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Alex was in high spirits. Even though the water in the shower was still as cold as ever (moreso, considering the dusting snow outside) and most of Hillworth's population was still in the dorm, he couldn't help but to grin. There was something about the season, about all the businesses trying to hype up the Holiday even more that made him want to give presents and sing carols and nearly freeze his a** off in the middle of a snowball fight.

Of course, he was smart and made sure to pick his snowball fights away from the Hillworth campus. He learned the hard way his first year how much fun it was to hide rocks inside snowballs and throw them at someone, especially when it knocked him unconscious. He still wondered occasionally who took his lunch money from his pocket, but then again he was still happy that he didn't suffer any wedgies in the process.

But now! Now he had an epic quest, and the completion was juuuust ahead of him. Alex knocked on a star-studded door. "Yo Demy! You in?!"

If the stars decorating the door weren't an indication of where the dreaded rival STAR hid his layer, the rumble of Guitar Hero seeping out from under the door was good enough. Alex was about to try knocking again when he heard Demy. With a shrug, he helped himself to the door and entered, letting it slam shut behind him.

"Sup STAR!" He greeted, plunking down in Z's empty chair. "I heard you met with the dreaded Killingworth and lived! Grats man."

Alex couldn't help but to be lured to Z's desk. For one, it offered an excellent view of the television Demy was playing Guitar Hero on. Secondly... well, it certainty looked a lot more inviting than the other one. It was so prim, so clean and proper... Alex couldn't help but to begin leafing through the objects on top of it out of sheer curiosity.

"Tch! Of course I'm still here, it's not as if I was going to stand outside the door wa- oh. Ooooh! Yeah man, at least here I know where the drafts are and can plug'em up with someone else's clothes I snatched from the dryer they didn't remember to empty fast enough, heehee! I dunno dude, if you're ever stuck for clothes just grab someone else's stuff that's waiting to be picked up in the dryer and shove it into your clothes, wash'em, dry'em, then trade'em at the Flea Market."

Rustle, rustle. Alex looked up, trying to ignore the cluttered flashy mess on the other desk that made him wonder if a DDR machine threw up. "I'm still gettin' used to the fact that you have a roommate dude. I wanted to get a look at these "plans" of your roomie's that he makes and see what sort of a person can sta- OWW!" Alex jumped and pushed himself away from Z's desk, flailing his hand and the mousetrap set on the other side. "What the he-"

PSSSSSSHT!

A spray of ink added insult to injury, and now Alex was sporting a giant black splotch on his jeans before he shoved the desk drawer closed. "Oh geez man! You could've warned me that your roommate was an Overlord in Training!" He whined, "Lookit all these traps that I fell for! I'm not a ninja or rogue y'know! Owww! A mousetrap? What the critting hell!"

"You throw it back and grab something else!"
...Well, no one said Alex's plans were good ones.

Alex continued to flail until the mousetrap flew off, soaring through the air to land with a crackle on Demy's desk, whereupon it created a small chain of things to light up, glow, and glitter (not necessarily in that specific order). He rubbed his hand and glared at the mini Mardi Gras parade occurring on his rival's desk, slowly flexing his fingers.

"Maaaan what the freaking hell! I was listening when you said you had a roomie -- I just wanted to get to better know him to see if I could find some dirt on you in order to have an advantage one you when we have a rema- OH CRIT! Look at my pants! What the heck is your roommate guarding, the ultimate weapon? The holy grail? Aaagh man! This critting sucks!"

Poor, poor Alex with his bruised dignity and smarting hand. "Oooow. Geeze, remind me to stay away from your roommate man. I knew I shouldn't have checked him out considering you but nooo I just had to get curious!"

Alex snorted. "Yeah right, the best kept secret is the great up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-Start which everyone already knows so it's technically not a secret anymore but it's still pretty damn awesome since it's the great and mighty Konami Code!"

Here he struck a pose, then ignored Demy's next comment by replacing it with his own. "SPEAKING OF YOU here you go, Merry Christmas! I thought of you when I put it together dude, it's the best gift ever that you'll get from me!"

With a large grin, Alex pulled a box from where he tucked it into his back pocket, tossing it at his rival. It was simple, wrapped with some printed out 8-bit game screenshots with a giant star sticker on the cover -- heck, there was even an 8-bit Mario jumping at it! AWESOME!

The box itself was six inches tall, four inches wide, and roughly an inch thick. Shaking it had something slide around in it... But what?

If Alex was paying attention, Demy would have gotten a long-winded rant on the history of Konami and how awesome they were as well as how awesome oldschool games were as well as how dare he crittingly not know about all this???

But first, Alex's grin faltered as Demy got up, then brightened again. A gift? For him? How awesome! He wasn't expecting that considering that he just threw together Demy's present last minute, and thought it'd be pretty funny. It was a good thing Demy wasn't gone for the holiday, as a glance down at his ink-splotched jeans made him dread ever meeting Demy's roommate.

Seriously, booby-trapping the desk? Who in their right mind would do that?! Obviously someone who could put up with Demy but...

He caught the bag, shaking it softly while keeping an eye on Demy. He couldn't wait to see his face! The wrapping on Demy's gift fluttered to the ground to reveal an old box. Inside the box was a piece of cardboard. On the cardboard itself were four, shiny new quarters beneath the sharpie'd bold words:

Alex stared. He stared into the very depths of the bag that contained a miniature tornado wreck; a glimpse into the raver's hell that Demy as Scheelite himself lit up as soon as he joined the Negaverse. But hey, Alex didn't know that! All he knew was that his bag was very glittery, shiny, an- "OHDUDE MARIO AND A PIRANHA PLANT REALLY? AND LINK AND KOOPA AND GOOMBA AND IS THAT MEGAMAN?! Duuuude! This is the best collection of video game characters EVER!"

He looked up with a grin plastered on his face, forcing it slightly. Man! He felt really, really dumb now. And cheap. After all, he gave his rival quar-- No, no, wait! He gave his rival a chance to battle himself on his rival's own turf! Demy should be feeling pretty honored right now, and by the looks of his rival's grin it seemed to have been accepted.

"Ha! You better wait and see! I've been practicing and lifting heavy objects just to get used to those stupid weighed down controllers! I'm surprised they even have'em considering how heavy and dangerous those things could be if someone really wanted to rock out and bash their instruments on the ground. I honestly don't get why rockstars do that y'know? It's as if they're all, bahaha lookit me smash this here!"

He shrugged, then leaned forward to peer at his rival. "By the way man, you still don't look too good."

"Oh yeah?! Well, I'm the Guitar Hero ki- wait. Wait, wait," he held out one of his hands and waved it. "Let me try that again." Alex took a deep breath, then restarted: "Oh yeah?! Well, I'm the masked Guitar Hero Man without a mask, here to challenge you and triumph over your tyranny over the Guitar Hero leaderboard! You don't need to know that I played on easy and worked my way up to normal with my super secret song What I've Done and -- aw, damnit!" He slumped, smacking himself on the forehead.

"Curses! Foiled again! You are tricky, mister Guitar Hero-King! That would totally be your new name if it didn't sound like I was trying to cough up a hairball. G'HK. Blech!"

Alex shook his head, taking a moment to look at the bag of shiny, glittery treasure. He wondered what exactly what he would do with it -- it was pretty... well, gaudy and was up there in levels of awkward next to the pink teddy bear that one girl gave him. It was just... strange. Foreign. Unusual.

With a shrug, Alex reached in and slipped a beaded bracelet on, then twisted it this way and that to study the shininess. "Duuuude," he breathed, "I think I see why you've collected a horde of this stuff!"