Chapter Text
Asriel’s classic, dove-blue painted Beetle lacked many things. For starters, there was no central A/C in the car. The “A/C” was called cracking open the window and going as fast as his little motor could go. There wasn’t a tape or CD player, just an FM radio that had two presets saved. Asriel preferred the school’s radio station for the eclectic jumble of genres as different students deejayed each night, while December preferred the punk rock station, even if she admitted they felt a little too corporate for her taste (they play Green Day post American Idiot— absolute posers). The backseat didn't even have seat belts, and the rare third or fourth passenger would have to hang onto a handhold belt above the back windows — very safe. Asriel was just using that hand belt today to hang up his clothes before work. What Asriel was missing most right now was headroom, as he fumbled with pulling his work polo down over his horns and ears. The shirt was one size too small, and a charcoal black that heavily contrasted with his cloudy white fluff. Progressively, he slipped the shirt over his head, not bothering to remove his glasses first, then slid it down his chest until the fabric rolled up and stopped in its tracks, leaving him having to grab and unroll the little folds, and stretch it down his belly until he could tuck it into his khakis. The logo for the 19th Street Theater (a Roman XIX encased by the outline of a classic film projector) was embroidered on the left of his chest.
As per usual, his shirt was littered with his own dandruff and tufts of silver and white hair. He picked at each shoulder to jostle as much as he could away, thinking there’s some kind of cruel and unusual punishment for ever making a white furred monster wear a black work uniform. Asriel hopped out of the Beetle and locked the doors, patting both his pockets for keys… wallet.. phone- check on all fronts. As he walked across the parking lot to the front patio, he took a detour to pick up some cups and popcorn bags left outside. Less work for later, they’ll make me sweep this anyway, he postulated.
On the front of the theater were a sampling of classic horror and foreign film posters wrapped around the front patio. They were doing a Lynch tribute this weekend that Azzy wanted to catch on his day off, so he made a mental note of the time before walking into the building. “She’ll really like Lost Highway, I bet — God, the Mystery Man is such a good cryptid...” He let out one chuckle, thinking, “She’s totally going to lean over and say ‘Smaaaash’ as soon as he walks into the party.” Asriel opened the doors and let the smell of the shaggy red and gold carpet, the buttery and singed popcorn, and the freshly poured beer waft over him. The lobby was modestly sized, heavily decorated with vintage posters and autographed headshots. The small line management system (a set of six black stanchions in front of the two registers) had been opened up for the earlier shows today, as they usually only had a few couples and seniors come in for anything before 3pm. Truman, a lanky and well-groomed bat-shaped monster, manned the floating island bar, cleaning a glass for likely the sixth or seventh time, since the mornings were so quiet. He held up a wing to greet Asriel, but stayed quiet while arranging the clean glasses on his station. “There’s something off about the smell today…” Asriel thought as he made his way to the break room behind the lobby. “Welp. I’ve officially worked here too long if I’m thinking that. Head case.”
Entering the break room, he checked the cubbies that held each of their nametags, walkies, and headsets. He grabbed his nametag and attached it to his chest, readjusting as he could in front of the mirror. He always hated how much this little thing accentuated his flabby chest as he worked. The walkie and headset just added to the uncomfortable silhouette of his body, as he attached the brick-like walkie to his belt and snaked the headset cord up his shirt. The cord wasn't tight to his body, but rather a little stiff and unyielding to bend around, which just added to the overall user experience and clunkiness of movement. Asriel thought to himself about trying to make some time to start running again to slim back down and get back into shape, but “God, when the hell am I going to have time for that?”
Next to his own cubbie, he saw the taped index card with “December H”, and above it her own set of supplies that had been untouched this morning. “She’s not here? Huh.” On days when Asriel had classes, Dess would walk over to the theater around noon since they only lived a few blocks away. You really only had to worry about this neighborhood after dark since so many college kids started partying and causing a ruckus under the moonlight, so at night Asriel would pick her up from work or they’d leave together when their schedules matched up. “That’s what it was- didn’t smell her Old Spice.” That distinct spruce-y scent just made Azzy feel like he was being hugged by a friendly pine tree. “Totally normal thing to just know about your girlfr-….. your best friend’s [what ARE we now?] favorite body wash. And I’m able to smell when she is playing hooky from work? That’s completely not insane.”
