interstellar5555 | all my life is changing every day, in every possible way

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all my life is changing every day, in every possible way

Who: Flashstep dudes
What: Pillow fort party, planned by Sora for his still tense bandmates.
When: Nearly a week after the Pride event, but prior to Luci's invite
Where: The Flashnest (aka Flashstep penthouse, Pride HQ)
Warnings: idk teen boys, will edit if needed

It had taken several days after everyone returned from the hazing night for Sora to come up with the idea. Once in mind though, he really did plan on going all out. Even if it was going to take a lot of work. He'd made sure to wait until a point where everyone was out (or had holed themselves up in their rooms) so he could spend literal hours building up the blanket and pillow fort around the living room. He also may have enlisted Patil's help in moving the couch in order to maximize space.

But the result is magnificent, a sight to behold: a fort made of blankets and pillow that spans at least a third of the huge living room, all lit up from the inside by some lamps. The TV is inside too thanks to some strategic hanging blanket placement, as well as all their game consoles. He'd sneaked in snacks and soda, threw some DVD options and game options in there too, not just video games but a few board games and packs of cards as well, just in case. He'd also added more pillows and blankets on the inside so that everything was extra comfy.

Comfy, safe, and fun. Definitely things his friends could use right now.

[Separate threads for different shenanigans below, you can add a comment to any of those for others to tag into, or hit up Sora in the reactions thread (or other threads). Also feel free to add your own? ~~I don't know what I'm doing, but pretend like I do.~~]

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Texts had been sent out in the late afternoon, to all of the boys' cell phones from Sora:

"Need to meet in living room when everyone gets a chance! Surprise for you! A good one, I promise."

There was a likelihood that they wouldn't all arrive at the same time, but that was fine.

There are so many pillows. Of varying sizes. There are many that are super soft and over-stuffed. Clearly these were made for one thing and one thing only: pillow fights.

Here's the question, though: who's gonna start it?

There are video games galore here, as there always are. But there are also stacks of playing cards, and different random board games that Sora had drudged up. He'd been a little doubtful anyone would want to go for that, but you never know!

So, what's your poison?

There's a pile of DVDs there. Literally a pile. Action flicks, comedies, buddy movies, also plenty of stuff that's low on plot and heavy on the mindless fun, and... assorted Disney and Pixar movies. According to Sora, these are absolute necessities in any pile of DVDs.

But what's going on the screen first?

Jamie's just been kind of wandering, the past week. When he's not busy rehearsing or doing promotional stuff with the rest of the band, he skulks around the penthouse; when even the penthouse becomes too restrictive (or someone snaps at him for his incessant pacing), he meanders Pride HQ, but he doesn't enjoy it the way he used to, because all he can think about is his paranoid suspicion that Predator probably blabbed about their stupid prank to everyone else and now every single person in the building is having a laugh at Jamie's expense. He can only pretend for so long that he's unaffected by the way people treat him, and the hazing is something that he just can't shrug off.

He's not exactly sleeping well either, which just makes everything harder to deal with.

When he gets Sora's text he's in one of the private clubs at HQ, disinterestedly pushing around a drink he ordered but has barely touched. Briefly he considers brushing off the text, because he's sick of the penthouse and Sora's been sort of doting lately and Jamie doesn't really know how to respond to that, but then he notices a group of musicians a few tables away looking in his direction and whispering to each other, and abruptly Jamie decides he can't stand being here either. At least he knows Sora will leave him alone if Jamie tells him to.

He steps into the penthouse a few minutes later and blinks slowly at the expanse of blankets draped around the living area.

"...what the hell?"

He'd done his best to drown away his anger with other activities. Going out whenever he could, trying not to think about the events of that night. Even the creepy lullaby bothered him, because who even does that? It bothered him more than he let on. Everything. Around the penthouse, he tried to keep a cheerful demeanor, but it was hard knowing that four out of five of them had to suffer through that together.

He's trying to keep everyone's spirits up, but it's hard when you're not sure if you believe the words coming out of your own mouth.

His text message alert goes off- and he wearily checks it. It's from Sora, and he complains a little to himself about what the surprise could possibly be. But either way, he wanders out into the living room, and it taken aback by the transformation.

