Can this bottle have rum in it?

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Aw, Bart," Keziah said, mock-pouting as he broke up the make-out session. "And here I wanted to watch them embarrass themselves. Jeez, am I the only one who knows how to react here? The key is to stare creepily."

And it had been hard to keep a straight face through all the grown men squealing like girls that had seen a spider. Yeah, Raley was a douche of a kid, but she felt like she was missing something here. Wasn't like he had boils on his face.

She waved to Smash and Dante as they entered. "First time for everything, eh? Shots in the kitchen. If you're nervous, that'll fix you right up."

[hr:1m3q9j10][/hr:1m3q9j10]

Adrian ducked into the kitchen to make use of the booze, whipping up a simple rum and coke before returning to the room. He took a seat in front of the couch and stretched his legs out. The room was a mess of crazy, warring emotions ranging from sheer panic (what?) to amusement to irritation and enjoyment and everything in between. Who knew a simple dumb teen game would be responsible for this...turmoil.

In a bunch of adults.

He sipped his drink, speaking to no one in particular. "I still think seven minutes in heaven is an excellent add on. Bart, how big are your closets?"

[hr:1m3q9j10][/hr:1m3q9j10]

Stretched out on the couch again now that Bart was no longer occupying it, Shiloh shot Smash a wary look. "Better not be shitty pop crap."

[Anonymous]

Bart took his seat back with Shiloh, lifting the kids legs and letting him drape them across his lap again. Shiloh was a good kid and Bart liked his company. He wasn't real bright, but he was easy to be around, now that he finally managed to get him to relax.

To answer Smash, he gestured to the old stereo up against one wall. It had been a high end stereo years ago, but now it was pretty old, "Over there. Ain't real fancy though, but it'll get the job done."

He took another long swallow of beer. Fuck this shit. It was already a lame party and a lame night.

[hr:1mmhjz3b][/hr:1mmhjz3b]

Alaric shot Blaine a sympathetic look. While kissing Malachi wasn't that bad, well, though Alaric really hated the idea of kissing anyone here, but having to lip lock with anyone that had just had Raley all over them was, well...disgusting.

Though Christian was just amused, "Well well. This should be interesting. Try pulling his hair Malachi. He likes that."

[shinigamikitsune]

Smash wrinkled his nose in response to that question. "Of course it's not any of that pop crap. What do I look like? Some sort of pretty boy teen heart throb?" He shook his head with a chuckle, "Hope you don't mind rock though."

He nodded to Bart when he motioned where it was. "That's alright, just as long as it can play music!" Making his way over, Smash took out the music he'd brought and went about getting it going. Though not too loud so that people could still carry on a conversation.

[hr:17hi6vri][/hr:17hi6vri]

He might have been a little late, but that was alright. T'liika had spent the last little while making sure that all his work was caught up for the next day.

"Hey everybody," he said as he stepped into the room. A quick look around the room and he found Alaric, and he offered the man a smile.

[Tally]

"I am not taking that for the team."  Roman pointed at Raley.  "Or that, or that, or that either."  He pointed at Cross, Shiloh, and Sabela in turn.

On the way to their seats he pulled Gabriel close so he could complain without anyone else hearing.  "We should have found some mission to go on as soon as we got wind of this.  We need an escape plan the next time Nuriel gets one of his ideas."

[hr:3p06gnxf][/hr:3p06gnxf]

Raley licked his lips and got himself back in order.  "Jealous you're not gettin' any of this?" He winked at Bart.

He caught sight of Roman then.  "Oh, hey!  Too bad Temple's dead or we could make him kiss his own brother!"  He collapsed back into his chair laughing over that.

[hr:3p06gnxf][/hr:3p06gnxf]

Blaine had really been hoping he could get through this without having to participate.  He wasn't...himself.  Usually he'd be making jokes and being generally dismissive of the whole silly business but so far he'd only sat in his spot, head canted to hide his eyes with the brim of his hat.

He sighed when the bottle landed on him and got up to make his way to Malachi, but when Christian spoke he tripped.  Gods fucking forbid he get through this without Christian ruining his life.

