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]

"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."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

"It is hard," Steven agreed, looking at Arden with sympathy. "Or you make mistakes you didn't mean to and they won't let you explain yourself. Or they get angry with you for asking for an explanation because you were meant to have known somehow."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"And somehow trying to be perfect doesn't work, either," she said, shrugging her shoulders with a very OH WELL kind of air to it. "Or you just never get to where you're perfect enough."

She wished she were talking about Cal. Or, rather, she wished she were talking about just Cal.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

Steven could understand that. "At least that means that when you find the right one it's that much better? Someone who is your friend, or your partner, not in spite but because?"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"That's the working theory so far," Arden said, giving him a thumbs up. "Seems to be doing okay, too."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[hasaknightjob]

"The island is good for that," Steven said. "I think it helps that everyone is from different backgrounds. Increases the odds someone can empathize from where you're coming from."