i invited ortega over tonight to watch sliders in my room (closed)

[ex_mettacrusher33]

CHARACTERS: Mettaton, Maya, Peridot, Feferi, Keats, Olivia, Vaughn, Oliver, Giorno, Fugo, Papyrus (and possibly Sans)
DATE: A bit after arriving in Terra Felis
WARNINGS: Some of the movies involve violence, but this is just a sleepover. On a cat planet.
SUMMARY: Mettaton invited his closest friends to a musical viewing planned for when they got back to Oska. They're uh... they're just gonna have to make due with what they have.



...this isn't what Mettaton expected.

The original plan was much more dour in nature, surely. He had a very specific intent to hole himself in his room in Oska, feel horrible for himself, and then force those whose presence he enjoyed into spending the night with him watching movies that he also enjoyed. It was meticulously planned to cheer himself up! To encourage his friends to meet with one another and talk about how wonderful him and his taste in entertainment was! To fill the gaping void of despair of leaving Woodhurst with love and admiration!!

Instead, he found himself surrounded by cats. That tends to blast a hole in any pre-planned pity-party.

But! The show must go on, even with a change in scenery or motivation. Besides, it isn't as if his wonderful, wonderful friends (and Keats) couldn't use something fun themselves!! He promised them a celebration! After everything they've gone through, they certainly deserve it.

So his hotel room has been decorated as beautifully as Mettaton himself. Blankets hang from the ceiling, creating one giant fort within the room proper. Glitter is seemingly everywhere. Snacks (...mostly meat-based, like hamburgers, thanks to the area) have been paid for and set up lovingly along more blankets on the floor. Several pillows are also on the floor, as well a steady pile of them in the corner of the room (for extra and/or lounging, you see). The bed holds even more pillows, and the vanity has been encompassed in the fort for any emergency midnight makeovers.

It's going to be a long night.

--

6pm to 11pm:
West Side Story
Little Shop of Horrors
Les Mis

Things are starting off particularly well! It's a trio of downers, sure, but there's enjoyment to be had with them regardless! Mettaton continues to maintain that these are classics and need to be revered as such, but this notably doesn't stop him from pointing out any terrible singing or riffing on anything silly, especially with the last movie involved. He encourages his friends to do the same and get as much fun out of the experience as possible. It's a fine start.

--

12am to 4am:
The Little Mermaid
Enchanted
Into the Woods

The snacks are beginning to wane. The weakest of those invited have begun to quietly drift off into the night, which is a shame for two reasons: One, these are more hopeful movies!! The joyful ones!! The ones Mettaton can't seem to stop himself from sobbing dramatically at. Two, he has a supply of glitter pens at his disposal and has suspiciously left them in plain view, as if challenging his guests to use them on one another.

--

5am to 7am:
Sweeney Todd
Chicago
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Grease 2

It's the dreaming hours, now. Most people with sane sleeping schedules or an ability to tune out Mettaton's gabbing have taken to the slumber part of this party. The movies have also gotten a bit more... questionable, in their content. Cannibalism, murder, badly-sung songs about reproduction... Anyone still awake has most likely reached that blissful, slap-happy state of all slumber-parties where everything is hilarious, the giggles cannot stop, and you're constantly trying to keep yourself from waking the rest of the guests.

--

Mingle, enjoy, and please keep Maya from eating all of the snacks.

PS: Don't trust the bone goblin attempting to sell catnip. He wasn't invited.

Comments

ota hmu

[digiorno]

[The surroundings have Giorno off-kilter. He doesn't know how to cope with . . . all of this, things that he'd ordinarily find very pleasant when he's feeling so awful. So Mettaton's party is even more of a touchstone than it would've been already. And when he arrives, he feels so comforted by the familiar absurdity of this ostentatious pampering that he breaks away from Fugo to give the host one rare Actual Hug.]