[Anonymous]

"Please. Like I would want you." Sabela brushed a strand of hair back into place, "Just because Gabe's got a hard on for you doesn't mean the rest of the world does."

[hr:2w8fsjyn][/hr:2w8fsjyn]

Christian moved forward quickly, grabbing onto Blaine and holding him tight, grinning at him, "Careful there. Wouldn't want to see you hurt, though you might like that, hmmm?"

[hr:2w8fsjyn][/hr:2w8fsjyn]

Bart tensed, giving Raley a dark look, "Shut yer fuckin' mouth or I will break your damn teeth."

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Yeah, well, that, that, that, and that are what you get for not thinking of that sooner," Gabriel whispered back. "Funny thing is, I distinctly recall you encouraging the crazy! What was that about the whole swimsuit thing? Oh yeah, that was real funny. Not so funny now, huh?"

That was when he caught Raley's comment and he instantly went stiff. "Fuck off, asshole."

[hr:3hs8vxvp][/hr:3hs8vxvp]

Shiloh made a face at Roman, eyebrows raising. "Let's keep it tha' way..." he grumbled under his breath, rolling his eyes.

[Tally]

"Oh what?  What, it's disrespectful to say that a dead person is dead now?  It's not like I insulted him.  Right?  Huh?"

Raley looked to Cross for help, who was very pointedly not looking at Raley just then.  Raley had laughed a little too long and a little too loudly at that whole idea.

[hr:id3qty1z][/hr:id3qty1z]

Blaine looked Christian dead in the eye.  "NOT in public.  Stop."  He wrenched out of Christian's grasp and stepped over the bottle to get to Malachi.  He went somewhere else entirely as he leaned down and gave him a quick kiss.  Trying not to think where Malachi's lips had just been.

"Okay."  One spin, then hopefully he would be done for the duration of the party.

Please be someone good, please be someone good.

It landed on Smash.  Blaine's knees just about gave away in relief.

[Anonymous]

"Shut. Your. Mouth Pilot." Bart's voice was hard and he looked ready to do some damage if Raley pushed this. He didn't care if he ruined Nuriel's grand plan and got written up. It would be worth it to break that shits face. Temple's loss was still raw with Bart and he wasn't ready to accept it yet.

[hr:q6wys02f][/hr:q6wys02f]

"Why you gotta be like that? You just ignore me and it breaks my heart. If you just paid attention to me, I wouldn't have to get your attention like this." Christian's eyes narrowed a little at the kiss, but it had been almost nothing, so it didn't bug him much.

Though Smash might be another story. If Blaine kissed someone else and liked it, Christian was not going to be happy.

[hr:q6wys02f][/hr:q6wys02f]

Malachi was a little surprised at all the hostility and he winced as Raley kept stepping into landmines, "Hey, Raley, did you hear anything about that new cyber joint they just developed? Have you gotten to play around with it yet? I was reading about it and I was curious if you know anything. Can it really take twice as much weight as the current ones in use?"

[shinigamikitsune]

Smash sighed to himself as people were starting to grate on each others nerves already. This was suppose to be fun and relaxed... even if it were a forced event.

Satisfied with the music situation, he was about to head to the kitchen in order to get himself something to drink, when he noticed that the bottle had landed on him. "Well this is a pleasant surprise," he said with a slightly seductive smile as he sauntered over to Blaine.

He'd never given too much attention to the other pilot in the past, but in these few moments, Smash took the time to really check him out. He was rather pleased with what he saw.

"Blaine, right?" he said in a smooth tone, just a little lower then his normal voice. He slid his hand up along the man's chest and up over his shoulder, entangling his fingers into the hair at the nap of his neck. "We might as well make this as pleasing for each other as possible," offering the other an easy smile.

Leaning in, he hesitated the moment before their lips touched, as though giving Blaine a chance to back out, before closing the rest of the distance. Their lips touched, as Smash gave Blaine a slowly deepening kiss.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"I'm gonna punch him," Gabriel told Roman, taking a seat on the floor in front of the loveseat so Roman could take the seat next to Alaric. He couldn't stand Raley. He was trying really hard for the sake of this party not to fly off the handle, but the guy was pushing every button and at least he wasn't alone. He didn't want to think about Temple right now. That was still raw.

