Log:Movie Night at Steinberg Tower

2020/07/31 	 Amelia Radical|Connor Laurel Korkoro|Magda Daemon|Slinger Grimm

1

The main lounge of the penthouse has been re-arranged for the event. Furniture has been moved back and to the sides, leaving comfortable chairs facing the 102" wall mounted 8K display unit. At one side is a dual unit popcorn machine with sweet and salt popcorn bays. Neatly stacked beside the popcorn are cans of multiple brands of soft drinks.

Amelia has relaxing music playing as she greets folks at the door when they arrive, takes coats, and directs them to the main lounge.

Laurel is first to arrive - coming from just down the hall. Since she's not planning on going outside, she's wearing actual clothes (instead of an illusion over her costume) - jeans and a red t-shirt. Her hair is it's natural black, with a white streak running back from her left temple.

Grimm isn't so sure about attending, but she wants to try and improve relations. She shows up, sans a +1. It's been warm out, so she's dressed comfy in a white tank top with a metal band's album art on the front, and black ripped jean shorts. The tank top has a knot tied in the back to make the loose tank more fitted. She's wearing black wedge heel sandals that add a few inches to her height. With a little wave, she greets Amelia with an anxious smile. "Hey there. This was a surprise."

Connor shows up in his civilian clothes. He wasn't sure who was going to be here, after all. He steps inside and waves to those already here with a smile on his face. "Hey there."

Amelia greets Moonshadow with a proffered hug, "You live down the hall and it's been how long since we've spoken? I'm sorry for having been so otherwise involved recently, Laurel."

Amelia smiles as Grimm arrives, "Hi. Glad you could make it. I remember Connor saying you were a classic film buff, so I thought you might enjoy this."

Slinger also arrives, separately- minus a +1 as well. As a Daemon derivative his natural inkling is to avoid personal bonds but he's not all Daemon these days. The Slinger Personality Matrix loves a good social gathering and being surrounded by other heroes seems like a good way to ingratiate himself into the commun--

Cut to Slinger sighing, cutting the thought short.

He arrives in the only suitable gear he has- which is his typical suit. He doesn't know anyone nearly well enough to show his new face off. So he doesn't.

He does smell the popcorn from down the hall though and his stomach rumbles as he realizes he hasn't eaten anything today.

He sees the others enter ahead of him and slows his pace to allow for the hostess to make a proper greeting to her guests- a considerate inkling that surprises even him.

Grimm smiles at that. "Yeah. A close friend introduced me to all sorts of classics and noir stuff. All the women seem so classy and elegant." Quite the opposite of herself. "Thanks for the invitation."

Amelia nods, "Thanks for coming. Connor needs someone who knows about classics to talk to. I like them but a buff I'm not." She waves as Slinger appears, "Hi. Come on in. Thanks for coming. I think you've met everyone?"

Laurel returns the hug. "I know you've been busy, Sis. I've been spending my spare time wracking my brain on how to help you with your quest."

Connor chuckles. "I'm not exactly a huge movie buff, but I do like a few of the classic ones. Too many don't hold up well, though." He looks around, noting that he feels...a little out of place in his secret identity, but he smiles and tries to not let it show. "What's on the docket, film-wise?"

Grimm raises a brow at that and smiles. "I didn't realize he was into them. I guess I can do that." She lets Amelia deal with the other guests, stepping away and waving to Connor as she shows up. "Hey, C--", she starts, then pauses as she's surprised to see Slinger there. And Connor is in his civilian ID. "Uh, Dr. Duran," she corrects for propriety.

Magda says, "A quest? Questors traditionally need companions," states silver-haired Magda as she approached from the elevator."

Slinger looks around and shrugs, smiling beneath mask. "More or less. THanks for inviting me, Amelia- you have a beautiful home. You can't imagine how few people invite spiders into their house." He sees Grimm and notes. "Besides the witch-y sort I suppsoe..." He smirks as he finger guns his Bestie before turning back to Amelia to offer her his outstretched hand before fully entering her place.