[The rest of the night is a whirlwind. He throws himself into the films, sinking in the delicious escapism of the first trio. West Side Story grips him in a baffled homesick sort of way, but it's Les Mis that leaves him openly and silently weeping. It's clear he's familiar with the storyline, although not this version; by the end of it, he's visibly drained.]

[The second trio is just as enjoyable, once he's calmed down and surreptitiously cleaned himself up. He's reached the middle-of-the-night snacking hour, and also peak mischievousness, as he is among the first to pick up a glitter pen and begin to decorate the unsuspecting sleepers with Glamor. Somewhere in here, he also passes the host a handkerchief.]

[And then there are the wee hours--and murder, and so on. Which is just as fascinating as love and revolution and happy endings to Giorno, albeit much more familiar. He's quick to lean close and whisper fiercely about the realism or lack thereof of this prison or that asylum, and by the time the playbill rolls around to the last two films he's mostly just giggly to the point of needing to lean against someone most of the time. Sleep is for the weak. Although anyone who wakes up Fugo will receive a horse head sometime, probably.]

[ex_mettacrusher33]

[It's such a pleasure to see Giorno this happy! The boy never claimed anything horrible happened during their trip to Woodhurst, but Mettaton can see the damage clear as day on his face. He's been clinging to Fugo, actually offered Mettaton a hug when he seemed reluctant to receive one before, was emotionally moved even by Javert's horrible singing...

Something's wrong. Mettaton won't press for the reason, that's simply not his job. He's just here to bring joy; and he has!! Isn't this party a wonderful thing?

...but he has to ask.]

Why do you know so much about prisons and asylums, Gigi?

[digiorno]

Hm?

[He's a bit nonplussed by the answer. He was very focused on the interesting mix of realism and symbolism in the song about how he very obviously had it coming. It takes him a moment to come out of that focus, but when he does, he blinks up at Mettaton curiously.]

Doesn't everyone?

[. . . This is a genuine question, sadly.]

[ex_mettacrusher33]

...

[Mettaton casts a glance at his sleeping friends.

He looks toward the light bouncing off the vanity mirror.

He looks toward Peridot, still awake and glued to the screen.]

...No.

[digiorno]

I see.

[He doesn't appear to notice. The only thing that might indicate otherwise is his fingers pulling carefully through the end of his braid.]

What sort of answer are you looking for?

[ex_mettacrusher33]

One that.

Answers my question?

[Boy.]

[digiorno]

So a lie would suffice?

[He's a good son.]

[ex_mettacrusher33]

...

[ex_mettacrusher33]

[He takes one of the glitter pens off the floor (gold. How fitting), pops off the cap, and reaches for Giorno's hand.

You got me there, he writes in large, looping script.]

[digiorno]

[Giorno smiles brightly. Then he plucks the pen from Mettaton's fingers, turns Mettaton's hand over, and draws a smiley face and a heart on his palm.]

Everyone in Napoli knows quite a bit about prisons, to start with.

[ex_mettacrusher33]

[Oh, how cute... The ink looks so lovely against the darker skin of his cloak...

Mettaton smiles at it, thoroughly distracted.]

Napoli? What's that?

[digiorno]

That's the city I'm from.

[Hm. That was good, apparently. Giorno . . . draws a little cat face, down by Mettaton's thumb.]

[ex_mettacrusher33]

[Oh noooooooooooooo it's a kitty!!! He flexes his thumb back and forth, admiring the way projected skin flexes and winkles around the ink.]

We don't really have prisons where I'm from. Monsters are very peaceful lot, for the most part.

I'm guessing the same isn't true of the people in Napoli?

[digiorno]

That's so interesting . . .

[He's never really heard that term before--"monsters"--in reference to people from where Mettaton is from. The idea of a group of people being peaceful is also interesting. He can't imagine it.]

Napoli is a very beautiful city full of many very lovely people and many terrible criminals. Mm, and some of the terrible criminals look like the princes from the stories. Very bad men in very pretty clothing. And they put the very lovely people away in places like prisons, even if they've done nothing wrong.

