apocalypsehowcomm | Movie Mingle

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Movie Mingle

Who: Yelena and anyone who wants to show up
When: Evening on August 5th
Where: ADI apartment grounds
Summary: Yelena has procured a projector and a copy of Jurassic Park. Everyone's invited.
Warnings: None at the outset; please add any applicable warnings to your subject lines.

The invitation that goes out on Monday night is simple:

un: jelica

Jurassic Park showing outside housing Block C this Friday. Movie starts at 8:30pm. Chips, popcorn, soda, blankets provided. Feel free to bring alternate snacks and seating if desired.

Before
The benefit to showing a movie outside, projected against an apartment wall, is that there's only so much set-up required. A few folding tables holding large bowls of chips and popcorn, a couple of coolers for soda and whatever people bring with them, some large blankets spread on the lawn, and everything's just about ready. Yelena - and whoever's volunteered or been drafted to help - has everything ready to go an hour ahead of the movie's start time.

There's plenty of time to chat with old colleagues and new acquaintances.

During
There is still a strip of light at the edge of the horizon when the movie starts, but on the eastern face of the building, it's dark enough for the scene to play out clearly against the large white canvas that has been suspended from the rooftop, weighted so that it doesn't stir in the breeze and disrupt the picture. It is not - quite - the full drive-in experience; there is no stretch of windshield and hood to make the moment when scaled predators jump onto one of the vehicles all the more immersive.

The sound is up loud enough to cover some chatter, but talking too loud still risks getting popcorn thrown at one's head.

After
The movie ends ahead of curfew, enough so that there is a little time for those who've opted to live off campus to chat, or help with clean-up, before saying their goodbyes and slipping out before the gates lock for the night. Or to arrange a place to crash for the night, if they want to linger longer. It's a lovely night, and there probably aren't any actual rogue dinosaurs about.

Probably.

(ooc: Party-style log for group movie night! Tag amongst yourselves!)

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I. Before
Yelena spends some time after the initial set-up is done fiddling with the projector and the sound system, the better to make sure nothing abruptly decides to stop functioning in the middle of the movie itself. She's easy enough to spot, having opted for a light dress decorated with dinosaurs in bright primary colours that may well be (almost certainly is) the subject of a dare from someone. It does not quite hide the scars curving over one shoulder, like something with claws had laid her open.

Most people approaching her will get a quick grin and a greeting of, "Almost done here. I'm glad you could make it."

II. During
Yelena doesn't talk much during the movie. She's staked out a stretch of blanket, and reclines back on her elbows, legs crossed in front of her at the ankles.

At about the 45 minute mark, she produces a flask from somewhere - the dress, in addition to dinosaurs, apparently sports pockets - and tips some of the contents into the bottle of Dr Pepper she's been sipping. Catch her, and if she likes you, she might give a slightly crooked smile and lift the flask in offering.

III. After
"Still holds up," is Yelena's cheerful comment on the movie once it's finished. Or, if she has reason to suspect the person she's speaking to has never seen it, "What did you think?"

She spends a little time mingling before pulling away to start the clean-up. Once again, she's easily visible, easy to interrupt, be it with a question or idle conversation, or just to bid good night.

Before

George shows up with a six-pack of Coca-Cola and a bag of compressed cotton candy. He sticks the sodas into the communal cooler. The cotton candy is, apparently, his because he takes it and a cold soda over to one of the blankets to settle down. It's clear he's excited about what's going on, because he never stops looking around, checking everything out, or calling out to anybody who gets close enough, "You lookin' forward to this? It's real swell a' Yelena to set this up."

There's plenty of space on the blanket next to him for somebody to join him if they want.

During

Has anyone told him this isn't real, or are the effects just that overwhelming to someone from the 1930s? His reactions to everything run the gamut from bald faced amazement, wincing and looking away from the more violent scenes, or nudging the closest person and whispering, "Them kids is gonna be awwright, right? They wouldn't be showin' us this if they wasn't, would they?"

After

George has a big garbage bag, sweeping the area and picking up trash. It reminds him just enough of the fish that he occasionally pulls a grimace. Beyond that, he's not complaining. If anyone joins him or gets close enough, he'll ask if they enjoyed the movie or maybe if they'd ever want to go to a park like that if they could.

George pauses on his search for a trash bag to get started on cleanup at the question and draws closer, expression very serious. "It was the most God damned crazy thing I seen in my life. Them dinosaurs looked so real I got the shakes."

He feels no shame in admitting it. Few things in his life have hit him so hard visually, and he had nothing to prepare him for it, not even close, because he doesn't own a TV and only watches sports at the bars. "I ain't sorry I seen it, though. You done a good thing puttin' this all together."

