(no subject)

[jasminebloominginshadow]

Who: Invitation only, PM for details
What: Raye and Rakka's mutual birthday party, or "Jasmine sure does have a thing about throwing surprise parties for friends, huh?
Where: Shepherd's Haven, the rec building
When: Early to late evening, October 3rd

If Raye wasn't going to take her birthday seriously, Jasmine was going to make sure of it herself. What's more, Rakka's was soon as well, so it was decided to put it all together. Jasmine already had experience throwing parties, after all. I mean, she'd done the same for Winter, right?

A single experience is still experience, shut up.

In any case, though she'd been in Locke for the past several weeks, she'd returned to Shepherd's Haven for the sake of throwing this little get together. She'd gotten Marina to help her, Lily, Winter, Rakka (who was okay with not being surprised, as they needed SOMEONE to set things up with Raye)... anyone she could get a hold of to set things up in the rec building. It wasn't a really ostentatious affair, of course... there was music, there was food, there was cake, there were presents... all you needed for a birthday, really.

(There was also alcohol, but the advice to drink responsibly).

Now all they needed was the birthday girl.

[ooc - If you want your character to be here, PM Jasmine's account. She's the one handling invitations.]

Comments

[dragon_blossom]

Hey, Jasmine had more experience than Marina anyways. Of course she'd tried to get Jasmine to make it really lively and bright and colorful, preferably with a well-placed camera to capture Raye's expression upon seeing it, but apparently that might actually bother Raye or something.

So that was nixed, and it's still a nice party, and Marina's going to be drinking (responsibly-ish). Hopefully her present was sufficiently hardcore as well...

[jasminebloominginshadow]

As the party went on, sometime after it had actually started, Jasmine floated over to her fiance.

"Hey babe," she said. "Looks like everything's been going well so far. Thanks for helping out..."

Jasmine may or may not feel nervous about nixing her girl's decoration plans.

[dragon_blossom]

Marina nudged Jasmine in the ribs - gently - and put an arm around her waist. "Uh, duh, of course I helped out. My sweetie throwing a party for my friend, pff, obviously I'm all over that."

She didn't seem bothered.

[jasminebloominginshadow]

"... Heh, okay," Jasmine replied. "Sorry, I guess I'm still a bit nervous about not listening to your decorating ideas still."

She blinked. "Hey, by the way, I know you got something for Raye... did you figure something out for Rakka?"

Did somebody call for a birthday girl?

[guitar_case_vagabond]

Birthdays weren't typically the kind of thing Raye tended to celebrate. At least, not her own. For much of her life, the day had come and gone without much fanfare, including the last two years. The one previous had been a big time of transition, and hadn't left a lot of time for celebrating. The one before that...

... well, let's not get into that here.

So, she'd woken up that morning and gone about her day with little thought as to the occasion it marked. By the time she'd gotten the message to head to the rec center in the evening, the thought of what day it was had already slipped from her mind. She wasn't even thinking of it when her bike rolled up to the building and she climbed off, figuring there was some kind of work or whatever that needed to be done before she called it a day.

So, totally unsuspecting, she made her way up and pushed the doors open.

[charcoalfeather]

How had Rakka learned of her girlfriend's birthday? Raye had told her, of course, though after the fact. And after everything that the last year decided to be, she wanted to make sure that this birthday was a good one for her.

After coming back to Shepard's Haven, it was a simple matter of everyone working together... and keeping Raye in the dark about it. Which was mostly Rakka's job, until it was finally time to head there. Thankfully, Raye didn't question it too much.

They pulled up and Rakka climbed off after Raye, slowly pulling off the helmet she had to wear, leaving no small amount of static hair to pop up. Eh, she was too happy to care.

Especially as Raye pushed through into the center, and Rakka was jumping behind her. "Surprise!"

[dragon_blossom]

Of course Marina had to be involved with her friend's birthday preparations, especially when she'd been so damned cagey about it that Rakka didn't even find out in a timely manner. They had a lot to make up for, and a lot of happiness to try to squeeze out of this situation, and almost the moment Rakka jumped in to yell, Marina was leaping out as well, firing off a party popper (where did she even get that?) and, very loudly, yelling "Surprise!"

[jasminebloominginshadow]

Jasmine laughed as everyone sprang out, her own shout of "Surprise!" joining in as she revealed herself. In fact, she was the first person to turn on the lights to greet everyone.

"Hey there Raye," she said. "We got you good, didn't we?"

Lazarus OTA

[numberedshepherd]

The advice to drink responsibly wasn't lost on Lazarus, but it was probably needed. He nurses a rum and coke as he mingles uneasily; though he believes strongly in the importance of maintaining a sense of normalcy and spirit to keep morale high, there's so much going wrong lately that it's difficult to feel truly at-ease.

He's brought some gifts he picked up in Christchurch; he's not much good at picking them out, but he did his best, and he clearly thought about them, even if it's by his weird and oddly-ordered logic for such things. He got Raye a t-shirt that says I LOVE CLOTHES, and Rakka has a box filled with pretty much every angel-themed Christmas ornament he could find this early in the season. Maybe they'll be happy enough when they unwrap them to let him enjoy this party a little and take his mind off business and stress.

[feastorfamine]

Amy smiles as she sees Lazarus at the party, but she quickly notices something is amiss. So, she heads over to him, trying to appear friendly.

"Hey," she said, greeting her former employer. "It's good to see you here, Lazarus."

And... not eating any of the cake that's there. But she can save that for a moment.

[numberedshepherd]

Amy never seems to have much trouble appearing friendly; it's a major reason that Lazarus' prickly exterior relaxes when she's around, because he's conditioned very well to respond to her with reciprocal friendliness.