"Just some advance warning. Sorry if it gets you extra paperwork but if he doesn't shut the hell--"

He cut off and stared as Smash kissed Blaine, face coloring.

[hr:cxtzkluf][/hr:cxtzkluf]

Seeing what Malachi was doing, Keziah leaned over toward the two of them. "Cyber joint? Man, you kids are dating me. I didn't hear about this. What is it?" She flashed Bart a sidelong sympathetic look.

[Tally]

"Yes sir."  Raley sneered at Bart, then turned to Malachi and Keziah.  "Aw, fuck yeah, I got to see it in action.  They're thinkin' of bringing it in, giving it to our boys. Just gotta get the license from Thanatos."

[hr:3vecgs89][/hr:3vecgs89]

Roman leaned forward, draping his arms over Gabriel's shoulders.  "So it if points this way, you're taking the hit for me, right?"

[hr:3vecgs89][/hr:3vecgs89]

"Uhhhhh..."  These people where not getting the point of Spin the Bottle.  You weren't supposed to make out with everyone!

It's still better than having to kiss Raley, he thought.  He hesitated just a moment, well aware of every eye in the room turned their way.  All the attention put butterflies fluttering in his stomach.  He was so grateful it had been Smash that he gave him the kiss that he seemed to want, slow and lingering.  Blaine may not have cared for kissing one way or the other, but he knew how to do it well enough.

[Anonymous]

What. The. Fuck.

Christian's body went tense and he had to force himself back into his chair to keep from ripping them apart right then. A display of jealousy was not part of his agenda tonight, but that fucking queer was messing with his toys.

As soon as the kiss was over, Christian stood and wrapped an arm around Blaine, "Hey, come show me where the bathroom is."

"Better not argue slut or I might be forced to do something drastic."

[hr:95po7vi4][/hr:95po7vi4]

Sitting next to Roman was really not his idea of a relaxing time and Alaric was already very, very tense. And the hostility flying around the room wasn't helping. He fidgeted with his bottle, wishing things could at least go back to being not awful.

But he attempted to at least attempt to make conversation, "Damn! I wish I had thought to bring a human shield!"

[hr:95po7vi4][/hr:95po7vi4]

Malachi relaxed a little as he managed to distract Raley. Thank gods for small favors. He knew Raley didn't really mean anything by it, but the man was a moron sometimes, "Really? When do they think we'll have use of it? Will it be a field test or finished product?"

[Rhi-Rhi]

"How long do they think that'll take?" Keziah pitched in, smiling. This...was not her idea of a riveting conversation, really, but she'd take one for the team. If it kept the peace, so be it!

Besides, Raley was a little shit, sure, the sort that must have been a nightmare as a candidate and got chucked out of classrooms, but he wasn't so bad right now. Wasn't so bad when he kissed her, either.

[hr:3opim0q5][/hr:3opim0q5]

Gabriel leaned against Roman and tilted his head back to look up at him. "Oh, honeybear, I love you, but not that much."

And yet even as he said it, he felt a pang of jealousy as he realized what not taking the hit would mean. "Think we could get away with cheating?" he asked Roman, then nudged Alaric's foot with his hand. "Cheating. You in? Better than a human shield!"

[shinigamikitsune]

Nephele sighed deeply as he stood outside the door. Really, playing spin the bottle at their age? He had other things that he could be doing right now... like reading a book, or washing his tail...

There was no point in lingering outside the door any longer. As he was about to knock, the door opened for him. Great, there was already a lot of people here, and it didn't appear as though there was all that much floor space left.

Being ten feet tall, he had to duck down in order to pass through the door. Nephele didn't spend a lot of time around the other pilots, since he felt really out of place. As far as he knew, he was the only centaur that was a pilot. It also didn't help that he was also from a rather large sized breed.