"Woah! Dude, what the hell happened in here?!"

"Well, gentlemen, you know what this means."

He grins somewhat mischievously, standing up and making this announcement, while holding a pillow in his hand. There were so many. There was only one thing to do, if they were here to unwind a little bit. It's not like they couldn't get more pillows if they destroyed them.

"Last man standing gets to choose the movie. I've already got a selection in mind!"

He says confidently. Like he thinks he's going to win or something.

Maxxie has a surprisingly good throwing arm, so the pillow aimed right at Yosuke's head is moving pretty quickly through the air from where Maxxie's sitting behind him. He has about five more around him and is already picking up another to defend himself with in the case of retaliation.

PAF.

The pillow nails him right in the head, causing him to cry out in shock. In fact, it nearly knocks him over in the process, and he turns right around to bark at Maxxie.

"What the hell! I wasn't ready!"

"Ow!" Upon hearing a voice, Sora startles into dropping something inside the fort, and the shadow image of him cast on the blankets can be seen hopping around, since said something was a soda can landing on his foot. Thankfully, it didn't open. But he makes a note that this one is now unusable (because fizz), and stuffs it behind a pillow before emerging from the fort to greet his friend. With his usual grin, though it's slightly sheepish right now since he's not sure how everyone is going to react.

"Hey! You like it? It's a pillow fort! Uh. I made it, for all of us. You know, to hang out in or like... sleep in, if you wanna. For tonight..." He trails off slightly, then brightens up as he brings a hand up to point his thumb over his shoulder back at the fort. "There's stuff inside!"

When Yosuke wanders in, Sora's standing with his back turned and hands on his hips, admiring his own masterpiece. Definitely the best pillow fort he's ever made in his life, by far. He turns when he hears Yosuke's voice though, and offers a hopeful grin.

"Surprise! It's a pillow fort! I just had this idea, and... Well, it's for all of us. You know, a cool place to hang in? It's really comfy too, we could even sleep in there. Oh, and the TV and games and stuff are in there! Come see!"

With this said, Sora opens a blanket flap to head inside, and it's so large he doesn't even have to crawl, just walk in. And he's expecting Yosuke to follow.

Jamie just kind of. Stares, for a moment or two. A pillow fort. He hasn't done pillow forts since he was a little kid and this is...not quite the sort of surprise he'd been expecting. (Not that he really knows what he was expecting.)

Still, it's such a Sora thing to do. And he clearly put a lot of thought and work into it, and doing pillow fort things sounds better than just lying around his bedroom all night trawling Tumblr when he should be sleeping...

So he comes over to join Sora near the fort, peering toward the entrance with curiosity that he tries, for the sake of his ~manliness, to conceal. (He fails.) "What kind of stuff?"

Grin widening, face brightening up further, practically beaming, Sora turns to lift the blanket flap of the entrance and head back inside. Walking, not crawling, because it's just that large. "The TV, for one! And games and food and stuff! Come see!"

His enthusiasm is full-force now, he'll just be glad if this takes everyone's minds off of everything for a while. The fort is a worry-free zone, as far as Sora is concerned. No worries about work, no worries about what happened, no worries about the future. Just. No worries.

"And it's really comfortable." This may be said with a certain amount of pride, as he flops down on some pillows on the inside. Look, he's allowed to take pride in his creation.

For the first time in what seems like forever, Jamie experiences a flash of that slightly fond, slightly exasperated Sora-you-dork feeling. The guy is just so happy about the surprise he's put together. That enthusiasm is contagious, even if Jamie has been thoroughly inoculated with angst.

He follows Sora inside the fort, arching an eyebrow at the sheer size and scope of the thing. He looks thoroughly impressed with the setup inside, too; Sora really went all-out for this. Jamie's not oblivious to the fact that this says a lot about Sora's regard for him and the other guys - he knows Sora has been pretty worried about all of them - and try though he might to deny it, Jamie is, deep down in his angry little teen soul, pretty touched.

