Mystery Sign Theater 3000, Tuesday

[amitragic]

Ulysses was finally back from his New Year's trip to New York, which had started out as a New Year's Eve trip and then, well, yeah.

He was back now, though, and just in time to deal with some chaos at the movie theater. Every time they tried to start the movie, the auditorium itself was dead silent - but all the audio blared through every other part of the theater, from the lobby to the bathrooms, and even the cleaning closet.

And also on the street right outside theater.

So now Ulysses had just finished redoing the marquee:

NOW SHOWING
nothing, we're working on it
SORRY ABOUT THE NOISE

He climbed back down the ladder (carefully, because he hated the thing), and looked up at his handiwork, right about when the theater blared the Universal fanfare at top volume again.

"... Should've used the red letters for the 'sorry'."

[ooc: Open, no ocd!]

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[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden, on her way back from town from the school, startled and clapped her hands over her ears. Stupid extra sensitive sylph hearing.

"Oh hey," she called, once she'd steadied, and dug into her backpack, pulling out a pair of earplugs still in plastic wrapping. "Uh, you want?"

[amitragic]

"Huh?" Ulysses responded, as he turned to look at her - then blinked once or twice before he figured out what she was offering. "Uh, no thanks, I'm good. Figure we'll either fix it or stop trying soon."

His vote was for 'stop trying now', for the record.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Okay," Arden said, shoving them back into her bag. Earplugs were useful when you had heightened hearing. She was tempted to ask what was wrong, but realized if the guy knew that, it probably would be fixed already.

Score one for logic. Keeping her safe from looking like an idiot, woo!

Though curiosity did have her asking, "What movie is supposed to be playing?"

[amitragic]

Ulysses glanced up at the marquee again, brushing his curls away from his face. "You know what? I'm not even sure." Look, he didn't care enough about his job, and he also didn't care enough about not letting that show. "Some new horror thing. I think?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Liliana felt that in her soul, Ulysses.

"Goddess, I haven't been to the movies in...what, a decade?" Arden realized, not intending to narrate out loud. Habit she fell into sometimes, from being alone so often.

Still, just her luck to be reminded of going to the theater just when it was out of service.

...Just her luck to realize she was talking to herself in front of another person after sounding like a complete dork. Her face grew warm as she flushed.

"Well, uh. Good luck with--" She gestured. "--all this."

[amitragic]

She was in luck in doing that in front of someone who wasn't really managing to care about that, either.

"Thanks," Ulysses said. And then, after a beat, seemed to remember like a fraction of what his job entailed, so: "Feel free to come back. When it's like... not this." A vague hand gesture towards the front of the building. "Most weeks, we get stuff to play in the theater."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden paused. "You consider doing something like showing a movie out here? Since that's where the sound is? You know, like a projector on a sheet over a wall or something?"

Arden, he didn't care remember? Get the memo.

[amitragic]

Oh, honey.

"... That sounds like a lot of work for something that's probably just the island fucking with us."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh, uh, guess that's fair," she said with an awkward laugh. "...Does it do that? Fuck with people? I thought it was just...weird shit like December and stuff."

[amitragic]

Ulyssrs shrugged. "It's the best explanation I have for the weird shit at the theater, anyway. Like, sometimes we have totally unrelated systems crashing at the same time? And there was that one time the gremlins had a flea market going in the break room..."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Well that's...sure a thing," Arden said, because what do you even say to that? She also had no idea what you were supposed to do if you were the one who'd come across it. Other than ask if you were drunk and, if not, go fix that at the earliest opportunity.

"Maybe I'll check back next Tuesday to see if it's functioning like a theater again," she said.

[amitragic]

Aaand here came the slightly curious, quizzical headtilt. Not really at her as much as --

"Right, it is Tuesday today." A beat. "I was supposed to be here yesterday."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Got stuck traveling?" Arden guessed. "And thrown off by the holiday?"

... A week later.

[amitragic]

"Something like that," Ulysses said, just glad he had an excuse this time. Because usually when this happened - yes, it was often enough to qualify for a 'usually' - he was just too high to remember to come in on the right day. "Uh, exactly like that, actually. I was in New York, meant to come back right after New Year's, but... Stuff happened."

A string of ill-advised hookups happened, but even Uly felt like he maybe shouldn't share that with some random girl.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Yeah, that was some overshare territory, and even Arden knew it.

"Well, aren't you thrilled you came back today?" Arden drawled, nodding slightly to the loud theater.

[amitragic]

Right on cue, there was the Universal fanfare again. Though thankfully only the first couple of seconds, before it cut off.

Ulysses winced anyway.

"'Thrilled' is a strong word."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Aren't you physically present here today," she joked, a small half-smile crooking a corner of her mouth.

[amitragic]

"That I am, unfortunately," Ulysses had to agree, with a half-hearted fingerpoint. "I'm Uly, by the way. Or Ulysses. Don't really care how formal you prefer to be."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Arden," she said in reply. "Uh, no nicknames to offer. Arden doesn't really break down well, I don't think."

'Ar' sounded like a pirate and 'Den' was the name of a room. Neither were particularly cute nicknames.

"Nice to meet you, Uly."

[amitragic]

Ulysses gave a little nod that was probably supposed to convey something of a 'likewise' sentiment. "Arden, right." He might even remember that! "You, uh, you new?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Got here at the end of summer," she said. "So I still think so? I'm definitely still not used to--" Another gesture towards the theater. "--All the weird island stuff yet. But, uh, I guess I've been around for a few months, so..."

