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

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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!]

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"Huh?" She looked up at Kamala and blinked quickly. "Oh yeah, sure. Just...this is really beautiful, you know? You're not just dancing with your family, but your wholeass culture. Like...I dunno. You can just see all the connections here. All the different traditions and how they're a part of you and also how you're sharing them, with Bruno and your sister-in-law and that's...it's just really lovely, Kamala."

That assumption was more or less accurate. As for Marc...

"Action pictures," Watts informed her.

As much as Marc claimed to like anything, of course.

Her surprised face, let her show you it. "I'll keep that in mind for movie nights scheduled not over your date night," she said, since she did, y'know, listen to radio. "I'm glad you two were willing to share date night with us, too."

Realistically speaking, Steven was the one more likely to show up to a movie night regardless of whether it was date night or not, but Marc showing up couldn't be ruled out, particularly given recent developments. So Arden got an appreciative smile for the consideration.

"Oh," he said, a tinge of colour appearing on his cheeks. "Well. It's- an appropriate activity, isn't it? For a date?"

Though there would probably be a lot more actually watching the film than when Watts and Steven attempted to do so on their own.

Cal sat down beside her, only slightly blushing at her just throwing 'porn' out there like it wasn't an embarrassing thing to watch. "Romances are about people not talking to each other and letting their desire to be physical get in the way of dealing with real problems, if they even have any. Isn't there a whole series of movies about women letting their businesses fail so they can marry guys who own farms?"

He should have never been allowed to have a phone to learn Earth culture.

Kamala watched Arden for a second and then patted her leg. "Next time we get a break in classes you can come with me to Jersey City," she offered. "We probably won't have a Bollywood dance party but I think you'd like it."

"Oh, you don't have to do that on my account," Kamala said a little too quickly and put down her phone. "Everyone should have a turn picking out a movie they'd like to share."

"We used to have a lot of holovids and plays, but... well, the current regime is mostly into propaganda vids," Cal said. "This place is a lot different. A lot better." Which was saying something, honestly. "Mindless entertainment people can just enjoy seems like a nice change of pace."

"Which means that, at some point, it's your turn to pick, right?" Arden asked, because this just made sense and was also hilarious.

"That's even more fun then," Steven said as he took a seat. "I'm given to understand these films are about family as well? That's nice."

Steven was a big believer in family himself after all, even if it couldn't be the one you were born into.

(No, don't ask Steven to get too into the whole born concept as it related to himself. He'd rather not, thank you.)

"I meeeeean," Arden said, trying to tease but still wiping at her face, "You're inviting me to New Jersey though..."

"You turned into a few things, didn't you?" Steven asked, to be sure he had it right. "At least radio mentioned it. But I've found only some of the broadcasters are - "

Steven was about to say are worth listening to but he didn't want to be rude to everyone who worked at the station. So he went with, " - are more accurate than others."

Who watched? Arden read her porn like a civilized person, thank you.

"Okay, yes, that's true," she acknowledged, kindly leaving off the part about how white women were terrible at looking after their own self-interests because this wasn't the time to introduce Cal to American politics. Instead, she was going to shift until she was leaning with her back against him, arched slightly so she could look up at his face while they talked. Like normal friends. "That's one genre of romance, like how dumb car movies are one genre of action flicks. There are plenty of romances where they're about the main characters finding strength and resilience in their relationship, because the outside world is just so much." She paused. "I'll grant you, a lot of movies do have plots that could just be solved by people talking about their feelings openly and honestly."

Which was nothing like real life, obviously.

Yeah, that seemed like a good topic to zoom right by. The orphan wasn't really interested in lingering over blood families, either.

"Oh yeah," she said. "Family is a huge part of the franchise. I guess people play a drinking game where they take a drink every time someone says family in the movies and they end up hammered."

"Definitely," Arden said, though she was resolutely not thinking of it as a date herself. "But there are a handful of us here, and so you're still sharing it with us, rather than it just being you and Steven alone."

"I know it might be difficult, but I think the only thing we need is your company," Cal said, giving Steven a wave. "Thank you for letting everyone take over the living room."

"Best not do that then," Steven said. Because to him Arden was of legal age for drinking so that wasn't the issue. "I'd rather be able to remember the film if possible."

"Nonsense," Steven said, even as he waved back at Cal. "This is precisely the sort of thing this space is for. You're all meant to use it as you like."

"So far in my life I've had a single bottle of hard cider, so I definitely don't think I'm ready for the big leagues yet," she said with a small laugh.

Steven looked thoughtful. "I don't think I've ever had that? Was it good? Should I at some point?"

"It was pretty sweet, so I liked it," Arden said. "And apple-y. I don't know much about alcohol to see how it stacks up, but the one I had was tasty!"

Very clearly a silly concept, yes.

"So all action movies aren't hot people sending cars into space?" he said, mostly teasing. "I guess that kind of romance plot makes sense. But you don't have to slip body parts together to find strength with other people."

Sorry Arden, these things were just ingrained deeply.

"I'll give it a go sometime, see how I like it," Steven decided. Then, if she was curious, "I usually do a pint if I'm at the pub. Guinness. Different from cider, sounds like."

When Steven had said his hellos, he came back to bump shoulders with Llewellyn. "Hello, you."

It was fine! This whole conversation was just basically proving that Cal was pretty firmly on the aro/ace spectrum somewhere and Arden's crush on him and his arms was not only disrespectful to his beliefs but also probably off-putting and uncomfortable to boot!

"No, some action movies are about hot people using cars to fight monsters," Arden teased back, sliding down until her head was pillowed on his lower thigh. "And no, you don't have to. And there are all sorts of movies about found family--" she pointed to the TV "--and bands of brothers and buddy flicks and that kind of stuff, too. But people--" Wait no. Inclusive language, Arden. "--A lot of people are interested in romance and romantic dynamics and like watching those, too, whether or not there's...body part slipping...or not. But don't worry." She winked up at him. "I won't make you watch and romantic movies if you don't want to."

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Midnight Manor Boarding House's Living Room, Wednesday Night

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