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!]

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"That goes without question," Watts said with an answering smile.

"Oh hey, Henry," Arden said, sitting up to throw their housemate a casual wave. "Have you seen the iconic cultural gift that is the 2 Fast 2 Family movies?"

"I signed up for them on purpose," Watts said drily. "So take that as you will."

At least he hadn't ended up with a shrimp shirt.

"Happier than I've been in my whole life," she said with a shrug that was, you know. Very super casual about everything. "So, you know. Thanks to all three of you. For making this happen."

"Most people here tend to be that way," Arden said. "Especially if you're nice first, which you always are."

Please, if anyone could understand that sentiment it was... well. All three of them.

"You're very welcome, Miss Finch."

Awww. BD was getting snuggled, too. All the kisses and snuggling, just for adorable droids.

"Found family is one of my favorite tropes," she said, voice falling quiet as she glanced towards the screen of the TV, expression soft and wistful. "Where you have a group of outcasts, loners, weirdos...and usually external forces end up putting them together. Usually they're strangers, sometimes they're even enemies, but over the course of the plot, they end up becoming family. They love each other and trust in each other and it doesn't matter that none of them are related by blood, because family is family. Theirs was just found, not made at home, you know? Other folks call it 'forged' family, because it was forged by circumstances, and also, like...you didn't just trip over it. You worked at it. Maybe even fought for it and bled for it..."

She shrugged and looked back up at him. "Whatever you call it, it's good having a trope out there that acknowledges that family can be more than just biology. That love isn't just romantic, familial bonds are just as important and valid."

"Oooh, I wonder if some of the motion capture got caught in the digital rendering?" Arden said. "That would be kinda dope, actually. But then, so would it being a person in a costume."

Steve had been welcoming of those feelings. Unlike Cal!

"You don't have to pump your own gas?" Arden asked. She didn't have a car or any idea of the weird laws in Jersey. "Because you're famous?"

"Exactly. And those of us who don't know a lot about this world's movies--" He pointed to himself, in case it wasn't clear. "--get to learn more about what you all consider entertainment."

"The first one? Maybe?" Henry replied. "Which one is this?"

"Regardless, I thought the three headed one was nice," Steven said. He made a waving motion with his hands to try to mimic the movement seen in the film. "With how the heads and necks moved to the music?"

"Doing all right," Steven said. "Yourself?"

Look, Steven dealt with Marc when he came around the outskirts of a gathering. He knew better than to do anything that ran the risk of making someone who wasn't normally outgoing feel self conscious about being around people.

"Good." Steven's smile became a grin. "We can say it's quality control. Me testing them."

"Oh, back when they were still pretending that, like, plot, continuity, and the natural laws meant anything," Arden said with a laugh. "This is the fifteenth, which will come out in some worlds in...2040? I think? The school library has a bunch of movies and books that haven't been created, yet or at all, so we get to see it early."

"Try to be," Steven said. A brief look of uncertainty crossed his face. "Doesn't always work. But we can only do our best, right? Even if it's frustrating when that doesn't go as well as we'd like."

"That's true," Steven said, perking up. "I hadn't thought of that, you not being familiar. You should chat with Llewellyn about it. He's been learning a great deal about movies as well, since he's originally from when they were only just getting started."

"And some folks make it hard anyway," Arden sighed. "But yeah. You try, sometimes you fail, then you try again. It's how we do anything, really."

"Precisely," Steven said. "And sometimes you meet people at the wrong place in their lives. They're not interested in making connections with other people and there's nothing that can be done about it."

That had been a hard lesson for Steven to learn, granted.

"Of course it fucking does," Henry said, with a slight eyeroll. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she'd accepted the whole "It's so weird! Like, so weird!" thing about this place. But acceptance didn't mean embracing, not yet.

"Been worse, I guess," Henry said with a shrug.

"Weather been all right?" Steven asked, because as a Brit he could small talk with the best of them. "Sometimes summer around here can be a nasty surprise for some people."

Edited 2024-05-30 01:36 (UTC)

"My most trusted advisor in all things baked goods," Watts said. After a beat, he added: "Mist matters, actually, not just baked goods."

"Baked goods is an honor, though," Steven said. "I know Raphael has done his best to lobby for the position."

"The weather," Henry took a sip of her root beer, "has been fucking gross."

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Midnight Manor Boarding House's Living Room, Wednesday Night

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