[Thoughtfully, he draws the rest of the cat's body. It's in the process of walking jauntily somewhere. Its tail is held high. Then he draws a little crown on its head.]

[ex_mettacrusher33]

That doesn't seem fair, [he says, slightly more entranced by the art than by Giorno's story. But what a sweet way the boy phrases it all... Gigi's either a poet or very good at sugarcoating the truth.

Mettaton flexes his hand. The glitter sparkles.]

Are you a revolutionist, little Gavroche?

[digiorno]

[Gavroche. His lip curls at the corner, satisfied. Sometimes he's Gavroche, when it suits him. Sometimes he's someone else.]

[Narancia was Gavroche.]

[Slowly and carefully, he draws a star on Mettaton's wrist.]

Yes.

"A shadow is hard to seize by the throat and dash to the ground." But I am very bright.

hey pal you wanna buy some cat nip (5-7)

[skelepun]

[Maybe Giorno is leaning to speak to someone in particular. Maybe he's muttering to himself. Maybe he's dozing off. Either way, the next idly spoken comment about the films will be met with the sudden, inexplicable presence of someone new right next to him.

They've met before, and Giorno might recognize the voice, though Sans was wearing a lot less skin this time. Unlike Mettaton, not everyone was as eager to keep wearing the cloaks.]

You guys sure do have a lot of that, huh? [He responds, completely ignoring whatever Giorno was actually saying in favor of gesturing towards the screen as the demon barber slit another throat. Whether he's referring to blood, murder, or barbers, who knows.]

GET HIGH ON LIFE NOT DRUGS

[digiorno]

[He doesn't jump. He does bristle, though, and the look he shoots Sans is positively vicious. The conversation he was halfway into wasn't even that important; he just hates to be snuck up on. It's fucking rude, is what it is.]

What, hideous violence? Yes, obviously. Human beings are by and large horrifying. What's your point?

[skelepun]

Don't have any. [Sans shrugs, still grinning. He pulls a hand from his hoodie pocket, revealing a handful of popcorn. Upon closer inspection, his jacket appears stuffed with it.] I'm a pretty round guy, pal, in case you didn't notice.

[No comment on the humanity part.]

[digiorno]

[In the back of Giorno's mind, a trumpet goes: bwa-bwa.]

No one just says things without having some purpose to saying them.

[Yes, they do, Giorno. They super do.]

[skelepun]

[They super do, Giorno, though in this case you're right to be a little suspicious.]

I'm still learning a lot about you guys. My hands-on human experience's been a little limited. Y'know, until lately. ALASTAIR's a big fan of your species.

[digiorno]

ALASTAIR is a pack of unimaginative, untrustworthy pricks.

[So there you have it.]

At least they're furthering your education or something. And you're not alone. [From his world, Giorno means. Even if Mettaton appears to basically hate Sans and Giorno's priority is clearly Mettaton over nearly anyone else on this team, it's good that Sans isn't alone.]

[skelepun]

[Hey now, don't mistake lively banter for hate, pal. Who else is that hunk of metal gonna have witty repartee with? Insert fart joke here.]

Oh yeah? How much human experience do you have, bud?

[It might sound sarcastic, but in truth there's a genuineness to the question. Sarcasm's for jerks, anyway. Sans doesn't touch the stuff.]

[digiorno]

What kind of question is that? I'm human.

[He shrugs a little, turning to face Sans a little more. The suspicion hasn't gone anywhere--far from it--but this is a topic that's important to him. The chords of "I Dreamed A Dream" echo in his mind every second of every day, skeleton dude.]

I've seen people be wonderful and terrible, sometimes at the same time. I'm not sure what kind of answer you want from me, specifically, but I've seen a lot of humanity and while I haven't given up on it yet, there's a lot that's no good.

[skelepun]

[Well, shut his mouth. Or don't, his mouth is pretty much always shut anyway. Expressions aside, Sans' expression actually changes somewhat. Something essentially the same, yet somehow deeper. Thoughtful, past the unshakable rictus.]

Couldn't have said it better myself.