Chapter Text
1963
Brill had met Chet in middle school, at a fundraiser, talking about a tv show.
"Hi." Brill said awkwardly, his braces giving him a slight lisp. Chet looked up from his book
"Hey." He asked blankly,
"Is that the Pink Opaque?" He pointed down to the tv show guide Chet was holding.
"You know the Pink Opaque?" He asked, slightly in awe.
"What grade are you in?" Brill asks curiously,
"ninth." Chet pauses,
"what about you?" Brill looks nervous, "Seventh." Chet looks over, trying to hold back a laugh,
"God your a baby." Brill looked away, resting his head on his hands. Chet looked at brill, wondering what he should do, does he talk to him?
"The fundraisers cool, right?" Chet asks awkwardly, looking over at the smaller boy.
"It's like colonial day, or when they bring the inflatable planetarium into the gym, it's like," Chet pauses
"The school gets transformed into something else, you know?" Brill looks at Chet confused,
"Its special." Chet whispers. Brill went and sat down next to Chet on the floor by the old vending machine.
"It's a kids show, right?" Brill asks, pointing to the episode guide clutched in Chet's hands,
"The Pink Opaqu–" Chet cuts him off,
"No, no way. Who told you that?" Brill takes a breath,
"I mean yeah it's on the young adult network, but it's way too scary and the mythology is way too complicated for most kids." Chet answers
"I see the commercials for it all the time, it looks amazing." He smiled at Chet, Chet looked back with a blank expression before getting back to the episode guide quickly. He walks over to Brill, who was sitting up against an old vending machine, handing him the episode guide.
"You can read about the episodes here, if you want." He says, sitting across from the boy.
"It's got quotes and pictures about the episodes that play every week." Brill stares down at the pages, running his hand down the page, reading every little detail.
"It comes on at 10:30 pm right?" Brill asks,
"Yeah." Chet scoots closer.
"Every Saturday night, it's the last show in the block before they switch to black and white re-runs for old people." He says quickly.
"My friend Soda and I watch it every week." Brill flips through the pages, skimming the words and glancing at the pictures,
"Dad won't let me stay up that late." He hands Chet the book back, sighing.
"10:00 pms my bedtime." He says softly.
"Damn," Chet says, holding the book to his chest.
"That actually sucks." He says, looking at Brill.
"My mom basically doesn't give a crap when I go to bed." He smiles at brill,
"Hey, you know what you should do?"
"Mom?" Brill says softly, laying in the backseat of his mom's car
"Hm?" His mom looks back at her son,
"Can I have at sleepover at Bob Sheldon's house Saturday night?" His mom looks confused,
"Bob Sheldon? I didn't even know you guys were still friends anymore." Brill looks back at his mom,
"Well honey you'll have to ask your father." She eventually says, turning back to the road. Brill just stares at the car ceiling, thinking.
"Can you ask him for me?" He asks quietly, hoping she'll say yes. Brill opens the door, running upstairs to his room, he flops on his bed, Brills mom locks the door, walking to the living room where brills dad is sat watching tv, Brill sits at the top of the stairs, listening closely to his mom asking his dad.
Brill shuts the door, clutching his sleeping bag to his side and his crossover bag slung over his shoulders, he walks up to the house,
"Honey! You remembered your inhaler, right?" His mom shouts from the car, he looks back,
"Yeah." He stands at the door, staring back at his mom's car, waiting for her to leave. Brill waves and she drives off, once Brill is sure she won't see him, he runs. It's about night by the time he gets to Chet's house, and it's raining, great. He pulls his hood off when he gets to the sliding door. Looking in and knocking.
"And.. what about a wife?" Chet asks Soda, writing on a paper.
"Do I have to?" Soda asks, scoffing,
"What about Marcia?" Chet asks, teasing Soda,
"I mean, she's cute but shes so tortured." Brill walks into the house eventually, closing the sliding door behind him, Chet and Soda look back at him, they keep talking as Brill stands there.
"Hey, is it okay if i come sit dow–" Brill's cut off once again by Chet,
"Shut up, it's starting." He leans towards the tv. Grabbing his bowl of popcorn as Brill looks at him with a confused face. The narraration cuts on,
"Tara is my imaginary best friend, and I'm hers, we met at sleep away camp and discovered, we have an ancient, psychic connection. Now, even though we live on opposite sides of the county, we help each other fight the forces of evil, we are The Pink Opaque." Brill watches the intro as he slowly walks to the couch. He feels weirdly connected to this show for some reason. He looks back at Chet, who is so invested by the tv show it looks like he's in some sort of trance. Brill sits down on the floor, leaning against the couch as he watches the episode. He was right about the show being scary, but not scary enough for Brill to jump or anything, he felt like he was in that same sort of trance he thought Chet was in.
Brill watches Sodapop smoke through the window,
"You can go out and join him if you want." Chet says, watching Brill intently, Brill looks back, shaking his head.
"No, I don't smoke cigerettes."
Chet snickers,
"It's not a cigarette, it's a black and mild." Brill looks back at Soda through the window.
"Are you sure you don't want a ride home from Soda's mom?" Chet asks Brill.
"I told my parents it was a sleepover." He gets into his sleeping bag, Chet walks over, sitting on the edge of the couch,
"So did you like it? The show I mean." Brill stumbles over his words,
"Yeah i- it was really interesting." He looks away,
"Isabel's a scaredy-cat. She's kinda the main character but shes also kinda a drip. Tara's my favorite, she's super hot, and she doesn't take shit from anybody, plus she's an expert on demonology." Chet looks down at Brill,
"And they.. never meet up in person, right?" He asks,
"No, just in the pilot episode, back at sleepaway camp, but they can communicate via the psychic plane, so each episode they help eachother fight a new monster from across the county."
"Ok.. is the ice cream man in every episode?" He asks, genuinely curious, Chet snickers again,
"No, that's just the monster of the week." He smiles,
"Mr Melancholy's the big bad." Brill was confused,
"Mr Melancholy?"
"The man in the moon,"
"Oh, right." Chet leans in closer,
"He's always messing with time and reality, he wants to rule the world, to trap Isabel and Tara in the midnight realm. So each week he sends a new supernatural foe they're way." Brill looks at Chet,
"Because they're part of The Pink Opaque," Chet shakes his head. "No. Because they are The Pink Opaque."
"Right, sorry." Brill says, his head in his hands.
"Don't apologize." Chet says seriously.
"Sometimes, The Pink Opaque feels more real life, you know?"