Midnight Manor Boarding House's Living Room, Wednesday Night

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

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!]

Comments

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Are you okay, Steven?" Arden asked, puzzling over his slight frown. "And no, I think I pretty much got everything..."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

Steven had come empty handed, Arden. It felt unnatural to him. He was fine otherwise though.

"If you're certain," Steven said. He smiled. "It looks wonderful. All the food and the like."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Sorry, Steven. You were just going to have to trust that people enjoyed your company even without bringing food.

"There are a couple of vegan pizzas and some unbuttered popcorn," Arden said, pointing those out. "I didn't check to see if any of the popcorn flavorings or vegan? So I would check the labels before you tried any of those, sorry."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

Without things? Crazy talk, Arden. Crazy talk!

"Oh that's kind of you," Steven said. "From the pizza place on the island? They do good vegan pizzas."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

More likely than you'd think!

"Well, I didn't want you and Detective Watts to be hungry with nothing to eat," Arden said, because she was Black and Southern and that was a sin. "You invite folks over, you make sure you have food for them."

They might be a little low on beverages though. Arden was realizing she had no idea if either man drank soda.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

Steven helped himself to one of the sodas, effectively answering that question even though he didn't know the narrative had asked. "Kind of you all the same. I'm looking forward to the film. I've not seen it before."

It was a bit more macho than Steven's... well everything, really. But also usual movie fare. Which meant this was an exciting new experience for him!

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

A bit more macho than Arden's usual fare, too. But the ridiculous helped keep it from being too much - which was why she preferred the later movies to the earlier ones, back when they'd tried to keep the plot within the general bounds of 'plausible.'

"It's actually a movie that hasn't been released yet. Or maybe just not on this Earth? The school library has a bunch of books and movies that haven't been written or were never made."

So many Netflix series, y'all. Just like. So many.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

"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.)

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

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."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

"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."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"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.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

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

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"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!"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

"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."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"That's a beer, right?" A thick and kinda chewy one, if what she'd heard was correct. "The only time I've ever been inside of a pub or anything was Caritas for the Three Minute Date thing and I was too nervous to have much of anything."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

"Did you?" Steven quickly tried to remember the last time there had been Three Minute Dates, briefly worrying there'd been a recent one he'd forgotten. "That was... last year, yes? Fall, I want to say?"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden nodded. "Yup! Just a few weeks after I arrived. I--" had been bullied into going by birds. "--thought it might be a nice way to meet a few people, since I was new and all."

The evening had not ended as successfully for her as it had for, say, Liliana, but she'd definitely laid the groundwork for a few of her friendships and that was important!

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

"It is nice for meeting people," Steven said. He thought again, because timelines were always difficult for him. "Llewellyn and I accidentally got signed up when we were only just dating? I believe? We were on a date at least. So not looking to find other romantic partners. But fortunately people seemed to understand it could simply be finding a friend. That's all right."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh, the first person I got matched up with was Gray, who told me from the jump that he was entirely gay and nothing was gonna happen with that," she said with a laugh. "And I told him I didn't know anything about anybody and so friendship was just about my speed."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

"I remember meeting that doctor who's in charge of the clinic," Steven said. "He seemed nice."

Funny how Steven otherwise never spent too much time with that guy. So weird.

"I can't remember the others," Steven admitted. "But that's me. Memory and all that. I'm sure they were nice as well."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

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

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

"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."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"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."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

"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.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"It's hard," Arden said, eyes falling to the floor, "when you're trying so hard to connect, but that's...just not what the other person wants. Maybe at all, or maybe not that type, or maybe just not with you. Telling yourself that it's them, not you. Even though that's harder and harder and harder to believe, every time it happens. If you ever get to that point at all, I guess."