Connor waves off Grimm, "You can call me Connor, it's fine." He grins.

Amelia says, "I'm glad you asked... Hold on, final guest arriving." She turns back to the penhouse door to greet Magda, "Hello. Come in. Glad you could make it. Come through to the lounge.""

Magda does so, her eyebrows lifting at Slinger's words. "Traditionally, every room in the home should have one spider. To keep disease away."

Grimm smiles in relief. "Alright, Connor. So what sort of classics are you into?" she asks, picking up a bit on his unease. She glances over at Slinger as he calls her witch-y and smirks back in a way that says 'You die tonight'. Politely. In the most friendly and loving of ways.

Magda, clad in a flowing set of skirts and a light blouse, gives Amelia a curtsey. "Not the usual sort of invite I get; how could I turn it down?"

Amelia enters the lounge and heads to the kitchen door. "As well as the popcorn there's snacks in the kitchen. If you feel exceptionally brave you can try the cookies I baked. But there's real delivered food too. Help yourself. Now, film choice. As host I've reserved one slot for my fav. The Princess Bride. The rest of the slots are open, so lets hear your choices."

Connor smiles at Grimm's question, "Sci-fi, mostly. Metropolis. Primer. Pi. Mostly the weirder esoteric ones."

Laurel asks, "How about 'The Imitation Game', Uncle?

Connor takes a deep breath and thinks about it. "That's the one about Turing, right? I dont' think I've seen it."

Amelia says, "Alan Turning? The mathematician?"

"Sci-fi? You?" Grimm asks in surprise. "I bet 'The Number 23' urked you. And you can never beat Alien."

Laurel nods, "He invented the computer, too."

"I'm pretty sure I've already died this week. Lets keep it light." Slinger retorts fearlessly as he wanders over to Connor & Grimm. He offers both an outstretched fist, trying not to beeline it for the food spread out. His stomach protests.

"Alan TUring is the Grandfather of Computing." Slinger says with no lack of admiration in his voice.

Magda says, "Babbage invented the computer," Magda disagrees. "How about 'Cube'? Or 'Event Horizon'? Some horror with your science fiction.""

Amelia turns to Magda while the others are discussing film choices, "Have you need in Colonial Bay long? I'm sure I would have remembered if you were in the news when I was at school."

Grimm thinks on movie slots. Aside from ye olde classics, she does like some good horror films. "Event Horizon is the best, until you live through it. But...I'm still able to watch it," she comments. She looks to Connor and grins. "Why don't you take the second movie slot?"

Connor shakes his head, "Not a fan of horror, I'm afraid." Not the least because he has seeen enough of it in his...side gigs as The Cartesian or Radical. "Though I do really like the films that leave you guessing. Like...the ones based on Philip Dick's writing."

"Like 'Blade Runner'?" Laurel asks.

Connor laughs, "Me pick out a film? Um...I guess I can. How about..." He pulls out his PDA to look up some names. "How about the original Total Recall?"

"Oooo. That one's so nuts. I think it'd blow their minds if they haven't seen it," Gabrielle smiles.

Magda shakes her head, smiling. "I returned to ols alma maters to re-establish my doctorates," she says, "and most of my powered activitues have always been in parts of the world more vulnerable to corruption and civil -- human -- rights abuses."

Grimm fistbumps Slinger, betting his stomach is growling already. "You wanna fill up before we sit down?" She glances Magda's way. "Oh boy," she says under her breath, worried this may turn into something as she brings up her activities.

Slinger nods and cuts to make himself a suitable pile to get him through the first film.

He pauses at the table to look over his shoulder before peeling up the bottom half of his mask to pop a cherry tomato into his mouth.

He isn't picky about movies- just glad to be out of his makeshift lab in Grimm's basement or off the streets. He's hoping it might give him the room he needs to think out his next issue.

Laurel visits the snack table to grab some of Amelia's cookies and an orange soda.

Amelia pops open a can of orange soda and holds it up, "A small suggestion. Limit the shop talk tonight? Unless someone wants to bring something up for discussion."

