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Idia always got very excited about superhero media. She had her faves, obviously, but other than that she genuinely enjoyed how interconnected the stories were - it appealed to the side of her that liked just knowing random things and trivia. Even when the stories were not the best… that was enjoyable in itself - knowing they’re bad, having words to explain why, and most importantly having bragging rights that yes, you were there when it was happening and you can tell everyone how awful it was in detail! Thanks to that mindset Idia was never tired of new releases, even when it was obvious that the market was slowly getting oversaturated. She was here for the ride, no matter where it took her.
That’s why when Ace got vouchers for free tickets to the island cinema she immediately suggested watching the new Bug-Lady movie.
“What, because Vil’s in it?” Ace got that teasing look in her eyes.
Idia blushed.
“That… is a reason, yes…” she couldn’t deny that seeing Vil on the big screen was always great - even knowing the actress irl never took away from her charm and beauty on screen… And in this movie she’s supposed to play a secret agent… but that was not the main reason “I just want to see the new Bug-Lady! I thought you liked superhero stuff?”
Ace made a face.
“I used to! But every movie is worse than the last so I kinda… bleh.”
She shrugged, but seeing Idia’s disappointed expression decided to get less negative. Why sacrifice a date only because the movie might be bad?
“But hey! Maybe this one is better!”
Idia was happy again, she was a simple creature.
They made their way to the cinema, chatting mostly about what’s good and bad about the genre.
“I can’t really pinpoint what’s wrong exactly, you know?” Ace tried to explain. “I think it’s mostly too many characters? Like… there’s less punch to everything, you know?”
“That’s why you should read the comics, I keep telling you!” Idia sounded more annoyed than she was - in reality she very much enjoyed knowing things Ace didn't and getting to explain them. “I can even tell you the exact issues for every film series, so you don’t have to search”
“No, but that's the thing!” Ace got a little frustrated for real. “That’s homework! Since when action movies are homework! I have basketball, I have gardening and hedgehogs in our dorm, if I wanted to keep up I would have to literally give up any other hobby. Is that fair?”
The cinema was not that crowded, it was a weekday afterall, they easily got very good seats. Talking through all the commercials they finally got quiet when the movie actually started.
It did not last that long though - Ace couldn’t keep herself silent when one of the main characters was fully animated, and animated pretty badly at that. She was giggling every time he showed up on screen, which was most of the time.
“Can you not?” Idia was almost offended. “ This design doesn’t translate as well as I hoped, true, but in the original he’s really cute!”
“But just!” Ace was too far gone, probably in one of her fits of the giggles she usually fell victim to with her squad of besties. “Look at him! He looks like our school nurse, if she started to melt like a candle!”
Idia froze for a second. The image was more creepy than funny to her, but it was too late, she couldn’t unsee. Next time the character showed up on screen, she couldn’t help but laugh as well.
Then Vil’s character showed up - only to be unceremoniously killed by the bad guys almost immediately. Idia couldn’t hide her disappointment.
“But this character was supposed to be the sidekick to the Bug-Lady! Why would you kill her off!”
She shouted way louder than she meant to, some people turned in her direction angrily.
“Wow, is it that big a deal?” Ace asked, still laughing at the death scene itself, which she decided was extremely silly. “Now that I think about it, Vil’s name and face was in the center of the poster…”
“Yeah!” Idia, still in disbelief, completely ignored where they were and started talking at normal volume, not even trying to whisper. “They changed the characters gender for the adaptation and advertised it as some kind of diversity win and she’s on screen for exactly 5 minutes? What the hell!”
Tips of Idia’s hair got reddish. Ace didn’t like that one bit, so she reached for Idia’s hand.
“Hey, it’s ok!” She said quietly, suddenly very aware of all the eyes on them. “Maybe she’ll come back later as a ghost or something?”
Idia squeezed Ace’s hand.
“She’d better.”
Unfortunately the character never showed up again - at some point Ace even texted Vil about it, but got no reply. Idia was more annoyed with every scene, suddenly seeing all Ace’s points from before as very real and very serious. Ace felt like the date was getting worse because of the bad movie after all, so she did the only thing she could think of - went back to making fun of the thing.
She whispered weird comments about everything and after a moment it started working - reddish color did not disappear from Idia’s hair, but Idia herself started to giggle. Soon they both had many mean comments about everything, from bad editing choices to questionable costumes and undercooked effects. And they got louder and louder, in their lack of respect for the film they forgot to respect other audience members.
Finally one woman, only a little older than the girls, stood up and yelled at them to shut up.
They did, for a second, only to start laughing again like children.
“Don’t make me go up there! I’m warning you!”
The woman looked serious, which in the fit of the giggles the girls found even funnier.
Unfortunately for them she was not joking and started to climb the stairs in their direction.
“Oh fuck!” Ace exclaimed, still laughing.
She was still holding Idia’s hand, so it was easy to get her to stand up and run away. Idia wanted to protest for a second, she was not happy about missing an ending to any movie, even a bad one… but seeing the scary expression of a woman slowly approaching their seats quickly convinced her to just catch the ending on streaming some day.
The girls run away to the lobby, luckily no one was chasing them that far.
“What the fuck!” they said at the same time, laughing again.
“Well, whatever!” Ace said, absolutely not caring about the movie in the first place. “Let’s just go somewhere else!”
Idia was disappointed with many things that day, but getting to spend time with Ace was not one of them.
“Arcade?” she asked.
“Yeah, that works!”
“I wonder if they have that new Bug-Lady game, I heard it’s cool!”
Ace rolled her eyes, not getting how could Idia not have enough of Bug-Lady for today. Still - she was happy when Idia was happy.
“Yeah, let’s see!” she said with a smile.
The rest of the day looked to be more fun, less disappointment - and less random chases. They left the cinema still a little giggly, holding hands tightly.