Asriel felt a light smack on his right shoulder, and turned to face his boss- Beej. (Beej used to go by B.J. - but learned a quick lesson after working with college students day in and day out for a decade). A brown, literal teddy bear of a man, squishy, friendly, and soft but somehow seven feet tall. He wore the only gold polo on the staff, with his IXX logo marked in white embroidery. “December out sick today? She didn’t call in this morning so we hadn’t heard anything.”
“Oh, I guess so. Sorry, I didn’t really check on her before I went to class this morning.” What a whopper of a lie, Asriel checked on Dess every single morning before he would leave the apartment. At the very least, Asriel would watch her just long enough to see her inhale-exhale-inhale every time and ensure she’s still here.
“Well, in any case, can you have her text me later if she’s not going to feel like coming in tomorrow? I was going to ask Doug to come in and pick up the shift for the projector if she’s not around.”
”Yeah, I can do that.” Asriel was now just mentally reviewing the morning. Anything out of the ordinary? She had been sprawled over the living room couch, a leg hanging off the side while the other was tucked into her housewarming gift from Toriel- a handmade quilt made up of red and blue squares of old tartan shirt patterns. Her hand was still dipped into a bag of Cheeto Puffs- that he grabbed, rolled the top up and closed with a bag clip. She had a little orange dust on the ends of her fingers but he left those for her to deal with. Her phone had been unplugged to doomscroll, and he checked the screen to see an inevitable “12% battery.” He plugged the phone back into its charging cord, then made sure each of her alarms were set. She needed every single one of her five alarms each morning to finally rise and run into the shower.
“You good Az? I was going to see if you could go ahead and cover Truman’s break- he was supposed to get it an hour ago but we didn’t have the coverage.” Beej sighed, “He’s probably dying for a cig at this point. Free him from his pain.”
“Yep! I’ll go let him know.”
The theater gig had come about from Asriel trying to get Dess out of the apartment for a night. It had been two weeks since Dess was able to leave the hospital in Hometown and move in with Azzy. The conversation with Carol about the move-in actually went far better than Asriel expected. Carol had to pick up the pieces of her own life after everything that had happened that last month- and quite frankly, she admitted she trusted Asriel to take care of Dess better than she could right now. But Dess had still felt a little shell shocked upon arriving at Asriel’s place and struggled to want to leave the cramped living room for any extended time.
Luckily, Asriel had a film class his freshman year that assigned all the students a few showings at 19th Street- and had them talk about the movies the next morning in class. Asriel had never really experienced a place like it and got a little caught up in the magic- and found himself going at least once or twice a month ever since. Asriel really unlocked a love of the strange 80s and 90s Japanese films that would pop up in the rotation of movies- and just before leaving for the festival back in hometown he had seen a promising trailer that piqued his interest. He convinced Dess that this will be really weird but in a good way, I promise and offered to buy her some Whoppers from the snack bar.
“Mmmm. Whoppers are tempting. Yeah, let’s try it.”
This Japanese 80s movie was about a private investigator who moonlighted as a blues singer in the skeeviest dive bar ever put to film. He was a weary, worn down man on his last few dollars [yen]- but had a wisecrack for every person he met and a keen eye for the truth. Quite possibly the coolest looking dude ever seen, with his frantic mane and scruffy facial hair plus a well worn and faded blue suit.
The movie started with the private eye negotiating payment with a big time mob boss- who makes a point to try and emasculate and belittle our hero. And at first, you think this guy is a bit of a doormat. Then he asks politely to visit the bathroom before he’s shown out. And this guy, this absolute legend- proceeds to try and stuff every single roll of toilet paper in the bathroom into his clothes- he doesn’t even TRY to hide it well. With the reasoning that he didn’t have the money for any at his own home, he’s able to leave without anyone being the wiser- then the film hard cuts to the mob boss using the bathroom. And he figures out that there is NO toilet paper left anywhere in his home, and he starts screaming for his lackeys to get some immediately- and it’s just so hilariously pathetic as the mob boss is stuck on the john. And yes, this is how the movie chooses to start.