"Um... hello. I don't suppose there's an empty spot, somewhere out of the way, that I could just... lay down and stay there for the rest of the night?"

[hr:15mxhlx9][/hr:15mxhlx9]

Right as he ended the kiss, he whispered just loud enough for Blaine to hear him. "If you wanna pick this up later tonight... my door is open, for whatever you may want to do."

Then Christian was dragging Blaine away. It was easy to see that man was jealous, and that Blaine wasn't all that into him. It wouldn't last that long.

But now it was his turn to spin the bottle, and he gave it a good spin. When it stopped, he almost laughed at who it landed on. The person whose dragon was responsible for this entire night.

"Looks like it's finally your turn Bart," he said with a smile, moving over towards him.

[Tally]

"O...kay?" Blaine said.  That could be fun, hanging out after the party.  Maybe he could convince Alaric and Gabe to come along.

Before he could even ask, Christian was drawing him away.  "We're...gonna miss the spin."  His lame attempt at keeping them in the room with everybody else.  It was his best shot.  He wasn't going to risk Christian causing a scene over this in public, and he didn't doubt for a second that Christian would do it either.

He lead the way into a hallway, around a corner and out of sight of everyone.  The bathroom was further down, but he stopped there and hoped Christian wouldn't take issue with it.  He didn't want to be closed up in a room with him way on the other side of the apartment.

"What?  Make it fast, they'll wonder what we're doing."

[hr:3s7pyk5u][/hr:3s7pyk5u]

"No, see...they're not actually after the actual thing," Raley said.  "Not to use anyway.  They're just willing to pay the licensing fee so they can get their hands on it and reverse-engineer our own design.  Then we won't have to keep relying on Thanatos for this shit."

[hr:3s7pyk5u][/hr:3s7pyk5u]

"What are you thinking we could do?"  Roman wrapped his arms around Gabriel and made himself look interested in the game.  If they could find a way out of this, he was in.

[Anonymous]

The hallway was fine with him. Grabbing Blaine's hair tight in his hand, Christian yanked his head back and smashed his lips against the blonds. It pissed him off he was agreeing to go off with that girly ass faggot Smash.

His free hand pressed Blaine's hips tight against Christian's, grinding roughly against him.

[hr:1qnnv29v][/hr:1qnnv29v]

"Are you going to get to be in charge of that?" Malachi was actually interested. He loved tech and wanted to be part of the tech team, but he was stuck with the Ministers until he died.

[hr:1qnnv29v][/hr:1qnnv29v]

"Whatever the plan is, yes. I am all for it. I do not want to kiss anyone here." Alaric would do just about whatever it took to avoid that. He wasn't even sure he could kiss anyone here without having a full blown panic attack.

[hr:1qnnv29v][/hr:1qnnv29v]

Bart shifted, moving Shiloh's feet. The bottle would land on him. Well, might as well get this over with, "Alright, here we go." He stood up and moved to where Smash was and gave him a simple kiss, nothing too fast or too slow.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Keziah made a little sound of appreciation, though Raley might as well have been speaking alien. She got the gist of it, though. "Clever! Think Thanatos'll notice?"

[hr:2kl22a8n][/hr:2kl22a8n]

"Telekinesis, of course!" Gabriel answered both Roman and Alaric, and leaned back fully against the love seat, drawing his knees up. Idly, he rested his hands on Roman's arms and focused again on the game--then looked away again when Bart got stuck kissing Smash.

This was just getting painful.

"Okay, so here's the plan. We make sure it doesn't land on us. Flick it at someone else whenever it does. Think we could pull it off? Romance, you got the subtlety!"

[hr:2kl22a8n][/hr:2kl22a8n]

Sitting up finally--Shiloh sort of regretted it, because he got an eyeful of Bart and Smash. Which was just awkward. But at least it hadn't been him. That had been fuckin' close.

[shinigamikitsune]

"Right..." Nephele murmured to himself when it seemed that nobody noticed his arrival, not that he really expected anything more. Instead he looked around the room for the best place for him to settle down at. Upon finding a spot, he moved rather carefully for a creature of his sized, before shifting in order to lower himself down onto the floor. In all honesty, he could probably be used as a living love seat.