Connor also fistbumps Slinger as well.

Laurel says, "I pick 'Firestarter'."

Magda nods, unworried. "How about Kurosawa? Seven Samurai?"

Amelia says, "I've heard of that. Didn't it spawn a copycat western?"

Laruel says, "Two."

Connor says, "I think a lot of Kurosawa's films did."

"It has been remade several times in several different genres," Magda states.

"I'm in for any Kurosawa flick." Slinger says after choking down his food to get a word in.

"I remember Sanjuro being one of my favs of his," Grimm opines before heading to get some food. As she gets some popcorn and a drink, she hums cheerfully to herself.

Amelia grins, "I need to learn Japanese. And Russian."

Magda looks over at Slinger's bolting of his food, and frowns a little.

"Me and you both." Slinger says to Amelia. "Still I get by well enough by ear. Can't speak a lick though."

" ... and Mandarin, and Cantonese, and ... and ..." adds Magda glumly.

Connor grabs a couple of the home baked cookies, as well as some diet soda, and then he goes to take a seat. "I mostly learned languages for research purposes, rather than fun, I have to admit."

Amelia says, "Me too Connor. Anyway, we seem to have our short list. Actually a rather long short list unless we make this a marathon. Which first?"

Grimm returns with a bag of popcorn and a Professor Pibb cola, listening to the conversation. "I can barely speak some German to chat with my Oma and some relatives. Not that I talk to them much. Considering I have such a thing for accents, you'd think I'd have learned more languages," she sighs.

Magda says, "Princess Bride last!"

Amelia gives a thumbs up to that.

"Let's start strong- Seven Samurai? Or Sanjaro?" Slinger suggests.

Eats a home-made cookie, and turns to Amelia, "These are delicious."

Magda suggests, "Let's narrow it down to two total."

Connor chuckles. "Let's look at the length of the movies, too. I think Seven Samurai is like...four hours?"

Amelia looks abstracted for a moment. "Three hours 27 minutes for the original cut."

"Ok that's a good point." Slinger agrees.

Laurel checks her PDA, "Firestarter is 1:55"

Amelia says, "And The Princess Bride is one hour 38 minutes."

"You got those memorized?" Grimm asks in surprise.

"Speaking of classic movies and such, didn't DisneyCom do some films about the early days of Medfield College's Mad Science Program?" asks Laurel.

Amelia chuckles, "No. I queried Google. Cyberpath."

Grimm nods. "I was gonna say...if you had music times memorized, too, you'd be Hudson Hawk. Oh! That's a good movie. I mean. It's...acquired."

Laurel nods, "Early Bruno. Fun ride."

Magda suddenly grins. "I loved Hudson Hawk on the first viewing."

Now that catches Slinger's attention. He hadn't thought to scavenge a cyberpath's genome- though mostly because he didn't design his shell to be used when his suit would do.

He smiles, seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. He finds a seat and seems a lot more relaxed.

Amelia picks up the remote and tosses it gently to Magda, "Your suggestion. You've the MC. It's bound to be on one of the On Demand streaming channels I subscribe to."

Amelia plops into a chair and goes cat limp.

Grimm smiles at Magda. "It was bizarre and silly. But I loved it." She takes a sip from her soda and starts looking for a cozy seat.

Connor thinks about it. "I don't think I've seen the movie. What's it about? A hawk, or something?"

Laurel answers, "A thief"

Magda laughs briefly, but gors in search of the /full/ Seven Samurai. "I first saw Seven Samurai in the 1990's. Let me see ..." She finds the director's cut -- subtitled -- and gets it started.

Amelia says, "Windows go dark, lights dim." The view windows overlooking the city polarize and the lighting dims.

Toho films, lots of kanji. Bandits overlook a village, talk about how they'll return after the harvest. A peasant has overheard them.

Grimm whispers over to Connor to explain as the movie's about to start, "A thief trying to go on the straight and narrow and getting dragged back into thieving. It's quirky and funny though. You...you just gotta see it. Explaining it won't do it justice. It's not scifi per se...but definitely weird. I'd bet you'd like it." She takes a seat and curls up to get comfy, then quietly nibbles on her popcorn.