Dess absolutely erupted with laughter watching this, and for a moment- maybe the first time in seven years- Asriel’s world started spinning again. Her laughter made him just so genuinely, painfully happy. Asriel started laughing too, but felt his eyes tearing up at the same time. He experienced a miracle: to laugh together with his best friend again. They kept laughing at every gag the movie gave them, and were entranced by the dramatic turns and the surprisingly good Japanese blues bops. By the time the movie was wrapping up, Dess wore an ear to ear smile, and, perhaps unconsciously, was holding Asriel’s left hand. They felt like the only people in the theater at that moment, a personalized experience.
Then suddenly, a man arose from the seat in front of them. A blonde-haired human stood before them, stocky and perhaps a little older than the way he dressed- with his big sunglasses pulled over his forehead. His face was beet red, and he looked right into Asriel’s eyes. Sputtering- he screamed out “YEAH! VERY FUNNY!” And he turned to storm out of the theater. Dess and Azzy’s jaws might have become dislocated for a moment as this happened- then the two looked at each other before doubling over in laughter. “What the fuckkkkkkk?” Asriel shouted in a whisper to Dess. Only then did they notice that the blonde man’s date was not informed he would be storming out like this, and was still sitting in the seat ahead of them. She nervously looked around her and found her purse, checked for her keys- then scurried out of the theater behind him.
“Oh my God, I can’t breaaaaaathe.” Dess cackled even louder than before.
Asriel and Dess tried over the night to figure out what exactly motivated this human manchild to get just “so” mad at them- and reasoned that the art of cinema, kinography if you will, was serious fucking business to him. He likely had a framed portrait of Christopher Nolan at his bedside that he would kiss goodnight, a copy of the “Hero with A Thousand Faces” with annotations made in the margins, and thought laughing out loud in a movie theatre should be eligible for at least six months of community service. His battle cry became their own inside joke until the end of time. They had even both tried reenacting it in the theater a couple weeks later. Azzy’s attempt involved him shouting “VERY FUNNY” at Dess and then taking an intentional dive as soon as he tried to leave the aisle. He tumbled out of the aisle, and took a much longer than intended roll into the wall with a loud thud. Azzy pulled deep from his high school drama class and covered his face as he stood back up. Wailing, “Don’t LOOOK AT ME-HE-HE-EEEE” and ran out of the theater. He got plenty of laughs from the rest of the crowd- just how you draw it up. Dess took more from the Three Stooges school of drama, and had negotiated beforehand to try and fake a really, really loud slap to Azzy’s face before her shout. This backfired spectacularly as she was treating Asriel to a frozen bag of green beans to his face while they quietly ate a midnight breakfast together in the aftermath.
So! They wouldn’t make absolute fools of themselves again, but they did keep going each week or two to see another movie together- and then Dess felt up to asking the manager about a job. She reasoned with Azzy that it would be a bit of a nightmare right now to try and catch up on finishing high school and then trying to get into college just as Asriel was approaching the end of his degree- so she wanted to pitch in on rent and groceries as much as she could. Turns out, it was kind of a perfect fit for her style, and Beej loved her basically “all the time” availability compared to most of the college kids that usually applied. Hell, the job seemed good enough after the first month that Azzy finally bailed on a year of burger flipping to join her once a spot opened up.
This was their place, their home away from home- even if they did have to, you know.. work. So Asriel was admittedly a tiny bit concerned about Dess today. She did have a little bit of a habit of just going radio silent- or just missing a few days without much warning. Asriel was thinking about the fateful last week all those years ago, when she stopped coming to school out of the blue, and wouldn’t answer his texts. When he just DIDN’T make the time to go check on her. Then by that Sunday, she was gone. Asriel was an anxious young guy, and had naively worried that he’d only be annoying her by prying. It’s probably an overreaction, but Asriel couldn’t help but think this was a moment he could make this right, and be there for Dess now.