutely die for those, he was sure. "All the same though, hello to you too."

For as snide and probably mean as his words could be taken, Billy's tone was playful.

"I am glad to see one familiar face here. This isn't really my scene...I couldn't really peg you for the type either." He then lowered his voice, "Don't worry about me embarrassing you here. I intend to be some degree of nice." And with that, he tipped his damnable hat, like any old west gentleman.

HAH!

Lieutenant Chromite had managed to find out about the party- The news had been made very available and she was relieved... Thus far she'd missed every mass get together and felt as though she wasn't really an actual member of a family yet. She desperately wanted to be part of this family. It was an ache and longing that she'd only denied once, for the total of several weeks, the last several weeks and she felt guilty and horrible and stupid and- She felt like a traitor. While it was true that she'd never been called on it once and that because she was just a bit player it didn't really matter... It mattered to her.

So she'd vowed with word of the party getting to her that she would make it up to her fellows in arms. Her soon to be friends and siblings. For Chromite, for Genevieve Ame, that meant only one thing. Bake them treats, armfuls and armfuls of treats, and stuff people's mouths until they liked her. So in a fit of shame and worry she'd baked. And she'd baked so much that when she made it to the arcade all of her snacks were trailing behind her in various plastic containers piled high in a little red wagon.

She looked like a regular girl scout.

The doors opened and let her in with the overwhelming sounds and lights that an arcade was wont to do. It filled her vision and ears, and even the bass from the music game above it all resounded inside her chest like another heartbeat. She'd never had the money or time to visit an arcade and now she felt even more shame- This was MAGIC. Magic that left her standing speechless and grinning like a five year old on crack right in the middle of the entry way.

Ladon looked up at Billy at the mention of hooker boots and his eyes went wind and his frown set. His boots….made him look like a hooker? Just saying that made him frown with concern, and he looked a little hurt by that. He didn’t think he looked like a lady of the evening in them, but then again, what guy wore heels? Frowning, he looked actually troubled by the news, but tried his best to brush it off. It wasn't like he could do anything about his boots in the end anyways. His bow however…well, he saw no reason to do anything about that.

At the whisper, Ladon turned up and smiled. "Thank you. Not that I hate you, just…I like to keep is professional around people I work with." He was a captain after all and he didn't want to loose the respect of his peers. Maybe he would take Billy out for lunch sometime this week to make up for it.

Popping the lid off the vegetable tray (complete with drip), he watched as Scheelite announced who he was with a trademark glow stick. "This place isn't somewhere I'd usually go, but I know Demy. We were on a team together when I was starting out. I know he's been going through some hard stuff recently and wanted to see how he was doing and show my support in that he's enjoying himself around others again." He looked to Billy. "He's a friend of mine." One of the few.

With that, he frowned as Demy went over to look at the snacks and grab an energy drink. "Do you really need MORE energy, Demy?" he asked, wondering WHY he was even drinking those things.

So this guy was one of Ladon's friends too? Interesting. Billy had wanted to point out to Ladon that a party in an arcade was hardly a place to be professional, but that was when Demy came. When Demy introduced himself, and then came over to where Ladon and Billy were, that is when he took the opportunity to introduce himself to Demy...and hoped he'd remember.

"Hello there, Big Brother," it was the little nick-name that Billy had given him after that first battle. There was a satisfied half-smile on his face, "I'm Billy. Perhaps better known as Bismuthite. The new guy." And once again, he tipped his hat at the blond.