[hr:3cwe6ud7][/hr:3cwe6ud7]

Smash licked his lips after the simple kiss, knowing that he probably would have been pushing things if he's tried for something more. He smiled to Bart and offered him the bottle. "Let's see if you stick with this all male trend so far, or if you manage to have the bottle land on own of our fine females."

His smile was genuine, and so were his words. Sure not everybody could get along, and some really didn't know when they were stepping over the line, but oh well. People were who they were, just as long as it didn't spill over into their ability to work with others.

[Tally]

"Not here!" Blaine's eyes rolled toward the entrance of the entrance of the hallway, looking for a shadow, a shift in the light, anything that might indicate someone might be coming.  Oh gods, if someone saw him like this.  Bart, Alaric, Raley...they were all right there, mere feet away.

His mental voice rose into a panic as he twisted about and tried to get out of Christian's grasp without making too much noise.  "Stop Christian, NOT HERE!!"

[hr:3ccaggfz][/hr:3ccaggfz]

"Of course telekinesis!  But it's not going to be that simple."

Roman specialized in getting underneath the notice and detection of other psychics, but even he couldn't pull off telekinesis in a room full of people all looking for it.

Not without some kind of interference.

"You two will have to give me cover.  Telekinesis, whenever the bottle is slowing.  Move something, slap Raley across the face, whatever.  Sloppy telekinesis if you can manage it.  As messy as you can get it without making it look intentional."

There was a bleed off of the excess kinetic force required to move anything, barely perceptible when performed by an expert psychic.  Roman had taught himself to wreak all manner of havoc within that faint, transient veil.  Helped that they were all getting drunk, too.  He should be able to slip something in with the telekinetic chatter in the air, and he had a few resources of his own.  Anything that would take their sight and focus off the bottle, even for a second, would be good.  Bart would be the real challenge.  They'd gone head to head a lot over the years, and Bart knew most of his favorite tricks.

"You realize they'll make us kiss whoever they want if they catch us, right?"  His luck, they'd probably give him Cross.

[hr:3ccaggfz][/hr:3ccaggfz]

"Psh.  Thanatos don't care," Raley said.  "They've got something bigger and badder in development already I guarantee.  I'll probably be consulting on the connectivity initiative but..."  He waved a hand.  "It's not that exciting.  I'd do just about anything for access to Thanatos's cybernetic R and D department.  That's where the real shit's at."

He glanced over at Bart and Smash, but the game had gotten boring.  "These people need to get more drunk."

[Anonymous]

Christian let Blaine squirm for just a moment longer before he released him, grinning down at him, fist still twisted into that pretty blond hair, "What are you going to do for me? If you want me to stop, better think of something worth while."

His other hand pressed Blaine tighter against his hip, whispering against the other Pilots ear, "You wouldn't want your precious friends to see you like this, now would you?"

[hr:3p195cgb][/hr:3p195cgb]

"Are you kidding? Too much force and not enough control is like my specialty!" Alaric kept his face composed, looking after where Blaine had vanished. He was wandering what that was about. He didn't think Blaine was friends with Gabe's asshole cousin, but maybe?

[hr:3p195cgb][/hr:3p195cgb]

"I bet you would. I doubt I would ever see you again if you got into that place." Malachi glanced back at the game, where Bart and the weird long haired guy were kissing. He could have sworn there had been a rule passed that Pilots had to have cut to their shoulders. Maybe it had been changed?

[hr:3p195cgb][/hr:3p195cgb]

Well, that hadn't been too bad, though Bart took a long pull from his beer before reaching for the bottle. If he didn't know better, he might have suspected Roman of nudging it toward him, but he was keeping a [/i]close[/i] watch on that bottle.

Though, he had done his duty and after this spin, if he was lucky, he might be able to nudge it away from him and sacrifice Shiloh on the alter of kissing.

He gave the bottle a quick spin and waited to see who it landed on.

Fuck. Balls.

It was Raley.