"I wouldn't miss it," he says, taking a small sip of his drink. "I can't be everywhere at once, but birthdays only happen once a year, so in their case I do make an effort to try extra hard. I hope you're having a good time?"

[feastorfamine]

Amy nodded, feeling a bit better that he seemed to relax in her presence. "That's good. I've actually been to a lot of benefits and parties in the last few months. It's good to come to something smaller."

She laughed softly. "So ah... have you tried the cake yet?" she asked, rather pointedly.

Rakka OTA

[charcoalfeather]

It's the birthday girl! Or, rather, one of them. It wasn't Rakka's birthday yet, simply put. But it was about a week from now, which was close enough! And rather then just work on two birthdays in such close proximity, her friends had decided to throw one huge shebang for both girls. The surprise of it was lost of Rakka, as they needed her to keep Raye in the dark about it. But sacrifices would have be made for an awesome party, thrown by her best friends!

She wouldn't be drinking much (such an angel, right here) but that's not going to stop her from hanging around. And she even managed to get Raye something for her birthday without her knowing: a surprise... until she could give it to her herself - it was sure to be a gift from the heart; which Raye was surely to appreciate.

[jasminebloominginshadow]

Forget giving a gift to Raye; it was time for Rakka to get one from Jasmine. Grinning, the girl slid up to her friend, handing her a carefully wrapped package. What it was would likely be obvious from the shape of it, given she'd just wrapped the game case the visual novel she'd gotten Rakka came in.

"Hey Rakka," she said. "I know I was the one who set up the party, but I got you this too. I hope you like it."

[charcoalfeather]

"Jasmine! Thanks for putting this party together for us." And for letting her help with it. She smiles up at the Precure, before her eyes lower to the package in Jasmine's hands. It was familiar enough, as shapes went.

"For me? Thanks!" She takes it, and seeing as they're here and all, she'll just start unwrapping it.

Saretha OTA

[purestambition]

It's not often that Saretha Kaiser attempts to be inconspicuous, but today is one such day. Certainly, it feels important to be at her little sister's birthday party, and... she can't really deny that for as many as she missed. For Rakka, too. She's a friend, and important to Raye.

However... Two years ago still sticks out in her mind, as she's sure it does for Raye to some degree. On top of that, this is something much more low key than what she's used to, even if she figures it's the best way to approach it. Between all that, she feels rather out of place, and thus just sort of... drifts back towards corners of the room, minding her own business.

[feastorfamine]

Amy is a bit more used to stuff like this, even after more than a year of following Saretha to various functions. Despite her own comfort, she still notices the way Saretha is acting, and drifts over to her, reaching out to take her girlfriend's hand once she's close enough.

"Hey," she said. "Are you okay?"

[purestambition]

Saretha blinks at the question for a moment, before giving a soft, barely audible chuckle. She nods a bit, crossing her arms as she leans back against the wall.

"I am fine. Really."

[guitar_case_vagabond]

These things weren't really her thing either, big gatherings, celebrations and the like, particularly not ones for her. The fact that it's just as much a party for Rakka helps that out a little though. Rakka deserves it.

Still, she's doing her best but those back corners are a pretty hefty draw for her and it isn't too long before she starts gravitating toward them as well. So, before too long she wanders over and slumps back a bit to lean against the wall beside Saretha. She's silent just long enough to gulp from her drink before looking over.

"Hey."

[purestambition]

Saretha senses Raye beside her for a moment, but doesn't say anything at first. Their relationship is... something that Saretha is still trying to fully comprehend sometimes, but one thing she's learned is the importance of giving Raye her space. She understands more now when to push and when to not, and now isn't quite then.

So, when she speaks up, that's when Saretha looks back and nods, smiling a lot more genuinely than one might have ever expected from her.

On the outside, it's probably a bit freaky.

"Happy birthday, Raye."

Of course, that had to be the first thing out of her mouth - after all, she had a good eighteen years of not being able to say it.

Lily OTA

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Lily needs a damned break.

That much she knows, and she has no idea how much more that's going to be relevant in the weeks to come. For now, the love letter monster was quite enough. And... at least a few of the people who saw that mess are here. She tries to keep up a happy face, perfectly minding herself and basically pretending that never happened.

Because, after all! This is about her friends, and they need to enjoy that.

[jasminebloominginshadow]

Jasmine is glad to see Lily here, and putting that business behind her. That thing had disturbed Jasmine too, and quite frankly, she just wanted to forget it. Right now, she was focused on having fun, and making sure everyone else had fun.

"Hey sis," she said, walking over to her sister while holding a drink. "Can I throw a party, or can I throw a party?"

[alilyinthemoonslight]

One of those at the forefront of that incident was, of course, Lily's sister. Her lips twitch a bit on approach, and then she lets out a relieved breath as Jasmine proceeds to... not bring that up at all.

"Well, I can't exactly argue that. This is nice, and... they deserve it."

[charcoalfeather]

"Lily! You made it." Rakka's happiness could almost be felt as she approached the older Precure. One of the pervading thoughts Rakka had following that.... everything that happened in Locke, was that she wouldn't make it. Thankfully, that thought was wrong.

So, she was all smiles, now that they were in a comfortable place with no monsters or love letters. "It's so nice to see you again! Are you feeling better?"

Hopefully, after punching that monster.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Lily grins nervously. Yes, she very well had wanted to just go hide in a hole for week or month or year or so, but she knew she couldn't quite get away with that. Winter would kill her, and probably everyone else would line up afterwards.

"Of course I did, I wouldn't miss this. But, ah..." She brushes a hand back through her hair, nervously. "I guess I'm fine. After... things."