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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

moreofaponchoguy

BD made a happy noise and a mocking beep at Cal. He could be getting head kisses too, but nooo.

"I mean, you guys have airplanes and rocket ships. I assume you know how to launch vehicles into space." He was going to be A Problem when it came to fictional stories, sorry. "I was hoping it wouldn't be a romance story that's just people kissing with no plot."

From:

afraid_of_marshmallows

Silly BD. Cal was uninterested in head kisses from Arden.

But that's okay, because she was already raising an eyebrow at Cal. "And how many romances have you seen?"

From:

moreofaponchoguy

"Well, I haven't seen any, but there are books where I'm from, and they're all just... they're either about insultingly unintelligent women getting wooed by men who don't deserve them, or they're just the... adult times. Are the movies here not the same as that?" he asked.

From:

afraid_of_marshmallows

"I mean, women getting wooed by unworthy men is just a fact of life," Arden scoffed, because this was a world wherein 'Man Vs Bear' was a legitimate debate.

She was going to flop down on the couch they'd just moved and patted the cushion next to her for him to sit, too. "But yeah, romance is a spectrum between cheesy romcoms from the 70s and porn," she said, both charmed and entertained by adult times - and more certain than ever that the Code meant he wasn't into them. "Romances are about people finding connection together. Falling in love. Getting past all the stupid obstacles that the world likes to insist are important and all the stupid prejudices and beliefs they've been clinging to in order to see the real person in front of them and realize that that person means the whole world to them. How is that boring?"

From:

moreofaponchoguy

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.

From:

afraid_of_marshmallows

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.

From:

moreofaponchoguy

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.

From:

afraid_of_marshmallows

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."

From:

moreofaponchoguy

Cal took the opportunity of having Arden's head in his lap to let BD-1 get down and get into her lap in return. "I guess it might be nice to watch stories about people getting together after a while. What's a found family?" he asked. "I thought this was just people fighting monsters with machines?"

From:

afraid_of_marshmallows

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."

From:

moreofaponchoguy

Honestly, one of the best things about hanging out with Arden was listening to her explain things. It was fascinating to watch her as well as listen to her, and having her like this, relaxed across him while BD cuddled up with them both--it felt right in a way he hadn't expected to have to confront.

"That sounds like a really good plot idea. The people you learn to care about can be so much more important than blood, especially because you have to prove they can trust you," he said. "Like the people who have to work together in the machines, that's a bond they don't have with their 'real' family."

From:

afraid_of_marshmallows

"Work together in the machines?" Arden asked, her amber eyes soft and warm as she continued to look up at him. "What machines?"

From:

moreofaponchoguy

"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.

From:

afraid_of_marshmallows

"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?"