"...Yelena set this up?" Malcolm says, glancing around as he pulls his legs up to cross them in front of him as he settles in next to George.

Well, the poster said everyone was welcome, right?

He looks at George. "My father took me to see this movie when it came out. I was five. He said not to tell my mom, because she wouldn't approve. It was our secret."

He holds a root beer out to George. "Do you want one of these?" He sets a package of Twizzlers between them with his other hand.

Before
Malcolm has been trying to keep himself busy, even though most of his work doesn't interest him and most of his close friends and family have disappeared. He's sure he saw somewhere that there's a movie night. He'll go to that. He arrives and glances around to see if anyone he knows is there.

During
Malcolm snacks on Twizzlers and watches the movie with a fond nostalgia. He hasn't seen it since '93. He's not so entranced that he won't talk to whoever is around.

After
He takes a bag to help with clean-up. He can stand to kill a little more time.

Before

Cortana has no need for food or drinks herself, but she does bring something with her: a packet of chocolate chip cookies. She also considered booze, but it wasn't mentioned on the invitation and she knows that some people who work at ADI are almost certainly underaged, so she figured she should probably bring something everyone could enjoy. Thus, cookies.

She'll smile when she sees someone she knows. "Fancy meeting you here." She says, as though everyone hasn't been invited to movie night.

During

It's not a bad movie. It's really not. But still, she can't resist commenting on it. "You know dinosaurs didn't really look like that, right?"

After

Cortana helps with cleanup. She's in a really good mood tonight, smiling at people and happily making conversation with them.

Yelena grins at that, quick and bright. "So did most of the people who saw it when it first came out. There wasn't anything like it."

She rocks back on her heels, head canting slightly as she considers him. "I thought we could all use a little bit of wonder. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."

"And genetic modification doesn't really work that way," Yelena says, shifting one shoulder in a shrug. "It's supposed to be fun, not realistic."

Hickey has no idea what the hell a film is like. Or what Jurassic Park is like. Or really, what a dinosaur is like. But he's certainly going to find out! He makes his way over towards the movie night, frown on his face as he looks everything over. When he spots Yelena, he lets out a little chuckle before walking over. As he does, Hickey rolls up the sleeve of his shirt (a plain white t-shirt) mostly so he can tease,

"We match."

He also has scars courtesy of claw-marks and teeth marks dotting his shoulders, as well as part of his chest.

"Yep. She did a network announcement about it. Guess you didn't see it?" The hesitation might be...something. Might not be. He doesn't think he ought to ask.

"Was it a good secret, or a bad one?" he asks. He holds his hand up at the root beer, showing him his own Coke. When Malcolm puts the Twizzlers between them, he puts his bag of cotton candy there, too. It hasn't been opened yet. He takes a long swig of Coke. "Last movie I seen was 'Tugboat Annie.' It was a gas."

"Yeah? I reckon that puts me in the same boat, then." He likes the idea that when it came out, it hit people the same way it did him. Makes him feel not quite so far removed.

"I did. I ain't been to a movie since '33. That's jes' three years for me. Still a while back. Me n' Lennie was passin' through L.A. and I had a little windfall from a card game. Figured somethin' fun was as good a way to spend it as any." He probably should have socked it aside. At the time it didn't seem like enough to bother with that, and making Lennie laugh was worth it.

"How old was you when you first saw that?"

"I saw something about it somewhere," he concedes, "but I wasn't really paying attention."

He smiles down at the root beer as he pops it open.

"A good secret. Our early secrets were good secrets. Though... they were probably intended as a warm up for bad secrets, in retrospect." He plucks a piece of licorice from the bag. "Tugboat Annie? I don't know that one. What's it about?"

"Hi."

Bruno's posture is stiff; he's looking a bit wide-eyed like he had to force himself to come here and actually spend time with his neighbors for once. He's holding a foil-covered tray of arepas con queso, still hot, which he thrusts in Yelena's general direction.

"I brought arepas. They're not as good as the ones my sister makes, but I brought them for people to eat."

"No!" Bruno replies very quickly to George's question--no he would not like to visit Jurassic Park in real life. "I mean...no. Probably not. Right? That seems like...a bad idea."

Before
Bruno hasn't gone in much for these kinds of gatherings. He knows a lot of these people's faces from seeing them in the canteen when he's working and passing them in the halls, but despite his time in this world measuring in months he still doesn't really know all his neighbors. That's...not good. His mother wouldn't be pleased to know her son is still a shut-in. So ahead of time he cooks up some arepas con queso even though they'll never be as good as Julieta's, and away he goes with the tray to go make friends and watch a movie. He can be found at one of the snack tables, peeling away the foil from the tray, or wandering the blankets looking for somewhere he can sit.