Of course, he'd rather be stuck in a closet with Alec Campion than say any of this out loud, so he just joins Sora in the pillow nest. He does not flop, because Jamie does not roll that way, but he does seem a little more relaxed already as he settles down beside his bandmate. "It's pretty nice," he concedes, allowing a faint grin as he takes in Sora's handiwork. "This must've taken you forever. What'd Mr. Patil say?"

Another one comes sailing in from the other side of the room, where Jamie waits, smirking.

"Too bad. We were."

He can't help but inspect the place. A part of him is truly amazed by how much work and effort Sora had put into it, and by all means it looked great. He'd gotten everything to look perfect- but another part of him is completely irritated by it as well. He pokes his head into the fort itself, eyes widening.

"Isn't this for little kids or something though..." he complains regardless, but that's just how Yosuke reacts to things. "Dude, we're not five anymore. Woah!" He exclaims when he sees the food and drinks all set up in there. Is that a portable fridge too?

"But I gotta say, you really outdid yourself on this one, man."

That one connects as well, and he turns on his heel to face Jamie.

"That wasn't an invitation for everyone to gang up on me!"

Definitely there needs to be some evening up here to make things fair, so with a grin that speaks of mischief, Sora's gonna come in from behind Maxxie to swing a rather large but very fluffy pillow at the back of his head. Some feathers may or may not have been jostled loose from that.

He reassures Yosuke while doing this, "Don't worry, I've got ya covered!"

Whatever Jamie admits to or doesn't admit to, Sora's pretty good at reading feelings, anyway. He's glad if this gives Jamie even just a moment of reprieve from all that angst he's been dealing with as of late. That's what it was meant for.

Okay, his pride totally grows at Jamie's impressed look, so maybe there was a bit of challenge in it for him too. To make the best pillow fort there ever was! He's fairly certain he's succeeded. Maybe. The best he's ever made, anyway.

"It took a while. Like maybe two or three hours?" Sora hadn't really been paying attention to the time while he was doing it. "Mr. Patil was pretty cool about it, actually." He got the feeling that their manager hadn't been happy about the whole Predator thing either, maybe he'd even felt sorry for them. He was a stoic kind of guy for sure, but he did have the band's best interests in mind. ("Best interests" here meaning... Gaining fame and making the label money, but you know. The boys needed to be in a good mental condition to do that!)

"He even called on the cleaning staff to help me move things around, like the couch and the tables and stuff." He's grabbing another can of soda out of the little mini-fridge that's been set up in here as he says this, then holds one out to his friend.

"Haha! Now that's what I'm talking about! Let's do this, Sora!"

He turns himself, pillow in hand, using the momentum to throw it right at Maxxie as well. Teamwork!

Maxxie shouts and ducks, throwing his arms over his head, but the pillows still make contact. He swings a pillow at Sora and then scrambles away from retaliation. He jumps behind a couch with as many pillows as he can carry.

"Nah, I made it big enough for all of us, too!" Of course, that's not at all what Yosuke meant, but it doesn't occur to Sora that Yosuke actually thinks the whole concept of pillow forts are only for those of five years of age and younger. Pillow forts were fun no matter what age you were, in Sora's opinion. They were like pizza that way.

Sora beams at the positive words though, and opens the fridge to offer him a soda. "Thanks! It took a while, but it turned out really great. Here, want one? We've got chips and stuff too."

Jamie accepts it with a grin. "This isn't another one you dropped, is it?" he can't help but tease a little. He trusts Sora not to pull something like that, though, so he pops it open and tags a swig.

"It's probably not the weirdest thing the cleaning staff's had to do," he muses. (He's not sure he wants to know what might actually hold that distinction.) "Nice of 'em to help out. At least everyone around here isn't a total douche."

"Around here" being Pride HQ, that is. His expression falls, just a little, but he shakes it off a heartbeat later and looks back over at Sora. "So any of the other guys seen this yet?" He's not even sure where they are, right now.

Grinning ferally, Jamie darts in to swing a pillow at Sora and then ducks away, snatching up another as he goes. He makes a beeline for Yosuke, brandishing the pillow like a two-by-four cocked over his shoulder for the kill.

