afraid_of_marshmallows | Midnight Manor Boarding House's Living Room, Wednesday Night

Okay, sure. Arden didn't know much more than what TV said about throwing movie nights, but surely she had the gist. Many ~~moddable~~ pizzas and sodas had been ordered from Pizza Planet - look, Arden loved sweet tea, but even she knew soda was necessary for movie nights. A truly disturbing number of bags of popcorn had been popped and put into bowls and a quick stop at T&C had been made to grab a couple of different popcorn seasonings in case people wanted to experiment with popcorn flavors.

All that was left was to wait for people to show up. She'd texted both Kamala and Cal in full capslock mode about the glory of this movie, and then had ~~handwavily~~ tried to contact as many other residents as possible to tell them about the movie night - texts, email, sign on the door, whatever. Sure, nobody had to come, but she at least wanted to make sure everyone knew they were welcome. She'd also invited Steven and Watts (while double checking that, yes, it really was okay to move furniture around the living room and also eat in there) and had made sure to get a few bags of unbuttered popcorn just for them. Did she think the butter flavoring had any actual dairy in it? No. But she was gonna be careful all the same.

Now she was just pushing the furniture around to make sure that every possible seat had a good view of the incredibly large TV and was in reaching distance of a bowl of popcorn and places to put their cups of soda and plates of pizza down. Midnight Movie Night was about to begin, showcasing the absolute work of art and cultural tour de force that 2 Fast and 2 Family 4 Oceans, the fifteenth 2 Fast 2 Family sequel that was also a prequel to the Oceans Edge series.

This was gonna be great.

[Open to all Midnight Manor Boarding House residents!]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

"Oh, I like that!" Steven said. "Especially as I think that'd be less confusing for Midnight. It knows it's not normally supposed to trap people, so the nuances ~~ahem~~ of the lift scenario might be difficult for it to wrap its head around.

"And of course it's the sort of thing we'd make clear if these two - er - hypothetical - " Steven gave Kamala a large wink " - people were truly unhappy about it that it all should stop. But luckily there it's able to read their minds to know what they truly want."

Since the two people in question had given Midnight permission to read their minds as needed. Midnight wouldn't go digging around on it own.

"Oh, so if we were to strongly suggest the matter to Midnight they may be willing to go along with this scenario," Kamala said winking back. "All in theory of course."

"Precisely," Steven said. He made a motion of pushing his hands gently together. "Not forcing anything. Providing the opportunity for a nudge."

This was absolutely what happened when Steven had a lot of energy regarding wanting to interfere in someone's life to help them do things that would make them happy, only he couldn't channel any of it in Marc's direction.

(Well, Steven could but he was trying to behave himself and not.)

"Riiiight. Just forming or strengthening their hypothetical connection," Kamala agreed. "Thank you, Steven. This has been very productive."

"It was an interesting thought exercise with no real world applications whatsoever," Steven said, giving her another large nod and a wink.

"This kind of stuff is helpful. Hanging out with people, having pleasant distractions that keep me from stalking Portalocity," Cal said with a smirk. "It's really great to know there are places in the universe where people get to just be happy. It makes me feel more hopeful for my own future, if that makes sense?"

"It does, absolutely," Steven said. "Hope is everything, you ask me. Inspires you to make things better. Helps you keep going when things are at their worst. If being here helps you feel more hopeful about things, that means a great deal, actually."

"I'm not repressing anything. I just don't like complaining," Cal said. "There's nothing anyone here can do to help, so it's easier to just not say anything."

Arden overheard this exchange and exchanged glances with BD. She knew, little droid. She knew.

"Oh, I was talking about the movie, buuut the Scrapper Guild was like a family too, if you're not bored with me talking about home." It was hard to not want to just tear himself open when she looked at him like that.

"Cal," Arden said with a small smile and a shake of her head. "When have I ever been bored talking to you? I mean, you listen to me complain about my childhood all the time without ever looking like you'd rather be elsewhere, and you're worried about me getting bored listening to you talk about all the fascinating things you've done and learned?"

"Okay, I respectfully disagree," Kamala said, speaking kindly. "But this island is literally filled with superheroes and aliens who might be able to help. You have heard of friiiiieeeeeeeends right? That's what we are here for."

Friiiiieeeeeeeends. You might know the word, Cal but Kamala is beginning to think you might be missing a definition here or there.

Edited 2024-05-30 19:52 (UTC)

"I have friends," he said, rolling his eyes. "But I'm also cut off from home right now, so when I say there's nothing anyone can do..." He sighed. "It's really complicated, and we're supposed to be having a good night and enjoying a movie, not listening to me whine."

So much uncomfortable squirming was happening. Feelings sucked.

“I’m sorry,” Kamala said, seeing he was uncomfortable. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad. Come here…”

She opened her arms.

“Let’s hug it out.”

Which would be a vastly different experience with Kamala.

Hey, when you were as touch-starved as Cal was, all hugs were good hugs, so Cal opened his arms as well and pulled her in tightly. "Okay, this is good, thank you." Enjoy the arms, Kamala!

Edited 2024-05-31 01:18 (UTC)

Ok. Arms. Yep. Kamala can see why Arden goes on about them.

But Kamala’s hug was of the awkward but well meaning sibling type of hug complete with the friendly pat on the back.

“See? Hugs make everything better.”

Somewhere in Exandria the Heart of the Tides would agree.

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Midnight Manor Boarding House's Living Room, Wednesday Night

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