Connor nods and nods to Grimm. He whispers, "I'll have to watch it sometime. Thanks."

Amelia is getting immersed in the film. She's had half a cookie hovering near her mouth for the last five minutes.

The town elder says they must hire wandering samurai -- ronin -- to protect the village. Four men go into town, but do not know how to ask any of the several samurai they see to protect their village.

Grimm nods to Connor and starts watching the movie, quietly munching on popcorn.

A thief with a hostage!! Cornered in a barn!! A ronin volunteers to rescue the child, and lets a barber shave his head so he can disguise himself as a monk. Another samurai, very wild looking, watches intently.

Slinger forgot how much he loves movies. Its something he neglected as he fell into his darkweb lifestyle.

He stuffs mouth with popcorn, glued ot the screen and made all the more entrenched as espionage comes into play.

"I understand the long hair was very socially important to the samurai," Magda notes. "Usually kept bound up in a topknot. So that's a very brave thing for him to do -- very socially-minded."

Laurel reaches across the room with her Left Hand of Darkness and grabs a bowl of popcorn.

Grimm takes a few more bites of popcorn and studies the subtitles. Though she zones out a little as her thoughts wander elsewhere for a bit due to the classic movie. She smiles a little to herself.

Amelia nods. Her hair is fastened into a top knot.

"This dude is a master Social Engineer." Slinger agrees.

Watched also by a young samurai, the middle-age samurai approached the barn with two rice balls. After throwing them in, he waits for a moment, then rushes in, unarmed!! A few moments later, the thief stumbles out with his sword in his hand -- then falls over, dead!!

After the wild samurai crows over the victory, the peasants follow the middle-aged samurai out of town, but are interrupted by the wild samurai who hems and haws, then the young samurai begging to become the other's student. Finally the peasants ask the older samurai to protect their village -- but they can only feed them, because they are poor. After some thought, he finally agrees - but says they need seven, not four

Connor gets up to go get something more to drink and a couple more cookies, taking care to not say anything to interrupt before he sits back down.

Magda nibbles on popcorn through the movie. "The real question," she says as other samurai are recruited, "is 'which one are you'."

Laurel sits quietly watching

Slinger answers that quickly, "Naturally I'm Heihachi Hayashida!" He isn't. More like Kikuchiyo on his best day but no one said Slinger was particularly self-aware, especially not without Daemon's tech to back it up.

Grimm had trouble following all the names. "Uhhh. The wild crazy looking guy?" she suggests uncertainly.

Magda admits, "I always wanted to be the sword-saint Kyuzo, but I'm probably Kambei, the middle-aged one. "

Grimm whispers over to Slinger, "Which one is Heihachi?"

Connor shrugs, "I think I've already lost track of names. I start thiking of them as 'Grumpy', and 'Drunky', etc."

Magda asides, "The wood-chopper."

Amelia says, "Any. Except the shaven guy." She unconsciously feels her hair with a hand.

Slinger chuckles and leans in and says, "You know - the one who isn't a great figther but he's totally the heart of the team. Witty and brave in the face of danger. You know- just . Like. Me." He grins, with his mask still rolled up to facilitate stuffing his face.

Grimm chuckles at Connor's naming conventions. "That's one way to remember them." She leans in a bit as Slinger does. She chuckles at Slinger's comments. "Okay, yeah. Totally. That's you all over," she grins back at a shared inside joke. She finishes her soda and gets up to find something else to drink. And to give her legs a stretch.

Laurel asks Connor, "So which one is 'Dopey'?"

There's the wood chopper heart of the team, The middle aged planner, his friend and Lieutenant, the young samurai, the wild samurai, another experienced samurai, and the sword-saint.