He takes the soda, opening it and taking a a few sips or so. It really had turned out great, he can't deny that. He feels as if he shouldn't be surprised that Sora's taken the time to go the lengths to do this, as they've all been feeling really bummed and angry most of the week. It does help to lighten his own mood a little, even if he was trying to hide it past the night that they'd been kidnapped.

"Why'd you take all this time to set it up? Just to make us feel a little better about...you know?"

It's been long enough that he's okay with discussing it now, despite any anger that bubbles back to the surface of his mind to think about it.

Sora gets hit by Maxxie, then by Jamie in quick succession, but afterwards grabs an armful of pillows and climbs up on top of a couch (all the way on top, not just the cushions) to get to higher ground.

"Look out! Incoming!" He's attempting to drop pillows from above now, though not doing much aiming. Where they land will be anyone's guess.

"Nah. I'm saving those for when one of you makes me really mad," he jokes right back. Truthfully, it would have been hilarious, and he probably would have laughed were it to happen, but it's not really something he'd do on purpose, especially not to a friend.

That grin drops slightly, his own mind going immediately to the hazing because of Jamie's words as well. But his expression is more sympathetic than upset, his smile turning less from amusement and more just hopeful. "They were pretty cool about it! I think they were impressed with it too, one of 'em got some pictures."

He leans back more comfortably on the pillows, taking a long drink of the soda he'd grabbed for himself before answering the last question. "Nope, you're the first! I was kinda hoping you'd all come at once, but... Well I guess everyone pretty much goes their own way a lot, recently..."

Honestly, Sora was hoping to be a little less transparent about this being an attempt to get everyone to feel better. Mostly he'd just wanted it to completely take everyone's minds off of everything. That had probably just been wishful thinking on his part.

He gives Yosuke a sort of sheepish smile, his intentions having been outed. "Yeah, I mean, I know I wasn't there, and I feel really bad that there hasn't really been a way for me to help so far. And everyone's kinda been going their own ways lately..." He'd missed hanging out together, admittedly, missed seeing them around as everyone tended to go off by themselves.

"I just wanted a way for all of us to have fun together again. I mean, I know it doesn't fix things, but if it helps get everyone's minds off the crud they had to go through, even for a little while... Well, that's what I was going for."

He'd been on the bus with Sora for a couple of long months; they'd gotten to know one another, and he only grins back at the other teen. Thankfully, Yosuke isn't totally dense, and he's not surprised that Sora tried to put something together like this for them. It was actually really nice of him, even if he feels like a kindergardener again just being inside of a pillow fort.

He's nothing but cheery, taking another swig of soda.

"Well, you were the one who got off lucky and didn't have to come suffer with us so...guess you owed us one!" He teases, still smiling. "I think we can make due with this." He says as he places a hand on his hip, giving another look around.

"Wanna make a bet that Jamie flips his lid when he sees it?"

At least it's a really extravagant pillow fort.

Sora expression turns determined, his fingers curling into a fist at Yosuke's teasing words. "That's not gonna happen again, though. From now on, I'm gonna be around to face things with you guys. Whatever this crazy music business throws at us!" He gives a resolute nod, before his serious face shifts into a smiling one, and he brings his arms up behind his head.

He just laughs at the question. "Maybe, but you should have seen your face when you came in!"

"C'mon, I didn't look funny when I walked in, did I?" His hand finds his hip, pulling a face. It's all for show though, and it breaks as he picks up a pillow off the ground, setting his soda on the table in front of the nice area Sora's made for their entertainment center inside of the fort.

And in exchange, he hits Sora with the pillow- not hard, not to start a pillow fight or anything, but just hits him with it because he can.

He can only answer that question truthfully. "Well your eyes were all wide and your mouth was hanging open. It was pretty funny!"

Sora's still laughing by the time he gets hit with the pillow, and he sets his own soda can down so he can bring both hands up in a mock attempt to defend himself. "Well it's true! I should have gotten a picture."

"Don't even say stuff like that! I probably looked totally stupid. Hell no, you're not getting a picture, ever."

He whaps Sora with the pillow again, before tossing it back onto the ground, and picking the soda back up.