During
Bruno is 100% along for the ride, and he's taking it a bit hard now that the movie has reached the T. Rex's escape from her paddock. He'd been jittery leading up to this scene, thanks both to drinking way too much caffeine as well as being able to follow the confusing techno jargon just well enough to know that things were getting bad. He mirrors the children onscreen, leaning forward with wide eyes as the goat is revealed to be missing from its chain--

And shrieks when the goat's leg hits the roof of the car, gibbering with fear and grabbing at whoever is unfortunate enough to be sitting beside him as the camera pans up to show the T. Rex herself.

"No, no nononono!!"

After
Cleanup is part of any party, and Bruno was hardly going to leave without pitching in. He's busy shaking blankets to get out crumbs and popcorn kernels before folding them nicely, but look closely and one might realize he's a little shaky still after the conclusion of the movie. Or just come up behind him unannounced and it'll become clear that he's more than a little shaken when an unexpected noise makes him jump and yelp.

He's absolutely going to have nightmares tonight.

Edited 2022-08-03 19:22 (UTC)

"I reckon. It's good you got a good memory out of it anyway." Even bad things sometimes have kernels of good, like the times his old man gave him sips from his bottle and slapped his back for taking it like a man if he didn't cough.

"It's about this older couple own a tugboat up in Secoma. Woman's name's Annie, and she's jes' a real pistol. Don't take nothin' from nobody. Her husband's a hard drinker, but their son Alec's a real go-getter. He don't want nothing to do with the business, though. He's got bigger fish to fry and gets engaged to his boss' daughter." He pulls a bit of a face.

"Way I'm tellin' it, it sounds like a snorer. It's funny the way they bicker and the way she deals with people. And even though Terry, that's the husband, makes a big screw-up of things and costs Alice, uh, the girl engaged to Alec, her boat by wrecking it, in the end they save their boy and fix his engagement back up again. Marie Dressler was jes' the bees knees. Funny as anything."

"Practically a baby," Yelena replies. Her expression softens, shading a little rueful, a little distant. "My sister and I spent the whole summer hunting for dinosaur bones in the woodlot near the house we lived in. We thought we would be paleontologists when we grew up."

She snorts quietly. "So did every other child that year."

She looks over, head cocking slightly as she studies his scars. The corners of her mouth twitch up into a slight, crooked smile.

"We should start a club," she says. "For people who survived being in arm's reach of the monsters."

"Hey."

Yelena straightens, absently smoothing down her skirt, and tips her head in the direction of one of the tables.

"Thanks. That's very nice of you. You can put them over here - there's plenty of room."

Winter had not started the movie next to Bruno. He hardly knows Bruno. But at some point someone had gotten up, and another person had sat down, and then he'd gotten up to get a drink, and now here he is. With Bruno clinging to his very metal arm, albeit with three layers of shirt on top of it.

It's very distracting, and said metal arm makes a protesting whirr and grind.

"It isn't real," Winter reminds Bruno, trying to figure out how to extract himself. "It can't hurt you."

"No," Winter says, after a thoughtful pause where he's clearly considering his answer. "I'd be the one who had to shoot the dinosaurs. And it's not their fault the scientists made them and then mismanaged them."

As the credits roll, Winter turns towards her with an actual smile. "Fun," he decides is his answer. "The scientists were awful," he adds, because scientists are always awful, and these who used cryo and messed with genetic experiments are clearly worse than most. Also, "The security people were stupid and I bet I could've kept them all alive easier. But the dinosaurs were amazing. How did they do that?"

"I wouldn't say no to that," Hickey points out, with a small chuckle. "As far as I'm concerned, our narrow escapes are something to be proud of."

He has a name to put to the face this time, Katrina's roommate. He'd seen him during the Wolf Pen operation without ever directly speaking. "Bruno, right? I'm George." He offers a hand to shake. "Worked with Katrina on the house back in West Virginia. Think I'm with you on that. It seems like a rotten idea, 'specially bein' trapped on an island."

He gets the feeling talking about the past may not be the easiest from that expression, so he doesn't dig into on questioning the family side of things. "I can see that," he says instead, a little amused. "If I seen a movie like that as a kid, no amount of whuppin's in the world would'a stopped me from diggin' holes all over the farm, even in the crop rows."

He doesn't think Lennie could've handled a movie like that at all. He'd have been trying to stay awake for weeks. "Sometimes we'd find little things when we was walkin' the work circuit. Shells, and weird stem lookin' things. Nothing like no dinosaur, though."

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Movie Mingle

Yelena Belova | MCU | OTA

[OPEN]

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