Arden trailed off, realizing that 'no' would have been a perfectly valid, far less awkward answer.

[amitragic]

She had kind of a low bar for what counted as awkward, didn't she?

"It counts," Ulysses decided. "Like, compared to me, at least."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

She did! She was still getting used to 'socializing with people' and it was a whole lot.

"How long have you been around?" she asked. "Did you go to school here...?" He seemed not terribly older than she was, though that was probably not something she should assume on this island.

[amitragic]

Ulysses nodded. A couple of times. "Yeah, I did most of high school up there --" Yes, a wide gesture in the general direction of the castle. "-- graduated, went to LA for college, then got snatched back here againt my will again."

Yes, more island fuckery.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Snatched?!" ARDEN DID NOT KNOW THE ISLAND COULD DO THAT.

[amitragic]

Sorry, Arden. "Passed out in an alley in LA, woke up here in my new apartment."

Yes, he was still salty about it. You could tell by the double-hand gesturing.

"Haven't been able to get back since."

... Okay, that was a valid reason to be salty.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"That's...incredibly fucked up."

The island was supposed to be where she got away from supernatural things controlling her life and movements!

[amitragic]

She'd really picked a terrible location for that.

"Yeah," Ulysses agreed, vehemently, throwing his hands up. "And I still don't even know what for."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

She hadn't known! It had seemed like an easy escape!

...Which is how she should have known, honestly. Nothing in this world was easy.

"So you're just kinda...fucking around because if the island's gonna keep you, it can show you what for?" she guessed. "I know I wouldn't be in a huge hurry to try and be helpful when I've been kidnapped by an island."

[amitragic]

"Something like that, yeah." Said the guy who'd pretty much just been fucking around in Los Angeles as well. But clearly it was different here. "Sorta just waiting for it to get its claws out of me, you know?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Like maybe it'll get tired of holding onto you?" Arden asked. She looked skeptical.

Sorry, Uly, but she hadn't seen much proof of a supernatural entity ever letting something out of its clutches once they'd claimed it.

[amitragic]

Ulysses saw that look on her face, and took some offence. Only a little bit, though. "Hey, you don't know this place like I do, it might."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Sorry, Uly, sometimes she made faces out loud that she didn't mean to. Or, at least, not that loud.

"How long have you been stuck here?" she asked.

[amitragic]

"... A couple of years."

But clearly that meant nothing.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Sure, Jan.

"Well...at least you get to go to New York sometimes?"

You know, like parole a field trip!

[amitragic]

"Oh, I get to go a lot of places," Ulysses said. "Just not home."

Definitely a part of why he'd taken off to NYC when he had, yeah.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Well, that's something, at least." Arden wouldn't mind just not being able to return to North Carolina. That would actually solve a lot of her problems...

[amitragic]

The multiverse was also keeping Ulysses from getting wrapped up in alien drama back home, but it was hard to be grateful when he didn't actually know that.

He just knew none of his texts to Ford and Carly and his parents had gone through for years.

"Oh, I would go absolutely batshit if I was stuck here all the time."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I, uh, still really haven't had a chance to leave the island much." Or at all, outside of school trips. "I kinda thought I should try to get used to this place before exploring anywhere else, but I'm starting to get the idea that that's just...not a thing that happens."

[amitragic]

"No," Ulysses agreed, with heavy emphasis. "I've been here for like total of..."

Hold on, he needed to do some math in his head, and it didn't help that there was timeline fuckery or that a lot of his time in high school had been a weed-addled haze.

(Completely different from the past couple of years, clearly. Ahem.)

"For like five years," he settled on, "and I'm still not used to it."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I kinda assumed this was one of those, 'you can get used to anything' kinda scenarios," Arden admitted sheepishly.

[amitragic]

"I guess, like... some people might," Ulysses amended. "But I sure as fuck haven't."

He reconsidered.

"I mean, not past being super unsurprised when I show up at the theater and it just starts throwing random fever dream bullshit at me, anyway."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Somebody really oughta make a guide about this place, warning about things you can maybe expect to happen," Arden sighed. "Because otherwise you end up shocked and freaked out when a polar bear ends up on your balcony, offering you a soda, and all you can do is apologize for its habitat."

Unless, you know, that was just an Arden thing.

[amitragic]

"There's the museum in town?" Ulysses offered, fiddling with his hair again. "But I don't really know what they got over there. About like... polar bears and balconies."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Fish and bugs and stuff, mostly," Arden said. "I don't know if they have, like, a Fandom-specific wing."

She should check with Steven though. Just in case.

[amitragic]

"... I thought it was supposed to be a history museum?"

Granted, he'd never actually been.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I thought it was a natural history museum? Umm, there might be an alot...?" Arden hadn't actually gotten the tour, she mostly hung out chatting with Steven. "I could be wrong though," she quickly added. "I know there are bugs and fish, but there could be lots more I just haven't seen."

[amitragic]

"I mean, I haven't been there at all," Ulysses admitted. "It's just what I think I've heard?"

Impressive in its own right, considering he was oblivious to a lot of stuff around the island.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Well, my boarding house is run by the guy that works there, so it's an easy enough question for me to get answered," Arden said. "Because now I'm curious."