Grabbing that pillow to lay on, Sora settles down onto his stomach, chin in his hands and feet in the air. "Okay, no pictures. I promise. I won't even tell the other guys that you made a really funny face." He sits up enough to make a little 'x' gesture over his chest. "Cross my heart." Then grabs his own soda back up, hiding his grin somewhat as he drinks from it again.

He finds himself flopping right down next to Sora, shifting a bit to get comfortable in this pillow bed that's been built on the floor. He throws a few more pillows on the ground first however, to soften it up.

"I'll never hear the end of it...and then it'll be all over Twitter..." He whines a little, before finally giving in and reaching for the remote control to the TV. It's just out of reach, so after a little bit of stretching, he gives up.

"I think it's time for some payback. Ready to get your ass kicked in a little game of Mario Kart?" He says with a devilish grin, to counter Sora's own.

Sora just watches Yosuke's attempts to get the remote until the other boy gives up, before, still amused, he finally grabs it for him and tosses it over.

"Yeah! You kidding? I'm always ready!" He scrambles up in order to turn the console on and grab controllers and all that, leaving Yosuke to use the TV remote to get that part of it set up. "Uh, to race. Not to get my-- You know what I mean."

"Yeah, suuuuuuuuuure. I think I'm picking up what you're laying down! So don't worry, you can add another loss to your long list. Cuz I'm not gunna go easy on you."

He takes the remote from where it had landed, sits up and turns it on. He fumbles to find the button to turn it to HDMI, but as soon as he does, the screen lights up with the familiar intro screen. He picks up a controller, presses start and goes through the game to set up a two player race- and chooses Yoshi as his driver. He will fight Sora for it if Sora goes for it.

"Good, 'cause I never asked you to," Sora responds. And feeling in a silly mood, which is nice because it had been gone for a bit thanks to hazing aftermath, he sticks his tongue out at Yosuke when his back is turned before he returns to grinning.

He's perfectly fine with Yosuke's choice, and after picking up his controller, he selects Luigi for himself. "That was big talk for a little egg-laying dinosaur." There is sass here but it is affectionate teasing sass.

"Uh, dude, haven't you ever played these games before? He can seriously knock someone out with one of those things!" He says to defend his choice of a racer, picking 100cc for a warm up and one of the jungle tracks just because he thinks it's going to mess Sora up.

"And I don't wanna hear you cry when you crash because of a banana peel."

Yosuke looks annoyed, but he's just being himself, keeping the banter going between the two of them. It helps to do this than think about what had happened not but last week.

It would be hard to mess Sora up when he's probably not taking the game as seriously as Yosuke is. He seems pretty cool with whatever Yosuke wants to choose.

"Nah, the banana peels aren't as evil as the shells. Or the lightning! That sucks pretty hard especially if you're in mid-jump."

Shifting some pillows, Sora settles on them on his stomach with controller in hand, and appears to be concentrating pretty hard when the race begins. "Don't get smushed by Bowser," he reminds his friend.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he fires back, trying to concentrate on rounding corners the best he can while sliding. The fated lightning strikes, early on in the game, since one of the computers had lagged behind so badly from unfortunate circumstances. And lo and behold, who gets squashed by Bowser right as he rounds a corner.

Spoilers: It's Yosuke.

"Aw, come on! How's that fair?!" He yells, as he loses several spots.

Since everybody gets hit by the lightning at the same time, Sora groans as Yosuke yells, Luigi getting hit on screen too. Fortunately for Sora, he only loses one place. But also manages to drive right past a poor squashed Yoshi.

He winces in sympathy. "Sorry, Yosh'." He's calling him his character's name. Correction: a shortened version of his character's name. "At least it's only the first lap though, you've still got plenty of time to catch up and win!"

Edited 2015-11-25 02:56 (UTC)

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all my life is changing every day, in every possible way

REACTIONS / GENERAL CHATTING

PILLOW FIGHTS

GET YOUR GAME ON

MOVIE VIEWING

Re: REACTIONS / GENERAL CHATTING

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Hakuna Matata~

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I mean, I wasn't gonna be the one to say it-- but yes.

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