Grimm sets her glass down in the sink. Unable to pick a soda and not really in the mood for one, she conjures herself a cup of London Fog and heads back to her seat. As she sits down, she asks, "So why is he called the sword-saint exactly? I'm not sure I know what that means."

eventually, the wild samurai is revealed to be a peasant,but helps train the other peasants, and fights like a lion. Through ill luck or treachery, four of the samurai -- the wood-chopper first, but later the experienced samurai, the sword-saint, and finally the wild one -- are killed, but so are all the bandits and the village is saved.

Magda asides, "All he cares about is perfecting his skill with the sword. The Japanese term is kensai."

"Awww man," Grimm murmurs as the wild one's killed. He was her favorite apparently. She sips her tea sullenly.

At the end, the middle-aged one says, "In the end, this was their victory," meaning the now-planting peasants, "not ours."

Roll kanji credits.

Grimm nods at Magda's explanation. "That's it? I can't imagine anyone being so dedicated to any one thing," she opines.

Amelia says, "I can. I know some of them. Reaching prefection can become an obsession."

While Grimm conjures up a fresh drink, Slinger weaves himself a hammock to lay back in- because he is *stuffed*. He gets in deftly enough but blows out and pats his belly with all the satisfaction a poor college kid might muster after finding themselves in an environment as alien as it is luxurious. f course this is more or less the style Daemon is used to living so it is a bittersweet moment he hides behind his mask.

Good thing he's not Kikuchiyo or anything.

"That is pretty obessive for sure." He agrees giving Amelia's response a nod as if he knows the type.

Connor nods slowly as the topic of obsession comes up. "Certainly makes sense to me. I mean, it's like becoming a master of any single thing. Chess, for example."

"I guess...there's so much to miss by focusing on just one thing," Gabrielle shrugs. Though she's got her own obsessions.

Grimm cuts a glance at Moonshadow at her slipup.

catches Grimm's glance, "Like Felix Unger," she clarifies.

Laurel catches Grimm's glance, "Like Felix Unger," she clarifies.

Connor smiles slightly, "Sure, like Felix Unger. Or....Poirot."

Magda smiles. "Poirot. Hah. That brings back memories."

Laurel says, "Who?"

Grimm relaxes into her seat and pulls out her phone as they take a break between movies. Speaking of obsessions, she starts privately browsing some old texts.

Connor smiles. "Hercule Poirot. One of Agatha Christie's detectives that she wrote about."

Magda says, "A snooty little Belgian."

Laurel says, "Belgian? Dr. Evil was Belgian."

Magda says, "Well, Belgium /is/ the worst swear word in the galaxy."

"Oh I'm sure I can think of a few worse than that." Slinger says confidently.

"But the chocolate..." Laurel protests.

Grimm raises a brow at Belgium being a swearword. "In the galaxy huh? What's it mean?"

Magda laughs. "That's from a series of books. The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. Douglas Adams, may he rest in peace."

Laurel asks, "Isn't that the one about the fish that proves God doesn't exist?"

"Classic books. I read them as a kid." Slinger says. " Babyfart McGeezaks... or was that... I guess its been longer than I realized. He was the center of the universe..." He says, trying to remember Zaphod Beeblebrox's name.

Magda says, "The Babel fish, yes, that's in there."

Laurel says, "Must be a pretty smart fish, to do that."

Grimm listens as she sips her tea quietly. Occasionally she scrolls down the texts in her phone.

"I can do that just fine." Slinger says. "Then again, I'm a pretty smart spider."

Magda says, "No, it has to do with a point of theology -- that God cannot be proven to exist, that his existence depends on faith alone. The babel fish, such a useful thing being extremely improbable to have evolved, Must have been created. This just proves that God exists, and since such proof cannot happen, God disappears in a puff of logic."

Magda says, "Anyhow! Princess bride?"

Grimm raises her mug to that. "I'm for that."

Laurel wishes Jak were here to see it.

"Hmmm. I suppose that's true. That certainly adds a whole new depth to that story." Slinger says aloud after giving Magda's commentary some thought. He can't help but wonder if he's a babelfish.

Magda watches the Princess Bride as if visiting with an old friend -- she doesn't say the quotes unless others do, but she'll lip-synch them otherwise.